St. Peter's Lutheran Church - Big Falls

09/08/2026

09/04/2026

Matthew 18:15-20

What happens when someone wrongs you? Maybe you pretend it didn’t happen. Maybe you post about it on social media. Maybe you rant to family or friends.

But Jesus says, first go to the one who wronged you and point out the fault. Privately. Directly. To their face, not behind their back.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like hard, uncomfortable work. It would be easier to talk about the person than to them. But Jesus treats the relationship as worth more than our comfort. “If you are listened to, you have regained that one.” Not defeated them. Not proven a point. Regained them. The relationship is something precious that was in danger of being lost.

Only if that word goes unheard does the circle widen, first to witnesses, then the whole community. Confrontation, Jesus’ way, stays as small as it can, because the goal was never to win, but to restore a broken relationship.

Prayer
Lord, give us the courage to go to one another in times of conflict, and to seek restoration. Amen.

Joe Jorgensen ’23 M.Div.
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Faribault, MN; Gol Lutheran Church, Kenyon, MN

09/03/2026

Romans 13:8-14

Paul offers a clear instruction to the Romans: turn toward love. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

When you look at the commandments, it’s easy to see that many of them coalesce into this one instruction. Not because the rules stop mattering, but because love was always what they were pointing to. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. It’s not a soft substitute for the law. It’s the whole point of the law.

And Paul’s invitation to love is an urgent one: “the night is far gone; the day is near.” Wake up. This isn’t a task for someday, it is a task for today, now. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” today, see the shape of his way, and speak his message to the world. In today’s ordinary rooms, to today’s ordinary neighbors: love, and love now.

Prayer
Lord, wake us up and send us to love, today. Amen.

Joe Jorgensen ’23 M.Div.
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Faribault, MN; Gol Lutheran Church, Kenyon, MN

09/02/2026

Psalm 119:33-40

The psalmist doesn’t ask God for a script. The psalmist asks to be shown the way, to see the shape of God’s design, and for their own heart to be turned.

“Teach me… give me understanding… lead me… turn my heart… turn my eyes.” Each of these phrases is a request to be changed, not to be handed answers. Before this voice can speak a word to anyone else, it wants its own self to be reordered from the inside.

So, if we are to be sentinels of God’s call to repentance, it’s worth sitting with these words from the psalmist. It’s tempting to hear “speak the word you hear” and rush straight to speaking. But first, it is wise to ask God to shape what we’re even capable of hearing. Turn my heart from selfish gain. Turn my eyes from vanity. Then, maybe, I can truly discover the word God would have me speak.

Prayer
Lord, teach us your way before you send us to speak it. Amen.

Joe Jorgensen ’23 M.Div.
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Faribault, MN; Gol Lutheran Church, Kenyon, MN

09/01/2026

Ezekiel 33:7-11

God calls the prophet to be a sentinel—one who keeps watch and raises the alarm—and then God gives this sentinel a clear task: speak the word you hear.

But this is no simple task, and the stakes are high. What the sentinel says—or doesn’t say—becomes part of someone else’s story. That voice might be the difference between someone turning around and someone wandering further into the dark.

So what message does God want delivered? Not condemnation, but words of grace and invitation. “Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” God takes no pleasure in anyone’s demise, but rather delights in their turning, their living.

We, too, are given words to speak, often to people we love, in rooms where silence would be easier. But the sentinel’s call isn’t to stand over others in judgment. It’s to stand with them, and say the hard, hopeful thing: turn back. Live.

Prayer
Lord, give us the courage to speak, and the wisdom to speak rightly. Amen.

Joe Jorgensen ’23 M.Div.
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Faribault, MN; Gol Lutheran Church, Kenyon, MN