ST. JOHN LUTHERAN CHURCH
(The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod)
Alma, Kansas
A family united by faith in Christ gathering around God's Word and Sacraments.
To reach out in Christ-like concern and Christ-borne love to each other and to those without Christ!
In This Month's
St. John Witness
SEPTEMBER WITNESS
Pastor's Message
Oh that my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity. (Job 14:17)
The Tour de France may be the most well-known bicycle race of our time. Bicyclists compete 23 days. This year they rode 2091 miles beginning in Brussels, Belgium, and traveled south in France, and then circled north to conclude in Paris. Egan Bernal, of Australia, became the youngest champion in decades, when he completed the race this year at age 22. Every day for three weeks, we are shown news video of the beautiful countryside as racers travel through much of France.Joshua Robinson wrote a back story for the Tour de France in the New York Times, with a headline: “White paint keeps race rated G.” (July 24, 2019) Their early morning responsibilities were to whitewash or camouflage obscene messages or political slurs that appear along the roadways and trails the bicyclists travel. They were to make sure the road service was fit for a global television audience. That meant no political messages, no rude words, and especially, no genitalia. They are known as the Tour’s “Erasers”, although whitewashers might be more appropriate. They wake up at the crack of dawn with a bucket of paint and some rollers.One of the men explained, “You can’t stop human stupidity,’ when he was asked about the reason why people draw obscene or political messages.The team can be quite creative, turning obscene drawings into something else, such as an owl or a butterfly, and at other times they simply paint giant white blocks in the road to cover over the offensive graffiti. The point of the article is that they must do it every single morning of the race. And the job is important every single year. It must be applied again and again.There is something to learn from this. Human ingenuity, sinful ingenuity, always reveals itself. Sin is like that, in that it does not simply quit or go away. It is perverse, crude, and disgusting to others. The blood of Jesus covers us. And we need Him each day to make us presentable to the world, and to our heavenly Father.The hymnwriter Horation Bonar declares: “Thy righteousness, O Christ, alone can cover me; No righteousness avails save that which is of Thee” (LSB 565).Live as God's pure and beautiful Child!Pastor GrimmWe are a family united by faith in Christ, gathering around God's Word and Sacraments,
to reach out in Christ-like concern and Christ-borne love to each other and to those without Christ!
