Good Evening, Lord!
Words of Comfort
The almighty and merciful God bless us and keep us this
night and evermore. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Joyous light of glory: of the immortal Father; heavenly,
holy, blessed Jesus Christ. We have come to the setting of the sun, and we look
to the evening light. We sing to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; You are
worthy of being praised with pure voices forever. O Son of God, O Giver of
life: the universe proclaims Your glory. I pray that my heart would rest in You
and Your salvation. 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.
Sometimes
when people protest the idea that they are sinners they will say something
like, “I’ve never killed anyone!” Which, as I think about it, is not a very
high bar for the definition of sinlessness. But we sinful people like to keep
the requirements low for ourselves so that we can point to some kind of
righteousness or holiness within our own power. But we are not left that
luxury.
In
the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus says, “You have heard that it was
said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable
to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will
be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the
council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
(Matt. 5:21-22 ESV) He is telling us that keeping this commandment is more than
just the simple act of never having murdered someone. He digs into our
attitudes toward one another and says that our disdain for one another is a
form of murder. (Ouch!)
The
Scriptures repeatedly tell us that we are to love our neighbors, and one of the
ways that we love our neighbors is to care about their life and wellbeing. We
are not merely to not harm, we are to, “help and support” our neighbor in every
physical need. Stop and think about that for a moment – what do you need to
live? There is a lot!
God
cares about our physical lives. He created us with bodies, his plan is to
resurrect our bodies on the Last Day, Jesus himself has a physical body (note I
say “has” not “had”, he is still fully human and still has a body even though
he has ascended into heaven!). Jesus has a physical body and in that body he
died and rose for our redemption. God is spirit, but he designed us – out of
love – he designed us to live physically now and forever in our bodies – so he
lovingly protects us with this commandment.
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] Lutheran
Service Book, Concordia Publishing House, p. 297
[2] Doberstein, John W., The Minister’s Prayer Book, Fortress
Press, Philadelphia, 1959, p. 18
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