Good Evening, Lord!
Words of Comfort
May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless
his people with peace! (Ps. 29:11 ESV)
Prayer of Confession
Blessed are You, O Lord our God, king of the universe,
who led Your people by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Enlighten our darkness by the light of Your Christ; may His Word be a lamp to
our feet and a light to our path; for You are merciful, and You love Your whole
creation and we, Your creatures, glorify You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.[1]
Catechism Reflections
- The Fifth Commandment
You
shall not murder.
What
does this mean? We
should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his
body, but help and support him in every physical need.
There is a saying that you’ve probably heard: Life is cheap.
As I think about the history of the world there are many ways in which life has
been treated as cheap. As Joseph Stalin once said, “A single death is a
tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
Death has become a central part of our entertainment in
television shows, movies, and video games. In some ways, I wonder if we have
seen so much simulation of death that it has become utterly unreal to us.
Perhaps this is part of our problem in our response to disease, especially COVID-19,
we hear the numbers but do not understand that five times that many people died
of heart disease last year in the United States, similarly with the number of
people who died of cancer.
Yet it should be clear that there is an obsession with death
in our culture. The transhumanism movement seeks to lengthen human life by
technology. How would you like to upload your consciousness into the cloud?
Vitamin regimens, exercise programs, and fad diets all claim to add years to
our lives (with varying degrees of truth).
As we think about how we relate to our neighbors in the
matter of their physical lives and wellbeing, we do well to remember Jesus’
words in John 10 – “I have come that they may have life and have it to the
full.” You have received life from Jesus – it is eternal life, and it is yours
now. The kingdom of God has come with priorities that confront the death –
physical and spiritual – in our world. We carry Jesus’ message, “I have come
that they may have life….” Abundant, rich life – filled with God’s grace,
forgiveness, hope, and peace.
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
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God,
be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Tim. 1:17 ESV)
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