Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity.
Preached at Our Redeemer and Our Savior's Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
June
28th, Year of Our + Lord 2026
Based on Genesis 50:15-21,
Romans 12:14-21, Luke 6:36-42
Let us pray: O Sovereign and
Merciful Lord, grant that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered
by Your governance that Your Church may joyfully serve You in all godly
quietness; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and
the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
That prayer is today’s Collect of the Day. A Collect is a traditional form of Christian
prayer, which collects, or gathers together the prayer of a congregation,
presenting it to God as a united request.
A Collect asks the Lord to work in our midst, in keeping with His Word, often
focusing on some particular truth from the readings for a given service. The Collect of the Day for the Sunday Divine
Service intends to offer a theme that summarizes a main teaching present in the
readings. It cannot be exhaustive, that
would require a very long prayer. Still,
the Collect is often helpful as we seek to understand what the Holy Spirit is
telling us in His Word.
A Collect follows, more or less closely, a particular form which helps
it identify and proclaim a theme. You
have this form before you in the half sheet.
There is even an acronym for it, CARRD.
(Actually, there are many possible acronyms, but this is the one I like,
so…) CARRD stands for Call, Attribute, Request,
Result and Doxology.
Call means to call on the Name of the Lord, to invoke one of His many
Biblical Names: Father, God, Lord, Savior, King, etc.
Attribute is to describe God according to one or more of His characteristics, the
various things He has done, or traits that God has taught us about Himself,
especially in light of the day’s readings and the request of the Collect.
Request is to make the particular petition, or several, the specific things we ask
of God.
Result is the blessed state of affairs that God’s action will achieve for us,
and/or for others.
Doxology literally means “words of glory,” a shorter or longer praise of the One
to whom we present our requests, which is concluded with an ‘Amen.’
So, to break down this morning’s
Collect of the Day:
Call: O … Lord,
Attribute: Sovereign and Merciful. I
know, this Collect is a bit out of sequence.
The attributes come in the middle of the Call. I said Collects more or less follow this form, didn’t I?
Request: grant that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by
Your governance
Result: that Your Church may joyfully serve You in all godly quietness;
Doxology: through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
forever, Amen.
Now, why am I
regaling you with all this detail about Collects? Well, I was in my 30s, and had attended
thousands of Lutheran services, before I began to understand the form and
function of the Divine Service, the liturgy of Word and Sacrament. And the Collect of the Day serves a central
function in this liturgy. When I learned
a bit about what the Church has put together for her liturgy over the last
2,000 years, I began to understand and get more out of worship.
(Now,
be warned, this learning was an important part of the Lord convincing me to
pursue becoming a minister. You may not
think you want to become a Church Worker, but as you understand better all the
good that the Lord is doing for you in worship, you never know what the Holy
Spirit might work in you. Maybe within
the sound of my voice there is a future missionary, or pastor, or deaconess.)
Certainly,
helping you understand better and receive more of what God is offering us this
morning is a central part of my call to be your pastor. Drawing on ancient Israel’s synagogue
service, as well as the worship of God’s people in the Temple, the Divine
Service has been developed in the Church through the centuries as a wonderful
and reliable way of delivering God’s gifts, to you and to visitors. We gather to receive God’s Truth, His Wisdom,
His Law and Gospel, strength for Christian living, encouragement, comfort, and,
most fundamentally, to be renewed in the forgiveness Christ Jesus won for all
people on His Cross. It is forgiveness
which makes us right with God, and remakes our hearts, so that we seek to do
His will.
The
truth of God’s Word, fully revealed in the man Jesus, has always been the heart
of Christian worship. The Collect of the
Day, along with being a good prayer, a heartfelt request to our loving God,
also helps us grasp and understand what God is teaching us. More on this in a bit.
Knowing the form of a Collect, using the CARRD acronym, can also help us
as we pray throughout the week. Now,
Christian prayer can take many forms.
Praying the Psalms for yourself and others is an ancient and godly practice. And just crying out “Lord, help me!” is also
a good prayer. But sometimes, at least
for me, I have felt a need to pray, for specific concerns, for myself or
others, but the words do not come.
“Please help us, Lord,” is a fine prayer, but a richer prayer might
offer more comfort. Let me give an
example.
Say
you are hiking in the mountains with a group of friends, and you get caught in
a strong thunderstorm. You would prefer
to find a sheltered place to wait it out, but one of your friends needs to take
medicine, and it is back at your car. So,
you head back through the rain. Then,
just short of your destination, you find that what was a small trickling stream
on your way out is now a rushing torrent, 15 feet wide, and you’re not sure how
deep. Because the one friend is becoming
increasingly ill, and another in your group has a rope and knows how to use it
to help you cross safely, the group reluctantly decides to make the
crossing. After you get set up, someone
suggests somebody should say a prayer, and everybody looks at you. Are you ready to pray? Would you like to say more than “God, please
help us!”?
How
about something like this: Almighty Father, (Call) you created the wind
and the rain, and the stream that now threatens us. (Attribute) As you
rescued Your people, Israel, through the Red Sea, (another Attribute),
so also send your angels to us now, and grant us a safe crossing of this
torrent, (Request), so that our friend can take her medicine. (Result)
(Finally, a Doxological conclusion) We ask this for the sake of Jesus
Christ, your Son, our Savior and Lord, Amen.
Do
you see how a good Collect connects the needs of our moment to the actions and
promises God has made and kept through the centuries? And, such a prayer can do more than simply offer
comfort in the moment. If any one in
your hiking group has drifted from the faith, or perhaps has never trusted in
Christ Jesus, such a substantial prayer focused on God’s care and promises
might lead to eternally fruitful conversations, on the other side of the stream
crossing. The CARRD form of a Collect is
certainly not the only way to pray, but it can be a real blessing. And you can do it.
O.k., enough Catechism instruction on prayer, for now. Another benefit when a Collect connects well
with the Scripture we have heard is that it helps us understand God’s Word and
apply it to our daily Christian walk.
Let’s take another look at today’s Collect, in light of the three
readings.
In
today’s Collect, we asked the Sovereign and Merciful Lord to peaceably govern
the course of this world so that the Church can serve Him in all godly
quietness. Do you see how this explains
the readings? Let us take a look.
From Genesis 50, we heard the made-up story that Joseph’s father Jacob had
requested on his deathbed for Joseph to forgive his brothers. The brothers told this lie because they did
not believe Joseph had really forgiven them for selling him into slavery in
Egypt. Their doubts are easy to
understand, since true forgiveness from the heart is a rare thing.
But Joseph, by the Lord’s hand, had risen from slavery and jail to
become the Pharoah’s #2 man, ruling over all of Egypt, for the king. Joseph is immensely powerful, in human terms. But, he understands that he is not governing
the really important things. That governance of heavenly and eternal things belongs to God. Joseph knows and trusts in the forgiveness
and mercy of the Lord, and from that trust he has peace. So, he is truly at peace with his
brothers. “What you meant for evil,” he
tells them, “God meant for good, so that many people should be kept
alive. So do not fear, I will provide
for you and your little ones.” Thus [Joseph] comforted them and spoke
kindly to them.”
Do
you suppose Joseph was tempted to take some vengeance on his brothers? Maybe, maybe not. The important thing, for the harmony that God
wants to see between His people on earth, is that Joseph did not assume the
place of God.
We
could say that Joseph preserved a godly quietness, which I do not think literally
means being quiet all the time. No,
godly quietness has more to do with holding our tongues and unclenching our fists
when we want to exact revenge, when we want to take control of divine
justice. The prayer of the Christian for
every soul is not that they be eternally condemned, but that God would save
them, even our worst enemies. The
forgiveness Joseph had declared to his brothers years earlier came from the
Lord, not from Joseph on his own.
Forgiveness comes from God, and vengeance is Mine, says the Lord. And so, faithful Joseph did not presume to
deny God’s word or will.
Joseph’s forgiving heart and his reconciliation with his brothers is a
great example of living out our Christian faith, as Paul exhorts us this
morning: Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is
honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so
far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Jesus continues the theme: Be
merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged;
condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be
forgiven, 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good
measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into
your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
The
Lord wants Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ, to live in harmony, and
there will be great earthly and heavenly joys whenever harmony rules. God also desires that this love of Christians
should spill over to unbelievers. And so
we come to the strangest line in our readings:
Paul warns against Christians taking vengeance for themselves, and then
he says. “To the contrary, if
your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink;
for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Maybe this
sounds a bit twisted, that sinners like us might take pleasure in driving our
enemies crazy. But even this strange
instruction has an evangelical, salvation-for-sinners goal. For Paul concludes, Do not be overcome by
evil, but overcome evil with good. Extending
the goodness of God’s mercy is the goal.
In
a nutshell, Paul teaches us that doing good to your enemies will often make
them even angrier with you. But do it
anyway, and sometimes, the Word will break through that anger. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit will work through
your kind acts to convert another undeserving sinner, bringing them to repent
of their sins, and trust in Christ’s forgiving sacrifice.
The
connection between today’s Collect and Scripture readings is this: The goal of God’s governance in this fallen
world is harmony among His children, and the salvation of more sinners, the
growth of the Church. And so mercy and
peace are to define the Church, and individual Christians.
We
do not live in peaceful times.
Internationally, hot wars abound, and our country is involved in
several. Domestically, the polarization
between political extremes seems to become more bitter by the day, and
political violence is growing in our land.
But
do not fear. In Christ Jesus, crucified
for all human sin and resurrected from the dead, perfect peace has been won,
for us, and for all, peace with God that is received by faith in Jesus. And marvel of marvels, we have access to this
peace of Christ, in His Word, and in the mystery of His Holy Supper.
In
the Collect of the Day we asked for the opportunity to joyfully serve the Lord,
and we have that opportunity. So we ask the
Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with faith, confidence and love, so that we go
forth to serve with joy, and humility, today, tomorrow, and every day, until
the Lord calls us home. We pray this in
Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.
