Friday, January 22, 2021

Saturday prior to Epiphany 3


 Luke 1:79—The hymn of the day is “O Christ, Our True and Only Light” (LSB 839).Those who are lost, separated from God are found only in Jesus Christ. In the season of Epiphany, we see more clearly who Jesus really is. By His words and actions, we come to the conclusion that He can only be God made flesh. See also Isaiah 9:1-2 and Malachi 4:2.

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

This prayer echoes a line from a famous hymn that is found in our hymnal. You may well know it: “O Christ, Our True and Only Light” (LSB #314). The hymn was written by Johann Heermann, a prolific German Lutheran hymn writer of the century following Martin Luther. The hymn calls upon that true Light to shine on those estranged from God, who are lost in error’s maze and who sit in darkness. What is not so well known is that Heermann did not come up with the central idea of the hymn. He read it in a poem written by someone else. He did not know the author of the poem. It was an Austrian Jesuit named Peter Brillmacher who had lived decades before Heermann and had been on the front line of the Roman Catholic response to the Lutheran movement in southern Germany.

When Brillmacher wrote those words, he thought the Lutherans were the folks who had been estranged from God and were lost in error’s maze! Heerman heard these words and thought of other people. We find this hymn in the “Missions” section of our hymnals. But this prayer, if it is to be prayed needs to start with us. We all have been enlightened by that true Light because we needed it. We have done our fair share of wandering in error’s maze and have sat destitute and helpless in utter darkness. This is a prayer about us before it can ever be a prayer about someone else. Pray this prayer for yourself and then pray it for someone else too. [1]



[1]  Lenten Devotions from Living Savior Lutheran Church Tualatin, OR 97062   https://living-savior.org/daily-devotionals/
The Trinity copyright (c) Ed Riojas, Higher Things

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