Upcoming Events

OK (carrying my thoughts over from the devotion on this Kontakt’s front page), I simply cannot resist one more image from above. They make me so happy! Getting a new perspective on things has been a theme around Minnekirken since last March. At the time we were leaning into another blessed Holy Week and then a festive Syttende Mai season at Minnekirken. But that all changed. At the time of writing the last Sunday we worshipped together at Minnekirken was nearly six months ago! I distinctly remember that Second Sunday in Lent communion service. I remember putting hand sanitizer near the altar, spacing the cups in the communion tray more widely, and not shaking hands with worshippers at the conclusion of worship.

I would not have imagined at the time that one short week later

we would be struggling—and still struggle at times—to do online worship via Zoom and Facebook Live! Though this option will continue, we are scheduled to have our first service of Holy Communion in person on September 13th! We’ll do it then again on September 27th and, Lord willing, on the second and fourth Sundays of each month going forward. Things at Minnekirken will be different. There will be masks and social distancing. There won’t be singing out loud. Communion will not be at the altar. Reservation for church will be required. So please call or email the church office if you plan to attend. But all that said, we will be back. Back with a new perspective and strength and faith that only hardship can bring. God says through Peter: In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I greatly rejoice because through it all Minnekirken has fantastically risen above all of my expectations during—as they say in Norway— this Coronatid. I would have never had imagined that our online worship attendance statistics and our record of giving would have remained as strong as they have over these past six months of exile from our beloved church. Even our online Syttende Mai commemoration was received with rave reviews. You can go to this link or scan the QR code to see it. This is all a testament to the “creativity, resilience, fortitude, and grace” that has been my mantra throughout Coronatid. Now may God bless our Fall regatherings. May they be smart and safe. And may they also be hopeful as we pray for God’s deliverance from these difficult days. Martin Luther, with his medieval perspective on pestilence, still inspires: I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.* Sheltering in Christ, Pastor David Schoenknecht *For more on Luther’s godly approach to pestilence, check out this very fine blog post: https:// villageanglican.church/village-blog-desmos/2020/3/30/martin-luther-on-how-not-to-tempt-god-during-a-plague