Freedom. Independence. Nothing captures the American spirit like these words, and at no time do we celebrate these things as much as around the 4th of July. One might wonder how blowing stuff up (fireworks) came to be one of the chief means of celebrating our national independence, but that is a subject for another day. Instead I would like to talk a little bit about our freedom as Christians, our freedom in Christ. Martin Luther
April has arrived, which for us often means spring! But within the church, it also often means Holy Week. Holy Week is the week spanning from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday. It serves as the culmination of the preparatory time of Lent, with our Lenten Exodus ending on Calvary’s hill on Good Friday, and our joyful celebration of the resurrection beginning at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. These days truly are the pinnacle
Each year, Lent is observed as a time of preparation for the coming of Easter. It is not just something that has been observed for the 148+ years that Trinity Lutheran Church has been active here in Fergus Falls. Lent has been observed since the 4th century, a period of about 1700 years. Over those many long years Christians throughout the world have observed this time devoted to the discipline of learning and growing in
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and the theme is love. We hear a lot about love from many different directions, but predominantly in our culture love is a fleeting feeling filled with passion that can rise one day and fall or even fade away the next, whose target is ever changing as the fickleness of the human heart demonstrates its indecision. None of this is love, at least not as the Bible speaks
God calls His people to gather together into communities. I am convinced that this is a reflection of God’s own triune nature – that is, God is eternally in community with Himself. Thus, when He creates Adam, God’s remark “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18) indicates He intends His human creatures to be in community as well. When God creates Eve, He