Our Saviour Evangelical Lutheran Church - WELS, 33333 Warren Road, Westland, MI (2026)

Sunday Worship - 10:30 am (June - Labor Day, Worship starts at 9am)

Sunday School - 9:15 am (Sept. - May)
Sunday Adult Bible Study - 9:30 am (Sept. - May)
Monday Adult Bible Study - 7pm
Wednesday Adult Bible Study - 10am

06/22/2026

Sermon for June 28, 2026

PSALM 27

“Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing songs of praise” (Jas 5:13, 14), writes James in his letter. In the book of Psalms, we find songs of suffering and songs of joy. We find songs of repentance and songs of rejoicing. The book of Psalms is Israel's Spirit-given hymnal. For three thousand years, Christians have used the psalms as our hymnal, too.

Today we celebrate “our favorite hymns.” Let's listen to the psalmist David's encouragement to:

SING AND MAKE MUSIC TO THE LORD!

We're not totally sure at what time in his life David wrote Psalm 27. We're not sure, because there were so many times when David was in danger. There were so many times in David's life when he had to flee from enemies; when he had to hide and run. We think David may have written Psalm 27 when David's own son Absalom rebelled against him and tried to take David's throne. David had to leave Jerusalem.

But even in this time, David sang and made music to the Lord! David knew he could count on God's faithfulness to his promises. The Lord had promised David that Jesus, the promised Messiah, would come from David's house. The Lord had promised David that David would be preserved and protected because of that great promise.

So David confessed with joy: “The LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” Clearly, the answer to these questions is, “No one! I should fear no human foe. I should be afraid of no man.”

This is the only place in the Old Testament where someone calls the Lord “my light.” Light was the first thing God created. When David calls the Lord “my light,” he means that every blessing comes from the Lord. Our very lives depend completely on him.

And, he is “my salvation.” David doesn't just mean salvation from Absalom; no, David also has in mind the eternal salvation that Jesus the Messiah would come to bring.

No matter what troubles the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh would throw into David's life, he sang to the Lord. He made music to the Lord in times of joy and in times of trouble.

David confidently declares: “When evildoers advance against me to eat my flesh, when my foes and my enemies come against me, it is they who will stumble and fall. If an army lines up against me, my heart will not fear. If war rises against me, even then I will keep trusting.”

David faced very literal armies and very literal war. But David also knew – and we know – that we Christians are constantly in a never-ending spiritual war against Satan, sin, the world, and death. We confess that we are already more than conquerors in those conflicts through Jesus who loved us and gave his life on the cross for us.

David's one great desire was to return to Jerusalem; but not so that he could get back onto his throne and reign over God's people. No, David's desire to get back to Jerusalem was to be able to worship the Lord at the place where God had promised to put his name and his Word.

So David says: “One thing I ask from the LORD. This is what I seek: that I live in the house of the LORD alll the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD, and to seek him in his temple.”

Is that our greatest priority in life? Are God's Word, our Baptism, our Lord's Body and Blood given in his Supper, fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ – are these things our top priority in life? Our new nature says: “Yes!” Our new nature knows that we need the strengthening of faith that Jesus gives through these gifts. Our sinful nature is lazy and selfish, and constantly rebels against making God's Word and God's gifts our top priority.

So David reminds us of the blessings God gives through regular use of his Word and Sacraments: “Yes, he will hide me in his shelter on the day of trouble. He will hide me in his tent. He will set me high on a rock. Then my head will be lifted up above the enemies who surround me. I will offer sacrifices at his tent with a joyful shout. I will sing and make music to the LORD.” It's the joy our new nature feels from God's Word and Sacraments that will help us fight the sinful flesh and its love for the world.

David trusted in the Lord's promises. He knew that the LORD is the God of free and faithful grace, the eternal, changeless God. Because the Lord is eternal and changeless, his Word is eternal and changeless. His promises are eternal and changeless.

So David knew he could sing and make music to the LORD even in the worst times of trouble.

He pleads with the Lord: “Hear me, O LORD. With my voice I call. Be merciful to me and answer me. When you say, 'Seek my face,' my heart says to you, 'Your face, LORD, I will seek.' Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God who saves me. If my father and my mother abandoned me, the LORD would take me in.”

David's son Absalom had abandoned his father David. He knew that even if he lost all of his earthly family and all of his human relationships, the Lord would still be there for him with his faithful Word. We know the same.

Let's pause for a few seconds. Yes, I know...something different … a pause of silence in a sermon. But let's pause for a few moments to make our own mental list of things we love and cherish in our lives. Let's make a list of the goals we have for the rest of our lives. OK. Now, think about that list. Anything earthly on that list is going away. Everything earth-centered – our money, our house, our car, our retirement savings – is all going away. It's all going to burst into flames and melt away into ashes when Jesus comes back. Only eternal things will remain. Does that help us think about our priorities, and how we may need to have Jesus adjust those priorities?

David knew he needed God's Word to help him focus on eternal priorities. So he offered a prayer that we'll want to make our own prayer: “LORD, teach me your way, and lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Do not give me up to the desire of my foes, because false witnesses rise up agaisnt me, and so do those who breathe out violence.”

We can also think of our Lord Jesus Christ saying those words. Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane. At his trial, false witnesses rose up against Jesus. The Jewish leaders had conspired for months and years to put Jesus to death. They breathed out violence against the world's only Savior, God's eternal Son. Jesus willingly remained silent in the face of those false witnesses. Jesus willingly allowed every accusation of sin to be placed on his innocent self; and then Jesus bore every charge against us and the world to the cross, where he suffered and died for every sin and every charge that all of us have done. Jesus' death and resurrection are what give us the confidence that the LORD will not give us up to the desire of our foes – the devil, the world, and the flesh.

David thinks for a brief moment of what it would be like for the Lord to forsake him. He starts off: “Unless I was confident to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living – .” But then he breaks off that thought. He says to himself, “No! Stop right there, David! There is no unless. You can always be confident of the Lord's goodness in Christ Jesus our Savior. The Lord is faithful to his promises.”

And that's why David can end the psalm with an encouragement to us. Based on his own experiences of how faithful the Lord has been in his life, David can tell us: “Wait for the LORD. Be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD!”

Even when it seems like the Lord is delaying his help; even when our emotions tell us that the Lord isn't coming to the rescue; wait for the Lord. David says it twice so that we get the message: “Wait for the Lord!” The Lord will use his Word and Sacraments to reorder our priorities. He will graciously teach us that his help will come, in just the right way, at just the right time; because “the LORD is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?”

06/15/2026

Sermon for June 21, 2026

2 Timothy 4:1-8

Last Sunday night the United Fight Club held its Freedom 250 event on the White House lawn. It was a seven-bout contest, with stunning upsets and underdog winners. An estimated 80,000 spectators watched from the Ellipse near the White House. Every one of the seven bouts ended with a TKO – a Technical Knock-Out. New champions were crowned.

But, dear Christian friends, you and I are involved in a fight as well. It's a fight against enemies that we can't go into a ring and fight. Some of these enemies we can't even see with our eyes! Our battle has our souls on the line – and our opponents are the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh.

Today we hear St. Paul's encouragement: FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!

Fight the good fight – aware of the times.

2 Timothy is Paul's final letter. When Paul wrote these inspired words, he was in a Roman prison. He was waiting for death. He wrote one final letter to his younger co-worker, Timothy. Paul wanted to give Timothy words of honesty about what he would face as a young pastor, now with Paul no longer there to provide advice. But Paul also wanted to leave Timothy with words of encouragement.

Paul writes: “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge.”

Paul sees himself in God's holy courtroom. Paul has been called to testify. He lifts his hand, puts it on the Bible, and swears an oath. He calls God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to witness his oath, to certify that in everything he has said in his ministry, and in everything he's about to say to Timothy, Paul is telling the sacred truth.

Paul swears his oath: “in view of [Christ]'s appearing and his kingdom.” Jesus is coming back – at any moment. He “will judge the living and the dead.” The Greek word Paul uses for “will” means, “Jesus is ABOUT TO judge.” Jesus' return could happen at any moment. And his judgment will be of “the living and the dead.” Everyone will be included. No one will escape. Paul wants to be certain that he will be accepted when Jesus judges. He wants to be sure that he will be faithful to Jesus, and to the Gospel ministry, up until the moment he dies. These are solemn words, sealed with an oath. Timothy should pay close attention! And we should too!

Paul gives his charge: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.”

Paul urges Timothy to “preach the Word.” The Greek word means, “be a herald” of the Word. The herald, the town crier, was the way that people heard important news. The town crier was the tornado siren, the public address announcer. And he was sent by a higher authority, like the king. So the herald came with a message that wasn't his own. The herald was only saying what the king had sent him to say. The herald had no right or authority to change one word of what the king had told him to say.

Fight good fight, aware of the times.

Paul gives Timothy a vivid picture of the times he would face, the times we Christians face as well.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teaachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

In the Greek, “myths” has a definite article: “THE myths.”

What myths were people then tempted to believe? What myths are people in 2026 tempted to believe? What scratches people's itching ears more than anything? To answer those questions, let's go back to the very first temptation. What did Satan tell Eve? That she could be like God, that she could know as much as our Creator; in short, that she could run her own life without submitting to God. No matter what form it takes, that myth is a strong temptation. Everyone of us here knows someone who has said: “I don't need God to be a good person. I can live a perfectly happy and moral life without God.” This is the myth of self-salvation, the devil's myth of work-righteousness.

Fight the good fight – aware of the times. Paul tells us how to deal with these times: “with great patience and careful instruction.” We will need patience. Don't get angry and break off the argument the first time we hear someone say something that disagrees with God's Word. Be patient. The Greek word means “taking a long time to get angry.” Instead of getting angry, we'll want to instruct with patience. Simply bring people back, again and again, to God's Word.

Paul identifies patience as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. So, to be aware of the times, to have the patience and instruction we need, we'll want to be faithful students of the Scriptures ourselves, so that we know what they say – and always with a view to asking, “How can I share this with someone else?” We'll want to be fervent in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to equip us with the patience and instruction we need.

Paul tells us: “Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship.” Again, we'll need God's Word and fervent prayer to help us do all of these things, to help us keep fighting faithfully.

Paul knew that his fight was almost over. So he encourages us:

Fight the good fight – rejoicing in the reward.

Paul tells us: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.”

The drink offering was wine poured out beside the altar after the worshiper had brought a sacrifice. The drink offering was the final step in the sacrifice ceremony.
So, when St. Paul says, “I am already being poured out like a drink offering,” he means that his death as a martyr for Jesus will be the crowning act, the grand finale, of his faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. His willingness to lay down his life as a witness for Jesus would show everyone that his faith was sincere.

“And the time for my departure is near.” The word Paul uses for “departure” has the picture of a ship letting loose the lines that tie it to the dock, so that the ship can set sail for a new destination.

Because Jesus lived a perfect life in our place; because Jesus died for our sins on the cross; because Jesus rose again from the dead to declare that his sacrifice has been accepted by the Father; because Jesus ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us; because Jesus is coming again to take his believers home to heaven; you and I, like Paul, can look on our death with peace, comfort, and joy. Our death is letting loose the lines that tie us to this perishing world of sin and death, and setting sail for the heavenly harbor.

Paul tells us what's waiting for us there: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

The “crown” Paul refers to is the victor's crown, awarded to the winner of an athletic event like a race. We today would think of a gold medal in the Olympics. The earthly victor's crown was made of laurel leaves. It stayed fresh and green for only a few days, until it faded and crumbled away. But Jesus will give us a crown that lasts forever. It's “the crown of righteousness” – the righteousness of Jesus, which he credits to us.

That's how Paul knew he would pass the test in God's courtroom. That's how Paul knew for certain he would be welcomed into heaven: because Paul would stand at the pearly gates dressed, not in Paul's own faithfulness – even as impressive as it was! No, Paul would stand at the pearly gates crowned with the righteousness of Jesus, purchased with Jesus' blood.

And that's the very same way you and I can be confident that we will be accepted at the judgment and welcomed into heaven – because of Jesus.

Oh, may thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
and win with them the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia! Alleluia!

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia!

06/03/2026

Sermon for June 7, 2026

Scripture Readings: Exodus 3:1-15; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Matthew 9:9-13

Murderers. Hasty hotheads who tried to force God's hand. A collaborator with a tyrannical government, viewed as a sellout and a traitor against his people and his faith. These are the men we meet in our three Scripture readings today. Moses, Paul, and Matthew are all poster boys of God's amazing grace. So are you. So am I. “By grace [we're] saved, grace free and boundless.” This morning, we say: THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS AMAZING GRACE!

Grace that called us to faith;
Grace that called us to serve.

When Moses was forty years old, he tried to incite a rebellion among the Hebrew slaves. Moses killed an Egyptian task master and, in fear, buried the body in the sand. “He thought that his brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand” (Ac 7:25). When Moses was eighty, God called him to go back to Egypt. Now, when most of us would be long retired from our jobs, now God called Moses to set the Israelites free.

Saul of Tarsus “persecuted [Christianity] to the death, tying up and throwing both men and women into prisons” (Ac 22:4). He confessed that he had been “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man” (1 Tm 1:13). Paul tells us that his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ was like pulling a baby out of his mother's womb before it can reach full term (1 Cor 15:8).

Levi Matthew was a tax collector. His fellow Jews would have regarded Matthew as a traitor to his faith and his people. But one day, Jesus walked by Matthew's tax office and said the words that changed Matthew's life: “Follow me” (Mt 9:9). Matthew left his well-paying job to follow Jesus.

You and I probably don't have as dramatic a conversion story as Moses, Paul, or Matthew. We've no doubt never seen a burning bush or a blinding light. But our faith in Jesus as our Savior is no less a miracle of God's grace.

Paul tells us what a great miracle our faith in Jesus is: “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!” (Eph 2:4, 5). God opened our spiritual eyes when we were spiritually blind. God raised us from spiritual death. God opened our hearts to trust in Jesus, when by nature we were “an unspiritual person [who] does not accept the truths taught by God's Spirit, because they are foolishness to him” (1 Cor 2:14).

Because of this amazing grace that God showed to us, we'll never want to look on anyone as beyond the reach of God's grace in Christ. As long as they're alive on this earth, God is giving them a time of grace. “He is patient...not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Pe 3:9).

Thanks be to God for his amazing grace!

Grace that called us to serve.

When God called Moses to return to Egypt, Moses went with a Gospel message: after four hundred years of slavery in Pharaoh's mud pits, God was going to set them free and bring them back to Canaan! When Jesus brought Saul of Tarsus to faith, “immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'” (Ac 9:20). When Jesus called Matthew to follow him, Matthew had a dinner party at his house. Matthew wanted his coworkers down at the tax office to meet Jesus and to hear his Word for themselves.

Let's think for a moment of how God could have chosen to bring his Word to the world. He could have used his holy angels. They would have done the work without delay and without any human limitations. Or God could simply have proclaimed his Word himself. Think of the times when God himself spoke from heaven.

But instead, God has chosen to use you and me to share his Word with the world. How much more fully could God show us that his amazing grace in Christ has forgiven us all our sins through faith in Jesus? God not only has forgiven our sins, but he has given us his authority to forgive and to retain the sins of other people. The same amazing grace that called us to faith has called us to serve.

05/25/2026

Sermon for May 31, 2026 (Holy Trinity)

Psalm 8

Today we celebrate the Festival of the Holy Trinity. For one Sunday, we pause to worship and praise the Triune God. God reveals himself in his holy Word as one God in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In faith worked in our hearts by God's Word, we trust in simple faith what our human reason can never comprehend. But faith is content with what God has revealed. Like the holy angels in Isaiah's vision, we shout out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole earth is full of his glory.”

That joyous worship and that humble adoration is also the theme of Psalm 8 (read the text here):

With the inspired psalmist, we worship and adore as THE TRIUNE GOD REVEALS HIS GLORY!

In creation

David writes: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Set this glory of yours above the heavens.”

God's name is so majestic that his glory towers above the highest heavens. Early last month, the Artemis 2 mission took four astronauts farther than any human being has ever traveled from the earth: a distance of 252,756 miles. But God's glorious name towers far above that heightest height. Astronomers tell us that there are one hundred billion galaxies, and that each galaxy has more than one hundred billion stars! Yet God's Word tells us: “He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by name” (Ps 147:4).

Yet this majestic God, whose name is set above the heavens, is pleased to receive the lisping worship of little infants: “From the lips of little children and nursing babies you have established strength.” Jesus tells us that this was fulfilled when the little children of Jerusalem burbled out their “Hosannas” to him when he came into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus tells you and me to imitate the faith of little children. They trust God's Word. Human reason doesn't get in the way of their faith.

David marvels at God's love for us, his human creatures: “Whenever I look up at your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place – what is man that you remember him, the son of man that you pay attention to him!”

God gave human beings dominion over his creation. But we quickly ruined God's good creation by rebelling against him. All of the evils we see in our world – pollution and crime, poverty and injustice, war and riot – and the list could go on – all of these things are in the world because our first parents rebelled against God and coveted what God, in love, had said was off limits for them.

God would have had every right to destroy this entire mess. He would have had every right to turn his back on us rebels forever. Instead –

God reveals his glory in Christ's humiliation and exaltation

But God beheld my wretched state before the world's foundation, and, mindful of his mercies great,
he planned for my salvation. A father's heart he turned to me, sought my redemption fervently;
he gave his dearest treasure.

He spoke to his beloved Son: “It's time to have compassion. Then go, bright jewel of my crown,
and bring to all salvation. From sin and sorrow set them free; slay bitter death for them that they
may live with you forever.” (CW 557:4, 5)

Jesus fulfills the words of Psalm 8: “Nevertheless, you make him suffer need, apart from God for a while, but you crown him with glory and honor. You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You put everything under his feet.”

Jesus fulfilled these words. The Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Word through whom the Father created all things, came down from heaven. He became incarnate. God took on a true human nature, yet without sin. “He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name” (Php 2:8, 9).

Jesus became our perfect Substitute. Jesus is the Second Adam, who perfectly obeyed his Father's will and died under the curse and punishment we deserve for our sins. Jesus is the Man with a capital M, the Son of Man with a capital S. Jesus restores to us the relationship with God that we lost by our sin. We have just celebrated Jesus' resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven, where Jesus is preparing a place for us, so that we will be with him forever.

And,

The Triune God reveals his glory in Christians.

God's great and good plan was to share what belongs to him with us, his human creatures. Even when we fell into sin, God didn't stop loving us. From eternity, God planned his amazing rescue operation, to restore us to fellowship with himself.

When Jesus returns, he will create a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells (2 Pe 3:13). There we will share in the royal reign that Jesus himself now exercises. God's Word promises: “Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is” (1 Jn 3:2); and, “It is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Ro 5:17).

How much more forgiven could we be through the Triune God's great rescue plan? Not only has God forgiven our sins, but will also share his glory with us forever.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

05/19/2026

*** CAR SHOW POSTPONED ***
Our Saviour Lutheran Church of Westland's Classic Car Show has been postponed because of the possibility of rain. This event will be rescheduled, probably in October 2026.

05/12/2026

Sermon for May 17, 2026 (Easter 7)

Acts 1:13-26

God willing, on December 31, 2027, something will happen here at Our Saviour Lutheran Church that hasn't happened for 22 years. Our pastor plans to retire, and our church will be vacant. What will the future hold?

The early Christians in Jerusalem faced the issue of THE FIRST CHURCH VACANCY. What would they do? How would they continue the Gospel ministry in the future? The Lord Jesus hadn't left behind any instructions before he ascended into heaven about how to fill a vacancy in the ministry. Jesus had established the pattern that there would be twelve apostles. Now Judas had horrified and shocked the other disciples. Peter reminded the congregation in Jerusalem of the sad history: Judas “became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. Judas was counted as one of us and was given a share in this ministry.” Guilt-stricken, Judas had hanged himself. Added to their shock and horror was the later discovery of Judas' body, which had suffered the effects of hanging in place in the hot Judean sunshine. The citizens of Jerusalem had memorialized Judas' gruesome death by naming the field purchased with Judas' 30 pieces of silver “Field of Blood.” Everyone passing by would forever remember Judas' act of betrayal.

THE FIRST CHURCH VACANCY now needed to be filled. How? And, with whom? Let's see that the first congregation in Jerusalem

filled the vacancy by prayer and by a very human process;
God blessed their human process with divine blessing.

The first church vacancy was filled by prayer and by a very human process.

The Churh recognized that there were important qualifications for whomever was chosen. “It is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us during the entire time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from his baptism by John until the day Jesus was taken up from us, become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

The new apostle had to be a man. The new apostle had to be an eyewitness of Jesus' ministry on earth, especially, an eyewitness of Jesus' resurrection.

“They proposed two: Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, 'Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen.”

The Church produced a call list. They chose two men, both of whom had the qualifications that were required for the ministry. Then they prayed that God would show them which of the two men was God's choice.

How would they find out which man was God's choice? “Then they assigned lots for them.” They probably put each man's name on a stick or a stone, and then they pulled one out, like drawing straws or flipping a coin. They used a very human process; but at the same time, they trusted that the Lord would bless that human process. They trusted God's promise in Proverbs: “Lots are cast into the pouch, but the LORD determines all their decisions” (Prv 16:33).
Our Saviour Lutheran Church will follow a human process. Last Tuesday night, the Church Council began a discussion of some options for the future of Gospel ministry here in Westland, Michigan. We'll share those options with you next Sunday. There will be updates. There will be discussion. There will be questions and answers. There will be time for prayer. There will be time for pondering, consultation, and exploration. Faithful pastors from our synod and our district will walk beside us to provide advice and counsel.

Some time in 2027 – after this human process – the congregation's voters will make a decision. And we will ask God to bless that decision.

“The lot fell to Matthias. So he was counted with the eleven apostles.”

This is the last reference to Matthias in the New Testament. We know nothing about where he traveled or how he died. I think that's the point: Matthias was a witness to Jesus. Matthias preached the resurrection of Jesus, of which he was one of the eyewitnesses. Matthias as a person didn't matter; Jesus mattered.

And that's what we will confess about the person who serves the members of Our Saviour Lutheran Church of Westland, Michigan after our pastor retires. The man who serves us doesn't matter. He's a servant of Jesus. His message is Jesus our Savior from sin, and his death and resurrection.

That means we don't have to have anxiety or worry about the future of Our Saviour Lutheran Church. I'm sure we do have anxiety and even some worry. We're sinful human beings. We always worry about the unknown future.

But we just celebrated the Ascension of our Lord Jesus into heaven. We heard last Thursday night that Jesus ascended into heaven to be “head over everything for the church. The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Eph 1:22, 23). Jesus already knows the future. Jesus knows how he is going to use the events that are going to happen over the next twenty months for our good and for his glory, just as surely as Jesus has been guiding and blessing his Church for the last twenty centuries.

Address

33333 Warren Road
Westland, MI
48185

Website

http://welswestland.org/

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