Thursday of the Thirteenth Week After Trinity

September 3, 2026 Today's Reading: Catechism: What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 19:1-21; 1 Kings 20:1-22:53; Ephesians 3:1-21 “What is the benefit of this eating and drinking? These words, ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,’ show us that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.” (Small Catechism VI.2) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God has a powerful Word. When there was nothing, God spoke, and a whole world came into being. When God sent Word by His prophets, what they predicted came true. God brought about what seemed impossible at the time—the most unlikely thing to happen—and yet God did it. When God commanded a fish to both swallow Jonah and to be the first submarine in human history, carrying Jonah to Nineveh, the fish did it. When God’s Son made man spoke, His Word was also powerful. Storms were stilled. Lepers were cleansed. The deaf heard. The blind saw. Dead people became living again.  So it is no surprise that the words “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” also are powerful. In the Lord’s Supper, these words place God’s own forgiveness in the body and blood of Jesus which is in and with the bread. All who take the Sacrament eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus. But only those who take it in faith in these words receive forgiveness there. God’s Word puts this forgiving body and blood in the bread and wine. Faith receives forgiveness from there. And an even greater gift is that this forgiveness is not alone. It comes with other gifts of God as well, brought by His powerful Word. For life and salvation also are companions of forgiveness. It’s as if they were friends who cannot be separated. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. What kind of life? Life before God. Renewed life by the forgiveness of sins that Jesus’ death won and that the Sacrament seals to you. And eternal life too! The Lord’s Supper is the medicine of immortality, the true fruit of the tree of life, that all who eat of it and also have faith in these words find this life that God gives. Here, salvation is received as well. Forgiveness is the word spoken by God on the last day to His believers. And the Sacrament brings that end-time forgiveness and salvation to His believers now as the first taste of heaven.  So come when your pastor offers the Sacrament, and come spiritually hungry. You will be fed, because the powerful Word of God makes this food to be equally as powerful. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. “For Your consoling Supper, Lord, Be praised throughout all ages! Preserve it, for in ev’ry place The world against it rages. Grant that this sacrament may be A blessed comfort unto me When living and when dying.” (LSB 622:8) Rev. Robert Mayes, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church and Zion St. John Lutheran Church, Beemer and Wisner, NE.