Meditation on the Lord's Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Am I worthy enough to offer prayer to God?  When we think about our sinful lives and the fact that we were born enemies of God, the answer to that question is a resounding, “No!”  But thankfully prayer is not based upon a level of worthiness which we have fulfilled.  As we continue our meditations on the Catechism, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us the necessity of prayer and the importance of it, but it also teaches us the proper way to approach prayer by directing us to ask for specific things.  In the Lord’s Prayer we see that of the seven petitions, six of them focus on spiritual blessings.  All of these blessings flow from repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as our one true Savior.  Daily bread is even granted to the wicked, but forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are withheld from those who deny the Triune God and refuse the gracious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Prayer for the Christian is commanded, because we as sinner/saints need to be reminded of the necessity of prayer and of the promises attached to it.  The admonition to pray is included in the Second Commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”  If we are to use God’s name properly them we are to call upon Him at all times making our prayers and requests known to him with thanksgiving.  All true prayer proceeds out of faith in the true God.  We might reasonably assume that if our faith is right, our prayer life is right also, but unfortunately our prayers are far and few between.  Like the wicked who are given their daily bread, we assume that we are content or that God will grant our needs without our requests.  Our prayers are often lacking in abundance and zeal, causing us to neglect a great blessing and promise that God has given.  God has promised to answer our prayers, but we are often to busy to ask, or too ashamed, or too distracted.

We may even rightly feel that we do not know how to pray, but for this there is no excuse.  Countless prayers of the faithful have been recorded in Scripture.  Psalms is the prayerbook of the Bible.  Jesus prayed many times throughout his ministry as recorded throughout the Gospels, that we might know better how to pray.  There are countless prayers throughout the Bible that teach us how we are to pray and for what we ought to pray.  God has indeed commanded us to pray and promised to hear us.  He has given us prayers to pray that reflect our unworthiness but trust in the steadfast mercy of God and His lovingkindness showered upon us by the blood of His Son. This is why true prayer is offered through Jesus work of Salvation for us.

Even our best prayers are translated by the Holy Spirit so that they may be presentable to God in accordance with his will.  Many of us have distress and troubles in our lives that should be burdened by God, and not pressing down upon our shoulders as though a great immovable weight is pinning us down.  Many of these God allows to happen so that we may more faithfully turn to Him in prayer and trust and rely upon His grace as He told St. Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”  But instead of letting our requests be made known to God, we unnecessarily shoulder the weight and burden alone and become embittered.  Rather we should learn to rely on our God and Savior who desires to help us and lead us to everlasting life.  “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also feely give us all things?”

Prayer is not just a command, but it is a gift that God has granted to us so that we may learn to rely more and more on Him each and every day for spiritual and earthly blessings.  Prayer is one of the tools by which the devil is kept at bay, because the praying Christian is relying not on himself but upon God.  May God grant us confident hearts to trust in Him.

O Lord, let Your merciful ears be attentive to the prayers of Your servants, and by Your Word and Spirit teach us how to pray that our petitions may be pleasing before You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Meditation on the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed

The Third Article

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of sins, the Resurrection of the body, and the Life everlasting. Amen.

What does this mean?

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; But the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.  In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins; and at the last day He will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.

In Babel, when the people began to erect a tower and make a name for themselves God confused their language so that they would not be able to complete the work.  This resulted in many different languages being spoken and the inability to continue consolidating their time and efforts in one place.  The confusion carried the peoples into different parts of the world and they gathered with others who spoke the same language.

The only way it would now be possible to communicate with those of a different language, would be to use a translator.  Over time, some people would learn more than one language in order to speak between the different cultures that now existed.  In a similar manner, all people need a translator in order to understand God’s Word.  Without a translator, the Bible remains a closed book.

It’s not as if the English we use in our translations is too far removed from the English that we speak today, but we really need a translator to understand what God’s word is really saying…we need a translator to help us see with the eyes of faith and not just our earthly perceptions.  This is the role of the Holy Spirit.  He translates God’s word so that we can take it to heart and trust in it, even without seeing it.  “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.”

In John 14, Jesus said this, “The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s word teaches us about Christ and all that He has done for us.  Through the preaching of that Word, the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts to believe.

This faith does not occur by some magical act, but rather it is always connected with God’s Word.  Where two or three are gathered around His Word, there God is in their midst.  The work of the Holy Spirit is always attached to God’s Word and Sacraments, and the word and sacraments take place where people of like faith gather around that Word.  This is why we believe in a Holy Christian Church, because it is made “holy” by the Holy Spirit who works faith in the hearts of those gathered to hear this precious word.

Without the Holy Spirit the Word remains hidden to us, and without the Word the Holy Spirit does not bring us to faith.  The two are intimately connected in such a way that where one is, the other is also.  This Gospel through which He brings us to faith is none other than the work of Christ, revealed to us throughout Holy Scripture.

When the Holy Spirit works on us through God’s Word, he works forgiveness and salvation.  He assures us of God’s love for us in Christ and causes us to take that comfort to heart.

O God, You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit.  Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Meditation on the Second Article of the Apostles Creed

The Second Article

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suf­fered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

What does this mean?

I believe that Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary; and that He is my Lord, Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His inno­cent suffering and death; in order that I might be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness; even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.

Picture yourself falling into a deep dark pit.  The only form you can make out at the bottom is a ferocious beast that is ready at a moment’s notice to swallow you whole.  This is the condition into which each of us is born.  Dead in trespasses and sins, all are moving headlong into the deepest depths of hell with no ability of our own to escape what lies below.

When Adam and Eve fell into sin, the entire world fell with them.  “By Adam’s fall is all forlorn, man’s nature and his thinking, The poison’s there when we are born, In sin yet deeper sinking.” (ELH 430.1)  In our fallen condition, all of us are just dangling over the beast, waiting to be devoured.  Both our sin that we have inherited from our parents and the sins that we continue to commit, earn us a place as food for the devil’s appetite.

Yet, the truth of who Jesus is, brought out in the Second Article of the Creed gives us reason to spite the devil.  Jesus, became man for us so that he might be swallowed up by Satan in our place.  Jesus became our vicar or substitute, clothing himself in human flesh.  Much like a worm covers up a hook, Jesus covered himself in human flesh, by being born of the Virgin and entered our world in the likeness of mankind.  Bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.  Jesus dangled himself within reach of the ferocious beast, so that once He was seemingly devoured, He would defeat that beast once and for all.

Because Jesus was perfect He had no reason to fear the devil’s snapping jaws.  The devil had no hold over him.  But so that we might be saved, Jesus shows us what kind of a Lord we have…One who was willing to experience death, so that we would not have to experience the terrors of hell.  Jesus removed us from the clutches of Satan and placed us safely at His side where he is able to nourish and strengthen us through His holy Word...by assuring us of the forgiveness of our sins.

The Gospel that the Church preaches is based solely upon Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection which has won for us the forgiveness of sins.  There is nothing we have done to rescue ourselves, there is nothing we can do to be saved.  Christ has done all of the work…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  He called us out of darkness, into His marvelous light.  He requires nothing in return and promises us the blessing of heaven when we, by His power, trust in Him as our Lord and Savior.

O God, our Maker and Redeemer, You wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature.  Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Meditation on the First Article of the Apostles Creed

The First Article

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

What does this mean?

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them; that He richly and daily provides me with food and clothing, home and family, property and goods, and all that I need to support this body and life; that He protects me from all danger, guards and keeps me from all evil; and all this purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which I am in duty bound to thank and to praise, to serve and obey Him.  This is most certainly true.

The Ten Commandments have taught us the proper respect we are to have towards God and that we are to have only one God.  The question then that arises is “What sort of God do you have?” or “Who is God?”  The Creed then is that answer and confession of the Christian arranged in respect to the first commandment so that we know who the one true God is.

Psalm 139:13-14 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.  In the First Article of the Apostle Creed, it focuses on what we know about God through the creation.  The opening words of Genesis speak very plainly of our origins and the origins of all life in the universe as we know it.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  It stands to reason then that the God who created us continues to preserve and care for us through the creation which he has made.  This is called God’s providence.  God still continues to provide for us through everything that he has made.  He gives us every thing that we need to sustain our lives.  All that we have is from Him.

Nor does God just let the powers of evil overtake us but he defends us from all evil and misfortune.  He directs all sorts of danger and disaster away from us.  We have not earned any such divine assistance or protection, but God does so simply because His nature is to love that which He has created.  He has knitted us together in our mothers’ wombs, he breathed life into us in a special way and has promised to continue caring for that life even amidst the struggles and trials that we face.  Yet God’s love for us is not based on the evidence of the material possessions we have, but our worth is derived out of His love for us in Christ as we will learn more about in the 2^nd Article.

Because of His divine love for us in Christ, we could rightly say of ourselves that we have a face only a mother could love.  Because of our sins, we were alienated from God and from each other.  We have no worth of our own that would cause him to love us, but because of God’s benevolence, he continues to love the sinner, in spite of the sin.  The evidence of that love is found in the work of Jesus Christ.

Yet our duty toward God is not done.  Because he has loved us in such a way as to provide for us and care for us in all things we are duty bound to thank and to praise, serve and obey him.  Without God providing our oxygen, we would surely perish.  God, by his gracious hand, continues to provide those things necessary to sustain life and without them we would perish.  This article ought to keep us humble and terrify us all, because we cannot earn God’s willingness to preserve us.  Yet we are to thank him daily, even constantly for his blessings; the blessings of divine protection, food and clothing, home and family, property and goods, and all that we need to support this body and life.  By recognition of God as our creator and preserver, our hearts should be warm and kindled to be thankful and to use all such good things to the honor and praise of God.

Almighty God, through Your Word and Spirit You most wonderfully created all things, and through the Word made flesh You brought new life to fallen humanity.  Grant that in Your mercy we may be conformed to the image of Him who shares fully in our humanity, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Peace VBS

Peace VBS

VBS for this year will be held from June 2, 2013 through June 6.  The week will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday with activities and a church picnic to follow.  The students will meet from 5:30 to 7:35 on Monday through Thursday.  Supper will be at 5:30, class begins at 6.

This year we will be studying the life of Joseph and how it portrays God's will being done in the life of His people.  Please contact the church for more details or to register.  Children in preschool through 8th grade are encouraged to attend.  (573)496-3893

Meditation on the Conclusion of the Commandments

Conclusion: What does God say about these commandments?

I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

What does this mean?

God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments.  Therefore we should fear his wrath and do nothing against these commandments.  But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments.  Therefore we should also love and trust in Him and willingly do according to His commandments.

In the Ten Commandments we have the sum total of everything that God would have us say and do.  All of the commandments are a reflection of the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.  When we serve the only true God, all of the other commandments will follow from the right spirit. Yet St. James wrote, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10)  The seriousness of transgressing God’s commands is severe.  Because of our sins we are guilty.  The primary purpose of the law is to accuse us of our failings and inability to do what God demands…and under no circumstances are we ever able to keep His law as we properly should.

Yet, as sinful human beings we are often tempted to invent other ways by which we can please God.  We make up other rules that are not quite so difficult, not quite so plain.  We desire elaborate works that truly show our devotion to God and we treat His Commandments as passé, out of date. We invent ways in which we can please God and unknowingly set aside the Holy Commands that He has given to us.

As sinful human beings we have a hard time stomaching the rigid requirements of God’s law and would like an alternative to serve Him.  For example, if we look at our sinful understanding of the 3^rd commandment, we say to ourselves “It is important that I worship regularly.”  But instead of treating God’s Word as though it is the most important thing in our lives we treat it as though it is just another requirement to fulfill.  Instead of whole heartedly loving and willingly submitting to all of His commands we look at them with fearful drudgery or indifference.  Instead of feasting on the Gospel of forgiveness, we subject ourselves to the divine service and the Word for the day and treat that act of obedience as good enough.

In the Ten Commandments we see how easily we fail to fulfill them.  When taken as a whole they form a complete unit.  Like a giant circle that begins with devotion towards God and ends with devotion towards God.  When we fail in just one area, our devotion towards God fails.  God wants us to love and serve him alone because He shares allegiance with no one.  This is an allegiance that belongs to Him and is only possible through the One who has completed the Commandments in our place.  God’s love for you was so great that He willingly sacrificed His Son, so that He would not have to punish as our sins deserved.  He extends His mercy on all those who rightly fear Him…a mercy that is alone found in Jesus Christ.

While we will never have the ability on this side of heaven to complete the Commandments, we by the grace of God are given the faith to trust in Jesus work in our place.  This is a faith that compels us to love and serve Him, not out of fear or compulsion, but out of devotion towards someone who has graciously rescued us and set us free.  In that freedom we use the Ten Commandments again and again to review the best ways in which we can fear, love and trust in God above all things, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

To us God gave these Ten Commands That you might learn, O child of man, Your sinfulness and also know To live for God, as you go. Have mercy, Lord!

Lord Jesus Christ, now help us all, Our Mediator from the Fall, Our works are all so full of sin, But You for us heav’n did win. Have mercy, Lord! Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary 490)

Meditation on the 9th and 10th Commandments

The Ninth Commandment:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we do not craftily seek to gain our neighbor’s inheritance or home, nor get it by a show of right, but help and serve him in keeping it.

The Tenth Commandment:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not tempt, force or coax away from our neighbor his wife or his workers, but urge them to stay and do their duty.

What is it above everything else that God wants from us?  He doesn’t need our things…they are His already.  If we outwardly keep all of the other commandments and show ourselves to be truly pious by what we say and do…all will fall short of the righteous requirements of God when it comes to the commandments against coveting.  Coveting is sinful desire that occurs in our hearts and our minds.  This commandment is not for the cheaters in the eyes of the world, rather it is for the most pious, who want to be praised and to be called honest and upright.

The difference between these two commandments may be subtle, yet they are given to protect very different things.  The ninth protects a neighbor’s inanimate (lifeless) possessions and the tenth protects animate (living) possessions.  Houses cannot be wooed away from their owner like a spouse or a servant can be, so it was important for God’s law to differentiate between the two.

All sin begins in the heart, and these commandments make that very clear.  The ninth commandment prohibits us from plotting to acquire with the intention of harming our neighbor.  It also teaches us to be content with what God has given us, and to be thankful for what I have by being generous with the things I have been given.  In the ninth commandment we should recognize that God has truly given everything that we need or that which is good for us.  Instead of finding ways to scheme against our neighbor we should find ways in helping our neighbor keep what is rightfully his.

In the tenth commandment God desires to protect especially those living gifts and assets which are beneficial and necessary for family life, providing services to others through laborers, and the benefits which one receives from raising livestock.  Our desire should be for our neighbor to keep those things that God has given him, we should encourage his wife and his workers to stay in their calling, instead of encouraging them to leave.  No amount of things will ever make us content until we understand that God has given us Himself.  He is our God and his will towards us is good and gracious at all times.  Only in Him will there be true contentment.

Our natural instinct is that no one wants to see someone else have as much as himself.  Each one acquires as much as he can.  Yet we pretend to be godly, know how to dress ourselves up most finely and conceal our base character.  There is no commandment that we are capable of keeping, least of all commandments that require perfection even in our thoughts.  It requires us to serve those who seem to us to have more than we do.  These commandments are especially directed against envy and miserable greed, but God wants to remove all causes and sources from which arises everything by which we harm our neighbor.

Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.  Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.