Fourth Sunday

Sundays in Lent are not counted in the 40 days leading up to Easter. Instead, they are “mini-Easters.” Take time to rest, reflect and rejoice in the resurrection with great joy and celebration in your heart.

Consider the words of Martin Luther from 1527, that’s 493 years ago…it was in response to a fellow pastor who asked for his advice about the bubonic plague…

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.”

Luther's Works volume 43 pg. 132 the letter “Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague” written to Rev. Dr. John Hess