The Pen and the Sword

Paul said to the Corinthians:

“If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Today I shield myself with threefold power,

Invocation of the Trinity.

Belief in the threeness, profession of the oneness.

In union with the Creator.

Today I shield myself with the power of Christ’s baptism, his hanging and burial.

His rising and his ascension, his descent for the last judgment.

The Lord is salvation;

Christ is salvation,

The Lord is salvation;

May your salvation, O Lord, be always with us.

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? – Psalm 27:1

I had intended to post a meditation for each day in Lent, and I’ve fallen short lately. This has been a particularly bad week for my family, and I’ve not had the mental space to write much. My thoughts have been on God a great deal, I just haven’t expressed them.

Hopefully we’ll all get back to normal in time.

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” – Luke 4:5-7

It doesn’t matter what you win, the ends don’t justify the means.

The appointed reading for today in the 2010 Lenten meditations booklet didn’t really do it for me. It was something about “what have you done for me lately?”, and I’m just not that whiny and demanding in my relationship with God.

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Today’s meditation focuses on Martin Luther’s 1546 hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, and is brought to us courtesy of my trusty 2010 Lenten meditations booklet. That last sentence is curious in that it describes us talking about a piece that was written 464 years ago. (Don’t be impressed with my math; I woke up super early to play racquetball at 0630 this morning, and now I’m sore and tired. I’m still not recovered from all the snow shoveling. As such, I used the calculator on my iPhone to get that number.) I feel certain that little, if anything, that I do will serve to be remembered even a hundred years from now.

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