Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — I Am the Living Bread — “Jesus calls Himself ‘the living bread’ because he is the source of eternal life. To eat of Him in faith is to receive the gift of eternal life. If anyone eats of Him, he will live forever. To speak of Jesus as ‘bread’ is the language of metaphor that immediately brings to mind the notion of eating. Jesus then defines the metaphor by saying, ‘The bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’ The Word became flesh (John 1:14). Jesus suffered and died for our salvation in the flesh. He made full atonement for our sin in the flesh, to take away our sin and to restore us to life with God. He rose from the dead in the flesh the third day. Now, in the Sacrament of the Altar, He gives us His very flesh to eat for eternal life. How can His flesh give eternal life? Because His flesh took away the sin that caused our death and separated us from God. He gave His flesh into death for the life and salvation of the whole world. Jesus’ words call everyone to believe in Him. He who believes in Him desires to be baptized, and he who is baptized desires to receive His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper precisely because of Jesus’ promise: ‘If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.’” [Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition]CP240225

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Christ’s Body and Blood — “It is the Word of Christ that ‘blesses’ or ‘consecrates’ the bread and wine of the Supper, making of them the very body and blood of Christ. ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you… Drink of it all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’ A church cannot have the Lord’s Supper without the earthly elements of bread and wine and the Lord’s Word which makes of those elements the true body and blood of Christ. The miracle of the Sacrament lies with the Word of the Lord that ‘blesses’ the bread and wine. Faith receives what the Word declares…. All that Jesus is and has done for us He shares with us in the Sacrament.” [Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 280b] CP240218

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Though your sins are like scarlet… “Our sin is serious and pervasive. It is a thorough corruption of our nature. The Lord compares our sin to the deep scarlet or crimson color of blood to teach us that life must be offered to make atonement for sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Atonement for sin is made by the shedding of blood because life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), but our own life is not sufficient to make the payment. That this payment is made by another (vicarious atonement) is indicated by the phrases, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Forgiveness is from the Lord alone. It is God’s transaction. He provides the pure and unblemished Lamb to make the payment which He Himself demands (Genesis 22:8). His forgiveness is full, thorough, and complete, like the pure, brilliant white of snow and like the covering of lamb’s wool. According to the Lord’s reasoning or reckoning, although our sins are great, He imputes them to Jesus who makes atonement for them by the shedding of His blood upon the cross. For Jesus’ sake, He declares us forgiven and we are justified.” [Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 242b]CP240211

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Who Could Stand before the Lord if He Kept a Record of Sins? — “If the Lord held us accountable for our sins and kept a record of them, we would all be condemned and have no hope of salvation. But in Christ there is forgiveness for all sin that we might ‘fear, love, and trust in Him.’ The broken and contrite heart does not rely upon anything that it does for salvation but trusts only in Christ’s Word. To ‘wait for the Lord’ is to believe in Jesus and to look nowhere else for comfort for our troubled consciences or for the certainty of salvation but in His Word of forgiveness. Faith holds on to His Word of forgiveness, and from His Word alone it receives the blessed hope of salvation.” [Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Editon, p. 242a]CP240204