Who's/whose weeds?

    It's dandelion time, have you noticed?  Hardly does the grass have time to get green when sure enough, little yellow heads scatter themselves throughout the yard.  Most people consider them the scourge of spring - some people even see them as an insult and take it quite personally.  How dare they.  But one person's weed is another person's bouquet; my mother taught me that.

   One spring day, my two year-old son came running from the neighbor's yard with a couple of tulips clutched in his hand.  He was so proud and brought them to me with a big smile on his face - "for you, Mommy!".   They were brought with so much love but I accepted them with dread. They were plucked from the neighbor's bed of prize flowers so I began explaining to my son that he must never do that again - it was so wrong.  By the time I got half way through telling him, there were big tears rolling down his cheeks.  He had been so excited - he just wanted to do something nice for his mom.  

     That's when my mom stepped in.  She took him and asked if he had seen any of the pretty yellow flowers in the grass.  Yes, he had - we were living in student housing and dandelions were plentiful.  She told him all about how God makes dandelions to grow everywhere just so little children have flowers they can pick whenever they want and they will never get in trouble. These beautiful little mums are made just for children and that's why they grow down low where they are easy to pick.   God makes them grow all spring and summer so that you will never run out of flowers to enjoy.  And when the flowers go to seed, you get to blow them apart to make wishes come true.

   Over the years, I don't know how many bouquets of bright sunny yellow flowers I have gotten from my children.  For years, I had an antique glass that sat in the kitchen window waiting for  each new bunch of flowers.  Somewhere along the way, the children grew older and dandelions became just weeds messing up the grass.

   I caught myself looking at dandelions shining in the sun this weekend.  How I would give anything to get a grubby little handful of dandelions for my windowsill!  I pray I am blessed with grandchildren that I can teach all about children's flowers.

    In these days of worries about job losses, credit woes, and the on-going wars, perhaps we would all be helped by rethinking our position on dandelions.  I think sometimes we worry ourselves into making big problems out of little weeds.  We take it as a personal insult when things don't go exactly the way we want them done and often we are too quick to make our displeasure known, hurting the people around us.  The amount of money spent on blood pressure medication, and pills to prevent stomach upset and ulcers should convince us that not only are we being hurtful to others, we are physically hurting ourselves.

    We need to take time and remember that the God who made dandelions also cares for all of our "grown-up" needs as well.  Breath deep and slowly.  Read Matthew 6:25-34

Some Thoughts on Synod Assembly

Saturday And Sunday, May 16-17th, the Northwest Minnesota Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) met in assembly to do the work of the church.  It's like a convention because we do work but not like a convention because there is a focus on worship and pray, bible study, and the mission and ministry that we do together.  Plus there is good music, good food, fun, and support!

The theme of the assembly was "You are what you eat".  As Bishop Wohlrabe wrote, this year's theme "invites us not just to read or hear God's Word but to eat, to consume, to 'inwardly digest' it.  This Word is, first and foremost, our Lord Jesus himself, the Word-with-skin-on (John 1).  This Word is the proclamation of Jesus Christ through preaching and the sacraments... We are richly fed."  In order to be richly fed, we have to do more than just have "the book" on a shelf or in a drawer by the bed.  We have to open the book and begin to dip into it.  It is filled with amazing adventure stories, romances to rival any gothic novel, poetry, songs, prophecies, and sayings by which to live your life or embroider on a tea towel.  

The Bible gets used by a lot of people to justify many things - often very contradictory.   That's not the fault of the Bible but is instead a constant common characteristic of people.  We do like to disagree - some more vocally and louder than others.  The invitation given by this focus on the Bible is to begin to be acquainted with the book and through the book, with Jesus.  Although some people are intimidated by the thought of bible study with other people (too many years of worrying about having the "right" answer), the best way to begin study is to have conversation together about just one or a few verses.  What does it say to you?  What is the promise?  What gives you hope?  How would things be different if you live this out in your life today?  These questions are good ways to begin.  

Some memorable quotes from the meeting:

Brother Dietrich Reinhart on his terminal cancer diagnosis "Impossible but not hopeless".  He always did find his hope in Jesus.

Jesus' hope and our mission is to  care for "the last, lost, least, little, and lifeless" for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

On preaching and teaching the Word to stubborn, hard-headed people (do we know any?), then go "to your people, and speak to them.  Say to them, "Thus says the Lord God"; whether they hear or refuse to hear."  Ezekiel 3:11  

'What's important is that you know what's IN the Bible; you don't just thump it!'

"If you are what you eat, then I must be fast, easy, and cheap."  

This works both for our food intake as well as our intake of God's word.  How often do I (and you) resemble that remark?

We ate together, prayed together and spent a lot of time talking about the reports and recommendations from the Task Force on Sexuality.  What impressed me the most this year, is that although we have not yet gotten to a common agreement on matters over the last twenty years, (yes, we have been talking about this a LONG time), we have made progress.  While we still don't have a consensus, we have gotten much better at listening to each other, talking with respect even when disagreeing, and keeping our tempers and hate-filled tongues out of the conversation.  Perhaps at least as important as dealing with homosexuality, we are learning how to listen and talk together and deliberate with more calm.  I hope we can keep that lesson in mind as the churchwide meets in assembly in August and afterward.  We desperately need to stop fighting and taking our marbles and going home and tearing the church apart.

All in all, there were wonderful stories of mission and ministry that are happening; the Word was shared, and we were fed.  Just like any family reunion.  The only thing missing was falling asleep during the football game in the afternoon!

Yesterday I left the house in Atchison for the last time.  I drove down the tree-shaded street with tears running down my face, past the pond, past the hospital, Kevin's grocery store, and across the bridge.   It was hard to leave my husband behind one more time, though he'll be moving here soon.  Even more, I was grieving leaving my grown children "down there" and far away.  It's a big life change for all of us.  Late last night or early this morning (depending on your view of midnight), I arrived home in Halstad.  I was glad to arrive, to get out of the car and out of the rain, but even more, I was glad to be home.  As I dragged my suitcase and my tired body in, I was greeted by a note and a jar of sunny tulips.  More tears came brought on by gratitude, exhaustion, and knowing that I am not alone.

The shortest verse in the Bible is this one:  "Jesus wept", John 11:35.  Despite all the Christmas carols that tell us differently, Jesus did cry, even as adult.  The  context of this verse is the story of the death of his friend Lazarus.  

This story is full of descriptions of grieving: tears, disbelief, questions of God and others, anger, despair, hope, comfort, and the need for the support of family and friends.  It is in this setting, when Jesus is finally with Mary and the others, seeing their tears, and he prepares to see Lazarus' grave, that Jesus cries.  Sharing their grief, Jesus is moved to share his own tears; the death and loss of his friend becomes real.

There is so much we don't know about the life of Jesus, what we do know is important.  But why this?  Is this just included so that students have a tiny short verse to memorize?   

We confess that Jesus is both divine and earthly, God and human.  So, when Jesus weeps, it means that God cries.  One of the things this Gospel story teaches us is that God cried.  Ponder that a moment.  God cried.  As Jesus stood in the company of friends and shared their tears and grief, so God stands in company with us, sharing our tears, hearing our anger, questions, and pain and God brings hope.

Somehow it helps me to know that God knows how to cry, and has felt sadness and pain.  It makes God more approachable.  When we cry and find ourselves in the midst of  things so hard or immense that we don't understand what is happening, it is okay.  We don't have to explain the unexplainable: what we are feeling or why we are acting the way we are.  God knows.  God has been there.  Jesus wept, and died, and rose again.  Even when we can't find the words to pray,  the Holy Spirit speaks and advocates for us "with sighs too deeps for words" (Romans 8:26-27). 

Knowing this, silent prayer is no longer failure on our part, but a discipline of trusting the Spirit to pray for us what is most needed and deepest felt in our hearts.  

apology

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner.  That's what I get for starting something so quickly and then leaving to get my daughter graduated and married - all while starting a new call at 2 churches in the middle of a disaster at Easter!  Hmm...  I think there is a high stress level in there somewhere.

Seriously,  I will get back to this now.  The regular schedule will be to post the meditation/pondering piece on Tuesdays.  There will also be other posts of news and such from time to time.  Hang in there with me.  Forgive me and keep coming back.  Thank you.

As the line from Independence Day goes - "I'm back!"

Pastor Christine