Collect
of the Week (Proper 15-C)
Merciful
Lord, cleanse and defend Your Church by the sacrifice of Christ. United with
Him in Holy Baptism, give us grace to receive with thanksgiving the fruits of
His redeeming work and daily follow in His way; through the same Jesus Christ,
Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever.
Proverbs
3:11-12
11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary
of his reproof, 12 for the
LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Catechism: The Fourth
What is the Fourth
Commandment?
Honor
your father and your mother.
What does this mean?
We should fear
and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other
authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.
Devotion
In the name of T Jesus.
Love is the motivation for God’s actions toward us
whenever He chastens or corrects us. Undeserved love is also the motivation for
a father who disciplines and corrects a son. Solomon uses the relationship of a
father to his son to highlight the intimate relationship of love that God has
with us, and how our relationship to our children is patterned after God the
Father’s relationship with His Son.
Just as Jesus our sin bearer endured chastening upon the
cross as the beloved Son whom the Father loved, so also it is necessary for us
to be chastened and disciplined when we sin by the parents who love us. Solomon
refers to God by use of the name “LORD”—the divine name given at the burning
bush—which highlights the fact that He is “the eternal God of the promise of
salvation,” who is always motivated by love for His wayward children, even when
He is compelled to discipline them.
His promise of love to us in the Gospel is the cause of
everything He does for us as His children. The LORD delights in His children,
even though they have gone astray and need correction, precisely because they are His children who have been begotten
by Him in love through His Word of promise.
In the same way, parents love their children, not because
they have no sin and make no mistakes, but because they are their children conceived in love. Discipline and correction are
intended to bring us to repentance for sin, to teach us the way that leads to
life and loving serve to others, and to save us from the self-centered ways
that lead to death and destruction. Our
fathers’ love for us is seen precisely in the fact that they are willing to discipline
and correct us. And so we honor them,
serve and obey them, love and cherish them (Lutheran
Catechesis, p. 50c).
In the name of T Jesus.
Prayer
Visit, O Lord, the homes in which Your people dwell, and
keep all harm and danger far from them. Grant that we may dwell together in
peace under the protection of You holy angels, sharing eternally in Your blessings;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord (#239).
Daily Prayer (For Wednesday)
We pray…for marriage and family, that husbands and wives,
parents and children live in ordered harmony according to the Word of God; for
parents who must raise children alone; for our communities and neighborhoods.
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