Letters On The Page

The Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5A)  Hosea 5:15-6:6    Romans 4:13-25   Matthew 9:9-13 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If you were to write an autobiography, what stories would you tell on yourself? Would you tell everything? Would you want to present yourself in the most flattering light possible? Or would you balance the amazing with the mundane and occasional embarrassing? I ask these questions because St. Matthew, the Apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit includes an autobiographical section in his story of Jesus. The five verses that are today’s gospel reading reveal how Matthew sees himself. What he chooses to reveal to us tells us something about what he sees in Jesus.  Matthew is a tax collector. In the gospels, when a tax collector is referenced the word “sinner” is shortly to follow. There are reasons for this. Matthew is sitting at the tax booth in Capernaum, the city in the r...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer   The Festival of the Holy Trinity      Genesis 1:1-2:4a   Acts 2:14a, 22-36   Matthew 28:16-20 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.  The festival of the Holy Trinity is the only feast of the church that is based solely on a doctrine. If there is a Sunday in which the congregation can leave more confused than when they came in, this is the Sunday. The reason for the confusion is because words do not adequately express the mystery of God. Nor do our finite minds, have the capacity to understand the mystery of His being. In God’s infinite wisdom, God chooses to tell us only what we need to know for our salvation. The essential components of what is revealed to us in the Bible are articulated in the three summaries of faith that we use to confess our faith together: The Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds.  What God chooses to reveal about Himself is that...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer, IN Day of Pentecost   Numbers 11:24-30   Acts 1:1-21   John 7:37-39 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (2 Cor 1:2)  If we lived and worked in Jerusalem in AD 33, even if we did not keep a daily calendar, we would know that the feast of Pentecost was in process. Pilgrims from across the Empire came and went regularly throughout the year in Jerusalem. The faithful came to the city to fulfill their observance of the Mosaic law and to participate in different festivals. The multi-day feast that culminated in the night of the Passover feast affected everyone. But, Pentecost is the farmer’s festival. Natives would note that there was a surge of farmers traveling the streets. During the feast of Pentecost farmers came to the temple with a sample of their first fruits of harvest.  The male head of the family would put a sample of the farms first fruits into a basket, bring ...

Lutheran Church of Our Saviour 122 Condo Street Monticello, IN 47960  

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter  Ezekiel 36:22-28 John 15:26-16:4 Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia! O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.  I was struck by the reason that God articulates for his decision to save His people that is found in Ezekiel. I generally think of God’s mercy toward us as coming from His love. John 3:16 comes to mind regularly. Love appears to be at the root of God’s desire for a formal relationship with His people as expressed through the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Parental Love appears to be the motivation behind God giving Moses the law. Through the Mosaic Law, God is stating expectations of behavior, providing clear boundaries, and explains what happens when boundaries are crossed. The Psalms regularly speak of God’s love as expression of mercy. Psalm 136 tells the story of creation and Israel’s rescue from slavery in Egypt with...

  Ben Sasse will not be with us for long.  He has a terminal disease. He has decided to contribute to our national conversation about the future for as long as he is able.  Here is the text of a speech he gave at the Manhattan Institute's Hamilton Awards dinner May 6, 2026.   Mr. Sasse says many useful things.  I particularly appreciated his comments on four habits that young families need to inculcate into their way of being a family.  1. Develop the habit of intension reading books: good fiction, history, biography, etc. Reading should be apart from digital distractions.  2. Develop the habit of hard work 3. Develop the habit of a regular tech Sabbath. He also mentions his family's observance of a religious sabbath.  4. Develop the habit of intentional travel to experience and learn from families and different cultures. Sasse explains that this is more than "vacation."