You're Welcome!

       We've had a long break from hard winter this year.  It has been fairly mild and lots of records have been set for record highs.   But it is January and this is northwestern Minnesota and winter is here.
       Yesterday morning it was below zero and windy.  I knew without a thermometer that I was going to need to dress really warm.  First of all, when I came into the living room, the two oldest (and biggest) cats were curled up together in my husband's chair on top of the fleece throw.  Then when my husband left to go to work, he came back into the house.  When I asked what he'd forgotten, he answered, "No, I need my real winter jacket today."  He hadn't even gotten it out of the closet yet this year.
       He doesn't get cold often.  When he puts on extra winter layers, the weather service is probably putting out advisories about the cold.
       When I get cold in the car, he could well be driving in his (short) shirtsleeves!
       Needless to say, one of the areas we have had to learn to compromise and work with each other is in regulating the thermostat in the car and at home.  I wear more layers and keep a blanket handy and he wears short sleeves often even in the winter.  He puts up with my cold feet at night and I enjoy coming to bed and getting my feet warm.
       There is a lesson in this for how we get along together in Christian community.  We all have different set points when things become uncomfortable.  Sometimes it is change itself that makes us uncomfortable.  Like my husband and I in the car, it is often when we are sitting together in worship that we find ourselves in disagreement.  Where some people find comfort in familiar words and patterns, other people find boredom and wonder if those same words and patterns have anything to do with what is going on in their world today.
       It is human nature I think to see such preferences as disagreements that put people on one "side" or another.  Our language becomes divisive; for or against, one or the other, yes or no.  We can become so side-tracked by this that we cannot see the value and treasures in variety or the wider welcome it gives to more people.  Culture has made compromise into a negative value, equating it with failure and equating moderation with being mediocre.
       Faith calls us to live in harmony with on another.  The mark of our faith is not in being right but in looking out for the faith of others and in welcoming those who are new to the Gospel.  Paul writes in Romans; "Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding." (Romans 14:19)  Our focus is not to be on ourselves but on others; and we are to act not out of judgment but out of love.
       The four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and the book of Acts give a wonderful picture of Jesus' disciples and the early church full of flaws, chaos, differences, and the power of Jesus' love and grace.  Jesus collects a group of people from all corners of his world, people who wouldn't have found themselves together by their own choosing, and from them begins this thing called the Church, the Body of Christ, this community.
       You and I have also been called into this community, to put ourselves aside and to love and serve others; in this God is glorified.  Read Romans 15:1-7.

God Bless You!

       I love worship on Christmas Eve: singing all the carols, all the candles and lights in the church shining in the winter darkness, hearing the familiar story once more about the birth of Jesus and then celebrating and tasting that truth in the sharing of the bread and wine.  These experiences have been with me as long as I can remember.

       I am never bored in spite of all that is same.  There is always something special and something unique and it is often a complete surprise.  This year, it happened during communion.

       At our churches we welcome everyone to come forward during communion.  Young children who are not yet communing, taking the bread and wine, receive a blessing.  With my thumb I trace a cross on their forehead (just like at baptism) and say the words, "Jesus bless you as you grow".  I blessed a young toddler in his father's arms, and he looked me straight in the eyes and said confidently, "He does.  I know."  Then he smiled.

       It brought smiles and giggles all around.

       Just another cute kid story?  Yes and also a wonderful confession of faith:  'Yes, I know that Jesus blesses me.'  We should all be so confident in the love God has for us.

       It reminds me of something that happened in my first year of ministry.  It had become my habit to begin the benediction with the words, "And now may the Lord bless you and keep you...".  It didn't take too many repetitions for a retired pastor in the congregation to take me aside and remind me to go back to Hebrew of the benediction.

        In the Hebrew (and in the Greek translation) there is no maybe.  The blessing is imperative. There is no question of whether or not God can bless us or may and might not bless us.  "The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord's face shine on you and be gracious to you.  The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace."(Numbers 6:24-26)  What God promises, God keeps.
       Without really thinking about what I was doing by adding my own words before the blessing, I was changing the faith statement of the blessing into a question.  My friend and mentor was right to question me and to get me to not only change my words but to think deeply about what I was doing.
       It is all too easy for us to turn God's love and grace into something that we are somehow responsible for either by merit or worth.  Perhaps the hardest part of faith is accepting that even faith itself is God's gift to us out of God's love, that knowing us even deeper than we know ourselves, God loves us that much.  It is the story Jesus tells over and over again in the parables and his teaching of God's abundant, extravagant love.

       Unlike much of the giving that happens during the Christmas season, God's giving is sure and true.  God so loves the world that Jesus comes and we are blessed.  This is the love that God has for me and for each of you.  It is not a maybe.  It is not dependent on what we do or what we don't do or how we feel.  It is God's promise, given and kept.  Read John 3:16-17