Only One Source. Worship: June 1, 2025

 How close must we be to achieve unity? For us sinners, separation of even a little bit compromises unity. What we need is a single source to unite us. It is our singular Savior who is the only source of true unity. Our Readings today show us the one church continuing and Matthias elected to sit in Judas’s chair. Jesus promises power to His followers and tells them to stay close and do His will. And our Lord even prays that they might be one with Him even as He is one with the Father. Today we need to hear the Word of God to find strength for continuing our being the one Body of Christ.

We Can’t Wait. Worship: May 28, 2025

It is almost the end of the Easter Season, and we would like it to continue. The non-festival half of the Church Year doesn’t seem as, well, festive. But listen to the Readings! There are people, like Paul in the Reading from Acts, who need support today. And Lydia is an example of a new Christian, ready to help. The vision in Revelation showed John’s readers the perfect city, ready to welcome all whose names are in the Book of Life (that’s us)! We can hardly wait to get there.

In the meantime, there’s no time to lose. “Ask,” Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). You see, even now He is with us. What would you like to ask Him?

The Joyful Creation. Worship: May 18, 2025

Photo by <a href="/photographer/sraburton-53697">sraburton</a> on <a href="/">Freeimages.com</a>

 The Fifth Sunday of Easter bears the traditional name of Cantate, from the Introit’s “Oh sing to the Lord a new song.” Not only people but all creation is urged to break out in song. Throughout our worship today we will do just that, for the resurrection news cannot be left to quiet contemplation. Though it was difficult for Peter to convince the others, when they realized Gentiles had received the Spirit, they rejoiced. The vision of heaven in Revelation has no more pain or sorrow; what can be left but joyful singing?

At the end of Jesus’ talk to the disciples, He promises “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). When we are filled with such joy, singing is inevitable. Much of today’s worship has us singing a few (or all) of the stanzas of familiar hymns. Let us join the joyful multitude in heaven and earth!

No One Will Snatch Them from My Hand. Worship:May 11, 2025

In our world of constant change and abundant challenges to our faith, we often feel alone, and fear causes us to question where God is and what He is doing. Our Good Shepherd has pledged never to abandon us but to be with us always. More than this, He has promised that no one can snatch us from His hand. He is the powerful Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. Because of the investment He has made in us, He does not surrender us to temptation, trouble, trial, or test.

They Knew It Was the Lord. Worship: May 4, 2025

Though Jesus walks on water, He was testing the limit by telling seasoned fishermen where to cast their nets. The disciples knew it was the Lord—it could only be the Lord. Then, when He broke the bread and gave thanks, they rejoiced that the crucified and risen Savior had showed Himself to them again. This is what we do every week. Jesus presumes to tell us what life is and how to live it, and we are weary of all the things that have disappointed us. But Christ can never disappoint us. He fills our nets with His life, addresses us with the voice of hope, and feeds us to everlasting life, and by this Word and Sacrament we know it is the Lord.

My Lord and My God. Worship: April 27, 2025

Proof is surely what we want, but instead of the kind of proof that would remove the need for faith, God gives us His own marks of suffering to satisfy our fears. We find our refuge in the wounds of Christ. Thomas found them and the doubter became a believer. All of us find answers to the troubles and trials of this mortal life in the wounds of Christ, and from these wounds we confess to the world, “My Lord and my God!” Don’t let your doubts and fears drive you away from Jesus. Go to Him with them all, and He has promised to build us up in faith.

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.