Epiphany Lutheran Church: Recent Episodes
Pastor Michael D. Zarling
Epiphany Lutheran Church is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), a national organization of Lutheran congregations.
Perhaps you remember in 2012 when Superstorm Sandy hit the Atlantic coast. It was the deadliest, most destructive and strongest hurricane of that hurricane season. The Egg Harbor Township of New Jersey was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, which was dubbed Frankenstorm
Every year leading up to confirmation, I ask the confirmands a series of questions on whether they want to be confirmed or not. I don’t want to assume that they desire to be confirmed. Nor should they assume that I feel they are ready to be confirmed. That’s why we sit down together in February to talk.
Sermon at the Racine, WI campus of Water of Life Lutheran Church, on Sunday July 11, 2021.
Last week when I was visiting our homebound members, I asked them, “Where do you see darkness in our culture?” They said they see darkness in how everything seems to be about politics, race and sex. They talked about the darkness of divisiveness and the ever-present darkness of abortion in our country.
Naaman is the commander of Aram’s army. He is a powerful warrior and a great man in the eyes of the king (2 Kings 5:1). But he has a problem. A big one. He also has leprosy. An even bigger problem is that he is a pagan – an unbeliever.
Grand openings are always big events – fireworks, balloons, bouncy houses – all ways to grab attention. Come, look here! Something new is happening!
While Paul was on his third missionary tour through Greece and Asia Minor, he was preaching salvation through Jesus Christ in the city of Ephesus. This was cutting into the profits of Demetrius and other Ephesian craftsmen whose business was making silver statues of the goddess Artemis to visitors to the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
Paul has finished his third missionary tour – a four-year trip into Asia Minor and Greece – and ended his journey in Jerusalem. Some Jewish religious leaders who vehemently opposed his message about Jesus Christ stirred up a mob that almost tore Paul to pieces. Roman soldiers had to intervene
Early in March, a Russian “transhumanist and life extensionist” named Alex Turchin published his plan for brining people back to life. He calls it a “technological resurrection.” We only need to build a Dyson sphere to make it happen. Then we can upload people’s memories onto computers for later “resurrection.”
Imagine you are on a first date. It is a blind date because you swiped right on Tinder. You’ve never met this person before so dinner is a little awkward. You ask question and you tell stories as you get to know each other better.
The opposition against Jesus is mounting. The devil has sent his demonic horde to torture poor souls in Galilee and Judea. The money changers in Jerusalem hope to never see Jesus again. Mark tells us that two new enemies join the conflict.
Amber Guyger was a Dallas police officer who was found guilty of murder in October of 2019. Ms. Guyger thought she was entering her apartment, which was actually one floor below. She encountered Botham Jean and mistook him for a burglar. She fired two shots and killed him in his own apartment.
You may have noticed that we received a little bit of snow this week. It probably took you a while to shovel 17 inches of snow out of your driveway and sidewalk. Or maybe you had a really nice neighbor who helped you with his snowblower. If he helps you, I’m guessing you’re going to be appreciative.
10-year-old Jadyn Carr received 10 shares of GameStop stock as a gift from his mother 2 years ago. As a result of the recent stock market war between online traders and hedge funds, Jaydn’s stock surged to more than 53 times what his mother had paid.
Joseph DiMeo was involved in a horrific car accident when he was 19 years old. He fell asleep at the wheel and flipped his vehicle. Thankfully, someone pulled him from the burning car before it exploded. But Joseph still suffered severe burns over 80% of his body. He spent 3 months in a medically induced coma while physicians worked on him.
Maybe you remember the not-so-good days of sitting in the back of the family station wagon with your siblings. Three kids trapped without air conditioning in a hot back seat with only two roll-down windows. That meant one of the children was a human sacrifice – condemned to the hated, middle seat.
It was around this time three years ago when I was sitting with my daughter, Miriam, at our island in the kitchen. We were looking back and forth from my laptop to her Chromebook. We had all kinds of tabs open as we researched different universities, their educational programs, if they offered ROTC on campus, and, if there was a WELS church or WELS campus ministry at that university.
“Can anything good come from Racine?” That was the question people were asking me over 16 years ago while I was in Kentucky holding the call to Epiphany.
God is referring to his Son and servant Jesus when he refers to him as Israel in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, “You are my servant Israel, in whom I will display my glory” (Isaiah 49:3). Jesus will display God’s glory to the nations.
As a child, I would get Atari 2600 games and Legos for Christmas. My two sisters would get things like Barbies and clothes. My dad would get tools. He would get quarts of oil for his tractors, crescent wrenches, screwdrivers and hammers. I always thought, “Wow! That’s so boring!”
Growing up, my cousins and I would give our Christmas lists to our Grandma. We each put different toys and games on our list. But then our moms must have added underwear to all our lists. There aren’t any kids who actually ask for underwear.
As David relaxed in his beautiful, brand new palace, something struck him as being terribly wrong. It didn’t seem right that he was resting comfortably in a palace fit for a king while the ark of the covenant of the King of heaven and earth was stuck in the tabernacle.
There was no spark of life in him. There was no flicker of joy in his heart. Life had become a mere existence. He didn’t want to hold on anymore.
He had lost track of the number of sleepless nights he had spent on his “mattress” – if you could call it that. The days spent in darkness and isolation had begun to run together long ago. Thoughts of escape no longer occupied his mind.
Many of you know that I’m colorblind. My sisters think that I just never learned my colors.
When people learn I’m colorblind, the first reaction is to usually ask me, “What color is this? What color is that?”
Do you ever feel like a failure?
You work hard all day. You come home stressed. You don’t mean to, but you take that stress out on your family with your short temper.
The assignment for my 8th graders in Catechism class this week was to present to the class how they would talk to a married couple who were experiencing sever trauma in their lives. The students were to work in teams of two or three to minister to a couple who were having difficulty conceiving or who have lost a child through miscarriage or who had a child ripped out of their arms with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
He was pretty excited. What young man wouldn’t be? It was the first time he would be taking the car out on the open road by himself. Sure, he had been out on the highway plenty of times before, but on those trips dad had always been with him. This time, things would be different. He was tired of waiting. That’s why he didn’t tell dad or ask for permission.
There is a very good chance that you weren’t happy with how the elections turned out this week. Somewhere along the way, at least one of the candidates you voted for did not make it.
Years ago, I visited a couple who had worshiped with us the previous Sunday at our mission church near Ft. Knox, Kentucky. During my visit, I explained that all people are sinners. I told the couple that we can’t get to heaven by doing enough good works to make up for our bad works. We can’t compare ourselves to others, thinking they are worse sinners than us. We can’t hope that God is taking people to heaven based on our performance.
In our Old Testament lesson, we heard the shocking story of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:1-15). Though he was king of God’s people, he committed every evil imaginable. His wickedness knew no bounds. He worshiped idols and put false altars in God’s temple. He practiced witchcraft
This is the time of the year when farmers begin harvesting their corn. One of the least fun jobs for my sisters and me growing up on the farm was going out to help our dad fix the corn picker in 40-degree weather. Inevitably, something on the corn picker would break while he was harvesting at night. Our dad would come in the house and say that he needed one of the three of us to come outside to hold the flashlight.
My wife, Shelley, and I took our high school senior, Lydia, to Kalamazoo, Michigan on Monday for a tour of Western Michigan University. She wants to go to Western Michigan to become an airline pilot. As part of our tour we scheduled lunch with the WELS campus pastor. At lunch, Pastor Timmermann asked Lydia is she ever had any questions of crisis; anything that caused her to doubt her faith; anything that made her question God.
I was speaking with my dad earlier this week about his farm. Since I am the executor of my parents’ will, I wanted to see how much they thought their 53 acres, farmhouse, barns, sheds and farm machinery are worth.
Halloween is coming soon. Hopefully our children will be able to go trick-or-treating this year. If we have trick-or-treaters, I encourage you not to do what the woman in Fargo, North Dakota did a few years ago.
The submarine doors slam shut. The klaxon horn sounds, and the skipper gives the order, "Dive! Dive! Dive!" Diesel engines firing, propellers whirling, they descend into the depths, safe from enemy attack. That was submarine life aboard the USS Finback stationed in the South Pacific Ocean during World War II. It was their tenth patrol, and so most of the crew was accustomed to this way of life, but for the five airmen that they had just rescued this way of life would take some getting used to.
God promised Abraham that he would not destroy Sodom if he found ten righteous people there. He did not find them. Sodom was destroyed. Do we ever wonder if God would be able to find ten righteous people here in America, the new Sodom?
Our hearts break as we watch the videos, see the pictures, and hear the stories of what has happened in Kenosha. In a recent news story, Daniel Esposito, a Kenosha property owner, pointed to his four buildings that rioters and looters destroyed in the night.
Have you ever been in a storm that caused you to really be afraid? Perhaps it was the storm two weeks ago when the tornado sirens went off in Kenosha and Racine. The smart people hurried into the basement for safety. The guys went outside to look at the sky.
The disciples were sensible. And sending the people home was the sensible thing to do. After all, it was getting late in the day and the people needed food. So dismiss them, Jesus. Tell them that’s all for today, go home and get a bite to eat.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case brought by Calvary Chapel, a rural Nevada church. Calvary Chapel was looking to block enforcement of Nevada’s 50 person attendance limit on all places of worship – a rule which applies regardless of building capacity.
According to a new Gallup poll, more people say that wearing fur clothing is wrong than those who say that divorce, homosexuality or adultery are wrong. In that same poll, sex outside of marriage is more morally acceptable for adults, but 40% less think so for teenagers.
The first time the pastor saw George in church was when George was immaculately dressed … lying in his casket for his Christian funeral. The pastor’s mind went back to those words spoken by an impressionable little 10-year-old boy, “No, ma’am. I won’t ever.”
Men, you want your fishing or deer hunting stories to be worthy of retelling. Women, you want your projects to be Pinterest worthy. Parents, you want your children to be accolades worthy.
We put bumper stickers on our cars boasting our children are on the honor roll. We post our personal successes on social media for validation. We want to be remembered for our greatness after we’re gone.
Last fall, Professor Mark Zarling, who was serving as the President of Martin Luther College – where we train our pastors and teachers – announced his retirement from the ministry. I jokingly told some Synod officials that they could put my name on the call list. If I was President of MLC, they could save money on business cards, brochures and nameplates. They could just print, “M. Zarling.”
I grew up watching and loving the Looney Tunes. So, I was excited when I learned that the new streaming service, HBO Max, will be airing the old Looney Tunes cartoons.
I watched “Braveheart” earlier this week. At the end of the movie, William Wallace is being tortured for leading the Scots in battle against the King of England. While he is being brought to the platform for his public execution, the crowd boos while throwing rotten food at him.
Little Red Riding Hood is one of world’s best-known fairy tales. Like most European folk tales, it has been told and retold so many times with so many adaptations, that its origin has been lost to time.
Right smack in the middle of seeing the biggest miracle that has ever happened – the Son of God dying and rising from the dead – some doubted. That’s just bizarre, don’t you think?
An entire vocabulary has arisen for this new time: Covid-19, social distancing, new normal, and more. Who of us really knew what a Zoom meeting was until a few months ago?
The soldier answered his nation’s call. He left behind his family, friends and fortunes – personal treasures that so many take for granted. He is the warrior who was called upon to fight our nation’s enemies. He fought in distant lands to keep the battle far from our homes.
Charlie’s mom became extremely ill and bedridden right after his sixth birthday. It didn’t take very long for her to succumb to her illness. Charlie and his father grieved. But Charlie’s dad suffered an emotional breakdown. He became severely depressed and began drinking heavily. … By Charlie’s eight birthday, his dad had died, too.
It is Thursday evening. The disciples are relaxing during the meal. It has been quite a week for them – the adoration showered on Jesus during his Sunday entrance into Jerusalem; the shock of watching Jesus overturn the money changers’ tables in the temple courtyard; the vitriol from the religious leaders as they tried to trap Jesus with their questions.
Joshua owns a ranch with thousands of sheep and lambs. He divides his flocks into groups of one hundred. He personally names each of the lambs right after birth. He never forgets a single name of any of his sheep.
A thick fog has settled along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It is difficult for the two disciples to move with any kind of urgency. Every step is slow and plodding as they head home.
The disciples had big plans after the Passover holiday was over. James and John were planning to go fishing with their dad, Zebedee, on the Sea of Galilee. Peter was looking forward to his mother-in-law’s delicious lamb and legumes. Matthew was going to walk his children to school so they could sit at the feet of their rabbi. Andrew and Nathanael were going hiking across the Judean countryside. Thomas was planning to help his twin brother plant spring crops.
Then, within a few days, everything changed!
The Jewish remnant had returned to Jerusalem. It has been fourteen years since the people had been released from their Babylonian captivity. They were fourteen long, difficult and discouraging years.
Ezekiel was standing in the valley. The valleys was gray and colorless, barren and dry. There was no life in the valley. No grass growing. No flowers blooming. No birds singing or critters skittering.
The decay of death hung heavy over the valley.
Jake stole his father’s estate from his older brother. When his brother found out, he threatened to kill Jake.
Joseph was a farmer near Hebron in the hill country of Judea. He heard the prophet Isaiah was traveling through the Judean countryside sharing God’s message of judgment and promise.
We live in a world of broken promises. It's not just politicians who make promises that they fail to keep. We've all done it. And we've all been affected by the promises others have broken.
Rocky Marciano is the only undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion. His record is an amazing 49-0. He was small for a “big fellow” standing only 5’10”. His equalizer was his right hand.
I have gone to see two different optometrists in the past few months. I wasn’t seeing so well, so I went to get my eyes checked. I wasn’t really concerned. I figured I just needed a new prescription. The first optometrist said my prescription hadn’t changed, but I might think about getting bifocals.
Jason stared at the makeshift barricade against his door. He rubbed his back and shook his head. “Will that keep them out?” Jason had been afraid when he heard the crowd gathering outside his window.
Keara O'Neill went shopping for a dress she could wear to an upcoming wedding. When she hesitated in buying an outfit, the salesperson insulted her size-eight figure and said she and her friends "were a joke."
The light of salvation is for all nations. Jesus prayed for it. Paul preached it. John saw it and wrote it. In the history of the Wisconsin Synod was to go out to the nations with the light of salvation. Our current and future ministry in the WELS and Epiphany is that the Lord is bringing the nations to the Racine area. Our privilege and responsibility is sharing this light in another culture and language through the ministries of Epiphany and WLS.
When I was a kid, my two younger sisters and I would ride in the back of our parents’ blue conversion van. It had wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling blue carpeting. The back seats had been removed to make three benches around the back. There was a round pedestal table in the center of the benches for drinks, food and cards. There were no seat belts in the back. It was totally unsafe! But that was OK. It was the 80s!
Several years ago, I baptized a baby boy in our church. Later, at the baptism party at the parents’ home, I was introduced to the baby’s grandfather, who is a Lutheran pastor and missed his grandson’s baptism because he was preaching that morning. He shook my hand and asked me one question.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Amen.
You will all be failures in 2020.
Galatians 4:4-7 is one of the great texts of the Bible. It teaches the incarnation of Christ, the two natures of Jesus as God and Man, and that through Jesus as the Son of God and Son of Man, we are made heirs of the heavenly Father.
For the sake of a wager, God allowed Satan to have his way with his servant Job. Satan could do anything to him short of killing him. So, he did.
King Nebuchadnezzar is living the Babylonian dream. He has become the man, the myth, the legend. He has everything anyone might desire.