Mount Calvary Lutheran Church - Brentwood, MO - 20 July 2008

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, we are eager to settle into a single congregation and join them for Sunday Bible classes and worship. Thinking we had figured out the notes in the bulletin from last week, my family returned to Mount Calvary Lutheran Church this week. Sadly, we were mistaken: Mt. Calvary does not have children's Sunday School during the summer. There is a "Children's Worship Experience" for the youth after the children's message during the 10:30 service, but that is the extent of the children's Sunday School program until fall.

Rev. Darrell Zimmerman, the pastor of this congregation, led the congregation in songs of praise and presented a sermon on the gospel reading, the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. The sermon was titled "Life Among the Weeds!" We knew we were in for a challenging sermon when Pastor Zimmerman began by reciting a new verse for the hymn "There is a Redeemer": "When I stand in glory I will see His face, In the meantime, Jesus, I'm living in a miserable place." This was just the beginning, and the message continued to emphasize that neither prosperity nor adversity could distinguish between the wheat and the weeds as we grow together in this world. We eagerly await the second coming and might rashly bring it on before the harvest has fully come, but Our Father is merciful: "'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.'"

During the divine service, the congregation commissioned a team of its members who are bringing the Gospel to a Cree indian group in remote Canada by helping the local parish there conduct Vacation Bible School. In addition, the congregation bid a fond farewell to Michael and Mary Podeszwa; Michael is a seminarian and has been serving as a field education worker with Mt. Calvary, while Mary has served as the congregation's Director of Christian Education. Michael and his family are leaving for Cincinnati, Ohio where he will be serving as vicar for the next year.