Lutheran Order of service in isiZulu/seTswana

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

Jesus heals blind man EthiopiaThe Lutheran Order of Service for this year’s 17th Sunday after the high holiday of the most holy and venerated godly Trinity is available here in isiZulu and seTswana. Today it comes with a sermon based on God’s word from the gospel of the evangelist St. John the 9th chapter verses 35-41 written by my brother Rev. P.C. Weber from the LC in Ohlangeni (KZN) in isiZulu (wz1347130922 n Tr 17) and translated as usual into seTswana (wt1347130922 n Tr17) by my father Rev. E.A.W.Weber DD (Welbedacht, KZN).

The readings for this Sunday are:

Old Testament:       Isaiah 49:1-6

The Epistle:            Romans 10:9-17 (18)

The Gospel:            Matthew 15:21-28

The liturgical colour is green.

May you have a very blessed weekend and have time to meditate on the watchword for this Sunday: This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1Jo 5:4 NIV) – and if you are called to preach this weekend, may the triune God give you joy and strength, enthusiasm and wisdom, knowledge and insight – and the true and faithful words, biblical pictures and stories to preach his holy will purely and his promises faithfully! However if you are not preaching, but listening – then listen for God is talking to you + His precious gospel is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Rom 1:16 NIV)

 

We thank the Lutheran Heritage Foundation for supporting the distribution of hard-copies of these orders of worship and sermons throughout Southern Africa. If you also want a copy please do not hesitate to subscribe by writing to EAWWeber@bundunet.co.za.

 

 

 

 

 

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Löhe on Ephesians 3:19

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

St Marien LuebeckI pray that you know this love that surpasses knowledge– that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:19 NIV)

The faithful prayer is enlightened through this prayer and grows in faith and trust. It does not doubt that God hears this prayer and hopes for fulfillment that is bigger and richer even than the initial request spelt out. That is why all praise is given to God alone. The love of Christ is worshiped and adored, because it by far surpasses all understanding and much higher than any reasoning powers. If the Ephesians receive this love, then they will not tire of the hard sufferings and trials the apostle goes through. Rather God will lift them to higher degrees and levels of understanding and compassion and the inner life and spirituality. Just as God alone came up with his profound and encompassing salvation for all people and the whole world, just as he alone carried it out successfully and victoriously in Jesus Christ our Lord and still continues to carry this gracious mission out through his Holy Spirit, so too he alone can grant proper insight to his Christians in his most holy mission actions by which he builds his one holy Church worldwide. He alone can strengthen and promote this insight that it becomes truly motivational and effective to gain our fruitful participation in his mission work. History is his doing and also his great gift of gracious workings. Most of us don’t reach levels of high influence and significance in this world and time, yet our God will see to it that there will always be those, who will pursue his mission and the growth of his holy Church and its expansion and outreach as their highest and dearest priority. Whoever knows that he is part of this living structure of the Church and appreciates the prophetic and apostolic foundation on which he is grounded, loves not only the one and main keystone Jesus Christ, but also the true kingdom of God here on earth: His one, holy Christian Church + His thoughts are with the Church by day and night. His prayers, his cares, passion, desire and hope are similar to those of the apostle – directed at the Church and her fulfillment here and forever.

Dear heavenly Father: We want to live in fellowship and communion with you and thus be edified by your gracious presence. Allow us to be living stones in your Church gifted to carry our burdens too. Make us all the more to living organs and limbs of the holy body of your son Jesus Christ. Grant that we will willingly sacrifice ourselves in your service. Permit that we will worship and serve you in priestly attire and fight valiantly for your cause. Make your people to a holy and dedicated communion that lives and serves by your most dear grace. Amen. (O.J. Mehl)

This is a rather free translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Friday after the sixteenth Sunday after the high holiday and festival of the Holy Trinity. It is found on Pg. 332 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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Herrenhuter readings for Friday, the 20th September 2013

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

lilies-of-the-field-mary-gainesI will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily.  (Hos 14:5 NIV)

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.” (Luk 12:27 NIV)

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Löhe on Ephesians 3:18

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

preaching in the KalahariI pray that you may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. (Eph 3:18 NIV)

Enemies of the Church can’t grasp the amazing mystery of the salvation for Jews and gentiles and the truly remarkable expansion of the Christian Church throughout the ages. They don’t join in the praise and glorification of our God for this. They close their hearts against the width and breadth of the love of God that is revealed in the Church for all people – its height and depth too.  Many would prefer a tribal or partisan God, who would just take care of their own kind and sort. Bad enough that they should share some of the crumbs falling of their richly laden tables with those dogs under foot. They despise and shun the universal love and grace of our God – and even give up on his ways of salvation and try it their own way. The apostles were targeted by such enemies of the universal gospel of Jesus Christ and his one, global Church, because they were called witnesses of their Lord to all nations – and not just a certain group or faction. They persecuted the apostles for this missionary vision and outreach, punished them and threw them into prison. They wanted them to quit and so silence the gospel of salvation for all mankind. Yet he did not stop proclaiming and praising highly the width, breadth, depth and height of this astounding grace and mercy of God for all. So that’s why he was imprisoned.  In this situation he addresses this letter to the Ephesians and writes these very words of our meditation. His lips overflowed with prayers for all people, praising and worshipping the triune God and pleading him for grace and mercy for his Church and its mission of proclaiming Christ crucified amongst all people and everywhere to the very ends of the world. The apostle lived the glorious mystery of the Church – even as he was suffering bearing the cross of Christ. He suffered and eventually died for this very mystery and gospel. He, who at first persecuted the Church most harshly and fanatically, became God’s most gifted and effective missionary to the gentiles and among his own people – preaching the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, who came to justify sinners, the lost and dying.

Dear heavenly Father: You have elected and called your Church from all people of this world. You still call, gather, enlighten and sanctify them through your Holy Spirit. Daily you instruct and guide your people through your Holy Word to sanctify your holy name, to let your kingdom come and let your will be done. We thank you for this o Lord Jesus Christ! You are the head of the Church. You have purchased her with your precious blood and have made her your own priced possession that she may live under your gracious care and serve you in eternal righteousness, purity and blessedness. Sanctify your holy Church ever more in your holy truth and unify her in you, just as you are one with the Father. Vitalize that, which is ill and dying. Wake, what is falling asleep. Let her lamps burn bright into the night. Grant that we may keep your holy Word pure and give keen attention to it. Let us remain faithful to you o Lord, so that we may bear each other’s burdens willingly and thus become helpmeets for salvation to each other. Grant in your mercy that our children grow up as your children and that we old ones continue to live in you and according to your will. Permit us too to finally stand with your holy congregation and Church before your throne to serve you in eternity. Amen. (Church book of Mecklenburg-Schwerin)

This is a rather free translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Thursday after the sixteenth Sunday after the high holiday and festival of the Holy Trinity. It is found on Pg. 331 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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Herrenhuter readings for Thursday, the 19th September 2013

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

Prayer3I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. (Psa 116:1 NIV)

Our Lord Jesus Christ says: Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Mat 6:8 NIV)

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Confessional address

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

Job ridiculedThis mornings confessional address on the prescribed text from Job 2,1-10: 

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Löhe on Ephesians 3:17

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

Smiling Family Posing in FieldI pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you, may be rooted and established in love. (Eph 3:17 NIV)

The apostle prays to the Lord to be gracious to the Ephesians and that he may help them to comprehend the divine love that reaches all people and stretches across the globe and is made manifest in the edification and expansion of the Church. He prays further that Christ may dwell in them and that they may be rooted in his inexpressible love and goodness. To reach this stage of edification and sanctification Christians must haven open hearts for Christ and willingly be his temple and holy dwelling place. The Lord must enter in and take over ownership there. To experience this indwelling of Christ you progress to a high level of spirituality and sanctification. Christ must rule in us, so that we truly become spiritually orientated and focused in the true sense. This teaching of church edification and expansion, concerning the width and breadth, the height and depth of Christ’s revealed mercy is not just plain milk for infants, but rather strong stuff for mature Christians. If people don’t understand this, then its most often due to an ignorance concerning the high issues of Church matters and spirituals things. For those however who begin to grasp these ecclesial issues, will start praising the power and glory of him, who works in us far beyond our asking and understanding to make us realize a bit of his most blessed missional deeds working towards the salvation of humanity. All tribes and nations are blessed in Jesus Christ by the building and outreach of his most holy and blessed Church. All eons and eras are full of his honor and glory because he is completing and fulfilling the wonderful creation and expansion of his Church from eternity to eternity. He is edifying his elect from all people and times  with his divine perfection.

Dear heavenly Father! Grant us seeing eyes, that we would recognize the glory of your kingdom and become strong in the inner being by your Holy Spirit. Turn our mind and senses from the vain and passing to rather be focused on your most holy and lasting word. Empower us for all good work and create in us, whatever pleases you. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. (H. Greiner)

All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with fear, His praise forth tell; Come ye before Him and rejoice.

The Lord, ye know, is God indeed; Without our aid He did us make; We are His folk, He doth us feed, And for His sheep He doth us take.

O enter then His gates with praise; Approach with joy His courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless His Name always, For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good; His mercy is for ever sure; His truth at all times firmly stood, And shall from age to age endure.

To Father, Son and Holy Ghost, The God Whom Heaven and earth adore, From men and from the angel host Be praise and glory evermore. (William Kethe 1593)

This is a rather free translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Wednesday after the sixteenth Sunday after the high holiday and festival of the Holy Trinity. It is found on Pg. 330 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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Herrenhuter readings for Wednesday, the 18th September 2013

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

16.-kingfisher-600x900LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. (Isa 33:2 NIV)

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. (1Th 5:8 NIV)

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Baptizatus sum + 17. 9. 1961 +

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

Ventersdorp TaufsteinBaptized into Your Name Most Holy
By: Johann J. Rambach

Baptized into your name most holy, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I claim a place, though weak and lowly, Among your saints, your chosen host. Buried with Christ and dead to sin, Your Spirit now shall live within.

My loving Father, here you take me  to be hence forth your child and heir; My faithful Savior, here you make me The fruit of all your sorrows share; O Holy Ghost, you comfort me When threatening clouds around I see.

O faithful God, you fail me never;  Your promise surely will endure. O cast me not away forever if words and deeds become impure. Have mercy when I come defiled; Forgive, lift up, restore your child.

All that I am and love most dearly, Receive it all, O Lord, from me. Let me confess my faith sincerely, help me your faithful child to be! Let nothing that I am or own Serve any will but yours alone.

Hymn # 224 from Lutheran Worship
Author: Kornelius Heinrich
Tune: O Dass Ich Tausend Zungen Hatte
1st Published in: 1734

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Löhe on Ephesians 3:16

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Wilhelm Weber

missional_churchI pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. (Eph 3:16 NIV)

Now that our salvation is firmly grounded in Jesus Christ and has been shared with us through his holy Word and Sacrament, everything in the Church is now focused on its holy mission of spreading out this word and sacrament throughout the world. To participate in God’s mission the inner being of the Christians is to be motivated and put into sanctified action. This inner being – the life in the Holy Spirit – must be strong and focused. The normal civil life turns more and more to promote the mission of the Church and its edification and outreach. That is what the Apostle is praying for if he asks God for this strengthening of the inner being with the power of the Holy Spirit for the Ephesian Congregation. We might want to say much more about this prayer, but one thing is certain that just as we are poor and minor in the bigger plan of things, this prayer is so wonderful and glorious that we can only hope and pray that all apostles and Saints in heaven and on earth would pray like that for us too and that we’d join them in this prayer too. We, who go on so distracted in our daily trot and are often so lukewarm and tardy in our Christian calling, we are in such desperate need to be introduced into the great mystery of God’s Church expanding over the entire world and initiated into the glorious mission of the triune God as he is gathering his precious elect from the ends of the world into his paradise and eternal kingdom – the one holy Christian Church.

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun  does its successive journeys run;  his kingdom spread from shore to shore,  till moons shall wax and wane no more.

To Jesus endless prayer be made,  and endless praises crown his head; his name like sweet perfume shall rise with every morning sacrifice.

People and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song; and infant voices shall proclaim  their early blessings on his name.

Blessings abound where’er he reigns; all prisoners leap and loose their chains; the weary find eternal rest, and all who suffer want are blest.

Let every creature rise and bring honors peculiar to our King; angels descend with songs again, and earth repeat the loud amen! (Isaac Watts, 1674-1748)

This is a rather free translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Tuesday after the sixteenth Sunday after the high holiday and festival of the Holy Trinity. It is found on Pg. 329 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.

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