As Eidsvold celebrates its 125th anniversary on July 31 this year and First Lutheran Church begins to think about its centennial in 2016 – just five years from now – our thoughts go back to those early settlers of this region who felt so strongly about the evangelical Lutheran faith that they sacrificed time, energy, and money to begin these congregations. At the time they had their hands full just setting up their homes, farms and businesses. Travel was difficult, communication was slow, and daily chores were really a chore. But these men and women were deeply committed to their faith and to the idea that this faith would be lived out in congregational life. So in the midst of everything else they had to do, they worked hard to establish these two congregations in Kittson County.
Once the congregations were established and the church buildings erected, the challenges were not over. Both congregations suffered the loss of their buildings and had to start over again. In 1900 a prairie fire swept across the land consuming Eidsvold Lutheran Church and a newly built parsonage at Beaton (south of Halma). In the afternoon before the Christmas program in 1945 a fire consumed First Lutheran Church and all its contents. In both cases, the members of the congregations rallied to the challenge of rebuilding. That generation, the one that came after the founders of the congregations, was equally committed to the life of the church. Their finest qualities shone forth through the fires of adversity.
Today we worship, study, and fellowship together in the church buildings that rose from the ashes of these fires. Many modifications and a few additions have been made to the buildings, but right now, in 2011, we are enjoying the fruits of the labors of these men and women, as well as those who have maintained and improved our churches over the years. We have been given much by them.
The fires that consumed our buildings reminded us that a congregation is not a building; it is people who believe in God, trust in Jesus Christ, are guided by the Holy Spirit, and want to work together for the good of all. These congregations existed in the years when they had no roof over their heads as much as they do today when we have beautiful sanctuaries in which to worship.
The Augsburg Confession in article VII says, “The church is the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the gospel.” I have quoted this article often over the last two decades, and I still believe it needs to be heard. While the article is speaking about the whole church, what it says applies to each congregation as well. The most beautiful church in the world is not a thing of beauty to the Lord if it is not a place where people gather to pray. The oldest houses of worship in the land are not fulfilling their purpose if they are not places where Word of God was proclaimed this week.
I have toured many beautiful churches (my wife and children have learned to endure this) including the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim, Norway, the Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim, California, and most recently the $70 million Shrine of Our Lady in La Crosse, Wisconsin, but the places which evoke the most emotion from me are the places where I have blended my humble voice with others in song or listened to a truly powerful sermon or received the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament. In other words, they are places where I have felt the presence of the Lord in addition to seeing a place of beauty and history. Among them are First Lutheran Church of Karlstad and Eidsvold Lutheran Church of Halma.
1st Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another. As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks as one who utters oracles of God; whoever renders service as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
As we celebrate Eidsvold’s anniversary and anticipate First’s anniversary, let us renew our commitment to be the people of God today, sharing his love with one another and with a world full of conflict and sorrow. Let us resolve to be the kind of people the founders were when they came together as a congregation and built the church.
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