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Easter 6

Catechism – 1st Article

            THE FIRST ARTICLE

                        I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

 

            What does this mean?

                        I believe that God created me and all that exists, and that he gave me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my mind and all my abilities.

                        And I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life. God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil. All this God does only because he is my good and merciful Father in heaven, and not because I have earned or deserved it. For all this I ought to thank and praise, to serve and obey him.

                        This is most certainly true.

 

            When we confess our faith in God the Father in the first article, we focus first on God’s creation of the world. We directly counter the mainstream confession of faith in evolution. An aspect of the explanation to the First Article we may overlook at times is God’s preservation or providence. Not only did God create the world initially, He is actively engaged and involved in keeping things running. God promised the Israelites in Leviticus 26:4, “I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.” God provides for his people through natural means most of the time. He has given us “body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my mind and all my abilities.” Jesus showed us in his ministry that God also provides for us through miracles, such as in John 6 with the feeding of the 5000.

            Another often overlooked aspect of this confession of faith that has great impact on the world is the Christian understanding that God watches over all of creation and sustains it, meaning that science is a worthwhile endeavor. We are more accustomed to defend the attacks of Science against Christianity, but the truth is that without Christians, science would not be the same. Compare the worldview of the pagans both before Christianity and after the emergence of the Christian church: events in your life and in the world are at the mercy of fate and the whim of the gods. Storms, earthquakes, natural events and everything in nature are expressions of fickle deities. What sense does hypothesis, observation, and experimentation mean in that world? By contrast, our understanding that God has created an orderly world and sustains its laws allows the practice of science. Many of the most prominent scientists were devout Christians. Some examples of this are Isaac Newton and Gregor Mendel. Mendel was actually a monk and made huge contributions to the field of genetics.

            Our weekly confession of God as the Creator of Heaven and Earth gives us great comfort in our everyday life. God protects us from evil, he turns evil to good (Romans 8:28), and he sends angels to preserve us.



Wisdom from Solomon

            Proverbs 10:14

The wise store up knowledge,

but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.

 

                        Foolishness will not remain- Wisdom from God lasts for eternity.

 

 

Ascension Day Evening Service: May 9th, 7pm.

            We will be having a special service on May 9th to celebrate the Ascension of our Lord. I would have announced this earlier but I didn’t realize this was customary for Our Savior until recently! Many churches move the celebration to Sunday, but this is a great Festival service to have its own day and special service!

 

Worship 5/5

Hymns: 411, 377, 490, 521

Readings:        Acts 9:36-42   1 John 4:7-11, 19-21   John 15:9–17

Service of Word and Sacrament

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