The
Commemoration of The Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, AD 325
Thursday
after Pentecost
June 12,
2014
The Lord be
with you
Today is the
Commemoration of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, AD 325. This was a seminal
moment in time when the Church faced a fork in the road, would it remain
faithful to the faith handed down from the Apostles or follow new and trendy
teachers. The new and trendy teacher was Arius and his followers were called
Arians. The leading advocates of remaining faithful to the biblical faith were
Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and his deacon, Athanasius. Arius denied the
Trinity and (obviously) that Jesus was the eternal Son of the Father. In
supporting the biblical Faith, the Council adopted the earliest version of the
Nicene Creed, which in its entirety was adopted at the Council of Constantinople
in AD 381. For more about these events and people, follow this link to an
earlier post: http://www.lutheran-in-sc.blogspot.com/2012/06/ecumenical-council-of-nicaea.html
This coming
Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. The first Sunday after Pentecost is
always the Feast of the Holy Trinity. Because Pentecost is fifty days after
Easter, and because the date of Easter moves, the date for this feast also
moves from year to year.
“Having
celebrated the greatest event in God’s history of salvation, the death and
resurrection of the Son of God, we pause a bit at the Feast of the Holy Trinity
to consider the essence of God. Certainly the essence of God is beyond our weak
comprehension, but He has graciously revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. When we want to summarize all the Holy Scripture says about God as
our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, we call Him the Holy Trinity. Even
beyond the glorious summary of the persons and work of God found in the Creeds,
to speak of God as the Holy Trinity says at one time all the many things that
the Scriptures say about God. Our worship never ceases confessing our faith in
the triune God and giving glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy
Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.” (Treasury
of Daily Prayer, 352)
This coming
Sunday is also Fathers’ Day. It is what I think of as a “Hallmark” holiday.
While this national holiday will not be the focus of our worship, if one wanted
to use it (as many churches do) one could either focus on the Fatherhood of God
or the vocation of fatherhood and indeed the whole family. We will remember the
day in our prayers.
For our
liturgy Sunday we will be using the third setting of the Divine Service, with a
twist. We will use the Athanasian Creed instead of the Nicene Creed. This
wonderful creed is the longest of the three Ecumenical Creeds (which includes
the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds). It is called the Athanasian Creed, not
because Athanasius wrote it, but because it clearly expresses the faith he
defended at the Council of Nicaea. Divine Service III is a communion service.
To prepare for the sacrament you may use the “Christian Questions with Their
Answers” found in most copies of Luther’s Small Catechism and page 329 of our
hymnal.
Our opening
hymn, “How Awesome Is This Place,” is not in our hymnal but will be printed on
an insert. It is set to the tune WAS FRAG ICH NACH DER WELT, which probably means nothing to
anyone except Karen. It is the same tune used for “When All the World Was
Cursed” (LSB 346) and “What Is the Word to Me” (LSB 730). Our
sermon hymn will be “Holy, Holy, Holy” (LSB 507). Our closing hymn will
be “Stay with Us” (LSB 879). This will be the fourth Sunday we have sung
“Stay with Us.” The hymn will now enter the “known” category of hymns for us
and, based on the singing last Sunday, the congregation seems to know it quite
well. Our distribution hymns will be “Glory Be to God the Father” (LSB
506), “Jesus Comes Today with Healing” (LSB 620) and “All Glory Be to
God on High” (LSB 947).
The
appointed lessons for Sunday are: Genesis 1:1—2:4a; Acts 2:14a, 22–36; Matthew
28:16–20. The sermon text is Acts 2:33. The sermon is titled “God In Action.” Because
the Old Testament lesson is so long, and because we will be using the longest
of the three Ecumenical Creeds, and because we will be celebrating the Lord’s
Supper, the sermon will be shorter than usual.
Trinity
Sunday marks the beginning of the second half off the Church Year, sometimes
call the non-festival half of the Church Year. That is because most of the
major Feasts and Festivals (Christmas, Easter, etc.) fall in the first half of
the Church Year. For the most part the color of our paraments will be green, reflecting
growth. They will be white this Sunday because Holy Trinity is a major feast.
Below is a
video of our sermon hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Our Sunday morning Bible hour begins at 9:00 am. Last week we covered some introductory information about
the book of Ruth. This Sunday we will dive into the text. Everyone is welcome.
What now
follows is a summary of Sunday’s lessons provided by the LCMS, and then the
lessons themselves.
The Holy Triune God Recreates Us in
the Image and Likeness of Christ Jesus
The holy
Triune God “created the heavens and the earth,” and “behold, it was
very good” (Gen. 1:1, 31). However, after Adam and Eve fell into sin and
plunged God’s good creation into decay and death, the Son of God would be “delivered
up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” to be “crucified
and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). As Jesus “received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:33), He also raises
up all the baptized and pours out the Spirit upon them through the preaching of
His Gospel. He sends out His apostles to “make disciples of all nations”
by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit,” and “teaching them to observe all that [He has] commanded”
(Matt. 28:19–20). Through such baptizing and teaching — Gospel and Sacraments —
the holy Triune God recreates us in the image and likeness of His incarnate
Son, Jesus the Christ, and behold, it is “very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Genesis
1:1-2:4a
1:1 In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was
without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And
God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4And God saw
that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5God
called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening
and there was morning, the first day.
6 And
God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it
separate the waters from the waters.” 7And God made the expanse and
separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were
above the expanse. And it was so. 8And God called the expanse
Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And
God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one
place, and let the dry land appear.” 10And it was so. God called the
dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And
God saw that it was good.
11 And
God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit
trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the
earth.” And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation, plants
yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is
their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13And
there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And
God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the
day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and
years, 15and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to
give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16And God made the two
great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the
night—and the stars. 17And God set them in the expanse of the
heavens to give light on the earth, 18to rule over the day and over
the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was
good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And
God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds
fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21So God
created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with
which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird
according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22And God
blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the
seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23And there was evening
and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And
God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their
kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their
kinds.” And it was so. 25And God made the beasts of the earth
according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and
everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it
was good.
26 Then
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth.”
27 So
God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he
created him;
male and female he created
them.
28 And
God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29And
God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the
face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have
them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth and to every bird
of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has
the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31And
God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there
was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2:1 Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2And
on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3So God blessed the
seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that
he had done in creation.
4 These
are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they
were created …
Acts
2:14a, 22-36
2:14 But
Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: …
22 “Men
of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God
with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst,
as you yourselves know—23this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands
of lawless men. 24God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death,
because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25For David
says concerning him,
“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand
that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore
my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in
hope.
27 For
you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see
corruption.
28 You
have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of
gladness with your presence.’
29 “Brothers,
I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died
and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Being
therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he
would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31he foresaw and
spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades,
nor did his flesh see corruption. 32This Jesus God raised up, and of
that we all are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted at the right
hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy
Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34For
David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35 until
I make your enemies your footstool.”’
36 Let
all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both
Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Matthew
28:16-20
16 Now
the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had
directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some
doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Two Quick Notes:
- Sunday I will be leaving after worship to go to Good Shepherd, Charleston, to assist that congregation in a call service. We will remember them in our prayers.
- We will have available invitations Sunday for you to use to invite people to our Summer Series, “Resolving Everyday Conflict.” It will begin Wednesday, June 25, at 7:00 pm. Also, don’t forget, in order to insure we have enough material, we are asking you to sign-up. The sign-up sheet is on the coffee table.
Well, I pray
we will see you Sunday morning.
Blessings in
Christ,
Pastor John
Rickert
