Pastor David Nehrenz
tlcnormanpastor@gmail.com
As your pastor, who has shepherded our congregation and parish for 32 years, I have an important entreaty to make. If you are able, and if your health permits it, I ask you to continue coming to church and attending the Divine Services. All the precautions have been taken from the month of March to now. We are following the proper precautions and procedures for everyone’s safety and health. (See the Trumpeter’s page 3.) You can choose one of four ways to participate each weekend, either on Saturday or Sunday.
So many of you have been participating in the life of our parish by attending, watching online and sending in your tithes and offerings. Your faithful stewardship continues to be an inspiration to all of us. It has been awesome to see how we have been able to meet our financial obligations because of your faithful giving. We thank you and we give thanks to God for this abundant blessing!
I know that the whole country has been affected by COVID-19. Every school, business and organization has been impacted. But this is not the time to fall into the habit of no longer coming to church anymore. This is the time to get back into the habit of attending church. We all need the divine blessings of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, even more during traumatic times!
We come to church for God to divinely serve us with his Gospel gifts. These personally come into our lives through preaching, teaching, baptism, absolution and Holy Communion. Then we respond with our prayers, thanksgivings and praises to the only true God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
So read the words of this hymn and prayerfully make a plan to participate in the divine services each weekend:
LSB HYMN 904
“Blessed Jesus, at Your Word”1. Blessed Jesus, at Your Word
We are gathered all to hear You.
Let our hearts and souls be stirred
Now to seek and love and fear You,
By Your teachings, sweet and holy,
Drawn from earth to love You solely.2. All our knowledge, sense, and sight
Lie in deepest darkness shrouded
Till Your Spirit breaks our night
With the beams of truth unclouded.
You alone to God can win us;
You must work all good within us.3. Gracious Savior, good and kind,
Light of Light, from God proceeding,
Open now our heart and mind;
Help us by Your Spirit’s pleading.
Hear the cry Your Church now raises;
Hear and bless our prayers and praises.4. Father, Son, and Spirit, Lord,
Praise to You and adoration!
Grant that we may trust Your Word,
Confident of our salvation,
While we here below must wander,
Till we sing Your praises yonder!
I ask, who are we? Since 1901, we are Trinity Lutheran Church. We are “One Family in our Church, Early Learning Center and Campus Ministry.” We have much work to do in the mission field. Here in Norman, in Oklahoma, in the U.S.A. and in the world! I look forward to seeing you soon at the Divine Services, Bible classes and Sunday School!
In our Lord Jesus,
Pastor David Nehrenz
Vicar Jordan Peiser
tlcnormanvicar@gmail.com
I have been working through the book of Colossians lately, both because we are studying it for our daily devotional videos and because I am preparing a bible study on it. I have been struck by the importance of the incarnation in St. Paul’s theology. And I have found myself reflecting on this concept. Jesus shared in our flesh, and in our frailty, he experienced pain, hunger, and thirst (Mark 4:2; 11:12); he got tired (Mk 4:38-40); he wept at a funeral (Jn 11:35); and he celebrated at weddings (Jn 2). And ultimately, he died so that he could destroy the one who had power over death (Hebrews 2:14). Jesus, the one who St. Paul called “the image of the invisible God,” (Col 1:15) came to “dwell among us” (Jn 1:14) because our Lord loves his creation. He isn’t afraid of our flesh but even went so far as to share in it. Jesus became incarnate in order that “all things could be reconciled through him… making peace through the blood of the cross” (Colossians 2:20).
The incarnation is a beautiful testimony to a Triune God who will stop at nothing to save his people. Jesus became incarnate so that he could save us by his death and resurrection. He also became incarnate so that “the dwelling place of God could be with man” (Rev 21:3). And now all of us who have been baptized into Christ have fellowship with Him. And our Lord continues to be present among us through physical means in His Word and Sacrament.
Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O LORD, Thy grace into our hearts; that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Vicar Jordan Peiser
