Pastor Kyle Bitter - Midweek Lent 3, March 20, 2019

Text: John 18:3-9

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Who was Jesus? That’s the real question people need to answer, if you want to understand anything about Christianity. It’s pretty hard for anyone who wants to study history in any serious way to try and claim that Jesus didn’t even exist. The historic evidence for a man named Jesus living in the first century, teaching many things, and starting the religion known as Christianity is pretty much undebatable. But who was this Jesus? What did he come to do? What did his work mean for his followers? What are we to make of him today?  You’ll find a lot more debate about that! Who was Jesus?  

Pastor Eric Schroeder - Lent 3, March 24, 2019

Text: Luke 13:1-9

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If you ever want to find out what people at large are thinking, take just a few minutes and read through the comments of an online news story.  Whenever a newsworthy event happens, the media outlets (of course) rush to be the first ones to break all the juicy details of the story, whether they have done the due diligence of fact-checking, or not, and put it out there for the world to see.  Inevitably, the comments start pouring in…Take, for example, the recent attack on the mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.  Pick any article you want, on any website that allows comments, and you will see the following…Anti-gun people blame guns.  Gun people blame gun free zones or restrictive gun laws.  Left wing people blame the right, and right-wing people blame the left.  Atheists blame religion.  Trump haters blame the president.  Maybe it’s a sad commentary on our society, but by now, if we’ve been paying attention, we might expect all of those kinds of comments.  But do you know what is perhaps the scariest type of comment?  When people claiming to be Christians blame the shooting on the Muslim victims, as if they had it coming. 

Pastor Thomas Kneser - Midweek Lent Service 2 - March 13, 2019

Text: John 13:31-35

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Brothers and sisters in Christ,  I want to begin today by reading a portion of a letter for you: Falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another, and they don’t hesitate to honor widows; and they rescue the orphans who are being abused. The one who has, gives to the one who lacks, without bragging about it. And when they meet a stranger, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as if he were a brother. . . .  And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food themselves, they will fast two or three days just so they can have something to share with the one lacking food. They observe the teachings of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God has commanded them.

Pastor Leyrer - Lent 2  March 17, 2019

Text: Luke 13:31-35

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Dear Friends in Christ, Strolling through a store a couple of weeks ago I came across one of those cleverly worded plaques you can hang up at some prominent place in your house. It read: “Believe your husband when he tells you he will fix something.  You don’t need to remind him every six months.” Procrastination is one way to deal with a task, especially if it is an unpleasant one, but there are additional methods. For instance, we can rationalize the need for something to be done and talk ourselves out of it. We can minimize the importance of doing something and conclude that it can wait indefinitely.  And, of course we can utilize the old ostrich head-in-the-sand model and simply hope the situation will go away or magically take care of itself.

Pastor Eric Schroeder  -  Ash Wednesday - March 6, 2019 

Text: Luke 18:9-14

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Four games left to go in the season, and the team isn’t living up to expectations…It’s time for a change—so the coach gets fired. A couple has been dating for a few months, and it is becoming increasingly clear that he or she isn’t “the one” …It’s time for a change—they break up and move on. One business is bought out by another larger corporation, and the new bosses are all about the bottom line…It’s time for a change—and people start looking for new jobs. 

Pastor Michael Otterstatter, Martin Luther College   Sunday, March 10, 2019

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:22–25

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“Upon the Cross Extended” (CW 113);” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” (CW 125);” “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” (CW 345); Drawn to the Cross” (CW 387). Today, we find ourselves in that season of the Christian Church Year in which the cross of Christ is brought into special focus. Hymns like the familiar ones I just mentioned, the reading of the Passion History of our Savior (that is the record of his suffering and death in the Gospels), our midweek Lenten Services, and our own personal devotions, all help us focus on the culmination of our Savior’s sinless life—his sacrificial death in our place on Calvary’s cross. But isn’t there something more that we seek at the cross of Christ in our annual Lenten journey? In addition to remembering Jesus’ suffering and death, we also ask the Holy Spirit to not leave us unchanged by our focus on Calvary’s cross.  As we consider our Savior’s cross more closely, we pray that it would also call us to repentance and to a renewed life of service to Christ. 

Pastor Joel Leyrer

Text: 2 Corinthians 3:12 - 4:2

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Dear Friends in Christ, If we’re looking for a single thought to describe the emphasis of this Sunday, a reasonable choice would be the word “change.” This theme is reflected in all our Scripture lessons. In our Old Testament reading we see a change that came over Moses when he had been in the presence of God on Mount Sinai. We’ll talk more about that in just a bit. In our Gospel lesson, we see Jesus momentarily changed or “transfigured” from the normal state his disciples were accustomed to seeing him to the glorious state that was and is his as the divine Son of God. Through this event the disciples were given a glimpse of the glory that awaits all who embrace Jesus in faith – including modern day disciples like us.