365. Proper 17 (Series A)

As I mentioned in the previous post, the significance of the number in the title above isn't what you'd think, thanks to "Hymn 0." Anyway, this Sunday in the LSB 3-year series is sometime between Aug. 28 and Sept. 3. Lessons are Jeremiah 15:15-21, Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-28. It was a tough call, but I decided to focus on the Gospel this time. The tune is GORDON by Henry Smart (†1879), one of two tunes SBH provides for the hymn "Lord, in thy Name thy servants plead."

"Take up your cross and follow Me,"
Christ to His pupils said,
When to the way of Calvary
He'd turned their eyes ahead.

"If anyone would follow Me,
He must himself deny.
Who dies for me, new life will see;
Who'd save his life will die.

"What good is it to gain the world
And lose one's very soul?
For whose account will not be told
When closes heaven's scroll?"

Dear Jesus, fix our eyes upon
Your toilsome, saving work;
And when our bitter lot is drawn,
Give heart no cross to shirk.

Give heart to serve in humble state,
Built on our suffering Rock;
Lest we of glory preen and prate,
Our pride a stumbling block.

Give heart to suffer harsh reproof,
To cast the foe behind;
From human things to stand aloof
And bear God's things in mind.

Give heart, wheree'er Your word may lead
To go, uncowed by death,
Since You so suffered for our need
That we shall live through faith.