Who You Gonna Call?

       People often think that pastors have it all together went it comes to faith and spirituality.  After all, we're the experts, right?  Well, as they say around here, "Not so much".  That's why I like to tell this story on myself because it shows how we all need constant reminding and teaching.  Also, with all the disastrous flooding going on, the eleven years I spent working for Lutheran Disaster Response have been on my mind.
       One night, I woke up around 2:00 in the morning.  I had spent hours trying to fall asleep and I just couldn't sleep anymore.  I was trying desperately to find help for a young family.  When they came to me, it was a year and half after they had been evacuated from their flooded home by boat.  Their circumstances were dire.  The husband had been disabled by an accident right after the flood, the young daughter had serious medical issues, and mom was the caretaker.  Between his hospitalization and other things, they had received no significant help for themselves and all they all lost (possessions and car) and their home.  Because so much time had passed, response programs had closed.
        Everyone I contacted (governmental and volunteer) agreed that this family needed and deserved help in recovery but their early registration and paperwork had been lost, blocking them from the biggest sources of aid.  I had spent days and hours on the phone trying to be as creative as I could, talking to everyone I could think of on a state and national level.
       That night as I sat on the edge of the bed in tears, I kept thinking 'if there was only somebody I could talk to who was big enough or who had enough power to make a difference'.  I sat there like that for at least half an hour when suddenly it hit me.  Duh! I should pray.  So I prayed and finally slept well. And the people did get the help they needed.
       One of the things I appreciate about the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is that they are not stories about perfect people.  In fact, the disciples are continually forgetting or not listening to or disagreeing with what Jesus is teaching them.  Peter denies Jesus (John 18: 25-27), Thomas doubts the resurrection (John 20: 24-29), and the Canaanite woman argues theology with him (Matthew 15:22-28).  If even those who knew him face-to-face had troubles, then there is hope for you and me.
        Jesus promises that no matter how heavy our burdens, how big our problems, we do not have to carry them alone.  Like me that night, we forget to come to Jesus in prayer, or we try to handle them by ourselves until we are so overwhelmed or in such a hard place that all we can do is ask for help.  Many times we are our own problem and stand in our own way.
       But God is patient with us.  God always listens and Jesus is always ready to give us peace.  God is always bigger and stronger than any problem or evil that comes our way and we are never left alone.  Don't wait until you find yourself sitting on the edge of the bed in tears, let Jesus share your burdens.  Read Matthew 11:28-30.

Tag, You're It!

    
       After I drove up to the country church Sunday morning, I took a moment to just sit and breathe.  It's my habit to do that when I am arriving somewhere to begin a task (in this case to preach and lead worship).  I use that brief time for a deep breath to relax and to center myself in my new surroundings.         Out at Augustana, I also use it to take in the beautiful surroundings of the church, the wind in the trees, the serenity of the churchyard and cemetery, and often the songs of the birds.  Of course all bets are off if it is twenty below zero!
       As I looked around, I noticed a very small squirrel sitting on a pump by the road.  Then it jumped down and half-bounced and half-ran over to a big tree in front of the church.  Just as it was about to run up the tree trunk, a robin flew down and began nattering at it, chasing it away from the tree by running after it while flapping its wings.  The squirrel must have been a young one because it was barely bigger than the robin from nose to tail end.
       When they got near the church, the bird flew a bit and landed in front of the squirrel who then started to chase the robin who ran ahead instead of flying off.  At the church steps, the robin turned again to go after the squirrel who ran off into the bushes.  The robin stood waiting and watching where the squirrel entered.  After a long pause, the squirrel tore out of the other end of the bushes and ran across the yard and up into the closest tree in the cemetery.
       I sat still to watch the whole scene because I was afraid that if I moved or made a noise, the whole game would have ended.  It was so much fun to watch this little game of play out over the green grass in the sunshine.  I know I went in church with a big smile on my face for the gift of joy I would have missed if I had been in too much of a hurry to notice God's creation around me.
       God takes delight and joy in creation.  We know this from the creation story at the beginning of Genesis.  In spite of all the years of argument and discussion, it tells us that God spoke creation ("And God said...") and that God found everything created to be good.  It is not a science lesson but a faith lesson.  The power of God is such that when God speaks, creation happens.  And God finds creation good.  I have found that my life is in better balance when I take the time to notice that same good in creation.
       As a young mother, I found it frustrating to read about spirituality and prayer time.  It always seemed like the instructions focused on silence, meditation, and time away from normal life.  I felt that when I needed support the most, the resources didn't exist that I could use.  There were days I could barely find the time to go to the bathroom in solitude much less go on retreat.  So, I began to cobble together a spiritual life made of small moments of awareness and quiet; much like that pause before getting out of the car.
       I know that it doesn't compare with the solitude and quiet focus of the cloister, but taking time to breathe deep and to be aware of creation and the creator are important to my faith and prayer life.  It's a reminder of the beauty God created and of God's immense power and love.  Many times, those pauses are also a moment of prayer for what I am about to begin or the people I am about to encounter; even a simple cry of "help".  Or like Sunday morning, they are a gift that brightens my day and lightens my load.  Read Genesis 1:20-31

Birdsongs of Praise

      The days are longer and warmer now.  The sun comes up earlier and earlier and with the sun, come the birds.  There are several birds nesting in the trees around the yard and they begin singing long before the sun comes over the horizon.
        The other morning, I woke up just before five-thirty.  The sun hadn't risen yet but the sky was gray and lightening up enough to see clearly.  It wasn't the light that woke me up though.  It was the birds and one in particular who was in the tree not far from the bathroom window.
        In the stillness of the dawn the bird song was so loud, it almost echoed.  It was bright, jaunty, and lyrical.  In the cool air coming in through the window, the song beckoned me to wake up and enjoy the new day.  It was such a clear and beautiful song, it reminded me of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem; what is called Palm Sunday.  When Jesus rides the donkey into the city and the people cry out in praise, those in authority tell Jesus to order everyone to stop.  Jesus answers, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."  (Luke 19:40)  No composer could write a more beautiful song of praise.
       I stood and listened to the bird's song, gradually joined by other birds.  I lingered for a while but I confess, I soon took my chilly feet and crawled back into bed and went back to sleep.  Morning is not my time of day.
       Now my husband gets up with the sun, usually before his alarm goes off and he is ready to go.  He is like the birds, ready to greet the sun with song.  Me?  I'm more like the cartoon cat Garfield, ready to pull the blankets over my head and wish that morning would come back later.
       And yet as I listened to the bird that morning in the pristine stillness as the sky lightened, I fell in love with the beginning of the day in spite of myself.  A few hours later, when I got up for the day, I tried to hang on to that joy and greet the day with that same sense of joy and hope-filled possibilities.
       I don't think we can change our biorhythms; the slight changes in the lightening of the sky are not enough to wake me up with a song just itching to be sung.  However, I know that my day goes better when I face it with hope.  It wasn't the music of the birdsong that changed my morning but rather that the beauty of the birdsong reconnected me to the Creator, to God, the source of power, life, and hope.
       There are times when facing a new day with hope just feels impossible because of what we carry with us from yesterday: our failures and ourselves.  Sometimes that burden has even kept us awake during the night, robbing us of healing sleep.  But out of love, God sent Jesus that we can be forgiven.  That  forgiveness makes that hope possible no matter what did or didn't happen in all our yesterdays.  The hope of the new day does not rely on us but is a gift from God.

       Whether you wake up in the morning smiling and singing or feeling like you'd rather hit the sun with a giant snooze button, reconnecting with God will do more to make the day go better than any cup of coffee.  Some people enjoy reading devotions or praying in the stillness before anyone else wakes up; some days, a prayer from under the covers may be the best that we can manage.  It can be taking a moment to listen, or see, or smell the freshness of the morning or snuggling next to someone we love.  Find your morning touchstone that allows you to begin your day with God and remember that whatever the day brings, you do not face it alone.  Read Psalm 118:21-24

Planting Time

       Did you hear that the world was supposed to end May 21st?  An evangelical radio pastor put the word out that the world was going to end yesterday. Never mind that he predicted the same thing would happen in 1994.  It was reported that even his own assistant was still making appointments for his for the future and planned to be at work on the following Monday.  Yet Harold Camping urged all his followers to give all their money to the church or spend it because judgment day was really coming and all real Christians should be ready.

        It has been interesting to read and hear what some of the reporters and media people said in trying to understand this prediction.  It was clear from some of the reports that the writer had no church experience at all and didn’t understand the concept that Camping’s radio church didn’t represent most or even a major portion of people who consider themselves Christian.  Some news items seemed to be more about taking a poke at church than taking it seriously – like the report I heard about a business that sells pet insurance for Christians that believe in the rapture.

       The end is coming the billboards and signs said.  Be ready!  The implication was that anyone who is a believer in Jesus wouldn’t have to worry about anything past yesterday. 

       I have to say, I didn’t hear a lot of conversation about it around these parts this week.     

       What I did notice this week was a lot of smiles at the sunny dry days we had.  No matter how tired or hard-working they were, I don’t think I saw one farmer without a smile on his face this week.  Everyone is so happy to finally be out in the fields.  Obviously the concern around here has been more about preparing the fields for growing a new crop than waiting for the end of the world.

       So what does that say about faith around here?  Are we all a bunch of non-believers?

       No.  Questions about when the end of the world is going to be have been around since before Christ.  In the gospels, there is more than one record of the disciples asking Jesus when the day of judgment is coming.

       In all of these conversations, Jesus’ answer remains the same.  We are to be ready, we are to live faithfully all the time because it can come at any moment but we are not to know when.  In the gospel of Matthew where Jesus  actually talks about what signs there might be that the end is near, even there, Jesus says explicitly that not only will we not know when but that even he does not know when.  He says, “But about that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36)

       According to Jesus, it is not our business to worry about when the end will come.  Our job is to live as people of faith.  Our worry is to be ready and to tell others about Jesus.  Jesus  says we have work to do.  Martin Luther would have been right out with the farmers.  He is quoted as saying that if he knew the world was going to end tomorrow, he would plant a tree today.  Our concern is not with tomorrow but with the work to be done today.

       The focus of faith is not on ourselves, what we need or want or what happens to us.  The focus of faith is on God by living and loving as Jesus did; to welcome and care for the lost, the least, and the little ones among us.  The focus of faith is to share the good news of God’s love. 

        As Jesus says, people of faith live in God’s love.  Faith gives us the gift of living right now, today and everyday, of living in God’s love.  People who follow Jesus are not people of the end, but of new life and God’s almighty and eternal love.  Jesus doesn’t leave us with a threat to hang over the world’s head.  Jesus leaves us with a promise – Do not let your hearts be troubled. He gives us peace – rest in God’s love.  Read John 14:1-7

Living Is Believing

       “Our God is an awesome God” Those are the lyrics to a popular hymn-song by Rich Mullins.  But the promise of the words comes from the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 7:21) which reads, “Have no dread…, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.”  Have you ever wondered what that means?

       I looked up the word “awesome” in the dictionary and it gave me this list: breathtaking, awe-inspiring, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning, staggering, imposing, stirring, impressive, formidable, fearsome, dreaded, and informal meanings: mind-boggling, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, excellent, marvelous.  These words give a hint at how impossible it is for us to come up with the right words to contain the meaning and scope of God’s identity and work.   We are struggling to understand even the basics of the cosmos, how can we grasp the one who created it?

       It is Easter!  It is time to sing alleluias and declare the glory of God.  For God so loved the world that God gave the beloved son, Jesus Christ whose life and death won our freedom from sin and death. 

       This is the God the God of whom we sing.  This is the power of God, to defeat sin, death, and all evil.  This is the love of God, that that Jesus came while we were yet sinners.  Even in our brokenness, Jesus came for us.  God is an awesome God!

        But do we truly believe in God and trust in God’s love and power?  Do we credit God with being present, relevant, and active in our lives?

       I’m afraid all too often we live as one author puts it, as Christian atheists; saying we have faith but living our lives as if God doesn’t exist.  Faith gets treated as a nice philosophy or set of moral platitudes that help people to be nice but without the real power to really change anything.  In fact, we’d rather not have faith and God messing about in our lives challenging our priorities and our choices.  That would just be too uncomfortable. 

       Jesus met such a young man once, who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus talks about the commandments, and the young man says confidently that he follows those.  He is a good person.  Jesus tells him he lacks one thing and says to go and sell all that he has, give the money to the poor and follow him.  The young man goes away grieving. (Mark 10:17-22).  Faith is okay until Jesus starts messing with our stuff. 

       So sometimes we don’t want God to have power in our lives but then there are those who live as if God doesn’t have any real power to change things.  That’s what happens when we live as if getting things done is all up to us and we leave God out of the equation.  We live as if God has no power.

       Bono of the band U2 challenges us to: “Stand up for hope, faith, love,… Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady”.  (from the song “Stand Up Comedy” from the album “No Line on the Horizon”) 

       The God of Easter is truly an awesome God.  The God of Easter changed everything for eternity.  If we truly believe that our God is an awesome God, full of power, love, and grace, it should matter in our lives.  As people of faith, the truth of Easter changes everything not only what we believe and feel but also what we do and say in our daily lives.  Read John 20:24-29

The Old Rugged Cross

       The old familiar hymn starts, “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross”. 

       That is where we come this week, to that lonely hill to look at the cross where Jesus hung.  That ugly, horrible place that was so fearful, so hideous, that his disciples abandoned him and left him to die alone.  There in great pain and agony, Jesus died not because of anything he had done but because out of love for us, for God’s wayward children, Jesus gave everything, including his life.

       What happened on that hill, on that cross is so terrible that if we didn’t know the rest of the story, it would be unbearable.  How  could anyone stand to watch that happen to another human being?  And even more, how could a mother stand there and watch it happen to her child?

        But today we come willingly to hear the story again and to watch in our minds and hearts what happened to Jesus on that hill some 2,000 years ago.

       Why do we cling to this old rugged cross?  How can we bear to come here?

It is only possible because we know the rest of the story.  We know that even though the people who wanted it carried out had only fear and hate in their hearts, the reason that Jesus hung on that cross was love.   Out of love, Jesus gave himself that the world might be saved.

       The cross is the symbol of God’s love.

       Even so, Jesus knew how unbearable it was for his mother Mary to watch.  Even in his pain and agony, he turned to her.  The Gospel of John tells us that when he saw the beloved disciple, John standing next to her, he told her, “Woman, here is your son.”  He looked at John and said, “Here is your mother”. (John 19:25-27)

        He had concern not only that Mary would not be left alone, but that she should have a home, shelter, and to be provided for.  Even while Jesus did what was necessary to save the world and worked salvation’s cosmic deed, he also cared personally and intimately for this woman, his mother.

       That’s the miracle of God’s saving grace.  On one level, it is the act of saving the world, of redeeming all of God’s children for all time – salvation on a cosmic and eternal level.  And yet, Jesus’ act is also one of love for each of us individually and personally.

       Jesus died that awful death for John and Mary, for you, and for me.

       That old rugged cross is not just a symbol, it is the means by which sin and death are defeated. 

        And so it is appropriate for us to come and gather at the foot of the rugged cross; to remember the giver and the price he paid for us. It is appropriate for us to remember our sinfulness and the need of forgiveness that we each have.  Each one of us is the reason that Jesus hung on this cross.

       And so we cling to the old rugged cross.  It is here at the foot of the cross that we find forgiveness.  It is here at the foot of the cross that we are reassured of God’s love; that we are welcome just as we are.  It is here at the foot of the cross that sin is defeated and we hear the good news of the resurrection and life everlasting.

       It is right that we should mark the gravity, the weight of price that Jesus paid for us.  His death, his agony was not a symbol but was real.  

       But this is also the time for celebration.  This old rugged cross is empty.  The story does not end here; it all begins here and it lasts forever.  Because of this cross, we live forever.  Because of the cross, we have forgiveness, we are embraced and held in God's love, and we live in hope and joy!  Read John 19:13 - 20:18  (Please take time this week for the longer reading.)

God is Our Comfort

       We've had quite a week around here with water everywhere.  It's Spring and the Red River is flooding; at least it is trying to be Spring.  Monday it was 60 degrees and warm and sunny.  People were out in shorts running and biking.  I know I enjoyed going out without my jacket.  It was great while it lasted.
       But yesterday, we woke up to some snow on the ground and then it kept snowing all day long.  I went out before my afternoon bible-study and had to dig to find the scraper so I could get the snow off of the car so I could see to drive.  By late afternoon, it looked more like Christmas outside than getting close to Easter.
       It would be one thing if all of this was just a matter of inconvenience or disappointment in the weather change, but the flooding makes it more serious.  No matter how often we have lived through floods in the past, as I was reminded more than once this week, every flood is different and when they hit such high levels, they bring disaster.  There is damage to houses, roads covered by water isolating small towns and rural homesteads, farm animals and wildlife are displaced, and even those of us who are safe are on edge and watchful.
      In the midst of this, neighbors are reaching out to each other and helping each other out from the filling and piling of sandbags to feeding cattle that have wandered away trying to escape water.  After the rivers start returning to their banks, there will be the hard work of cleaning up inside and out so that life can begin to return to normal.  We'll need to help each other out then as well.
       There is a communal aspect to disaster that sometimes makes it easier to reach out to help one another or to ask for help.  When disaster strikes a community (or a large river valley), being affected by the disaster becomes something we have in common to a lesser or greater extent.  The shared experience makes it harder to judge the circumstances as the result of personal fault.  We find ourselves in the same predicament.
       Once after a tornado devastated a small town, I went to the only place in town for a hot meal which was the Salvation Army setup.  I found myself standing in line with the mayor and asked him how he was.  It had been a very hard and busy two or three days since the tornado.  He suddenly stopped and looked around and said, "It's really true.  I just realized I'm here in the soup line with everyone else.  I lost my house too."
       But no matter what has happened, we do not face it alone.  Before, during, and after any disaster or crisis, God is with us.  As it is written, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you." (Isaiah 43:1-2)  God loves and knows you by name and calls you in love.  When we feel alone, it is because we have turned away and lost sight of God who is always there, ready and wanting to hold us in love.  Read Isaiah 66:12-13