From the Pastor's Desk
Most people complete their daily devotions in the morning. In the early hours they study God’s Word and pray for the day ahead. Normally we do not see the noon hour as a time for prayer.
At noon we are in the middle of our work and may not be able to lay our work aside to pray or read the Scriptures. Yet while monks and nuns in monasteries and convents prayed seven times a day, the prayers they offered during the midway part of the day were shorter. Prayers like, “Lord, have mercy,” “Come, Lord Jesus,” and “Jesus, Help!” characterize our prayers at noon. We make the sign of the cross which is a short prayer confessing our need of the help of Jesus’ cross.
In the hours around noon our strength is zapped. The day began positively. By noon our energy is dried up, our enthusiasm has waned, and we are overwhelmed as unexpected challenges have occurred. We experience apathy or feel a desire for laziness. The ancients called it “the noonday demon.” During the very hours when we don’t have time to pray may be the time we need to pray most! Psalm 91 promises God’s help. “You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the plague that prowls in the darkness nor the scourge that lays waste at noon.”
Our Lord hung on the cross at noon (Mark 15:33). He bore our burden in the heat of the day. The hot sun of our sins beat down upon His back as He labored to bring us forgiveness and eternal rest. The devil was against Him. As the pain increased, He did not give up but prayed to His Father in Heaven. The Psalmist says in Psalm 55:17, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and He hears my voice.”
Noon is a time for complaining and moaning. God is the recipient of our sighs for help. God likes to hear your complaints, even the ones that are directed against Him! We cry out to those we know will listen. There is no better person to speak to. Jesus prayed around noon saying, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
There is a “noon” of the week too. Wednesday in German is called “Midweek,” and the noon of life is called “midlife.” Middle age is the time where we look back and see that we accomplished little of what we thought we would. Sometimes the middle of something is the hardest time as we face the greatest temptation of abandoning what was begun. Many projects, plans, hopes, dreams, or marriages are abandoned midway through. Just as at noontime the sun begins to wane in the sky, so does the strength of man’s spirit. Noon prayer is needed as we see no good or end in sight and as we despair of help and hope.
As the noon of day arrives, we remember the hour that Jesus hung on the cross. He worked and sweated yet accomplished our redemption. Even if what we do seems worthless, our strength is that God sends us to do it, and it will accomplish good through it. The psalmist promises, God “will make your righteousness as the noon-day sun.” (Psalm 37:6) Soon our work will be over, and we will see God’s hand in it, as we do in Jesus’ work for us.
Our hymnal has a prayer for noon (see page 296),
Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, at this hour You hung upon the cross, stretching out Your loving arms to embrace the world in Your death. Grant that all people of the earth may look to You and see their salvation; for Your mercy’s sake we pray. Amen.
A hymn about noon entitled, Lord of All Hopefulness (LSB #738) can also be found in our hymnal.
Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe:
Be there at our labors, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord, at the noon of the day.
May God grant it, for Jesus’ sake.
In Christ,
Pastor Christopher Seifferlein
