Looking Forward to Sunday at St. Thomas—Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
Start Here: Looking Forward with Issues, Etc.
Each week, the Lutheran radio program Issues, Etc. features an hour long conversation that walks through the propers for the upcoming Sunday in the Church Year. This is a helpful way to prepare your heart and mind to hear God’s Word and receive His gifts.
Listen Now—”Looking Forward to Sunday Morning (One Year Lectionary): Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity”
The Bach Cantata for This Sunday
Johann Sebastian Bach composed sacred cantatas for nearly every Sunday and feast day in the Church Year. These cantatas proclaim Christ through the same Scripture readings and themes appointed for each Sunday.
This Week’s Cantata:
“Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende?” BWV 27
Watch the Performance:
Read the English Translation:
From BachCantataTexts.org—Texts and Historically-Informed Translations for the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
Sacred Art: The Gospel in Image
Raising of the Son of the Widow of Nain
Lucas Cranach the Younger, after 1565 (1573?)
Brief Commentary
Lucas Cranach the Younger sets the raising of the widow’s son from Nain (Luke 7:11–16) before the gates of a sixteenth-century German city. Two processions meet at the threshold: the mourners bearing death out, and Christ bringing life in. At the center, Jesus halts the bier and grasps the young man’s hand as he sits up alive, returning him to his mother.
The scene recalls St. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 that we be “strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” Just as Christ’s word raised the dead youth to new life, so in Holy Baptism He daily drowns the old Adam through contrition and repentance and raises the new man to live before God in righteousness. The city gate becomes an image of this daily crossing: the Christian stands where funeral and resurrection meet, until the final day when Christ will speak again, and the grave itself will yield to His life-giving word.
The Propers for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Introit
Psalm 86:3, 5
Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto Thee daily. For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee.
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Introit Verse
Psalm 86:1
Bow down Thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Collect
Lord, we pray Thee that Thy grace may always go before and follow after us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Prophecy
1 Kings 17:17–24
In those days: The son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.”
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Gradual
Psalm 102:15
The heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory.
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Gradual Verse
Psalm 102:16
When the LORD shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Epistle
Ephesians 3:13–21
Brethren: I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Alleluia
Psalm 114:1
When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language;
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Alleluia Verse
Psalm 114:2
Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Gospel
Luke 7:11–16
At that time: Jesus went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.”
-
The Will of God Is Always Best, LSB 758
The will of God is always best
And shall be done forever;
And they who trust in Him are blest;
He will forsake them never.
He helps indeed
In time of need;
He chastens with forbearing,
They who depend
On God, their friend,
Shall not be left despairing.God is my comfort and my trust,
My hope and life abiding;
And to His counsel, wise and just,
I yield, in Him confiding.
The very hairs,
His Word declares,
Upon my head He numbers.
By night and day
God is my stay;
He never sleeps nor slumbers.Lord, this I ask, O hear my plea,
Deny me not this favor:
When Satan sorely troubles me,
Then do not let me waver.
O guard me well,
My fear dispel,
Fulfill Your faithful saying:
All who believe
By grace receive
An answer to their praying.When life's brief course on earth is run
And I this world am leaving,
Grant me to say, "Your will be done,"
Your faithful Word believing.
My dearest Friend, I now commend
My soul into Your keeping;
From sin and hell,
And death as well,
By You the vict'ry reaping.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Offertory
Psalm 40:13b–14a
O LORD, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Communion
Psalm 71:16b–17, 18b
O Lord, I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only. O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not.
-
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Complend
We beseech Thee, O Lord, graciously to cleanse our minds, and to renew them by Thy heavenly Sacraments: that we may receive help for our bodies and souls both now and in time to come; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
Lectionary Theme Summary
This Sunday’s readings center on:
Jesus Calls forth Life from Death
A large funeral procession carrying the only son of a widow is confronted by another large procession, Jesus and His followers. Death and Life meet face to face at the gate of the city (Luke 7:11–17). Filled with compassion, Jesus comes into direct contact with our mortality in order to overcome it. He touches the coffin and speaks His creative words of life, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus does what is neither expected nor requested. For through Christ, God the Father “is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think” (Eph. 3:14–21). Jesus bore our death in His body that we may share in His resurrection. Even as Elijah stretched himself out three times over the Zarephath woman’s son (2 Kings 17:17–24), God stretched Himself out over us in the threefold application of His name in the baptismal water, breathing new and everlasting life into us. “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Veit Dietrich Summary Collect:
Lord God, heavenly Father, You sent your Son to be made flesh, that by His death He might atone for our sins and deliver us from eternal death. Confirm in our hearts the hope that our dear Lord Christ, who raised the widow's son with a word, will raise us on the last day and give us eternal life. through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
Voices of the Church: Fathers and Confessions
Each Sunday, the Church gathers to hear Christ in the Scriptures, and she has always confessed that Word with one voice. This section features brief excerpts from the Church Fathers, the Lutheran Confessions, usually the Large Catechism and the Formula of Concord. These selections highlight how the Church in every age has confessed the same faith drawn from God’s Word. Use them for meditation and instruction as we prepare to receive Christ’s gifts anew.
From the Church Fathers
PETER CHRYSOLOGUS (SERMON 103)
What is this trumpet that declares war against hell, rolls back the stone from the tomb, brings forth life to the dead, and gives victory to all as they rise from their graves amid lightning and thunders to everlasting life? What is it? It is that to which our Lord referred: “The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.” This is not a trumpet of horn or wood or brass that sounds a mournful bellow calling to war, but the Voice that comes from the heart of the Father, from the mouth of the Son—the call of God.
The same trumpet that in the beginning called the world from nothing will on the last day recall the world from death. That which in the beginning raised man from the slime will at the end recall him from the dust.
And if the Voice of God, the trumpet of Christ, through the cycle of days, months, seasons, and years, calls and recalls, leads forth and leads back, bids to be and bids not to be, gives to death and restores to life—why would He not perform in us once what He does all the time in all other things? Does the divine power fail only with us, for whom alone the Divine Majesty of God has done all that we have been speaking about?
O man, if all that God has made returns from death to life for you, why should you not also be brought to life from death through God? Or does God’s creative power fail only in you? Every creature lives, moves, is changed, renewed for you.
Brothers, I say this not with any desire to belittle the power of the wonders of Christ, but so that I may exhort you: by the example of this young man rising from the dead, we may be awakened to faith in the resurrection of all men. I say it so that you may believe that the Cross is the plough of our body, faith its seed, the grave its furrow, decomposition its bud, time its period of waiting; so that when the spring of the Lord’s coming smiles on us, the full green of our bodies shall rise again in a life-giving harvest that will know no ending, no old age, that will not be bound into bundles nor winnowed with a flail. For abandoning our old straw in death, our glorified bodies, like new fruit, will rise again in the harvest of eternal life.
From the Large Catechism
HOLY BAPTISM (IV.41-46)
Therefore, every Christian has enough in Baptism to learn and to do all his life. For he has always enough to do by believing firmly what Baptism promises and brings: victory over death and the devil [Romans 6:3–6], forgiveness of sin [Acts 2:38], God’s grace [Titus 3:5–6], the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with His gifts [1 Corinthians 6:11]. In short, Baptism is so far beyond us that if timid nature could realize this, it might well doubt whether it could be true. Think about it. Imagine there was a doctor somewhere who understood the art of saving people from death or, even though they died, could restore them quickly to life so that they would afterward live forever. Oh, how the world would pour in money like snow and rain. No one could find access to him because of the throng of the rich! But here in Baptism there is freely brought to everyone’s door such a treasure and medicine that it utterly destroys death and preserves all people alive.
We must think this way about Baptism and make it profitable for ourselves. So when our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say, “Nevertheless, I am baptized. And if I am baptized, it is promised to me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body.” For that is the reason why these two things are done in Baptism: the body—which can grasp nothing but the water—is sprinkled and, in addition, the Word is spoken for the soul to grasp. Now, since both, the water and the Word, make one Baptism, therefore, body and soul must be saved and live forever [1 Corinthians 15:53]. The soul lives through the Word, which it believes, but the body lives because it is united with the soul and also holds on through Baptism as it is able to grasp it. We have, therefore, no greater jewel in body and soul. For by Baptism we are made holy and are saved [1 Corinthians 6:11]. No other kind of life, no work upon earth, can do this.
Let this be enough about Baptism’s nature, blessing, and use, for it fulfills the present purpose.
From the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration
THE PERSON OF CHRIST (VIII.56-59)
This communication of properties is not to be understood as a phrase or way of speaking, or just words about the person according to the divine nature alone, but according to the received human nature. The following three strong, irrefutable arguments and reasons show this:
1. First, here is a unanimously received rule of the entire ancient orthodox Church. Holy Scripture testifies that what Christ received in time He did not receive according to the divine nature. (According to this nature He has everything from eternity.) But the person of Christ has received attributes in time by reason of and with respect to the received human nature.
2. Second, the Scriptures testify clearly (John 5:21, 27; 6:39–40) that the power to give life and to execute judgment has been given to Christ because He is the Son of Man and since He has flesh and blood.
3. Third, the Scriptures speak not merely in general of the Son of Man, but also indicate clearly His received human nature, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). This is true not only according to the merit ‹of Christ’s blood› that was once attained on the cross. But in this place John means that in the work or act of justification, not only the divine nature in Christ but also His blood actually cleanses us from all sins [1 John 1:7]. So in John 6:48–58 Christ’s flesh is a life-giving food. The Council of Ephesus also concluded from this statement that Christ’s flesh has power to give life. Many other glorious testimonies of the ancient orthodox Church about this article are cited elsewhere.
Devotional Suggestions for the Week
Pray the Collect.
Read aloud at least the Gospel text one evening as a family and discuss the sacred art.
Sing a stanza of the Hymn of the Day before dinner or bedtime.
Listen to the Cantata on Saturday night or Sunday morning before church.
Review the Voices of the Church section connected to this Sunday.
Stay Connected
Join us for the Chief Divine Service on Sunday at 9:00 AM and Family Catechesis at 10:30 AM at Klein Funeral Home in Magnolia (14711 FM 1488). All are welcome to hear Christ’s Word and receive His gifts.
To learn more about St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church and our mission in Magnolia, visit our homepage.
