Your Most Incendiary Member

Verse for the week: “The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
² Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.”  Psalm 19.1-2

Prayer for the week: Lord, your law is perfect and pure, and Christ alone is the fulfillment of it. Conform me and your whole church to his image, through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Bible reading for the day: James 3.1-12  (Early tradition attributes this letter to the Lord’s brother, James, a leader in the Jerusalem church (Mark 6.3, Acts 15); however, it must also be acknowledged that many scholars dispute this. “James” was a very common name among first century Jews and Christians. In any case, this canonical book of the New Testament joins the other epistles in upholding God’s perfect law and exposing our sin.)

 ¹ Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ² For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. ³ If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. ⁴ Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. ⁷ For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

 Prayer of the Day: Gracious and almighty Father, thank you for Christ crucified for every part of me: head, heart, and that most incendiary member, my tongue. Each day, each hour, conform all of me – including my tongue – to Christ’s image. Put my old self and tongue to death… and give me new ones like his. Saddle me and bridle me for your use alone, in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Hymn: here’s a fun children’s song that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHtTOrg9hwo&ab_channel=SaintMax

“I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son…”

What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ – true God, Son of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the virgin Mary – is my Lord.

At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and condemned person. He has freed me from, sin, death, and the power of the devil – not with silver and gold, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.

All this he has done that I may be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally.

This is most certainly true. (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther)

Benediction: For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.   Psalm 149.4

 

*This is now our congregation’s 99^th year in the Word. In 2025, we are reading from Genesis to Revelation, with a few interludes along the way.