Biblical · Confessional · Liturgical · Sacramental
Delivering Christ Jesus
and His Gifts for You
A confessional Lutheran parish and school in Random Lake, Wisconsin — gathered around Word and Sacrament since 1855.
Sundays at 9:30 a.m. · Divine Service
Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. · Divine Service
Our Church
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church in Random Lake, WI gathers at Sherman Center to receive Christ’s gifts of Word and Sacrament. We are a confessional, liturgical congregation of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, faithful to the Scriptures and the Book of Concord. Visitors are always welcome.
Our School
St. John Ev. Lutheran School in Random Lake has served families with Christ-centered education since 1855. Children grow in the faith through daily catechesis, the liturgical life of the parish, and a rich academic curriculum rooted in the Lutheran tradition.
Sermons, Catechesis & News
Recent sermons, Bible studies, and articles from St. John.
- “A Handful of Flour” Trinity 15 2026
A widow at the gate of Zarephath has a handful of flour, a little oil, two sticks, one son, and a plan to eat it and die. But before she ever picked up a stick, the LORD had already said, “I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” The cake goes to the prophet first because the promise is in the prophet’s mouth, and the promise is the one thing in the story that never runs out. Christ came hungry to your gate and went out with wood on His back to make the meal where He died and you get to eat. - “He Came to Be Your Estate” Friday of Trinity 14 (observed) 2026A man interrupts the sermon to ask about money, and Christ refuses the case: “Who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” He gives a farmer instead — the barns, the succession plan, and then the religious upgrades, the pledge card and the estate gift. Luther’s verdict on all of it is not greed but idolatry, the most common idol on earth. But the appointed reading does not stop at “Fool.” It runs on to the ravens: the one creature in the chapter with no storehouse and no barn is the one God feeds. He will not divide your estate. He came to be your estate.
- Jeremiah Chapter 20Last week Jeremiah smashed a jar in the garbage valley. This week we find out what it cost him: Pashhur, the chief officer of the temple police, beats him and locks him in the stocks overnight, and Jeremiah opens his mouth and says the worst thing anybody says to God in the Old Testament — O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded (Jer. 20:7). Then watch one word walk through the next five verses: God prevailed over him, his friends expect to prevail against him, and they will not — because nineteen chapters back the promise was already standing, they shall not prevail against you (Jer. 1:19). His enemies cannot win against him precisely because God already did.
- “Two Sermons Were Preached That Day” Trinity 14 2026All ten lepers believed Jesus, and all ten were cleansed by nothing but His word on the road. Then the priests preached them a second sermon — only God cleanses leprosy, your obedience did this, don’t you dare give the glory to a man from Nazareth — and nine believed that preacher instead, praising God with their tongues while blaspheming Him in Christ. They had a Bible verse, and they thought they did well. “Your faith has saved you” is Christ’s ruling handed down against theirs: not the going, not the offering, but faith alone, because Jesus alone was already cleansing before they had walked ten steps.
- “Strive to Enter but Only through Christ” Friday of Trinity 13 (observed) 2026Jesus commands you to agonize your way through the narrow door, and in the same breath says the many who try will not be strong enough. So the striving He commands cannot be strength. Luke uses that agony word exactly twice — once here, where Christ commands it, and once in a garden, where Christ does it. He did the agonizing, and He heard “Depart from Me” at the shut door, so that the sentence over you is that He knows where you are from: the font.
