Good Shepherd Lutheran Church ELCA

06/08/2026

May God lead and guide the youth and leaders of the Southeastern Synod as they prepare for a week of revival at AFFIRM 2026 June 14-19 being hosted at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. AFFIRM can be life changing. I know. I've seen it many, many times.

06/07/2026

A gym owner wondered why he was steadily losing members, so he asked one of the departing members why they were leaving.

The person replied, "Because no one at this gym is in shape."

At first glance, that answer doesn't seem logical. After all, isn't a gym the place where people go to get into shape? But perhaps the person was more interested in being surrounded by already fit people than in the effort and determination of those working to improve themselves.

The same thing is often said about the church.

People sometimes say they don't attend church—or are leaving the church—because of the people who go there. "They're hypocrites," they say.

In today's Gospel, we hear the story of Jesus calling Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector working for the Romans and was not well-liked by many of his fellow Jews. Yet Jesus called him to be a disciple. Even Jesus' own family line was filled with imperfect people. Scripture does not hide their flaws.

When the religious leaders questioned Jesus about eating with tax collectors and sinners, He replied:

"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." (Matthew 9:12)

This brings us back to the gym analogy. The member who left because others were not in shape may have been focusing on the wrong thing. Instead of looking at people's physical imperfections, perhaps they should have looked at their desire to improve.

The same is true in the church. We all fall short. We all carry flaws, weaknesses, and sins. If someone looks at us closely enough, they will certainly find imperfections. But the church is not a gathering of perfect people. It is a gathering of forgiven people seeking Christ together.

There is another story that illustrates this point. A person told a pastor they were leaving the church because of the faults they saw in others. The pastor asked them to come one more Sunday and, before the service, carry a full glass of water around the sanctuary three times without spilling a drop.

Afterward, the pastor asked, "Who was behaving badly? Who was being hypocritical?"

The person replied, "I don't know. I was so focused on not spilling the water that I wasn't paying attention to anyone else."

The pastor smiled and said, "Exactly."

When we focus on Christ rather than the faults of others, our perspective changes.

No one is perfect. Yet Jesus came from an imperfect family, called imperfect disciples, and continues to gather imperfect people into His church.

As Jesus said:

"For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners."

06/06/2026

Beginning tomorrow morning (Sunday, June 7) from 9AM - 9:30AM Pastor Parr will be holding a Bible Study on the Gospel of Matthew. Come with your questions and comments!

06/02/2026

A message from Davin Henrik, the new Director of Disaster Ministry for the ELCA Southeastern Synod.

06/01/2026

Until He comes, let us continue to spread the Good News of the Gospel and deliver our good works of service to our neighbors and our communities as Jesus commissioned us.

05/31/2026

The message from the 2026 Assembly of the Southeastern Synod ELCA: "Revive us, God - Let us be the Church for the Life of the World"

05/31/2026

There have been many famous Lutherans: Martin Luther, Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Bruce Keicher, to name a few. None of them fully understood, nor could fully explain, the Holy Trinity. But there is one lesser-known Lutheran who may help us think about it: Werner Heisenberg, one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is the study of matter and energy at the atomic level. Isaac Newton helped us understand the laws that govern the world we can see—from grains of sand to baseballs to planets and stars. But those laws do not fully describe what happens at the atomic scale. When Heisenberg and his colleagues uncovered the rules governing the atomic world, they were astonished. The universe at that level seemed to be built on probabilities and uncertainties rather than certainties. Albert Einstein was troubled by this and famously remarked, "God does not play dice."

There is a famous quote, often attributed to various scientists, that Heisenberg reflected upon:

"The first gulp from the glass of natural science will make you an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you."

I think this means that when we observe the world around us and successfully predict events with mathematics, we may begin to think we are smarter than we really are—or even conclude that there is no God. But the deeper we go into the study of nature, the more mystery we encounter. Another famous physicist, Richard Feynman, who was not a believer, once said, "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

The point is that the behavior of the atom lies beyond complete human comprehension. And this is where Heisenberg, our Lutheran brother, can help us. If we cannot fully understand how the smallest parts of creation work, how can we expect to fully understand the Creator?

The Trinity—one God in three Persons—is not something we can completely grasp with human reason alone.

It's just like Pastor Dave reminded us today with his math quiz:

1 + 1 + 1 = 1

God is not bound by our mathematics, our logic, or our limitations. The God who created the universe is certainly capable of existing in ways that exceed our understanding.

Thank goodness we don't have to understand the Trinity in order to be saved. We are called to trust God, believe in Christ, and follow Him. The rest is in His hands.

05/26/2026

05/10/2026

A church I attended when I was younger had a massive stained-glass window above the altar representing the four Gospel writers’ perspectives of Jesus. The Gospel according to John was represented by an eagle because it was said an eagle could stare into the sun without being blinded. John’s Gospel is rich theologically and presents him looking deeply into the Son.

John was the only disciple who was not martyred, though he was exiled to an island later in life. In today’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus tells His disciples that although He would be sacrificed, rise again, and ascend into heaven, they would not be left alone because the Holy Spirit would be with them forever.

The Holy Spirit strengthened Jesus as He prayed in Gethsemane, preparing Him for Golgotha. It was the same Spirit that strengthened the disciples before many of them were martyred. Tradition holds that they embraced suffering knowing they were not alone: Christ had gone before them, and the Spirit remained with them.

On this Mother’s Day, we think about the willing sacrifices many mothers make not only for their own children, but for others as well.

I see many students who grow up without mothers actively in their lives, whether because of prison, addiction, or death. One girl in particular comes to mind. Her mother struggled with drug addiction and eventually went to prison. Before that, she had already lost custody of her daughter, Ramena, who was taken in by her missing father’s uncle.

I recently asked Ramena who she looked to as a motherly figure. She mentioned a woman at church and the mother of one of her friends. These women did not ask for that responsibility, yet they embraced it. The Spirit gave them the capacity to step into a motherly role for a child who was not biologically their own. Because of that, Ramena has grown into a happy and well-adjusted young woman.

We all have responsibilities, and sometimes those responsibilities are suddenly placed into our lives without warning. Yet through the Spirit’s strength, we can offer our time, energy, and care as sacrifices for the well-being of others.

Christ’s commandment on the night in which He was betrayed was to love one another as He loved us. With the Spirit’s help, we can.

Send a message to learn more

05/03/2026

Each member of my confirmation class had to memorize and recite a Bible verse. One rule: no picking “Jesus wept.”

I didn’t really know where to look, so I started flipping through until something stood out to me. I landed on a verse we read today from Psalm 31:

“In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.”

That verse stuck with me then and I understand it better now.

It speaks to three things:
God as our refuge, our protector, and our deliverer.

God is our refuge. In Him, we are not ultimately defined by fear, pressure, or what others think of us.

God is our protector. That doesn’t mean we avoid hardship. Even Jesus, who did no wrong, endured suffering and public humiliation. But it does mean we are not abandoned in it.

And God is our deliverer. The Psalm doesn’t ask for rescue based on our worthiness, but on God’s righteousness - His faithfulness, not ours.

That idea is at the heart of what Martin Luther described as "simul iustus et peccator" translated to, "at the same time righteous and sinful". We don’t measure up, yet through Christ we are declared righteous.

As Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel reading from John, to see Him is to see the Father, so our refuge, our hope, and our salvation are found in Him alone.

Send a message to learn more