Suddenly... it's Saturday!? A moment ago it was Wednesday and I posted here, at least I managed a quick post of the devotion for the day. Then, after a short second here it is Saturday! Two days vanished into the chaos of setting up Lora here :-) Ah well, I trust that things will begin to settle down shortly.

In any case here are the devotions for Thursday through today:

32. Heaven on Earth Thursday

Read: Revelation 4:1-11 and re-read Isaiah 6:1-13
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and
within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God
Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (Rev. 4:8)

You are not alone—the Lord is with you. That promise is more sure than
the things your eyes certainly see.

Isaiah's eyes saw few pleasant things. It was only a matter of time until the
Babylonians came and leveled the city, showing no mercy to man, woman or
child. As had other prophets, Isaiah had the unwelcome calling of telling the
people that this impending judgment was because they had forsaken the Lord.
There is little loneliness in this world so acute as the one who grieves the death
of a beloved; but close to it is the desolation of the true prophet who preaches
life in the Lord while he watches the hearers choose death instead. One
imagines that Isaiah, and the other few who remained faithful, felt very lonely as
the vast majority forsook God.

But they were not God-forsaken, for the Lord is faithful to His people. In
the midst of this, Isaiah had his vision in the temple. Inside that little cubeshaped
room, God sat enthroned, high and lifted up as seraphim sang “Holy,
holy, holy” as they flew above Him. Heaven and earth had come together; and
while Isaiah was terrified of the sight, the Lord was there with grace and mercy.
He forgave Isaiah for his sin, and then sent him to declare His Word.
Unbelievers would hear of their unrepentant desolation, that they were about to
be chopped down to a stump. But believers would hear that a seed would grow
from that stump—God was faithful and the Savior was coming. They were not
alone.

While Isaiah had a vision of the Lord on earth, John had a vision of the Lord
enthroned in heaven (Rev. 4); because God is there, the hosts sing the same
song: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!” (Rev. 4:8)

Pr. Hermann Sasse related a legend about the origin of the Church in Russia.
Prince Vladimir of Kiev sent out messengers to examine different religions; and
after observing an Orthodox service in Constantinople, they returned and
declared that they didn't know if they were in heaven or on earth. This, says
Sasse, decided which religion would be found in Russia: Christianity did not
worship God far away, but a God who came near to help His people—just as He
did for Isaiah in Isaiah 6.

Exactly right! God comes to dwell with His people, and His temple is His
means of grace. That is why, just before the Lord's Supper, we rejoice to sing
the Sanctus (Latin for “holy”), the song of the seraphim: we sing, “Holy, holy,
holy Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory!” The Lord
Jesus Christ, who is enthroned in heaven after His death for you, visits you in
His means of grace. In this world that has so forsaken God, you are not Godforsaken.
In Divine Service, heaven and earth come together as the Lord
forgives you for all of your sins. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is
also life and salvation.

33. Heaven on Earth, and God in ICU Friday

Read: Matthew 21:1-16; if you like, review devotion 15.
"Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the
LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!" (Mt. 21:9)

Organ music, pulpit, font and altar all say “church” to me. There's a comfort
level when these are present, because then I expect to hear the Lord's Word of
salvation, and hear of His presence with forgiveness. There, in Christ, heaven
and earth come together; thus a Lutheran named Christian Scriver once prayed,
“Let Your Supper be to me my heaven upon earth.”

There are times, however, when these sights and sounds are replaced by
others. There's the incessant beep of the EKG and the sanitized smell of the
ICU. There's the silence of an empty house when one has become shut-in,
homebound. These are not comforting stimuli. The sterility of Intensive Care
means that death is a real possibility; and the emptiness of the homebound life
leaves many feeling frustrated and forsaken.

I'm not making this up: just before finishing this devotional, I stood in an
ICU room at a man's bedside. As I often do with comatose patients, I sang a
familiar hymn before speaking God's Word and praying. During the hymn, my
peripheral vision caught sight of a stranger in the doorway. When I ended the
prayer, he'd moved: he was kneeling on the floor next to the bed. After
standing, he explained his unusual behavior by saying, “I came here because I
knew that God was present here.” And so He was, as promised, by His Word. I
chatted with this man for a while, and then went with him to his mother's
bedside to speak the Lord's Word and pray there, too.

The Lord comes to deliver us from death and isolation. When we sing the
Sanctus before the Supper, we don't just sing the “Holy, holy, holy” heard
around God's throne. As we sing, “Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory!,”
the hymn moves from heaven's hosts to Palm Sunday crowds: “Hosanna in the
highest. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!” The crowds sang
that because the Son of God had become flesh, and He was riding into
Jerusalem on a donkey! He was there to “hosanna”—to “save now”—because
He would be nailed to a cross five days later for all.

Behold! We sing the same because the same Lord rides into our midst in His
means of grace. His body and blood, once perched on a donkey, are given to us
in bread and wine. Why? To give us forgiveness—to save now. Jesus is
present in His Supper to hosanna. There He is.

It is awesome that the Lord condescends—and delights—to visit His people
gathered at the altar: how much more a reminder of His faithfulness that He also
visits His individual lambs cut off from the fold. In the living room of the
disabled, or across the bed from the IV bag in ICU, the Lord is no less present
in His means of grace, to forgive and strengthen His people. In times when
isolation and fear reach heights, the Lord steadily, faithfully declares, “Here I
am, with grace and forgiveness and life for you; and no one can snatch you out
of My hand.” What joy! Where two or three are gathered in His name, there He
is in the midst of them. (Mt. 18:20).

34. The Nunc Dimittis Saturday

Re-read: Luke 2:21-38 and review devotion 11.
And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death
before he had seen the Lord's Christ. (Lk. 2:26)

Not every hospital stay ends with a discharge and a return to the comforts of
home. Because of the extent of injury or infection or a whole host of reasons,
life ends in the hospital room; and whatever the medical cause of death, the
initial cause of death is sin, for sickness and death are sin's wages.

No matter how society tries to ignore death and emphasize life, youth and
beauty, the truth is that death is always near. In the short time of preparing this
booklet, I have encountered those who have lost unborn children, born children,
brothers and parents. Pastors know personally far more than their share of the
dead and the dying, and that is how it is supposed to be: you see, it is the great
privilege of the pastor to bring the Word and Sacraments—to bring to the dying
the Lord of life who has conquered death.

We spoke of Simeon once before, back on February 21. We often picture
him as an old man, wizened by years and slowed by age, looking forward to
deliverance from affliction. This may well be—but the Scriptures don't say.
For all we know, Simeon could be a 22-year-old merchant in the prime of his
life, with a brilliant future ahead of him, but the Bible doesn't tell us one way or
the other. It does declare this God-given wisdom on Simeon's part: he is a man
aware of his mortality. And, rather than deny death, by God's grace he comes
into the presence of Jesus, who, though only forty days old, is still the Lord and
Creator of life from eternity. Trusting in this promised Savior, Simeon sings his
song, the Nunc Dimittis (Latin for, “Lord, now”): “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy
servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word. For mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people...”

More than once in the ER of a local hospital, I have sung that song for, and
sometimes with, family members over the body of a loved one who has died. It
is a testimony that this child of God has departed in peace, according to God's
Word. That peace is sure because, during that life before death, the Lord visited
that beloved child. He shared His death and resurrection in Holy Baptism, so
that this one already had eternal life. He spoke His life-giving Word of
Absolution, continuing that life. And He placed His crucified and risen body
and blood in the mouth of this loved one, to strengthen and preserve him in the
one true faith, even through death, unto life everlasting.

That's why we sing the Nunc Dimittis right after the Lord's Supper, because
we experience what Simeon experienced: we, like him, have entered into the
presence of our Savior. Where Simeon held Jesus' body, we receive that same
body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. And so we depart in peace from the
altar, according to God's Word; because even if death reaches out to snatch us
today, the Lord of life has fed us life and will raise us from the dead.  ¶ 3/31/2007 07:57:00 AM 0 Comments