Holy Thursday. A New Covenant for You! Worship: April 17, 2025

Join us for Worship: April 17, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Unless you live in a homeowners’ association (HOA), you may go through life without hearing much about covenants. The covenants in an HOA are mutually agreed upon standards for those who live in that community. God offers a new and better covenant to us. The validity of this new covenant does not rest on us and what we do. God’s covenant fully rests on Jesus, who made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up His life for the sins of the world. Because of Jesus, God forgives us, and He gives us confidence, comfort, and hope. We experience God’s forgiveness tonight as we gather at our Lord’s Table.

Easter Day: Resurrection Confidence. April 20, 2025

Jesus compels us to ponder the unthinkable, the amazing—to embrace a cataclysmic event that destroys death and literally makes all things new. Resurrection! Christ’s brutal coronation and crucifixion ensures that the entire cosmos, the heavens and the earth, are renewed—in resurrection! Chills soar through our souls at the very thought of it all. In confident faith we are bold to confess that king Jesus unleashes His incomparable reign, crushing the evil aggression of principalities, authorities, and even Satan himself. Unrelenting shouts and songs of alleluia shape the church today because of resurrection. Setting aside all timidity, fear, and anxiety, the church acclaims “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” Resurrection confidence in Jesus unites our speech and our song on this day, as we await—with the same confidence—our own day of resurrection, with all the saints in glory.

From Palms to Passion: Jesus for You. Worship: April 13, 2025

palm sunday by evans yegon

Today we are brought to the threshold of Holy Week. This was the day the Jewish people chose the Passover Lamb. How quickly things can change in a week! On this Palm Sunday, we see Jesus enter Jerusalem with palms, a symbol of victory, strewn in the road and being waved. Yet it was from that entry that Jesus went to show His true love—His passion—by dying on the cross on Friday. That death showed His love for you. By faith, we believe what Jesus did was for us. Everything about us—our sin, our eternal destination—changed that week because Jesus took the road from palms to passion. Receive what Jesus did for you by faith, knowing your home in heaven was paid for with the King’s ransom—His own blood.

A New Thing in This Old World. Worship: April 6, 2025

The Woman of Samaria at the Well (La Samaritaine à la fontaine)

James Tissot

 There is a hymn that refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, calling it an “old, old story” (“I Love to Tell the Story” by Arabella Katherine Hankey, 1834–1911). The fact that God’s plan of salvation began thousands of years ago, and that the Bible is the record of events in ancient history, does not mean that old equals irrelevant. Today, God says through His prophet Isaiah, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old” (Isaiah 43:18). But before you throw away your old Bible, your old catechism, or your old hymnal, listen up! “Behold, I am doing a new thing; . . . do you not perceive it?” (v. 19). In the pattern of the exodus of old and the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity of old, and as “the old rugged cross” of Christ made His resurrection from the dead possible, the “new thing” of God’s doing today is all about freeing you from the slavery of sin, death, boredom, worry, and fear; re-creating you “that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness” (explanation of the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Small Catechism); renewing your life today by the forgiveness of your sins and in the sure and certain hope of new bodies for old in the new creation that awaits.

Makes You Want to Sing! Worshop: March 30, 2025

Traditionally, the Fourth Sunday in Lent has been known as Laetare Sunday, from the Latin Introit Laetare Jerusalem: “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her” (Isaiah 66:10). Though still in the penitential season of Lent, this Sunday is a relaxation from normal Lenten discipline. Flowers may appear, and ministers may wear rose-colored vestments as a lighter shade of violet.

Today’s service is inspired by the Old Testament Reading of Isaiah, the First Song of Isaiah: “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth” (Isaiah 12:5). Today we take that admonition literally as not only the liturgy is sung but also the Readings are expanded with hymn stanzas. “Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12:6). In the joy of the faithful father in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, the forgiveness of our sin and reconciliation with God as His baptized sons and daughters, well, it just makes you want to sing! So we shall!

What’s the Deal with Eating and Drinking? Worship: March 23, 2025

A main emphasis of our Lenten discipline is our struggle against temptations to sin and toward true repentance that leads to living faithful Christian lives. As our physical well-being depends in part on healthy choices of diet, in today’s Readings God uses the metaphor of eating and drinking to warn and encourage His people to avoid the temptations of the world and our own sin that leads us away from God and to rely constantly on the forgiveness and faith that God provides to enable us to lead godly lives. In the Epistle, Paul has in mind how God provides for us in His Word and Sacraments. We are to remember not only that we were baptized but that we are baptized, meaning God still provides us with saving, bold faith that relies on His mercy and grace because we belong to Him now. The center of the Divine Service is the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, through which we are given forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation—all the benefits won for us by the cross and sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. Today we are encouraged to receive and rely on God’s gifts and provision constantly, that we may maintain a healthy and strong faith in the face of all adversities and challenges.

Stand Firm in the Faith. Worship: March 16, 2025

 How’s your faith? Is it firm, steadfast, and strong? Or do you find that it seems to be growing weak, uncertain, or even in danger of disappearing at times? As we follow our Lord in this Lenten season, leading up to the distressing events of Holy Week, we are warned today that the same opposition, rejection, and betrayal faced by prophets like Jeremiah, and even Jesus, will also face us as His followers. What did He mean when He said, “You will be hated by all for My name’s sake”? (Luke 21:17). But rather than a dire prediction, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11–12). When challenges arise and temptations overwhelm, we are reminded to remember and observe examples of faith, such as the apostle Paul in his many struggles and even our Lord Himself whose faith and confidence in His Father’s gracious design made Him endure “the cross, despising the shame” with the prospect of His certain victory and eternal placement at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2). That certainty is ours. Faith hangs on to the promise “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown” (Revelation 3:11). Or as Paul says, “Therefore, my brothers, . . .my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord” (Philippians 4:1). 

God’s Truth: Easy and Powerful. Worship: March 9, 2025

“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness” (1 Timothy 3:16). As we have now entered the forty-day pilgrimage of Lent, we approach the most climactic event of our Lord’s earthly ministry, the one that confused and frightened the first followers of Jesus and perhaps even some to this day. The expectation of the establishment of the kingdom of God with Jesus, the Son of God, seated on a royal throne as ruler was demolished as they witnessed their Rabbi, Master, and Lord taken captive, convicted, tortured, and executed on that Passover in Jerusalem.

The cross has always been an offense. To this day, the same mystery stands: His royal throne is but a frightful cross of crucifixion—His kingdom hidden to the eyes. When confronted with the facts of God’s Word, many cannot see past this mystery. Yet it is the power of God’s Word that gives people the gift of faith and new eyes to see what was incomprehensible and secret now revealed by the Spirit of God. God’s truth is that in the death of Christ, redemption and forgiveness of sin now avails for the entire world. Sinners are delivered, justified before God by faith in the blood of Jesus shed on the cross and given the ability to repent and believe and become children of God for eternity. For sinful mankind, this life-giving truth is impossible to believe or understand. Only because of the mighty Word of God proclaimed to the world by His church and by the power of the Spirit is that otherwise mysterious Word actually easy and powerful to understand and to believe.

Witnesses of Glory and Heirs of Promise. Worship: March 2, 2025

 Beloved heirs of God’s glory—sinners and saints, sons and daughters—see God’s promised revelation in Jesus’ transfigured glory! All believing patriarchs, prophets, disciples, leaders, teachers, and confessors experience the tragic result of sin. Yet we are all invited into the light of Jesus! Our journeys, despite mistrust and faithlessness, are enveloped in God’s forgiveness. The sinless Son of God appears before sinful Moses, Elilah, Peter, James, and John on the mountain together! A revelation like no other! This pivotal moment of glory compels us to anticipate the journey of the “gory,” the pending crimes against Jesus: the cross, the mockery, the crucifixion. Death is coming! Soon, the church’s alleluias will be hushed.

Is It Possible? Worship: February 23, 2025

 Forgiving is not beyond the realm of possibility for us. Although, as children of Adam, we are part of the earthly world, by the grace of God we are also His children, in the family through Baptism. We can extend God’s love and forgiveness to those who hate us, take from us, and are our enemies. Anyone who is in Christ, while still dealing with this Adamic world, can expect undeserved favor—grace—from our heavenly Father for Jesus’ sake. Today our worship helps to strengthen us for the task. Fear not! Those who oppose us are part of this fallen world; Christ has destroyed even death for us. And we are in Christ.