11 November, 2020
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Exodus 20:2–4
Almighty God, God of infinite Power, of infallible Ways, of ineffable Nature, through your Goodness and Mercy you stretched forth your Mighty Hand, chose for yourself a people perishing under inhuman bondage, desolate, dejected and inconsolable, crying out to you in desperation and you saved and delivered them. You recognized their need and through your Providence you freed them from slavery.
Under your protection you made with our ancestors a Covenant, by ntroducing the Law which would guide and motivate them to follow your Word and walk in your obedience. But we are an unruly people, easily misguided and bewitched by dazzling illusions of pleasure and prosperity averse to your just Ways of truth, purity, humility and Integrity.
The wicked adversary lured us to unfaithfulness, treachery, idolatry and pagan practices which invoked your just wrath and created a chasm between you and your unworthy people. Yet, your Promises Lord are everlastingly faithful and steadfast. It is always your endless love and mercy that compels believers to serve and obey you, and obtain grace, through no merits of our own.
Born in sin, we revert to sin again and again, needing signs to build our faith and, in its absence, inventing and worshipping images and symbols, which our tempter, the ruler of darkness, makes us believe, thus perpetrating our sinful nature to heresy and falsehood.
God, you are a zealous God, teaching us that true worship must be spiritual in nature.
Because of our repeated infidelities and compulsive betrayal you sent Jesus, as the Son of Man, who took our transgressions unto himself, paying the price for our sins and creating eternal communion between God and man. It is our Savior and Intercessor who now lives in us, through the Power of your Holy Spirit, shepherding, guiding and leading us to eternal sonship with you, Father. The love of Christ compels us, that if he died for us, that we may live, we no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and rose again. Help us to remain ever faithful, in the true imitation of Christ our Lord. Amen