“Go(ing), therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew 28:19

            Ok, time to pray!  Let’s all join hands and form a circle!  How would you form that circle?  Would everyone be looking at everyone else or would their backs be toward the center of the circle?  What a crazy prayer circle with everyone looking out, right?  Well maybe not.

            Before Jesus ascended He commissioned His disciples, you and me, with a “going.”  We who are holding hands facing one another are being turned around.  We may yet be holding hands, but it’s in a different view when we realize how many are yet out in the world and don’t know Jesus.

            That “go(ing)” points to our Lord’s death and resurrection.  It’s not a rule we have to follow.  It’s not a command to which we had better respond.  It’s a joyful reality of who we now are in our risen Lord Jesus Christ.  “Therefore” refers back to how God has provided us faitn in the Christ, who saves us from eternal death.  God’s nature is to seek and to save the lost.  All who are baptized into the power of the triune God are filled with that nature.

            That Pentecost of long ago, with its pouring out of the Holy Spirit, was not a one-time event.  The Holy Spirit is continually filling us through God’s Word and the Sacraments, in our prayer-life and in time with one another so that in our everyday “going” we have Good News for all

            Even through our greatest accomplishments will all gather dust like some trophy on the shelf long forgotten, those whom God brings to faith through our witness will live with us forever.  Be filled with the Holy Spirit this Pentecost and in our everyday lives!  May the Holy Faith Family be an outward focused prayer circle!  Share the Good News of our risen Savior.  Love in Christ, Pastor Craig

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you seeking?” (John 20:15)

            In the confusion that the empty tomb at first caused, what else can Mary Magdalene do but break down and cry?  The open grave is of no comfort at this point.  In her mind it points to a grave robber or worse.  Her tear reddened, tear blurred eyes are blind to Jesus.  She can only assume that the person before her is the gardener, charged to care for the cemetery grounds.

            Mary intruded into death’s territory with no hope of finding a resurrected Jesus.  She assumed that the jaws of death, once closed, refuse to relinquish their prey.  She came only with the intention of performing a final gesture of tender respect for her Lord.

            But when Jesus calls her by name – a nurturing, loving, care providing sound she had heard over and over again – she recognizes him!  Can you imagine her joy?!  Only then, in that recognition, her grief is turned to joy!  She is a sheep of the Good Shepherd, and she is known to personally, by name.  The God of peace has brought again from the dead our Lord, who, by His own blood has purchased and won Mary and each of us to be His own possession.

            We do not have to seek Him in the middle of an ancient cemetery.  He is with us this Easter, where He has promised to be – in His Word and Supper.  This Easter Sunday we see Jesus with the eyes of faith!  Our Gospel Lesson will be the experience of Mary Magdalene.  We will have opportunity to feast upon the Risen Christ, the Bread of Heaven, in His Supper.  In the midst of death there is life!  Alleluia!  Praise the Lord!  I look forward to being with you Easter Sunday in our Resurrection worship!  Love in the risen Savior, Pastor Craig

            To remember our sins can be a scary experience!  As Lent begins with Ash Wednesday that’s exactly what we are called to do.  What a mess our sinful lives are:  sins committed, sin realized, sin confessed and thanks be to God, sins forgiven!  With Ash Wednesday we come face-to-face with the wretchedness of every sin, only to celebrate even the worst are forgiven in the mercy and grace of God in Jesus!

            Not only can God forgive, He has forgiven!  God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, into our world, a garbage dump of sin.  He came to become “sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).  Our omniscient, all-knowing God chooses to forget our sins!  Don’t believe me?  Listen to God in Jeremiah (31:34):  “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  Now that’s forgiveness to celebrate!

             Let sin rear its ugly head.  Let the devil try in vain to convince us that our sins are too big or too many for God to forgive and forget.  Thanks be to God, the devil stands accused and condemned.  Through Christ Jesus we stand forgiven

             What a Friend we have in Jesus!!  Tomorrow anyone who wished to receive the cross of ash in the morning may come by church at 9 a.m.  That way your witness may be seen the entire day as you go about your busy life.  But make sure that you come back at 7 p.m. to end the day focused upon the messy brokenness of our lives and the Forgiver who makes us whole.  The next five Wednesdays a soup fellowship will be at 12 p.m. and worship at 1:00 p.m.  There will also be the same worship opportunity at 7:00 p.m. for those who work during the day.  What a Savior, Servant and Friend we have in Jesus!  Pastor Craig

“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise Him, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.”  Luke 2:21

Aller anfang ist schwer!  So states the old German proverb which means, “Every beginning is challenging!” 

That saying is doubly true for January 1^st.  In the world, of course, this day is celebrated as New Year’s Day.  On the church calendar it’s called the Festival of the Name of Jesus, the Day of the Circumcision of Our Lord.    In the world and in the church we focus our thoughts on something new.  That circumcision marked Jesus as God’s own Son and set before Him the new path of the Messiah, the “Chosen One”, to work our salvation.  New Year’s Day brings us a blank calendar filled with opportunities.

The new baby Mary and Joseph brought to the temple brings to all people the promise of new life through the forgiveness of sins won for us by His atoning death on the cross.  But with this newness comes challenge and often difficulties and pain.  During His earthly life, Jesus knew all of these.  Yet He lived with the peace of mind and heart that came from His close and abiding contact with His heavenly Father.  The New year invites us again to name Jesus as the Lord of our lives, to follow His example of living in a blessed relationship with God, and to rejoice in the knowledge that, whatever the New Year brings, He is there for us as our Savior, our Guide and our Friend!

A blessed 2025 to everyone as we together walk with Him!  Pastor Craig

If you’re like me, you have one of these “Keep Christ in Christmas” magnets stuck on your car.  It’s a message that we need to support with action during this season in the church.  How important for Christians to consciously and purposefully act on the religious aspects during Christmas-time.

But with a New Year ahead, our saying expands:  “Keep Christ Out of Christmas!” and may I add an “as well.”  You see, we must not keep Christ only in Christmas. For the birth of Christ is great news. Not because a baby was born, but that a Savior was born. To be the Savior means leaving Christmas, it means moving from Bethlehem to Calvary, from the cradle to the cross. As much as the world pushes against Christmas, it really has no objection to the babe in the manger, so long as He stays there, as long as we keep him stuck in Christmas.  Thank God the salvation story moves on and so do we!

With the Wise Men visit, Herod asked the chief priests and teachers where Christ was to be born, and they told him, “In Bethlehem in Judea.”  These folks knew the ancient prophecies well, yet having given the right answer, they weren’t even curious to follow through.  They returned to their routine without another thought.  They were folks who knew the price of everything but the value of nothing.

The irony is that these folks had prayed daily for the coming Messiah.  But is wasn’t a Savior they were looking for, a baby born to give Himself so that we might live.  They wanted a King to validate their way of life and empower their self-righteousness.  They missed the greatest opportunity of their lives because they were lost in themselves.

As we move in to 2025 together, we doing so carrying the Christ, whose birth we have celebrated, beyond Christmas!  A Savior has come!  He has not only been born long ago, He has been born through faith in our hearts.  We need Him in the coming year to save and to lead us!  The Lord will richly bless us as we carry Christ beyond Christmas into our worlds!

A Blessed New Year to All!  Love in the Christ, Pastor Craig

Christmas Eve is called by some the Feast of Adam and Eve.  Martin Luther, reflected by the “sin” tree in our sanctuary, observed it by placing apples on the Christmas tree.  That tree reminds us not only of Adam and Eve’s sin, but our own also.  That sin reminds us of God’s love for us that moved Him to send His Son to enter our world.  The white salvation tree on the right side of our sanctuary reminds us that Jesus is God’s answer to sin.  The red of sin is nailed to His cross (the red cross in the tree’s center).  His white righteousness is ours through faith.

The Good News of Christmas is that Jesus came for a world of sinners.  That’s why the angel(s) visited shepherds.  Yes, those stinky, sheep-smelling shepherds, not allowed in the temple, were the first to worship the Shepherd king in the midst of a stable’s aroma.  Micah once prophesied the Messiah would be a ruler to shepherd God’s people.  What better worship than shepherds, who needed cleansing inside and out, to welcome the coming of a shepherd.

Jesus was more than a shepherd, though.  He identified Himself as The Good Shepherd.  He promised to lay down His life for the sheep.  We are those sheep, stinky with the aroma of sin!  Without that recognition, there is no Christmas for us, and the truth that a Savior has been born means nothing.

“Hark, the Herald Angels” sing not only to the shepherds but to us.  The angel tells us not to be afraid.  We need not fear any consequence of sin, even death.  Our joy is in the Shepherd, who was born to cleanse us from the stench of sin.  He has defeated death at its own game.  He laid down His life for us and took it up again so that the words of that beautiful carol are especially true for us.  Just sing the third stanza with me:

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.

The Christ born in a manger is our Good Shepherd, leading us through life to the “second birth.”  This Christmas, as we see and celebrate the baby Jesus, may we especially celebrate what Jesus came to do:  to bring us heaven.

Hope to see you in worship!  Christmas Eve at 5 & 8 p.m.  Christmas Day at 11 a.m.  Love this Christmas and always, Pastor Craig