This has been one crazy week.
Friday we moved! Well we at least pack up all of our stuff and the movers came and moved it to the basement of the church. The movers were awesome! We moved but I think I lifted 4 boxes all day!
After the movers finished packing the stuff at the old place, we went packed up the car and went to Salvation Army, ate lunch, finished cleaning the apartment and left our keys on the counter. By the time we got down to the church, the movers were just unloading the last few boxes into the basement.
So with out a place of our own to lay our heads, we have been staying with some congregation members at the Kapec Kastle. Meanwhile Daisy, the dog, and Zig & Krotida, the lizards, have been staying with other congregation members, which is also where we had a wonderful Italian dinner last night.
But this morning we are off...off to Minnesota and then Wisconsin to visit family and friends. By the time we land in MN I should have a new niece or nephew. We will also celebrate my brother's 30th birthday and Bob's brother's birthday.
But most importantly we are going to the Minnesota State Fair! Really that is the reason why we are going on vacation. We haven't been to the fair since 2005 and have dearly missed it every year. But this year we will gorge ourselves on food on a stick, see the world's largest pig, and drink all the "all you can drink" milk that we can, check out the crop art and possibly even see someone making art out of tree stumps. Ohh I love the state fair! I'm feeling giddy just thinking about it!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
My Frist Wedding
Saturday was my first wedding as an "officiant." I have to put officiant in quote because I am not yet ordained and therefore not yet licensed by the state to preside at weddings. But I did preach at a wedding on Saturday and a priest from a neighboring Catholic Church did the actual officiating, aka legal side.
Overall things went well. There was some tense discussions on Friday at the rehearsal as some members of the wedding party (not the bride and groom) were a little wound up and wanted to get everything correct. As a result I now know that the bride walks down the aisle on the right side so that her dress does not stepped on...and yes this is the opposite side that all the other females walk down the aisle. I also know a few more tips about how to organize a wedding rehearsal which in my experiences in wedding parties always seem to be more chaotic then the wedding itself.
The wedding ceremony went great. There was one really awkward moment at the beginning when the parents missed their musical cue and therefore stood at the back off the church for the entirety of Cannon in D before it was restarted and they were then basically pushed down the aisle. The only other odd moment was when all the Catholics in the church stopped saying the Lord's Prayer at "deliver us from evil" but the programs were printed with the rest of the prayer, and every a witty retort between the priest and I we all continued.
The sermon went really well, lots of laughter and I had many compliments that I captured the essences of the couple. I'm not going to post the sermon since it really was not my sermon but the couple's wedding sermon. I am going to print up a copy on some nicer paper and mail it to them so that they can look back on it in the years to come.
Hopefully all my future weddings go as smoothly as this one, only preferably without the 85 plus degree heat.
Overall things went well. There was some tense discussions on Friday at the rehearsal as some members of the wedding party (not the bride and groom) were a little wound up and wanted to get everything correct. As a result I now know that the bride walks down the aisle on the right side so that her dress does not stepped on...and yes this is the opposite side that all the other females walk down the aisle. I also know a few more tips about how to organize a wedding rehearsal which in my experiences in wedding parties always seem to be more chaotic then the wedding itself.
The wedding ceremony went great. There was one really awkward moment at the beginning when the parents missed their musical cue and therefore stood at the back off the church for the entirety of Cannon in D before it was restarted and they were then basically pushed down the aisle. The only other odd moment was when all the Catholics in the church stopped saying the Lord's Prayer at "deliver us from evil" but the programs were printed with the rest of the prayer, and every a witty retort between the priest and I we all continued.
The sermon went really well, lots of laughter and I had many compliments that I captured the essences of the couple. I'm not going to post the sermon since it really was not my sermon but the couple's wedding sermon. I am going to print up a copy on some nicer paper and mail it to them so that they can look back on it in the years to come.
Hopefully all my future weddings go as smoothly as this one, only preferably without the 85 plus degree heat.
Christian Cannibalism?
We are still in John 6, still more bread, still more eternal life. But the text has changed a little. This sermon is based on John 6:51-58
What was that first taste of bread like? Was it in any way how you imagined it to be?
For me I was in 4th grade, it was Ash Wednesday and I wore this styling neon pink dress that had a off the shoulder neckline and floral skirt. It was hideous in the way only a dress made in 1991 could be.
I walked up to the altar and knelt as I had hundreds of times before, the associate pastor, who normally marked my forehead with the sign of the cross and reminded me that I was a child of God, instead he gave me this little wafer, it looked more like angelic fish-food, Once the wafer was placed on my tongue immediately it stuck to the roof of my mouth. And then before I could even pry the wafer off with my tongue the senior pastor was there with a chalice filled with wine. And I’m not sure if he thought I was a great sinner and needed some extra grace and forgiveness or what but he started tilting the chalice towards me and didn’t stop. It continued to tilt at a greater and greater angle and more and more wine was pour into my mouth. This was not the sip of communion wine I had always heard about but a gulp. I then returned to my pew and felt holy, but in retrospect, I could have been slightly light headed due to all that wine.
I had just had my first communion, I had just eaten the bread and wine of the Lord Supper; I had just eaten Jesus’ flesh and drank his blood. Wait I had just eaten flesh and drank blood. How can that be?
How can it be that that I had just eaten human flesh and drank human blood from a man who died almost two thousand years ago? How can it be that I was asked to and expected to be a cannibal?
These questions have plagued the church for the last two millenniums. From the moment Jesus talked about the bread of life being his flesh, people have questioned how one can eat Jesus’ body and if he is indeed referring to cannibalism.
For the observant Jew of Jesus’ day and for many today, drinking blood was and is strictly prohibited. Meat was well drained of blood before it was cooked in order to keep one from accidentally breaking this rule. And to talk about eating flesh meant talking about taking a life. In order to eat any animal, you must first take their life. So to talk about eating a human’s flesh, means that you must first take their life that you must first break the 5th commandment and murder in order to eat. It was such a taboo subject that the devil was at times given the title “eater of flesh”
No wonder why the Jews disputed among themselves in today’s Gospel. They must have been thinking that they misheard what Jesus said, that they heard the wrong word. He must have said “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my mesh.” Or whatever word rhymed with flesh in Aramaic. Surely, Jesus wasn’t talking about people eating him, about people taking his life.
And the confusion did not stop after the Last Supper, after Jesus died and was buried. In fact it just got worse. Many early Christians were persecuted for being cannibals. Non-Christians had heard stories about these people who worship a man and ate his body and blood. Many outsiders to the faith literally thought the early followers to Christ were physically eating his arm or leg and drinking his blood.
And the idea of the bread and wine being Jesus’ body and blood caused trouble in the medieval church. Many people would not actually put the bread or wafer in their mouth after receiving it in their hands. After leaving the altar they would discretely slip the bread into their pocket and once arriving home they would store the wafer or bread in a place of honor, since it was the body of Christ. This is why to this day many Catholic priest place the wafer on you tongue when you receive communion. Because when you believe that the bread and wine of communion is truly the body and blood of Jesus, you can not allow for that body and blood to be stored in unsacred place where it can rot or be eaten by vermin.
And the idea of the bread and wine being Jesus’ actual body and blood was a huge issue during the reformation. The Catholic Church believes in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine turns into the physical presents, the actual body and blood of Jesus, during the words of institution and it is no longer bread and wine. While Martin Luther and other reforms believed in consubstantiation meaning that Christ is present in the bread and wine but they are still bread and wine. That Christ is some how present in, with and under the elements. And yet other reformers disagreed with both the Catholic Church and Luther and said that the bread and wine are just that bread and wine and we commune in remembrance of Jesus’ body and blood but they are in no way body and blood.
Regardless of what you believe about the body and blood and bread and wine, if they are one and the same, present within one another or just a representation, the idea that Christ gave his body and blood for us in order that we may have eternal life is still at the core of the Christian message.
Jesus is using his teaching as a metaphor for faith where eating and drinking is belief, his body is his life and his blood is his being. So to eat of his flesh and drinking his blood means to believe in his life and being, to believe in him as the Son of God, to believe that he is the Messiah, that he is Christ.
The purpose of our gospel text today is not to point out how radical Jesus’ teachings were because they referred to death and cannibalism. The purpose is to point out how radical Jesus’ teachings were because they referred to his death and resurrection. They refer to his sacrifice on the cross, to his resurrection from the dead, to his ascension into heaven and to us being given eternal life.
That is the good news; that is Jesus’ message in all this cryptic talk about bread from heaven and eating of his body and drinking his blood. The point of it all is to remind us, to teach us that Christ died for us for the forgiveness of our sins and that we all have been given eternal life.
So in a few minutes when you come to this altar and receive the bread and wine of communion, regardless if you believe you are receiving Christ physical body and blood, bread and wine in which Jesus is some how present or bread and wine that represent Jesus’ body and blood – for I don’t know which one it truly is, maybe someday we will figure it out in heaven – so regardless of what you believe about the bread an wine, the point is that Christ died for us, Christ sacrificed his physical body for us so that we may live eternally with him both now and in heaven.
What was that first taste of bread like? Was it in any way how you imagined it to be?
For me I was in 4th grade, it was Ash Wednesday and I wore this styling neon pink dress that had a off the shoulder neckline and floral skirt. It was hideous in the way only a dress made in 1991 could be.
I walked up to the altar and knelt as I had hundreds of times before, the associate pastor, who normally marked my forehead with the sign of the cross and reminded me that I was a child of God, instead he gave me this little wafer, it looked more like angelic fish-food, Once the wafer was placed on my tongue immediately it stuck to the roof of my mouth. And then before I could even pry the wafer off with my tongue the senior pastor was there with a chalice filled with wine. And I’m not sure if he thought I was a great sinner and needed some extra grace and forgiveness or what but he started tilting the chalice towards me and didn’t stop. It continued to tilt at a greater and greater angle and more and more wine was pour into my mouth. This was not the sip of communion wine I had always heard about but a gulp. I then returned to my pew and felt holy, but in retrospect, I could have been slightly light headed due to all that wine.
I had just had my first communion, I had just eaten the bread and wine of the Lord Supper; I had just eaten Jesus’ flesh and drank his blood. Wait I had just eaten flesh and drank blood. How can that be?
How can it be that that I had just eaten human flesh and drank human blood from a man who died almost two thousand years ago? How can it be that I was asked to and expected to be a cannibal?
These questions have plagued the church for the last two millenniums. From the moment Jesus talked about the bread of life being his flesh, people have questioned how one can eat Jesus’ body and if he is indeed referring to cannibalism.
For the observant Jew of Jesus’ day and for many today, drinking blood was and is strictly prohibited. Meat was well drained of blood before it was cooked in order to keep one from accidentally breaking this rule. And to talk about eating flesh meant talking about taking a life. In order to eat any animal, you must first take their life. So to talk about eating a human’s flesh, means that you must first take their life that you must first break the 5th commandment and murder in order to eat. It was such a taboo subject that the devil was at times given the title “eater of flesh”
No wonder why the Jews disputed among themselves in today’s Gospel. They must have been thinking that they misheard what Jesus said, that they heard the wrong word. He must have said “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my mesh.” Or whatever word rhymed with flesh in Aramaic. Surely, Jesus wasn’t talking about people eating him, about people taking his life.
And the confusion did not stop after the Last Supper, after Jesus died and was buried. In fact it just got worse. Many early Christians were persecuted for being cannibals. Non-Christians had heard stories about these people who worship a man and ate his body and blood. Many outsiders to the faith literally thought the early followers to Christ were physically eating his arm or leg and drinking his blood.
And the idea of the bread and wine being Jesus’ body and blood caused trouble in the medieval church. Many people would not actually put the bread or wafer in their mouth after receiving it in their hands. After leaving the altar they would discretely slip the bread into their pocket and once arriving home they would store the wafer or bread in a place of honor, since it was the body of Christ. This is why to this day many Catholic priest place the wafer on you tongue when you receive communion. Because when you believe that the bread and wine of communion is truly the body and blood of Jesus, you can not allow for that body and blood to be stored in unsacred place where it can rot or be eaten by vermin.
And the idea of the bread and wine being Jesus’ actual body and blood was a huge issue during the reformation. The Catholic Church believes in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine turns into the physical presents, the actual body and blood of Jesus, during the words of institution and it is no longer bread and wine. While Martin Luther and other reforms believed in consubstantiation meaning that Christ is present in the bread and wine but they are still bread and wine. That Christ is some how present in, with and under the elements. And yet other reformers disagreed with both the Catholic Church and Luther and said that the bread and wine are just that bread and wine and we commune in remembrance of Jesus’ body and blood but they are in no way body and blood.
Regardless of what you believe about the body and blood and bread and wine, if they are one and the same, present within one another or just a representation, the idea that Christ gave his body and blood for us in order that we may have eternal life is still at the core of the Christian message.
Jesus is using his teaching as a metaphor for faith where eating and drinking is belief, his body is his life and his blood is his being. So to eat of his flesh and drinking his blood means to believe in his life and being, to believe in him as the Son of God, to believe that he is the Messiah, that he is Christ.
The purpose of our gospel text today is not to point out how radical Jesus’ teachings were because they referred to death and cannibalism. The purpose is to point out how radical Jesus’ teachings were because they referred to his death and resurrection. They refer to his sacrifice on the cross, to his resurrection from the dead, to his ascension into heaven and to us being given eternal life.
That is the good news; that is Jesus’ message in all this cryptic talk about bread from heaven and eating of his body and drinking his blood. The point of it all is to remind us, to teach us that Christ died for us for the forgiveness of our sins and that we all have been given eternal life.
So in a few minutes when you come to this altar and receive the bread and wine of communion, regardless if you believe you are receiving Christ physical body and blood, bread and wine in which Jesus is some how present or bread and wine that represent Jesus’ body and blood – for I don’t know which one it truly is, maybe someday we will figure it out in heaven – so regardless of what you believe about the bread an wine, the point is that Christ died for us, Christ sacrificed his physical body for us so that we may live eternally with him both now and in heaven.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Up in the Air
I'm taking a break in the midst of packing. Actually I've a bit today - packed my dresser, including all the junk on top, all of our fancy glasses and gone through some shoes and clothes and other stuff to give to Goodwill.
We are about to move, actually one week for right now we will hopefully be putting the last of the stuff in the moving van. But the house isn't ready yet. It is a remodeling project and like all remodeling project things run behind schedule, but in this case the outcome and reason is good - the entire house will be insulated and not just the second floor. But as of Wednesday there was no walls or ceiling on the second floor.
So why are we moving next week when their were walls this week? It is because we are going on vacation the following week. On the 24th of August we fly out to Minnesota to visit family and friends there and in Wisconsin. We will then come back on the 31st. However we told our current landlord we would be out by the end of August, hence the need to move before vacation.
So where is our stuff going? Into a pile in the basement of the church. All of our stuff will hang out in the church basement and then be moved into the parsonage after we return from vacation.
So where are we going to stay between next Friday the 21st and Monday the 24th? Well we haven't figured that out yet. Hopefully not also the basement of the church - primarily because there is no shower there. We are just going to play things by year and know that somehow they will all work out.
So what is the best part of this chaotic move? Well we have been married a little over 3 years and we are moving into our 4th place. But the best part of this move - we will be done with moving for quite awhile after this one. No more annual moves for us. No more packing boxes, and having a pile of bubblewrap and boxes in the back of the closet. We are done, finished, for a good while at least.
Ohh and in the midst of all the packing and preparation, I'm preaching at a wedding tomorrow and still working a full week next week. I guess Bob will doing a lot of the last minute packing.
We are about to move, actually one week for right now we will hopefully be putting the last of the stuff in the moving van. But the house isn't ready yet. It is a remodeling project and like all remodeling project things run behind schedule, but in this case the outcome and reason is good - the entire house will be insulated and not just the second floor. But as of Wednesday there was no walls or ceiling on the second floor.
So why are we moving next week when their were walls this week? It is because we are going on vacation the following week. On the 24th of August we fly out to Minnesota to visit family and friends there and in Wisconsin. We will then come back on the 31st. However we told our current landlord we would be out by the end of August, hence the need to move before vacation.
So where is our stuff going? Into a pile in the basement of the church. All of our stuff will hang out in the church basement and then be moved into the parsonage after we return from vacation.
So where are we going to stay between next Friday the 21st and Monday the 24th? Well we haven't figured that out yet. Hopefully not also the basement of the church - primarily because there is no shower there. We are just going to play things by year and know that somehow they will all work out.
So what is the best part of this chaotic move? Well we have been married a little over 3 years and we are moving into our 4th place. But the best part of this move - we will be done with moving for quite awhile after this one. No more annual moves for us. No more packing boxes, and having a pile of bubblewrap and boxes in the back of the closet. We are done, finished, for a good while at least.
Ohh and in the midst of all the packing and preparation, I'm preaching at a wedding tomorrow and still working a full week next week. I guess Bob will doing a lot of the last minute packing.
Monday, August 10, 2009
And I will L-I-V-E E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y
Continuing with John 6's bread discourse this is based on the text from John 6: 35, 41-51
Growing up my siblings and I had two favorite ways of making sure our siblings knew what they were doing was wrong. The first and most popular was “I’m telling Mom!” This phrase was extremely effective if the offender was personally calling you a name, hitting you or someone else, or doing something that was dangerous and therefore get them into trouble. The threat of being told on and therefore punished was normally enough to get them to stop. The other phrase was the age old “You’re going to Hell for that?!”
As good Lutherans (we did go to a Lutheran elementary school even) we knew about hell, or at least we knew enough that hell was the opposite of heaven and it was a place that bad people ended up after they died. We had seen the Far Side cartoons of people in a flame filled cave with devils and pitchforks and even those cartoons did not make hell seem like a place that we wanted to go.
Telling a sibling or friend that they were going to hell for name calling, hitting, stealing a stick of gum or killing a bug was a great way of getting someone to stop doing what they were doing. It was a great threat…yes they might not get in trouble with parents or a teacher, but they were in trouble with God and their eternal life was in danger.
Because even as young children, there is a natural thought progression that if believers have eternal life than non-believers must then not have eternal life and therefore must be condemned to hell. We had sung the Sunday School song, I am a C which talks about having eternal life. We knew we must have eternal life and therefore others must not. It becomes a believers verses non-believers situation, us verse them, those going to heave verse those going to hell.
But really that is not true. When in our text today does it talk about hell? Where does Jesus talk about non-believers? He doesn’t.
Jesus instead focused his attention on believers, on how one comes to believe it him. He discusses the how we as believers and non-believers alike are drawn towards, pulled towards, him by God the Father. Some of us go willingly towards Jesus, towards our faith, we are like a car being towed by God to Jesus the repair shop. But some of us are like fish being towed into the net. We swim against the net, we fight, we resist and sometimes we even get away.
But for those who do give in, who turn to Jesus we are given eternal life. This is not a futuristic present but one we have already be given. For Jesus says: “Very Truly I tell you whoever believes has eternal life.” Whoever believes HAS eternal life. Not will be given, not someday will receive, not it will come some day, but has, as in has now, as in it is here.
Eternal life has been given to us. It is a gift that was given to us before we were even born, it is a gift that was given to us at our baptism, it is a gift that is given to us every week when we receive the bread and wine of communion, it is a gift we receive each morning when we wake up, in every breath we take, it is a gift that we will receive at our death and it is a gift we will receive even after we are dead. Eternal life is not about this physical life, our flesh and blood, for our bodies deteriorate and they die.
Eternal life is about our faith, our soul, our spirit. It is about living with Christ someday in Heaven but also about living with him in our lives today. For Christ lives in us, each and everyone of us. And Christ is with us in everything that we do, Christ is with us in both the good times of life and the bad, in the times of glorious happiness and in times of deep despair. We have the gift of eternal life. We have Christ in our hearts today and all days.
And what about those who do not believe or those who once did and now have turned their hearts against Christ? Well eternal life is also a gift that can not be returned, or taken back. We have been marked with the cross of Christ forever. So even those who have turned from God in moments of despair and have not found their way back, they still have the gift of eternal life.
And just like a fisher who has to try multiple times to catch a certain fish because it keeps getting away, so too does God continue to draw us to Christ. This is not a one shot and your eternity is decided deal, no instead God continues to draw people to Christ, hoping that this time their hearts and minds will be changed and they will believe. God does not give up on us, any of us. For the hope is that one day, we will all have eternal life. And regardless of what their siblings may say about them, no one will go to hell.
This is such a hard thing to believe, especially when most of us were raised in a society that praises good behavior and good works and condemns those with bad behavior and bad works. But this is God’s grace and it is poured out upon all of us, each and ever human who has and who will ever live. However we are still humans who have free will and it is up to us to choose to accept and to see God’s grace in our lives. But the hope is that someday we will all be willing to sing that Sunday School song… I am a C….I am a CH….I am a CHRISTIAN
And I have CHRIST in my HEART and I will LIVE ETERNALLY
For we have all been given the gift of eternal life.
Growing up my siblings and I had two favorite ways of making sure our siblings knew what they were doing was wrong. The first and most popular was “I’m telling Mom!” This phrase was extremely effective if the offender was personally calling you a name, hitting you or someone else, or doing something that was dangerous and therefore get them into trouble. The threat of being told on and therefore punished was normally enough to get them to stop. The other phrase was the age old “You’re going to Hell for that?!”
As good Lutherans (we did go to a Lutheran elementary school even) we knew about hell, or at least we knew enough that hell was the opposite of heaven and it was a place that bad people ended up after they died. We had seen the Far Side cartoons of people in a flame filled cave with devils and pitchforks and even those cartoons did not make hell seem like a place that we wanted to go.
Telling a sibling or friend that they were going to hell for name calling, hitting, stealing a stick of gum or killing a bug was a great way of getting someone to stop doing what they were doing. It was a great threat…yes they might not get in trouble with parents or a teacher, but they were in trouble with God and their eternal life was in danger.
Because even as young children, there is a natural thought progression that if believers have eternal life than non-believers must then not have eternal life and therefore must be condemned to hell. We had sung the Sunday School song, I am a C which talks about having eternal life. We knew we must have eternal life and therefore others must not. It becomes a believers verses non-believers situation, us verse them, those going to heave verse those going to hell.
But really that is not true. When in our text today does it talk about hell? Where does Jesus talk about non-believers? He doesn’t.
Jesus instead focused his attention on believers, on how one comes to believe it him. He discusses the how we as believers and non-believers alike are drawn towards, pulled towards, him by God the Father. Some of us go willingly towards Jesus, towards our faith, we are like a car being towed by God to Jesus the repair shop. But some of us are like fish being towed into the net. We swim against the net, we fight, we resist and sometimes we even get away.
But for those who do give in, who turn to Jesus we are given eternal life. This is not a futuristic present but one we have already be given. For Jesus says: “Very Truly I tell you whoever believes has eternal life.” Whoever believes HAS eternal life. Not will be given, not someday will receive, not it will come some day, but has, as in has now, as in it is here.
Eternal life has been given to us. It is a gift that was given to us before we were even born, it is a gift that was given to us at our baptism, it is a gift that is given to us every week when we receive the bread and wine of communion, it is a gift we receive each morning when we wake up, in every breath we take, it is a gift that we will receive at our death and it is a gift we will receive even after we are dead. Eternal life is not about this physical life, our flesh and blood, for our bodies deteriorate and they die.
Eternal life is about our faith, our soul, our spirit. It is about living with Christ someday in Heaven but also about living with him in our lives today. For Christ lives in us, each and everyone of us. And Christ is with us in everything that we do, Christ is with us in both the good times of life and the bad, in the times of glorious happiness and in times of deep despair. We have the gift of eternal life. We have Christ in our hearts today and all days.
And what about those who do not believe or those who once did and now have turned their hearts against Christ? Well eternal life is also a gift that can not be returned, or taken back. We have been marked with the cross of Christ forever. So even those who have turned from God in moments of despair and have not found their way back, they still have the gift of eternal life.
And just like a fisher who has to try multiple times to catch a certain fish because it keeps getting away, so too does God continue to draw us to Christ. This is not a one shot and your eternity is decided deal, no instead God continues to draw people to Christ, hoping that this time their hearts and minds will be changed and they will believe. God does not give up on us, any of us. For the hope is that one day, we will all have eternal life. And regardless of what their siblings may say about them, no one will go to hell.
This is such a hard thing to believe, especially when most of us were raised in a society that praises good behavior and good works and condemns those with bad behavior and bad works. But this is God’s grace and it is poured out upon all of us, each and ever human who has and who will ever live. However we are still humans who have free will and it is up to us to choose to accept and to see God’s grace in our lives. But the hope is that someday we will all be willing to sing that Sunday School song… I am a C….I am a CH….I am a CHRISTIAN
And I have CHRIST in my HEART and I will LIVE ETERNALLY
For we have all been given the gift of eternal life.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Let the packing begin
Last week I packed up a few boxes of books in order to get ready for the big move to the parsonage. But today the real packing began. I packed three boxes of various kitchen stuff - pots and pans that I won't use in the next week, the kitchen aid mixer (I think Bob teared up when I packed that) and some other random kitchen are like the waffle maker.
I also packed up my sewing machine and sewing stuff, a few boxes of DVD's, photos and some other random stuff in the living room. Slowly are stuff is going in boxes to hopefully see the light of day again sometime in September.
Bob also finished boxing his main bookshelf and other random office stuff. All totaled we realized that we are gonna need more boxes and more packing tape.
And can I just say I love craigslist. We posted our old dining room chairs, a big blue papison chair (yes I have no clue how to spell that) and a bookshelf under the free section and they were all taken within an hour. Yeah for recycling some furniture and less stuff in the dump.
Hopefully the remodel on the parsonage continues to go well so that we can move in after we get back from Minnesota and Wisconsin at the end of the month.
I also packed up my sewing machine and sewing stuff, a few boxes of DVD's, photos and some other random stuff in the living room. Slowly are stuff is going in boxes to hopefully see the light of day again sometime in September.
Bob also finished boxing his main bookshelf and other random office stuff. All totaled we realized that we are gonna need more boxes and more packing tape.
And can I just say I love craigslist. We posted our old dining room chairs, a big blue papison chair (yes I have no clue how to spell that) and a bookshelf under the free section and they were all taken within an hour. Yeah for recycling some furniture and less stuff in the dump.
Hopefully the remodel on the parsonage continues to go well so that we can move in after we get back from Minnesota and Wisconsin at the end of the month.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Unexpected Fruits
When I first started at Bethlehem someone pointed to the overgrown path next to the trash dumpster and said that the path is taken care of by one of the members and the path leads to a clearing.
Looking at the very overgrown path I assumed the clearing would be a small 10 feet by 10 feet space, no larger than a small bedroom. Boy was I wrong.
Last week the paths were cleared and I walked back there for the first time. The place is huge. Take a look for yourself.
And the best part (at least to me) WILD RASPBERRIES!
And not just one or two bushes but dozens of them. Ohh I love raspberries.
Last year I went raspberry picking twice at a pick your own place and ended up making 3 batches of red raspberry jam, plus a batch golden raspberry jam and some blackberry jam. I also then froze a bunch of berries that I used in my baking throughout the year. But now I have raspberries in my sort of back yard!
Over the last week I’ve been up to the clearing a few times to pick some raspberries, normally just a handful or two. And yesterday I picked about a quart and ate about half of them on my drive home.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to get in any jamming this season as it looks like most of the berries have already ripened and we are starting to pack. But next summer you can be sure there will be a lot of raspberry jam and baked goods coming out of my kitchen.
Looking at the very overgrown path I assumed the clearing would be a small 10 feet by 10 feet space, no larger than a small bedroom. Boy was I wrong.
Last week the paths were cleared and I walked back there for the first time. The place is huge. Take a look for yourself.
And the best part (at least to me) WILD RASPBERRIES!
And not just one or two bushes but dozens of them. Ohh I love raspberries.
Last year I went raspberry picking twice at a pick your own place and ended up making 3 batches of red raspberry jam, plus a batch golden raspberry jam and some blackberry jam. I also then froze a bunch of berries that I used in my baking throughout the year. But now I have raspberries in my sort of back yard!
Over the last week I’ve been up to the clearing a few times to pick some raspberries, normally just a handful or two. And yesterday I picked about a quart and ate about half of them on my drive home.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to get in any jamming this season as it looks like most of the berries have already ripened and we are starting to pack. But next summer you can be sure there will be a lot of raspberry jam and baked goods coming out of my kitchen.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Not living in the past
This sermon refers to both the gospel text for yesterday and the 1st lesson.
I have noticed in talking to people that time is relevant; the distant past for some was just yesterday for others. This often happens to me in church work.
When I started my internship and was focusing a bit of my energy on youth, I can’t even begin to tell you the number of people who wanted to reinstate Luther League. Meanwhile I had no clue what Luther League was, I had never heard of it before.
And as it was described to me by various adults who either participated in Luther League as teenagers or their children had participated, I realized that while the concept was good and still exist in many churches throughout the country today, the name had to go and the structure would have to be slightly different to account for current trends.
However it seemed like to many of the people who discussed Luther League with me, they would only be satisfied with a youth program if it was called Luther League and looked exactly like the Luther League of their past.
These people were living in the past. They were so focused on what the church was like over 30 or so years ago, and therefore how God was present in their lives then, that they could not see how Christ was currently active in both their lives and their church presently.
That is what the crowd was doing to Jesus in today’s gospel text. They were so focused on Moses and the manna in the wilderness and how prophets in the past had shown signs to attest that they were from God, that they seem to fail to realized that Jesus had just feed 5000 of them with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
The crowd was looking to the past, and not just their own personal past, but the distant past by anyone’s standards, they were looking over a thousand years into the past, to Moses and the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.
We have all been there, heard someone, whether a parent, a grandparent, or teacher talk about “Well back in my day…” And we have probably even made a few of those statements ourselves and sometimes we are shocked that those words just came out of our mouths.
Yes we want to celebrate the past, give thanks for what God has done in our lives, for the memories we have shared and the things we have learned and experienced. We do this individually when we look at old pictures and recollect our childhood.
We do this as a society, when we commemorate the deaths of celebrities like Walter Cronkite and Michael Jackson or when we “throw” stone wash jeans and garbage pal kids cards to our friends on Facebook.
And we do this as a church. As the church universal we commemorate the lives of saints, artist, theologians and reformers in our prayers and as this church, as the people of Bethlehem Lutheran Church we do this when we continue to celebrate and give thanks for the first 101 years of this congregation being in God’s grace.
But the danger arises when we spend so much time thinking about the past, thinking that those were the golden years that we are no longer able to fully live in the present. Imagine if I came to church wearing a hyper-color shirt tied in a knot at the waist, a slap bracelets and my hair in a side ponytail. Yeah that was cool in the early 90’s but I think we can all be grateful that fashions have changed.
And when you live in the past you loose grip on the present. It becomes difficult to realize that your family and friends have grown older, that the kid you once bounced on your knee as a child is now driving or is married or has kids of his own. When you live in the past, it becomes difficult to see what is happening in front of you. To see who your friends currently are because you too busy recalling what your old friends once did.
But living in the past is also safe. There is no anxiety about what is going to happen, because it has already happened. We also tend to romanticize the past, remembering things as better than they really were, or only remembering the good parts. And we end up giving undeserved credit to the “heroes” of our past.
And that is what the crowd was doing when they demand manna from Jesus. They were remembering the story of the manna and giving the credit to Moses and not to God. They did not seem to recall the complaining of the Israelites (who were also glorifying the past) that they would have been better living in Egypt. The past was distorted, and filtered through a thousand year old lens.
But Jesus reminds them, or maybe even corrects them that it was not Moses who fed the Israelites in the dessert but God. He then tells them it is not the past that they should be concerned about but the present. He says “It is my father who GIVES you the true bread from heaven.” Present tense. The bread that God gave to the crowd was not happening in the past with the Israelites in the wilderness but it was currently happening to them in the present.
And the same is true for us today. God is currently giving us bread from heaven and Jesus is the bread of life. This bread is not in the form of manna in the wilderness or five barley loaves that fed 5000. No the bread from heaven that we receive is in the form of the bread and wine of communion. It is the body and blood of Jesus that is continually given to us today and each day. The bread from heaven, the bread of life, is given to us in each and every morsel of food that we eat which strengthens our bodies and allows us to do God’s work in the world.
It is not about what has been done in the past, but what is being done now in the present. It is about how God is currently active in our lives today. It is about Jesus being present in our lives in the form of family, friends and even strangers, who care for us, who love us even when we do not deserve it, who act neighborly towards us. This is how God is present in our lives today. This is how God’s grace is poured out upon us and this is how we will continue to live in faith.
If our faith lives are not active, are not currently engaged with society as it is, with what is going on now in our hearts and minds then it is not truly faith, but a story, a memory that we may hold on to dearly, but it is not faith. Because faith is alive, active and here in this room and in this world. For Jesus is the Bread of Life, here and now.
I have noticed in talking to people that time is relevant; the distant past for some was just yesterday for others. This often happens to me in church work.
When I started my internship and was focusing a bit of my energy on youth, I can’t even begin to tell you the number of people who wanted to reinstate Luther League. Meanwhile I had no clue what Luther League was, I had never heard of it before.
And as it was described to me by various adults who either participated in Luther League as teenagers or their children had participated, I realized that while the concept was good and still exist in many churches throughout the country today, the name had to go and the structure would have to be slightly different to account for current trends.
However it seemed like to many of the people who discussed Luther League with me, they would only be satisfied with a youth program if it was called Luther League and looked exactly like the Luther League of their past.
These people were living in the past. They were so focused on what the church was like over 30 or so years ago, and therefore how God was present in their lives then, that they could not see how Christ was currently active in both their lives and their church presently.
That is what the crowd was doing to Jesus in today’s gospel text. They were so focused on Moses and the manna in the wilderness and how prophets in the past had shown signs to attest that they were from God, that they seem to fail to realized that Jesus had just feed 5000 of them with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
The crowd was looking to the past, and not just their own personal past, but the distant past by anyone’s standards, they were looking over a thousand years into the past, to Moses and the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.
We have all been there, heard someone, whether a parent, a grandparent, or teacher talk about “Well back in my day…” And we have probably even made a few of those statements ourselves and sometimes we are shocked that those words just came out of our mouths.
Yes we want to celebrate the past, give thanks for what God has done in our lives, for the memories we have shared and the things we have learned and experienced. We do this individually when we look at old pictures and recollect our childhood.
We do this as a society, when we commemorate the deaths of celebrities like Walter Cronkite and Michael Jackson or when we “throw” stone wash jeans and garbage pal kids cards to our friends on Facebook.
And we do this as a church. As the church universal we commemorate the lives of saints, artist, theologians and reformers in our prayers and as this church, as the people of Bethlehem Lutheran Church we do this when we continue to celebrate and give thanks for the first 101 years of this congregation being in God’s grace.
But the danger arises when we spend so much time thinking about the past, thinking that those were the golden years that we are no longer able to fully live in the present. Imagine if I came to church wearing a hyper-color shirt tied in a knot at the waist, a slap bracelets and my hair in a side ponytail. Yeah that was cool in the early 90’s but I think we can all be grateful that fashions have changed.
And when you live in the past you loose grip on the present. It becomes difficult to realize that your family and friends have grown older, that the kid you once bounced on your knee as a child is now driving or is married or has kids of his own. When you live in the past, it becomes difficult to see what is happening in front of you. To see who your friends currently are because you too busy recalling what your old friends once did.
But living in the past is also safe. There is no anxiety about what is going to happen, because it has already happened. We also tend to romanticize the past, remembering things as better than they really were, or only remembering the good parts. And we end up giving undeserved credit to the “heroes” of our past.
And that is what the crowd was doing when they demand manna from Jesus. They were remembering the story of the manna and giving the credit to Moses and not to God. They did not seem to recall the complaining of the Israelites (who were also glorifying the past) that they would have been better living in Egypt. The past was distorted, and filtered through a thousand year old lens.
But Jesus reminds them, or maybe even corrects them that it was not Moses who fed the Israelites in the dessert but God. He then tells them it is not the past that they should be concerned about but the present. He says “It is my father who GIVES you the true bread from heaven.” Present tense. The bread that God gave to the crowd was not happening in the past with the Israelites in the wilderness but it was currently happening to them in the present.
And the same is true for us today. God is currently giving us bread from heaven and Jesus is the bread of life. This bread is not in the form of manna in the wilderness or five barley loaves that fed 5000. No the bread from heaven that we receive is in the form of the bread and wine of communion. It is the body and blood of Jesus that is continually given to us today and each day. The bread from heaven, the bread of life, is given to us in each and every morsel of food that we eat which strengthens our bodies and allows us to do God’s work in the world.
It is not about what has been done in the past, but what is being done now in the present. It is about how God is currently active in our lives today. It is about Jesus being present in our lives in the form of family, friends and even strangers, who care for us, who love us even when we do not deserve it, who act neighborly towards us. This is how God is present in our lives today. This is how God’s grace is poured out upon us and this is how we will continue to live in faith.
If our faith lives are not active, are not currently engaged with society as it is, with what is going on now in our hearts and minds then it is not truly faith, but a story, a memory that we may hold on to dearly, but it is not faith. Because faith is alive, active and here in this room and in this world. For Jesus is the Bread of Life, here and now.
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