Alive and Well
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 by Jeff.
Dear Salem,
Wow I think it’s been way too long since I wrote to you. So since the last time I wrote we as a church sent 246 pounds of health and snack kits to the Marines of First Battalion, Ninth Marines in Afghanistan. Thankfully they have not suffered a single casualty while deployed there. We continue to pray for their safety. This Sunday we will be eating Pork made by our own Jay and Sylvia Boyer to raise funds for our nearly paid off Boiler. In October we will walk for the hungry in the CROP walk as well as have a good time with a congregational lunch with a game show theme! All along we have been fed with God’s Word and Sacraments. God in Christ has been generous to us. Thanks be to God! I pray you are well. God bless you all.
The Holy Ghost and evangelism
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 by Jeff.
Dear Salem,
Greetings from sunny and warm Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church. Have you ever heard someone say “every moment of every day a soul goes to hell?” Is this our motivation for evangelism? Is it all up to us to do this work? Let me quote Rev. Burnell Eckhardt, “It’s not true that God is leaving the matter of anyone’s eternal salvation to us. the grace of God is a sola kind of grace. That goes for conversion and that goes for missions. Of course we are for spreading the Gospel, but we dare not forget that this is God’s work. The Holy Ghost is the active one, just at Pentecost. The mission work of the Church is the activity of the Holy Ghost, and it is blasphemy to suggest that we can fulfill what only He can do.” We at Salem Church are called to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments. This is the center of everything we do. At Salem we will continue to preach the Word in season and out of season. We will trust that the Holy Spirit will do His work in and through God’s people here at Salem. I am humbled to be serving such a wonderful church. God bless you and keep you this week week as you serve Him and your neighbors through your callings.
Try Harder!
Sunday, March 27, 2011 by Jeff.
Dear Salem,
Greetings from Salem Evangelical Church! We find ourselves in the first full week of Lent. Many Christians try to eliminate things from their lives in order to focus more on Christ as we journey to the empty tomb of Easter. Everyday for a Christian is a struggle against temptation and sin. I came across this quote from one of my favorite pastors: Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller of Hope Lutheran Church in Colorado. He writes,
“This then, is our Christian life. We are baptized. Our flesh is daily crucified, and the new man daily hears the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins, and rejoices in the gifts of Christ. How different this is to the “Do better! Try harder!” of most talk of sanctification! We rejoice on being the objects of God’s work, His craftsmanship, shaped through repentence worked by the Lord’s law and Gospel.”
Through out the season of Lent, we are called again and again to repentence. In your baptism God in Christ claimed you and will not let you go. Rejoice in this dear Christians! No matter how you are feeling today. No matter how bad a day you may have had. You are Christ’s. God bless you this week as you carry out your callings in this world. Pastor
Suffering
Sunday, March 27, 2011 by Jeff.
Dear Salem ,
I have encountered several people who have been struggling with illness and ageing. These folks are very close to me. This is a difficult thing for them to go through. We do not choose our crosses. Every life struggles with sorrow, illness and suffering. It is not all good times and laughs. Maybe you are reading this email right now and you are dealing with pain, suffering and sorrow. Jesus said, “Come to me all you are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” In times such as this cling to Jesus and his Word to you. He promises to never leave us, he promises to never abandon us or forget us. Jesus promises the forgiveness of all your sins. He will carry us. He will take us to what home was always supposed to be. In days of struggle and illness, look to Jesus and his promises. God bless you dear Christian. Your pastor….Jeff
Giving Thanks
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 by Jeff.
Dear Salem ,
It’s good to be back after a week away! I am excited about the coming weeks as we move towards the Christmas season. Tomorrow we will be hosting the other Lutheran Churches in town as well as Zion Reformed UCC. Pr. Matthew Lenahan of Zion , Akron will be preaching. We have so much to be thankful for, most of for the salvation that has been given to us in Christ our Lord. Come and join us for Divine Service at 7pm. As you gather with family and friends on this Thanksgiving, be sure to come together in prayer. Here is a prayer of thanksgiving from our Small Catechism:
“Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good, for God’s mercy endures forever. God provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they cry. God is not impressed by the might of a horse, and has no pleasure in the speed of a runner, but finds pleasure in those who fear the Lord, in those who await God’s steadfast love.
Luther recommends reciting the Lord’s Prayer and concluding with the following:
We give thanks to you, Lord God our Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord for all your benefits, you who live and reign forever. Amen.”
God bless you this thanksgiving.
PS-My family and I have much to be thankful for. On November 14th I received a regular call to serve as pastor at Salem . Previously we were here on a “term call” which lasted only until December 2012. Now with Salem ’s approval, we are here for the long haul. Thanks be to God!By the way the above photo does not constitute an endoresment of Pres. Truman, Mrs. Truman or the eating and pardoning of turkey!
The Body and the Blood
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 by Jeff.
Growing up in the United Methodist Church one of my favorite hymns was “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” In fact I still really love that hymn. Over the weekend I finished reading “The New Testament in his blood: A study of the Holy Liturgy of Christian Church” by Rev’d Burnell Eckhardt, a Lutheran pastor out in IL. He writes this about the Lord’s Supper, “there is no need for our people to be singing the Old Spiritual “Were you there….” And to do so would be to miss the greater point. A lucid understanding of the Sacrament comes with the realization that you are there, when you are at the altar.” Christ is present in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, not because we hope he is there, not because we think he is there, but because he promises to be there. What a comfort! Of course “Were you there…” is still a great hymn, too. I hope you have a great week. God bless you and keep you. 
Evangelism Pep Talk
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 by Jeff.
Greetings from Salem Ev. Lutheran Church , Ephrata,
I can’t believe it! The Ephrata Fair came and went. I confess I made it to the parade, but I failed to visit the midway. I hope you had a great week. At least we still have New Holland. We talk a lot about evangelism and a lot of folks start to get uncomfortable about it. Visions of knocking on doors and wide eyed evangelists creep through our thoughts. It doesn’t have to be that way. So here is an evangelism prep talk from a Lutheran perspective: “Brethren, God saves us by grace and He has promised that no one can snatch His elect from His hands. There is nothing you can do, or undo, to snatch one of His little lambs from His hand. So be at peace. You can’t screw this up. You CAN speak of the Lord Jesus with confidence. And think: how can you keep from speaking of Jesus? You are saved by God’s grace! And more grace abounds- He will use you as an instrument for speaking the word of grace so that all His elect may be gathered in from every tribe and nation….” (Heath Curtis-Gottesdienst Journal Fall 2010 p. 9)
God’s peace be with you as you go about your holy vocations this week. Pr
Sermon Pentecost X
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 by Jeff.
Pentecost X
1 August 2010
Luke 12: 13-21 “Fear, love and trust God alone.”
The Big Problem
The First Commandment of God is that you are to have no other gods. On the surface this appears simple enough. Ok there is one God, good enough, right? But it goes deeper than that. God who created all of this, who sustains us daily, who gives us life, want us to trust him. God wants us to look to him to find refuge and help. You see anything on “which your heart relies and depends, that is really your God.” We all violate this Commandment daily. I think we disobey this commandment in an insidious way. In ways we don’t always think about. God wants us to have faith in him, to trust him on everything. I think for many of us, if not all of us, we say publicly, “yes, I trust God, of course. I believe in God, after all 90% of Americans believe that.” But here is the problem, and I think it’s a big problem for all of us, we trust God but only to a certain point. God wants every part of us to trust him daily, and yet for all of us at some point or another, we hold back, just a bit to be sure. I mean who among us doesn’t save money? All of us do of course and that’s not a bad thing, but it shows just what kind of world we live in. We live in a world where we do not and cannot completely fear, love and trust God with all that we are. In fact some might even say well that’s just crazy, of course you can’t do that. Of course you can’t simply trust God to provide for all of your needs and care for you. Is it really that crazy? Does God not do this for each of us day in and day out while we are on this good earth? We fear, love and trust God, but just to be sure we are prepared, stocked and ready just in case this whole thing doesn’t work out. It’s that part of us that does not want to give up control, that part of us that wants to write its own ticket. That part of us that wants to control the future.
The parable our Lord tells us this morning in the Gospel lesson illustrates this for us well. “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself ‘what should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this; I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” It is important for us to note that Jesus in this parable did not portray this man who happened to be rich as being evil or wicked. Jesus doesn’t even portray the rich man as being particularly greedy. The rich man has been blessed with a great harvest. God has provided for this man abundantly. It almost seems the man is overjoyed at his good fortune. So the rich man tears down his barns and builds larger ones. Not a bad thing in and of itself. In fact planning for the future is not a bad thing. One can fully trust God and plan for the future. But, first notice who the focus is in the rich man’s thoughts: What should I do? I have no place for my crops. I will do this, I will pull down, I will store all my grain and my goods. I, I, I. There is no giving thanks to God for the abundant harvest. There is no giving a portion to God’s people, the poor. There is no thought about sharing the abundant harvest with others. No, it’s all about me and what I will do. From this point, the rich man, says to himself, of course, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.” The rich man was quoting a famous line when he said, “eat, drink and be merry.” He consciously left a part of that famous saying, “for tomorrow we die.” He left off that last portion of the saying, because in the end, he thought nothing but of himself, and he thought he could control his own fate. That he could write his own ticket. That his material comfort somehow shielded him from God, God’s judgment, perhaps from death itself. This is what happens when we lose our focus upon God. We turn inwards towards ourselves, and our need to be on top. Part of us hates that God is sovereign and all powerful. Because it means we are not.
The Big Solution to our Problem
We need only to look to verse 20 to see this. God invades this man’s perfect little world and rearranges everything with just a few words. “You fool, This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? God invades the rich man’s world and says tonight’s the night, pal. Tonight it’s all over for you. How did that relax, eat, drink and be merry thing work out for you? Tonight you die. Now who gets all your goods which I have given you in the first place? Instead of God being the foundation of this man’s existence, his crops, goods and himself were the foundation. On the last day what is that worth? Our world is not the way it was supposed to be. We needed God to invade our world. We needed desperately for God to come in the flesh and rearrange everything. And so God in Christ Jesus did come in the flesh and broke right into our curved in world. We are to fear, love and trust God with everything and Jesus makes that happen.
Living in the Solution
William Willimon, writes that one time he was driving along the highway when he saw a sign for a church that read, “We’ve got what you are looking for, come and get it.” As a long time preacher of the Gospel, William Willimon who knows himself very well and he knows people in general well, thought to himself, “I know what these people are looking for-some of it is both immoral and illegal! Is that church giving them that? Jesus is not simply about meeting my felt needs; he is about rearranging my needs, not only about fulfilling my desires, but transforming my desires.”[i] Jesus enters our world and rearranges it so it matches up with God’s values and will for us. That rich man, who in the end trusted himself and his possessions more than God, is in each of us. In baptism, God puts him in the water and doesn’t let him up. We die with Jesus and are raised to new life in him. A new life where we learn each day to find more satisfaction in trusting God and his unshakable promises to us than in ourselves, our self righteous ways, or our posessions. We learn each day “to trust God alone, to look to him alone, and to expect him to give us only good things…” and ultimately it is God alone who gives us “body, life, food, drink, nourishment, health, protection, peace and all necessary temporal and eternal blessings.”[ii] It is God the Son who died and rose for you. It is God the Holy Sprit that comes to you in the Word and imparts to you faith in this God of salvation. This is the work of the church: to preach Good News that God and his kingdom has come. We the church are the advance party for this invasion of God. Just as God invaded the rich man’s world and changed everything, so we in the church are called to preach this transforming Gospel to a world hell bent on itself. God alone is the cause for your salvation. God alone keeps promises and never lies. We are called to trust God with all that we are. Not ourselves. Not our possessions. But only God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the God of our salvation.
[i] William Willimon, It’s Hard to be Seeker Sensitive When You Work for Jesus, Oct 2003. Circuit Rider
[ii] Book of Concord, Large Catechism
God bless you
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 by Jeff.
Did you ever wonder what it meant for someone to say “God bless you.?” What does it mean to be blessed? Here is a portion of a sermon from Peter Gomes who addresses this question:
“Blessings are not rewards from God for services rendered. Blessings are ways in which God allows us to see God and, even more important, to gain such a perspective, such a vision, such a view of God and ourselves that we will realize that we have no basic reason to be anxious, and can be ‘seek his kingdom and his righteousness,’ knowing that all else will take its rightful place. A blessing is not a reward; it is a means to realize who God is by what God is doing, and who we are to be so beloved of God.”
I pray God blesses you this week: that you have a perspective of God’s great and wonderful grace towards you in Christ Jesus our Lord. God bless you and keep you now and forever. Your Pastor
Sermon Vesper Service with Zion
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 by Jeff.
Vesper Service
Saturday 24 July 2010
Matthew 20: 20-28
St. Ignatius was the bishop of
Antioch in the late first century. He was later martyred for his Christian faith sometime between 98 and 117 under Emperor Trajan. One of Ignatius’s primary concerns was for the unity of the church. Even back in the early church, only two generations removed from Jesus; even then the church struggled to keep unity in the faith. Ignatius wrote letter after letter to churches as he journeyed to
Rome for his execution. He urged them to stick together. To follow their bishops. To be Christ to one another and to remain steadfast in the Christian faith. This evening St. Ignatius would be very pleased. He would be pleased because Christians of different churches are coming together to worship and praise our great and wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. It was Christ who prayed in his high priestly prayer, “Holy Father keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.” So this evening we are here together as one in worship, love and praise. This is the church. Unfortunately not every church in Ephrata/Lincoln is worshipping with us. Unfortunately divisions still exist that divide us. Lord forgive us. At the center of our life in the church, is the Divine Service of Word and Sacrament. Why is the center of our life? Because in the end that is where Jesus meets us week in and week out. That is where Jesus comes to us in his gracious and forgiving Word. In his Supper we hear again the very promises of Jesus himself, as if he was giving them to you directly from heaven. “My body given for you. My blood shed for you.” What sweet comfort to sinner’s ears. What a comfort it is to know that in the blood of Christ the sins of the world are forgiven and the gates of heaven are flung wide open for you and me. We gather each Sunday to receive again the promises of Christ in Word and Sacrament. Friends, many have not heard this comforting good news in a long time. Many have not heard it all. Many are not able to join with the church on Sunday morning because we live in a 24-7 society. St. Ignatius in urging his fellow Christians to stick together in the midst of persecutions and schisms, told another bishop to “hold services more often.” And so this evening we are. Together,
Zion Reformed UCC and Salem Evangelical Lutheran, together on Saturday evenings we will gather around God’s gifts of Word and Sacrament. We will assemble to hear the forgiveness of sins in Christ. We will partake of the body and blood of our Lord Christ visible words of promise. Together we will do this. Together in Christ. Together we are not required or expected to be successful by statistical standards. We are not called to seek glory like the mother of the sons of Zebedee does for her boys. No. We are called to be faithful and obedient to our Lord Christ who is alive today. We are called and gathered by the Holy Spirit to assemble around God’s Word and Sacraments. We will do this together on Saturdays. From there we will go out in to the world to be the
church of
Christ seven days a week. We will love and serve our neighbors in our callings. Together in Christ we will do this. Together we are God’s people in this place called
Lincoln.
