Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for Week — “I Am the Lord Your God and Savior! Trust Me!” The first week of a new catechetical year begins another pilgrimage through the Six Chief Parts and Table of Duties from the Small Catechism. During this week we hear the Holy Trinity speak to us in the first two commandments. “Trust Me!” (First Commandment) and “Pray to Me!” (Second Commandment). It is as if He were saying, “I am the only true and living God. I have created You. I have redeemed and sanctified You. I love You with an everlasting love. I have called you by My name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in the waters of Holy Baptism. There is no other God and Savior! Trust Me! I will take care of you!” This is the deep meaning of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods!” There is only one true and living God who provides for all that we need for our life and salvation. All other things or people that we might trust in have not made us, nor can they save us. The Three Men in the Fiery Furnace and Daniel cast into the Lions’ Den showed forth this miracle of faith. In the Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord Your God,” we are called to pray to the Lord for everything, to always praise Him, and to give thanks to Him, even for the difficulties and hardships of life. Through the things we suffer He calls us to trust in Him and to pray to Him for help. Our Lord demonstrates this in Jesus’ Prayer in Gethsemane. In contrast, Peter Denies His Lord gives us an example of the swearing that is forbidden under the Second Commandment. Thus the first and second commandments go together. Out of the proper trust of the heart (first commandment) we pray (second commandment), “calling upon His name in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving of thanks.” This week’s verse is the creed of ancient Israel, the Shema Israel, which means “Hear, O Israel!” What we cannot do by our own reason or strength, God gives by His Word and Spirit. “Hearing” speaks of faith. We confess what is true. There is only one true God. We love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength because He has opened our hearts by His Word to trust in Him above all things.

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Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke — The Sadducees Question Jesus about the Resurrection because they did not believe in the resurrection or life after death, yet they claimed to be faithful to the Law of Moses. Jesus used Moses’ words to counter them: “Now even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”  The account of the Widow’s Two Mites contrasts the false faith of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes with the true faith of the widow who, without pretense or an attempt to justify herself before others, put into the Temple treasury all she had. Jesus catechesis during Holy Week then shifts to a discussion of the Signs of the End and the Destruction of Jerusalem. The destruction of the Temple, the rise of false doctrine, wars, earthquakes, famine, pestilence, and persecution will all characterize the end times before the Second Coming of Christ. Finally, the Parable of the Fig Tree concludes Jesus’ catechesis on the end times. As the change in the leaves of the fig tree indicate that summer is near, so these signs of the end times indicate that Christ’s coming is near. The Church is to live each day in anticipation of His coming with fervent faith in His Words to the end: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”CP250817

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Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke — Jesus Comes to Zacchaeus’s House shows us that the call to repentance and the result of repentant faith manifests itself in Zacchaeus giving back his stolen property. In the Parable of the Minas (unit of weight) Jesus speaks about the gift of salvation in the Gospel that is to be put to use in repentant faith and faithful service in the Church and the Christian’s vocation until He comes again. On Palm Sunday we see the beginning of the climax of Jesus’ work of salvation. All things unfold according to God’s Word and plan of salvation in Christ. Those who believe in Him rightly sing the Passover psalm to Him: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” He weeps over the impenitence of the people of Jerusalem, who did not realize the visitation of God’s salvation in Jesus, who called them away from reliance upon self to reliance upon the mercy of God that He came to bring. Repentance and faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice is the only thing that can give us peace with God.  The story of Israel’s pattern of impenitence and hardness of heart is described in the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers. Time and time again God sent them His prophets. Time and time again they rejected the call to repentance. Finally, He sent them His Son—the only One who could make for their peace with God—but they rejected Him and nailed Him to the cross.  Yet the irony of all of this is that the very act of their rejection in the crucifixion of Jesus became God’s instrument of salvation for a sinful world. After Jesus’ joyful entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in which thousands hailed Him as Messiah, the opposition to His ministry began in earnest by the chief priests, Sadducees, scribes, and Pharisees. Always looking for ways to trap Jesus in a contradiction, the Pharisees are the first to challenge Jesus. Luke records that they “pretended to be righteous” but they could not catch Him in His words.  Should one be loyal to God or loyal to the government? Jesus silenced them in His famous words: “Render to Caesar the Things that Are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke — In the Kingdom of God, Jesus emphasizes themes we hear in the explanations to the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism. The kingdom of God is about the gift of the Holy Spirit and faith in Christ. The kingdom of God is Christ and the salvation He came to bring. The kingdom of God is “in our midst” wherever Jesus’ Word and Sacraments are preached and administered, and wherever Jesus’ Church suffers under persecution. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow, we learn that “the Christian prays continually because he believes that God can be relied upon to deliver him from his enemies. Prayer flows from the faith that God is righteous toward us for Christ’s sake, and that He will vindicate us and right all wrongs at last. If a man who neither fears God nor respects any man will deliver you from an enemy because you continually bother him for his help, how much more shall God, who has called us in His son, deliver us when we cry out to Him?” In the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus spoke to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. It teaches us that “the highest worship [of God] in the Gospel is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness.” The Call to Repentance and the Things that Make for our Peace focuses upon the word of Jesus as He wept over Jerusalem: “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes…because you did not know the time of your visitation” (19:42, 44b). The ministry of Jesus was not all that different from the ministry of the Old Testament prophets. He called sinners to repentance that they might receive His peace and salvation. The call to repentance is necessary, in order that we turn away from trusting in ourselves and in our own righteousness and accomplishments, to trusting in the mercy of God in Christ. This call to repentance is always based upon our Savior’s love for us. We see this compassion and call to repentance in Jesus’ ministry to the Rich Young Ruler. The “one thing” this man lacked was Christ and His righteousness. In Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus, we hear the prayer of this repentant faith when Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Though he was pushed away by others, Jesus received this poor blind beggar. (Excerpts from New Testament Catechesis in the Lutheran Catechesis Series) CP250803

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke — The Prodigal Son “teaches us about God, whose grace toward the fallen seems irresponsible and wasteful, and that all Christians live by the grace of God alone without any merit or worthiness in them.” Very simply, this parable teaches us that “the love of God in Christ calls prodigal Christians back to their baptism” in contrition and repentance. In the Unjust Steward “the Lord Jesus is compared to an unethical man who alters the accounts of his master’s creditors, so that their debt is reduced and he is received by them into their home when the master casts him out. In the Lord’s atonement for sin, He took the debt that we were responsible for paying and canceled it, so that we might receive Him for our eternal good. The axiom is true: it is beneficial to show mercy. This parable teaches that the unbeliever is often quicker than the believer to understand the potential benefits of showing mercy to others with one’s material goods. Jesus commends this understanding.” The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is remembered by many as the first lesson in the Didache course which covers the first three commandments. “This parable raises the questions: Who is your god? What do you worship? Is God’s judgment at death final? How does God warn me of the judgment of hell? What brings me to repentance and true faith? … Each received what he believed in: the rich man received the comforts of this life and of his own achievements, which did not last, and the beggar received the comfort of God’s salvation through the faith of Abraham, which endures to eternal life…”  In Faith as a Mustard Seed, Jesus warns of the offense of works righteousness which destroys faith and extols the gift of saving faith in the Gospel of God’s forgiveness. In the Ten Lepers Are Cleansed “Jesus shows that His grace and salvation is intended for all sinners, even those who would not return to Him in faith, and that fellowship with God is restored to us sinners only through the cleansing afforded us by Him who has fulfilled the Law’s requirements on our behalf.”  (Excerpts from New Testament Catechesis in the Lutheran Catechesis Series)CP250727

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke— A Man with Dropsy (edema) is Healed on the Sabbath teaches us the meaning of the Sabbath: rest in Christ! The Sabbath is not “the work of not working” but ministry of our Lord’s Word and Sacrament through which we receive the rest of sins forgiven and new life in His mercy. The Great Supper teaches us that “the call of the Gospel to receive salvation in Christ is like an invitation which is rejected because people have ‘more important things to do.’ Those who are helpless and needy receive the invitation and believe the Gospel. Those who believe they have no need reject the invitation and are excluded from salvation.” The Lost Sheep teaches us that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save the lost sinner who was not worth saving. Jesus’ passion to save the single lost soul is illustrated in this parable in which a man does the unthinkable: He leaves the many to rescue the one. This work delights the Lord and all of heaven.” The Lost Coin follows the theme of the Lost Sheep and teaches us that “Jesus’ desire to save the lost sinner is like a woman who is possessed with an obsessive desire to find something she has lost, and not to rest until she does. The Lord and His angels have no greater joy than the salvation of a sinner.” This week also affords us opportunity to meditate upon two minor festivals: St. Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus’ had cast seven demons and who was the first witness to the resurrection, and St. James the Elder, the brother of John, and the first of the Apostles to be martyred CP250720

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke— The Faithful Servant is that minister of the Gospel who, standing upon the confession of faith in Christ, faithfully preaches the Gospel and administers the Sacraments of Christ according to Jesus’ institution and for the saving benefit of sinners. Christ Brings Division and Suffering returns to the theme that where there is faith in Christ and the confession of the name of Jesus, there will be opposition and hatred directed against the Church and everyone who confesses the name of Jesus. But again, this suffering carries the promise of eternal life with Christ. The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree is an illustration of how the Lord is patient and long-suffering, desiring all to repent and believe the Gospel. A Woman is Healed on the Sabbath teaches us that Jesus is the source of true Sabbath rest and that all who cling to the confession of faith in Jesus are the true sons of Abraham. The Mustard Seed teaches us that Christ, planted in this world by the preaching of the Gospel, looks to be the most insignificant word in all the earth, yet He produces a mighty congregation of believers among whom the Holy Spirit dwells to give the shelter of His forgiveness and salvation to all who enter here.  CP250713

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke— Jesus’ promises in the Gospel are the basis for every petition of the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the Parable of the Friend at Midnight. We can be absolutely confident that our heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them when we “ask, seek, and knock” on the basis of His promises to us in the Gospel of His Son. Every petition of the Lord’s Prayer is God’s Word and God’s promise to us, so that we might be bold and confident when we cry out to Him. In a House Divided Cannot Stand, Jesus answers those who accused Him of being in league with the devil. Satan’s kingdom is not divided against itself. Satan’s kingdom is in opposition to God, but Jesus is the Stronger Man who has come to bind Satan as He demonstrated in the casting out of unclean spirits and restoring to newness of life those who had been in bondage. At the Dinner at a Pharisee’s House, Jesus called the self-righteous Pharisees and lawyers to repentance for teaching a theology of works-righteousness and for rejecting God’s mercy for sinners. This disdain for God’s mercy was the motivating force for the persecution of the prophets down through the centuries, but for those who are brought to repentance, Jesus is the Savior of sinners and the Teacher of eternal life with God. Confessing Christ, begins with warnings about the works-righteous doctrine of the Pharisees, who would seek salvation by human merit, followed by an encouragement not to fear those who would kill us for our confession of faith in Christ. Martyrdom gives witness to Christ and, if we are called to endure it, we should not fear it but rather rejoice that we in our death might bear witness to the death and resurrection of Christ for the salvation of the world. Jesus warns that those who deny the confession of Christ have no place in heaven but promises that those who confess Him will also be confessed before His Father in heaven. It is the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, that will teach us what to say in the face of persecution for the name of Jesus. The theme of confessing Christ continues throughout the remaining stories of the week. The Parable of the Rich Fool warns us of the covetousness that is a part of our sinful nature and which wars against the confession of faith in Christ. To be “rich toward God” is to cling to Christ alone. CP250706

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke— In the power of the Gospel alone, the Sending Out of the Seventy takes place, giving us a picture of the Office of the Holy Ministry that continues to the present day in the Church. The present sufferings of this life for us as Christians are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. The call of the Gospel leads us through death to life. The Seventy Return with Joy to Jesus. They learned that the Gospel of Jesus was the power of God to save sinners and cast out demons. Wherever this Gospel of peace is faithfully preached, Jesus Himself is at work comforting troubled consciences and giving the gift of eternal life. This theme continues in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in which Jesus’ love for sinners is depicted in the Good Samaritan who saved a Jew from certain death, even though that Jew would have considered the Samaritan his sworn enemy. Instead, the Samaritan binds up the man’s wounds, carries him to the inn, and provides for everything he needs to be brought back to health. In the same way, while we were the enemies of God, helpless and spiritually destitute, Jesus came to us and rescued us from destruction, doing everything for us and for our salvation. In the account of Mary and Martha, it is precisely this undeserved mercy of the Lord Jesus that moves Mary to sit at Jesus’ feet and be taught the Word of Life—the one thing needful. Jesus promises those who delight in His Word that it shall never be taken from them.CP250629

Catechesis Notes for Week — Summer Stories from the Gospel of Luke—In the Transfiguration of Our Lord we see clearly that the Suffering Servant is none other than the eternal Son of God, as the glory of His divine nature, and the future glory that we shall partake of, is revealed in His human nature.  Our continuous readings from Luke are interrupted with the celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah who was born to be the minister to prepare the way for Jesus’ coming. In a Boy Is Healed we see that the call of the Gospel delivers us from the kingdom of Satan and the forces of darkness. At the heart of Satan’s kingdom is the wickedness of a perverse generation that rejects all that Christ has done for us. To counter this perversity, Jesus again predicts His suffering and death because His work alone is our salvation. Those who humbly receive the Gospel by faith are the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. The highest worship of Christ is to receive, believe, and trust in what He has done for us in love. The call of the Gospel brings forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and eternal life to sinners. This is why we follow Him, even through suffering and death. The call of the Gospel, “Follow Me” not only carries with it the power of the Spirit to bring us to faith in Christ, but it also enables us to bear up under the same rejection, persecution, suffering and death that Jesus faced. We have no such strength of our own, but the Gospel gives us this strength, making us faithful and fit for the kingdom of God. CP250622