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Bible Studies
A Devotion for the Day of Humiliation and Prayer
22 January 2009
For Prayer at Home
Marking the 36th Anniversary of the
Legalization of Abortion-on-demand in the United States and the
Willful Destruction of almost 50 Million Innocent Unborn Children
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+ In Nomine Jesu +
Kyrie Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Collect for the Day
Almighty God, whose compassion never fails and who invites us to
call upon You in prayer, hear the heartfelt confession of our sins and
receive our humble supplication for Your mercy. Spare us from the just
punishment of sin, which our Lord Jesus Christ has borne for us, and
enable us to serve You in holiness and purity of life; through Jesus
Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and forever. Amen.
Psalmody Psalm 94 (prayed in unison or responsively; the Gloria
Patri is omitted today)
O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs--O God, to whom vengeance
belongs, shine forth!
Rise up, O Judge of the earth; Render punishment to the
proud.
LORD, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked
triumph? They utter speech, and speak insolent things; All the
workers of iniquity boast in themselves.
They break in pieces Your people, O LORD, And afflict Your
heritage.
They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the
fatherless.
Yet they say, "The LORD does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob
understand."
Understand, you senseless among the people; And you fools,
when will you be wise?
He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the
eye, shall He not see?
He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who
teaches man knowledge?
The LORD knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile.
Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O LORD, And teach out
of Your law,
That You may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until
the pit is dug for the wicked.
For the LORD will not cast off His people, Nor will He
forsake His inheritance.
But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright
in heart will follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand
up for me against the workers of iniquity?
Unless the LORD had been my help, My soul would soon have
settled in silence.
If I say, "My foot slips," Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me
up.
In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts
delight my soul.
Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, Have
fellowship with You?
They gather together against the life of the righteous, And
condemn innocent blood.
But the LORD has been my defense, And my God the rock of my
refuge.
He has brought on them their own iniquity, And shall cut them
off in their own wickedness;
The LORD our God shall cut them off.
Holy Scriptures
II Corinthians 5:19-6:2
That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the
word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's
behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be
sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to
receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time
I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Response
“Open your mouth for the speechless,
in the cause of all who are appointed to die.” (Proverbs
31:8)
Matthew 6:16-21
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad
countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to
men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that
you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is
in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward
you openly. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Response
“Open your mouth, judge righteously,
and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:9)
Meditation
Once more, this day of death has rolled around as the Lord Jesus
continues to show the United States mercy despite the wickedness of
our land. We who are Christ’s will have no part in our country’s
murderous ways. Therefore, on this day we once more publicly and
privately renounce the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing
abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy. And we pray
that pro-life leaders would rise up to lead our nation out of the
abyss of this utter injustice.
But “God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.”
If to dehumanize is to treat someone as though he
were a beast or even a mere mass of unwanted tissue like a wart to be
cut off and thrown away, God re-humanizes our race by becoming
one of us and by removing from us the guilt of our sin. Although we
have utterly deserved it, God has not thrown away the human race the
way we in the United States have thrown away almost 50 million unborn
human beings. An entire nation has been wasted because of our unjust
laws—not merely imprisoned, but killed innocently. And yet our Lord
calls out to us all, “be reconciled to God.”
This is possible, because Jesus Christ, God’s Son,
has by His holy human life and innocent suffering and death,
reconciled the entire world to the Father. God has not only become
man, but He has become sinful man for us, that we might be a
new righteous man in Him. Before the Jewish leaders, and before Pilate
and Herod, Jesus was de-humanized as He became for us a sheep led to
slaughter, in order that we might be “sons of God” in Him. “I am a
worm and no man,” Jesus cried out in His utter humiliation for us.
This is our salvation, and not ours only, but the salvation of the
whole world. Jesus has given eternal value to every human being, He
has saved us by His holy human blood. But by the laws of our United
States, those babies of God’s wondrous creation and painful redemption
are being left discarded without the thought of burial, but are viewed
as refuse. Jesus loves all human beings, and yet the world in its
greed and selfishness despises the least of these.
So what is God inviting us to do? He is imploring
us and all who will listen to act as children of the heavenly Father
and to come repenting home. Be reconciled to God. He is calling us to
love those whom Jesus has loved and to seek their safety—to defend
them; yes, to deny ourselves and to take up their cross and follow
Jesus. The Lord puts the weight of this holocaust on our shoulders. We
Christians are all the unborn can rely on for deliverance. If we do
not speak and act, no one will.
Therefore, as the redeemed of the Lord, as the holy
children of God, as those reconciled to the Father, as those who are
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, give your hearts, your
thoughts and prayers, your words and all you are to this most urgent
need. In Jesus’ name.
Hymn "Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide" #585
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1. Lord, Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For round us falls the eventide;
Nor let Thy Word, that heav'nly light,
For us be ever veiled in night.
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2. In these last days of sore distress
Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness
That pure we keep, till life is spent,
Thy holy Word and Sacrament.
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3. O God, how sin's dread works abound!
Throughout the earth no rest is found,
And falsehood's spirit wide has spread,
And error boldly rears its head.
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4. Oh, keep us in Thy Word, we pray;
The guile and rage of Satan stay!
Oh, may Thy mercy never cease!
Give concord, patience, courage, peace.
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Prayers
Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have
mercy upon us.
The Lord's Prayer / The Apostles’ Creed
Almighty God and everlasting Father, hear us for all the unborn
throughout our land and the world, that they may be delivered from
instruments of death and be given the chance to live as You bless
them;
For all mothers and those who one day will be, fathers likewise,
that they may be strengthened to withstand the temptation of the
devil, the lure of the world and their own flesh, so that they may be
protectors of their young as You have ordained;
For all who have succumbed to the ways of this world in thought,
word or deed, and have sacrificed their children or the children of
others on the altar of convenience or pleasure or profit or ignorance,
or who, chased by fear, have forsaken their God-given responsibility,
not considering the weight of their transgression, that they may
repent of their sin, be lifted up by the power of Your Spirit, believe
in Your infinite mercy and grace, and receive the forgiveness of their
sins and be set free from a guilty conscience;
For all who hold positions of power and influence, for presidents
and kings, governors and justices, for family members, medical
persons, teachers and religious leaders, that all may wake up to the
gravity of our sin as members of the human race who are created in the
image of God, that as peoples and nations we may walk according to
justice and truth, forsaking the course set by the prince of this
world;
For the elderly, the sick, the handicapped, the weak and the poor,
whose lives also are threatened by an ever increasing callousness
toward the shedding of innocent blood; and for the salvation of all;
we pray for peace, deliverance and hope in Jesus’ name, who lives and
reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
The grace of our + Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +
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From the Letter to Diognetus
(speaking of what distinguishes Christians from pagans):
"They marry, as do all others; they beget children but they do not
destroy their offspring" (literally, "cast away fetuses").
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From the Didache:
"You shall not slay the child by abortions."
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From the Letter of Barnabas:
"You shall not destroy your conceptions before they are brought
forth; nor kill them after they are born."
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From St. Clement:
"Those who use abortifacients commit homicide."
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From Tertullian:
"The mold in the womb may not be destroyed."
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From St. Basil the Great:
"The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of
murder. The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes
no difference to us."
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From St. Augustine:
"Sometimes their sadistic licentiousness goes so far that they
procure poison to produce infertility, and when this is of no avail,
they find one means or another to destroy the unborn and flush it from
the mother's womb. For they desire to see their offspring perish before
it is alive or, if it has already been granted life, they seek to kill
it within the mother's body before it is born."
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Lord, have mercy on us.
Large Catechism
Thus says the Lord, "Thou shalt not murder."
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor
harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily
need.
What does Dr. Martin Luther teach concerning this commandment in the
Large Catechism?
“. . . In the second place, this commandment is violated not only
when a person actually DOES evil, but also when he fails to do good
to his neighbor, or, though he has the opportunity, fails to
prevent, protect, and save him from suffering bodily harm or injury.
If you send a person away naked when you could clothe him, you
have let him freeze to death.
If you see anyone suffer hunger and do not feed him, you have let
him starve.
Likewise, if you see anyone condemned to death or in similar
peril and do not save him although you know ways and means to do so,
you have killed him.
It will do you no good to plead that you did not contribute to
his death by word or deed, for you have withheld your love from him
androbbed him of the service by which his life might have been
saved.”
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Funeral Sermon
For
Willis Paul Ude
Husband, Father, Chaplain, Pastor
29 September 1926 – 18 June 2009
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last He will stand
upon the earth.” Job 19:25
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy
Spirit.
Dear Betty, Kathryn and Karen; Paul, Steve and Mark; Maria, relatives,
friends, members of Mt. Pisgah, Immanuel, Trinity, Bethlehem and Holy Trinity,
Brothers in the Holy Office of the Ministry:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I was looking forward to Pastor Ude’s and Betty’s company together a while
longer. We had talked just recently of a Texas brisket sometime. In fact, Deb
and I had come back from Texas, and Pastor Ude wanted to know if I had gotten
any Mesquite. He was shocked that I hadn’t picked up some of the precious wood.
Like you, I was looking for more—more time in the presence of a dear man. It did
not work out that way. God had other plans.
At the death of Professor Henry Hamann in Ft Wayne IN years ago, Dr. Scaer
asked Professor Marquart why God takes all the good guys. He replied in
Marquartian fashion, “Perhaps He prefers their company.” That is absolutely
true; Jesus likes talking to shepherds, because He is the Good Shepherd.
Shepherding in the Word of His Truth is what Jesus is all about.
Willis Paul Ude was acting as a Shepherd to all of us when he chose his
funeral text. He didn’t just want us to know Jesus the Redeemer, that He is
risen and coming again. Bill, husband, father, brother, pastor, friend, for our
comfort and encouragement on this day, wanted us to know of his complete
confidence, yes, his saving knowledge that his Redeemer lives; that as
Job is with his Redeemer, we know Dad is right there beside him.
+ + +
“How can man be justified before God? If even the moon does not shine And the
stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man, that maggot, And the son of
man, that worm!" Thus Job spoke of fallen man (25:6).
Before the just, holy and all-seeing God, man can boast of no righteousness.
Not only does he sin much both from weakness and from a corrupt heart, but man
sins today in many ways he does not even realize . . . unable by his reason to
determine for certain whether a particular action is sinful or right: in matters
of war, for example, with medicine and health care. Sometimes the problem is due
to incomplete information, other times to faulty counsel, sometimes the
Christian is blinded by greed or sinful anxiety which won’t let him make a
proper decision on a matter. Sin flourishes, even in the elect.
How marvelous that it is totally otherwise with Jesus. His is a glorious,
transcending righteousness, as the light of the sun surpasses the feeble
radiance of the moon and stars. He is the only pure One. So that Pilate’s wife
called Jesus, “This just One,” and Judas spoke of “innocent Blood,” and the
thief said, “This Man has done nothing wrong,” and the centurion exclaimed,
“Certainly this was a good Man and just.” Jesus, born of Mary, is the Holy One
of God in human flesh.
When Christ was raised from the dead, His righteousness was declared by the
power of the Father, through the universe, as in heaven, and to the prison house
of hell. Jesus’ resurrection proved wrong the slanders of His enemies—a great
host since the time of Noah. His own people even accused Him of blasphemy and
seditious doctrine. “He is worthy of death,” they cried. But HE rose from the
dead.
Our Redeemer stands before the world today in the preaching of the Gospel,
the Gospel which Pastor Ude faithfully preached. Jesus stands as He whom God the
Father has declared pure and innocent, without fault, righteous, holy and just.
Death looked upon its captive, but was afraid to touch Him. This Holy One
is yours! His death and resurrection declare your forgiveness.
+ + +
Job confessed this in the words, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Job’s
reference to his “Redeemer” is summed up by Saint Paul, “You are bought with a
price.”
It goes against man’s reason and every human advisor, for surely God is to
blame when sickness and death strike, but Job kept his eyes focused on the Word
of promise and his Redeemer. Emotions and feelings, reason and thoughts must be
kept at bay. In the midst of the overwhelming flood of what God permitted to
happen to Job, the foundation of his life was the Word of God. Centuries later,
the Lord Jesus would state the truth that Job confessed. Jesus told His
disciples of all ages, “He who believes in Me, though he dies, yet shall he
live.” The Risen Jesus proclaimed to His Church, “Be faithful unto death and I
will give you the Crown of Life.”
The foundation of Job's great hope was the Redeemer. As Pastor Ude knew, the
Hebrew word is "Go’el." Translated “redeemer” the word carries deep meaning.
Go’el is used to describe the situation where a man had sold himself into
slavery and the obligation to buy him back rested upon a kinsman ... a relative
... a go’el. Job was confident that his Go’el ... his Kinsman ... would be the
Seed of the Woman. He would buy Job back from the slavery of sin and the bondage
of death. This Jesus did for Job and for Willis and for you and for me and for
the whole world. Jesus accomplished this by His stripes.
The word for “stripe” means a “wound that trickles with blood.” Our nation
has been blessed by the blood-trickling wounds of its soldiers and the
sacrifices of their families. You and I are sinners who have been made well by
the blood-trickling wounds of our Savior. That is what Christianity is all
about. We have been redeemed with that precious blood. We are the Lord’s, which
means we can rest assured He will care for us, protect and deliver us.
+ + +
You don’t serve in the military for 20 years during the
Korean Conflict and Viet Nam (10 of those years with the Marines) and fail to
appreciate what it means to be wounded. Wounded bodies and wounded spirits were
everywhere. No doubt, Chaplain Ude was a very busy man. He knew where the
message of the Redeemer was needed. Bill was sent by God to return to Viet Nam a
second time, and as Mark related to me, some think a third. He was a pastor—“who
is weak without my being weak; who is led into sin without my intense concern.”
When others were wounded, he felt the pain. And in dealing with those in his
charge, he was strong, yet gentle: that is what a chaplain and pastor must be.
(When I told son Paul that those are the two traits I would use to describe his
father, he concurred (dismissing my talk of chaplain and pastor) and said: to be
a father. Betty would add: a husband.) To accomplish his calling, God filled
Pastor Ude with His Spirit and put a faithful wife beside him.
The wounds suffered in war were many and deep—physical and
psychological—they required an ointment Chaplain Ude carried with him: “I know
that my Redeemer lives, and at last He will stand on the earth.”
This promise of the Resurrection of Job's Redeemer, the Incarnate Word of
God, and of Job himself, is what kept Job spiritually alive even as his world
was crumbling before him. Job was miserable. He complained. He moaned. In all of
it, however, he did not blame God. Rather, he trusted in the Word of Promise. He
knew his Redeemer would come. Bill has likewise trusted, even as he has
similarly confessed that his Redeemer has come.
In any war, without wounds there is no victory. The Christian
soldier can always boldly say with Job (5:18), “God bruises, but He binds up; He
wounds, but His hands make whole.” God does work all things for good for those
who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. The bruisings and wounds
we suffer remind us of our sin, but more importantly they remind us of the love
of our Savior. For Jesus suffered for us.
“I fall asleep in Jesus’ wounds.” “For I know that my
Redeemer lives.”
You don’t live through the 1970’s as an attentive Missouri
Synod Lutheran, let alone a pastor, without being wounded. The battle within our
Synod was great. The presence of false teachings and false acts always divide
and bruise. Here again the Word of God comforts us, but also sounds a warning,
for Proverbs (27:6) states, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses
of an enemy are deceitful.” Pastor Ude took his stand on the Word of God. And
there he stood steadfastly to the end, built on the Rock Christ, depending
solely on Jesus’ blood and righteousness, depending on the promise of
forgiveness and eternal life, preaching the Truth and supporting it wherever he
went. Bill cherished the Sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood. He was close to
the spilling of blood. He needed the spilt blood of Jesus to heal him, to
comfort and sustain him. He longed for it, not just once or twice a month, but
every week.
For Willis Paul Ude was determined to “fall asleep in Jesus’
wounds” and he has. He knows in a way he never did on earth that his Redeemer
lives. He knows what it is to have no more sin, no more sorrow, but to have life
in Jesus’ name. He knows the victory won by the wounds of Christ.
+ + +
At the end, at 82 years eight months and nineteen days Pastor
Ude’s once strong, soldier’s body was battled and bruised. Sight and hearing
were most missed. Pastor Ude was wounded by a heart attack on Monday morning,
June 18. This wound was sent by a Friend, by which God was drawing His faithful
servant home. Forgiven of his sins as he had forgiven others, his corruptible
still needed to put on incorruption. And that could only be through the death
and resurrection of his body by the power of Christ’s resurrection.
*Though it is certain that even moon and stars do not shine
in Christ’s presence, “Those who understand (have insight) will shine brightly
like the brightness of the expanse of heaven” [that is all of you, Betty, Karen,
Paul, Kathryn, Mark and Steve], “and those who lead the many to righteousness,
like the stars forever and ever” [and that is your dear husband and father]
(Daniel 12:3).*
Karen, your father loved Texas, didn’t he? It was his state, though he was
born in Nebraska. He wouldn’t pass up a chance to travel there. How much more he
loved heaven. How wonderful that he has now traveled home, greeted by his
Redeemer as He showed Bill His hands and His feet. “I know that my Redeemer
lives.” In the name of Jesus. Amen. SDG
*Included in written copy to family, though accidently omitted in preached
version. |
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