Be What God Is
This theme seems to focus upon the
nature of God and our responsibility to match His nature in our lives. Because
God is perfect, according to the Gospel lesson, we too are to be perfect. Be
perfect as God is perfect.
Because God is holy, according to our Old Testament
lesson, we are to be the same. Because God’s temple is holy according to the
Epistle lesson we are holy for we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Psalm
mentions God as one of compassion and
mercy. Because God is what He is, we are to reflect the same nature.
Collects
for Epiphany: Lord God, on this day you revealed your Son to the nations
by the leading of a star. Lead us now by faith to know your presence in our
lives and bring us at last to the full vision of your glory.
Father,
You revealed Your Son to the nations by the guidance of a star. Lead us to Your
glory in heaven by the light of faith. We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God,
forever and ever.
Father,
You make known the salvation of humankind at the birth of Your Son. Make us
strong in faith and bring us to the glory You promise. We ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives, and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Collects
for Epiphany 7: O God, the strength of all who put their trust in You,
mercifully grant that by Your power we may be defended against all adversity;
through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Father.
Keep before us the wisdom and love You have revealed in Your Son. Help us to be
like Him in word and deed, for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
O
Lord, keep Your family and Church continually in the true faith that they who
lean on the hope of Your heavenly grace may ever be defended by Your mighty
power; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who live and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Monday,
17 February, 2014—Psalm
103:1-8; antiphon, Psalm 103:2-3—
The Psalmist reminds us, Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His
benefits who forgives all your iniquities who heals all your diseases. He
addresses himself in the early verses of the psalm. He finds himself blessed as
he has received not only the spiritual benefits from the Lord but also temporal
blessings.
Whenever
we recover from hardship, sickness, or setback it is the Lord who has done
this. We remember all of the Lord’s dealings with us as we praise His holy
name.
Tuesday,
18 February 2014—Psalm
119:33-40 — This section of the psalms is based on the Hebrew letter “He”
The key verse for the appointed Psalm for this coming week is verses 35, “Direct me in the paths of Your commands, for
there I find delight.” As the child of God is directed by the law of the
Lord, we find contentment, delight and peace.
Wednesday, 19 February 2014—Leviticus
19:1-2, 17-18 — The Lord commands His people to be holy and to love
one’s neighbor. In chapters 18-20 of the book of Leviticus, the phrase, “I am
the Lord” appears twenty times! It occurs twice in this reading. It is the
basis for obeying the commands of the Lord. It is God who commands. Because He
is God, He has the authority to command., To disobey is to be faithless to God.
Sin is unbelief. Moreover, God Himself is the absolute standard for human
conduct. Morality is not based on permissiveness or upon consensus. The
absolute is the very nature of God. Because He is holy, so must we be. Because
He loves, we, too, are expected to love one another. A good person is a godly
person. “Good” and “God” come from the same word.
Today the emphasis is
“love yourself.” The text is not a command to love self. Rather, love of self
is taken for granted as a normal and natural phenomenon. The command is to love
neighbor as much as you love yourself. To love oneself is normal. It is
abnormal to hate oneself or to love oneself excessively. We can go to both
extremes – either into depression or into pride and arrogance. If we love our
neighbor as ourselves, we would put the neighbor first and would desire for the
neighbor only the best things in life.
Thursday, 20 February 2014—1
Corinthians3:10-11, 16-23—As God’s temple, Christians are holy
people belonging to Christ. If a Christian or a church is compared to a
building, Paul says Christ is the foundation. Since there can be no building
without a foundation, it teaches us that Christ is essential, indispensable.
Any other foundation for life or a church is inadequate and is trustworthy. To
have a foundation of Christ is to look at the Christian and the church as a
building project or a process. No Christian or church is ready-made. It is
constantly in the making, in the building. Therefore, no one can claim to have
arrived, or to be finished, or perfect.
Friday,
21 February 2014—Matthew
5:38-48—Christians are expected to do more than the Law requires. Jesus
teaches, ‘Do not resist one who is evil.’ This raises a lot of questions. Don’t
resist one who attacks you? Who steals from you? Who demands involuntary
service/ He calls for passive resistance. It reminds us of Ghandi and Martin
Luther King. Not to resist means not to hate, not to fight back but take
whatever is given with patience. It is using moral persuasion, and in the cases
of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, it seemed to work. Is there a theological
basis for passive resistance? They key to the passage is the nature of God. He
does not resist evil, even to the point of the cross. Humanity is to follow His
example.
Who can be perfect? The word does not
mean moral perfection. Since Jesus was the only one who could say, “Which of
you convinces me of sin?” there is no way to reach that goal in this life. “Perfect”
means wholeness, maturity, holiness, and fulfillment. In the Biblical sense, a
perfect person is one who has completed or fulfilled his life’s purpose. We are
to be perfect because God is perfect.
Saturday, 22 February 2014— Psalm 103; Isaiah 40:6-8–
Tomorrow’s hymn of the week is “My Soul,
Now Praise Your Maker” The Lord has had compassion on His people. Thus we
sing the fame and might of what the Lord has done. As we close out the season
of Epiphany we remember the blessings the Lord has showered down upon us and we
praise Him with our life and conduct in acts of mercy toward our neighbor.
Sources:
Prayers from Lutheran
Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House
Lectionary
Preaching Workbook Series A by John Brokhoff © 1980 CSS Publishing Lima OH
For All the
Saints A Prayer Book for and By the Church Vol. II © 1995 by the American
Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi ,
NY
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