Saint Matthias, Apostle

February 24 is the day the one holy Christian and apostolic Church commemorates Saint Matthias, Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Matthias is one of the lesser-known apostles. According to the Early Church Fathers, Matthias was one of the seventy-two sent out by Jesus in Luke 10:1-20. After the ascension, Matthias was chosen by lot to fill the vacancy in the Twelve resulting from the death of Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:16-25). Early Church tradition places Matthias in a number of locations. Some historians suggest that he went to Ethiopia; others place him in Armenia, the first nation to adopt Christianity as a national religion. Martyred for his faith, Matthias may well have met his death at Colchis in Asia Minor, around AD 50. The Church of St. Matthias at Trier, Germany, claims the honor of being the final burial site for Matthias, the only one of the Twelve to be buried in Europe north of the Alps. [Source: Treasury of Daily Prayer]

Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God, You chose Your servant Matthias to be numbered among the Twelve. Grant that Your Church, ever preserved from false teachers, may be taught and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Hymn:
For one in place of Judas,
     Th’ apostles sought God's choice;
The lot fell to Matthias
     For whom we now rejoice.
May we like true apostles
     Your holy Church defend,
And not betray our calling
     But serve You to the end. [LSB 517, stanza 13]

When You Fast

Lent is the forty day season that leads us from dust and ashes (Ash Wednesday) to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Good Friday). Christians have traditionally observed this season with a renewed focus on charitable deeds, prayer, and fasting. Charitable deeds are part of our calling, an outgrowth of our faith in Christ. They are done through charitable organizations, here in our congregation, and in our daily dealings with our neighbor in need. Prayer, too, is part of our calling. Our prayers arise to the one true God in worship on the Lord’s Day, in our Lenten midweek services, and in our daily devotions. But what about fasting? Why has this spiritual discipline fallen into disuse among most Lutherans?

In the Old Testament, fasting was an outward discipline tied to the inward repentance of one’s heart. “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:19). Jesus Himself fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness following His baptism (Matthew 4:1-2). The first Christians fasted (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23). Do you suppose fasting might serve a purpose for modern day Christians as well?

Jesus once said:

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” [Matthew 6:16-18]

Notice that Jesus does not say “if you fast…” He says “when you fast…” Twice! Is Jesus a legalist? Is He trying to take our eyes off of Him and place them on our own works? Is He teaching us to earn our way to heaven by the things we do? No! He is simply teaching us how rightly to put into practice this well established and God-given discipline. Fasting is never meant to draw attention to oneself. Nor it is meant to merit anything from God. If either of these is our aim, then fasting will do us no good.

So why would a Christian fast? As a private act of humility and devotion to God (see Matthew 6:16-18 above), and to discipline the body. Disciplining the body reminds us what Christ gave up—His very throne, His very blood, His very life—to win our salvation. It also teaches us—by denying ourselves a basic item like food or drink—not to gratify our every desire. That can be beneficial in our walk of faith. Paul writes: “I discipline my body and keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:27). He later reminds Timothy that one of the purposes of God’s grace is “training us to renounce … worldly passions” (Titus 2:11-12). Fasting is one of the ways we can discipline our bodies and train ourselves to renounce worldly passions.

Did you know that the German name for Lent used historically in Lutheranism is Fastenzeit, meaning “fast time”? The spiritual discipline of fasting was always part of historic Lutheranism. In the Small Catechism, Luther teaches us about the necessity of being truly worthy and well prepared for the Lord’s Supper through faith in Christ’s words of institution: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But he prefaces those remarks with these words:

“Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training.”

Sadly, the desire by many of our forefathers to fit in with the rest of American Protestantism has led to the disuse of fasting among modern day Lutherans. I think it’s time we rediscover this Scriptural and Lutheran discipline. God’s Old Testament people fasted. Jesus fasted. The first Christians fasted. Certainly there’s a benefit in fasting for us as well!

For more background information and some suggestions on how you might fast, see The Lutheran Study Bible, page 189.

Ashes

It is a custom that stems all the way back into the Old Testament Scriptures. I’m speaking, or course, of using ashes as an outward sign of one’s inward repentance over sin. Job repented “in dust and ashes” (42:6). The prophet Daniel made his request to the Lord God “by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes” (9:3). Even Christ connects ashes with repentance as He condemns those who refused to believe in Him: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21).

Why ashes? Because ashes remind us of death. And death is the consequence of our sin (Romans 6:23). Remember the curse pronounced by the LORD God upon Adam and Eve after their fall into sin? “You [shall] return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19; cf. Ecclesiastes 3:20). Like Adam and Eve, we too are sinners who will one day return to the ground in death: “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

Recognizing the Scriptural connection described above, many Christian churches throughout the centuries have used ashes on Ash Wednesday as an outward reminder of a necessary inward reality—repentance of sins and faith in Christ’s forgiveness. Here at Divine Shepherd we offer the imposition of ashes at the beginning of our solemn Divine Service on Ash Wednesday to all the baptized who desire to receive it.

In addition to being an outward reminder of our sinfulness and mortality, the ashes placed on our forehead in the shape of a cross on Ash Wednesday also beg us to remember that our only hope rests in Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for our sin on the cross. He died that we might live. He became sin for us, that we become holy and righteous in Him!

As is evident, Ash Wednesday is a day like no other. It is a somber day, to be sure. For ashes rightfully remind us of our sinfulness, our mortality. But Ash Wednesday is also a hope-filled day, a day in which the most blessed symbol of our faith—the cross of Jesus—in placed squarely on our forehead again, just as it was in Holy Baptism, reminding us of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness in Christ our Lord.

A blessed Ash Wednesday!