.

At our Lord’s baptism we stood in the waters of the Jordan and witnessed the gracious God who hears his peoples cry for mercy. We watched the heaven’s split open, and heard him announce, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mk. 1:11) We spent the following weeks hearing from the Lord what it means that God declared Jesus to be the Son-we have witnessed miracles, healings and exorcisms. Then last Sunday on Transfiguration, we stood on the mountain with Peter, James and John Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him”.

“Hear Him,” for He knows what is best for you. “Hear Him,” for He is the one who is driven to save you from your sins.

Only the Messiah could-restore our sinful nature, and recreate the world as God’s good creation. It would not happen easily. It would be violent-Satan would attack God’s Son-and He would suffer and be killed in the most gruesome manner. Our Epiphany readings revealed to us who this Messiah is. Mark records the miracles and deeds of Christ to help establish his power and authority. Now in Lent, we again turn to the inspired holy writers to witness what this Messiah would have to do to complete the Father’s plan of salvation. We have ringside seats for the battle between Jesus and the Devil, between Good and the Forces of Evil.

This battle was not to be fought like we would have it fought. It is not fought with staff and banner held high, with the words of a strong hymn in our throats. NO! Instead of a triumphant forceful march out of the Jordan immediately after God’s announcement at Jesus’ baptism, He was driven into the wilderness to suffer temptation at the hands of Satan for forty days. He was driven by the Spirit to do this. Jesus baptism is one of suffering and of death because in the waters He stands as one of us, and He stands for us taking our sin upon him. What we deserved, He received.

Notice how quickly Mark moves from Baptism to temptation. So too, it was this way at your baptism. when you were baptized, your life became a battleground between God and Satan. Satan will not be satisfied to simply let you go. He’s not going to just say, “Ok, God, you won that one. I’ll go on to someone else.” No, Satan will battle for your soul now more than ever! Satan will use any trick, any scheme that He can to get you to deny who you are as a baptized child of God.God knows this, and so He sent Jesus to receive all the assaults and crafts of the devil in your place.

The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil, for that is God’s work. God sends down his Son into the world as a mighty warrior — not to inflict suffering, but to receive it as the Suffering Servant. Our guilt and sin can not be defeated with show and bravado, but only with Jesus taking on the sin of the world, with His life, His death, and His glorious resurrection from the dead.

How we look at Jesus’ baptism and temptation really frames for us our understanding of the Christian faith, and our own understanding of temptation. Why was Jesus tempted by the devil for forty days in the wilderness? In many ways it is easy for us to look at that temptation as kind of a big object lesson. I can almost hear it: if we just act more like Jesus, then our lives will go well, and everything will be perfect. Right? Wrong!

In the accounts of St. Luke and St. Matthew we see a little bit more of how Satan tempted Jesus. The temptations always centered on trying to get Jesus to deny his mission to God’s people, to deny his purpose of saving the world from sin. Jesus is hungry, and so Satan temps Him to make bread from a rock, and thus save himself. The devil promises “authority” and “glory” to Jesus, just like he tempted Adam and Eve. In the third temptation the devil tempts Jesus to worship him, and not the Lord. But these details of Jesus temptation come to us from other Gospel writers.

The very simplicity and brevity of St. Mark’s telling of the temptation of Jesus indicates that there is a different intention for is account. He does not provide a description of the various specific temptations, nor of Jesus’ response, such as St. Matthew and St. Luke provide. That description is sometimes misconstrued as nothing more than a good example or instruction for us: a legalistic, “What Would Jesus Do?” approach to the Christian life. But instead, St. Mark records only the fact that Jesus was tempted. And because this Jesus was and is the Son of God in the flesh, His confrontation with Satan was decisive for us-not as an example for us to emulate and follow, but rather as His Victory on our behalf, in our stead, for our sake.

Only Christ can defeat Satan and triumph over temptation, sin, and death. And all of this He does (and has done) for you and for me-what we could never do for ourselves. Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeded. Where we fail daily, Jesus wins. If you think of it though, Jesus’ temptation is really a playbill for our own Christian life.

How are you tempted? Satan tempts us in many ways. The temptations may come from obvious places: we can easily point to the vices so readily offered by the world we live in; we can see and maybe even avoid too much liquor, or too much food, or any of a dozen excesses the world so frequently lays before us.

But the temptation may also come from the not so obvious places. Have you ever been tempted to put yourself before the needs of family and friends? Have you ever been tempted to put family or friends before Christ and the Church? Sometimes the most innocent of temptations are the ones that are the most dangerous. As the words of the hymnist wrote:

I walk in danger all the way,

The thought shall never leave me-
That Satan, who has marked his prey,
Is plotting to deceive me.
This foe with hidden snares,
May seize me unawares->
If I should fail to watch and pray.

I walk in danger all the way. (LW 391, v. 1)

It is important to note and understand the way in which Jesus obtains His victory over Satan for us. It is not by a crushing show of strength, but by submitting Himself to temptation, save only without sin. And in our place, He lives as we must live — as we ought to have lived, but have not: by the Spirit of God, by faith in His Father. He faithfully entrusts Himself entirely to the Word and providence of God.

It is no coincidence that this temptation follows immediately after the Baptism of Jesus, when God the Father declared Him to be His beloved Son and the Spirit descended visibly upon Him. Indeed, the Spirit drives Him directly from the waters of His Baptism into the wilderness, in order to be tempted by the devil. It is part of that blessed exchange, of which I have often preached, whereby Jesus assumes our place under the Law, and He undergoes and endures all that we must face as poor, miserable sinners, in order that what He achieves and obtains may be for us. He is tempted just as we are, so that His victory over temptation may become our victory; just as His Cross & Resurrection become our forgiveness and life.

Now, then, as those who are baptized into Christ Jesus, who have been given to share His sonship and His life, we are likewise assaulted by the temptations of Satan, who is all the more desperate to lure us away from God and away from our faith and life in Christ.

Satan will use anything and everything within his power to get us to fall away from faith -and turn toward him. I sometimes think that we don’t realize how hard Satan is working against us. We Lutherans often talk about the Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine of Communion. How often do we acknowledge the real presence of Satan in our lives, trying to tear us away from the life that God has given us in our baptism?

The most dangerous, dire, and basic temptation of all is to doubt and reject the Word (and works) of God, and to focus on yourself (and your works) instead of God in Christ. That is perhaps obvious in the case of God’s Word of the Law . . . but it is likewise so in the case of His Gospel:

Where God has declared unto you that you are forgiven, and that you are His beloved child, you are tempted to look at yourself, your circumstances, your sin, or whatever else in yourself, and to conclude that God could never really love you, nor forgive you, and that you are not His dear child in Christ.

Because God speaks and acts through me as your Pastor, you might conclude that His Word to you-including His forgiveness of your sin-is merely my word and my opinion, and that the real situation between you and God is still up for grabs-something to be worked out in your own heart).

Whether such attitudes and conclusions lead you to pride or despair-the twin ditches into which a Christian falls-either way, you have fallen into the dangerous sin of doubting what is in fact God’s Word. Pride says that you have kept His Law (even though you haven’t!), and it presumes that you don’t need the Gospel that He speaks to you through me. Despair says that, because you have not kept His Law, then the Gospel that He speaks to you through me is unable to help you and set things right.

Again, either way of looking at things is a fall into sin, and at the same time a turning away from your only help and hope in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps we should take this temptation thing a little more seriously than we do. If the power of Satan is so great that it took the Son of God to defeat him, then perhaps we should look at little closer at the life God has given us, and see how often Satan tries to tear us away from the faith.

It is the Word of God-to you and concerning you-from first to last, that determines who and what you are and where you stand. That reality is utterly contradicted by the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, all of which insist that “truth” is relative, that it’s all in the eye of the beholder, that it’s really up to you to decide for yourself what’s what, and that what’s true for one person may not be true for another-and, that, ultimately, it doesn’t matter.

But, oh, yes, it does matter. And it isn’t up to you (thank God!). It is determined by the Word of God-alone-period. It is accomplished for you by Christ Jesus, the Son of God, on your behalf. It is given to you in and through Christ Jesus, by His Ministry of the Holy Gospel-Word and Sacraments. The devil, the world, and your flesh have nothing to say about it, and nothing to do with it: nothing that matters or changes anything. Who and what you are and where you stand is who and what and where God says you are.

When you were baptized, you were baptized into a life of suffering, where Jesus and Satan battle for your life. Satan comes to you tempting you constantly to forget what you have received in your baptism, tempting you to turn away, tempting you to reach for the things of this world at the expense of the riches of Christ in the world to come, tempting you to well, if not embrace it than just dabble in the sin and death that surrounds us.

This is the mystery of baptism. In your baptism you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 2) hidden in Jesus’ baptism, which was one of suffering and of death. At your baptism you were saved from sin, death, and the power of the devil. But at Jesus baptism, He was given over to sin, death, and the power of the devil.

That gives us the key to how to look at Jesus temptation. For you. He was tempted for you, fulfilling the Law where you have failed. That is the totality of Christ’s work. He was obedient, because we rebel. He suffered for us, because we sinned. He died, so that you would have life.

And what is the tool that Jesus’ used to defeat the powers of hell? The Word of God. With every attack that Satan made against Jesus, He responds with the truth of God’s Word. The battle between God and Satan, between God’s Church and the forces of the Devil continues. And after all this time no better defense, no better weapon has ever been needed. The Word of God; heard, preached, read, eaten and drunk. The Word of God-it is what gives you the power to overcome temptation in your life; as Luther wrote in the hymn: “One little word can fell him.”

Jesus’ temptation is the first skirmish of the battle waged against Satan. Because Jesus was tempted, and prevailed, we have the confidence and sure hope that He will never desert us in our time of need.

As St. Paul wrote the Christians in Rome:

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life -is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Lord’s Word is your mighty fortress, your shield and strength against all the assaults and temptations of the devil. It guards and protects you, and as often as you have fallen prey to sin, it lifts you up again (and again) with forgiveness. Here is your life and your salvation forever in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

“In speaking of Lent it is difficult to avoid the word “fasting,” which is misunderstood and regarded with disfavor by many. Yet it cannot be ignored or disregarded, for both the historic Epistle (Joel 2:12-19) and the Gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) for Ash Wednesday speak of it, and Luther’s Small Catechism brings us face to face with the term (Sacrament of the Altar: Who receives this sacrament worthily?). Surely it is to be preferred to “keeping Lent.” For practical purposes fasting may be defined as the avoidance of anything that could interfere with, distract from, or disturb in the preparations for the new life with the risen Christ. This may call for a restriction in diet as excessive eating or drinking may cause dullness and apathy which are far from conducive to a searching self-examination and to resolute spiritual life. On the other hand, should the one who has determined to fast in such a way confine his dietary limitations to Lent and return to his old habits when at Easter he rises with Christ to a new life?

“A number of questions arise also regarding the fad of “keeping Lent.” Does such “keeper” of Lent smoke so heavily,” drink so heavily, consume excessive amounts of recreation, or work such lengthy hours, “that his or her indulgence interferes with the preparations for the new life in Christ? If so, is he or she to resume his or her excess when at Easter the new life begins? The same applies to” any of the excessive habits or our lives. “Whatever is done, or not done, in observance of Lent has value and purpose only if it serves to prepare and train for the newness of life, for the new life to be entered at Easter with the risen Christ.

“Lent is a time in which God’s people prepare with joy for the paschal feast (Easter). It is a time in which God renews His people’s zeal in faith and life. It is a time in which we pray that we may be given the fullness of grace that belongs to the children of God” (The Sermon and the Propers:Volume II, 45-46),

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, it is with humble and contrite hearts that we enter this day the holy season of Lent to meditate on Your bitter suffering and death that you, the innocent Lamb of God, endured for us. With deep sorrow we confess that also our sins, which justly anger God and call for our punishment. were the cause of Your suffering and dying. God chose to spare us by laying upon you the iniquity of us all.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Be gracious to us.
Spare us, good Lord. Amen.

So, long story short: February 25th, move your bookmark from the back of Treasury to page 24 in the front. And then carry on.

(There is another Lesser Skip that happens at the conclusion of the Season after Easter, but well remind you about that in June.)

Easter celebrates the chief event in the life of Christ. It was the earliest and major celebration among early Christians. Given that Easter is both a movable date and also a principal celebration of the Church Year, the date of Easter determines much of the rest of the Church Year. Generally speaking, Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. The date of Easter will influence the date of Ash Wednesday, the fortieth day (not counting Sundays) before Easter; the date of the Transfiguration, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday; and the number of Sundays in Epiphany and after Pentecost.

Lent

The resurrection of Jesus is our great salvation. To prepare to celebrate the feast of the Resurrection (Easter), the Church sets aside a period of preparation. In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea recorded the first reference to the specific number of days for Lent: forty. This forty-day preparation was first prescribed for baptismal candidates and became known as Lent (from the Old English word for “spring”). During this period, the candidates were examined in preparation for Baptism at the Easter (or Paschal) Vigil. Later, these forty days were associated with Jesus’ forty days in the desert prior to His temptation. The forty day period is is symbolic of other periods of 40 in Scripture: the forty years Moses and the children of Israel were detained from entering the Promised Land, Elijah’s forty days spent in the wilderness, Noah had rain for forty days and forty nights, the Israelites wondered forty years to the promised land, and Jonah gave the city of Nineveh forty days to repent.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with midday prayer on Holy Saturday.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of  the observance of Lent. The name is derived from the practice of placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of penitence and a reminder of human mortality. The color for Ash Wednesday is black, while the liturgical color for Lent is violet. Lent is a season of forty days. The Sundays during this season are not counted as a part of the forty-day season; the Sundays are not “of Lent” but “in Lent.” Thus the Sundays retain an Easter tone and may be less solemn than the midweek services that congregations typically offer. The observances of Lent are concrete reminders of the greater solemnity of this season, yet Lutherans emphasize the Gospel of Christ as central even to this penitential season. The Gospel on the Sundays in Lent do not speak of Christ’s Passion, rather they prefigure the great Easter victory

The Lent Quarantine

The observation of Lent is characterized by the liturgical omission of the joyous Alleluias. After the Epistle we hear the Tract or Verse instead.  The Gloria in Excelsis also is not sung. Some congregations forbid the playing of the organ or limit its use to accompanying congregational singing, thus there are no instrumental preludes, postludes, or anthems. Though less enforced today, weddings were not to be scheduled during Lent. Another of the traditional omissions is to not place flowers in the chancel. Crucifixes and crosses are covered with opaque viels of violet or unbleached white linen. The quarantine sets the tone for the liturgy of Lent which is patient preparation and waiting for the climactic liturgies and services of Holy Week.

The Propers for Ash Wednesday
and the Sundays in Lent

Ash Wednesday

Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L22)

Joel 2:12-19 or Jonah 3:1-10
Psalm 51:1-13, 14-19 (v. 17)
2 Peter 1:2-11
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

First Sunday in Lent–Invocavit

O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L23)

Genesis 3:1-21 or 1 Samuel 17:40-51
Psalm 25:1-10 (v. 14)
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 or Hebrews 4:14-16
Matthew 4:1-11

Second Sunday in Lent–Reminiscere

O God, You see that of ourselves we have no strength. By Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L24)

Genesis 32:22-32
Psalm 121:1-8 (vv. 1-2)
1 Thessalonians 4:1-7 or Romans 5:1-5
Matthew 15:21-28

Third Sunday in Lent–Oculi

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L25)

Exodus 8:16-24 or Jeremiah 26:1-15
Psalm 136:1-16 (v. 26)
Ephesians 5:1-9
Luke 11:14-28

Fourth Sunday in Lent–Laetare

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Your mercies are new every morning; and though we deserve only punishment, You receive us as Your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L26)

Exodus 16:2-21  or Isaiah 49:8-13
Psalm 132:8-18 (v. 13)
Galatians 4:21-31 or Acts 2:41-47
John 6:1-15

Fifth Sunday in Lent–Judica

Almighty God, by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L27)

Genesis 22:1-14
Psalm 43:1-3 (v. 5)
Hebrews 9:11-15
John 8:42-45, 46-59

On the last Sunday after the Epiphany, the Gospel appointed for Transfiguration shows us a glimpse of Christ’s reality, a reality seldom seen on this side of eternity. The God-Man Jesus, who in complete submission to the Father left the glory of heaven and humbled himself to be born in the flesh, blood, and bone of man; the Christ of God who, through his life, teaching, and miracles gives glory to the Father, stands before the disciples—and us—fully displayed in his own divine glory and majesty. And with him are the icons of the Law and the Prophets: Moses who was secretly buried by God at his death, and Elijah who did not die, but was taken by God into heaven. And Jesus is having a conversation with them.

It is exactly the fact that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were having this conversation that has led to the liturgical placement of the Transfiguration as the final Gospel of Epiphany. Epiphany as a feast and as a season is about the revelation of God in Christ. First in the story of the magi from the east—signifying the revelation of the Messiah beyond the tribes and people of Israel. Then his baptism is celebrated not only marking the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, but also revealing him as the Son of God anointed for his work and blessed by the Father. The Gospels for the Sundays that follow present the revelation of God through the preaching, teaching, miracles, healing, and the announcement of the forgiveness of sins, that Jesus performed during his three-year ministry. On the mountain of the Transfiguration, not only is the full divine glory of Jesus revealed, but there is this holy conversation about Jesus’ exodus, his departure, in other words his coming suffering and death, which is the ultimate revelation of God.

This mountain-top conversation must be the continuation of the conversation of heaven: the plan of God for the salvation of man and the means by which Jesus would work out that merciful plan. The heavenly hosts—the angels and the whole community of saints—waited in eager expectation for the working-out of the timeless plan of the Father in time, but that does not mean they necessarily waited in silence. The heavenly conversation, now glimpsed at on the mountain of Transfiguration was about Jesus’ departure, the conversation was about the Passion to come, the conversation was about the awesome reality that holy justice required the ultimate payment, the conversation was most certainly about the Son of God paying the price for sin: the death of the Son as the all-sufficient sacrifice.

As much as the disciples wanted to, they could not remain on the mountain. Too soon Moses and Elijah were gone, the glory of the almighty Son was again hidden, and the glimpse of the Lord’s reality—a reality that confirmed the promise of God for a life after death—was gone. None record it, but the descent down the mountain was probably fraught with emotion, and the memory of what the disciples had seen likely sparked contemplation and conversation, and prepared them for the hard days soon to come.

We too cannot stay on the mountain of Christmas, Epiphany, and Transfiguration. Certainly the most ancient and most joyous season of the Church Year is yet to come, but between these two great liturgical mountains is the hard wilderness, the penitential valley of Lent. The Sundays of Gesimatide provide a deliberate descent during which we can contemplate both the mountaintop experience above and the coming wilderness journey below. It is an opportunity to gradually adjust to the change in altitude and the change in attitude. Septuagesima (70-some days before Easter), Sexagesima (60-some days before Easter), Quinquagesima (50-some days before Easter) are the angel-like hands of the Church Year that would keep us from dashing our feet against the stony pavement of Lent.

Septuagesima

O Lord, graciously hear the prayers of Your people that we who justly suffer the consequence of our sin may be mercifully delivered by Your goodness to the glory of Your name; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L18)

Exodus 17:1–7
Psalm 95:1–9 (v. 6)
1 Corinthians 9:24—10:5
Matthew 20:1–16

Sexagesima

O God, the strength of all who put their trust in You, mercifully grant that by Your power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L19)

Isaiah 55:10–13
Psalm 84 (v. 4)
2 Corinthians 11:19—12:9
Luke 8:4–15

Quinquagesima

O Lord, mercifully hear our prayers and having set us free from the bonds of our sins deliver us from every evil; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (L20)

1 Samuel 16:1–13
Psalm 89:18–29 (v. 20)
1 Corinthians 13:1–13
Luke 18:31–43

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a entry for Ember Days, but it leaves much unanswered. Actually, the conservative Catholic site, Fisheaters, has a very fine article on the origin and development of Ember Days in the Roman Church. Pulling liberally from the article on Fisheaters as well as from my essay in Treasury of Daily Prayer, we can understand Ember Days as the time set aside four times a year to focus on God through His marvelous creation: seeking God’s blessings upon the fruits of the earth and acknowledging that all food comes from Him. The three days of each Embertide were marked by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving as prescribed by the church. These quarterly periods take place around the beginnings of the four natural seasons:

Winter — Advent Embertide

Spring — Lenten Embertide

Summer — Whit Embertide

Autumn — Michaelmas Embertide.

These four times are each kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and are known as “Ember Days” (supposedly a corruption from Latin, quatuor tempora = four times, corrupted to quatember, then to ember). The first of these four times comes in Winter, after the the Feast of St. Lucy; the second comes in Spring, the week after Ash Wednesday; the third comes in Summer, after Pentecost Sunday; and the last comes in Autumn, after Holy Cross Day. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:

Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia
Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.

Which for those of us who don’t think in Latin:

Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,
are when the quarter holidays follow.

The handy shortcut for remembering the holidays that herald the Ember Days is “Lucy, Ashes, Dove, and Cross.”

Well, as I said, good information at Fisheaters about the origin and development of the Ember Days in the Roman Catholic tradition.

The Ember Days comprise the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday:

following the Commemoration of St. Lucia (December 13).

of the week following the first Sunday in Lent;

of the week between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday;

following the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14);

Then came the Reformation.

In the Church of the Reformation, the Ember days marked a season of piety especially devoted to preaching on the Catechism.

Martin Brecht writes: “In Wittenberg it appears that Pastor Bugenhagen treated the catechism four times a year. When he was in Brunswick in 1528, Luther substituted for him at the task” Martin Luther, Martin Brecht (Minneapolis:Fortress Press, 1994) II:274.

In the editor’s preface to the last of Luther’s 1528 series of sermons on the Catechism we hear Luther: “It has hitherto been our custom to teach the elements and fundamentals of Christian knowledge and life four times each year.” Luther’s Works – American Edition

The Ember Days were originally days of prayer, repentance, and fasting. After the Reformation, the Ember Days themselves became for Lutherans one of the roots of the evangelical “days of repentance” Paul Graff.

Pastor Benjamin Mayes, a colleague of mine, did a little bit of work in the German sources. Some of this was for his presentation of the Ember Days’ propers for the Brotherhood Prayer Book, some specifically to help me in the Treasury’s presentation. Pastor Mayes:

In Braunschweig 1657/1709, the Ember Days had the order of service for a day of repentance as their liturgy (I:221). Here, all four [sets of] Ember Days were expressly retained (I:228). Some areas put their days of repentance on other days, not necessarily on the Ember Days.

“The ‘repentance services’ are either simple prayer hours held on certain days of the week, or services similar to the chief service on certain high ‘days of repentance, prayer, and fasting.’ These prayer hours cannot, as already mentioned, be confused with the prayer hours already described–occurring one or several times weekly, i.e. morning and evening devotions –although they are very similar in their structure. The prayer hours in question here are in the whole more or less similar to a public festival of repentance. Hymns of repentance are often prescribed. In the prayers, one asks to be forgiven of guilt (Litany) and spared from punishment (war and other distresses, collect for peace and ‘Grant peace, we pray, in mercy, Lord’). In short: these prayer hours –whether daily, whether once or more weekly, whether monthly, such as depending on the change of the moon, whether quarterly, such as depending on the Ember Days, (also perhaps with the command to fast,) or otherwise regularly repeating–give these days a character completely their own, so that such a day becomes itself a day or prayer (day of repentance).” (I:221)

Even in the 16th cent., the Lutherans in north Germany regularly observed the Ember Days as Days of Repentance. (I:225).

[In preparing the] Brotherhood Prayer Book, I researched Roman, Anglican, and German Lutheran books. Often I didn’t find much in the way of special propers or rubrics for the Ember Days. Some of them have their own readings and collects which have the theme of the season they’re in. This is especially the case for the Lent Ember Days (after Invocavit) and the Pentecost Ember Days (during the octave of Pentecost), because those days have proper readings anyway. (Here by proper readings, I mean a distinct set of propers for office and mass.)

Here’s what the 1613 Magdeburg Cathedral Service Book has for propers on the Ember Days.

Wednesday after Advent 3: Invitatory and antiphons and responsory with an Advent theme or from the ordinary. Collect as in the Brotherhood Prayer Book. It is not marked as being an Ember Day. The readings appear to be a lectio continua. Antiphon for Magnificat: O Antiphon.
Friday after Advent 3: Same as above, except: Antiphon for Benedictus, same as Brotherhood Prayer Book text edition, p. 235. Different collect.
Saturday after Advent 3: Same as Wednesday, except: Antiphon for Benedictus: “Behold how glorious is he who goes forth to save the peoples.” Different collect.

Wednesday after Lent 1 (Invocavit) is listed as an Ember Day. Matins: Reading as in BPB, p. 255. Antiphon for Benedictus as in BPB (ant. for Magn.). Collect from Quinquagesima (which is very similar to the collect in BPB, p. 255). Vespers: Lectio continua from Gen. 44. Ant. for Magn.: “If anyone does the will of My Father, he is my brother, sister, and mother.” Collect from Sunday.
Friday after Lent 1. Not listed as Ember Day. Ant. for Ben. “Lord, I do not have a man, that when the water is moved, he may cast me into the pool.” Lectio continua. Vespers: Ant. for Magn., same as BPB, p. 255. Lectio continua. Collect from Sunday.
Saturday after Lent 1. Not listed as Ember Day. Lauds: Ant. for Ben., same as BPB (ant. for Magn.). Lectio Continua. Collect for Peace (same as in TLH Vespers). Vespers: Lectio continua. Ant. for Magn., same as at Matins.

Wednesday in the Octave of Pentecost. Not listed as Ember Day. Matins: Reading same as BPB, p. 279. Lauds: Ant. for Ben. “When the dies of Pentecost were completed, alleluia, praise came to Jerusalem, alleluia, to Zion.” Collect from Sunday. Vespers: Lectio continua. Ant. for Magn. “On the last day of the feast, Jesus said, Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly, and He said this concerning the Spirit, whom there were to receive, who believe in Him, alleluia.” Different collect.

Well, that gives you a taste of what’s going on in the Magdeburg Cathedral.

Martin Chemnitz, in the Braunschweig-Wölfenbüttel KO, which is referenced above, writes:

Also, since up to the present the quatember [fasts] have been conducted in papal fashion, henceforth all pastors and preachers in the cities shall at every quatember, instead of the regular preaching, for fourteen consecutive days, take up the catechism and divide it up, that all of it may be set before the people and usefully explained throughout. And they shall also earnestly admonish the people that they, together with their children and domestic servants, be diligent in attending such useful and very necessary teaching and not be absent.

And also during the quatember mentioned the pastors [pfarner] in the villages shall be diligent, so much as the time and place permit, to very carefully explain and inform the people regarding the catechism, which is a measure of all preaching.

Taken together, this is the basis for the suggestion to treat the Ember Days as “A Day of Humiliation and Prayer” and for promoting the Ember Days as a time to give special attention to the elements and fundamentals of Christian knowledge and life found in the Catechisms. Review and meditation on the Chief Parts of Luther’s Small Catechism could be added to one’s daily devotion: Wednesday: Ten Commandments and Creed, Friday: Lord’s Prayer and Holy Baptism, Saturday: Confession and Sacrament of the Altar

The traditional themes of repentance can be used in one’s personal daily prayer in a way that is already familiar, as a Day of Supplication and Prayer. (Propers appointed for a Day of Supplication and Prayer can be found in the LSB: Altar Book, page 992.) Hymns of confession and absolution would be suitable. The appointed lectio continua readings of daily prayer is retained. In prayers, it would be fitting of the days to ask to be forgiven of guilt (cf. the Litany), to be spared from punishment (war and other distresses), and to pray the collect for peace (Vespers, LSB, 233).

In the Lutheran congregation Individual Confession and Absolution could be offered quarterly on the Saturdays of the Embertides. More challenging, but no doubt it would garner great rewards in faith and understanding, would be to reestablish the practice of Luther, Bugenhagen and others “to teach the elements and fundamentals of Christian knowledge and life four times each year.