No More War

I sent the following letter to The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister; The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. John Maloney, Member of Parliament.


Dear Messrs. Harper, MacKay, and Maloney,

I am writing to denounce the current escalation in conflict and violence in Israel, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. I am saddened by the loss of life and the suffering this violence has caused and continues to cause for so many people and communities. I am also disappointed and grieved by the harm that has come to any hope for peace in the region.

The history of the troubles in the Holy Land has taught us, only too clearly, that violence does not bring peace. In the face of what would seem obvious it seems that the parties involved deliberately fail to learn this lesson. In this situation talk of "appropriate means" and criticism of "disproportionate responses" are simply inadequate. In order to keep the situation from spiraling out of control, there needs to be a clear rejection of all violence as a means of securing peace, together with a genuine commitment to justice for all people of the Holy Land.

I pray that those who so easily turn to violence as a response to violence will be led to the path of peace. I pray that no more Israelis or Arabs will have to die in the name of violent and exclusivist ideologies. I pray that "the things that make for peace" will be learned, that the Holy Land will become a land of peace and an inspiration to the rest of the world. I pray for those in that region who witness for peace and who provide relief and support to communities affected by the current situation to find their work enabled and supported and their witness amplified against the louder noise of war.

I urge our government and our nation to join others in the international community, perhaps to show leadership in the international community, and move beyond platitudes and do what is necessary to calm the violence, to restore hope, and to push forward towards peace and justice. There is no hope to be found in violence, only a deadly cycle that spirals into more violence. The violence must cease. Fundamental justices must be redressed, if peace is to be more than just a word. It is past time for the international community to be clear, resolute, and unconditional in this message. Previous efforts to promote peace in the Middle East--the Oslo Accords and the "Road Map" alike-- have been mortally wounded by the continued resort to violence and by the failure to redress obvious injustice. A different approach to peace in the Holy Land is required, in which justice is at the heart. If we as Canadians and members of the international community do not insist on justice as a basis for peace, we will be complicit in the inevitable perpetuation of conflict.

Please, let us not stand idly by half a world away as sisters and brothers in our one humanity continue to suffer and die.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas P. Arth

Pirates (after the fact)

Okay, so we went to the drive-in last Thursday and watched Pirates 2. We weren't disappointed. Well, just a little disappointed but not in the movie. It's fun to go to the drive-in but the picture quality isn't the same as in a theatre or on TV especially the dark parts, we always end up sitting pretty far back, even with my glasses my eyesight isn't great, so combine all these things and I didn't see as much as I would have liked.

But the movie was cool. Some friends of ours went along and parked next to us and we sat on our lawnchairs together. We went in our new (new for us) van. The kids have been reenacting scenes and repeating funny lines from the movie ever since ("An undead monkey!"). The boys actually climbed into the back of the van and went to sleep, missing most of the movie. The ending freaked us all out, not in a scary way but in an "I don't get it, he's supposed to be dead" way. I won't tell you who "he" is in case you haven't seen it yet but want to. The second feature was "Cars." We'd seen it already but we were watching but then I started falling asleep and I was getting cold so we went home.

I was dangling the idea to my wife of going again this Thursday. One of the other screens (there's 4 screens at this drive-in) is showing the new Superman and Click as the double feature.

Pirates

Okay! So tonight we're going to the drive-in. It's carload night and my girls offered to pay the admission (but not for the snacks) so that we can go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. So my daughters will get to sigh whenever Orlando Bloom comes on the screen, my wife will get to swoon over Johnny Depp, and I'll get to admire Kiera Knightley. The boys will get to enjoy some swordfight I'm sure.

The first time we went to that drive-in we pulled into our spot and then tried to watch the movie looking around the head of the person or the headrest of the seat in front of you. But we noticed what everyone else was doing, at least those with vans. They pulled in backwards, opened the tailgate, pulled out the lawnchairs, and watched that way. That's been the way we do it since then. We even bring along a couple of little plastic tables for our drinks and snacks. I suppose you could even light a couple of mosquito coils to keep the bugs away.

Tonight's supposed to be a beautiful night. We're expecting a heat wave in southern Ontario for the next few days so we probably won't be needing blankets to keep us warm. My girls were anticipating July 7 and the release of the new Pirates movie for months. It was marked boldly on the calendar. So tonight we go to see it at the drive-in.

What a couple of weeks!

What a couple of weeks!

I guess I’ll go back two weeks. It was a busier week than usual. I had my normal preparation for Sunday worship but on top of that I was scheduled to preach at the first of our ecumenical worship services down at the park by the lake. When the pastor organizing the services told me they figured on a 25 to 30 minute sermon I thought to myself, "I’ve never preached that long in my life!" Well, I did come up with a longer than usual sermon about Abraham and Sarah and their relationship with God. The focus was more on God’s mercy and grace in the face of all of their constant screwing up which translates better to our situations than trying to use Abe and Sarah as examples for living. I think the point of those old stories is what God does not what the people do, or else what God does in response to what people do.

But, the day before that busy Sunday, July 1, Canada Day (our equivalent to your July 4 holiday for any American readers), I was to preside at a memorial service. Another sermon to begin with, and an interesting dynamic with the family and those who came to the funeral. The gentleman who died had been a member of our church years ago. I don’t know what church, if any, he’d been attending lately. I certainly didn’t know him from my 4 years here. His only son and his daughter-in-law are members of the LC-C church around the corner (that’s like Missouri Synod for any American readers). I was surprised when the funeral home called and asked if I could do the service. I thought they’d ask their pastor. But I was willing to do this for them. I know the daughter-in-law a bit because she’s the organist there and we’ve had her play for some funerals at our church when our organist wasn’t able to be there.

There’s some stuff going on at that church and I don’t know all the details. We’ve had 7 people from there come over to our church and tell me that they definitely, or some possibly, want to become members here. What I’m hearing is that they’re tired of Close(d) Communion practices in that denomination and the fact that women aren’t allowed to take (m)any leadership roles in the church, not even to read the scripture lessons from the lectern on a Sunday morning. I’m also hearing rumours that there may be more to it but these two issues are what I’ve been hearing first hand.

Back to my last couple of weeks.

The evening of the worship service in the park, I drove down with my family and got there realizing I didn’t have my sermon with me. So I dropped them off, we were plenty early, and I drove back home to get my sermon. Got into the van to drive back to the park and the van breaks down right in front of the house. It sounded like tin cans were being crushed in the transmission. So I drive down in the second car, the one not big enough to carry our family of 6, and do my thing at the service and now we’re destined for car shopping.

Next day is Monday, I take it off in lieu of the Saturday holiday, brother comes for a visit and to give my youngest his birthday present a day early. Next day is Tuesday, July 4, our baby’s 4th birthday. My parents come for a visit. I don’t kill myself with work in the office since I haven’t had all of my days off lately plus I want to visit with my parents and celebrate my son’s birthday.

Then comes Wednesday, July 5, the beginning of our Synod Assembly. I’m leaving my wife and the kids stranded without a vehicle. Our lay delegate is being dropped off and we’re driving 2 hours together to Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario for our 5 day convention. For the most part I like these conventions. I get to catch up with old friends with whom I’m terrible at staying in touch. We get to worship as a synod and the pomp and ceremony and musicianship (usually) is so uplifting. It’s generally a great experience.

On Thursday morning I get to the assembly hall and am handed a message. "Call home. There has been a death." So I get on the phone with the secretary, with my wife, with the funeral home, hoping that they can hold off with the funeral until Monday so that I can be there and do it, otherwise I have to find someone else to do it and all the Lutherans are at the convention, maybe the new Anglican priest (here less than 2 weeks) can do it for me. I’m hearing that the husband (now widower) wants to wait but there is some disagreement with a brother and an executor/power of attorney who wants it on Saturday. They agree on Monday. Not much time to prepare but I can swing it.

Thursday afternoon in the first report of the Committee on Reference and Council we’re presented with a motion to allow congregations a local option to perform the blessing of same-gender couples who want to make a life-long commitment to one another in the presence of God and their community of faith. Actually there are 7 motions made asking for this in one way or another. Last year our National Church Convention defeated such a motion 55% to 45%. This year our Synod passed virtually the same motion 72.4% to 27.6%. I wasn’t surprised the motion appeared. I wasn’t surprised it passed. I was surprised by the size of the majority. I expected it to be somewhat closer. I was impressed, and the bishop also commented, on how respectfully the convention engaged in the discussion of this challenging issue. There wasn’t nearly the same amount of tension and stress as last year at the national convention, or even in 2004 when our synod passed a statement of welcome to people regardless of gender, race, ancestry, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, age, record of offences, marital status, sexual orientation, economic status, family status, or disability.

The rest of the assembly was pretty tame. We had a great keynote presentation from Kathy Magnus, Lutheran World Federation Regional Officer for North America. There was discouraging news about finances, especially regarding Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. But I think we’re people of hope and I think we can become a more generous church. It might just take some creativity and prophetic utterances to make it happen.

Back on the home front my wife is researching vans, and what do we buy to replace our old crippled one. The old van, a 1996 Ford Windstar, is 10 years old (I guess you could do the math and know that, eh?) so it’s not really worth fixing in our opinion because at that age it won’t be long before something else goes wrong. A nearby used car dealer actually lets my wife test drive a Nissan Quest for a number of days. So she wasn’t stranded after all. But from her research it seems the Quest has pretty low customer satisfaction and reliability ratings. It seems the top of the heap are Toyota Siennas and Honda Odysseys. So, after Monday’s funeral, we go car shopping. A sister-in-law has been looking around for us too and said there were some in Burlington, an hour away but where our families live. We went to look at them, found a 2003 Honda we liked at the Toyota dealer in Oakville (yes a Honda from the Toyota dealer), stayed over night with our families, and brought the new van home yesterday.

It’s a nifty van (I know, nobody says nifty anymore) and looks like it’s never been driven, certainly not by anyone with children. Now we’ve got to get rid of our old transmissionless Windstar. We’ve actually had two people show interest in it.

The funeral on Monday went pretty well. I went to visit the husband/widower on Sunday evening. He cried a lot. I asked him if he had any requests as far as hymns or scripture readings for the service. He left it up to me (I chose LBW 272 "Abide with Me"; LBW 346 "When Peace, like a River"; and LBW 501 "He Leadeth Me: Oh, Blessed Thought!" for the hymns and Ps 23; Rom 8.31-35, 37-39; Jn 11.21-27 for the readings). We talked, we prayed, I went to the office and worked late Sunday night to get a sermon written, and the next day we had a funeral.

Now I’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow to get a sermon written for Sunday. I take Fridays and Saturdays off so I like to be done by Thursday evening.

I spent some time with a good friend at the assembly. She found her way to this blog and keeps telling me I’m not thinking often enough. Here it is Dini. I’ve got some fun plans for tomorrow evening but I’ll post them tomorrow (that’s my plan but not a promise).

That Sinking Feeling?

Here's yesterday's sermon with help from David Lose and Barry Harte.

3rd Sunday after Pentecost
June 25, 2006
Mark 4.35-41
Thomas Arth

Why did the chicken cross the playground?
To get to the other slide.
Why did Jesus tell the disciples to cross the lake?
Answer 1: To get to the other side.
Answer 2: According to our reading, because Jesus told them to.
Well, I think we can combine those answers.
The disciples were crossing the lake to get to the other side
because Jesus told them to.
Following Jesus,
going where he sends us, doing what he tells us to do,
isn’t always smooth sailing as the disciples found out.

As they set out, Jesus takes his place in the stern of the boat
and the disciples do their work.
As they sail, all of a sudden a storm rages.
The boat is tossed about like a child’s toy.
The winds push the waves into the boat
and it is swamped with water.
Surely they’ll all drown.

"Where is Jesus?" the disciples ask frantically.
Their efforts to bail out the boat are failing miserably.
Somehow Jesus, in the stern of the boat,
sleeps through the storm and the cries of the disciples.
This must have been some storm.
I can see Matthew or Thomas or Judas being scared,
but Peter, Andrew, James and John, they’re fishermen,
they must be used to the lake and sailing.
If they’re frightened this must be severe.
On finding and rousing Jesus,
the question moves from where to what.
Now it’s not "Where is he?"
now they ask "What will you do?"
Do something. Do anything!
The wind is rebuked with a few words,
"Peace! Be still!"
Now it’s Jesus who gets to ask the questions:
"Why are you afraid?"
"Have you no faith?"
The disciples answer with still another question:
"Who is this?" they wonder aloud.

Do we have much more faith than those disciples?
Storms can easily disrupt our plans,
perhaps even threaten our lives.
An unexpected diagnosis turns our world upside down.
A slump in the economy leaves us jobless.
What seemed like a stable relationship
breaks apart and rocks our world.
In each case, and so many others,
we wonder what has happened and question God’s presence.
Jesus does more than question.
He trusts God, stills the storm, and calms the sea.

"Who is this?" the disciples ask.
This is the only child of God
who will do much more than calm wind and sea.
This is the only child of God
who will heal the sick, feed the hungry,
welcome the sinner and outcast.
This is the only child of God
who will suffer death, defeat the devil,
and rise again to bring everlasting life.
Yes, storms rage about us,
but you, O God, rescue us even from ourselves,
drowning us in the waters of baptism,
that we might live, truly live, in all faithfulness.

This isn’t the first miracle the disciples have seen from Jesus.
According to Mark’s gospel
they have seen Jesus cast out unclean spirits.
They have seen him heal many people.
They’ve seen a man
lowered through a hole in the roof by his four friends,
and Jesus tell the man to
‘Stand up and take your mat and walk.’
Mark has also told us about Jesus’ preaching and teaching.
He has promised the coming of the kingdom of God.
And now Mark begins to show us
what that kingdom will look like.
Here Jesus displays his complete power over nature,
suggesting that while many things in this life may shake us,
none will defeat us,
for we are children of the awesome God
who has set the boundaries of creation
and still commands its powers.
An alternate first reading for today is one from Job,
from the end of Job.
Job continually maintains his innocence
when his so called friends accused him of deserving his fate.
Confronted with great suffering,
Job attempts to prove his innocence to God.
Finally God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind.
God shows Job that, as a finite human being,
he is incapable of judging the Creator.
God says:
"Who took charge of the seas
when they gushed forth like a baby from the womb?
That was me! I wrapped them in soft clouds,
and tucked them in safely at night.
I prescribed bounds for them
so they couldn’t run loose,
And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.
Here shall your proud waves be stopped.’"
Only God has the power
to control the seas, the winds, and the waves.
When Jesus rebukes the wind and the sea,
tells the wind to pipe down and says to the sea
"Quiet! Settle down!"
the disciples ask "Who is this, anyway?
Wind and sea are at his beck and call!"
"Who then is this?"
Why it’s none other than God
who has the power to tame the chaotic waters.
Looking back from our point of view, we know this,
but the disciples couldn’t see this significance.

Sometimes the storms in our life seem to be out of control.
The chaos threatens to overwhelm us, to swamp our boat.
It might be caused by people or situations
or evil powers that we can do nothing about.
Sometimes it’s not even our fault.
A common lament is why do bad things happen to good people?
Even the world of faithful Christians
can come crashing down.
It can cause us to ask God, "Where are you?"
"Is it nothing to you that we’re going to drown?"
Even when the storms in our lives are spinning out of control,
even when we doubt that God is there,
even when we curse God
for allowing us to suffer the way we sometimes do,
even when we turn our backs and give up on God,
even then God is here.
God is with you, no matter what.
Something that has become a favourite theme for me
is an image that Kelly Fryer describes in her book
"Reclaiming the ‘L’ Word:
Renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core."
She says that God always comes down.
There is never anything that we can ever do
to make our way UP to God.
God came down in Jesus.
And God still comes down,
in the bread and in the wine,
in the water and in the fellowship of believers.
God ALWAYS comes down.
So even when our faith is shattered,
when our boat is being swamped and in danger of sinking,
even when we turn our backs on God,
God comes down,
God is here, for me and for you.

Jesus asked the disciples
"Why are you such cowards?
Don’t you have any faith at all?"
"Where is your faith?" Jesus might still question us today.
Do we have more faith than the disciples? No.
Will we ever move beyond our lack of faith? Probably not.
This news may seem rather sobering,
but in the end it is not so much the quality of our faith that matters
as its object,
for we believe in the one who lived, died, and was raised again
so that nothing in the heavens or earth
can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
That’s Paul writing again in Romans.
He says "I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—
nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic,
today or tomorrow, high or low,
thinkable or unthinkable—
absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love
because of the way that Jesus our Lord has embraced us."
As long as this God is on our side,
none of life’s storms—
whether physical or spiritual—
can keep us down for long.

This business of faith can seem to be filled
with more questions than answers.
Where, what, why and who;
the question left for us is "When?"
When is the time to respond with faith?
Now is the time.
Earlier, in the reading from Second Corinthians we heard
"‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’
See, now is the acceptable time;
see, now is the day of salvation!"
God hears our cries.
God does not sleep.
The disciples were never really in danger
as long as their Lord was with them.
They just didn’t know it.
And when we feel like the weight of the world is pressing down,
maybe we’re not so confident that our Lord is there.
In the Small Catechism Martin Luther teaches us
about prayer when we rise in the morning
and when we lie down at night.
In each case he tells us to begin by making the sign of the holy cross
and saying:
"Under the care of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen."
That’s to serve as a reminder to us when we might have our doubts,
that as baptized children of God
we can be confident that God loves us, cares for us,
and is with us always.

Paul says that "NOW is the acceptable time;
see, NOW is the day of salvation!"
Not later, not tomorrow, but now is the time.
Open wide your hearts to receive the one who always comes down,
the one who said, when you were baptized, "you are mine,"
the one whom even the wind and sea obey.
Amen

Why Church?

I once heard someone say something along the line that "anyone with a brain doesn’t need a church to tell them how to live, they can figure it out for themselves." I will concede that there is some truth to a statement like that. There are plenty of people in our community and our world who live a decent life, even a good life, helping others, doing good, loving their families, and they never go to a church.

So why church? What’s a church for? Why should anyone go to church if you can be a good person without it? Well, different churches might give different answers to these questions. Even within a particular church you’ll get different answers from the people there. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about these questions.

I’m a Lutheran pastor and in the Lutheran church we talk a lot about grace. In fact one of the Lutheran church’s famous slogans is "Grace Alone!" What grace or "Grace Alone!" boils down to is that God loves us. Not just "us" Lutherans, not just "us" Christians. God loves the whole world and demonstrated that love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And God calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and sends the church out so that the Word of God’s unconditional love and promise can be heard clearly in the world.

That Word of God’s unconditional love and promise is a word of forgiveness and life. God knows, and so do we, that we’re less than perfect, that we mess up, that we don’t live the kind of life that God intended for us. So what does God do when we mess up? God forgives! And the Word of God’s unconditional love and promise is life giving. God’s love makes a difference for people. Not the law. Not a list of rules you better follow or else. Not whacking people upside the head with a Bible. The thing that changes people, the thing that makes a difference for your life, the thing that gives life is God’s love.

So why do people think the church is about telling them how to live? Well, I think it’s because so often the church forgets about its reason for being, forgets that it’s really about spreading the news of God’s unconditional grace. We’re not here to list conditions that people need to fulfill before they can receive God’s grace. We’re not here to reform people’s morals. We’re not here to tell people how to live.

It’s tempting to tell people that if they’d just shape up and turn their lives around, if they’d just do this and this and if they’d stop doing that and that, then God will surely reward them. But that’s not now and never can be the good news. Every time we tell people, "If you would just change, then God will love you," then the church is betraying the message it’s been sent to share.

That’s not what God created the church to be and do. The church has been put into this world to spread the radical news of the unconditional grace of God. The church is not a "check your brain at the door" kind of operation. We believe that when we hear the good news of God’s grace and experience the good news in the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper then God awakens faith in us and then strengthens that faith as we live in a Christian community.
So why church? I don’t think the church is here to tell us how to live. But I do think the church is here to help us to live a life of faith. And as we live a life of faith with other Christians in the church God changes us so that we can live for others and share the faith and the good news of God’s love for the whole world.

Tom hasn't been thinking

I spent 43 minutes this morning talking on the phone with a friend with whom I'm really bad at keeping in touch. I don't think I've seen her or talked to her since last summer and I don't know if I've emailed her either. I even forgot to wish her a Happy Birthday 11 days ago. It was nice to do a bit of catching up.

She told me I haven't been thinking since Easter. First I didn't know what she was talking about then the lightbulb clicked on and I realized she reads my blog.

There are 5 or 6 blogs that I check out almost daily (when I'm in the office) and I don't know where they find the time to do all that blogging. I find that this takes time and effort that I can't often muster. Don't get me wrong, I like blogging but... Well, it just takes time to compose something and then I feel guilty for doing this rather than other work that has to be done.

I've considered blogging something about the whole DaVinci Code movie thing. Maybe I will, but not today.

To blog or not to blog...

Easter Sermon

This is what I preached in church on Sunday. Again I had help, from Paul Jaster in Sundays & Seasons, from Kelly Fryer in The Lutheran Course.

Resurrection of Our Lord—Easter Day
April 16, 2006
Mark 16:1-8
Thomas Arth

I was reading something on the internet.
A Lutheran pastor was musing
that the women we just heard about in the gospel reading
were the first Lutherans.
They get blown away
by the best news ever revealed in the history of the world,
before and since—
and don’t tell anyone!
We Lutherans have remained faithful to this scripture!
It’s been said that the only commandment we’ve ever obeyed
is Jesus’ command to secrecy, "Don’t tell anyone!"
Give us another 500 years—
and we might start telling the secret!
Now, of course, he was joking.
But plenty of people in many other Christian denominations
could probably make the same joke.
Christians are supposed to be
all about spreading and sharing the good news.
We’re not here to reform people’s morals,
or to police their behaviour.
The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies us
so that the Word of unconditional promise made to the world
in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth
might be the focus of our life, our mission,
and that through us
the world would know what we know.

Yes, the news of Easter Day is good.
But do you think maybe it’s just a little too good?
Too good to be true?
Doesn’t it sound less like the gospel truth
and more like wishful thinking or a fairy tale?
I just read the Easter story from Mark.
Now, you may know that Mark is the shortest of the Gospels
and most scholars think it’s the earliest of the Gospels,
the first one written.
If you were to look into your own Bibles
you might find that there’s more to the story after verse 8
but the rest might have brackets around it or footnotes
explaining that the most ancient authorities
bring the book to a close at the end of verse 8,
just as our reading did today.
It’s kind of abrupt, kind of harsh, and strange
that the messenger at the tomb tells the women
to go and tell what they’ve seen and heard,
but they don’t do it.
Instead they flee in terror and amazement
and say nothing to anyone out of fear.
That’s why that joker on the internet said
they must have been the first Lutherans.
They receive this good news but won’t tell anyone about it.

The first witnesses of the resurrection
had their problems with the message.
No one thought Jesus would rise from the dead,
least of all the first disciples.
The Bible usually portrays the disciples as being quite clueless.
Jesus tells them a number of times that he has to die
and that he’ll rise again, but they don’t clue in.
When it came down to the crunch they took off.
All of them had fled.
Even the women who came to the tomb
sought the dead among the dead.
They were coming with spices they bought
so that they could anoint the body.
They were doing it out of love and respect,
a final act of kindness for the Jesus they knew and loved.
When they heard that their Lord was raised,
they were so poorly prepared for this news
that they turned their tails and fled.
Their mouths were zippered shut.

Isn’t that just like us?
We claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
We pay him our respects
and anoint him with our fragrant thoughts of adoration.
Then, when we are called upon to "go and tell"
and proclaim his death and resurrection,
we are filled with fear and trembling.
But you know, we’ve got an advantage
over the women who came to the tomb that morning.
We’ve been met by Jesus.
Meeting Jesus changes your life
and makes you want to share that with everybody.
But, maybe if we’re not sharing that with everybody,
we haven’t met Jesus.
Have you?
Do you know what happens when the word is proclaimed,
in the reading of the scriptures,
in the preaching of the gospel?
What happens?
Jesus comes.
What happens when the sacrament of baptism is shared?
When we speak God’s promises over a person as water is poured?
Jesus comes.
What happens when we hold out our hands
to receive the bread and wine of Holy Communion?
We receive Jesus.
Have you met Jesus?
Well, did you hear the word today?
Did you receive the bread, the wine?
Is the body and blood of Jesus Christ given for you?
You were met by Jesus.
It’s not like we have to go racing around the world looking for Jesus.
Jesus comes to us!
A couple of years ago I stood up a chalkboard in the middle of the chancel
and I drew a big arrow pointing down.
It was something I taught to the confirmation kids,
something I know they got because I drilled it into them week after week.
It's a simple message.
The arrow means that God always comes down.
God comes down in the bread and the wine.
God comes down in the water of baptism.
God comes down in the word that’s spoken.
God comes down in the community we share as Christians.
God came down in Jesus.
God comes down in Jesus.
God always comes down.
There’s never anything that we could do to flip that arrow around
and make our way up to God.
It’s a gift.
So, have you met Jesus?
Have you been met by Jesus?
Yes.

But just because we are so often failures as disciples, however,
doesn’t mean that God allows it to remain that way.
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
But, more than that, he raises us from the dead
and gives us the strength, the power,
the courage for service.
The risen Christ could have written off his disciples
and summoned others in their place,
especially Peter who denied him.
They all deserted him, denied him, betrayed him.
He could have said,
"This bunch of losers will never amount to anything.
Before I ascend to my Father in heaven
I better gather together a crew
that’s going to make something of themselves
and get this message out there."
He could have written them off.
He could write us off, too,
especially when we deny him again and again.
But he didn’t, and he doesn’t.
Instead, Jesus gathers his fearful, faithless disciples,
forgives them, and empowers them for service.

Listen to the stories of some who have been empowered,
who have gone out and shared the good news.
One woman, a Lutheran, worked in a salon
and she was one of the shyest people you’d ever meet.
If you met her in a crowd
she’d be the one standing at the back against the wall.
But she was responsible for bringing more people into her church
than anyone else.
They were people she worked with at the salon,
or her neighbours,
or the parents of kids
who played on teams with her kids.
She would always say, when asked,
that the reason she invited so many people to come to church
is because she loved her church.
She probably did love her church.
But here’s the real truth—
she loved people.
And she saw them.
When she was talking to them she could see them.
She could see the emptiness.
She could see the difficulty.
She could see how much they needed what she had found
and it was the most natural thing in the world
for her to invite those people to come.

Another woman had been disconnected from the church
through her whole adult life.
She’d been married in the church,
but had no connection after that.
Her children hadn’t been baptized,
her grandchildren hadn’t been baptized.
Well, she found her way back to the church
and started telling people about what she was experiencing there.
All of a sudden her neighbours and co-workers
started talking about their church activities.
She didn’t want to hurt any of their feelings
but she said to her pastor,
"I went through such terrible times in my life
working right alongside all these people,
and never did any of them invite me to come to church with them,
or talk to me about their faith,
or offer to pray with me,
or even offer to pray for me.
None of them dared to talk about those things,
until I started talking about how I was going to church.
I just keep asking myself,
now why didn’t they share that with me?
It could have made such a difference."

We have been met by our risen Lord, Jesus.
We know the truth of the resurrection.
We haven’t looked into the empty tomb.
We haven’t heard angel voices.
But we have, in one way or another,
come to know the truth of this day.
Wherever we see people being healed, reconciled, set free,
we catch a glimpse of that morning at the tomb.
We know the truth of this day by sick beds,
at a meeting of AA,
in the presence of a person whose loss
is too fresh or raw even to mention,
but who keeps going.
We hear Easter in the laughter on the day of a funeral,
in the giggles of a child,
in every asking and giving of forgiveness.

Once again Jesus takes his position at the head of his forgiven flock
and leads them in a ministry of teaching, healing, preaching,
loving, and serving.
The women’s encounter with the angel at the empty tomb
is as much about the resurrection of deadbeat disciples
as it is about the resurrection of Jesus.
What does Jesus do with our fear, our reluctance,
even refusal to share what we have been given?
He forgives us,
and then empowers us to go forth
to tell the world the good news.
We have life,
something the world needs, our families need,
our neighbours need,
and we have the freedom to give it.
Now that’s a resurrection—
a rising from the dead!
Amen

Easter Sunrise Sermon

For the 4th year now, we gather at 7 a.m. on Easter Sunday at our church's cemetery out in the country for a service of Holy Communion. This year we had 48 people gathered (our average Sunday attendance last year was 48). After the sunrise service we came back to church for breakfast and then at 10:30 a.m. we worshiped in the church (74 people).

Here's the sermon from the sunrise service.

The Resurrection of our Lord — Easter Dawn
April 16, 2006
John 20.1-18
Thomas Arth

He’s Gone.
That’s what they’ve been thinking the last few days.
He’s Gone.
Their teacher, their friend, their Lord, is gone.
Some of them say, "we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."
But he was condemned to death, crucified, dead and buried.
Gone forever.

Their hopes are dashed.
Their faith is destroyed.
He talked, he preached, about the kingdom of God.
He could have been their new king.
The things he told them.
Things about peace,
about love,
about forgiveness.
Was it a lie?
Was it wishful thinking?
Is it all over?
He’s gone.
It’s over.

Sometimes when things are just so bad
you wonder how it could possibly get worse.
Sometimes, unfortunately, you find out.

Mary loved Jesus.
He had healed her of severe afflictions
and she became a disciple, traveling with him
hearing him teach,
loving him to the end.
He was hounded all his life.
Herod wanted him dead.
The people in his own home town
would have thrown him from a cliff.
Others felt so threatened by his preaching
that they constantly tried to trick him
to get him into trouble.
They didn’t quit.
They never let up.
Finally it seemed the whole city,
the whole country,
the whole world,
was crying "Crucify him! Kill him!"
And all that Mary could do was watch.
She witnessed his horrible death.

There are many paintings depicting the crucifixion.
One in particular shows the scene,
the sky is dark,
the world is in darkness.
In the dark shadows at the foot of the cross is a figure.
It is Mary.
She holds on to Jesus’ bleeding feet.
She kisses those tortured feet.

She was there.
She wept with Jesus’ mother.
She watched them place him in his tomb.
She saw them roll the stone over the opening.

On Sunday she came back.
How could it possibly get worse?
He’s gone.
The one who saved her,
who set her free,
who loved her,
he’s gone, it can’t get any worse.

Oh, but she comes to the tomb.
It’s not the way she left it.
The stone is rolled away.
What have they done?

They’ve taken him away.
Not a moment of peace in his life.
And now in death
they wouldn’t even let his body rest in peace.

Her heart is broken.
Can she cry any more tears?
She can.

But she’s not alone.
A voice says:
"Woman, why are you weeping?
It’s an uncommon question to be asked in a cemetery.
"Why are you weeping?"
"They took my Master, and I don’t know where they put him."
"Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him."

Mister?
Oh, no!
Mary!
Open your eyes!
He’s not gone!
He’s here, and he’s alive!
Nobody’s taken him anywhere.
Look Mary. See who it is.

In her grief. In her deepest sadness. Mary didn’t see.
How could she have expected to see Jesus?
She saw him die, with her own eyes.
Saw him wrapped in linen,
laid in the tomb,
She saw the stone laid over the opening,
a sure sign of the finality of death.
Hope destroyed, faith dashed.
Is it so unheard of?
Who has the kind of faith that comes to a cemetery
expecting to find life?

But listen.
The man, the gardener(?), he says something.
"Mary!"
Did you hear him?
Did you hear what he said?
"Mary!"
He said, "Merv!"
He said, "Gerry!" "Jordyn!" "Heather!"
Did you hear what he said?

The question, "Why are you weeping?" is not so uncommon now.
Because the one asking the question has a surprise in store.

He didn’t leave her hanging for long.
When she had bottomed out with despair,
when she had lost all hope,
when her faith was gone,
when life was meaningless,
He called her name.
When life is gone,
when death seems to reign,
when there is no reason for hope
when you can’t find meaning,
He calls your name.

He’s full of surprises.
He surprised an adulterous woman
when she heard the rocks meant for her body
fall onto the ground
because no one would cast the first stone.
He surprised a Samaritan woman
who was expecting the day when the Messiah would come
and heard Jesus say, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
He surprised the widow from Nain
whose only son was dead
but Jesus said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!"
He surprised a criminal on death row
who hung on a cross next to his
and who entered Paradise with him that day.
He surprised a woman in a cemetery
who watched him die
who watched him be buried
but who heard him call her name.
He’s not gone!

When she realized who this man was,
when she realized that her master,
her Lord was alive,
she went and announced it to the disciples.
It was news she couldn’t keep to herself.
He’s not gone!
He’s alive!

Death is not the end.
The grave is not the end.
The stone can’t shut him in.
"Death has been swallowed up in victory.
…victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

He’s not gone.
He’s alive.
And he calls your name.

Good Friday Sermon

With help from Paul Jaster in Sundays & Seasons, and from Elizabeth Achtemeier in Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons: With an Eye to the New, and from Ben Witherington III from John's Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel.

Good Friday
April 14, 2006
John 18.1—19.42
Thomas Arth

Leave it to a child to pose the key question for this day:
"Why do we call it Good Friday if this is the day that Jesus died?"
I started writing this sermon on Monday morning,
pondering that question,
and that afternoon one of my kids came home
saying that a friend at school asked just that question.
It’s a question I’ve heard many times on the lips of children.
It might also be a question in the minds of adults
but we’re too embarrassed or too shy to voice it.
The mood of today’s worship service is definitely somber.
We sing hymns in minor keys.
We gather and then we leave in silence.
Our worship space was stripped bare last night
so that today the church seems absolutely barren.
No flowers, no greens, no colour,
no paraments, no candles, no cross.
Everything points to the sadness, the sombreness of this day.
So why do we call it "Good" Friday?
Good Friday is a good time to answer this good question
with good news—the best news of all.
It may have been "bad" for Jesus,
but what he did upon the cross was "good" for us.
That’s why we call it "Good Friday."

The death of Jesus was "bad" for him.
He bore in his own body all the hatred
and the violence of the world.
He took the lumps, the lashes, and the bruises.
The spit and mockery.
The baiting and temptations.
The awful raw nakedness.
The hunger and thirst.
The bone-shattering, heart-wrenching,
flesh-piercing sense of God-forsakenness.
In the reading from Isaiah we heard,
"He was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed."
That reading from Isaiah is known as the fourth Servant Song.
The song describes a suffering servant,
one who suffers for the sake of others.
Hauled into court, the servant makes no defense of himself.
Instead he is condemned to death,
and a shameful death at that.
He is buried along with all the other criminals
and forgotten as of no importance,
even though he actually was innocent of our transgressions
with which he was charged.
But it says that all of that was God’s will!
God used the servant’s death as the payment for our own sin.
The innocent servant’s death atoned
for what all of us have done wrong!
And as a result,
all of us are now counted righteous in the eyes of our God.

Yet, Jesus’ death was "good" for us.
In total faithfulness to God, he proclaimed God’s forgiveness.
He created a new family—
not one based on tribe, marriage, or blood ties,
but on faith in him.
He promised "paradise today" to any who would dare to believe it.
He "handed over" his spirit
to those who had the guts to follow him.
Martin Luther spoke of this "joyful exchange,"
which faith recognizes and grabs hold of.
Through our response of faith in him the circuit is complete,
the electricity is let loose,
and the new life and power of the Spirit is unleashed.
Jesus’ death was "good" for us
because it was necessary for our life
in communion with one another and with God.
The cross can be too pretty these days.
We didn’t veil our cross this year during Lent.
But why do we normally do that?
The reason for that custom
of veiling the cross and crucifix during Lent
comes out of the Middle Ages.
Crosses and crucifixes were often splendid, jewel-encrusted works of art
and veiling them during Lent provided a "fast for the eyes."
The point wasn’t to hide the cross
but to cover up how fancy many crosses had become.
In our culture the cross has become trivialized,
often turned into a mere article of jewelry.
The modern equivalent of wearing a cross
would be wearing a little golden electric chair around one’s neck.
Many wear a cross as nothing more than costume jewelry
without making any statement of faith whatsoever.
To this day, religious Muslims who consider Jesus a great prophet,
don’t believe that he died on a cross.
They don’t see it as necessary nor appropriate,
only as scandalous, for how could a loving or just God
allow such a thing to happen
to so good and just a son as Jesus?
And looking at it that way it would be true.
Unless Jesus’ death was absolutely necessary for our salvation,
for the forgiveness of sins, and for life everlasting,
then God wouldn’t be a loving God.
But we believe that Jesus’ self-sacrifice was a grace-filled act
to redeem us from the death we deserve,
to give us new life.
It was not the nails, that held Jesus to the cross.
Nor was it our sin.
Our sin couldn’t force God to do anything at all,
much less nail God to a cross,
if God didn’t choose for it to happen.
It was Jesus’ love for us that held him there—his love for us.
That’s the joyful exchange of Good Friday.
Jesus "was wounded for our transgressions"
and "crushed for our iniquities"
and "by his bruises we are healed"—
healed in the eyes of our God,
counted righteous once more in God’s sight,
despite all of the sins and terribly human mistakes and weaknesses
to which we all fall prey.
Through faith in Jesus Christ
we are restored to the household of our Father
and know his loving and sustaining presence.
That is life, abundant life,
and joy, and eternity with our God!
This love is what makes the Friday that he died so "good."
Amen

The Three Days

We are approaching the high point, the climax, the centre of the year. I'm talking about the days and nights, the celebration and worship, of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. At the centre of our church year is the celebration of the mystery of a Christian Passover.

In their faith and worship life, Jews observe the Passover remembering their liberation from bondage in Egypt. Passover is a family meal with a liturgy that proclaims:

"We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord our God brought us forth from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Holy One, blessed be he, had not brought our forefathers forth from Egypt, then we, our children, and our children's children would still be Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt."

But in their celebration the Jews are not only remembering, celebrating, or commemorating an historic event. In their eating and their liturgy they become part of this deliverance themselves. They say:

"In every generation let each man look on himself as if he came forth out of Egypt. As it is said: "And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt". . . .

It was not only our fathers that the Holy One, blessed be he, redeemed, but us as well did he redeem along with them. . . .

He has brought us forth from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to holiday, from darkness to great light, and from bondage to redemption."

The focus of the Passover meal for Jews is the grace of God who nourishes and delivers God's people, a grace which was particularly evident in the Exodus.

The Three Days is our Christian Passover. We are not simply remembering, celebrating, commemorating, or recreating the events of Jesus' death and resurrection. Our worship is not about going back in time but letting the spiritual power of death and resurrection be real for us today. We often proclaim the mystery of our faith without even thinking about it. They're just words on a page. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. In Christ we have become part of eternity and in these liturgies we participate in the mystery at the centre of our lives and faith.

In Holy Baptism our gracious heavenly Father liberates us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's real and it's now and in Holy Week we experience it in the here and now. Craig Mueller, a Lutheran pastor in Chicago, writes: "In these holy days we find both our identity and our mission—remembered in the past, made present through word and sacrament, and propelling us with invincible hope into the future."

Please go to church and worship with your church family this Holy Week and Easter season. Let us be glad and rejoice.

Rest eternal grant her, O Lord

A cyber-friend's mother died yesterday. Lutheranchik writes an awesome blog. I almost feel like I know her from reading her daily thoughts. I feel sad for her. I've done a few funerals in my not-quite four years as a pastor (33 to be exact) and some of the phrases and scripture references in the LBW funeral liturgy are just so perfect.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of all mercy and the God of all consolation. He comforts us in all our sorrows so that we can comfort others in their sorrows with the consolation we ourselves have received from God (2 Cor 1.3-4).

When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom 6.3-5).

Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a holy and certain hope, and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love.

Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting.

Rest eternal grant her, O Lord;
and let light perpetual shine upon her.

God's peace be with you LC.

A Holy Lent

Many Christians observe the season of Lent for 6½ weeks before Easter. Some take up some sort of lenten discipline during this time. During our Ash Wednesday liturgy that began the lenten season I extended the following invitation:

"I invite you to observe a holy Lent, committing yourselves to self-examination and penitence, prayer and fasting, almsgiving and works of love; and to attend to the word of God and receive the sacraments of Christ as we journey through these forty days to the great Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection."

The mention of "fasting" in that invitation is what prompts many people to "give something up" for Lent. The intention is that denying yourself something is a way to connect to God more fully. Paul Jaster, a Lutheran pastor in Ohio, has suggested that our fast ought to reflect the economy of holy God: an economy of gift, of giving, of gifting, of grace, rather than the economy of sinful human beings: an economy of get, of grab, of greed, of have, of hoard. A holy fast would then be fasting not only from food, but also curbing our appetite for constant consumption, accumulation, and gain.

I know a pastor in Hamilton who fasts for 10 days during Lent each year. He breaks the fast into a 1 day, 2 day, 3 day, then 4 day fast at some point during the 40 days of Lent. His is a real fast where he eats nothing and drinks only water and maybe some fruit juice on the longer fasts. He’s a stronger man than I am.

For the past couple of years I’ve given up snacks and pop during Lent. My fast is partly for health reasons. You see, I carry a bit (more than a bit?) too much weight around and my lenten fast helps me shed some of that weight. The problem is that my fast hasn’t necessarily been connecting me to God more fully. The part about denying myself something I really like is sure happening. I often crave some Doritos or corn chips and an icy Coke as I sit and watch TV. I’ve become all too aware of the economy of get, grab, greed, have, hoard, as I watch commercials telling me how much I’d really like a greasy snack or sugar laden pop. This is one lenten discipline that might have a good effect on my health but isn’t doing so much for me spiritually.

On the other hand, the disciplines of prayer and worship do enrich me during Lent. I’m gathering with a small group of people for a weekly Bible Study that enriches me by the fellowship I have with other Christians and by learning together as we study God’s word. In our church we gather on Wednesdays for a service of Evening Prayer preceded by a simple meal of soup and bread. I’m participating in God’s economy of gift, giving, gifting, grace as I contribute to our collection of food for the foodbank. And every Sunday I receive and serve the Lord’s Supper as God’s people gather for worship.

Lent also coincides with the end of winter and beginning of spring. It comes from an old English word for springtime, lencten, and we’re noticing the change in the weather and the lengthening of the days. Just as the thoughts of many turn to spring cleaning, Lent is a time for a spring housecleaning of the soul. The lenten disciplines are an invitation to clear the clutter and wash away the grit and grime that can accumulate in a life. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving and works of love, the disciplines of Lent, may turn us inward for a time, but they also send us back to earth, back to serving the world so loved by God.

May you keep a holy Lent and may you be blessed by our gracious and giving God. Shalom.

Mission Possible -- Habitat for Humanity Sunday

We had an awesome worship service yesterday. Our Synod Council voted to designate March 5 as a synod-wide emphasis on the National Youth Project with loose offerings on that day being designated of Mission Possible. The ELCIC Program Committee for Youth Ministry chooses a project every two years to focus the attention of the ELCIC youth. For 2004 - 2006 the project has been to raise a minimum of $70,000 to build a Habitat for Humanity home in Winnipeg (the site of the 2006 National Youth Gathering). A possible worship outline with some resources was provided so I went with it.

I'm teaching 5 kids in our confirmation class so I involved them in various ways as assistants in the service. I also got the Sunday School kids involved in various ways, from greeters and ushers to readers and choir. The worship resources included:
CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS (focus on homelessness and inadequate affordable housing)
Call to Worship (Litany for Shelter from International Day of Prayer and Action for Habitat for Humanity)
Kyrie (A prayer from "The Small Catechism in a Hungry World." ELCA, 1992.)
PRAYER OF THE DAY (Prayer from "A Procession of Prayers." WCC Publications, 1998)

Instead of a sermon I performed a drama with some of the kids called "Beneath the Desert Sun" that I found somewhere on the internet but can't recall where. I had confirmation kids assist with all parts of the liturgy in the assisting minister roles, even distributing Holy Communion.

We did a run-through of the service on Friday evening and I had my doubts about how it would come off on Sunday morning. Before the service while I was making my announcements I asked the congregation's patience, mainly because of what I saw Friday night and because I figured some of the kids might get a case of the nerves in front of a congregation of people. After the service I apologized for apologizing for the kids because they did such a great job. Everyone loved the service and I was so proud of the kids, not just my own who were involved but all of them.

Ernie Retires

My brother filled me in on Ernie's retirement. My brother and I both attended Ryerson University (Ryerson Polytechnical Institute when I attended) but at different times. Standing almost dead centre of the downtown Toronto campus was Ernie's Hotdog Cart. I remember reading an article in the Toronto Star where they asked different chefs from some of Toronto's poshest restaurants where they liked to go out to eat and one actually said Ernie's Hotdog Cart.

The guy was nice to everybody. It could be pouring rain and he'd be out there. It could be freezing cold and he'd be out there. All seasons, every day (at least weekdays, I was never there on weekends). And Ryerson students were loyal to Ernie too. I remember other vendors would set up their carts nearby, and they'd get a bit of the overflow business, but Ernie would have a lineup.

You can read more about Ernie here.

Life from the Dust

from Sundays & Seasons

Christians gather on Ash Wednesday to mark the beginning of Lent's baptismal preparation for Easter. On this day, the people of God receive an ashen cross on the forehead (a gesture rooted in baptism), hear the solemn proclamation to keep a fast in preparation for Easter's feast, and contemplate anew the ongoing meaning of baptismal initiation into the Lord's death and resurrection. While marked with the ashes of human mortality, the church hears God's promise of forgiveness and tastes God's mercy in the bread of life and the cup of salvation. From this solemn liturgy, the church goes forth on its journey to the great baptismal feast of Easter.

And here's a sermon I wrote for Ash Wednesday while I was in seminary:

Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58.1-12
Thomas Arth

It was a September day,
one where you could feel the coming of autumn.
The breeze that was blowing felt cool…so that you needed a light jacket,
but if you went out into the sun,
or if you did a bit of work around the garden,
then you could still feel the warmth of the summer that was almost past.

Lewis put on an old cardigan.
He could always take it off later
and toss it onto the garden bench if it got too warm.
It really was hard to know how to dress for this kind of weather.

His vegetable garden had produced a bumper crop this year
and he still had a lot to harvest
so it was time to get out into the back-yard
time to do some work.

"Look at these tomatoes!
I've picked more than I can eat."
He had given lots away to the Hewitts next door.
The cherry tomatoes were still hanging like clusters of grapes.
He wondered if they'll still get ripe before it freezes.
"Judy loves tomatoes. Loved…tomatoes."

Lewis' wife of forty years, Judy, died a year and a half ago.
She was pretty tired that night when she went to bed
then she didn't wake up the next morning.

Lewis walked past the tomatoes, over to the zucchini's
He didn't really like zucchini
but he'd been growing them for 15 years
so he planted them again this year.
The Fosters who lived on the other side
were always willing to take them off his hands.
He took an old basket and his good sharp knife
and bent down to cut the ripe zucchinis from the vines.
At that moment he felt like he was knocked down to his knees.
Everything started spinning
and before he could think about what was happening
he was face down in the dirt.

"Oh, Judy, what's happening?"
"Oh, God, what's happened to me?"


There was pain…his head ached.
Lewis couldn't move
and he was lying between the zucchinis and the cabbages
His face was in the dirt
the dirt was sticking to the sweat of his brow.

…you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Lewis began to wonder. Who could help him?
His Judy was gone. Who knew that he was out here?
The Hewitts were both at work.
They wouldn't be home for hours.
By the time they came home it would be dark too.
The Fosters were on a trip.
Lewis took their mail in for them while they were gone.
The mail carrier!
She'd be about the only other person stirring in this neighbourhood.
It was so deserted on a weekday.
Kids were all at school.
These days both parents worked in most families.
Who would find him? Who could help him?
The mail lady wouldn't see him in the backyard
lying with his face in the dirt.

Life wasn't fair lately.
His wife was taken from him
just seven months before he retired.
They never went on many vacations.
They were saving for their retirement.
Now was when they were supposed to travel…together.
Lewis didn't deserve this!
He always did what he thought God was asking of him.
He was friendly to his neighbours.
Hey, he shared the abundance of his crops with them.
He made donations to charities.
He never cheated anyone in business.
He knew right from wrong.
He went to church every week.
He even sat on church council back in the 70's
and led the campaign to finance the new Sunday School wing.
Now he was alone.
Lying face down in the dirt.

Why?
Isn't doing what you figure is God's will
supposed to bring you blessing?

Lewis Greene is a good man.
A man of many virtues.
But they didn't seem to make God hear him,
He wondered why he deserved all that happened to him.

The sun was warm now.
And where he was lying, shielded by the zucchini vines on one side
and the cabbages on the other,
he didn't feel the breeze.
He could probably do without the cardigan now.
Judy wanted to throw that tattered thing away so many times.
Now he lay here in the dirt…in the dust
in his tattered cardigan…sackcloth and ashes.

Lewis closed his eyes
and slept
and dreamed.

He dreamed of days gone by
he and Judy were new in town, had just bought the house
and the pastor came to visit.
He brought flowers, a gift from the congregation
and he said a blessing:
O God, we pray that you will bless this home
and Judy and Lewis who live here
with your gracious presence,
that your love may be their inspiration,
your wisdom their guide,
your truth their light,
and your peace their benediction.

He dreamed of Judy's funeral.
The people of the congregation
showed him so much love, compassion, caring.
He didn't hear much of what was said at her funeral.
He was in shock, he couldn't believe she was gone.
In his dream he saw her coffin being draped with the pall
then he heard the pastor's words:
When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death.
…if we have been united with him in a death like his,
we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

He dreamed of the Hewitts and the Fosters.
Last winter they practically raced each other
to come and clear his driveway each time it snowed.

I will pour out my spirit…[and] your old men shall dream dreams.

Lewis woke up.
He thought again about how fair life had been lately.
What did he really deserve?
Did he deserve the 40 years he had with Judy?
40 years in God's presence together
40 years of her love and God's peace?
Did he deserve the grace
that the people in the church showed him
when he thought he couldn't go on without her?
Did he deserve to be part
of the caring community that he'd found
living between the Hewitts and the Fosters?

If you remove the yoke…
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
…then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.

How blessed Lewis is.
He knows what he deserves or doesn't deserve,
and it's not because of what he has done,
but because of who he is…whose he is.

"How long have I been lying here?"
Judging by the warmth of the sun
and by the length of the shadows
it must have been close to noon.

His headache wasn't nearly as bad as it was before his sleep.
He realized that he could move his right arm.
He began to drag himself toward the house.
Then he heard someone call:
"Mr. Greene, are you alright?"
It was Mr. Foster, back from his trip, and he came running to help.

The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

With dirt on his forehead,
threadbare in his old cardigan,
but with peace in his heart
Lewis rode in the ambulance to the hospital.

The Hewitts and the Fosters finished harvesting the garden
while Lewis recovered.
Under the warm sun
by the sweat of their faces
there was abundance in Lewis' watered garden.
Life from the dust.

Time to Shrive

So, it's Shrove Tuesday. According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition

shrive vb 1: to administer the sacrament of reconciliation to 2: to free from guilt

Well, I don't know what that has to do with eating pancakes. The church is having a pancake and sausage supper tonight. It's a bit of a fundraiser. Apparently we're the only church in town doing it this year. I guess I know the origin of the tradition. Use up all the good food you'll be fasting from during Lent which starts tomorrow.

I've never been much of a faster. If you could see my belly you'd understand. My plans for Lent are to cut out snacks and stick to 3 meals a day. My wife conceded some fat free yogurt. It could be construed as a snack but it's healthy and won't necessarily add a lot to my waistline so we're allowing it. I'm also planning to institute an exercise regimen. I bought a skipping rope so I'll start skipping. How's this for a plan? On Ash Wednesday I'll jump rope for 1 minute and each day I'll add 15 seconds so that by the end of Lent I'll be up to about 10 minutes. I don't know how it'll work, whether it'll be too much or too little. I'm really out of shape! I'll also do some sit-ups and push-ups, maybe 10 each for a week and then add 5 each week.

Then I've got some reading plans as well. I'm in the middle of A Year in Provence (don't remember the author right now) so I'll finish that, then I'll stick to theological books for Lent. I've got a bunch on the shelf I haven't read so I don't need to be buying anything new for a while.

Last night we started the first unit of the No Experience Necessary Bible Study that will run for 7 weeks. 10 people signed up but 5 were missing last night. We'll be doing evening prayer services on Wednesdays during Lent. Evening prayer isn't normally a preaching service but the people here like to hear something more than just the liturgy, even if it's read, so I found some sermons on the ELCA website written by missionaries around the world. They also provide soup recipes from the countries where they're serving so we're going to do soup for supper followed by evening prayer. Back in September, if you were reading in this space, we were part of a competition to collect food for the local foodbank. It was only us and another church. Well other churches in the city have taken up the challenge for Lent so it'll run from Ash Wednesday through Maundy Thursday. I told the congregation to think of it as almsgiving, something Jesus encouraged in Matthew 6, so those who want to can make that part of their lenten discipline.

Number One the Day You Were Born

What was number one on the Billboard charts the day you were born? Click here to find out.

On the day of my birth it was "Reach Out I'll Be There" by The Four Tops.

For my wife it was "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel

Daughter 1: "That's the Way Love Goes" by Janet Jackson

Daughter 2: "Take a Bow" by Madonna

Son 1: "Too Close" by Next

Son 2: "Hot in Here" by Nelly

Celebrational Muppetational

So, who are you? Thanks to cats for pointing me here. I'm not in the least disappointed to be Rowlf.

You Are Rowlf the Dog

Mellow and serious, you enjoy time alone cultivating your talents.You're a cool dog, and you always present a relaxed vibe.A talented pianist, you can play almost anything - especially songs by Beethoven."My bark is worse than my bite, and my piano playing beats 'em both."

The Muppet Personality Test

Presentation of Our Lord

Today most people are celebrating the festival of the psychic rodent. Apparently there are some Groundhogs who can forecast what kind of weather we’re to expect for the next month and a half. Today the church celebrates the Presentation of Our Lord.

Forty days after the birth of Christ we mark the day Mary and Joseph presented him in the temple in accordance with Jewish law. There in the temple, a prophetess named Anna began to speak of the redemption of Israel when she saw the young child. Simeon also greeted Mary and Joseph. He responded to the presence of the consolation of Israel in this child with the Nunc dimittis. His song described Jesus as a "light for the nations."

Because of the link between Jesus as the light for the nations, and because an old reading for this festival contains a line from the prophet Zephaniah, "I will search Jerusalem with candles," the day is also known as Candlemas, a day when candles are blessed for the coming year.

O Lord, now let your servant

Depart in heav'nly peace,

For I have seen the glory

Of your redeeming grace:

A light to lead the Gentiles

Unto your holy hill,

The glory of your people,

Your chosen Israel.

Then grant that I may follow

Your gleam, O glorious Light,

Till earthly shadows scatter,

And faith is changed to sight;

Till raptured saints shall gather

Upon that shining shore,

Where Christ, the blessed daystar,

Shall light them evermore.

Ernest E. Ryden

Just Ask

A few days ago LutheranChik did this so I thought I'd try it too. I don't know if anybody actually reads this thing but if you do and you're curious about the guy writing then fire off a question. I just might answer. What do you want to know? Already know everything there is to know about me? Come and know me better.

Shalom

Commemorations This Week

Wednesday, January 25
Conversion of Paul
End of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Today the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity comes to an end. The church remembers how a man of Tarsus named Saul, a former persecutor of the early Christian church, was led by God’s grace to become one of its chief preachers. The risen Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and called him to proclaim the gospel. The narratives describing Paul’s conversion in the Acts of the Apostles, Galatians, and 1 Corinthians inspire this commemoration, which was first celebrated among the Christians of Gaul.
The entire Week of Prayer for Christian Unity gives us a chance to consider our calling in light of Paul’s words in Galatians that all are one in Christ.

Thursday, January 26
Timothy, Titus, and Silas, missionaries
On the two days following the celebration of the Conversion of Paul, his companions are remembered. Timothy, Titus, and Silas were missionary coworkers with Paul. Timothy accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey and was commissioned by Paul to go to Ephesus, where he served as bishop and overseer of the church. Titus was a traveling companion of Paul, accompanied him on the trip to the council of Jerusalem, and became the first bishop of Crete. Silas traveled with Paul through Asia Minor and Greece and was imprisoned with him at Philippi, where they were delivered by an earthquake.

This festival invites the church to remember Christian leaders, bishops, pastors, and teachers—both men and women—who have been influential in the lives of individual members as gospel signs of the light of Epiphany.

Friday, January 27
Lydia, Dorcas, and Phoebe, witnesses to the faith
On this day the church remembers three women who were companions in Paul’s ministry. Lydia was Paul’s first convert at Philippi in Macedonia. She was a merchant of purple-dyed goods, and because purple dye was extremely expensive, it is likely that Lydia was a woman of some wealth. Lydia and her household were baptized by Paul and for a time her home was a base for Paul’s missionary work. Dorcas is remembered for her charitable works, particularly making clothing for needy widows. Phoebe was a diakonos, a deaconess in the church at Cenchrae, near Corinth. Paul praises her as one who, through her service, looked after many people.

Today provides an opportunity for congregations to reflect on the ministry of women, ordained and lay, wealthy and poor, who have given of themselves in service to the church and to the ministry of the gospel in their congregations.

Saturday, January 28
Thomas Aquinas, teacher (c. 1225-1274)
Thomas Aquinas was a brilliant and creative theologian of the thirteenth century. He was first and foremost a student of the Bible and profoundly concerned with the theological formation of the church’s ordained ministers. As a member of the Order or Preachers (Dominicans), he worked to correlate scripture with the philosophy of Aristotle, which was having a renaissance in Aquinas’s day. Some students of Aristotle’s philosophy found in it an alternative to Christianity. But Aquinas immersed himself in the thought of Aristotle and worked to explain Christian beliefs in the philosophical culture of the day. The contemporary worship cultural studies done by the Lutheran World Federation resonate with Aquinas’s method.

THE HORROR! (Just kidding)

So, Canada’s 39th General Election is over. We have a new party in power and a new Prime Minister. Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada will form a minority government. The election results were as follows:

Conservative..........124 seats..........36.2% of popular vote
Liberal..........103..........30.2%
BQ..........51..........10.5%
NDP..........29..........17.5%
Ind..........1..........0.5%

The national voter turnout was 64.9% of registered voters.

In the riding where I live (Welland) the incumbent Liberal member of parliament was re-elected. Those results were:

Liberal..........20,238 votes..........35.5%
NDP..........17,484..........30.7%
Conservative..........16,665..........29.2%
Green..........1,960..........3.4%
Christian Heritage..........536..........0.9%
Marxist-Leninist..........112..........0.2%

We beat the national average for voter turnout. In this riding we had 67.9% show up.

I’m not exactly happy that we’ve got a Conservative government. Although I don't think we're entering the heart of darkness the results don't strike me as shiny and bright either. I’m not totally disappointed that the incumbent won in my riding. I guess we’ll see what this government brings.

Election Day

Today is Federal Election Day. I'm going to walk to the Senior's Centre soon and cast my ballot. I don't know who's going to win in my riding. The Liberal incumbent is a very popular guy and unless people are lumping him in with the entire party for the blame which they seem to be catching for the Sponsorship Scandal corruption I would think he'd have a good chance to be reelected. I've seen a lot more NDP signs around town than I did in the last election. I didn't see a whole lot of Conservative signs but people might just jump on the bandwagon and vote for the winning team according to the polls.

Last week after a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service one local pastor gave me a couple of posters and asked me to post them and to encourage the people in our church to vote for a "Marriage Friendly" candidate. By that I'm pretty sure he meant hetero-marriage friendly, not friendly to gays and lesbians who want to marry. I took the posters and didn't get into an argument with the guy but I didn't post them nor did I encourage people to vote based on certain issues.

Here's what I did say in my announcements:
"This week I attended some services during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and preached at one of them. After one of the services a pastor from another church gave me a couple of posters that are meant to encourage people in our churches to vote, but they also encourage people to vote in a certain way based on certain issues. So I decided not to post those posters and not to talk about specific issues when it comes to this election. I will encourage you to vote if you are eligible. The only thing I will say is to remember that if we are Christians, we are Christians in the voting booth as well. By saying that I’m not endorsing any party or candidate. I only want to say that Christ calls us to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbours as ourselves. We can do that as we vote as well."

So, we'll see how things go today. If you're one of the Canadians who reads this, go and vote. If you don't know who to vote for then spoil your ballot. At least that shows you care about the process and that you're not completely apathetic.

Commemorations this week

There are a whole bunch of church commemorations this week. I think it’s interesting to read/hear about these ancestors in faith. "May their faith and witness inspire us to see the things prepared for those who answer God’s call" and "May our faith be invigorated by the witness of all who followed Christ."

Sunday, January 15
Martin Luther King Jr., renewer of society, martyr (1929-1968)
Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as an American prophet of justice among races and nations, a Christian whose faith undergirded his advocacy of vigorous yet nonviolent action for racial equality. A pastor of churches in Montgomery, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, his witness was taken to the streets in such other places as Birmingham, Alabama, where he was arrested and jailed while protesting against segregation. He preached nonviolence and demanded that love be returned for hate. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he was killed by an assassin on April 4, 1968. Though most commemorations are held on the date of the person’s death, many churches hold commemorations near Dr. King’s birth date of January 15, in conjunction with the American civil holiday honouring him. An alternate date for the commemoration would be his death date, April 4.

Tuesday, January 17
Antony of Egypt, renewer of the church (251-356)
Antony was born in Qemen-al-Arous, Upper Egypt, and was one of the earliest Egyptian desert fathers. Born to Christian parents from whom he inherited a large estate, he took personally Jesus’ message to sell all that you have, give to the poor, and follow Christ. After making arrangements to provide for the care of his sister, he gave away his inheritance and became a hermit. Later, he became the head of a group of monks that lived in a cluster of huts and devoted themselves to communal prayer, worship, and manual labour under Antony’s direction. The money they earned from their work was distributed as alms. Antony and his monks also preached and counseled those who sought them out. Antony and the desert fathers serve as a reminder that certain times and circumstances call Christians to stand apart from the surrounding culture and renounce the world in service to Christ.

Tuesday, January 17
Pachomius, renewer of the church (c. 290-346)
Another of the desert fathers, Pachomius (puh-KOME-ee-us) was born in Egypt about 290. He became a Christian during his service as a soldier. In 320 he went to live as a hermit in Upper Egypt, where other hermits lived nearby. Pachomius organized them into a religious community in which the members prayed together and held their goods in common. His rule for monasteries influenced both Eastern and Western monasticism through the Rule of Basil and the Rule of Benedict, respectively.

Wednesday, January 18
Confession of Peter
Beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is framed by two commemorations, the Confession of Peter (a relatively recent addition to the calendar) and the older Conversion of Paul. Both are remembered together on June 29, but these two days give us an opportunity to focus on key events in each of their lives. Today we remember that Peter was led by God’s grace to acknowledge Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). This confession is the common confession that unites us with Peter and with all Christians of every time and place.

Saturday, January 21
Agnes, martyr (c. 291-304)
Agnes was a girl of about thirteen living in Rome who had chosen a life of service to Christ as a virgin, despite the Roman emperor Diocletian’s ruling that had outlawed all Christian activity. The details of her martyrdom are not clear, but she gave witness to her faith and was put to death as a result, most likely by the sword. Since her death, the church has honoured her as one of the chief martyrs of her time.

Merry Epiphany

According to Sundays & Seasons:

In the East three great epiphanies are celebrated on this day: the magi's adoration of the Christ child, Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River, and his first miracle, in which he changes water into wine. Epiphany celebrates Christ being made known, or made "manifest," to all nations.

The sacraments are for us the great epiphany of God's grace, in which we behold the mystery of God among us. The magi offered gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Having seen the light of Christ, we offer the gift of ourselves, our time, and our possessions -- that others may also know the epiphany of God's mercy and love.

Almighty and ever-living God, you revealed the incarnation of your Son by the brilliant shining of a star. Shine the light of your justice always in our hearts and over all lands, and accept our lives as the treasure we offer in your praise and for your service, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, whom with you and the Holy Spirit we worship and priase, one God, now and forever. Amen

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Twelve drummers drumming,

Eleven pipers piping,

Ten lords a-leaping,

Nine ladies dancing,

Eight maids a-milking,

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree!

I hate when Christmas ends. The build up is so exciting. In our house the decorations come out at the beginning of Advent, the tree goes up one to two weeks before the day, we play Christmas music on the stereo and the piano. It's such a warm, wonderful, exciting time of anticipation.

We try to stretch that feeling out over the twelve days of Christmas but it's hard to do. The all Christmas music radio stations return to their normal programming on Boxing Day. The decorations start coming down around town. It seems like we're trying to hang on to something when everyone else has already given up. It's hard to keep the spirit alive.

Today is the last day of Christmas. This weekend the decorations will start to come down in the house and outside. The tree will be stripped of its decorations and tossed to the curb to be mulched. The videos and DVDs of Christmas movies, the CDs of Christmas music will be packed away for another year. I'm telling you, I can get into a real deep blue funk at this time of year.

To compound it, we haven't had snow on the ground since before Christmas. It's been raining on and off for most of the past week. We saw the sun for a few hours the other afternoon. It really sucks! Writing about it makes it even worse. Why did I do this?

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe

The message of the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work (1 Cor 1.18).

Some Lutheran churches commemorate Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe, renewer of the church (1808-1872) on January 2.

Wilhelm Loehe was born at Fuerth, Germany, in 1808. When he was eight years old his father died. Young Loehe studied in Erlangen, there discovering the Lutheran Confessions. In 1837 he became pastor in a small village, Neuendettelsau. His efforts at getting a city parish were unavailing, and he remained there the rest of his life. He was a model parish pastor. He founded the Neuendettelsau Foreign Mission Society.

From the small town of Neuendettelsau, he sent pastors to North America, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil, and the Ukraine. He assisted in the founding of the Missouri Synod. His work for a clear confessional basis within the Bavarian church sometimes led to conflict with the ecclesiastical bureaucracy. Loehe's chief concern was that a parish finds its life in the eucharist, and from that source evangelism and social ministries would flow. He founded the Society for Inner Missions and established a deaconess motherhouse at Neuendettelsau that had widespread influence. Many Lutheran congregations in Michigan, Ohio, and Iowa were either founded or influenced by missionaries sent by Loehe. The chapel at Wartburg Theological Seminary is named in his honour.

Loehe's vision to see the eucharist at the center of parish life can lead us on to think about ways that the incarnate presence of Christ in holy communion sends us out on a life of ministry and mission.

Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, so that his people would learn to serve and his body would grow strong. This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God (Eph 4.11-13).

What's in a name?

Name of Jesus
January 1, 2005
Luke 2.15-21
Thomas Arth

"What’s in a name?"
That was Juliet’s question as she stood on her balcony.
That evening she had met Romeo
and fallen head over heels in love,
and the feeling was mutual.
The only problem,
the obstacle standing in the way of their love,
was the hate their families had for each other.
Capulets and Montagues didn’t get along in Verona.
Everyone knows the famous line,
"wherefore art thou Romeo?"
A lot of people think she’s calling for him,
"where are you?"
but her question is why not where.
Why did I have to fall in love with my father’s enemy?
But Juliet asks, "What’s in a name?"
"‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy. . . .
O, be some other name. . . .
That which we call a rose,
by any other name would smell as sweet."

What’s in a name?
If you’re familiar with the Harry Potter series of books and movies
you might know "the name which must not be spoken."
Few people speak the name of Lord Voldemort,
a powerful and evil wizard.
Those who do speak his name, like Harry,
seem less vulnerable to Voldemort’s evil powers.

What’s in a name?
Isaiah writes, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Look, the young woman is with child
and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel."
Is that friend or foe?
It means "God with us."
But can we be sure what’s in that name?
Is "God with us" our friend or enemy?
Is it God-with-us to destroy or God-with-us to save?

What’s in a name?
Names don’t have the same significance in our culture
as they once did.
The closest thing we might get to assigning power to a name
is when we talk about identity theft.
With your name, social insurance number, credit card numbers,
someone can gain some power over you—
even become you.
The ancient Jewish community
had several names and descriptions of God.
El was the common word for deity in the Semitic languages.
In some of the Old Testament traditions
El is sometimes combined with the word Shaddai
meaning Almighty so that you had God Almighty.
When Moses met God at the burning bush
he asked for God’s name and God replied
I AM WHO I AM or I AM WHAT I AM
or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.
The divine name is connected with the verb "to be."
Some scholars propose that the name means
"He brings into being whatever comes into being"
designating God as creator.
The name is now pronounced Yahweh by scholars
but the correct pronunciation has been lost.
The commandment
"You shall not make wrongful use
of the name of the Lord your God"
was taken so seriously by the people of Israel that,
in order not to abuse God’s name
it wasn’t used at all.
Whenever the Jews came across the name for God in their scriptures,
it was carefully punctuated
so that they would substitute the word ADONAI
which means Lord.
In some English Bibles, particularly some earlier translations,
the name of God was mistakenly written as Jehovah.
This error came about because the Hebrew language has no vowels
so the Hebrew Bible was written with only consonants.
Later, Hebrew scholars included markings,
certain symbols like dots and squiggles,
to indicate the vowel sounds.
But for the name of God they put in the vowel markings
for the word Adonai, or Lord.
So, early translators took the consonants from Yahweh
with the vowels from Adonai
and came up with the hybrid Jehovah.
The name is still considered holy in Judaism
and they still refer to God in Hebrew as either Adonai,
meaning Lord,
or as Hashem meaning simply "the name."

What’s in a name?
"Name him Jesus," the angel instructs Joseph,
"for he will save his people from their sins."
Now we know.
God-with-us Immanuel does not come to us to destroy but to save.
Jesus’ name has a meaning.
We get the name Jesus from iesous,
the Greek form of Yeshua
which is a later form of Yehoshua.
The name was very common in New Testament times
and means "Yahweh is salvation."
One pastor writes,
"It is that Jesus is named at all that is striking.
It reminds us how committed God is to us, to our existence,
that God would choose to become human, vulnerable,
one of us.
This is not a distant God.
This is not a terrible God
who strikes only fear in the hearts of humans.
This is God loving us at face value
and allowing us to know a name, a face, a life lived among us.
This is God expressing divinity
within the confines of what it means to be human,
within the limits of our existence.
When God chooses a name,
God is choosing to limit how we see
and how we understand who God is."

Now, some would rather keep God distant,
would rather that God was other than us.
I read about a discussion at a conference
gathering people from a number of the major world religions.
One Islamic woman took issue
with the Judeo-Christian understanding of a God
who "rested" on the seventh day,
saying that a God that needs to rest
can’t possibly be God.
A Lutheran theologian offered the answer
that God doesn’t rest because God needs a break,
but rather because God knows that we need to rest.
In a similar way, God doesn’t choose to be named
because of God’s need to have a human face.
Instead, God chooses to be named
because we need to know God face to face,
to have physical contact with God’s love.
God came down to be one of us.
He was a baby lying in a manger,
soiling his diapers,
crying for hunger,
learning to walk and falling down in the process,
scraping his knee
when he was playing with the neighbourhood kids,
mourning the loss of a step-father, a grandmother, a friend.
God chose to be vulnerable
so that we could see the limits of our existence
not as something to resist,
but rather as something that God also knows
and has hallowed.

What’s in Jesus’ name?
Death is in his name. Our deaths.
God-with-us-to-save means he faces the same fate we all face.
Still, he is with us not only to empathize,
which would make him nothing more than a gravedigger God.
Our death—and life—is in his name.
Jesus leaves death behind in his grave.
He rises to new life.
Salvation is in Jesus’ name,
and friendship with God,
and more.

We are in Jesus’ name.
We are baptized into Christ.
We are in Jesus.
We bear his name.
We are called by the name "Christian."
We are in Christ’s death and in his resurrected life.
And more.

Jesus is the name we bear into the world.
The name of hope, love, friendship, confidence, courage;
the name of life that will prevail, that has prevailed.
"God gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
Amen