TDP Typo

In case you are using your Treasury of Daily Prayer and are wondering why the OT text cuts off at such a strange place in the middle of a story, it is because the assigned reading is Genesis 15:1-21, but the text reproduced is actually 14:1-21. You might want to make a note of that for future years.

Saturday in Lent 1 - Psalmody

Todd Pepperkorn was on Issues, etc this week discussing Psalm 32, bringing out its contrast of hiding from God and hiding in God.

Thursday of Lent 1

"Who then, is this, that even the wind and sea obey Him?" (Mark 4:41)
He is true God, the creator of wind and sea, who does care that we perish (Mark 4:38) and does far more than the terrified disciples ask or imagine in their prayer. (In light of this passage, try and argue that answers to prayer depend upon you having a strong faith!)
But He is also true man, who is transported by a boat and sleeps; who is the promised offspring of Abraham (Genesis 12, Galatians 3:16) here to bless all the families of the earth.
Yet the blessing of His kingdom is endangered by Abram's plans to save his own neck with the infamous "She's my sister, Pharoah" event. For God is determined not to give the offspring to the families of the earth apart from the family of Abraham AND Sarah (though He has not explicitly said that yet.) So that the promised salvation does not die - and us die with it - God reunites Sarah to Abraham. Certainly we are saved by grace, and not only not by our works, but like Abram, DESPITE our works.
Our Father who art in Heaven, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Amen.

Wednesday of Lent 1 - Putting Genesis 6-9 in Context

In the 35th year of my life, in the second month of 2009, on the seventeenth day of the month (I know Noah didn't enter the ark on February 17, but it's still funny how it works out), Miss Erin and Miss Sophia were born. If we had entered the ark that day with Noah, we still would not be out until this weekend! Yikes. Gives me a whole new perspective on what he went through.

Tuesday of Lent 1 - Gospel

"And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end" (Mark 3:26).
Well, that is just exactly what happens, isn't it? After the devil arranges to destroy Jesus to death, he finds in the end that he has brought about the end of both himself and death. Christ dangled on the cross like a worm on a fishhook, and the devil and death took the bait.

"But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house" (Mark 3:27).
Reminded me of this quote by CFW Walther (HT: David Juhl):
This battle [of the Temptations between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness] was the first engagement touched off by the Lord of our salvation, in order to tread down Satan under our feet. It was the first defeat of the infernal host to show them that now a Stronger one had come. Scarcely had Christ begun His ministry when immediately He attacked Satan. He did not leave the field until He had won the last engagement for us on the cross and could cry out, “It is finished!” (emphasis added)

Monday of Lent 1 - Writing

Scratching your head over Luther's writing? I'm glad to know I'm not the only one, as the Sober Peasant wrestles with it today, and then Pastor Weedon provides some background info, and then Sober Peasant responds.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Wow, amazing how all the texts fit together. Whoever chose Psalm 12 had great wisdom. The faithful vanish as Adam and Eve fall. Everyone utters lies and speak from double hearts (Psalm 12:1-2) as they respond to God about their sin. But then God promises to cut off the tongue of the serpent that made great boasts (Psalm 12:3) when the seed of Eve crushes his head (Genesis 3:15).
So that man does not live by bread alone (after he tried finding life apart from the word that comes from the mouth of God - Lenten Antiphon 1), the Lord God exiles man from the garden.
Though man brought sin into the world, and death through sin, the LORD places man into safety (Psalm 12:5) in the Mark 2: 1-12 reading - first dealing with sin through forgiveness, then dealing with death through making the lame man to walk. Was the paralytic disappointed when Jesus "only" forgave him? I used to think so, but I'm not so sure anymore. He could have had friends like Job's telling him he was suffering terribly because he sinned terribly - or his parents did (see John 9). And even if his "friends" didn't, his mind could have been accusing him of past sins - or it could have been cursing God for treating him this way. At any rate, I now think the man was actually greatly relieved when the Lord told him to rejoice that his sins were forgiven.

Friday after Ash Wednesday

O Christ, it is a hectic time, with many demands placed upon us, even as there were many needy ones searching You out in Your time on earth. If you, Lord, needed to go off to desolate places to pray (Mark 1:35), how much more do we weak mortals need this in our service to You? And so help us to devote time to Your word and teach us to pray.

February 18

It's worth your time during Lent and Easter to check out "The Time of Easter Addition", especially Luther's writing for today (pg. 1281). Reebok used to have a commercial slogan saying, "Reebok lets you be you." Luther could be paraphrased as saying today, "The Lord is the Lord - and He lets you be you" when he writes, "It is he who without our help, counsel, thought or effort has brought his kingdom forth and has advanced and preserved it to this day. I have no doubt that he will consummate it without our advice or assistance*... He is called the Lord who can and will help in a wonderful, glorious, and mighty way, particularly when the need is the greatest. We are meant to be human beings, not divine."

* = quite the comfort to men who fail as pastors, let alone Christians! Ironically, I was talking with Rev. Doug Nicely today at the hospital about this very fact, that if God hadn't been with the Church, foolish human mismanagement would have put it out of business a LONG time ago!

As for the Scripture readings, Mark 1 tells us that Jesus silences the demons after we have let the Devil have his say in our life for far too long. On the first Sabbath (Genesis 2), God could rest. On that Sabbath in Capernaum, He had work to do to free us from the devil's work. Reminds me of this post by Rev. David Peteren some years back, which helps me think of last night's Divine Service in a new light, granting me rest before an extremely busy day today of serving the Lord and His people (three hospitals-five visits, plus a shut in communion):

During the course of his lectures Kleinig made some profound, off-hand
remarks about the 3rd commandment and the prohibition of labor on the Sabbath. I
am surprised it never occurred to me before, but Kleinig talked about how
strange and magnificent it is that God commands His people to worship Him by
doing nothing. What are we to do? Nothing. God does it all. How do we worship
Him? By doing nothing, by reception of His gifts. The Divine Service is not
where we appease God's wrath or primarily where we serve Him, but where He
serves us. How did I go so long teaching the Catechism and not see this?

Ash Wednesday TDP readings

St. Mark has no Christmas. He begins the Gospel in the wilderness. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and it was good. But we thought we could live apart from every word that comes from the mouth of God (Lenten antiphon). And as a result this whole world became a wilderness.
Yet by God's grace, the wilderness is not as bad a place as it could be. In fact, He makes it to be a place of blessing - the place where God trains Moses, and Israel, and Elijah, and John the Baptist and his listeners to have no other gods, to learn to live again by every Word that comes from His mouth. We are in the wilderness, but Mark says Jesus is in the wilderness with us to save us.

Two TDP links

Scot Kinnaman has this intro to TDP and tips on how to vary its use.

He also gave this link to another TDP blog - Alex Kirk means Nurture the Church

(and remember to flip back to the start of the book for Lenten readings - unless your continuing with Job)

February 16

O Christ, the Scripture's witness to You - even the "mists and rocks and quicksands" of Job's life "still guides, O Christ, to You" (LSB 523.2):

• Who, though our King, was bound with a wastcloth as You washed Your disciples' feet;
• Who, though our Priest, was stripped as You made sacrifice for us;
• Who, though God's greatest Prophet, was deprived of speech in death, when contempt and mockery was poured upon You at the Cross (cf. Job 12:18-21),

so that You might take away our shame and give us Your eternal life. May Your Father's Word abide in us so that we believe in You, whom He has sent (John 5:38). Amen.

February 15

O Christ, who gives more good than our guilt deserves, let us hear Your voice so that we might rise from the deadness of our sin and be onesimus/useful to one another through reconciling forgiveness. Amen.

TDP, Job and Lent

about the only thing I don't like about TDP (actually, it's not really TDP's fault, but the lectionary calendar it follows from Lutheran Service Book) will soon make its annual appearance - we abandon Job in the midst of his sufferings. If you follow this lectionary religiously, you will not get to the end of Job until 2038 (when Easter is the absolute latest it can ever be.) This year we miss John 6-8 and return to chapter 9 of his Gospel after Trinity Sunday, but because of the way Easter slides around, we'll cover the unread chapters in other years.
So what to do about Job?

1. Abandon him in his suffering.
2. Read the Job text as the Old Testament reading one year, and the Genesis reading the next year.
3. Add the Job text assigned for the secular date to the readings assigned for the day in Lent.

February 9 - John 3

while I was reading it, I had all these thoughts about what to write. Though, praise God, I wasn't so much distracted by the thought of this blog, as the thoughts led me devotionally deeper in prayer... but now I cannot remember so well what I was going to write exactly, but it went something like this:

The first response of Jesus to Nicodemus catches one off guard. It's not what was expected. Nicodemus greets with pleasantries, but it's almost like Jesus says, "Enough with the flattery - are you going to treat me like I am a teacher from God." Will we? We call Jesus Lord, Savior, Christ annointed to preach good news to us poor ones, the Word of God made flesh. At least that is what our words call Him - but our bodies and minds do not do so good of a job confessing/same saying the truth of those words. Lips may draw near, but hearts and minds wander far from Him.
Nicodemus has come to the Light in physical sense, yet comes at night, loving the darkness at this point rather than the Light because he does not want his work to be exposed to his fellow teachers of Israel. Not yet. But after the darkness covered the earth for three hours one Friday, he very publicly goes to care for the body of the Light, and it is clearly seen that his works were carried out in God for God.
But I get ahead of myself there, for first, while the teacher of Israel is still failing to understand, slow to believe, hiding in and loving the darkness, etc, he is taught the tremendous love of God in giving up not a creature (what kind of love is that? as Hilary points out in the Writing (WOW! - make sure to read this if you haven't), but His Only-begotten Son.

February 4

O Father, many are feeling the losses of family, friends, and other earthly blessings in these days. Though their losses may not reach the level of Job's, mercifully hear their prayers and grant us peace, that we may have Job's faith, who was able to say, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." Amen.

another TDP blog

HT: Todd Pepperkorn, for pointing this out

February 2 - Writing

a member who has TDP asked me this morning about turtles. I'm guessing 1) Cyril had a corrupted Greek mss and 2) he didn't know Leviticus well. But it still bugs me. Though I do love how he then sees Christ in the Song of Songs passage. Would that more people could see Christ in the Old Testament like that.

oh, and I thank the Lord that He has given me such Biblically literate members who would know that sacrificing a turtle would not be kosher!

UPDATE - my dictionary, in the second definition of "turtle", says it is an archaic way of saying "turtledove" (which is what Pr. Weedon said.) Glad to know that Cyril didn't get it wrong.