St. Paul Lutheran Church

08/30/2026

I have a lot of regrets in my life. I've lied, cheated, let people down, and lived the hedonistic life of a stupid, selfish prodigal. There are plenty of things I wish I could go back and undo or change.

But you know what? There is one thing I have never regretted, not for a single moment in my 56 years: having children. Just the opposite. Outside of my salvation in Jesus, my children have been the Lord's greatest blessing to me.

And I suspect that if you surveyed 99.9% of parents, you'd hear much the same answer about how much life, joy, and blessing children have brought to them.

Children are indeed a gift from God. Or, as one of the psalms we prayed today in Bible in One Year puts it, "Children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward" (Ps. 127:3).

Of course they are! Go back to the opening chapter of the Bible. What was the first command God gave Adam and Eve? "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth..." (Gen. 1:28).

That means when husbands and wives hit the sheets and make some babies, God is delighted. Being fruitful and multiplying were his brainchild, after all.

Our Father entrusts sons and daughters to us so that we might love them, protect them, teach them, and bring them up "in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4).

By his grace, they grow from babies to toddlers, from children to teenagers, and, we pray, into faithful, responsible adults who love God and serve their neighbors.

Many will one day marry, raise families of their own, and pass on that same love and faithfulness to another generation (cf. Deut. 6:6-7).

So today, as we pray Psalm 127, let us thank God for the blessed, wonderful, and, yes, often exhausting gift of children. They are not interruptions to life. They are a living gift from the Lord and Creator of life.

08/30/2026

08/30/2026

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Our Children’s Policy at St. John
We wanted to make sure everyone is aware of our policy regarding children in church:
If your kids are loud, please still come to church.
If you’re running late because getting everyone out the door was a battle, please still come to church.
If your toddler won’t sit still, please still come to church.
If your baby needs to eat, please still come to church.
If your child asks questions at the least convenient time, please still come to church.
If someone cries, drops a toy, needs a snack, or has to make their third trip to the bathroom, please still come to church.
If your child doesn’t know all the words, all the prayers, or exactly when to sit and stand, please still come to church.
If you feel like you spent the entire service managing your children and heard approximately 12% of the sermon, please still come to church.
If Sunday morning feels messy instead of peaceful, please still come to church.
If you’re worried your children are distracting the people around you, please still come to church.

Because children do not learn how to be part of the Church by staying home until they can sit quietly.

They learn by being here.
They learn the hymns by hearing us sing them.
They learn the prayers by hearing us pray them.
They learn to worship by watching us worship.
They learn that church is home because we make room for them here.

The wiggles, whispers, dropped crayons, crying babies, and little voices are not interruptions to the life of the Church.

They are evidence that the Church is alive.

So bring the babies. Bring the toddlers. Bring the big kids. Come late. Sit in the back. Sit in the front. Step out when you need to and come right back in.

Just come.
Children are not simply the future of the Church. They are part of the Church right now.
And at St. John, there is a place for them here.

08/29/2026

08/27/2026

The Apology now turns to the question of the invocation and veneration of saints. The Lutheran Reformers didn’t want Christians to forget the faithful believers who came before us. They wanted the saints to be honored rightly, without giving them what belongs to Christ alone.

The Apology teaches us that remembering the saints is good and beneficial. We thank God for the mercy He showed them, for the gifts He gave His Church through them, and for the examples of faith He has preserved for us. We can look to Peter and see Christ’s mercy toward a disciple who failed. We can look to Paul and see what God’s grace can accomplish through a former persecutor. We can remember the martyrs and be encouraged by their steadfast confession of Christ. In that sense, the saints point us away from themselves and toward the God who was faithful to them.

But the Apology rejects invoking the saints in prayer or placing our confidence in their merits. Scripture gives us no command or promise that we should call upon departed saints for help. Instead, it directs us to Jesus Christ, our one Mediator and Advocate before the Father.

This distinction protects something precious. Christians don’t need additional mediators to persuade God to hear us. We don’t approach the Father because a particularly holy Christian has made us more acceptable. We approach Him because Christ has reconciled us to God by His blood. Our confidence rests entirely in His merits, His intercession, and His promise. This doesn’t dishonor the saints, rather it honors them in precisely the way they would want to be honored by thanking God for them, learning from their examples, and following their faith in Christ.

The saints aren’t replacements for Jesus. They are witnesses to Jesus. Their stories remind us that the same Christ who forgave, sustained, and preserved them remains faithful to His Church today. So we remember the saints with thanksgiving, we imitate their faith, and with them, we worship and trust the Lamb who redeemed us.

08/23/2026

The Apology next turns to the Church. Before asking where the Church is, the Apology asks something even more important: “What is the Church?” The Church isn’t ultimately defined by buildings, institutions, denominational structures, or the holiness of the people inside them. The Apology follows the Augsburg Confession in describing the Church as the assembly of saints who truly believe the Gospel of Christ. Yet because we can’t see faith inside another person’s heart, Christ has given us something objective by which His Church can be recognized in His gifts. Where the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, there we have His promise that He is at work gathering and sustaining His people.

This also means the presence of hypocrites doesn’t make the Church cease to be the Church. There have always been people outwardly associated with Christianity who don’t possess faith, just as there have always been sinful pastors. But the effectiveness of God’s Word and Sacraments does not depend upon the personal holiness of the minister administering them.

This is enormously comforting. If Baptism depended upon the righteousness of the pastor who baptized you, how could you ever know whether it was valid? If absolution depended upon the holiness of the pastor speaking it, how could your conscience ever have certainty? If the Sacraments depended upon the worthiness of the minister, Christ’s promise would constantly be held hostage by human weakness.

The Apology directs us somewhere far safer to Christ’s Word. The pastor may fail, the congregation may struggle, and Church institutions may disappoint us. But thankfully, Christ remains faithful to His promises. That’s why the Church is known by what Christ gives to us rather than by how impressive Christians appear. We don’t find certainty by searching for a perfect congregation filled with perfect people. We look for Christ’s Gospel and we look for His Sacraments. Where Christ is giving His gifts according to His Word, there we can confidently say, “Here is His Church.”

08/23/2026

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