11th Sunday of Trinity August 9, 2026
1 Samuel 5:1-8
Scripture Readings
Acts 17:16-34
Luke 4:16-30
Hymns
66, 234, 126, 46
Hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) (TLH) unless otherwise noted
Editor’s Note: Adapted from a sermon series by Pastor Egbert Schaller; CLC Journal of Theology
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17
Prayer of the Day: Almighty and everlasting God, who does not desire the death of a sinner, but would have all people repent and live, hear our prayer for the heathen, turn them from their idols to You, the living and true God, and Your only Son Jesus Christ whom You have sent; and gather them into Your holy Church, to the glory of Your name; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ Jesus, Is there any place God would not be willing to go to share His glory? Christians have been known to do outreach in some rather strange places. Our mission work in India started with a CLC farmer from South Dakota who was hospitalized in India and was visited by a local man looking for church help. One pastor played a pick-up basketball game at a local park and invited the other players to church. I’ve even heard of someone being invited to church the next day after meeting at a bar. These are all places where Christians have shared the glory of God by telling others of Jesus.
Our text for today gives us an example of God sharing His glory. But WHERE He shares it seems even stranger than over a beer at the neighborhood bar. As we consider WHERE God shares His glory, think about how amazing it is that He has shared it with you! Consider today how the ark of God goes visiting. We hear of this in 1 Samuel, chapter 5, verses 1 through 8:
When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there.
So far the Word of God.
First, let’s talk a little bit about the ark of the covenant. When God gave the command to Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, He did it with a specific purpose in mind. Listen to what is ON it and what is IN it. The LORD said to Moses, “You shall put the mercy seat ON top of the ark, and IN the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 25:21-22) IN the Ark would be the Law which God had given and which the Children of Israel had vowed to obey. IN the ark were the 10 Commandments. But ON the Ark would be the mercy seat, where the merciful, gracious, and long-suffering God would meet with His people. ON the Ark was the Gospel as God announced mercy to His repentant people for breaking the commandments IN the ark.
But the people came to despise the true purpose of the Ark of the Covenant and began to look on it as a good luck charm. As they headed into battle with the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4, we hear how the priests carried this ark into battle believing that the Ark itself would give them the victory. Thus, they showed their disdain for the living God and contempt for His covenant with them. God granted the victory to the heathen Philistines, and the Ark was captured.
It is quite interesting to see where the ark of God goes when it goes visiting. We read in our text that the Philistines took the ark of God into the temple of their god Dagon. As Philistine culture was built around fishing in the Mediterranean Sea, Dagon was their god which symbolized the fruitfulness of the sea. The statue had the head and hands of a human, but the torso and tail of a fish. The Philistines brought the ark of God to Dagon’s temple because they viewed their victory over Israel as a victory over Israel’s God too.
Why would God allow this? After all, in 2 Samuel, when the ark is being moved by King David, a man named Uzzah puts out his hand to take hold of the ark, and he is struck dead on the spot. Yet here the heathen hands of the Philistines do whatever they want with the ark and put it into the temple of their false god. No bolt of lightning from heaven, no one dropped dead on the spot, and the earth didn’t swallow anyone up. Why doesn’t God protect His ark?
God allows His ark to go visiting to present these heathen people with an amazing opportunity. They are about to have a clear demonstration that He alone is God, and that an idol is nothing!
After the ark’s first night in the temple of Dagon, the people of Ashdod entered the temple to find the statue of their false god flat on its face before the Ark of the Covenant. It was as though Dagon was worshiping the God of the ark. The people thought it might just be a coincidence and set their statue upright once again. After the ark’s second night in the temple of Dagon, they found the statue of Dagon lying before the ark headless and hand-less. The head and the hands of the statue were not merely broken off, but literally in the Hebrew - CUT OFF - as though by an executioner’s sword! In those days, decapitation and cut-off hands were a sign of total defeat - just as the Philistines would later do to King Saul after they defeated him.
The message God was sending these people was clear. It is the very thing that Paul told the Corinthians, “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.” (1 Corinthians 8:4b) Headless Dagon could do no thinking and hand-less Dagon could not help them. Dagon could not remove one sin. Dagon could not rescue them from death and hell. These are things that only the living God could do. Dagon was nothing before the ark of the living God.
How did the people react to this amazing display of the LORD? Did they try to find out more about the God of Israel? Sadly, no. Though the glory of God is in their midst and on full display, the Philistines say, “We must get rid of it!”
The LORD God is teaching us some valuable lessons here as well, isn’t He? First, we see the lengths the LORD is willing to go to share His glory. The Bible says that God our Savior, “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) The gods of this world—whether they be Allah, Buddha, the many gods of Hinduism, the saints prayed to by the Catholics, or the materialism and hedonism of modern society—are nothing. Before the true, living God of Scripture, they all fall broken. They cannot remove a sin, nor do they promise to. They cannot help in time of need. None of them can overcome your sin. They cannot get you to heaven. They all fall and break apart before the God of Scripture.
But we also learn something about the LORD with us, don’t we? We think it strange that God would allow His ark to be placed in an idol’s temple. Yet isn’t that the very thing He has done with us? Martin Luther refers to the human heart as an idol temple. That is, our hearts are always propping up new gods—things we fear, and love, and trust in more than God. Things we think will finally bring us joy and peace in our lives.
What are some of those things in your heart? Do you feel that if only you had that one thing, then you’d be happy? If only you had more money? More alcohol? More family time? More fun? More entertainment? More sensual pleasure? More recognition? The list could go on and on, couldn’t it? Now, these things may not be sinful in and of themselves, but our hearts are constantly tempted to set up a new Dagon in the temple of our hearts, thinking that THIS or THAT would make life better, fuller, more joyous for us.
Yet, just as the Son of God became man and dwelt among us in this sinful and idolatrous world, He has also come into your heart. He rules as King, cutting off the false gods of your heart. Through His Word, He brings you true joy and peace. He comes saying: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Though we see death in our bodies every day, Jesus tells you, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10b) Though we see war within us and around us, Jesus comes into the temple of your heart saying, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) And most gloriously, our crucified Lord says, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” (Matthew 9:2) While we don’t have the ark dwelling among us anymore, rejoice that you do have the mercy seat of God as Jesus Himself dwells among you with His Word and His Sacraments.
A Christian father was faced with a dilemma about his teenage son. His son had completed catechism class, but did not want to be confirmed or continue going to church. “Fine,” the father said, “you have heard about Jesus and His love for you. Go and see if you can find any love like the love He has had for you!”
What else in this world can compare to Jesus? Jesus comes into our hearts and all other idols fall broken before Him. He enters to rule as King and Lord of all. He comes showing that He is greater than sin as He removes it by His death. He shows that He is greater than death as He rises from it. So let us rejoice to see just where the LORD would go to make His glory known - among the heathen and in our own hearts. May He help us to share His glory everywhere we go. Amen.
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