7th Sunday after Trinity + Mark 8:1-9 & Romans 6:19-23 + July 15, 2018

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Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

The Collect of the Day collects all the thoughts of the Sunday into one brief prayer. It’s tempting to think that because it’s brief it’s generic. But each prayer summarizes the main thought for each Sunday’s readings and ties them together. This makes the Collects good for more than just Sunday mornings. The Collect is for each day of the week, rooting each day in Sunday’s thought. If you use the Collect each day of the week you’ll find that it, and the readings for Sunday, conforms your prayers to its thought. Consider today’s Collect, the prayer for the seventh Sunday after Trinity. “O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and earth, we humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all hurtful things and give to us those things which be profitable for us.” It sounds generic. It also sounds like something the prosperity preachers could pray. We pray for two things. First, put away from us things that are hurtful. Second, give us things that are good for us. But it’s far from generic. Nor is it a prayer for an easy life free of care. Today’s appointed Gospel and Epistle lessons teach us how God gives us those things which be profitable for us and how He puts away from all hurtful things.

St. Mark writes in his eighth chapter that a great multitude had gone out into the desert to hear Christ teach God’s Word. Not only had they made the trek into the barren wilderness, they had been there, listening attentively to Him for three days. Because of that they now had nothing to eat. If Jesus dismisses them with empty stomachs they will faint on the way home. But Christ is not a stingy God. He tells His disciples, “I have compassion of the multitude because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat.” Christ has compassion on those who hear His word and continue with Him in faith. He takes seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He gives thanks for the food, teaching the multitude that all our food is a gift from our heavenly Father, no matter how we get it. He has the disciples distribute the bread and fish. On that day, seven loaves of bread and a few small fish feed a very great multitude. It satisfied each person, too. Mark writes, “So they ate and were filled, and they too up seven large baskets of leftover fragments.” It is only then, after he has recorded this miracle that St. Mark defines what he means by a very great multitude. “Those who had eaten were about four thousand.”

The miracle shows us precisely what we said of God in today’s Collect. His “never-failing providence ordereth all things in heaven and earth.” Christ shows us that He will care for us in all our bodily needs. By feeding four thousand with seven loaves and two small fish Christ shows that He has compassion on those who hear His Word and continue with Him in faith. We see clearly that He gives us those things which be profitable for us. For as He feeds this multitude in the wilderness, so He promises daily bread to all mankind, that is, all that our bodies need, not just food. But He did not feed the multitude immediately. In fact, He first let them suffer hunger and lack by leading them into the wilderness. This shows us that the Lord often allows trials and misfortunes to come upon those who attentively hear His Word and learn it. It is human nature to balk at this situation and say, “Christ did not give them good things immediately because He let them hunger! He led them into a hurtful situation!” The same is true in you and me. Our flesh desires to be well-fed and comfortable at all times. That’s what we assume is profitable for us. The truth is, though, that when our bellies are full and we are comfortable, we are less likely to attend to God’s word and preaching. When God sends lack, when He delays our daily bread of food, health, or companionship, that is still profitable for us because in that lack He teaches us that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is how Paul could write to the Philippians (4:12-13): “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Whatever God sends us as far as daily bread goes is profitable to us and for our good.

In this Sunday’s appointed Epistle lesson, Paul teaches that those believe the Gospel and have been justified by faith are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to God. Being enslaved to sin is hurtful to us because “the end of those things is death.” Our sins merit us death and condemnation. But again, we pray that God would “put away from us all hurtful things and give to us those things which be profitable for us.” Our sins are not profitable for us. They earn us death and Hell. But God has had compassion on sinners and sent His only-begotten Son to bear our sins in His own body and die upon the cross to atone for them. The gospel promises that all who believe in Christ and look to Him for mercy shall find it and be declared righteous by the faith that believes that promise. Through faith in Christ, God puts away from us the harmful punishment we justly deserve. He transfers us from the kingdom of the devil and brings us into the kingdom of His Son.

Since we belong to the kingdom of Christ, we are no longer slaves of sin but slaves of God. Since Christ daily absolves all our sins by faith, we should now strive to put away those sins from us each day. If we willfully remain in our sins then we are enslaving ourselves to sin once again. And if we are enslaved to sin, the fruit of those works is death. We are daily tempted to go back to the servitude of sin, but Christ promises to aid us in temptation. Temptation is one of the things hurtful to us which we pray God will put away from us. The Holy Spirit promises in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” He puts away temptation by giving us His Word so that, in the moment of temptation, we should meditate upon it and use it as our defense and shield. As He puts away temptation from us when we flee to the refuge of His promises, He gives us holiness, which is profitable to us. Our holiness is not profitable for our salvation. Our salvation is through faith alone and not works of the Law, even works of righteousness done in faith. But the holiness that God gives us is profitable to us in that it is a sign to us that we are slaves of God and not slaves of sin. So we pray that God would put away from us our sins, which He does through faith in Christ’s merits. We pray that God would put away from us temptation, which He does by giving us the Word as our defense.

When we pray today, and each day this week, that the God would “put away from us all hurtful things and give to us those things which be profitable for us,” we aren’t praying that God would give us easy and comfortable lives. Scripture teaches us that that isn’t always what is profitable for us and in some cases ease and comfort can be hurtful to our soul’s salvation, leading us into complacency and sin. Anything that can harm our salvation we pray that He take that away. In compassion, He takes away your sins when you repent of them and confess them as He has promised to do. He takes away temptation by fighting in you through His Word. And He gives you what is profitable to you: faith which receives the forgiveness of all your sins and then brings forth works of holiness that fight sin. That is what is truly profitable to you. He also promises you daily bread. But even should He withhold it for a time, remember that even in that He is giving you what is profitable for you according to His good and gracious will. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. 

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