2017 MARCH NEWSLETTER

Life-Giving Fruit “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). This was God’s solemn warning to Adam and Eve. They could eat the fruit from any tree in the Garden of Eden. But not this one. Not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To do so would bring death. But none of this mattered when it came down to it. The serpent had already begun to sink his hellish fangs into the heart of Eve. It didn’t take much. A simple question: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). And suddenly Eve is no longer seriously considering the consequences of her actions. After all, the benefits seemed to outweigh the consequences, at least for the moment. Eve saw that the tree was good for food, it didn’t look dangerous or unpleasant, and it could make her wise. How could something that promised such wonderful things be so bad for you? How could something so inviting, so attractive to the eye be filled with such dreadful poison? Adam and Eve would find out the hard way that God was serious when He said, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” For “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), says the apostle. And death is what they got. For where there is sin, there is also death and damnation. The age-old problem with mankind is that we have never stopped eating the fruit that leads to death. Every day the scene in the garden gets replayed. Man sees something that he desires. God says no. Satan taunts, “Did God actually say . . . ?” And man says, “Well, maybe just one little bite won’t hurt.” You, too, know the commandments of God. You know that He requires you to be holy and to live a holy life perfect in thought, word, and deed. And yet, how quickly caution is thrown to the wind and the warnings of God’s Word ignored when you see something that you want. You try to pretend that God has not spoken, or that He was not really serious when He said, “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” (Exodus 20:13–14, 17). You test the limits of His patience. Like a child testing his parents, you see just how much you can get away with, just how far you can push the limits before God will inflict punishment upon you. Not content with what God has given, not content to stay within the bounds of the Law, you continually try to renegotiate with God. But this always ends badly. This was how Adam and Eve ended up banished from the tree of life and exiled from the garden. And this is why you must eventually return to dust. Adam and Eve needed a Savior, and so do you. A Savior from sin and its consequences. One who would undo the spiritual train wreck left behind in the garden and save you and all people from sin, death, and the devil. One who would open up a way back into paradise and to the tree of life. It would take one from woman’s seed to do this. It would take the Son of God, assuming your flesh, taking your sin, your shame, and your death upon Himself. It would take Jesus, true God and true Man, drinking the “cup of scorn and dread to crush the ancient serpent’s head” (LSB 561:3). For us, and for our salvation, this new and better Adam said “no” to the devil’s temptations. Rather than eat the forbidden fruit of earthly power and glory, Christ ate ashes like bread and mingled His drink with weeping (cf. Psalm 102:9). He refused to satisfy Himself, to indulge His appetite, and denied Himself food and drink for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. He was content to live by the Word of His Father—for you. That is what this Lenten season is all about. Beginning tonight, as ashes are smeared on the foreheads of the faithful, we return to the garden. We remember with shame the fall of our first parents and the mortal life that we now share with them on account of sin. We take our place next to Adam and Eve and hear the terrifying voice of the Lord: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But we also remember that “no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man, could do that” (Christian Questions and Answers, LSB pp. 329–30). Our only joy, our only comfort in the midst of sin and death is Christ, who bore our sins on the tree of the cross for us, and gave Himself over to His Father’s wrath in our stead. All of this He did so that Adam and his children might live. So that having returned to dust, we might also rise again with Him. He drank the cup of suffering and tasted death for us all so that we, the fallen sons of Adam, might once again have full and free access to the tree of life. During this Lenten season, we rejoice that this access is given to us uniquely in the salutary gift of the Lord’s Supper. Now, in sacramental bread and wine, Christians washed in the blood of the Lamb are given to eat another kind of fruit; a life-giving fruit given to us straight from the tree of the cross. This fruit is none other than the body and blood of our Lord, given and shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And whereas the fruit from the tree of knowledge brought death to Adam, this is truly life-giving fruit. For Christ says, “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever” (John 6:58). This holy gift, when received in repentance and faith, bestows the very life of Christ and seals to the one who eats of it the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. As the hymn confesses, “Now from that tree of Jesus’ shame Flows life eternal in His name; For all who trust and will believe, Salvation’s living fruit receive. And of this fruit so pure and sweet The Lord invites the world to eat, To find within this cross of wood The tree of life with ev’ry good” (LSB 561:4). We eat of this fruit when we hear Christ’s death proclaimed in the holy Gospel. But we also eat of it in a sacramental way when we come to the Lord’s Table, open our mouths, and receive “salvation’s living fruit.” The thing about the Sacrament is that it is not impressive to the eyes. Unlike the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was pleasing to the eye, there is nothing extraordinary about the appearance of this fruit. To our eyes, it seems too ordinary to be worthy of reverence and adoration. But our eyes can deceive us. We can all make the mistake of Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5), wishing that God would work His healing in a more spectacular way. The unbelieving world looks at this gift and asks, “How can something so ordinary, something so unattractive, so unimpressive bestow such gifts?” The unbelieving world mocks the Christian for trusting so mightily in something that appears so powerless, just as it mocks us for placing our trust in a crucified Savior. Yet the words of Christ do not lie: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It is fitting that you mourn over your sins, that the ashes of death adorn your foreheads. It is fitting that you “rend your hearts and not your garments” and “return to the LORD your God” (Joel 2:13). You are Adam’s sons and daughters, after all, and you lived as if God did not matter, and as if you mattered most of all. But you do not mourn without hope. For God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and He relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13). The same God who excommunicated Adam and Eve from the tree of life now welcomes you to His holy Table. In His mercy, He has left “a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God” (2:14). Dear Christians, in the beginning, God warned Adam concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” But now, in the body and blood of Christ, God has made a solemn promise and pledge to you and to all the faithful: “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely live.” Amen. Pax Xp— Rev. Kenneth L. Humphrey, Pastor Martin Chemnitz, Justification: The Chief Article of Christian Doctrine Can anyone, as some think, be saved in his religion and faith, without the Word of God, but having formed a good intention? By no means. For God says only of His Word that it is the Word of life… [and] the Word of salvation… [that] saves our souls. But Scripture declares all other sects, conceived beyond, outside of, or contrary to the Word of God, that they are without Christ, outside the promises of the covenant, having no hope, and without God in the world… And flesh and blood does not reveal this Christ, but the Father in the Word and through the Word. Where is the Word of God to be looked for, and whence is it to be sought? Are new and special inspirations and revelations to be expected? At one time God revealed His Word by various ways and means. For sometimes, appearing Himself to the holy fathers, He spoke in their presence, sometimes through prophets inspired and moved by His Spirit; finally He spoke to mankind through His Son and the apostles. But He gave us neither command nor promise to expect that kind of inspirations. Yet for the sake of posterity He saw to it that this Word of His, first revealed by preaching and confirmed by sequent miracles, was later put into writing by faithful witnesses. And to that very same Word, comprehended in the prophetic and apostolic writings, He bound to His church, so that whenever we want to know or show that a teaching is God’s Word, this should be our axiom: Thus it is written; thus Scripture speaks and testifies. Pax Xp— Rev. Kenneth L. Humphrey, Pastor + + + The History and Meaning of Ash Wednesday By Dr. Richard P. Bucher Ash Wednesday is the name given to the first day of the season of Lent, in which the Pastor applies ashes to the foreheads of Christians to signify an inner repentance. But what is the history and the meaning of this Christian holy day? Ash Wednesday, originally called dies cinerum (day of ashes) is mentioned in the earliest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary, and probably dates from at least the 8th Century. One of the earliest descriptions of AshWednesday is found in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his Lives of the Saints, he writes, "We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast." Aelfric then proceeds to tell the tale of a man who refused to go to church for the ashes and was accidentally killed several days later in a boar hunt! This quotation confirms what we know from other sources, that throughout the Middle Ages ashes were sprinkled on the head, rather than anointed on the forehead as in our day. As Aelfric suggests, the pouring of ashes on one's body (and dressing in sackcloth, a very rough material) as an outer manifestation of inner repentance or mourning is an ancient practice. It is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. What is probably the earliest occurrence is found at the very end of the book of Job. Job, having been rebuked by God, confesses, "Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Other examples are found in 2 Samuel 13:19, Esther 4:1,3, Isaiah 61:3, Jeremiah 6:26, Ezekiel 27:30, and Daniel 9:3. In the New Testament, Jesus alludes to the practice in Matthew 11:21: "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." In the typical Ash Wednesday observance, Christians are invited to the altar to receive the imposition of ashes, prior to receiving the holy Supper. The Pastor applies ashes in the shape of the cross on the forehead of each, while speaking the words, "For dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). This is of course what God spoke to Adam and Eve after they eaten of the forbidden fruit and fallen into sin. These words indicated to our first parents the bitterest fruit of their sin, namely death. In the context of the Ash Wednesday imposition of ashes, they remind each penitent of their sinfulness and mortality, and, thus, their need to repent and get right with God before it is too late. The cross reminds each penitent of the good news that through Jesus Christ crucified there is forgiveness for all sins, all guilt, and all punishment. Many Christians choose to leave the ashes on their forehead for the remainder of the day, not to be showy and boastful (see Matthew 6:16-18). Rather, they do it as a witness that all people are sinners in need of repentance AND that through Jesus all sins are forgiven through faith. Ash Wednesday, like the season of Lent, is never mentioned in Scripture and is not commanded by God. Christians are free to either observe or not observe it. It also should be obvious that the imposition of ashes, like similar external practices, are meaningless, even hypocritical, unless there is a corresponding inner repentance and change of behavior. This is made clear in Isaiah 58:5-7 when God says, Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes ? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? With this in mind, however, the rite of ashes on Ash Wednesday is heartily recommended to the Christian as a grand opportunity for repentance and spiritual renewal within the framework of confession and absolution. A blessed Ash Wednesday observance to all. + + + Reformation 500 celebration event! Come to Cheyenne March 19th to hear Synod President Rev. Matthew Harrison teaching in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation at Our Savior Lutheran Church of Cheyenne, Wyoming. All who are interested in coming are invited to come and listen to his presentation at 4:00pm with social time following. We can seat quite a few and expect the seats to be full - hoping you can be a part of it. -- Pastor Scheer + + + Trinity Lutheran Women’s Society will meet TUESDAY MARCH 7 for their regular monthly meeting. Karen Ritz will lead the bible study from the Winter LWML Quarterly. Please bring your quarterly. Joanne Kurtz will have closing devotions and hostesses are Becky McIntosh and Kylie Wilson. All women of the congregation are invited to join us at 7 pm Tuesday. Faces of the LHF mission How do your prayers and gifts to the LHF mission made a difference? Take a look: In the African country of Mali, French-speaking orphans received their very own copies of A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories. This is the only book these children own – and it just happens to be a book about the Savior, Jesus Christ! Here you see a very small portion of the hundreds upon hundreds of Spanish copies of the Bible with Small Catechism LHF has shipped to a federal detention center in El Paso, Texas. There, Spanish-speaking detainees ask specifically for "the Bible with the extra pages" (catechism) to help them better understand God's Word to them. In South Sudan, deep gratitude for Luther’s Small Catechism, printed by LHF in the Dinka language, is plainly visible on the face of this man, who never before has this book available in a language he can read and understand. LHF couldn’t have translated and published these books without your help. In 2017, we at LHF are depending on you to help us supply Lutheran preachers and teachers with the books and materials they need to introduce unbelievers to the Savior, Jesus Christ. Who are the teachers? They are our Lutheran missionaries who venture into new lands to share the love of Christ. They are the pastors around the world who faithfully preach the Word in every season. They are the parents who read Bible stories to their children at bedtime. It can even be YOU, or your church, as you reach out to people in your own community. + + + Thursday Morning Bible class will be held as usual during lent. Also TableTalk will not be held during the Lenten season. + + + The Let Us Pray for....Synod: pastors and congregations, schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, and auxiliaries; LCMS President Matthew Harrison, 1st V-Pres. Rev. Herb Mueller, Wyoming District President John Hill, 1st Vice President Richard Neugebauer, Pine Ridge Circuit Visitor Rev. Richard Mueller, Pastor Kenneth Humphrey; The Nation and those in Authority over us: the President, and Congress, the Governor and Legislature of Nebraska, all who make, administer, and judge our laws, all who serve in public office, our community, those who have not heard the Gospel, those who are persecuted for the faith; Members of Trinity: Sharon Schledewitz, Katie Wilhelm, Jean Borland, Jerry Dillman, Betty Batt, John Jochem, Bob Schledewitz, Lydia Dillman, Jean Strauch, Mike Strauch, Charlotte Herrell, Sharon Huber, Don Herrell, our youth and catechumens, and our absent brothers and sisters in Christ; Our Servicemen: Jordon Frieb and Courtney Burrill (relatives of Herrell’s); Friends and family members in their time of need: Dick Duncan (Engebretsen), Dorothea Batt (Batt), Vicki Pfortmiller (Freel), Bobby Williams (Williams), Gordon Niswender (Dillman), Douglas Vaughn (Freel), Glen Jochem, Todd Wilson, Connie Mathson, Julie Pierantoni (Warnke), Denise Blasias (Hartwig), Breanna Lovell (Holthus), Jeanne Siegel (Siegel); Wyoming District & LCMS friends: Joan Stratman, Krista Grams (St John’s, Scottsbluff), Rev. Shawn J. Found, Rev. Lynn Christensen (Navy Chaplain from WY District), Zion (Laramie, WY), Trinity (Riverton, WY), Trinity (Rock Springs, WY). TO ADD OR REMOVE A PRAYER REQUEST, PLEASE SEE PASTOR OR VIRGINIA. PLEASE REMEMBER THE INDIVIDUALS LISTED ABOVE IN YOUR DAILY PRAYERS. + + + Sandy Ladwig has agreed to clean the church on an every other week basis. Please help her by not leaving the church in disarray and by taking out the trash or cleaning whenever your organization uses the church. Or by doing other tasks when you have time. + + + ORPHAN GRAIN TRAIN NEWS Present Day Since 1992, Orphan Grain Train's 24 regional locations have delivered more than 10 million meals and 2,650 shipments of humanitarian aid to needy people in various states and 66 countries on 5 continents. An additional 330 semi-loads of hay and forage products were delivered in 2002-03 to drought-stricken farmers in the Midwest during Operation Hay and Grain Lift. In 2014, Orphan Grain Train built a mobile chapel with help from a grant funded by LCMS Disater Relief division for St. John's Lutheran Church in Pilger, NE after their church as demolished by a F4 tornado. The mission of Orphan Grain Train is uniquely dependent upon dedicated volunteers, many of whom have given numerous years of service for the sake of others. Since 1992, more than 3.5 million hours have been volunteered! Orphan Grain Train is a recognized service organization (RSO) of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS). Many shipments have been in cooperation with Lutheran Hour Ministries, LCMS World Mission, LCMS World Relief, and other Christian ministries. Disaster Response In addition to international efforts,within the United States is a key part of Orphan Grain Train’s mission. In the years since Hurricane Katrina, more than 147 semi loads of supplies have been shipped to the Gulf Coast to support the recovery efforts. Orphan Grain Train also has a number of "Special Projects" which include unique, specialized opportunities to make a direct impact on the lives of those in need. As a 501(c)(3) organization, Orphan Grain Train is exempt from federal income taxes and your donations are tax deductible. To learn more, please visit our financial information page. Much has been accomplished through Orphan Grain Train in the years since 1992, but much remains to be done. Please consider joining us. Help us respond to the material and spiritual needs of people around the world. Get on board now! If you would like to donate to this urgent cause, please mail your check to Orphan Grain Train P.O. Box 1466 Norfolk, NE 68702 or donate online to http://www.ogt.org/help/donate/donate.html. Orphan Grain Train 601 W. Phillip Ave. PO Box 1466 - Norfolk, NE 68702 Phone (402) 371-7393 Toll Free (877) 371-7393 - Fax (402) 371-7350 E-mail info@ogt.org + + + TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH 405 JACKSON COURT MORRILL, NEBRASKA 308-247-2432 2017 SCHEDULE OF LENTEN SERVICES MARCH 1 7 PM ASH WEDNESDAY VESPERS MARCH 5 9 AM DIVINE SERVICE III without communion 10:20 ADULT BIBLE CLASS/ CHILDREN’S SS MARCH 8 7 PM MIDWEEK LENT VESPERS MARCH 12 9 AM DIVINE SERVICE IV 10:20 ADULT BIBLE CLASS/ CHILDREN’S SS MARCH 15 7 PM MIDWEEK LENT VESPERS MARCH 19 9 AM MATINS 10:20 ADULT BIBLE CLASS/ CHILDREN’S SS MARCH 22 7 PM MIDWEEK LENT VESPERS MARCH 26 9 AM DIVINE SERVICE III 10:20 ADULT BIBLE CLASS/ CHILDREN’S SS MARCH 29 7 PM MIDWEEK LENT VESPERS APRIL 2 9 AM MATINS 10:20 ADULT BIBLE CLASS/ CHILDREN’S SS APRIL 5 7 PM MIDWEEK LENT VESPERS APRIL 9 9 AM PALM SUNDAY DIVINE SERVICE IV 10:20 ADULT BIBLE CLASS/ CHILDREN’S SS APRIL 13 7 PM MAUNDY THURSDAY DIVINE SERVICE IV APRIL 14 7 PM GOOD FRIDAY VESPERS APRIL 16 6:30 SUNRISE SERVICE @ ST JAMES LUTHERAN, SCOTTSBLUFF, NE 9 AM EASTER DIVINE SERVICE III @ TRINITY