Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Advent means “coming.” It is the beginning of the Church Year. During Advent we “celebrate waiting.” No one likes to wait for what he really wants. As Christians we want to receive the full glory of our salvation in Christ our King. But we must wait. In a sense, Advent celebrates the cold, harsh, sober realities of life which we must endure before the resurrection of all flesh. We live in the time of faith’s struggle against the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. God’s promises are the strength of faith by which we endure the struggle until our Lord’s return. Advent, therefore, celebrates living in hope of the fulfillment of God’s promises. As we prepare to celebrate His coming in the flesh, we look forward with certainty to His coming again in glory, even as we enjoy His coming to us NOW in the Holy Gospel and Sacraments. This was the same faith to which the Patriarchs of old were called and they lived their life in this faith. That which they beheld by faith we have the privilege of partaking of in the Sacrament in the blessed hope of the resurrection.CP231203

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The End of the Church Year: Watching During the Great Tribulation—The Bride of Christ, the Holy Christian Church, waits eagerly for her Lord’s Second Coming.  Then she, of whom we are all members, will be delivered once and for all from sin and the corruption that is in the world.  The “Great Tribulation” of the last days is the struggle that the Church and every Christian in every age has had with the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. These enemies attack faith in Christ. We, Christ’s Church, have been in the “Last Days” since our Lord’s ascension into heaven. The faith of the Church has always been under attack. Our only defense as Christians is the Word of God and the prayer of faith that claims Christ’s victory in the midst of this suffering.CP231126

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Thanksgiving Day Prayer for the Christian Home — Almighty God, we give thanks for all Your goodness and bless You for the love that sustains us from day to day. We praise You for the gift of Your Son our Savior, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We thank You for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter; for Your holy church, for our congregation and Academy, for the preaching of the Gospel, for the holy Sacraments; for the lives of all our brothers and sisters in Christ, for the fellowship we share with them, and for the hope of the life to come. We thank You for every spiritual blessing in Christ, and for the abundant gifts of daily bread You shower upon us each day. Help us to treasure in our hearts all that You have done for us and enable us to show our thankfulness in lives that are wholly given to Your service, especially in times of suffering, persecution, and need. Save and defend Your whole church, purchased with the precious blood of Christ. Grant Your wisdom and heavenly grace to all pastors and to those who hold office in Your Church. Sanctify our homes with Your presence and bless them with joy. Restore those who have wandered from Christ and denied the faith. Keep our children and our grandchildren in the covenant of their Baptism and enable us to bring up our children in lives of faith, devotion, and loving service to others. Let Your blessing remain upon the seedtime and harvest, the commerce and industry, the leisure and rest, the arts and culture of our nation. Take under Your protection those whose work is difficult or dangerous and be with all who put their hands to any useful task. Give them the just rewards for their labor and the knowledge that their work is a blessing in Your sight. By Your Word and Spirit, comfort all who are in sorrow or need, sickness and adversity. Be with those who suffer persecution for the faith. Have mercy on those to whom death draws near. Bring consolation to those in sorrow. We remember with thanksgiving those who have loved and served You in Your Church on earth, who now rest from their labors. Keep us in fellowship with all Your saints and bring us at last to the joys of Your heavenly kingdom. We commend all our needs, sorrows, and joys to You with thanksgiving, knowing that You love us in Christ, and have promised to work in all things for our good. Bless our thanksgiving feast today and the fellowship we share; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.CP231119

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Two Meditations on the Book of Judges for This Week:

Deborah the Prophetess Judges Israel — “In Deborah we see a picture of the Church. She seeks men to hear the Word of God and believe it. When Brak would not trust the Word of the Lord, Deborah spoke of the woman who would cling fast to the Word and destroy the oppressor of Israel. So it is that Jael serves as a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary who heard the Word and believed. The Word of God and our faith is our victory over Satan. Jael took a wooden tent peg to crush the head of Sisera just as Jesus’ heel would crush the head of the serpent by the wood of the cross. The Seed of the woman has defeated sin and death for us. As Jael gave her enemy milk, so we serve the milk of the Word that it may overcome our enemy until he is finally cast into the outer darkness.”

The Angel of the Lord Appears to Gideon — “The Angel of the Lord came to Gideon at the winepress to indicate that He had been threshing Israel and crushing them like grain or grapes that He might produce better wine. The wine and wheat remind us of the Blessed Sacrament by which the Lord is with us as we share in His sufferings that we might also share in His glory. We are called to cling to the Word of the Lord by faith, as did Gideon. That his faith might be strengthened, Gideon asked for a sign in accordance with the Lord’s mercy. In mercy God has recognized our fleshly weakness and given us the signs of Baptism and the Supper that we might cling to His Word of promise. The sacrifice of the goat and the unleavened bread reminded Gideon of Passover, but also anticipated the sacrifice of Christ. The Angel of the Lord would take on flesh that the staff of the cross might consume Him. Indeed, the rock of sacrifice reminds us that Christ is the Rock of our salvation and the Rock that accompanied Israel in the wilderness. In His resurrection our Lord speaks to us the Word of peace and promises us freedom from the power of death. As Gideon (whose name means “the one who bruises or breaks”) cut down the false god, so Christ has destroyed all gods by the wood of His cross.” From Bible Stories for Daily Prayer: Old Testament Stories—Year II, The Giving of the Law to the Establishing of the Monarchy, by Karl F. Fabrizius. © Concordia Catechetical Academy 2006. Used by permission.CP231112

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Third Article of the Creed and the Ministry of the Holy Spirit — “Neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe in him and take him as our Lord, unless these were first offered to us and bestowed on our hearts through the preaching of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. The work is finished and completed; Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by his sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc. But if the work had remained hidden and no one knew of it, it would have been all in vain, all lost. In order that this treasure might not be buried but put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which he has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure of salvation. Therefore to sanctify is nothing else than to bring us to the Lord Christ to receive this blessing, which we could not obtain by ourselves… Further we believe that in this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire Gospel. Toward forgiveness is directed everything that is to be preached concerning the sacraments and, in short, the entire Gospel and all the duties of Christianity. Forgiveness is needed constantly, for although God’s grace has been won by Christ, and holiness has been wrought by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word in the unity of the Christian church, yet because we are encumbered with our flesh we are never without sin.”— The Large Catechism, Third ArticleCP231105

Catechesis Notes for the Week — This week we celebrate the Reformation and All Saints’ Day. These two feasts appropriately go together. Reformation celebrates the recovery of the Gospel, that sinners are justified (declared righteous) by grace alone, through faith, for Christ’s sake. This justification is what makes all saints “saints.” We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. This is the teaching of the epistle for Reformation: “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Law.” The Gospel for Reformation continues this theme in the words of Jesus: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). The Word of Jesus calls us to repentance and declares us righteous on account of what He has done for us in His death upon the cross. The righteousness of Christ—the forgiveness of all our sins—is received by faith alone and sets us free from the punishment and the judgment of the Law to live in the joyous freedom that only Christ’s forgiving Word can give us.CP231029

Catechesis Notes for the Week — St. James of Jerusalem, Brother of Jesus and Martyr—St. James of Jerusalem (or “James the Just”) is referred to by St. Paul as “the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19). Some modern theologians believe that James was a son of Joseph and Mary and, therefore, a biological brother of Jesus. But throughout most of the Church (historically, and even today), Paul’s term “brother” is understood as “cousin” or “kinsman,” and James is thought to be the son of a sister of Joseph or Mary who was widowed and had come to live with them. Along with other relatives of our Lord (except His mother), James did not believe in Jesus until after His resurrection (John 7:3-5; 1 Corinthians 15:7). After becoming a Christian, James was elevated to a position of leadership within the earliest Christian community. Especially following St. Peter’s departure from Jerusalem, James was recognized as the bishop of the Church in that holy city (Acts 12:17; 15:12ff). According to the historian Josephus, James was martyred in AD 62 by being stoned to death by the Sadducees. James authored the Epistle in the New Testament that bears his name. In it, he exhorts his readers to remain steadfast in the one true faith, even in the face of suffering and temptation, and to live by faith the life that is in Christ Jesus. Such a faith, he makes clear, is a busy and active thing, which never ceases to do good, to confess the Gospel by words and actions, and to stake its life, both now and forever, in the cross. (Treasury of Daily Prayer, page 841)CP231022

Catechesis Notes for the Week — St. Luke, the Evangelist — “St. Luke, the beloved physician referred to by St. Paul (Colossians 4:14), presents us with Jesus, whose blood provides the medicine of immortality. As his traveling companion, Paul claimed Luke’s Gospel as his own for its healing of souls. Luke traveled with Paul during the second missionary journey, joining him after Paul received his Macedonian call to bring the Gospel to Europe (Acts 16:10-17). Luke most likely stayed behind in Philippi for seven years, rejoining Paul at the end of the third missionary journey in Macedonia. He traveled with Paul to Troas, Jerusalem, and Caesarea, where Paul was imprisoned for two years (Acts 20:5–21:18). While in Caesarea, Luke may have researched material that he used in his Gospel. Afterward, Luke accompanied Paul on his journey to Rome (Acts 27:1–28:16). Especially beloved in Luke’s Gospel are the stories of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), and the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). Only Luke provides a detailed account of Christ’s birth (Luke 2:1-20) and the canticles of Mary (Luke 1:46-55), of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79, and of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32). To show how Christ continued His work in the Early Church through the apostles, Luke also penned the Acts of the Apostles. More than one-third of the New Testament comes from the hand of the evangelist Luke.” – Treasury of Daily PrayerCP231015

Catechesis Notes for the Week — We Bear Witness Through Our Infirmity — “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise” 1 Corinthians 1:27. “Unless we are weak Christ cannot exercise His strength on us. If it were our strength and power with which we resist our enemies, we should have the glory and not Christ. But experience teaches us that we are not such as can help themselves, but God must do it. Thus God is glorified in our infirmity. The Lord Christ comforts us in that we know for certain that at times we shall be weak while our enemies are strong and boastful, but Christ wins the victory in the end. Thus God deals with us when we ourselves and all that we stand for are yielding and going to pieces before the world, when we are outwardly weak in the eyes of the world, or when each single Christian is hard-pressed, so that we are not afraid or dispirited. Here we learn that our Lord God does not jest when He feigns to be weak, but is in earnest, for He will cast down the mighty through the weak and will exalt the weak. But we must not look upon these things with the eyes of worldly reason, as is generally done, or we shall be lost. We must know that it is God’s will to overcome the mighty through the weak. We must believe this and straightway shut our eyes.” – Martin Luther   CP231008

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Holding Forth the Word of Life — “Give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13). “I am often aware of temptation, and even today I cannot guard and cross myself against it too carefully. I confess this freely as an example to anyone; for here am I, an old Doctor of Theology and a preacher, and certainly as competent in Scripture as such smart alecks. At least I ought to be. Yet even I must become a child; and early each day I recite aloud to myself the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and whatever lovely psalms and verses I may choose, just as we teach and train children to do. Besides, I must deal with Scripture and fight with the devil every day. I dare not say in my heart, ‘The Lord’s Prayer is worn out; you know the Ten Commandments; you can recite the Creed.’ I study them daily and remain a pupil of the Catechism. I feel, too, that this helps me a lot, and I am convinced by experience that God’s Word can never be entirely mastered, but that Psalm 147 speaks truly, ‘His understanding is beyond measure.’” —Martin LutherCP231001