Anatomy of 9:30 a.m. Worship

Announcement:  Remember that worship changes to 9:30 a.m. this Sunday.  We are, of course, at the Valley through the summer.

More interesting than the time itself is our method of arriving there.  For the last few years we've heard a distinct buzz surrounding summer worship.  Everybody loves it at the Valley. The location is perfect, in fact!  But the time of worship has become a small point of tension.  Traditionally we've worshiped at 9:00 during the summer months, an hour earlier than our usual 10:00 a.m. time during the school year.

The last couple years we have altered that pattern a little, keeping worship at 10:00 a.m. through May even though we moved to the Valley as usual.  We had figured out that moving anything earlier in the morning while our kids (and by extension their families) were still in school was not really kosher.  They'd do it--mostly--but it was hard.  So we figured that 10:00 was the way to go until school let out.

Even with that, the timing of June-August worship was no simple matter.  On the one hand you have folks who prefer to get up early, get done with church, and have their whole day ahead of them.  Plenty of folks fall into this category.  9:00 (or even earlier) works for them.  But then you have those folks with children for whom 9:00 a.m. worship at the Valley means starting the church train running painfully early on a Sunday morning.  Some will ask, "What's the big deal?  We did this with our own kids for years!"  But we're trying to be mindful of the struggles families go through nowadays...supporting them instead of burdening them.  Typical characteristics of modern families with kids:  they never stop, they're under a ton of stress, they run from one thing to the next to the next, and the kids don't sleep enough as it is.  Given that environment, it seems ironic to start the Sabbath day of rest by telling them, "Get up!  Here's one more thing to stress over!"  30 years ago that wasn't the case.  It is now.

We talked about all of this seriously in council a few months ago.  Most of us kind of liked 9:00 worship.  Most of us also empathized with folks who preferred 10:00.  We went back and forth.  9:00 would be easier.  We'd keep things the same.  10:00 would show we understand and care about some of our families under stress.  But those families might not come much more at 10:00 than 9:00, truth be told.  That said, a preference for an earlier start didn't seem to weigh as much as an honest need to have some extra rest and peace on a Sunday for people favored by a later one.

After all that talk, we put out the question.  "So, what do we do?"  Out of the blue, with the wisdom of a sword-wielding Solomon, one of our council members said, "9:30".  We all exhaled.  We looked around.  "9:30 good with everyone?  Yes?  Good.  Done!"  And there it was.

Mind you, we didn't make this decision to keep people happy.  In fact nobody's going to be really happy.  9:30 is neither 9 nor 10.  Nobody gets their way.  We've never done it this way before either.  That alone is guaranteed to set some folks on edge.

But the 9:30 decision was important not because the time was magic, but because of the things it showed:

• Church isn't about getting exactly what you want, but about learning to give a little.  Nobody's day is made that much later.  Folks get to catch an extra half hour of relaxation, maybe not rush so much.  Everybody gets a little something.  But more importantly everybody says to other people, "OK...I'll give up this half hour for you."  10:00 folks are coming at 9:30 for the sake of the 9:00 folks.  9:00 folks are coming at 9:30 for the sake of the 10:00 folks.  Everybody's giving instead of insisting on their own way.  That's the way church should be.
• This same phenomenon takes everybody out of the "I get my own way or I quit" seat.  We couldn't have made this kind of decision a few years ago because there would have been an uproar...people complaining, phone lines buzzing, people insisting on getting what they want.  Our church wasn't strong enough to overcome that.  Our council has determined that we are strong enough to overcome it now.  It's a new day.  We don't have to pander to concerns or opinions in order to have a "good church".  We need to work together to fulfill our calling no matter what our concerns or opinions may be.  That's what 9:30 demonstrates.
• Church isn't just about being functional.  We know the 10:00 people--largely in town, mostly with children, still stressed about life--will have an equally hard time making it to worship in the summer no matter what we do.  We do not expect to double attendance by this time shift.  It may not affect attendance too much at all.  But that isn't the only point.  The point is saying, "We hear your needs.  We understand.  We'll do what we can for you.  The door is open."  That little ":30" after the 9 shows that the door really IS open, that we really do care, and that we're willing to change the way we do things to prove it.  That's a message worth sharing in itself, regardless of results.  We're not judging this by numbers, we're judging by what witness we're giving.  This, too, is a new way of thinking for our church.
• Most of all, 9:30 shows that we're not afraid.  Granted, there's nothing to be afraid of  in this case.  Plenty of churches have 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:30 worship times.  I've been in a few myself!  But we have never done it that way.  And we're not afraid to.  Sometimes it's good to change things up a little just to remind us of that.  We don't operate in fear of change.  We embrace it.  We trust that God will be with us, inspiring us, just as much at the bottom of the hour as he was at the top.

So you see, 9:30 this Sunday will be something to celebrate!  Oh, we won't make a big deal out of it, but it'll be significant in plenty of ways that run beneath the surface of our congregation.  It'll show marvelous things about us.

We'll see you there!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Ten Random Pieces of Advice

I'm not much for advice-giving, at least in the abstract.  First of all, most people aren't looking for it.  It's much better to listen and commiserate than to tell people how they should be living their lives.  Second, advice isn't a blanket endeavor.  I can sit with one person and help them discern a wise way forward in their particular situation, no problem.  But to pronounce judgment on the lives of hundreds of unrelated folks with divergent lives?  That's presumptuous.  I prefer to give people the basic tools to explore God and life--usually some combination of shaking them out of the ordinary and helping them see the potential for the extraordinary--and let them have at it.

Nevertheless, people do ask from time to time.  So today I'm stringing together ten random pieces of advice that I believe are near-universal.  The "near" is for all those people they may not fit.  This isn't the Final Word, just as close as I can get to some practical guidelines in this mystery called "life".

1.  When in doubt, go with the most loving, merciful, and grace-filled option.

2.  Put aside all those moments when you want to think you chose God through your smarts or passion or will.  You're not above him, that you should brag about choosing.  Rather focus on the fact that he chose you to be his beloved child.  Also consider the possibility that he might be choosing people around you.  Treat them accordingly.

3.  People who fear death overmuch also end up fearing life, living to protect what they think they have instead of growing what God gave them.  "Death" here doesn't have to mean just the end of our lives.  It can be translated "loss" or "pain" or "failure".  The surest sign you're too afraid:  fearing change.

4.  The best translation of "faith" is not "belief", but "trust".

5.  The only way to find strength for yourself is to give it to others.  Peace also works along these lines.  Happiness too, oddly enough.

6.  Spoiling your wife is never wasted effort.

7.  Yelling at your kids almost always is.

8.  Nothing is more futile and draining than complaining.  If something annoys you, try to find a good side to celebrate.  If you can't manage that, let it go.  Life is too short.  If you can't celebrate it or let it go, then work in a forthright and honest manner to change it or reach a compromise.  Even if your desired change doesn't come by the end of that process you should find at least one way the annoying thing makes sense to somebody...a reason it exists.  Right there you've found your thing to celebrate.  Complaining isn't productive, it's just lazy and dismissive.

9.  Gossiping takes two parties:  a speaker and a listener.  Don't participate in either end.

10.  If you can love everyone's children as much as you love your own you will be as close as you can get in this life to the Kingdom of Heaven.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Interesting People

A brief but cheery thought for your Wednesday.  A couple days ago blog guru Patrick Adams and I got together with one of his friends and played music in the church basement, kind of spur-of-the-moment.  Then Patrick and his friend installed the new thermostat in the St. John's fellowship hall.  (Yay!  Controlled heat!)  As I was pondering this I remembered how lucky we are to have such interesting people surrounding us in God's family.  I mean, you can just call up somebody and say, "Hey, want to play some music today?" and in just a little while there you are!  We have people helping each other crochet or paint rocks.  We have gardeners.  We have game players.  We have people who watch movies, write poetry, sample wines, craft beers, cook, draw, run, play sports, or just sit around and discuss things.  Just about any time you can find somebody to do these things with, and many more!  People just show up with Irish food or penny whistles or playing cards or whatever the theme of the day is.  That's amazing!  It's a beautiful, surprising, and quite open and welcoming way of doing church...of being God's people.  And it's available to any of us just by saying, "Hey, let's do something!"

If you haven't given thanks for our church family recently, make sure you do!  Notice what's going on here and celebrate it!

Also if you'd like to hear how to make our church, and your personal life, more reflective of this kind of love--more chocked full of these kind of uplifting moments and activities--make sure you come to our Evangelism Workshop after worship this Sunday.  You'll find out what we're sharing, why it matters, and how your life can overflow with it too...to the benefit of everyone you meet.

See you there!  And all these other places too!  Anybody up for a good game of Balderdash?

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon (Tuesday Version): The Holy Spirit

Sunday was the Day of Pentecost, commemorating the Holy Spirit coming upon Christ's disciples following his resurrection and the beginning of their public ministry.  All of the day's readings talked about the Spirit one way or another.  They included Acts 2: 1-21, Romans 8: 22-27, and John 15: 26-27 and 16: 4b-15.

The Hebrew word for spirit from the Old Testament is "Ruach", meaning "breath" or "wind".  In the New Testament the Greek renders it "Pneuma", with the same connotations. ("Pneuma", by the way, is where we get the word "pneumatic", as in "pneumatic tools".  Those accomplish plenty of nifty things using moving air...a powerful force indeed!)  These translations give us a whole new purchase on the person and work of God.

We're all familiar with images of God the Father and Jesus Christ, the first two persons of the Trinity.  We're familiar with their works as well:  earth created, people guided, Law given, sermons preached, healing bestowed, life redeemed on the cross.  All of these witnesses, though, happened in the past.  When we consider God's actions we're liable to think of cold, harsh laws inscribed on a page or the historical acts of Jesus 2000 years ago.  They're beautiful, powerful, but also remote.  We're tempted, therefore, to consider God academic, detached, distant, and solely "other".

The Holy Spirit, though, reminds us that God's being and God's work are as real, present, and intimate as our last breath.

Ever tried to hold you breath?  Of course!  Everyone has!  How long can you accomplish it?  A minute, maybe two?  Consider this:  that's about how long you can force yourself to live without God's Spirit.  You can run.  You can protest.  You can wrestle and rant, believe as you wish, debate and worry.  But you know what?  Through all of that stuff, just wait.  A couple seconds later:  inhale...exhale...there He is.  It didn't matter what you believe, what you were worrying about, how hard you were running.  He is life, He is here, and He is yours.

The Holy Spirit brings life not only to our bodies, but to the Word, translating Jesus' actions into our every moment.  The Spirit keeps God from being that dead, remote, academic word on a page in your dresser drawer.  The Spirit shows us God is alive and working even today!

As we breath in the Spirit, as the Spirit sustains us, our moments are made holy.  The smallest child and the most doddering elder have this in common:  they are inspired by God. They have grace and love to share, opportunities to show God's presence.  They are infused with God stuff and sustained every second of their lives.  If you watch through eyes of faith, you can see the Spirit's work in places and people you wouldn't believe.  People breathing?  Is there life?  Then God is tending to it.

Some of us finished our day by heading outside to fly kites.  It was funny...when I left the house the wind gauge registered zero.  I thought, "Oh great.  Of all the days to have NO WIND on the Palouse!"  But we had asked people to bring kites and they did.  So after the service folks dutifully trotted them out there.  No sooner had they gotten to the north side of the church than...WHOOSH!  Up soared kite after kite.

It was the most amazing thing.  You normally wouldn't expect to see kites flying outside a church.  Even less would you expect to see kites flying above a cemetery, on Memorial Day weekend no less!  But somehow when the wind took those kites and you looked at that precious plot of land with memorials at our feet, the Spirit blowing above us, and living, laughing children in between...it was just right.  It was a reminder that God is still at work!  The whole yard was full of life in that moment and, dare I say...Spirit.

Don't miss the work of the Spirit in your life!  Start with breathing, give thanks for that, welcome in God, and then cast your gaze farther.  The Spirit is blowing all around you.  Watch and see!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Your Word

Our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Study concluded their year with a study of James. Our final session covered James, Chapter 5, including this very interesting verse 12:

12 Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

First off, we have to admit that James cribbed this straight from Jesus, namely Matthew 5: 33-37.  But hey, if you're going to borrow, borrow from the best!

At first the passage seems shocking.  What's the big deal about taking oaths and making solemn promises?  Upon further reflection, the issue isn't that oaths are wrong as much as unnecessary for a person of faith.

Followers of God have used a sly old trick for...well...for about as long as there have been followers of God.  It goes like this:  "Certain times, places, and people are important and holy.  I will reverence those.  If I speak in a holy context--usually indicated by me taking an oath and really, really promising that I can be trusted here--then you may be sure what I say is true and that I will follow through on it.  But other times, places, and people are not so important and holy.  If I speak in that context, well, I'm pretty much free to do as I please.  After all, it's not like I promised by something really holy or anything!"

This is really awesome for us as "good" and "holy" people.  (Note the sarcasm contained in those quotation marks.)  We are free to be seen as good and upstanding citizens in church and in other public settings.  We can pick and choose our times to take oaths and really pinkie swear, so to speak.  But then we can leave church or those other public settings and proceed to lie, cheat, con, connive, or do whatever else is necessary to get what we desire.  After all, we didn't really promise, right?  It's not like we took vows in front of an altar.

This passage is God's way of calling shenanigans on that mindset.  And I only use "shenanigans" because the stronger term would get me in trouble.

Note the problems with our sly little trick:

1.  By elevating certain moments and places as holy and worth swearing by while designating the rest as just "normal", we pen God into a narrow corner.  Sure he's present in church or in solemn public oaths, but he stays there!  He never follows us into real life.  Apparently he doesn't even care, as long as you don't do anything wrong in his special place.  We witness to everyone that God isn't in the world and that God has nothing to do with their everyday lives...with normal words and occasions.

2.  We also make God the God of the Good here...the God of the Perfect, really.  He's only around when people are behaving well, in contexts like church or the witness stand.  He's not the God of forgiveness, nor the God of the sinner, nor the God of people who just mess up sometimes and break words they shouldn't.

3.  At the same time we set the bar for ourselves really low.  If we can manage to be good for about an hour a week in church we're good!  Then we're free for the other 167 hours of the week to do as we please.  If we can manage to keep the two or three promises we swore to in a holy context we can then be absolute selfish boogers with everything else people depend on us for.

4.  In this way we witness that people of God are two-faced and hypocritical.  We also witness that God's word can be twisted to any kind of evil and still remain God's word...effectively robbing it of power and meaning.

Thus you get the "Christian" used car salesman who shows up in a suit with his family each Sunday and then cheats customers the other six days.  Or you get the Sunday School teacher who lectures piously at 9:00 a.m. and is emotionally abusing his spouse and children by 3:00 that afternoon.  Or, more commonly, you just get a bunch of people with the impression that church and faith happen on Sunday morning and are totally disconnected with everything else that happens during their week.

Yeah...shenanigans.

For a person of faith, every word is a witness.  Every word and every moment are packed with potential power for goodness or evil in the world.  That's as true on Friday night at 11:30 as it is on Sunday morning at 10:00.  If you speak a word, people should be able to rely on it being good and true.  They should also be able to rely on you following up on it, living your life by it.  Your "yes" and "no" should be as strong as the most binding oath.  If people can't draw a line straight from your most intimate moments of faith to the things you're saying and doing in this moment, what good is your faith?

Granted, this isn't always easy.  We're quite careless about our words, actions, and attitudes.  (Cheap Plug:  Come to the next Evangelism Workshop after worship on June 3rd to begin a discussion about this very thing!)  We let words escape our lips that aren't worthy of our faith or God.  We hold back words which should be uttered.  This is why we all need forgiveness and renewal every Sunday.

It also gets complex even when you're paying attention and trying to do right.  If my wife asks me if her derriere is getting larger, The Truth is not necessarily the wisest course.  Or rather, the greater Truth that it doesn't matter a bit is more central to the moment than the lesser (and more potentially hurtful) truth of "Yes, dear.  I'd say about four inches circumference in the last 18 months."  Sometimes figuring out which truth to speak can be a nightmare.

Even so, even as difficult as it is sometimes, we aren't free to be cavalier about our words.  We aren't free to lock God away when it's convenient for us, nor to brand ourselves as his followers and then hurt people as if it didn't matter.  Every yes means, "Yes, you can rely on this to be good and rely on me to live by it."  Every no means the same.  If we cannot pack that kind of meaning into our utterances, we should think twice before we utter.

Cue tapes of radio hosts, politicians, salesmen, newscasters, commercial spokespeople, authors of letters to editors, and plenty of pastors here...

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Holy Rest

Two inviolable rules govern the discipline of online writing:

1.  You are only as good as your last post.

2.  You must post every single day without fail, saving perhaps weekends when people are busy with family instead of wasting time at work surfing the internet.

If you're not prepared to live by these two rules you might as well give up writing online.  You're done before you start.

Astute readers will notice that I broke Inviolable Rule #2 here yesterday.  I didn't post.  Why?  I was tired.  It was one of those days full of Pastor This and Pastor That plus Careen and the kids got home from Boise after a five-day trip plus I had extra work to do on the Blazers blog which kept me going until all hours of the night.  By the time I got ready to write here I was pretty much exhausted.  I'm not sure what kind of post I would have come up with, but it probably wouldn't have been very good.

Times like this require one to remember another rule, not of online writing but of life:  rest is a holy endeavor.  As we've said before when talking about the Sabbath, rest is your way of admitting that the world can get along without you for a little while.  If you can't come to terms with that not only are you the center of your universe, you believe you control everything and everyone around you.  Last time I checked, both of those claims belong to God and God alone.  In that way rest is a safety check against idolatry.

The rules of keeping people engaged in a blog and my personal work ethic said I should have posted something yesterday.  My body, mind, and spirit said I probably shouldn't.  In this case the correct theological approach was listening to my body, mind, and spirit.  Fear says, "If you miss a post people will never come back!"  Arrogance says, "You have to do this in order to seem (and be) good."  God says, "You know, you can stop for a second to recharge.  I can take care of things for a minute or two probably.  I mean, I've only been doing this since...I don't know...the beginning of time."

The more passion you have for your work, the more closely you pursue your true calling, the more clearly you see the benefits of your labor for yourself and for others, the more likely you are to fall into the trap of no-rest idolatry.  How long has it been since you've given yourself permission to let go for a little bit?  How long has it been since you've proven to yourself and the world that life doesn't hinge on you?

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Pentecost Is Coming!

The season of Pentecost is almost upon us!  This Sunday marks its beginning, the Day of Pentecost itself.

Pentecost Day is sometimes called "the birthday of the church".  It's the day when the disciples were overcome by the rush of a violent wind and tongues of flame descending from the skies.  This was God's Holy Spirit descending upon them.  Immediately they went out and began speaking the Word to the people in the streets and they never stopped.  Everything we know of church flowed from that moment.

Note the characteristics of the event: a big disruption came, throwing them out of their normal course, God touched them, then they went out and shared him with the world.

Note also the characteristics we like in a "good" church:  no disruptions, nothing that's going to jar us too much from the way we want to live our lives, a focus on people coming in instead of us going out and sharing/doing.

Wowzers.  Our modern church has shifted into reverse in some ways, eh?  No wonder we're surprised when God shows up in people and events we least expect.

Pentecost is the season of growth through action.  The texts talk about all the things Jesus did and taught during his ministries and all the ways his disciples learned to do the same.  Pray for fire in your hearts, a wind to push you to new places, for God to touch you in faith during this season, and for you to be sent where he intends you to go in order to do his work.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: For the Grads

This Sunday's text was a long and winding prayer by Jesus from the Gospel of John, Chapter 17:

6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

We tied this in to the journey of our three graduates:  Miranda Carter and Tyler Renton from high school, Jeff Chilson from college.  In doing so we looked at some of the verbs which Jesus employed in this prayer.  He petitioned God to take the same actions that he had taken during his ministry and that he now wanted his disciples to take on their path forward.  Some of these are slightly different in the NRSV translation we used in church, but you'll get the idea.

Give, for this will be the measure by which the goodness of your life will be judged.  It's not about what you get, but about what you can do for others.

Know, learning not just from school or what you've studied in the past, but from the future that God will unfold before you.  Your experience in class doesn't teach you specific facts, closing you down.  It teaches you how to learn, opening you up to a lifetime of discovery.

Receive, for God will send you people to guide you along the way, supporting and sustaining you.

Believe, and never let go of that trust in God, that he will bring you goodness.

Ask in order to find out what you need to make good decisions.  Never assume you know somebody or everything about a given situation.  Be curious.

Glorify, not forgetting that the purpose of this life is to discover the meaning of words like "love" and "beauty".  Lift up goodness before the Lord and your neighbors, finding ten things to celebrate for every single thing you complain about.

Protect those whom the world puts at a disadvantage.  Sacrifice your own comfort that someone else might know goodness.  Do not stand idle when God's beloved children are hurting.

Come to God and do not neglect his Word or the prayers that sustain you.

Speak for the right things and be bold in doing so.  God gave you a unique voice.  Use it!

(En)joy and have fun!

Sanctify...which is really God's work in us rather than our own.  Nobody's going to be perfect but God blesses the work of our hands, turning even our imperfections to his good purposes.  Your life is holy.  Your works will be made holy in him.  Understand that your words and actions are a living testament to God even as Jesus' were and thank him for making you that important and beloved!

Blessings to Miranda, Tyler, Jeff, and all of this year's graduates!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

BRILLIANT Inspiration!

Just yesterday I talked about the diversity of faith backgrounds and views in our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Study and darned if we didn't see the Spirit at work in exactly that way this very morning!

We are studying the Book of James and in this particular passage we considered the role of works in faith, how they were necessary but how they could also become a source of distraction when they became prideful or self-righteous.  We talked about how churches often narrow their ministries by keeping their tasks familiar and withing the purview of 4-5 people instead of letting all the gifts of the people in church flower.  We were just getting into the disguise we put over this process--anointing one thing to do and one way to do it and calling that "right" or "holy"--when one of our brilliant theologians brought up a lesson she had been told in childhood:  "If you want something done right, do it yourself!"

This simple statement dovetailed with everything we had been talking about: work being about the self, limiting the range of our daily tasks to things we agree with or things that cater to our own gifts, defining a single way of doing things that only we know, determining right and wrong by internal bias rather than external effect.  Then the true beauty of the statement came to the fore as we made this connection:

1.  If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

2.  Faith, by definition, can never be done by yourself.  (At a minimum you need a God to believe in, right?)

3.  Therefore by simple A-B-C mathematical logic, faith can never be done "right"!

Whoa!!!

Note that this is different than saying faith can never be done well.  It surely can be.  But it can never be done "right" when "right" is defined as "just one way to do it, the way I say".  Faith is not a "get out of the way and let me show you how it's done" endeavor.  Faith is a, "Let's jump in and do this together" thing.  Every time we posit a single "right" way to do it we are isolating ourselves, cutting off our faith from infinite permutations of God's Spirit and from its relationship to people around us.

In other words, every bit of energy we spend on trying to get faith "right" by that self-centered definition is a waste of time.  Every moment we spend doing faith together with each other and God is a blessing, even if we sometimes do it imperfectly.

Thank goodness for all the people and views at our Bible Study.  They bring out this kind of thing that we'd never think of sitting in a room trying to read scripture on our own.  Who knows if we get it right all the time, but we sure do it well!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Different Perspectives

Our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Studies are winding down for another year.  As we meet for the last couple of times until fall I want to point out a facet of our study that's not remarked about much but has provided much joy and interest in the past couple years.  As we've gone on through these studies our group of participants has become more diverse than ever.  We still have Lutheran ladies from here and abroad, of course, but increasingly we're seeing participants from the Catholic Church, the Community Church, and others yet. This makes for a fascinating time!  We're never short of thoughts.  But neither are we fixated on finding THE ANSWER.  In fact it's almost a bummer when we find a satisfactory answer because then the conversation ends!  But oh well...we just move on to the next verse!

Diversity in our outlooks and opinions has made that group vibrant and stronger.  It's so refreshing to be able to gather to ponder and explore our faith instead of gathering to rehearse all the things we think we're expected to say.  It's a little dangerous sometimes but it's also exciting.

We only needed two things in order to increase the actual "study" in our Bible Study:

1.  We had to ask questions and bother to listen for people's responses.  We make plenty of points and carry home plenty of solid things to think about, but we go through the questioning process in order to get there.  We don't come with our points already decided, not needing to hear anyone else.  We ask, we listen, we learn...first from scripture and then from each other.

2.  We take care of each other in this process.  Sometimes we hear things we don't agree with or that challenge us.  Instead of rejecting the people who bring those things to the table, we respect, love, and welcome them.  We may not end up agreeing but we do end up loving.  Love makes the gathering safe, emboldens people to share their thoughts and lessons no matter how wild or speculative.

Asking questions and loving people when they answer are two underrated disciplines of faith.  Thanks to everybody in our Women's Study we now have a living model of how it works and enriches our lives.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

The Greatest Danger

People speculate all the time about dangers to the church and faith.  Usually the conversation involves some combination of atheism, changing moral values, disintegration of  society, loss of  the "Christian" culture, and the like.  Those things can all be hazardous, but truth be told they've been with us for thousands of years.  Every generation departs from the last.  Every 10-20 years we get a new reason to complain that the end of the world as we know it is nigh.  At no point yet has that actually happened.

None of those things qualify as the greatest danger to faith because they're all outside of its realm.  Not to say that faith is limited or divorced from these things, rather than most people--Christians included--view them as peripheral to faith, if not opposed to it.  Few things outside of faith can truly harm it.  Change it, yes...sometimes for the better and sometimes not.  But they'll not overcome it.

The biggest danger our generation faces comes from inside the faith.  It's not about non-believers or immoral folks.  It's about people who profess to believe and live rightly but try to do so apart from faith while at the same time decreeing themselves to be paragons of it.  As with outside challenges, this sort of thing has been around for centuries.  The Pharisees fit this mold in some ways.  Plenty of faithful Jewish people in Jesus' time did too.  But none of them had the same power or opportunities that your average person living in the United States today does.  They were free to posit whatever they wished about faith, but it remained beyond them.  Their circle of influence was too small, their control over their own lives too limited.

In the modern era any of us can communicate with hundreds of people at any given time.  We also have near-inviolable power of choice over our own lives.  That means the worst instincts of people in Jesus' time find full flower, and often support, among us.

What we don't realize is that the true danger comes not from making choices about this or that aspect of our life--faith or otherwise--rather in the power to choose itself.  Every well-meaning person of faith I know fights the same battle:  to make God and faith a part of their life.  The irony of this is that they fail precisely when they succeed.  God is not meant to be a PART of our life, he IS our life...the only life that endures and matters.

We cling to the idea that we can life a "good" and "balanced" and "productive" life and then try to figure out how faith fits into all of that.  What we don't realize is that faith is the path to goodness, peace, and the fruits of the spirit.  We assume we know what "good" is and then try to match faith to it instead of immersing ourselves in faith and defining goodness from that.  Our faith competes with all of the other tasks of life--usually coming in second to more critical-seeming matters--instead of shaping all of the other tasks of life.  Thus we get a faith that's reliable, predictable, tame, and utterly in our control.  By extension we also get a faith, and through it a God, which is utterly dispensable.

The greatest threat to faith is not anything from the outside trying to knock it down.  It's people on the inside failing to hold it up.  Faith can deal with any number of wrongs.  It can't prosper where nobody cares what's right.

True faith cannot be tamed.  It will not follow politely behind a thousand other priorities.  True faith transforms you, shocks you sometimes, leaves you wondering where that came from and marveling how you never saw it before.  True faith cannot be held; it must be breathed.  It cannot be carried in the pocket and brought out at convenient moments either.  You swim in it every day, immersed from head to toe, or you end up dry.  True faith changes the way you do everything in life, from your dearest relationships to your most chance encounter.

I cannot tell you how to find this kind of faith.  It finds you.  It calls you every day.  The problem isn't making it happen.  The problem is that we're all satisfied with something else.

When's the last time faith really burned you, kindling a fire that surprised?  When's the last time you were in awe over the work of faith in your life?  When's the last time you viewed your day through the eyes of faith rather than viewing your faith through the lens of your daily schedule?  God is many things, but he's not small enough to fit in a corner.  He's on the loose, running wild, a little dangerous, certainly passionate and exciting.  It's time for all of us to see and follow that God, letting him out of the little box in which we've been pretending to keep him and chasing him wherever he leads.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: Love

This week's gospel came from John 15: 9-17.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

We talked about these things extensively last week so we opened up the floor to everybody on Sunday.  Jesus' strongest and most binding commandment to us was to love one another.  What characteristics best define "love"?

We heard a host of answers:  affection displayed, consistent action, commitment, respect, acceptance, support, endurance, sacrifice, forgiveness.  It dawned on me as people kept bringing up different facets of love that we all know what this is.  The only problem is, we don't practice it often or widely enough.  We forget and let other things get in the way.

So this Monday Morning Sermon is simple.  It probably would have taken you 5 minutes to read a normal Monday post and another 5 minutes to ponder and digest it.  Take those 10 minutes and go find somebody to love today.  Either make it somebody unexpected or find someone you're expected to love and love them in an unexpected or different way today.  Surprise somebody!  Don't ask for anything in return.  Don't look for big rewards or results.  Just go and love for free for 10 minutes today in a new and different way.  In this way you'll be fulfilling Our Lord's command and I bet you'll have fun too!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Everyday Evangelism

Every once in a while Dan Carter comes to mess around in our yard.  Sometimes he's checking up on the church. Sometimes he's repairing the church lawn mower.  But mostly when he comes, it's to mow the lawn.  It's a great service to our congregation and we're lucky to have Dan do it.

Every time Dan Carter comes over to mow the lawn, I know about it within 30 seconds of him starting.  No, we don't have security cameras screening the yard.  We have a four-year-old boy.  Derek loves lawn mowing.  Along with race cars and girls named Mattie, it's one of his passions in life.  As soon as he hears a lawn mower start anywhere within three blocks his ears perk up.  "Somebody's mowing the lawn!" he'll say.  Then he'll run to the window to see if it's anybody he knows, what kind of mower they're using, etc.

When Dan Carter comes to mow the lawn, Derek is priceless.  I'll hear, "Somebody's mowing the lawn!"  Then he'll run to the window and look out.  All of a sudden his body goes rigid as if you shot a few hundred volts of electricity through him and set off a firecracker in his feet.  "It's DAAAAYANNN!  It's DAAAAAYAANNN!  He's mowing OUR LAWN!!!"

(If you imagine Forrest Gump as a four-year-old sounding really happy to see Lieutenant Dan you'll get the pronunciation of that name about right.)

At that point Derek makes like Wile E. Coyote in one of the old Road Runner cartoons.  His feet start running way before the rest of his body catches up.  He scrambles for his socks and shoes...the MOWING shoes, the ones that he can get grassy and dirty.  Then he dashes for his ear protecting headphones.  He slaps them on his head, looking for all the world like one of those guys on an airport tarmac directing planes.  These things look huge on him, but he doesn't care.  He darts to the door and outside.  I stay at the window, watching him run across the lawn.  Usually Dan hasn't even had time to make one pass before Derek is there.

My son runs across the lawn, body still arcing with excitement.  Then he gets a little ways away from Dan and stops.  I can only see him from the back, but you can see the hope and expectation in his posture.  Only Christmas and his birthday do it for him like this.  He stands a few feet away from where Dan's riding, partially because he knows not to get too close to a running lawn mower and partially because...well...it's not dad on that mower.  When dad's mowing the lawn he just jogs out there confidently, knowing that I'm going to pick him up.  But this is Dan.  He's hoping so hard that Dan will stop for him, but he knows it's still a question, not a certainty.

There's always this moment, an in-between time when he's fully ready but still waiting for a "Yes".  He realizes now that Dan sees him.  He freezes. The world freezes, really.  You can see time stop for him.  He's still unsure.  The question isn't answered yet.  He might have to turn around and go back in if Dan doesn't want him.  Tick...tick...tick...

Then Dan smiles and waves him over, scooping him up onto his lap.  Derek grabs the wheel alongside Dan's hands and off they go.  Derek's posture is so straight, like he's working now, but his smile is so giddy, like he just got on the best roller coaster ride in the world.  He leans back into Dan and they mow...a dream come true, every time.

Now tell me, is Dan just mowing the lawn or is something greater going on here?

On the surface it's just a task.  Lawn needs mowing, Dan's being a good guy, now grass is short.  It happens dozens of times around town every weekend.

But through the eyes of faith, what a marvelous moment this is, and what evangelism.  Look at all Dan is doing!  By giving his time and effort in the first place he's showing he cares about the church and its people.  That's the part everybody understands and is grateful for.  But my gosh, what is he doing for Derek with just a wave and a smile?  Every time Dan turns the key on that mower it's like announcing the best news ever to my son.  It transforms Derek's day.  He gets all prepared in an instant.  He runs out hoping, expecting that he might find joy and acceptance and someone to share both.  With that simple gesture saying, "Come on up!" Dan confirms all of it.  The world is a good place.  Wonderful things can be found right outside your window.  People are glad to see you.  People want to share things with you.  You are welcomed.  You are loved.  Today really is the best day ever!!!

Can you think of better ideals to teach a kid?  Can you think of a more potent message to counter all the world's ills that Derek is eventually going to experience?  And can you think of a simpler or more natural way to teach it?

Plus, you know, Dan is now a legend around our house.  Like practically a saint.  I think Derek is commissioning a statue of him next Tuesday.

Don't mistake the importance of seemingly ordinary events and small gestures in life.  The greatest lessons are taught through them.  Open your eyes of faith to see the miracles in every moment.  Both you and the people around you will be richly rewarded.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Bible Study Reflections: Taming the Tongue

Our wonderful Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study group has been debating their way through the Book of James as the year comes to a close.  Today we read the following from James, Chapter 3:

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

James has a rather negative view of the tongue here!  But it's not so much that he despises the muscle, rather respects and fears the power it holds to do harm.  That respect is well-earned.  Consider this:  in all my years of ministry I've never seen a single person hit, punch, kick, shove, mug, rob, or murder anybody in church.  But none of the churches I've served have been perfect.  Over and over again I've seen people impoverish each other, wound each other, drive each other away, and destroy faith.  In every single one of those incidences the culprit was the tongue.  Every bit of harm done in the church--and there's plenty--is done through words:  accusing, complaining, belittling, dismissing, drowning out, and so on.

James' admonition against becoming a teacher is well-taken, since teachers are held responsible for what they say regarding their subject matter.  What James leaves out:  as people of faith we're all teachers.  Every word we utter witnesses something about our faith, our world view, our priorities, and how we value others (or don't).  Every word we say is supposed to reflect Christ.  We were held accountable to that standard the moment we were baptized.  We adopted it for our own when we were confirmed or when we joined this church as adults.  Sadly, most of us forget it on a daily basis.  We act as if it doesn't matter what we say.  Or we become careless, using our tongues to get what we want--what we think is right--instead of to honor God and our neighbor.

Most people I know who are anti-God, anti-church, anti-faith aren't really turned off by any of those things.  What they really are is anti-people, particularly anti-church-people.  Inevitably this is because of something they've been taught, told, or accused of that invalidated and wounded them.  Some person of faith forgot that their words represented God, were meant to convey his grace and love.  Some person of faith forgot to pay attention not just to what they wanted to say but to the effect it would have on the person listening.  This kind of careless disregard has driven away many.

Our task each day is to wake up praying that the Lord would guide the use of our tongues throughout our day. From then on we listen very hard to the people around us and usually speak softly.  We think before words escape our lips, not just about what we're trying to accomplish but about the people we're trying to accomplish it with and for.  We understand that each word we say will convey something about God for good or ill and choose our words accordingly.  We regard speaking as a holy privilege, a moment of great opportunity and great power.

If people would listen and think more--complain and badger, insist and accuse less--many of the world's problems would melt away.  Yet even with this holy injunction staring us in the face, I've never known a church without complaining and badgering, insisting and accusing, gossip and rumor.  How sad that we rob God's holy house of its power that way!

Like fire, the tongue holds power to give great warmth or great destruction.  For which purpose are you using your tongue today?

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

What It's All About

Here's a quick but important reminder that is becoming more and more prominent as we work together and plan our way into the future.  I've found myself saying this in multiple venues in conversation with individuals and groups.

Church is about the relationship between God and his people.  Whenever you say or do anything in relation to your church faith consider that first, last, and always.

It's awfully easy to reduce church to a building or lot, rituals and traditions, a list of tasks to be done, a code of morality, or a series of judgments to get right.  Those things all play a part in church life, but they're just a part...subservient to the claim above.  The relationship between God and people--and through him the relationship between people and their neighbors--is the first concern of a faithful church.  If you get that wrong, none of the rest matters.

Jesus himself showed this through his life.  He never had a building to call his own.  He actually told people to leave their homes to follow him.  He prophesied that their grand temple would be torn down, not one stone left upon another.  Jesus chastised the empowered religious people of his age, warning them that their rituals and riches meant nothing because they used them to cement their own power instead of demonstrating God's love.  Dying on the cross wasn't a just act.  Had justice and rightness prevailed Jesus would have been the only guy living in that scenario.  He would have jumped down off the cross to smite everyone around him who had condemned, abandoned, or mocked him (which was everybody there).  Instead he forsook right judgment in favor of mercy and grace.

That's our pattern for "doing church".  It starts with that same mercy and grace as its highest values and patterns everything else accordingly.  Things don't have to get done perfectly.  Relationships have to be lived out lovingly, with charity and forgiveness.  That's walking in the Spirit.  Every other attempt at perfection is just idolatry in pretty clothes.

I hope our church tends to the relationship between God and people, between people and people, well.  Keep that highest priority in mind the next time you think about, talk about, plan or do anything in a church setting.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Something New

Tonight I am up late learning a new video editing software suite for my online work.  The whole process reminds me what a wonderful pain in the tuckus change is.

When it's done, this new tool is going to save me tons of time and stress over the old way I was doing things.  But even though the old way was arduous, I had gotten used to suffering in that particular way, you know?  I knew exactly the ways the system would be slow, exactly the hiccups and exactly where they'd occur.  It got to the point where I could time other work in between the annoying stalls I'd encounter.  I knew where the system would break down and I learned to take advantage of it!

This new way won't have the disadvantages of the old, a development for which I'm grateful!  But right now as I'm slogging through instruction manuals and trying to find where to drag this and which button to push for that and why my computer is telling me I can't do this other thing...UGH!  Right now it's taking me at least as long to accomplish my task in this new, "streamlined" way as it would have if I had just used the old system.  That's not because the new way is slow, just that I haven't learned it yet.

At this moment I'm experiencing considerable temptation to go back and do it the old way, the way I'm familiar with.  I say this even knowing that the old way is inferior.  The only thing keeping me from putting down the new booklet and retreating is the knowledge that if I do it, the process will never...get...better.  A couple weeks from now I'll be a wiz-bang student of this new system and then my work will fly by.  But if I give it up, that'll never happen.

Isn't this true of most every change, though?  Plenty of times in church we do things because "we've always done them that way".  We forget to examine who our methods, processes, and systems are serving.  We put up with plenty of detours and inefficiencies because it seems like more of a pain to change them than to just make the mistakes we're all familiar with.

But the same lesson applies here too.  The only way forward is to endure the pain of change, to face that fear and soldier onward.  It'll be hard the first couple times you do anything differently.  But walking through difficulties and resolving them without giving up are the only ways of making life better.  Getting comfortable with shortcomings that should be resolved--whether in business, your personal life, or the life of faith--is a road to nowhere.  It looks straight and it's easy to walk, but you're going to be walking that same path 90 years from now not having learned or changed a thing.  In the short term it looks like comfort.  In the long run it's a slow, boring death.

So here I go, back to my instruction booklet and a heavy dose of sighs and groans.  I can do it, I should do it, so I will do it. Wish me luck as I figure it all out.  I promise I'll empathize with you as you walk through the changes you need to make as you move forward in life!  Then we'll do the same for each other as we experience our church changing and growing together.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Monday Morning Sermon: Vine and Branches

It felt good to be back at the Valley this week!  Summer isn't here yet but having the light shine in the windows out in the country sure brings back memories of warm days and fun services.  It's going to be a great summer!

This Sunday's sermon text was John 15: 1-8, which reads...

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Click through to hear some of the things we talked about regarding this amazing gospel!

A Revolution

In preparation for last night's very first Evangelism Workshop, I ended up researching a ton of material.  The Bible, evangelism programs, old stuff that I'd written on the subject...plenty of thought went into this.  As I was writing up the final draft of the workshop I realized something semi-startling:  there's no way we can do the kind of evangelism we're called to do--the kind scripture talks about and our neighbors need/can accept--while holding on to the way we've done church in the modern era.

The more I pondered and drafted, the more it became clear to me that this call to evangelism would require serious changes in the way we think about church, God, the world, our neighbors, and the interaction between them all.  A set of nifty tips and nice ideas won't do it.  That's like pouring new wine into old wineskins.  The Spirit that we need will burst them.  What we need is, in effect, a revolution.  It's not something new, exactly.  God has always meant it to be this way.  But we've buried what we're supposed to be doing under a host of assumptions about church and life that have chained our faith instead of letting it free to be shared.  We talked about all of that last night.  We'll talk more in the weeks to come.

In the end, this is why it's SO CRITICAL that everyone from church be a part of these meetings.  We cannot change our mindset or vision with 1/3 of the congregation motivated and 2/3 clinging on to the same old assumptions without examining them explicitly.  The Spirit of true evangelism (which is quite different than what we think of as evangelism nowadays, as we are learning) needs to breathe in all of us.

This first session is already underway and will conclude next week.  It's too late to join at this point.  The next session happens after worship on June 3rd and June 24th.  That's your next opportunity to experience the revolution.  It's going to pick up momentum.  It'll provide us a positive, wonderful way forward as a congregation.  Don't get left behind.  Mark those dates on your calendar so you can hear and understand what we're talking about.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)

Evangelism Workshop Ahead!

It's almost time!  Our first Evangelism Workshop starts tomorrow night (Thursday the 3rd) at 7:00 at St. John's.  There will be two sessions, Thursday the 3rd and Thursday the 10th.  These are going to be wonderful, warm, amazing, and hopefully enlightening evenings.  It'll be a mixture of sharing stories, thinking deeply, laughing a little, and looking for God together.  Everyone from confirmation age on up is invited!  You won't regret it, nor will you ever look at evangelism the same way again.  Our church will be much richer for everyone having gone through this experience too.  We're about to change what most people have considered a burden into a complete joy!

If for some reason you can't make these next two Thursday nights, we will also offer these sessions after worship on Sunday June 3rd and 24th at the Valley.

We'll see you there!

--Dave