Author: TechCommittee

Pastor’s Notes February 2017

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Did you ever stop to think that you have the United Nations hanging in your closet?  I recently did laundry and as I was hanging up my shirts I noticed where they had been manufactured:  Bangladesh, Honduras, Egypt, Hong Kong, Guatemala, and Mongolia.  These are all brand name shirts from Chaps, Geoffrey Beene, and Nautica.  It was a reminder once again of how our world is shrinking.  I wish I could trace back where just one of my shirts came from.  What an interesting story that might be!

The Lord has brought us to this time and place in history.  Instant communication.  World travel.  Much of the world knowing English.  Our recent international student from half way around the world in Indonesia had seen many more recent American films than anyone in our family.  Yes, it is a different world from when I would watch the Olympics growing up and the only people speaking the language I knew were the people from the United States.

While the world continues its rapid changes, the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not change.  We are blessed with so many opportunities to share the saving message of the cross and grace and mercy.  Because of weather delays the Lord opened up doors for us to do this last month.  I just sent an e-mail to the Hilbert’s, Lutheran Bible Translators in Botswana that made it there in an instant.  They say letters can still take up to two months!

While some doors may be closing in our country, many doors are being thrown open in other parts of this grand sphere.  People clamoring for the Bible and the message of a Savior.  Men and women who want to confess Jesus as Lord.  Children who want stories about the man who walked on water and healed the sick.  We continue our prayers for missionaries and others on the front lines doing this work.

What might the Lord be calling you to do?  Now where did I hang that shirt from Vietnam?

In Christ,

Pastor

Stewardship Corner January 2017

Celebrating New Years is a celebration of the past and the future. We take stock of the past with thanksgiving and sometimes even relief (that it’s over), and we look to the future in the hope and anticipation and perhaps even worry of what it holds.

The point is that New Year’s celebrations remind us of who we are as opposed to who we would like to be; what we have done in comparison to what we want to do. It reminds us of our accomplishments, but mostly it reminds us of our failures. What we’ve lost. Who we’ve lost.

New Years is our own version of Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. And we all play Scrooge. We are visited by the ghosts of our pasts, presents, and futures.

St. Paul writes: “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor 9:6–15).

St. Paul tells us that the Lord of all will both supply and increase what you need to give to the church for its work in and for the world. He tells us that this work that God is doing in us will enrich and bless us in every way and through this it will produce thanksgiving to God. With this in mind, here is some practical advice to help you take stock of your giving of years past, which will help you to change what needs to be changed, improved, or done away with altogether.

First, attend the Divine Service to receive God’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. If you’ve not been faithful in attending worship to hear the preaching of God’s Word, to receive forgiveness, and feast of the rich food of our Lord’s body and blood for the eternal benefit of your body and soul, then repent and come to receive the gifts God freely gives. God doesn’t want your money. He wants you—all of you (Matt 22:20–22).

Second, pray for the Lord’s help. Your right as a Christian is to speak with your Father, the King of all creation, freely through His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Go to the throne of grace and ask for strength and wisdom to follow His bidding faithfully (John 15:1–16).

Third, consider what the Church is and what the Church does. The Church is a mercy place. It inhales the mercy of the Father by the death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son through the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments. It exhales this mercy in love toward the neighbor. You are a member of the Church, of God’s family. Thus, you are not only a recipient of God’s mercy, but a bearer of that mercy for the life of the world. You spread that mercy in showing mercy through the generous giving of your income to support the work of the Church in and for the world, as the Israelites did in the Old Testament (Lev 27:1–34).

Fourth, take stock of your current giving in light of the New Testament’s teaching on supporting the work of the Church. Are you giving of your first fruits, taking it out of your paycheck first, or does God get what’s left over? Are you giving voluntarily and cheerfully? Are you giving proportionally and generously? The Old Testament required a tithe, ten percent. The New Testament gives freedom to be generous, to give more for the Church’s work. Are you relying on God’s promise to provide and increase what you need to do His work? If your answer is no to any of these, repent. If God gave you His only Son, will He not provide for you all things, even physical things? Trust Him, His Word, and heed it.

So, don’t let your past define your future. Rather, commit for the year a generous proportion of your income, which is God’s gift to you for this body and life.

Celebrating January 2017

Birthdays

1/1 Carin Henson
1/2 Nicholas Hitch
1/4 Bud Kessler
1/6 Donald Gronert
1/6 Mary McEleney
1/9 Cathy Cloyd
1/9 Robert Hanner
1/19 Nancy Thomas
1/20 Gregory McNeely
1/20 Beth Mosier
1/28 Linda Dirks
1/31 Jill Holland

Baptismal Birthdays
1/1 E. F. Bud Barnett
1/1 Charles Nottingham
1/1 Shirley Potter
1/2 Chloe Hitch
1/11 Jacqueline Kwasny
1/12 Jessica Isaac
1/21 Bud Kessler

Sermon 11-27-2016

November 27, 2016 Text: Romans 13:11-14

Dear Friends in Christ,

As you know I am a person that doesn’t care much for the morning. In fact, I believe my heaviest sleep is in the morning, something to do with circadian rhythms or some pseudo science. Last week was one such morning. Toni came into the bedroom and I was startled awake. What did she have for my morning ears? There was water coming from the floorboard of the sink in the hall bathroom. Good morning, Mr. Lueck!
I have found in my years on earth that being woken up usually means bad news. Someone has died, a parishioner is in the hospital, and a few years ago my in-laws came with this little bulletin. “There’s water on the basement floor, we think your water heater is leaking.” Another good morning, Mr. Lueck!
How about you? Do you find the same thing in your life? Are your pleasant dreams interrupted by news you would rather not hear? Sleep is a gift of God, a great restorer of energy. But there comes a time when we have to wake up. Today, this First Sunday of Advent we are roused from our spiritual sleep.
“WAKE UP!…HE’S ALMOST HERE”
Paul begins, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” (v. 11)
Joseph Bayly’s words have a real echo, don’t they? “God’s people should plan for a voyage of a thousand years, but be prepared to abandon ship tonight.” Not only do we live in anticipation of the Lord’s sudden return, but who among us can predict when the doctor’s report has “months to live” attached to it or the sudden chest pain won’t allow enough time to say goodbye?
We are to live in the anticipation. We are to wake from sleep and prepare for the Lord’s entrance – be that the celebration of his birth, or His second Coming, or our entrance into eternity in the blink of an eye.
The preparation is to be constant because, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.” (v. 12-13)
The night of this world with its black pall of sin had certainly lasted a long time when Paul lived, thousands of years. As his next event Christ had promised His return. Now over 2,000 additional years have passed. The night has now certainly cut forward still closer to the sudden break of the final day.
“The works of darkness” go on continually, and we Christians live in this world age and are constantly beset to join in these works. Those who have visited the excavated ruins of Pompeii will know what is to be seen there in the way of brothels. The pagan world stank with vice, and does the modern world stink less?
The modern world wants us to accommodate their vice. And if you won’t then you get labeled as unloving or out of touch or dare I say even dangerous. We have lived to see that what is Godly and Biblical can be besmirched in this way. And all of this is a monster within the church as well. I recently read of a brother Pastor forced out of his congregation by the laity because of his Biblical position regarding people living together out of wedlock. Wake up! The battle is before us.
We are to fight the good fight of faith here, during the night; our weapons of the light are to drive us from the darkness. We are not merely to stand in shining armor but to do battle, to stand victorious until the Lord arrives or until He calls us away before He arrives.
How can we do this? The beginning of verse 14, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Do you see the baptismal imagery? Christ put his mark on us through water and the Word. You and I have been watermarked. Made His child. What are the Christian’s clothing? Colossians says, “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience…forgive as the Lord forgave you.” All of these terms are what Jesus brought to sinful, rebellious us through His birth. All of these terms were sealed for us at Calvary. All of these terms are assured us through His resurrection. “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.” (Gal. 3:27)
When I was a kid, I did not have an alarm clock. My mom would yell up the stairs, “Chad, time to get up.” I usually got up, had a nice shower, if my sister left me some hot water, then enjoyed my pop-tart and morning paper. If I didn’t get up with the first command, the 2nd was a little more shrill, “Chad, you have to wake up!” I knew instantly by the tone that my morning better be getting started.
It’s that 2nd command that we need. We can’t go around sleepy-eyed in this world that is coming to an end. But as we crawl out of bed, the Lord is there. He lifts our head from the pillow. He provides the strength for the day. His Word and Sacrament are the breakfast of champions. The day is at hand – wake up!
Amen.