The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost A

You have to give those sinners credit. They have well-developed antennae for sensing any threat to their power and position. They sense this veiled threat from Jesus, and they sense a threat from the crowd and restrained themselves from arresting Jesus (Mt. 21:46). These sinners are so much like the old sinner in you, your old Adam, or your old Eve. That sinner has senses as finely honed as those of the chief priests and Pharisees, sensitive to any threat to its hegemony over your conscience. That sinner easily turns the proclamation of the law into a gentle guide or subtle curb upon its religious life. Rather than the law sounding with its full-voiced accusation, convicting and killing that devious sinner, it provides mere encouragement and motivation for a pious life. Since the old Adam or the old Eve is never killed off, the gospel delivery of the life of Christ, him crucified, and him alone, fails to install Jesus as the Lord of your Conscience. Your old sinner, just like those chief priests and Pharisees, denies life to Jesus, especially this life as Lord of your Conscience. Your old sinner manipulates the law, as did those sinners who heard Jesus’ parable. It manipulates the law, denies Jesus his life, and maintains its pious reign over the conscience of your religious life.

Prayers from those who need to hear the full-throated accusation of the law which puts to death their old sinner so the newness of life in Christ would come forth…

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me. Do not spare me the rod of its accusing and condemning force so that I would not mistake a pious life as a substitute for the new life of Christ in me. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me. Reveal Satan’s lies of a pious and religious life to me that I may see them as nothing but a this-worldly deception and not a replacement for my new life in Christ. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me. Preserve the life of Jesus Christ in me and keep him Lord of my Conscience. Then, and only then, will the new creature in the New Creation promised to faith be available to me. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me.  Give that new creature which enjoys the life of Christ to my neighbors so that they may use it and find fruitfulness in their own lives as well. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me. Even when the law has displaced Christ from his throne in my Conscience, so grant me such obedience under the law that my neighbors find me useful to their daily needs. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me. Grant to the Institute of Lutheran Theology the particular teaching of law and gospel preaching so that its students will deliver Jesus Christ, him crucified and him alone, as the life of sinners dead in their sin. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen

Father, your Son died under the law wielded by sinners like me. During these days of my baptism, keep me from coveting a righteousness under the law which does not satisfy. Grant to me instead, the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is the certain satisfaction of my coveting… my hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Lord, use your death-dealing, life-giving Word upon me. Amen