Call Day

May 19 was Call Day at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN. May 24 was Call Day at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, WI. Like children waiting with eager expectation and then running to the tree on Christmas morning to see what presents they have received, so our future teachers, staff ministers and pastors have been waiting and praying and probably even running to the auditorium to see where they will serve the Lord in His Lutheran Church.

It’s our form of the Draft.

To be honest, I had this really nice devotion written about Call Day where I left blanks to fill in the information about our new First Grade teacher who would be assigned to us from MLC. But, the Lord of the Church had other plans.

We did not receive a graduate from MLC. However, President Rutschow, the District President for the Southeastern Wisconsin District, has names of possible teachers in our area. She may be a teacher who is without a call at this time or possibly the wife of a Seminary student in Mequon. We don’t know whom God has in store for us – we just know that she will be exactly the right person at exactly the right time.

His time. Not ours.

What a blessing it will be to welcome a new teacher to First Grade for WLS! What a blessing to have Mr. Paul Patterson coming to serve as our new principal at WLS! What a blessing to have all of our teachers: Mrs. Kerri Bush teaching 4-K; Mrs. Kim Lash teaching 5-K; Mrs. Leah Krohn teaching 2^nd grade; Mrs. Tina Paustian teaching 3^rd grade; Mrs. Kathy Hintz teaching 4^th grade; Miss Julie Maass teaching 5^th grade; Mr. Doug Nass teaching 6^th grade; Mrs. Paula Nass teaching 7^th grade; and Mr. Jerry Marowsky teaching 8^th grade.

With all the prayer and preparation that goes into placing the right teacher or pastor into the right school or church, the system is far from perfect. That’s because every single teacher that will be going to a new school this year or has already been serving in a school for years, is a sinner. That’s because every single pastor going to a new church or has already been serving in a church for years, is far from perfect. That’s because every single school or church that has called teachers and pastors to serve them with Word and Sacraments is filled with imperfect children and adults.

It is only by God’s grace that your called workers serve you as ministers of the Gospel. It is only by God’s grace that you allow your called workers to serve you as full-time ministers of the Gospel.

We are far from perfect stewards of the Gospel, working among far from perfect servants of the Lord. But thanks be to God that our Lord and Master is perfect! He uses fragile, cracked jars of clay like all of us to carry the treasure of the Gospel to the souls in our care and in our community (2 Corinthians 4:7).

And according to His divine and infinite wisdom, God has placed exactly the right people, in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, in order to carry out His Kingdom work!

Because of God’s perfection, will and all-surpassing power, we are excited to work together at Epiphany Lutheran Church and Wisconsin Lutheran School so that many more may be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Not because it is our will, but because it is the will of the Lord of the Church!

Made perfect in Christ,

Pastor Michael Zarling