
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me.
The Fifth Sunday after Trinity
O God, You have prepared for those who love You good things that surpass all understanding. Pour into our hearts such love toward You that we, loving You above all things, may obtain Your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Chris, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

An Overview
These familiar words of Christ are often used as cannon-fodder for the false teaching that Christians are never allowed to publicly speak about sin. However, when we read the full context of our Lord's teaching "judge not," and especially when we read it alongside the story of Joseph forgiving his brothers, we get a fuller picture of what it means to be a Christian.
Vengeance is indeed the Lord's, and we should never seek to carry out His vengeance. However, we should always be prepared to repent of our sins and hold others to that same standard of holy living.
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Artwork: The Parable of the Mote and the Beam, Domenico Fetti. Italian, ca. 1619. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Old Testament
1 Kings 19:11-21
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v. 11: The Lord commands Elijah to go up on a mountain. The mountain, in a way, is a sort of character in the Bible: its height is physically closer to heaven and thus serves as a place of divine revelation. Apart from today's reading, just think of Mount Sinai, Mount Carmel, the Mount of Transfiguration, the hill of Golgotha, and the mountain of the Ascension.
vv. 11-12: While we usually associate mountains with majesty and grandeur, the Lord uses this revelation to show that He is also a God of peace and quietness. Rather than a wind, an earthquake, and a fire, the Lord is found in a quiet whisper. -
vv. 13-14: The Lord asks Elijah why he is hiding in a cave, and Elijah replies that he is "very jealous" because Israel has forsaken the Lord. For more context on this forsaking, see the story of Jezebel in 1 Kings 18:1-19:10.
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vv. 15-18: The Lord doesn't directly address Elijah's fear and anger, but instead builds him up by promising that there will be a future generation of prophets.
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v. 18: Elijah has previously (chapter 18) defeated the prophets of Baal, though Israel apparently is still chasing after that demon. Nonetheless, there will be a remnant preserved to praise the true God.
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vv. 19-21: Elisha heeds the call into the Office of Holy Ministry and, as Christ will say years later, "leaves all" to follow Elijah. He even sacrifices his farm animals as a way of demonstrating that he is ready to leave his vocation as farmer and embrace his new calling as Prophet.
Translation Notes
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none
The Epistle
1 Peter 3:8-15
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v. 8: Though not strictly bound to any classical list, Peter here lists virtues after which Christians ought to chase
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Unity of Mind: Greek: homophron. Quite literally "same mind." As scripture commands unity of doctrine, we must find that unity in our common confession and the way we think about the things of God.
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Sympathy: This word is a transliteration of the Greek sumpathes. It means "feeling with" or "suffering with." When we are commanded by scripture to be "sympathetic," it is not a mushy feeling, but rather a true, "co-feeling" with those who are suffering, mourning, or rejoicing.
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Brotherly Love: What's the Greek word here? You guessed it - Philadelphia! It is again a compound word meaning "love" (phila) and "brother" (adelphos). This is not a generic command to be loving, but a specific type of love that includes sacrifice, correction, and true familial affection among believers.
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Tender Heart: Greek: essplanchnos. This is sort of a gross word that has to deal with splanchnon, or "intestines." This is the sort of tender heartedness that begins in the bowels and causes you to act on your "gut" that tells you to care for those in need.
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Humble Mind
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v. 14: a call to bless faithful Christians and to avoid cursing unbelievers.
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v. 15: a call to be "all things to all people" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) and to be fully sympathetic with fellow believers.
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v. 16: a call to meekness. In many ways, these first few verses reflect our Lord's teaching from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).
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vv. 17-18: A reminder that we are to strive for peace with all people, but a cautious reminder that we cannot force people to live in peace with us.
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vv. 19-20: A call to faithfulness and a reminder that, in line with the First Commandment, only God can carry out vengeance. We are not to put ourselves in the place of God, but allow His sovereign will to be done in all the earth. In fact, we are to do the opposite: we must be kind to our enemies and in doing so we will, so to speak, "heap burning coals on their heads."
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v. 21: a summary of this portion of Romans 12: one cannot overcome evil with evil, but must overcome evil with good, just as Joseph overcame the evil done to him by his brothers by providing for them and comforting them.
Translation Notes
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v. 16: "harmony," though translated this way, the Greek is not a musical term, but one that calls to be of thoughtfulness, and like-mindedness (phronountes).
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v. 16 that word phronountes is used two times and creates a wordplay with the call to be wise (phronimoi).
The Holy Gospel
Luke 6:37-42
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v. 37: this verse is often taken out of context by believers and unbelievers alike as a way of "proving" that Christians are never to pass judgment on anything. However, read in its context, we get a different story.
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v. 38: Here Christ makes it clear that Christians are not to avoid "judging" but rather they are to avoid judging by a different standard than they judge themselves. Thus, when a Christian says "If I were to commit sexual sins, I would be breaking the sixth commandment," he is not a hypocrite but a speaker of the truth when he says "If you commit sexual sins, you are breaking the sixth commandment."
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vv. 39-40: Jesus, as He often does, gives a parable to explain His point. A blind man (one who judges wrongly) cannot lead the blind (others who judge wrongly). Doing so will result in both of them falling into the pit. Rather, men must be trained so that they can grow into the image of their teacher. If they are trained poorly, they will grow into the image of their poor - or blind - teacher.
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vv. 41-42: Jesus shifts the imagery here. Rather than blind leaders, we are given the almost humorous image of someone asking a friend to take a piece of sawdust out of his eye, while he himself has a 2x4 in his own eye.
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Jesus calls this person a hypocrite. Once the 2x4 has been taken out (repentance), then and only then can he call out the sin and seek to correct the ways of his erring brother.
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Again, this is not a call to silence, but a call to speak the truth after the Christian has repented of his own sins.
Translation Notes
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Hypocrite, from Strong's Greek Dictionary: ὑποκριτής hupokrites, hoop-ok-ree-tace´; an actor under an assumed character (stage-player), i.e. (figuratively) a dissembler (“hypocrite”: — hypocrite.
Poetry Used in the Liturgy of Trinity 4
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Psalm 27- A Psalm of David in which the Poet-King prays for strength in the face of enemies. Perhaps David here embodies the internal dialogue of Jacob's children when they approached Jacob with fear.
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Psalm 138- David proclaims that he sings the praise of the true God even in the midst of idols and demons. Verse 6 is pertinent for today's worship as it repeats the common refrain in Scripture that God regards the lowly and only acknowledges the haughty from afar.
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Psalm 79- This psalm was composed from a place of fear and trembling, wondering how long before the Lord would take vengeance on His enemies. David does not conclude that he should take things into his own hands, but again "leaves vengeance to the Lord."
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Psalm 9 - A beautiful confession that though the enemies of God (and the Church) may appear to triumph, in the end the wicked will go to Sheol as will the people who forget God. Though justice is not always seen in this life, it will be carried out in the world to come.
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O God, My Faithful God by Johann Heermann
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Creator Spirit, by Whose Aid by Rabanus Maurus
Artwork: Dish with Joseph and His Brothers, Probably Workshop of Antoine Conrade. Based on a woodcut by Bernard Salomon French, ca. 1630–45. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Further Reading & Listening
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"Be Merciful as Your Heavenly Father is Merciful," a sermon by Martin Luther on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity in 1532.
Artwork: Interior of the Church of Saint Katherine’s with the Parable of the Mote and the Beam, Daniel Hopfer. German, ca. 1530. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.