Sermon for Trinity 8, 2013

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Watch Out for False Prophets

Matthew 7:15-23

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Again, I give thanks for you who have gathered today to encourage one another in the faith, whether there be few of you or many.

Consider for just a few moments the Gospel for the eighth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 7:15-23, printed on the insert for today.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

How fitting that you have preferred to gather today as Christians without any pastor present, rather than to listen to some radio or television preacher, rather than to go to one of the churches down the road, where you can expect false doctrine to be taught.  That’s part of listening to Jesus, who says in the Gospel, “Beware of false prophets.”

Christ has given us a responsibility, a responsibility to judge the one—anyone! —who claims to bring God’s Word to you.  And you are to judge him, not by how he looks or by his sense of humor or his demeanor or his eloquence, but by the doctrine—the teaching—that he brings to you and preaches to you.  For, Jesus says, there will be many false prophets in the last days and they will deceive many.  So “Beware!” Jesus says.

Beware, because the nature of a false prophet is to appear to be a true prophet.  The nature of a false prophet is to come dressed, not like a dangerous wolf, but like a harmless sheep.  By their looks you will not know them.  By the name “Christian” or even “Lutheran” you will not know them.  By their fruits you will know them.

Their “fruits” is not a reference to how nice they are or how many outwardly good deeds they do.  Their fruits are the teachings they bring forth.  And if you are to judge them by their teachings, then the only way you can possibly carry out this commandment of Jesus is to know God’s Word for yourself, to hear it, to study it, to wrestle with it, and to then compare it, in context, with a preacher’s preaching.

What?  You haven’t read the whole Bible?  Well, what’s stopping you?  You don’t understand everything the Bible says?  Neither do I, as a sinful human being.  But what are you doing about it?  You don’t understand everything the Bible says?  That is perfectly understandable.  What is not understandable is that any Christian should then conclude, “Since I don’t understand everything the Bible says, I will be content with whatever I do know, right now, and I will not bother learning anything beyond that.”

Let that not be your response to Jesus’ words in the Gospel.  He cares for you too much to let the wolf deceive you.  He loves you too much to let you follow after a lie.  In His grace, He has given you the truth.  His Word is truth!  And you’re NOT on your own to figure it out.  He gives His Holy Spirit with that Word and in that Word to teach you and to build you up in the truth.

All of Holy Scripture is true, and anything that disagrees with Holy Scripture is false.  The center of the truth is this, that all have sinned against God and earned for themselves His wrath and punishment, but that Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, was obedient unto death, even the death of a cross, that He suffered for all sins and was raised from the dead to be our Savior, to rescue sinners from sin, from death and from the devil’s grip, so that whoever repents and flees to Him in faith receives forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.  All of Holy Scripture teaches that truth, points to that truth, revolves around that truth, which is why the devil seeks to poison the well of Holy Scripture, changing it here, modifying it there, undermining its teaching at every possible place through the teachings of false prophets who bear the name “Christian” or even “Lutheran,” but who add to, subtract from, or change some point of Christ’s doctrine.

“But they talk about Jesus!  Some do miracles!  They all quote from the Bible!” So what? As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

As Jesus says, many who call Him “Lord” and who do miracles in His name will be disowned by Him on the last day and shut out of His kingdom forever.  What makes someone a true prophet is not calling himself a Christian.  It’s continuing in Jesus’ Word—all of it.

You have that Word.  It has been proclaimed to you and you have confessed it.  You have confessed it again this morning in the words of the Small Catechism.  Use the Catechism!  Use it to keep yourself grounded in the truth so that you know how to recognize error and those who would preach falsehood to you.

Next week, if the Lord is willing, I will see all of you face to face and continue to bring God’s Word to you.  And as I do, I expect you to trust me as your pastor, but not blindly.  Test my words, too, against the Scriptures and against the Lutheran confession of faith that we have all confessed to be true. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Amen.

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Sermon for Trinity 7, 2013

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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He Who Provides for the Soul Will Also Provide for the Body

Mark 8:1-9

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear family in Christ:

I have just a short message for you today from God’s Word, some thoughts from the Gospel for today, the Feeding of the Four Thousand, Mark 8:1-9. (You may wish to follow along on the insert with today’s Propers printed on it.)

In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.” Then His disciples answered Him, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away. (NKJV)

The Feeding of the Four Thousand has a lot in common with the Feeding of the Five Thousand. They both teach us to trust in Jesus, who is compassionate and kind to all who come to Him.

You might say, they teach the same lesson, but from opposite directions.  In the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the people were flocking to Jesus for physical healing and outward signs, for help with their bodily needs.  And Jesus did help them.  He gave them physical bread so that they might recognize Him as the living Bread from heaven.  He taught them this from the lesser to the greater: If they could trust Him to take care of their lesser needs, their bodily, temporary needs, then they could certainly trust Him when it came to their greater needs, their spiritual and eternal needs.  They should look to Him, not only for bread that will perish, but for righteousness that will not perish, for the forgiveness of sins, for words of everlasting life.

The Feeding of the Four Thousand is a lesson from the greater to the lesser.  The crowds had already been hanging on the words of Jesus for three days.  They had left house and home and career for days, just to hear Him and be with Him.  First, He gives them His Word, and with it, faith, and with faith, eternal life.  Then, to these four thousand who have left house and home to follow Him, to these who believe in Him for help with their spiritual, eternal needs, He shows special compassion in providing for their bodily, momentary needs, and He does it richly and abundantly.

That’s like what Paul said to the Romans in chapter 8: What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  In other words, if God’s mercy is so great that He looked down at the world of sinners and sacrificed His beloved Son on the cross for them all—for us all, if He loved us so much that He sent His Gospel to us and called us out of darkness and made us His children through faith in Christ Jesus, do you really think He doesn’t care if you have enough to eat and to drink?  Do you think His mercy is too small to cover your bodily needs?  Of course not.

No, we see in our Gospel the kindness and compassion of Jesus and His eagerness to provide for soul and body.  And so we learn here to trust in Jesus to provide.  He has already provided atonement for all sins, to redeem both our soul and our body from hell.  He has already provided His Spirit in the Gospel to call you to faith in Him, to dwell among you and to work among you through Word and Sacrament.

If He has already provided all this for our eternal welfare, then trust in Him also to provide for all your earthly needs.  If you don’t see how He will provide, well, you don’t have to see.  The disciples didn’t see how Jesus could possibly feed four thousand people in the middle of the desert.  That didn’t stop Jesus from providing.  Reason has to see.  Reason has to know and understand and have it all laid out before your eyes.  But faith says, even though I can’t see right now, even though it seems impossible right now, God has promised, and that is that.

He has already provided for us here at Emmanuel—for our families and for our church, for our souls and for our bodies.  He has done it in ways that no one could have imagined even a year ago.  And He will do it. Because God is faithful, and His mercies are new every morning.

If God has taken it upon Himself to worry about our souls and our bodies, then we are left to worry about neither.  Instead, we are left to thank God, with heart and hands and voices.  We are left to rejoice in God’s compassion and in God’s forgiveness.  We are left, as Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Let your concern be for God’s Word, for Christ’s righteousness, and for eternal life as God’s gift to you in Christ Jesus.  Let your concern be for serving your neighbor and providing for his needs, since you know that the same God who loved you enough to give His Son for you, will also graciously give you all things, out of pure fatherly goodness. Peace be with you.  Amen.

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A better righteousness than that

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 6

Exodus 20:1-17  +  Romans 6:3-11  +  Matthew 5:20-26

We just sang Martin Luther’s great hymn on the 10 Commandments.  It fits perfectly with our Scripture readings today, not only with the Old Testament reading from Exodus where the Ten Commandments were originally pronounced from Mt. Sinai, but also with the Gospel.  The commandments teach us what righteousness looks like, what God demands, what men are required to do.  And as you noticed, each stanza of that hymn goes beyond mere superficial obedience.

That’s what Jesus does in the Gospel.  He uses the example here of the Fifth Commandment.  “You shall not murder.”  Well, of course not!  But not murdering does not make you righteous.  The commandments require a better righteousness than that.

Jesus says in the Gospel that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.  The scribes and Pharisees were not murderers; they were not killers.  For that matter, they were not rebellious against their parents, or adulterers or thieves, either. They were “good people,” honest, hard-working citizens, and even more religious than the average Jew.  But listen again to what Jesus says.  Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.  It takes a better righteousness than that.

Jesus goes on to explain.  Yes, murderers will be subject to the judgment.  And that includes those who murder little children inside the womb.  But who else will be subject to the judgment?  Also the one who is angry with his brother for no divinely approved reason.  As the Apostle John writes, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.”  And who would have guessed that calling your brother a fool or an idiot or a dummy would put you in danger of hell fire?  And yet, it does, says Jesus.

What’s true of the Fifth Commandment is true of all of them.  Honoring father and mother is not just obeying with the hands, but respecting with the heart.  Not committing adultery also means not lusting after anyone or living a life that is less than chaste and honorable.  All the commandments are to be kept with the hands, but also with the heart and with the tongue.  And they are all broken, not only with the hands, but also with the heart and with the tongue.  True righteousness is outward as well as inward.  True righteousness is perfect obedience to the Commandments.

Notice, too, that Jesus emphasizes the commandments that have to do with your neighbor.  You can’t be righteous toward God while being unrighteous toward your neighbor.  If you think you can present an offering to God at His altar or in the offering plate while knowingly sinning against your neighbor, you’re wrong.  If you think you can serve God without making things right with your neighbor, whom you have injured, you’re wrong.  Your offering, your sacrifice to God doesn’t make up for your sins against your neighbor.  God requires a better righteousness than that.

In short, even as modern so-called “Christian” churches back away from God’s commandments and try to legitimize immorality in our world and in our country, Jesus pulls out God’s Commandments and says, here is righteousness! This is what it looks like, and it doesn’t change.  At the same time, those who want to boast about their own righteousness or rely on their own righteousness before God have the rug pulled out from under them by Jesus, too.  He holds up the Commandments as the true mirror that they are, the mirror that reveals one inescapable lesson to everyone:  You are not righteous.  God requires a better righteousness than anything you can provide.

Which is why each stanza of Luther’s hymn on the 10 Commandments ends with the plea, “Have mercy, Lord!”  As the stanza says, “God gave these laws to show therein, O child of man, your life of sin, And help you rightly to perceive How unto God you should live. Have mercy, Lord!”  As we stand before God, the Judge, in His courtroom and His commandments accuse us, and the Judge points to the commandments and says, “These are the charges against you. How do you plead?”  There is only right answer.  “Guilty.”  The Law was given to silence every mouth before God, so that everyone has to concede, “Yes, that is what I was supposed to do.  That is what I should have done, what I should do, and how I should be.  But I have failed.  Have mercy, Lord!”

You must have righteousness to stand before God uncondemned.  The commandments make it plain to every honest person: Righteousness is required, but it can’t come from you.  A better righteousness than that is required.  It has to come from somewhere perfect, from somewhere else.   That “somewhere else” is the theme of the Gospel.

Where it comes from is the cross of Christ.  Where it comes to you from is the altar that gives you His body and blood.  During the distribution today, you will sing, “Jesus, Your blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress; mid flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head.”  You will also sing, “Your works, not mine, O Christ, speak gladness to this heart. They tell me all is done; They bid my fear depart. To whom but You, who can alone For sin atone, Lord, shall I flee?”  Or as the final stanza of Luther’s hymn puts it, “Our works cannot salvation gain; They merit only endless pain. Forgive us, Lord! To Christ we fly, Our Mediator on high. Have mercy, Lord!”  That is where the Lord does have mercy—where Christ is.  Christian righteousness does not come from keeping the commandments.  Christian righteousness comes by faith in Christ.

When you repent of your law-breaking, when you see that you have done wrong and deserved God’s wrath and look for somewhere to flee, the Gospel calls out, “Flee to Christ!”  Faith latches onto God’s promise, given to us in Holy Baptism, that all of you who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have put on Christ.  Now there is a better righteousness that covers sin.  There is a life of perfect obedience.  In a human court, you can’t claim someone else’s obedience as your own; you have to have a clean record.  But the Gospel reveals the grace of God that not only allows us to claim Christ’s righteousness as our own, but invites us to do it.  In a human court, no judge can knowingly sentence an innocent man to jail for your disobedience; you have to pay for your own crimes.  But the Gospel says that Christ has paid the price for all and earned forgiveness for all, so that no one who trusts in Him will suffer condemnation.

As for the commandments, you must still do them.  They are God’s will for how we are to love Him and love our neighbor.  The secret is, that only the one who is first righteous by faith in Christ can even begin to keep the commandments.  By faith, we are free from the law’s condemnation. By faith, we are free from our obligation to come up with a righteousness that works before God, because we have received the righteousness of Christ as a free gift.  But we are not free from obeying the law.  We are not free to serve sin again as slaves.

We have been cleansed, forgiven, washed and sanctified by the blood of Christ.  We are finally set free to keep the commandments, not for salvation’s sake, but for God’s sake; not under compulsion, but out of reverence and thanksgiving to God; not to help ourselves, but to help our neighbor; not for the purpose of receiving praise from God or mercy from God, but because we have received God’s mercy.

So now, we return to the Commandments as a guide, not to learn how to enter the kingdom of heaven, but to learn how children of heaven are to behave in this world, how children of heaven are to think and speak and act toward our neighbor.  Jesus commands you to be righteous people, and He teaches you in His commandments what righteousness looks like.  It looks like fearing, loving and trusting in God above all things, honoring His name and not misusing it, honoring His Word and the preaching of it and gladly hearing it and learning it.  It looks like honoring parents and others in authority.  It looks like kind words and thoughts toward your neighbor, and hands that are ready, never to hurt, but always to help him in every bodily need.  It looks like Christians living chaste and decent lives, honoring the marriage bed as defined by God, spouses loving and honoring each other.  It looks like Christians respecting their neighbor’s property and even helping him to improve it.  It looks like Christians preserving their neighbor’s reputation, even at the expense of their own.  It looks like Christians being glad for their neighbor’s prosperity, not jealous or covetous of his house or his things.

Only Christians can begin to live a righteous life like that, because only Christians—only believers in Christ are being renewed daily by the Holy Spirit in our New Man.  Only Christians have our conscience cleansed before God by the blood of Christ, so that we are covered before God in the righteousness of Christ.  There is no better righteousness than that.  Amen.

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Propers for Trinity 10

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

INTROIT               Ps. 55:16a,17b,18a,19a,22a; Ps. 55:1

(Antiphon) As for me, I will call upon God, And He shall hear my voice.
He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old.
Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you;

Give ear to my prayer, O God, And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT

O God, You manifest Your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity. Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Your grace that we, running the way of Your commandments, may obtain Your gracious promises and be made partakers of Your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

OLD TESTAMENT READING          Jeremiah 7:1-11

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

GRADUAL            Ps. 17:8,2

Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,
Let my vindication come from Your presence; Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright.

EPISTLE READING             1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
 

VERSE   Ps. 88:1

Alleluia. Alleluia.
O LORD, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You. Alleluia.

HOLY GOSPEL    Luke 19:41-48

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, 48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

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Devotion for the Lord’s Day

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

DEVOTION FOR THE LORD’S DAY

when unable to attend the Divine Service

Before beginning the Devotion, the head of the house should take note of the Day in the Church Year so that the appropriate Lessons may be used.

A Hymn may be sung.

The sign of the holy cross + may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism, saying:
I call upon Your name, O Lord God—Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the morning:
I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long.

In the evening:
O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips, when I remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the watches of the night; for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. I will lie down in peace and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.

THE EPISTLE

THE HOLY GOSPEL

THE APOSTLES’ CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
a holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.  Amen.

MEDITATION

A portion of Luther’s Small or Large Catechism, or a sermon by Martin Luther may be read, or the pastor’s sermon for the day may be heard or read.

PRAYERS

Specific prayers may be said, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

In the morning, Luther’s Morning Prayer may be said:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that you would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.  Amen.

In the evening, Luther’s Evening Prayer may be said:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night.  For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things.  Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.  Amen.

A Hymn may be sung.

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