Rev. Dr. Jonathan Blanke, Senior Pastor
Pastor’s Corner for March 1-7
Building Altars…Pitching Tents
(Genesis 12:1-9)
Both our Old Testament reading from Genesis and our New Testament reading from Romans focus on God’s call to a man named Abraham. Abraham was 75 years old and had no children when God called him. Yet God promised Abraham would become the father of a great nation and that through his family God would bring blessing to the whole world. Abraham didn’t earn this promise. He didn’t work for it. He would later even question it! But Abraham trusted what God said. That is why Paul uses Abraham as an example in Romans: like Abraham, we are all saved by God’s grace, received through faith—not earned by our own works or achievements.
In the story of God’s call of Abraham in Genesis 12 we are told two times that Abraham built an altar to the Lord (verses 7 and 8). But Abraham never built a permanent house for himself. For his own family, he simply pitched a tent.
That detail matters.
Abraham built altars because God had spoken to him. They were physical reminders: “God was here. God promised something here. God claimed me here.” Christians today don’t build stone altars in the same way. But we DO have places where God meets us with His promises: The baptismal font where God claims us as His own; the Lord’s Table where Christ feeds us with His forgiveness; the Scriptures where God speaks His promises again and again; weekly worship, where we enjoy the rhythm of remembering who God is and who we are. These are all places where God builds faith in us. Every time you touch the baptismal water, trace the sign of the cross, hear the absolution, or receive the Supper, you are enjoying an “altar moment.” You are standing at a “memory marker of grace.” God is meeting you again with His promise!
Abraham responded to God’s promises by building altars, but he never built a house. He lived in a tent…temporary, moveable, and fragile. It’s a metaphor for life. Our bodies are “earthly tents.” Our homes, jobs, routines, and plans are temporary. Our security in this world is never permanent. We are pilgrims, not settlers. Our calendar changes. Our children grow. Our jobs shift. Our health fluctuates. Our plans get interrupted. All of it is tent‑life—temporary, movable, fragile.
And yet, like Abraham, we walk through tent‑life with altar‑promises! The cross is the place where the One who pitched His tent among us would win the victory over death…earning a promise for us even better than the one Abraham received: life eternal with our Lord and King.
Where, in your own week ahead, will you encounter something in yourself that reminds you life is temporary, fragile, ever-changing, and uncertain? Remember that the altar‑promises of God in Christ Jesus will go with you even there. As you live out these days of Lent, the cross of Jesus gives you and me the promise of life in the midst of change and loss. We have God’s Word on it. Life in Christ…by grace…through faith!
Pastor Jonathan Blanke
Live Stream Services This Weekend
Please note, we will be live streaming the 9:30 am sanctuary service and the 11:00 am praise worship service this week only, and not the 8:00 am service.
Pastor Jonathan Blanke grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He received his Bachelor's degree from College of William and Mary in Virginia and attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, where he earned a Masters of Divinity degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biblical Studies, Book of John. He served as a Vicar at Messiah Lutheran Church in Richardson, Texas.
The Blanke family lived in Japan while he served as pastor and missionary to Okinawa Lutheran Church and taught Biblical Studies at Japan Lutheran College in Tokyo.
Pastor Jonathan lived in southern Maryland from January 2014 to November 2019 and was thankful to have served as the Sole Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lexington Park, Maryland.
He and his wife, Juli, have two grown children. In his free time, Jonathan likes to travel, "play around" on the piano, and enjoy the outdoors.
Click HERE to view a brief video from Pastor Jonathan.