Prepare for The Sunday of the Good Samaritan (09/15)

Jesus Is Our Good Samaritan

The Law cannot help us or give us life. Rather, it confines everyone under sin as wounded and naked before God (Gal. 3:15–22). So it is that two figures of the Law, the priest and the Levite, passed by the injured man on the side of the road (Luke 10:23–37). Only the promised Seed of Abraham can rescue us and make us righteous before God. Only the Samaritan, our Lord Jesus, had compassion. He came down to us in our lost and dying condition, pouring on the oil and wine of the Sacraments. He placed us on His own animal, bearing our sin and brokenness in His body on the cross to restore us. Jesus brought us to the inn, that is, the Church, and gave the innkeeper two denarii, that His double forgiveness might continue to be ministered to us. In this way the Lord, by whose Law we are torn and stricken, heals us and revives us by His Gospel and raises us up with Himself on the third day, that we may live in His sight (Hos. 6:1–6).

Within the liturgy for each Lord’s day, we receive the Word of God through uniquely appointed readings, psalms, hymns, and prayers. This week we will pray the Office of Matins (audio of this liturgy.) The following guide will help you to prepare to hear and sing the Propers, i.e. the varied texts and hymns for this week.

Collect of the Day: Almighty and everlasting God, give us an increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may obtain what You have promised, make us love what You have commanded; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Readings:

Psalm 32
Old Testament: 2 Chronicles 28:8-15
Epistle: Galatians 3:15-22
Gospel: Luke 10:23-37

Hymns:

555Salvation unto us has comeEs ist das HeilVideo

Paul Speratus was born in what is now Germany in 1484 and became a preacher in 1518. He believed Luther’s teachings to be in accordance with what Scriptures teach and he was persecuted for his faithfulness to the pure Gospel. He was fired from his early preaching posts for expressing his views too openly. He was also one of the first priests to get married during the reformation period. He received his Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Vienna but was later condemned by the Vienna faculty for defending marriage and the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. His preaching, however, became very popular with the people and he was thrown in prison for it in 1523, where he stayed for three months. It was while he was in prison that he wrote this hymn, based on Romans 3:28: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” It is one of the oldest and best known of Lutheran hymns and has been referred to as the true confessional hymn of the Reformation. Martin Luther shed tears when he heard it sung by a street-singer outside his window in Wittenberg.

683Jesus, Thy boundless love to meRyburnVideo

This hymn has been in each of our major English hymnals, Our most recent hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, returned to the historic opening line. Gerhardt’s original hymn has 16 verses. Our hymnal has only four, as did Lutheran Worship. The Lutheran Hymnal had seven verses and the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book had eight. Gerhardt based the hymn on a prayer in the Paradiesgärtlein (Magdeburg, 1612), a devotional book by Johann Arndt (1555-1621). Arndt was the most influential Lutheran author of such works in his lifetime. John Wesley (of Methodist Church fame) became acquainted with the hymn while in Savanna, Georgia and, recognizing its beauty and piety, translated it, in its entirety, into English. It was published in his Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739).

716I walk in danger all the wayDer lieben Sonne Licht und PrachtVideo

This hymn by Hans A. Brorson appeared in Nogle Salmer om Troens Frugt, 1734. The hymn is grounded in the text of Scripture, namely, 1 Pet 5:8; John 16:33; Ps 90:5-6; Ps 34:7; John 8:12; Heb 13:14; Phil 3:20.