We Need a Nap!

       I had a great conversation with a friend yesterday.  One of the things we talked about was how busy and jammed-packed our lives have been of late.  And then of course, we talked about how tired we both felt.   It seems like it is not only a common conversation but also a universal experience. Are we are all rushed, tired, harried, and harassed?
       It seems like it.
       When I was young, I remember that summer seemed to stretch on forever; the wait for Christmas was agonizing, and good things never happened quickly enough.  Older people commonly talk about how time seems to pass more quickly as we age.  And I was willing to accept this as the reason time feels more rushed.  And that may indeed be part of what is happening (I can't deny it, we all do get older!).  But that doesn't explain it all.
       Our time really is getting pushed to and beyond our limits.
       Commercials now try to sell us new phones and services by telling us how unacceptable it is if our information is 29 or 14 seconds behind.  If we are even 27 seconds behind, we will have already missed our chance to participate in a party, give a gift, or say goodbye.
       The effects of this time compression are aggravated by the fact that the lines between our personal and work lives have become blurred.  As our electronic gadgets have become smaller and more portable, people assume we should be instantly available to one another.  Several years ago, there were articles about how we could make better use of our time by multi-tasking while waiting in line or at the doctor's office.  Now it is not uncommon to see people texting while sitting in a meeting or eating dinner with someone else.  Young people are exhausted, texting into the night and or sleeping with their phones so they don't miss anything.
       It has gotten hard for us to just do one thing at a time.
       This is taking a toll on us, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.  Tired and rushed people have a harder time being creative and are not as good at problem solving.  Our immune systems don't work as well, so we tend to pick up all the viruses and bugs going around.  We have less patience, less tolerance for change, and we are more irritable.  It's no wonder that stressed people have a lower opinion of their quality of life.
       Everything stinks when you are tired!  Even when we want to be positive, we have fewer resources to allow us respond positively.
       We need a collective nap.
       From the beginning, God modeled a different way.  For six days, God worked at creative the universe and all that it contains and on the seventh day, God rested.  One of the first commandments given was the command to keep the sabbath day, the seventh day of rest.  And not just those in charge but everyone, including children, servants, and work animals.  Rest, time completely away and apart from work is vitally important to our health.  In Deuteronomy, God reminds the people that life without sabbath rest is like their years in slavery.  We are a freed people and we honor God by taking holy rest.
       Even on our "work" days, we need to slow our lives down and give ourselves and others the gift of grace.  Our worth and value do not depend on a life lived in increments of seconds.  Take time to pray, to breathe, to pause, and to be in relationship, not with a gadget but with each other.  Read Deuteronomy 5:12-15.

Spring Cleaning

       I was walking to my office after a meeting on St. Patrick's Day when I saw worms on the sidewalk; live, wriggly worms!  Now maybe where you live, that wouldn't be a surprise, but up here, in the middle of March, that is an unusual sight.

       Now early thaws happen, and snow may not last all winter, but the appearance of worms is a sure sign that the frost is coming up our of the ground and Spring is on its way.  It may get cold again and snow may even make an appearance, but the new life of Spring is making itself known.  

       It's in the worms, and the robins doing their mating dance.  It is in the smell of the air after the first rain and the lengthening of the days.  It is in the greening of the grass, the pussy willows, and the leaves starting to bud on the trees.  Even though winter's hold on us was a bit softer this year, it is a relief to see it leaving.  

       Farmers are being anxious to get out into the fields and start working them up, preparing them to receive new crops.  And the avid gardeners I know are looking through their seed catalogues and making plans that will be set in motion once the threat of frost is past.  For although the geese and other critters may not be waiting before they mate, the people who work the land tend to be more cautious.  They know that if they plant too early, a hard frost might come and kill off the new growth, costing them time, money, and effort.

       This early Spring may already full of the promise of new life, but that life is still tender and tenuous at best.  Winter can still make another strong showing.  This is a time of year when it is the veneer of our control of our lives is very thin.  We have not caused the explosion of new life nor can we do anything to prevent killer cold, should the weather change.

        However, this early Spring is a reminder of the effects we can and to have on the world around us.  This last winter was one of the warmest on record in much of North America.  Whether or not anyone can prove that the weather patterns this winter are caused by global warming, we should take it as a warning to be aware of the way we live, the resources we consume, and the health of the ecology around us.

       We do not control the world, but we are responsible for our care of the creation that God has put into our hands.  When we are careless with the world and its' resources, we hurt not only the plants and animals, and the environment but we also hurt ourselves.  More than that, we disrespect the one who has given us all life.

       This time of year is a good time to do "Spring cleaning" not only of our homes, but also of our habits, and our collections of stuff.  Cleaning will be easier from now on if we take lighten our loads by donating and recycling all those things we are not using.  We can take small steps like replacing light bulbs with energy-saving CFL's (compact fluorescent lights). (If you are not sure which ones to use or why and how much you will save, check out energystar.gov)

       One small step is just to go through the house unplugging all the appliances that you aren't using or put them on power strips you can turn off or on.  Every transformer, or lighted on/off switch, or digital time display is using energy that costs you money and enlarges your energy footprint.  Pack your cloth grocery bags in your car or hang them next to the door so that you are reminded to use them when you shop.

       You can start small or challenge yourself to make bigger changes.  Just also remember to "ground" all this effort (excuse the pun!) in prayer.  Take the time also to give thanks to the one who creates, sustains, and gives us all life.  As you see the seasons change around you, take time to be amazed at the abundant love and grace of God.  Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

God's Soaring Cathedral

       Several years ago, I got the chance to be at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge and meet the oldest trees I've ever seen.  I learned so much.  There were western hemlocks, yews, and other trees.  The old growth forest there is part of what is left of the northwest pacific rainforest.  The oldest hemlocks are over one thousand years old.
       It was amazing to find myself standing among such large and ancient trees, some with trunks that would fill up my office or even larger.   They were so tall that my neck hurt from trying to look up to see the tops.  The forest floor was thick with grass, moss, fallen leaves, and other plants.  Because we were in a protected old growth forest, there were trees at all stages of life young and old.
       With all the growth (trees, vines, grasses, moss and other plants), the sunlight had a thick green quality to it.  The air was so vibrant; it seemed to almost taste alive.  The contrast was even stronger as I had come there from Kansas where trees are much smaller, the air much drier, and for much of the year, much less green.  These trees are literally giants.
       People will challenge me from time to time, saying that they find it easier to find God in the midst of nature rather than church.  Sometimes, it is said as a joke or as a half-hearted excuse by those who have been away golfing, or at the lake, or out in the field.  Other times, it is the beginning of a serious conversation about where and how we experience God.
       The day I spent amongst those trees was a day spent in an ancient cathedral.  I have to admit that it was easy to be amazed at the creation and the Creator in that place.
        I have been in ancient cathedrals and old churches in Europe.  We don't have buildings here of that age; we are too new.  But even including those, with their amazing stained glass windows and soaring buttresses, they can't compete.  There is no building to rival the beauty of that forest and the music of the wind and the birds of that place.
       The words of Psalm 96 could have been written for that place: "The Lord is King!... Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;... Then shall all the three of the forest sing for joy before the Lord; for he is coming." (Psalm 96:10-13)
       But the trees are not the only things created to praise God, we are also to live our lives so that we are a reflection of God and God's faithfulness.
       While it's true that our faith may be strengthened by an experience like I had in the forest, I firmly believe that we grow best when we are connected to other people of faith in community.  It is not meeting in a building called a church that strengthens our faith, but what happens there and that we are gathered into the body of Christ that makes a difference.
       Alone, I may be overwhelmed by the troubles and questions of my own life but gathered together, I am comforted and upheld by those who pray with me.  I am encouraged by the witness of those who speak God's word.  I am fed and nourished when the bread of Christ is broken and shared, and I am washed clean again in my baptism when I receive forgiveness.
       I did not walk in that forest alone.  I was there with a group of rural chaplains from all over the country.  We were there to learn together about the forest but we were also gathered to share in faith and prayer.  Some people may find it easier to feel God's presence in a quiet sanctuary with lighted candles and organ music.  We also need to treasure God's creation and celebrate our creator together in the cathedral of God's forests.  But what we need the most is to remember to pray as God's gathered people, remembering that it is together in the body of Christ that we are empowered and given life.  Read Jeremiah 17:7-8

Scared of the Cross

       One of my favorite parts of worship happens when we celebrate communion and the children of the congregation come forward.
       To encourage children and parents to come together for worship, the children come to worship and stay until after the children's sermon when they are dismissed for Sunday School.  They come back as a group during communion and those not communing receive a blessing.  Most of them come up to me smiling and lift their faces to me to receive a cross with the words of blessing.  But this week was different.  They came in the middle of the week.
       It was Ash Wednesday, a special day in itself and the beginning of the church season of Lent.  The season of Lent, is a time for the kind of reflection, discipline, study, and prayer that helps our faith to grow stronger.  The day of Ash Wednesday is set aside for worship that includes confession and holy communion.  Those who wish to take part can come forward and receive a cross of ashes on their forehead.
       The cross is a repetition of the cross made in baptism and so is a reminder of our baptism.  On the day of baptism, the cross is made with scented oil and the words are spoken, "you are marked with the cross of Christ forever".
       The ashes are from palm leaves from last year's Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter).  I buy ashes from my local church supply store because they are finer and blacker that any I can create (they are burned at a higher temperature).  This night, the words are, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return".
       When the time came, I invited everyone to come forward to receive the ashes.  It was a smaller and more somber crew than a regular Sunday but the children came with their parents.  It was fine until one of the younger children hid behind her mom.  She held tight to her mother's hand and refused to receive her ashes.  It was obvious to me that she was scared.
       After worship, I thought to myself, we should all be scared of receiving those ashes.  They are a reminder of the new and eternal life we have in baptism but they are also a sign of our brokenness and mortality; of the death that is all we have without God's love.
       I remember the words of a professor at seminary who said that he dreaded doing ashes on Ash Wednesday because he would see each member eye-to-eye and know that he would be doing a funeral for one or more of them in the next year.  Now I know what he meant.
       Why do Lutherans cling so to the cross and its shadow of death?  There are plenty of pastors and churches that chose to elevate only the glory, the love, and the positive.  Those who will talk about the bread and cup of love or life but not the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.  I knew a pastor who changed the words of this night to "dust you are and from dust Jesus saves you".  Why do we insist on scary stuff?
       For me, it lies in this truth: I cannot save myself.  It is only by the death and resurrection of the Savior, through Jesus taking my place and paying the price that I or any of us have hope.  We no longer have to question if we are good enough, if we have made the right choice, or if we have done enough.  God has done the doing.  God has done the choosing.  God begins the loving.
       My little parishioner may have been frightened of the ashes, but she came gladly and confidently to receive her blessing and the cross on her forehead during the time of communion.  The power of the cross of Christ may seem foolish and hard to understand but it is our hope and salvation.  Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Flying Above the Fray

       This summer I was able to do something I've never done before.  We went to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota and I got the chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a live bald eagle for a photo op.  There was no barrier between the eagle and myself, although one of the staff of the center was right there, handling the eagle.
       I've seen eagles in the air, soaring high in the sky or sitting perched up high on a tree or pole.  Even from far away, they are big, majestic and beautiful birds.  But up so close, there was something more.
       Standing inches away from a full-grown, strong eagle, I could see the power in the talons and the beak.  That was also reinforced by the fact that I had sat through a lecture not long before and learned about the power of the birds.  We heard that there are eye-witness accounts of eagles taking down an adult deer.  I found myself unwilling to stare eye-to-eye with the bird.  It's stare was too other, too alien, and so challenging.
       I have never really had a feeling for the way some of the older translations and languages of the bible talk about God.  They talk about fearing God and being awestruck by God. Even Luther in the Small Catechism (which he wrote to teach children) writes in his explanations that we are to "fear and love God".
       I came closer so understanding what that fear might mean while meeting the eagle face-to-face.  I was definitely in "awe" of the eagle.
       We sing songs about God being "an awesome God" but I think the usual understanding is a more casual feeling of God being "cool" or "great".
       Certainly the Old Testament understanding of the awesomeness of God is more akin to the eagle, raw power and beautiful and yet beyond our control; not tame.  To "fear" God is not the same fear that children might have of monsters or like the fear of snakes or spiders.  Instead, to fear God is to take seriously the power and otherness of God.  It is to be in awe before God.
       Why do we need this "awesome" God?
       Because we live in a broken world where evil is real and bad things happen to good people.  Things happen all the time that are beyond our understanding and control from large scale disasters to personal tragedies.  Even the relationships with the people we love can become strained.  Sometimes the circumstances of our lives can leave us drained and discouraged.
        At these times, we can find comfort in the words of the prophet Isaiah.  Like the eagle, God is able to lift us up, give us strength and courage, and even more, holds us in such love and mercy that is stronger than anything anywhere.  God has not left us alone but is with us, giving us new life and comfort.  God helps us to soar again even when we cannot   Read the words of Isaiah 40:28-31.

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