Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Weep Not For Me — “Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.’” (Luke 23:28) “He suffers for our sake. For this reason, it grieves the Lord that His suffering should make us weep. He wants us to be happy, to praise God and give thanks for His grace, and to glorify Him and bear our witness, for it is through His Passion that we received God’s grace, and were freed from sin, and death, and became God’s dear children. But we are as slow to the one as to the other, for by nature we are contrary. When we should weep over our sins, we laugh; when we should laugh and our hearts be joyful because Christ, through His death, has won eternal life for us, we weep. For either we have no regard for such joy, because our hearts are bewitched by the merriment of this world, or we weep, lament, and pine as if Christ had never died, never paid for our sin, never stilled the wrath of God, and never redeemed us from death. Therefore, prayer is needed for both: first, that God through the Holy Ghost may touch our hearts, that He may make us loathe sin, may draw us away from it, and take away our trust in ourselves. Then, that He may kindle in our hearts His comfort in the midst of sin and give us a firm confidence in our Lord’s sacrifice and satisfaction.” – Martin Luther, 1545, Day by Day we Magnify TheeCP230326

Catechesis Notes for the Week — A New Commandment I Give You that You Love One Another as I Have Loved You—The Passion narrative in St. John’s Gospel begins with Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointing Jesus with oil. It was an act of love for Jesus and a confession of faith in Him. Mary loved Jesus because she had been touched by His love and anointed His body for His coming burial. On Palm Sunday the pilgrims who greeted Jesus with “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” had also been touched by Jesus’ love and confessed their faith in Him because of it. When Jesus’ washed the disciples’ feet in the upper room, He forgave their sin, sanctified them by His Word for service as His apostles, and “loved them to the end” by preaching His forgiving grace and dying for their sins and the sins of the whole world upon the cross. At the conclusion of this week’s narrative, we hear the words of Jesus: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jesus loved us by laying down His life for our sins and by speaking those words of forgiveness that bind up our wounds and comfort our troubled consciences. This is why Mary, the Palm Sunday pilgrims, and all Christians love Jesus. John would later write of this, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Jesus calls this command “to love one another” a “new commandment” because it is rooted in the New Covenant in His blood. It’s meaning defines what is at the heart of the Gospel: “the forgiveness of sins.”CP230319

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Giving of the Law and the Ministry of Moses—This week’s Bible Stories conclude the Old Testament narrative for the current academic year, from Creation to the Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. In these narratives we learn something about the ministry that God had assigned to Moses. On the one hand, he is referred to as a prophet of the Law; on the other hand, Moses also appears as a redeemer figure through whom God brought about Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt. Yet there was need for a Prophet greater than Moses, namely, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ fulfills every commandment of the Lord and every promise of salvation. By His Word of grace and forgiveness we have life and salvation. In the Advice of Jethro, the Father-in-law of Moses we see the New Testament ministry anticipated. Moses could not handle all the work there was to do in the ministry for Israel. In the same way, Jesus not only called and ordained Apostles, but the Church has continued to ordain ministers today according to the Lord’s mandate. As Israel Encamps at Mount Sinai we learn that they are sanctified by the Word of God, even as we are. They were called to be a holy nation and a royal priesthood for the benefit of other nations. The Church is called to carry on this sacred calling today. At Mount Sinai, they saw the glory of God’s Law in the thunder and lightning. There would be no approach to God apart from the access to God that Jesus would bring to His people by His atoning sacrifice upon the cross. Finally, the climax of the exodus occurs in the giving of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments record God’s moral law, what is good and right, what is evil and wrong. The Law is written upon the hearts of all men, but in the Ten Commandments we learn to know what this Law is in all its certainty against the attempts of the flesh to deny what is good and true. The Ten Commandments, God’s Law, shows us our sin and how much we need Christ, the only One who could fulfill the Law for us. In the Lord’s Covenant with Israel, the Lord pledges to be faithful to the promises He has made to His people, and the children of Israel promise the Lord, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do.” Israel broke its pledge. The Old Covenant was broken by their unfaithfulness, but in the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood the Old Covenant is fulfilled for all.CP230312

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Lord’s Care and Provision for His Rebellious People—This week’s Old Testament stories highlight God’s grace toward His rebellious people. Despite the mighty deliverance they had experienced in their deliverance from the Egyptians at the Red Sea, they grumbled and complained against the Lord throughout their wilderness sojourn to Mount Sinai. In Bitter Water Made Sweet it appeared to Israel as if they would die of thirst in the wilderness, but the Lord would not allow them to perish. He sweetened the water so that they could drink, and it would sustain life. In The Bread from Heaven they again grumbled against the Lord and accused Him of not caring for them by letting them starve in the wilderness. Again, the Lord provided manna from heaven and quail to eat in abundance. But even in their eating, they demonstrated ungratefulness and accused the Lord of abandoning them. In the Water from the Rock we see the source of every temporal and spiritual blessing: Christ, the Rock of our salvation. The Lord commanded Moses to strike the rock in the wilderness. Water gushed forth, completely satisfying every need of the entire congregation. By this water their thirst was quenched, and He would continue to provide for them from the rock throughout their sojourn. This rock is a picture of Christ. He is the Rock of our salvation. On the altar of the cross He was struck with a spear and blood and water gushed forth for the life and salvation of all who look to Him in faith. The First Battle announces the first of many victories that the Lord would give to Israel throughout their pilgrimage and as they would experience in the conquest of the Promised Land. Finally, this week’s Passion reading from St. Matthew is: Jesus Celebrates the Passover. This reading, so central to our Lord’s Passion, teaches us that every sacrifice and feast of the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Jesus, the true Passover Lamb. He was slaughtered for us upon the altar of the cross and in His supper we eat and drink of His body and blood for our salvation.CP230305