But if we walk in the light, just as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

All. Saints – 2024

(There is no Video this week. It has no sound, you can view it here on our Facebook page) Romans 14:8-9 “For all the saints, Who from their labors rest, Who Thee, by faith, Before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, Be forever blessed.” “O blest communion, fellowship divine, We feebly struggle, they in…

Reformation Sunday – 2024

John 8:31-36 During the middle ages, in the centuries before the Reformation, the institutions of the church slipped more and more into a theology that was largely oriented around the status and presumed power of the ordained clergy. So, for example, the marks of the church were, basically, the clergy. A medieval Christian was expected…

Dorothy Persson
Memorial Service

In the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus says this to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” No normal person enjoys conflict. But…

Trinity 21 – 2024

Genesis 1:1–2:4 Today’s Old Testament reading presented us with the creation account from the Book of Genesis. It is real history, written in majestic prose, by divine inspiration. The Book of Genesis is not written in the vocabulary of modern science, because it is a story for the ages. It was true and meaningful before…

Trinity 20 – 2024

Matthew 21:33-44 Many of Jesus’ messages had an immediately positive and uplifting impact on his listeners. Today’s message, from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is not one of those. There are some humbling and hard-to-accept truths associated with sinful humanity’s existence in this fallen world, and associated with sinful humanity’s alienation from a holy God, that Jesus…

Trinity 19 – 2024

Ephesians 4:17-5:2 Nobody likes conflict and warfare. When we hear news reports about the suffering of those who are caught in the middle of conflict in various parts of the world, or when we see images of the death and destruction brought about by war, we cringe. We desire peace – for ourselves, and for…

Trinity 17 – 2024

Ephesians 4:1-16 Many years ago, in another time and place, I visited a delinquent member of the congregation I was then serving and tried to encourage this person to come to church. The response was pretty bizarre. “I already know all that. I learned the catechism when I was confirmed, and I still remember what…

Trinity 16 – 2024

Ephesians 3:13-21 In New Testament Greek, the word for “father” is “patera,” and the word for “family” is “patria.” You can see, then, that a family is conceptualized, and defined, on the basis of its relationship to the father of that family, whether literal or figurative. Some translations of today’s text from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians are…