First Lutheran Church of Norfolk

06/07/2026

June 7, 2026

06/04/2026

The June Contact is here! Our 2026 Graduates, Juneteenth worship, racial justice reflections, and all the latest happenings at FLC. Give it a read! 🌞

Email from First Lutheran Church June 2026 Issue of The Contact Click Here for This Month's Newsletter First Lutheran Church Submit items to the office for: LifeTogether, the worship bulletin, or the

05/31/2026

Good morning! First Sunday after Pentecost

05/31/2026

The festival of the Holy Trinity celebrates the wonder of relationship with God while leaving us distinctly dissatisfied with our limited understanding of what God is. While guarding against the idolatry of language, we survey our scripture, doctrine, creeds, and symbols of our heritage. Equally important, we pray for God to inspire fresh, innovative ideas of God in the present moment.

The gospel reading contains one of the few biblical references to the trinitarian formula. As the eleven are commissioned to make disciples, baptize, and teach, we are invited to consider our calling to influence the world with the good news of God’s love. The text from Second Corinthians also includes a kind of naming of the Holy Trinity in an affectionate sign-off of a personal letter. With the psalm praising God the creator and sustainer of all creation, Genesis 1 relates the first of two creation stories, this one an ancient liturgy celebrating God as a divine plural.

That God that is beyond our understanding may be both troubling and comforting. The temptation may be to attempt to apprehend the idea of God with our intellect, offering the worshiping assembly a showcase of various models for God. The result is usually disappointing and feeds our bias toward intellectualism. Another possibility is to celebrate God's presence in all its glory and colorful wonder and our belonging to this wonder-full God.

Join us for worship at 10:00 a.m. in person or on Facebook. For your convenience, the bulletin can be found here: https://files.constantcontact.com/25ceff9b001/9412e225-2142-4266-889c-6975cffdd1dd.pdf?rdr=true

05/24/2026

Good morning!
Day of Pentecost

05/24/2026

It is the "first day of the week" (John 20:19), the day of the new creation, but to those locked away in the upper room in fear, the world is as it always has been. So entrenched are they in the ways of grief and guilt that the Risen One in their midst needs to offer his life-giving invitation twice: "Peace be with you." The logic of the new age is peace, not retribution; forgiveness, not vengeance. With the invitation to new life comes also the means: the gift of the Holy Spirit, breathed upon them and within them. Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world, so now are these disciples sent as witnesses to God's saving work.

Pentecost is therefore the crowning achievement of the Jesus story. Now, more than ever, these huddled disciples would have just cause to sing the "Dayenu" ("It would have been enough") verses from the Passover seder meal, but revised:

It would have been enough for the Word and wisdom of God to have been born in the flesh ... Dayenu!

It would have been enough for the Word to grow to adulthood and share his stunning parables about God's gracious activity in the world ... Dayenu!

It would have been enough for this Word to say to his enemies, "Father, forgive them" ... Dayenu!

It would have been enough for this Word to have died on a cross for us ... Dayenu!

It would have been enough that he rose again in blessing, not vengeance ... Dayenu!

But now, beyond what we would even expect — the Word becomes our word and it is written on our hearts at Pentecost ... Dayenu!

It is enough, and more than enough to enflame our ministry of reconciliation in a world in need of a healing word.

Join us for worship at 10:00 a.m. in person or on Facebook. For your convenience, the bulletin can be found here: https://files.constantcontact.com/25ceff9b001/967d7b96-e380-4a11-9346-f5c865b53fd1.pdf?rdr=true

05/17/2026

Good morning!
Youth Sunday!

05/17/2026

We often cast our eyes upward to look for God. When we are feeling lonely or misunderstood, we raise our hands to ask why, or shake our fists in gestures of prayer, anguish, or praise. While the scriptures promise that God is the sovereign of all the earth, sitting on the holy throne (Psalm 47), we need not only look up for God's action in our lives. Our ascended Lord lives in the heavens, but Jesus does not leave his disciples — or us — to fumble while he naps in the clouds. Before he ascended, Jesus promised that we are clothed with the Holy Spirit's power, witnesses "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

"Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?" the two men in white robes asked the witnesses remaining after Jesus ascended. Why do we stand still in our lives? Is it that we just saw God (Look! Up there! Did you see?), so we expect God to arrive in the same way again? Can God be that expected and predictable? This story of Jesus ascending to the heavens after his time with us on earth gives us mixed feelings: we know he's returning to where he belongs—out of this world full of brokenness and sin to holiness and glory. Still, our longing is intense: Lord, we want to see you! How will we know it is you when you come again?

Ascension Day could be explained as the cynical "I'm outta here" of a God weary of us self-centered, broken humans, but that explanation would be short-sighted because it leaves out the important stop on the cross. Instead, Jesus' departure is accompanied with the promise of the Spirit's presence remaining among us. We look up to the skies for help, then return our gaze to those among us in need of our care, to the body of Christ and the wind of the Spirit among the baptized, preparing for the time when Jesus comes again to gather us in.

Join us for worship at 10:00 a.m. in person or on Facebook. For your convenience, the bulletin can be found here: https://files.constantcontact.com/25ceff9b001/b963cfcc-68fe-4bb6-b83c-3d39cc57deff.pdf?rdr=true

05/10/2026

Good morning!
Sixth Sunday of Easter

05/10/2026

"I will not leave you orphaned," Jesus promises us in this Sunday's gospel reading. God is not some ruthless heavenly spectator judging us as on reality television, relishing our failures, wishing to exchange us for a better or more attractive child, no curmudgeonly "Daddy Warbucks" in the sky. Rather, God comes to love us in Jesus, singularly loving and accepting, seeking our trust, promising to be ever-present with us in the Holy Spirit. This Holy Advocate moves us even when we don't recognize its power, even when it seems “an unknown God" (Acts 17:23). Though we might battle an elemental loneliness, we have not been abandoned.

Many life experiences can leave us feeling orphaned or abandoned. Family can ease that feeling but also magnify it if our family relationships are strained or if our families live far away. Think of those in your congregation who count deployed soldiers among their loved ones in recent years, or construction workers and tradesmen who need to live in hotels far away from their families to keep making money for their families in the recent difficult economy. The Internet, webcams, Zoom, and social networking can link people across the miles but can further aggravate loneliness and isolation when these substitute for real intimacy in our highly connected world. How do we experience this loneliness and this longing for home and belonging? How does Jesus' promise that he will not leave us orphaned speak to these real-life concerns?

When Jesus makes this string of promises in John 14, saying that he will remain with us in the Holy Spirit as our Advocate, it's hard to envision how this support comes to us sometimes. When we do not get to see or hear those we love, the simple gifts Jesus offers in body and blood, bread and wine shared with real warm neighbors have great power. Even when life keeps delivering bad news about how far apart we are from another, how broken our relationships are, "I will not leave you orphaned" is the godly reassurance that we are not alone.

Join us for worship at 10:00 a.m. in person or on Facebook. For your convenience, the bulletin can be found here: https://files.constantcontact.com/25ceff9b001/b6fb106c-8857-41b4-8435-d7570a675254.pdf?rdr=true