The Collect during Lent

HT: the idea for this post comes from Weedon's blog


One aspect of the Divine Service that often people don't understand is the role of the Collect. The Collect of the Day is a historic, short prayer that the pastor prays on behalf of the gathered congregation during the Service of the Word. These are prayers that (in modified form) have been handed down to us over the centuries from the pre-Reformation unified Catholic Church. Typically, they take up the Gospel theme of the day- taking its note from the assigned reading of the Holy Gospel.


I have copied out the actual petition component of each collect below for the entire season of Lent. As you read them, consider what it is that each petition is asking of God. To my mind, these prayers are not only beautiful and well-crafted, their content is breath-taking and goes right to the heart of everything we need from our loving and gracious Triune God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

"Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness" (Ash Wednesday)

"Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come" (Lent I)

"By Your might power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul" (Lent II)

"Be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word" (Lent III)

"Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience" (Lent IV)

"Mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul" (Lent V)

"Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection." (Sun. of the Passion)

It truly is a season of bold requests to present at the throne of grace! May these prayers of the Church be your prayers throughout Lent - today - and every day.

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, A+D 2010

Before reading the sermon, please read the lessons from God's Holy Word.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

So what do you do? Let's say you have an enemy who hates you. He hates you and is always starting rumors about you and turning your friends against you. Now, let's say that one day this enemy suddenly starts to act like your best friend. Do you trust him? When Lex Luther comes to Superman with a helpful suggestion, should Superman say, "gee, Lex, thanks for the tip!" Or should he maybe be extra careful to watch for a trap? If Bin Laden shows up at Army Headquarters in Afghanistan with a suggestion about where and when to send our American troops, should the U.S. general gratefully follow Bin Laden's advice? Or not?

Our Lord Jesus could tell you, for that is exactly what happened to Him, as we read in St. Luke. For Jesus, it was the Pharisees. The Pharisees, who've been testing Jesus and trying to trick Him and trying to discredit Him. The Pharisees, who've been actively scheming and plotting ways to get Jesus killed, suddenly seem to take an interest in His well-being and safety. "Get away from here," Jesus, "for Herod wants to kill you" (v.31). King Herod wants to kill you, they said. Just like Herod's father, Herod the Great, tried to kill Jesus back when He was an infant in Bethlehem. So knowing that one of the Pharisees goals is have Jesus killed, why would they come to Jesus and give him this warning about Herod?

Strangely enough, Jesus doesn't seem worried. "Go and tell that fox," He says, "Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course" (v.32). Not exactly the response we might expect. Not only does Jesus seem indifferent to the news about Herod, He seems even less worried about the fact that His one-time enemies are starting to give him advice! Instead, all we get is this hint about a third day and the resurrection.

Dear friends, Jesus was confident in the face of death. He was confident because He knew His mission— to die and rise again for the forgiveness of your sins. That was why He came and no one could deflect Him from His course, —not Herod, not the Pharisees, not the devil himself.
"Besides," says Jesus, "it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem" (v.33). Jerusalem had a reputation, you see, for stoning the prophets, for killing God's messengers. 


Like the story of the people trying to get Jeremiah killed from the Old Testament. But yet this is how it works— when people reject God and His Word, they usually don't reject God directly. No, that'd be too scary. We don't say, "I hate God and His Word." Oh, well, there's always a few, but not many. No, it's much safer to hedge our bets and attack God's message instead. That's safer, a step or two removed from God. They try to poke holes in the Bible and its message, or we find fault with the preacher, or we find fault with the congregation. "We weren't rejecting You, Lord. We just didn't like how things were done there." Or, "we're not rejecting You, Lord, we didn't like the message."

It's kind of like flag burning. You know how sometimes in demonstrations people burn the American flag in protest? It's a lot safer to attack the symbol of a country than to actually attack the country. Right?


It's the same way with God and His means. When we reject God's means, we also reject God. Because He loves us, the Holy God of heaven and earth doesn't deal with us directly. He uses means. He uses messages and messengers. He speaks to us through the preached Word, the "mouthed Word" as Luther put it. He spoke to the Old Testament people through prophets. He spoke to the New Testament people through His Son Jesus. After Jesus' ascension, He spoke through His apostles and evangelists and He speaks to us today through His called pastors. Jesus said to the seventy: "The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me" (Luke 10:16). If a preacher, for example, is faithfully preaching the Word of God then we need to listen to that Word- for it is not his Word, it is God's Word. As Jesus said in Luke 10, it is the Word of Christ Himself.


Conversely, to reject Christ's Word is is to reject Christ. We can't say, "I believe in Jesus Christ my Lord and yet reject the Word of Christ. We can't say, 'I love Jesus, and yet despise all the things Jesus has to say to us. It was the same with the Pharisees vis-a-vis Jesus. They claimed to love God but they wouldn't listen to what Jesus had to say. The Pharisees were sure they were serving God, sure that God was pleased with them.They went to Church without fail. They fasted. They tithed regularly and spoke out against injustice. They were fine upstanding, moral citizens. But then along comes Jesus. The Jesus who teaches that that isn't enough. Then along comes Jesus, who teaches that the way into the kingdom of God? It's not the broad way of commandment keeping; it's the narrow way of death and resurrection. His death and His resurrection.


Do you want to know why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much? Why they wanted Him dead? It's because He was taking their religion away from them. Taking away their good works. Jesus taught that our salvation is achieved solely by God's grace— that it is God's free gift to sinners. It's the total opposite of the Pharisees who trusted in their own goodness. They flat out refused to believe in something outside themselves. They were so focused on EARNING their way into heaven that they totally turned their backs on the one who came to GIVE them heaven.
And it drove Jesus to tears. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!" Unbelief, you see, breaks Jesus' heart. It hurts him. Every time God's messenger was killed. Every time God's servants were stoned to death for speaking God's Word. "It's not you they have rejected," God once told Samuel, "they have rejected, they have rejected me" (1 Sam. 8:7).


The point is this: when we reject God's message, in truth we are rejecting God. When we find things to quibble with the Word, we are doing the devil's work. We are rejecting the Lord... and rejecting His salvation.


And hence, Jesus' grief and sorrow. When we turn aside from Jesus, when we let the devil lead us away from the Lord and his saving gifts, Jesus laments. He weeps over unbelief. "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (v.34)


It's such a tender and yet tragic picture— imagine there's a hail storm and it's caught out a mother hen and her chicks in the open. The mother hen is desperately clucking after her little ones, trying to gather them under her protective wings, trying to save them from the murderous hail. She's willing even to sacrifice herself to save them, and yet they ruse. They won't come. They won't shelter under her sings. They refuse to let Mom protect them! That's Jesus' love for Jerusalem, for His Church, for us. He longs to gather us under His wings. He calls us again and again to duck under His wing, to find shelter and safety under His outstretched arms.


Those arms which were extended on the cross bearing your sin. Those arms which were extended over you in your Baptism. Those arms which extend over you again when the pastor speaks God's Word, proclaims God's Absolution, and with You the Holy Supper.


The point is: Jesus longs to gather you in. Do not reject His gifts; use them. He gives you His Word in a Holy Bible. He sends you faithful pastors to teach it and proclaim it. He gives you forgiveness in Baptism and Supper. He gives these things to us because He loves us. He loves us even to the cross.


I won't lie to you. If you're looking to find fault with the way the message is taught here, with the pastor or anything else... you'll find it. We are sinners living in a sinful world. The devil, your own worst enemy, loves to pose as your best friend, helpfully pointing out all the things wrong with your neighbors, with your Church, with the message. But know this: the devil has one goal and one goal only, to lead you away from the Word of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord. But who listens to their worst enemy?


Instead, listen to Jesus— Jesus Christ who loves you, who loved you all the way to the cross. Jesus Christ who loves you and always will, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Discipline of Lent, Part IV

Part IV of the series on Lenten Discipline: "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany). The fourth and final installment on Lenten Discipline is on the topic "works of love." Sometimes simply called "alms," this is a critical component of the Christian life. The intention of this part of the Lenten Discipline is to connect our faith in God's love for us with actions that are loving of others in the world.
Works of Love Jesus teaches us that "God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Love is why Christ came. Love is why Christ died. Love is why God raised Him from the dead. Love is the whole purpose and mission of the Church and of every Christian member: to show God's love in the world. Our response to God's loving gift of Jesus Christ is to share that love with others. 1 John 4:19— "We love because He first loved us."
Consider one or more of these suggestions for this portion of your Lenten Discipline:

1. Use Matthew 25:31-40 and Luke 4:18-19 as guides for choosing to do a work of love.
2. Go out of your way to do something nice for somebody at least once a week during Lent.
3. Make a donation for the needy through your church.
4. Volunteer a portion of your time with a local service organization that serves the poor.
5. Ask the congregation's Welfare committee for suggestions of a needy place or person that could use your time, talent or treasure.
6. Contact your local government center and see if you could perform any kind of volunteer service for the community, such as picking up litter.
7. Contact a hospital, nursing home or prison about making visits. Especially see those who otherwise receive no visitors.
8. Talk to the pastor about visiting shut-in members of the church. Perhaps make something and take it as a gift.
9. When doing your work of love, meditate upon Christ's words, "As you do it for the least of these, you do it for me" (Matt.25:40).
10. Don't tell anyone what you're about... just do it. And don't feel proud at having sacrificed your time for Jesus; His sacrifice was far greater. Simply rejoice that God is working through you and share His love.

The Discipline of Lent, Part III

Part III of the this series on Lenten Discipline: "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany). When we come to today's topic, prayer, we finally come to one that all Christians can agree on. Not all Christians are united their understanding of such God-given tools as repentance and fasting, but prayer is one of God's gifts that nearly all Christians agree upon.
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love. Today, then, we'll touch base on the third Lenten Discipline: prayer.
Prayer First of all, we need to answer the question of what prayer is. I like to answer it by stating first what prayer is NOT. Prayer is not mysticism. Prayer is not some sort of mystical activity in which we are drawn closer to God in contemplation and communication. If we want to be drawn closer to God, we go to God's Word and God's Sacraments. Prayer, by contrast, is us talking to God. It's a communication with God that naturally finds its anchor and focus in God's Word... and the best prayers are prayed with an open Bible in front of us. But prayer is not listening TO God, it's TALKING to God.
Daily prayer might include these things:

1. Begin by making the sign of the cross upon yourself in remembrance of your baptism as you speak the words of invocation ("in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen").
2. Use a devotional aid such as Portals of Prayer, the Treasury of Prayer, the Lutheran Hour, or CPH as a guide for prayer and meditation.
3. Use one of the Daily Prayer or Responsive Prayer services in the Lutheran Service Book (pages 294-298), following the lessons in the Daily Lectionary (pages 299-304).
4. The Psalms are a wonderful treasury for prayer. Use them. Sing them. Pray them.
5. Luther's Small Catechism is also is a wonderful tool for meditation and prayer. If you'd like, check out this unique resource: the Small Catechism in Prayer Form.
6. Use the Ten Commandments as a tool to examine yourself. Read each commandment one by one and hold yourself up to the mirror of God's Law. As it reveals to you your sins, turn to God in repentance and pray for forgiveness — knowing also that God's absolution certainly comes to you without delay.
7. Close your prayer time with the Lord's Prayer and with this little Lenten prayer: "Lord God heavenly Father, thank you this day and for this time of prayer. Through the Discipline of Lent, help me to grow in my faith in Your works; through Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen."

The Discipline of Lent, Part II

Yesterday's blog post introduced a four-part series on the Discipline of Lent. Lent is our opportunity to answer "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany).
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love. Today, t hen, we'll tackle the second Lenten Discipline: repentance. It's an easy one to tackle because I just blogged on it last week.
Fasting Fasting comes to us from Judaism and was recommended by Jesus both in example and teaching (see Luke 4:2, Matthew 6:16-18, and Mark 2:20). It is a practice that is used to strengthen the spiritual life by weakening one's attractions to pleasures of the senses and redirecting ourselves to the powerful and efficacious Word of God. Fasting, therefore, is not a dietary tool... is a spiritual tool. For this reason, fasting is always coupled with prayer and spiritual preparation.
Fasting, however, does not necessarily mean giving up all food for a day. Oftentimes it is the giving up or limiting of a particular food or food group (sweets, desserts, chocolate, butter, fat, eggs, etc.). Water is never given up in a fast. In addition, children, the elderly, the sick or infirm, and pregnant women should not fast. One practice that you may have heard of is to fast on a particular day, Fridays in Lent are often chosen as a special day of fasting because of it being the day of Christ's death.
By contrast to food, it is possible to fast (abstain) from an activity as well. Fasting from an activity such as watching television, movies, etc. on certain days and/or at certain hours or throughout the season is another way to observe the Lenten fast.
In the end, what you fast from is less important than what you do with the time that you have saved... or what you do with your thoughts when the hunger pangs come on. Fasting, remember, is a spiritual discipline.The idea is to devote ourselves to a time of prayer and the Word.
Many of the following suggestions for fasting have been practiced by Christians for centuries:

1. Fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday with only one simple meal during the day, usually without meat.
2. Refrain from eating meat (i.e. bloody foods) on all Fridays in Lent, substituting fish for example.
3. Eliminate a food or food group for the entire season. Especially consider saving rich and fatty foods for Easter.
4. Consider not eating before receiving Communion on the Sunday mornings of Lent.
5. Abstain from or limit a favorite activity (television, movies, etc.) for the entire season, and spend the time in prayer, Bible study, and reading devotional material.
6. Don't just give up something that you have to give up for your doctor or diet anyway. Make your fast a voluntary self-denial (i.e., discipline) that you offer to God in prayer.

The Discipline of Lent, Part I

With Lent having begun yesterday, I thought I would begin a series of posts that cover the Discipline of Lent.

What do I mean by discipline? Well, one of the things that is so amazing about Lent is that in this season we hear "our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil— all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other" (Maundy Thursday litany). One of the ways we carry out that struggle against sin death and devil is by exercising the Discipline of Lent.
The Discipline of Lent is four-fold: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love (alms).
These four areas of our Christian Discipleship become the specific occasions and opportunities for spiritual renewal during this season of renewal. Living out a discipline takes our Lord's words about self-denial seriously (Matthew 16:24). Through discipline, we find freedom and grace, just as parental discipline is loving and brings a child to freedom and righteousness (Hebrews 12:3-13). In the Lenten Discipline, we focus our lives on Christ's self-sacrificing passion, death and resurrection, which has brought us forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption by God.
Today we'll tackle the first Lenten Discipline: repentance
Repentance Repentance means turning 180 degrees away from sin to walk toward God. Repentance includes an examination of our lives and our actions in light of God's grace and love, which comes to us free and undeserved through Christ's death and resurrection. St. Paul tells us that we have been joined to Christ's death and resurrection through our dying to sin and rising to new life in Holy Baptism (Romans 6:3-4). Repentance therefore also means returning to our Baptism, remembering our Baptism, and living in that Baptism.
Here are some ways in which we can make that return to our Baptism through the Discipline of Repentance this Lententide:

1. Remember your Baptism each day when you rise and before you retire by placing a small bowl of water in your bedroom, dipping your fingers in it and making the sign of the cross while saying the Invocation: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen."
2. Having attended the Ash Wednesday Liturgy to begin your Lent in repentance, having received the sign of ashes upon your forehead as a sign of repentance and renewal, continue to attend the midweek services as an intentional act of turning away from your sins toward the love of Christ crucified.
3. Attend the Divine Service each Sunday to repent of your signs and receive absolution "from the pastor as from God Himself" (Small Catechism).
4. During your daily prayers, examine your life in light of the Ten Commandments and ask God to forgive you and to lead you into ways of loving him and your neighbor more deeply.
5. Take advantage of private confession with your pastor. If there are not posted hours for private confession, call your pastor to make an appointment with him. In preparation, read Luther's instruction on confession in the Small Catechism.
6. If there is conflict or tension between you and someone else in your life, seek to resolve it so that it does not become a stumbling block to your faith and spiritual growth.
7. Attend the Holy (Maundy) Thursday liturgy to receive a final individual absolution of your sins, in order to close out this season of repentance and renewal.
8. Renew your Baptismal vows at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday as final preparation for the great 50 days of celebrating the Easter victory.

Tomorrow Is Lent!

Dear friends in Christ, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day in the Holy Season of Lent. "Lent?" you say? What dat? Well... Lent is a Holy Season of the Church Year lasting 40 days. It's a season during which Christians pay particularly close attention (even more than usual!) to Jesus going to the cross for sinners and taking the opportunity to receive even more of Christ's gifts to us in Word and Sacraments.
The season of Lent has a rich history in the church. First of all, there's all the "40" associations that come to mind from the Bible... In the Old Testament, there's the 40 days and nights that rained during the Flood. There's the 40 years that the Children of Israel wandered about in the wastelands on their way to Promised Land. There's the 40 days of repentance which the city of Ninevah undertook upon hearing God's Word through His prophet Jonah. In the New Testament, there's Jesus fasting and praying 40 days in the wilderness and being tempted by the devil. There's the 40 days after Jesus rose on Easter until He ascended into heaven.
40 was apparently an important number in the Bible. But did you notice? All of these "40s" had a component of reflection and devotion in the Church Year. Taking up that theme, the 40 days of Lent was created by the Early Church as a time to remember that we, God's people, are still in the "wilderness" of this life and our Lord is there taking care of us.
A good idea... But, as sinners are wont to do, as time went by, Lent gradually became a season that was less about Jesus and more about "me!" When sinners pulled a big whopper, the priests would say that they could only come back into the church after a time of fasting and prayer. That was the main part of Lent: the "penitents," the people who had really blown it, were working their way back into the good graces of the Church. In other words, over time Lent ended up having more to do with people trying to overcome their sins than Jesus overcoming them for us!
So, among the Lutherans, after the Reformation, Lent was again given its place as a time to focus and rejoice on the suffering and death of Jesus for our sins. Sure, we think about our sins because they caused Jesus to go to the cross. But we rejoice that He went to the cross to take away our sins. Think of Lent as the time to pay close attention to what exactly Jesus has done for you. In Lent, we have more opportunities to hear the Good News that Jesus is our Savior and to receive His holy gifts of absolution and His body and blood. Here at Hope on Wednesdays during our Midweek Services (1:00 & 7:00 p.m.), we will focusing specifically on the Passion Account, as we go through a six week series on the Passion of Christ, according to the Gospel of St. Mark.
But beware! Many people, when they hear "Lent," only hear "giving something up." Some people give up chocolate for Lent. Some give up TV or candy or other things they like. But... WHY do people give things up? It has to do with the tradition of fasting. Fasting means having less of something or giving something up. That's a good idea if there's something that you really like so much it consumes you. If something in your life fits the bill, then use this Lententide to give it a rest and learn to live by God's Word rather than the things you love more than God's Word.
But, again, beware! Some people think the point of giving something up in Lent is to deny themselves some pleasure and so make themselves more sad or mopey. You can tell when this is happening when someone uses every opportunity to tell everyone under the sun what they've given up for Lent. Remember: Lent isn't about YOU. It's about Jesus. If you want to give something up, give it up so you can have more Jesus not because Jesus will like you if you stop eating ice cream or give up coffee!
Anyway, that's all I have to say about Lent (for now!) It's a solemn season, but not a joyless one. After all, how can we fail to rejoice when our Lord is headed to Calvary for our sins? He died and rose for us and that makes Lent a really great time of year! 40 days of what, you say? 40 days of Jesus all for you! This article borrows heavily from here. SDG!

When You Fast...

Did you know that our Lord Jesus Christ assumed that His disciples would fast, just as He assumed they would pray? Jesus commended fasting as a private act of humility and devotion to God (see Matthew 6:16-18). Note particularly that he says, "When you fast…" not "If you fast…" Take a look at Matthew 9:14-15. The first Christians fasted (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23). Why shouldn't a twenty-first century Christian do likewise?
It is for this reason that one traditional aspect of the Lenten observance has always included fasting. Lutheran Christians (at least until recently), that is, have always fasted during Lent... not because they HAD to, but because they could. We do not fast in order to earn brownie points with God, instead as an opportunity to practice self-discipline... in order to better focus our hearts and minds on the profundity of the sacrifice that Christ Jesus made on our behalf. It is good to remember that Lent has historically, throughout the Church's history, been a time that involves fasting. In fact, the German name for Lent used historically in Luthernaism is Fastenzeit- "Fast time." The spiritual discipline of fasting was always part of historic Lutheranism, but as in so many other areas of our church life, the desire to "fit in" with the rest of American Protestantism, led this practice to fall into disuse among us. Luther assumed that fasting would be a part of Lutherans' practice when they prepare to receive the Supper, for in the Catechism he writes, "Fasting is indeed fine outward bodily preparation…" What he goes on to say about the proper preparation being faith and trust in Christ was never intended to be an excuse not to fast. In The Lutheran Study Bible there is a great article on fasting and I thought you might find it useful as you consider how you will be observing Lent.

Afflicting One's Soul The modern Jewish calendar has 28 fasting days, but in the Old Testament, God commanded only one annual fast. In Lv 16:29–31, Moses gave God's dictum to "afflict [deny] yourselves" on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). In response to the atonement for Israel's corporate sin, devout Israelites would fast from morning until evening on the tenth day of the seventh month. Before the exile to Babylon, Israelites fasted during times of impending danger, mourning, sickness, threat of war, distress, and sorrow. For example, Hannah did not eat because of the great stress brought about by her barrenness (1Sm 1:7), and David fasted after learning of Abner's death (2Sm 3:35). Religious leaders also mandated periods of fasting at times of great national crisis (cf Jgs 20:26; 2Ch 20:3; Jer 36:9). These examples show that fasting was an expression of sorrow and, most important, an expression of repentance. Overindulgence Where faith is strongest, Satan works hardest. While God esteems those who are "humble and contrite in spirit" (Is 66:2), Satan vigorously attacks them with temptations to overindulge. Thankfully, God did not leave His people powerless in their sin. In answer to prayer, God sent Isaiah to call passionately for their repentance and help them understand the true character of fasting as an expression of sorrow over sin and an opportunity to have mercy on the hungry (Is 58:3–8). Unfortunately, instead of heeding God's call, the people continued in their self-centeredness and thus brought about the Babylonian exile. For God's people, the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar (587 BC) was a turning point in history rivaled only by the Roman destruction of Herod's temple (AD 70). As a result of the exile, four new fasts were added to the Jewish calendar, each marking key historical dates leading up to and including the exile (Zec 8:18–19). For instance, a fast in the fourth month laments the breach of Jerusalem's outer wall by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 52:6–7). A fast in the fifth month commemorates the burning of God's holy temple and other buildings (2Ki 25:8–9), while a fast in the seventh month marks the assassination of Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had placed as governor over Judah (Zec 7:5). Finally, a fast during the tenth month is held in memory of Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem (2Ki 25:1). These fasts served a holy purpose: they reminded the Israelites of the sorrows brought by neglecting God's Word. However, over time fasting became another way the Israelites abused God's Word. In the hope of preventing any further captivity, Jewish scholars pored over the writings of Moses, frantically searching for a reason why God exiled them. They determined to apply the Law more vigorously. What followed was a fundamental shift in their belief system. To this day, many Jewish people still believe that if they keep all the laws perfectly, they will gain salvation. Fasting changed from an expression of repentance to compulsory appeasement of a legalistic code. This deception led many astray to spend eternity apart from the Lord, who desires to save all people (1Tm 2:3–4). The Appearing of Christ Before the birth of Jesus, the Pharisees mandated twice-weekly fasting (Lk 18:9–12). The Essenes, a splinter group that may have lived at Qumran, centered much of their lives on fasting. For the unfaithful, fasting was something done to curry God's favor—a duty, a work, a law. But for the faithful, fasting continued as an expression of repentance and reverence for the Lord, who created them and promised to redeem them. After Jesus' Baptism, He went into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights (Mt 4:2). This recalled the devotion of Moses (Ex 24:18), the great prophet Elijah (1Ki 19:8), and the 40 years of wilderness wandering for Israel. During this fast, Satan repeatedly tempted Jesus, but He used God's precious Word to defend Himself. Fasting for You During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke against fasting as a means of salvation. Instead, He commended fasting as a private, voluntary act of humility before God (Mt 6:16–18). Take a few moments now to read His words and reflect on your own devotion. If you are like most people, you have thought more about dieting than fasting. It is hard to imagine a daylong fast. No doubt fasting for 40 days like Jesus did after His Baptism is out of the question. Yet our Lord's words clearly reveal that fasting should be part of a Christian's life: He said, "When you fast" (Mt 6:16), not "If you fast" (cf Mt 9:14–15). The early Christians fasted (Ac 13:2–3; 14:23). Why shouldn't a twenty-first-century Christian do likewise? As you fast, let the feelings of hunger you experience remind you to pray. Spend the time you would normally spend eating by reading God's Word and meditating on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through His Word, the Lord will bless and nourish you. "Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am' " (Is 58:8–9).

How You Might Fast Consider fasting for a meal or two before partaking of the Lord's Supper. Spend your extra time studying God's Word and singing Communion hymns. Fasting during Lent can be a wonderful way to remember the perfect obedience of Christ and His sacrifice for your salvation. Money not spent on food may be donated for the poor. You might follow this routine for a daylong fast: (1) rise before dawn and eat breakfast; (2) examine yourself as you would prior to partaking of the Lord's Supper; (3) offer your life to God in penitent prayer; (4) go about your day, breaking your fast at evening. If you are diabetic, fasting could be hazardous. Check with your doctor. Do not consider fasting as a dieting program. If abstaining from food is not possible, consider abstaining from something else. For example, turn off your television and spend time in prayer and study of God's Word.

Source: The Lutheran Study Bible, page 189.