Sermon shared at First Lutheran Church in Harvey, ND during their 130th Anniversary worship service on October 19, 2025. A video recording can be found here – https://www.youtube.com/live/i6y9TnEaO8U?si=gs9ZNWAZzhayicoU
Sisters and brothers, friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen.
First of all, thank you First Lutheran Church for welcoming me into your community again this weekend, especially for a weekend of celebration like this. You are a gift to the mission and ministry God is calling us into in this little part of God’s good creation. Thank you!
Second, I offer greetings of abundant joy and congratulations from your sisters and brothers across the 158 congregations of the western North Dakota Synod, the nearly 9,000 congregations whom we are connected to in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the 150 Lutheran denominations who call us into relationship with 77 million other Lutheran Christians around the world in the Lutheran World Federation or LWF. LWF formed in the aftermath of World War II as a way to rebuild and restore congregations and communities impacted by the evil of war. We, as part of the ELCA, are the only representatives of LWF from the United States.
These relationships – within our congregations and local communities, across our denomination, and around the world enable us to serve as the hands, feet, voices, and financial resources of Jesus that bring forth healing and life on every continent on Earth.
You and I need to be reminded of that truth once in a while. Because one prayer offered in this sanctuary, one dollar given as an offering to this congregation’s ministry and mission, one stitch sown in the creation of a beautiful quilt – all of those things, bring abundant blessings to God’s children in ways far greater than anything we can imagine or do on our own.
So, today, we gather to celebrate 130 years of God’s faithfulness in this faith community. 130 years! Its kind of hard to wrap your head around that kind of history, isn’t it?
130 years of worship and witness.
130 years of God’s word proclaimed, of the waters of baptism flowing freely, of bread broken and wine shared, of prayers offered, songs sung, and love lived out in Harvey, Wells County, and beyond.
Just think about it – generation after generation, people of faith gathering right here – well, not always in this building, but right here in and around Harvey, North Dakota, trusting that God would meet them where they were. Some of their names are on plaques or in confirmation photos. Others are remembered in stories and family legacies. Some of them rest now in nearby cemeteries. All of them form part of the great cloud of witnesses who remind us that God’s faithfulness endures forever.
The gospel reading today is a parable that Jesus shares with his disciples to remind them “about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.” It’s the story of a widow who refuses to give up. She keeps showing up before a judge, day after day, pleading for justice. The judge doesn’t fear God or respect people, but he gives in to the woman because he’s tired of her bothering him.
At first, this story is kind of funny. But, I’m guessing that most of us have stories of someone bothering us incessantly until we finally say, “fine! Have it your way! Now leave me alone.”
I’m not sure that Jesus is encouraging us to badger God until we get what we want. In fact, I think he’s trying to show us the nature of faith itself – that faith doesn’t give up. That faith keeps showing up. That faith keeps trusting that God is at work, even when the answers to our prayers don’t come quickly or in the way in which we want.
If there’s ever been a story that fits a congregation celebrating 130 years of mission and ministry, this might be it. Because faith like that, the kind that keeps showing up, has built and sustained First Lutheran Church for more than a century.
Think of our ancestors who heard God calling them to plant a church on the North Dakota prairie. They probably didn’t have much more than faith, a bible, and a hope that God would be with them and bless their efforts. They worked hard, prayed deeply, and leaned on one another. They didn’t know what the decades ahead would bring – droughts and depressions, wars and pandemics, seasons of growth and new life and seasons of struggle and uncertainty about the future.
And yet through it all, the people of First Lutheran Church kept showing up. They kept worshiping, teaching their children and each other, serving their neighbors, praying without losing heart.
You know those stories better than I do…stories of pastors and Sunday School teachers, of quilting groups and confirmation classes, of baptisms and funerals, of Christmas programs and potlucks, of mission trips and Thanksgiving community meals.
Every one of those stories bears witness to the faithfulness of God.
That’s the beauty of this anniversary day. It’s not only about looking back, it’s also about recognizing that the same God who has been faithful through 130 years of mission and ministry at First Lutheran Church is still at work today, still calling, still guiding, still sending you and me out in the world to love and serve. A world that seems to long for the unconditional love and grace of Jesus more and more with each new day.
The story of First Lutheran is still being written. The Spirit of God that stirred in the hearts of your founders is the same Spirit breathing in you today. This is not the end of the story, it’s another chapter in a long grace-filled one.
Jesus ends this parable by asking the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Well, in Harvey, at First Lutheran, the answer is an easy and emphatic yes!
When the Son of Man comes, he will find faith in your worship and your welcome;
In the laughter of children and the compassionate service you offer one another;
In your prayers for each other the world God so loves and your care for your neighbors;
The Son of Man will find faith in the stories you tell and the love you share.
Faith endures here.
Grace prevails here.
So, people of First Lutheran Church, on this anniversary day:
Keep showing up.
Keep praying.
Keep loving.
Keep trusting that the God who has carried you this far will carry you forward still.
Thanks be to God for 130 years of grace-filled mission and ministry, and for all that’s yet to come. Amen.
Bishop Craig Schweitzer 