One of the many joys of fatherhood is bringing home the occasional gift for my 2-year-old daughter. Most days when I walk in the door, she runs down the hallway to greet me, hollering “Dad!” the whole way. On those occasions when I come with something in my hand, she stops in her tracks when she sees the present and invariably asks in eager anticipation: “What is it, what is it?” Her joy and excitement in welcoming me home and her desire to know what I’ve brought her are treasured blessings.

Our Lord Jesus Christ says to His disciples in Luke 11 that earthly fathers, imperfect though they may be, give good gifts to their children, and that our Father in heaven gives immeasurably greater gifts to His children, namely the Holy Spirit. Our Father is pleased to visit us and bestow His gifts on us in the Divine Service, and we should likewise be pleased to rejoice in His presence and eager to know the nature of the gifts our Father brings to us.

In the Lutheran tradition, we call the Sunday morning service the Divine Service, which is a translation of the historic German Gottesdienst (Service of God), although we also use the terms Mass, Worship, or Service. The preference for the term Divine Service gets at the heart of what God is doing when He gathers His church around the Word and Sacraments: He is serving us, bringing us the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The Divine Service is a procession of one gift after another, beginning with the forgiveness of sins, where God hears our confession and absolves us through the words of the pastor, the man called and ordained to speak forgiveness in the stead and by the command of Christ. We then hear readings from The Bible, respond to Him in prayer and praise, and hear the sermon, where the Scriptures are proclaimed to us from the pulpit.

The high point of all this gift giving is the Lord’s Supper (Communion, Eucharist, Sacrament of the Altar), where Christ gives us His true Body and Blood under the form of bread and wine for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. He tells His disciples in Matthew 26:28 that this cup is His blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Likewise in John 6 He says to the crowd: “I am the bread of life … I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Just as God’s people of old were saved by the blood of the Passover lambs sacrificed to save them from the angel of death (Exodus 12), so are we saved from eternal death by the blood of our Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), who is Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). We receive these gifts by faith, trusting the sure and certain promise of God that all these gifts are for us and our benefit. Not only did Christ die, He died for you. Not only is Christ arisen, He is risen for you. As faithful Christians, we receive these promises of God as an unmerited gift and respond as St. Mary did, saying “Let it be unto me according to your Word” (Luke 1:38).

Our good and loving Father comes bearing these tremendous, priceless, eternal gifts week in and week out. He calls us together in His name to visit us and shower us with His blessings. As we continue to rejoice with the whole church in heaven and on earth at the resurrection of our Lord, let us hold fast to our blessed hope. Let us be eager to meet our good and gracious Lord and encourage one another to receive His gifts all the more as the day of His return draws near (Hebrews 10:19-25).

The Rev. Joe Pierson has been blessed to serve the dear saints of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Webster City since his ordination in 2021. He and his growing family love cooking, gardening, canning, and fishing together.