Lord, we need to rest. We need a day separate from all the other days of the week just to rest our weary bodies. We need a time-out. We need to be reminded that we are not in a trap. We need to be reminded of who we are and that there is a purpose in all that we do. We need to be reminded of what is really important in this world.

We need to know what it is like to be in the presence of God. We need a time where the holy is separated from the secular, the divine is separated from the common, the heavenly separated from the earthly, and the sacred is separated from the profane. We need to be reminded that there is a God and he is wholly other than we are.

We need a place where we can trust the words spoken to be true. We need a place where we know our friends will not betray us. We need a place where we know that we are at home, and we are safe. We need to be with brethren who love the same things that we love and who hate the same things that we hate. Lord, we need the fellowship of the saints of God. Lord, we don’t fit in the world. It is not our home. It is not our sanctuary. It is not our place of rest.

We need to remember that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. The world sells us ideas. The world sells us its cheap wares. The world often defines for us what is significant and what meaningful. We drink from their cistern and we eat at their table. If we have not been taught to think as God thinks, or if we cannot discern the times, we are easily captured by those who will not treat us well.

We may not be wicked, but we are often foolish. We may not be deceitful, but we are often easily deceived. We may not be part of the world, but the world is surely a part of us.

Lord, the days are unsettling. The institutions we have trusted are failing us. The west is dying. We have sowed unto the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind.

Lord, we are wise enough to know that life will never be without conflict, problems do not cease with age, nations rise and fall, the righteous sin, and the godly can fall into a ditch. We are not naive. We may not be what we ought to be, but Lord in our trials and suffering we have learned much.

Lord, we ask that You will hear us when we cry out to Thee. We do not deserve to be heard. We have no right to be heard. We should be ignored. We should be hanged from the highest tree and our dead bodies thrown into the depths of the sea. Yet, Lord, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of Your Name, for the sake of our forefathers who loved You, hear us today. Do not turn your ear away from us. Lord, we have nothing to offer You. We have nothing to bring to You.

But we do have a Mediator. We do have One who died for us. We do have one who was raised from the dead on the third day and now sits at Your right hand. Lord, we are bold in Him. Apart from Him we are afraid.

Lord, we confess that we cannot climb to heaven. We cannot reach upward. We cannot find You by stretching ourselves. The good news is not that we must come to You, but that You have come down to us. We are not climbing Jacob’s ladder, You have come down on Jacob’s ladder. We cannot climb to Heaven. You have come down from Heaven and revealed Yourself to us, first in the flesh, and now in your Word. We meet You on earth in Your word, in Your Church, and in the sacraments. Lord, that is the good news.