It All Starts with the Incarnation

We have been celebrating our 150th year of ministry and mission for the past year, and it is very exciting that this month we celebrate the congregation’s actual birthday on December 25th.

I’m sure that it was no mere coincidence that our Swedish immigrant founders chose this particular day, the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to begin worshipping as a new faith community. Perhaps they chose the day of the incarnation because they wanted to impress on the worshipping assembly that the church is to be ‘incarnational’—all about being the body of Christ in here and now, all about being Jesus’ hands and feet in carrying on his mission and ministry in the world, all about being ‘little Christs,’ ambassadors of God, light in the darkness, bearers of the Good News of salvation by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ—everyday, everywhere, and with everyone.

And as we look toward the birth of our Lord and Savior on Christmas Day, and the anniversary of the founding of this worshipping community, I also invite you to look forward to the re-birth and renewal of our congregation. As Lutherans, we are to be all about ‘new life’ in and through Jesus Christ—not just for individuals, but also for the entire congregation and the whole church. We are to be continuously reforming and renewing the church, always asking ourselves, ‘How does what we are doing and the way we are doing it help us live out the mission entrusted to us by Jesus Christ?’

Through the incarnation, God came down to us in and though the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus left us with his mission to serve God and others in his name, baptizing, preaching and teaching the Gospel –not for our own benefit, but in order to help grow the kingdom of God in the here and now—and in the world to come. I call the church ‘incarnational’ because it is, in a way, a continuation of the incarnation—God’s choosing to work in the world through human beings.

The incarnation changed everything. The relationship between God and people will never be the same as it was before. A Savior is born. All of humanity can be restored to a right relationship with God, in and through Jesus Christ. And the ‘incarnational’ church continues to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit that changes it and it's role in the world. Walking humbly, loving mercy and doing justice in his name. Not resting on our laurels, but looking ahead to the next new thing God has planned for us to do in his name—even if the new thing may not look so much like the old thing. And it all starts with the incarnation.

Trusting God. Following Jesus <><

Pastor Roy+