Proper 10
Announcements
Voter’s Meeting July 13th
Immediately following the service on July 13th the Building Committee will give a report based on the initial survey results. IMPORTANT: The collection of your opinions is going to continue. If you have not yet had a chance to give your view on a potential building project, you will still get that chance. The question of whether or not there will be a building project at all is also still yet to be voted on. The purpose of the Building Committee is to put together a building proposal to then be voted on. Also on the agenda: approving JonMarc Johnson as the new Building and Grounds Councilman.
Isaiah Study: Chapter 12
A Song of Salvation
12 In that day you will say: I will give thanks to you, Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away, and you comfort me.2 Surely God is my salvation. I will trust him and will not be afraid, because Yah, the Lord,f is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.3 Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.4 In that day you will say:Give thanks to the Lord! Proclaim his name.Declare among the peoples what he has done.Proclaim that his name is exalted!5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done amazing things!Let this be known in all the earth!6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, daughter of Zion,for the Holy One of Israel is great among you!
Pastor’s Comment
In this short section of Isaiah, God depicts quite clearly the Gospel: That though our sins had angered God, that anger was turned away. God does not destroy us in wrath. Rather, Christ was substituted for us and so God comforts us. Our true sacrifice in the New Testament is not animals but the response of joy and gratitude that we have in the Gospel. Part of our thank offering is the public declaration of what God has done for us. This is the summary of the joy we have as Christians, a joy that we drink in and seek to share with the world by proclaiming the saving name of Jesus Christ!
Luther’s Comment
3. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. After the word of the Gospel has been preached and the voice of rejoicing has sounded forth, there follows the discernment of spirits and the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit of which 1 Cor. 12:4 speaks. Christ says in John 7:38: “He who believes in Me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Waters denote the Holy Spirit, as in John 4:10. In the noonday heat spring water and running water are the most refreshing. So it is in the scorching heat of sin. The comfort of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God is then most sweet. The wells of salvation are the Gospel, sermons about Christ in various places, or even the preachers of the Gospel. In that day, when the waters will have flowed out to many because the Gospel has already been preached, there will follow also in others the praise, that is, the sacrifice which you have.