mclclititz

Pr. Seifferlein held his first Spring new member catechesis this past week. A wonderful group was present as he covered an initial overview of the catechism.

Join us for our Midweek Lenten Service where this year we consider the theme, “Treasuring the Words.” We will hear preaching on the Verba or Words of Institution of the Sacrament of the Altar as we use the reflective service of Compline, so fitting for the season of Lent. This week we will consider the phrase, “took bread, and when He had given thanks.”

This Sunday is about temptation. What temptations do you face? Our temptations all revolve around unbelief about God’s provision and plan for us. We will see man’s failure in the Garden, but the triumph of Jesus in the wilderness. In Christ we have victory against the temptations that are destroyers of our good life with God.

In Bible Class we will conclude the Manual for Purity by studying Leviticus chapter 15, “Laws about Bodily Discharges.”

In this first sermon of our Lenten Sermon Series on the Lord’s Supper, we looked at the phrase “On the night when He was betrayed.” Every supper we celebrate we don’t only remember Jesus, we mention Judas. In this sermon we will consider our betrayals, and how they find their answer in the cross.

We know almost nothing about St. Matthias compared to Judas. While we know the grisly details of Judas’ death (Acts 1:18–19), we are unsure of Matthias’. After his election, the Bible never mentions him again. He seems to be a forgotten apostle. But what is fame to God? He looks to “he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Is. 66:2). Judas trembled, but his contrition was without faith in God’s mercy in Christ. He tried to bear his own sin in the form of a noose. Jesus does not say, “see to it yourself,” (Matt. 27:4) but “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. . . and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29). Matthias was a witness of Christ’s ministry from John’s baptism to the resurrection (Acts 1:21–22), chosen to proclaim “the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 10:7) from repentance to redemption and new life. He and countless other forgotten ministers continually announce the truth that no sinner must bear his own yoke, for Christ bears it all and has put sin to death forever in His cross.

Roughly sixty days before Easter, we come to church to hear the parable of “The Sower & The Seed.” Christ plants His good seed in our hearts, but many enemies exist that seek to snatch away, choke out, and scorch the Word that Christ preaches. Though we face the hot sun of temptation, the thorns and allurements of this life, as well as the devilish bird who tears this good Word away from us, we pray that through repentance and faith in Christ, our hearts would be made good and fertile ground that we would hear the Lord’s Word, and that the Word would bear abundant fruit in our lives. As Christ was victorious over every plot of Satan, we rejoice to consider also His victory over death and the grave. Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let Him hear.” On what has now been sown Thy blessing, Lord, bestow; The pow’r is Thine alone To make it sprout and grow. Do Thou in grace the harvest raise, And Thou alone shalt have the praise! LSB #921 Text: Public domain

Philemon was a prominent first-century Christian who owned a slave named Onesimus. Although the name "Onesimus" means "useful," Onesimus proved himself "useless" when he ran away from his master and perhaps even stole from him (Philemon 18). Somehow Onesimus came into contact with the apostle Paul while the latter was in prison (possibly in Rome), and through Paul's proclamation of the Gospel he became a Christian. After confessing to the apostle that he was a runaway slave, he was directed by Paul to return to his master and become "useful" again. In order to help pave the way for Onesimus' peaceful return home, Paul sent him on his way with a letter addressed to Philemon, a letter in which he urged Philemon to forgive his slave for having run away and "to receive him as you would receive me" (v. 17), "no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother" (v. 16). The letter was eventually included by the church as one of the books of the New Testament.

In our study of Leviticus, we will continue our look at the purity manual by examining Leviticus chapter 12, “The Ritual after Childbirth.” Why were women unclean after pregnancy? What made them clean again?

This Sunday we will begin the three-week mini season of Pre-Lent. The title of our Sunday, Septuagesima, signals that we are 70 days away from Easter. We begin the trek to the joys of Easter by considering life in the vineyard. “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard” from Matthew 20 tells us that all of the workers, even those who worked only an hour, received a day’s wage for their labor. Maybe we should call this parable, “The Parable of the Generous Landowner” instead!

Jacob, the third of the three Hebrew patriarchs, was the younger of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. After wrestling with the Angel of the Lord, Jacob, whose name means "deceiver," was renamed "Israel," which means "he strives with God" (Gen. 25:26; 32:28). His family life was filled with trouble, caused by his acts of deception toward his father and his brother Esau and his parental favoritism toward his son Joseph (March 31). Much of his adult life was spent grieving over the death of his beloved wife Rachel and the presumed death of Joseph, who had been appointed by the Egyptian Pharaoh to be in charge of food distribution during a time of famine in the land. Prior to Jacob's death during the blessing of his sons, God gave the promise that the Messiah would come through the line of Jacob's fourth son, Judah (Genesis 49).

After hearing the Lord’s words that the priests need to teach the people what is clean, common, holy, and unclean, we begin a new section of the book of Leviticus that extends from chapter 11-15, “The Manual for Purity.” This week we will consider the first section in chapter 11, “Instructions on Clean & Unclean Meat.”

Before the journey to Lent begins, we experience the Feast of the Transfiguration. We see the vision of Christ shining like the sun even as we consider who Christ is (God of God, and Light of Light) and what He has come for (heading down the mountain to join us in the valley). What a beautiful Savior we have!

This evening we celebrate a feast known as Candlemas which falls each year on February 2nd, forty days after Christmas. On this day Christ was presented in the temple, and the Virgin Mary went there to observe the rites of purification. When this time was fulfilled, the mother was to make a sacrifice for her own impurity, and for the sake of the child. This was prescribed by the ceremonial Law which God gave to the children of Abraham at Mt. Sinai (see Leviticus 12:2-8). While this particular festival does not loom as large in significance to many Christians, the theological importance of Christ’s presentation at the Temple, Mary’s fulfillment of the Law of Purification, the meeting with Simeon and Anna, and the words of Simeon to Mary and the Nunc Dimittis are essential to appreciating the Humiliation of the Son of God when He became man to fulfill the Law and suffer for us. Today we gather to consider these events and what they mean for our lives.

Our Gospel lesson this week is “Christ Calms the Storm.” This Sunday we sit back in amazement even as we confess with the disciples, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"

Christ brings about a great reversal in St. Paul. “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy” (Gal. 1:23). The enemy of the Gospel becomes its foremost preacher, and the last of the Apostles becomes the first (Matt. 19:30). Paul is God’s “chosen instrument. . . to carry [His] name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). The conversion of Paul is only a more dramatic example of what God does in revealing Christ to us. The bondage of our sin makes saving faith impossible. “I believe that I cannot. . . believe” (SC III,3). But even this is no obstacle for our Lord’s grace in Christ and the Holy Spirit’s power through the Gospel. Baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit, and hearing the Word of Christ, our ears are opened and our spiritual blindness is lifted (Acts 9:17–19). It is dangerous to be a traitor to Christ’s enemies—“I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name” (Acts 9:16)—but everything that is left behind is “rubbish” compared to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8) and the eternal life that we, with St. Paul, will at last inherit (Matt. 19:29).

St. Peter speaks for all disciples when he confesses, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29). This confession is the bedrock of the Church, which Christ Himself builds (Matt. 16:18), for “this Jesus,” the stone rejected by earthly builders, “has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11). This was a scandal even to Peter. The Christ must suffer, be rejected, be killed, “and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31), for through this work of salvation received by faith, God’s “precious and very great promises” are granted, “so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Wherever Jesus is the Christ, His disciples deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him (Mark 8:34). They have been cleansed from their former sins and increase in faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love, effective and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5–9). All who trust in Jesus, the Christ of Peter’s confession, will save their life, though for His sake they lose it (Mark 8:35). “For there is no other name. . . by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

During the Sunday School hour we will examine Leviticus 9 seeing the Lord accept Aaron's offering of ordination.

Come, join in Cana’s feast Where Christ is honored guest. He welcomes all who come to taste The wine His hands have blessed. But Christ, the Word made flesh, Bids water turn to wine. He fills our empty cups again With grace and truth divine. Come, friends, and share the feast; Here drink the wine supplied By Him who is both guest and host— For us, the crucified.

Our lessons for this evening are those appointed for the First Sunday after the Epiphany. As the lessons are read, pay special attention to the theme of the temple. The temple of the Lord was the place that Solomon built. It was also the place that Jesus’ visited when He was 12 years of age. The temple is the place we come to when we come to Church, even as Christ came to be the temple through whose offering, we have atonement. We rejoice to come to God’s temple here, as we receive from the temple on High God’s good gifts to forgive our sins, make us holy, and strengthen our faith. We present our bodies also as living temples of the Lord, giving Him our praises.

Composer Stephen R. Johnson regales us at the piano where he presents a class entitled, “These are a few of my favorite hymns.” Come join us with the composer as we sing his music and learn about our worship.

Join us for the delightful feast of the Baptism of Our Lord where Christ is anointed and appointed by God as our King to save us all.

In Bible Class today, we discussed Leviticus chapter 8 and the ordination and consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood.

This week we pick up the story of Christmas in the palace of Jerusalem where a power-hungry king named Herod fears the birth of a child in Bethlehem and plots to kill Him. Christ escapes and journeys to Egypt as God’s people of old did also. While the Israelites were unfaithful in their journeys, Christ came to complete what they failed at, so that we, in His faithfulness, might become the righteousness of God in Him. As sons and daughters of God through faith, we are imputed with Christ’s perfect life. No worldly rulers can take away what we have in Jesus