allsaintsjonesboro News

Deus Vult! – The Installation of Fr. Dan Suelzle

On Sunday evening, August 3, 2025, the people of All Saints Parish in Jonesboro gave thanks to God for the installation of The Rev. Fr. Daniel Paul Suelzle. The rite of installation, led by Fr. Joshua Willadsen (Auxiliary Bishop / Vice-President of the LCMS Mid-South District), was joyfully conducted within a service of choral Evening Prayer.

We were blessed to welcome guests from our sister congregations, including First Lutheran Church in Blytheville, Zion Lutheran Church in Waldenburg, and the pastors of Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Searcy and of Hope / Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Churches in Batesville / Horseshoe Bend. With the saints gathered and the Word richly proclaimed, it was a joyful evening of worship, fellowship, and mission-minded encouragement.

During the service, Fr. Leigeber preached a sermon that captured the heart of the Church Militant’s calling in northeast Arkansas:

“The devil and his minions are on their heels and we’re going to keep pushing forward… The Church Militant in northeast Arkansas is armed and ready and continues to fight, praise God!

“Christ, our Lord and King, has already won the war and defeated sin, death, and the power of the devil with His own blood and with the weapons of his cross and empty tomb. This is why we preach Christ crucified, as Saint Paul entreats us. It is the power of God. It is through the preaching of the Crucified One and through the delivery of His grace in the holy sacraments that the hordes of hell continue to be sent reeling.

…Christ Jesus, working through His Church—and particularly through his called and ordained servants—got to you when you were still behind enemy lines. And through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and the preaching of the Gospel, He exorcised you, cast the devil out, delivered you from the bonds of hell…

So, Father Suelzle, you have been called to faithfully preach and teach and administer the sacraments in this parish… fighting to protect the saved and fighting to set free the souls of the lost and enslaved.”

Fr. Suelzle’s installation marks an important new chapter not only for All Saints Lutheran Church, but for the broader All Saints Cathedral Parish—a regional collaboration among All Saints Jonesboro, Zion Waldenburg, and First Blytheville. Together, we continue to build up the Church in northeast Arkansas through Word and Sacrament, traditional and Christ-centered education at All Saints Classical Lutheran School, and soon, God-willing, the launch of All Saints Music Conservatory.

As we continue the good fight of faith, we give thanks to God for calling Fr. Suelzle to serve the saints in our northeast Arkansas communities. We look forward to the faithful shepherding, teaching, and leadership Fr. Suelzle will bring to our parish family. We also give thanks for his wife Mary and their children—Norah, Ephraim, Miriam, and Adelaide—and we pray they quickly and easily find joy, peace, and fellowship among us.

“Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.” (Luke 12:43)

Soli Deo Gloria.

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Do we venerate the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist?

For about eight hundred years, the Church has dedicated the Thursday after Holy Trinity Day to be a feast day dedicated entirely to the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. This past Thursday, then, was that feast day–the Feast of Corpus Christi, also known as the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

In the Epistle from 1 Corinthians 11, we heard about Jesus’ institution of this holy supper and the words He has given through which He converts simple bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord, and in the Gospel lesson, Jesus’ words from John 6, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”

But it was, especially, the traditional collect (prayer) of the day that focused our contemplation on this miraculous gift. We prayed:

O God, who under this wondrous Sacrament hast left us a memorial of Thy Passion: grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever have in ourselves the fruit of the redemption which Thou hast wrought; who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest, ever one God, world without end.

Do Lutherans venerate and adore the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist? For many American Lutherans and other Protestants, that may sound more than a little bit strange. But if Christ says that the bread and wine of the Sacrament are actually His true Body and Blood, is it strange? Or simply Christian? Listen to Father Leigeber’s sermon below for more.

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Marriage: A Living Picture of the Gospel

Last evening, June 13, 2025, Allison Sterling and David Scarborough were united in holy matrimony at All Saints Parish. Their wedding was a joyous celebration of God’s good gift of marriage—but more than that, it was a living confession of something sacred, something eternal.

Allison and David chose yesterday as the date for their wedding, in part, because it was the five hundredth anniversary of the wedding of Martin and Katie. Five hundred years ago to the day, Martin Luther married his beloved Katharina von Bora—His “dear rib,” as he affectionately called her. Their union was not just personal; it was theological—a declaration that holy marriage, far from being a worldly formality, is a gift from God and a holy calling. Allison and David’s wedding was a continuation of that same confession: marriage is very good.

When God created man, He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” So He made a helper fit for him. He brought Eve to Adam, and He gave her to him. And now, just as Allison’s father has given her to David, so God unites wives to husbands within this holy estate. But even in the Garden of Eden, marriage was never just about Adam and Eve. It was always pointing forward to something greater, to a divine reality.

Saint Paul tells us that the union of husband and wife is a “great mystery”—in Latin, a sacramentum—because it is an image of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Though Lutherans don’t generally refer to marriage as a sacrament in the same sense that Baptism, Absolution, or the Eucharist are sacraments, it is nevertheless a holy act of God and sacred mystery that proclaims the Gospel.

Holy marriage, when understood rightly and lived out according to God’s design, becomes a sort of sermon—an embodied proclamation of Christ’s love for His Church. The husband is called to love his wife as Christ loves the Church: sacrificially, tenderly, enduringly. The wife is called to honor and trust her husband as the Church submits to Christ: willingly, faithfully, and in love.

This kind of union is increasingly out of step with the world. Our culture often treats marriage as optional or temporary. Cohabitation has become common. Divorce is tragically frequent. Even the definition of marriage is being blurred. But Christian marriage stands as a holy resistance—a living witness to the enduring truth of God’s Word and the unchanging love of Christ.

And this is precisely why the devil hates marriage. Because he hates Christ. And anything that images Christ’s love and grace becomes a target. But through the Spirit’s strength, pious Christian couples like David and Allison are able to stand firm—not by their own power, but by the grace given them in Christ within the communion of His Church.

Marriage is good. It is good for husbands and wives. It is good for children and for society. But most of all, it is good because it proclaims Jesus. It reveals the love of the Bridegroom who laid down His life for His Bride. It tells the world that there is One who forgives, who redeems, and who remains faithful forever.

So we rejoice with David and Allison. We thank God for their union. And we pray that their marriage, together with every Christian marriage, may always reflect the holy mystery of the eternal union of Christ and His beloved Church.

To God alone be all glory. Amen.