Happy New Year and clear the clutter

Last week it was my turn to submit an article to the local newspaper on behalf of our local ministerial association. I am printing this here ahead of when it will be published, but I wanted you to be able to read it ahead of the rest. This should be a post-Epiphany read, but here it is for you now.

Clearing Clutter

It is hard to believe that not only has Christmas come and gone for another year, but the whole Christmas season even Epiphany is finished. In our house at least in the past two years, the tree and most of the decorations stay up until a few days after the first Sunday in January. Years ago we used to have things packed up and put away well before heading back to school, but with our youngest in college and having a longer break, she and I have been taking advantage of those extra days off to pack things away in a more orderly way.

I was hoping to downsize some of the items this year by giving them to the daughters as an “extra” choose me gift. That may have worked except last fall my husband and I almost literally stumbled on a couple of unmarked boxes of Christmas items stashed away in the basement. I must have picked them up in an auction sale at some point, and here they were more bulbs and decorations and crazy looking items to put on display. It is amazing how much clutter one can accumulate in a lifetime. On the other hand maybe amazing is a stretch, maybe the wording should be, “It is no wonder what can be accumulated in a lifetime when you enjoy the fun of bidding at auction sales.”

No matter how or why it is accumulated, the key word in the phrase should be clutter. It seems there is much to clutter our homes, our minds and basically our lives. In this age we have more than just the physical items that fill our homes and shops and storage buildings, but we also have all of the data that fills our technical devices. I remember taking pictures as a child with an old black and white camera with the film that had to be developed. In those days we were careful not to waste any of the pictures, and we were so disappointed when one or more were ruined for whatever reason. Now in our digital age, there is no limit to the pictures or other data that we store, good or clutter.

Perhaps, just as we neatly pack away the decorations of the Christmas season to clear out our homes, we should also clear away the clutter of our lives in order to make room for the Christ Child whose birth we so recently celebrated. This year’s calendar leaves just a few days more than a month between Epiphany and Lent. Not much time to sort a basement of clutter, but enough perhaps to build a deeper relationship with a Messiah, Savior, Christ, God-with-us. What a better world it would be if we all had a deeper relationship with Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

PS: My one and only New Year’s Resolution is going to be dealing with the clutter. I plan to take advantage of those weeks between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday to do one corner each day, to finish one item each day. The last part will be fairly easy since I have about 20 projects on the half way or more mark. I will also be pretty easy on what counts (supper perhaps, or cleaning the bathroom, ha!!). I would like 2016 to be the year that I DID something. I am just worried that the garden will need to be sacrificed in order to complete that plan. HA!!

At any rate, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you!!!

 

Our Journey with Christ

It has been 10 days since I published anything on this blog, just goes to show how much extra time I have had. I won’t post my message from Christmas Eve. It was a drama and didn’t follow the script very closely. I had read a few different books and came up with my own version of what some others had done, so I don’t feel comfortable sharing even if the words were all mine. I don’t want any inkling of things to be out of order. Today we presented the power point of the year end. I will give you the message that went with that even without the pictures. So, here it is below.

Scriptures used: I Samuel 2:18-20 & 26, Colossians 3:12-17, and Luke 2:41-52. Title was “A Journey with Christ.”

I remember attending church in years past, sitting in the pew, and listening to the minister and wondering about the message. I often wondered how someone could come up with the stories they would tell or the focus they would choose for the scripture of the day. Then, later, as I took the first class in lay licensed ministry, I wondered what you would do if you came across a particular scripture a second time. Would you reuse the message? Would you tweak the message, or would you write a new and better message? Interestingly enough, I realized that scriptures have historical context and meaning according to the learned scholars, but no scripture ever speaks to the reader the same way every time it is read.

Certainly there are parts that have meanings that don’t change. The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead always has Lazarus coming back to life, and the story of Noah building the ark always has a great flood, and even the story of Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem to be enrolled always has Mary giving birth to a baby boy. But there are lots of shifts in focus and lots of changing of camera angles and even more lots of variances in how our ears are tuned to the story each different time we hear the words. The truth is that it isn’t the story that changes; instead it is us who change. We are a little different each time we hear or read a passage and that affects how we hear and react to the stories.

Today we are hearing one of the very few stories of the childhood of Jesus. It almost seems odd to be hearing this story on the Sunday immediately following Christmas Eve Service where we listened to the story of Mary and Joseph and an overfull Inn and Shepherds and Angles and a little tiny Christ Child lying in a manger. Are we having another time warp?! It seems this year on this cycle of lectionary, we jump ahead 12 years before the Wise men can appear, or even before that bright star is able to burn out. Here we are this Sunday looking at Jesus at age 12 going to the temple and staying behind when they head home. Here this young man is giving his parents all sorts of fits. Why, and for what reason? And what on earth could this story be saying to us today? What message is there for us to understand?

If we were to go through this story on any other day of the year, we might focus on the parents. And I have looked at it in that regard with a message a few years ago. The anxious mother, frightened for her child. She likely thinks of all the things that could go wrong, all the bad that could happen to a 12 year old boy.

Or, what if our focus were to be on the interaction of Jesus and the elders and scholars in the temple? Reading it beside the scripture about Samuel, it is likely that we could be pointed in that direction. We could study up on what sort of education it would take to become one of the scholars. Such a message might be all about the priests and the learn’ed and how you interpret the rules and laws of God.

The other one of many, many ways you could look at this gospel scripture is the journey of Mary and Joseph and those who lived at the time Jesus was in human form. In terms of journeys, it really could include the journey we take with him now in our time. Because of course if you really think about it, we, too, are on a journey with Jesus. We may not have him with us in a human form, yet as he noted many times to his disciples, Jesus is among us, in our midst to minister with and to be ministered to. That is what it means for us to think of Jesus as Emanuel, God-with-us. Each time we reach out our hands and hearts and offer up our treasures, our time, ourselves in an act of love to others. Jesus is with us. It happens each time we offer food or drink or clothes or shelter or quilts or kindness to others.

(Sigh….It seems I keep saying these things and it seems we keep hearing these things, and hopefully you don’t feel like I used to sitting in the pew, wondering what more I could do, wondering if I have ever participated in any of those things other than by writing a check or hoping that my church participates for me.)

We have been about that journey often this past year. We have been about that journey in several ways: Well how about this idea. Instead of listing it, let’s look at it. I so wish that I had paid closer attention and taken more pictures. Although I will admit there are times when it is hard to takes pictures from up here. I will try to cover it as best as I can from what I have, so here goes. (Present Power Point with whatever narration is possible to add to it.)

These are the types of things we have done together. Yet there are so many more that I did not capture in picture. I think of our annual meeting, or all the times we meet in Bible Study. There are Board meeting which are about more than just the financial and building side of the church. There are worship services and fellowship afterwards. There are all the things we do in small groups and as individuals.

These pictures are just a sample of the things we have done in a spirit of fellowship and camaraderie and most of the time with great fun, with great joy. I know from past experience this has always been a church that works together and shares together and does things with each other and for each other. But I really enjoyed looking at the expressions on your faces as I placed these pictures and really examined them. Some of them might not be in the best focus, but they say quite a bit to me about how willing you are to work with each other toward a common goal.

I will also share that my goal when I accepted your request to come here and fill this spot for you, my goal was to add joy and a little laughter and life to our mix. My goal has been not just to keep the doors open, but to open the doors as wide as we possibly can to make all the room we can for anyone willing to take this journey with us. I didn’t expect it to happen overnight, and though we know and have seen on the slides that we are shrinking. I would ask that we challenge ourselves to join in a new goal. It is just a very small little thing for each of us, but together it could be strong. Let’s join forces and shoot for a goal of 0% membership in 2016. And a very tiny increase of 1% on what we do as a group and give to the world around us. I don’t have any numbers or exact activities worked out, but that is my homework for the next two weeks. I just ask that you be ready to think of what will be your answer to the challenge. Jesus went on the journey to the temple with his parents and challenged the spiritual leaders in Jerusalem. Jesus also invites us to journey with him in our time and place and challenges us to come to the “temple” with him to learn more and do more (in all sorts of ways) with him and for him.

Let’s join together in 2016 to do what we can to promote the love of the Christ Child who grew up to be the Savior.

Psalm 121: A comfort reading

Yesterday when I was all blue and crying and “back in the day.” I put up the scripture that I had read in the morning. I really should have turned to the Psalms and chapter 121. I always use this one at family services when someone has passed on. The opening verse is enough to hear. “I lift up my eyes to the hills from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” I have heard that was one of my grandmother’s favorite verses and it certainly ranks up there for me.

I should have taken a class on Psalms when I was in college, but I decided to follow my other major and do a class on Women in Sports when the Psalms thing was offered. I had taken a class on Revelation the previous January, so time to branch out. See, when I was in college we ran on an interim program during the regular semester and between semesters. It was a 2-1-2 set up. We went to regular classes for 2 days, then had a day of labs and tutoring and observing and such and then 2 more days of classes. It was great! The semester was set that we ran 4 months, then after Christmas the month of January was interim. You could come back to campus for a relaxed schedule of one class only. Each professor also had only one class, or you could find another campus that did the same thing and go there in an exchange. It was great for the runners who wanted to train in the south on the beach. At the end of January, we had a three-day break and then came back for second semester of 4 months.

This changed when I was a junior or senior because some faculty member saw it as a detriment to our studies. We also had a president who thought that Tuesday nights were nothing but parties. Well then make Wednesdays harder. Ha!! By the way, that was the same president who nearly bankrupt the college with his skimming, but that was never charged or proven, so I will say no more. No names, no school names etc… I remember because I was on student government and we probably didn’t get into trouble for some investigating that we did…. No wonder we never come together for reunions. Ha!! I also probably wasn’t threatened that I wouldn’t get a teaching certificate because they would block it because I knew about the students investigating, but didn’t tattle. Probably not, and look at me now, trying to be a pastor of a church and act all moral and such and here I was in on this sneaky thing where we tried to prove that someone was doing wrong. Hmmm. I guess that is part of life. Oh the places we go and the things we do. Still the best philosopher and writer ever is Dr. Seuss. Well, no more to say, have a good one!!

A Titus reading and crying for my mother

Today, I have a reading from the book of Titus to share, and lots of thoughts. The reading first. Titus 3:4-5a: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, …”

Today I am at home even though it is Wednesday and I should be in the office. We have a snowstorm that is reaching through both South and North Dakota and beyond. (pictures and information on lucindagardens) I was to do a service with communion at the Health Care Center today, but I have made a rule that when the schools are off, I stay home, and there is no school in Eureka and several other communities in our area. I made some calls to let others know that I would be home, and a few minutes ago, one of our church members called to let me know that another lady is in the hospital. She was admitted yesterday and they are running tests today.

For some reason, well not just some reason, this hit me hard. The three ladies: the one I called, the one who called me and the one in the hospital, have been like three mothers to me since I began this calling in Eureka. I broke down in sobs. Each of the three has been in the hospital in the past three months and I believe they are all over the age of 80, but I have no actual verification of that fact.

Today, I finally cried for the loss of my mother. Today I feel so alone, so abandon. Yesterday I was working on the family calendars for my daughters. Each year I find some cheap, this year free calendars from the local bank, and write in all of the family birthdays on both sides. This includes everyone from my parents and siblings down, and James’ parents and siblings down. It is fun to watch as the days fill in.

At one point I subtracted those who passed on. I now put those names inside parenthesis. All names include the year they were born, when I know that. I have a few to hunt down. Each time a baby is born or someone is added to the family via marriage, we get to fill in anther spot. The only time we subtract is if there is a divorce and the family member wants the spouse out. Ha! Not funny, but truth.

So, the issue with the calendar is that as I was doing it, I hit my mother’s birthday. She was a leap year baby and this would have been her 80th birthday. For some dumb reason, we are struggling this year to put together a time to be together on my side for Christmas. I really, really, want to have Christmas at her house. I have at least one sibling who struggles with that since we didn’t gather there when my mother was alive. Her choice mainly, but we didn’t push the issue, or offer to decorate or clean or cook for her. We were just so stinking busy with our own lives, and for what? Why?

It is like Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes, “it is all chasing after the wind, all is vanity.” We are so busy with our own families and careers and mostly chasing after the almighty dollar, and for what? It is all vanity. In the end, our time here on this earth is really only about a few things. It is mostly about laying up treasures where it counts, which is for sure not the local bank or the hard spot under our mattress. It is about accepting the grace of God and doing the will of God while on this earth. It is about caring for others and spreading the Joy and Love and Good News of Christ.

And it is even a little bit about family, being together not just for Christmas, but for always. And not just in physical proximity, though that means lots, but by staying in touch in all ways possible. It hit me today that some of the people in my church live with no family close by. They don’t see their children on a daily or weekly or even monthly basis. I began to think of how much time we really spent with our mother, and I will forever be grateful that we packed up and moved in beside her and had the times we had. There was absolutely nothing like getting together there over coffee and a visit or sharing a television show. Oh God I miss her today.

Stop, time out there is a knock on the door. I look outside and don’t see a car in the driveway, just some tracks. Who could it be? I walk to the door which does not lock and realize I don’t have my phone in my hand. Who could it be, why am I nervous? Good grief they will see that I have been crying. No one is there, I open the door and it is a little boy with a shovel asking about an address, which happens to be the house next door. I close the door and cry some more. A little boy out to make some cash shoveling some sidewalks.

I didn’t cry when my mother passed away because I kept telling myself she was in a better place. She was with her mother and aunts and uncles and grandfather who meant the world to her, and mostly she was reunited with our brother who left us when he was only four. She mourned him to the day she died. She spent over 50 years with me and nearly that long with some of my siblings, but only four years with that brother, now she finally could be with him. How can I deny that? How can I be sad? Today the gates just opened and the flood has erupted, and I thank you for hearing me.

I need to pull myself together and get some things accomplished. I called my lady in the hospital to find she is feeling much better today and should be home tomorrow after the tests are read and she is diagnosed. It is something gastric and should be treatable. James and Kathy will be home early as school is out at 2 p.m. Paulina finished her last final test of this semester and only has one web project to turn in tomorrow and she is free until sometime in January. Life will be better. But today, I had to mourn, and I guess that is how things go on occasion. I am still thinking that even if it is coffee and some brownies, a few of us will be gathering at grandma’s house on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016 to toast the fact that a great lady was born 80 years ago in a little hotel in Hazelton, ND. Merry Christmas Mom. You are celebrating in style with the Savior this year.

Advent candle Joy

Our message for this week was a bit tough to spit out. It should have been all upbeat and happy and, well, you can read for yourself. The scriptures were: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Philippians 4:4-13, and Luke 3:7-18. The title was appropriate, “Finding Joy.” And, of course, it wasn’t exactly like this when I spoke, but as close as any script is. Here goes.

Two weeks ago we lit the candle of Hope and heard a message about anticipation and the hope that is associated with the Advent season. We were reminded of the birth of the Christ Child and how we will be celebrating the anniversary of that birth on Christmas morning. We were encouraged to anticipate the excitement of the season, and to hope for the return of Christ and in our own way to facilitate or to promote the return of Christ for others through our actions.

Last week we lit the candle of Peace, yet the message seemed to focus more on the lack of Peace in our world. We were reminded that if there is to be peace in our time, we need to be the instruments through which it finds its way to earth and in our midst. Then we closed the service with a meeting of where to send the monies we had collected so we could offer some means of sharing hope and peace with others. Then we had to decide if we were having a service on the 24th. I was so encouraged by the looks on your faces when you realized we were talking about if there would be a service on Christmas Eve. That was such an exciting thing for me to see. I felt like you voted for life, for continuance as a church, and I for one am glad you did.

Then as we gathered in the basement for food and fellowship, I was also excited to see the way we interacted and how ready and willing everyone was to get to work to turn our sanctuary into a festive and joyful place for the final weeks of the Advent and Christmas Season. Now it wasn’t so exciting to realize that we couldn’t find some of the pieces. Our tree pole was missing and one of our nativity sets has gone into hiding, but we were able to get a tree in place and decorated by some elves I guess, and the rest will fall in place as we go.

We didn’t get to the caroling, though, and I must admit that on Monday morning, as I was contemplating this week, it struck me that I need to confess a few things to you to assist us in going forward together. First off, I am a project planner. I am an overall organizer. I like to think up things, ideas, plans. I loved writing lesson plans and unit plans. I organized our town’s Centennial Celebration and reunions….

But…., yes there is always a but. I am not a details person. I want to get this out on the table and say, help and thank you. I really need to say a very big thank you to those of you who have already recognized my issue and gone behind me to pick up the pieces every now and then. I should have called the Health Care Center to let them know we weren’t coming last week, and I just didn’t think it was a big deal, later I found out it was and by then I wasn’t sure what to do about it. Here is where I will say help. Don’t be afraid to mention that a call would be a good idea. Don’t be afraid to ask if something was covered or done. Don’t be afraid to remind me to mention something at the joys and concerns time, I might have the paper in front of me and forget to say it. I know what it feels like to be in the pew and feel overlooked or forgotten. Not my intent. Nagging is permitted.

So we have gotten through the Hope candle and the Peace candle now we are on the Joy candle. Our songs today are all about joy and rejoicing. Our liturgy has been about being joyful, upbeat, looking for the good or offering to make things better. Our first two scripture lessons and the scripture read in the Advent candle lighting are all about joy and rejoicing, we are here in this beautiful sanctuary and everything today is so happy and so upbeat, but… Oh no not another one of those things…. The scripture we read in the gospel lesson from the book of Luke had the first thing we heard from John the Baptist being “you brood of vipers…”

Who picked this reading for today? How could this possibly fit into the Advent season on the day when we light the candle for joy? How are we supposed to find something worth talking about when the passage starts out with “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Here we are back to the idea that in this season that should be so happy and full of excitement there is also has a dark side. With all the glitter and glitz and shiny lights and colored ornaments of the season, there are shadows and sadness and depression.

Two weeks ago when I mentioned the depression that some people experience during this season because they are alone, I was thinking of so many others, but not myself. Maybe I watch too many of the cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, but I have this idea of Christmas as a time when the whole family is together whether we agree on churches or politics or even on how to make the dressing. We are going to be together and that is what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown. I never once thought that James and I and Paulina would be just the three of us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and that most likely we won’t be seeing the little ones at all. I guess not everyone believes it is a good idea to travel in the Dakotas in the winter with a tiny baby. I wish I had known this sooner. James and I never got that memo.

When I got that news on Friday afternoon that the Clarks will be staying at home for the holidays, I felt like someone blew out my candle marked joy. I felt like the Grinch had just slithered down the chimney and stolen the Christmas tree. I even felt a little like Scrooge as he was watching his past, and they were dancing and singing, and he couldn’t join in. His joy was over.

And then last night I picked up one of the booklets that I had taken home to start getting some ideas for the Christmas Eve service and there on the lesson that would be for today was another set of scriptures about rejoicing. It was from I Thessalonians 5:16-24. The first three verses of that passage sort of hit me. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Let’s hear that again. (Read again with underlined being noted.)

So, if that wasn’t enough, the little devotion that went with this passage had a “Think about it” section. The author threw out a question about the rejoice–always part. Are we to rejoice in all things, like even if we have a flat tire? Or what if we don’t get our way about how Christmas should go? If we take this “think about it” as it says, we would rejoice even if the tree pole is missing. It would be ok if we skipped caroling and didn’t tell anyone? (And I have it on some pretty good authority that there was someone who really needed a long visit much more than hearing some songs that day, and maybe there was some intervention with that lack of calling). I am still not so sure about rejoicing without grandchildren in the house, but I guess it hasn’t happened that way yet, so I will still hold out some hope. And maybe there is a reason behind this plan, a purpose I don’t understand yet.

We are to turn to God in all things. We are to be grateful for all we have, and we are to be God’s hands on this earth. The gospel lesson today didn’t stop with John calling out the leaders and others in the multitude who came to learn from him. It wasn’t just about what was wrong with those who showed up to hear his teachings. It was also a lesson in what he was teaching. John came not as the Messiah, but to point the way to the Messiah. John came to prepare the people for the teachings of Jesus. John came to show the way. John gave some very specific instructions on how the people were to act towards others, and those instructions are not listed as historical facts. Those instructions are there for us too.

John’s answer to the first person who asks what should we do? is fairly simple. If you have two coats and someone else has none, share. This instruction is about feeding and clothing those who are unable to do so for themselves, and I am guessing we are not supposed to judge others with, “They have a dog.” And we are not supposed to think that people are poor just because they are poor money managers. . Helping others are things that most churches and church members are concerned about.

The second and third person who asks what should we do? are a little more difficult, a little more subtle. The second person is a tax collector and John says they are not to collect more than what is due. Well maybe not an issue, we don’t work in that profession, but what does that say to us in business? Should we always be looking out for our own bottom line? John says: collect no more than what is prescribed for you. And the third are soldiers, those in power/those in authority. To them John says not to exhort or take things because of their power. Don’t take gain from your status, by coercion, don’t be a bully to get what you want. In other words don’t tell someone you won’t love them because they won’t do what you want (like come home for Christmas). Hmmmm! Who warned you, you brood of vipers?

Perhaps God’s message of Joy this morning is that we really are to rejoice in ALL things. Perhaps we need to understand that God really wants what is best for us, and that we need to see the positive of what we are given. Perhaps the message today is that we are not supposed to be preparing for Christmas during this season with the attitude of “what can I get? Or What do I want?” But instead we should be focusing on our gratitude for all that we have. I think I said this a couple of weeks ago, but Advent and certainly this week of Advent, needs to be about an Attitude of Gratitude. Perhaps our closing song should have been “Count Your Blessings.” Really, in order to light the candle of Joy in our lives, we need to stop and count our many, many blessings, and know that God loves us and wants only what is best for us. Let’s try to do that this week, no matter what comes our way. Amen!!

Harsh thoughts

Today my morning reading took me to Titus in the New Testament. Each morning I try to read one chapter of each testament, though I have been a bit lax in the past couple of months. At the end of the first chapter of this letter to one of Paul’s learnees (I won’t say student’s because I am not sure about the full status there. I really need to get enrolled in a class or two. I so need some classes on the books written by Paul.)

So the final verses of Chapter 1 are as follows: 5. “To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure. Their very minds and consciences are corrupted. 6. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

Oh my what a statement that is. When you stop and think about its message, you begin to see how very true it is. I noticed this so strongly when I was teaching and we were reading various books in class. There could be books that we read for 2 or 3 years without a problem and bang some parent would call the office to ask why I was trying to corrupt their kid. Funny, but most of the time, I had not seen or presented the book in the perverted way that the parent saw it, and most of the time they had not looked past the front or back cover, and in every case none of them had contacted me in person to discuss it.

I will give you a couple of examples. The last place I taught I was a middle school reading teacher. The school had a long tradition of reading, Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bechard, in the eighth grade. It was a story about a teenage father who ended up attending an alternative high school. We covered the hardships of his life, his love for the child, and his relationship with his father especially since his mother was gone. We talked about rights of fathers, and a big part was about how different our school system was from the one in the book. Amazingly, some mother thought I was promoting teenage “intimacy.” It also didn’t help that the principal was new and was not aware that the book was part of the curriculum long before I was the teacher.

Another issue was in a different school and a different state. I was the drama advisor. I had chosen a one-act play that was set in Salem, Mass. It of course was centered around a group of young girls who were descendants of some of the women involved in the witch trials. There a mother called in and said I was promoting Satanic worship and witchcraft. OMG! I had to explain to the superintendent that this was a historical fact, and the story was more about bullying than anything else. I mentioned to the other drama advisors at the contest how much trouble I had in getting to do the play, and they were amazed that someone would put up a fuss.

My point in bringing up these two incidents is that you can pervert almost anything by the way that you look at it. It goes very much with the theory I was studying when I was in graduate school. It was all about Reader’s Response Theory and how we interpret a story by the knowledge we bring to the book from our personal past, what we have read and learned. Paul says that “to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure.” So true. If you want to see evil, you can put it there in what you are observing whether it be a story, a song or a thing you are looking at. Perhaps that is why it is so easy to con a good person, they are always looking for the good in others. Yikes, this scares me because I am often a bit suspicious of the motives of others. Perhaps it is inside of me that makes me not trust them. I may have to get to work on myself some.

In the meantime, hope you have a great day, and a Merry Christmas season. For more information on how our family is preparing for Christmas, check out the posts on lucindagardens.

Ecclesiastes final instruction

At the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon sums up the whole of his teachings. In Chapter 12 verse 13. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing whether good or evil.”

This goes along so well with the upcoming scripture in Luke. It is the story of John the Baptist teaching about Jesus and when they asked him what to do so they are doing the right thing, and he told them to share with others. I guess that is what we are supposed to do, yet too often we look down on those in need except maybe at Christmas or Thanksgiving and then we forget about them again.

I hope that isn’t how we really are, or how we will continue to be. I hope that we will have compassion if not in a major way, at least with something no matter how small. Even if it is a kindness to someone else. Sometimes a kindness or something small, like a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup is something. A coat, a blanket and pair of gloves would all be great too for those in need. A job when someone is down and out, a meal, a skill perhaps even a recommendation would be helpful. An offer to care for their child or elder so they could have some time off. There are so many ways we can give someone a hand without giving more than we are able. On the other hand, we should give not just from our over abundance and our excess or the items we plan to discard. We need to give from the top of our pile. I tried hard to do that this summer with my garden, but I still am not there. Perhaps someday I will understand what this really means. God’s Blessings be with you today and through the season and the year.

God’s Peace

Today’s message centered around the candle of Peace. I couldn’t help but bring in some events that happened in the USA this week and this year and back and back. I did a disclaimer for my congregation before I spoke. I wanted them to be clear to know that I was NOT in anyway trying to preach an underlying message about gun control. I don’t own a gun, but my family and I are supporters of hunting. I am not though a supporter of unreasonable violence and I guess that will come through here. May we all be part of God’s plan to bring about peace.

The scripture used were: Malachi 3:1-4, Philippians 1:3-11 and Luke 3:1-6 with the title of “God’s Peace.”

On Wednesday when I was digging around in the office looking for something in the library that could work for our liturgy this morning, I came across a book with sermon ideas for the scriptures that we have today. The writer of this particular sample sermon had chosen to look at this week in history and noted that Dec. 7, which is tomorrow, is the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. In light of the many wars that we have gone through and are going through and will continue to go through (English grammar teacher’s delight to use all those tenses) we could spend this morning in a great comparison between the wars of our day and lighting the Peace candle this morning. It could be a little lesson in irony.

Paulina called me the other day and when I asked how school is going she mentioned the presentations they are giving in their North Dakota studies class. She said one of the presentations that day had been so boring. It was about the Cold War and its affect on North Dakota. I remember growing up about that time. It was a time of great fear; we were so afraid of what Russia, the Soviet Union, might do at any given moment, but there really wasn’t a shot fired. We didn’t watch the news to find out what the day’s body count was, like we did during the Vietnam War. We didn’t cringe to see what terror attack has happened and where/ as we do some days in our current time.

We have had far more warlike situations in the past 20 years within our national boundaries than we ever experienced during that fearful time of the Cold War. We are “hit” sometimes in ways we can’t even begin to fathom. We had a German foreign exchange student in Montpelier in the mid 1990’s who was just astounded by our freedoms to walk around without police at every corner. He told me straight out that such freedom is dangerous. Another little irony, or maybe a paradox.

But I think the real irony of Wednesday’s readings hit me when I got home that night and turned on the television and plugged into my iPad and heard and read some of the news feeds of the day. See! When I am here in the office, I don’t let myself have access to the events of the day. I don’t turn on a radio, and I don’t look at the news feeds on the computer. I am not capable of the “multi-tasking” that so many of our younger or maybe I should say connected-generation claim is the way they function best. When I need to read something to understand it and especially when I need to make sense with what I am writing I can’t handle outside distractions, especially when there is talking involved. I should be honest and tell you that I am too often distracted by the voices in my own head to need something from outside.

But back to the matter at hand, Wednesday was a horrible day in the life of our country. [A worker at the public health department for San Bernardino County in, California left their holiday banquet to return fully armed with his wife and together they proceeded to  spray the hall with gunfire until 14 people were killed. Police later found them, and they too were killed in the standoff.] It is a day that will go down in the history books, yet in reality it might not be much compared to the horror of Dec. 7, “a date,” as the President FDR said, “which will live in infamy.” Of course we have had plenty more of those days since Dec. 7, 1941, but my question, our question today is why? Why do we have to ponder or talk about events such as these? Why is there so much hate in our world?

I took to the computer on Thursday morning after watching a bit of the Today Show. One of the reporters sparked a “need to know” in me that morning. He said that to date there were more acts of mass shootings in the US than we had days in 2015. I became curious; I wanted to know what qualified, what was on that list. [http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/12/02/list-more-mass-shootings-occurred-in-u-s-in-2015-than-there-are-calendar-days-in-the-year/]

The criteria for the list I found at losangeles.cbslocal was that at least 4 victims needed to be involved, dead or injured. One thing I noticed about that particular list was the deaths and the fire in South Dakota was not included. It certainly met the criteria of 4 or more dead, yet it wasn’t there for whatever reason.

But, this listing for 2015 didn’t seem to hit what I was curious about. I searched further; I narrowed and expanded it at the same time. I wanted more time, more years, but with fewer incidents that were personal or family related.  See, I didn’t want that family stuff because that was too personal. I could have been that family. It wouldn’t have been me and it wouldn’t have been my brother. I was away teaching and my brother was in college the day my father pulled a gun on my mother when our three sisters were at home. We were lucky, my mother was able to talk him down, but it could have been us.

On Thursday morning, I wanted to know about the killings that were in schools or movie theaters or on military bases. I wanted to know about the “big” ones in the past few years. This is what I found, [http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/] Working backwards, I will share some from the list: *find list at the end.

And today we light the candle of PEACE!

Jesus when he came into this world in human form was born in a lowly manger because the city was too crowded to house his family in a room, and they were likely too poor to pay a little extra to find a better place. He could have been, and he should have been born in his own home, where Mary would have been surrounded by people who loved her and would have supported her and talked her through all the pain and incidentals of a birth. But they were in a far away city because their country was under siege by the Romans. They had to travel at the time when Mary was about to give birth because the foreign ruler wanted to take a count of the people.

The day that Jesus, the Prince of Peace was born, was a time without peace. He came to change that. Yet here we are 2000 years later and on last Thursday morning the headlines of the New York Daily News read: “God isn’t fixing this.” I guess that was written in response to the words of some of our politicians, but seriously, what a comment. What a thought!

I thought God fixed this when Jesus was born. Most Christians in the first Century believe this kind of hatred and cruelty and workings by the Prince of Darkness was nearly over. But in truth, it probably just made him dig his heels in a little deeper, which makes our jobs, our purposes here on earth, just a little more challenging.

As we light this candle of Peace/ for Peace and in hopes of peace, I believe that we need to believe that God is about fixing this. But it won’t happen without our serious offering of ourselves to be the instruments of that peace. Unless we as Christians are willing to promote hope and peace and love and joy around ourselves and throughout the world; it won’t happen. Just as John the Baptist was about proclaiming repent from his spot in the desert, so too we must be about proclaiming peace and love to those around us.

Yes God can step in to end all this chaos and bring about the peace we so desperately long for. But in fact God has already stepped in. It happened 2000 years ago when a baby was born in a manger to a poor carpenter and his young wife. And, God stepped in again 33 years later when Christ accepted his role, his place in creation and allowed himself to be crucified and die on the cross.

Peace can come. It can come in our place in our time. It can come with our prayers, but it also must be our actions. Peace is about how we treat our family, our friends, our neighbors, and the stranger we meet on the street. And Peace also depends on how much we are willing to support those who work with the people we don’t even know, those people who live in a different place and time.

This week as I was reading in my devotions, I found some instructions that Paul gave to Timothy and I think they are somewhat fitting for today. [Read II Timothy 2:20-26.]

Today we light a candle for Peace while all around us there is so much strife. Sometimes we would rather just hide out in our houses or here in our sanctuary. We would rather just come and think about the joy we will experience today working together to make this building festive. We would much prefer to think of how we will celebrate this upcoming Christmas season. We would rather think of the gifts we will get and maybe more so the ones we will give and the looks on the faces of our loved ones as they open them.

Instead God reminds us that there is still much work to be done to share the Good News of Jesus with this world. There is much to be done to make God’s creation a place where we can live in harmony. “Let there be Peace on Earth, let this be the moment—now. Let there be peace on earth in all places at all times, that needs to be our pledge not just our hope. Go this week with that thought in your heart. Go this week with the intention of making sure that we are doing our part to help God with “fixing” this problem, so that no one can report again that such an event is just another day in the life of the USA. Amen.

 

List:*

Dec. 2, 2015, San Bernadino, CA 14 dead 21 wounded

Nov. 29, 2015, Planned Parenthood Clinic Colorado Springs, CO        3 dead, 9 injured

Oct. 1, 2015, Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon   9 dead, 9 injured

July 16, 2015, 2 military bases,    Chattanooga, Tenn,                  5 dead, 3 wounded

June 18, 2015, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, SC         9 dead

April 2, 2014, Ft Hood, Texas, 3 killed 16 injured

(there were three different incidents at Ft. Hood

Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown, Conn,         27 killed, 1 injured

July 20, 2012, Century 16 Movie Theater, Aurora. CO,      12 killed, 58 injured

Jan. 8, 2011, outside a supermarket in Tucson, AZ,           6 killed, 11 injured

April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg. VA,         32 killed 17 injured

April 20, 1999, Columbine High School, Columbine, CO, 13 killed, 24 injured.

I skipped several of the listings. It actually goes back all the way to 1984.

Candles of Advent

Each month our church puts out a little calendar of upcoming events and the birthdays and anniversaries of the members. I put a little half page article on the back of the calendar. Here is what I wrote up for December.

Another season of Advent is upon us. It is a season filled with both Christian and secular anticipation. It seems that around every corner we find tasks to fulfill. We have some where to go or something to do, and the season becomes so busy we are overwhelmed. We forget that we are still the ones making the decisions about what we do. We allow others to invite, suggest and convince us that we can’t be happy unless we are constantly on the go.

Advent, December, the days leading to Christmas should be our most blessed and yet some years we would rather hide in our houses with the lights off in order to have some rest. The season of Advent is an anticipation of the light that entered the world in the form of a child and grew up to die for our sins, so we, too, could experience Salvation.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then verses 4-5: “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Advent is about that light and about arranging our lives so that nothing overshadows or blocks our the light that Jesus brings to our lives.

The Advent candles we light are (nouns): hope, peace, love and joy. The represent the feelings we need to hold close at this time. Yet sometimes we are testy from too much on our minds, and we don’t always respond as we should. Hope, peace, love and joy should be more than feelings; they should be (verbs) our actions, not just at Advent, but throughout the year, if we are to really be followers of the grown Christ Child. May you all have a very Blessed Christmas Season.

Ecclesiastes 5

Interesting how in Ecclesiastes 5, after railing on and on about how all is vanity and a chasing after the wind, the author turns to some advice that almost seems counter to earlier remarks. At the end of this chapter in the final verses we read:

18. This is what I have seen to be good: It is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot.

19. Likewise all to whom God give wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy them, and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their toil–this is the gift of God.

20. For this will scarcely brood over the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with the joy of their hearts.

Quite interesting. To me it says, quit hoarding up treasures on earth. Relax and enjoy what you have and amass your treasures in heaven in God’s kingdom by doing what is good and acceptable in God’s eyes. So what are those things? I would venture to say that instead of walking about in a state of self righteousness or by being a pious jerk, we are called to a life of humility and caring for others. In order to lead others to Christ’s love, we need to show his love for us and for others everyday.

Those acts of kindness are not just done to be posted on social media and bragged about as I saw suggested on television earlier today by some psychologist. Those acts are private and done in the name of Christ who offered the greatest act of kindness ever known to humankind when he offered himself for our Salvation. Christ didn’t come to earth as a poor child of a carpenter and (pregnant before married) young mother in order to post a selfie with the oxen.

Christ came that we could become heirs with him in God’s great kingdom. Let’s remember that this Christmas season as we run around shopping and socializing and celebrating the season. Let us remember that Christ asks us also to love one another that we are ready to give the ultimate sacrifice as he did, to save the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Considering all of that, the least we can do is share what we have and what we know, a bowl of soup, a warm blanket and the love of Christ. Go and be Christ in the world today.