Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Catechesis Notes for the Week—They Drank from the Rock—This week’s Bible verse teaches us that Christ was actually in the Old Testament with the children of Israel in the Rock that followed them and from which they drank. This passage of the “real presence” is chosen to highlight that since Christ was actually present with the children of Israel in the Rock from which they drank in the Old Testament, how much more should we understand that Christ is truly present with us today in the Lord’s Supper. He declares of the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper: “This is My body…This is My blood…” Therefore it is His true body and blood.

This is My body. In the Lord’s Supper Jesus gives us His body to eat and His blood to drink. The Sacrament of the Altar rests upon the Word of God. Jesus’ words give what they say. The power and benefits of the Sacrament are given through the Word. Take away the Word and there is no Sacrament. With the Word, there is a Sacrament, namely, “the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink.” What role does faith play in the Sacrament? Faith receives what the Word says. Faith believes in what the Word gives. Faith rests upon the promises of God. The essence of the Sacrament, that is, “what it is,” is determined by the Word. This gives faith its certainty. We know we receive the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of all our sins, because the Word says so.  Faith knows no other certainty but the promises of the Gospel.CP250216

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Martin Luther Teaches Concerning Private Confession and Absolution: If anybody does not go to confession willingly and for the sake of absolution, let him just forget about it. Yes, and if anybody goes about relying on the purity of his confession, let him just stay away from it. We urge you, however, to confess and express your needs, not for the purpose of performing a work but to hear what God wishes to say to you. The Word of absolution, I say, is what you should concentrate on, magnifying and cherishing it as a great and wonderful treasure to be accepted with all praise and gratitude (Large Catechism, “A Brief Exhortation to Confession,” Tappert Edition)CP250209

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “A Lover’s Word”—This week we begin two weeks of meditation on Confession and the Office of the Keys. These headings from the Catechism might sound dry and sterile to some, but these sections are all about receiving “a Lover’s Word.” Jesus’ Word of forgiveness is a “Lover’s Word”—the Word of Him who loved us, His bride, so much that He laid down His life in death to cover the ugliness of our sin and rebellion against God. Just as the words of our beloved in marriage strengthen our relationship with our spouse, so the words of absolution from our lover Jesus strengthen our relationship with Him. Even more than this, His Word of forgiveness makes us beautiful, strengthens our faith against sin and temptation, and gives us comfort. What woman doesn’t want to hear the word of him who loves her? This is how we should view the absolution, and why we should learn to value it and long to hear it from our pastorsCP250202

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Confess Your Trespasses to One Another — “I’m sorry! Forgive me!” These are the words of daily contrition and repentance. “I forgive you!” These are the words of new life from God and the life we share with one another. There is nothing more central to the baptismal life of a Christian than to live by faith in the undeserved mercy of God in Christ and to share that mercy within the body of Christ. It brings constant healing and renewal. This is the meaning of this week’s Bible Verse: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” We are righteous by faith in Christ and He desires that we pray for one another so that our consciences are healed by Christ’s forgiveness shared within the body of Christ. This emphasis upon confessing our sins to one another and praying for one another that we might be healed by Christ’s forgiveness is what the third section of the Catechism is about. The plural pronouns in the passage from Romans indicate that we are all joined together by our Baptism into Christ so that His undeserved forgiving grace might shape our lives. “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”CP250126

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Baptism’s Power is in the Word — The Catechism states that “the Word of God in and with the water” of Holy Baptism is what gives Baptism its power to work “forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation to all who believe this.” Take away the Word and you have nothing but water; but with the Word you have a life-giving water, rich in grace, and the washing of the rebirth in the Holy Spirit. The Bible Stories for this week continue to highlight the power of the Word in, with, and under the water of Baptism. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were opened for forty days and forty nights in the divine judgment of the great flood and Noah and his family were saved through water. By the Word of the Lord, God saved the children of Israel through the water of the Red Sea and destroyed Pharaoh and his armies. By the Word of the Lord, the waters of the Jordan parted, and Israel was drawn into the promised land. By the Word of the Lord, the water of the Jordan cleansed Naaman of his leprosy and even brought him to the faith that confessed that the God of Israel was, indeed, the Lord and the only true God. In all of these stories, there are two common themes. First, the water was very very real, it was not a symbol, and it carried both the condemnation and the salvation of God. Second, the Word of God itself was real, and God joined Himself to the water by His Word in order to accomplish His saving work. To despise the water was to despise the Word. To despise the Word was to reject the water. The water and the Word were inseparably joined together by God. Why is this so important? It is by the Word in tangible water that we come to receive salvation and that we come to know that salvation with absolute and unshakeable certainty.CP250119

Catechesis Notes for the Week — — I Must Be About My Father’s Business—Jesus was the living pattern of the psalmist’s words, “Lord, I love the habitation of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells” (Ps. 26:8). From the time of His infancy He lived faithfully under the Law. He was circumcised on the 8^th day. He was presented to the Lord in the Temple at the age of 40 days. He observed every Sabbath. He journeyed to Jerusalem for every pilgrim feast. And at 12-years of age, as he begins to take on the responsibilities of a man, He is found in the Temple, both listening to the teachers and asking them questions. The adults who were charged with teaching the Word were amazed at the understanding and answers of the 12-year-old Jesus. To live in God’s Word – this is the Father’s business for Jesus and for us. There is no greater calling.CP250112

Catechesis Notes for the Week — “Rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation.” This is the last week of our intensive meditation upon the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray the Seventh Petition, “but deliver us from evil,” we might be tempted to conclude that we are asking that “evil” never rear its head in our lives. This misses the mark. Evil will come into our lives in the form of Satan’s attacks upon our “body and soul, possessions and reputation.” Holy Scripture makes this clear. We will not be spared from being attacked. God wills that the attacks of evil against us serve the cause of faith. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will answer you and you shall glorify Me.” Therefore, in the Seventh Petition we are asking that God would preserve our faith in Christ when we are assaulted by the Evil One, and teach us to commend ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, with all that we are and have, into His gracious keeping. The Word of our Lord teaches us that He will not forsake His own. If He allows evil to enter into our lives, then He does so for good purposes and for the exercise of faith in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This petition promises the Christian: “God will not allow the Evil One or any adversity to overwhelm you.” By this petition He invites you to trust this promise and to call upon Him in your need. CP250105

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Let Your Servant Depart in Peace —“Simeon is old, sees death before him, yes, he feels death in his very bones, in every limb, as death approaches day by day, and daily he grows weaker after the manner of old people.  But it does not grieve him. He desires only that it be soon, says that he is not frightened by his departing, yes, that death is welcome to him, since his eyes have seen his Savior. For were this not so, there could be no joy, nor could there be happiness in dying. Therefore the godly Simeon wanted to warn every man and to lead us thither (because we must all confess that we need a Savior), that we should accept Christ Jesus, whom our fancy has not created but whom God Himself has ordained.  For with His help we cannot fail.  For this reason alone the Child is come.  God, His heavenly Father, has prepared Him for us, that He shall help us. And, of a truth, if any man possesses this Savior, who is God’s Savior, that man is still and peaceful in his heart…It all depends on this, that we with the dear old Simeon open our eyes and see the Babe, take Him into our arms, and kiss Him, which means, that He is our hope, joy, comfort, and our life.  For where this faith is firm and sure in our hearts, that this Child is God’s Savior, there, of a truth, it must follow that the heart is content and is not afraid of sin or death, for it has a Savior who delivers it from them.” Martin LutherCP241229

Catechesis Notes for the Week — Celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord in Devotion and Prayer — This week’s Congregation at Prayer affords us the opportunity to read and mark in Holy Scripture the Church’s minor feasts that follow Christmas: St. Stephen, the First Martyr (December 26); St. John, Apostle and Evangelist (December 27); and the Holy Innocents (December 28). Stephen was one of the first seven ministers ordained in the Church after the Apostles. His ministry included giving Word and Sacrament to Greek-speaking Jewish Christian widows. The account of Stephen in the book of Acts shows him to be a faithful preacher of Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures. His use of the Old Testament is an important guide to us in understanding that the Old Testament Scriptures, like the New, point to Jesus Christ. He condemned the unbelief and impenitence of the religious establishment of his day by comparing it to the unbelief and impenitence of Old Testament Israel. Stephen reminds us that the message of Christmas must also be the call to repentance from dead works to living faith in God’s mercy in His Son. This feast also reminds us that the joy of Christmas exists in the context of persecution, suffering, and even death for being faithful to the Gospel. The feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, underscores the great truth that we can have no faith in Christ apart from the Scriptures that are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ. Faith is created and rests upon the certainty of the Apostolic and prophetic witness to Jesus. The feast of the Holy Innocents depicts the depth of human sin in the evil of King Herod who will stop at nothing in his attempts to kill God. This appetite of the sinful flesh is the nature of all sinners and is the reason why “the Word became flesh” for our redemption. Baptism saves us from this horrible evil and makes us children of the Child born in Bethlehem. Remembering our baptism daily makes every day a celebration of our Lord’s birth and our rebirth in Christ: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3 from the Catechism) CP241222

Catechesis Notes for the Week — The Great “O” Antiphons are prayers addressed to the Son of God, which call upon Him to come to us according to the promises of the Old Testament Scriptures. Historically, Christians have prayed these prayers during Advent, seven days before Christmas. These antiphons are the basis for each stanza of the familiar Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” The antiphons are offered below for your daily prayers.CP241215