Everyday Lutherans

Today is Reformation Sunday, the day in which we as a Lutheran Church gathers together to give thanks for Martin Luther who reminded us of the importance of the Gospel.   Luther helped bring the scripture to us in our own language.  Now we can read and discern God’s Word, God’s love, and our relationship with God.  This brings me to something I would like to remind all of us about today.  This is the difference between my faith, our faith, and God’s faith. Now when I talk about “my faith”, I mean the things that we can do to strengthen our relationship with God.  Things like: prayer, singing songs, reading the Bible, and going to help others. Each of these is important and can have a huge impact upon our life and our relationship with God.  Prayer keeps us talking to God and sharing our life with our creator.   Prayer reminds us that God is always with us.  Songs and singing have a way of making the things we believe stay with us and the...

Have you ever thought about money?  It is something that we use every single day.  It is something we seem to need in our daily lives to eat, to have water, to have a place to live, and in a few months, have it for heat.  Today, Jesus gets confronted about how to use money.  In particular, should a person pay taxes?  Now please note the answer, Jesus says “Render unto Ceasar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God’s.” Quite plainly, “Pay your taxes but know that God has created it all.”  I don’t want anyone telling the IRS, “Pastor told me I didn’t have to pay taxes.” However, the Pharisees and leaders of the Temple, are putting Jesus to the test.  Should we as Jewish people, as the Chosen People of God, pay taxes to a pagan authority who rules over us.  This is quite a test, because if Jesus says that people should only pay to God and there should not be taxes to Roman Empire, Rome would have him arrested for going against the Roman auth...

The parable today seems harsh.  It ends with weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Well, that does not sound like a good time.  Where is the grace?  Where is the mercy? Where is the God who loves us? Today’s parable is a continuation from last week’s parable.  The parable of the wicked tenants who refused to give the land owner what was his, killing the slaves, and even the son of the owner.  So the owner killed the tenants.  Today’s parable seems just as harsh.  However, last like week, I think it is important to spend more time on the historical meaning and our own modern day understanding. Today the wedding feast of a king’s son to an unknown suitor bears a lesson that we should strive to understand in our own modern times.  So often the king in the parable is God and the son is Jesus Christ marrying the church on Earth. This would be a monumental celebration in which anyone who is anyone would be there to join the festivities and enjoy the bles...

Each one of our Scriptures today have great messages.  Each one has a sermon within it that I could share with you.  I could easily stand up here all day and share with you insights and how this relates to our modern life.  However, I will not do that to you.  Rather, I will share with you how today’s scripture gives us insight into the whole message that God is sharing with us.   Looking at our Old Testament reading today, Solomon asks God for wisdom and understanding.  Solomon wants to be able to lead and help the people who he shall rule, whom God has chosen to the Chosen People through whom all nations shall be blessed.  It is the very gift that is found in the Old Testament that God gives for us that help us.  In the Old Testament, God gives to his Chosen People, the Law, a means in which they shall be able to have good relationship with God and good relationship with one another.  It was there to make us closer to God and one another, s...

Jesus is always one who speaks and teaches in parables.  The final line of the parable today is one that we often know and think about.  “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”  It is one that we echo and remember, but it is this parable that we can learn so much from.  A parable that was spoken would help the listener understand this world in which they are apart of, but also the heavenly kingdom in which their Heavenly Father would welcome them into. Within our lives, we are familiar with what it means to do a hard days work.  In fact, there are some of us who wake up early in the morning so that we can do our work just as the laborers spoken of today in the vineyard.  To work through the day, in the scorching heat of the afternoon, and finally be able to rest at the end of the day.  There are others among us who join in the work later in the morning.  Later on within the day, others join us in the work.  Even when the hour i...

Today we gather together to celebrate the history of all that has been done here at Bruflat.   We gather and we remember the founders who helped form the congregation, planning and hoping for a future that would benefit not only them but also their children, grandchildren, but more importantly this entire community. Let us imagine what this would have looked like. Things are uncertain after the nation has been at war  between the Union and Confederacy.  People had to strive to be more self sufficient and many are coming to the area from Norway, Germany, France, and other nations.  Here they are encountering others.  The people begin gathering together with others who speak their language and have their traditions.   For many of the people, their first homes were made of sod because this region did not have trees.  When they arrived and formed this church, we were still the Dakota Territory and not yet a state. People began working together be...

Today’s sermon, I would like us to focus on a very simple phrase.  This is a phrase that you may be quite familiar with.  A phrase that is used often and by many in the church when encouraging others to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Follow me, is a very simple phrase. This simple and common phrase is used with every single disciple Jesus calls.  Even others who express interest in wanting to know more; those who want to learn his teachings and follow his example within the world.  They want to make sure that they have learned it all, that they are able to live out these teachings in fullness of their lives.  These two words seem so simple. However, they are also too simple in understanding the calling that Jesus has for all his followers.  The simple phrase of “Follow me” degrades Jesus to simply a moral teacher, one who will show you the right w...

When I was growing up, my mom would always tell me to wash my hands. I guess you could say that I was a typical little boy.  I loved to play in the mud.  I loved to play in the dirt.  One of my favorite activities was and still is gardening. I enjoyed gardening with my dad, my grandma, or my mom. Yet, whenever I came inside, I always had to wash my hands.  More often than not, I would ask the question, “Do I have to?” She would reply 'yes', and so I would. After a while, I no longer asked the question.  She would still remind me, but I just simply did it. Then after a few years, I simply came inside and washed my hands. I have learned the lesson. Yet, there were also times that I would stop and be reminded of the purpose of doing that thing. Wash your hands means to be clean, to care for yourself, and care for those around you.  We need to care for the place in which we live and the people who live with you. It took me a while to learn that lesson.  It...