Author: Julie Raffa

August 2020

The Pilgrim Herald
Pilgrim Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Beholding the Beauty of God’s Creation
“The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.” Psalm 50:1-2

At the end of the day, I step over Nerf darts, Barbies, board games, puzzles, sweaters, and socks to sit down with my hot ginger tea. I like to pause in the evenings, savor a night cap of tea, and read a book. However, in a household with children, ages 4, 9, and 11, you can easily imagine that such pauses are rare. Even when I find time to sit with a cup of tea and a book, the pestering worries of earthly life, my mental “to do list,” is there and must be put aside.
In the beginning when God rested from His work of creation, He declared His creation to be “very good.” He set the man and woman in the garden to reign and frolic in His goodness and love. The psalmist beckons us to “taste and see that the Lord is good”—not simply to reason or confess that God is good, but to taste it. My body, created by God, through my five senses, receives the love and mercy of my doting Heavenly Father.
I have a fondness for hot tea as it soothes my aching jaw muscles (this is why you see me drink it during the Divine Service). I find pleasure in books. I enjoy going to Spinning Class at the Y. I love to take bike rides in the morning sunrise with my kids. During all these activities my thoughts can dart around. Thoughts of that week’s sermon change to the simplicity of bunnies hopping around and squirrels racing up trees, then back to the sermon, to a hard conversation I must have, to a delicate way I need to untangle a messy situation. My thoughts can jump around trying to find the answer, the solution. Then sometimes I can ride without thinking about anything. I just ride, the sweat dripping off my face as the nervous energy turns into a quiet calm, a simple joy found in doing something I find pleasure in doing. Mysteriously, God reveals more than we think in the slight sip of tea, in the sharp bitterness of coffee, in a bite of the perfectly grilled bratwurst, in a good plot twist of a page turner, or doing something simply because we enjoy doing it.
C.S. Lewis, in the Screwtape Letters, speaks about the senior Demon, Screwtape, who scolds his apprentice for allowing his ‘patient’ the smallest experience of pleasure “because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his friends.” Both pleasure and pain, says Screwtape, are “unmistakably real and therefore…they give the man who feels them a touchstone of reality.” He diabolically warns that people shouldn’t be allowed to maintain any “personal taste…even if it’s something quite trivial such as a fondness for country cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa.” Small ordinary things of enjoyment may seem ho-hum, but the demon sees in them “a sort of innocence and humility, and self-forgetfulness.”
Our culture’s relationship to pleasure is complex. No question we are obsessed with pleasure. We overindulge and overeat. We are addicted to amusement and are bombarded with pornography, sexual gratuity and violence, both on and off screens. Curiously sad, is that the more we indulge the less pleasure we find. In our consumer culture we spend endless energy and money seeking pleasure, but we are never satisfied.
Too often the Church is given a bad rap for being anti-pleasure. Many in our society view Christians as the early Puritans were branded: people with a haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be happy. Yet, in reality, the Church led the way for the art of enjoyment and pleasure. Interesting to realize that the Church, not Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks created the coffee culture. Coffee was first engineered by Ethiopian monks—the term cappuccino refers to the tint of brown used for the habits of the Capuchin monks of Italy. Coffee is born of extravagance, a luxurious God who formed eccentric people, who formed a craft out of the pleasures of roasted beans and frothed milk.
A people formed by the gospel will honor right enjoyment of creation. The Church and her community have left a legacy of beauty: the paintings of Michelangelo, the poetry of John Milton, the music of Johann Sabastian Bach, and… the list is endless. Even the Puritans who have been derided as old-fuddy-duddies set aside a day every month for recreation. It was a day for leisure and play, a big citywide party. Shockingly, Puritans were even big advocates of celebrating martial sex for husband and wife.
When we enjoy God’s creation, we reflect God Himself. God doesn’t stiffly and stoically declare creation “very good.” He is not some disinterested quality assurance manager checking off boxes on His clipboard. God delights in the rhythmic sound of ocean waves, smiles at the subtle flavors of a good whiskey, and glories in the strange cow-like call of the puffin.
G. K. Chesterton saw in God a childlike wonder. Children never tire of beauty and pleasure. They embrace play with abandonment. They don’t feel guilty about running after robins, or building forts out of drift-wood, or enjoying a scoop of custard at Culvers. Chesterton imagines that God basks in the pleasure of His creation like an excited child:
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daises alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the enteral appetite of infancy, for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
We have sinned and grown old, and become dulled to the wonders around us. Strangely, enjoyment takes practice. Throughout our life we must relearn the abandon of revelry and merriment. Throughout Christian history, Christian worship has been a profoundly moving experience, a training ground for delight. Christians are singing people. From ancient monks chanting the Psalms, to the hymnody of Paul Gerhardt and Philip Nicolai, music has been a way that the church crafts its practice of prayer and worship with faithfulness and beauty.
The symbols and aesthetics silently retell and recall the story of Christ’s death and resurrection: stained glass windows, flowers, vestments, paraments, candles, banners, etc. Don’t forget, in early Christianity most people could not read, so Christian worship intentionally taught the Gospel in pre-literate ways. And even now, each of us, whether first-graders or physics professors, still learn the Gospel in pre-literate ways. We absorb it. We see it. We hear it. And having learned it through the ear and the eye, we confess it boldly with the mouth. The room where we worship is called the sanctuary, from the Latin sanctuarium, a derivative of sanctus, or “holy.” The word sanctuary refers to the “holy place.” Why? Because it is there that unholy people are declared holy by the words and gifts of the Holy One, Jesus Christ.
In Letters to Malcolm, C.S. Lewis devotes an enjoyable letter to the subject of pleasure. His advice: begin where you are. Once he thought he had to start, “by summoning up what we believe about the goodness and greatness of God, by thinking about creation and redemption and all the blessings of this life.” Instead, he says, we ought to begin with the pleasures at hand. For him it was a walk beside a babbling brook; for me. at the moment, it is drinking lemon ginger tea and writing this letter to you.
While we naturally greet these moments with gratitude, we nonetheless war against them. For me, anxiety and the nettlesome worries of life are always clanging around in my head. As on-the-go and ever-busy people, we often develop habits of inattention and miss the simple beauty of the gifted day and night. Part of me—the taskmaster, the checking-off-the-list guy—feels guilty about the moments when I slow down and enjoy the beauty around me. Whether nurturing my family, talking to my wife, or caring for my own body and soul, I can feel guilty that I am not doing something more important with my time.
Certainly, important things need to get done, especially pertaining to one’s job, but it takes strength to simply enjoy the world. We must exercise a kind of ‘muscle’ to gain the strength to revel and delight in the world. If we are always working, we’re likely forget how to notice beauty. We’ll miss the unmistakable reality of goodness, that pleasure trains us to see.
Bear in mind, pleasure is a gift, but it can easily become an idol. What once was given as a gift can easily become a trap. The cry for “more”—that demand can turn healthy pleasures into serious addictions. We become insatiable. Our ability to enjoy something is diminished to the extent that it becomes a false god. Only God alone can be worshiped and enjoyed. Everything beneath Him is meant to be enjoyed in its proper place, as they flow from the God who requires sole fear, love, and trust.
Enjoyment requires discernment. It can be a gift to wrap up in a blanket and loose myself in a T.V. show, but I can also “amuse myself to death.” My pleasure in tea, literature, exercise, and technology is good, but in excess it can become disordered. As we learn to practice enjoyment, we need to learn the craft of discernment—how to enjoy rightly.
The Russian author, Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote that “beauty will save the world.” This statement certainly strikes us as odd; we know only Jesus saves the world. But consider for a moment that as our culture rejects the idea of objective truth, the role of the Church as the purveyor of beauty and the testifier to goodness, honorability and truth, has provided a powerful witness to the Lord and Savior who alone speaks mercy, beauty and goodness.
Being curators of beauty, pleasure, and delight is therefore an intrinsic part of our confession—a confession that recognizes the reality that truth, the Gospel, is beautiful. These moments of good tea, starry nights, my createdness at the hands of my gracious Lord—even in the midst of Nerf darts, Barbies, strewn clothes, dishes and laundry—teach me that my created and redeemed body and soul was and is the beautiful act of the beautiful Savior, King of all creation.
In these gray and latter days, may it be the beauty of our Lord’s creation and the miracle of our redemption in body and soul, that reminds us ever anew that Christ is in our midst to create and make new that which fell into chaos so long ago. His song of redemption, sung by His people all over the world, over all creation in heaven and on earth, with angels and archangels and all company of heaven, echoes down into my ordinary yet not so ordinary life as a beautiful new creation of God.
In the Bonds of Christ,
Pastor Raffa
If you are looking for a good book, here’s what I’m reading now:
- The Holy Bible
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- In the Face of Death: Thielcke-Theologian, Preacher, Boundary Rider by Fabian Grassl
- Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions About Life & Sexuality by Nancy Pearcey
- And Take Thy Our Life: Martin Luther’s Theology of Martyrdom by Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller
My family and I are reading together:
- Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- The Time Warp Trio Series by Jon Scieszka

Inside this Issue:
Pilgrim News & Reports	3
From the Fort	4
Lutheran Worship	5
Lutheran Missions	7
Communal Prayers	9
Birthdays & Anniversaries	10
August Volunteer Schedule	10
Calendar	11

Lutheran catechesis
Singleness in the Body of Christ
By: Andrea L. Schultz

August 2020— Page #

Pilgrim News
Pilgrim Website has been updated; however, we need help with checking for misspelled words and other typos. When you have time, please read through http://www.pilgrimlutheran-westbend.org/ note the location of any errors you find. Submit your findings to the church office for us to review. Thank you!
You Are Invited to join us online in celebrating the graduation of Samuel Boehlke from Christ Crucified Lutheran Home School on Sunday August 9, 2020. It will be live-streamed and recorded on Samuel’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/samuel.boehlke.1 We will begin with Vespers at 4 pm, followed by a short ceremony. We sincerely thank God for the faithful pastors and people of Pilgrim who have supported Samuel in his education in the Faith. May God continue to bless! - the Boehlke family
Pilgrim Quilter’s will begin meeting again on Wednesday, September 16th at 9:00 am in the Old Fellowship Hall. Join us on the 1st & 3rd Wednesdays of each month. Even if you do not sew, we have plenty for you to do. We need help with cutting, laying out, and tying the quilts. We look forward to seeing you!
Ladies Guild / LWML will begin meeting again on September 15th at noon in the in the New Fellowship Hall. All women of the congregation are invited to join us on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. If you have any questions please call, Ruth Kohler at 338-6392.
Wednesday Youth Catechism will begin meeting again on September 9th at 4:00 pm in the Sanctuary. All Pilgrim youth in 3rd grade and above are encouraged to attend. A Parents’ Meeting will follow at 5:30 pm in the New Fellowship Hall.
Enduring Faith Sunday School will begin meeting again on September 13th at 9:15 am in the Music Room. All children and youth, 3 years and older, are encouraged to attend.
Parents of Pilgrim Children and Youth:
We request that you complete a Youth Christian Education Form for your family prior to September 9th to ensure we for up-to-date Emergency Contact Information for you children and so we may properly prepare for the new school year. The registration form may be completed online at www.pilgrimlutheran-westbend.org under the Education tab or by contacting the office for a hard copy. In Christ, Pastor Fisher and Pastor Raffa

Membership report
Baptized: None
Died in the Faith: None
Transferred In: None
Transferred Out: None
Released from Membership: None

August 2020 — Page #

august volunteer schedule
[Subject to change due to Covid 19]
Sunday, August 2: 8:00 a.m. / 10:30 a.m.
Office Volunteer: Nancy Audley
Altar Guild: Laurie L./ Betty S.
Elder: Tanner Schmidt/ John Heger
Usher Team: 1 / 4
Acolyte: David Hoffman/ Georgia Janssen
Thursday, August 6: 7:00 p.m.
Altar Guild: Pat K.
Elder: Dennis Engmann
Usher Team: A
Acolyte:
Sunday, August 9: 8:00 a.m. / 10:30 a.m.
Office Volunteer: Caryn Lewandowski
Altar Guild: Nancy R. / Bonnie M.
Elder: Gary Erdmann/ Gary Jenovai
Usher Team: 3 / 8
Acolyte: Ethan Hoffman/ Caden Olson
Thursday, August 13: 7:00 p.m.
Altar Guild: Karen S.
Elder: Brian Skrentny
Usher Team: B
Acolyte: Dylan Kabitzke
Sunday, August 16: 8:00 a.m. / 10:30 a.m.
Office Volunteer: Carolyn McAfee
Altar Guild: Norma B. / Carolyn M.
Elder: Bob Knuth / Dennis Engmann
Usher Team: 5 / 2
Acolyte: Victoria Mulvey/ Rachel Raffa
Thursday, August 20: 7:00 p.m.
Altar Guild: Ruth K.
Elder: Bob Knuth
Usher Team: A
Acolyte:
Sunday, August 23: 8:00 a.m. / 10:30 a.m.
Office Volunteer: Julie Raffa
Altar Guild: Cheryl T. / Rita F.
Elder: Tanner Schmidt / John Heger
Usher Team: 1 / 4
Acolyte: Abby Voll/ Luke Selzler
Thursday, August 27: 7:00 p.m.
Altar Guild: Ginny S.
Elder: Brian Skrentny
Usher Team: B
Acolyte: Dylan Kabitzke
Sunday, August 30: 8:00 a.m. / 10:30 a.m.
Office Volunteer: Nancy Audley
Altar Guild: Nancy R. / Ellen R.
Elder: Jake Hand / Gary Jenovai
Usher Team: 3 / 8
Acolyte: Dylan Zehetner/ Georgia Janssen

Birthdays
1. Rita Frank
Jeanette Guillaume
Melanie Ruppier
Wade Janssen
Phillip Gohr
Dakota Guillaume
Ethan Hoffman
David Hoffman
Louise Kreis
Lorna Olson
Luke Selzler
Caryn Lewandowski
Daniel Shay
Nick Rosenthal
Steven Virchow
James Audley
Lynnette Wille
Corey Janssen
Ervin Mertz
Adam Zell
Elizabeth Meier
Shane Oppermann
Jeremy Mayer
20. Lydia Hoffman
21. Pamela Nitzke
Barbara Rockrohr
Ellen Roerdink
Linda Stahl
Jodi Selzler
Janet Ehlers
Jonathan Faul
30. Katie Krubsack
Anniversaries
Jamie & Carrie Mulvey
David & Sheryl Pajewski
Keith & Cindy Gierach
Jim & Ellen Roerdink
Jim & Suzanne Stadelmayer
Tom & Kathy Greve
Chris & Julie Raffa
14. Richard & Caroline Reich
19. James & Beverly Hanson
23. Adam & Leah Bolstad
Dennis & Susan Gabor

From the ForT
July 2020
From Seminarian McMiller:

The Pilgrim Herald — Page #

Lutheran worship
Involving Children in Worship
By: Judy Carol Thompson

For those who have [been] in parishes of different contexts, it is evident that all of God's people desire our children to participate actively in the worship life of the church. Because all children have been blessed with a voice, singing is a logical way to involve them. This article seeks to offer a practical approach to evaluate what the children should sing and how to accomplish this participation.
Four Criteria For Selecting What To Sing
First, the music our children sing is a prime opportunity to teach them the language of the faith. For example, the word "alleluia" is almost exclusively a word of the Church. By teaching even the youngest such language, we have cleared the way for them to participate in many parts of the liturgy and hymnody. For instance, little ones can be taught the alleluias of "Good Christian Friends Rejoice and Sing" (LSB 475) or "O Sons and Daughters of the King" (LSB 470/471).
Second, music should teach the content of Scripture. There are numerous hymns, for example, which are descriptive of Biblical events. "’Tis Good, Lord, To Be Here" (LSB 414) teaches the account of Jesus' transfiguration and "O Lord, Throughout These Forty Days" (LSB 418) describes Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.
Third, if the music does not teach the specific language of the Church or a biblical account, it should teach Law and Gospel. In other words, it should describe our sinful condition and the forgiveness won by the death and resurrection of Christ. Again, many simple hymns fit this criterion such as "You Are The Way" (LSB 526) and "Abide, O Dearest Jesus" (LSB 919).
Fourth, as children move from grade to grade, the music they learn should build on itself. For instance, younger children can be taught the "alleluias" of "Thy Strong Word" (LSB 578) or the refrain of "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" (LSB 442); in later years they can learn the complete stanzas. In the liturgy, younger children can be taught the Gloria Patri of the Introit and the refrain of "This is the Feast."
How To Train Them
When children are young, it is deemed "cute" when they sing unabashedly off key. However, as they grow older many of these untrained singers become self-conscious and withdrawn. Teaching proper vocal technique and pitch matching must begin very young. The typical Sunday School and catechetical instruction program can provide the opportunity for this training.
The main reason that children sing off key is their inability to switch from their speaking (chest) voice to their singing (lighter head) voice. The challenge is to teach children to recognize the difference and to learn how to use their singing voice.
One approach is to use imagery that can assist children in identifying their head voice. By encouraging them to imitate the sounds of an owl, siren, boat whistle, or train whistle, etc, young children can find their singing voice. When this is accomplished, they are prepared to begin to match pitches. Amazingly it takes only a few minutes per week to accomplish pitch matching. For instance, in the Sunday School of our rural parish, though we spend only 5-7 minutes each Sunday teaching this vocal technique, our children have had great success.
If children have not been trained to sing when they are young, it is never more evident than in their junior high years. Coupled with the difficulty in matching pitch is the challenge of changing voices (especially among the boys) and a general lack of the enthusiasm that they most likely had when they were younger. When children reach this age, one alternative is the use of handbells. Pre-teens seem to find handbell ringing intriguing and enjoyable. Even a director with little experience can find ways to incorporate handbells with older children. One approach is to select hymns that appear in public domain (i.e., they are no longer under copyright). All that is needed is to photocopy the hymn, mark the pulse, and highlight the appropriate bells in each chord. In this way, a basic musical score is ready for use which even includes the text of the hymn which the children can read and learn.
No Need To Be Fancy Or Lengthy
For children ages six and under, the accompaniment should be very simple; perhaps only the melody should be played at first. Too much accompaniment obscures the melody line and makes the matching of pitch more difficult.
Children can be taught to participate in worship by singing and ringing handbells using quality music, and all this can be done within the context of the Sunday School and catechetical program of a congregation that doesn't have a Lutheran School. Two rehearsals of 20-30 minutes per week is sufficient! For instance, in our parish fifth- through eighth-grade students rehearse one-half hour during our two hour Wednesday evening catechism instruction class and all ages rehearse 20 minutes during our one hour weekly Sunday School.
Conclusion
Martin Luther praised music as the greatest gift of God-next to theology, of course. The beauty of this gift is that it can be used and enjoyed by every generation. With some planning and determination, any congregation can share this gift with its children, both teaching them how to use their God-given voices and nurturing them in the faith as they sing praises to their Maker and Redeemer.
More than a generation ago, Martin Franzmann preached a sermon in which he challenged the opinion that it is all right when we fail to give our very best in what we sing and how we sing it. The following is one of his illustrations:
Another argument might be called the "tin whistle" argument. Its essence is something like this: "After all, a man can make music on a tin whistle to the glory of God, and God will be pleased to hear it." True, true, true-if God has given him nothing but a tin whistle; but God has given us so infinitely much more. When He has given us all the instruments under heaven with which to sing His praises, then the tin whistle is no longer humility but a perverse sort of pride.
——————————-
This article was originally published under the title “Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets” in Lutheran Worship Notes, Issue #35. It is now available through the LCMS Worship Library: Youth in Worship. Its author, Judy Carol Thompson, served as a musician and children's choir director at Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church and Child of Christ Lutheran School in Hartland, Michigan. www.lcms.org/worship

August 2020 — Page #

Lutheran missions
WHO WE ARE
Founded in 2010, Lutherans in Africa (LIA) equips Africans to be teachers of the saving faith in Christ Jesus. This is done through training pastors, evangelists, deaconesses, and Sunday school teachers in the pure doctrine and its instruction, liturgy, and hymnody and through translating key doctrinal resources into African languages.
WHAT WE DO
Teaching: By training pastors, evangelists, and church workers, we are teaching not merely this generation, but the ones to come. The Lutheran Church in Tanzania alone has over 5 million members, but many struggle to understand what Lutherans believe and why. The average pastor serves 12 parishes but only visits one each Sunday. The other eleven are served by evangelists who have had little or no training. Even those who are trained have few books and limited opportunity for further formal study in the Living Word and doctrinal theology.
Translating: To provide doctrinal resources in African languages we translate various key texts such as Luther’s Small Catechism, the Book of Concord, and God’s No and God’s Yes into regional languages. Since most pastors have never heard of the books, LIA then offers workshops on Lutheran doctrine so clergy can better understand how our Confessions are the pure exposition of the Living Word.
Training: Currently working in 23 countries, LIA not only teaches confessional Lutheran doctrine, but also trains African pastors to be teachers in their own communities.
THE PROBLEM
There is a severe shortage of trained pastors in Africa. In America, the Lutheran Church has 1 pastor for every 376 members. In Tanzania, for instance, there is 1 pastor for every 3,500 members. By training Africans to be teachers of the faith, Lutherans In Africa (LIA) is able to help fill the need for pastors and further spread the Gospel, allowing God to work through His external Word.
THE SOLUTION
To further the teaching, translating, and training of pastors in Africa, LIA has begun building the Lutheran School of Theology near Nairobi, Kenya. The Lutheran School Of Theology will help Lutherans In Africa to teach pastors in these ways:
Centrally located to reduce travel expenses
Sustainable design that allows self-sufficiency
Reduces rent expenses
Faithfully teaches God's Word
Longer, in-depth training
Consolidates translating work
Shows the long term commitment of LIA
to the community
We have launched a half million dollar capital campaign, “Building Foundations for Africa,” focused on raising awareness of and creating a sustainable response to the ongoing need for biblical education in Africa. The funds raised through this campaign will be used to create the new LIA Training Center, which will be operated based on a self-sustaining model.
With a large gift from a Lutheran family in Australia along with numerous other gifts, LIA was able to purchase the land and build the first four of the ten buildings planned.
Not surprisingly, it is very difficult to find a reputable contractor in Africa who will come out into the bush and build on a large scale like we need. God blessed us with such a contractor last year. He is the son of an African missionary from southern California. He grew up in Africa and now builds facilities for mission societies in Africa.
At this time, he needs a commitment from LIA to build two more large buildings in order to keep his infrastructure out in the bush at our site. Thanks be to God, one of our Lutherans in Africa supporters has offered to match donations, up to $10,000, for this latest building need. We ask that you prayerfully consider making a financial gift to help with building of the Lutheran School of Theology campus. Donations can be made online at www.lutheransinaftrica.com or by mailing a check to
Lutherans In Africa PO Box 121 Ocean Shores, WA 98569

Visit www.lutheransinafrica.com for more details, updates, and construction photos.

August 2020— Page #

Communal Prayers:
Morning Benediction: In Your name I now arise, O Crucified Lord Jesus Christ, who on the tree of the holy cross, as the true patient Lamb for the slaughter, suffered the most shameful death for me and with Your crimson blood redeemed me from all my sins. Govern my heart by Your Holy Spirit, refresh it with the heavenly dew of Your grace, preserve me this day with Your divine love, and hide me, body and soul, in Your holy wounds. Wash me thoroughly from all my iniquities, uphold me in all good works, and lead me out of this valley of tears to eternal joy and glory. O most faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, my only comfort, hope, and life.
Evening Benediction: O Lord Jesus Christ, sacrificial Lamb for all my sins, and not for mine only but also for the whole world: I thank You once again from the depths of my heart that You have so kindly kept me this day in body and soul by Your protection. And I pray that you would graciously pardon and forgive me all my sins which I have done this day out of weakness of my corrupt nature and by the instigation of the evil one, which weigh heavenly and oppress my heart and conscience. May I always be awake to You, and faithfully await Your glorious coming.
For a delight and love of God’s Word: O merciful God, You see how, on account of my corrupt nature, I have no desire for Your Word and how easily I am turned from it by the devil, my own flesh and blood, the children of the world, and false teachers, and preachers; how careless, inattentive and reluctant I am to hear and to keep Your Word. Therefore, I ask you now, eternal God, to pardon my inborn sloth, and give me a willing and awake heart, to hear and consider Your Word; awaken in me a heartfelt desire, that as a newborn babe I may long for the reasonable, pure milk of God’s Word. Let nothing in this world be dearer to me than Your Word, that I may love Your Word more than gold and always count it my most excellent treasure. Keep me in Your truth, for Your Word is truth, that I may cling to it as to the heavenly truth and abide steadfast therein until my final end. In your most holy and blessed name. Amen.
For comfort against unworthiness and the tribulation of the devil: Lord God, through a brother You have absolved me, baptized me, and fed me with Your body and blood. Do with Your servant as You please; I will not be angry nor blaspheme You, but will bear all things patiently. For I do not want the covenant that You established with me in Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper to be destroyed. I know that I have been baptized, that I have eaten the body of Your Son and drunk His blood, that I have been absolved for God’s sake, released from my sins, indeed, that all my sins are forgiven and that victory over the devil, death, and hell has been promised me. What more can I ask for? Amen.
Family and friends requesting our prayers: Jerry Sullivan, Carolyn Bren, Richard Fisher, Paul Soat, Terry Mowery, Donna Sommer, Debra Ziemann, Kandie Darmody, Wilma Wilson, June Fry, Orville Heckendorf, Erv & Ruth Mertz, Gert Sullivan, David & Olivemae Olson, Richard Reich, Judy Clark, Louise Kreis, Dot Miller, Jennifer Jensen, Eric Johanen, Diane Behrens, Marge Legate, Suzanne Stadelmayer, Elaine Kuenzel, Ray & Frances Neerhoff, Karen Haufmann, Donald Teske, Connie Hackbarth, Sheryl Pajewski, Jeanette Guillaume, Inez Schwoch, Glenn Schnabel, Jenny Vickerman, Carl and Lois Pritzlaff, Linda Lukas, Linda Borneman, Tracey Leffin-Hedrick, Nancy Nicholas, Scott Biskobing, Rachel Davis, Marissa Flanders, Linda Schmidt, Vanessa Kuehne, Laverne Gierach, Travis Winkler, Brian Vonlender, Scot Meisenheimer, Thomas Kramlik, and Jody Meisenheimer.

Voice of Faith

August 2020 — Page #

The Pilgrim Herald — Page #

The Pilgrim Herald — Page #

The Pilgrim Herald — Page #

August 2020— Page #

2 / 8a Divine Service / 9:15a Adult Class: Luther’s Small Catechism / 10:30a Divine Service / 12:30p Adult Bible Study: Galatians	3	4	5 / 4p Cable BC / 6:30p Lutheran Difference Class	6 / 4p Cable Worship / 7p Divine Service	7 Office Closed	8 / 1 / 7a Men’s Breakfast & Bible Study
9 / 8a Divine Service / 9:15a Adult Class: Luther’s Small Catechism / 10:30a Divine Service / 12:30p Adult Bible Study: Galatians / 4p Vespers	10	11	12 / 4p Cable BC / 6:30p Lutheran Difference Class	13 / 4p Cable Worship / 7p Divine Service	14 Office Closed	15 / 7a Men’s Breakfast & Bible Study
16 / 8a Divine Service / 9:15a Adult Class: Luther’s Small Catechism / 10:30a Divine Service / 12:30p Adult Bible Study: Galatians	17	18	19 / 4p Cable BC / 6:30p Lutheran Difference Class	20 / 4p Cable Worship / 7p Divine Service	21 Office Closed	22 / 9a Board of Ed Meeting
23 / 8a Divine Service / 9:15a Adult Class: Luther’s Small Catechism / 10:30a Divine Service / 12:30p Adult Bible Study: Galatians	24	25	26 / 4p Cable BC / 6:30p Lutheran Difference Class	27 / 4p Cable Worship / 7p Divine Service	28 Office Closed	29 / 7a Men’s Breakfast & Bible Study
30 / 8a Divine Service / 9:15a Adult Class: Luther’s Small Catechism / 10:30a Divine Service / 12:30p Adult Bible Study: Galatians	31	August 2020

#

Pilgrim Evangelical Lutheran Church
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
462 Meadowbrook Drive
West Bend, WI 53090

#

Phone: 262-334-0375
Email: office@pilgrimlutheran.wb.org
Website: www.pilgrimlutheran-westbend.org

“On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of His people;
for like the jewels of a crown
they shall shine on His land.
For how great is His goodness, and
how great His beauty!
Grain shall make the young men flourish,
and new wine the young women.”
Zechariah 9:16-17

(Pastor's Page…Continued on page #)

(Pastor’s Page...Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Pastor’s Page...Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Children in Worship...Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Confirmation Continued on page #)

(Children in Worship...Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Pastor’s Page...Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

Rightly, we spend a lot of time and words defending and upholding holy marriage as the design that God intended for man and woman. We pray for the estate of marriage and we routinely ask God to defend and uphold its sanctity. What often gets overlooked is the importance of those who remain single. Those who devote their lives to the love of neighbor while living without a spouse. They often bear a cross weighted in loneliness and feelings of incompleteness. Thus, it was nice to see in the most recent publication of the Life of the World, an article that highlighted the unique gifts that single people can give to the church and her people.—Pasor Raffa.
In the middle of every magazine issue themed around the topic of family is the obligatory “single” article. For good reason: the Body of Christ is made up of many members, and those brothers and sisters in Christ whom we call family (though we may share little to no blood) come from a variety of backgrounds. Even the singles have many different stories: widowed, divorced, never married, never interested, or desperately interested. Sometimes these stories are shaped by personal choice, but oftentimes we live a role that has been given against our desires rather than welcomed.
To comfort those who mourn the fact that they have no spouse, we often speak of the gift of singleness. The words are well meant, driven by a compassionate desire to console and reassure, and every single time I have to suppress the passive-aggressive urge to ask if it comes with a gift receipt for easy return. Loneliness is a hard companion. It also isn’t the only one. Not all mourn their unmarried state; celibacy has been given to them and they are content.
We see scriptural validation for both feelings reflected in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 7:8, Paul exhorts, “to the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.” Paul clearly liked being single (“I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God,” verse 7) but others didn’t. Naomi bitterly mourned the loss of her husband and sons. Jephthah’s daughter, condemned to death for her father’s tragic vow, took to the mountains in preparation and specifically “wept for her virginity” (Judges 11:38).
However, emotion isn’t a faithful judge of reality, especially for sinners. Too often we mourn what we should celebrate and rejoice when we should weep. But we do have this reassurance: though the heart knows its own bitterness, God knows every heart. No one on earth may be able to understand your deepest feelings of either abandonment or contentment—or that strange pendulum swing between both—but your heavenly Father, who loves His dear children, sees even deeper into your heart than you can. And He does not speak platitudes; He speaks in the language of reality.
Though the Bible does talk at length about marriage—from who we are as the Bride of Christ to the practical laws established in the Old Testament that dealt with marriage, how to care for widows, and expectations for the unmarried—not one of its 66 books uses the word “singleness.” In the ESV, the word “single” appears in the context of marriage only twice: in Exodus 21:3, in terms of a law concerning slaves, and then in 1 Corinthians 7 as quoted above. “Single” more often appears as a description: single hours and days of judgment, or single members of the Body of Christ. Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church, speaks on the subject only once, after His disciples declare that it is better not to marry. “But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given … Let the one who is able to receive this receive it’” (Matt. 19:11-12).
Singleness is not an identity. It is a description of a state of being, and perhaps a temporary one. But is it a gift? Certainly there are gifts that come with singleness. Time. Money. Choices. You have more choices about where and how you spend both. There are also fewer distractions as well as opportunities to sin against our closest neighbors, as the Apostle Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 7:28, 32-35:
Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that … I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the uthe things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
So is singleness itself a gift? Yes… but not necessarily to you. The gift of singleness is not a gift to the single but a gift given to the Church through the single person. You are the gift. Your singleness may be either a cross to bear or a state to celebrate, but whether in sorrow or joy, you cannot help but be given more fully to the Church. Singles are a gift from the Lord.
When a man is called to serve a woman as her husband and a woman to a man as his wife, they receive special, strict expectations about their priorities: the woman must submit to her husband, who must lay down his life for his wife (Eph. 5). When my father served as a missionary in Southeast Asia, he eventually began helping to train Cambodian pastors, work that was both satisfying and fulfilling; work he shortly had to leave to serve my mother and me. My two older siblings had graduated high school and returned to America, and my mother could not stand another year that far from her children. As a husband and father, his decision was undoubtedly pleasing to the Lord. But the Church lost him as a teacher to the Cambodians. Certainly, through his and my mother’s dedication, they have raised up three faithful members of the Church (two of whom are now bringing up their own families in Christ), but many of their skills and talents had to be dedicated to their children and to each other.
As a single person, I do not have to make those choices. I serve the Church here at Concordia Theological Seminary, managing our online presence and collecting and writing pieces to help pass on learning to the Church while connecting those outside our walls with the faculty and students within them— work I would not be doing if I was married, and especially if I had children. And what of the work of the ancient Church: of Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, or Paul? Would he have traveled as he did? Risked his life on his many dangerous mission trips? What of Christ?
Yet even we who are single are not single. Christ wasn’t single and neither are we: we are His Bride. Nor are we even single members in the Body of Christ: “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be?” (1 Cor. 12:18-19).
The Church is our family in a way that singles understand implicitly. Even without the normal ties that bind, we are brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, parents, friends, and children. We don’t share blood—and yet we share the only blood that matters. Baptized into the Church, the name of the Triune God written on our foreheads identifies whose family we belong to as we stand with the Lamb (Rev. 14). Biologically we share grandparents from long ago— Adam and Eve and later Noah and his wife—but we are tied most closely and strongly by the blood given and shed on the cross; the same Body and Blood given in, with, and under bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper.
Single or married, burdened or uplifted, here is the reality: Christ knows your troubles and your joys and the gifts He has specifically given to you because you are single—and the gift he has given to the Church through your singleness. We need not fear what is only a description. We are Christ’s. “And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:34-35).
Andrea L. Schultz (Andrea.Schultz@ctsfw.edu) serves as Marketing Specialist at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Singleness...Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

The Church is our family in a way that singles understand implicitly. Even without the normal ties that bind, we are brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, parents, friends, and children. We don’t share blood—and yet we share the only blood that matters. Baptized into the Church, the name of the Triune God written on our foreheads identifies whose family we belong to as we stand with the Lamb (Revelation 14).

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)

So is singleness itself a gift? Yes...but not necessarily to you. The gift of singleness is not a gift to the single but a gift given to the Church through the single person. You are the gift. Your singleness may be either a cross to bear or a state to celebrate, but whether in sorrow or joy you cannot help but be given more fully to the Church. Singles are a gift from the Lord.

(Continued on page #)

(Continued from page #)