Peace Lutheran Church Sussex, Wisconsin

Congregation at Prayer

Monthly Archives: February 2021

The Sacrament of the Altar

February 28, 2021

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Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 108—A Song of Praise for God’s Kingdom Spread throughout the World—Psalm 108 begins with the familiar lyrics of the believer who gives thanks to God and praises Him for His salvation and for extending His kingdom into all the earth. From the Lord’s strong city (for us it is the Church), He extends His kingdom beyond the tribes of Israel and Judah into all the nations of the earth. The citizens of the Kingdom of God are often oppressed, but it is the Lord God who ultimately defends them, gives them help from trouble, and treads their enemies underfoot. Psalm 108 is a joyful song of praise to the Lord for His mission to the world.

 

CP210228

The Sacrament of the Altar — Where is this written? What is the benefit…? How can bodily eating…?

February 21, 2021

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Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 107:33-43—A Meditation on How the Lord Governs Creation—The secular atheistic humanism of our day teaches us that man is powerful enough to control “mother nature” and to manipulate the planet in such a way as to control the weather and to stop hurricanes, drought, heatwaves, and floods. This is not only a lie, but a confession of the idolatry of a new kind of paganism, wherein modern man has almost a “religious belief” that he can control the planet and prevent the world from its inevitable destruction. Against this backdrop, the conclusion of Psalm 107 invites us to confess that the Lord is both God and the Creator and Sustainer of this world. When “natural disasters” happen, according to the psalmist, it is the Lord who is in charge but for His own purposes that often confound and contradict human reason. Psalm 107 invites us to trust in the Lord as Creator and Savior of His people and to rely upon Him when we struggle under the curse of the fall and the distress this brings upon the earth: “He turns rivers into a wilderness, and watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into watersprings. There He makes the hungry dwell…” Let us humbly exercise the dominion God has entrusted to mankind at creation but let us never think that we can play God. Many things are beyond our control. As Christians, we are called to trust in the Lord above all things. The curse of the fall exists for a reason. The sweat, toil, and suffering are sent by God as an instrument through which, by the Word of truth, we are called to repentance and faith in Christ alone for life and salvation.

CP210221

The Sacrament of the Altar—What is the Sacrament of the Altar? Where is this Written?

February 14, 2021

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Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 107:17-32—Psalm of Thanksgiving for God’s Help—“The 107th psalm is a psalm of thanks for the help that God shows to all people in their distress, whether they are Gentile or Jew. This help the heathen have sought by various idols and we Christians and heathen have sought by various saints [in the past] (and to a great extent still do)…We have thus divided all of God’s help among the saints, as the heathen among their idols, and have stolen and robbed from God—to whom alone this psalm is dedicated and to whom alone the psalm calls on us to thank.” Martin Luther, Reading the Psalms with Luther.

CP210214

Confession and the Office of the Keys

February 7, 2021

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Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 107:1-16—Thanksgiving for Eternal Mercy—One of the most repeated phrases in the Psalter are the opening words of Psalm 107: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” The Lord’s mercy is His undeserved loving-kindness toward us sinners in His Son. It is the mercy of God that is the heart and core of our redemption. Psalm 107 calls the redeemed of the Lord to confess His mercy to everyone. He has delivered us by His mercy. He saves us by His mercy. Apart from His mercy we have no claim to any of the blessings of the Lord. Therefore, we confess His mercy to us as sinners before the world that others, too, may know, believe, and trust in His mercy. He has saved us from Satan. He rescues us from every distress. When we cry out to Him He answers us. He satisfies the longing soul with His good gifts. Even when He brought down the Children of Israel because of their rebellion and misbelief, He did so that they might return to His mercy as the fountain and source of their life. “Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”

CP210207