Sermon - 2014-09-14 - Bruflat Lutheran Church's 140th Anniversary

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 because they knew that if they wanted a future for their children and grandchildren, they would need to work together to form a more solid community and foundation built in care and support for one another.  Many are still getting established in their own homes, settling their families and making sure that they are able to survive the cold winters and their children would have a brighter future together.  One of the first places that they would establish was a church.  A place to gather, a place of community, but above all, a place to hope.  It united them to their homeland, to the generations who have lived and struggled before them and the place where they could experience God’s Word, God’s love and be that beacon of light to remind them of what was important. The men gathered together and worked with the pastor to ensure that the land was selected not only for the church but also the cemetery.  The women worked together on the furnishing of altar clothes and raised funds for the bell so the whole community would know that they were gathering for worship.

As time went on, the town of Portland was formed and Bruflat members decided to build a new church within the town.  They made an effort to go and serve the people while working with them.  Then even when that church burnt down, they decided to build an even larger structure.  This one that we still worship within.  As we look at this building today, each of those bricks are strong.  Each one of those bricks are just like you.  Each one is needed.  There have been new bricks added to the older bricks as we have grown.  However, the mortar has been and will always be our faith and love of God found in Jesus Christ.   

As we look back at the past, as we look at the life and the accomplishments that we have done with the calling and power of God, may we look to the future with that same joy, that same life, and that same dedication that we have done in the past.  For it is easy to stand at the end of the harvest, at the end of a race and the closing of a book.  Yet today, we are not finishing a book, for the story will continue but we are finishing one chapter and beginning a new one.

Let us do as we find Jesus in today, gathered together with the leaders and elders of the congregation, those who were caring for all of God’s People.  Yet being open and amazed to the Words that God was still sharing with them in the next generation.  May we be in constant relationship with one another, gathering together to hear God’s Word and surrounded by new understandings that we would be amazed at what God was doing among us, through us and for us.

As we live in this, we will be challenged, we will face sorrows but we shall do that with one another and surrounded by God’s love and life that has bless us and will bless us as his church.  The place where we share God’s Word, gather in amazement of God’s love and then live out the calling of sharing that with others around us. We shall gather as a place where all are welcome to join with us in working towards the Kingdom of God that was made known to us through Jesus Christ.  God’s own Son and our Savior and Lord.