10-31-2026

Good Morning!

     John 11:6; “So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”

    “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!”  This was the start of a song from “Alice in Wonderland.”  The White Rabbit was always running around and always lost or late getting somewhere.  Many of us have had that experience.  There are often times when we run late and feel tired and worn to a frazzle because of it.  We are late to an appointment, or late on a payment or late getting to work or school but have you ever been late on purpose?

    I remember talking to a school superintendent about a student that wanted to transfer to his school.  It seemed that the student had argued with a teacher more than was necessary.  It also seemed that the parents were on the side of the student.  The student was quite an athlete and the parents assumed that some school would want him really quickly.  The father let a message for the superintendent to call before one of the other schools did.  After the superintendent heard the phone message, he waited a few days to call the father back.  The father told him it was too late; they were already going to school “B;” the father didn’t see the superintendent’s smile over the phone.

    You may have been late but have you ever been intentionally late?  Have you ever delayed an action in order to avoid it all together?  Have you ever made a call too late to go to the dinner party you wanted to avoid?  Most of us have done it and it is probably rude to do so.  Yet we excuse ourselves by claiming we are sparing the feelings of those whom we avoid.  Yet sometimes the delay may be more painful than the truth or it may even cause further trouble.  That can be human nature but what about Jesus, why did he wait two days?

    Jesus knew Lazarus was sick, deathly sick.  He knew Lazarus would die.  Yet he waited two days before going to see him, why?  Was Jesus uncaring about Lazarus; no, because when Jesus was told Lazarus had died, he wept.  So, what was the purpose?  The purpose was so that God would be glorified.  Even though Martha and Mary had asked Jesus to come, he waited for a couple of days so that God would be glorified.

    This can give us some comfort when we feel at times that God isn’t listening.  Sometimes we pray but it seems that God isn’t listening.  God hears you and he answers you but, in his time, and in his way.  Sometimes what we ask isn’t always the best for us or according to his will.  We do not always understand God’s ways but we do know that He is a God of love and whose desire is for us to live with him in his kingdom; he has demonstrated this.  So even if he waits a couple of days, his grace is there.

Father of all grace and truth, sometimes when we come to you, we do not hear the answer we seek or in the time we seek it.  Give us the strength to wait; to wait in joyful expectation that your grace will see us through.  Be with those who are waiting and wondering now.  Comfort them and guide them.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

10-30-2026

Good Morning!

      Leviticus 19:32; “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”

    It was a number of years ago that this verse first raised its head to me.  I was in high school and it was Thanksgiving.  Instead of the usual cousins and relatives, my parents invited over two of our neighbors.  One was an old widower whose wife I never knew even existed.  The other couple was an older childless couple.  I really didn’t have anything in common with these people other than being a neighbor a couple of generations removed.

   I figured I had football to watch.  I would eat my meal with them, say “please,” “thank you;” smile a lot and look interested like I was supposed to.  I would mind my manners but mostly bide my time.  That was the plan; but plans change.

    As we ate the Thanksgiving meal, the widower started to tell some of his life stories.  He was much more than a widower farmer.  He had been a teacher, an architect and did some construction.  He then told me something that I could not even imagined.  He helped to design and build our church.  He told of digging the basement and all the large rocks that were found and then reused in the actual walls.  He spoke of the bracing of the ceiling and asked me if I had ever walked on the “cat beam” in the ceiling.  This is a walk space that forms an attic in our church.  At that time, I had no idea it existed.

    We finished dinner; he kept talking and I kept listening.  I missed the football game but I gained so much more.  I gained knowledge, I gained insight but above all I began to understand what this verse means.  Our lives are about the relationships that we have because of God’s grace.  He places people in our lives who can enrich our lives and fill it with an appreciation of what God has done for his people in earlier times.  We can see God’s faithfulness even in the toughest of times.

    So it may be that great uncle or aunt who talks a little loud or repeats themselves often; it may be the lonely neighbor down the street; it might be anyone of a dozen people that God has place into your life that God calls us to respect.  That is really what the second table of the Ten Commandments are about; respect for others, respect for ourselves and respect for what God has given to us. 

    So, take the time to show respect for your elders, for those in your community to whom God has given the gift of long life.  God has blessed them and they deserve our respect and our honor.  Yet if you truly honor them and listen to them; they can enliven your life and enrich your knowledge and understanding of God’s riches.

God of grace, you bless our lives with many people in our midst.  Remind us of the grace that you have bestowed on others and how, through them, you bestow your grace upon us.  Guide us to receive these blessings as the enrichment of our lives.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                  

Pastor Bret    

10-29-2026

 

Good Morning!

      Genesis 3:5; “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

     “Be all you can be” that was an advertising slogan for the army a few years ago.  It was to encourage the new enlisters to see the army as a way to accomplish their goals in life.  That is something that we encourage our children, and adults, to do.  Seek out our goals and try to accomplish them.  But this can be a dangerous time.  The young man or woman who dreams of being a professional athlete and uses steroids or other drugs to accomplish this is going the wrong way.  Sometimes a dream can go too far.

     We encourage people to “be their own man or woman” or we tell them, “you are the captain of your own life.”  We do this so people will be active agents in their lives and willing to take responsibility for their actions and willing to work for what they need and want.  There is nothing wrong with this; it is even worthwhile.  But sin puts a dark spin on this if we are not vigilant.

    When the devil tempted Eve, it wasn’t with gold or silver, or even with the sweet taste of a forbidden fruit.  The devil’s temptation was that Eve would be like God.  Eve could have even thought she might be greater than God and so the long-time battle within man’s heart began.  In a way it is interesting when we look at it, the age-old question; who sits on throne in your life, God, or you?

    Luther saw this as the crux of sin.  The First Commandment is first because it is the prime commandment.  When Luther wrote his catechism, he took a portion of the First Commandment from Exodus 20 and made it the close of the Commandments.  He did this by design.  All of the Commandments are in the First Commandment.  Who sits on the throne of your life, God, or you?  If it is God, you will honor his name and his worship.  You will honor your parents and not kill or commit adultery or lie about your neighbor.  If God is the God who occupies the throne of your life, these will be easily kept.  But when you place yourself on the throne, then selfish desires arise.  You see yourself as more important than God or your parents.  If others get in your way, get rid of them.  If you want something or someone, just take it any way you can.

    The age-old question, who sits on the throne of your life, God, or you?  God’s mercy calls you to see that God’s benevolence and love is far better than our own selfish desires.  God’s mercy calls for you to repent and see that God is truly the God of our life and through Him we have life.

God of grace, far too often we place our self on the throne of our life and when we do we destroy so many things, lives, relationships, your creation. Forgive us when we do this.  Keep us mindful that you are our king.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

10-28-2026

Good Morning!

        Genesis 1:28; “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

    It is a comment that gets made at many weddings, especially at the reception.  It is usually an uncle or great-uncle or a taunting brother-in-law.  One of them takes the bride aside and tells her, “Remember, be fruitful and multiply!”  The usual arching of the eyebrows a couple of times occurs.  Often times, the poor bride simply blushes as everyone around her giggles and laughs.  One time, the bride told the teasing brother-in-law to, “Keep up!”  That really caused a fit of laughter as the brother-in-law was embarrassed.

    Most of us know this verse, at least the “be fruitful and multiply part.”  We recognize this for what it is.  Marriage is about having babies.  It is about the continuation of the human race.  Now there may be some who choose not to have children or who may be unable to have children but by and large we see this to be about procreation.  We see this as the biological and physical portion of a marriage.  In this fashion it is true but it is also incomplete.  There is another part of marriage that is often overlooked, even by Christians, and that is the spiritual part.

    As we look at marriage, we can see that it is the fundamental building block of human society.  A man and a woman marry and form a new being, one flesh.  They then join in fellowship with others to form communities then nations.  Yet God used this basic building block to start the formation of people living in a community together.  In many ways, it is also the basic building block of the church.

    It is no small event that Jesus said, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of you.”  Two, a husband and a wife, are the basic building block of the church.  Those two are to go forth and spread the Gospel of Jesus; to multiply.  This is the spiritual part of marriage.  From here, the married couple are to be a witness to their faith for the glory of God.  “Go and make disciples;” “Preach the Gospel to all creatures.”  This is the directive to the Church but it applies to the most basic unit.  It applies to you and to me; it applies to us.

    Through the gift of marriage, we have another way of God’s glory being revealed in this world.  We see his grace in action in our lives.  The gift of marriage is a blessing to all, even those who are not married now.  It forms the unit through which society and the Church are built. 

Father of all grace, your mercies are new to us each day.  We thank you for the gift of marriage and the blessing that it gives to us.  Even though it is often hurt in this world of sin, it remains one of your great blessings.  Use those who are married to be your voice of grace as your Church grows.  Bless them with your Spirit and guard all marriages against the attacks of the devil.  Protect them in your loving arms.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

10-27-2026

Good Morning!

   Psalm 51:10; “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

      It is the little things in life; how often do we say this or think this?  Oh, the little things that mean so much.  I think for most of us this is very true.  A hot cup of coffee on a cold day can go a long way to a content heart.  The gentle voice of your spouse as you sit and listen to some music.  Listening to your children or grandchildren as they are sleeping.  Watching them read a book or playing a game.  The quiet times with friends can make life enjoyable and truly fun.  The little things in life are wonderful.

     Yet sometimes, it is the little things in life that cause us the most pain and problems.  The problem is that we all have those little sins in our life.  They are just little ones, nothing major.  Just small, nagging little sins.  Most of us have not really committed what we would consider “big sins.”  We have never murdered someone; we have never actually committed adultery.  We have never stolen anything of any real value but we have those nagging little sins.

     Sometimes, we don’t even think of them as sins.  We call them “peccadilloes;” or “character flaws; or “idiosyncrasies” but we never call them sins.  We have never committed murder but there are some people who we would like to move away, or some such problems beset them.  We make cruel and snide remarks but it is “just what I was told.”  We love the “good and juicy” gossip.  We still claim that we have no other gods before God but sometimes God just doesn’t fit into our busy schedule.  We have never committed adultery but a little looking and fantasizing is “natural” isn’t it?  And so, we let off a little steam when we are with our friends and complain about our spouse to them, we all need a release don’t we?

     Those little sins are so hard to let go of, aren’t they?  We like to hold them because we think they give us power and we think they don’t really matter in the greater scheme of things.  We may rationalize all of our actions, all of our little ways but the bottom line is that they are still sins.  They are sins and sins are what separate us from God.  Sin is what breaks our relationship with God.  Sin is what pollutes us and makes us unworthy of being in God’s presence.

    That is why David wrote this verse so many years ago.  As he looked at his life, he saw where he was at.  God had revealed to him the pain he was causing, to himself, to others and to how his relationship with God was broken.  David had lied, committed adultery and murder.  The pain and the agony of it came home to roost for him and he suffered for it.  Just like we suffer when we hold onto sin, whether it is sin that we are afraid to admit to or sin that we think is minor and harmless; sin destroys our relationship with God.

    Only God can restore and renew us.  He does this through the saving atonement of Jesus.  He does this through his love.  He uses the baptismal grace that he gives us for the daily washing of our sins away.  A clean heart, every day.  A right spirit, every day.  God’s gift to us because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.

Father, in you we have forgiveness because of Jesus.  Make us clean and right.  Give us your Spirit to guard us and protect us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

10-26-2026

Good Morning!

       Psalm 35:22; “You have seen, O Lord; be not silent!  O Lord, be not far from me!”

     I had run into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in years.  We were only able to chat for a minute or two.  It was fun to see him again after all these years.  We had the quick, “where are you?” “How is your family?”  “Have you seen…?” and then we were done.  It was that quick.  I told him to call next time he was in town and maybe we could get together again.  I felt really good after the encounter.  I remembered some of the fun we used to have back when we were younger.  I looked forward to his call.  Two years later, he still hasn’t called.

    After a while, I began to wonder.  Why hasn’t he called?  Did he lose my number?  It is in the phone book.  Has he not been back again?  He said he was back about every 6-8 months or so.  Did something happen to him?  I probably would have heard something.  Then that deep insecurity sinks in and I wonder, maybe he just doesn’t want to talk to me.  Perhaps he was just being polite and trying to get out of a conversation that he didn’t want to have.  Maybe he was just letting me down easy thinking that “go away” was a little too harsh.  I don’t know, one way or another.  He has been silent and I just wait for him to call me.

    This is one of those times when silence is a disappointment.  I survive; I hadn’t seen him for over 25 years.  There are times when silence can be painful.  When we wait for the lab results to a medical test, silence can be painful as we wonder what was going on.  Waiting for the doctor to come out and tell you how the surgery for your loved one went as we wait in silence in a painful loneliness.  Probably the toughest silence is when we think God is silent.

    I remember listening to a young couple who were struggling with trying to start a family.  It wasn’t working the natural way.  It was sad because they would have been great parents.  There had just been a story about an abandoned child that had died from neglect and the pain in their face was obvious.  Why was God silent?

    Sadly, we can never answer “why?” for God.  We can never explain God and his ways.  All we truly have is the blood-soaked empty cross and the open tomb.  Those speak volumes to us.  They speak of God’s immeasurable love for us and our eternal life with him.  They speak of his love for us.  They speak of his compassion and mercy for us.  Some things we do not hear because we are not listening to what God is saying, we are listening for what we want to hear but sometimes that is not what God has to say.  So, we need to look past our wants and look to God’s promise and hear his mercy for us.  It can be very difficult but here we see that in our weakness God’s strength, his wonderful words of forgiveness and reconciliation, carry us through.

Father of wonder, often we feel you are silent when we are not listening to your words of grace.  Give us the strength to listen closely to your word.  Be with those who feel you are silent today.  Let them hear your words of mercy and your words of grace.  Be with them and strengthen them.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s peace,

Pastor Bret    

10-25-2026

Good Morning!

         Romans 5:2; “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

    One of my past times is to watch movies.  I like most kinds but I really enjoy comedies, westerns, pirate movies, movies about knights, action movies, and space movies.  If you can combine two or three of these, I really like them.  One of my favorites is a movie called “Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail.”  It is a very absurd comedy that makes fun of the knights of the Roundtable who are searching for the Holy Grail.  It spoofs the entire genre of knight movies.  One part that always made me chuckle was when the knights come to a bridge that they need to cross and a troll stops them and demands that they answer three questions or they get thrown into the abyss.  The scene ends with the troll being asked to clarify a question, he can’t so he gets thrown into the abyss, so the troupe passes on by.

    There is always a scene in movies like this where in order to have access to a bridge or a room our hero needs to know the access code.  It might be a test of courage or bravery.  It might take skill and cunning.  It might take possessing a key or some other device but there is usually a major part of the movie that turns on having a way to access an important place.  Without this access our hero will fail and either the pretty girl will die or the kingdom will fail; one of those dramatic events will occur.  So having access is crucial.

    Our faith life is just like that.  Sin caused us to have an “access denied” sign flash in front of us.  We could no longer have access to God because we lacked the access code or the key for entrance.  We were no longer perfect; we were sinful being whose sin had cause us to lose the key to God.  We lost it to the point that we could never get access again.

    So, God showed his grace to us by having Jesus pay the price for our sin.  By doing so and by giving us the desire (faith) to trust that promise we now have access to God’s grace.  It is here that we rejoice in hope (certainty) of the glory of God.  God sent Jesus to give you back the access that our sinned took away.  God did this out of love for you.  God continues to do this for us every minute of every day.

    So now we have total access to God.  We can come to him at any time and in any state of trouble or fear.  We can come in any time of joy or celebration.  God invites us to use this free access at all times.  God invites us to use prayer to access him.  He invites us to worship him to hear his Words of forgiveness and acceptance.  God has given you access; use it continually.

Father of all mercy, through your grace we are given access to your love continually.  Give us the wisdom to use this gift often.  Give us the strength to trust in your free access to guide us through life’s struggles.  Be with those who seem to have lost their access to you.  Give them the faith to again access you and your grace.  All this we ask in Jesus’ precious name, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret