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Last week I had the pleasure of talking with the manager of the local radio station. Trinity, Slayton, has been broadcasting devotional messages for several years. The manager and I talked about the guidelines for these short broadcasts.

The most stringent guideline is to keep the broadcasts around ninety seconds. That works out to be a bit less than 300 words. OK, a posting on Twitter is limited to about the same, so it looks like we can at least begin to develop a theme within that constraint.

Dr. Donald Deffner, of blessed memory, suggested that every sermon, indeed everything we write, should have a theme of 15 words or less. Unless you can state your theme in such a short sentence, you are not ready to write.

In this respect, the 15 word theme is a lot like Paul’s statement, “We preach Christ crucified.” There is not enough time from now until our Lord comes again with the angels and the sound of trumpets to fully explore everything about this statement. Just the word “We” demands that we come to an understanding about the church, the office of the ministry, the purpose of our faith in Christ Jesus, and a host of other topics all related to the group of people who proclaim Christ crucified.

Add to that the question of who Christ is (the incarnate Son of God), why He was crucified (to redeem us from sin, death, and the power of the devil), and how that is offered to each person (through God’s rich grace as a gift, something we don’t earn), and how it is applied to each one who believes in Jesus (God’s Word and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution).

Yet ninety seconds is enough to to proclaim that our heavenly Father sent His Son into the world to pay the price of our sin. It is enough time to say that we are saved by God’s grace, His undeserved love, for the sake of Christ Jesus.

Let’s face it, ninety seconds is three times the length of the “elevator speech” that we learned to have ready as we studied marketing. Maybe, however, the ninety seconds will help people realize there is much more to the story.

Six months ago, if anyone would have suggested that we would be living in southwest Minnesota, I would have been inclined to chuckle. We were firmly ensconced in Leadville, Colorado, where I was serving as the pastor of a small congregation, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

Leadville has the pleasure of being the highest incorporated city in North America. Outside our back door you could see the highest peak in the state. The view was beautiful, especially because there was little air to block the scenery.

God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed us to move to a place which has many things we did not have in Leadville, the foremost being oxygen and moisture. These make a difference.

Though the scenery has changed, you can actually see for miles without rocks getting in the way, the message of the church is still the same. We preach Christ and Him crucified. It is the heart and core of everything we do.

The primary reason that any congregation exists is to bring the peace of God to this sin-sickened world. Be it disease, personal tragedy, or destructive weather, all creation is twisted by our sin. When our first parents defied God by eating that which was forbidden, creation itself was harmed. What was once a paradise turned deadly.

The peace of God is this, our heavenly Father sent His Son to pay the price of our sin. By grace alone we are given the gift of forgiveness which brings us eternal life. This forgiveness we do not earn, nor can we ever repay. As John the Evangelist wrote, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Now, this isn’t to say the Christians get a free pass from all the problems in the world. Far from it. But we do have a different view on the death and destruction caused by sin. We know it is not God’s plan, but that we should be eternally blessed by living with Him. While we still are in this sinful flesh, we will suffer the effects of our transgression. We believe, teach, and confess, however, that we have a new life in Christ Jesus. The old hymn reminds us, “I am but a stranger here, heaven is my home.”

Meanwhile, we are privileged to serve God by serving our neighbors. One of the post-communion collects we use includes the petition that the reception of Jesus’ body and blood in and under the bread and wine will “strengthen our faith towards You and our fervent love for one another.”

That is the message and comfort I was privileged to bring the good folk at Good Shepherd, Leadville. That is the message I am privileged to bring to Trinity.

We pray that we are able to serve this congregation and Slayton in accordance with God’s will, and to His glory.