Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Gift of Baptism for Every Day— Christians should look to their Baptism every day for their identity and strength.  Our Baptism means that we are the children of God; Christ’s death for sin and His resurrection for our justification is ours; Christ’s righteousness clothes us and makes us acceptable to the Father; the Holy Spirit has been poured out into our hearts through Christ; and faith has been created in our hearts. What God has made us and given us in our Baptism also becomes the strength by which we live our lives, repent of sin, resist Satan, and enjoy the testimony of a clean conscience.CP220612

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified as God and Lord.  The Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Spirit of love for it is by the Spirit that we are drawn into the fellowship of the love of the Holy Trinity.  The Holy Spirit is always the Spirit of Christ who shines upon the person and work of our Savior, calls us to repentance and faith, and bestows upon us every blessing that Jesus won for us.  The Spirit’s means or instruments by which He does His work are the Gospel and Sacraments of Christ.

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Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 27: A Prayer of Faith and Confidence in the Lord’s Salvation

Psalm 27 begins with two rhetorical questions that rest upon confident assertions of faith in the Gospel.  It is as if David were saying, “since the Lord is my light and my salvation, then whom shall I fear?”  Answer: No one!  “Since the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  Answer: No one!  Clearly it is the Lord’s will that we know with certainty that He is our Savior from all sin, death, and from the power of the devil.  Since He has died for us and redeemed us from eternal destruction, we have nothing to fear from anyone or anything that would seek to destroy us!  Psalm 27 prays for the Lord’s help, deliverance, guidance, and forgiveness on the basis of everything that Jesus has done in love for us.  Christ is our confidence.  To hear and receive Christ is also the singular delight of the Christian: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”

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Catechesis Notes for the Week — Psalm 47: A Prayer on the Ascension of Our Lord—Psalm 47 is traditionally prayed in celebration of the Ascension of Our Lord.  After Jesus has defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil through His suffering and death upon the cross, God the Father highly exalted Him and seated Him at His right hand, placing all His enemies under His feet.  Christ continues to reign over all things at the Father’s right hand for the sake of His Church and He will come again in glory to receive His bride to Himself.  So we sing with the psalmist: “God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.  God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.”

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Catechesis Notes for the Week — 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. Where does the will to “submit” and “humble one’s self” come from? 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 death on 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.  [Reprinted from Lutheran Catechesis: Catechist Edition]

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CP220508     Catechesis Notes for the Week — Justified by Faith— “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). “A sinner is ‘justified’ or ‘declared righteous’ by faith in Christ’s death for him. He is not forgiven or justified by the good works he performs (or attempts to perform) according to the Law. Our works cannot save us because we are all sinners and even the best of our works are still tainted with sin. Christ’s death for us, in our place, and on our behalf under the Law, is the ‘righteousness of faith’ that saves us from all sin, the condemnation of the law, and eternal death. As Christians we confess: ‘Christ is my righteousness. He has died for me. He has suffered in my place. He has fulfilled the Law for me by dying in my place. He has fulfilled the Law for me by dying in my place. He is my salvation.’” – Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis, Catechist Edition, p. 70b.

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart— “To ‘fear, love, and trust in God above all things’ means that we trust in Him for everything we are and need for life and salvation. To trust in God above all things means that we yield our own reason, will, and understanding to Him precisely because all our faculties are corrupted by the self-centered, sinful perversions of the flesh. Faith is the living trust of the heart that relies on, depends upon, and looks to the Lord for everything. Faith yields to the Lord in all circumstances of life and confesses that the Lord’s will is always good and always right. The Lord promises to ‘direct’ or ‘make smooth’ our paths as we rely upon Him through faith in His Word. This does not mean that life will go the way that we desire; it rather means that our faith and life will rest confidently in the sure promises of God’s Word.”—Excerpted from Lutheran Catechesis, Catechist Edition, p. 38b

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Catechesis Notes for the Week — “I Am the Vine, you are the branches, he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Holy Communion means that through Jesus’ body and blood we abide in Him and He abides in us. He takes from us all sin, death, and condemnation. We receive from Him all good and every spiritual blessing. We have no life apart from Him. A vine is the source of life for the branches. Branches have no life apart from that which they receive from the vine. In Holy Communion, the good flows from Jesus to us as a gift of His grace; and by the power of His Holy Spirit, He produces His works of love and mercy in us. ‘He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.’ Jesus produces all good in us as Christians. The fruits of His redeeming work—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)—are all worked in us By Him as we receive His body and blood in contrition and faith. Applying this promise of Jesus’ to the Lord’s Supper helps us to understand what the Catechism is speaking about when it says that we go to the Sacrament to ‘learn from [Christ] to love God and [our] neighbor’ (Christian Questions with Their Answers). Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis Catechist Edition, p. 290b

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Catechesis Notes for the Week — Job’s Confession of Faith in the Resurrection—The Prophet Job confessed his faith in Christ and in the resurrection of the body over 2000 years before the death and resurrection of Christ. The promise of salvation in Christ was the source of Job’s faith in Christ and his comfort in suffering. Faith knows by virtue of the Word of God that creates faith. Apart from the Word of God there is no knowing and there is no certainty. The word of God gives certainty to faith, and in our confession, we speak back to God what is true on the basis of His Word. In the midst of Job’s intense physical and emotional pain and suffering, he confesses his faith in ‘My Redeemer’ who would rescue him from the corruption and mortality that sin had brought upon his body. By calling his Savior ‘my Redeemer’ we are reminded of the familiar and intimate words of the Catechism’s explanation to the Second Article, ‘[Christ] has redeemed me…purchased and won me…that I may be His own and live under Him … in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.’” Excerpt from Lutheran Catechesis Catechist Edition, p. 118a.      CP220417

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Weep Not For Me —“Jesus turning to them said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.’” (Luke 23:28) “He suffers for our sake. For this reason, it grieves the Lord that His suffering should make us weep. He wants us to be happy, to praise God and give thanks for His grace, and to glorify Him and bear our witness, for it is through His Passion that we received God’s grace, and were freed from sin, and death, and became God’s dear children. But we are as slow to the one as to the other, for by nature we are contrary. When we should weep over our sins, we laugh; when we should laugh and our hearts be joyful because Christ, through His death, has won eternal life for us, we weep. For either we have no regard for such joy, because our hearts are bewitched by the merriment of this world, or we weep, lament, and pine as if Christ had never died, never paid for our sin, never stilled the wrath of God, and never redeemed us from death. Therefore, prayer is needed for both: first, that God through the Holy Ghost may touch our hearts, that He may make us loathe sin, may draw us away from it, and take away our trust in ourselves. Then, that He may kindle in our hearts His comfort in the midst of sin, and give us a firm confidence in our Lord’s sacrifice and satisfaction.” – Martin Luther, 1545, Day by Day we Magnify Thee

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