The Seventh Sunday After Trinity
In the Garden of Eden, our first parents received food freely from the gracious hand of God apart from any burdensome work (Gen 2:7-17). But after the fall, food would be received only through toil and labor. The curse declared, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.” In other words, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:19-23). But into this wilderness world came Jesus the Messiah to restore creation. Having compassion on the weary multitudes, He renewed the bounty of Eden on the third day, freely granting an abundance of bread to the 4000 (Mark 8:1-9). So also our Lord Jesus, having endured the burden of our sin, was raised on the third day to bring us back to Paradise. He now miraculously turns the bread of death into the Bread of Life in the Sacrament, giving you His very body and blood for your forgiveness. For “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Introit: (Psalm 47:3,6-8; antiphon: Psalm 47:1-2)
Pastor: Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
Congregation: For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
P: He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.
C: Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
P: For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
C: God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.
All: Glory be 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.
P: Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
C: For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
Collect Of The Day
O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
- Genesis 2:7-17 +
Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (8) And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. (9) And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (10) A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. (11) The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. (12) And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. (13) The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. (14) And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (15) The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (16) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Gradual: (Psalm 34:11,5)
Come, O children, lis- | ten to me; *
I will teach you the fear | of the LORD.
Those who look to him are | radiant,*
and their faces shall never | be ashamed.
- Romans 6:19-23 +
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (20) For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (21) But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. (22) But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (23) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Lutheran Confessions Responsive Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism (1529)
P: As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.
P: What is The Sixth Commandment?
C: You shall not commit adultery.
P: What does this mean?
C: We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.
P: How gloriously does God honor, protect, and approve of the estate of marriage? (Large Catechism)
C:He has approved it above in the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” But here He has…hedged it about and protected it. Therefore, He also wishes us to honor it [Hebrews 13:4] and to maintain and govern it as a divine and blessed estate because, in the first place, He has instituted it before all others. He created man and woman separately, as is clear [Genesis 1:27]. This was not for lewdness, but so that they might live together in marriage, be fruitful, bear children, and nourish and train them to honor God [Genesis 1:28; Psalm 128; Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4].
P: What is the summary of the second table of the Law (commandments 4-10)?
C: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”Mat 22:39
Verse: (Psalm 47:1)
P: Alleluia! Clap your hands, all peoples!
C: Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Alleluia! - Mark 8:1-9 +
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, (2) “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. (3) And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” (4) And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” (5) And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” (6) And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. (7) And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. (8) And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. (9) And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.
