October 22, 2020
Dear friends,
Two announcements first:
1) Come to church this Sunday and next! We have two festivals ahead of us – this Sunday commemorates the Reformation, and next Sunday (Nov. 1) is All Saints’ Day, on which we thank God for his faithful departed. You’ll notice that the colors change for these two Sundays – red for the Reformation and white for All Saints’. Then we’re back to Green for just a few weeks before we enter the blue season of Advent. Come along and hear God’s Word!
2) Next Wednesday (October 28) at 8pm will be our 2nd monthly Men’s Bible Study. Picking up where we left off last month, the topic is the cultivation of virtue. What are the uniquely masculine virtues and how can we practice them? Join us and bring a friend!
Then, just a bit more history for you to fill in the picture of church life at the beginnings of Concordia:
When Rev. Heinrich Vetter first arrived in Minnesota in 1872 (10 years before meeting with the families of Fairhaven), he quickly established preaching stations throughout central Minnesota in 17 counties: Wright, Meeker, Kandiyohi, Stearns, Benton, Morrison, Todd, Becker, Ottertail, Douglas, Stevens, Pope, Big Stone, Swift, Chippewa, Renville, and Redwood. The strategy for covering such a wide geographic area involved traveling east to west across Minnesota 3 times a year.1 New immigrants were arriving all the time, and by the time he’d finished his course to the west, it was high time for him to head back east again. 4 months is a long time for anyone to go without the preaching of God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper.
This schedule allowed Rev. Vetter to reach more families, but it also meant that there was greater danger to the families to whom he ministered. An appeal was published in Der Lutheraner in 1874 asking for support for this mission in Minnesota. The author described the hunger and thirst for righteousness of those settlers who had no permanent church or called pastor. He also pointed out the prevalence of false teachers – ministers of other denominations who preached a different Gospel. “The devil can wreak havoc quickly through his false prophets.”2
It’s a perspective that’s worth taking to heart. We got a glimpse of scarcity back in March, April, and May while we were not worshipping here at Church. It was nothing, of course, in comparison with what those settlers experienced, but still, the dangers are the same now as they were then. You come to church for protection from the dangers to your faith that abound in this world. You come to church to hear again and again that your sins are forgiven, lest you believe the words of false prophets who deny that sin needs to be forgiven or that Jesus has done it all for you. You come to church to gain wisdom, to fill your ears and hearts with the wisdom that comes from on high lest you be drawn away by the foolishness of this world. You come to church to be fed with good, wholesome food so that you are not tempted to fill yourself with the worthless, poisonous fare this world has to offer.
The moment we think that we don’t need to hear again that our sins are forgiven or that we’ve had enough wisdom to get by in this world or that we’ve had quite enough of God’s Word to fill us up already – the moment we think any of that is the moment we have succumbed to this world. God grant that we always hunger and thirst for righteousness. God grant us eyes to see and ears to hear so that we recognize the danger that surrounds us and hold all the more tightly to God’s promises. Though we walk in danger all the way, Jesus freely gives us everything that we need to overcome our enemies. God grant that we trust in him alone!
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs
- Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly 2 (1929–30), 113.
- Der Lutheraner, 1874, p. 53.