Pastor's Message

February 2026

Dear People of God,

I enjoy singing in our First Lutheran Church choir, although I always need help finding the tenor line.  Under the excellent leadership of Phil Cutlip and Betty Kramlich, we have a great time singing God’s praises together.  There really is something to singing Christian anthems and songs together which bolsters the faith and just makes you feel good.  On Sunday January 25th the choir sang a piece entitled “Come, Share the Lord” by Bryan Jeffrey Leech, arranged by Roland Tabell.  I kept thinking during rehearsals that if I wanted to teach a little class on the Lord’s Supper, perhaps we would simply learn this song.  Read the words and see if you agree.

  “We gather here in Jesus’ name, His love is burning in our hearts like living flame.  For through His loving Son the Father makes us one.  Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.

We’ll gather soon where angels sing, we’ll see the glory of our Lord and coming King.  Now we anticipate the feast for which we wait.  Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.

For He will feed us with His presence here, this bread and wine will do us good.  Our deepest hungers he will satisfy, for He is life and peace and rest and drink and food.  He joins us here, He breaks the bread.  The Lord who pours the cup is risen from the dead.  The One we love the most is now our gracious host.  Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.

No one is a stranger here, everyone belongs.  Finding our forgiveness here, we in turn forgive all wrongs.  We are now the family of which the Lord is head.  Though unseen He meets us here in the breaking of the bread.

We gather here in Jesus’ name, His love is burning in our hearts like living flame.  For through His loving Son the Father makes us one.  Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.”

I mean as far as our understanding of the Lord’s Supper goes, I think the words are spot on.  Christ is present in with and under the bread and wine, which is a foretaste of the heavenly feast to come.  And Christ is present in Christian community, forgiving us and uniting us.  It’s great to sing the faith and share the Lord’s Supper together!

Ash Wednesday comes early this year (Feb 18th), because Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus comes early (April 5th).  All are welcome to worship at 7pm on Wednesday, February 18th as we begin the season of Lent with confession and forgiveness of sins, imposition of ashes, prayers, songs, scriptures, a message and the Lord’s Supper.  Our friends from First Methodist will be joining us. Lent is always a more penitential time in the church year as we walk with our Savior Jesus to his cross and grave.  Prayer, fasting and giving to charity are some of the traditional disciplines of Lent, but not the only ones.  The 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays, which are “little Easters: little celebrations of Jesus’ resurrection from death.”

“Come take the bread, come drink the wine, come share the Lord.”

 ~ Pastor Dennis Hickman