First They Gave Themselves to the Lord; and then to US

I was reminded as we went through the financial report and Endowment recipients that the ministry of our congregation is, indeed, a Global Link for all of us.  In our financial report was an item for $9000 dollars, a once a year offering to our support of missionaries.  One of those missionaries is Pastor Wal Reat, our missionary in South Sudan.  I know Pastor Reat and will share some of his ministry in this week’s video.  Let us remember that our budget is a living document of relationships which change lives.  All of us are better together.

I Love to Tell the Stories

Have you noticed when we come to this time in the Church Year, we seem focus on telling stories – the story of Passover, of the valley of dry bones, of the Last Supper, of the Crucifixion, of the empty tomb, of the road to Emmaus, of Christ’s appearance to Thomas and the Twelve, of the breakfast Christ prepares at the lakeshore…? It seems that theological discourse and confessional propositions are inadequate for capturing the mysteries which fill this season. We push it all aside, sit back, and tell the stories of our tradition.

From Death to Life

I greet you during this most Holy Week of the church year. We have made our Lenten pilgrimage together. Our Lenten pilgrimage has been a journey from death (Ash Wednesday) to life. A journey toward our eternal home in the love of Christ. Now I share devotions for the final four Stations of the Cross.

The Journey Continues

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday and we will enter into Holy Week, where we experience together the Passion of Jesus. In the Blog for this week we will continue with devotions for the next five Stations of the Cross, as we make the Via Dolorosa together.

Via Dolorosa

For the next three weeks, culminating in Holy Week, I will share in the Pastor’s Blog those devotions I offered at each of the Stations of the Cross. Together on the Via Dolorosa let us follow Jesus bearing the cross as the path winds through the human hope and hurt of your part of Jerusalem.

Redeemed

Matthew 9:35–38; 10:5–7
As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

I can tell you the exact date I was “redeemed” at 7:30 in the morning. The previous evening I was walking to my car and feeling very unredeemed when I could not find it. At the precinct house the officer checked in with the lot where towed felonious autos are incarcerated. Sure enough, my car had been towed.

Never Again

We live in a time of increased hate crimes, a time when people are singled out and attacked for who they are. GLBTQ people, racial groups, Jewish people live in a time of heightened prejudice and hatred, just for being who they are.

What Keeps You Up at Night?

n an episode of the television series “Young Sheldon” the famously germophobic child genius is hospitalized overnight following emergency gallbladder surgery. Due to his anxiety about the setting in which he finds himself, Sheldon is unable to fall asleep. His harassed and aggravated nurse suggests he try counting sheep. Sheldon acknowledges the suggestion but reports the intervention would be ineffective for him. He is afraid of barnyard animals.

Ash Wednesday

Dear St. Luke’s partners,

The Lord be with you in these holy days. “Ash Wednesday” is known as the poet T.S.Eliot’s “conversion” poem, written after he joined the Anglican church in 1927. It goes deeply into the tension between spiritual barrenness and his hope for salvation of all things. We live in that tension, and on Ash Wednesday bare on our foreheads both brokenness and death, yet cruciform baptismal hope.

Transfiguration: From Mountain to Mountain

Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain.” So begins the account of the Transfiguration of our Lord according to Matthew. What follows is the amazing vision of Jesus, bathed in light and glory, accompanied by Moses and Elijah. For a brief, shining moment, the identity of Jesus as God’s beloved Son is confirmed. It was a strengthening of faith for both Jesus and the disciples. We are meant to see ourselves on this mountain, to have our own faith made stronger, to see that our confidence in Jesus is confirmed.