Kashi loves his babies ever so much!  Every time I pick them up, gather the collection back around his bed, he slowly but systematically distributes them back about the house.  When they are beyond my ability to sew (he tends to disembowel them after breaking their "neck") and I try to throw them away, he sits in front of the trash can and howls until I retrieve the broken-squeaker, empty-stuffing, ratty baby.  He will carry it lovingly back to his bed and lay down for a rest with it tucked beneath his chin, so as to recover from the trauma of my egregious betrayal.


I have been crying a lot in the past two days.  His solution is to keep putting one of his babies next to me on the couch.  Tonight, my beloved buttercup, my precious petunia, is curled at my feet, encircled by 11 of his favorite babies.  Four more are beside me. 

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Tonight, Bettina ordered a digital recorder.  I am selfish enough to be delighted with glee at the thought of all the audio clips she will be sending me!  I promptly logged onto Amazon to send a microphone her way.

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Tonight, worried about the snow piling up and bending over my trees, I tried to clear the snow off a branch threatening my power supply.  Picture a small child yanked upward after pulling on a bell rope.  I pulled down, the snow fell off (on top of me), and the sudden lack of frozen precipitation weight propelled the tree branch upward.  Having not lost my death grip, I, too, was yanked upwards until I let go.  I then fell into the more than foot of snow already piled up on the ground.  Soaking me head to toe.  I've been shivering for hours.  The tree branch is bent over once more.

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Tonight, I have been chewing over an answer I received to paragraphs 93-98 in Part III of the Large Catechism on the 5th petition of the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us:

There is here attached a necessary, yet comforting addition:  "As we forgive."  He has promised that we shall be sure that everything is forgiven and pardoned, in the way that we also forgive our neighbor.  Just as we daily sin much against God, and yet he forgives everything through grace, so we, too, must ever forgive our neighbor who does us injury, violence, and wrong, shows malice toward us, and so on.  If, therefore, you do not forgive, then do not think that God forgives you (Matthew 18:23-25).  But if you forgive, you have this comfort and assurance, that you are forgiven in heaven.  This is not because of your forgiving.  For God forgives freely and without condition, out of pure grace, because He had so promised, as the Gospel teaches.  But God says this in order that He may establish forgiveness as our confirmation and assurance, as a sign alongside of the promise, which agrees with this prayer in Luke 6:37,  "Forgive, and you will be forgiven."  Therefore, Christ also repeats it soon after the Lord's Prayer, and says in Matthew 6:14, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you," and so on.

This sign is therefore attached to this petition.  When we pray, we remember the promise and think, "Dear Father, for this reason I come and pray for You to forgive me, not so that I can make satisfaction or can merit anything by my works.  I pray because You have promised and attached the seal to this prayer that I should be as sure about it as though I had Absolution pronounced by You Yourself."  For Baptism and the Lord's Supper--appointed as outward signs--work as seals (Ephesians 1:13).  In the same way also, this sign can serve to confirm our consciences and cause them to rejoice.  It is especially given for this purpose, so that we may use and practice forgiveness every hour, as a thing that we have with us at all times. (LC, Part III, 93-98)

promise, sign, and seal...

SIGH.

Below are the questions that I asked:

1. Is every time the word promise(d) used in these two paragraph referring to back to the second sentence of the first paragraph?  And if so, is the promise that everything is forgiven and pardoned or that it is forgiven and pardoned in the way that we also forgive our neighbor?  Or another promise, such as Matthew 1:21 or 1 John 1:9 or Genesis 3:15?  How can we be pardoned and forgiven in the way we forgive our neighbors since, as sinners, we stink at forgiving one another?
2. What is the sign mentioned in the 8th sentence of the first paragraph?  But God says this in order that He may establish forgiveness as our confirmation and assurance, as a sign alongside of the promise, which agrees with this prayer in Luke 6:37,  "Forgive, and you will be forgiven."   Does this mean that our ability to forgive others is the sign?  It sounds that way, but For Baptism and the Lord's Supper--appointed as outward signs--work as seals (Ephesians 1:13) sounds like the sign is the Sacraments.
3. I get that if the sign is the Sacraments, then they are there to remind us of the things we cannot see, i.e. the work of the Cross.  I love Luther's comment in LC IV ...faith must have something that it believes, that is of which it takes hold and upon which it sand and rests.  So faith clings to the water and believes that in Baptism, there is pure salvation and life.  This is not through the water (as we have stated well enough), but through the fact that it is embodied in God's Word and institution, and that God's name abides in it.  (29)  Is that what he means here, too?  But if so, how can that be if the sign is the "addition," is our forgiving others?
4. How is the "addition" not Law?
5. If the purpose of this prayer is that we may recognize and receive such forgiveness (reception) (88), why does it seem to have a caveat that depends on us doing something?

I am not quite sure that I can even begin to grasp the answer I received.  Therefore, I do not wish to attempt to fumble my way through it here yet more than a wee bit below.  I also received an audio clip to further explain the answer; I highly recommend that you listen to it!  Then, perhaps, you could enlighten me as to the Gospel view of these two paragraphs.  Because, if you have not already surmised, I am quite aware of its Law view.

What struck me, however, is Pastor W's teaching that when we are to pray for our enemies, it does not mean that we are to merely bring them before our Father in Heaven, to ask Him to...perhaps...uhm...correct them or to protect us.  No, it means that we should implore Him to favor them, to shower His blessings upon them!

The Gospel in Luther's teaching?  Several things actually.  One of them is that the sign is, then, essentially our forgiving someone, since on our own, we cannot do such a thing.  As Pastor W's explained:

With our enemies, we are to remember the promise and use the sacrament--the sign, if you will.  So, you're trying to hurt me?  To make me suffer?  Guess what!  I forgive you.  I wipe out that sin.  I will not treat you as your sins have deserved.  I will pray for you and for God to bless you.  When we do this, it is the very same as the water of baptism washing over us, the Eucharist entering our bodies; it is the sign, seal, proof that our sins are wiped out and gone.  And so to our enemies we can rejoice, "YOU thought you were doing me damage; GOD flipped it and gave it to me as a gift and the very seal of my salvation."

Hmmm....uhm...come again?

The part of his answer I did savor?  That he thought it was wonderful I was struggling with this bit of the Catechism instead of just glossing over it...that and the fact he said it was a difficult passage to grasp!

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!