Letters On The Page

  Easter Vigil Proclamation of the Resurrection I had the special privilege of spending the final few days of Holy Week and the first few days of Easter with my own congregation, Emmaus in South Bend, preaching, presiding, and assisting with Services from Maundy Thursday through Easter Monday. It was a joy and a delight to share in those sacred days with so many people I have known and loved for so many years, including a number of my own children and grandchildren. One of the Services for which I had the opportunity to preach was the Easter Vigil, which has long been one of my favorite occasions of the Church Year. I was first introduced to the Vigil and fell in love with it while doing my field work with Pr. Peter Ledic at Immanuel, Decatur, in the early 1990s. And I was subsequently able to introduce the Vigil to Emmaus, South Bend, in the spring of 1998. So, it’s become a dear old friend over these past thirty-six years. As many other pastors have done, for the first couple yea...

Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer   The Resurrection of Our Lord    Acts 10:34-43    Colossians 3:1-4    Matthew 28:1-10 Alleluia. Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed. Alleluia! The Lord speaks to us through His Holy Word. In the Church, He speaks to us through the Sacraments of Baptism and Lord’s Supper. He speaks to us through the liturgy, hymns, prayers, and the fellowship of our church family. He also speaks to us through other means. He speaks to us through people. He uses family, friends, and sometimes complete strangers to communicate something to us. The Lord also speaks to us through His created world.  After Jesus was born, a star led the Magi to Bethlehem. The star served as a clarion call for those who knew how to read the stars that a new king was born. Then, perhaps it is fitting that during his crucifixion and resurrection, there were not one, but two earthquakes. Many different cultures recognized that the divine...

Video of Good Friday Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer   Good Friday Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 John 19:17-30 In his 1519 A Meditation on Christ’s Passion, Martin Luther argues that in order for us to constructively reflect upon Christ’s suffering and death on the cross, Christians must not blame others for Christ’s death but blame ourselves.  Jesus dies for us. His death is a direct result of our sin. On this day we cannot redirect our own responsibility for Christ’s suffering and death upon others. We cannot hide behind Adam and Eve’s failure and sin. We cannot hide behind cultural norms. The Holy Spirit teaches us that we are left without excuse. Our sin, our human nature’s open rebellion against God’s care and love for us, is the reason that God becomes incarnate in Jesus Christ and the reason why Jesus dies on a cross for our sakes.  Luther says, “We must give ourselves wholly to this matter, for the main benefit of Christ’s passion that man sees i...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Holy Thursday     Exodus 24:3-11   Hebrews 9:11-22   Matthew 26:17-30 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.   In the Lenten Wednesday services, we listened to and reflected upon the Good News that God gives us in the Book of Exodus: God hears and answers His people’s pleas for help as they suffer in slavery; God chooses to reveal Himself; God sends Moses to deliver His people from slavery; The Good News that on account of the Lamb’s blood spread upon the door posts, death passes over Israel during the tenth and final plague; The good news that God leads Israel to freedom and sustains them with daily nourishment along the way.  Holy Thursday also has good news to share with us. The first is that God desires to be in an everlasting, binding, covenantal relationship with His people. Using Moses as his amanuensis, God lays o...

 Holy Week Greetings from Rev. Dr. Jon Bruss, President of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN:

Video of Divine Service in Rensselaer, IN Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion John 12:12-19; Isaiah 50:4-9a, Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 27:11-66 O Lord, let the words of my lips and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen. As we begin Holy Week, we enter the mystery of just how deeply God cares for us. For our sake, God has humiliated himself. I don’t mean humiliation as in embarrassment. I mean humiliation in the sense that he has become a creature like us in order to save us. The Epistle describes the incarnation in humiliating terms: “though he was in the form of God, … he made himself nothing, being born in the likeness of men.”  Hymn 815 All Praise to Thee renders Philippians 2:5-11into poetic verse. We won’t sing it today because it has an alleluia as the refrain. We will hold off on our Alleluias until Easter. But the first line captures the essence of what the Son of God did for us.  All praise to Thee, for Thou, O King divine, Did...