Good Evening, Lord!
Words of Comfort
The almighty and merciful God bless us and keep us this
night and evermore. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
O God, let the sighing of the prisoner come before you, and
mercifully grant that we may be delivered by your almighty power from all bonds
and chains of sin whether in our bodies or in our souls, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.[1]
Catechism Reflections - The Fourth Commandment
Honor your father and your mother.
What does this mean? We should fear and love
God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but
honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.
We have hit a turning point in the Commandments. The
first three commands deal with our relationship with God, and they are called
the First Table of the Law. The next seven commandments, the Second Table of
the Law, deal with our relationships with our neighbors. Both tables teach us
how to love the subject of the laws, and all the commandments flow from the
First Commandment in which we are to have no other gods.
The Fourth Commandment deals with our very first earthly
relationship – the one we have with our parents. The relationship we have with
our moms and dads can be blessed and beautiful. They can also be difficult and
painful. Life is always complicated when sinners deal with one another. While
this commandment deals specifically with the child to parent relationship,
there are other parts of the Scriptures that speak of the responsibility of
parents to children – one of the most important of which is to raise the child
in the true faith.
We are taught here to not despise our parents. For the
most part, we modern English speakers use the word despise as a synonym for
hate. So we might say that we are not to hate our parents. This word has an
older meaning, however, that is important in our relationship with our parents.
In that older sense of despise one would not necessarily hate one’s parents,
but give them no value, it is a position of total ingratitude and apathy toward
them. You couldn’t care less.
As we consider why God would want us to honor our
parents, one thing to remember is that he (that is, God) is the giver of all
life. When we believe that he created us, we also recognized that he used a
particular man and a specific woman for that task. It isn’t just that your
parents gave you life. God gave you life through your parents. He did this
because even before you were born he loved you. Even before you were born his
desire was for you to know his love and grace through Jesus so that you could
live with him forever.
Questions for Meditation
What does this reading teach you?
What does this reading lead you to be thankful for?
What behavior, thought, or attitude does this reading
challenge? What sin does it lead you to confess?
How might you pray for God to have a richer impact on your
life through this reading?
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.
Verse of Benediction
May the blessing of the eternal God be upon us, and upon our
work and worship; His light to guide us, His presence to strengthen us, His
love to unite us; Now and always. Amen.[2]
[1] Adapted from the Roman
Breviary, accessed in Tileston, Mary Wilder, Prayers Ancient and Modern, 1897
[2] Doberstein, John W., The Minister’s Prayer Book, Fortress
Press, Philadelphia, 1959, p. 18
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