Letters On The Page

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...

  Homily for Vespers on Wednesday of the fifth Sunday in Lent – Exodus 16:1-18, 35 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.  Are you better off? This is a question that a person seeking elected office might ask of constituents if he or she is challenging the incumbent. Are you better off now than you were before my adversary took office? If you do not have an answer, the person asking the question will suggest some answers for you that puts the one currently holding office in the worst possible light. Such is the brutal way of contemporary American politics.  I can hear a similar question being asked by the former slaves. Are we better off since Moses led us into the desert? Their immediate answer is no. A few weeks have passed. They have experienced some discomfort. Their memory is playing tricks on them. They remember eating meat and bread, but do not remember the harsh work, the endless days, ...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer   Fifth Sunday in Lent  Ezekiel 37:1-14   Romans 8:1-11   John 11:1-45 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. As Lutheran Christians we understand that God speaks to us through His holy Word. He speaks to us words of Law that accuse us of our sin. How do we know that what we are thinking, doing, planning to do is not only wrong, but trespasses against God? God’s Word tells us. God’s Word shows us our trespass. It accuses us. God’s Word shapes our morality and ethics. It’s not only about behavior but about thinking too. We can and do sin with our thoughts. The purpose of showing our trespass is to make us uncomfortable enough to be contrite and to repent and to seek the Lord’s forgiveness. In God’s Holy Word, we receive the Gospel. Jesus says to us,  28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take m...

 

  Sermon for the Wednesday Vespers after the fourth Sunday in Lent    Exodus 14:5-31 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 order to breakdown the resistance of Pharaoh, his leadership team, and the people, that benefited from the work of the Israelite slaves, God wrought Ten Plagues upon the Egyptians through the Lord’s spokesman, Moses. These plagues induced thirst, hunger, great discomfort and sickness, loss of livestock and crops which meant loss of food and income, and finally, loss of human life in the taking of the first born of every family. These plagues demonstrated that Israel’s God is more powerful than the Egyptian idols. Pharaoh was slow to recognize that the Lord God has power over nature. Finally, when he lost his own son in the tenth plague, Pharaoh was moved to release the slaves.  Pharaoh issued the release amid intense grief. But, that decision did not last long. He ...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Fourth Sunday in Lent  Isaiah 42:14-21   Ephesians 5:8-14   John 9:1-41 The Works of God Displayed O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. We want to know why things are the way they are. There is always a reason. We are sure of it. It is just a matter of asking the right questions and developing the right tools and technology to figure things out. The disciples of Jesus want to know why the blind man was born this way. They offer two choices. Somebody sinned. Was it the parents or the man himself? If this happened now, we would add two more questions. Is there blindness in the family? In other words, did genetics cause this? An additional question:  was there some kind of agent or exposure during gestation that led to being born blind; such as radiation, toxin, bacteria, virus, or irresponsible use of drugs or alcohol?  Regardless of...

2026 Lent 3 Wed – Exodus 12:1-14 EXODUS 12:1-14 (ESV) 12 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.  7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that...

During Lent several of the town and country Rensselaer, IN congregations take turns hosting a lunch on Wednesdays. The donation collected at the door is used to support the Helping Hands ministry sponsored and maintained by the Rensselaer Area Minister's Association. St. Luke is a part of that organization.  Today was our day to host. The standard menu is to provide soups, salads, and dessert. Another set component of the Lenten Lunches is that the leader of the host  congregation provide a brief message. We also sing a couple of hymns. Last year at St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, the children's choir sang for us. We have no such choir at St. Luke at this time, so we sang Holy, Holy, Holy,  and All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name.  What follows is the message that I offered to the 65 or so people that were in attendance at St. Luke today: Iran is very much in the news these days. Not everyone is aware that we read about Iran in the Old Testament. In those days I...

Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Third Sunday in Lent  Exodus 17:1-7   Romans 5:1-8   John 4:5-26 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. We are now halfway through Lent. Palm Sunday is three Sundays away. As it is good to do in many situations, halfway through is a good time to look up, look around, look inside, and ask an evaluative question or two. Lent is often a time when the faithful will practice a spiritual discipline that they do not regularly do. Fasting from food, increased almsgiving, and donating additional time for service are three traditional disciplines.  So, how are you doing with your spiritual discipline? Are you keeping up with your commitment? Has it been a challenge to stay focused on your commitment? Have you discovered that you took on too much and need to scale back or explore another discipline? There are three more weeks of Lent proper and th...

Prayer office of Vespers at St. Luke, Rensselaer  Wednesday of the second Sunday in Lent - Psalm 25, Exodus 4:1-20 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen. On a day like any other day, in the course of his new life in a new land, enjoying his responsibilities as a husband, father, and shepherd, while working for his father-in-law, Moses encounters the Living God in the burning bush. Last Wednesday, we heard God’s self-revelation as Yahweh, the God who established His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He remembers His covenant to them and their posterity as he hears their groans and cries for relief as an enslaved people. In God’s infinite wisdom, Moses is selected to be the leader who leads Israel out of bondage into the Promised Land.  Standing on the Holy Mountain, as God speaks and Moses tries to get himself excused from the mandate the LORD lays upon him, there is the question of how Moses ...

 I rarely win prizes so I was pleasantly surprised to receive news that I won the grand prize drawing because I joined the Winter Reading Challenge  at Jasper County Public Library in Rensselaer, IN. Here I am receiving my grand prize basket loaded with all manner of fun things. Thank you friends! 

  Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer Second Sunday in Lent      Genesis 12:1-9   Romans 4:1-8, 13-17   John 3:1-17 O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.  The very first word that God says to Abraham is the word “Go.” It is clear from God’s Word that when God says “go” to Abraham, He means go far away. Reflecting on what comes after the word “go” led me to think about why and how I go. When I travel, I do for three general reasons: Vacation which often includes visiting with family and friends; education experiences; and for a call to serve God and the church in another location.  When I go, I have a plan that includes mode of transportation and a time frame of departure and arrival. Before departure I have accommodations for overnight stays lined up through reservations. I make sure that I have sufficient funds on hand. And, if we are staying with f...