8/8/2022 9:06:10 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Ninth Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, August 7, 2022
I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.
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7/24/2022 5:10:35 PM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, July 24, 2022
“Justice” is a word that seems to mean different things to different people in a variety of situations. Every so often you might hear of someone who is “calling out for justice” and we need to hear more to know what they mean. It might be a claim that a business hasn’t treated a customer fairly. It might be an instance where a crime has clearly been committed, but no one at all has been arrested yet. These days, we hear about “social justice,” and the whole idea is based on the judgment that entire groups of people are being oppressed, and it’s time to make some big sweeping changes and do something about it.
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7/11/2022 9:28:30 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, July 10, 2022
We don’t have to think too hard to come up with an example of a historic rivalry. Maybe where you grew up, if you played sports at all, you always had those one or two games every season that meant just a little bit more than the rest. Why? Because they were against your rival, that school or that team you faced that for some reason—whether you knew the history or not—you just didn’t like to lose to, so they were the games you really wanted to win. And now, whether you watch sports at all, you can’t help but notice that certain games seem to mean more if they are played against a division rival. Think the Packers and the Bears, or the Badgers and the Gophers, whose football teams play every year in a rivalry game and the winner gets to hold on to the trophy, called Paul Bunyan’s Axe, until they meet again. Historic rivalries…
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6/27/2022 9:48:14 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Third Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, June 26, 2022
Wisconsin isn’t such a bad place to live. Maybe you’ve had one of those conversations before where you’ve discussed the pros and cons of living in various places. Florida is a nice place to visit if you can manage the humidity, but then you’d have to deal with the occasional hurricane (alligators could be a pro or a con, depending on who is judging). Arizona sounds nice in the winter but can get so hot that you don’t want to be outside during the day during the summer months. California might have some beautiful scenery, but they also have wildfires, earthquakes, and smog. Alaska has long days all summer long, but almost total darkness in the winter. What about Wisconsin? Sure, there might be cold and snow in the winter, and maybe some tornados or flooding every now and then, but generally speaking, the natural disasters here are rare and not too widespread.
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6/20/2022 10:43:25 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Second Sunday After Pentecost - Sunday, June 19, 2022
“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. 3 Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” 4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. 5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth— then my judgments go forth like the sun. 6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
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5/31/2022 10:56:36 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Seventh Sunday of Easter - Sunday, May 29, 2022
Whenever Memorial Day weekend arrives, it’s a common line of questions to ask people of all ages…What are your plans for summer? Do you have any vacations scheduled? Do you have any projects to complete? Will you do any gardening, or grilling, or fishing, or camping, or traveling? Especially after a long, relatively cool spring, it seems like a whole lot of people have been anxiously awaiting the start of summer, along with all the summertime activities we’ve come to expect. And if we’re going to fit it all in, we’re going to need some careful planning.
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5/27/2022 1:38:46 PM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - Graduation - Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Graduating class of 2022, Well, congratulations. You made it. One more half-day of “school” and then you’re done. You get to move out of the house and get your own place and make your own decisions. You can start a career and a family and travel the world if you’d like….no? That doesn’t all happen when you graduate 8th grade? What does come next? A few quick months of summer vacation and then 9th grade. In other words, more school. You’re not done at all, and you’ll just have to wait for those other opportunities down the road in life.
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5/16/2022 11:51:29 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - The Fifth Sunday of Easter - Sunday, May 15, 2022
1 Corinthians 13 is remembered as the great love chapter of the Bible. You might have already known that. Of course, that doesn’t mean that this is the only chapter in the Bible that deals with love; far from it. In fact, it wouldn’t be an inaccurate statement to say that the entire Bible is all about the revelation and the story of God’s great love for us. And yet, this particular chapter is well-known for good reason. It contains a clear, thorough definition of the kind of love that God wants every human being to know and to show, especially among Christian believers as we interact with one another in the church.
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4/25/2022 1:53:29 PM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - Confirmation - Saturday, April 23, 2022
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Someday, you’re going to need a mechanic. Something on the vehicle you drive is going to break or wear out, and it’s going to need replacing. And unless you can fix it yourself, you’ll have to take your car to a mechanic.
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4/18/2022 11:53:32 AM
Pastor Eric Schroeder - Good Friday - Friday, April 15, 2022
It is good to get things done. It’s a good feeling to look at a kitchen that had been a total disaster an hour ago and now is suddenly organized and clean; it’s nice to stand back, if only for a moment, and appreciate a stack of folded laundry that used to be a pile in a basket. A newly planted flower bed always looks better than a bare spot of dirt. No matter how well we did, there is at least a small sense of relief after handing in a big test that had been looming for several days. For many people, finishing up a long work week makes every Friday something to look forward to.
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