Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With February comes a season of love. A season where everything is adorned in shades of red and pink and covered with hearts and roses. Halfway through the month this season reaches its zenith, its pinnacle, its peak on February 14^th, on Valentine’s Day. It’s the day to give a gift to your husband or wife, your fiancé or fiancée, your boyfriend or girlfriend. It’s the day to shower love on them and serve them, to honor them, to cherish them. So, if it has slipped your mind, consider this a good reminder!

While Valentine’s Day, along with anniversaries and birthdays, are amazing opportunities to show love to others, we are called to love on more than just a few particular days. If anything, our love should be clear to see every day, and abundantly loud and clear on days like Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, or birthdays.

Love is displayed in action. To love is to do. Unlike many ideas of love as some sort of romantic feeling, or inward passion, true love shows itself in outward action. The ultimate example is Jesus Christ. When he feels compassion towards the other, it spurns him to action. When he sees the hungry crowd of 5000, he feeds them out of love. When he sees the crowd of sinners, Jesus is driven by passion to the cross. The love of Jesus is every action that he does and continues to do.

So, if you’re feeling lovey-dovey this Valentine’s Day (even if you’re not!) DO SOMETHING! And don’t let it stop. As we continue past Valentine’s Day, past birthdays or anniversaries, don’t stop doing. Love is a lifelong calling. And it doesn’t mean grand, sweep me off my feet gestures every day. But it is also the simple, humble work. Holding back a snide comment that comes to mind. Asking about the other’s day and feelings, instead of turning to our own. Bearing with another’s sins against us patiently. Addressing problems and seeking peaceful resolution, not to throw them in the other’s face.

And it’s not just for a spouse, fiancé or fiancée, girlfriend or boyfriend. It is for each person you come across. Coworkers. Other members at church. Sibling, parents, children, and grandchildren. People you run into at Hy-Vee or the Hawkeyes game. Our lifelong calling of love extends to them.

If this begins to feel overwhelming, remember this: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love comes from Christ’s love. It isn’t Cupid’s arrow or deep-seated emotion. But the constant love of Christ. So when we fail to love and even when we end up acting out in hatred, we have a loving God and Savior who will love others when we cannot and loves us when we are the most unlovable. Don’t worry, the love of Christ abounds.

Blessings,
Vicar Lewis

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With Christmas and Advent in recent memory, it is a good opportunity to recall angels. These spiritual beings that God made would bring messages from their Creator down to people like you and me. You’ve probably seen them around in nativity sets recently, often depicted as men or women in white flowing robes with wings and a halo around their head.

They’re an important part of the Christmas story. It is an angel who bring messages to Joseph, telling him to marry Mary and protect their family by fleeing to Egypt. The angel Gabriel brings Mary the news that she would bear God’s son. Gabriel also brought the news to Zechariah, the priest, that he and Elizabeth would bear a son in their old age who would be filled with the Holy Spirit and that he would be named John. Later known as John the Baptist. And again, it is angels who direct the shepherds in the field to Jesus their Lord.

You get the idea. Angels tell people news that God has for them. But apart from Christmas, we don’t seem to hear too much about them. They are in other stories throughout Scripture, but they seem to appear few and far between compared to Christmas time. So, what are to make of them?

One thing that is especially clear from Christmas is that angels rejoice in and are glad for the birth of Jesus. The angels in heaven want the salvation of the human race and they even help make it happen. And not just at Christmas!

-They will gather God’s chosen people to Him on the Last Day (Matthew 24:31).
-They help promote the work of the church and protect its servants. Often saving people in prison, such as Daniel and Peter, so the Gospel would continue to go out (Daniel 6:22; Acts 5:18-20).
-They guard and protect God’s people (2 Kings 6:15-17; Psalm 34:7).

These things are true even to this day. God still sends you His angels. They still battle the spiritual forces of the devil on your behalf. Mostly out of sight, but hopefully not out of mind. Because they are real and interact with our world.

As nativities get taken down and packed away, consider the angels. Remember them as we sing the Sanctus before Communion that we are singing with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Even while you pray, ask that God sends his holy angels to be with you.

As life moves forward into 2022, we can always use a helping hand and God’s angels will surely lend you one, whether you realize it or not!

Have a blessed New Year!
Vicar Lewis

Dear Christian Friends,

At this time of year, our minds are drawn to thoughts of our Savior, the babe of Bethlehem, and Mary and Joseph, who traveled unto Bethlehem. The ages-old story is always fresh and exciting to us as Christians.

Through décor, song, gift exchanging, we rejoice in our Father’s great love for us shown in His sending His own Son for us. That Son came in the form of a Baby. A baby who was nurtured inside His mother’s body, a “treasure in [a jar] of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

The angels announced His birth; the shepherds left their sheep and came to worship Him; the Wise Men traveled many miles to adore Him and bring Him their gifts. “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She still had “this treasure in [a jar] of clay.”

We, too, have this “treasure… the surpassing power [that] belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7b). We have the Word dwelling in us! His great power enables and equips us to do the work he has placed before us. We are LIVING WITH CHRIST.

During this time of Advent and Christmas, let us “[treasure] up all these things, pondering them in [our hearts].” And let us ask God to use us according to His plan to spread the news of that treasure. And let us wish one another, great and small, a very Merry Christmas! And let us realize now more than ever, this Christmas we are LIVING WITH CHRIST.

Merry Christmas!  Pastor Hartwig

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“Peace I [Jesus] leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives
do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27

What a challenge it is to strike a balance between what it means to live and engage with the world, but also to fear God and avoid the worldly sins of this age! Johann Starck was a German Lutheran of the 18^th century, and he is right in seeing the challenge to be a Christian that is “in the world, but not of the world.” Especially in modern America where black and white answers are harder to find and that it’s like we’re always under rain clouds that cast each moral decision that we make a deep gray. And no matter the decision, it will be scrutinized.

Is it stealing if I don’t tip the wait staff when they performed poorly? What is the role of Christian morals in law making? Is it really lying if I’m just not telling the full story? These are some of the things we wrestle with.

However, as we wrestle with the world and make our way through the gray, we find that Starck is right. We must daily empty our hearts of the world and fill it with Jesus. As Jesus prepares to leave His disciples for the cross, He promises them peace. Jesus gives peace in a way that the world can’t. It is this peace that sustains us to interact with this world as we wait for our Lord’s return. So take heart, child of God, the peace of Jesus is yours!

Vicar Lewis

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ –

How many stars are there in the sky? Who can count them?
Yet God created and knows each of them.

How many different kinds of animals in the forests and deserts and oceans? We have not come to the end of discovering them all, but God has created each one in its unique way.

Nor has God been less meticulous with us, for, even though all humans have the same body structure, a face with nose, eyes, and mouth, and all our various parts, yet each of us is uniquely different from another.

Not only has God created each of us, He knows us intimately and cares about every facet of our lives and activities.

David, the psalmist, wrote about this characteristic of God in Psalm 139:

“O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.” (Psalm 139:1-3).

This truth stands behind our academic theme for 2021-22. To be living with Christ is undergirded by the truth that we are all created by God and that He knows our inward thoughts and feelings.

This is why we are pausing before confession and absolution to prepare our hearts and minds. Myself or Vicar will say:
“We take a moment to pause, reflect, and examine ourselves—considering the times and places where we failed to Live with Christ, yet trusting the Holy Spirit to continue His work within us.”

Then on the screen it says:
(projected on screens: A moment of silence is taken to call to mind particular sins. If you are not burdened with particular sins, do not trouble yourself or search for or invent other sins, thereby turning confession into a torture. Instead, call to mind one or two sins that you know and let that be enough.)

Use God’s creation of Confession and Absolution to lay your burdens down at the altar of God.

In the love of Christ!  Pastor Hartwig

Why God?

A cry of distress. A mournful lament. An angry, lashing roar. A burning whisper.

The question, “Why God?” expresses itself in many different ways and in our increasingly active world it is asked for a variety of reasons. From stubbing your toe on the coffee table to the increase of troubles in Afghanistan. From the death of a loved one to your favorite ride at Disney World being closed for sudden maintenance. Some troubles appear more worthy of questioning God than others. However these troubles may appear, they have one thing in common. They break apart the way we believe the world ought to be.

“I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth.”

Who else to bring our broken world to but the one who made it? Our heavenly Father. However, in moments like these He doesn’t always appear so heavenly and feels more distant than a father should be. The pithy phrase “God works in mysterious ways” doesn’t seem comforting when your world has been shaken. As a matter of fact, in these situations God working mysteriously is perhaps the most frustrating thing. To not know God’s intentions makes life scary and uncertain rather than comforting.

Our Heavenly Father knows our fear and uncertainty, He knows when our world that we have made breaks apart. He knows because he laid the world’s foundation, He measured his line upon the earth, He shut in the seas and prescribed their limits. (Job 38:4-10) He is the one who sent Jesus at “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) to bring an end to sin and death. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t forget about us but sends relief at the right time and points us to His dear Son.

Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, came and made His intentions clear. His earthly mission culminated with His death on a cross on Good Friday by which He saved us from our sins and in His rising from the dead. By this He restores the world and holds it together. At the right time the world will be more than just held together, but fully redeemed. No longer distressed but rejoicing.

In this we turn the question from “Why?” to “Who?”. No longer “Why am I suffering?” but “Who can save me from this suffering?” and it is our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Blessings,
Vicar Lewis

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I have spent some time these past few days pondering The End. My vicarage is drawing to a close. By the time many of you sit down to read this, I will already have moved back to St. Louis for my final year of studies. God willing, a year from now I will receive a call and ordination into the Office of Holy Ministry. After four long years, The End is in sight!

The End brings unknowns. What will it be like? Will it come quickly? Will it be scary? A group of early Christians living in Thessalonica pondered The End of a different sort. They knew Jesus would return at The End, but that brought unknowns. What would it be like? Would it come quickly? Would it be scary? So St. Paul wrote to comfort them:

“We gave thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in
our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and
labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we
know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you…”
– 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4

In response to anxiousness about The End, St. Paul took time to… thank them! And to thank God for them. So I say the same thing to you: Thank you! Thank you to each and every one of you here at Our Redeemer for your hospitality, your kindness, your willingness to let me be a part of your spiritual life for an entire year. I am better equipped for pastoral ministry now than I was at the beginning of the year, because of you.

And I do not only thank you; I thank God for you. He uses each of us to accomplish His good on earth—and He has chosen you to do much good! Even in a pandemic, even over Zoom calls, even in livestreamed worship services, even when many of you were quarantined for weeks on end, even in all these trials, you continued to do the necessary work of “equipping disciples to make disciples for Jesus.” You have been a blessing to me. I give thanks to God for your witness to His goodness and mercy!

I hope to see you all again next year, and God-willing again after that. But if we should not meet again in this world, I pray you will continue to faithfully trust in God and do His work in the world, that we may all give thanks together at The End.

God’s grace, mercy and peace be with you. Bless your next vicar as you have blessed me!

Your brother in Christ,
Vicar Don Stein

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ –

Just as Jesus came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28), we are called to serve Jesus by serving others.

Christ is our example of servanthood.

He is our reason for serving.
He is the One who calls us to serve, equips us to do His will.
He is the One who forgives our failures to live as servants should.

Our service, when done out of a sense of duty, is a burden.  However, as redeemed children of God, we
joyfully serve out of gratitude.  We serve, not as the slave who serves out of fear of punishment, but out of love for our Savior and others. Service like any other spiritual practice must be practiced!  Sanctification is active righteousness, meaning we must do something.  Servanthood must be practiced.

Most definitely, we practice this in our daily lives as we serve our family and friends.
Most definitely, we practice this in our careers as we serve our employer, customers, and co-workers.
Most definitely, we practice this when we as a community serve this community at our annual Christ Cares Community Service Sunday.

If you haven’t made plans, plan to join us for UKANDU@Home on Saturday, June 26^th.

Hebrews 10:24 reads, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”  As we do so, we will experience the joy of living lives of service.

In the love of Christ,
Pastor Hartwig

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you!

Last night was the last confirmation class for the 8^th graders.
In one of the last lectures, I remind the students that confirmation does not mean graduation. Instead, confirmation means you need to live as the bride of Christ.

There are five aspects of congregational life, and I remember it by the acronym WIFE’S.
What are the WIFE’S responsibilities?

Worship (receiving forgiveness of sins and, in response, singing praises)
Instruction (studying the Word from God privately and with others in small and large groups)
Fellowship (sharing time and your faith with one another)
Evangelism (serving others in love and telling other the good news of salvation)
Stewardship (understanding that all you have is owned by God to be used in God pleasing ways)

It was important that the confirmands, and quite frankly you, know what everything we do here at Our Redeemer fits the WIFE’S responsibilities. Otherwise, we should not be doing it. We mean it when we say it – we are about EQUIPPING DISCIPLES TO MAKE DISCIPLES FOR JESUS. Everything we do here at Our Redeemer is about equipping you, so that you can say, “Here I am!”

I pray that you continue to grow in your faith and understanding of a WIFE’S responsibilities. Examine your life and find the area of WIFE’S where you are lacking. Then build it up. Get involved.

God be with you!
Pastor Hartwig

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!

This weekend is Confirmation, and last night we had the Spiritual Growth Event. At that event, the students are publicly examined and they shared their confirmation verse. My confirmation verse is Philippians 4:4. It says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, ‘Rejoice.’”

Even though we live in a sinful world which causes us to face challenges, struggles, and heartaches, we, who have been redeemed by Christ, are joyful people. As recipients of God’s love, grace, and mercy, we can in the most difficult times find God’s strength, peace, comfort, and even joy. God does not want us to stay in a state of despair or gloom. As the Apostle Paul learned to be content in all circumstances, we can find that same contentment and even joy in the circumstances that we encounter (Philippians 4:10-13).

St. Augustine, one of the great theologians in church history, wrote, “Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy.” Where do we look for happiness? There are two paths.

Perhaps the most popular path for seeking happiness is through the accumulation of things, which can lead to temporary happiness but ultimately ends in despair and death. The path on accumulating things of the world is a very appealing path. It is a path that focuses on getting more and more. It’s a path that seeks power and prestige, which people mistakenly assume leads to ultimate happiness and security. The way of the world is centered on ourselves. It is about immediate gratification. It is about getting, taking, and hoarding. It is about an appetite for things that is never satisfied. It is about what you want now, such as a job, house, vacation, promotion, and money. This path won’t bring long-term happiness.

The other path is God’s path, which leads to sustainable happiness and life (1 Timothy 6:19). God’s path is a radically different way. It is filled with love and compassion. The focus is not on getting more and better things but on the Creator of these things. It is about faith that enables us to understand that God is the provider of all our good gifts and then expressing our thanks to Him through our words and deeds. We seek God’s guidance and direction for our lives. Through faith, we live our lives to please and serve Him by serving others. In contrast to the world’s path of getting, God’s path is centered on serving and giving. It is in our serving and giving that we find true joy.

Our happiness does not come from what we have,
but our happiness come from who we are in Jesus.

Lou Holtz, the famous football coach, said to a graduating class,
if you want an hour of happiness, eat a steak;
if you want a day of happiness, golf;
if you want a week of happiness, go on a cruise;
if you want a month of happiness, buy a new car;
if you want a lifetime of happiness, put your faith in Jesus!
Our happiness comes from who we are in Jesus. Amen!

Blessings,
Pastor Hartwig