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.
- Jeremiah Chapter 23
This week the chapter Advent made famous. God turns on the shepherds who scattered His sheep and promises to raise up for David a Righteous Branch, a King who will execute judgment and righteousness in the earth (Jer. 23:5), the very thing chapter 22 demanded and no king did. Then God names Him. Judah’s last king was Zedekiah, whose name means “My righteousness is the LORD.” He wore the name and lived nothing like it. God gives the true King that name turned around: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer. 23:6). The rest of the chapter goes after the prophets who preached peace out of their own dreams, and God answers them with His word: Is not My word like a fire? says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jer. 23:29). The hammer comes first. Then the name. - “The Little Monk” Trinity 18 2026There is a little monk in all of us who says real service to God is somewhere else, so we look down on the ordinary work God gave us and step over the neighbor at our elbow. Jesus answers the temple lawyer with a kitchen answer: love God, love your neighbor. David’s Lord came down, kept both commandments in the carpenter’s shop and on the cross for you, and now He sits. Under His wings the diaper, the combine, and the drive to your mother’s appointment are done to God.
- “The Same Pilate” Friday of Trinity 17 2026Bad news always gets to church first, and the people who bring it to Jesus have already sorted the dead. Jesus takes away both explanations, Pilate’s sword and Siloam’s tower, and says twice, “unless you repent.” Then the same Pilate asks whether Jesus is a Galilean, and at the cross the blood is the sacrifice itself, poured now into the cup for you.
- “The Thirst that Swells” Trinity 17 2026Luke gives you one table on one afternoon: a man with dropsy, drowning in water and still thirsty, and a room full of people swollen with the same thirst for the good seat. You cannot humble your way out of pride any more than he could drink his way out of dropsy. But the Lord who heals took hold of the sick man, took the sickness into Himself, and carried it to the cross, where He cried, “I thirst.” The Host gives the seats by mercy, and the water He gives fills you without swelling you.
- “When and As He Willed” Friday of Trinity 16 (observed) 2026Why did Jesus heal the blind man at Bethsaida with two touches? Not because faith comes in stages, and not because He failed the first time. He showed His majesty when and as He willed, and the spit He put on blind eyes is the spit He took on His own face at the cross. The same hands keep touching you at font and rail, until your body rises and sees everyone clearly.
