FELC youth deliver April 19 gospel message: Listen here. (MP3 Audio, 23.3 MB, 25:32)

May 3 sermon: "We are "Living Stones" who gather to worship, grow in faith and give to others." Download sermon here. (MP3 Audio, 20.6 MB, 22:33)

May 3 sermon: "Jesus wants his children to follow him out of love and to look to him as our Savior." Download sermon here. (MP3 Audio, 11.0 MB, 12:01)

April 12 sermon: "Wake up and follow Jesus, for Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!" Download sermon here. (MP3 Audio, 12.9 MB, 14:05). Read sermon script here.

Maundy Thursday sermon: "Footwashing 101." Read sermon script here.

March 29 sermon: "Pray that we will be able to see and to serve Jesus in the people we encounter and that people who are looking may see Jesus in us." Download sermon here. (MP3 Audio, 16.1 MB, 17:36)

Q. I recently heard that the definition of confirmation is the affirmation of our baptism.  Compare and contrast confirmation, infant baptism, infant dedication and adult baptism. Is confirmation needed if you are baptized as an adult? Is adult baptism the same as confirmation? Is it wrong to be baptized as an infant and again as an adult? Is it necessary? How does your church handle these practices?
 
A. As Lutherans, we feel that God is the active one in baptism. We are buried with Christ in a death like his so that we can rise in Christ to new life. (paraphrase of Romans 6)  This is not something we do, but rather something that God does each day as we remember our baptism and the death of the old person. Because God is the active one, being baptized as an infant and then again as an adult is like saying that God’s work is not enough, but our work is more important. It’s a way of putting ourselves at the center of God’s saving work, rather than a humble recipient of God’s mercy. In confirmation we are saying that we acknowledge what God did for us in our own baptism, and we promise to walk as people who have been crucified with Christ. In an infant dedication, parents are promising to raise their child in the church and be an example to them of faithful living. In reality, this dedication of the parents is included in the baptismal service. 
 
So:

• Is it wrong to be baptized as an infant and again as an adult? Wrong is a strong word, and it seems as though we are trying to put God in a box with it. It is our belief as Lutherans that this would show a wrong understanding of what is happening in baptism.  Is it a sin? I don't think so, because any movement we make toward God is more than matched (way, way more) by his movement toward us.

• Is it necessary? No. God acted in the first baptism. God’s promise doesn’t depend on our feelings. 

• How does your church handle these practices? If people feel as though they have wandered away from their baptism, we would do some teaching work with them, and then suggest an individual confession/absolution followed by participation in the Lord’s Supper.

Q. In support of the Good Samaritan Fund for FELC members and friends, I and my bridge club group (all members of FELC) take exception to “and friends.” There are perhaps many FELC members in need of assistance and there are many organizations [that provide] assistance, i.e., LEAVEN, food pantries, Salvation Army. Who selects the recipients of assistance and on what conditions/parameters? In cash, check? We would like to designate our forthcoming contribution specifically to FELC members.

A. If the fund is only for FELC members, it is not a Samaritan fund. Jesus’ purpose in telling the parable from which this title comes was to get us to reach outside of our group to help people in need. Samaritans were despised by Jews, so Jesus making the Samaritan the one who helps the injured “other” was his way of telling us to do the same. If your group would like to set up a different fund for members, the Support Ministry Team would be happy to discuss it with you.

Requests for help from FELC members actually are rare. We have sometimes helped members with rent. We have also used the fund to purchase gas cards for members with medical issues that require trips to Madison or Milwaukee. 

For friends of the congregation we only provide up to $35 worth of food, but not more than once a month. We do not give cash or vouchers under any circumstances, since those are easily abused. One of the pastors goes with the person to the grocery store and waits while they shop, then pays for the groceries.

Q. Is there more than one version of the Apostles' Creed? In one version, Christ descends to hell. This seems strange to me. Would not the grace of God keep Christ from going to hell?

A. There is more than one version of the Apostles’ Creed. In one version we say “he descended to the dead,” in another “he descended into hell.” Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, explains the difference in his book, “Tokens of Trust.” 
“… when the Apostles’ Creed says of Jesus that ‘he descended into hell,’ the original meaning was not quite this. The Latin word simply meant ‘the places beneath’ and referred to a passage in the Letter to the Ephesians about Jesus descending to the lowest parts of creation as well as ascending to the heights, ‘so that he might fill all things’ (Ephesians 4:10). He goes, therefore to those underground prisons, where, in the thinking of some Jewish writers of Jesus’ age, the spirits of those who had died resided. A similar idea appears in the First Letter of Peter (1 Peter 3:18-19), though there are several theories about what exactly is meant in this passage. It has been taken to mean that all those who had died before Christ’s coming have the chance to hear the good news and to be transformed by it.”

Q. Why do we sing, “Isaiah in a vision did of old,” rather than the more direct, “Holy, holy, holy” that is in our hymnals? 

A. Periodically we sing “Isaiah in a vision” instead of the regular “Sanctus” (Holy, holy, holy) because it is part of our Lutheran heritage, and because it makes the Biblical source of “Holy, holy, holy” clearer. When Martin Luther first revised the Mass he replaced the sung parts with hymns. The Kyrie was replaced by “Kyrie! God, Father” (LBW 168), the hymn of praise with “All Glory be to God on high” (LBW 166), the Nicene Creed with “We all believe in one true God” (LBW 374), the Sanctus with “Isaiah in a vision” (LBW 528) and “Lamb of God” with “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God” (LBW 103). Using these hymns as they were intended is one of the ways we connect to our Lutheran spiritual and musical heritage and keep it alive.