Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Christ, Our Passover Lamb — “Christ is explicitly named the Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world by the shedding of His blood upon the cross. The Old Testament Passover was a type for the slaughter of Christ upon the cross and the eating of His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper we feast upon the true Passover Lamb of God for the forgiveness of our sins. His blood sets us free from the bondage to sin, the condemning force of the Law, and the power of Satan. In this passage, ‘old leaven’ is a reference to sin. Sin is to be ‘purged’ by contrition and repentance that we might become ‘unleavened’ of forgiven in Christ.” [Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 280a)CP240331

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 31: A Prayer of Thanksgiving and Comfort for the Lord’s Deliverance — “Since He is our God and Savior, since He has redeemed me from all sin, death and the power of the devil, THEN I can be confident that He hears my prayers for His deliverance and I will give thanks to Him for the assurance of His answer to my prayers!” Confidence in God’s promises of deliverance rests in what Jesus has done for us in His death and resurrection. Christ is, therefore, the One who gives certainty and confidence to our prayers! In Psalm 31 we can hear Jesus’ own prayers. He faced every challenge for us! He endured in the confidence that His Father in heaven was His refuge and strength! And the Lord heard His prayers. In His suffering, persecution, and death, Jesus confidently commended Himself to His Father in heaven: “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand; Deliver Me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute Me.” We pray these same prayers through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the full assurance of faith, because we are joined to Him. It is for Jesus’ sake that we commend ourselves to God: “For You are my strength. Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.”

 As Jesus prayed these words with confidence from the cross, we are enabled to pray them with confidence in Him and in His redemption.CP240324

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 43: A Prayer for the Light of God’s Word to Draw Us to Faithful Worship—Psalm 43 is a briefer version of Psalm 42. The psalmist is distraught. He is pursued by the ungodly nation and those who despise his faith. He prays for vindication, that the Lord God would fight for him with words: “plead my cause!” As he is tormented by his enemy and those whose accusations are troubling his soul, his prayer rests upon the assertion: “You are the God of my strength!” At the center of Psalm 43, the psalmist prays for the light of God’s Word of truth to be sent forth for him so that he is led to return to the holy hill of the Lord in faithful worship. Unless the light of God’s Word calls us to repentance and faith, we cannot worship God faithfully or make sense of our lives. It is God’s Word that teaches us to delight in Him and to desire Him above all things. It is God’s Word that gives us wisdom, teaches us to confess, and animates our song of praise. “Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy: and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” The prayer resolves with the confident assertion: If we have God on our side in Christ Jesus our Lord, then we have nothing to fear.CP240317

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “All Scripture Is Given by Inspiration of God” – “The origin of the Holy Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. He is the ‘breath of God’ by which all Scripture has been ‘inspired’ or, literally, ‘breathed by God’ into the men who wrote the sacred texts. For this reason, the Scriptures are said to be ‘inspired’ by God and, therefore, ‘inerrant’ (without error). Although this passage refers most specifically to the Old Testament Scriptures, the Apostle Paul is also catechizing the Church concerning the divine and authoritative nature of the apostolic Scriptures of the New Testament and the use of all Scripture in the Church.” [Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition, p. 42c] CP240310

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Administering the Lord’s Supper according to Christ’s Institution — The administration of the Lord’s Supper involves more than Jesus’ Words of Institution and the earthly elements of bread and wine. It also involves catechesis and preaching which precede the administration of the Sacrament and its distribution to penitent Christians. Jesus bids us to receive His Word, so we learn it by heart. Jesus commands that the Sacrament only be given to penitent sinners who have been baptized and believe in Christ. The Apostle Paul directs the Church to proclaim the Lord’s death in sermons prior to the distribution of the Lord’s Supper, and that everyone who communes is to confess that it is His true body and blood given and shed for their forgiveness. The Apostle Paul also teaches us that when we partake at a particular altar that it is a confessional act in which we are saying that we believe, confess, and celebrate the unity of faith with that church. All this is involved in the right administration of the Sacrament of the Altar.CP240303