Immanuel Lutheran Church LCMS Albany, OR

04/05/2026

Today’s service is online at www.immanuelalbany.org.

04/04/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
There are few things worse than separation. Separation means loss. Separation means that things are not as they are supposed to be. When I was in the Navy my squadron deployed twice. Each time there was a painful goodbye as Ann went back to our home and my crew and I flew off to WestPac. But thankfully, each time there was also a joyous reunion when the deployment was over and we came back home. In our Epistle for Sunday Paul speaks of separation; not separation from each other but separation from God. SIN brought that separation. But in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, we are reunited with God once again. As we hear in our Old Testament reading, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.” And Paul reassures us that “Nothing will separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Christ is risen! He has risen indeed! Alleluia!

03/28/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
Sunday is Passion Sunday when we hear about the events of Holy Week from Matthew 26 and 27. That’s a long Gospel reading about a great injustice! On that Friday (the one we call “Good”) Jesus, a totally innocent man, was falsely accused, flogged, beaten and crucified. But instead of being shocked and angered by this injustice we feel, well, very little emotion. Why? Because the average person today is exposed to more violent imagery in a single week, than someone centuries ago might have seen in an entire lifetime! So what is going on here? Surprisingly, this is God at work, right in the middle of the worst injustice the world has ever seen. Why? Because this injustice was God’s plan so save us from our sins. We need to see this story not just as someone watching from a distance, but as someone who needs what Jesus is doing here. You see, the cross is not just something by which we are shocked, it is something by which we are saved!

03/23/2026

Today’s service is online at

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03/21/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
Have you ever been reminded that you were getting older? Some years ago, as I approached a crosswalk, the light turned yellow. Thinking I could cross the street before the light turned red, I began a quick jog. But alas, my legs didn’t respond as I expected. I immediately realized I’d lost the gazelle-like athleticism of my youth. Indeed, my day of judgment is coming sooner rather than later. And God’s judgment is real. In our Psalm for Sunday, Psalm 130:3 we read, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” “Not I,” said the pastor. But then the psalmist goes on, “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” As I approach the last decade or so of my life I am comforted by the words of verse 7, “O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” It turns out I will have that gazelle-like athleticism in heaven because I will have a perfect body and so will all who believe.

03/14/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
On the way home recently, Ann asked, “Did you see that deer?” Glancing into the rearview mirror I saw a deer standing not ten feet from the corner I had just turned. I was apparently so focused on the road that I was blind to anything else. Psychologists call that inattentional blindness. Our Gospel from John 9 is the story of Jesus healing a man blind from birth. Both the disciples and Pharisees apparently had inattentional spiritual blindness. The disciples wanted to know who sinned, the man or his parents. The Pharisees were angry because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Both were focused on something other than the miracle proving who Jesus was. But in the process the blind man’s spiritual sight was established. He first referred to Jesus as “the man who healed me,” then as “a prophet,” then as being “from God” and finally he “fell down and worshiped Him.” His spiritual vision grew clearer. It was only the blind man who could truly see!

03/07/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
Someone recently said, “I like the job I have. I like where I am in life. I just don’t like the difficult times it took to get me here.” In our Epistle from Romans 5, Paul first tells us that because of our faith we are at peace with God. Peace with God is good. But then he tells us because we are at peace with God “we rejoice in our suffering.” Wait a minute here Paul. What do you mean “rejoice in our sufferings?” I don’t like to suffer and neither does anyone else. I understand that we all suffer, but why and how can we be happy about it? Don’t the trials and tribulations of this life mean that God is not happy with us? I thought you just said we are at peace with God and that our sins have been forgiven by Christ's death and resurrection. What’s the deal here? Does God love us or not? In truth God uses the bad things that happen to us in this life to guide us in the direction we need to go so we can live with him in eternity. We can rejoice in that!

03/02/2026

Today's service is online at

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02/28/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
In our Epistle this week from Romans 4, Paul uses Abraham as an example of someone who is justified by his faith. Abraham had a strong faith, right? After all, he packed up his family and everything he owned and headed out with no idea where God was leading him. But, like ours, his faith wavered. Twice he denied that Sarah was his wife because he feared for his life. God had promised Abraham he’d be the father of a great nation. But at 75 and he didn’t have any children, he took Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant, and had a child with her. Not great examples of someone who is a pillar of faith. But faith is not something that we develop. We cannot make it stronger even though we’d like to. Faith is a gift from God. He plants it, He nourishes it and He sustains it. Abraham had faith that God would give him a son. We believe, we “faith,” that Jesus took our place on the cross, fulfilling God’s promise of eternal life to all believers. God keeps his promises!

02/22/2026

This week's Message in a Minute:
On the first Sunday in Lent, the Gospel reading is always the story of Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan. This year it is found in Matthew 4. Fortunately for us, Jesus was victorious in resisting those temptations. Unfortunately, we humans succumb to those same temptations of hunger, pride and glory thrown at Jesus. Each temptation was a trap; each promise was a lie and each time Jesus answered the same way: “It is written.” He didn’t argue, he didn’t philosophize, he just responded with the Word of God. And Satan lost! Unfortunately, because of our human nature, we cannot resist the temptations Satan sets before us and we succumb meaning we deserve God’s wrath. But then three years after this event Jesus died on Calvary and rose again. In the process he took on our sinfulness and gave us his righteousness, an exchange only a loving God could offer to us sinful creatures.