Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS)

 Guide for Daily Prayer and Meditation: Dec 29, 2024-Jan 5, 2025

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

Hymn of the Month for January LSB 940 Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

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

Verse of the Week: Luke 2:30, 32

My eyes have seen your salvation; a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

Daily Lectionary

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.

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:  Shirley Arndt, Dan Drinkman, JoAnn Ehlers, Lois Eichinger, Louis and Mary Gettler, Richard Hanson, 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, Doris Post, Arlene Potts, Michael Potts, Mark Radl, 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 after Christmas

O God, our Maker and Redeemer, You wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature.  Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Prayer based on the Eighth Commandment[1]

Guard our lips, O Lord, and govern our unruly tongues so that our words about our neighbors are not tainted with falsehood, betrayal, or slander, which would damage their reputation.  Instead, give us the wisdom to speak well of our neighbors, defend them, and explain their circumstances and actions in the kindest way; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Excerpts from the Large Catechism on the Eighth Commandment

-Over and above our own body, spouse, and temporal possessions, we still have another treasure—honor and good reputation.  We cannot do without these.  For it is intolerable to live among people in open shame and general contempt.  Therefore, God does not want the reputation, good name, and upright character of our neighbor to be taken away or diminished, just as with his money and possessions.  He wants everyone to stand in his integrity before wife, children, servants, and neighbors…The plainest meaning of this commandment…applies to the public courts of justice, where a poor, innocent man is accused and oppressed by false witnesses in order to be punished in his body, property, or honor. (388:255-257) 

-This commandment forbids all sins of the tongue, by which we may injure or confront our neighbor.  To bear false witness is nothing else than a work of the tongue. Now, God prohibits whatever is done with the tongue against a fellow man.  This applies to false preachers with their doctrine and blasphemy, false judges and witnesses with their verdict, or outside of court by lying and speaking evil. (389:263)

-Here belongs particularly the detestable, shameful vice of speaking behind a person’s back and slandering, to which the devil spurs us on, and of which much could be said.  For it is a common evil plague that everyone prefers hearing evil more than hearing good about his neighbor.  We ourselves are so bad that we cannot allow anyone to say anything bad about us.  Everyone would much prefer that all the world should speak of him in glowing terms. Yet we cannot bear that the best is spoken about others (389:264)

-No one is allowed publicly to judge and reprove his neighbor—even though he may see him sin—unless he has a command to judge and to reprove.  There is a great difference between these two things:  judging sin and knowing about sin.  You may indeed know about it, but you are not to judge it.  I can indeed see and hear that my neighbor sins.  But I have no command to report it to others. Now, if I rush in, judging and passing sentence, I fall into a sin that is greater than his.  But if you know about it, do nothing other than turn your ears into a grave and cover it, until you are appointed to be judge and to punish by virtue of your office. (389:265-266)

-[God forbids] that anyone should speak evil of another person even though that person is guilty, and the latter knows it well, much less if anyone does not know it and has the story only from hearsay. (390:269)

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