Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week— The Table of Duties Concerning Wives and Husbands—The passages of Holy Scripture in the Table of Duties concern the offices we have been given as Christians where our faith in Christ is lived out in this world. There is often great confusion about these two holy offices. Husbands are the head of their wives, but their headship is one of sacrificial love, teaching the Word of God, and forgiving sin. They are to be considerate of their wives who are placed in an office that requires them to submit to their husbands. Husbands are not to lord their authority over their wives. This is always a temptation for any Christian husband. Wives are to understand that their office of submission is patterned after Christ’s bride the Church. They are to expect their husbands to love them, teach them, and forgive them. Their beauty is not in outward adornment, but in the reception of their husband’s love. “This is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands…” It is a beautiful and blessed thing when husbands love their wives as Christ loved the Church and when wives receive that love and trust in it.

CP260426

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Office of Husband — This week’s section of the Table of Duties directs us to what God’s Word says concerning the Office of Husband. When the Apostle Peter directs, “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” He is reminding husbands that their wives have been given an office by God that places them in a subordinate position to them. It would be very easy for the husband, corrupted by the sinful flesh as he is, to take advantage of his headship and the wife’s position of subordination to him. He is to “be considerate” of the position that God gave her and be husband to her in selfless love. Although they are not both in the same office, they are, nevertheless, equal “heirs of the gracious gift of life” in Christ Jesus. If he does not believe that then his prayers, which include the ministration of his office as a husband, will be “hindered.” The essential disposition of the husband to the wife is contained in the passage from Colossians: “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” Here the husband’s office is depicted as the office of Christ to His bride the Church, as it is also in Ephesians 5. Christ loves His bride by laying down His life for her and covering her sins with His blood. He is never harsh with her who is “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, but nourishes and cares for her as His own body.” The office of husband finds its identity in Christ, the Church’s Bridegroom.

CP260419

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Left-Hand Kingdom—The civil governance is sometimes called the “left-hand kingdom of God” where He rules and protects man in his external relationships through government and the force of law.  The “left-hand kingdom” is to be distinguished from the “right-hand kingdom” (the Church) through which God rules the heart by the call to repentance and the Word of the Gospel.  We should still understand the left-hand kingdom as that which God has established.

CP260412

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Holy Spirit and the Resurrection of Our Lord — During this week of the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we also meditate upon the Third Article of the Creed.  It is the Holy Spirit who brings Jesus’ victory over death to us through the sweet message of the forgiveness of sins.  By this Word, sins are forgiven, faith is created, and we are raised up by the Spirit of God to walk in newness of life.  Jesus gave up the Holy Spirit when He died upon the cross and in the upper room He breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples when He said, “Peace be with You!”  The message of Jesus’ peace and forgiveness is the message of the Holy Spirit by which we are continually renewed in faith and life.  This same Holy Spirit will raise us from the dead, with Jesus, on the Last Day.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, through the Word and Sacraments of Christ we will forever enjoy the resurrection of the body and the life-everlasting.

CP260405