Thursday of the Second Week After the Epiphany

January 23, 2025 Today's Reading: Catechism: The Fifth CommandmentDaily Lectionary: Joel 2:18-32; Romans 11:25-12:13The Fifth Commandment:  You shall not murder.What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.If you ask the average catechumen which Commandment is the easiest to keep, number five is usually high on the list. That is because the average catechumen hasn’t done the “stab-stab” stuff that we usually only associate with this Commandment.But not murdering someone is the easy part. Have you ever hurt your neighbor in his body? Have you always taken care to help and support him in the ways that his body has need? When put like this, the 5th Commandment becomes a little more difficult to keep.And then Jesus goes and makes it even more difficult when He tells us that this Commandment isn’t just about what we do with our hands; it also encompasses how we think about our neighbor and what evil we harbor against him in our heart.God’s Law is a heavy thing that won’t let anyone escape its crushing blow. Lest we think that we have conquered one sin, it will quickly show us where we have failed in five or ten others… God is a God of life, and He would have His people be people of life, too. Not just the life that we receive from Him, but that we would care about the life that He has given to our neighbors.And so search your hearts and recognize the ways in which you have broken even this Commandment. And then return to the Lord your God and receive from Him the forgiveness of sins that He won on the cross for us by fulfilling the Law which we could not hope to fulfill; by loving us to the point that while we were still murderous sinners, Christ died for us, that we might turn to our neighbor and serve him in his body.In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.These are the holy Ten Commands God gave to us by Moses’ hands When high on Sinai’s mount he stood, Receiving them for our good. Have mercy, Lord! “You shall not murder, hurt, nor hate; Your anger dare not dominate. Be kind and patient; help, defend, And treat your foe as your friend.” Have mercy, Lord! (LSB 581: 1, 5)-Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.