LESSON: JAMES 1:12-15

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair. 2 Corinthians 4:8

When God has given us a fine, strong faith so that we go forth in firm confidence, and are quite sure and certain that we have a gracious God on whom we can fully rely, we are in paradise. But when God suffers our heart to slip away from us, so that we come to think that God wants to tear the Lord Jesus from our hearts, and our conscience feels that we have lost Him, and then flounders and loses courage, so that our confidence sinks, the result is wretched distress.

Even if our conscience cannot recall any particular sins it is still in such wretched condition that it thinks, “Who knows if God really wants me?” just as Mary begins to have her doubts (Luke 2:41-51), so that she no longer knows whether God still wants her as a mother. When the heart receives such blows it is inclined to say, “It is true that hitherto God has given you a fine faith; but perhaps He wants to take your faith from you and no longer have you.” It requires a strong faith to withstand such knocks, and there are not many whom God assails in this way. But we must prepare ourselves so that we do not despair if this should happen to us.

SL.XI.432,7

AE 76,

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, strengthen our faith through your Word and Sacraments, that we may successfully overcome all trials and temptations we may meet in life, and stand firm and steadfast in the confidence that we are always more than conquerors in and through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

LESSON: LUKE 2:41-52

When they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, you father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” Luke 2:48

Although the holy mother Mary who was blessed (Luke 1:42) and highly-favored with all kinds of grace (Luke 1:28) without a doubt found the greatest of happiness and joy in her child, the Lord still governed her in such a way that she should not have her paradise in Him and reserve it for her future life, as He does also in the case of others. And so on earth she also had to suffer her share of misfortune, pain, and sorrow.

The first distress that came upon her was that she had to give birth at Bethlehem, a strange place, in which there was no room for herself and her child except in a stable. Soon after this, when the time of her purification was past (Luke 2:22), she had to flee with her child into a foreign country, into Egypt, a small comfort for her under the circumstances. She probably experienced many blows of the same kind which have not been recorded.

Here, too, the Lord laid a similar misfortune upon her when her Son stole off into the temple and she had to search for Him for so long without finding Him. This gave her a terrible shock and grieved her so much that she exclaimed: “Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” We can well imagine that her heart was ready to admit, “The child is mine alone, as I well know. God gave Him to me with instructions that I should look after Him. How has it come to pass that I have lost Him? It is my fault for failing to look after Him well enough.”

SL.XI.430,2-3

AE 76,192

PRAYER: O Lord, you have clearly told us in your Word that you chasten all whom you love for the betterment and well-being. You did not even spare your handmaiden, Mary. Let us not despair when your chastening comes upon us, but open the eyes of our faith so that we may also readily see “the way of escape” [1 Corinthians 10:13] that we may be able to bear it. Amen.

LESSON: PSALM 97

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4

When the Sacrament is used properly, the conscience is not tormented, but comforted and lightened by the joy of faith. For God did not give us the Sacrament as a poison or an instrument of torture, so that one should be terrified by it. This is what happened to us when we were taught the very unskilled doctrine that in the mass we offered our own piety as a sacrifice to God, and lost the real meaning of the Sacrament, namely, that it contained for us words of comfort and salvation, to strengthen our conscience, to refresh us, to make us joyful and to free us from all misfortunes.

This is how one should regard the Sacrament, a source of the sweetest grace, consolation, and life. It is poison and death for those who rush into it in a brazen manner, without feeling any kind of weakness, shortcoming, or need which should impel them to seek the Sacrament, and who act as though they were previously quite pure and pious The Sacrament is for those who recognize their shortcomings and failings, who know in themselves that they are far from perfect piety, but who have the keen desire to improve.

So much depends here on the recognition of our real condition and our real needs, for we are all subject to weaknesses and are sinners, but we do not all confess this. This is enough about preparation for the Sacrament and strengthening our faith through the words of the Sacrament, that we here receive Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Through these words the benefit, fruit, and practice of the Sacrament are adequately indicated and expressed, as far as we are to make use of it for ourselves.

SL.XI.595,22-23

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, refresh us, strengthen us in body and soul, and make us really joyful Christians in the use of your Holy Supper, for Christ’s sake. Amen.