Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Gloria in Excelsis — “The Gloria is the second of the five great pillars of the Divine Service. It is based on the song of the angels at the birth of Christ: ‘Glory be to God on high; and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ In the Divine Service, where our Lord Jesus Christ is truly present according to both His divine and human natures, there is no hymn that is more appropriate than the hymn that announces Immanuel—God with us! The song of the angels becomes our song in the Divine Service. In it we confess faith in Christ ‘who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man’ (Nicene Creed). His name is Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). This is God’s greatest glory!” (Lutheran Catechesis p. 95).CP231231

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Though He Was Rich, He Became Poor for Us — “Every Christian ‘knows the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’ because it is proclaimed to us in the Gospel. It is the pure, undeserved, sacrificial love of Jesus that moved Him to become one with our flesh and weakness, and to suffer and die for our sins. We know and believe in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. It is this grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that moved Him to do what he did for us—to become man, to humble Himself, to suffer and to die for the unworthy and the undeserving. Though he was “rich”—the holy, eternal, omnipotent Son of God who shared in the Father’s glory from eternity and through whom the Father made all things—yet for our sakes He became “poor.” This is love. He set aside His power and glory as the eternal Son of God and became man, humbling Himself to the point of bearing the sin of the whole world in His own body upon the cross and dying for us that we through His poverty…might become rich, partakers of His divine life. To become rich in Christ is to share eternally in the grace of God and to become partakers with Jesus of the immortal and incorruptible life that He won for us in His humiliation, suffering, and death.” (Excerpt from LC)CP231224

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Seed of the Woman — “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). “The suffering and death of the virgin-born Son of God, by which Satan would be robbed of his authority to condemn sinful man, is predicted by this riddle. This passage is often called the first promise of the Gospel. It promises redemption from the power of Satan (the serpent) by Jesus (the Seed of the Woman). How does one kill a serpent? By crushing its head. In the process, one’s heel is bruised. Jesus was bruised in His suffering and death, but by it He won the victory over Satan. The power of Satan was the power to condemn sinful man by the authority of God’s own word: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Since man rebelled and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan had authority from God’s command to demand man’s death and separation from God. The Seed of the Woman (the Son of God becomes man to suffer and die according to the word of judgment attached to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thereby bruising (or crushing) the serpent’s head (or Satan’s authority to condemn). Satan entered the creation in the form of a serpent to deceive and destroy; the Son of God entered into creation in the form of man to suffer man’s death, redeem the creation, and reconcile man to God.” (Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 86b)CP231217

Catechesis Notes for the Week — He Comes Like Lightening — “Lightning is swift and visible by all across the horizon. This is why Jesus compares His Second Coming to lightning. He will appear again suddenly, and all will see Him. He calls us to “be ready” through the hearing of His Word, in daily contrition and repentance, with faith fixed firmly upon Him, because He will come at an hour we do not expect. That no one knows the time of our Lord’s Second Coming highlights the fact that Christians are to live each day by repentant faith in Christ as if He could appear again at any moment.” (Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 128b, used by permission)CP231210

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