It is always amazing to me that Jesus’ first words to his disciples when he sees them after he has been raised from the dead is “Peace be with you.”  It’s not, “Hey, look, it’s me!”  It’s not, “Why did you all run and abandon me? Where was the loyalty?”  Or, “How come no one believed the women when they went to the tomb and found it empty?”  Nope.  He comes bringing peace.

That word, peace, means different things to different people.  To some it means political peace, the absence of conflict.  To others, it might mean a feeling of contentment.  To others, it means quiet and a feeling of security and stableness.  No matter the definition, peace usually refers to a time when things are not in chaos, not broken, not in conflict.

But the peace that Jesus brings is something that is above and beyond our definition.  Jesus brings a peace in which something new is created.  Think about a picture of three friends.  Those friends get into conflict.  The friendship is fractured.  The picture is torn in pieces.  Though they might resolve their differences, the friendship is not going to be the same.  As you piece the picture together, you will still see the outlines of where it was torn.

But the peace that Jesus brings means that the old picture isn’t put back together, an entirely new one is created.  Because Jesus destroyed sin and death through his resurrection, the power of sin and death is broken.  Those things that cause destruction in our lives, that break our peace, have nothing on the power of Christ and his resurrection.  Because of this, Jesus gives us new kind of peace, a new kind of relationship, better and stronger than the original.  Jesus offers us this peace right away, to let us know that in him we have a new relationship with God and with others. A new relationship that is something even stronger and more fulfilling that what we had before and he offers this to us despite our sinfulness because Christ loves us.

Even more so, we are called by Christ and sent by Christ to proclaim this peace to others.  Every time we share the peace in church, we are proclaiming the relationship we have with Christ and each other.  When we go out into the world, we can show the world the peace that only Christ can bring, a peace that passes all understanding, a peace that breaks down the dividing wall between us and strengthens our relationships with each other and the world.  For that we can say, “Thanks be to God!”  Amen.

This of course all started with “Stepping Stones of Dunn County,” an organization that has a food pantry, homeless shelter, and community volunteer program that makes connections to those in need.  The food pantry continues to be busier than ever, the shelter continues to be full, and there are always people who need a hand in one way or another.  I’ve been involved with them for a long time, first as a six-year board member and then heading up their new building program.  Nowadays, I deliver food once a month to the Tiffany Apartments here in Boyceville and it has been great to bring food to the senior’s and people there that need it.

Sometimes it is easy to see the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin as “the Synod,” this big organization that just administers the church.  But it is the hub of ministry.  We have received services from the Synod that have impacted and helped our ministry.  From help with visioning and long-range planning to stewardship resources to worship resources to help with our new constitution, we have been impacted in a positive way by the Synod.  We feel the impact in their support of campus ministry, camping ministry, and even new ministry initiatives throughout our area.  The church is bigger than just Trinity. It includes all of us in our area, state, nation, and world.  One of the ways I’m involved in the larger church is that I serve on the Candidacy Committee, a committee that mentors and walks-with people from our area that are studying to be pastor’s and other rostered leaders.  It has been great to see the faith and talent of those that are going to be leading the church in the future and I take great pride in being able to help them as they move through their education and learning experiences.

Luther Park Bible Camp has been a significant part of Trinity for decades.  After all, we are part owners of the camp.  There is something magical about being at camp and there is something special that happens to young people when they attend.  Personally, camp was what sharpened and put into focus that God was calling me to ministry.  We have been blessed to not only send our youth to camp, but have the camp come to us through Vacation Bible School.  They are making an important faith impact in all of our youth.  Many of our youth going to the National Youth Gathering not only went to camp multiple times, but have gone back as PALS during the summer or have taught kids in VBS and Sunday School because of the impact that camp made on them.  For me personally, our time at camp every year is a chance to meet and be with our youth in a different setting, to be renewed in faith, and to get new ideas for ministry, and to fun as well.  It is one of my favorite weeks all year.

I hope that you will participate in our “Battle of the Benevolence All-Stars.”  You can participate by writing “Battle” on your check or putting a donation in the basket in the Narthex.  You can also bring items for the food pantry that will count towards the Battle.  But I hope that you participate because you can see that by supporting these ministries, you are supporting Trinity.  All of our ministries are connected and through our partnerships with each other, we not only make an impact in the lives of others but we strengthen our faith and our own congregation.  We are blessed to have such wonderful partners and for our shared ministry we can say, “Thanks be to God!”  Amen

But Easter isn’t here yet. We have some very important days that come first, days like Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Without these days, Easter doesn’t happen. Easter doesn’t matter. Too often, we are so focused on Easter, on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the sounds of the trumpet and the joyful celebrations that occur that we forget about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We forget about Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper and being betrayed and arrested. We forget that Jesus must be tried, convicted, and executed on the cross and laid in the tomb. Maybe we overlook it because we don’t like to dwell on death or think that it is our voice that is with the crowd that shouts “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Maybe we don’t want to think about the sadness that he Son of God is tortured and killed. Maybe we don’t like the solemn nature of these services, the seriousness that comes with them. Yet, without them, Easter ‘s joy is cheap and means nothing. Resurrection can’t happen if there is no death. Jesus can’t rise from the dead and bring us to everlasting life without first going to the depths of hell to free us from sin, death, and the devil.

I invite you, in your Easter preparations, to not forget about the important days that occur this week. Come join us for worship on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, both at 7:30 pm. Come here how far God is willing to go to save you. Come and hear the story of Christ’s passion and let it enter into your heart so that when you shout “Christ is Risen” on Easter Sunday, you will do with an even greater joy. May God be with you during this Holy Week.

We are also blessed with three extremely talented and dedicated people who run our Sunday School week in and week out, Heidi Guy, Jessica Larson, and Shelia Lee.  Not only do they have to deal with a crazy pastor, but they organize everything that happens in Sunday School each and every week.  On top of that, to add to their responsibilities, they have been forced to teach a lot more this year due to a shortage of Sunday School teachers. When we have had teachers those individuals have done an amazing job, but too often we are short and they have to step in. They go way above and beyond and probably don’t get thanked enough.  So in this space, I want to thank them for their willingness to share the faith with our young people and filling them with enthusiasm for the Jesus Christ.

Yet, there is no reason that they should need to teach every week.  Our Sunday School is designed to help anyone be a teacher.  All the materials are prepared in advance and we ask that you only teach for one month at a time.  Can’t make a week?  You just let us know and we can find a replacement.  One of the reasons we have grown as a church is that people want to bring their kids to our Sunday School but without teachers, our Sunday School will not exist.   We need your help.

We need you.  Need you to give four hours of your time, one hour a week for four weeks, and help a child learn about Jesus Christ and be filled with faith.  We need you on April 15^th when we start on last rotation of the Sunday School year.  We need you in the fall when Sunday School restarts again.  Not only do we need you, but our kids need you.  They need you so that they can be inspired in faith.  They need  you so that they would know that Jesus Christ loves them, has died for them, and gives them everlasting life.

Go take a look at www.youtube.com/TrinityBoycevilleWI and look at some of the videos from the youth service and tell me you aren’t inspired by these kids.  Take a look at the photo’s, either on the website at www.trinityboyceville.com  or on the Trinity Lutheran Facebook page.  Then send me an email and say that you are willing to give four hours of your time to teach a  young person about the love of Christ.  It doesn’t matter if it is for April or next year.  Because knowing that you are willing to teach will help us as we plan for next year’s Sunday School year.  Even more so, you will be fulfilling God’s call to share the faith with others.  For as Paul says in Romans 10, “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? ¹⁵ And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, ¹⁸ and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God of life, you have sustained us on this journey of life with its twists, turns, and bumps in the road.  Because we have been freed from sin through Jesus Christ, help us to live knowing that your free gift is eternal life.  Fill us with hope and love and by your Holy Spirit sustain us in faith.  Amen.

March 10-Romans 7:1-6

¹ Do you not know, brothers and sisters–for I am speaking to those who know the law–that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? ² Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. ³ Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
⁴ In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

Almighty God, our sinful self is no more through your Son Jesus Christ and in its place a new self has arisen ready and willing to serve you and bear fruit for God.  Help us to bear fruit for you in your homes, workplaces, and communities knowing that you walk with us each and every day.  Amen

March 11-Romans 7:7-13

⁷ What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived ¹⁰ and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
¹³ Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Loving God, you have given us the law to help us see that we need you.  Through your law, we see that we are sinful and cannot be saved by our own actions but only through your grace and mercy.  We give you thanks that you have given us Jesus Christ and that through him we are saved and redeemed.  Amen

March 12-Romans 7:14-25

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³ but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

Merciful God, we try to live as you have called us.  We try to care for the least, little, and lost of this world and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  But we fail Lord.  We fail.  Yet, through Jesus, you give us forgiveness.  Inspire to live as you have called us and help us to trust that when we fall you are there to catch and restore us.  Amen.

March 13-Romans 8:1-11

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law–indeed it cannot, ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

God of life, send your Spirit that it may dwell in our hearts.  Help us to hear your word and believe it and make us alive in Jesus Christ, showing us the peace, joy, and fulfillment that can only come through you.  Amen.

March 14-Romans 8:12-17

¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh– ¹³ for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ–if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Gracious God, you have made us your children and heirs of eternal life.  You have freed us from enslavement to sin and filled us with your Holy Spirit.  May we live boldly knowing that your Spirit is in us and that we belong to you and that you are with us each and every day. Amen.

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Creator God, you sent your Son to die for us, the ungodly, the sinful, the broken. Because of this, we are at peace and filled with hope because your love has been poured into our hearts and we are saved. May this Gospel, this Good News, stay with us each and every day and may we live it out in our lives. Amen.

March 7-Romans 5:12-21 12

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned– 13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Merciful God, you shower us with the free gift of grace and through the death and resurrection of your Son, we have life and are made right with you. May we live out this grace daily and extend that forgiveness to others knowing that our sins have been forgiven through you Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

 March 8-Romans 6:1-14

1 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Everlasting Father, in the waters of baptism you make us your children and join us with your Son Jesus Christ. May our sinful self die each day and a new one arise, freed from sin and death to live boldly and freely in you. Make us alive in Christ and help us to be instruments of righteousness in our homes, our workplaces, and our communities. Amen.

16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)–in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

God of love, we believe and hope in you. You have sent Jesus Christ to defeat sin and be raised to new life so that we would have eternal life. This you have done in order to save us, to forgive us, and show us your love. Help us to continue to believe and hope in you and strengthen us each and every day with your word and grace. Amen.

 9 Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” 10 How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 12 and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

Gracious God, we know that through the law we see our sin and the ways in which we reject you. Yet, we come to you with repentant hearts believing in the promise of forgiveness given through your Son Jesus Christ. Forgive us our sin and help us to hold onto your promise. Amen.

²⁷ Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Loving God, we are made right with you through believing in your Son Jesus Christ and not by our actions.  Help us to know that you are our God, that you have saved us through the cross of your Son Jesus Christ, and sends us your Spirit so that we would stay firm in the faith.  Amen.

March 3: Romans 4:1-8

¹ What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ⁴ Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. ⁵ But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶ So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:
⁷ “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;
⁸ blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”

God of salvation, it is by faith in you that we are made right with you and our sins are forgiven.  As Abraham believed in you, help us, despite our weakness, to believe in you and your Son Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.  Amen.

²¹ But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, ²³ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴ they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶ it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

 Awesome God, you know that we are flawed and that we cannot save ourselves and fall short of your glory.  We thank you that you have justified us through your Son, Jesus Christ, and that we have this most precious gift.  May we treasure this gift of salvation and believe in it and help us to not take for granted the grace and love you show us. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.