Fiftieth Jubilee

Western Koshkonong Lutheran Church

Cottage Grove, Wisconsin

May 27, 1894

Dear Lord God, heavenly Father! We are assembled here to celebrate a Jubilee of Thanksgiving to your glory! O, teach us rightly to thank you for your innumerable blessings! Teach us rightly to praise you for your unspeakable grace in Jesus Christ! Teach us to appreciate what a precious treasure you have given us in your Word through which you regenerate our hearts through faith, preserve us in such faith, make us glad and content and zealous for every good work through the forgiveness of sins, courage-ous in death, and after death, eternally blessed! O, teach us rightly to acknowledge and to thank you for your great grace that now for a half century you have proclaimed the Word of your truth pure and un-adulterated in this place through which you have preserved your Christian church on the Rock, Jesus Christ! Be with us, bless us for your name's sake! Amen.

Psalm 100

Our Heartfelt Thanks To The Lord

Fellow redeemed in Christ! Christians gathered for this Jubilee, grace and peace from God our Father, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost! Amen.

It is as glorious a celebration, as it is seldom, which we Norwegian Lutherans celebrate here today at this congregation's Jubilee. We can say: "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad." [Ps. 118:24.] Many people are perhaps thinking that last year when we celebrated the anniversary of the discovery of this part of the world,9 that there was good reason for doing that; just as some years back we celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the American republic. But the fact that fifty years ago some poor Norwegian emigrants, most of whom are now dead and gone and whose names are hardly known outside this area, formed a small Lutheran congregation here, is really, however, an all too insignificant, everyday occurrence, for their children and grand-children, not to mention breth-ren in the faith from the entire district, to hold a Jubilee honoring the event.

However, my friends! As surely as we had good reason for remembering those events to his praise which have opened a home for thousands of homeless people from the over-populated old world and a freedom many people pursued, just as surely do we have the greatest summons to hold a celebration with thanks to God in memory of the so plain-looking but memorable event which took place a half century ago under the old oak tree over there when a little grain of mustard seed carried with them from the fathers' hearth and church by pious, God-fearing hearts was transplanted in foreign soil and one of the very first Norwegian-Lutheran congregations was founded here, a mother church for a host of others; because this was to have an eternity's significance for succeeding generations in thousands of ways. Therefore we have every reason to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord, to serve the Lord with gladness, to come before his presence with singing." But our joyful noise is to be full of thanksgiving so that we "enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." And surely, my dear friends, this Jubilee of ours will be well-pleasing to God and a blessing to us if our hearts can rightly be filled with thanksgiving through the Word and prayer with which surely we want to sanctify this celebration so that our festive joy can be a thank-offering to the Lord for his loving-kindness and faithfulness.

We will therefore ask the Holy Spirit to bless our meditation, when for the reason our text gives, we consider that our offering at this Jubilee is to be:

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE LORD

1) for all the grace he has shown us;

2) for the loving-kindness he promises us to all eternity.

1.

My dear friends, if you would attempt to enumerate all God's blessings toward you and your fathers in these fifty years since your fathers settled in these parts, where should you then begin and where end? How poor were most of your fathers, those Norwegian immigrants, how unfamiliar with the language and customs, how unaccustomed to the climate, and way of doing things! How wild and lacking in communi-cation were not these parts - just hunting ground for wild Indians! How devoid of older and independent settlers who could extend a helping hand to the inexperienced newcomers.

And look at this so charming, lovely landscape now where well-built farms follow one after the other, surrounded by woods and fields, meadows and orchards which delight the eye with their vigor and fruit-fulness! How it all testifies to the prosperity of those who live here, of God's rich blessing!

Well do I know a little about the privation and trials, sickness and need of the first pioneer years, how many, shortly after their arrival here had to bury their loved ones in an early grave, taken away by the fever and pestilence which ruled the country then, but God did not forget them. No, he did not forsake his people. According to his wisdom he helped in the day of trouble, relieved the sorrow and did all things well, so that we must sing with praise and thanks: The Lord was good to us, his mercy was new to us each day.

However, it is not these temporal blessings of the Lord of which the congregation's founding is to re-mind us most, although it is the will of God that his goodness also in this matter is to lead us to conver-sion. It is the spiritual, eternal blessings of which he in his grace has allowed the congregation to be partaker which especially invite us to heartfelt thanksgiving here.

What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world but lost his soul? What good did it do us, my friends! all this earthly grandeur, if our souls had to pine away on the walk to eternity? What would have happened among you in these fifty years, in what dangers would you be now if God had not then been merciful to you and established his Lutheran Church among you? The Lord be praised! He had thoughts of peace toward his people, he brought to light the best heritage our fathers had with them from home: the Lutheran Catechism, his Gospel, and he established the ministry of reconciliation among you.

He cleansed your children through the washing of water in the Word and made them his children. He let conversion and faith through the forgiveness of sins be preached through his faithful servants, and he pre-pared his table with the bread of life for you in the middle of the spiritual wilderness.

While in a sense, magnificent temples were erected round about you , but where the Word of God was abridged and its bread spoiled through the commandments of men and false doctrines of many kinds, streams ever more pure and clear flowed here from God's Word for the refreshment of souls thirsty for grace.

How many who were gathered into the kingdom of grace here in the net of the Word, how many who found healing for their wounds in Jesus' wounds and were cleansed by the blood of Jesus the Son of God, how many of your loved ones who died in peace through faith in Jesus Christ and whose dust now awaits the resurrection to glory over there under the sod,10 that, you see, my friends, shall eternity first reveal. But what songs of jubilee and praise shall not resound then when we meet in glory up there and get to see all the wonderful works the Lord has done down here in this congregation! However, we can and we are to thank God and to say with the psalmist already now: "O give thanks to the Lord, sing praises to his name; it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture," because in what way, really, have you deserved such grace? You will answer: All we can do is blush. And as it was the Lord, your God who gathered your fathers around the banner of the Lutheran Church here, so was it he who in spite of all your sin and weakness preserved you as an orthodox congregation up to this day, since he preserved his Word of truth among you so that you could be built on the Rock.

Certainly, it has not happened without a hard struggle and trials of many kinds. Wounds were inflicted and blows were struck, and most recently there was a rift11 whose after-effects are still being felt painfully. But the Lord was with you, he was your sun and shield. Through the testimony of the truth he beat back the enemies' attack and preserved you in Luther's doctrine, so that you - as we dare hope - came out of the battle richer in knowledge and grace.

They were of course precious truths of which the old evil foe wanted to rob you and it was up to you to defend them. And surely the more the Lord drove you into the Word of God during the controversy with its anxieties and pressures, the more you learned among other things to understand and to treasure the Christian liberty which Jesus has purchased for you with his blood so that you did not let yourselves come under the bondage of men, under the ordinances and the commandments of men; likewise the great bless-ings of absolution, so that you would not tolerate that it be made dependent on a man's judgment or by a quality of man, but solely through the Lord's institution and the pure proclamation of the Gospel. But above all, it was through the battle that it dawned upon many a troubled soul, oppressed by sin, that we are justified before God by the grace of God alone through faith in Jesus Christ and that our conversion therefore is not dependent on or is not the fruit of our good attitude but on God alone, who works it through the Means of Grace "when and were he will," as our Confessions say. And what comfort the un-derstanding and the acceptance of this basic truth with which the Lutheran Church stands and falls has been for countless souls hungry for grace, that, their songs of praise around the Lamb's throne shall some day reveal.

And if you ask now, in what way has God so graciously preserved the congregation and let it emerge from these battles victorious, then the answer is without a doubt: The Lord has taught it more and more to regard Scripture as the only source and guide for faith and life, humble of heart, to bow before its divine authority and to take reason captive under the obedience of faith. And it was a great blessing, that in the two pastors who worked in your midst the longest,12 God gave you true servants of the Lord, who taught and strove on the basis of Scripture.

When we now, dear congregation, rightly consider this gracious protection of God over the congregation in the fifty years, these invaluable blessings of his, these glorious treasures of grace which he has entrusted to you, and how it really would look now if God had not gathered and preserved this congregation, then do we not have reason to say with the psalmist: "He has done great things for us; whereof we are glad," (Ps. 126:3) and to break out in laud and praise: "he has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture," - reason to thank him and to bless his name?

But how should you then really better thank him and bless his name than through holding fast to and confessing these precious truths which alone can give the heart comfort in life and peace in death, in the future?

2.

Moreover, dear congregation, your Jubilee offering is also to be heartfelt thanks for the Lord's gracious promise. As our text says, "His mercy is everlasting; and his truth endures to all generations."

When you look at the signs of the times and see how, along with all kinds of errors, also the obvious falling away from the Lord, and contempt for everything that is holy is gaining the upper hand, and how worldliness and a carnal mind are making their way more and more into the congregations, then anxiety can easily take hold of you over the thought of what the future will bring, and how it will go with us and our children and the generations which are coming after us, if we and they also will continue standing in the truth during the coming trials. How comforting is it not then to hear the Giver promise that his mercy endures forever and his truth from generation to generation. The Lord knows how frail and weak his children are, how easily on the one hand they let themselves be infatuated with the lust and glory of the world, on the other hand, be led astray by the pious, spiritual appearance with which error so often knows how to disguise itself. But the Lord will not forsake his own. Their salvation has cost him so unspeakably much: his bitter suffering and shameful death on the cross. He will not take his hand from them but with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of truth, he will defend them against the seducers. The world's best goods and pleasures shall lose their radiant luster and strong attraction when the heart, broken by sorrow for sin, tastes anew the goodness and kindness of God and receives the comfort of the forgiveness of sins. When the love of Christ flows through the heart and the eye of faith fixes itself on the invisible, heavenly treasure which is given us in Christ Jesus, then shall the cross of renunciation and self-denial be light for us, and being a follower of Jesus be precious to us.

However blinding error's appearance can be, the light of Christ, however, is always stronger and with its clear radiance the Lord will disperse error's darkness so that the upright are not deceived by it. The Lord has said that he will be with his people always unto the end of the world. He is the same, yesterday, today and for ever. He promises his people the Holy Spirit who shall guide them into all truth. Therefore the psalmist says: "The entrance of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple" (Ps. 119:13O) and again: "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." (Ps. 119:7.) It is up to us to continue in the Word, not merely have Scripture handsomely bound on the table in the room but use it diligently in the home, in school, in church, and meditate upon it night and day and keep it in faithful, pious hearts. Our heart of course is a fragile thing. When the storm of unbelief and the waves of error threaten to bury the church's ship in the abyss, and the noise and the screams seem totally to drown out the faithful servants' warning, guiding voices and we see how one person and then another, often of our loved ones, overwhelmed by the cries, leaves the ship in the time of danger, then even the most courage-ous heart can sometimes sink, and the cry of hopelessness and distrust is heard, "Lord, we're perishing!" (Mt. 8:25). But if we turn still to the Lord with our cry or weak sigh then we shall experience that he delivers us in the day of trouble and we shall praise him: "You are my hiding place and my shield: I hope in your word." (Ps. 119:114.) His word stands fast: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church." (Mt. 16:18.) "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away." (Mt. 24:35.)

If he has by his grace founded a congregation here upon that good confession and now preserved it in the same confession for fifty years, then you are also to trust his gracious promise that he will still pre-serve it on that Rock against all the devil's attacks.

Yes, the Lord's promise also stretches into eternity. Even if his beloved people must sow with tears, Scripture says they shall reap with joy. "He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubt-less come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Ps. 126:6. Then, dear brothers and sisters, we are going to enter into the rest which is prepared for the people of God. We are going to inherit the eternal life which is given us in Christ Jesus and with thanksgiving and songs of praise we are going to hold an eternal jubilee.

My friends! if we had God to thank only for proven  blessings, then we would just celebrate our jubilee today half-heartedly, looking anxiously into the future. But we bring him our thanks now with hearts full of joy because his mercy endures for ever and his truth from generation to generation.

However, we still want to think of one thing in closing. The Lord does not give you these glorious, com-forting promises so that you shall use them like a soft pillow and become secure and lazy. They are to strengthen your courage and inflame you to serve him with ever greater zeal, with thanks for all his bless-ings. Yes, do not forget all his blessings, dear congregation! Do not let your rich treasure lie unused, be-cause "whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever does not have, from him shall be taken away even that he has." (Mt. 13:12.)

May the Lord bless you forevermore and let you remain a blessing! May he preserve you and your pas-tors now and always through the Word of truth and make you more and more like the city on the hill to be a light which shines for all them who are in the house, so that all the heathen can see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven! Amen.

Minde fra Jubelfesterne paa Koshkonong, Decorah, IA., 1894; p. 33-39