16^th Sunday after Pentecost

Watchword from 1 Peter 5:7   Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Genesis 2:4-9.15   This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens–  and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground,  but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground–  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.  Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.  And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground– trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  … The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

1 Peter 5:5c-11  “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  ⁸ Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  ¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 6:25-34   Jesus said: “I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  

And here the magnificent masterpiece by Joseph Haydn: Die Schöpfung 

And here a sermon in German published by the Lutheran Bishop Hans-Jörg Voigt (SELK) on today’s epistle: 1Petrus 5, 5c-11 – 4. September 2016 – 15. Sonntag nach Trinitatis – Hans-Jörg Voigt