GRACE SETS US APART AS LUTHERANS

Grace describes how God gives God’s very self to humanity fully and freely for the sake of our healing and redemption, whether we deserve it or not, or even seek it or not. Jesus loves and forgives without condition. God’s grace is for all.

Ephesians 2:8-10

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Galatians 3:27-28

²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Mark 2:16-17

¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" ¹⁷When Jesus heard this, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

WE BELIEVE IN ONE GOD REVEALED AS FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT

God reveals God’s one loving purpose through God’s self-giving as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We experience God as the One God who creates, saves and sustains us.

Genesis 1:31

³¹God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. 

John 3:16-17

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 20:19-23

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

GOD COMES TO US IN JESUS CHRIST

God became vulnerable as a human being in Jesus, sent to the world to be the expression of God’s deep love for humanity. When you wonder what God is like, look to Jesus. God’s Word is revealed in Jesus Christ. God’s Word is spoken in the Good News of forgiveness in Jesus name. God’s Word is written in the scriptures as witness to the experience of God’s redemptive purposes.  

John 1:14

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 

1 Corinthians 2:2

²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Philippians 2:1-11

⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, ⁷but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, ⁸he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

FAITH IS A LIFELONG JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

God invites us into a journey where we discover the love and grace of God. Faith is a verb where we are moved to love and serve our neighbor. We follow Jesus into the everyday places we live and world. Each day, we discover anew what it means to be loved by God this day, and what it means to love and serve others in the name of Jesus.

Mark 2:16-18

¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 

2 Corinthians 5:16-20

¹⁶From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.

Galatians 5:22-25

²²By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 

Romans 8:35, 38-39

³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

WE JOURNEY BETTER TOGETHER

Faith is not meant to be something we do alone, but we journey better when we do it with others in community. Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered, there I am.” In community, it takes one person to speak, another to listen, one to put out their hand, the other to offer the bread and wine of communion, “Here is Jesus for you.”

Acts 2:44-47

⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

WORSHIP IS CENTRAL TO ALL WE DO

We have two different styles of worship—vibrant traditional and uplifting contemporary. They are both centered in the experience of God’s grace in Jesus Christ through word, sacrament, and song. Worship is like a weekly check-in: a time to hear the Word of God, to be fed through Holy Communion, to remember our identity as baptized children of God, to offer our thanks and praise in song, and to be present with God in prayer. In worship, we are reminded that we belong to God, we are holy and precious in God’s sight, we are forgiven, and we are set free for a life of loving service. From God’s renewing work in worship, we follow Jesus back into the everyday places where we live and work. 

THERE ARE TWO SACRAMENTS IMPORTANT FOR OUR FAITH: BAPTISM AND HOLY COMMUNION

These sacraments connect people to God’s redeeming love. What makes a sacrament is that God promises his presence in a way that is tangible and personal. In Baptism, God joins his promise of belonging and redemption with water. In Communion, God joins forgiveness and the presence of the risen Christ with bread and win. These sacraments ground our identity as God’s beloved children and bind us together to be the body of Christ, bringing Jesus’ transforming love to the world.

BAPTISM. In Baptism, we made part of God’s family as a child of God. Baptism makes personal God’s promise of forgiveness and salvation, so that we might be freed to trust God and love and serve the neighbor. What makes baptism true is that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, God pledges his loving activity for our whole life. In baptism we are marked with the cross of Christ, which reminds us that though we may not be in heaven yet, heaven is with us. Though we may have experiences of suffering that are cross-shaped, still we have the promise that God is always with us. We baptize infants, youth, and adults, believing God is the primary actor who gives the gift of belonging in baptism at any stage of life. We baptize, so that we might believe God’s promise.

Romans 6:3-5

³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

HOLY COMMUNION. In Holy Communion, God feeds us for the journey of faith. God comes to us in the promise of presence and forgiveness joined to bread and wine. “This is my body, my blood, for you for forgiveness.” We are fed, nourished, strengthened, and then sent back into the world to be the body of Christ for others through loving service and witness.

1 Corinthians 11:23-24

²³For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." ²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.