Lutheran Essentials meets in the undercroft of the church on Wednesday evenings at 7pm. You can reach the undercroft by going around to the back parking lot of the church and descending the staircase to the kitchen. Knock on the door if it is closed and some one will let you in. You can also join us remotely via our livestream. Our current study is on the Augsburg Confession. We are providing hard copies of the Book of Concord for free, as well as copies of the Lutheran Service Book.
We will open class with Psalm 119:73-80 (Yodh) and our catechism lesson will be the First Part on Holy Baptism. We will then read the Article XIV on Order in the Church. We will discuss what ordination means and that pastors are the only ones who are to publicly preach, teach, and administer the Sacraments in the Church. We will also talk about the divine call that pastors have. The Confutation agrees with this article but says that bishops must do the ordaining so we will read how the Apology responds. We will then sing the hymn “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord” (LSB 497).
We will then read Article XV on Church Ceremonies. We will talk about why we keep Church tradition and how the culture of the Church is different than the culture of the world. We will also talk about a right understanding of adiaphora. The Confutation partially agrees with this article but says that human traditions can justify, thus we will read the Apology’s response which makes it very clear that we should never attach justification to any human work or tradition. We will close with the hymn “Not All the Blood of Beasts” (LSB 431)
As always new people are always welcome to this study at any point during the class. Please talk to the Pastor, Elders or Paul Edmon if you have any questions.
