August 30th, 2026
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Looking for help to move items into the new parsonage on Thursday, September 3rd, at 8:30 am till Noon. Need trucks and trailers. Talk to PB or show up at the old parsonage to help.
Confirmation Parent Meeting, Wednesday, September 2nd, at 7 pm for all 7th & 8th grade confirmation parents.
Sunday School begins on September 13th at 9:45 am
Get Your Trinity Umbrella! The Women of Trinity are selling Trinity Umbrella’s for $20 with all proceeds going to the Parsonage Fund. Pick them up at the church.
The Crew begins on September 16th for all 3rd-6th grade youth from 3:30 pm till 5 pm! Snack, Game, Faith Time, and Music. All are welcome! Want to help? We appreciate having adults help in the kitchen and provide extra supervision during group time. Just talk to PB if you would like to help!
Crew Snacks Sign-up for serve Crew Snacks. We need snacks for around 50 youth and you can bring anything you want. You do not need to serve the snacks, just bring them here by 3 pm. Sign-up on the table in the Narthex or call the church office at 715-643-3821.
You can use Venmo to make your gift to Trinity! You can find us using: @TrinityLutheranBoyceville. If it asks you for a phone number, use 1349
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:12
I love movies, as many of you know, and one of the great genres of the cinema is the revenge movie. You know, someone gets wronged or something bad has been done to them and the hero takes revenge on all the bad guys. Think movies like “Taken,” or “John Wick” or “True Grit,” or “Gladiator”, and one of my favorite movies of all time, “The Godfather,” as some examples that come to mind. Think of a great novel, like the “Count of Monte Cristo,” or the Shakespeare play “Hamlet” as other great examples of a revenge stories. These are a but a few of a myriad of examples that come to mind. But we love a good revenge story.
And why not? There is something that feels really good to see someone get their comeuppance. And in life, we like to see those we perceive to be our enemy get got. It happens all the time in sports, when we watch our hated rivals get beat. We take delight in their misery. Or when that person who wrongs us finally gets wronged in the end. There is a sense of satisfaction in watching that happen that even if want to fight it we sometimes just can’t. It just feels right.
But is it? Because sometimes to get that revenge there are some pretty nasty things that have to happen, especially in those revenge movies we love so much. And we can say that those are just movies and fiction and pretend, but how many times in life have we been tempted, or cheered on, when not so great things have been done to make sure our enemies have gotten their “just” desserts? Or how we have let our own principles slip or at least ignored them because the one who did us evil got what we thought was coming to them? Or how we maybe were happy when the person we didn’t like had something bad happen to them? We have all felt it.
Which is why this verse from Romans hits so hard. Paul reminds us, charges us, as followers of Christ, of how we are to be in the world. We are to not overcome evil with more evil. Even if it feels good. Even if it makes them get what we perceive as what is coming to them. Why? Because when we use evil to overcome evil, all we do is put more evil in the world. In the end, judgement belongs to the Lord and not to us. But also, what the world needs, a world full of sin and pain and suffering is not more evil. It needs more good. It needs more kindness. It needs more compassion. It needs more love.
And I know what you are thinking. Right now you are thinking that it sounds pretty naïve, or weak, or ineffectual. But love and compassion and kindness brings about real and lasting change in people much more than revenge and evil. It is sometimes an act of kindness that will change the course of a person’s life and make them change how they live their life in a substantial way. The best way to deal with evil is to try do as much good as we can, to show the world a different way. I believe this. I have to, otherwise I might just go into despair and never get out of it.
But I also believe it because I see it in my Savior Jesus Christ. Who could easily condemn me forever but instead offers me grace and forgiveness and eternal life through the cross. The cross, the ultimate instrument of death and torture, is now an instrument of love. Taking what was evil and turning it to good. For my sin demands punishment, but by the grace of God in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness and new life for all of us who turn in faith to Jesus Christ who loves us. As always, Christ shows us the way.
There is much evil in the world, in ways both big and small. How we react to that rests with us. And as cool as it seems in the movies to exact revenge, sometimes in very harsh ways, we have a different calling. Because life is not the movies. Do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. May the Holy Spirit be with us as we put some good into the world and in doing so, show that the goodness of God in Jesus Christ is greater than any evil. For that we can say, “Thanks be to God!”