ROUGHLY EDITED COPY LUTHERAN WORSHIP 2 49.LW2 Captioning provided By: Caption First, Inc. P.O. Box 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 ******** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ******** >> DAVID: I want to express our gratitude for the time you have shared with us, Dr. Just. This course has proven to be both theoretical and yet, very practical. All of us appreciate learning from you and we're looking forward to meeting Dr. Brauer. So here's my final question for you. Would you describe for us, once again, the treasures of our heritage of Lutheran worship. >> DR. ARTHUR JUST: In the twelfth chapter of Luke's gospel, Jesus talks about treasures in heaven and laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven instead of treasures on this earth. When Jesus talks about treasures, he's talking first and foremost about himself. The great treasure that we have, the great treasure of our worship, is Jesus Christ. And when we have that treasure, we have those gifts that we have been talking about over and over again, the gifts of forgiveness and life and salvation, freedom from our sins, life that knows no end in Christ, rescued from our enemies in Christ. When we have Christ as this treasure, and when he is there present among us, the very son of God who is also son of man, the person of Jesus with his divine and human nature, then we have the treasure of heaven itself. This is why all through this course we have been talking about how our worship is not only a foretaste of heaven, it is an experience of heaven even now as we participate in heaven by being in communion with the flesh of Jesus Christ. Now, those treasures are expressed in many different ways in our worship. They are expressed as we come together to confess our sins and hear Christ�s absolution through the pastor. Those treasures are expressed as we begin our service with our own response interestingly of praise and thanksgiving that he, the treasure, Christ, is coming to us with gifts in his word as we sing together Kyrie and Gloria. Those treasures are expressed in his very word where we hear from him himself, as he speaks to us through the prophets and the apostles, as he speaks to us about what is at the heart and core of who we are as his very children. Those treasures are expressed in our giving back to him what he has given to us as we speak back to him our faith in the Apostles� and Nicene Creed, as we sing hymns that reflect what it is that we believe about him, and as we bring forward the bread and wine as our gifts to him as a means by which he can give us his body and blood, and as we bring forth our treasures as responses to the wonderful gifts that he has given us in the offertory as we bring forth those things that serve God and his kingdom in the place that God has called us to serve him. And then, perhaps, as we watch the flow of the liturgy, as we move through the word and are now coming to the meal, we have that extraordinary opportunity to sit at table with him and receive the treasure of having him as both host and meal where the very crucified and risen Christ of Calvary and the empty tomb comes into our bodies as we eat and drink his very body and blood. Throughout our time together, we have talked about how central Christ is. And if there's one thing I want to leave with you as we close my section of the course is that always do what the author of Hebrews calls us to do, to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. As we run this race a from earth till death, knowing that as we run that race, there is always a safe haven for us to go, a place where we can receive the nourishment that we need to support us in this body and life. And that's called the worship of the church where every Sunday we can drag our weary bodies and our troubled minds and perhaps even our great sadnesses into this place where he dwells and sit at his feet, listen to him speak to us, and then have him feed us that holy food that is the food of heaven. Thank you for the time that you have given me in this course. I look forward to an opportunity at the end with Dr. Brauer to discuss some questions that are of a more practical nature that the two of us will address. But one of the things I always say at the end of every course I teach, and I'll say it here, that one of the things we have together as Christians is this unity in Christ in worship. And that even though, because this is on film, we may never meet each other, we will always be together at the table. And being together at the table means that we will always be together from now until the end of time, and then forever and ever with Christ and all the saints in glory. The Lord be with you as you continue your preparations for serving the Lord in his church. Thank you.