Lent: Just Do It!
We are into the season of Lent. One of the topics of discussion around this time of year for folks of faith is a Lenten discipline. In other words what are you doing, what will you do during this season to reflect on the nature of Christ’s sacrifice for you and for all of humanity?
Historically Roman Catholics gave up meat on Friday’s, and I have given things up for Lent in the past. Chocolate, caffeine – particularly coffee, and other things are often high on the list of things that people forgo as a personal sacrifice, and to tune themselves into a deeper spiritual reflection.
But a few years ago, I began to reflect on this practice, though it can be a deeply meaningful one it can also be window dressing. If you really like fish, (which I don’t) is giving up meat on Friday’s a spiritual discipline? Giving up chocolate or sweets or coffee, yes these things can be sacrificial, but mostly they are good for me, so… does this really work for the intended purpose?
I then began taking things up for Lent, things that I do in to be more intentional in my faith and how it works itself out in my daily life. Many of these practices have woven themselves into my daily life.
I think the key for Lent as it is with faith on the whole is, does it change your life? This weekend we will be looking at integrating the Bible into our lives. The key here is as the old Nike ad puts it is: “Just do it!” If by giving up something it causes you to ponder your faith and to put it into action, great! If by taking up something, it causes you to do the same, wonderful…
For Lent to be Lent, and faith to be faith, the key maybe just to DO IT!
One of the reasons I love Ash Wednesday.
Today is Ash Wednesday. I will utter the following phrase a couple hundred times today… “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
It is a somber reminder that death is a reality, not someday, but it is a reality we deal with daily. We all sin, we will all die, when it comes down to it we are dust.
I really love Ash Wednesday. I really do.
You might be thinking how can you “love” such a glum day, such a downer of a reminder. Yes, it causes me to pause, to even become introspective, and even sad as I will be smudging crosses on the foreheads of people, and have that ashen smudge applied to my own very ample forehead.
I will apply these reminders on the foreheads of kids, who haven’t a clue what death means, and on to the heads of other kids for who have seen too much death already. I will smudge the cross on the foreheads of men and women who have lost a husband or wife in this past year, I will smudge this cross on the foreheads of those for whom I may very well make the same sign over their coffin in the not too distant future. It may seem grim, but dust is not the end of this story…
I think we need remind ourselves of our dusty nature because we need to remember who we are, what we are and most importantly who’s we are. You see even as we remember we are dust to need to remember that God does some of his very best work with dust.
“— then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” – Genesis 2:7
We are dust, but we are not just the dust that clings to our ceiling fans and on the back of the dresser. We have been formed by God, loved by God and the depths of that love and the life that it promises is what Ash Wednesday and Lent are all about.
Remember… remember you are dust… remember that to dust you shall return… remember what God can do with dust.
I am not the only one who loves this day, read this blog post by Nadia Bolz-Weber http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/ Pretty good stuff.
The Word: Shapes – Day 34
Seven Wonders of the Word
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” – 2 Timothy 3:14-15
About 20 years ago, (wow where did the time go) I was the Executive Director of the Wright County Historical Society. I had applied for this job at a time when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I had the same position at the Meeker County Historical Society, and well, there didn’t seem to be too much of a future in History for me at that time, so I was looking. I had applied, and interviewed, and didn’t hear anything from them for a time.
During that time, I received my call to enter the ministry and was preparing to go to the seminary. As things would happen they called and offered me the job. Ugggg… now what do to. Well I told them no and thought that was that. They called back, and offered to be flexible if I wanted to go to school part time they would work with my schedule. So, it seemed to be a perfect deal.
The rest of that story may show up at some time, but what got me thinking about this was a display we had set up and a certain visitor to the museum. One day I was working on the “Nelsonian” a brilliant one-man band contraption that used pneumatic pressure to operate over 30 instruments. A gentleman came up to me as I was working and inquired about this display. We talked for a bit, and at some juncture he asked me if I was “saved.” I said well, yes, I was and he became quite effusive!
He pulled out his wallet and produced a tattered cardboard card with a date in the 70’s some time. This was his conversion date; this is when he became a “real” Christian. He asked when I was saved and I stopped and thought for a moment, and said, “February 12, 1964 I think, for that was the day I was baptized by my Grandpa Braaten in Elk River Minnesota. We then got into a conversation about that, which I think he didn’t see eye to eye with me.
The point is this; I have never not known that I was a child of God. I have had my moments of doubt, of denial, of struggle, but in hindsight even in those moments, God didn’t love me any less. I have even my moments of less than stellar faithfulness been a saved and loved child of God. I have never had what I call a “poof bang” conversion experience.
There have been times when I envy those who have had such times in their lives, great moments of clarity about life and faith. But I it seems I have something they don’t, I have been blessed with a consistency, an on going and blooming relationship with Jesus Christ. He has always been there where I was looking for him or not. Walking with me shaping me, and guiding me. This doesn’t mean I haven’t had my struggles, made bad choices, and all the rest, its just that I have never been alone. There were times when I felt that way, but in hind sight, I have no other explanation other than that God has been faithful with me even when I was less that perfect in my own faith.
I give thanks for my parents and others who have kept me in their prayers, who have witnessed to me what to what God has done and continues to do in their lives and in mine even as I continue to be shaped and loved into the image of Christ I first received in my baptism. It seems like that old “Nelsonian” my life too has been powered pneumatically, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Word: Shapes – Day 31
“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples.” – John 8:31
Do you know anyone who has never played a game like follow the leader, or Simon says? I am no cultural anthropologist, but my guess is that there are games like this in every culture. These games can be used to teach, to have the followers practice what the leader is doing. However, in my experience, these games tend to get more and more difficult trying to get their followers to lose their way. I guess that is the point of the game.
When we speak of discipleship we are talking about more than a game of follow the leader. The word that comes to my mind is to “abide.” When we abide in Jesus the Word, it shapes us we gradually take on its form and shape more and more each day. Unlike the game we this is no contest, this is about relationship, about walking with Jesus, growing to know Jesus as an active part of your life.
The key to this relationship I think is a quote found in my devotions today from Brother Martin; “The chief article and foundation of the gospel is that before you take Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own.”
This abiding this being shaped is not of our doing; Jesus comes to us and says I pick you! The good news is Jesus call is not limited to a special few… “For God so loved the WORLD!” Jesus call for us to be shaped by his loving word is for all people. Our call once we have heard this message to is continue in that word and to be shaped as disciples into his image. The good news for us is unlike games of follow the leader or Simon says, Jesus doesn’t want us to lose, he wants us to grow into the love the God has for each of us and as we follow.
The Word: Sustains – Day 30
Seven Wonders of the Word
“10For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:10-11
I admit it… I don’t wait well.
Never have.
Maybe it is related to the attention thing that I struggle with from time to time. Maybe it is in part due to the 24/7 nature of the world in which we live. I am not certain.
I have gotten a little better at waiting though. For six years I served a congregation on a small island in the middle of Lake Michigan. You can’t do much in a hurry on an island, you just can’t.
First off, you need to take a ferry to get on or off the island and you don’t have any say over the schedule. For a goodly chunk of the winter months there is only one ferry a day, and that is if the weather permits and the ice cooperates. During the summers the ferry’s run quite often, but as it is a tourist area, they are often packed and just because a ferry leaves at 10 o’clock, doesn’t mean you are going to get on it! Sometimes… um…. often… it means you have to wait.
One late spring, my family was to head off island so they could go visit my in-laws over spring break, as it was Lent, and pastors are sorta busy then, I couldn’t go. However it just so happened the school district needed someone to pick up the Drivers Ed car in Algoma and drive it back. So, we caught the ferry and my family dropped me off to get the car, and they headed on to Ohio, I turned around and spent the night in Sturgeon Bay until I could get the ferry in the morning. Next morning I show up at the dock, no boat. The ice had shifted overnight and they couldn’t get the ferry out of the harbor. So… back to the hotel I went. Twice. The next day was no better. It wasn’t until the Coast Guard ice breaker made it to the island that the ferry was able to make it out. 3 days, with nothing to do… well that isn’t true, I had much to do back home, but not there… not stuck in a hotel.
So, I waited.
Turns out I met some wonderful folks as I wondered around Sturgeon Bay. I had time to talk with fellow islanders who were stuck like me. I had time to think, to sleep, to pray and to well watch some really bad TV. But all in all when I got back to the island I was in good shape for Holy Week, I was well rested and I and ready to do what I needed to do.
You see the guys who run the ferry line do what they can to keep you safe. Sometimes that means waiting. Sometimes that means you don’t get to do what you want to do, but when you get on the ferry you can trust that they do what they can to get you to where you are going!
God’s Word is like that. Sometimes we have our agendas, our ideas of the way God’s justice, and God’s will should be done. It’s just that they are not always God’s ways. This passage from Isaiah we read today is in part one of the reasons I was able to say “yes” to God’s call for me to be a pastor. God will get done what God needs to do, it will accomplish that which God proposes.
We hear the word and trust in its promise, not our abilities. Yes we each are given ministries, and skills we are to use, and God works in and among them. God’s promise is sure, it has defeated the grave and we can count on it. This Word sustains us in our work, in our love and in our relationships. It is the rock in which we can trust, for God’s Word will succeed in the thing which God has sent it.
Today I will ponder where I need to wait on the Lord, and where I am being called to be a part of that redeeming word so others might be loved, forgiven and have life in that Word.
Crusaders –
On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
Along the lines of my last post regarding civility I have been thinking about crusaders, and not just the ones from days of yore. Yes the sins of the crusades of the 11th -13th centuries and beyond have be well documented. We moderns scoff and judge the political intrigue and religious manipulation that resulted in some of the most un-Christian acts ever committed on planet earth. But as they say hind sight is 20/20. As one who fancies himself a bit of a historian I have found that it is easy to sit centuries removed and cast judgement on those who lived long ago. Our modern lenses the way we see things. Our lenses sharpen and even hyper focus on certain events, because they are important for us now and other events are less in focus because, well we just don’t think they are as important. So our idea of justice is skewed, our idea of what was important may not be what was important way back when.
Ok… I do have a point some place here…. oh, I think this might be it… Crusaders are not dead. They are alive and well today, and I am not talking about your local Roman Catholic high school team.
Crusaders dwell among us today, and while they no longer ride stallions, nor wear suits of armor, they are all around us and how they go about their quests has changed very little, at least in reputation, over the years.
In our modern debates about just about anything the crusading ones emerge very quickly on their high horses, covered in armor of righteous indignation. These crusaders can take on many forms, some maybe folks from some conservative church someplace in the middle of no place protesting on street corners or at military funerals, hurling invectives and nasty slurs to point to the holiness of their cause and how God is on their side. Ok, that one was easy and pretty obvious, but try having a conversation about what the bible says about our relationships, and you will find people mounting their modern high horses on both sides of the issue pretty darn quickly. No Pope could rouse a legion of crusaders more quickly than any of todays “hot button topics.”
I call these modern folks crusaders because they display many of the same traits. Roland Bainton a reformation scholar pointed out four characteristics of a crusader.
1) the cause is holy
2) the crusaders are godly, the enemy is ungodly
3) God fights for the crusaders and against their opponents
4) the war is prosecuted unsparingly. Take no prisoners.
I believe they are true now as they were for the first crusaders.
Like those crusaders of the past today’s crusaders are no less impassioned, their energy is fueled by a pious fury that holds no quarterfor people with who feel differently for whatever reason. There are folk on both sides of most modern issues that fit this profile, but the ones the baffle me the most are those who are intolerant of intolerance. In this light it seems that when you are a crusader, you have no time for mercy, you leave no room for forgiveness to be requested nor granted, and grace belongs only to you and those who march under your banner.
Much like those early crusaders it isn’t as if there is not some element of “justness” to their cause, there almost always is, but often the cause becomes the end all be all. In such a cause there is no room to grow, no room to see the other side of an issue, no room to see what God may be up to in all of this, because when you are “right”, it becomes your god.
That being said, there are places, and I think I have been fortunate enough to be in one of them where people for the most part are able to climb down off of their high horses and walk together knowing that there will be differences and that God is not done teaching, guiding and blessing us yet. In this space, we may differ on many topics, some of them may even have eternal ramifications but in the grace and mercy of God we can talk, we can learn, we can grow our relationships as children of God and in that relationship we can trust in His salvation and not our own self-righteousness.
eeeeek!
This past week our Gospel reading was from Luke 24 where Jesus is making his post resurrection appearance to his disciples and the first words out of his mouth were…”Peace be with you” 
What a very different greeting than the words that lead off our nightly news… fear arises as________ panic engulfs___________…. you can fill in the blanks.
The funny thing is human reactions to both Jesus blessing of peace, and today’s headlines of horror are about the same… The disciples we are told were “terrified” and how many people after hearing and seeing today’s news program are left in the same state.
Why are we so easily scared? I mean it is our default response to almost everything. I walk into the room and my wife doesn’t expect me, she looks up and she is scared out of her whits. She says “don’t do that to me” and I am like… ummm… what walk around my house? I mean it wasn’t like I was trying to sneak up on her (though I have done that!) I was just walking by her, in fact I wasn’t even in “her space” when she was startled. Go figure…
I am a Sci-Fi fan. Mostly books, but I am a big fan of both the major franchises, Star Wars and Star Trek. However, most of the books I like when made into movies are just plain old dung!
Not from the newest Star Trek film... this is real(ish)
Why?
Because they tend to focus on the fear and not the hope. Most Sci-Fi I can’t stand is because the authors, writers, producers cast their eyes on the future and all they see is fear. Dark and dreadful, foreboding and often very alarming. I also find it very interesting that in human vs. Alien stand offs we are nearly
always the good guys, if humans are the bad guys is is often because of some horrific mutation, that makes the bad guys no longer fully human.
I digress…
Take a look at the current Swine Flu hubbub… I mean, yes the flu can be horrible… and it does cost some of the most vulnarable their lives… but is it worth this panic? This absolute fear that grips 
us and fills our news papers and TV headlines…
Seriously… in a country of nearly 110 million people, 20 deaths have been confirmed, yet the news papers and on-line news outlets continue to flaunt numbers and phrases like this… “The death toll in Mexico is believed to be 160.”
Believed to be?? This is hard news?? Aw… come on.
Even so, these deaths though sad, are not out of the norm. Yearly flu of the more garden variety takes anywhere between 50 -150 small children each year in the US. They can’t even give you an accurate guess as to how many adults die, there are just too many other factors.
Now I am not saying fear is bad, in fact it is good it is what keeps us alive. We are litterally hard wired for fear, but not to be fearful. Fear saves us in what could be quite nasty situations, preditors, bad dates, or even zombies that only want us for our tasty brains.
Living in a state of fearfulness is bad, it keeps us from living the life God intended. When people are too fearful to help one aonther, when we are fearful of our finances or healh or anything we are all diminished.
When Jesus bid his disciples “Peace be with you” he was blessing them with a shalom, a peace, that enables the abundant love God intends for each of us, so that we might boldly go where… well wherever…with the good news that in Christ we are all called to life, now and forever, fear not!
Subtle
Quick, what is black and white and read (ahem) all over?
I know, I know, it is a newspaper… but when I was young all I could hear was red, not read. So I never really got the joke until I was much older… too old… I am not going to tell you when the light bulb finally went off!
Ok, so maybe I am not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but as I read my devotions today, a thought dawned on me. When we pray “save us from the time of trial” might we not be asking not for total absence of trials, which made sense to me, but rather when we are enduring these trials that we would be saved?
Like I said, maybe everyone views it this way. But I guess it just really dawned on me today.
Yes I suppose it would be nice to be saved from having a trial in the first place… but trials do come don’t they? In our book of faith 40 day Lenten Journey devotions, the author talked about when the first disciples read this they were thinking apocalyptic (I spelled that right first time out! woot!) … end of the world kind of thoughts… they were pretty sure after Jesus rose from the dead, God was done and was soon to send in the mop up crew. These were the trials the first disciples wanted to be saved from, and who can blame them.
hehehehe
To this day we hear rumors of wars and experience earth quakes and other great signs and terrible portents and we get spooked! People have been going on about the end times since… well, since I think shortly after the beginning of time. Our current culture wants to be saved as well, how else can you explain the whole Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins publishing juggernaut?
Honestly I side with Martin Luther on this one (surprise!) who when asked what he would do if he knew that the world was going to end tomorrow. In response he said something like “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” In other words he would keep on living has he had been living. Such was his faith in the Lord who taught us to pray “save us from the time of trial.”
It has more or less been my understanding for some time. When I was a kid the threat of an atomic Holocaust was much discussed and fretted about. After a time, I came to the realization, that you can not live in fear. That when the Lord comes, we will be saved from that time of trial. Oh we my undergo trials, but we will not be found wanting. When we see the trials that the world is under we are called as the children of God to go out into those places and save those who are under trial. We do this because our salvation is sure in Christ, the one who has undergone all trials and has not be found wanting. In Jesus we have one who has been tested as we are and yet has not found the testing more that God’s love can handle.
We are tested there are no two ways about it but as I talked about at the start of this entry. We can pray in sure and certain confidence that we will be saved from the time of trial, in Christ. And when we understand that in faith we are saved from sin, death and the devil and living in Jesus’ love and forgiveness each day, we are enabled as the body of Christ to save others in their time of trial! Whoa!
Smörgåsbord
I have to admit, this food thing is starting to get out of hand! I noticed that my last two day’s posts were sugar induced and today we have Smörgåsbord. I think I was in college before I knew what a buffet was, but a Smörgåsbord, well I knew all about them. Even though it is a Swedish word, it was in fact an accumulation of enough food to even mellow out our Norwegian pride.
Lavish, is a word that comes to mind. Oh a Smörgåsbord is more that a buffet, it is an experience! You say buffet, I think of “Old Country Buffet” massive quantities of food to be sure, but 4,000 drum sticks, next to a tub of mashed potatoes, and an equally sized tub of corn on the cob, well at least they have a soft serve machine there.
But a Smörgåsbord: BORK BORK BORK! Now we are talking food. Maybe not in shear bulk, but style, and flavors, when I think of a smorgasbord I think of good food, carefully prepared, and shared with many. Maybe this is because the only buffet type meals I ever attended until I was well into my adult years were smorgasbords held in church basements. No mass produced food here, this food was homemade, made with pride and purpose and it was enjoyed in an atmosphere of fellowship! They do say ambiance is everything, and there is nothing like a church basement, sitting on a cold folding chair at a table covered with a table cloth that was hand embroidered the same ladies who are currently peering into the bottom of a now empty 100 cup coffee pot.
Ok, and this has to do with Lent, The Lord’s Prayer and Give us this day our daily bread, how? Well, It does, daily bread and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper were the focal points of today’s devotion. Communion is very much a part of my daily bread though I don’t consume it quite that often. Oh there are weeks when I do have it five or six times, (my personal record was during Holy Week 2 or 3 years ago, I think I had communion, ummm at least 15 times!) but the point is it is daily bread in the fact that Christ comes to us in this meal and feeds us with his presence in our lives.
Some may say (as someone did today) that Christ isn’t only with us in communion, and that is a good point and it is true. But this is the place where he has promised to be. So as we gather for worship and receive the gift of Holy Communion, we also know in faith that Christ is in fact there, we don’t have to hope or wonder, for he has promised.
One of the reasons this is daily bread is Christ’s presence to be sure, but it is also because of something I notice every time we gather. It is a perk of being a pastor and leading worship. But I get to see the whole people of God gathered, streaming forward for the meal, that in itself is a powerful image in my mind. I did a Google search for images of communion, and I found a lot of pictures of bread and wine, many of the pope giving communion to someone, but I couldn’t find a picture that gave that vision of the whole people of God coming to receive this gift of God.
Maybe we fixate on daily bread even in communion as a me thing and not an us thing, as in “give us this day our daily bread.” To me part of this daily bread is the bread and the wine, but it is also feeding and being feed with others. It is my friend a smorgasbord, in the best sense of the word. Holy Communion is daily bread, all God’s best gifts are given to us not in bulk, but enough, carefully prepared for each of us in Christ.
Snickers?
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:1-2)
Ho! I never quite understood why the translators insisted on keeping that phrase… I mean do you know anyone who says “HO?!? Other translations I have read begin with an invitation… Come, or phrase it as a question “Is anyone thirsty?”… now that makes sense! Maybe re-enactors on a Wild West dude ranch say HO!….but… ok sorry, just a minor rant!
We continue our look at the petition “Give us today our daily bread.” The book of faith devotional again stress’ that too much can be made of bread. We gorge ourselves on sweets and junk food both the stuff you put in your mouth and the stuff we continually stuff into our lives. We are a people looking for satisfaction, there is something missing in our lives, often whether we realize or not, we are always seeking to fill that void. I really like Augustine’s quote “God you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.”
Our whole culture is geared toward filling that God shaped hole in our hearts and lives. Remember that “Snickers” campaign from a couple years back… “Snickers… its what really satisfies!” Well if this is so… why as one old soul put it “do they make a king sized version?”
Jesus is the bread of life, he is the vine that supplies what is needed so that we might have life. Apart from Jesus we can gorge ourselves on the finest things in this world and we will find ourselves only temporarily satiated. The hunger will return, but when we are grafted onto the vine of life, Jesus Christ we find that we a filled with daily bread and more.
Let them eat cake.
People seem to love cake. I don’t.
Cake is fine and I think I know why people like it, it is just I wouldn’t cross the road to get a piece of cake, with the exception of a German chocolate cake with my grandma Glesne’s fudge frosting, for that I would cross a four lane highway. Daffodil cakes, coffee cakes, bunt cakes, fancy wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cakes made in bakery’s large or small thrill me not at all.
I am not a pastry snob in any way shape or form. However one of my first jobs as a kid was working at Fosdal Home Bakery in Stoughton, Wisconsin. No I did not bake, I did not frost, I did not decorate, I cleaned up. I washed hundreds upon hundreds of cake pans, cake, sheets, and angel food cake forms. Granted I was in Junior High at the time, but the experience has left me scared for life! Ok, that is a bit dramatic, I think it is just that I plain old don’t like cake that much, give me a just baked loaf of bread any day!
But people do tend to make a fuss about cake, they love cake they go on and on about cake. I have heard people say “oh, they have cake, well I guess I will be there!” I guess the thing about cake for most people is 
that it sets the occasion apart as something special, you just don’t have cake every day! Marie Antoinette aside… Bread is a staple, it is the basic building block of many of the world’s daily diets. Cake on the other hand is well… ummm… well in the realm of our daily bread, cake is the icing on the cake… uggg… I don’t believe I just wrote that… well you get the point.
But here is my thought. In the book of faith Lenten Journey Devotions today we continued our look at daily bread. They highlighted Luther’s explanation of daily bread. “Everything that nourishes our body and meets its needs, such as: Food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, yard, fields, cattle, money, possessions, a devout spouse, devout children, devout employees, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors and other things like these.” A pretty big list, in fact our devotions seem to expand that list even further with things like; the arts, health care, freedom from political and military violence (I wonder what Luther would have thought about the additions to the list!) I think I get the point, daily bread goes way beyond a loaf!
But as I looked at the lists Luther’s, which is a bit more basic and grounded, and the list from our devotions, very modern and quite a bit more specific, I began to wonder… when does praying for and accepting our daily bread become and expectation for daily cake? Even for those folks who come into St. John and get a bag of groceries are getting way more than just the basics of bread. Now no one is going to get caviar in their bag of groceries, but we do a fair job of going beyond the basics, to add a loving touch to the basics that many people so desperately need. Daily bread is in fact more that the basics just needed to keep a pulse going, daily bread is also relationships, and life, and not just life, but as Jesus puts it abundant life.
But the question just what is our most basic daily bread, and when do we if in fact we do, cross the line from daily bread to daily cake? Because there is want in this world, there are those who do not receive for one reason or another their daily bread, be that food, or relationship or the life that God intends for us in Jesus Christ. Maybe, as it state in our devotions, it is a distribution problem, too much cake for some not enough bread for others…
Built-in Time Machines
We all have things that evoke strong memories. Sights, smells, songs… other words that begin with s… um… well you get the point, we all have triggers that act as time travel devices. Once you experience one of these triggers you are instantly transported back in time.
For me one of those triggers is this picture. No matter where we lived for years this picture hung next to our dining room table. I cannot see this picture and not remember meals shared and time spent with my family.
The official name of this picture is “Grace” as in saying grace, before your meal. But it has another name as well, and it is “Daily Bread.” The themes of thanksgiving and daily bread are tightly interwoven and right fully so, but daily bread means more than just being thankful.
Our book of faith – 40 day Lenten devotions today say that as we pray “give us this day our daily bread” it begs the question, about “our” bread. We do not ask for my bread, but that our daily bread would be 
granted. So what does the our mean for you.
Frankly I think our devotions over play the justice side of this a bit. That doesn’t mean I don’t see injustices in how daily bread is handled they do exist. But when they equate this justice matter to a sacramental level by comparing it to Holy Communion, I am troubled. These lines from the devotions got me thinking: “Everyone regardless of his or her station of life, gets the same small piece of bread, the same small cup of wine. The “haves” do not get the whole loaf while the “have-nots” get the crumbs, as so often happens in the world outside the church.”
Um…I don’t get the cup nor the bread at many houses of worship. God’s justice is bigger than our human understanding of this sacrament, this wonderful gift.
You can argue that our Lord’s intent is that everyone of his baptized children should receive communion, and I believe that to be true, but it doesn’t work that way.
So in comparing the justice of “daily bread” to how humans actually handle this gift from God, may not work so well. I don’t have a complete answer to this… it is a struggle.
But in all these things I trust that God does in fact supply my daily bread, your daily bread, and daily bread for all of creation. I guess my simple prayer is that I might not get in the way of God doing what God does out of Love for all he has made, and if I am lucky, I just might get to be a part of providing others their daily bread.
Buzzie and flaps are talk’n theology.
Conflict of Interest
One of the great perks of being a parent is that you get to watch children’s’ movies, with no social judgment. Not only do you get to watch the current ones, you get to re-watch the ones you might have seen when you were a kid. I know I watched “The Jungle Book” when I was a kid, most likely on “The Wonderful World of Disney” as I have no idea where the closest movie theater might have been. Anyway… I don’t remember it being particularly funny as a kid, but there are lines in that movie that as an adult, I find a riot! One of those lines is a dialog between the buzzards as they hang out on branch. It
goes like this:
Buzzie: Hey, Flaps, So what are we gonna do?
Flaps: I dunno. What’cha wanna do?
And on and on it goes… It is perhaps only funny, because; as an adult I can’t think of the times when there wasn’t anything on our schedule and my wife has turned and said to me “So David, what’cha wanna do? And I say I dunno. What’cha wanna do? And on and on it would go!
Today we continued the look at the “your will be done” phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. I have found often that it isn’t that we don’t know what God’s will is, it is just usually, we have other ideas. These ideas are not on the surface evil, or even bad, but they are not always God’s will. I mean, how many times have you turned to God in prayer and said, “What’cha wanna do?” Well…
Technically every time we say the Lord’s Prayer that is what we are doing, but do we really mean the words we are saying? Our devotions say we should take a look at Paul’s words in Philippians 2:4-7.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
If God’s will is that we empty ourselves and serve others, to have the same mind as Christ Jesus we may hit re-dial and ask “um… are you sure that’s what you want us to do?” In this world of “look out for Number 1,” and “you deserve a break today,” we are called to care for the other. Every Christian, from the smallest to the tallest, pastors, plumbers, homemakers, the whole lot of us are all in this together.
It seems like a pretty big conflict of interest. Our will vs. God’s will. God’s will seems to be a pretty big challenge, it can seem so much easier to go with our own will and hope that God doesn’t mind too much. But Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray “your will be done, if it isn’t too much of a bother for me.”
The good news is that six verses later Paul writes “It is God, who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure”
Wow! God is at work in us! That is news we all need to hear. We are not doing this on our own, it is not just a human thing, it is a God thing, and that is why we can pray with confidence “your will be done.”
Can’t get it out of my head
We went to the Choraliers Home Show yesterday; they are a show choir and managed to squish CATS into a 25 minute show. They did a really good job, but the whole event was over three hours long because the Junior High show choir performed and they had “features” in which the kids did their solo and ensemble pieces. Thus the length of show, which for me is a long haul on a Sunday afternoon! One of the songs, is one of my least favorite of all time… “Send in the Clowns.” I just can’t stomach the song. Well, as it would happen, my dear wife couldn’t get that song out of her head today… it nearly drove both of us nuts!
I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t had that happen. A song, one you like or if you are unlucky, one you are not overly fond of, sticks in your head and you just can’t shake it! Why this happens is a mystery, but it is usually a song you heard quite often. I have a number of songs like this.
One song that gets stuck in my head from time to time was one that was in heavy rotation back when I was a kid in Sunday School. “The will know we are Christians by our love.” Today in our devotions it talks about walking humbly with God, “then God’s will must be that those of us who are doing just that help others get to the same place.” We call this evangelism. But for many evangelism has gotten a bad rap.
There is a phrase that goes “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” Back when I was in High School, there was a kid in choir that had a tee-shirt that said “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t hunt id down and kill it.” Ok, maybe it is kind of sad, but I thought it was funny at the time and still do a little because it just shows us how upside down we have it. Evangelism isn’t about dragging someone to God’s saving love kicking and screaming, it is about bring them good news for that is what the word evangelism really means. Evangelism isn’t coercion, it isn’t about power or authority, it is basically “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
One quote I also love that speaks to this loving spreading of the good news is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi who said “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” Walking humbly with God does not mean we are to be bull horns for Christ, we are to show God’s love in our daily love for the other. Our devotions quoted Mother Theresa saying we are all “a little pencil in the hands of God who is sending a love letter to the world.” When you are loved, you want to let others know about it don’t you? You almost can’t help but tell those people closest to you what this means to you. When we pray “your will be done” we are asking for the strength, faith and courage to live God’s will and to invite others into this incredible relationship.
Humble Hotdishes
I smell of cheese and sausage. I have washed my hands but the smell just won’t go away! You see I just got done slicing 3 metric tons of cheese and one honking enormous summer sausage for part of our volunteer appreciation celebration tomorrow at St. John. I have lived in Wisconsin for well over half my life, but I still don’t think I could eat cheese and sausage at 9:15 in the morning unless eggs and toast were also involved.
Today the book of faith devotions talked about the walking humbly with God part of Micah 6:8. Perhaps there are no better examples of those who walk humbly with God than those we celebrate tomorrow. Ok the term volunteer and church don’t always work for me. Yes I know people volunteer their time, but the work done is ministry. Walking humbly with God is making yourself available to do God’s will. That could be setting up bars and coffee for fellowship time between services, making a hotdish
THE Tater Tot Hotdish, the gold standard of hotdishes
(that is a casserole for those of you non-Midwestern Lutheran types) for a family who is in crisis, folding newsletters so that they might go in the mail, ushering, singing in the choir, setting up tables and chairs for a potluck (an event where hotdishes are served) and nearly anything that brings the kingdom into this world.
I don’t know anyone who slices cheese and sets out the salads for a funeral luncheon who does it in hopes that someday Martha Stewart will show up and discover them so they can have their how HGTV show or whatever. Walking humbly in my view has to do with doing tasks large or small not out of any hope for heavenly brownie points, but simply standing humbly at the foot of the cross, and gazing at God’s ultimate gift to us, it is the least we can do. Walking humbly means constantly turning away from ourselves and returning our gaze to God. I think it is interesting how many times returning to God involves reaching out in love to others. It is doing things that normally you wouldn’t do on a bet, and doing them for the sake of others. The funny thing about humility is that you never really know when you are doing it. It just flows from you. The second you stop to think “am I being humble,” anything resembling true humility vanishes. Humility comes from walking with our eyes fixed on God and his will for us, trusting that God in his love will guide us and provide for us… but now I am getting ahead of myself…
Blessings and thanks for journeying with me this lent. I would love to hear if you have any comments, corrections or questions. I hope on some level to make this less about me pontificating and more about a conversation of faith, and life as we all become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
Spiderman and the will of God
I have been slaving away on my sermon for this weekend. Ok, slaving away is an exaggeration, as my daughter said; “and watching Spiderman 3 helped you write your sermon?” The kid has learned well from her parents 
Our devotions today continued to focus on the will of God particularly focused on the loving kindness part. It seems so simple, but I was reminded after watching Spiderman 3 (gotcha!) how often can we look into the face of ugliness of the world; hate, fear, violence, revenge, hunger, injustice, and pain and not curl in on ourselves in self protection? Loving kindness demands vulnerability, it calls for us to step out into this world to do God’s will not necessarily our will. We do ask in this prayer that God’s will becomes ours even as he strengthens us by his life giving spirit each day.
In doing my prep work for the sermon I came upon this next piece. It didn’t really fit the particular direction I was going but it is too good not to use someplace. It was attributed to a Dr. Ted Loder, from his book, GUERRILLAS OF GRACE. I hope it blesses you.
My will be… er…ummm…
Not gobs of time for reflection today. Like so many days, I start off with many goals, dreams and ambitions. I make plans, lay out ways to achieve these things and at the end of the day I pour myself into bed with nary a check mark next to my haughty plans and wonder what happened to the day.
Oh, I am not perfect when it comes to single minded pursuit of my goals. I get distracted way to easily. But often what distracts isn’t the unnecessary flotsam and jetsam of life, it is something more. It just might be the will of God breaking into my life. But there are days when that doesn’t seem very fair.
I have a friend Mike who helps keep me centered even if he is Norwegian too! One of Mikes favorite things to say is; “want to make God laugh?? Tell him your plans.” There is much truth to this, but it is also true about our “wish lists.” Our devotions today focused on the passage from Micah 6:8 we talked about yesterday. Today they looked at the justice thing a bunch. Part of doing God’s will is doing justice, and part of justice is that everyone would have enough, for in fact God has provided enough.
But even in the midst of our economic struggles, we still suffer from “Affluenza.” My will is for more stuff, good stuff, stuff I like, and short of that stuff in general will do as long as I have more than the next guy. A thought that comes to mind in this area of justice is that we often equate justice with well… equality, sameness, uniformity and fairness. But this isn’t always the case.
Ok for instance, it would perhaps be fair that everyone get the same clothes so that no one would be without. Sounds just doesn’t it? Sounds fair. But take me and my associate pastor. I am 6’6″ she on a good day is at the 5′ mark. We could both own the same alb to wear for leading worship. However, if it was made to fit her, it wouldn’t work so well for me, or if it was one size fits all we would both look silly. (its late and it has been a long day so forgive me) Justice is not always about equality. It is about getting enough. Sometimes that means that others may get more than I have because they “need” it. I may want it, but it doesn’t mean I “need” it.
Ok, back to the will thing. Gods will is that we have enough, not more than, and not the same. But enough. So how do you know when enough is enough, and it isn’t too much… Uggg… exceptions and problems are popping up all over with this … maybe I need to get back to praying! Your will be done… ok, Lord please let me see and be a part of that will unfolding into this world each day for Jesus sake.
Extra mustard please
The kingdom of God is like…
Isn’t it funny how time after time, complex concepts, when explained properly aren’t very complex at all. We are STILL looking at the kingdom of God in the Lord’s prayer in our book of faith Lenten journey devotions. In the Gospels Jesus lays out what life is like in the kingdom. Its like: a mustard seed, a bit of yeast, a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price, and a net. Not one of those items I described do we have the least bit of trouble wrapping our heads around.
Really… These are all common items, some are a bit more pricey than others, but there is a commonality among them that we can all identify with.
- While maybe everyone doesn’t know about mustard seeds. But, I don’t know of a kid who at some point in his or her life didn’t plant a bean seed, or a flower seed in a Styrofoam cup and watched it sprout and grow.
- Yeast, well not everyone is into bread baking, but we know it when we taste it. The smell of fresh baked bread that yeasty smell, the taste of bread still warm, with a bit of butter or honey, we know what its like to be fed like this.
- Treasure, especially buried treasure…arrrrrgg… ahoy matey’s! Kids draw maps of buried treasure and go seek it, even if there isn’t anything there, the chase, the adventure, the hope of finding treasure fills our imaginations. Even adults know and love this idea, who do you suppose bought all those tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean I, II and III!
- Pearl of great price, ok not everyone is big into pearls,
of great price or otherwise. But show me a 1957 Gibson Les Gaul Gold top and I will show you a pearl of great price. We all have such pearls in our lives, not all of them are things though!
- Nets, well not much imagination here… you catch things with them, from fish to butterfly’s or at St. John Lutheran, bats! Nets are made to snag everything in their path. They are meant for catching things plain and simple.
The point is that the kingdom of God is not some far off hard to imagine thing, it is reflected in our normal everyday experiences. We can taste, see, feel and experience the kingdom of God in our everyday lives.
Perhaps the kingdom of God is celebrated nowhere else quite like eating together. If are close to Reedsburg, please feel free to stop by St. John for our soup, bread and pie prior to our mid-week services. You can come at noon, or supper starts at 5:30 (I think, I am already there when it starts so I forget!) The meals are a fund raiser for our youth, but if things are tight financially, give me a nudge and I will see to it that there is no cost for you. This is the kingdom of God! If you come on Wednesday evening, there will be a table set aside for us to talk about our devotions if you would like to join us!
One last thing. It may only be pizza rolls and a coke, but a prayer before your meal is an excellent way to celebrate the kingdom of God. In our home it is usually the good ol’ “Come Lord Jesus” (talk about a loaded phrase!) But I would like to share a special family prayer that was used at Grandma and Grandpa Braaten’s home when we would visit. If it works for you great!
“Great God we praise your gracious care, which does our daily bread prepare. O, bless the earthly food we take and feed our souls for Jesus sake. Amen.”
Love as a way of life
I have 12 weddings this summer, not a ton, but a fair number. At some point when I sit down with each couple during the pre-marriage council sessions I will tell them my philosophy on love. That is quite simply, love is not simply an emotion, or a feeling, at its core love is a way of life, love takes effort, love is the hardest work you will ever do and it is worth it!
It’s not that I don’t go in for romance, but we don’t need to go there today. But think about love even in a romantic context. It still takes work. Someone has to prepare a lovely evening on the town; clear the schedule, make the phone call to reserve a spot at the restaurant, by the tickets for the play, call the baby sitter, and the list goes on… even romance is hard work my friends!
In the book of faith Lenten Journey devotions today we continue looking at what life in the kingdom is like. Love is the norm, our devotions say that “the rule of God is the rule of love.” They go on to talk about the scribe who asks what the greatest commandment is and Jesus responds first love God and second to love your neighbor as yourself. The scribe is then gets just bubbly about how great Jesus is… and Jesus replies you are not far from the kingdom of God. (Mark 12:28-34)
I really like what comes next so I will put it here verbatim. “Not far? Why not in? Perhaps because Jesus saw a difference between knowing the right answers and living the right answers. The distance between “not far” and “in” is the distance between talking about love and loving.”
That distance can be huge for us. Loving as a way of life is hard work. As I read these devotions to day a photo I saw on the net someplace came to mind and through the power of Google… I found it.
It reminds me of Paul’s words in Romans 12 “No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
To love the co-worker who has stabbed you in the back, to love the family member who over and over and over again has broken your heart is hard work. It is the work of a way of life, it never really ends. Jesus never said life in the kingdom would be easy. In fact he sort of promises the opposite. But as we journey through lent we are reminded that in God loves us so much that he gave his only Son so that we might live in his love.
I take comfort in my stuff
The title of today’s entry comes from the band Hocus Pick called the “Comfort Song.” Honestly I don’t know to many Americans that are huge fans of Hocus Pick, they were a Christian Rock band from Canada, a collection of odd balls, with a sharp whit, and wry sense of humor. So naturally, I like 
them!
The main chorus in the comfort song is “I take comfort in my stuff.” I have to admit, I have a deep and passionate connection with my stuff. I like to think that I have a healthy relationship with my stuff, but it can get in the way some times.
In our book of faith Lenten Journey devotions today we continued our look at the phrase “Your kingdom come…” We touched a bit on a topic I think we will revisit when we get to the “daily bread” part. But life in the kingdom is about also about trusting in God’s rule.
We worry and fret about so much, ourselves, our family, our job, our future our past, yaddi yaddi yadda… you name it we can in fact worry about it. Today we worry about our stocks, our retirement funds, our jobs and our mortgages. Now don’t get me wrong, we are not to be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it were, blissfully ignorant to the pain that is around us, but our devotions do ask us to think about an interesting question. “Is it true that we need much less than we have to live a happy, meaningful life?”
I think the answer, at least for me is yes. Often I find that my stuff gets in the way of happiness rather than promoting it. I worry about my stuff and I worry that I won’t be able to get more stuff. But Jesus asks us to trust in God for what we need.
Need, now there is the kicker… I need very little of what I actually have. I don’t need 10 guitars, but I have them, I need one, maybe two… aw dang there it is creeping up on me again! I have a house full of stuff, I have stuff in the garage, I don’t even use. My defence is always, well I might need it at some point so, there it sits unused in my garage.
Jesus comes to us and lets us know that God has provided for all we need (see Matthew 6:25-31). In fact there is one thing that is truly need-full. “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt 6:33)
The problem is that enough never seems to be enough. The first verse of the “Comfort Song” goes this way: “I put my comfort in my stuff. The more I get, well it’s never quite Enough Life without it would be really rough I put my comfort in my stuff.”
In this light, my question is: in this day of mortgage crisis, job loss, and family strife, do we dare trust that God will provide enough? Do we step out to share out of our abundance so that the kingdom will come among us even as we pray, “your kingdom come…”
Upside right
I am sure you have seen it, maybe you have done it yourself. Reading directions, or some such thing, and once you have read it, it doesn’t make any sense. So you take the directions, and you turn them upside down hoping to gain a little clarity. Ok, mostly it is done out of humor, we know we are stuck and don’t understand things, so we act out our confusion and frustration in a silly way. I think there is truth in that silly action.
Often when theologians and others talk about how Jesus viewed the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God, they say Jesus turns the world upside down. In our book of faith devotions today the verse they use is from Matt. 20:25a-26 where he says if you want to be great you must be a servant.
But I tend to think of things this way… Jesus is not turning things upside down… he is in fact turning things upside right. Our view on power, glory, honor and position is broken by sin, and as such we see and operate in an upside down manner.
To live in the Kingdom of God is to live upside right. Oh it is easy, way too easy to be flipped back around by the way the world sees things, but there are those moments when living in the fullness of God’s love we live and operate upside right and those moments my friend make all the difference.
One of my congregation members answered the question I asked yesterday. Where do you see the Kingdom of God? Sheri said; “Every day in the eyes of the little children that surround me!” Now Sheri does daycare, God bless her indeed. This is not a job that I was gifted for, but she is and in living in her giftedness she see the Kingdom in the eyes of those kids.
Maybe she can see it there, because for the most part these kids know what it is like to be totally dependant on another. As grown ups we think we are suppose to make it on our own in everything. But the words “Your kingdom come…” also remind us that we are to trust as Brother Martin put it: “The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, of itself; but we pray in this petition that it may come unto us also.” It is trusting in God acknowledging our depending upon God that sets the world upside right.
I yam what I yam
“I yam what I yam, and that’s not all that I yam,”
The names for God, there are a ton. I guess it makes sense. The name Father, as I have talked about earlier, I like. I have grown to like it even more since learning the Aramaic word Jesus used which is Abba, which we might understand as Daddy.
But my all time favorite I think comes to us from Exodus. In our devotions we were reminded that when When Moses asked God what to tell the Hebrews when they asked who sent him to them, God replied “Yahweh,” which can be translated as i am who i am, or i am what i am, or i will be what i will be, or simply, i am (Exodus 3:13-15). Ever since I was a kid I remember hearing that passage being read and I immediately liked it.
I Am Who I Am. Maybe I liked it becasue of popeye’s old catch phrase ““I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam.” Well, when you are young, things like that make a differance.
Ok, this may sound silly and a tad obvious, but there is a huge difference between Popeye’s “I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam,” and Yahweh’s, “I AM WHO I AM.”
Popeye’s catch phrase, is perhaps the ultimate expression of individualism. Yahweh’s “I AM WHO I AM,” is perhaps the ultimate expression of relationship. Yes, this name is a mystery, yes properly understood it should invoke a sense of awe and fear. But, as it stated in the book of faith Lenten Journey devotional: The Lord’s Prayer is an invitation to ponder the sacred, to wonder about i am, the mystery from which we came and to which we shall return.
By giving us his name, as mysterious as “I am” is for a name, we are invited into a relationship. But giving us a name, God opens up for us the chance for a relationship and in this relationship we are asked to make and keep that name holy. We have been given a gift in this name, we have been given a gift in this prayer, that we might keep God’s name sacred, as we become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
That Father thing…
Today in our “book of faith – Lenten Journey” we looked at the word, Father. What does Father mean to you? What does the phrase “Our Father” mean?
Father, I guess I have been blessed, I have no problem thinking of God as an ever loving, just, merciful Father.
Others, well, not so much. Many people have issues with their earthly fathers, some petty, some huge and they say these issues get in the way of understanding God as Father.
My father, my dad… is not perfect, he would be the first one to admit this, but all in all, I have a great dad, no real complaints, no issues (that I know if anyway!). But I don’t confuse my dad, as wonderful and well meaning as he is, with God. He, like me is a pastor, and I don’t even think I confused him with God or Jesus. It happens to pastors I know. One day a 4 or 5 year old pointed at me just before a wedding ceremony and I heard him ask his mom if I was God. She told him no, and shushed him… a little later he said, “is that Jesus?” Again he was shushed. After the wedding was over he came up to me and looked at me and said: “you are a pastor!” True enough, but my demotion came pretty fast, but I am alright with that, because I don’t need or want anyone to confuse me with God or Jesus!
I also know that God is not restricted to human limitations. After all both male and female are created in God’s image so I don’t get hung up on the title Father, in some ways it is way too limiting. But it is the word that Jesus used. Maybe Jesus used this term because we can wrap our heads around that term, it is a relational term and God is big into relationships. Or maybe it was because he knew that our earthly fathers and others we are in relationship with, often fall short and we need to understand the length and breath of Gods love for us and in this relational term we find our example as fathers, mothers, children, friends and neighbors.
Don’t get me wrong I am not denying the struggles that some people have with their fathers, but I hope that we can look beyond those examples to the ultimate example of sacrfical love for us in the one who Jesus called “Abba” Father.
Ash Wednesday – mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa
Yep, today is Ash Wednesday. I love it. Service was packed tonight. It is amazing who shows up when the weather isn’t horrid! We doubled the number of folks with cross shaped smudges on their foreheads from last year. Last year it was if I remember correctly snowy and icy. This year that junk is waiting until Thursday to show up.
I get all emotional on when people come up to receive their ashen cross. The words and the life experiences they are going through often get me… right… there… uff. A lady with cancer, another woman who just lost her mother, a guy with a nasty temper, but a heart of gold, little kids kneeling in front of me, not really sure what is going on, but they too are dust and to dust they shall return. In all of this darkness, still the word of promise rings all around me, in the stained glass, the cross that adorns our East wall, and the bread and wine, neatly and reverently covered on the altar, just waiting to be poured out into our lives, to feed us with the true life that is in Christ. It is just completely AWESOME!
There is a phrase we use in our confession, “we confess to you and to one another, and before the whole company of heaven, that we have sinned by our fault, by our own fault, by our own most grievous fault, in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.” Some folks don’t like that so much. Makes ‘em feel bad I guess. But, I think if we are honest it is our fault, much of what we do and don’t do that harms our relationship with God, with others and the whole creation is at some level our fault. Corporately or individually we have enough faults to make California seem solid in comparison. But even with our Mea Culpa’s our own most grievous fault is not where things are left. The point of the smudgy little cross on your forehead is that on the cross Christ came and moved us beyond that deep grievous valley and into the bright sunshine of life!
Ok, enough for now… I have started my 40 day blog officially now… we will see where God leads us!
