Catechesis Notes for the Week—Praying through the Catechism--As we begin another year of meditation upon the Catechism, you will notice some changes have been made to the format of this series. We waited to make these changes until a new year started in order to keep consistency throughout a year. First, you will notice that the week now runs Monday through Sunday. This makes it easier to focus on the upcoming Sunday’s readings, theme, and prayers throughout the week. In this transition period, a few daily psalms will be missed. This is okay. We will come back to them a few times in the course of this year. A second change you will notice is that prayers will be included on the assigned Catechism sections each week in the Congregation at Prayer. These prayers will assist you in your family prayer and individual devotions at home. Once again we encourage you to memorize the parts of the catechism on a weekly basis, and encourage your household to do the same. We learn best how to pray and meditate upon the Catechism by actually praying according to what the Catechism teaches us. In addition to these prayers and use of the Congregation at Prayer, we encourage individuals and families to obtain copies of the Christian Worship hymnal for use in the home. Reading Scripture together, reciting the Catechism, learning by heart verses of Scripture, singing and praying with the hymnal is among the foremost ways in which we are preserved in the Christian faith and pass on our faith to our children. The third change you will notice in the coming weeks is a read through of the Lutheran Confessions. This will begin in a couple weeks as we finish our “Through the Bible in Two Years” series. If you are in need of a copy of the Lutheran Confessions, please speak with Pastor Seelow, and he will point you in the right direction to find one that suits your needs. Use this devotional in any way you see fit. Take parts, only use the Scripture guide, use it for a guide to daily prayer. But please continue in your catechetical training. Learn and pray the catechism. May God richly bless our time in his Word this year!
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CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE CONCLUSION TO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS -- The first Commandment is behind all the commandments, and all the commandments are interconnected in the demand to love God above all things. The threat of the Law to punish anyone who turns away from God is visited upon Jesus in His death upon the cross. He was punished for the sin of the fathers in fulfillment of the law. Therefore, there is grace and mercy for us sinners, because Jesus “loved and trusted in God and gladly did what God demanded.” He did this even to the point of suffering the punishment that we sinners deserved. Death and condemnation is the result of turning away from God, the source of all life. The tablets of the Law that were hurled at the Jews from Mount Sinai show how all our righteousness is crushed under the scrutiny of God’s commandments. This is necessary. If we do not feel the crushing blow of the Law, we cannot receive the righteousness of Christ. Christ bore the crushing blow of the Law’s condemnation in His death. He willingly took our place, like a scapegoat, and suffered all that we by our sins deserved. Why did He do this? His love and desire to save us and give us life is at the heart of all that He does for us, even when the Law is proclaimed that crushes our self-righteousness and pride. This week’s Bible verse accents these themes, teaching us that “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in [God’s] sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS --"You shall not covet." -- The Ninth and Tenth Commandments both speak of covetousness. Covetousness is the desire of our hearts that insists upon having those things that God has not given to us. Many of the things that we might desire are very good things indeed. “Food, drink, clothing, shoes … a devout husband or wife, devout children,” etc. are all good things and good gifts from God. Sometimes, however, through our own sin or through the Lord’s gracious providence we are not allowed to have certain good things that we might otherwise desire and that might make life easier. Desires for good things become covetous and idolatrous whenever we won’t take no for an answer, whenever we insist that we must have this or that we must have that in order to be happy and content. At the center of the Christian faith, which trusts Christ for salvation, is learning to be satisfied with Him—with His love, with His forgiveness, with His Word, with everything that He is as our Savior and God. True contentment actually comes not from getting what we want and what we believe we must have, but from the faith that rests in Christ and is content with Him especially under the cross of suffering and affliction. When we have Christ and His love as our one thing needful, then His Word transforms our lives turning us outside of ourselves and our own desires to the sacrifices of love for others.
CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT -- "You shall not steal." -- God continues to protect the blessings which he has given his creation. As the fifth commandment protects life, and the sixth marriage, so also the 7th commandment protects our possessions. God has given us all things. An understanding of this fact will help us appreciate not only the abundant blessings which our Lord has given to each of us, but it will also help us realize that we can help protect other people's property and business as well. CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT -- "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." -- Once again, the Lord protects those blessings he has bestowed on his creation. In the eighth commandment, God is protecting the good name which he has given to us. It is so easy to besmirch a good name–especially when we believe that person deserves such ridicule and shame. In this commandment, however, our God commands us to not only protect other people's reputations, but also to live in harmony with each other by trusting that another person's "yes" is "yes," and his or her "no" is "no."
CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT -- "You shall not murder." -- Through these commandments, God protects people. In the case of the fifth commandment, God is protecting human life. God does not delight in the suffering or the harm of another person, and nor should we. This commandment condemns not only our actions, but our inactions as we often are apathetic to the protection of others. We do not actively seek to stop or prevent harm from befalling others in our lives. However, God in his infinite mercy, continually protects us by commanding his angels to guard and watch over us. Through the ultimate act of grace, God has protected us from the hands of the evil one and from the snares of sin and the devil. Thanks be to God for such mercy and grace despite our own inadequacies in this commandment! CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT -- "You shall not commit adultery." -- If you study Luther's explanations to the commandments closely, you will see that the sixth commandment differs slightly from the rest. Rather than emphasizing what we should not do, Luther emphasizes what we should do. He makes this commandment a positive. Because God made humans sexual in nature, any restrictions on these impulses will seem like a burden or curse. However, in the sixth commandment, God is protecting such a precious gift by ensuring that sex is used in a good and God-pleasing way. By putting restrictions on this gift, God is not burdening us; rather, he is encouraging a healthy, active, and loving sex-life between husband and wife. And by encouraging this wonderful union, God is also bringing husband and wife closer together and strengthening the marital and familial bonds.
CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE THIRD COMMANDMENT -- "Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy." -- The Third Commandment isn't necessarily a commandment about a day; rather, it is about God's Word and the honor which it is given by people. God's command to keep the Sabbath Day "holy" is really a command to set aside specific time to be in and around God's Word. In the seven-day creation in Genesis, Moses succinctly states the purpose of the Sabbath: "And on the seventh day, God rested from all of his labors." This was not some trivial moment for God to sit back and admire his creation (though, he could very well have done that since everything he made was "very good"). No, God resting on the seventh day was to provide an explicit example of what he wanted mankind to do: to set aside a day to rest from the every toil and focus on the one thing needful. He gives us rest through his Word. He gives us peace through his Sacraments. It is Jesus himself who is the source of rest for Christians. It didn't take long after Jesus' ascension for Christians to move their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. This move, while unnoticed in our society, shifted the focus from the Old Testament command of the seventh day to an observance on the day Christ rose from the dead–Sunday. It was on that day that he sealed for us eternal rest and reminded us of the peace we have when he said, "Peace be with you." For this reason, the Luther's explanation in the Small Catechism is appropriate: "that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but regard it has holy and gladly hear and learn it." So then, the Third Commandment teaches us to "set apart" a day from the rest (whichever day it is) by hearing the Word of God through which we are renewed in repentance and faith in Christ. CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT -- "Honor your father and mother." -- Under the Fourth Commandment we are reminded that God stands behind fathers, mothers, and all who are in authority. And not only does he stand behind them, but he works through them. In this regard, then, we are to honor them and show them respect–not because they have earned or deserved it–but because God has commanded it and placed them into such a high office. In this commandment, parents and those in authority are reminded not to abuse such an office but to realize the awesome responsibility that has been bestowed on them by God.
CATECHESIS NOTES FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS -- "You shall have no other gods." "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God." --The Ten Commandments preach repentance. The message of God’s Law is necessary in order that we might receive the Gospel in repentant hearts. This is ever most true for the first and second commandments. Luther, in his Large Catechism, writes: "What does it mean to have a god? What is God? Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe in such from the heart." (LC: 1:1-2) It is true; we do not call on God's name as we should. We do not trust him with our entire heart, soul and mind. We place our trust in earthly and trivial things. Kyrie, eleison! Lord, have mercy! This week we focus on the 1st and 2nd Commandments. May we learn them. May we take them to heart. May we be comforted by God's Holy Word so that we may cling to the blessed hope of eternal life through Christ. May the Lord bless our time in his Word and in prayer!
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