Collect
of the Week (Proper 16-C)
O Lord, You have called us to enter
Your kingdom through the narrow door. Guide us by Your Word and Spirit, and
lead us now and always into the feast of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and
reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Mark
10:6-8a (Congregation at Prayer verse of the Week)
6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male
and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother
and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’
Catechism: The Fifth & Sixth Commandments
What is 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.
What is the sixth
Commandment?
You shall not
commit adultery.
What does this mean?
We should fear
and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and
do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.
Devotion
In the name of T Jesus.
The Lord has given the Sixth Commandment, for the sake of
the Fifth Commandment. Let me say that
another way: The LORD establishes marriage and the family in order to protect
the gift of life. And to say it one last
time: The gift of marriage is the institution given by the LORD for the giving
and nurturing of life. So by keeping the
Sixth Commandment, we also keep the Fifth Commandment.
It also follows, therefore, that in abusing the gift of
marriage, we fail to help and support our neighbor in his physical need. How is this so? Because where the family dissolves, so too,
dissolves the honor given to life. Where
man and woman do not live together in holy matrimony, the life of our neighbor
is also not honored, crime increases, and society declines. Indeed, the failure to honor the institution
of marriage results in a failure to honor and serve our neighbor in his/her
body.
On the other hand, in Christ’s work of redemption, we see
a picture of the love of husband and wife.
Where Christ gives Himself for His bride—the Church—so too, is the
husband called to give his life for his own bride—the wife. And likewise, as the Bride of Christ receives
the gifts Christ freely gives to her, a wife receives the self-sacrificial
gifts her Christian husband bestows on her.
But this even goes further. Christ dies for his bride, loving her with
his own self-sacrifice, and what is the result?
Life! So too, in the marriage,
when the husband loves his wife, and remains faithful to her, even giving
himself in the most intimate of ways.
And what is the result? Life!
So, you see, Christ has fulfilled both the Sixth
Commandment and the Fifth Commandment.
In Christ we see the love of marriage personified, and through Christ,
who dies for the bride, life is given and protected. In Christ, we see that the Sixth Commandment
is given for the sake of the Fifth.
Marriage is the gift by which the LORD gives and preserves life. By His Spirit, may our own marriages do the
same. In the name of T Jesus.
Prayer
O Lord God, at the creation of Adam and Eve You instituted
and blessed marriage as the union of a man and a woman and commanded that it be
held in honor by all. Grant Your blessings to all married couples, that their
life together may be blessed with wisdom, purity, self-sacrifice, and love;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord (Collect #242).
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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