Spotlight
Browse by Date
- May 2012
- March 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- August 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- August 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2008
Reformation Celebration
REFORMATIOn CELEBRATION
On Sunday, October 25th, the 2009 Reformation Celebration, sponsored by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations of the greater Sheboygan area and the American Luther Association, will be held at 3:30 p.m. at the Stefanie H. Weill Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Sheboygan. In order to make it as easy as possible for people who require help in accessing the theater, drivers, please drop your passengers off directly in front of the Weill Center entrance, and someone will be available to give assistance. Doors to the theater will open at 2:45 p.m.
The Rev. Dr. Timothy H. Maschke, Professor of Theology at Concordia University Wisconsin, will be this year’s speaker. He has entitled his sermon, “Returning the RE to Reformation”, based on the epistle for Reformation, Romans 3:19-28. Dr. Maschke teaches courses in Biblical, doctrinal, historical, and practical theology, with special interest in Luther and Lutheran Worship. Prior to coming to Concordia in 1982, he served parishes in Illinois.
Sheboygan County is home for Maschke, who is the son of the late Rev. Robert Maschke and Ruth Maschke. He grew up in Glenbeulah, WI, where his father was the pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, and attended St. John’s Lutheran School in Plymouth. He often traveled with his father when he preached at the mission site which became Grace Lutheran Church in Elkhart Lake. Both his paternal and maternal grandparents lived in Kohler. Dr. Maschke and his wife Sharon reside in Grafton and have three grown sons and two grandchildren.
A mass choir comprised of members of area LCMS churches and the Lutheran High School choir will be directed by Dr. Ken Kosche, who recently retired as professor of music at Concordia University WI. A children’s choir from Trinity Lutheran School, downtown Sheboygan, and St. John Lutheran Schools in Plymouth and Sherman Center, under the direction of Timothy Huebschman, will also sing. Organist Craig Meisler, formerly of Trinity, downtown Sheboygan, currently music director at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, San Antonio, TX, and a brass ensemble will round out the special music.
The Christian church during the Dark Ages had lost its anchor, its reason for existence, its Savior, Jesus Christ, and was instead teaching man-made rules. The heart and core of Christianity is that man’s salvation is a gift of God’s grace (sola gratia) through faith in Jesus Christ as our only Savior (sola fide) given to us through the Scriptures (sola Scriptua). This foundation on which the church was built was being put aside by the selling of indulgences to remove the penalty for sins rather than relying on the work of the Savior.
When Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, posted 95 Theses or sentences on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg four hundred and ninety two years ago, he wanted to debate this practice of the church. Little did he know the ramifications of this act. A few of the blessings of the Reformation, which Luther’s Theses invoked, are that the Gospel, the Biblical view of salvation, was again placed front and center as the teaching of the church, the Lutheran Church sprang up, the Bible was translated into German and helped to develop a standard version of the German language, and it influenced the translation into English of the King James Bible. Luther also wrote The Small Catechism and The Large Catechism to provide an understanding of the chief parts of Christian doctrine from the Bible. Truly, the Reformation has impacted the world.
