Bethany Lutheran Church in The Dalles

08/26/2026

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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.

07/14/2026

07/04/2026

Prayer: Lord God, ruler of all, we commend our nation and its leaders to your care. Bless our president, the members of Congress, and all officials who serve us in national, state and local government. Impress on all who are in authority the sacredness of the responsibility you have placed upon them. Give them the gifts required for leadership, wisdom to make decisions that will bring order and justice to our society, and compassion for the suffering. Purge our land from dishonesty and corruption. Teach us to honor all civil authorities as your representatives. Through stable government provide throughout our land an atmosphere in which your Church can do its work in peace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

06/21/2026

Happy Fathers Day

05/30/2026

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After the Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, the Catechism moves into something deeply practical: how God actually delivers His gifts to people. This is important because Christians often speak about God in vague and distant ways. People talk about “feeling close to God,” “finding God,” or “experiencing God,” but uncertainty creeps in quickly when everything is tied to emotions, experiences, or inward sincerity.

The Catechism refuses to leave us there. Instead, it points to the concrete ways God has chosen to act. The Means of Grace are the ways God delivers forgiveness, life, and salvation through external means. Not through your feelings, your effort, or your ability to climb upward toward Him, but through things He has attached His promise to.

This is why the Catechism moves into Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. These aren’t random church traditions added onto Christianity later. They are gifts instituted by Christ Himself for the sake of sinners who need certainty. And certainty matters, because left to yourself, you will constantly look inward and wonder whether your faith is strong enough, whether your repentance is sincere enough, or whether God is really still for you. The Christian life becomes unstable very quickly when everything depends on what is happening inside of you.

But the Means of Grace pull your attention outside yourself. They anchor you in what God is actually doing. In Baptism, God places His Name upon you. In Absolution, Christ speaks forgiveness directly to sinners. In the Lord’s Supper, He gives His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. In all of these, God is not distant or hidden. He is acting concretely through His Word and promises.

It’s offensive to human pride because we want something more dramatic, more spiritual, or more impressive. But God consistently works through ordinary means to deliver extraordinary gifts. And that is good news, because it means your confidence rests not in your ability to reach God, but in His promise to come to you.

05/25/2026

05/21/2026

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The key issue of the debates concerned Arius and his insistence that the Son was a creature of the Father, albeit highly exalted. The chief point of contention was the term homoousios (the

05/14/2026

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Here are some ideas for recovering the feast of Ascension within our congregations.