Rage. Fear. Disbelief. Confusion. Anger. Sorrow. Anxiety. Uncertainty. Incredulity. No matter your personal view of the current domestic challenges facing our nation, I trust you felt some or all of these emotions during last week’s events at our nation’s Capitol.
What follows are not so much my personal thoughts on our nation’s struggles, but some items that have given me opportunity to pray and think and meditate on the grace and mercy and power of God. In this gathering of thoughts and resources, may God be honored and glorified. And, may his kingdom come – that is, may the Gospel be lived and proclaimed by his people for the saving of many precious souls. This, friends, is God’s highest purpose for his people – not matters of politics, but matters of the soul/eternity.
_______________________________
First, a prayer to begin – Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger. Keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. Into your hands I commend my body and soul and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen.
_______________________________
From 1 Peter 2:15-21…
15 For this is God’s will: that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. 16 Do this as free people, and do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but use it as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
18 Slaves, submit to your masters with total respect, not only to those who are good and kind but also to those who are harsh. 19 For this is favorable: if a person endures sorrows while suffering unjustly because he is conscious of God. 20 For what credit is it to you if you receive a beating for sinning and patiently endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is favorable with God.
21 Indeed, you were called to do this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you[c] an example so that you would follow in his steps.
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1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
(Psalm 146:1-5)
_______________________________
The following comes from the pen of Martin Luther (not MLK!) the great reformer. He speaks here of the individual Christian dealing with difficulties, but there is much to apply to our collective upheaval:
Let us learn, therefore, to submit ourselves to the counsels of God and to refrain from the cares and thoughts that God has not commanded. There is nothing safer or more acceptable to God than if we refrain from our own counsels and rely on his Word. There we shall find sufficient guidance about what we ought to do. His commands to us are faith, love, and bearing the cross. With these things, I say, we can happily occupy ourselves. Let us deal with everything else as it comes into our hand, leaving to him the concern about its outcome…
But God has given men this trouble or affliction not in order to destroy them but in order to call them back from their foolish and schemes and to teach us that our wisdom amounts to nothing…For it is not wisdom that accomplishes anything, not even genuine wisdom, but the will of God, so that we learn to pray (Matthew 6:10): “Thy will be done.”
-Martin Luther, Notes on Ecclesiastes, Luther’s Works 15:25
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Finally, a closing prayer from our hymnal…Hymn #620 “To You, Our God, We Fly”
To you, our God, we fly For mercy and for grace.
Oh, hear our lowly cry And do not hide your face!
(Refrain) O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
The powr's that you ordained With heavn'ly wisdom bless;
May evil be restrained, Replaced by righteousness.
O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
Give peace, Lord, in our time. Oh, let no foe draw nigh
Nor lawlessness and crime Insult your majesty!
O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
Though vain and foolish, still We are your people, Lord.
Oh, bend us to your will; We’ll serve no other God!
O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
What follows are not so much my personal thoughts on our nation’s struggles, but some items that have given me opportunity to pray and think and meditate on the grace and mercy and power of God. In this gathering of thoughts and resources, may God be honored and glorified. And, may his kingdom come – that is, may the Gospel be lived and proclaimed by his people for the saving of many precious souls. This, friends, is God’s highest purpose for his people – not matters of politics, but matters of the soul/eternity.
_______________________________
First, a prayer to begin – Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger. Keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. Into your hands I commend my body and soul and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen.
_______________________________
From 1 Peter 2:15-21…
15 For this is God’s will: that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good. 16 Do this as free people, and do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but use it as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
18 Slaves, submit to your masters with total respect, not only to those who are good and kind but also to those who are harsh. 19 For this is favorable: if a person endures sorrows while suffering unjustly because he is conscious of God. 20 For what credit is it to you if you receive a beating for sinning and patiently endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is favorable with God.
21 Indeed, you were called to do this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you[c] an example so that you would follow in his steps.
_______________________________
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
(Psalm 146:1-5)
_______________________________
The following comes from the pen of Martin Luther (not MLK!) the great reformer. He speaks here of the individual Christian dealing with difficulties, but there is much to apply to our collective upheaval:
Let us learn, therefore, to submit ourselves to the counsels of God and to refrain from the cares and thoughts that God has not commanded. There is nothing safer or more acceptable to God than if we refrain from our own counsels and rely on his Word. There we shall find sufficient guidance about what we ought to do. His commands to us are faith, love, and bearing the cross. With these things, I say, we can happily occupy ourselves. Let us deal with everything else as it comes into our hand, leaving to him the concern about its outcome…
But God has given men this trouble or affliction not in order to destroy them but in order to call them back from their foolish and schemes and to teach us that our wisdom amounts to nothing…For it is not wisdom that accomplishes anything, not even genuine wisdom, but the will of God, so that we learn to pray (Matthew 6:10): “Thy will be done.”
-Martin Luther, Notes on Ecclesiastes, Luther’s Works 15:25
_______________________________
Finally, a closing prayer from our hymnal…Hymn #620 “To You, Our God, We Fly”
To you, our God, we fly For mercy and for grace.
Oh, hear our lowly cry And do not hide your face!
(Refrain) O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
The powr's that you ordained With heavn'ly wisdom bless;
May evil be restrained, Replaced by righteousness.
O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
Give peace, Lord, in our time. Oh, let no foe draw nigh
Nor lawlessness and crime Insult your majesty!
O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
Though vain and foolish, still We are your people, Lord.
Oh, bend us to your will; We’ll serve no other God!
O Lord, stretch forth your mighty hand And guard and bless our native land.
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand
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