Assembly Delegated Needed!

Before we get to the Annual Meeting at the end of January we're looking for a delegate or two to participate in this year's Synod Assembly.  What does this entail?  Delegates and pastors from congregations all around our synod gather to discuss the church and various aspects of it.  Some of it is business but there's a lot of inspiration and gathering ideas from other folks that you bring back to your local congregation plus you find out about the work of the greater church in which your local community can participate:  missionary opportunities, education, and the like..  There are educational opportunities, resources to be perused, and plenty of conversation to be had!

This year's assembly is in Wenatchee, Washington from April 27th-29th.  Carpooling is available and the church pays for the assembly and lodging.  We can send one or two delegates.  Talk to Jennifer Parkins or me if you're interested in this great opportunity!  It's a chance to connect our church to the greater world out there which we shouldn't miss.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Why Bible Studies are Indispensable

Since we're not having Bible Study during the Christmas break there's no specific Bible Study Reflection this week.  Instead we're going to talk more generally about the value of Bible Studies themselves.

Delving into scripture is a life-long journey.  It's the one book that never gets old.  There's always something new to say, see, and explore even if you're just reading old, familiar passages.  Hopefully these tips will aid you on your journey of discovery.

The most important thing to remember about the Bible is that it is the Living Word of God.  Most people grasp the "Word of God" part but the "Living" part is underrated and under-appreciated.  When we say the Bible is the Living Word we mean it's not cold, dead, static on a page like an encyclopedia or dictionary.  God comes to us through these texts.  We're bound into deep relationship with them.  Their meaning grows and deepens--even changes sometimes--as our lives grow and deepen.  The Bible will not be the same for you at 16 as it is at 66.  It will speak to you and impact your life in particular ways at each stage.  It's helpful to approach the Bible as a friend as much as a plain old book.  You visit your friends because they're familiar, sure, but also because they're warm and alive and will reflect with you on your days and your life while sharing some of their own story in return.  That's what the Bible does too.  You're always welcome, always invited into conversation.

Framing scripture reading as a conversation helps us avoid the perilous threat of making God's Word into a simple rulebook or instruction manual.  The Bible contains rules and instructions, certainly, but that's not the point.  Once you've read a manual for putting together a bicycle or completed an algebra textbook you have a pretty good idea how it goes.  You already know what it says, you understand the steps, and you probably don't need to refer to it again.  The Bible isn't like that!  If you say those same things about scripture--I already know how it goes, I understand it, I don't need to refer to it again--you've just royally insulted God and cut yourself off from him speaking to you.  Imagine saying those things about a friend or a spouse.  "You can hush now.  I've already heard what you have to say and I get it."  What presumption!  Even if you had a close relationship before that you wouldn't for long after!  We must at all costs avoid painting God's Word as a simple, static set of rules or instructions, the better to avoid this mistake.

Reading the Bible well involves many of the same practices that having a good conversation does.  Ideally when you converse with someone you want to be open, interested in them, engaged in the process, willing to listen, and ready to draw them out with meaningful questions.  A conversation is something you enjoy, ponder, linger over.  You'd never have a conversation with a friend for the sole purpose of getting to the end and getting to the point so you could drop that friend and do something else.  Yet how many of us approach our conversation with the Bible that way?  "Just give me the meaning so I can go on and be done with this!"  I'm afraid you're not going to get much out of the relationship that way!

Instead we need to hear what the Bible has to say, engage it, and ask meaningful questions about it.  Some of those basic questions include:

• To whom was the author of this passage speaking?
• What was the world like for him and his audience?
• What message was he trying to convey?
• What are the parallels between the author's world and ours?  What things are different?
• How does that message stretch across time to make a connection with our world as well?

Engaging scripture in this way opens the door for meaningful conversation about it.  Everyone will hear something a little different since everyone's world is a little different.  You share what you hear, you examine the things that diverge, and somewhere in the middle you usually find a core of truth that hits all of you.  Then everybody gets to measure how close or far their personal experience sits from that core and/or everybody else's experience.  This may or may not open up an avenue to broaden your perception of God, his will, and his plan for us.

If it looks like I'm implying that this exploration is better done in good company, I am.  You can certainly ascertain plenty about God from simply sitting down and reading the Bible yourself.  The real eye-openers usually come when you're gathered with other people though, either through Bible Study or worship.  As much as we know the Bible is alive and in conversation with us, it's hard for us to envision talking with a book.  Talking with each other first eases us into that conversational mode.  Once we're open to it the Bible slips into the discussion almost like another person.  You hear its words being spoken from the lips of your friends and neighbors and it comes alive.

Those friends and neighbors offer you perspective that you either haven't had or have forgotten.  It's fascinating to hear that 16-year-old discuss God and scripture.  It reminds you of ways of thinking that you've lost touch with.  It's fascinating to hear people of different backgrounds and experiences share their views.  Those are stories you never would have been able to access yourself.  Each of them is a new approach to the God who stands at the center of us all and the words he means us to hear today.

This is why we have Bible Study and this is why it's important to participate.  No matter how brilliant you are, you can only engage in so much conversation with scripture on your own.  You can only hear the words your ears are geared to hear.  The Bible is so much bigger than any pair of ears though!  I can say with confidence that 95% of the big scriptural epiphanies in my life have either come in conversing with friends about the Bible, in thinking of what to say to congregation members about the Bible (holding the conversation in my head prior), or from Bible Study conversations themselves.  Without other people I'm at least 95% farther behind in my understand of God and scripture.

We hold Bible Studies on Sunday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and the first Saturday evening of every month.  Plus we have small group meetings centered around faith topics every Thursday night and conversation based on faithful grieving every other Monday.  There's plenty of room for you to join the discussion, so come on in!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Weekly Devotion: The Fifth Commandment

Here's the next installment of our ongoing weekly devotional series looking at the Ten Commandments through the lens of Martin Luther's Small Catechism.

The Fifth Commandment:  You shall not murder.

What does this mean?  We are to fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.

I may sound like a broken record here, but yet again Luther reminds us that the narrow way we normally employ to define this commandment simply doesn't cut it.  Many of us think, "I haven't killed anybody today...I pass this test!"  That doesn't quite cover everything this commandment warns us against.

Click through to explore how much more there is.

Monday Morning Sermon: Tuesday After Christmas Version

Today's Monday (errrr...Tuesday) Morning Sermon covers Christmas weekend and the two services we held. The text were familiar, the Christmas Story from Luke, Chapter 2 on Christmas Eve and the hopeful message from Isaiah 9: 2-7 on Christmas Day.  Both sermons had a common theme, stated in different ways:  Christmas unites us all.

It may seem obvious that we were meant to be together on one of the holiest, most blessed, and (supposedly) most peaceful events of the year but it's surprising the number of ways we find to separate ourselves from each other.  Judging the quality of Christmas by the number and value of gifts given/received is an obvious method.  None of us were very old before we figured out than some have more than others in that vein and that Santa tends to favor the children of bankers over those of temp-workers.  The example I used in the sermon was the bold sign outside the Genesee Food Center proclaiming proudly that somebody had purchased a winning $200,000 Powerball ticket there.  The issue isn't that somebody local won.  More power to them, and Merry Christmas!!!  The bigger issue is what reading that sign does to the rest of us, namely making us think that some are special and lucky and blessed (the rare winners) while others are not (us).  On Christmas we are all blessed with a gift beyond compare, a gift which lifts us all from the prison in which we were previously bound into the heights of heavenly glory which is our destiny.  Everybody can look at the Baby Jesus in the manger and say, "This is for me...he came for me."  This is reflected in the shouts of poor shepherds and the amazement of wise kings alike.

We found another method of separation on Christmas morning in our service of remembrance.  Our modern way of doing Christmas screams "100% Merry, 0% anything else".  How many of us have kept inside some kind of grief for fear of "ruining Christmas" for our families or friends?  This is just another separation, a not-so-sly way of saying, "If you don't plaster a smile on your face and gut through it, whatever you're feeling, Christmas is not for you!"  There are two ironies to this:

First, all of us feel a little melancholy about Christmas after we reach a certain age.  At a minimum it's hard to recapture the breathless excitement we had when we were kids.  All of the intervening hardship and disappointment come rushing in when we try to make room for that innocence again.  Even if it's still good, it's not quite the good we used to know.  This reminds us of the passage of time and our own mortality...that nothing good lasts forever.  And that's the minimum!  The logical extension of that train of thought is missing our loved ones who have actually died, people whom we love and long for but can't touch and hear and exchange presents and hugs with anymore.  Those twinges of melancholy we all feel are connected to the pangs of grief of those mourning loved ones...they're the same genre pain and loss, just in different degrees.  So here we are all suffering or feeling some kind of sadness but instead of talking about it--coming together to hug and comfort and reassure and welcome--we bottle it up.  Everyone suffers in a silence that could be dispelled and in some ways cured if somebody would just speak...would just admit it.  Rather than opening up Christmas and experiencing it fully, the happy and the sad, we settle for a plastic half-Christmas that rests on a foundation of trees and a nice lunch instead of the people gathered together for the holiday.  By not making room for the suffering of others (or even showing our own) we lose the meaning of the day we're supposedly trying to preserve.  Everyone spends it quiet about the grief that we fear will separate us when the silence is the real culprit which creates that isolation.

The second irony is that Jesus came to overcome exactly this!  We didn't need a Savior because everything was perfect.  We needed a Savior because we were lost, because everybody experiences grief that they can't control, avoid, or completely overcome themselves.  Jesus came so that we might have companionship in our grief as we walk this journey.  He came in order to take all of that grief and the suffering that accompanies it onto the cross with him.  He came in order to replace that grief with boundless joy in our final steps...the key feature of that joy being reunited with our loved ones beyond the bounds of death.  When we try to separate Christmas from our losses and griefs, especially the loss and grief occasioned by death, we are also forced to push away the immediate companionship and the news of future joy.  How can we experience the Good News that the arrival of Jesus heralds if we're pretending that everything is completely good already???  When we deny our grief--making no room for it or the people experiencing it most--we deny our need for the Savior on the very day he was given to us.  Christmas came precisely for the people who had the least hope and the least reason to celebrate!  Framing it any other way the promise from Isaiah and the announcement from Luke lose their Spirit.

This weekend we tried to tell the true story of Christmas...the together story of Christmas.  We did it through song and candlelight and beauty, transcending materialism and open to all, on Christmas Eve.  We did it through shared tears and hugs and cookies and personal stories in an equally important way on Christmas Day. Each of us still experienced presents and lights and shopping and all the usual trappings of Christmas.  Telling the whole story gave all those things a safe cradle in which to land and find their enduring meaning instead of falling into obscurity.  The full message of Christmas--grief and loss turning into salvation and joy--is not only worth telling, it's the only thing that makes the holiday worth having.

Thanks to all who helped us along our Advent/Christmas journey!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Day Off

Hope everyone had a joyous holiday.  Since I was working in a frenzy leading up to and during the weekend I'm going to take a day off to get necessary things done and spend time with my family.  Those are good every once in a while!  I'd write how important days off are spiritually, psychologically, and relationship-wise but then I wouldn't be taking a day off!  Enjoy your Monday.  Back tomorrow mid-morning with a post!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

P.S.  I got a few questions via e-mail in the last couple of weeks but I'm going to run out soon.  If you have any inquiries about church, God, or life in general be sure and shoot me a line or drop a question in the comments!  Generating content is easier when I have something to respond to!

Merry Christmas to All!

Just a note to wish everyone a beautiful and blessed Christmas weekend.  We're going to have an amazing time both at church and the parsonage.  I hope your time with family, friends, and God is memorable and meaningful.  We've been given the greatest gift the world has ever known.  May your Christmas reflect that and the spirit of the season!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

P.S.  If anybody needs Christmas music give me a call!  We can make you a CD.

Becoming a Pastor

I got a batch of questions from somebody curious about how I became a pastor and what it took and such.  Things are small and cozy enough here yet that I want to address every question you submit, so that seems like a good topic for the day.  I want to split it into two parts, though.  Today I'm going to talk mostly about what it takes to become a pastor in our denomination and a little bit about what that process was like for me.  Sometime next week maybe I'll invert those and talk more about my personal story along this journey.

Click through to read all about it!

Exploring Our Next Three Services

We're going to end the 2011 calendar year with three special services I'd like to talk about today (for various reasons).

The most obvious is Christmas Eve worship, 7:00 p.m. on Saturday.  We call this a service of candlelight and carols for good reason:  besides the Word and Communion those are all we do!  Normally I'm in favor of innovation and evolution in our church services but this is a service I've done for years upon years.  That's justifiable for a couple reasons:

1.  On Christmas people want a strong element of the familiar.
2.  It's so dang beautiful.

Because we've done it so regularly the impurities and hitches have been refined out of the process.  What you're left with is a well-paced, rich, participatory worship hour in which everyone can participate with comfort and ease.  All the liturgy is sung to Christmas hymns like "The First Noel" and "Angels We Have Heard On High".  We sing more hymns in between.  The musicians of the church--instrumental and vocal both--are providing more music before and during the service.  At the end we get to "Silent Night", turn out the church lights, and sing with raised candles.  It brings a tear to the eye...often literally.  The message of beauty is so condensed that it's unmistakable.

By contrast having such traditional breading allows the meat of the service--the sermon--to venture out a little.  You'll hear the familiar Christmas readings but it's my pleasure to be able to translate them into the modern context in new ways.  I can recall singing a song from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, using props, and a couple other interesting forays into the Christmas Spirit.  This year a current event in Genesee is going to play a prominent part in the message.

To me this is the best of both worlds:  familiar and participatory service, slightly more avant garde and entertaining sermon.  If you haven't been--or have friends who haven't been--you shouldn't miss it.  I can almost guarantee it'll become a fixture of your Christmas tradition...probably from the moment you hear the voices of your friends/neighbors/musicians in the prelude!

Click through to hear about Christmas Day and New Year's Day!

Weekly Devotion: The Fourth Commandment

Today we continue our devotional series on the Ten Commandments with an assist from Martin Luther's Small Catechism.  The subject of the day is the Fourth Commandment:

Honor your father and your mother.


What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

Click through to figure out how this affects your life in a meaningful way!

Message to Church: "Well Done!"

Matthew 25 gives us the Parable of the Talents, wherein a master entrusts his servants with various gifts and judges what they do with them.  The servant who buried his resources and failed to bring new good from it famously gets in trouble.  The message to the other servants who multiplied their gifts was clear and concise:  "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

The latter message is one I'm repeating to you today, members and friends of the Genesee Lutheran Parish.  Deciphering God's will is a complex endeavor and I'm sure we have our faults, but I don't think God would mind if we shared a little "Well done, good and faithful servants" among each other this day.

First of all, that request we talked about on Sunday?  The anonymous letter?  We responded with everything needed and more.  Think about this as you gather around for Christmas.  Somebody, somewhere will get a completely unexpected and redeeming answer to their cry because of you and your friends.  Everything dreamed about and yearned for, at least in this one case, will be theirs and their child's.  We already have four boxes of baby stuff to send and gift cards on top.  Can you imagine watching such grace unfold before you, unexpectedly?  Box after box delivered, prayer after prayer answered with more than you asked for when you expected nothing at all?  I think each of us can add that to the list of giving we've done this season.  Plus your gifts have allowed us to help even more people in the local community than you know.  Plus you've given generously with the giving tree.  Plus you've given your time to us and shared cookies (over 150 dozen!) with Genesee.  You've worked hard to make our Advent season special and then participated in it together, glorying in its awesome moments and laughing with us in those times we were stumbling along together.  You've supported our children, buoyed the spirits of our long-term members, clapped for our musicians, gathered for Bible Studies like never before, given freedom to our leaders to enact bold new visions.

As I look back on the sum total of all of this that hearty, "Well done, good and faithful servants!" resounds and rebounds in my head again and again.  I wish I could fittingly convey how miraculous all this has been and give back in kind.  As with most good things, the work must be its own reward.  Except we have one, besides this "thank you", that is.  Christmas Eve service at 7:00 is always breathtaking with its candles and carols and special music.  This year when you come, you can truly be at peace knowing you and your church have done everything conceivable, everything we were called to do, in order to bring meaning and joy to this season.  When you come, be at peace.  Rest, celebrate, enjoy.  For an hour be relieved of the burden of wondering what needs to be done next and who is depending upon you to do it.  What we could do, we have done...cheerfully and well.  Take heart in that knowledge and come with your souls shining and the expectation that beauty will live in and through you that night because of what you have given and the work you have done.

Well done, good and faithful servants.  Now let's enjoy the party together!

--Pastor Dave

P.S.  Biblically speaking "party" in that last sentence was supposed to be "feast", but you know what I mean!

P.P.S.  If you want to start early, we're showing The Nativity Story at the parsonage at 6:30 tonight (Tuesday the 20th).  Craft ladies, Thursday Bible Study-ers, and all others are welcome!  If you've never been to a movie at the parsonage, it's a nice experience! (Unless you're allergic to cats...sorry.)

Reader Question: Good People and Bad

There's no Monday Morning Sermon this week since our Sunday School classes did a wonderful job relaying their version of the Advent/Christmas through their annual program.  Thanks to everyone who helped plan and carry out this inspiring event!

Instead of the usual we're subbing in this reader question:

Pastor Dave,
I enjoyed your talk about judgment and sin.  The issue has frustrated me.  A couple friends of mine have really gotten on my nerves in the last year for this very reason.  They're so judgmental about certain things.  They call it godly but I can't follow that.  It just seems narrow-minded and hateful to me.  I've tried to talk to them without any success and it has hurt our friendship.  We were once very close!  How do good people go bad like this?  What makes people so judgmental?  Is it really something they're reading in the Bible?  If so, where?

I'll answer the last part first.  There aren't really any (or at least not many) places in the Bible that tell you to resent people or be judgmental towards them.  Those that appear to exist are outweighed ten to one by other references and infinity to one by Jesus' actions on the cross.  But people have a knack for seeing what they want to see.  Even the devil can quote scripture, as the famous saying goes.  If you're looking for something that can be interpreted as judgmental--something that makes you look right in a certain stance--you can probably find it in scripture.

There's often a difference between what the Bible says and what people say the Bible says.  Plenty of really bad preachers make a living on that difference...let alone common folks.  In our society all you have to say is, "This is what *I* believe and religion is a private matter between me and God" and you have finished the argument.  Everybody seems to respect that.  I do too, actually, as long as the discussion remains one-on-one and on somebody's couch.  The problem is that these beliefs inevitably go public and make hordes of people think that being judgmental is the true and strong Christian stance.  Meanwhile the rest of us "nice" folks stand on the sideline and shake our heads while the judgmental folks leave this impression with everyone.  That's sad.  In any case, I'm not sure it matters what the Bible says or where judgmental folks are getting the material.  If you argue them out of one passage they'll just jump to another that they believe supports their claims.  It's hard to see clearly when your premise is faulty to begin with and you only want to read things that confirm it.

As far as how good people go bad...in my experience that's not true.  Good people don't go bad.  Good people go good.  That's the problem.

Click through to see what I mean!

Children Tell The Christmas Story

I have a theory about why we love the little children to tell our Christmas story through a pageant: They are ADORABLE!

I can't take my eyes off them!  

So at least I will be paying attention when the greatest story ever is told.  

Besides, children are innocent,

they are sweet,

they are impish,

they are fun!

They have beautiful voices  

and they have pure love in their eyes. 

 

I can't think of a more fitting kind of person  

to tell this very important tale of the coming of our Lord.

So, Go Tell It On the Mountain!

Hark, the Herald Angel Sings!On this Silent Night

 A Savior is Born-

 and a child told me about it!

I am so grateful to be part of this church. I am grateful to Dana and Jennifer for all the work they put into this play.  I am grateful for the parents and grandparents of children who make it possible for me to see their kids every Sunday. Thank you, everyone, for the honor of listening to your children!

Bible Study Reflections: The Problem With Judgment

Today's Bible Study Reflection is unusual in that it doesn't come from a specific piece of Scripture.  Rather it's a topic that arose both Sunday morning in our study of Romans and Wednesday morning in our study of Isaiah.  And by the way, let me say this again:  if you're not in one or another of our Bible Studies you are missing a TON.  I cannot describe to you what's happened to them this year, left and right, every one of them.  My goodness, I am amazed!

Anyway, the topic that spanned our two studies concerned judgment and sin.  The issue here isn't that we make judgments about sin.  We have to do that every single day.  If we weren't called to make any judgments about good or bad we wouldn't have gotten the Law in the first place.  We'd also be blundering into all kinds of situations which would hurt ourselves and our neighbor, a severe discredit to God whose name we serve.  Several spots in the Bible call us to judge acts and philosophies and words by their effect on the world, to balance them against what we know of God's plan for salvation and act accordingly.  We are meant to be discerning.  We are meant to weigh things.  We are meant to judge.

The problem arises not with the impulse to judge but the way we go about it.  When sin is described in the Bible our instinct leads us to stand above it, to say, "Oh how foolish those people were!  I can't believe they were doing that!"  In doing so we make two critical mistakes.  In lifting ourselves above God's Word as if it--even in this small section, even in this small way--doesn't apply to us we have inverted our relationship with God, making ourselves the ultimate boss and/or judge.  Second, we have absolved ourselves of the sin in question without ever admitting it applied to us in the first place.  These two impulses cause us to miss the entire point of large swaths of Scripture.  You don't have to look much farther than the modern church--at least in the way modern churches conduct themselves practically and see their relationship with the world--to see the damage.  For years we have read passages about the Pharisees while clucking our tongues and marveling how dense and wrong-headed they were.  In denying that those texts are critiquing our behavior as well we have become exactly like the Pharisees.  Read me any passage involving them and I pretty much guarantee I can point to a practice or mindset we have that reflects the wrong of that passage perfectly.  And these are things we're proud of!

Another curious thing:  when reading a list of sins we will instinctively lift out and jump to the ones that we perceive being committed by other people while skipping over the ones that most closely resemble our own behavior.  Do you know how many times I've sat around a church table (thankfully not in current company much) and heard, "Well THOSE people are doing THIS and it's just WRONG!"?  Now compare that to the number of times I've sat around a church table and heard, "Pastor, I'm doing this in my own life and I need to admit it and talk about it."  I have a suitcase full of the first memories.  I can count the second on one hand and still dial two phones with it.

What, then, is our public witness about sin?  In a nutshell:  other people commit it and we don't.  Even if you can pin us to a sin the ones other people do are worse.

Yuck.

This isn't judgment, it's judgmental.  There's a big difference between the two.

I only know of two ways to get on the right side of that equation...not perfectly right (as I'm not sure that's possible) but at least headed in the right direction and hopefully giving a decent public witness as to the way to go.  The first is embracing the cross, throwing yourself on its mercy every day.  You are saved because Jesus died for you.  If you had no sin that wouldn't have been necessary.  You did, so he did.  That's your only life ring in this awful storm.  Stop clinging to it and you're going to drown no matter how strong of a swimmer you think you are.  You can't cling with just one hand either, saying, "Yes he died for me but I didn't do anything that bad..."  He died for you, my friend.  That there is indicative of something wrong.  Naturally the cross is our great sign of redemption, not just condemnation.  We believe in the power of resurrection over death, of forgiveness over confession and sin.  But you can't get to the good end part if you don't start from the proper beginning.  That beginning is always grounded in your inability to save yourself because of sin and your tendency to embrace it.

The second step is to follow up that realization with a new way of reading these texts from Scripture.  When reading about sin the proper response isn't, "How dumb were those people?" or, "Isn't it horrible what my neighbor is doing?"  Those aren't the right questions.  Their answer won't lead you a bit closer to God, truth, or anything good.  Instead the proper response is to ask how this text--yes...THIS one--describes what I'm doing here and now and the way I fall short in these matters.  Reading the Bible isn't a selective experience of, "All the parts about love and redemption apply to me while all the parts about sin and condemnation apply to someone else!"  If you're going to be under God's Word, be under it.  If it's going to lead you, let it lead you.  Don't ask whether, but how, it's doing so even in these difficult and wart-revealing passages.  Unless you can find yourself in that sin (keeping in mind that sins are usually broader and run deeper than we tend to define them) you've pushed away Scripture and set yourself apart from it and God.  By finding yourself in these passages about sin you've--somewhat paradoxically--taken the first step to truly understanding and living our your salvation.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Weekly Devotion" The Third Commandment

Today we continue our weekly devotional series centered around the Ten Commandments and Martin Luther's explanation of them.  Here is the Third Commandment:

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

What does this mean?   We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

Click through for an explanation of the Sabbath and its key components plus the difference they make in our lives!

Reader Question: The Sign of the Cross

Pastor Dave,
[During Advent] you've been saying we can dip our fingers in the baptismal font and make the sign of the cross before communion if we want.  I've often wondered whether or when we're supposed to cross ourselves.  Do we do it every time you make the sign up front?

The confusion is understandable, especially if you grew up in a different tradition (usually Roman Catholic) where the rituals surrounding the sign of the cross are formalized and everybody does it at the same time.

The easiest answer to your question is, "You can, but you don't have to."  Making the sign of the cross can be an important reminder to yourself and everyone around you what we're doing here.  Personally when I do it--which I often do when I enter a church with a prominent and full baptismal font in the entryway--it feels a little bit like getting a hug from Jesus.  I'm reminded that he's there, touching me, covering me, protecting me.

On the other hand making the sign is not a law or requirement.  There's no difference to your salvation if you don't.  We're not going to kick you out of church either.  The problem with saying you have to do something is that the meaning soon becomes diluted in favor of the rote repetition of the act.  Consider, for instance, if we said you had to kiss your spouse every morning...HAD to, or you'd get divorced.  How meaningful and passionate would those kisses become?  After a few times you'd probably see perfunctory pecks on the cheek at best.  Frankly that's the impression I get many times in churches that require these things.  People dip their fingers in the water without pausing, genuflect instinctively without reflection.  The signs are there but it's just a peck.  Much better, I think, to have the occasional (or even more than occasional if you choose) passionate kiss with meaning and spirit than a constant stream of cold, but mandated, smooches.

That's not to say that everything in your faith life revolves around how you feel about it.  Some things should be done automatically whether you feel enthusiastic about them that day or not.  Among those are probably helping the poor and your neighbors, supporting your loved ones, and coming to church.  Those things all run deeper than just a moment or a feeling...in fact often the proper feeling comes through doing them rather than anticipation.  But the sign of the cross is just that...a sign.  It's meant to point to something in a given moment.  If the feeling/relationship/deeper meaning isn't there, the sign is no good.  In that case it's not wrong or particularly damaging to omit it.  That omission usually isn't intentional, you just forget or aren't used to it.  That's fine.  It just indicates that it's not that important to you.  We have plenty of other things to hold onto.  Real faith isn't about a single outer sign anyway, but about a life lived with God inside and out.

Some strains of Lutherans, on the other hand, have seized on our theological differences with the Catholics as an opportunity to put down the sign of the cross or to argue it shouldn't be done.  This is as wrong as the other.  The cross is our inheritance through Jesus Christ...the closest tangible contact on this earth between us and God.  Yes, the Catholics have special holy water while we claim the strength of the water used in our services comes not from any inherent quality, but through the Word of God alone.  Yes, most Catholics see those service responses as a kind of Law (grace-filled though it may be for them) while we would decry such a thing. But those differences shouldn't rob us or them of our ability to acknowledge Christ and the power of his cross. It's not required to make the sign at the font or in response to the pastor's sign but it's a very good thing to do!  Doing it the Catholic way is perfectly right for Catholics.  It would be wrong for Lutherans to do it that exact way.  But that doesn't mean it would be wrong for Lutherans to do it any way.  That last kind of thinking isn't faith as much as prejudice.  It would be better for all of us to be absolutely required to make that sign every service than to live by contempt of fellow children of God.

Ideally, I suppose, you'd have everybody responding willingly and joyfully by making the sign of the cross over themselves every time I did it in front of the congregation and every time they approached a full baptismal font.  (Ideally, of course, the baptismal font should always be full too!)  They'd realize that it's just a sign and not a law and imbue that moment with special meaning.  In practice that's way too much for people to think about most days and frankly we'd rather have your attention on the Gospel, the Sacraments, and your neighbors.  We could start a tradition where everybody did it at all the right times but then you'd be doing it as a tradition/requirement and probably just doing it because we told you to, which kind of takes away the point.  Therefore it's best to leave it as it is...imperfect though that may be.  Go ahead and make the sign with gusto in God's Spirit when you wish or when you remember.  If you don't there's no need to fret.  The sign I make up front and the remembrance it gives is sufficient for all and the baptismal waters still flow over us no matter where we stand on the issue of dipping.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: Tuesday Morning Edition

Monday Morning Sermon: December 12th, 2011

Today's Gospel came from the first chapter of the Gospel of John:

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
 19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”
 21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”
   He said, “I am not.”
   “Are you the Prophet?”
   He answered, “No.”
 22 Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
 23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”
 24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
 26 “I baptize with[e] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
 28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Click through to read about this interesting message for the season!

Advent Indeed!

The usual Monday Morning Sermon is going to have to become a Tuesday Morning Sermon this week.  I've been busy with multiple things since I woke up this morning and I don't have the stamina for deep theological thinking right now.

However I do want to take a second to marvel at everything that's going on around us in the season of Advent at church!  When we were first talking about this months ago I never could have dreamed what it's become!  You're seeing the fruits of everybody's labors.  Just as interesting, though, is the process through which those labors have come to fruition.

The standard model of doing church stuff is for the different committees to work on their own projects.  Generally they don't interact except to make sure that they're not stepping on each others' toes, scheduling things on top of each other and such.  This Advent thing was different.  It totally spread like a weed!  Instead of five different committees working on different projects, all of them ended up working on the same project, each bringing their own unique perspective!  Worship started the ball rolling with their mini-planning committee.  (We're forming one for the season of Lent soon too.  Jump on board while you can!)  Then education chimed in with ideas for Sunday School participation.  They got some ideas back in return from Worship.  Outreach and Social folded in cookies and caroling.  People started consulting the buildings and grounds guys for ideas on how to set things up physically.  Then it started really getting out of control.  We needed some help with decorations so folks went to the craft ladies group on Tuesday night.  The musicians didn't meet with a big plan in mind.  They just got together and starting adding their own twists to familiar hymns.  We got the idea of everybody taking the Advent journey together through the walking communion.  Witnesses and nativities started popping up. Random ladies started bringing flowers.  Different people started tending and double-checking candles.  All of a sudden we all found ourselves dancing together in this big, crazy, yet somehow soothing and uplifting movement.  Young and old, guys and gals, serious folks and casual...everybody was doing their thing, all geared towards this big communal project.

Hasn't it been grand?

And oh my, we've got to do more of this!  That's not to say that everything will be as different as this Advent has been.  Many of the things we do together will be more subtle.  But the days of figuring out who had responsibility for which thing so that they could do it and nobody else...those have passed us by, I think.  We shouldn't be a church of "Me and Not You".  We should be a church of, "Hey everybody, let's do an Us Thing!"

I look forward to even more "Us Things"  in the future.  I hope you do too and will find your way to jump on board!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

P.S.  Don't forget Christmas Eve service on the 24th at 7:00 p.m. and the Christmas Day service which will be an opportunity to celebrate and remember our loved ones at 11:00 a.m. on the 25th.  You can invite friends to either!

And the Beat Goes On

The music group will rehearsal at 9:20 am before Sunday service on December 11th. We will  be working on music for Advent and Christmas services. The group will also get together after Sunday service as needed.

Come join Louise, John, Jennifer, Rob, Chloe, Patrick, and Pastor Dave at the rehearsal. Help us add God's gift of music to our worship service by adding your voice to the group.

Bible Study Reflections: What is Church Good For?

Our Bible Study reflections come from the second edition of Theology on Tap, held last Saturday.  Once again we had a great turnout and plenty of good discussion.  The topic of the evening was, "What is church good for?"  As I was preparing for the discussion that pastors are often in the business of "selling" church, convincing people that it's a worthwhile endeavor and something in which they should invest their time.  But is it always?  And if so, in what ways?  It occurred to me that in the course of the sales job (which I dislike anyway...if I had wanted to do that I would have gone into retail) we assume that church is good and turn a blind eye to things that can be less valuable about it.  This quickly leads to that dreaded "church is good in itself no matter what it does" outlook that poisons so many ministries.  So I wanted to have a night where I didn't sell one bit...where people expressed for themselves, honestly, what the most valuable parts of the experience are (if any).  So that's what we did.

The reflections varied.  Most everyone agreed that church was much easier to participate in when you felt that you got something out of it, though some also shared stories of continuing to go even when they weren't having the best time...making that part of their faith discipline.  People identified informative preaching, the Bible being opened up, being challenged, and fellowship with their neighbors as integral to a good church experience.  Some cited uplifting music as important, others the chance to share and explore their gifts.

The riveting comment of the night came from Dana Carter, who helped us distinguish between church and everything else by pointing out the open and accessible motives for acting in faith--at least when done well--when compared to most endeavors.  In a sales position you're supposed to be kind to your neighbor, aware of others, diligent in your duties...many of the same things we do at church.  But you do all these things in a sales job so you can sell widgets.  Your neighbor is a means to an end and every action towards them is based on that end.  God gives us the wonderful task of considering being kind to our neighbors an end unto itself.  We're able to be together with them, love them, and get to know them as THEM, not someone we want to manipulate into doing something for us.  When people go searching for "the angle" in what we do, ideally they shouldn't find one.  This makes church different and special.

That comment struck me because we often give up that special characteristic in the name of preserving the church.  I can't tell you how many conversations I've had that start with, "We need to get people to give more _______ or do more _______!"  Now we're back to the sales job again.  Instead of helping the church, we've given up one of its unique characteristics...the very reason for people to participate!  The better response is to ask in what ways X and Y are necessary and how we've been dealing with them.  You'll probably find that X and Y weren't as integral to the church experience as we thought OR that we've been defining X and Y in such a way as to make it impossible for people to hop on board.  As soon as you make something else the end focus of the exercise besides God and our neighbor, the church suffers and lacks.

This discussion is not done by any means!  What church is good for is a question we all should ask ourselves and talk about, that we might better shape our community to God's (and our) intentions.  I invite you to engage the topic and this discussion as the months go by.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)  

Leaving?

This month marks the end of my sixth year serving as your pastor here in Genesee.  First of all, thanks for putting up with me that long!  Second, I've heard a couple of rumblings in the last few weeks.  Maybe it's the anniversary, maybe it's just the passing of time, but I've heard a couple people speculating that many pastors move on right about this time in their parish tenures.  Six years, seven years...the clock's up then, right?  Onward and upward!

I'm not foolish enough to ever say "never" in this job.  For all I know a mob could form outside my house next week, torches in hand, demanding my ouster.  (Fair warning:  after the last mob we hired a bunch of the kids to sit on the roof with Super Soakers just in case, so you might want to bring extra matches.  Also I've noticed that some habitually up-in-arms church folks tend to melt when touched by water. I don't want to have that weighing on my conscience, so do be careful.)  But assuming that doesn't happen and that we're going to continue in ministry together, let's get this out of the way now.

First, if you think I'm a "typical pastor" you haven't been paying much attention.  Dungeon Pastor t-shirts, laughing at our little goof-ups instead of getting upset about them, being more delighted when you say something profound than when I do, staying up until all hours talking to your kids, putting up with Susan Rigg...what will it take to convince you that whatever is happening here, it's very much out of the ordinary?  Many of the things I do are non-pastor-ish and most of them are downright delightful!  Why would this be any different?  If there is a typical pastor clock counting down to moving time mine is likely to be wildly askew.

Second, among my strongest non-typical-pastor traits is refusing to believe that bigger is better.  Bigger isn't better, better is better!  I swear some of my seminary colleagues had their careers all mapped out.  A couple years in a little church in the country, then a move to a city (probably serving time in a not-so-popular post for a while), and then a cushy job at a huge suburban church.  I remember one of my former classmates talking to me at a synod gathering a few years ago.  He went on and on about his rising membership and new building addition and re-covered seating.  Blech!  I mean, there's nothing wrong with those things.  But all he was doing was bragging about what a stud-meister pastor he is.  Dude, if you want to be a stud-meister you need to become an actor or an athlete or enter a profession where it matters.  All that "me me me" stuff under the guise of having a "great church" gets annoying and doesn't seem very Christian to me.

I've told the story before about Senior Preaching at seminary.  Every year they'd have a ritual where certain members of the senior class along with some faculty and the seminary chaplain would huddle together and pick out a half dozen seniors to preach during daily worship, an honor usually reserved for professors and visiting dignitaries.  When they called us together to discuss this matter I stood up and said I refused to participate in the selection and would refuse to preach even if asked.  My issue?  This was supposed to be worship. That's how they had framed it all of our years in seminary.  That's how we were supposed to view it.  That meant that these speakers would really be preaching...would be responsible for sharing the Word of God.  I was totally cool with the idea of students doing that as well as faculty could.  My problem was that we were limiting the supposedly "good" or "appropriate" speakers to the senior class alone.  Who was to say that I or anyone else was more inspired by God by virtue of spending four years in school than was a first- or second-year student?  I would have had no objection had they said that only ordained pastors and appointed faculty should speak.  I would have had no objection had they considered all students for this "honor".  But I failed to see how we senior students were much better than others in this regard.  If we're talking about the Word of God then treat it like the Word of God, not some cheap version of the Oscars.  Judge people on their knowledge and ability to share the Spirit, not on their tenure.  We weren't doing worship anymore, the process made it into an awards show with zero guarantee that the most worthy people would actually win the award.

Needless to say that my classmates were shocked when I made my angry little speech.  Several of them swarmed me afterwards to say how wrong I was.  (Oddly enough, many who were hoping for the appointment themselves became quite vocal in their objection to my objection.)  It wasn't a popular stance.  It wasn't typical.  And I didn't care.

Maybe preaching in front of 500 or 1000 people would be cool.  I've been offered that kind of thing before.  But it doesn't seem any more right to me to make pastoral decisions on that basis than it did to jump up and down because some hand-picked seminary committee decided I was worthy to speak in front of them.  I'm sure many of those prime speakers and big-church seekers have gone on to great things.  I have too.  I get to sing with Patrick and Rob, get hugs from Phoebe and all of Jeff and Maria's boys.  I get to plan worship with Phyllis and listen to Louise play amazingly appropriate songs on the organ and share the peace with people who genuinely enjoy being where they are.  I don't imagine that I've lost out on a thing.  My heart and attention are here where they belong, not on some half-imagined "next step".  That's why I stayed in my first call over six years when many of my colleagues left theirs after two or three.  That's part of why I'm still here and not going anywhere after six more when plenty of other people are farther "up the ladder" and on their fourth or fifth call by now.  I strongly suspect that were Jesus here he'd kick over that ladder and ask what the heck we thought we were doing inventing it, climbing it, and calling THAT "his work".  The higher up you are the more that would hurt, I'd imagine.  I'm good where I am, thanks.

Besides, it's hard to imagine a better calling than the one I have at the Genesee Lutheran Parish as 2011 comes to a close.  I mean, come on folks!  Things just got wonderful around here after years of struggle and pain to make it that way.  What kind of fool trudges through course after course of lima beans and then gets up to leave just as dessert is being served?  Any pastor with a lick of sense would dream of serving a place like this.

I know that...do you know it?  I suppose that would be the one missing ingredient that could make the cake fall flat.  There's nothing worse than going out with somebody who doesn't realize who they are.  Have you ever dated someone who was all, "But I'm not this and I'm not that so you're probably not going to stay with me..."?  That's somewhat...unattractive.  It's the same with pastoral calls.  We are an amazing congregation.  We are doing amazing things and will do yet more in the future.  Every second spent defining ourselves by what we're not--as if that stuff really mattered--is a second wasted that could have been used to celebrate and serve.  In other words, the only thing that could possibly go wrong and cause your pastor to tear his hair out and consider leaving would be a bunch of Eeyore-like moaning that pretty soon your pastor is going to consider leaving!

We need to love who we are, show it, and talk about ourselves like the precious, beloved, and gifted people God has made us.  If there's anything still wrong with this church, it's that we don't do that enough.  This includes realizing that we're all fortunate to have each other whether we be pastors, just folks, or pastors who mostly act like just folks.  It also includes expressing surety that we'll still be God's precious, beloved, and gifted children doing great things in this community no matter who the pastor is.

Not that your pastor has any designs on leaving...because he doesn't...not now nor in the foreseeable future. And if/when that moment comes we'll do it just like we've done all our other moments together:  uplifting each other and making it into a good thing that leaves us both better off than we were before.  So there's nothing to worry about.

There!  Said it.  Heard it.  Now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.  Me?  I've got to go toss some Mountain Dews to the kids on the roof.  You can't very well guard against the torch brigade if you're half asleep.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org) (And mighty proud of it!)

Weekly Devotion: The Second Commandment

This week we continue our devotional series on the Ten Commandments.  Here's the second with Martin Luther's explanation from the Small Catechism:

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
What does this mean?   We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

Click through for reflections on this oh-so-tricky commandment...

What You Won't Find Here

There are many things a blog can do well.  Talking like this and running through all matters theological not only keeps us interested in each other and in church, it creates a kind of closeness with a completeness and complexity that you can't quite duplicate other places.  I'm not suggesting that this medium is better or worse than any other, nor that it can replace face-to-face contact.  Rather I'm suggesting that standing still and listening to the intricate theological work we're doing here would probably drive you crazy.  Being able to digest at your own pace, reading and re-reading as necessary, is easier than bending your ear my way for the half hour or more it would take to talk about many of these things in person.  As such this is a great supplement to our daily and weekly faith routine.

This is also a fantastic place to find announcements, the calendar, and to check up on things you might have missed.  Church information is available 24/7 at your fingertips at this site, plus the means to ask for clarification if you need more.  We can even have discussions in the comment section, expanding on things these posts bring up even if we never have time to meet "live" during a day!  That's a powerful tool for people with busy schedules but active minds.

For all its great properties, one thing I don't feel comfortable doing here is sharing bad news about people in our congregation.  Since this site is open to anyone on the internet who can type "Genesee" into a search engine there's no guarantee of privacy here.  As a pastor I have a responsibility to not break the seal of confidentiality even when I'm fairly sure both the people suffering and the congregation could benefit from the situation being known in a wider sense.  That's not my call to make.  It is, and will always remain, the judgment of the people involved who they'd like to tell, when, and how.  I suppose if someone asked me specifically to ask folks for prayer through the blog I'd do it, but I don't feel comfortable asking about that if they don't offer first.

That means the responsibility for communicating prayer needs and difficult circumstances runs through you and it runs the old-fashioned way, person to person.  I can't let you know here if someone is sick or undergoing some difficulty.  You'll have to depend on them or perhaps the friends and neighbors they've asked to spread the news.

While we're on that note...we all need to work on being good custodians of this kind of news and of prayer requests in general.  In small towns news spreads quickly.  Sadly it's often spread inaccurately as well.  Many times it's not just a matter of a missed detail, but outright embellishment.  Sometimes it becomes a game of "telephone" where the message starts out simply but ends up wildly afield after a few transfers.

Not being responsible with someone's personal information can be painful to the parties in need of honest prayer and help.  It's like they don't matter as much as the story, which is now being spread almost as a form of entertainment.  ("Did you hear about _______?!?!")  Our society encourages us to view other people's misfortunes as tidbits to be consumed for our pleasure.  Any glimpse at reality TV or daytime "helping" talk shows will show you that.  We need to stand against this temptation, offering help when we can and not puffing ourselves up with gossip otherwise.  Deriving pleasure or fame under the guise of being informative breaks God's commandment against false witness.  This is not our calling.

This is especially important since, as we just said, you are the only conduit through which this information can flow.  It's not like I can open my mouth and set the record straight when the story starts getting out of control.  Several times I've been put in impossible quandaries over issues like this.  What do I do when I've talked to the people involved and gotten the actual story and then I hear the sixth "telephone game" transfer in which the facts have been distorted?  If I step in to correct people I've violated confidentiality.  If I let the wild story go on I'm a party to continued harm and falsehood.  If I call the people involved to ask if I can tell the true story I've potentially added to their burden, worry, and stress in a time when we all should be helping to ease them, taking the focus off of important matters to deal with spiraling chatter.

Clearly there's no way out of this except to not get into the gossip situation in the first place.  That requires care on the part of everyone sharing news in this community.  To that end I'm writing out some simple suggestions I follow in my daily life to ensure I'm doing the best I can in handling this kind of information.  Click through to see them.

Monday Morning Sermon: December 5th, 2011

This Sunday's Gospel text came from the first chapter of Mark:


 1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
   “I will send my messenger ahead of you,
   who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
   make straight paths for him.’”

 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Click through to read thoughts on the first words of Mark's Gospel!

Music Group Rehearsals

The music group will hold a rehearsal beginning at 9:20 am before Sunday service on December 4th. We will  be working on music for Advent and Christmas services. The group may also get together after Sunday service as needed.

So far the music group is comprised of Louise, John, Jennifer, Rob, Chloe, Patrick, and Pastor Dave. If you would like to join in the fun please come to the rehearsal.

Bible Study Reflections: Isaiah 1: 10-17

This week's Bible Study reflection comes from the Wednesday morning women's group.  They've just taken up the book of Isaiah and found this in the first chapter:

 10 Hear the word of the LORD,
   you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
   you people of Gomorrah!
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
   what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
   of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
   in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
   who has asked this of you,
   this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
   Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
   I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
   I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
   I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
   I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
   I am not listening.
   Your hands are full of blood!
 16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
   Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
   stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow.

What are we to make of this?  Click through to find out!

You know how every so often planets align with each other, creating all kinds of news stories about how Saturn and Venus and Jupiter are lined up and everybody should get out and watch them?  Well oddly enough, that kind of thing is happening with our Bible Studies.  All four of them are switching subjects in the same week.  We change subjects from time to time in each, but having them all go at the same time is unusual!

Our Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study just made the move from Acts to Isaiah.  There's some amazing synergy going on with the people there.  Our last couple sessions have been evocative and spirited to say the least!

Our Sunday morning group is moving from Genesis to Romans.  Both are classic books that you can never get enough of!  If you've never been through Romans you're missing out on much of the material that defines our modern faith.

Our Thursday night gathering is moving this week from a study of food in the Bible to a short look at Christmas and its traditions, particularly through music.

Theology on Tap, which meets this Saturday at 7:00 at the Parkins residence, changes topics each time.  Maybe it's cheating to count it in this list.  This Saturday's topic is going to be a question we seldom have the courage to ask but should really be asking ourselves every single week at least!

The upshot is, now would be a great time to try out any or all of these groups if you haven't yet.  You can get in on the ground floor of some great discussion!

I hope to see you there.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Weekly Devotion: The First Commandment

For the next few weeks we're going to shape our weekly devotions around the Ten Commandments, looking at how they might affect our daily lives.

The First Commandment and Martin Luther's explanation of it from the Small Catechism:

You shall have no other gods.
What does this mean?  We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

Click through for our devotional discussion.

Church Council Minutes: November 2011

The minutes of the latest church council meeting are up.  Click through to peruse them in their entirety.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

The End Time and Generations

Another question came into the e-mail inbox today, this one regarding Sunday's Gospel from Mark 13 and the end times.  At issue is Mark 13:30 when Jesus, after describing the suffering of the world and the Son of Man coming in glory, says:

30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

The question at hand:

What does this mean?  Doesn't this 30th verse mean that the end of times will happen in our lifetime, or--weirder still--back in their lives?

Yeah...this is on my list of "What exactly did you mean here?" questions for Jesus when we see him.  I wish he would have taken time to explain a little more clearly!

Some folks over the years have used this verse as proof that the Bible is false.  "The guy said that the end would come in the lifetime of those dudes.  It didn't.  He was wrong.  End of story."  Obviously this is a little unsatisfying.

In response others have opted out with the old, "Well...you don't have to believe every word in order to get the message."  This is just as unsatisfying. If we're just going to pick and choose what we consider true in the Bible then why have it at all?  Why not just consult our instinct or some other source that's easier for us to accept?

I would offer the caveat that this is probably not the most important thing that Jesus said.  We could get along just fine never understanding its real meaning and we may have to!  I wouldn't hinge my entire faith on this one statement.  But neither am I willing to just throw it out or ignore it.  Jesus said it. There has to be some reason and truth to it.  What could that be?  Is there a way this statement could be true and literal even if the world didn't end before 100 AD?

One approach involves personal experience.  We haven't seen the end of the world yet as a group but plenty of individuals have seen the end of their world since Jesus spoke those words...as we all will sooner or later.  What happens to us when our world ends?  At the moment we enter eternity time ceases to be an issue for us.  When we die the very next experience we have, blending seamlessly with our lives, is exactly the one Jesus describes:  seeing him come in glory.  To the living--those still on their journey--time passes in the interim.  Therefore we say Jesus has not come yet.  Not so for the departed.  They don't have a "yet" anymore!  Those who have died are touching eternity.  They can see eternity.  They are experiencing eternity.  Therefore God has already come to them even though he's still in our future...or at least what we perceive as "future".  (Eternity doesn't really have a future as we think about it, you see.  All times are one when you touch it.  Now...later...it's all the same.)  This is a wicked pretzel to think your way through since we can't possibly grasp what touching eternity does, our current minds and eyes being so limited.  But it does offer the possibility that what Jesus was saying to his followers literally came true for them, as it does for each of us.  The world did end for them and it will for us, exactly like you have said in your question.  This would also explain why he couldn't explain it better!  He'd have just left us scratching our heads more!

A somewhat easier explanation is that Jesus was defining "generation" differently than we think.  We tend to define generations--and indeed our lives--by two things:  time and family.  We say a new generation comes along every twenty years or so.  We say that a grandfather is in a distinct generation from the father who is in a distinct generation from the son.  Jesus defines generation by God's Word and grace instead of our own mortality or time limitations.  When Jesus rose again after being crucified he changed the world...re-creating it every bit as much as Adam and Eve re-created it when they bit the fruit.  Everything they ruined he redeemed.  Everything they scuttled he saved.  Therefore he inaugurated a new generation, or "age" if you will, of the world:  the age when God's salvation was truly revealed, his Word fully explained, his victory truly won.  Everybody before Jesus' time had been waiting for the Messiah.  Everybody since has seen him!  Therefore when Jesus says, "this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened" he means, "This is it!  You've now seen everything you need to in order to understand God's plan.  There isn't another age or another development to come after this except the end and the final coming of heaven." 

This generation--this new age--created by his death and resurrection will never fail or die out up until the very last day.  His Word will not fail.  We will never know a time when it is not with us...when he is not with us.  This was true of his followers and our great-great-grandparents.  It was true of our own parents and it's true of us.  It will be true for our children and for all the children that follow after until the roll is complete.  We no longer belong to different generations.  God's children are no longer divided by age or time.  We are united in a single, larger family, one giant generation in the history of the world defined and united by his Word, his love, and his saving act for us.  It's no accident that right after Mark 13:30 comes verse 31...

31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Our generation has Jesus and will never lose Jesus.  Our progression will go: Jesus with us...Jesus with us...Jesus with us...Heaven!  There won't be any gaps in between, even when there appear to be because we see the world suffering.  That is a very nice thought.  I also believe it's the most likely meaning for the 30th verse of Mark 13.

The promise Jesus made to his followers continues today, even when those particular followers are long gone.  It's become much larger and stronger and truer than they ever could have understood or believed.  And it will keep going until we all see the end together and get to celebrate its goodness.

Keep sending those questions along if you have them!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Christmas and Culture

We got our first question via e-mail today!  Thanks to the person who wrote.  We'll always keep questions anonymous so you can ask whatever you'd like.  Most of the time I'll edit it down for clarity as well.  But if you can live with that, fire off a question to the inbox and we'll talk about it.

Pastor Dave,
I love and hate Christmas at the same time. How do you find the balance between the religious holiday and the secular celebration?

Click through for our discussion!

Theology on Tap Returns!

This Saturday Theology on Tap--our discussion of all matters theological over fine beer and wine--will reconvene at the house of Rich and Jennifer Parkins.  They live on Eikum Road.  You can call or e-mail for exact directions if you need them.  The time is 7:00 p.m.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: November 28th, 2011

The Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent was Mark 13: 24-37, reading as follows:

   24 “But in those days, following that distress,

   “‘the sun will be darkened,
   and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

   26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

   28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

    32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

   35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

You will notice right away that Mark's Jesus is far more direct than the guy we've been hearing about in Matthew for the last year.  There's little explanation here, no extended prose.  It's just...BAM BAM BAM!  Heavens are shaken, Son of Man coming, end of an age, can't guess when it will be, watch out!

What are we to do with this?  Click "read more" to find out...

Church Service Recordings

Did you miss Pastor Dave's sermon on Sunday or do you want to hear the sermon again? Well you're in luck. Recordings of his sermons are being posted as they become available. Here is the list.

Weekly Devotion: Giving Thanks

Among many places in the Bible where we read about thanksgiving (the act, not just the holiday) stands Psalm 100:

 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Giving thanks is an integral part of our faith walk.  We give thanks in worship and prayer, two of the most intimate moments of our journey with God.  Our thanks is not hidden but spoken, shouted, or sometimes even sung, so that God and those around us can hear the truth of these words:  God is good, we are his, our purpose is love and joy.

Giving thanks brings several unique qualities to our world, without which our lives are impoverished.  It acknowledges goodness...that there's something worth living for and reaching for today.  It takes us out of ourselves, reminding us that we walk with, and are in need of, other people.  It sets the tone for our relationships:  giving, serving, helping, acceptance, gratitude, affirmation.  The world needs more of all of those things.  They're all wrapped up in those simple words, "Thank You".  Giving thanks fills that all-important space in between us with love.  That's a power far beyond the rote politeness we were taught as kids.

Take time to speak your thanks this week...first to God but also to all the people in your life.  Remember what we've said about finding Christ in others?  Enter their gates with thanksgiving too so that they may know goodness and love that endures.  Send a note to someone who doesn't expect it.  Stop someone by putting a hand on their shoulder and saying, "I've not told you this enough, but thank you for what you do."  Remember someone who helped you in the past that you've lost contact with and send them a card.  You'll be amazed how much life and energy spring up before you.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Sermon Note Questions: Serving Others

This Sunday's sermon on Matthew 25: 31-46 brought out an interesting question from one of our Confirmation students:

We talk about serving people but some people are independent and don't want to be helped.  How do we serve them?

The best way to answer this question is with a question:  Who gets to decide what "serving" is?

When you say "some people are independent and don't want to be helped" you're implying that "serving" means doing something for someone else in a way that doesn't let them participate fully or take ownership of the work.  It's almost like saying, "You just sit yourself down there, helpless person, and let me do this for you."  Most people aren't going to want to be served like that!  And you're right, some people hear exactly that message when we offer to help.

That's why the most important part of serving your neighbor is knowing your neighbor.  Many people of faith make the mistake of making service all about completing tasks.  This is understandable because service almost always involves some task or other.  But service isn't really about tasks, it's about people!  When we make service about tasks we're like a Boy Scout trying to complete his merit badge and not letting anybody get in the way of his goal.  We're going to help that old lady across the street whether she wants to go or not because darn it, we need to serve her!!!  Pulling grandma across the crosswalk isn't really service unless you know her, know she wants to go, and know that she appreciates the hand, right? Otherwise it's just selfishness ("I have to serve and earn my reward!") disguised as service.

Service to our neighbor is just an extension of loving our neighbor.  Loving our neighbor means taking the time to get to know them and letting them define how we can serve them.  Sometimes that might mean doing something for them while they sit and watch.  But sometimes the best service we can give is to affirm that they are independent and strong, to encourage them and cheer them on as they do the things they want and need to do.  Saying, "Your lawn looks so nice today!" can be as big of a service as going and raking all of their leaves ourselves.  It just depends on the person and what they need.

To tell the difference all you need to remember is this:  defining service by tasks makes it all about you and what you have to give, defining service by people makes it about them and what they really need.  In the first case they have to shape their lives around you, to accommodate your need to serve and feel good about yourself.  In the second case you change your life and your service to reflect them.  Service defined by a task doesn't matter much after that task is completed.  Service defined by your deep relationship with a person can lift someone's spirit for a lifetime.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Let everybody around Genesee know that we're serving Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday at 4:00 p.m.  Everyone is invited, come as you are!  We'll have turkey and all the trimmings, more than you can eat.  No cost...just come and eat with friends if you're inclined.

Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: November 21st, 2011

The Gospel for Christ the King Sunday came from Matthew 25: 31-46...

    31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

   34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

   37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

   40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

   41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

   44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

   45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

   46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Click through for thoughts on this description of Christ's ultimate reign...