Time in the Word – Epiphany 7
February 14-19, 2022
Your inheritance as a child of Adam is sin and death, but in Christ you are made alive through His resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:21–22). As you have died with Him in Holy Baptism, so are you raised with Him to newness of life. Therefore, “do not go on sinning” (1 Corinthians 15:34). Instead of serving your desires and harming your neighbors, live as “sons of the Most High,” and “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35–36). Deal with others as you would have others deal with you (Luke 6:31, 37–38). As Christ loved you when you were at enmity with Him, as He blessed and prayed for those who abused Him, and as He did good to those who hated Him and hurt Him, so also “love your enemies, do good” (Luke 6:27–29, 35). For God sent His Son to bear the cross and suffer death, not to condemn the guilty, but “to preserve life.” So does He provide a place for you within His Church, where He is near and deals kindly with “you and your children and your children’s children” (Genesis 45:5–10).
Collect 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.
Collect for the Morning – Faithful God, whose mercies are new to us every morning, we humbly pray that You would look upon us in mercy and renew us by Your Holy Spirit. Keep safe our going out and our coming in,m and let Your blessing remain with us throughout this day. Preserve us in Your righteousness, and grant us a portion in that eternal life which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Collect for humility – O God, You resist the proud and give grace to the humble. Grant us true humility after the likeness of Your only Son that we may never be arrogant and prideful and thus provoke Your wrath but in all lowliness be made partakers of the gifts of Your grace; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
A prayer for newness of life in Christ – Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon ourselves the armor of life, now in the time of this mortal life, in which Your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, that in the last day, when He shall come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal.
Monday, 14 February 2022 Psalm 37:1-5 (antiphon, Psalm 37:7)– Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the man who carries out evil plans.
Tuesday, 15 February 2022 - Psalm 103:1-13 (antiphon; v.8) – This week’s Psalm reminds us the Lord is plenteous in mercy. Rich in it, quick in it, overflowing with it; and so had he need to be or we should soon be consumed. He is God, and not man, or our sins would soon drown his love; yet above the mountains of our sins the floods of his mercy rise. "Plenteous grace with thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin; Let the healing streams abound, Make and keep me pure within."
In our lessons for this week, God is the sources of our being and doing. Our lives are to reflect the character of God. In the Old Testament lesson, Joseph explains to his brothers that God used his adversity to preserve life. Paul in the Epistle explains and describes the resurrection body, which God provides for us. In all of these we see God as the source and ground of our being: His goodness prompts our goodness, He uses our misfortunes to bless others, He gives us a new body to dwell in a spiritual heaven.
Wednesday, 16 February 2022 - Genesis 45:3-15– Each of our Lessons for this coming Sunday give an answer to the question what can God do for you? God uses adversity for our ultimate good. Joseph was a God-conscious and God-oriented man to the point that he saw God working in his life. If we do not say the Devil made us do it, do we explain our experiences as “Luck” or “coincidence?” Joseph teaches us that God is alive and is guiding, working, and directing the events of people, whether individuals or nations.
Thursday, 17 February 2022 - 1 Corinthians 15:21-26, 30--42 – God will provide a new body for life in heaven. Even Christians can become confused on the matter of the body after death. Is the body to be preserved at the high cost of burial? Will the body be resurrected on the last Great day? If there is no body, can we exist as spirits? If there is a body what is it like These questions troubled the Corinthian church: ‘How are the dead raised? With what body do they come? In this lesson Paul helps us understand the resurrected body.
Friday 18 February 2022 - Luke 6:27-38 – For the most part Christians are ordinary people. As Paul has said, not many of us are wise nor wealthy. We are plain, simple people with faith and love for God in Christ. But, Christ calls us ordinary people to do extraordinary things. God loves to use weak and insignificant people to do great things for the Gospel. He expects more of us than non-believers. What are we doing more than others? The extraordinary things Christians do is love those who do not love them (v.32), they help those who will not help them, (v.33) they lend to those who do not repay. (v.34)
Saturday 19 February 2022 - Psalm 103 - This week’s hymn of the week, LSB 820 “My soul, now praise your Maker” John Poliander (pen name of John Graumann, 1487–1541) was at one time the secretary of Luther’s great opponent, Dr. Eck. But after the Leipzig Disputation in 1519, he was convinced by the Gospel and joined the Reformation. He spent his life furthering the Reformation and combating errorists such as the Anabaptists, especially in Prussia. He wrote this hymn in 1525 at the request of Margrave Albrecht, who loved Psalm 103, of which this hymn is a summary.
It is a song of praise that matches the closing of the Gospel, “He has done all things well.” Jesus is our maker as much as is the Father and the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus opened the deaf-mute’s lips, and those lips spoke plainly, so we open our lips to praise and bless God for all the benefits we have received from him. It is always through Jesus that we receive not only health for our bodies, but for our souls as well. It is in the person and work of Christ alone that we truly come to worship our maker in spirit and in truth.
Sources:
Prayers from Lutheran Service Book © 2006 and Lutheran Worship © 1980 Concordia Publishing House
Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series C – John Brokhoff © 1979 CSS Publishing, Lima, OH
Luther’s Seal © Higher Things
https://logia.org/logia-online/hymn-summary-the-twelfth-sunday-after-trinity2015
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