3/1 Michael Anderson
3/1 John Isaac
3/2 Kyryth Kessler
3/3 Anita Contois
3/3 Halle Sheley
3/4 Vanessa Biddle
3/4 Steve Parry
3/6 Greg Sheley
3/18 Ruth Alvis
3/25 Jennifer Cloyd
3/29 Mary Anne Kirchner
3/31 Robert Bier
Baptismal Birthdays
3/1 Lucas Schempp
3/3 Jennifer Parry
3/4 Betty Bier
3/8 Matthew Holland
3/11 Linda Dirks
3/11 Pat Orr
3/13 Mollie Hitch
3/13 Ryan Hitch
3/16 Johana Kirchner
3/18 Ruth Alvis
3/20 Luanne Huth
3/24 Carol Schroeder
3/29 Vanessa Biddle
3/31 Carin Henson
Lent is a season of repentant joy. There is joy in repentance because in repentance, God, through His Word, turns us away from our sins — our failures of thought, word, and deed — to believe in the forgiveness and new life He has accomplished for us in the death and resurrection of His Son. For our God is our Father, and fathers discipline their children. He loves us enough to point out when and where we have erred, so that we are not weighed down by false belief, despair, and other great shame or vice.
Thus we do well to listen to God’s Word, His own teaching, about giving. St. Paul exhorts: “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor” (Gal 6:6). This means that the local congregation is primary. In other words, everything else that we might give to during the year — laudable and worthy charities —are to be on top of what we give to our local congregation. For the local congregation is the place that serves us with the gifts of Christ’s death and resurrection. The local congregation is where our spiritual needs are met when Christ’s atonement is preached, when the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed, when we were baptized into the name of the Triune God, and when we partake of the body and blood of the risen and living Lamb of God.
But how much are we to give to this local congregation? His instructions are these: to give regularly (1 Cor 6:1–2), proportionally (1 Cor 16:1–2; 2 Cor 8:12), and generously (2 Cor 8:20) of our first fruits (Gen 4:4; Prov 3:9; Lev 27:30) with a spirit of eagerness (2 Cor 9:2), earnestness (2 Cor 8:7), cheerfulness (2 Cor 9:7), and love (2 Cor 8:23).
Thus, giving to the church is not to be an afterthought, given after everything else is spent. In this way, it is deliberate. We give it regularly, whenever we have income. We set it aside beforehand, before anything else is spent. From those first fruits, we set aside a proportionate and generous amount. Ten percent was the standard for the Israelites. Tithing was a command for them. St. Paul never mentions a tithe. Since a tithe was the bare minimum for the people of Israel in the Old Testament, perhaps St. Paul had more in mind. That aside, however, ten percent is an easy way to figure out an amount. You simply move your weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, or yearly income one decimal point to the left. And that’s it. That’s what you put in the Offering plate to support your local congregation so that you may continue to be a hearer of God’s Word by sharing all good things with those who teach it to you.
And how are we to give it? We give it with eagerness and earnestness. We give it cheerfully and with love, not out of compulsion. For through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, God has made us His children, forgiven us all our sins, given us grace upon grace, promised us life everlasting with Him in His kingdom, and filled us with His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit. This makes giving a joy. For it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
In repentant joy, then, do we hear God’s Word on giving, and we let that Word dwell in us richly. We let that word wash over our ears and seep into our hearts, to turn us away from our own selfish desires and turned toward Him in faith and love. We love the Lord and His Word. And we desire to do it. And when we have failed, that Word reproves and corrects, forgives and consoles. It calls us back to Him who is our God, our Savior, our Father.
When Manhattan criminal defense attorney John Jacobs died, his wife, Marion Seltzer buried him with his cell phone fully charged. It has been a few years now but she still pays the monthly phone bill and she still leaves him frequent voice mails. Marion actually went so far as to have John’s cell phone number engraved on his headstone, so that people stopping to visit the grave site can ring him up and leave a message. He, of course, never gets the messages. The phone’s battery – not to mention operator – stopped working years ago. But Marion is hardly alone in this. Being buried with one’s cell phone has become commonplace in our tech-savvy culture. It is just one more way that society tries to cope with death.
Jesus offers a better way, a way that works. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:25-26). Can we hear Jesus now? Yes! And forever!
In Christ,
Pastor
LENTEN SCHEDULE IN MARCH
Mar. 1, 7:00 pm – Ash Wednesday worship with Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes
Mar. 8, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal
Mar. 8, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship
Mar. 15, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal
Mar. 15, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship
Mar. 22, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal
Mar. 22, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship
Mar. 29, 5:30 pm – Lenten Meal
Mar. 29, 7:00 pm – Lenten Worship
The theme for our messages during Lent is “The Ironies of the Passion.” See you in church during this penitential and humbling season of the church year.
One of the things I’ve learned in over 25 years of being a Pastor is that the church year has a certain flow to it. There are the high feasts of Christmas and Easter. Pentecost/Confirmation time in our church has an expectation feel. Even the beginning of fall and a new year all have something the worshipping community can grasp on to.
Not Transfiguration Sunday. Most years it falls somewhere in the gloomy days of February, the New Year has past and it is not quite spring. The last two weeks being an extraordinary exception. We also tend to have people gone, vacationing down south, family obligations, winter hangover. Attendance figures I looked back on for Transfiguration Sunday bear this out.
Plus how important can it be when we have immigration, The President vs. the media, the state failing again to pass a budget, spring training baseball and is this the year the ISU basketball team makes the NCAA tournament? Add on to that winter health concerns, kids activities and what outlandish thing will be said on the Oscars tonight?
Well, my friends, the Transfiguration of Jesus is big. Dr. Louis Brighton stated it well: “It is not by accident the church has chosen the…Transfiguration as a concluding text to the Epiphany season as a transition from the glorious light of the Epiphany to the darkness of the Passion of its Lord. The church’s mission is the proclamation of the saving presence of the Lord Christ in the Gospel. But this mission is carried out in the midst of suffering (the very thought we don’t want to hear). The church proclaims the Gospel while bearing the cross; it proclaims life while facing and experiencing death . . .”
Cone along up the mountain to see . . .
“WHERE WE ARE GOING”
There was a lady who was meeting with her new Pastor. She asked if she could have a church service when she died. “Of course,” he said, grabbing his date book, “What day do you want?” What you have here is a failure to understand what someone else is trying to communicate.
After six days Jesus takes these three disciples up the mountain. The question is: “six days after what?” It was six days after He told them of His suffering, death, and resurrection and Peter rebuked Him. Jesus has carefully outlined for these men what was going to happen from His crucifixion, resurrection to His Second Coming. This trip to the Mount of Transfiguration was made so they would ultimately understand who Jesus was and that God in the flesh does exactly what He says He’s going to do and He is in control of everything.
One of the things for us to see before we get to where we are going is the importance of listening to Jesus as He reveals himself in the Word. I am talking about maturing in our knowledge and application of Scripture if we are going to deal with the problems and concerns of life and a nation that is in the painful process of decay and collapse. Knowledge of Christ ends a lot of confusion, and a lot of unnecessary worry. Let me elaborate . . .
We all know where we are going, don’t’ we? Eternal life. We are on the road to glory…just like the glory Peter, James, and John saw on the mountain. And it is more important than your college education, your next vacation, your early retirement! The Road to Glory!
But we need to keep this straight. The Road to Glory requires that we first bear a cross. Jesus teaches this to the disciples. Jesus’ return to Glory with the father will require Him to bear a Cross…a Cross for the sin of the world. We also bear a cross on the path to Glory. That is why Peter wanted to build the shelters he didn’t want to leave the glory for the cross-bearing.
American Christians don’t do well with this Biblical truth, do they? We are success oriented. We determine God’s blessings by our abundance and prettiness and numbers. John Tunis said, “Losing is the great American sin.” That mindset filters into the church. Let’s build some shelters, gets lots of people with lots of money, grow big and successful and call ourselves “The Church Inc.!”
And Jesus reminds us, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Lk. 14:27) We are going to heaven someday – glory. The truth is that here we bear the Cross for Christ. If we are faithful to Him and His Word…we will bear a Cross. From the world’s perspective that may make us losers. It’s not the American way! It is the way of Christian disciples. And strangely enough it is the way to ultimate victory and true success – if I might be so bold as to use that secular term. Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18)
And God the Father was pleased with the Son because the mission of Christ to salvage us was well under way – as God pleased! A mission of terrible suffering and pain and loneliness and rejection – punishment and death – for our sin – so that we would never have to face punishment and eternal damnation.
“When they lifted their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” (v. 8) Nothing but Jesus. In the good times and bad times…through the smiles and tears of life…in the midst of loneliness and pain…He’s always there. He’s in the Holy Bible. He’s in the bread and wine. He ‘s in the water that brings newness of life.
Are things a little clearer? Do you see the importance of the cross and on the other side, it’s glory? And no matter which side…there’s Jesus. The reason we will get to where we are going.
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