Jerusalem Lutheran Church

Jerusalem Lutheran Church Proclaiming the love of God and the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ since 1903. Toward the end of the 1800s, several parts of the U.S.

Jerusalem Lutheran church is a small building with a rich history that spans oceans and shares more than 120 years of history with Collinsville and its residents. saw an influx of Lutheran and Catholic immigrants from Lithuania. Many were escaping the oppressive Russian regime, which, among other offenses, had outlawed the Lithuanian language. Some of these Lithuanian immigrants came to Collinsvil

le, finding work in the local coal mines and factories, or purchasing land for farming. These Lithuanian residents would rent halls for surinkimas (prayer meetings) in their native tongue. In 1901, the first Lithuanian worship services were conducted in what is now St. John's United Church of Christ. They were eventually moved to Holy Cross Lutheran Church, just a few blocks away. By early 1903 the group of Lithuanian Lutherans was a formal congregation and together decided it was time to build a church of their own. A local carpenter by the name of Vutcheck received the contract to build the church. The church building that stands today was dedicated on October 25th, 1903. Worship services were conducted in English and in Lithuanian. After World War II, the congregation made an organized effort to assist friends and relatives trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Some of them would go on to become part of a second wave of Lithuanian immigration to the U.S. While the church was served by Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastors from 1912 and onward, it did not officially join the LCMS until 1957 and has remained a member to this day. Jerusalem Lutheran church has been blessed with the faithful service of 27 pastors since its dedication. While services are no longer conducted in Lithuanian, several members of the congregation proudly share their Lithuanian heritage in the form of food prepared for social gatherings and artwork to decorate the sanctuary during Christmas.

~ Historical information compiled by Genevieve Shasteen for the 100th anniversary of Jerusalem Lutheran Church.

10/31/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINBUTE? (October 31, 2025)

In his book on Martin Luther’s Catechisms, Timothy J. Wengert gives us a formula for understanding Luther’s approach to teaching the Christian faith as he does. Wengert sees Luther discussing each petition of the Lord’s Prayer with a diagnosis, then treatment, and finally the medicine.

Let’s look at Luther’s explanation to the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer to see this outline taking its form:

“Hallowed be Thy name.

What is this?

It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, gut we ask in this prayer
that it may also become holy in and among us.

How does this come about?

Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as
God’s children, also live lives according to it. To this end help us,
Dear Father in heaven! However, whoever teaches and lives
otherwise than the Word of God teaches, dishonors God’s name
among us, Preserve us from this, Heavenly Father!”
(The Annotated Small Catechism)

First of all, how humbling it is to know that the only source of truth in our world is God’s Word. Public opinion surveys, cash flow, beauty, and authority will all, one day, abandon us. Sad to say, we have ways of disguising these false gods and making them sound ‘Christian.’ So, it is good to know that the answer to all of our complex problems is in living as God’s Word teaches us and in nothing else! So, how do we practice this living by God’s Word? The medicine could come by hearing God’s Word and praying what is promises us. Sunday would be a good day to do this.

PRAYER: Lord, teach us today that the eternal can and does overcome and outlive the temporal. Help us to keep Your name holy and so see the eternal in the temporal; for we pray in the name of our Savior Jesus, who has brought what is eternal down to earth so we may be drawn closer to You. Amen.

10/30/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 30, 2025)

Martin Luther’s Small Catechism of 1529 was not his first attempt at writing a book formatted in the basic outline of the Christian faith. He also wrote what

we know today as the Kurze Form almost a decade earlier. When he came to the Lord’s Prayer, Luther wrote these words explaining the words: “Our Father who art in heaven” (Matthew 6: 9) in 1520:

“Since Thou art not a father according to the flesh nor upon earth,
but art in heaven, a spiritual Father, who diest not and art not
weak, but unlike an earthly father who cannot help himself,
whereby Thou showest us how immeasurably better a Father
Thou art and teachest us to hold as nothing in comparison with
Thee all earthly fatherhood, fatherland, friends, goods, flesh
and blood: Grant us, therefore, O Father, that we may also be
Thy heavenly children . . . “

If you know a bit about Luther’s life, you can see in these words some vivid commentary about the relationship he had with his own earthly father, Hans Luther. In 1520, Luther could not compare any type of earthly fatherhood with the Fatherhood of God Almighty.

But in 1529 Luther wrote:

“With these words God wants to attract us, so that we believe He is
truly our Father and we are truly His children, in order that we
may ask Him boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving
children ask their loving father” (LSB 323)

What was the difference between 1520 and 1529? Well, five years before Luther wrote his later Catechism, he married Katherine von Bora. In 1529, Luther was writing when his oldest child was just five years old. To this writer who was now a father himself, Luther had learned to blur the distinctions between the love of our Heavenly Father and our earthly fathers.

PRAYER: Lord, teach us to learn to know and to love You as dear children when they ask their dear father. Then teach us to pray that way; for we pray in the name of our Savior Jesus, God’s Son, who wants us also to call You Father. Amen.

10/29/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 29, 2025)

It sounds like a simple enough statement of faith as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed:

“I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting Amen”

However, much has been written over the centuries about what exactly it means to believe in the Holy Spirit.

Martin Luther in his Small Catechism gives us what I believe to be the most helpful answer to our question:

“I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot
believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but instead
the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened
me with His gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true
faith, just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes the
whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ
in the one common, true faith” (LSB 323)

Timothy J. Wengert reduces Luther’s one long sentence to a simple statement: I believe that I cannot believe . . . “but the Holy Spirit has called me”

Without the Holy Spirit the entire created order is a fearful place where we find ourselves unable to survive. As the Psalmist reminds us about God, “when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104: 29-30). Without the Holy Spirit the Good News of Jesus tells us about a man who was or is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. I believe that I cannot believe . . . but the Holy Spirit has called me!

PRAYER: Come, Holy Spirit, fill our lives with Your peace and our days with faith and hope; for we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, to whom the Spirit bears witness. Amen.

10/28/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 28, 2025)

One of my favorite paragraphs in the New Testament St. Paul describes what Jesus has done for us with an economy of words:

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Romans 5: 8-10)

Actually, the Second Article in the Apostles Creed, the ancient statement of Christian belief, takes many more words to describe what we know to be the story of the Good News of Jesus. Of course, there are other ways of describing who Jesus is and what He was done for us. Martin Luther concentrates in explaining the Second Article by commenting on one sentence: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father in eternity, and also true human being, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”

Luther’s comments seek to tell us how exactly Jesus has become our Lord:

You are asked, “What do you mean when you say, ‘I believe in
Jesus Christ? . . . “ respond, “This is what I mean by saying this,
That Jesus Christ, true Son of God has been made my Lord.”
How? “He has freed me from death, sin, hell, etc.” For before this I did
not have a king or lord. But the devil was our lord and king.
Blindness, death, sin, flesh, and the world were our lords and we
served them. But now they have all been expelled and in their
place Christ is given – Hew who is Lord of righteousness, salvation,
all good, etc.” (Large Catechism)

Unlike any other ruler, Jesus became our Lord not by subjecting us to His authority (although He could have done this), but by defeating the enemies who were once content to live inside of us. And unlike all other lords, this Lord sets us free.

PRAYER: Lord, give us cause forever to lift up our thanks and praise to You, for without Your grace we would be lost forever; we pray in the name of Jesus our Lord, who has set us free to follow where you lead us. Amen.

10/27/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 27, 2025)

The Psalmist proclaims:

“The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein” ()Psalm 24:1)

In some ways, this is the meaning of what the Christian Church has called the First Article of the Apostles Creed – “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”

Over the centuries many writers have attempted to explain in some more detail exactly what it means that God is the Father Almighty. You could see Martin Luther’s explanation as the most down-to-earth ones of all. Luther sees God as the giver of everything we call our own in this world.

“God has given me and still preserves my body and soul:
eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental
faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides
shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and home,
spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property –
along with all the necessities and nourishment of this body
and life” (Small Catechism)

It is interesting that many in Luther’s Germany couldn’t count on owning God’s good gifts of fields, livestock, and property. This is indeed an exclusive list. Timothy Wengert has this way of reading what Luther wrote:

“There is also another, far more interesting reason that Luther made
such a specific, exclusive list: he was talking about himself, or
rather, he was confessing his faith. The “I believe God made me”
points to a very specific “me,” namely Luther himself”
(The Annotated Luther Study Edition)

It would be good if we each could learn how to personalize the simple confession “I believe God made me.”

PRAYER: Lord, You have certainly fearfully and wonderfully made each and every one of us. Teach us today to acknowledge everything we are inclined to call our own as gifts from You; for we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus, who has freed us to live with such faith. Amen.

10/26/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 25, 2025)

As we mark the beginning of Protestantism just over five centuries ago this weekend, we remember the struggles the Augustinian monk Martin Luther had with understanding what is written by St. Paul I the New Testament:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2: 8).

We call this journal entry “Luther discovers the Gospel”:

“I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and nothing stood in in the way but that one expression, ‘the justice of God,’ because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled n conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him. Therefore, I did not love a just an angry God but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of Godin that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justified us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressively sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.” (Here I Stand, pages 49-50).

Or. in the lyrics of a classic 18th century hymn:

“By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless;
My soul believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this Word of promise?
Has Scripture ever falsehood taught?
No! Then this Word must true remain;
By grace you too will life obtain.” (LSB 567)

PRAYER: Lord, this weekend we affirm that we are saved by grace alone. We say this not because we’re right in our thinking, but because of what Jesus, Your Son, did to save us from our sin; for in His great name we pray. Amen.

10/24/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 24, 2025)

When he wrote his Catechisms, or basic manuals of Christian instruction, Martin Luther took some words used by the Bible to explain the keeping of the First Commandment and applied these admonitions to those of us who would seek to take all ten of the Commandments seriously. Here are those admonitions from the Book of Exodus:

“For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20: 5-6)

Years later, Luther would use the terms ‘Law” and ‘Gospel’ to describe these admonitions. Here is how he explained it in his Catechism:

“These words contain both a wrathful threat and a friendly promise,
not only to terrify and warn us but also to attract and allure us.
These words, therefore, ought to be received and esteemed as a
serious matter to God because He Himself here declares how
important the commandments are to Him and how strictly He will
watch over them, fearfully and terribly punishing all who despise
and transgress His commandments, and again, how richly He will
reward, bless, and bestow all good things on those who prize them
and gladly act and live in accordance with them. Thus, He demands
that all our actions proceed from a heart that fears and regards God
alone and, because of this fear, avoids all that is contrary to His will,
lest He be moved to wrath; and, conversely, trusts Him alone and
for his sake does all that He asks of us, because He shows Himself
a kind father and offers every grace and blessing” (Large Catechism)

The best of all Good News is that God’s grace and blessing constantly trumps His threats of wrath and destruction. He’s always the Dad and we’re always His Kids.

PRAYER: Lord, teach us to love everything that You have made and even to desire all that You command. Teach us to do so as we learn to live to know Your heart’s desire; for we pray in the name of our Savior Jesus, who made those Words of grace and blessing possible for each one of us. Amen.

As the government shutdown continues and parts of the budget bill passed earlier this year are poised to inflict hunger ...
10/23/2025

As the government shutdown continues and parts of the budget bill passed earlier this year are poised to inflict hunger and suffering on our most vulnerable populations, please think of what you can do to ease the growing pain of existing in this nation. Not thriving, just everyday existence.

If you've never donated to a local food pantry or a blessing box, consider doing so now. Choose one thing each week, just one thing to offer to an individual or family in need; a jar of peanut butter, a can of hearty stew, menstrual products, a jar of children's vitamins, a bundle of new socks. These things can be the difference between a life that survives this dark time in our nation's history and life that is left to collapse under the weight of basic necessities.

10/23/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 23, 2025)

The final two of the Bible’s Ten Commandments prohibit us from coveting. The verse in the Book of Exodus reads like this:

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20: 17)

Unlike the commandments about killing, stealing, or slandering, there are no laws in municipal or federal courts against coveting. Yet there is so much about coveting that generates not only broken laws, but even worse, sin!

Philip Yancey, in his book “Rumors of Another World”, describes what the Medieval world named the Seven Deadly Sins as today’s Seven Seductive Virtues. Three of these have to do with coveting:

“Envy. Our entire advertising industry is built on inciting envy
of colleagues and neighbors, so that whatever new electronic
marvel or body shape my neighbor has, I want too.

Greed. The economic engine of our nation, and indeed the world,
depends on a constant sense of discontent that motivates each
consumer to desire ever more.

Gluttony. Every year “big gulp” drinks and supersize French fries
get bigger, as do the waistlines. Currently 64 percent of Americans
are overweight, with half of that percentage qualifying as obese.

The answer to the coveting dilemma is suggested by Martin Luther when would encourage us to always help our neighbor keep what is his.

PRAYER: Lord, teach us to live not for what we desire, but rather, for the surprise You have ready for all Your children who trust more and more in Your good and gracious provision; for we pray in the name of Jesus, our Savior from sin, death, and the devil. Amen.

10/22/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 22, 2025)

I used to half kid with my confirmation students that the single best example I could think of when it comes to breaking the Eighth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20: 16) comes to us in the reporting of news. I was half kidding because we do live in an information age, and therefore, how information is communicated to us can cause someone’s reputation to rise of fall.

Our old friend Martin Luther, writing five hundred years ago, offers us a commentary on how this works among us:

“It is a common vice of human nature that everyone would rather
hear evil than good about his neighbor. Evil though we are, we
cannot tolerate having evil spoken of us; we want the golden
compliments of the whole world. Yet we cannot bear to hear
the best spoken of others” (Large Catechism)

He explains how we are best to keep this commandment with the advice: “defend [our neighbor], speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.” (LSB 321).

Years ago, we had seminars upon seminars in the church on a few verses from the Gospel where Jesus teaches us how to deal with someone who bears false witness against us. The steps in dealing with such a brother or sister in the Lord begin with this one:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18: 15).

Would that we could deal with false witnesses among ourselves first before we start gossiping among ourselves! While we can’t stop others from doing this to us, we can refrain from doing it ourselves, for the New Testament teaches us that those who gossip will not inherit the kingdom of God.

PRAYER: Lord, teach us how to speak of our neighbor in the kindest way, we pray, for in this way God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven; we pray in the name of Jesus, who redeems us in thought, word, and deed. Amen.

10/21/2025

DO YOU HAVE A MINUTE? (October 21, 2025)

Cousin Allan and I were in downtown Chicago one afternoon. We were there for a baseball game and were walking around after lunch. A young man came up to me and started spraying my shoes with something that was designed to keep them clean and fresh. They were canvas shoes. After the man completed his task, they were stained canvas shoes. He assured me that they would dry out. Then he told me that I owed him $20 plus a very generous tip. I replied that he would be lucky to get the 20. When my shoe shiner went away, I told my cousin that I bought the shoes on sale for less than I paid to get them stained. There are some places where it seems that everyone is on the take!

This is one of my best stories about breaking the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). Martin Luther explains to us that “we are to fear and love God so that we don’t take our neighbor’s money or property, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his property and means of making a living” (LSB 321)

My shoe shiner would claim that he was just making a living. I’m saying that he was stealing my money. As it turned out, there are others, such as businesses who advertise so effectively that they end up stealing from many of us on a much larger scale than the shoe shiner.

Luther makes another insightful comment on how stealing works throughout the length and breadth of the marketplace:

“However much you steal, depend on it that just as much will be
stolen from you. Anyone who robs and takes things by violence
and dishonesty must put up with another who plays the same game.
For God is the master of this art; since everyone robs and steals from
one another, He punishes one thief by means of another.”
(Large Catechism)

How much better it is to “be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil, and the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet” (Romans 16: 19-20)

PRAYER: Lord, help us to love our neighbor as ourselves and then to grow into defending and protecting him in any and every circumstance; for in the name of Jesus, who saves us from our own sins, we pray. Amen.

Address

305 Collinsville Avenue
Collinsville, IL
62234

Opening Hours

9am - 11:15am

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