Here are suggested devotions for the week beginning on Sunday April 19. The suggestions are from the Ministers Prayer book edited by John W. Doberstein. The theme for the first week after the Week of Easter is "NEW BIRTH".
Many talk about being "born again" and here the Scriptures address that matter in the "New Birth emphasis". Dr. Luther emphasized that a Christian should remember his (or her Baptism) every single day and thus be "born again". It is not a once in a lifetime event but a daily event for people who believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. Feel free to share your thoughts on the various texts and themes for each week as they are posted in our Forum.
Here are the suggested items for reflection from the Doberstein reprint of the earlier German language Prayer book.
From 1 Peter 1:3 - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." A suggested Hymn for reading or singing for the week is "Come Ye faithful, raise the strain" Psalm readings for the week are Psalm 81 or Psalm 116 The Lectionary Lessons for Sunday are: O.T - Genesis 32:22-32 Epistle: 1 John 5:4-12 Gospel: John 20:19-31 Lessons for reading and reflection for the week M. 2 Tim. 1:6-10 and Ezekiel 36:22-27 T. 2 Tim. 2:1-5 and Col. 2:9-15 W. 1 Peter 1:22-25 and John 5:1-14 T. 1 Tim. 1:12-17 and 2 Kings 5:1-19 F. 1 Peter 1:3-9 and Rom. 6:3-11 S. Jonah 2:1-11 and 1 John 2:12-17 Prayer for the Week "Almighty and everlasting God, who througyh the death and resurrection of thy Son hast proclaimed to us the gospeo of peace; grant that by the power of his resurrection we may be born anew to a living hope, and so overcome the world; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Lessons for the Saturday of the 1st Sunday after Easter Week are: Jonah 2:1-11 and 1 John 2:12-17
The First Text is part of what is known as Jonah’s prayer where Jonah prays to God from the Belly of the Fish.
Even though Jonah feels everything is over with the waters closing over him to take his life He rejoices because his life has en brought up from the pit.
Salvation belongs to the Lord and the Lord acted on behalf of Jonah even though Jonah was refusing to do what God had called him to do.
This text points us to the Victory of the Resurrection. Because of Jesus our lives are not over. Instead of an end in the deeps we are given the assurance of “NEW LIFE” and so Jonah is vomited out upon dry land because the Lord (only Jesus causes it to happen).
The 1 John 2:12-17 text is conveying a message right in line with what we have heard this week from Paul, Peter, Ezekiel, and the writer of 2 Kings.
He is addressing his readers as little children and starting with the absolute simplest basic - “I am writing you….because you Sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.”
Then follow a list of fathers, young men, children, fathers, and young men again.
It all begins with little children knowing the basic that their sins are forgiven and concludes with “young men who are strong ….because the word of God abides” in them. That is how one overcomes the world. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches.
So at the end of the week here is the emphasis of “New Life” that is based in Jesus and only Jesus.
The Biblical Texts for the Friday of the Week of the 1st Sunday after Easter are:
1 Peter 1:3-9 and Romans 6:3-11.
The 1 Peter Text is the Theme Text for the “New Birth” or “Born Again” focus of the week.
“According to his great mercy, he caused us to be born again ……through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance…kept in heaven for You, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Dr. Luther stressed in a number of places that the two most important little words you hear in Holy Scripture are the words “For You.” Jesus gives His Body and Blood “For You” in the Sacrament of the Altar. His Resurrection from the dead is “For You”
And here we are not only pointed to Holy Communion but also to Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is Instituted by Jesus at its most basic level “For You”.
In Baptism we are made Inheritors of an amazing inheritance kept for us - for You - in heaven “kept in heaven for you”.
The Romans 6 Text enters in to stress exactly this. 1 Peter 1:3-9 is simply amplifying the Romans 6:3-11 proclamation. Our “New Birth, New Life” comes for you and me we know for sure Only through our Baptism into Christ Jesus.
This is a text that is regularly used at the Funeral or Celebration of the Resurrection for a Believer in Jesus. It is a message of great Comfort, indeed.
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We have been buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as ‘Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in ‘newness of Life.”
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his……If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him ”
As Jesus says to his disciples in Mark’s Evangel “ He who believes and is Baptized shall be Saved.” In the Congregations of our little Parish this assurance by Jesus is the closing Sentence in the Absolution (Forgiveness) each time we gather.
As Luther emphasizes - “Believe it and you have it!” Jesus says it. If you have been enabled to believe it by the Holy Spirit of God then for sure you have it.
What is this “It” that you have ? Nothing more than the “for sure” or “for certain” assurance that yours is New Life (New Birth) in the Resurrection of Jesus.
The Texts for meditation for this Thursday of the First Sunday after Easter Week are: 2 Kings 5:1-19a and 1 Tim 1:12-17.
The Ezekiel text is the Account of Naaman the great Syrian General who is afflicted by Leprosy hearing of the possibility of healing (and thus New Life) via a captured Israelite Slave girl. With power and expensive gifts he goes to Israel (The Northern Kingdom) and there is sent to Elisha. Elisha will not even come out to see him but directs that he go and dip himself in the Jordan River 7 times. At first Naaman, an unbeliever in God, in anger refuses but then he is convinced to give it a try and when he dips himself according to the Word of God through Elisha he is healed. The Text states that when he does what the Word of God through Elisha directs “his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean”
He is truly born anew or born again with flesh like a little child and he becomes a believer in God. He came and stood before Elisha and declares “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” God’s Grace and Mercy brings about “New Life” which is to say Faith and Believing.
In most of the lectionaries this text which is read on a Sunday ends with the healing of Naaman but the account continues in 2 Kings 5.
Elisha refuses the payment offered by Naaman. Naaman asks for two mule loads of earth from Israel to carry with him where he can offer burnt offerings and sacrifice only to the Lord. He also asks pardon in advance for the times when as a servant of the King of Syria he must go into the House/ Temple of the false god Rimmon.
Elisha grants the request and the advance Pardon for this “New Born” believer in the Lord God.
An unbeliever is healed and is given “New Life” as a Believer in the Lord God. Truly a wonderful account.
In the 1 Timothy Text for reflection today - The Apostle Paul gives Timothy an autobiographical account that he, Paul, was “formerly a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” of Jesus.
He writes to young Pastor Timothy - “I had acted ignorantly in unbelief” but declares that “But I received mercy’’…..”and ‘the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of who I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
So here Paul is reflecting upon his own undeserved “New Life”, his “New Birth. Just like Naaman the Syrian, Saul of Tarsus is Born again as “Apostle Paul.”
In both cases these men become examples displaying the perfect patience and Love of God that brings Faith, Belief and Eternal Life for Sinners.
Again this is the wonderful focus of Easter.
Wednesday of this First week after Easter Week
2 Peter 1:22-25 & Joh 5:1-14
In the 2nd Peter Text for today we see that we are “Born again”. Note once more that this being Born again is not something that is our doing. “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and aiding word of God”
If being born again was dependent upon a persons decision or will power that would be of “The Flesh.” and thus Peter reminds us that “All flesh is like grass which withers.” Instead, and this is the wonderful Good news, our New Life - our being born again is “through the living and abiding word of God” and “the word of the Lord remains forever.”
In John’s Gospel text for today the the man who was an invalid for 38 years is unable to pull himself into the pool of Bethesda. Jesus speaks the Word ‘“Get up, take up your bed, and walk” and at once the man is healed and he took up his bed and walked. ‘
The man doesn’t ask for healing in response to the question to him by Jesus. He simply states that he can’t get himself into the pool when the waters are stirred and no one is willing to help him.
So his efforts and his faith in supposedly miraculous water in the pool is of no avail. Someone else always gets into the pool ahead of him.
But when Jesus speaks the Word he is healed at once and is no longer an Invalid. After 38 years as an Invalid he is “Born Again” and He now has “New Life.”
If you read further in the text you will read that “”Afterward Jesus found him (the former 38 year Paralyzed man) in the Temple and said to him, “See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
New Life being Born Again because of God’s Forgiveness through the Living Word of God (Jesus) leads to a Thankful efforts to live by the Word of God. Grass withers and falls but the Word of God endures forever.
2 Tim 2:1-5 & Col. 2:9-15
Two texts for this Tuesday of the first Sunday after Easter Week both coming from letters by the Apostle Paul.
From 2 Tim. The main emphasis is: “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
It is of course that grace which has caused you to be born Anew; which has give you New Life. This is a major theme for all of Paul’s letters to the Churches and those doing Ministry. “Suffer as a good soldier of Christ Jesus…” knowing that the grace of Jesus is given you.
In the Colossians text Paul details this grace at more length and emphasizes what Baptism accomplishes for us and in us. Baptism and Circumcision of Christ are connected.
“And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
those wonderful words of assurance are preceded by the connection between Our Baptism and the Circumcision of Jesus:
“Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead……and you who were dead in your trespasses…God made alive together with him.”
There is precisely the New Birth. There is what it is to be born anew to a living hope! One who is dead in trespass can not choose to have “New Birth” happen or to be “Born Anew.”
Only Jesus could accomplish this and the Apostle declares that He, Jesus, through His Resurrection from the dead. When our debt is canceled because of Jesus we indeed have “New Life” and are like “New Born Babes” (Quasi Modo Geniti).
Week of 1st Sunday after Easter - Quasi Modo Geniti - NEW Birth
1 Peter 1:3 - New Birth Theme
Monday (April 20, 2020)
Ezekiel 36:22-27 & 2 Tim. 1:6-10
Ezekiel is told to proclaim to the house of Israel
God will act not for the sake of Israel but for the sake of His Holy Name.
a. Israel has profaned the Name of the Lord (2nd Commandment violation - They have made The Name of the Lord into nothing (taken it in vain).
2) nonetheless The Lord will vindicate the holiness of His Name through Israel, He will use Israel to vindicate His Holiness before the eyes of the Nations.
3) The Lord will take YOU and “Sprinkle You with Clean Water”. You shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. …..He will give you a New Heart and will put a New spirit within you. Your hear of Stone will be removed from your flesh. The Lord will but His Spirit within you and cause you to walk in His statutes and to be careful to obey His rules.
Very much the same as the Word of God given to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31.
The Reference to being sprinkled with Clean Water, for Christians has its connection with the Baptism instituted by Jesus.
The Testimony is the “Spirit, The Water and the Blood” as the Epistle lesson Text for Sunday in 1 John 5:4-12 states clearly. So it is no accidental phrase this reference to being Sprinkled with “Clean Water” as part of The Lord vindicating his Holy Name through us.
God’s Spirit is placed in us even as His Holy Name is placed upon us in Holy Baptism. The Holy Spirit works on us to enable walking in the Statutes of the Lord.
So every day - we are born anew as we remember our Baptism. We are born anew to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead.
From 2nd Timothy we are reminded that it is “God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our words but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,”
Our Eternal future is not based upon ourselves.
Our Salvation (Being Born Anew or Being Born again) is not based upon our “Decision” which would be a form of Works Righteousness based in our human Will Power.
God Gave us Salvation and a Holy calling because of “his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,”
As Paul writes to Timothy in this 2nd letter this “now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, ‘who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
And so the lessons for this Monday of the week are Wonderful Words of assurance and Comfort.
Psalm 81 is a reflection by David on the profaning of God’s Name by His own people whereas Psalm 116 has the emphasis placed upon Joy at God’s actions which include us for his own purposes and grace. The words of one of the traditional Thanksgiving Offertories are embedded here: “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people……..I will offer to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.”