be amazed

Saturday, June 4th: When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. You can always tell a teacher who has been there as opposed to one who only has stuff from a book to pass on. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus has been there. Read the Gospels and hear him speak, don’t just listen to others tell you what they think he said.

Don't watch the house fall

Friday, June 3rd: Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. It takes the combination of hearing and doing, not just the hearing only or the doing only. It is in our doing that the way we hear is changed. It is in our hearing that the way we do is changed. Liberation theologians call that “praxis”. As you go through this life, make sure you build a firm foundation. As you go through this life, help provide a firm foundation for others, especially your children. One of the saddest sights to me is to watch the adults drop off their children for Sunday School and then drive off only to come back latter either for church or to pick them up. Their message, do this, but remember it is not important. The kids get the message and someday they will either have to shore up the foundation or watch the house fall over. You can help them now and it will be better for both of you.

Roomates?

Thursday, June 2nd : Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. One could say that the corollary to this is that not everyone who wouldn’t caught dead saying “Lord, Lord” will be damned. For some that is upsetting. For some, the joy of heaven is being there without those others. I think with God’s view of heaven we need to all learn to get along now, we might be roommates later.

All in this together

Wednesday, June 1st: For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. God knows we are going the wrong way on the staircase, God loves us anyway, tries to get us to turn around and help one another on the way and then God offers us salvation anyway. Some never get it. They still put all their effort on going up that down staircase. They do so by pointing out how bad others are; how people allowing abortion as one of the choices a woman may have are murders, how allowing two same sex individuals who love each other the option of a committed life will destroy every heterosexual marriage, things like that. God loves and forgives them also.

Up the down staircase

Tuesday, May 31st: This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." Gerhard Forde in his book “Where God meets Man” uses the analogy of going up the down staircase. God come to us from heaven to offer salvation through loving grace. Not trusting that, we want to climb up the down staircase and storm the gates of Heaven. We never quite succeed in storming those gates, but in order to feel better about ourselves we can always kick a few people down a few steps lower than where we think we are. For us, salvation becomes a game of “King of the Hill”. The problem is that while we are playing we lose sight of what we set out to do in the first place, to be a child of God.

No off-roading

Monday, May 30th: So don't turn away from the path I'm now commanding you to take. Don't worship other gods. No problem, sounds easy, can do. The next thing we know, we find ourselves knee deep, off-roading, and bogged down in desire. A little detour here and little detour there, and Bang, we have lots of other gods to contend with. Of all the other gods to contend with, the god of “ME” seems to be the most tenacious, that is because it can easily be hid behind the words in scripture and seem like the path that God has commanded us to take. It comes out as self-righteousness and was the main thing Jesus criticized in the Gospels. The Pharisees knew the laws and followed them to the letter and with a flair. They had a great “God and Me” thing going. In the process their righteousness became self-righteousness and left out the “us”, the family of God. Jesus taught us that remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy was to serve human needs not Sabbath needs. The former is to serve the will of God, the latter is to use God as an excuse to being a butt.

Keep them close

Sunday May 29th: So keep my words in your hearts and minds. Write them down and tie them on your hands as a reminder. Also tie them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home. Some choose to interpret this as writing down the words and tying little boxes of words on the forehead and wrists. Somehow I think that kind of literalism misses the point. Some choose to think that is a nice text and then go about their life as if nothing has happened. I think that kind of laxity also misses the point. If I had to choose between the two point missings, I would choose the former. However, I would call you to the middle ground. Take the words of God into your hearts, make them a part of your life. Sing them in the shower. Let the water hit your face in the morning and remember your baptism and proclaim yourself once again as a child of God. Don’t worry, God has already seen you naked and won’t be embarrassed. To do nothing however might mean that God will still see you naked, but will be disappointed.

Was the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus closer than what the interpretation in the Bible wants us to know?

That question has been around for a long time and of late has been brought again to the forefront by the fictional novel “The DaVinci Code”. There is also an earlier book “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” that attempted to “uncover the conspiracy” by offering its own poorly constructed conspiracy. The Scorsese movie “The Last Temptation of Christ” also attempted to deal with the issue by putting it in the context of Jesus’ final temptation on the cross. In the book and movie by that name, Jesus is tempted to come down from the cross and live a full life, getting married to Mary and later, Martha, and having children, only to die at an old age. Ultimately he resists the temptation and remains on the cross, there to bring salvation to all of humanity. We are a society that is fascinated by conspiracy and intrigue. One need only look at the plethora of “reality TV”, “Inside Addition”, and the Martha and Michael trials to begin to get a handle on our cultural obsession with the inside scoop. What we can know of Jesus relationship with Mary is found in the scriptures. Even scholarly attempts to uncover “The Historical Jesus” have offered little new insight. However, there does seem to be a special connection between Jesus and Mary that is on a different plain than the relationship between Jesus and his male disciples. We must keep in mind that Jesus had many followers who were not numbered among the 12 disciples, some of whom were women. I believe that because of her devotion, Mary was an important figure in Jesus ministry and in the early church which had an expanded role for women compared to the norm in society at that time. I feel that the attempts through history of connecting Jesus and Mary in a romantic way are more a fulfillment our desire for a good saucy conspiracy story than anything else. You can find more information about the roles of women in the early church as well as a link to “the Gospel of Mary Magdalene” at the following well done web site from PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/roles.html There are also several links and articles on this subject, some of which support the notion of Jesus marriage to Mary at: http://www.beliefnet.com/index/index_10126.html

Why does it say “the holy catholic church” in the Apostles Creed? And one holy catholic church in the Nicene Creed?

This is one of the most often asked questions. We live in a time in which the majority of the world hears the word catholic and thinks Roman Catholic. With the small “c” the word means church universal, with the capital “C” it denotes a particular denomination or group of denominations associated with the Pope and Rome. Let us also not forget that the Lutheran church falls within the tradition of orthodox Christian beliefs that started with the Catholic Church in Rome. Martin Luther was a monk and his earliest rumblings were attempts to call for a reform within the church he loved and lived. The establishment of the Protestant (which means protester) tradition was not what he had in mind when he nailed the 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. The history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is one of mergers. I grew up in the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church. In other towns there were other Lutheran bodies, Swedish Lutheran, Swedish Evangelical Lutheran, German Lutheran, German Free Lutheran, Lutheran Church in America,…………… etc, etc, etc. There have been several mergers, each time it seems a small group breaks off over some issue or another, but the majority form together in the larger group. Now the ELCA has formed agreements with the Presbyterians, Moravians and Episcopalians and is in talks with several other denominations, including Roman Catholic. Will our desire for a Holy catholic church ever be realized? I believe so, but probably not in our lifetime, or in the lifetime of the human race. However, despite all the jokes to the contrary, I don’t think there will be a Lutheran Heaven, a Catholic Heaven, an Episcopalian Heaven or a Baptist Heaven or even Jewish or Islamic or Buddhists Heavens, so we might as well work for common ground now. Keeping the words, “holy catholic church” in our statement of faith is a reminder of that calling.

Invocation for South High class of 2005

Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” As you go out into the world, remember it is not enough to analyze the world as it is and ask “why?” You need also to imagine the world as it might be and ask, “why not?” As you pursue your lives from this time forward remember the words of St. Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth. Now abide Faith, Hope and Love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Love for your God, love for the Lord’s creation, love of faith, but most importantly, love for one another. Let love be your guide so that no matter what you do in this world, no matter what your calling, it is done in such a way that all of humanity benefits from your gracious imagination and is blessed by your presence in the family of God. Amen.

Breaks over

Saturday: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. We have a job to do. In doing it, remember one very important concept of teaching. Others learn more about who we think Jesus is by watching than by hearing. We can tell others all we want, but unless they see it, it usually doesn’t amount to much. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and show them how to live as Jesus. That would involve Thursday’s lesson. Amen.

Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith, it keeps it up and moving

Friday: Jesus' eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had told them to meet him. They saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted. I just don’t get it. After all this, Jesus on his final moment with the disciples as he is about to ascend into heaven finds out some are still doubting. Jesus left anyway and blessed them on their way. Perfection was not part of the day, or was it. For Jesus, perfection was not in covering all the bases but in covering all with blessings. While Jesus was here, we looked to him. After the ascension, we have to look to one another. Perhaps, in Jesus scheme of things, that is perfection.

Greet one another with a holy kiss

Thursday: Finally, brothers and sisters, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. What a wonderful vision of what we are to be about in the world. Go into the world. Give it your best shot. Keep the voice of God with you at all times. Celebrate your unity in Christ. Get out there and live and make the process one of peace. Know that God is with you. When you meet someone, know they are also created in the image of God and greet them accordingly. Wow, I like that!!

Break Time

Wednesday: God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day because on that day he rested from his work, all the creating God had done. Rest, what a wonderful thing. Holy rest, well, that is even better. It is not about stressing about not walking too far or exerting yourself too much, it is about using a whole day every week to honor God. Someone once said that a Christian is not better than anyone else, they just know who to thank. Put your feet up. Thank God!!

Image of God

Tuesday: God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." We don’t quite get the image part and we really don’t get the responsible part. Being made in the image of God does not mean that we “look” like God or that God “looks” like us. If that were the case then the next question would be which one of “us” does God look like? Is God handsome like me, or ugly like my enemies? You can see where this sort of questioning can lead, and it isn’t pretty. We are made in the image of God in that we can love, we can care, we can give and we can nurture. Being responsible for the rest of the creation we still have a little trouble with. Were the Germans and Japanese we bombed during WWII created in the image of God? Are the Jews who were so brutally destroyed in the camps created in the image of God? Are the Iraqis we bombed in shock and awe created in the image of God? The answer of course is yes. Perhaps some day the people of the earth will grow up enough to recognize that and find some other way to solve conflicts. The solution is not easy and never about pointing fingers.

It was good

Monday: God created the huge whales, all the swarm of life in the waters, and every kind and species of flying birds. God saw that it was good. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean! Birds reproduce on Earth!" It was evening; it was morning-- Day Five.: God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals--all kinds." And there it was: wild animals of every kind, cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good. If God made it and it was good, I wonder why we as humans do not grasp the sin of destroying it. The “Greenies” are vilified in our current make a buck world as holding back progress. Instead of holding back progress, they are holding up creation. It’s the churches job, but we dropped the ball. It’s a good thing God had plan “B”. What can we do as a church to start upholding our end by holding up that which God created and called good? Talk to me!!!! Do something!!! Now!!!

Ode to the Creator

Sunday: First this: God created the Heavens and Earth--all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. There are many ways of describing something. Recently we have again opened the debate between Creationism and Evolution. Those pushing creationism misunderstand the Bible. Those pushing Evolution misunderstand God. The stories in Genesis were not meant to be a science, rather they were created as an ode to the creator. Think of a beautiful tapestry. The Bible looks at the design in the front and comments on its beauty, science looks at the intricacies of the weaving and the interplay of color and comments on its form. For either side to deny what is on the other side of the tapestry is a shame. They miss half of the beauty.

Senior Recognition Sunday

Senior Recognition Sunday is this Sunday, our graduating seniors are: Nicholas Alexander, Matthew Christenson, Kelleigh Dodds, Nathan Enslow, Drew LaRoque, Autumn Lauder, Zac Simpson, Inga-Lynn Spencer and Whitney Wilcox. I wonder what thier dreams are? What were your dreams when you graduated? Where is God leading you now? What blessings would you like to pass on to these individuals?

You're sending me Where??

Saturday May 21st: Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Whoooow there Jesus, that is not what we signed on for. We wanted a good ride where everything went well and now after showing us what they did to you, you want us to go out there? The answer of course is Yes. Not just go out there, we already do that. We do that when we go to work or play, we do that when we go to the store or the sea shore. We do that when talk on the phone or go to school or do both at the same time. It is not a matter of going out there, it is a matter of going out there as an ambassador for God’s love and grace into a world that wants to turn God into a hammer to beat others over the head with. Listen up all you Lutherans; you are needed by the world now more than ever. As the Fathers has sent Jesus, so now you are sent, and it won’t always be pretty.

Can't we just sit and remember??

Friday May 20th: On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. They were not overjoyed with what they heard next however. We want to huddle in our little space and dream about the good old days. Remember when Jesus fed all those people, remember when Jesus road into Jerusalem remember when? Remember when Wednesdays nights were always for Church activities, remember when everyone was expected to go to one church or another, remember when we could use words like baccalaureate and people knew what we meant? Jesus is about to tell the disciples to move on and get over it, they have work to do. Jesus is about to tell us the same.

One Body yes, but many parts??

Thursday May 19th: You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts--limbs, organs, cells--but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. In the mission of Christ Our Savoir Lutheran, what part are you? Remember that some of the most important body parts we never see, some we hide, some we groom, and some just get rid of waste. Just as one stubbed toe or one hemorrhoid can ruin the whole day, so too, in a congregation, one member whose gifts are not blessed, can disrupt a ministry. Bless one another, always.

Variety??

Wednesday May 18th: The variety is wonderful: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. The gifts of course are not to glorify the one using the gifts, but rather to glorify God. When we use the gifts to say look at me, we miss the point, we also miss the blessing. Never under estimate the spiritual gifts of emptying bed pans. It may not seem like much to a power hungry world, but to someone who needs that service, the difference between that task being done as a begrudging job and a blessed calling, means all the difference in the world. Some of the most spiritual time in my life was spent working in a nursing home. If you have not done so in your life, volunteer.

Everyone??

Tuesday May 17th: God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a church to do the same. One gift is OK but misses the point. Part of the gifts is that we are required to work together. In working together, we build relationships. In building relationships, we foster the love of God. The view of that love gets twisted when those showing that love insist that everyone sees things the same. Viva the difference, it is part of God’s plan.

Anyone??

Monday May 16th: And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Here is the message, and isn’t it interesting? Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. To listen to some people who are out there carrying the Jesus banners, they missed that part. Or maybe we missed our part which is to bring that part of the message to the world. Perhaps Christianity is getting a bad rap in the world because we haven’t started our part of the Holy Spirit Revolution yet. Well what are we waiting for?

Time to go out

Sunday May 15th: . Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. The first thing that strikes me is that it is seven weeks after the resurrection and they were still all huddled together, all the believers, in one place. I think I remember Jesus telling them to go into all the world and bring the message and baptize, I think I remember Jesus showing them what he meant when he talked to the woman at the well, I think they would have gotten the message. They did not. Nor do we. It takes a constant push to read, gather, pray, go out and then start allover again, read, gather, pray, go out. We have the gather part down, but then so did the disciples, it’s the go out part that seems to be the stumbling block. At least we are in good company.

make love your aim

St. Paul wrote, Now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. And in the very next sentence reads, Make love your aim. Too many religious people make faith their aim. They think the greatest of these is faith, and faith is defined as all but infallible doctrine. These are the dogmatic, divisive Christians more concerned with freezing the doctrine than warming the heart. Make love your aim. Churches should encourage people to focus more on making a differance than on making money, to focus on being valuable more than successful, to seek the common good over private gain. To live a life that shows love.

keep looking

Saturday: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Jesus shows himself to us each and every day. All you have to do is see it. It is not always happy, it is not always clean. It is not always smiling, it is not always thin. It sometimes drives a Jaguar, it sometimes picks through the dump to survive. It sometimes wears a suit and tie and sometimes is dressed in tatts and spikes. Have you see the face of God today? If not, keep looking.

She's the Holy Spirit

Friday: you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. It’s that counselor dude, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit. She lives with you and in you (the noun in Greek is feminine.) and if you listen, and pray, she will guide you. She lives in others also, friends of yours and enemies of yours. When you love others, you love the Holy Spirit in them. When you hate others, well that is not such a good thing. Look around at the people you see every day, friends, family, people on the street and those on TV, in the children playing and the bodies laying along side the road half a world away, the Spirit is in them also.

The Spirit of Truth

Thursday: If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– the Spirit of truth. What did Jesus command, to love the Lord with all we have and to love one another as if they were our own neighbors or family. How you work that out is up to you. Where you find the strength to live that out is in Jesus. Talk to him often. You don’t have to worry about going over your minutes. If you don’t know what to say, don’t worry, the Counselor will help you.

Your Turn

Wednesday: It's better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all--was put to death and then made alive--to bring us to God. Then he appeared in the upper room with the disciples hiding behind locked doors and told them, “as the Father has sent me, now I send you.” It is your turn to go out into the world and do good even if you have to suffer for it. If you feel bad about not having gotten around to that yet, remember that a week later Jesus returned to show Thomas his hands and the disciples were still there.

Don't give it a second thought

Tuesday: If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. The question then becomes, how do I know if I am doing good with my heart and soul? Not an easy answer to that one. What does it say in the scriptures? Not just some verse or two that justifies what you already want, but in the scripture as a whole. An example would be the moral arguments against homosexuality and abortion. What did Jesus say about these two moral imperatives? Nothing. Jesus did have a lot to say about faith and believing, about caring for the poor and needy, about being generous in our living and in our giving. On the subject of marriage all he said was that we haven’t a clue what it is like in heaven and we wouldn’t understand it if he did tell us, and that when we get married, we need to make it work. So far I don’t see any campaigns to outlaw divorce. Read the scripture, one book at a time and then go with your heart. O, and by the way, don’t forget to keep checking in on that as you go.

We are God's Children

Monday: God has done all this, so that we will look for him and reach out and find him. He isn't far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are. "We are his children.” Wow, all this just so we will look for God, reach out to God and in the end, find God. Jesus said that what we do onto the least we do to Him. How are we doing with that whole looking for God thing? Did those flying the planes hitting the twin towers see Allah (God) in the faces of those passengers sitting in the plane? Do the Israelis see the face of God in the Palestinians whose houses they bulldoze? Do the Palestinians see the face of God in the people eating in an outdoor restaurant just before they pull the string on the suicide bomb? Do we see the face of God in the young men and women serving in Iraq? De we think of the face of God when hearing of the thousands and thousands of men, women, and children killed in Iraq? Sorry to sound so pie in the sky but there just has to be a better way to solve differences.

God did it

Sunday: This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in temples built by human hands. He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. All that we have comes from God. All that we are comes from God. All of creation that surrounds us comes from God. I personally think that God did a good job and the problems with this world have more to do with our messing it up than with God not doing a good job of making it in the first place. I often wondered; if God did make the whole world, why do we humans think it is OK to solve our problems by killing and destroying? It is sort of like one of the kids in the house thinking they have a special relationship with the parents that allows them to destroy the other bedrooms and dump the garbage on the living room rug. I think the sooner we begin to see all of creation as created by God, the better off we all will be.