Preparing for Worship - August 15, 2021

These notes follow the regular Scripture readings for this Sunday. (Some churches may use readings about Mary, the mother of Jesus; but this study does not include those.)

There are two choices for the Old Testament lesson. The first is Proverbs 9:1-10, where Wisdom is pictured as a woman who provides a banquet and invites “simple” people to come and eat the food provided - insight, instruction, correction when one is doing wrong, and knowledge of the “Holy One,” of God Himself. This “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

The alternate Old Testament reading is from Joshua 24:1-2a,14-18. Joshua calls God’s people together and tells them also to “fear the Lord and serve Him alone, in sincerity and faithfulness.” The people affirm that they will follow the Lord, for He rescued them from slavery in Egypt and has cared for them, ever since. “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord,” they say. Note the emphasis upon this in what Jesus asks the disciples, and what Peter answers, in our Gospel lesson, too.

The Psalm is Psalm 34:12-22, a continuation from last week’s reading, also from Psalm 34. David, the author, assures us that though we have “afflictions” and may be “broken-hearted” and “crushed” by our sins and other troubles, “the Lord redeems the life of His servants… and none who trust Him and take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

The Epistle is again from Ephesians, Chapter 5, verses 6-21, where Paul continues to remind us to live in the “light” of our new life in Jesus our Savior. The Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God will help us to “discern what is pleasing to the Lord” and to “expose” what is dangerous and evil in others and even in us, when we need to be “awakened” and receive the Lord’s forgiveness. We walk as ”wise” people, as we stay in Christ and His Word.

The Gospel reading is the 3rd reading in a row from John 6, verses 51-69. Jesus calls upon people to keep on “feeding” on Him in the spiritual sense of believing that Jesus is “the Holy One of God” and trusting that in Him, we have “the Words of eternal life,” even if some things are hard to understand. (The Lord’s Supper had not yet been given when these words were spoken; so this passage does not focus on that. It does prepare the way, though, for the miracle of the receiving of Christ Himself, not just a “spiritual eating," in the unique gift of Holy Communion, given later on, the night before Jesus’ death, and still given as a great blessings for us “prepared” believers.)