Midweek Lenten Service - March 19, 2025

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 

7 PM Central Daylight Savings Time

The Hymn #463    For All the Saints         
The Order of Vespers                                                p. 41

The Psalmody                          Psalm 24                  p. 128
The Lections                            The Passion History

                                                 
The Sermon Hymn #63     On Jordan's Bank

The Sermon –    For All the Saints

 
The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Grace                                            p. 45

The Hymn #554         Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadows

 Norma A. Boeckler

For All the Saints

The hymn is one of those beautiful descriptions of life for the Christian believer. The first thing I consider is the span from newborn to great-grandparent, then in-between. That covers so many areas of life.

It is funny how "saint" gets set aside for many other titles and descriptions. The bad guys always say, "I'm no saint," and the famous people often become saints, which become titles of cities, which become sports teams.

The basic name is "holy," which is perfect as a description by itself - through Justification by Faith, gaining access to God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Thousands of seriously warped people teach others that every single person on earthhas already been forgiven, even that they are guilt-free saints in Hell (an awkward, foolish claim).

The glitterings of robes and special hats and expensive jewelry take away the meaning of holy or saint. All those expenses are the opposite of what Jesus taught and exemplified, because He had nothing - but gave away His healing and His forgiveness. Holiness is from the Son of God, and that makes us saints in belonging to Him.

Our nature is to earn, to achieve, but faith is receiving what the Savior pours out on us. Parents and grandparents and great-grandparents say, "What a treasure! What a blessing! Look at how fragile and yet strong this baby is!" Just as the baby listens and responds to the adults, so the believer has the same attitude toward the Good Shepherd. 

In faith we listen and learn, no matter how old we are. The big strong disciples wanted to keep the children away from the Master, but Jesus said, "Let the children come to Me and do not forbid them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God."

The greatest strength is not our experience, or honors, or anything else, but trust in Him who created heaven and earth as the Word, the Logos, the Son of God. My neighbor wanted to find a special flower in the midst of all the daffodils. She got down and said, "It is very short and perfumed." She knew about where it was but could not see it. Today I looked again there it was, tiny, fragile, almost invisible - Hyacinth!

Who decided this flower would be perfumed and special? My version looks like nothing but I can drop the tiny ones into a little plastic cup and deliver a few.

We are experiencing an unusual windstorm. Tomorrow the long stretch on Joye street will be littered with the limbs that gave up. The smallest flowers now springing up will even be found around the fallen branches, and they will start the next step.

"For All the Saints Who from Their Labors Rest"
by William W. How, 1823-1897

Tune - Sine Nomine - linked here

1. For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

3. Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

5. And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

6. But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

7. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Alleluia! Alleluia!

8. The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest.
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Hymn #463
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Heb. 12:1
Author: William W. How, 1864, cento
Composer: R. Vaughan Williams, 1906, arr.
Tune: "Sine nomine"

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Oculi - "From this follows that where the finger of God does not cast out the devil, there the devil’s kingdom still exists; where Satan’s kingdom still exists, there the kingdom of God cannot be. The unavoidable conclusion then is that, as long as the Holy Spirit does not enter our hearts, we are not only incapable of any good, but are of necessity in the kingdom of Satan."

 

Oculi. Third Sunday in Lent. Luke 11:14-23. Jesus Casts out a Demon, or Christ’s Defense against his Blasphemers

6. In the second place, he replies with a public example and a similar work, when he says: “By whom do your sons cast them out?” As if he would say: “Is this not simple idiocy? Just what you praise in your sons, you condemn in me. Because your sons do it, it is of God; but because I do it, it must be of the devil.” So it is in this world. What Christ does, is of the devil; if some one else did it, it would be all right. Thus the tyrants and enemies of the Gospel do now, when they condemn in us what they themselves do, confess and teach; but they must proceed thus in order that their judgment may be publicly approved, when they are condemned by all justice. The sons, of whom Christ here says that they drive out devils, were, I think, certain exorcists among the people, for God, from the beginning, had given this people manifold spiritual gifts and he calls them their “sons,” as though to say: I am the Son of God and must be called a child of the devil, while those who are your sons, begotten by you, do the same things and are not to be considered children of the devil.

7. “Therefore shall they be your judges,” that is, I appeal to them. They will be forced to decide that you wrongfully blaspheme me, and thus condemn yourselves. For if one devil does not drive out another then some other power must do it that is neither satanic nor human, but divine. Hence the words: “But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.” This finger of God is called in Matthew 12:28 the Holy Ghost, for the words read thus: “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons,” etc. In short, Christ means to say: If the kingdom of God is to come unto you, the devil must be driven out, for his kingdom is against God’s kingdom, as you yourselves must confess.

But demon is not driven out by demon, much less by men or the power of men, but alone by the Spirit and power of God.

8. From this follows that where the finger of God does not cast out the devil, there the devil’s kingdom still exists; where Satan’s kingdom still exists, there the kingdom of God cannot be. The unavoidable conclusion then is that, as long as the Holy Spirit does not enter our hearts, we are not only incapable of any good, but are of necessity in the kingdom of Satan.

And if we are in his kingdom, then we can do nothing but that which pleases him, else it could not be called his kingdom. As St. Paul says to Timothy: “The people are taken captive in the snares of the devil unto his will” 2 Timothy 2:26. How could Satan suffer one of his people to take a notion to do something against, and not for, his kingdom? Oh, it is a striking, terrible and powerful statement that Christ here admits such a dominion, which we cannot escape except by the power of God; and that the kingdom of God cannot come to us until that kingdom is driven out by divine, heavenly power.