WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.025 --> 00:00:04.025 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord 2 00:00:04.025 --> 00:00:06.025 and Savior Jesus Christ. 3 00:00:06.725 --> 00:00:07.325 Amen. 4 00:00:08.625 --> 00:00:12.925 Well, the heat is finally calming down here in St. 5 00:00:12.925 --> 00:00:13.425 Louis. 6 00:00:13.425 --> 00:00:19.925 The, the threat of dying by just going outside, is subsiding, and 7 00:00:19.925 --> 00:00:23.525 people are finally getting back outside. 8 00:00:23.925 --> 00:00:24.925 It's lovely 9 00:00:24.925 --> 00:00:33.425 when my kids are outside of the house and that reminds me of my 10 00:00:33.425 --> 00:00:34.425 childhood. 11 00:00:35.525 --> 00:00:40.025 When I was growing up in Northern, Indiana, we did nothing but play 12 00:00:40.025 --> 00:00:44.925 outside all summer long, all day long. 13 00:00:45.725 --> 00:00:48.125 And at the end of every day 14 00:00:49.125 --> 00:00:53.025 we could count on it mom and dad would call out 15 00:00:53.025 --> 00:00:57.225 Ben, Tim time to come home. 16 00:00:59.125 --> 00:01:06.225 And then we kept playing the the the lightsaber battle would be raging 17 00:01:06.225 --> 00:01:10.825 on and we just weren't ready to stop or or my team was just about 18 00:01:10.825 --> 00:01:16.025 ready to score the winning kickball run. 19 00:01:16.025 --> 00:01:19.125 And so, we were going to win the Kickball championship. 20 00:01:19.125 --> 00:01:23.425 And so, with some selective hearing mom, and dad would sometimes have 21 00:01:23.425 --> 00:01:28.825 to call out to us a few times to get us to return 22 00:01:28.925 --> 00:01:29.425 home. 23 00:01:30.525 --> 00:01:35.625 There was a certain Grace to it, all. We could be out there playing and 24 00:01:35.625 --> 00:01:39.625 we didn't have to worry about what was going on at home. 25 00:01:39.625 --> 00:01:44.025 What we needed to do, what the chore list was, what time it was, we 26 00:01:44.025 --> 00:01:49.325 could always count on mom and dad calling us home. 27 00:01:51.325 --> 00:01:56.925 Martin Luther has taught us that the entire Christian life is a call 28 00:01:56.925 --> 00:01:59.425 of daily repentance. 29 00:01:59.625 --> 00:02:05.125 Not a one-and-done once for all repentance that, you did just one 30 00:02:05.325 --> 00:02:07.025 special time in life. 31 00:02:08.225 --> 00:02:13.825 But a daily calling to come home to the grace of our Lord, Jesus 32 00:02:13.825 --> 00:02:18.225 Christ, the love of God, the Father and the fellowship of the Holy 33 00:02:18.225 --> 00:02:19.025 Spirit. 34 00:02:19.925 --> 00:02:26.525 But, like, little deviant Ben Haupts were running around and maybe 35 00:02:26.525 --> 00:02:31.725 plugging our ears every once in a while and not coming to the Lord on 36 00:02:31.725 --> 00:02:34.625 his first call home. 37 00:02:35.125 --> 00:02:39.025 And so, he calls and he calls and he calls. 38 00:02:39.025 --> 00:02:39.725 And this morning 39 00:02:39.725 --> 00:02:45.325 I want to offer you a couple of additional ways that the Lord calls 40 00:02:45.425 --> 00:02:48.625 his people back home through the scriptures. 41 00:02:48.625 --> 00:02:49.625 Now, I want to do this 42 00:02:49.725 --> 00:02:52.425 using Psalm 116. 43 00:02:52.825 --> 00:02:58.225 So a confession, Psalm 116 is the psalm appointed for today. 44 00:02:58.225 --> 00:03:02.325 You might take it out of the hymnals as I'm explaining myself. 45 00:03:02.325 --> 00:03:08.725 I chose Psalm 116 1 through 9 as the Psalm that I would preach on but 46 00:03:08.925 --> 00:03:11.925 I didn't communicate that to the dean of Chapel. 47 00:03:12.425 --> 00:03:15.025 So we're going to take a look at it now. 48 00:03:15.925 --> 00:03:19.925 Psalm 116, verses 1 through 9. 49 00:03:20.525 --> 00:03:26.625 And as we walk through this, we will hear the Lord's call to return. 50 00:03:26.725 --> 00:03:27.725 Look at verse 7. 51 00:03:27.725 --> 00:03:28.725 Return O 52 00:03:28.725 --> 00:03:34.225 my soul to your rest for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 53 00:03:37.125 --> 00:03:41.525 First one starts out this Psalm in a rather strange way. 54 00:03:42.225 --> 00:03:43.025 You see there 55 00:03:43.025 --> 00:03:47.625 I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my pleas for Mercy, 56 00:03:47.925 --> 00:03:51.425 But in Hebrew it says a hubt 57 00:03:52.025 --> 00:03:54.425 Key Shema, Adonai. 58 00:03:55.525 --> 00:04:02.925 I loved because the Lord heard. The English translators have to 59 00:04:02.925 --> 00:04:03.425 substitute 60 00:04:03.425 --> 00:04:10.025 I love the Lord because it's such a strange, Hebrew construction. 61 00:04:10.025 --> 00:04:15.125 Well, I think the psalmist probably knew what he was doing. 62 00:04:15.125 --> 00:04:22.025 And I think we need to tune in more carefully, especially to these 63 00:04:22.025 --> 00:04:24.825 words by reading them in their original languages. 64 00:04:25.525 --> 00:04:28.425 You're spending a lot of time here at Concordia, Seminary 65 00:04:28.625 --> 00:04:33.525 learning to listen to the Lord's word and the Lord's call through the 66 00:04:33.525 --> 00:04:34.825 original languages. 67 00:04:34.825 --> 00:04:37.325 A hub, Tiki Shema, Adonai. 68 00:04:37.525 --> 00:04:42.425 I wonder if the psalmist is playing with the great Shema. 69 00:04:42.425 --> 00:04:46.425 Do you know Deuteronomy 6 verse 5, right? 70 00:04:46.425 --> 00:04:51.725 The great Shema, the great Creed of Israel Shema, Yisrael, Adonai, 71 00:04:51.725 --> 00:04:53.325 eloheinu, Adonai. 72 00:04:53.325 --> 00:04:55.325 Echad, hear o Israel. 73 00:04:57.125 --> 00:05:01.325 And it goes on ahug te it. 74 00:05:02.225 --> 00:05:02.725 Adonai 75 00:05:02.725 --> 00:05:06.425 eloh ha and you shall love the Lord 76 00:05:06.425 --> 00:05:08.225 your God. See the psalmist 77 00:05:08.425 --> 00:05:09.725 flips it around. 78 00:05:10.625 --> 00:05:16.625 I have indeed love just like the Shema instructs me to do because 79 00:05:16.625 --> 00:05:18.125 the Lord heard. 80 00:05:20.725 --> 00:05:27.325 I have loved because the Lord heard slowing down and reading this in 81 00:05:27.325 --> 00:05:28.225 Hebrew 82 00:05:28.725 --> 00:05:31.425 I heard this great gospel truth 83 00:05:31.425 --> 00:05:37.525 come out of this text. We love because the Lord first loved us first 84 00:05:37.525 --> 00:05:39.125 heard us. 85 00:05:41.525 --> 00:05:45.425 So one great way to listen to the scriptures, this to listen to them 86 00:05:45.425 --> 00:05:47.425 in their original languages. 87 00:05:47.825 --> 00:05:54.925 The second is helps us to look at verse 2 because he inclined his ear 88 00:05:54.925 --> 00:05:55.525 to me. 89 00:05:55.825 --> 00:05:56.325 Therefore 90 00:05:56.325 --> 00:06:00.425 I will call on him as long as I live before because he inclined his 91 00:06:00.425 --> 00:06:01.225 ear to me. 92 00:06:01.625 --> 00:06:02.125 Now, 93 00:06:02.825 --> 00:06:06.725 one of the church fathers helped me to understand this verse, some of, 94 00:06:06.725 --> 00:06:10.525 you know, that I wrote my dissertation on Tertullian and the New Testament. 95 00:06:11.525 --> 00:06:16.525 Well, this summer, we were out vacationing in Washington state. 96 00:06:16.925 --> 00:06:22.425 And we went to this lovely little rural parish and the pastor was 97 00:06:22.425 --> 00:06:28.125 preaching to not more than 50 people and to me and to my family and in 98 00:06:28.125 --> 00:06:33.625 the middle of his sermon, he quoted no less than Tertullian. 99 00:06:34.925 --> 00:06:40.925 My family laughed out loud so much that the pastor stopped his sermon. 100 00:06:41.125 --> 00:06:46.225 You can do that in a small congregation and he said, do you know, 101 00:06:46.225 --> 00:06:51.225 Tertullian and I think I replied something like I've been living with 102 00:06:51.225 --> 00:06:58.125 him for five years. Seminary professors say really weird things 103 00:06:58.125 --> 00:07:00.525 sometimes when they're put on the spot. 104 00:07:04.225 --> 00:07:08.025 I haven't yet convinced my family that it's important to listen to the 105 00:07:08.025 --> 00:07:11.425 church fathers, but I think you're a little more sympathetic audience. 106 00:07:11.925 --> 00:07:17.725 Basel of Caesarea says about this verse, verse 2, 107 00:07:17.725 --> 00:07:19.625 some interesting things. 108 00:07:19.825 --> 00:07:22.725 He says about that because he inclined his ear to me. 109 00:07:22.725 --> 00:07:27.225 He says, this is not about the Lord taking flesh and kneeling down to 110 00:07:27.225 --> 00:07:27.625 us. 111 00:07:29.625 --> 00:07:33.625 Kind of a surprising Insight you would think immediately of the 112 00:07:33.625 --> 00:07:35.325 Incarnation of Jesus. 113 00:07:35.625 --> 00:07:41.025 But Basil of Caesarea says no what's really going on here is the 114 00:07:41.025 --> 00:07:43.225 weakness of our voice. 115 00:07:45.125 --> 00:07:48.825 Our cry for mercy, so quiet 116 00:07:50.525 --> 00:07:56.925 that the Lord has to incline himself to us and he listens not only to 117 00:07:56.925 --> 00:08:03.625 our are audible cries, but even to the stirrings of our hearts. 118 00:08:04.725 --> 00:08:11.025 Basel says the Lord was able to hear the blood of Abel crying out from 119 00:08:11.025 --> 00:08:18.725 the dirt, that is how intently our Lord listens to his creation to his 120 00:08:18.725 --> 00:08:19.425 people. 121 00:08:20.325 --> 00:08:24.925 What beautiful imagery that our God would stoop 122 00:08:25.825 --> 00:08:28.725 to hear us in our weakness. 123 00:08:31.025 --> 00:08:35.825 So sometimes we hear the Lord's voice, a little more keenly through 124 00:08:35.825 --> 00:08:37.025 listening to others, 125 00:08:37.025 --> 00:08:41.525 even through church fathers. Take a look at verse 3, with me. The 126 00:08:41.525 --> 00:08:43.125 snares of death, encompass me. 127 00:08:43.125 --> 00:08:44.425 The pangs of Sheol laid 128 00:08:44.425 --> 00:08:45.125 hold on me. 129 00:08:45.325 --> 00:08:48.925 I suffered distress and anguish and then I called on the name of the 130 00:08:48.925 --> 00:08:49.525 Lord. 131 00:08:49.625 --> 00:08:50.025 Oh, Lord 132 00:08:50.025 --> 00:08:51.925 I pray deliver my soul. 133 00:08:54.525 --> 00:08:58.125 The snares of death, the pangs of sheol suffering, distress and 134 00:08:58.125 --> 00:08:58.725 anguish. 135 00:08:58.725 --> 00:09:03.825 Oh, I knew all about these during the first couple of years of 136 00:09:03.825 --> 00:09:04.825 ministry. 137 00:09:06.625 --> 00:09:11.325 See you, as a young, Pastor one of my duties had been to go to the 138 00:09:11.325 --> 00:09:17.725 NICU and to pray with a family and a little newborn who had severe 139 00:09:17.725 --> 00:09:18.825 birth defects. 140 00:09:19.725 --> 00:09:24.125 And we prayed I would grab hold of this tiny infant's hand and the 141 00:09:24.125 --> 00:09:28.425 hand of mommy and daddy and we would pray for him for three months 142 00:09:28.425 --> 00:09:30.525 I spent time with this family. 143 00:09:32.125 --> 00:09:33.125 The baby died. 144 00:09:36.225 --> 00:09:41.725 And we knew death crept in close around us. 145 00:09:42.825 --> 00:09:47.725 Not only that around the same time, some members of the congregation, 146 00:09:47.725 --> 00:09:50.825 some very prominent members of the congregation sinned, in some very 147 00:09:50.825 --> 00:09:56.525 public ways, some very surprising ways that I was not prepared to 148 00:09:56.525 --> 00:09:58.925 observe of the people of God. 149 00:10:00.025 --> 00:10:06.325 I feared for their salvation and my sins became all the more acute. 150 00:10:06.325 --> 00:10:09.425 I became all the more aware of my own sins. 151 00:10:09.925 --> 00:10:16.125 And I knew that I was under the hand of God and I felt his wrath. 152 00:10:16.425 --> 00:10:22.625 I feared his eternal punishment, the pangs of Sheol. And O suffered 153 00:10:22.625 --> 00:10:25.125 distress and anguish. 154 00:10:25.125 --> 00:10:28.325 I hadn't yet learned the gift of boundaries. 155 00:10:28.325 --> 00:10:29.625 So I was working 70, 156 00:10:29.825 --> 00:10:30.125 80, 157 00:10:30.125 --> 00:10:36.625 sometimes 90 hours a week believing that my overworking was necessary 158 00:10:36.625 --> 00:10:39.325 for the survival of the congregation. 159 00:10:42.025 --> 00:10:47.125 And so when I was asked to go visit Ruth Hagedorn in the long-term 160 00:10:47.125 --> 00:10:51.225 care facility, I wasn't really excited. 161 00:10:52.725 --> 00:10:57.525 In fact, Ruth was a double amputee had been confined to a hospital 162 00:10:57.525 --> 00:10:57.925 bed. 163 00:10:58.225 --> 00:11:02.725 And I'll be honest, when I walked in, to do my duty, to speak the 164 00:11:02.725 --> 00:11:05.725 gospel to her, to administer the sacraments to her. 165 00:11:06.825 --> 00:11:08.025 It was only a duty. 166 00:11:08.425 --> 00:11:13.525 And as I looked around, as I walked into the long-term care facility, 167 00:11:13.525 --> 00:11:15.525 and smelled the urine and the feces. 168 00:11:15.625 --> 00:11:18.925 This was not the pick me up that I personally needed. 169 00:11:19.725 --> 00:11:22.225 So I went in doing my duty. 170 00:11:23.025 --> 00:11:24.125 And there was Ruth. 171 00:11:25.925 --> 00:11:26.625 Bright 172 00:11:26.625 --> 00:11:28.425 smile. Pastor 173 00:11:28.425 --> 00:11:30.225 it's so good to see you ah 174 00:11:30.225 --> 00:11:33.325 I thought she's putting on an act for the pastor. 175 00:11:35.925 --> 00:11:39.725 And then she told me about her troubles and how the Lord had seen her 176 00:11:39.725 --> 00:11:40.925 through all of them. 177 00:11:41.225 --> 00:11:47.925 And then she said to me Pastor, how can I pray for you? 178 00:11:49.425 --> 00:11:54.525 Ruth had loved because she had heard. 179 00:11:55.425 --> 00:11:57.625 She knew her Lord Jesus. 180 00:11:58.225 --> 00:12:03.025 She knew that the cords of death had entangled him that the pangs of 181 00:12:03.025 --> 00:12:06.725 Sheol had nearly overcome him as he descended into hell. 182 00:12:06.925 --> 00:12:11.125 She knew that the Lord was risen to life and was listening to her 183 00:12:11.125 --> 00:12:16.325 every plea and she was living the life of Jesus. 184 00:12:16.425 --> 00:12:19.025 She was living out the text of Psalm 116 185 00:12:19.225 --> 00:12:20.625 right in front of me. 186 00:12:21.525 --> 00:12:24.325 I couldn't hear the text but Ruth 187 00:12:25.425 --> 00:12:25.925 spoke it 188 00:12:25.925 --> 00:12:28.925 so clearly through her life. 189 00:12:30.125 --> 00:12:35.425 You see, sometimes the Lord uses the lives of his Saints to live out 190 00:12:35.425 --> 00:12:38.525 the scriptures to call us back home. 191 00:12:39.625 --> 00:12:43.325 So in your Seminary classes, as you're spending time in the original 192 00:12:43.325 --> 00:12:47.825 languages, as you're spending time, maybe even reading Church fathers 193 00:12:47.825 --> 00:12:52.725 like Basel or listening to Modern Church fathers, like our own faculty 194 00:12:52.725 --> 00:12:59.225 comment on the scriptures. As you're out in RFE congregations or at 195 00:12:59.225 --> 00:13:02.925 your institutional module or even over Chapel coffee, amongst 196 00:13:02.925 --> 00:13:03.825 yourselves. 197 00:13:04.725 --> 00:13:10.025 And you hear the ways that the Lord is calling to you through his 198 00:13:10.025 --> 00:13:12.125 Saints, perk up. 199 00:13:12.725 --> 00:13:18.925 It's a call of Grace, a call to return home to him in the name of 200 00:13:18.925 --> 00:13:19.725 Jesus. 201 00:13:20.425 --> 00:13:20.925 Amen. 202 00:13:21.625 --> 00:13:23.225 We stand to sing the Te Deum.