SEASONS OF THE CHURCH YEAR

 

17th SUNDAY after TRINITY 2025 Oct 12

 

The Church Year is divided into Festivals beginning with Christmas, which includes  4 Sundays in Advent and Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

This is followed by Epiphany Season which begins with the Epiphany of Our Lord and ends 9 Sundays later with the Transfiguration of Our Lord. 

The Time of Easter follows beginning with Lent, followed by Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday and concludes with Good Friday.  Easter Season begins with the Resurrection of Our Lord and includes the Ascension of Our Lord  and ends with Pentecost.  

The first Pentecost took place on the 50th day after Easter Sunday when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, enabling them to testify boldly to spread the Good News of the Gospel. 

The Time of the Church is the Season after Pentecost, beginning with The Holy Trinity, the First Sunday after Trinity through the Twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity ending with the Sunday of Fulfillment, the Last Sunday after Trinity.

​

This week we mark the 17th SUNDAY after Trinity​

​

Luke 17:11-19 NIV

Jesus Heals Ten Men With Leprosy

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 

12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 

13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 

16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 

18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 

19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

​

REFLECTION:

“What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?”

We sing these words from Psalm 116 in church when we return thanks to God with our gifts and tithes. The psalm calls it “a sacrifice of thanksgiving,” but what does this mean? It’s impossible to thank God for all his benefits. Nonetheless, as Martin Luther indicates in his explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, we offer up thanksgiving, praise, service and obedience. These things are but a tiny token of thanks for the benefits the Lord sacrificed his Son to give to us. Here are three benefits that Psalm 116 mentions:

1. His cup. In the Garden Jesus said: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). It was the Father’s will that Jesus drink of the cup of death. He spilled out His blood on the cross. By way of the Sacrament of the Altar his blood is given into your mouth to drink for the forgiveness of your sins. A cup of salvation, indeed! (See Psalm 116.) It’s wonderfully impossible to give thanks to the Lord for this eternal benefit. But we thank, praise, serve and obey Jesus because his salvation flows over the brim into our empty cup.

2. His name. Psalm 116 urges us to “call on the name of the Lord.” That isn’t difficult to do when His name has been stamped on your forehead in Holy Baptism: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Wherever His name is, there He is. Now wherever you go, whatever you do, not only is His name upon you, but He is with you. Call upon His name, and He is right there to answer your prayer and to listen to your complaint. He is nearer than near to give you comfort and deliver peace. It’s wonderfully impossible to give thanks to the Lord for this temporal benefit. But we thank, praise, serve and obey Jesus because He has given us his holy name.

3. His people. When we come to the Lord’s house we are “in the presence of all his people…” (Psalm 116:18). There is no such thing as solo Christianity. God always puts us together with His people. In the Old Testament, He took for Himself a people when he called Israel out of Egypt and led them into the Promised Land. Jesus called together a group of twelve individuals to learn together, lean on one another and change the world with the Word of God — and then He sent them out to bring more people into the story. The benefits of being in the presence of God’s people today includes “mutual conversation and consolation.” God’s people speak the truth in love, lend helping hands, encourage each other in the faith and pray for any and every need that arises. It’s wonderfully impossible to give thanks to the Lord for this incarnational benefit. But we thank, praise, serve and obey Jesus because he has gifted us with his people.

“What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?”

It’s wonderfully impossible to thank the Lord fully and completely for all his benefits. But by God’s grace, we thank, praise, serve and obey him. What a wonderful way to celebrate Thanksgiving every day.

• November 20, 2018  Lutheran Witness / Thanksgiving, Tom Eggebrecht

​​

​

HYMN:​

​

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

​

1 Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.

​

2 All the world is God's own field,
fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

​

3 For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take the harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

​

4 Even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

​

​Author: Henry Alford

​

Hear the Sermon on YouTube

(posted shortly after the Service but not live streamed)

youtube.com/@oslcchatham6321

​

​

​​