Lent is Over / Maundy Thursday

Lent is over.  I am not sure I have spent it profitably.

I have argued on Facebook and have been blocked by three people.  All three of them were making disparaging remarks about God and Christianity when I encountered them.  I crossed them and they did not like it.  I am not sure it is my fault or my glory.  The Lord knows what's up.  Certainly, I need forgiveness.

I worry about the Christian hostages and victims in Kenya, today.  I am sick of the daily reports of violence and enslavement.  I grieve quite a few things.  There is no sense in going into it here.  You can read it in all the world reports.

Psalm for today:

"Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you
the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man
who carries out evil devices!"

Psalm 37:1-7

Epistle

"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.  for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.  You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness,since he is a child.  But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

Hebrews 5

C.F.W. Walther

The apostle Paul wishes to say:  consider, beloved Christians, that when you receive the blessed cup and the blessed bread, each one partakes of the body and blood of Christ;  they are both common to all of you.  You come into the body-and-blood fellowship with one another.  For just as many grains become one bread, so in the Holy Supper, you, though you are many, become one body, one mass, because you are partakers of the one bread and with it one and the same body and blood of Christ.

Because of the presence  and participation of the body of Christ, the Holy Supper is a meal of the most intimate fellowship and, therefore, at the same time, the highest love-meal.  Just as fervent love is demanded, so fervent love is delivered.  We all come together, as children of the same family, to the table of our common, heavenly Father.  As great as the distinction between communicants in civic life may be, in the Holy Supper all distinctions evaporate.  We are all the same, in that we each eat the same earthly and heavenly bread and drink the same earthly and heavenly drink.  In this Meal, the subject and his king, the slave and his master, the beggar and the rich, the child and the old man, the wife and the husband, the simple and the learned, truly all communicants stand as the same poor sinners and beggars, hungry and thirsty for grace.  Although one may appear in a rough apron while another in velvet and satin, adorned with gold and pearls, when they depart, all take with them that for which they hunger and thirst:  Christ's blood and righteousness as their beauty and glorious dress.  No one receives a better food and better drink than the other.  All receive the same Jesus, and with Him, the same righteousness.


Luther

..No one should by any means be forced or compelled to go to the Sacrament, let we institute a new murdering of souls.  Nevertheless, it must be known that people who deprive themselves of and withdraw from the Sacrament for such a long time are not to be considered Christians.  For Christ...has commanded His Christians to eat it, drink it, and remember Him by it.

Indeed, those who are true Christians and value the sacrament precious and holy will drive and move themselves to go to it.... There is also need for daily encouragement, and... there is need for us to continue to preach so that people may not become weary and disgusted.  For we know and feel how the devil always opposes this and every Christian exercise.  He drives and deters people from them as much as he can.

--------------

This blog is a Christian exercise for me, when I post scripture, catechism, etc.   Someone has offered the criticism that this is not "creative".  Let all those who want to be creative in places be creative in those places.  If this is a Christian exercise in the word and doctrine, to me, at times, and sometimes also serves as a place for journaling and making observations, it should not really bother anybody.

What is needful, is one thing, and it is the meditation on God's word.  And it is not boring, but life-giving.

Thanks be to God, for inviting us to his feast of joy, peace and love, for giving up his wrath toward us and passing over the judgment.  We are in his good grace.