Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The town of Kiruna, Sweden, is being moved two miles from its current site at a cost of 4 billion dollars. Decades of iron ore mining has slowly eroded the foundations of the town built above the world's largest underground mine.
 
Some buildings will be torn down and rebuilt. Others will be taken down piece by piece and reassembled in their new location, including a historic wooden church - a church which was once voted Sweden's most beautiful building, however the foundation it was built upon is now giving way, so it won't last.
 
Most have accepted the move as inevitable. Mayor Hans Swendell said,"The people in Kiruna have known for 100 years that they were living on iron ore.  They've known that sometime they would have to move."
 
So for four billion dollars, it's an expensive lesson: If you lose your foundation, you'll lose your way of life.

This is a parable for our times - If you lose your foundation, you'll lose your way of life.
 
But it could also have been a parable for those early settlers in 1867 when they built the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Fish Lake.
 
It could have been a parable for our congregation in 1887 when they re-built this current building because of fire from a lighting strike.
 
And yet, it's still a parable for Fish Lake Lutheran Church on this - its' 140th anniversary.
 
If you lose your foundation, you'll lose your way of life.
Fish Lake has always been true to the foundation it was built on, and has not wavered from that foundation.  Its way of life, and the way of life for hundreds who have called this their church home, have been sustained, and have carried on for now 140 years - it's foundation has remained steady and firm throughout.
 
Pastor Brink was serving Fish Lake when fire from the sky destroyed the church they had worked so hard to build and were so proud of.  He used two verses from Psalm 51 to bring comfort and hope to a hurting congregation - which happens to be the Psalm we begin our Ash Wednesday service with this coming Wednesday.  Pastor Brink read with conviction on Pentecost Sunday, the morning after their church burnt to the ground:

17The way to please you, O God,
   is to feel sorrow
   deep in our hearts.
   This is the kind of sacrifice
   you won't refuse.
    18Please be willing, Lord,
   to help the city of Zion
   and to rebuild its walls.

Those fifty people who founded this congregation in 1867 were committed to building and re-building on a firm foundation - on a foundation that wouldn't give way - on a foundation that surely would carry them and sustain them into their future.  They weren't people who were just going through the motions to try to please God - they were hard-working, dedicated, committed, and faithful followers of Christ whose pride and joy was this church. 

So when this church - their house of worship - was destroyed by literally, tongues of fire descending from the sky, on Pentecost Eve of 1886, and their pride and joy was shattered, God took notice and provided for them in their deep hour of need.  Now not only did God provide for them, but as the Psalm states so well, and as Pastor Brink prayed so diligently, God took delight in them and helped them, and they rebuilt, once again, on a foundation that was grounded in Christ.  That foundation is not only laid in our congregations, but in our own lives, when we are marked with the cross of Christ forever at our baptisms.  Today that foundation of faith will be laid in Annika June as she receives that mark which will sustain her and carry her into her future of faith.
 
You could say the congregation was transfigured - being this is the Sunday of the Transfiguration. They were transfigured in a way that revealed God's awesome and powerful glory - they discovered that through prayer, devotion, worship, and faith, not only will God rebuild the walls of Zion, but he will share with us a glimpse of his glory throughout the period of rebuilding.
 
So upon that firm foundation, and this being the Sunday of the Transfiguration, it's appropriate to point out many of the changes and transfigurations that were taking place in the beginning years of Fish Lake and throughout its' history.

• When Fish Lake Lutheran Church was founded on February 19, 1867, the State of Minnesota was only nine years old and Chisago County was only fifteen years old; (having been organized while Minnesota was still only a territory).
• Fish Lake Lutheran Church was founded only two years after the end of the Civil War.  
• Fish Lake township came into existence the year after it's foundation, in 1868.
• When this congregation was founded in 1867, the Chippewa Indians still roamed this area while settling on the shores of the numerous lakes.  
• The first white settlers here were the Peter Lof and Erick Berglund families, who came from the Chisago Lakes area where they had lived for a year after arriving here from Sweden.  The men came alone at first to explore the area, and the story is told that one evening when making camp they heard the calls of a loon and figured that they must be fairly close to a lake.  The next morning they set out and walked until they came upon the shores of Fish Lake.  
• Peter Lof settled on the south shore and Erick Berglund settled on the north shore of Fish Lake.  These two families were the first and only white settlers here for the next three years.
• The area surrounding Fish Lake in 1867 was a rugged wilderness and the closest trading post was at Sunrise - eleven miles from Fish Lake.  Sunrise had a post office, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, a saw mill, a store, and a flour mill.  These first settlers walked from Fish Lake to Sunrise through areas so thickly wooded that it was necessary to blaze their trail in order to find their way back.  Once at Sunrise they were able to get their supplies, which had to be carried on their backs, back to their settlements on Fish Lake.  Walking was the only means of getting around.  We shared with many of you last Sunday, how this primitive, 140 year old practice, is being lived day in and day out, in 2007, in the country of Africa.  People walking miles every day to get the supplies needed to get them through one more day.  For our brothers and sisters in Tanzania, and for the faithful founders of Fish Lake Lutheran, it was and is, only by determination, perseverance, and the help of God, that they could and can, survive the severe hardships in their respective lands.
• Well, eventually, in 1864, two other families, Lars Larson and Peter Bergs arrived on the shores of Fish Lake.  After that, one family after the other came to settle in this area as long as there was land available.  Many of these families came from Chisago Lakes Lutheran Church of Center City, which was organized in 1854. Most of these early settlers and soon-to-be founders of Fish Lake were from southern Sweden, and it is said that Chisago County is comparable to that part of Sweden - so they seemingly they felt right at home.
• Fortunately, the early pastors of Chisago Lake Lutheran Church at Center City, made their way through the wilderness and came to our area to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And as a result of their efforts, seven years after Peter Lof and Erick Berglund settled on the opposite shores of Fish Lake, they were ready to organize their own church.  So, on the 19th day of February, 1867, Reverend C.A. Hedengran organized the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Fish Lake, consisting of 50 members. 
• Another interesting point of history here is that Reverend Pihlgren served here for 27 years from 1893 to 1920.  We were then without a pastor from 1920 to the fall of 1921 when Pastor A. William Nordine, from International Falls came to serve our congregation until 1947, a period of 26 years.  Reverend Nordine's daughter, Linnea, who was three years old when he started here, is here with us today to celebrate and share some of her memories with us.  So when you calculate the math, from 1893 to 1947, a period of 54 years, this congregation had only two pastors, Pihlgren and Nordine.  That must be close to a record!
• So since being founded in 1867, fifteen pastors and 140 years later, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is still being proclaimed and lived out through the lives of over 400 members who call this shining beacon of light on the hill, their church home.