 Embracing Lent9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14 As I write this message I am also preparing for my departure for the Council of Presidents meeting in St. Louis. We are still just under two weeks away from Ash Wednesday and yet by the time you read this Lent will be upon us and Ash Wednesday may even have passed. None-the-less it is good, right, and salutary that we spend a few minutes contemplating the importance of Lent. The above passage, while not the one we usually use as the Ash Wednesday Gospel, is the one appointed for Ash Wednesday in the daily devotional that I use. It reminds us that while fasting, generosity, and prayer are important results of faith, that a humble spirit before God is of greater importance. Even then it is not humility in itself that is important, but what that humility reveals is going on inside of us. Lent seeks to accomplish four things in us:
A recognition of our sinful depravity and repentance. This is what was lacking in the Pharisee in the parable above. He was proud of himself, his religious practice, his standing before God. He was self-righteous. As such, he really didn’t believe he needed God and so departed unjustified. Lent reminds us that we are we are sinful human beings who have fallen short of the glory of God. It reminds us that we are far worse than we often realize and utterly depraved. It reminds us that we cannot deliver ourselves from this sinful condition. Of ourselves, we are hopelessly lost. This is a difficult message to hear, receive, and believe. But it is necessary. Lent is meant to remind us of this and bring us to repentance. The themes of Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday in Lent do an especially good job of confronting us with this reality. In part, humility is the act of embracing this truth. Focus on the gospel of salvation in Jesus. Repentance is important and necessary but is not salvation. It is only preparatory for the gospel and salvation in Jesus. In the parable above the tax collector beat his breast in repentance and sought mercy form God. His salvation was not to be found in himself but outside of himself in God. Lent reminds us that salvation is external to ourselves. We don’t save ourselves by our acts of righteousness but rather God comes to us and gives us salvation. This gospel is so clearly proclaimed in a passage we learn early, 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) That is the gospel my friends! God gave. Jesus died. Your sins are paid for. You are justified. Lent reminds us that while repentance is important and necessary, that it is nothing without the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lent will always remind us of our sinfulness and call us to repentance, but specifically for the purpose of hearing the gospel in Jesus Christ. Lent focuses on the gospel of salvation in Jesus. A preparation for the celebration of Easter. In the parable above the two men went to the temple to pray. This was their time of worship and participation in the daily sacrifices, a participation in the salvation of God as given in the Old Testament. Did their prayer at the temple properly prepare them for this celebration of God’s salvation? Lent is meant to prepare us for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ and the salvation he brings to us. Failure to recognize our sin and repent, failure to focus on the gospel of salvation in Jesus will leave us unprepared to receive the wonderful gift that comes in the Easter story. I am constantly amazed at how so many Christians want to rush to Easter services but blow by Holy Week and even Lent as irrelevant! Can we hear and receive the gospel of Easter without those two? Well, I guess we can but to be properly prepared and to receive the full blessing of the resurrection it is quite necessary to spend time in Lent and Holy Week. Again, new life in Christ is not needed until we realize that we are dead in sin! The grand significance of Christ’s resurrection cannot be fully embraced until we embrace the necessity of his death for our sin! How can we take a place at the empty tomb until we have taken our place at the cross? Lent prepares us for the celebration of Easter. A renewed life in Christ. In the parable the second man went away justified. Justification is the beginning of the new life in Christ. Scripture tells us that in Christ we are a new creation. It tells us we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit! We have put on Christ and walk with Christ in newness of life. Lent, which means “springtime” is just that, a springtime for the soul. It calls for new growth and new ways of life. Lent come to us with the traditional disciplines of Lent; alms giving, fasting and prayer. It is always important for us to locate these acts properly. They come after faith and not before. To locate them before faith would be to say that they are efforts to gain or earn favor or salvation from God. Scripture condemns such theology. Rather they are to be located after faith and as a response of love and gratitude toward God. So, in Lent we seek to renew and reestablish as godly habits such things as generosity and care for those in need (alms giving), denial of the fleshly passions (fasting), and worship and devotions (prayer). We renew and reestablish these disciplines not just as a 40-day exercise but recognizing that they are characteristics of the new life in Christ that we have. Two men went up to the temple to pray. They are two types of people. Without asking the question, but simply in telling the parable, Jesus is asking what type are you? In which of the two men do you see yourself? Lent invites us to enter into the life of the second man and the justification he received in Christ. God bless your Lenten season! District UpdateCongregational News
Event Installation  On January 4, 2026 the Rev. Roy Minnix III was installed as the Pastor of Luther Memorial Lutheran church, Tinton Falls, NJ The Spring 2025 Pastor Conference will be held at the Erdman Center at Princeton Theological Seminary on May 18-20th. Dr. Joseph Terry (Ph.D., University of Nottingham), philosopher-theologian and educator in New York City, where he teaches at Kingsborough and York Colleges (CUNY) at the City University of New York, will be our speaker addressing the subject of The Church at the Crossroads of Theology and Technology. Registration materials have been sent by email to every pastor. If you have not received them please contact the District Office or go to the District website Pastor Wives Retreat. The Annual NJD Pastors Wives Retreat has been planned for April 24 - 26, 2026 at the Harvey Cedars Bible Conference, Harvey Cedars, NJ. The speaker this year will be Deaconess Heidi Goehmann who will focus on the theme of Mental and Relational Health. The committee has selected this relaxing retreat center on Long Beach Island at an economical price which includes overnight accommodations, meeting room, and meals. NJD LWML, Thrivent and the NJD are giving generous grants to cover some of the costs. Registration materials have been sent to the wives. A letter has also been sent to each congregation requesting that they cover the costs to send their pastor’s wife to this gathering. It is important for us to not only care for our pastors but their families. The health and well being of these women are critical to our pastors and congregations. Mission Golf Classic. This year is the 20th anniversary of the Mission Golf Classic! What a wonderful testimony to the fun and fellowship we have had over the years. For so many of you this has been an annual event and we are looking forward to seeing you again in this special anniversary year. Thursday May 7th is the date for this year’s Classic. We will return to Heron Glenn, Ringoes, NJ for our tournament. As usual, there will be opportunity to sponsor holes, carts, and other aspect of the Classic. A brochure is been produced and will be mailed out to congregations and others. Consider inviting friends to play with you for the day or even sponsor a foursome. This is a fun event for congregations especially if they can bring a few foursomes! Thank you so much for your support over the years. The price is very reasonable for an outing of this sort, but please remember that it is a fundraise for our mission work as well. Be generous if you can. Lutheran Schools Initiative We are in the early phases of the exploration into starting a few Lutheran Schools in the District. The NJD has never had a lot of schools but those we had have all closed. The last three closed between 2012 and 2018. Is there now an opportunity to start or restart a few Lutheran Schools across our District? That is the question we are trying to answer. Our first steps have been the following:
Please pray for this initiative. It is a huge undertaking but if this is God’s will for us then he will see it through for the blessing of his people. Upcoming SCC Events and Strategic Plan Task Forces Four additional congregations have indicated their desire to participate in Small Church Clarity (SCC). Participation will assist these congregations in ministry planning and prepare them for future Advanced Studies events and training. They are now in the home stretch as they have completed three of the four sessions. The final session is below:
The Strategic Plan Task Forces have been meeting and working on their goals. They will meet again Thursday March 12th at 7pm when finalized plans from the first step assignment will be shared. Congregational Statistical Reports. Requests for congregations to fill out statistical reports were sent out in January. The deadline for filling out these reports is February 28th. Each pastor and one other person in every congregation was sent the notice about reporting. Especially if your congregation has a pastoral vacancy, please make sure someone from your congregation is giving attention to this matter. Annual reporting is important to our life together as a Synod. Synodical Convention 2026 The 2026 Synodical Convention will be held in Phoenix, AZ on July 18-23rd.
Conclusion
Lent is a springtime for our souls. It may start in a dark place with recognition of our sin, but its focus is always our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That brings new life and a renewed life. May this season of Lent be a spiritual springtime for you. The Lord be with you, President/Bishop Gewecke  Be Ready35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Luke 12:35-40 This morning I attended the Men’s Breakfast at our church. The subject of discussion was the passage above and specifically “Readiness”. It was an edifying conversation that stuck with me and became the inspiration for this devotion. The imperative to be ready in this passage is set within a parable Jesus told about a master who was away for a wedding feast but would return at an unknown, unexpected time. Regardless of the uncertainty of his return it was the responsibility of the servants to be ready when he came back. All was to be ready for him when he knocked. Being ready is described with two metaphors. The first is to be dressed for action. While this involves physical clothing, it is more about the mental state of the servant than anything else. Think about it this way. The way you dress in the morning for your day is determined by what you plan to do (a mental exercise). If you are going to work in the yard you will put on work boots, jeans and a T-shirt. If you are going to the office you will dress professionally, a jacket, button down shirt, and slacks. If you are going to the gym…. Well, you get the idea. What you plan to do will determine your dress. Likewise, spiritually speaking, we are to be mentally prepared for what God calls us to do and dress appropriately. Following the dress metaphor into the rest of the Scriptures gives us a clue as to how to dress. First, we might think of the robes of Christ’s righteousness given to us in baptism. This reminds us that our dress is a gift of God’s grace. Here we find our salvation and identity as a child of God. Then we might think of other spiritual qualities that the Scriptures identify when they encourage us to “put on” various dress:
All of this clothing, also a gift from God, prepares us for action that we might serve until our Lord’s return and be ready to welcome him back. The second metaphor that describes readiness is to keep your lamps burning. In the Scriptures oil is often associated with the Holy Spirit. Likewise, a burning light is associated with active faith or good works. Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) Again, readiness is like a burning oil lamp, it starts with the Holy Spirit’s work in us and results in active faith in the world. It is noteworthy that the imperatives in vs. 35 are also in the present tense meaning that the action is to be ongoing or continuous action. So, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. This is a warning to avoid drowsiness, or laziness, or the failure to prepare. The Christian is to be always ready to serve and welcome home his/her Lord. Such readiness is met with blessing. In an unexpected twist, the servants that are ready and welcome home their master find themselves at table being served by the master! He dresses himself for service and serves the servants! Where else does something like that happen except in the kingdom of God. It illustrates that our Lord is a servant king who gives himself that we might partake of his riches. What a joy and blessing it is to be a servant in his kingdom. How eager we can be to be ready, to stay dressed for action and keep our lamps burning. District Update Congregational News
Events The Spring 2026 Pastor Conference will be held at the Erdman Center at Princeton Theological Seminary on May 18-20th. Dr. Joseph Terry (Ph.D., University of Nottingham), philosopher-theologian and educator in New York City, where he teaches at Kingsborough and York Colleges (CUNY) at the City University of New York, will be our speaker addressing the subject of The Church at the Crossroads of Theology and Technology. Registration materials will be sent out in January. SMP Koinonia. The Pacific Southwest (PSW) hosted a Koinonia event January 6-8 in Las Vegas around the topic of Pastoral Formation. Koinonia is the Greek word for “fellowship, sharing in common, or partnership”. The Koinonia Project is a method of bringing people together for discussion around a topic on which they have differing views. The topic of discussion at this event was whether training in residence (study while living at the seminary) or online training while in context (study online while living at home and serving in a parish, ex. SMP) is better for the formation of a pastor. Since the SMP Program is so important to the wellbeing of the NJD, we sent four pastors to be a part of the discussion; Pastors Dunbar, Hodges, Hass and Gewecke. The consensus coming out of the event is that we have a need for two pathways to ordination, one theoretical (residential, full Master of Divinity) and another practical (in context, half the credits hours but a quicker route to ordination). Disagreement came in the specifics of how, when, and who, as well as the concerns for a highly trained and well-formed clergy. The discussion was enlightening and encouraging but there is still much to be done to bring about agreement. Even though the event was in Las Vegas the saying “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” does not apply. Ask the pastors about their experience. I’m sure they will be happy to share. Upcoming SCC Events and Strategic Plan Task Forces Four additional congregations have indicated their desire to participate in Small Church Clarity (SCC). Participation will assist these congregations in ministry planning and prepare them for future Advanced Studies events and training. We are now half way through the training with our next events as follows:
The Strategic Plan Task Forces have been meeting and working on their goals. They will meet again Thursday March 12th at 7pm when finalized plans from the first step assignment will be shared. Synodical Convention 2026 The 2026 Synodical Convention will be held in Phoenix, AZ on July 18-23rd.
Conclusion
One might think of “being ready” as an Advent theme. Of course, it is, but the imperative to be continuously ready reminds us that we are to be ready in every season. So be ready in Advent and in Epiphany. Let your light, the light of Christ, shine. The Lord be with you, President/Bishop Gewecke |