St. Luke Lutheran Church

On October 31, Lutherans around the world will commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, an occasion that will mark Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church on October 31, 1517, inviting debate among theologians over various theological issues. Little did Luther know that his academic ritual would catapult into the reformation of the Western Church. Indeed once the figurative Pandora's box was opened, there was no controlling where the reformation would go. Once they are spawned, revolutions take on a life of their own. Andreas Carlstadt, for instance, took the reformation in a radical direction where Luther refused to go.

Andreas Carlstsdt was a colleague of Luther on the faculty at Wittenberg University. He was bookish and learned. He lacked, however, Luther's charisma, creative genius and certainly his pastoral gifts. Like Luther and the rest of the faculty at the Wittenberg University, Carlstsdt was committed to the reformation of the Church. After Luther's courageous confession at Worms in 1521, where before Emperor Charles the Fifth he refused to recant his teachings, he was surreptitiously carted away. He remained in hiding for over a year at the Wartburg Castle. It was during Luther's absence away from Wittenberg that Carlstadt's radicalism revealed it had no boundaries. He removed his priestly and professorial clothing and donned the raiment of peasants. He performed the first "reformed" mass. He tossed out of the church the candles, the sacred statuary, the altar and paraments; he removed all vestiges of Catholicism. Carlstadt wanted a pure church. In promoting that pure church, he started from scratch, as if 1500 years of history had not happened. He wanted to sever people's emotional connection to that history and start afresh. In his pursuit of a purified, utopian church, Carlstadt was not led by wisdom. Indeed in his enthusiasm, he trampled on many toes, not caring whose feelings he hurt. Utopian revolutions are whimsical children.

Luther heard at Wartburg what Carlstadt had done at Wittenberg. He was troubled. He made plans to return to Wittenberg to restore order and establish a semblance of balance. Luther refused to engage a war on history. He had no problem with the church universal over its 1500 years of history, for throughout that history Christ came into sharper focus. The Holy Spirit was active in that history bearing witness to Christ. Being the incarnational and sacramental theologian that he was, Luther valued history, especially those times and places where God met humans. The whole 1500 years of the Church's history bore witness to God's epiphanies in history in Word and Sacrament, even amid the ugly episodes of history. History, then, is not merely a boundary where we stop. It is a boundary that invites us to go beyond it to meet Christ, as we learn wisdom from history in its divers manifestations.

In the American public square, we see the spirit of Carlstadt is very much alive. In America today, we see a war on history, displayed in the removal of the monuments dedicated to that history. From whence comes this war on history? I believe that we live in a Godless society. In a Godless society, everything gets politicized, even history. In a Godless society, this life gets absolutized to utopian dimensions, as this life takes the place of God. As the thinking goes, it is important to get this life right through various human techniques, for it is the only life that we have. After death, there is nothing: no forgiveness, no redemption, no eternal life. Hence, there is an impatience fueled by anxiety that this life is all there is; so, the West is hellbent on getting it right. There is no room for the mistakes of history. There is no room for disagreement, no patience for the slow process of political debate in the context of free speech.

Moreover, in a hyper-politicized world spawned by the absence of God, everything becomes debatable, especially history; nothing is left to the chance that it might contradict the utopian narrative, for that narrative, as flimsy as the fig leaves with which Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves, is what unifies the Godless society. Not buying into the utopian narrative, the politically incorrect is surrendered to the grand inquisitor of political correctness. In a Godless society, then, perfection is sought in the political process to fill the void of an eternal God. Perfectionism, unfortunately, is tyranny's child. The spirit of Carlstadt is indeed ever with us.  

The only way to deal with the Carlstadts of the world is to prick a hole in their utopian bubbles, their utopian narratives. We must insist that life is a mixed bag: life is beautiful; life is flawed. We agree with the wisdom of Paul: all people are sinners in need of the redemption of Christ Jesus. This life cannot be perfected either by religion or by politics. We must insist that there is wisdom in history and it must be ever before us, not as a boundary at which to stop, as though they were all evil back then and we are now the enlightened ones. Such thinking neglects that enlightenment is built up over many lifetimes of people who refused to see society's history or their own personal histories as boundaries at which to give pause. Instead, we must see history as a boundary at which something new can begin as we learn from both its exhilarating and painful lessons. We are never free of history and the past that it represents, for the possibilities for the present evolve from that past. Standing at the beginning and end of history is Christ; he is the light amid the darkness. He is the resurrection and the life. He is the culmination of our corporate and private histories.

Pastor’s Page - April 2016

The apocryphal story is told of Jesus’ appearance to a certain fisherman.

“I am Jesus. I died and now I am alive, raised by my Father.”

“No, you’re not Jesus. Please leave – you’re scaring the fish,” said the old crotchety fisherman.

“I see that you’re full of doubts like my disciple Thomas. What would you have me do to prove to you that I’m Jesus?”

“Walk across this river,” said the angler.

 So Jesus starts walking across the river. After a few steps, he begins to sink and soon disappears under water. Later, he swims back to shore. “Ha, there you are,” said the fisherman. You’re not Jesus, the savior of the world. Jesus can walk on water.”

Jesus responds, “Well, I used to be able to walk on water until I got these holes in my feet.”

A little Easter humor to remind us of a few truths about Easter. First, Jesus was raised by the Father. It was his body that he showed to his disciples and especially to Thomas, whom he invites to place his hand in his pierced side. His resurrected body became the source of peace for Thomas and the other disciples and to the many others, including Paul, to whom Jesus appeared.

Some speak of the resurrection in spiritual terms, as though Jesus’ appearance to his disciples was an inward, psychological experience, not in any way objective. The evidence of the empty tomb and his appearances to hundreds of people whose lives were radically changed prove that his resurrection was indeed objective and real. He showed them his body:  his hands and feet injured by the nails that the Roman soldiers drove through them. Nothing other than this Easter miracle can explain the miraculous change in the apostles, enabling them to emerge from their hiding places of fear to preach the gospel that has changed the world.

Also, Christ’s injuries assure us that in connection with Jesus through Baptism, we shall live. Death is not our final word. Christ’s resurrection is our promise that no bodily injury, no mortal wound will separate us from the love of Christ. As he was raised, we shall be raised. According to St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, because of Christ’s resurrection we shall be given a spiritual body. If ever there was an oxymoron, then spiritual body is certainly one. That makes no sense. What it means is this:  as we have a body in this life to relate to the people and conditions of this live, so we shall be given a spiritual body to relate to the conditions of the next life. Paul cannot conceive of existence without a body, because a body is a sign of dependency on God and interdependency with others. The resurrection of Jesus – the actual raising of his body – assures us of this promise. God is moving history in such a way in Christ Jesus that his resurrection continues to influence human history and the whole universe, so that God will be all in all.

Pastor’s Page  - March 2016

There is a Peanuts cartoon in which Lucy and Linus are walking along to school, having a conversation. Linus confides to Lucy that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

Lucy:  “You, a doctor! Ha! That’s a big laugh! You could never be a doctor and you know why! You don’t love mankind!”

Linus: “Oh, but I do love mankind. It’s people that I can’t stand.”

Indeed there are many who like the idea of doing something more than the reality of doing it. A wise pundit once counseled Americans not to elect as president the candidate who had a childhood dream of being president. Such a person may have a romanticized view of the office, enamored more so with the idea of being president than the reality of performing the office.

Like anything else in life, the presidency has its many moments where the reality of the job does not square with one’s ideal conceptions of it. So much of church work is especially susceptible to that. We can wax brilliant about our vision and mission. We can articulate Jesus’ passion for humanity and how we as a church continue to share in that passion. But, when it comes to putting that passion into practical garb, the reality always seems to fall short of the ideal. Disappointment is par for the course in the life of the church.

Disappointment is what the first disciples of Jesus experienced on that first Good Friday. The crucified Jesus shattered whatever hopes they might have garnered in their three years with Jesus. Each had his own hope, which he began to articulate more boldly the closer that Jesus approached Jerusalem to meet his fate. James and John had the temerity to allow their mother to ask Jesus to seat them at his left and right when he came into his kingdom.

All the disciples harbored hopes like that. Jesus taught that the one who was to be great among them had to be the others’ servant as he was a servant. His teachings, however, often went over their heads.

Yet, never did they want to see their Lord on a cross, which was a cursed thing for Jewish people. The Jews and the Romans crucified upstart political leaders to give a clear statement to the populace that their movements landed in abject failure. Jesus on the cross was a great failure, a great disappointment.

Nevertheless, it was here in the disappointment of the cross that our faith would have its beginning, for it was here that God negated the negative and thereby produced a positive that launched Peter, James and John beyond their Good Friday tears. Good Friday proved to be an inadequate horizon for hope. Good Friday was a horizon of despair. If Good Friday were the final chapter, then we would be a people most to be pitied.

There is, however, a lovelier horizon in which Good Friday makes sense. Before we get to that lovelier horizon, we have to traverse the 40 days of Lent.

What to do when reality does not square with the ideal? What to do with disappointment? Does the Lenten Season have any answers to those questions?

Lent returns us to the cross, the biggest disappointment in history. For the people who taunted Jesus on the cross, he was a disappointment, for he never came down from the cross. However, for the Father of Jesus, God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself. God worked a good for all of humanity from the cross of Christ.

Lent disciplines you to traverse your journey with hope that in the horizon of any cross in your life there is an empty tomb. Lent does this by inviting you to die to yourself and open you up to God’s infinite possibilities. With such a God living with us, how could we not feel hopeful in all circumstances of life?

Pastor's Page - February 2016

The month of February is the month of love. Romantic love is celebrated on Valentine’s Day. Patriotism, or love of country, is celebrated on Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays. And, on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, we experience divine love in the cross of Jesus. Throughout the month of February, we bask in love. “Love makes the world go round.” “What the world needs is love.”

Ironically, the month with the fewest days is the month that occasions us to celebrate and practice the value that goes the longest in bettering our lives. Love is at the center of our mission statement, of which, we should remind ourselves: “The Mission of St. Luke Lutheran Church is to Make Loving Disciples.” That is our corporate mission. Each of us, how-ever, has to embrace that as an individual mission as well. It is futile to make loving disciples at church and not do so at home with our spouses and children. First and foremost, we must strive to make our relationships more loving. Every so often, I listen to Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil; and, over the years, I have culled information from them that might be of benefit to us in creating loving relationships at home. The following list offers some tangible, self-evident ways to be more loving to your significant other. In the parentheses, I illustrate how Jesus practiced that principle in his relationships.

 1)    Great relationships require time investments. (Jesus spent three years with his disciples.)

 2)    Practice surrender. Find out what your partner wants and needs and offer it. (Jesus asked some whom he healed what they wanted. He gave it to them. He offers his life for us.)

 3)    Own your thoughts and behavior—the importance of the will and choosing to do the right thing based on values (Jesus said of himself, “I lay down my life of my own will.”)

 4)    Talk is important. (Jesus had a private conversation with Nicodemus.)

 5)    Sometimes a loving intimate touch is more important than talk. (Jesus touched those whom he healed.)

 6)    Sexuality lives in your inner child—play and laugh. (This does not apply, though you can imagine Jesus being playful in the appropriate context and with the appropriate people.)

 7)    Instead of arguing, reflect your partner’s feelings back to him or her. (Jesus did not argue with the Jewish leaders who caught the woman in adultery.)

Pastor's Page - January 2016

Psalm 90:1-12, attributed to Moses, is a sober way to begin the New Year. It puts life into perspective. The great liberator prays:

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning—though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass away. Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (New International Version)

Pastor Robert Wolff, former pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Chino has apparently taken verse 12 of Psalm 90 literally. At a pastors’ circuit meeting several years ago, he said to me, “Happy 5th Anniversary, Tim. Today is your 5th Anniversary as pastor of St. Luke.”

“How did you know that, Bob?” I said.

“Right here in my book. I write down all the significant dates that I experience. When I attend a pastor’s installation or any special day in the life of the church, I write it down in my little book.”

Pastor Wolff’s “little book” is rather strange. Indeed he has a record of all the significant worship services that he has attended over his professional career. More than that, he has marked the number of days that he has lived. He can give you the exact number of days that he has been on God’s planet. “How many days have you lived?” On that day back in July, it was over 23,000. Every morning when he arises, he marks that day as another that the Lord has given him as a gift. He numbers it. And, at the end of the day, he writes down the highlights and lowlights of that day.

“How long have you been numbering the days of your life?”

“Ever since confirmation,” Pastor Bob said.

“Why have you done this?” I asked.

“The Bible tells me so.”

Would to God that we all would get to that place where our actions are informed by the word of God. When Pastor Bob told me, “The Bible tells me so,” I thought of that song that we all sang as children: “Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” The heart that is open to the wisdom of God is the heart that is open to hear the word and to obey it in simple, childlike trust.

None of us has any idea what 2016 will bring us. All that we can do is number our days and reflect on what that day has brought us in God’s grace and love. To properly number our days in 2016 is to begin each day with thanksgiving and to end it therewith. Such an approach to numbering our days opens us to receive the wisdom that we need for the days ahead. God bless your 2016 .

Pastor’s Page - November 2015

The story is told of two men walking through a field, when, all of a sudden, an enraged bull spotted them. They darted to the nearest fence. The angry bull chased them in hot pursuit. It was soon apparent that they would not make it. Terrified, one said to the other, “Pray, Man! We’re in for it!”

The other answered, “I can’t! I’ve never prayed in public!”

“But you must! The bull is gaining on us!”

“All right,” said the other huffing and puffing. “I’ll say the only prayer that I know, the one that my father used to pray at the dinner table. ‘O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us thankful.’”

There are many things for which to be thankful. Being chased by an enraged bull is certainly not one of them. The epistle reading on Thanksgiving Day is Philippians 4:4-7. Paul says in that classic text, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

As Christians, we are a people of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving informs our prayers. To pray with thanksgiving is to pray with confidence as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, whose fundamental ministry is to infuse us with joy. Our core ritual — Holy Communion — is also informed by thanksgiving.

In fact, another name for Holy Communion is Eucharist. Eucharist is a Greek word meaning thanksgiving. As we remember all that Christ has done for us, we do so in a spirit of thanksgiving, ever confident that Jesus carried his cross to Calvary for us. Greater love has no than to lay his life for his friends. The only response to such a selfless act is thanksgiving. Indeed we are a people of thanksgiving.

Inasmuch as we are such a people, does that make the observance of a national day of thanksgiving superfluous, which is what some quasi Christians? Of course not! There is indeed a place for thanking God for our country, for it is the place wherein we are free to actualize our gifts for the good of ourselves and others. Our country makes it possible for us to be fruitful; and, for that, we are most thankful. There are many things for which to be thankful and our nation is certainly one of those.

Another question: do we thank God for everything? First of all, Paul is not telling us what to pray for, but how to pray. How you pray demonstrates the focus of your mind.

Jesus teaches, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Who are the pure in heart? They are the ones who have the right focus; they focus on God. Because they do, they see God in everything. Let me amplify further. Latter in Matthew, Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body. If is darkened and ineffective, then the whole body is made vulnerable. If the eye, the lamp, is fully functional, then there will be a source of light for the whole body.

The spiritual eye has light if it suffused with the light of Christ. The light of Christ comes to you in Word and Sacrament. To seek first the kingdom is to seek Christ in Word and Sacrament. You know that your seeking has yielded great fruit when there is an abundance of love, peace and joy in your life. Prayerful words spawned by love, peace and joy is how we should pray. Love, peace and joy in the kingdom are ever present in all the circumstances of life.

Indeed we are not thankful for the tragedies that occur in life. I heard a counselor say that for a woman to be healed of the trauma of rape she has to get to the place where she is thankful to God even for the rape. Of course, that is pure foolishness. That is masochistic.

So much falsehood gets passed off in the cloak of pious language. We must be critical of platitudes masquerading as truth. Amid life’s tragedies, nevertheless, Christ is present to bless and empower you and that is a process between you and God in Christ Jesus. Over time as you engage the mourning process, God will speak the perfect word to you in your affliction. Amid a tragedy, it is futile to ask why. The question why never yields satisfactory answers. It leads to bitterness and anger.

In the face of tragedy, we should ask how God will get us through the tragedy. God, ever faithful, will be present, right next to you as friend, to aid, comfort, heal and over time to give enlightenment. “Yea though I walk through valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” Wherever God is, there is always peace love and joy.

Pastor's Page - April 2015

On April 14, Abraham Lincoln awoke in a good mood. Several days before at Appomattox, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the South, surrendered to General Ulysses Grant, commander of the North.

For the first time in five years, Lincoln had some breathing room, breathing room in which to think and plan. But, before any serious thinking on the future course of the nation and its reconstruction, Lincoln wanted to laugh. He wanted to try to put behind him the tragedy of a war whose outcome was always in doubt.

He thought a night out at Ford’s Theatre would provide the appropriate venue for some needed diversion. Lincoln, however, received strong indications that he should not go out that night together with his wife, Mary. The Grants were supposed to accompany them to the theatre, but they cancelled. Just after a meeting earlier in the day, Lincoln’s secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, begged him not to attend the play. He was afraid of rebel retaliation.

Later that afternoon, as Lincoln and his wife took a carriage ride through Washington, Mary told him that she was not feeling well and thought that they should not attend the play in the evening. Lincoln responded that he, too, was tired and queried whether they should go out. William Crook, Lincoln’s private bodyguard, pleaded with the president not to go to Ford’s Theatre.

As fate would have it, the president and his wife attended the play, “Our American Cousin.” During the third act, Lincoln held Mary’s hand. They drew close to each other, which they rarely did during those tragic five years of civil war and the death of their beloved son, Willie, who was most like Lincoln in wit and intelligence. They relaxed. They laughed.

“Sic semper tyrannis!” shouted John Wilkes, the lead actor, as he stood behind Lincoln and shot the fatal bullet behind the president’s right ear. The next morning, President Abraham Lincoln died.

I have often wondered why in magazine advertisements for wristwatches invariably the hands are pointed at 10:10. The reason for that could be as simple as 10:10 am/pm is the least stressful part of the day. I would like to think that watches in magazine advertisements are pointed at 10:10 out of deference to Abraham Lincoln. It was at 10:10pm that Lincoln was shot on April 14. Perhaps that is a way to commemorate America’s favorite president.

Also, I have often pondered whose idea it was to make the dreaded tax day April 15, the day on which Lincoln died. How cynical! In any case, on April 2015 America will commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the death of Lincoln. Just after Lincoln died, Edwin Stanton, the same man who warned him not to go out on that fateful April 14, said in earshot of friends and colleagues standing at Lincoln’s death bed, “He now belongs to the ages.”

As a martyred president, Lincoln became influential in death, as his martyred status became currency in political debates. Lincoln’s martyred image was evoked for everything from civic responsibility to paying taxes. And, for those who study his life, he is a most fascinating person that still intrigues us.

If Lincoln belongs to the ages, then Jesus belongs to the eternal ages. Like Lincoln, he was martyred in April; in fact, Jesus died on April 3, 33 according to some scholars. Unlike Lincoln, he got up from death. After three days Jesus arose from the dead. As the living and reigning Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, he continues to influence the universe. As Paul says, he must subject all enemies under his feet. Then he will hand the kingdom over the Father, so that God may be all in all.

Every Sunday we commemorate Christ’s death and resurrection. His memory and his virtue as a force field continues among God’s people gathered around Word and Sacrament. Every Sunday is Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, it is most apropos to set aside a day to fully celebrate what God has accomplished for us in Christ Jesus. On Easter Sunday, we greet each other: “Christ is Risen!” The response: “He is risen indeed!”

Pastor’s Page - March 2015

The story is told of a farmer who wanted to dig a well to water his farm. After digging for some time in a place recommended to him by water diviners, he found no water. He was frustrated. He had dug only 15 feet.

Along came another man who laughed at the farmer for digging there. He pointed to another place and said, “Over there is where you ought to be digging.” The farmer went to that spot and dug and dug. In fact, he dug for 30 feet. Still, he found no water. Very tired, he took the advice of an old neighbor who assured him that there was water at yet another location.

After being frustrated by his neighbor’s advice, finding no water, the farmer sat forlorn on the porch. His wife came out of the house. Seeing his crestfallen face, she said, “Where are your brains?! Does anyone sink a well that way? Stay in one place and go deeper and deeper there.” The next day, refreshed and renewed, the farmer spent all day on one hole. He found abundant water.

We live in a world of religious seekers. Seekers hear of a phenomenal outpouring of the Spirit up in Canada. They swarm up there and learn to howl like animals. They hear an Orange County preacher pronounce, “Live a purpose-driven life.” They flock to his church, giving him 15 minutes of fame. After a month of purposeful living, they return to their helter/skelter ways of living. They hear the pecuniary-minded televangelist taunt a 100% return on the money (10% tithe) that they give to his ministry. Lured by such returns, they “sow seeds” into the televangelist’s ministry expecting a financial windfall. Soon, it dawns on them that the only one realizing such a wind-fall is the televangelist exploiting his/her vast audience. As the Bell Curve suggests and every televangelist knows, there is always 10% of an audience that still believes that Elvis is alive.

Indeed we live in a nation of seekers. Church growth experts encourage congregations to make their worship “seeker friendly.” “Tone down the theological talk,” they say. “Get rid of the vestments and candles. You may even consider jettisoning all religious symbols, especially the cross at the front of the church.”

Many, however, in our Christian community need to hear the frank talk of the farmer’s wife, “Stay in one place and go deeper and deeper.” We need to hear that as well.

That is what we hope to accomplish during Lent. We intentionally slow the pace and dig deeper and deeper into God’s word where we are. I commend a tool to you that can help you with going deeper and deeper. It is a spiritual practice called Lectio Divina, “Divine Reading.” It is an ancient way of praying from the 4th century A.D. Martin Luther knew of it and may have used it in his prayer practice. Add it to your Lenten journey.

Before you sit down to pray, choose a verse from the Bible on which you may want to pray. Set the Bible next to you within arm’s reach. Lectio Divina has five phases. You can do it for as long as you want:

Phase One (Relaxation): Sit with both feet on the floor and your hands in your lap. Inhale and exhale measured breaths. That’s it, breathe slowly and deeply without hyperventilating. What you inhale, you exhale. Mentally tell your body to relax. Where you sense stress in your body, tell that part of your body to relax.

Phase Two (Reading): Staying in one place, pick up the Bible and read aloud and slowly the verse that you chose. Read it 7 times. Pause between each reading to let the words sink into your heart.

Phase Three (Meditation): During the reading you were drawn to a word, a phrase or maybe an image. As you resume taking measured breaths with your feet on the floor and your hands in your lap, try not to move. Mentally say that word to yourself. As you inhale, mentally say the word to yourself. In the case of an image that you might have seen during the reading, concentrate on that as you breathe.

Phase Four (Prayer): Now mentally ask God why you were drawn to that word, phrase or image. What’s going on in your life that may have prompted a focus on on word? Ask questions of God, and wait for answers. God will answer in your voice. Have a dialogue with God.

Phase Five (Contemplation): After you have sufficiently prayed, now rest in God’s grace and love. Enjoy being in the moment: take in the sounds about you. Be fully present in the moment.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each under a high fire. Soon, the pots came to a boil. Into the first pot she placed carrots. Into the second pot she placed an egg. And, into the third pot she placed some ground coffee beans. She let the pots continue to boil. She never said a word. Twenty minutes later, she turned off all the burners. She took the carrots out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. She took the egg out of the pot and placed it also in a bowl. Finally, she ladled the coffee beans out of the pot and placed them in a bowl.

Turning to her granddaughter, she said, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, an egg and coffee,” she replied. Her grandmother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did. She noticed that they were soft. Her grandmother asked her to take the egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the grandmother asked her granddaughter to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. She asked, “What does it all mean?”

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrots went into the water strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, they softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile before going into the boiling water. Its thin, outer shell had protected its liquid interior; but, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were placed in the boiling water, they changed the water. The granddaughter’s eyes brightened.

“Which are you?” the wise grandmother asked her granddaughter.

Indeed before hitting the boiling water of adversity, some are like the carrots. They are hardened in their world-view, which sometimes has no room for God. They are firmly ensconced in their intellectual and emotional systems, thinking that such systems will give them security and wellbeing. Along the way, life happens. Adversity, ever inherent in life, softens them and makes them flimsy.

Others are like the egg. The adversity of life has the opposite effect on them: they get hardened. They may have at one time faced life with optimism and broadmindedness. They got hardened, however. I believe that God must have a special mercy for the jaded, frustrated idealist, people who really wanted the best for the world but got shut down.

Who are people like the coffee beans? Who are the people whom the adversity of life does not embitter, but better?

You do not have to go very far to find them. They are right in our midst at St. Luke Lutheran Church. In my mind’s eye, I can see several people who are like ground coffee beans. There is no whining in them. At one time, there may have been appropriate lament about their circumstances, but they did not stay there. They got back up. A sweet, powerful aroma follows them. They have become signs of hope for us who have fallen on hard times, heralding to us that difficult situations and circumstances need not harden us against life’s beauty or soften our moral fiber in acting forthrightly on behalf of Christ’s kingdom of peace, love and joy.

It is love that gives the ground coffee beans among us their sweet aroma. They are wounded healers having been ground down by the circumstances of life. Yet, whenever adversity touches them, they explode with the most pleasant aroma, blessing instead of cursing; loving instead of hating; listening deeply and compassionately instead of standing on a soapbox of absolutism and dualism.

Both Jesus and Paul teach us not to be overcome by evil; instead, we are to overcome evil with the good. The ultimate good is love. That is a clarion call not to let life’s circumstances change our core.

The cross of Jesus overcame evil with the good. During this month of love, let us reflect on the power of God’s love in Christ Jesus as we continue our commitment of making loving disciples who are not overcome by their circumstances, but who overcome all such circumstances with a good and loving disposition. Life really is in how you see it: how you see it informed by this loving disposition.

• Resolved never to lose one moment of time, but to improve in the most profitable way I possibly can.
• Resolved to live with all my might while I do live.
• Resolved never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do if were the last hour of my life.
• Resolved never to do anything out of revenge.
• Resolved never to speak evil of anyone.
• Resolved to study scriptures.
• Resolved to ask myself at the end of the day, week, month and year wherein I could possibly have done better.

• He refused to provide for the proper work environment, so that his sole employee could be productive.
  
• He shuns a Christmas dinner invitation.
  
• He shouts at charity workers in the street outside his place of business. 

•  during worship you hold your hymnal open but never look at it.
•  you don’t make eye contact with someone in the hallway because you think it’s impolite.
•  you can say your meal prayer in one breath.
•  Bach is your favorite composer because he also was a Lutheran.
•  your house is a mess because you’re saved by grace, not works.
•  you think an ELCA bride and a LCMS groom make for a mixed marriage.
•  you feel guilty about not feeling guilty.
•  you celebrate Halloween.

Humans in most cultures have made this association since time immemorial.  This fear has produced universal symbols of the dark side, places we dare not darken with our presence.  Halloween gives permission to people to go where they would not otherwise go 364 days out of the year. 

Humans need this.  Halloween serves as a safe place where people in our death-denying culture can face their biggest fears and play with them, taunt them, thereby showing that they have power over them.  Halloween represents our culture’s walk on the dark side.  Every culture has a way to reckon with the dark side. 

Jesus, however, gives the assurance that no psychologically-derived holiday can give.  Jesus is the light of the world.  In his presence, the darkness recedes.  Indeed life haunts us.  Halloween uncovers our deepest fears; Christ reveals our deepest comfort in his life, death and resurrection—his victory over the disintegrating powers of darkness.  Jesus is: Christus Victor. 

There are still dark corners of the soul where science in all its enlightenment cannot reach.  Christ, however, can go there.  His cross means that he is willing to enter any darkness, to fall to great depths with us to lift us to the heights of new life in him. 

• The 8th best way to a healthy brain:  Smile. According to Newberg, the mere act of smiling helps to interrupt mood disorders and strengthens the brain’s neural ability to maintain a positive outlook on life. Cynicism shortens your life. According to a 30-year study by the Mayo Clinic, pessimism was associated with a shorter life span and poorer mental health. So, smile!

• The 7th best way to a healthy brain:  Stay Intellectually Active. Intellectual and cognitive stimulation strengthens the neural connections throughout the frontal lobe and improves your ability to communicate, solve problems and make rational decisions concerning your behavior. Nearly every age-related, cognitive disability is related to the functioning of the frontal lobe. Exercise the cortex through memory and mnemonic exercises, strategy-based games (chess and checkers), and imagination; read books (fiction or non-fiction) or listen to recorded books, and watch education and sci-ence channels. As long as learning is fun and meaningful, it will improve your brain.

• The 6th best way to a healthy brain:  Consciously Relax. At some point in your day, mentally scan your body while taking a few deep breaths. Where in your body you feel tension, mentally tell those places to relax. As you do this, use music. Music (especially classical) sharpens your cognitive skills.

• The 5th best way to a healthy brain:  Yawn. According Newberg, several recent brain-scan studies have shown that yawning evokes a unique neural activity in the area of the brain that is directly involved in generating social awareness and creating feelings of empathy. Yawning also brings you into a heightened state of cognitive awareness. That gives me a whole new take on you who yawn during my sermons.

• The 4th best way to a healthy brain:  Meditate. 20 minutes of meditation or contemplation affect your nervous system in ways that enhance physical and emotional health. Antistress hormones and neurochemicals are released during meditation, as well as pleasure-enhancing and depression-decreasing neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.

• The 3rd best way to a healthy brain:  Aerobic Exercise. Walking, yoga and Zumba strengthen every part of the brain.

• The 2nd best way to a healthy brain:  Dialogue With Others. Dialogue requires social interaction. The more social ties you have, the less your cognitive abilities will decline. The proper content of brain-enhancing dialogue is abstract things like God, religion, spirituality, theology, physics, or art. Bible study fits this bill.

• The best way to a healthy brain:  Faith. An optimistic attitude, which faith helps to produce, reduces stress-eliciting cortisol levels in your body. Viktor Frankl, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, notes that those who were not defeated and lost their humanity during Nazi atrocities were those who maintained faith and hope. Faith is a powerful force that we too often take for granted when things are going well.

Pastor's Page for July 2014

Humorist Garrison Keillor, our present-day Mark Twain, says the following about the summer doldrums: “When it comes to the summer doldrums, a person’s brain shrinks to pea-size and one forgets about the lofty, moral values and takes the short view; so, I turn on the air conditioning and burn up precious non-renewable resources for my own comfort and pleasure even if it means that glaciers shrink and the Artic tern is threatened; I just want cool air to blow on me as I sip a cool drink.”

Indeed summer is most conducive to doing nothing; where a tall glass of lemonade and daydreams are in order. There are certain places in the country where you may not want to be during the summer doldrums. Standing in a long line at Disney World is certainly one of those places. If ever there were a foretaste of hell, it would be Florida’s heat and humidity.

Summer, though hot and unbearable at times, is supposed to be the time of the year when we focus on very little, so that we can enjoy the fruit of a good year. It is the time when, unapologetically, we go at a slower pace. Indeed the brain seems to shrink, as we cannot focus too deeply for too long on anything that the media deem important.

Living in a climate like ours in Southern California, Jesus would have understood our summer doldrums and the need for rest during such times. After his disciples returned from doing kingdom work, Jesus encouraged them to step aside from the crowd and rest.

We can imagine Jesus having prepared food for them to aid their rest. In the Old Testament, there is precedent for God serving people: God fed the Israelites as they crossed the desert; God also fed some of the prophets when they found themselves in desperate straits.

It is God who commands us to rest, making it the third most important commandment. We dare not spiritualize this commandment. Under Martin Luther’s influence, we have limited rest to spiritual rest. God, however, is concerned that your total being rest:  mind, body and soul. We have to rest our bodies. God, then, has given us the summer doldrums, the time of year when we slow down the frenetic pace of the rest of the year and rest.

In Ephesians, Paul lauds the breath, the height, the length and the depth of God’s love. Indeed in God we live, move and have our being, for in all the seasons of our lives we experience the love of God in Christ Jesus — even when we are doing nothing but throwing back a few glasses of lemonade during the summer doldrums.

It was June 19, 1865 that Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with the news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on slaves in Texas and the deep South because of the paucity of union soldiers to enforce the executive order. It is one thing to promulgate laws; it quite another to enforce them. So, in theory the slaves were free; in reality, however, they were not. With the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865, and the arrival of Granger’s regiment, national forces were finally strong enough to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation throughout the South.

 At the end of slavery, black Texans posited several theories to explain the two-and-half-year delay. It was said that the messenger with the news of their freedom was murdered on his way down to Texas. Others proffered the theory that the news was deliberately withheld by enslavers to maintain their labor force. And, the federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one, last, cotton harvest before going onto to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Of course, the best explanation was that President Lincoln’s authority over the rebellious states was always in question. It took, in fact, the death of over 600,000 men to change the political climate that would ensure the efficacy of his Emancipation Proclamation throughout the whole country. 

As you can imagine, the reaction of the enslaved to the news of their freedom ranged from shock to outright jubilation. The newly freed traveled north to rejoin family members in Oklahoma, Arkansas and points further north. Some traveled west to forge a new life as cowboys. Wherever the newly freed went, they rehearsed the story of how freedom came to them, how God moved with a mighty hand to intervene in the affairs of humanity to right a horrible wrong. 

Juneteenth occasions a range of activities for African-Americans who celebrate it: rodeos, fishing, barbecuing and baseball. It continues to be highly revered in Texas. The day, moreover, invites focus on prayer, self-improvement, and family, as many family reunions occur on or near Juneteenth.

 Some Christians are like the slaves in Texas. For one reason or another, they have not got-ten the news that in Christ Jesus they are free, free from sin, death and the devil. In theory they are free; in the reality of their lives, however, they are still enslaved: enslaved to guilt, to anxiety and worry, caught up in bad habits that surrender their self-control and freedom. 

Enter the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit’s role to convict us of sin, to challenge us to live as free people in Christ Jesus, to empower us through Word and Sacrament to bear tangible fruit of love in all that we do. The Holy Spirit is like Major Gordon Granger who proclaimed to the people of Texas: “In accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation, all slaves are free!” The Holy Spirit: “In accordance with the cross of Christ Jesus, all slaves to sin, death and the devil are free!” 

The long season of Pentecost commences on Pentecost Sunday. It is indeed a necessarily long season wherein the Holy Spirit wins back the territory of your soul and frees it up for Christ. The Holy Spirit ensures that you get the message to live free in Christ.

Pastor's Page for May 2014

The story is told of a man on a long flight home.  The first sign of imminent danger occurred when the seat belt light lit and pinged.  Soon thereafter, a voice came over the intercom, “We shall not be serving beverages now, as there are strong turbulences up ahead.  Please remain in your seats.”  The anticipated turbulences hit the plane with fury, whipping it from side to side. 

 The man looked about the cabin, seeing that his fellow passengers were visibly agitated.  A little later, the voice came over the intercom again, “We shall not be serving the meal at this time, as there are still strong turbulences up ahead.”  The man dared to look out the window.  In the dark night, lightening flashed.  It looked ominous.  The plane jolted about as though it were a bottle riding on the powerful waves of an ocean.  Powerful wind currents lifted the plane up and then dropped it.  It felt like the plane was crashing.  Some passengers were visibly sick; some screamed; others prayed.  The future looked bleak. 

Then the man spied a little girl who sat with her feet beneath her in her seat.  She was calmly reading a book.  She was oblivious to what was happening in the cabin.  She would close her eyes, savoring what she had just read.  Then she would smile and hum with delight.  Then she would open her eyes again and read.  The man could hardly believe his eyes.  When the plane got out of the turbulences and landed, understandably all the passengers hurried to disembark the plane.  The man, however, lingered, hoping to get a chance to speak with the little girl.  He approached her and commented on the rough flight.  He asked how it was that she seemed so calm and collected during the violent turbulences.  The sweet, little girl said, “Sir, my dad is the pilot and he is taking me home.”

Would to God that we could handle life’s storms like that little girl, namely with a sense of equanimity and confidence!  Would to God that we could sit calm and trust that God will do right by us!  The little girl knew what the others in the plane did not know.  She knew and trusted the pilot.  That knowledge gave her security.  Can we live with such security?  How do we move from fear to faith?

Knowledge is indeed power.  Knowledge is especially powerful over fears and anxieties.  As we live out our calling as an Easter people, what is it that we know?  Of course, we know that we shall die.  It is appointed to us all once to die.  We are brilliant flowers that bloom in the daylight; yet, we only have a moment in the sun.  Then we wither and die.  Of course, God never intended death to be determinative.  Death came into the world through sin.  Sin, death and the devil are chaos monsters over which we have no power.  God alone has to wage battle against these enemies of humanity, which God does in Christ Jesus.  He who knew no sin became sin for us to save us from the law’s condemnation.  Indeed, we know that we shall die.  But, we also know that we shall live.  Being baptized and having received Christ Jesus as our savior, we share in his victory over sin, death and the devil.  He is the first fruit of many who shall rise from the dead victorious like him.  We know those two facts unequivocally.

If we know the above, then from whence comes fear?  It comes packaged with this life. Mark Twain said it best, “All say, ‘How hard it is that we have to die’—a strange complaint coming from the mouths of people who have had to live.”  This life inspires fear and it shrouds us all.  We can never be free of its tentacles.  Not only is fear part and parcel of this life, so is the resurrected Christ.  The perfect love of Christ casts out all fear.  Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to Jesus’ tomb because of love and devotion to him.  When they got there, they saw that the tomb was empty.  An angel descended from heaven and sat at the entrance of the tomb.  He tells them not to be afraid.  Instead, they are to go and tell Jesus’ disciples that he is risen from the dead and that he will see them in Galilee.  The Marys make haste to do just that.  Along the way, however, Jesus meets them in a most serendipitous way. 

That story is a metaphor for the journey from fear to faith.  We are on our way to Galilee, where we shall see Jesus and all the saints.  We do not have an abiding place here on earth.  Along the way to Galilee, Jesus has a way of surreptitiously meeting us in Word and Sacrament.  We are to be ready to meet him, as he promised where two or more are gathered in his name he is there.  Wherever Jesus is, his perfect love casts out all fear.  The way to deal with life’s endemic fear is the perfect love of the resurrected Christ.  In that love we must learn to rest and be so empowered by such resting that we become like that little girl who trusted the pilot of the plane, her father.  God is the pilot of your life.  He will pilot you through the turbulences of life and land you beyond your doubts and fears to life eternal. 

 Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  This we know.