Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week— We need pastors! Have you ever thought about your need for a pastor? We might say, “We need Jesus!” Every Christian would agree with that statement. We need Jesus who has died for us, shed His blood for us, who forgives our sins and gives us the gift of eternal life and the resurrection from the dead. We need faith in Him to receive what He has done, but this is why Jesus instituted the Office of the Ministry. It is not only necessary for Jesus to have suffered and died for our sins and to have risen from the dead the third day according to the Scriptures, but it is equally necessary for this Gospel to be preached to us that we might be called to repentance and faith in Him. This is why Jesus instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry. We need pastors to preach the Word of God to us, to call us to repentance, to baptize us, to forgive us, to give us Christ’s body and blood, to pray for us, to shoulder our burdens, to admonish us, to comfort us, and to give us counsel from God’s Word. We need pastors as much as a child needs a mother and father. The gift of pastors is rooted in Jesus’ compassion. “When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt. 9:36/ESV). “Pastor” means “shepherd,” so Jesus says, “pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.” May we always pray for the gift of pastors to serve us with the life-giving Word of our Savior.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week—Confession of sin is confession of faith in Christ. For us as, as Christians, when we confess our sins, we are not merely admitting that we have done something wrong and feel badly about it. Non-believers can do that. No, true confession of sin involves contrition and faith in Christ. Contrition is the sorrow over sin that is worked by God. Faith in Christ confesses sin and flees to Jesus for rescue. “Acknowledging our guilt” and “seeking the face of Jesus” is what faith does. Our confession is not a work that merits God’s forgiveness. Confession is what He calls us to that He might help us. The refusal to confess, therefore, is the refusal to believe that you need Jesus. So the Lord’s call is one in which He invites us as sinners to trust in Him rather than ourselves. He calls us to contrition and faith so that He might help us. It is the absolution of the Lord that raises us up from the death of sin and gives us comfort, peace, and new life. When we respond to the Lord’s call, when we dare to confess our sins, when we flee to Jesus for His absolution, that is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. That is, very simply the call of the Holy Spirit to faith in Christ. Confession of sins is the fruit of the miracle of faith. This is why we confess our sins, that our faith might be strengthened and our consciences comforted by Christ’s absolution. So the Prophet Hosea encourages us, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

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Catechesis Notes for the Week—For God So Loved the World — “That there should be a God who would love the world and not begrudge it some good, is beyond all our ability to reason, comprehend, or understand. I would have wished for the world the fires of hell, and especially, I would do it if I were God, who knows the world inside and out. That is what I would do. But what does God do? Instead of his wrath, which the world has so richly deserved, he loves the world, and in such boundless and incomprehensible measure that he presents his very own Son as a gift to the world, his bitterest enemy… It would have been more than enough for God to wish the world ‘good morning.’ So he goes beyond this and loves the world, the disgraceful offspring. It is just about the most utterly hostile and ill-disposed contradiction. And in truth, that is what the world is: a pigsty of unabashedly evil people, who abuse all God’s creation in the most brazen way possible, blaspheme God, and provoke him to his face. These selfsame shameless people God loves. That is a love which transcends all love. This is truly a good God, and his love must be great, incomprehensible fire, greater by far than the fire which Moses saw in the bush, indeed greater by far than the fire of hell. Who would despair, seeing God is so disposed toward the world? It is too high and beyond my ability to elaborate on it, or to draw out the abundant riches that it truly contains.” Martin Luther

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Catechesis Notes for the Week—Table of Duties: To Widows and To Everyone—When someone loses a spouse, what should they do?  Whenever we lose any of God’s good gifts, the devil tempts us to fill the void with other things that not only can’t satisfy, but which may actually be sinful and a sign of mistrust of God.  This is what the Scriptures refer to as “living for pleasure.”  Instead, in the face of losses we are called to move even closer to Christ and His Word, putting our hope and confidence in the Lord who will fill the void of our lives with Himself.  Attendance at Divine Service, catechesis, and the mutual conversation and consolation of Christian brothers and sisters is critically important.  This leads us to the last section of the Table of Duties: To Everyone:  It is our common faith in Christ and the grace of God that unites us in love for one another, even as Christ loved us.  The source of true fulfillment is not in living for one’s self, but in giving of ourselves to one another out of our love for Christ.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week— The Table of Duties: To Youth — “Submission” and “humility” are not terms that any of us naturally gravitate toward. The sinful flesh wants to submit to no one and is filled with arrogance and pride. If the sinful flesh doesn’t get its way, it rebels. From where does the will to “submit” and “humble oneself” come? It comes from faith in the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus submitted Himself as a young man, because He trusted in His Father who promised to do good through His submission. He humbled Himself to the point of the death of the cross, because He trusted His Father to do good through His suffering. When youth are admonished to submit to their elders and humble themselves before them, they are really being invited to trust God to do them good in their office as youth, even though they may have to endure things that they don’t agree with or enjoy. The way of faith is always the way of deference toward others. This we learn to believe through the faithful reception of the Gospel and Sacrament of our Lord.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week— The Table of Duties: To Workers of All Kinds—How many employees or workers would call themselves “slaves”? Not too many. If one considered himself a slave, it would not be a complimentary term. Yet “slave” is a term that is often used in the New Testament of our Lord. For Him it is not derogatory. It is a term that describes the nature of His office as one who has come into the world to serve no one but others. He came to serve the Father in love and sinful man in love to the point of dying upon the cross. He had no thought for Himself or His own protection or welfare. He is the ultimate “worker” and in His work we see the true nature of Christian work. We “work” as Christians, not to serve ourselves, but to serve others in love. The characteristic of our work is that it is done for others, even if they do not appreciate it. Selfless love is what motivated Jesus and it is that love to which we are called by faith in the Gospel. Jesus’ selfless love and service to us is reflected in the Bible Verse for the week: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Since this is Jesus’ confession about Himself, we should not be adverse to have ourselves called slaves.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week—The Table of Duties: To Parents and Children—“It would be well to preach to parents on the nature of their office, how they should treat those committed to their authority…God does not want to have knaves or tyrants in this office and responsibility nor does He assign them this honor (that is, power and authority to govern) merely to receive homage. Parents should consider that they owe obedience to God, and that, above all, they should earnestly and faithfully discharge the duties of their office, not only to provide for the material support of their children, servants, subjects, etc., but especially to bring them up to the praise and honor of God…If we want qualified and capable men for both civil and spiritual leadership, we must spare no effort, time, and expense in teaching and educating our children to serve God and mankind. We must not think only of amassing money and property for them. God can provide for them and make them rich without our help, as indeed He does daily. But He has given and entrusted children to us with the command that we train and govern them according to His will; otherwise God would have no need of father and mother. Therefore let everybody know that it is his chief duty, on pain of losing divine grace, to bring up his children in the fear and knowledge of God, and if they are gifted to give them opportunity to learn and study so that they may be of service wherever they are needed.” (4^th Commandment, Large Catechism)CP260503

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.

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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.

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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.

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