Welcome College Students
The LCMS U at OU would like to thank you for stopping by. We have free dinner and Bible study every Tuesday night at 6:30 pm (Bible study at 7:00). We meet at the Vicar’s house located at 419 Castro Street. Please park in the Church’s parking lot and enter through “The LSF Gate.” We enjoy fellowship with each other while studying God’s Word and singing hymns! If you have questions or would like to know more, please feel free to email the president of LCMS U at OU, Brandon Groh, at Brandon.D.Groh-1@ou.edu
LCMS U at OU is a campus ministry of Trinity Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Norman, Oklahoma. The church is located at the intersection of Classen Blvd. & Alameda with Divine Service at 8:00 and 10:30am, with Bible Study at 9:15 am on Sundays. We welcome and encourage you to join us in worship on Sunday mornings, especially if you are unable to attend the Tuesday night meetings.
From the VicarKeith Kettner
As we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord in the month of April, we take another look at Psalm 23. Typically heard at funerals, we are given a picture of the God who shepherds us, prepares a table for us, and welcomes us into His house forever. But Psalm 23 doesn’t apply to us only once we enter the grave. Eternal life doesn’t start when our bodies go back to the dust. Eternal life starts when we receive the crucified and risen Christ in Baptism. Then we live again as Adam and Eve once did, in right relationship with God.
Notice the placement of Psalm 23 after Psalm 22, the most gruesome and clear depiction of Jesus’ agony on the cross in the Psalms. Jesus is forsaken by God (22:1), a worm and not a man (22:6). His bones are out of joint (22:14) as He takes the unnatural form of a crucified body. His feet and His hand are pierced (22:16). And yet He still speaks praise to God, who delivers the people through His suffering.
Psalm 23 then is a picture of the blessing we receive through the death of Jesus. A picture of resurrection, our Shepherd brings us to green pastures. We return to Eden as the righteous, and we experience Eden in the midst of death as Jesus is with us. Jesus comes to us through Word, water, bread, and wine. Eden comes to us now.
Psalm 23:5 switches the imagery from God as Shepherd to God as host. Jesus welcomes us to His wedding banquet in heaven, filling our cup to the top with His blood. That wedding banquet we experience in the Divine Service, partaking of Jesus’ resurrection in the Lord’s Supper. The house of the Lord, the new Temple, is now the body of Jesus Himself.
We don’t have to wait to experience Psalm 23 or Jesus’ Resurrection. Eternal life begins now as Jesus makes Himself present with us, bringing us His body and blood and welcoming us back to Eden to dwell with God forever. As He has risen, so we can walk through the valley of the shadow of death without fear.
Vicar Keith Kettner
LCMS-U CAMPUS MINISTRY EVENTS:
- LSF BIBLE STUDIES with Vicar Keith Kettner – Vicar House by Church
- Vicar’s house next door to the church
- Every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
