Pastor David Nehrenz
tlcnormanpastor@gmail.com
Dear Fellow Redeemed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
I think it is wonderful to follow the life of Jesus and the life of the church during this season of the church year. You ought to make it your goal to read through the book of Acts during the month of May and retrace the steps of our Lord and the apostles.
We call this time the “50 days of Easter.” The liturgical year slows down this time of year to actual “real time.” The church celebrates Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday and then 40 days later, on a Thursday, celebrates the Lord’s ascension to the right hand of God as our Intercessor. This year Ascension Day is on May 26. This exactly follows the Biblical chronology of Jesus’ life.
During these 40 days of Easter, the Church rejoices in the many “convincing proofs” (Acts chapter 1), which Jesus gave of his resurrection. Luke tells us that “over a period of 40 days” Jesus gave these proofs through various resurrection appearances.Then He was taken up into heaven as He ascended on high!
Then 10 days later, on a Sunday, we celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. This also follows the timeline in the book of Acts, since the Lord Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem, until the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. We will celebrate Pentecost on June 5, exactly 10 days after Ascension.
Pray every day for the Lord to direct your paths to the Divine Service on Sunday morning to receive his gifts of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Pray every day for the Lord to direct your paths to find unique ways to show love to your neighbor. You will then find a life filled with purpose, joy and fervor to serve the Lord!
In our Lord,
Pastor Nehrenz
Vicar Mark Gaschler
tlcnormanvicar@gmail.com
Recently, a month or two ago, I had the opportunity to teach our preschool class about the Lord’s Supper during our weekly chapel service. As you can imagine, I did not go particularly deep into the subject. I simply told the children what our Lord did on the night he was betrayed, and that he promised that it was forgiveness.
As I look back at it, the more I feel blessed by the simplicity of the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar. Because if I were going to teach adults about it, I would have told them much the same thing: what our Lord instituted, and what he promised it would do. Many of the false doctrines about it, like transubstantiation or the Calvinist view, always require you to go beyond what our Lord promised. You either go deeper into Aristotelian metaphysics, or you deny the Lord’s presence entirely. Either one distracts from what Jesus promised us was in his Supper: his own body and blood, given and shed for our forgiveness. It really is as simple as that.
The deepest our tradition goes into explaining what happens in the Supper is that Christ’s body and blood is present in, with, and under the bread and wine. That is to say, it is his body and his blood. Simple as that.
