October 14th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Concordia held Divine Service 3 out of the LSB, with Holy Communion. Normally I sing melody during the liturgy because I have kids I want to learn the melody, but this time I was picking out tenor and bass lines. Good stuff.
During the collection of the offering the organist played something I had not known existed in the hymnal. LSB 941 is “We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God,” sung by the CTSFW Kantorei (look for it in the margin). After the service I caught up with the organist to see what hymn it was, and she played the hymn while I sang the first line. It was sweet. I’d like to sing that some time in worship.
Pastor Reinke preached over all three readings: Ruth 1:1-19a, 2 Timothy 2:1-13, and Luke 17:11-19. Some notes:
In 2 Timothy, St. Paul tells us something God cannot do. God does not deny himself. Once God speaks, he sets things in motion and limits his capacity to do other things. He exhibits a powerlessness to break his word.
In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, there are three women whom one could argue shouldn’t be there. Rahab was a harlot. The wife of Uriah, Bathsheba, committed adultery with David, and David sent her first husband Uriah to die in war.
Finally, there’s Ruth, who wasn’t even a Jew, but a Moabite. God uses whomever he can to fulfill his promises. Ruth believed the faith that she was married into, even though her husband died. Her words became a prophecy that Christ fulfilled. “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
In Luke, Christ spoke to the lepers, cleansing them as they went to the priests. Despite nine lepers not coming back and saying thanks, Christ did not revoke the promise. Instead, he gave an even better promise to the one leper who returned. The “your faith has made you well” in verse 19 is better translated, “your faith has saved you.”
A soldier is subject to his commander. An athlete is subject to the rules of the competition. A farmer is subject to the soil and the weather. We are to follow what is given to us to do. We serve one another, whom God has placed in the Kingdom. We serve like soldiers, athletes, and farmers, knowing that God will make us rulers in Christ.
October 14th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Oh, that is one sweet Te Deum paraphrase. At my daughter’s wedding it served as the exit hymn. Awesome. And at our school we sing Matins for our chapels, but we always substitute that setting for the prose setting. It’s just incredible to hear the little kids belt it out!
October 14th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
We sang a song today, called “In You is Gladness”. It was so pretty, I really loved it.
October 14th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
LSB 818, “In Thee Is Gladness” is cool. I hope you sang it briskly.
October 14th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Not as briskly as I would have liked, but rather brisk. We don’t have a real choir, which is too bad.
The hymnal we have for it is this “All God’s People Sing” one. Not my favorite hymnal, but it works for a few songs.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:41 am
“In 2 Timothy, St. Paul tells us something God cannot do. God does not deny himself. Once God speaks, he sets things in motion and limits his capacity to do other things. He exhibits a powerlessness to break his word.”
Isn’t that a little like “Can God create a boulder that he can’t lift?”