holy communion is served the first and second sundays of the month
Weekly message & Upcoming Events
Dear members and friends of Big Canoe and Highland Lutheran Churches,
Next week, I will be delivering three lectures on the German Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), who participated in a military conspiracy that tried multiple times to assassinate Hitler. The military officers involved in the conspiracy opposed Hitler’s war aims, and they were troubled by the violent actions his government was taking against Jews and others. While Bonhoeffer himself was not an assassin, he worked closely with the officers who were secretly plotting Hitler’s death. (If you have seen the Tom Cruise film, “Valkyrie,” then you know a little about one of those plots that this conspiracy group attempted.) Among the key officers in the conspiracy was Bonhoeffer’s brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi. He was a lawyer who served in the Office of Military Intelligence, which was the center of the military’s resistance against the German dictator. Bonhoeffer’s role in the conspiracy was to meet with church officials outside of Germany, to inform them about the conspiracy, and to encourage them to convince their governments to recognize the conspiracy leaders if they were successful in removing Hitler from power.
In April 1943, Bonhoeffer and von Dohnanyi were arrested. For nearly two years, they were interrogated and sometimes tortured. When Nazi officials discovered secret files about the plots to kill Hitler, which implicated von Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer, it was just a matter of time before they were executed. Bonhoeffer was hanged on April 9, 1945, just a few weeks before Germany’s surrender.
After his death, Bonhoeffer’s writings were published and translated into many languages. His letters and papers from prison became world-famous, as did his book, Discipleship. Bonhoeffer is without question the most famous Lutheran pastor and theologian of the past century. His writings have also influenced many beyond the Christian churches. (For more than thirty years, I have regularly taught university courses about his life and ideas.)
In his sermons Bonhoeffer condemned all forms of idolatry, including especially the idolatry of making one’s nation or government or church into a kind of god. He did not shrink from calling his church to repentance. Long before the Protestant Church in Germany confessed its guilt for what it did and didn’t do with respect to the treatment of the Jews, Bonhoeffer wrote in 1940 that the church “was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocents was crying aloud to heaven… She is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus.”
Bonhoeffer wrestled with how Christians are to live and act in this world. His life and actions draw attention to Martin Luther’s dangerous statement that sometimes Christians are called to sin boldly and yet believe in the grace and mercy of God more boldly still. Bonhoeffer knew that he was sinning when he chose to participate in the plot to put an end to Hitler’s life; he knew that he was thereby breaking the Fifth Commandment. And yet in that situation he also concluded that for him to do nothing, while so many suffered and died unjustly, was also a sin. After much agony and prayer, he too became a participant in the conspiracy. He too fell back upon the grace and mercy of God in a difficult situation.
We today should not easily accept what Bonhoeffer did, just because almost everyone concludes that Hitler was an evil man. We know too well what can happen when religious people take it upon themselves to act violently against what they think is injustice. Such people and their supporters even attempt to justify themselves and their actions before God.
Not so Bonhoeffer. He did not try to justify what he and the others attempted. He even accepted the judgment of the Nazi court that he had acted traitorously. And he accepted the judgment of God against his sins. Still, he clung in prison to the only remedy for that divine judgment: not self-justification, but the justification of the sinner through faith in Jesus Christ.
See you in church!
Pastor Becker
11-12-2025
Upcoming Events:
Fri, Nov 14 (10am): Pastor Becker leads the worship service at Green Lea Manor (Mabel)
Sat, Nov 15 (9am-1pm): Holiday Bazaar (Greenfield Lutheran Church, Harmony, MN)
Sun, Nov 16 (8:45am): Bible class (on the Nicene Creed) meets in the nave at Big Canoe
Sun, Nov 16 (9am): Sunday school meets in the Fellowship Hall at Big Canoe
Sun, Nov 16 (10am): Service w/baptism of Tatum Nordheim (Big Canoe) – 23rd Sun a. P. (green)
Sun, Nov 16 (11:15am-noon): Youth confirmation class at Big Canoe
Sun, Nov 16 (12:30pm): Baptism of Porter Alan Sacquitne (Big Canoe)
Nov 17-19: Pastor Becker will be giving three lectures on Bonhoeffer at Creighton University
Thurs, Nov 20 (9:30am-11:30am): Pastor Becker will be attending an ELCA colleague meeting (Calmar)
Sun, Nov 23 (8:45am): Bible class (on the Nicene Creed) meets in the fellowship hall at Highland
Sun, Nov 23 (10am): Service of the Word (Highland) – Christ the King Sunday (white)
Mon, Nov 24 (9am-11am): Pastor Becker is giving a Zoom presentation to a group of Canadian pastors
Wed, Nov 26 (6:30pm): Thanksgiving Eve worship service (Big Canoe)
Sun, Nov 30 (8:45am): Bible class (on the Nicene Creed) meets in the fellowship hall at Highland
Sun, Nov 30 (10am): Service w/Holy Communion (Highland) – First Sun in Advent (blue)
Tues, Dec 2 (9:30-noon): Pastor Becker will be in La Crosse for an appointment
Wed, Dec 3 (5:00pm): Midweek Advent soup supper and worship service (Big Canoe)
Sat, Dec 6 (10am-noon): Annual spiritual/planning retreat for both congregations (Big Canoe)
Sun, Dec 7 (8:45am): Bible class (topic TBD) meets in the nave at Big Canoe
Sun, Dec 7 (9am): Sunday school meets in the Fellowship Hall at Big Canoe
Sun, Dec 7 (10am): Service w/communion & baptism of Rawson Ferguson (BC) – 2 Sun./ Advent (blue)
Sun, Dec 7 (11:15am-noon): Youth confirmation class at Big Canoe
Tues, Dec 9 (1:30pm): Pastor Becker participates in a Crossings online presentation about Christmas
Wed, Dec 10 (5:00pm): Midweek Advent soup supper and worship service (Highland)
Fri, Dec 12 (10am): Pastor Becker leads the worship service at Green Lea Manor (Mabel)
Sun, Dec 14 (8:45m): Bible class (topic TBD) meets in the Fellowship Hall at Highland
Sun, Dec 14 (10am): Service w/Holy Communion (Highland) – Third Sun. in Advent (blue)
Sun, Dec 14 (after worship): Highland WELCA will meet (Highland)
Wed, Dec 17 (2:30pm): Pastor Becker leads the communion service at Aase Haugen
Wed, Dec 17 (5:00pm): Midweek Advent soup supper and worship service (Big Canoe)
Sat, Dec 20 (10am-11:30am): Practice for the Children’s Christmas Program (Big Canoe)
Sun, Dec 21 (8:45-9:30am): Practice for the Children’s Christmas Program (Big Canoe)
Sun, Dec 21 (10am): Children’s Christmas Program and soup luncheon (Big Canoe)
Wed, Dec 24 (5:30pm): Christmas Eve service and potluck meal (Highland)
Thurs, Dec 25 (10am): Christmas Day service (Big Canoe)
Sat, Dec 27 (2-4pm): Open House at the Parsonage (carol singing at 3pm)
Sun, Dec 28 (8:45am): Bible class (topic TBD) meets in the Fellowship Hall at Highland
Sun, Dec 28 (10am): Service of the Word (Highland) – First Sunday of Christmas (white)
Sun, Dec 28 (after the service): Joint council meeting of both church councils (at Highland)
Wed, Feb 18 (5:30pm): Shared Ministry soup/sandwich meal and Ash Wed worship service (Big Canoe)
Wed, Feb 25 (5:30pm): Shared Ministry meal and Lenten service (Pr. Becker preaching) (Burr Oak)
Apr 21 – May 5, 2026: Pr. Becker will be in Nigeria, Africa (ordaining 20 pastors)
August 9-14, 2026: Luther League/Shared Ministry Youth trip to the Boundary Waters
Matthew L. Becker, STS, B.A., M.Div., M.A., Ph.D.
Pastor, Big Canoe and Highland Lutheran Churches, Decorah, IA
Treasurer, Lutheran Quarterly
Senior Research Professor of Theology Valparaiso University College of Arts & Sciences Room 314
1400 Chapel Drive Valparaiso, IN 46383 Phone: 219-916-8535 E-mail: matthew.becker@valpo.edu
