The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flock,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among others,
to make music in the heart.”

Help Wanted:
Is it time for you to clean out your cupboards? Are you looking for a wonderful volunteer opportunity to give back to the community? Please consider helping in our Food Pantry. We strive to provide food for anyone who walks through our doors, and they are welcomed with a smile and treated with dignity and respect.
The Food Pantry is staffed by volunteers and stocked with food donated by members of the community and other churches, purchased with donated money, or obtained through the Food Bank of the Heartland. We gratefully receive special contributions from area merchants like Panera and Trader Joe’s.
The Food Pantry is open from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm Monday through Friday and feeds an average of about 40 hungry people each weekday the year round. Lately, we have been serving 85 to 90 people per day! We are in need of cereal, peanut butter, soup, diapers, and toilet paper.
We would like to have two volunteers per day Monday through Friday from 1-2:30 pm. If you would be interested in volunteering, please contact the Church Office at 402.345.7506.

Prayer Request

Please click here for Prayer Request form.

Please know that you are a holy and precious Child of God and that God is always with you. Let us know if you wish to be contacted by including your phone number.

Many blessings to you,

First Lutheran Church

Join us as we gather around music. Bring your lunch and gather in Centennial Hall at 12:30. Then, migrate up to the sanctuary as we gather together to play and sing music simply for the fun of it! Bring an instrument or a song/hymn request if you’d like. It will be a time to be together, sing, and Praise God.

Join us as we gather around music. Bring your lunch and gather in Centennial Hall at 12:30. Then, migrate up to the sanctuary as we gather together to play and sing music simply for the fun of it!  Bring an instrument or a song/hymn request if you’d like. It will be a time to be together, sing, and Praise God.

Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. During Ash Wednesday services, we observe the imposition of ashes in which the minister will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers.

Historically, the Church has imposed ashes on the foreheads of penitent sinners at the start of Lent. In Holy Scripture, specifically in Old Testament times, repentance was often marked by sackcloth and ashes. Following the ascension of Jesus, the Church began using the symbol of ashes to mark the beginning of the season of Lent, a time of prayer and repentance for sin. The reason for the imposition of ashes was not to prove to the world that the person went to church, but to symbolize in a very visual way the consequences of sin: “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  The ashes symbolize who we are – sinners who will return to the dust from whence we came.

The biggest and best Christmas present of all is given and it comes with something of a warning label for us. God is good, God is love, but don’t ever think that God is safe. This Jesus who breaks into the history of the world does so with a mission and that mission is to totally transform and change our lives. For sinners in a bind that is good news, but for the comfortable people who are getting ready to settle in for a week of bowl games in front of their new LCD flat screen hi-definition TV, it might be a little hazardous. Jesus Christ has come to transform the things we think are valuable, the goals of our life, the things we believe are most important. The world may well think we are odd if we listen to Jesus. Our heart might just be softened to the plight of a needy soul or we may be transformed in the way we treat others. Are we ready for that? Jesus has come, Jesus has a mission. Jesus will not be deterred but will keep coming to us.

But there is good news in this too. The mission is for us. Jesus will purify us for heaven and give us a joy which does not fade like the gifts that are lying under our tree. He comes to make us zealous for good to make us fit for heaven, to open our eyes to really see and to wait with an eager expectation for the day of his revelation. This child is not at all safe for us.

May we all wait in hope for that which we can not see. Peace to each of you.

Don’t be afraid. Jesus wants to take away our fear because fear gets in the way of our joy and our mission as his resurrection people. We know that simply telling folks does not take away fear. But then again Jesus once told the wind and waves to be quiet. He once told Peter to feed a multitude with a few fish and loaves of bread, he once told a blind man to open his eyes and see, he told the demons to leave, well….you are getting the point. When Jesus says something it is not like when you and I say something. Jesus’ words have a power which creates the very thing they describe or proscribe. Jesus takes their fear away.  

That Jesus, risen from the dead, would also take your fear away. My 96 year old mother is not afraid as she bravely faces death. She lives her resurrection faith with courage.

Think of the persecuted Christians who have endured terrible things because they heard this same Jesus call them and assure them that theirs was a crown of righteousness.

This Eastertide Jesus takes your fear away as well. He is risen from the dead and your death is undone. He is risen from the dead to care for you. He is risen from the dead, your sad and fearful duty is no longer necessary. It is a day to rejoice!