Pastor's Message for july 2026
How good and pleasant it is when folk dwell together in unity. It is like the cool of a soothing elixir lavished on one’s head, flowing down upon one’s cheeks and neck... and running down past one’s collar and even over their shoulders. For a community gathered within true communion together is like the dew, which falls upon the mountains-it is comforting, abundant, and endlessly renewing; it is a part of what sustains the whole landscape. For here, among other folks assembled, is exactly where the Lord ordained God’s deepest blessing, the ultimate promise, of ageless and enduring life in faith forever-more—Psalm 133, nuanced & paraphrased upon reflection by your new pastor.
Perhaps this month’s passage says more about mowing lawn in Texas than worship and church life in Minnesota, but as I pondered how to begin my newsletter thread Psalm 133 just kept coming at me. I imagine you all experience some hot mowing times in Dodge Center even if it is later in the summer than now.
As we began packing, I became keenly aware of the heat and how many more times I would have to mow my lawn before moving North. Texas mowing is always a struggle to push through the tight packed thick bristling grass without stalling out. As an older guy, I’ve learned to take breaks and to savor the return to air conditioning in the house where I have my half-time glass of cool water. Sometimes, if it is really hot, I will pour the last third of it over my cap to keep my head cool and sometimes the cap nearly dries before I’m finished. And so in the middle of all this my mind turns to you as my going to be new location.
I hope our start together will be both “good and pleasant.” I trust as Lutherans and midwestern Americans we will share many common points of unity. I have been looking forward to Faith Lutheran since early May as a place of peace and promise, a haven of soothing with a flow to it that I’ve already begun to find spiritually invigorating. In the original Psalm the poet compares the unity of his community with a healing balm and then compares this balm’s inexhaustible relief with the persistence of the dew around the location of the biblical land’s only high snow-capped mountain, Hermon. The Mount named in this Psalm is the location where Christ’s transfiguration takes place. Hermon means “sacred” and “changing” both in ancient Hebrew.
I feel that Christian life often means changing while learning and being graciously gentle with one another. I pray our time together may be full of “good and pleasant” things. May our love for Jesus be especially lavish and faithful so that we may discern God’s will together and continue to forward it on with a loving grace.
Prayers your way,
Pastor Rich McLeer
Perhaps this month’s passage says more about mowing lawn in Texas than worship and church life in Minnesota, but as I pondered how to begin my newsletter thread Psalm 133 just kept coming at me. I imagine you all experience some hot mowing times in Dodge Center even if it is later in the summer than now.
As we began packing, I became keenly aware of the heat and how many more times I would have to mow my lawn before moving North. Texas mowing is always a struggle to push through the tight packed thick bristling grass without stalling out. As an older guy, I’ve learned to take breaks and to savor the return to air conditioning in the house where I have my half-time glass of cool water. Sometimes, if it is really hot, I will pour the last third of it over my cap to keep my head cool and sometimes the cap nearly dries before I’m finished. And so in the middle of all this my mind turns to you as my going to be new location.
I hope our start together will be both “good and pleasant.” I trust as Lutherans and midwestern Americans we will share many common points of unity. I have been looking forward to Faith Lutheran since early May as a place of peace and promise, a haven of soothing with a flow to it that I’ve already begun to find spiritually invigorating. In the original Psalm the poet compares the unity of his community with a healing balm and then compares this balm’s inexhaustible relief with the persistence of the dew around the location of the biblical land’s only high snow-capped mountain, Hermon. The Mount named in this Psalm is the location where Christ’s transfiguration takes place. Hermon means “sacred” and “changing” both in ancient Hebrew.
I feel that Christian life often means changing while learning and being graciously gentle with one another. I pray our time together may be full of “good and pleasant” things. May our love for Jesus be especially lavish and faithful so that we may discern God’s will together and continue to forward it on with a loving grace.
Prayers your way,
Pastor Rich McLeer