Word & Sacrament | Immanuel Lutheran, Joplin

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  Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 13, 2026 13.09.2026 17мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost — September 13, 2026 The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost fell on September 13, and when people opened their bulletins they found the hymn spaces empty. The boards at the front of the nave were blank too. That was on purpose. We held a hymn sing, which means the congregation picked every hymn from the pew, out loud, while the rest of us waited to see what we were about to sing. Pastor Christopher Ramstad set one rule from the front. Anything goes, as long as Betty says it is okay. Organist Betty Lingenfelter kept the right of refusal and never used it. Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost — “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” Matthew 18 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. Most weeks the hymns are chosen in advance and printed in the bulletin, and this was the exception rather than the rule. The rest of the morning ran the way it always does. The liturgy was the Service of Prayer and Preaching, an order out of the red hymnal in the pew racks, the Lutheran Service Book. This was a second Sunday, so there was no Communion. We commune on the first and third Sundays of the month. If you have not been here before, the shape of the morning is easy to follow. Page numbers are announced, and the words are printed and on the screens. Following a beat behind is normal. There is more on our What to Expect page, and every service is on our live stream. The hymns the congregation picked Because the hymns came from the floor, the two services went different directions. The early service opened with Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, LSB 660, and later sang Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, LSB 802. Amazing Grace, LSB 744, came right after the sermon. We went out on Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise, LSB 917. At 10:30 the opening hymn was Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, LSB 563, followed by Thy Strong Word, LSB 578. The closing hymn was Go, My Children, with My Blessing, LSB 922. One pick took two tries. Somebody at the late service asked for Great Is Thy Faithfulness and offered 806, which turns out to be Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart. The right number is 809. We got there. When the last note was done Pastor Ramstad said what half the room had already noticed. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. That was a perfect pick for the parable of the merciful master. The readings were fixed even if the hymns were not. Joseph meets his brothers in Genesis 50, after their father has died and they are certain the bill is finally coming due. Paul spends Romans 14 on the judgments Christians pass on each other over things that are not the faith. Then Matthew 18, where Peter asks Jesus to put a number on forgiveness. The parable of the merciful master — the sermon on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Pastor Ramstad opened both services by telling the parable the way we wish it went. A king settles accounts. A man who owes everything begs for patience. The king forgives the whole debt, and the man goes jumping and skipping and leaping out of the room. He runs home and tells his family they are free. He finds everyone who owes him anything and clears the books. And they all lived happily ever after. The end, Pastor Ramstad said, or do we say amen? Then he let the room sit with it for a second. That is not the way the story goes. Peter’s question does not come out of nowhere. Last Sunday we heard the twenty verses in front of it, where Jesus set a small child in the middle of the disciples and talked about what sin costs and how to go to a brother who has wronged you. Forgive your brother. So Peter tries to be helpful and asks for a number. Seven times? It sounds generous, and it was meant to. The Pharisees had settled on three, drawn from the first chapters of Amos, and taught the people the fourth offense was the end of it. Peter more than doubles them. Jesus answers seventy times seven, which is four hundred and n
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  Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost — August 16, 2026 16.08.2026 20мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost — August 16, 2026 The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost brought the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri to one of the most uncomfortable sentences in the Gospels. A desperate mother begs Jesus for mercy, and He calls her a dog. Pastor Christopher Ramstad refused to soften it — and showed the congregation why the woman’s answer, “Yes, Lord,” is one of the great confessions of faith in all of Scripture. Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost — “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. Scripture Readings for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost Old Testament: Isaiah 56:1, 6–8 Epistle: Romans 11:1–2a, 13–15, 28–32 Holy Gospel: Matthew 15:21–28 Sunday’s worship followed Divine Service, Setting Three from Lutheran Service Book, with Holy Communion. All three readings pull in the same direction: Isaiah’s promise that God’s house will be “a house of prayer for all peoples,” Paul insisting that God has consigned all to disobedience so that He may have mercy on all, and a Canaanite woman kneeling in the dirt outside Israel asking for crumbs. If a Lutheran service is new to you, our What to Expect page walks through a typical Sunday morning before you ever walk through the door. And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:26–28 (ESV) “The Crumbs Are Enough” Pastor Ramstad opened with a stack of adoption listings from the Joplin Humane Society, read aloud one by one as though he were shopping — a hound too big for the parsonage, a pit bull terrier, a twenty-five-pound Chihuahua named Max, and finally a pair of black Labs already named Thing One and Thing Two. The congregation laughed. Then the point landed: everyone in the room has a different feeling about dogs, and Scripture’s feeling is not warm. Proverbs has the dog returning to its vomit. Psalm 22 has dogs encompassing the psalmist — enemies, outsiders, the wild thing circling the camp. So what do we do with Matthew 15, where Jesus calls a woman and her whole people exactly that? Pastor Ramstad named the preacher’s temptation honestly: to reach for the Greek and explain that the word really means a cute little lap dog, something you would let up on the couch. He declined. The word is not the problem, and softening it would cost us the sermon. Two details do the heavy lifting. First, Mark calls her the Syrophoenician woman; Matthew calls her a Canaanite — a word loaded with the whole history of Joshua’s conquest, of God commanding His people to drive the Canaanites out lest they be taught “abominable practices,” of the intermarriage that happened anyway and the ruinous cycle of the Judges that followed. This is not a neutral stranger. This is the ancient enemy. Second, look at where Jesus is standing: the district of Tyre and Sidon. Gentile ground. One of the very few times in the Gospels that Jesus is off His home turf entirely. Jesus has gone outside — and outside is exactly where He meets her. Her opening cry is remarkable before Jesus says a word: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” She calls Him Lord — a title Matthew’s Gospel largely reserves for the disciples, the word Peter used the week before as he sank. She calls Him Son of David, a confession of Israel’s promised King from a woman with no claim on Israel at all. And what does she get for it? Silence. Then the disciples trying to shoo her away. Then, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She kneels anyway: “Lord, help me.” It is Peter’s “Lord, save me,” prayed by an outsider. And when the hard word finally comes, she does not argue with it. She
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  Tenth Sunday after Pentecost — August 2, 2026 02.08.2026 18мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Tenth Sunday after Pentecost — August 2, 2026 On the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered around Word and Sacrament to hear about a Savior who wanted to get away — and who fed a hillside instead. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached the Holy Gospel from Matthew 14, the feeding of the five thousand, and from the children’s message all the way to the Lord’s Table the whole morning circled four simple verbs: He took, He blessed, He broke, He gave. “More Than Enough” (Matthew 14) — five loaves, two fish, and twelve baskets left over on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. Pastor Ramstad’s Sermon on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost: More Than Enough Pastor Ramstad opened somewhere unexpected: a run of Southwest Airlines commercials from the 1990s. Each one staged a small social disaster — a water delivery man who grabs a basketball in a driveway, takes the shot, and puts it straight through the garage door window; a man at a car wash whose hose whips out of control and sprays his wife, the neighbors, and every car in sight; a gentleman at a ballroom dance who crosses the room with two glasses of champagne toward beautiful blonde hair, only to discover it is the back of a dog’s head. Every commercial ended the same way: Want to get away? We all know that feeling — and so, it turns out, did Jesus. Our text begins, “Now when Jesus heard about the death of John, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.” To understand why, Pastor Ramstad walked us back through the first thirteen verses of Matthew 14 and one of the most grim and despicable deaths in all of Scripture. John the Baptizer — the one who pointed and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” the one who said he was not worthy to untie the sandals on Jesus’ feet, the one who baptized Jesus in the Jordan and then gladly got out of the way so that Christ might increase — was put to death. And not for pointing at Jesus, and not for calling the Pharisees a brood of vipers. John died because he told King Herod the truth about his marriage: Repent. A banquet, an oath made too quickly, a dance, and a platter. Scripture tells us the disciples of John came and buried him, and then came and told Jesus. That is what sets up our text. So Jesus gets in a boat and goes to a desolate place — in the Greek, eremos: isolated, deserted, uninhabited, a no-man’s-land. Pastor Ramstad pointed out that God’s people have known this place before. Israel wandered forty years in it. Elijah ran into it and collapsed under a broom tree. John the Baptizer’s whole ministry happened out in it. And Luke tells us again and again that Jesus habitually withdrew to a desolate place to pray to His Father. So we should not be surprised that Jesus needs to get away for a while. Here is the surprise of the text: it does not work. The crowds spot the boat and follow Him on foot from the towns. When He goes ashore, there they all are. Anyone else might have said, “Shoo — can’t you see I came out here to be alone?” But Matthew notices something else entirely: “He had compassion on them.” Jesus puts the needs of humanity ahead of His own. He heals their sick. He teaches them. He spends the whole day with them. And when evening comes and the disciples — tired, hungry, ready to throw in the towel after an eight-hour day — suggest sending everyone off to the villages to buy food, Jesus says, “They need not go away. You give them something to eat.” Five loaves. Two fish. Five thousand men besides women and children. Because God does not leave His people empty in the eremos; He fills them. Manna and quail and water from a rock for Israel. Cake and water under the broom tree for Elijah, with the word, get up, eat, you have a journey ahead. Then came the heart of it — four verbs. “He took the loaves and the fish. He looked to heaven
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  Ninth Sunday after Pentecost — July 26, 2026 26.07.2026 17мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Ninth Sunday after Pentecost — July 26, 2026 On the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri welcomed Pastor Christopher Ramstad home from his first LCMS synodical convention in Phoenix — and heard three of the shortest parables Jesus ever told. A treasure buried in a field, a pearl of great price, and a net full of fish: three pictures of finding, and three pictures of joy. From the children’s message to the closing hymn, the morning kept returning to one word the Apostle Paul plants in Romans 8: nothing. “Treasures Old and New” (Matthew 13) — the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net full of fish on the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. Pastor Ramstad’s Sermon on the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost: Treasures Old and New Jesus had been teaching in parables all through Matthew 13 — earthly stories with heavenly meanings, His favorite way to teach. Pastor Ramstad pointed out that Matthew ties this directly back to the prophets: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” The parables do not merely deliver a lesson; they show us that Jesus comes to fulfill the Old Testament. And He chooses pictures anyone can relate to — the thrill of finding something. Cleaning out a desk drawer full of paper clips and rubber bands and stumbling on a forgotten gift card. Digging through the couch cushions past the popcorn pieces and the kids’ toys and finally surfacing the missing remote. Being a kid and spotting a coin on the parking lot on the way into the store. We know that particular joy. Three scenarios, three treasures, one idea — and, Pastor Ramstad noted, two very different ways the Church has read them. The early Christian fathers took the simple route: we are the seekers, and Jesus is the treasure we stumble upon, the pearl worth everything, the great catch that changes our lives. That reading preaches well, and it is true as far as it goes. But it runs into a wall at the end of every one of these parables — “he sold all that he had.” Have any of us actually given up everything? We may have given up a good deal for our faith, but on that count we are more like the rich young man who came to Jesus and walked away sorrowful, because he had much. We have much. So there is a second and better way to read them, with Christ at the center as the finder. Jesus is the one made flesh who came and walked among us, who sold all that He had. And that makes the treasure, the pearl, and the great catch His people. It is exactly what He told Peter: you will not fish for fish anymore — I will make you a fisher of men. It is the same care we heard in last week’s parable of the wheat and the weeds: do not uproot the wheat too early; let it grow, and gather it to Myself. God shows care and concern for His people because He intends to gather them to Himself. Pastor Ramstad also drew attention to the tense Jesus uses. Not what the kingdom will be like, or might be like. “The kingdom of heaven is like.” This is the rule and reign of Christ right now, today — because Jesus has already come in the flesh and paid the full price of our redemption with His precious blood on the cross. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44–46 (ESV) A Report from the LCMS Synodical Convention Pastor Ramstad wove his own week of “finding” into the sermon. He left Joplin on a Friday and pulled back into town at 2:00 a.m. the following Friday, having spent the week in Phoenix at the convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod — his first. He offered a brief word st
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  Eighth Sunday after Pentecost — July 19, 2026 19.07.2026 16мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Eighth Sunday after Pentecost — July 19, 2026 On the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered around Word and Sacrament to hear a promise large enough to carry every groan we bring with us: our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that is coming. With Pastor Christopher Ramstad away at the LCMS convention in Phoenix, we welcomed guest preacher the Rev. Ronnie Backs, who preached the Epistle from Romans 8 — and from the opening hymn to the closing blessing the whole morning pointed to a creation groaning for redemption and a God who is making all things new. “Glory to Be Revealed” (Romans 8) — the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. Rev. Ronnie Backs’s Sermon on the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost: Groaning Now, Glory Coming Pastor Backs began by putting Paul’s own word in our mouths. Three times in the text the apostle uses the word groan, so — on the count of three — the whole congregation let out one deep, gut-wrenching groan together. We know that groan well: the sigh of disappointment and frustration, the weight of asking, “What is going to go wrong next?” Living in a sinful and broken world, we will meet all kinds of suffering. And yet Paul’s good news is that these troubles are only momentary. “For I consider,” he writes, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Creation itself groans, Pastor Backs reminded us, trapped in a “bondage to decay” that entered the world when our first parents fell into sin. We do not have to look far to see it — drought in one place and flooding in another, storms and wildfires and hurricane season, and bodies that simply do not work the way they once did (he got a knowing laugh over how long it takes just to get a doctor’s appointment). We groan too, having inherited a sinful nature all the way back from Adam and Eve, and compounding the brokenness by the selfish choices we make. Yet even here God shows mercy: He did not destroy His creation, but limited how far sin’s ruin could go, and He still reveals His almighty power in what He has made. Pastor Backs marveled at a Milky Way of roughly 100 billion stars, so vast that a beam of light — fast enough to circle the earth seven times in a single second — would take 100,000 years to cross it. To this little dot in that immense galaxy, God sent His Son. That is the heart of what we believe as confessional Lutherans: God reveals Himself most fully in His Word and in Jesus, who left His glory in heaven to be born in Bethlehem, to live a perfect life, to die as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and to rise again on the first Easter — proof that death and decay are not the final answer. Now the Holy Spirit intercedes for us “with groanings too deep for words” when we do not even know what to pray. And on the Last Day, Christ will return in glory, raise our bodies as His own was raised, and make all things new — new heavens and a new earth where the former things are not even remembered, and there is no more weeping, no more suffering, no more death. So we do not wait as people who have lost hope. We wait, as Paul says, with eager expectation — and we let that joy show, so a decaying world can see there is a future worth being excited about. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:18–21 (ESV) The Children’s Message: Jesus Sees the Finished Picture "Jesus Sees the Finished Picture" — the chil
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  Sixth Sunday after Pentecost — July 5, 2026 05.07.2026 14мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Sixth Sunday after Pentecost — July 5, 2026 On the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri continued their journey through Romans 7 — gathered on the Fourth of July weekend as our nation marked its 250th year. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached the war that rages inside every believer, and the Gospel that answers it: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25) — the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. The War Within Every Believer Saint Paul does not hide his struggle. “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). The Apostle knows the Law of God is good — the problem is not the Law, the problem is us. As Pastor Ramstad noted, this is where last week’s reading from Romans 7 left off: the Law is holy, righteous, and good. Our own conscience bears witness — the good we ought to do, we leave undone; the sin we ought to flee, we run toward anyway. That tug-of-war is the shared experience of every Christian. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!“Romans 7:24–25 (ESV) Paul refuses to end in despair. Just when the back-and-forth threatens to overwhelm him, he lands on a rally cry of joy: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The question “Who will deliver me?” already has its answer — and His name is Jesus. United in the Problem — United in the Solution It was a fitting weekend to speak of unity: fifty states, one nation, 250 years. “United we stand, divided we fall,” the saying goes. But Pastor Ramstad pointed to a deeper unity. We are all united in one problem — sin — and we know it is deadly, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Yet we are even more deeply united in its solution. That shout of triumph, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” belongs to the whole gathered body of Christ as it hears the Word and receives the Sacrament. The freedom Christians treasure most is not merely life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is the freedom Christ won at the cross — freedom from sin, death, and the devil. And that freedom is not license to sin, but the joyful liberty to serve God and neighbor. “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” (Romans 6:1–2). It is the same grace Pastor proclaimed earlier this summer from Romans 5: while we were still weak and ungodly, Christ died for us. A Children’s Message: The Heavy Stone Before the sermon, DCE Jason Glaskey called the children forward and hauled out a gym bag weighted with the biggest stone he could find. Volunteers tried to lift it — some could, none could carry it far. “We are not made to carry that kind of weight,” he told them. And yet every day we carry something far heavier: our sin. Pointing to the words on the sanctuary wall, the children read together, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus does not simply watch us strain; He takes the load all the way to His cross, and then He puts His own yoke on us — because a yoke is how He pulls with us the rest of the way home. Rest for Your Souls The Gospel appointed for the day is Jesus’ gentle invitation — the very promise that gives rest to our souls when the war within leaves us exhausted. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV) This is where the sermon lands: your deliverance is already accomplished. In Holy Baptism you were joined to Christ’s death and His resurrection; the old Adam is drowned and a new person rises to walk wit
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  Fourth Sunday after Pentecost — June 21, 2026 21.06.2026 18мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Fourth Sunday after Pentecost — June 21, 2026 On the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered around Word and Sacrament to hear a bracing word from our Lord: “Have no fear.” On a Father’s Day morning — and just one day after a wedding and a full week of Vacation Bible School in God’s house — Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached Christ’s rally cry for His church from Matthew 10. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” — the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri. Worship on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Immanuel’s summer worship continues with a single service at 9:00 a.m., followed by Bible Class and Sunday School at 10:15. This Sunday was a Communion service in Divine Service, Setting Three, and the congregation confessed the Nicene Creed and received the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. We opened with “How Clear Is Our Vocation, Lord” (LSB 853) and sang “Lord of Our Life and God of Our Salvation” (LSB 659) as the Hymn of the Day. The appointed readings for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Series A, Proper 7) were Jeremiah 20:7–13, Romans 6:12–23, and the Holy Gospel from Matthew 10:5a, 21–33 (ESV). Each text pressed the same comfort: the Lord is with His people even when the world opposes them. This message continued our journey through the Season after Pentecost. Revisit the previous week’s message for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, and a closely related sermon on living under Christ’s name in a world that does not always welcome it from the Sixth Sunday of Easter — or browse them all in our sermon archive. “Have No Fear” — Christ’s Rally Cry for His Church Pastor Ramstad began where we all do — wanting a good “hype-up speech” for the hard mornings. We hear them in sports, in movies, in every great rally before the battle — like President Whitmore’s famous call to courage in the film Independence Day: So what does Jesus say as He sends out twelve ordinary, under-qualified men? Not what we expect: “Brother will deliver brother over to death… and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” That hardly sounds like encouragement. Yet Jesus does not send His disciples — or us — into the work of the kingdom alone or unequipped. Everything He commands, He has already done: He healed the sick, cleansed the leper, cast out demons, and raised the dead (Matthew 9). Then He turns to His followers and says, in effect, “Your turn.” A servant is not above his master; if they maligned the Master of the house, His household should expect no less. And then the rally cry the church can stand on: “Have no fear of them.” Look at the sparrows, Jesus says — two sold for a penny, and yet not one falls apart from your Father. How much more does He love and protect you? Pastor Ramstad even shared a Father’s Day surprise: a new birdhouse camera that caught two sparrows on Friday — and then a flock of squirrels he chased off to protect them. If a man gets that protective of birds, how much more the Creator who numbers the hairs of your head? “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”Matthew 10:29–31 (ESV) The heart of the sermon: “The one who endures to the end will be saved” — and that One is Jesus. He endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. His enemies could not destroy the Head of the household; therefore they cannot destroy His house. That is our confidence — not our strength, but His. “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.” A Children’s Message on God’s Care During the children’s message, Mr. Jason Glaskey set a small bird’s nest with a single
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  Third Sunday after Pentecost — June 14, 2026 14.06.2026 17мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Third Sunday after Pentecost — June 14, 2026 On the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered the morning after a night of severe storms — and walked into a sanctuary transformed for the opening of Rainforest Falls Vacation Bible School. Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on Romans 5:6–15 with a searching question: who is worth your whole life? The answer Paul gives is staggering — while we were still weak, ungodly, even enemies of God, Christ died for us. It is the heart of what this congregation confesses every week — Jesus Brings Life. Meet Him Here. The Third Sunday after Pentecost: Who Is Worth Your Whole Life? “Who is worth your whole life?” Pastor Ramstad opened with that question, drawing on Paul’s words: “One will scarcely die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die” (Romans 5:7). We can imagine laying down our lives for the people we love most, or for a great cause — freedom, family, faith. But Paul presses the question further. How righteous would a person have to be before you would die for them? How good? And then he turns the whole question on its head: it is not about how worthy we are. It is about Jesus. The chancel and baptismal font at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri — where the baptized are joined to Christ’s death and raised to new life (Romans 6). Look at how Paul describes our actual condition. Not righteous. Not good. We were weak — not the strong, talented, strategic people God might have chosen, but, as Deuteronomy says, the fewest and the least. We were ungodly. We were enemies of God, standing under His wrath, for our sin rightly brings His judgment. And we were sinners — the Greek tense pointing not to an occasional stumble but to a continuous state, sin clinging to us like a disease. That is the unflattering portrait Romans 5 paints of every one of us. And yet — “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” This is the turn that makes this passage so beloved. Not when we had cleaned ourselves up. Not once we had proven our worth. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus took our place at the cross, and now when the Father, seated as Judge, looks upon our sin, He sees instead His Son — the shed blood, the steadfast love, the perfection that covers you and me. As Pastor Ramstad put it: Jesus thinks you are worth fighting for. Jesus thinks you are worth dying for. And He did. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Scripture Readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost The lectionary appointed for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6, Series A) sets God’s claim upon His people beside the love that redeems them. The Old Testament Reading from Exodus 19:2–8a finds Israel at Sinai, where the Lord declares, “You shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples … a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The Epistle from Romans 5:6–15 is the day’s sermon text — Christ dying for the ungodly, and the free gift of grace that abounds for many through “that one man, Jesus Christ.” And the Holy Gospel from Matthew 9:35–10:20 shows Jesus moved with compassion for the crowds, declaring the harvest plentiful and the laborers few, and sending out the Twelve with His own authority to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Harvest Is Plentiful: Sent as Laborers Into His Field If Romans 5 shows us our condition and our rescue, the Gospel shows us where that rescue leads. Paul reaches all the way back to Genesis: as sin and death came into the world through one man, Adam, so grace and life come through one man, Jesus Christ — Adam a “type of the one who was to come.” The same Lord who reconciled enemies into sons does not leave them sitting still. In Matthew 9, Jesus looks at the harassed and helpless crowds, “like sheep without a sh
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  Second Sunday after Pentecost — June 7, 2026 07.06.2026 18мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Second Sunday after Pentecost — June 7, 2026 On the Second Sunday after Pentecost, the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered for its first combined summer service and heard a searching question from the prophet Hosea: where is your place? Pastor Christopher Ramstad preached on Hosea 5:15 — “I will return again to my place” — and the Holy Gospel of the calling of Matthew (Matthew 9:9–13), where Jesus seeks out a despised tax collector and declares, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” It is the heart of what this congregation confesses every week — Jesus Brings Life. Meet Him Here. The Second Sunday after Pentecost: Where Is Your Place? “Where is your place?” Pastor Ramstad opened the sermon with that simple question. We tend to think about place in terms of location — the spot where the TV remote belongs, where the phone charges overnight, our seat in the pew. But Hosea 5:15 turns the question toward God: “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.” Where, in our lives, is God’s place? Communion chalice and liturgy for Holy Communion at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri — where Word and Sacrament meet the congregation each Lord’s Day. Hosea was sent to the northern kingdom of Israel — Ephraim — in the days of King Jeroboam II, to announce that judgment was coming. God painted the covenant as a marriage, and His people as an unfaithful bride who had chased after other gods and other securities: golden calves, false idols, foreign alliances, kings raised up to replace the King of kings. In Hosea 6 the people say the right words: “Come, let us return to the Lord.” But God answers, “Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.” Their devotion was fleeting — here one moment, gone the next. So God speaks the word that Jesus Himself would later quote: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.” The sermon pressed the question home. We do the very same thing. We grant God access to an hour on Sunday, a prayer before meals, a devotional minute or two — and then try to keep Him out of the rest: our free time, our hobbies, our finances, our careers, our relationships, the way we parent, the friends we keep. The world around us works to keep God out of identity, marriage, and even life itself. But the God who knit us together in our mother’s womb cannot be compartmentalized or contained. He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead — of all of life, not part of it. The Law of Hosea hews and slays us, calling us to repentance and to seek the Father’s face once more. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Hosea 6:6 (ESV) Scripture Readings for the Second Sunday after Pentecost The lectionary appointed for the Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5, Series A) sets the call to repentance beside the grace that answers it. The Old Testament Reading from Hosea 5:15–6:6 sounds God’s longing for His wayward people and His desire for steadfast love rather than empty sacrifice. The Epistle from Romans 4:13–25 lifts up Abraham, who received the promise “not through the law but through the righteousness of faith,” trusting the God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” And the Holy Gospel from Matthew 9:9–13 brings us to the tax booth where Jesus calls Matthew, then sits down to eat with tax collectors and sinners — the living picture of the mercy God desires. Jesus Calls Sinners: The Calling of Matthew If Hosea shows us the Judge, the Gospel shows us the Savior. Jesus was passing through Capernaum when He saw Matthew — a tax collector, an enemy of his own people, a man working for Rome and lining his own pockets. A wanted man whom nobody wanted. And to him Jesus said, “Follow me.” Matthew rose from the tax booth and followed, and that very evening Jesus recli
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  Trinity Sunday — May 31, 2026 31.05.2026 18мин

  Immanuel Lutheran Church Trinity Sunday — May 31, 2026 On the Festival of the Holy Trinity, the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Joplin, Missouri gathered in a white-draped sanctuary to worship the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In a sermon titled “Signature Style: God’s Unique Flair,” Pastor Christopher Ramstad opened the first pages of Holy Scripture and asked a compelling question: what does God’s creation tell us about who he is? The answer, drawn from Genesis 1 and 2, is as stunning as the world he made. Festival of the Holy Trinity — Stained glass in the sanctuary of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Joplin, Missouri, depicting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Festival of the Holy Trinity: God’s Signature on All Creation The Festival of the Holy Trinity is one of the most distinctive days in the church year. The paraments return to white. The Athanasian Creed is spoken — the ancient, full-voiced declaration of who our God is: Father Almighty, Son eternally begotten of the Father, Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. Three persons, co-eternal, co-equal. One God. Pastor Ramstad opened with a reflection on signature styles — how an artist leaves a mark on a canvas, how a composer like Stephen Schwartz fills a musical like Children of Eden with an unmistakable sound, how a great director’s name in the credits tells you something about what you’re about to see. “Can you see his signature style in the things of creation?” he asked. And then: Genesis 1. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV) Scripture Readings for the Festival of the Holy Trinity The lectionary for the Festival of the Holy Trinity draws from across Scripture to show the triune God at work. The First Reading from Genesis 1:1–2:3 recounts the six days of creation, concluding with God’s rest on the seventh. Psalm 8 — “What is man that you are mindful of him?” — invited the congregation into a meditation on human dignity within the vastness of God’s creation. The Epistle from Acts 2:14a, 22–36 placed the voice of St. Peter on Pentecost, proclaiming that the crucified and risen Jesus has been exalted to the Father’s right hand and now pours out the promised Holy Spirit. The Holy Gospel from Matthew 28:16–20 brought us to the mountain in Galilee, where the risen Christ commissions his disciples with the words that have marked every Christian baptism ever since: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Order Out of Chaos: What Genesis 1 Reveals About Our God Pastor Ramstad walked through the creation account carefully, pointing out a structure that’s easy to miss. Days one through three establish spaces — light and dark, sky and sea, land and vegetation. Days four through six fill those spaces — sun, moon, and stars; birds and fish; animals and humanity. This is not chaos. This is a God who creates with order, pattern, and purpose. And right from the opening lines, the Trinity is present. “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Later: “Let us make man in our image.” The Son was there — John 1:3 tells us that nothing was made without him. Father, Son, and Spirit, creating together from the very beginning. This is God’s signature style: three persons, one God, together making and sustaining all things. The crown jewel of that creation? You. When God makes human beings, he doesn’t simply speak them into existence from a distance. He gets hands-on. He puts his fingerprints on us. And his verdict — “very good” — is different from everything else. You are made in the image of God, and you matter to him. Sin, of course, fractures that story. By Genesis 3, humanity uses the freedom God gave us to break his law, and creation i