Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS)

A Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation: Dec 1-8, 2024

Pray and confess out loud as much as you are able or based on your family size and ages. (Alternative orders in LSB pp295-8)

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The sign of the cross + may be made by all in remembrance of their baptism.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Hymn of the Month for December LSB 357 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

One or more verses from the hymn of the month are sung, or another hymn may be chosen.

Verse of the Week: Psalm 24:7

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Daily Lectionary

The Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

The Apostles’ Creed is confessed † Lord’s Prayer † Prayers for Others and Ourselves (see LSB 305-318 for prayers)

In Our Prayers: Those who are suffering:  Dan Drinkman, Lois Eichinger, Pastor David Ficken, Louis Gettler, Marlys Jones, Pastor Jones, Rick Lahner (Carter’s grandfather), Greg Leland, Missy Lien (Thomas family friend), Lacie Miles (Chrystal’s sister-in-law), Marlene Paulson (Dianne Schroeder’s sister), Kathy Peterson, Arlene Potts, Michael Potts, Mark Radl, Jesse Schweisthal, Sarah Schweisthal, Dianne Schroeder, Kara Simmons (Pastor & Susan Thomas’ goddaughter), Leah Sparks (Marty Swearingen’s  sister), Pastor Szedlak, Jeff Thomas, Cookie Ziebarth

Collect for the First Sunday in Advent

Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Prayer based on the Fourth Commandment[1]

Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood on earth is given; give unto us gratitude for the gifts of parents and others in authority and the humility to serve, obey, love, and cherish them as they fulfill the duties and responsibilities You have assigned to them in this life; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Excerpts from the Large Catechism on the Fourth Commandment

-To the position of fatherhood and motherhood God has given special distinction above all positions that are beneath it: He does not simply command us to love our parents, but to honor them. Regarding our brothers, sisters, and neighbors in general, He commands nothing more than that we love them. In this way He separates and distinguishes father and mother from all other persons upon earth and places them at His side. For it is a far higher thing to honor someone than to love someone, because honor includes not only love, but also modesty, humility, and submission to a majesty hidden in them. Honor requires not only that parents be addressed kindly and with reverence, but also that, both in the heart and with the body, we demonstrate that we value them very highly, and that, next to God, we regard them as the very highest. For someone we honor from the heart we must also truly regard as high and great. (371:105-107)

- We must, therefore, impress this truth upon the young that they should think of their parents as standing in God’s place. They should remember that however lowly, poor, frail, and strange their parents may be, nevertheless, they are the father and the mother given to them by God. Parents are not to be deprived of their honor because of their conduct or their failings. Therefore, we are not to consider who they are or how they may be, but the will of God, who has created and ordained parenthood. In other respects people are, indeed, all equal in God’s eyes. But among humans there must necessarily be this inequality and ordered difference. Therefore, God commands this order to be kept, that you obey me as your father, and that I have the supremacy. (371:108) Bible verses for meditation on the Fourth Commandment                                                

- Listen to your father who gave you life and do not despise your mother when she is old. Proverbs 23:22

-     My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 3:11-12
 

[1] Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. St. Louis: Concordia, 2017.