The Gospel For Those Broken By the Church

This is an excellent proclamation of the Gospel for those hurt, turned off, or broken by a church somewhere. Gene Veith over at Cranach posted this free resourse from Prof. Rod Rosenbladt. A great way to celebrate the Reformation: the proclamation of the Gospel!

"The 'Best' Church For Us"

You will never find the perfect congregation for you or your family. All of them are full of sinners. All of them are led by sinful human beings. All congregations are full of sinners, but sinners redeemed in the blood of Lamb and for which there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8) The perfect church for you would be a church of one - just you - which isn't a church at all.
We must wait until Christ returns to raise all the dead and judge all, and usher in the new heavens and the new earth in "the life of the world to come." And even then, it won't be the perfect church you seek. It won't meet your expectations. It will be something you can't possibly imagine. That's why it's called "the wonderful surprise."
But as we wait for that glorious day, find a congregation that gathers around God's Word purely preached and His Sacraments properly administered.

With Angels and Archangels and the Cleaning Staff

Clarence and Mildred are an amazing, and faithful, couple. Clarence had a stroke umpteen years ago and is in a nursing home. At the same time, his wife, Mildred lives at home, but can't drive. I have the opportunity and privilege of bringing God's Word and Sacrament to them on a regular basis. I usually pick up Mildred and we drive to meet Clarence at the nursing home.
You never know what's going to happen or under what circumstances you will be at the nursing home. Sometimes we worship together in a private dining room, or even in a staff-members office. This past visit, I asked the activities director what was available. He told me, "The main dining room is free. No one should be in there right now." So that's where we went. We found a table and talked awhile. Then I began our worship service using a brief order found in my LSB Pastoral Care Companion. As I began to prepare for the celebration of the Sacrament, in walks a couple of cleaning staff people. They were going to clean the light fixtures. So here I am, saying the Proper Preface as one of the crew plops down a ladder about four feet away and climbs to the fixture right above us. You never know what's going to happen in the Nursing Home! So I just keep going through the order. So there we are celebrating Holy Communion while the light fixtures are cleaned.
This isn't at all like celebrating the Sacrament in our Sanctuary where there are hundreds of people singing hymns with the organ and we use beautifully-crafted communion ware to distribute our Lord's Body and Blood. This is three people, with a little, unassuming Communion kit, no organ, no singing, sitting around a small table, with cleaning people just doing there job around us. But it's no different. It's no different than any other beautiful celebration of Holy Communion. Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born in a stable in a little, unassuming town in the backwater of the Roman Empire. But there, angels and archangels and all the company of heaven celebrated and praised God for what he has done. Same here, in the nursing home, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven - Christ came to Clarence, Mildred, and myself in, with, and under the bread and wine of his holy meal; forgiving us, nourishing and strengthening us, and sending us.
Even with cleaning people around.