Sermon -- Funeral for Marlene Kackmann (October 2, 2026)

For the Christian Funeral of

Marlene (nee: Zimmerman) Margaret Kackmann

November 28, 1942 - September 27, 2026

MARLENE GETS A BEAUTIFUL, NEW HOME.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10

In the name + of Jesus.

      Marlene Kackmann wanted to go home.  She wanted to be free from the ICU in Rochester.  A regular room at Mayo was a better option than ICU, but not the preferred option.  She wanted to go home.  She ended up at Lake City Care Center—closer to home, but not home.  Marlene and Bob had moved into a new place recently.  They were barely settled when all this happened.  Marlene had hoped that she could be discharged so that she could enjoy her new home.  God had other plans for her.  And eventually, Marlene welcomed the idea that God’s plan was to bring her home.  Marlene gets a beautiful, new home—a perfect and permanent home in Paradise.

     Everyone’s residence in this world is temporary.  At some point, we will all depart.  Marlene knew that death was coming, but death takes us whether we know it is coming or not.  Death is cruel.  It does not care about your feelings or your plans.  St. Paul alerts us to what will come after death: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he did while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

     Marlene was loved by many.  It is no wonder that you would have fond memories of her.  You might even think that her heavenly home is a sure thing because what a wonderful woman she was.  She was a devoted wife of 64 years.  Bob, you cannot help but give thanks for that.  She was a loving mother.  Dale & Renae, John and Diane, you won’t ever forget that.  She loved her grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She was faithful at church, even singing in the choir.  She had a full, lively life.

     God’s assessment of us all rests on the same standard: “Be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).  Of course, none of us lives up to that.  Marlene did not pretend to.  When we visited, she did not want me to tell her how good she was.  She wanted to hear how loving and gracious her Savior is.  God commands, “Be holy,” and Jesus has supplied the holiness Marlene needs to stand without fear before the judgment throne.  Jesus’ holy life was wrapped around her in her baptism.  This is what allows her to enter the heavenly home where only holiness may dwell.  Marlene gets a beautiful, new home.

     While it is true that Marlene wanted to glorify Jesus with her life, it is more important to recognize that Jesus lived and died to win glory for Marlene.  Jesus’ holy life was lived for her.  Jesus’ innocent death was died for her.  He lived and died for us all.  And then Jesus rose from the dead.  Jesus’ resurrection guarantees that Marlene will have a resurrection to eternal life as well.

     Jesus’ resurrection supplies us with endless comfort in the difficulties of life and especially in the face of death.  Marlene’s life was not without its difficulties, especially in the past few months.  Her health declined.  Her body weakened.  Finally, it gave out.  Marlene identified with St. Paul’s words: “To be sure, while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4).  Marlene yearned for what is better.  God creates us with bodies that are agile and strong, but bodies eventually wear out because they have been corrupted by sin.  Nor can these sin-stained bodies enter heaven.  That is why our bodies are temporary, like a tent that eventually gets tattered and torn.  But that is not the end.

     St. Paul wrote, “Now we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal home in heaven, which is not made by human hands.  In fact, the reason we groan is that we long to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.  …Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as the down payment” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2,5).  When Marlene was baptized, she received the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit dwelt in her as a down payment of the glory that will come to all who believe and are baptized.  In baptism, we are made children of God.  In this world, it may not look like it.  We believe that we are children of God because God says so.  We hold to the promise by faith.  Marlene has now been granted her place in God’s mansion.  She enjoys the glory which was promised—no longer by faith, but by sight.  Marlene gets a beautiful, new home.

     The tent of Marlene’s body has failed, but God’s promises do not.  Marlene will get a beautiful, new home—a resurrected body.  This is because our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to secure for us all a resurrection from the dead.  St. John tells us how Jesus united himself to us.  He wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelled—literally, ‘tented’—among us” (John 1:14).  Jesus put on the tent of human flesh in order to rescue our flesh from mortality and restore it to immortality, from weakness to glory, from frail and failing to incorruptibility.  At the resurrection of all flesh, Marlene will be raised up.  She will not merely trust that she is a child of God by faith, but we will all see it by sight.  She will shine in glory.  Jesus will transform her body so that it will be like Jesus’ risen body.  The temporary, earthly tent will be converted to a permanent home—a glorious, incorruptible, immortal body.  And in that perfect, glorious state, Marlene and all the saints will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

     Marlene’s confirmation verse is from Psalm 26.  “LORD, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells” (Psalm 26:8).  Marlene regularly came to God’s house because she was eager to receive his blessings and his mercy.  She heard the word preached.  She received a pardon for all her sins.  She feasted on Jesus’ living body and blood to strengthen and keep her in the one, true faith until life everlasting.

     “LORD, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells” (Psalm 26:8).  Marlene’s soul now dwells in the heavenly house where the Lord dwells in glory.  She not only gazes at his glory, she participates in it.  The Lord has glorified her.  He has given her a place at the eternal feast of the Lamb.  Meanwhile, her body awaits the resurrection, where body and soul will be reunited.  Then, Marlene will live as God has always intended us to live—in a glorious body and in a perfect Paradise, forever with the Lord.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Reformation Rally at St. John's -- Sunday, October 25

 Reformation Festival

Sunday, October 25

 

5:00 PM   Vespers

5:30 PM    Bratwurst Dinner

6:30 PM   Luther Lecture

 

 

Our Luther Lecture will be:

The 95 Theses:

What are they, and do they matter anymore?

    

“In my opinion indulgences are the most worthless of all possessions of the church….  Furthermore, they are neither meritorious nor useful but, what is worse, extremely harmful if they who receive them have no sense of fear. Therefore I feel that such teaching deserves to be cursed and is contrary to the commands of God.”   

— Martin Luther, Explanation of the 95 Theses, 1518

page 207, Luther’s Works: American Edition, Vol. 31

          We hope that all guests of our Reformation celebration will gain a greater appreciation for the confessors and the confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

          There is no cost for the Reformation Festival, but we will have a free-will offering to offset our costs.  In order to be sure that we will have enough food for all who attend, please RSVP before October 19 (651-345-3523 or office@stjohnslakecity.com) and include how many will be in your party.  

YouTube -- 18th Sunday after Pentecost (September 27, 2026)

Here is the Divine Service from Sunday, September 27, 2026.

Sermon -- 18th Sunday after Pentecost (September 27, 2026)

THE PROMISED REWARD IS RECEIVED BY GRACE ALONE.

MATTHEW 20:1-16

In the name + of Jesus.

     An Old Testament parable which would have been well-known to the Jews came from the prophet Isaiah.  He wrote, “Let me sing for my loved one a song about my loved one’s vineyard.  My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile ridge.  He dug it up and gathered the stones out of it.  He planted it with the best vines.  He built a tower in the middle of it.  He also cut a winepress into it.  He expected it to produce clusters of sweet grapes...” (Isaiah 5:1-2).  The vineyard is the kingdom of God.  It is the Lord’s kingdom.  No one deserves a place in it because everyone is a sinner.  Sinners cannot stand on holy ground.  If anyone would have a place in this vineyard, the Lord has to intervene out and bring people into it.

     This brings us to Jesus’ parable.  “Indeed the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.  After agreeing to pay the workers a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard” (Matthew 20:1-2).  In order to have people in his vineyard, the landowner went out to seek them.  The people he found were idle.  They had no purpose, and they were not engaged in any good works.  Therefore, the landowner called them for a higher purpose and promised them a rich reward.

     This is true for all people who enter the kingdom of God.  No one enters on his own initiative.  We are, by nature, dead in sin.  That means we cannot fix our sinful condition.  The dead cannot take steps to come to God.  If God had not intervened, every person’s life would be a meaningless march to the grave.  We get up.  We go to work.  We eat.  We go to sleep.  And we do it again for decades.  For many, that is all life is; and they wonder: “What is the point?  Is life really that meaningless?”  If you do not have an eternal reward awaiting you, and if there is no God to summon you to a higher purpose, you will become discouraged and depressed. 

     The Lord, however, has intervened.  The Lord summons sinners to receive hope and a future.  The Lord gathers people to enjoy his vineyard and to find satisfaction in their labors.  The work God gives you to do may not be flashy or get you famous, but it is good and serves your loved ones and your neighbors. 

     Besides the work he gives you to do in this world, the Lord also sets you apart for a kingdom of glory and endless peace.  Again, we do not work our way into that kingdom.  God brings us in.  As Jesus said in the parable, the landowner summoned the workers and pledged to give them a denarius.  The promise of the denarius came before any of them did a lick of work.  And when the landowner went out again to gather more laborers into his vineyard, “he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right’” (Matthew 20:4).  The reward was promised first, then then work began. 

     At this point in the parable, everything seems reasonable.  The workers were promised a denarius—a day’s wage for a day’s work.  They knew what they were getting when they went to work in the vineyard.  But this is where the story takes a turn.  And here, we learn that our Lord Jesus Christ is a bad businessman.  The workers recognized it, too.

     The landowner continued to find people standing around doing nothing.  The first workers began the day at the first hour.  More were sent at the third hour.  And then again at the sixth and the ninth hour.  Finally, with only one hour left in the workday, he sent in the last group.  At the day’s end, each came to receive his reward.  “When those who were hired around the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius.  When those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more.  But they each received a denarius too.  After they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner: ‘Those who were last worked one hour, and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the scorching heat’” (Matthew 20:9-12)!  Those workers seemed to have a legitimate gripe.  How can the landowner treat equally those who did not labor equally?  How could he give a full day’s wage to someone who labored for only one hour?  That’s not fair!

     It is a common complaint: “Why isn’t God fair?”  Most people are able-bodied, but some are disabled.  Most people have decent vision, but some are blind.  Most people do not have food allergies, but for some, consuming certain foods is life-threatening.  Most people are relatively clear-headed; some endure crippling mental illness.  Most people seem to get through life with minor struggles; some seem to get hit by one crisis after another.  If you are on the wrong end of these scenarios, you may cry out, “All I want is for God to treat me fairly!”

     If we were to judge the landowner on his business practices, we would find a lot of faults with him.  But the kingdom of God is not a business.  The Lord does not cut deals with people.  And we are in no position to negotiate for a better reward. 

     Do you want God to be fair?  Do you want your reward to be something you earned?  Be careful about such prayers, and take to heart what we say when we confess our sins.  After we acknowledge our sinful nature and our sinful deeds, we confess what they have earned us: “I deserve your punishment both now and in eternity.”  It is not God’s fault that this is a sinful world in which bad things happen.  It is not God’s fault that we are sinful beings who do not live up to his commandments.  If we insist that God treat us fairly, then God must banish all people to eternal, hellish torment.  If we insist that God give us what we deserve, then he should let us languish in the evils that occur because mankind brought sin into this world and we continue to add sin to it.

     Our Lord is not a good businessman.  And God be praised for that!  He squanders his grace and mercy upon sinners.  He does not treat us as our sins deserve.  It was Jesus who was treated as our sins deserve.  Jesus’ sufferings and death were incredibly unfair.  Jesus assumed the guilt for sins he did not commit.  Jesus paid the price for a debt he did not owe.  Jesus was sentenced to a death he did not deserve and died under a curse that he did not earn.  It was terribly unfair, but it is also mercy and grace beyond measure.  Jesus Christ has taken away all your sins.  And his mercy does not run out.  When you come back to God’s house confessing your sins again, Jesus continues to pour out his mercy and grace.  A good businessman would recognize that this continual forgiveness is like throwing good money after bad.  A good businessman would cut his losses.  But a faithful Savior shows compassion for the people he has created and redeemed.  He gives his reward freely, and that promised reward is received by grace alone.

     Nevertheless, the sinful nature still demands credit.  When the landowner brought the laborers in for their reward, some were outraged.  “When those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more.  But they each received a denarius too.  After they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner: ‘Those who were last worked one hour, and you made them equal to us who have endured the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’  But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not make an agreement with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go. I want to give to the last one hired the same as I also gave to you.  Can’t I do what I want with my own money?  Or are you envious because I am generous’” (Matthew 20:10-15)?   

     When we hear the parable, we recognize the goodness of the landowner.  When we see it in real life, we take the side of the bitter laborers.  If someone has dedicated his whole life to fornicating, drugs and booze, lying, stealing, and fighting only to repent shortly before his death, he will have eternal life.  You might feel ripped off.  After decades of faithful church attendance and clean living, you might think that you should receive more.  Beware.  This shows that you don’t want your reward based on God’s grace but upon your own merits.  If you will not receive God’s promised reward by grace, you will not receive it at all.

     The promised reward is received by grace alone.  Even if the Lord brings someone into his vineyard at the eleventh hour, it has cost you nothing.  When you hear a story about firefighters rescuing a family from a housefire, you are grateful for the firefighters and for the rescued family.  Don’t you have all the more reason to rejoice when our Lord snatches someone from the fires of hell, regardless of who or what that person has been?  Our Lord delights in rescuing sinners, bringing them into his vineyard, and giving each one a denarius.  This promised reward is received by grace alone.

     Perhaps your problem is that you envy the wicked.  You wish you could live a debauched life and then repent on your death bed.  Be aware that deathbed conversions are rare.  People die like they live.  Besides, why would you envy the wicked?  Do you not recognize the blessings in God’s vineyard?  You are always covered by God’s mercy and grace.  You know what your final judgment will be thanks to Jesus.  You can be confident that your future is everlasting peace and glory.  You know that God is with you and that God is for you in every stage of life.  God continues to pour out his forgiveness upon you for all sins—even sins like calling God unfair or envying the wicked.  You have the hope of the resurrection—a hope that cannot be destroyed by sickness or death.  And these are not rewards you will receive one day.  Already now you have received the Lord’s grace, mercy, hope, peace, comfort, confidence, and joy. 

     Our Lord not only speaks to his laborers, he also feeds them.  And here, from this altar, the Lord provides you with his living body and blood to sustain you through this life until you receive your promised, eternal reward.  The Lord strengthens your faith and cleanses you of sin.  Week after week, the Lord nourishes you so that you may continue in your godly labors.

     The Lord Jesus is not fair in how he treats the laborers in his vineyard.  He is not a good businessman.  Rather, he is a gracious Redeemer, and he treats all the laborers well.  He promises each and every one the same glorious reward—a joyful resurrection to life everlasting.  His reward is promised because he is gracious.  It will be given because he is faithful.  We receive it by grace alone. 

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Boil water advisory and church service on September 27

Dear members of St. John’s,

Lake City is under a boil water advisory, and it seems that it will be in effect into next week.

Even with the boil water advisory, WE WILL HAVE CHURCH tomorrow as well as Sunday School and Bible Class.

According to the boil water advisory, the water at church is not to be used for drinking and cooking.  It can be used for washing hands.  The drinking fountains will be turned off, but the bathrooms will be fully functional.

We have decided to not brew coffee, but we will have juice and cider for Sunday School and Bible Class.

Any decisions regarding the school will be announced in a later email.

God bless and keep you.

In Christ,

Pastor Schroeder

Sermon -- Christian Funeral for Nancy (nee: Prigge) Jumbeck

For the Funeral of Nancy (nee: Prigge) Jumbeck

(September 8, 1955 — September 17, 2026)

JOB 19:23-27

AS MY REDEEMER LIVES, SO SHALL I.

In the name + of Jesus.

      Nancy Jumbeck was a child of God.  She was baptized at St. John’s and confirmed here.  Although she moved to a new location, her heart remained focused on the Savior who was always with her.  Nancy turned to the word of God every day, and through that word, God blessed her and sustained her in the one, true faith.

     The final goal of every Christian is to enter the heavenly kingdom and to dwell with Jesus in eternal peace and glory.  We do not know when our Lord will transfer us from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of glory.  It happens at God’s timing.  Although you may consider Nancy’s life to have been cut short in this world, it is not cut short in the kingdom of God.  Nancy has been delivered to the goal of her faith.  She lives with her Redeemer.

     The Patriarch Job made his confession about that Redeemer, too.  He said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the end of time he will stand over the dust.  Then, even after my skin has been destroyed, nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God.  I myself will see him.  My own eyes will see him, and not as a stranger.  My emotions are in turmoil within me” (Job 19:25-27). 

     The Patriarch Job experienced more hardship than almost anyone in history.  In one day, he had lost all his flocks and herds, all his servants (except for the ones who had escaped to inform him), and all his ten children.  Shortly thereafter, Job suffered debilitating health, disease, and pain.  He went from a position of influence and respect to become an object of mockery and derision.  Yet, even though he was a mere shell of what he once was, he still confessed that he had a Redeemer.  He confessed that his Redeemer would deliver him to a resurrection of glory.  Though our bodies fail and die, the Redeemer will raise them up again to live forever.  Because my Redeemer lives, so shall I.

     No doubt, Nancy had better plans for herself.  She had served and fed many people, using her skills as a chef.  Ironically, this chef had an eating disorder.  As if that had not affected her body enough, she ended up with Parkinsons’ disease.  Although her sufferings were not as intense as Job’s, she knew hardship and pain.  But she also knew what Job knew: My Redeemer lives.  Because my Redeemer lives, so shall I.

     Nancy had a Redeemer; that means she needed to be redeemed.  I know you all loved her dearly, but our fondness for people is not what saves them.  Nancy was a sinner.  Maybe you remember times when that sinful nature revealed itself in sinful words or actions.  That is not how you choose to remember her, which is understandable.  Nevertheless, even if we overlook sins, the Lord does not.  He cannot.  “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23),  That is what brings us here.

     The Lord Jesus Christ did not overlook Nancy, either.  He is her Redeemer.  There was a cost to redeem her.  Jesus Christ came to take up all her sins, and he paid for them with his life.  The cost to win her a full pardon for all her sin—and yours, as well—was the life of the Son of God.  He gave himself in exchange for Nancy, for you, and for all.  When Nancy was baptized, she was washed clean of all sin.  The Lord wrapped her up in his own righteousness.  That is how God saw her all her life.  Jesus purchased and won her from sin, death, and the power of the devil. 

     As my Redeemer lives, so shall I!  The Redeemer declared Nancy Jumbeck to be a child of God.  Perhaps in these past years, she did not look like it.  Like Job, she was a shadow of her former self.  She suffered the effects of being a sinner in a sinful world.  Because of sin, bodies get frail, get diseased, and finally fail.  This is not how the Lord intended it to be.

     But the Lord Jesus has also addressed that.  The same Jesus who went into death to redeem Nancy Jumbeck has risen from his grave.  Jesus conquered death.  He lives and reigns forever.  And as Job confessed, so does every Christian: As my Redeemer lives, so shall I!  Listen again to Job's words: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the end of time he will stand over the dust.  Then, even after my skin has been destroyed, nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God.  I myself will see him.  My own eyes will see him, and not as a stranger.  My emotions are in turmoil within me” (Job 19:25-27)  

     As my Redeemer lives, so shall I!  Like Job, Nancy is a child of the resurrection.  Jesus will not abandon us to our graves.  Death will hold us for a while, but Jesus will raise us up to live as he had always intended us to be.  He will raise Nancy from the dead—not someone like Nancy.  She will not become someone different.  God created her to be her.  God redeemed her to be her.  She will be Nancy, with a glorious, incorruptible flesh, with her personality and abilities not only restored, but perfected.  Jesus will raise her up with a body that will never get weak, tired, sick, or broken, nor will she ever sin or die.  That is what we all pray for.  That is what Jesus delivers.  As my Redeemer lives, so shall I! 

     The patriarch Job made this confession in his condition of disease, poverty, and misery.  He would not let the pain and sorrow of his life change his confession.  He wanted it permanently etched in stone.  There is no need for you to be any different.  Jesus, our Redeemer, lives, and he has the final word.  It is written in Jesus' blood, firmer than stone—because Jesus lives and reigns forever.  And as our Redeemer lives, so shall all who believe in him.  So Nancy's soul does now.  So her body will at the end.  And so shall it be forevermore.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

YouTube -- Christian Education Sunday (September 20, 2026)

Here is the service from Sunday, September 20, 2026.