FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS: FIFTEENTH SUNDAY

Dear Father in heaven, for the sake of your dear Son AFTER PENTECOST
Jesus Christ grant us your Holy Spirit, that we may be
true learners of Christ, and therefore acquire a heart
with a never-ceasing fountain of love. Amen

FROM LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM:

The Lord’s Prayer:

The First Petition

Hallowed be your name.

What is this?
It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask
in this prayer that it may also become holy in and among us.
How does this come about?
Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and purely
and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it.
To this end help us, dear Father in heaven! However,
whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God
teaches, dishonors God’s name among us.
Preserve us from this, heavenly Father!

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing

mercy and pity. Grant us the fullness of your grace, that,
pursuing what you have promised, we may share your heavenly
glory; through your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
.
GOSPEL: Mark 8: 27-38
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and
on his way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?”28 And they
answered him, John, the Baptist, and others, Elijah; and still others, one
of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter
answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30 And he sternly ordered them
not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must
undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests,
and the scribes, be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all
this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said,
“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine
things but on human things.”
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If
any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will
lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the
gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole
world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for
their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be
ashamed when he comes in glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Psalm 116:1-8
1 I love the Lord, because he hears me; he listens to my prayers.
2 He listens to me every time I call to him.
3 The danger of death was all around me; the horrors of the grave
closed in on me; I was filled with fear and anxiety.
4 Then I called to the Lord, “I beg you, Lord, save me!”
5The Lord is merciful and good; our God is compassionate.
6 The Lord protects the helpless; when I was in danger,
he saved me.
7 Be confident, my heart, because the Lord has been good to me.
8 The Lord saved me from death; he stopped my tears and
kept me from defeat.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ?
The sorrow of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold
upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name
of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
Psalm cxvi. 3-4.
When God has given us true faith, so that we walk in firm trust,
having no doubt that He, through Christ, is gracious unto us, then
we are in paradise. But before we do anything wrong, all that may
be changed and God may allow our heart to faint, so that we think
it is His will to snatch the Savior from our heart. Then is Christ so
veiled that we can have no comfort in Him, and the devil pours
into our hearts the most terrible thoughts about Him, so that our
conscience feels it has lost Him, and is cast down and disquieted as
if there were nothing but God’s wrath towards us, which we by our
sins have well deserved.
Yea, even if we know of no open sins, yet the devil has the
power to make sin out of what is no sin, and thus he frightens our
heart and makes us anxious so that we are tormented by such
questions as: Who knows whether God will have you and give
Christ to you?
This is the direst and deepest temptation and suffering with
which God now and again attacks and tests even His greatest
saints, so that the heart feels that God has taken His grace away
from us; that He longer wills to be our God, and whithersoever
man turns he sees nothing but wrath and terror. Yet is not every
soul sorely tempted, nor does any man know what it is like unless
he has experienced it. Only the strongest spirits could endure such
blows.
Sermons from the year, 1524. W.A.17. II. 20 f.
Taken from the book:
Day by Day We Magnify Thee by Martin Luther
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