How Lutheran?

Thanks to Andy who is apparently a lot more Lutheran than me.

You are 87% Lutheran! This is most certainly true.

Nicely done! Martin would be proud of you! You may or may not have room for growth in understanding Lutheran terminology and culture. Good thing Salvation is by Grace and not by merit. We can add nothing to what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. But it never hurts to learn a little more about the church on earth. Thanks for taking the quiz!

How Lutheran Are You?
Create a Quiz

P.S. (Jan. 10)
My brother said he tried the quiz and scored very low. It's not quite a fair test if you're not an American Lutheran and a real polity geek. I mean, if you read the questions just think how a Swedish, Finnish, German, Latvian or Tanzanian Lutheran would score.

Back to School

Well, the kids are back to school today. They had two weeks off but they only really enjoyed the first week-and-a-half because they got kind of depressed the last few days with back-to-school looming. My wife doesn't like it either. She's happy having the kids at home and she hates packing their lunches for school. On top of it, she's starting to un-decorate the house today. The 12 Days of Christmas ended on Friday, we include the Epiphany of Our Lord into the season and since yesterday was Sunday we didn't start taking down decorations yet.

I've still got Nat King Cole singing Christmas carols on the CD player in the van. It's hard to let Christmas go. I had to wake up to the alarm this morning for the first time in weeks. I'm not as down as the rest of the family. I like the movement through the different seasons of the church year and the natural year. But I love Christmas and hate that it's over. I miss the carols on the radio and in the stores. I even miss the Christmas commercials on TV. I know, you have to leave it behind so that it can be enjoyable and exciting again next year.

Maybe the weather has something to do with our moods. The sun has barely shone in weeks. We've had rain off and on for weeks. We didn't have a white Christmas and apparently El Niño is going to mess up our whole winter. Who knows if we'll have any snow at all. It all makes for a pretty blah feeling.

What can you do?

9 Ladies Dancing

Well, Christmas is almost over. It's the 9th day of Christmas, I'm back to work although the kids aren't back at school and I'd rather be off with them. But I've got to come up with 2 sermons this week, one for Saturday night (Epiphany of Our Lord) and one for Sunday morning (Baptism of Our Lord). We've also got our monthly congregational council meeting tomorrow evening to which I'll have to report, and I have to write my report for the Annual Report which the secretary is assembling next week.

But here's what I got for Christmas, in no particular order and I might be forgetting something.

A Toby Keith Christmas CD
Chronicles of Narnia audio drama on 19 CDs
A wallet and key chain
An Adirondack Pack Basket Kit
A Flashlight
A book, "Grapevine: The Spirituality of Gossip"
A leather and copper cross from Kenya
Tickets to "We Will Rock You" a musical with music by Queen
A Point Zero sweat shirt
A Canada/Olympic Sweatshirt
A "Bathroom Reader" book
A Stuart McLean CD
Golf Socks
Another sweatshirt
An Electronic Sudoku game
Piano books (Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Musorgski)
MS Streets and Trips programme
Jeopardy board game
A Vinyl Cafe book
A Sudoku book
A book of the Canadian stamps from 2006
A framed picture of dad, brother, uncle, and me golfing in Myrtle Beach
My brother's old computer (he always gives me his old ‘puters when he upgrades)

Merry Kwanzaa

I'm not African American, actually I'm probably as white as white can be. German ancestry on both sides of my family tree as far as we can trace. I've never really known much about Kwanzaa. Heard of it but didn't know what it was about. I was reading in This Far by Faith: An African American Resource for Worship and came across the following.

"Civil rights activist Maulana Karenga formulated and introduced Kwanzaa in 1966 to encourage African American families to build upon the spiritual strengths of their cultural heritage. On each of the seven days of Kwanzaa—December 26 to January 1—candles are lighted to signify seven foundational principles."

Kwanzaa is a cultural rather than a religious festival but this worship resource relates biblical passages to NGUZO SABA (THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES)

Umoja (unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
There is one body and one Spirit ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (Eph 4.4-6).

Kujichagulia (self-determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves instead of being defined, named, created for, and spoken for by others.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people (1 Pet 2.9).

Ujima (collective work and responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our sisters' and brothers' problems our problems and to solve them together.
Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6.2).

Ujamaa (cooperative economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Whoever does not provide for relatives, and especially for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5.8).

Nia (purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses ... let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us (Heb 12.1).

Kuumba (creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might (Eccl 9.10).

Imani (faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
This is the victory that conquers the world, our faith (1 Jn 5.4).

God bless our brothers and sisters of African descent.

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son. Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred that infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and, through our struggle and confusion, work to accomplish your purposes on earth; so that, in your good time, every people and nation may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen

Merry Christmas

Well, it's my last half day or so in the office before Christmas. Tomorrow I'll probably rest up a bit amid cleaning the house. My wife and oldest daughter are just getting over the flu. I had it last weekend. At least we've all got it over and done with before Christmas. 4 years ago everyone but me was sick right at Christmas.

Sunday morning we'll have a service of Lessons and Carols for Advent then Sunday night we'll have Candlelight services of Holy Communion at 7 & 11. Santa always comes while we're at the 7 o'clock service so then we go home and open all our presents. On Christmas Day we don't have worship. We used to but nobody came so we cancelled it. That's the day when my in-laws will arrive. Then on Boxing Day we'll head to my parents' place. Then on Wednesday I'll probably make my way into the office to try to come up with a sermon for next Sunday.

Anyway, to anyone who actually comes by here and reads what I post, have a very Merry Christmas. And if you're interested, my Christmas Eve sermon is posted below.

Nativity of Our Lord—Christmas Eve
December 24, 2006
Luke 2.1-14 [15-20]
Thomas Arth

(Draw large chalk arrow on black board)
I've used this example here in church before.
I hope you're not sick and tired of it yet.
I figured there would be enough people here at Christmas
so that it would be new to some.
And for those who've seen and heard this before,
I think it bears repeating
so this probably won't be the last time I use this example.
It comes from a booklet written by Kelly Fryer called
"Reclaiming the ‘L' Word:
Renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core"
In a section of that book she talks about grace.
She writes this:
"Grace is at the heart of the best sort of
‘bottom line' definition I have ever heard
of what it means to be a Lutheran.
I wish I could tell you from whom I first heard this definition.
But I can't.
I don't remember.
The way I do recall it,
through the fog of personal mythology
that sometimes develops as time goes by,
is that he was a visiting professor on campus
my first year of seminary.
And, forgive me,
he was just not holding my attention this particular day.
It was a beautiful day on campus
and I wanted to be outside playing.
Instead, I sat in the amphitheater with my classmates,
listening to a lecture about some long-dead theologian.
I was bored.
And I don't think I was alone.
He must have known that we weren't listening
because he suddenly slapped his notebook shut
and stopped talking.
He wasn't going to waste one more breath on us.
But, before he left the room,
he picked up a piece of chalk and went to the board.
He drew a gigantic ARROW, pointing straight down,
stood back, and said:
‘If you understand that,
you understand everything you need to know
about what it means to be a Christian ...
who also happens to be a Lutheran.'
And then he left the room.

"We just sat there staring at it,
this enormous, stark ARROW pointing straight down.
And then I thought the most logical thing I could think,
given everything that had just happened,
‘He thinks we're all going to hell.'

"The next time we gathered for class,
he began by drawing that same arrow on the board.
This time, as he began to speak, he had our full attention.
‘Here's what this means,' he said.
‘God always comes down.
God always comes down.
There is never anything that we can ever do
to turn that arrow around
and 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.'"

I love that example for defining Lutheranism.
Now, Lutherans don't have a monopoly on grace
or talking about grace or teaching about grace.
The grace of God runs through the whole Bible.
God tells Abraham and Sarah,
"I will bless you so that you will be a blessing,"
not because of anything they had done to deserve blessing
but because God always comes down.
God tells Moses,
"I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt,
I have heard their cry ... I know their sufferings,
and I have come down to deliver them."
In the reading from Isaiah we heard that
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined."
These were words of hope
that God would free the people of Israel
from their subjection to Assyria
and bring in an everlasting realm
of freedom and peace,
not because the people were particularly deserving,
but simply because God always comes down.
And tonight we celebrate Christmas,
when God came down in the form of a tiny baby
to a young couple who had no place to stay
but with the animals.
God came down to free us once again.

Now, I've heard plenty of statements over the years
telling us what Christmas is all about.
Please don't take offense
if you've in fact said some of these things
or believe some of these things.
I'm sure there's a piece of truth to all of them.
I'm sure you've all heard something like this.
From a child you might hear that
"Christmas is about presents!"
I'm sure if we're all honest with ourselves
we'd admit that there was a time in our lives
when all this going to church
and hearing the story of the baby Jesus and angels and shepherds
and all of the rest of the things
we're supposed to say Christmas is about,
took a back seat to the main event of Christmas,
finally getting at the presents under the tree.
Maybe as we got older, more mature,
that childhood sentiment developed into something like,
"Christmas is about giving" (with a bit of getting too).
That's the kind of thinking that gets a large retail chain
to decide that some of its stores should stay open 24 hours
for the last week before Christmas.
Now, I like getting some presents and I like giving presents,
although sometimes it has become quite overwhelming.
But tonight I'm here to say
that Christmas is not about presents,
is not about giving,
is not about getting.

Maybe you've heard something along the lines that
"Christmas is all about family."
There must be some truth to that
because last weekend we got together
with some family that I hadn't seen since last Christmas. Tomorrow and Tuesday we'll be with more,
and this Friday we'll be gathering with yet more family.
Even in our church family we see people this night
who we don't often see
because they've come home to their family for Christmas.
Well, tonight I'm here to say
that Christmas is not about family.

Another statement you might have heard is that
"Christmas is all about the children."
I'll admit that this season and this night and tomorrow morning
are a magical and exciting time for children.
Often our fondest Christmas memories come from our childhood
or have something to do with our own children or grandchildren.
But I tell you that Christmas is not all about the children.

Finally, some might tell you that
"Christmas is all about traditions."
That's a statement that encompasses many things.
For some it's the traditions that make Christmas.
Like what order the ornaments go on the tree.
When do you begin to decorate?
How do you decorate?
Traditions that make Christmas
might have something to do with a favourite carol or song,
a favourite movie,
certain cookie recipes that you just have to bake.
Maybe it's a turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce
and all the rest of the trimmings that go with it.
For some it's just not a proper Christmas without snow.
Oh, our traditions are important to us
and they're a wonderful way for us to celebrate Christmas.
But, I'll say it once more,
Christmas is not all about traditions.

Christmas is not about presents or giving
or family or children or the many traditions.
If it was then some, maybe a lot of people,
would be disqualified and excluded
from having a "real" Christmas.
Would it be Christmas without presents?
We do our best to help the poor.
Santa's Helpers and so many different toy drives,
the Operation Christmas Child Shoebox campaign,
all try to give some Christmas joy
to those who are less fortunate.
But if someone, somewhere, somehow,
had to go without a present at Christmas
would that disqualify or exclude them
from having a "real" Christmas?
Would it be Christmas without family or without children?
For one reason or another there will be people
who are alone this Christmas.
Maybe a loved one died.
Maybe a marriage broke up.
Maybe family has moved away
and there's no way to be with them.
Maybe some argument has strained family relationships
and they won't be together this Christmas.
Would that disqualify or exclude them
from having a "real" Christmas?
Would it be Christmas without all of the traditions
and the "stuff" that surrounds the season?
The tree, the decorations, the carols on the radio,
the festive meal with all the trimmings
certainly add to the celebration
but would not having them disqualify or exclude you
from having a "real" Christmas?
So if Christmas is not about presents or giving
or family or children or the many traditions
then what is it about?

(Go and trace over arrow)
This is what Christmas is all about.
It's about God coming down.
God came down in Jesus and God continues to come down
so that no one is disqualified or excluded.
God comes down for sinners.
God comes down to the lonely.
God comes down to the poor.
God comes down to the greedy.
God comes down to those who party too hard.
God comes down to those who are mean or selfish.
God comes down to those who are generous and kind.
We can't help but mess things up in our lives and in our world.
God still comes down.
We may be sad or worried or sick.
God still comes down.
And God doesn't come down to smite us,
to punish us, to judge us and find us wanting or failing.
God comes down to love us, to heal us, to save us.
And remember, there's nothing we have to do or can do
to turn that arrow around and make our way up to God.
God comes down,
not once we're good enough,
not once we've done a certain thing or said a specific thing
that will convince God to come.
On the first Christmas night,
when God came down in that baby in a manger,
some messengers from God, angels,
also came to some shepherds.
They didn't proclaim the message in palace halls but in fields.
They didn't proclaim the message to the high and mighty,
but to the poor and lowly.
And what was the message?
"I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
who is the Messiah, the Lord."
And the sky was filled with those heavenly messengers singing
"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among all humankind,
with whom God is pleased."

The angels sang for joy because God had come down.
And God still comes down.
Not just to Lutherans.
Not even just to Christians.
God comes down.
God came down in Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem.
God comes down as we gather in worship,
and we celebrate that with hymns and prayers
and presents and family
and all our varied traditions.
Light shines in darkness.
God has come down.
Amen

Blue Christmas

Our Clergy Fellowship (local ministerial) has been offering a "Blue Christmas" service for a few years in conjunction with our two local funeral homes. I've never been to one of the services. Actually, before this year I was never very involved with the Clergy Fellowship. It just wasn't my scene and I felt out of place because the group didn't seem to have a lot of participation of the mainline clergy.

I decided to give the group a better chance. I'm feeling more at home even though there still aren't many mainliners participating. I guess I'm learning some tolerance and/or acceptance and following the Lund principle. "Should not our churches ask themselves whether they are showing sufficient eagerness to enter into conversation with other churches, and whether they should not act together in all matters except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to act separately?"

Well, tonight is the "Blue Christmas" service, being held at the Pentecostal church, and the organizer called me YESTERDAY and asked if I'd preach. Here's the sermon I came up with yesterday. I need to explain that at a certain point in the service families will come forward and light a candle in memory of a loved one who died and place it in some sort of container of sand (like I said I've never been to one of these services before).

Blue Christmas Service
December 12, 2006
Isaiah 9.2
Thomas Arth

In our home we usually have some candles set out
on tables, shelves, the mantle, on the piano,
even on the TV cabinet.
At this time of year
as we decorate for the coming celebration of Christmas
we put out even more candles
and now we actually light them.
The rest of the year they’re usually just decorations
but now we use them.
They’re still mainly decorations
but we light them to create a mood,
to provide some Christmas-y atmosphere.
Some churches observe the season of Advent
on the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas Day.
In our church and in our home we have Advent wreaths
that hold 4 candles for those 4 Sundays.
This past Sunday was the Second Sunday of Advent
and we lit 2 of the candles on the wreath.
The light grows as we approach Christmas.

Here, tonight, we have candles lit.
These candles are symbols of another reality.
Most of us are gathered here
because we have recently lost a loved one.
Someone has died.
So this Advent and Christmas season is different for you
from any that have come before.
The Advent candles we light in our churches and homes
are signs of something that is coming.
The candles we lit here tonight
are signs of something and someone gone.

For some of you the loss may be fresh,
having recently happened.
For others, your loved one may have died months ago,
maybe close to a year.
And people who were very attentive at the time,
friends and neighbours who were very thoughtful and helpful,
have put the experience behind them and moved on,
and may wonder when you’ll get around to moving on,
to getting on with your life.
I say to you, take the time you need.
You’re going through a lot of firsts.
Some may have already passed but others are coming.
A first Thanksgiving without your loved one.
A first birthday or anniversary
and now the first Christmas without him or her.
It takes time to grieve, to mourn,
you can’t just turn off your emotions or shut out your memories.
It can be hard work.
There are traditions that will have to change.
Someone new might have to say the blessing at Christmas dinner.
Someone else will have to string the lights
or put a special ornament on the tree.

A friend once compared the death of a loved one to a wound.
A cut will eventually heal, but it takes time.
Some wounds take longer to heal than others.
And even when it has healed, a scar remains.
There will always be memories,
reminders of the father or mother, wife or husband,
brother or sister,
grandmother or grandfather or friend who died.
And some of those memories will bring a smile.
Some of those memories will bring a tear.
And some will bring both at the same time.

At Christmas time
we sometimes use one of those twenty-five-cent words
that you normally don’t hear outside of church.
Incarnation.
That’s what we really celebrate at Christmas.
The Incarnation.
God came down from heaven and put on flesh,
become one of us.
We believe that God came among us, first, as that baby
born in a barn and put to bed in an animal feeding trough
because no one thought to give this young homeless couple
a room for the night.
And that baby boy grew to be a man,
suffering all the same things along the way that we suffer.
We don’t hear anything about his father Joseph
later in the gospel stories,
so we assume he died at some point during Jesus’ young life.
He knew about the grief of losing a parent,
the time of mourning,
the healing of that wound.
Later he would suffer even more unspeakable things
out of love for the whole world.
All of this was the result of the Incarnation.
Love came down
and God laughed, and wept just like we all do.

We heard a reading from Isaiah.
"The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined."
Those words were spoken centuries before Jesus showed up
in that stable in Bethlehem.
But now we recognize him in those words.
Darkness and light.
We all have darkness in our lives.
When a loved one dies it becomes so much more intense.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel,
and it’s not an oncoming train.
It’s our Lord coming to embrace us and comfort us.
Yesterday I was reading another passage
from a later portion of Isaiah that says
"Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God."
There is comfort for God’s people.
There is light in our darkness.
There is healing for our pain.

I begin every funeral service with these words:
"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."
This Christmas when a chair at the dinner table
or a pew in church sits empty
or a tradition has been passed on to someone else,
you may shed some tears.
That is, you might shed some tears,
and I’m saying "you may shed some tears."
Someone might come and tell you not to cry,
and they’ll mean well so don’t bite their heads off.
But I’m telling you to go ahead and cry.
Your healing takes time
and that time might not be over for you.
But know that there is hope
and there is love through our Lord Jesus Christ
who brings light into our darkness
and comfort in our sorrows.
Your Christmas will be different,
and we pray
that your Christmas may be blessed.
Amen

Amazing Grace

I just finished reading Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris (New York: Riverhead, 1998). I read it in bits and pieces over a period of seven weeks so any overall image or impression is diluted with time. I liked most of what she had to say. She's a poet, not a studied theologian, so it's a refreshing view of Christianity from a laywoman's perspective rather than a "professional" theologian which most of the "churchy" books I read come from.

One thing I did notice. Almost every example she used of Lutherans was negative. I don't know what Lutherans in South Dakota are doing but they don't seem to be making a very good impression on Norris.

All in all, it's a good read, giving some insight into a woman's faith and doubt and frustration and conversion. I'd heard about the book for years and had always meant to pick it up one day. It's one I'll refer back to in years to come.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship

We got them! Our new worship books came yesterday afternoon. Well, 136 of 172 that we ordered. The rest are on back order. We'll be retiring the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) on January 21 and dedicating Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) on January 28.

My wife doesn't understand my excitement. There are (holy schmoley!) 10 settings for Holy Communion. Settings 3 and 4 are the settings we know from LBW (1 and 2) so the transition should be seamless since people don't have to learn a completely new setting. That doesn't mean we won't eventually learn one. We're looking at possibly using Setting 10 in the Easter season. That setting uses familiar hymn tunes. For example the "Glory to God in the highest" is set to HYMN TO JOY, "Worthy is Christ" is NUN DANKET ALL, the Gospel Acclamation "Alleluia" is UNSER HERRSCHER, "Holy, holy, holy Lord" is LAND OF REST, "Lamb of God" is TWENTY-FOURTH.

The new worship book also includes Luther's Small Catechism, a Healing Rite, all 150 Psalms, the Ash Wednesday and Holy Week services. It's got a much better (in my opinion) Service of the Word than LBW. We really only use that when I'm away and we have a lay led service. Otherwise we have Holy Communion.

The only problem for us, here in Canada, is the name. Not that Evangelical Lutheran Worship is a bad name. It's very good. But the acronym messes us up. You see, the women's auxiliary groups in our ELCIC churches are called Evangelical Lutheran Women and for years now ELW means our women's groups. The spine of the book simply says Worship and up here, so far, we're calling it "The Worship Book." When we had Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) and the unauthorized supplement that practically every church used With One Voice (WOV) there was a need to distinguish between the two so the acronyms were used. Now we'll just have one book in the pews so we'll never have need to use (and confuse) the ELW acronym.

Is my giddyness coming across in these words? I love any new book. I love walking through bookstores, leafing through the books, yearning for the unlimited funds to buy whatever tickles my fancy. So getting boxes and boxes of these new books is just so much fun. I can hardly wait until we start using them.

Dorothy's Art

Dorothy Butcherd is a member of the congregation I serve. She is also an artist. Unfortunately she has lost much of her sight to macular degeneration and is no longer able to work at her art. A friend of her's has posted some of her work on the internet here

St. Nicholas Day Massacre

Today I observe two commemorations. It’s St. Nicholas Day and in our household we observe it in an entirely un-religious way. At some time during the night, St. Nicholas showed up in our house, took 6 dinner plates from our Christmas dishes, and loaded them with chocolates placing one under each of our beds.

Sundays & Seasons says this about Nicholas
Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (d. c. 342)
Though Nicholas is one of the church’s most beloved saints, little is known about his life. In the fourth century he was a bishop in what is now Turkey. Legends that surround Nicholas tell of his love for God and neighbour, especially the poor. One famous story tells of Nicholas secretly giving bags of gold to the three daughters of a father who was going to sell them into prostitution because he could not provide dowries for them. Nicholas has become a symbol of anonymous gift giving.

It sounds like a sweet story about a generous bishop but I cringe when I read that, to hear that a father might "sell his daughters into prostitution." We might consign something like that to a distant place and time, but it’s not so distant. "Human trafficking is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, victimizing millions of people and reaping billions in profits" (from HumanTrafficking.com). "The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is between 13 and 14 years of age, with children being sold and trafficked at even younger ages in impoverished areas throughout the world (from The Standing Against Global Exploitation Project). "There are an estimated 10,000 children living on the streets of Toronto, with a large percentage involved in the sex trade. Approximately 600 children are involved in the sex trade in Montreal, and 400 in Calgary" (from Child Prostitution, the Commercial Exploitation of Children).

St. Nicholas was a saviour for those three women. Another commemoration I observe each December 6, if only in my own thoughts and memories, is the victims of the Montreal Massacre which occurred on this date in 1989. I have two daughters and two sons and I hope I’m raising them to value the lives of other human beings. I don’t want them to experience or feel the hatred that caused a man to walk into the École Polytechnique de Montréal and shoot 14 women. The women who died were:
Geneviève Bergeron (b. 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (b. 1967) mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (b. 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (b. 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (b. 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (b. 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (b. 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (b. 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (b. 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (b. 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (b. 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (b. 1958), nursing student.

Gracious Lord, in every age you have sent men and women who have given their lives for the message of your love. Inspire us with the memory of those martyrs for the Gospel whose faithfulness led them in the way of the cross, and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives to your Son’s victory over sin and death; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Peace On Earth, Can It Be?

And here's my main newsletter article "From the Pastor's Desk"

As a child I can remember waiting for, and watching, all of the Christmas specials that used to come on TV. First we’d wait, expectantly, for the ads announcing when Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, or A Charlie Brown Christmas, or The Little Drummer Boy would be on. Then we’d sit in anticipation waiting for 8 o’clock to come around to watch those shows. We must have been one of the last households in my neighbourhood to get a colour TV so there was renewed anticipation to see all of our favourites in colour. These days we don’t have the same kind of anticipation because we own all of our favourites on video or DVD and sometimes it’s hard to find time in the busy Advent and Christmas schedule to watch them all.

Something we don’t have on video, and something you don’t seem to see as much of these days, are the Christmas variety specials. I recall sitting with my parents and watching the annual special by Bob Hope or Andy Williams or Lawrence Welk or Bing Crosby. Why don’t today’s stars make those kinds of specials anymore? Or why don’t the networks produce those kinds of shows anymore?

I recall those specials because yesterday, driving in the car, I heard a duet on the radio by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. I remember the song and I remember watching the Bing Crosby special when it first aired. I looked it up and it was originally performed in 1977 (I was 11 years old). I’m guessing that some of the people who were watching because they were fans of Bing Crosby didn’t have a clue who David Bowie was. He was a famous rock star (still is kind of) and I knew who he was even if I was a little too young to be familiar with his music. They sang a duet where Bing Crosby sang The Little Drummer Boy and David Bowie sang a song called Peace On Earth. The words to the Peace On Earth song go like this.

Peace on Earth, can it be
Years from now, perhaps we’ll see
See the day of glory
See the day, when men of good will
Live in peace, live in peace again

Peace on Earth, can it be

Every child must be made aware
Every child must be made to care
Care enough for his fellow man
To give all the love that he can

I pray my wish will come true
For my child and your child too
He’ll see the day of glory
See the day when men of good will
Live in peace, live in peace again

Peace on Earth, can it be
Can it be

These days, again, the question remains, "Peace on Earth, can it be?" Near the end of the church year we heard a scripture reading from Mark that said "nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (Mk 13:8). To begin Advent the scripture reading talks about "Fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world" (Lk 21:26). The fear of war and the wish for peace is nothing new. When we arrive at Christmas we will hear the words of the angel song "Glory to God ... and on earth peace" (Lk 2:14).

We pray for that peace to come. "God of glory, break the yokes of war and oppression that plague our world, establish your peace among nations, and uphold it with justice and righteousness for all peoples." After a time of waiting we finally celebrate Christmas, after the winter solstice, after the amount of sunlight each day has begun to increase, after the darkness has given way to the sun. Then we hear that "those who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isa 9:2). Then we remind ourselves, as well, that God is with us. We can have a "peace which surpasses all understanding" (Phil 4:7) because the Prince of Peace has come to us and abides with us.

May peace be with you this Advent and Christmas season and may the rich presence of God be cause for you to join in the song of the angels. "Glory to God."

New Year's Resolutions

Here's something I wrote for our congregational newsletter.

Pretty soon you’ll be hanging up a new calendar on whatever hook or nail you use in your home. A new year is around the corner and when that comes some people start talking about New Year’s Resolutions. The statistics are pretty grim for those kinds of resolutions. The majority of resolutions undertaken on January 1 of any year don’t seem to last very long. I wonder if there’s a spike in memberships at fitness clubs or sales of various diet books at this time of year.

I was reading something recently that I’d like to suggest to everyone as New Year’s Resolutions this year. Michael Foss’ book, Real Faith for Real Life (Minneapolis: Augsburg Books, 2004) identifies the following marks of discipleship:
+ Daily prayer,
+ Daily scripture reading,
+ Weekly worship,
+ Growth in giving to the tithe and beyond,
+ Serving others in Jesus’ name,
+ Sharing the faith story with the unchurched.

These marks of discipleship are all a part of being in relationship with Jesus and growing in relationship with Jesus. As Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are disciples. We are living in relationship with Jesus and these marks of discipleship help us to grow in that relationship. Consider each of these marks. They’re not just rules to follow, tasks to complete, drudgery that you have to include in or add to your day and week. These marks of discipleship lead to a fuller and deeper relationship with Jesus and a richer and more fulfilling life.
+ Daily prayer, whenever and however you plan it into your day, focuses what you do and who you are on something more than just you. In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther gives suggestions for simply prayers to say when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed at night, and when you sit down to eat and rise from eating. That’s a simple way to start.

+ Daily scripture reading is a way to gain a deeper understanding of God and yourself, and to enrich your faith. In The Lutheran Course we heard that the key thing to reading and studying the Bible is to "just start." You may read a lot at a time or just a little, but "just start."

+ Weekly worship brings you into contact with a whole community of disciples like you. It’s a time where praying and scripture reading happen. It’s a time when you hear the Good News of God’s love through Jesus Christ. It’s a time when Christ comes to you in, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion.

+ Growth in giving to the tithe and beyond is so often a touchy subject in the church but it shouldn’t be. Jesus says "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Lk 12:34). If this is true (and who are we to disagree with Jesus?), then we can say that as we grow in our giving to Christ’s church, we will grow in our relationship with Jesus. When you do your taxes it’s simple enough to calculate ‘Charitable Donations’ divided by ‘Income’ times 100 to come up with the percentage of your donations. Can you increase that percentage a bit in the next year, moving toward the tithe (10%) or beyond?

+ Serving others in Jesus’ name is following Jesus by doing what Jesus did. He said that he came "not to be served but to serve" (Mt 20:28). In loving and serving our neighbour, we love and serve the very ones our Lord loves.

+ Finally, sharing the faith story with the unchurched is our calling. Jesus’ parting words were for his disciples to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ... and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20). Our lives have been changed by the love of God that we know in faith. We ought to be sharing that Good News with others so that they can know that love too.

Now, as I said at the beginning. New Year’s Resolutions are notorious for being broken. You might start out all gung-ho intending to keep some or all of these marks of discipleship and then a week, a month, or a few months later you might find yourself slipping and you’re not doing them anymore. That’s okay. God forgives. And you can start over. Nobody’s perfect. We all slip and fall sometimes. But we can get back up and get going again. Try these things. They’ll lead to a fuller and deeper relationship with Jesus. Just start.

Advent

I asked LutherPunk about distinguishing Advent from Christmas when he posted a liturgy for the hanging of the greens. He started another post on that topic.

I wrote something on the subject that appeared in our local paper yesterday. Here it is.

"...Christ will come again."

Did you pay attention to the TV ads and see when the first Christmas commercials appeared? I noticed two ads on November 1, the day after Halloween. Some stores jumped the gun even sooner. We were having a belated Thanksgiving celebration on the weekend after Thanksgiving with some family who had been away on the long weekend. We were searching the stores for some autumn or harvest themed decorations with little luck, but we saw a lot of Halloween stuff and the Christmas decorations were already on the shelves.

In the church we try not to jump the gun (emphasis on ‘try’) when it comes to Christmas. Now, we’re not Scrooges crying "bah...humbug" to any early Christmas decorating or celebrating, but in many churches we celebrate a season leading up to Christmas called Advent. Advent begins this Sunday, December 3, four Sundays before Christmas. It’s a season that’s a bit more restrained, quiet, and austere. We’ll pull out all the stops on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the "Twelve Days of Christmas" that follow.

Until then we sing Advent hymns, not Christmas carols. Our church interiors are dressed in blue or purple, not red and green. The stores and TV commercials seem to get the jump on Christmas sooner and sooner because they exist to make money and it helps their bottom line. But by observing the season of Advent the church provides a deliberate counter-culture witness. We remind ourselves, and hopefully others, that the values of the Christian community are not the values of a society obsessed by consumerism.

Advent isn’t just a time when we look forward to the Christmas celebration. One writer has described Advent as "a threshold, a gateway, a bridge." It’s a time when future, present, and past sometimes get blurred. We pray "Come, Lord Jesus" and believe that he will come again, and at the same time that he’s already with us. In our Sunday worship we proclaim the mystery of faith, saying: "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again."

May Christ be with you as you look forward to the celebration of his birth, the joy of his presence now and always, and the hope of his coming again.

Birthday Meme

LutherPunk did this. It’s kind of neat. I limited myself to the numbers prescribed but could have included a few more interesting factiods.

The Rules:
1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays and one death
5) One holiday or observance (if any)

Here are my answers:

Three events that happened on my birthday are:
1) 1066 — Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings — In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the forces of William the Conqueror defeat the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England.
2) 1964 — American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
3) 1987 — 18-month-old Jessica McClure ("Baby Jessica") falls down an abandoned well in Midland, Texas (her nationally televised rescue takes 58 hours).

Two important birthdays and one death:
1) 1644 — William Penn, English founder of Pennsylvania (d. 1718)
2) 1938 — Ron Lancaster, Canadian Football League quarterback and coach
Death:
1) 1977 — Bing Crosby, American singer and actor (b. 1903)

Holidays and observances:
* RC Saints — Pope Callistus I
* World Organ Donation Day

Happy Turkey Day

Look at the birds in the sky! They don't plant or harvest. They don't even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't you worth more than birds?
Look how the wild flowers grow. They don't work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn't as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! (Mt 6.26, 28-30)

To any Americans who might stumble across this blog today. Happy Thanksgiving. We Canadians did the Thanksgiving thing back in October. Our Thanksgiving Day is always the second Monday of October.

Here's the Prayer of the Day for A Day of Thanksgiving:

Almighty God our Father, your generous goodness comes to us new every day. By the work of your Spirit lead us to acknowledge your goodness, give thanks for your benefits, and serve you in willing obedience, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, whom with you and the Holy Spirit we worship and praise, one God, now and forever. Amen

And from Sundays & Seasons:

As winter darkness crosses the land, the nation takes time to offer thanks for the harvest and the abundant resources of this land. Even though this holiday witnesses many households gathering for a festive meal, Christians recognize that the source of all good things is the God who feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the field. Gathered at Christ's supper, we offer thanksgiving for the bread of life and the cup of blessing. And here, as we share these gifts, we are knit together into a community whose mission is among the poor and those in need. We offer thanks to God for the bounty of the land and seek to share these riches with all in need.

The Sermons I Write

I used to write pretty good sermons. That's my opinion I guess but once in a while I'd write something I could be pretty proud of. Lately I've not been so proud of my sermons though. It's probably a combination of laziness and being pressed for time but often I'll piece together things from various sources, change them a bit to sound more like me or to agree with my/our theology, and expand on something here and there, and then get up on Sunday and preach it. They're usually pretty decent sermons but rarely something that's all mine.

So much for confession time. Here's the sermon I preached on the 12th. Again, gathered from a few different sources with some editing and additions but I thought it was pretty good. I don't even remember where I got some of the bits and pieces so I can't attribute them. If anyone recognizes anything you can give credit where credit is due in the comments.

23rd Sunday after Pentecost
November 12, 2006
Mark 12:38-44
Thomas Arth

She was a woman.
She was poor.
These are two facts anyone could tell that day
in the Court of the Women in the Temple in Jerusalem.

She was also a widow who was down to her last two coins.
These are facts that Jesus also knew about her.

She was a woman of great faith.
She became a living sermon.
She remains an icon of faith
as she put her whole trust in God,
not holding anything back.

So often in these Bible stories we don't get a name.
Oh, there are portions of the Bible
that go on and on with genealogies
and names we have a hard time pronouncing,
and frankly nobody really cares what a lot of their names were.
But it's too bad that often we might like to know a person's name
and we don't get it.
This unnamed woman is known now
by her marital status and her coins rather than her name,
for the story is "The Widow's Mite"
and she is "The Widow."
The King James Version says
"there came a certain poor widow,
and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing."
One of my commentaries says
she gave two lepta which make a quadrans,
which was worth one-sixty-fourth of a denarius,
the pay of a day labourer.
If you did some crude math,
you're talking about the value of about 10 minutes' work.
What's even more amazing
is that she gives both of these two coins.
She could have kept one.

Mark briefly sets the scene for us.
Jesus has been teaching in the temple courts.
Now, on his way out, he pauses by the treasury
to watch as offerings are made.
Each person would walk up
to one of thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles,
which were lined along the wall of the Court of the Women.
Apparently, as they tossed in their offering,
the person was expected to say aloud
the amount and purpose of the gift
in order to be heard by the priest overseeing the collections.
I don't know how that would work here.
As the offering plate is passed down the row
one person says "here's $500 to pay the gas bill"
another says "here's $150 to pay the hydro bill"
another says "here's $100 to tune the organ"
another says "here's $80 for communion wine"
another says "here's $ 50 for paper to print the bulletins"
another says "here's $20 to pay the pastor."
I actually heard of a church where the treasurer
pinned copies of the various bills on the bulletin board each month
and people could then adopt a bill and pay it that month.

We don't do that kind of thing and I don't think we should,
but something I read suggested
that's what happened in the temple in Jesus' time.
People walked up to these large containers
and dropped in their offering,
calling out the amount they were giving.
It would have been an impressive sight
to see people in fine clothes tossing in large sums,
calling out for everyone to hear, how much they gave.
And in such a group, who would notice the widow
tossing the two smallest coins in the realm into the offering?
Yet, in a move that is so like him,
Jesus notices and calls attention to this act of faith.
And it was an act of faith.

Jesus calls his disciples together and says,
"Truly I tell you,
this poor widow has put in more
than all those who are contributing to the treasury.
For all of them have contributed out of their abundance;
but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had,
all she had to live on."

Jesus knows that these are not any two coins,
but the woman's last two coins.
The text says, "All she had to live on,"
but the Greek is starker still.
What is really said is that she put in her "bios."
It's the word from which we get "biology," the study of life.
Sometimes our English Bibles lose something in the translation.
I think there's quite a difference here.
The New Revised Standard Version I read says
the widow put in "all she had to live on."
The Contemporary English Version says
"Now she doesn't have a cent to live on."
The New Jerusalem Bible, "all she had to live on."
New International Version, "all she had to live on."
New Living Translation, "everything she has."
The good old King James Version, "all her living."
I don't go back to the original Greek every week
to come up with my own translation,
and I admit that I didn't come up with this myself.
Something I read suggested an alternate translation
so I checked the Greek to see for myself if this was the case
and sure enough there it was, ‘bios.'
What Jesus tells us is that the widow put her "life"
into the temple treasury that day.
She walked up to the offering bowl and gave her life.
In one paraphrase of the Bible called "The Message"
written by Eugene Peterson
I found a phrase that comes closer to that meaning
than any of the other translations I checked.
In it Jesus says,
"The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection
than all the others put together.
All the others gave what they'll never miss;
she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford—
she gave her all."

Now this is not a sermon about tithing,
for the woman did not give ten percent of her income.
We often talk about proportional giving
and the tithe, or ten percent,
is the best known of the Bible's teachings
on proportional giving.
This story is something else entirely.
In terms of actual dollars,
the widow's pennies are nothing
compared to the large sums being put in the offering by the rich.
However, in terms of percentage giving,
the offering of the poor widow
dramatically exceeded the larger sums of the rich.
See, percentage giving, tithing, is a two-edged sword.
For those who don't have large financial resources,
percentage giving is a word of great comfort.
Such people can know that in God's eyes
their "small" gift is not small at all,
but incredibly generous.
For those who have greater financial resources,
percentage giving calls them to account
if their gift is larger in dollars
but still quite small in percentage.
Jesus singled out the widow for praise.
For a poor widow,
the gift of $5.00 can involve a much greater sacrifice
than that experienced by a millionaire
who gives $50,000.
These were her last two coins to rub together,
and rather than keep one back,
she tossed both into the temple treasury's coffers.
The widow gave 100 percent of her money.
The widow is down to two practically worthless little coins,
and she trusts it all to God.
If this were a gamble,
then the widow would be laying all her money on God.
But this is not a gamble,
for the widow does not bet her money;
she trusts her life to God.
Her offering was an act of faith.

It would be nice if Mark filled in more details for us.
Was Jesus' arm around the woman as he said,
"This poor widow has put in more …"
or was the woman blending back into the crowd,
never to be seen again?
Maybe Jesus asked his own keeper of the purse, Judas Iscariot,
to give something to this woman
so that she wouldn't go hungry that evening.
Or better still, did the widow come to be a Christ follower?
Did she join with the other women who journeyed with Jesus
from Galilee to the cross and beyond?

The Gospel never answers these questions.
The nameless widow who gave two small coins
fades into the background.
We may want to know her name
in order to name churches, schools, and hospitals in her honour.
We may want to give her a place of honour in Jesus' stories
alongside disciples whose names we know.
We know something about their faith.
Their trust in God wasn't always such a great example.

Maybe namelessness is appropriate for this living parable.
And maybe it is best, too,
that we don't find out how her story ends.
The nameless woman whose ultimate fate we never know
is perhaps an even better icon of trust,
for her story was a precarious one.
She went to the temple that day
not knowing if she would ever have two little coins
to call her own again.
It could have been her path to a life of begging
or even a station on the road to starvation.

But in facing an uncertain future,
the widow reached out to God.
She trusted that if she gave everything she had to God,
even the little she gave would be honored.
And whether she was repaid handsomely by Jesus himself,
or God cared for her in some other way,
we, too, have to trust.
We trust that the widow's story turned out all right.
We trust that whether she lived or died,
she was God's.

And by her example,
Jesus shows that what we withhold
may matter more than what we offer.
The widow was a woman of great faith,
who held nothing back.
She knew what Jesus' disciples were just learning:
we are to give,
knowing that everything we have is God's already.
We can't give God anything.
But we can offer our very selves to the Kingdom of God,
holding nothing back.

She was a woman.
She was poor.
She was a widow down to her last two coins.
She was a child of God
who placed her whole life
back in her loving creator's hands.
Amen

40

I patiently waited, LORD,
for you to hear my prayer.
You listened and pulled me
from a lonely pit
full of mud and mire
You let me stand on a rock
with my feet firm,
and you gave me a new song,
a song of praise to you.
Many will see this,
and they will honour and trust
you, the LORD God.

That's from the beginning of Psalm 40 but this isn't about a psalm or a U2 song based on a psalm.

I turned 40 on Saturday. On Saturday, the day of my birthday, my in-laws came to town for Thanksgiving dinner nearly a week late. That's because they spent the long weekend in Dearborn, MI at the Henry Ford Museum and in Frankenmuth, MI. I was expecting my parents and brother on Sunday. They like to come down and worship with us and then they usually take us out for lunch and visit for the afternoon (they live an hour away). Well, on Sunday morning after I'd vested and was walking through the sanctuary to the narthex to greet people as they came, my parents and brother were there, but so were an uncle and two aunts. Then as people are coming through the door another aunt and a couple of cousins and their families showed up. My wife had planned a surprise party for me after church. Some people had offered to make sandwiches, my wife ordered a big cake, so coffee hour become a light lunch and a birthday party.

Just one problem. I was teaching confirmation after church. I had to miss the party. I figured I'd at least get to visit with the family that made the trip down after confirmation class. Well one cousin and his family and the aunt who came with them had to leave so I didn't get to visit with them. The rest did stay for a few hours in the afternoon. It was a nice thought and a nice gesture and a good cake (there's still some left at home, I had a piece for breakfast today).

I'm 40 now and I don't think I feel much different from when I was 30. Another pastor I know turned 60 earlier this year. A friend who turned 60 last year said that 60 is the new 40. I said I was turning 40 this year so what did that make me? He told me a psychologist friend of his claims that these days adolescence lasts until 35 so I'm just barely an adult. When I teach confirmation class and think back to my days going through that kind of instruction I find it hard to believe that it was over 26 years ago. Last night our adult study group was talking about Holy Communion and for all of us our first communion was tied to confirmation. My confirmation was on Palm Sunday, March 30, 1980 and my first communion was on Maundy Thursday that week, April 3. After confirmation we were invited to be part of our church youth group, where I got to know my wife. It doesn't seem that long ago.

But then, later this month (in just 10 days actually) we'll celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. Our oldest daughter is 13 and her confirmation day will come next spring. Time marches on, and I guess I'm getting old, but I don't feel old. I'm sporting a beard for the first time in my life. I started growing it in the summer when we were on vacation. Does a beard make you look older or younger? Mine just might be making me look a lot older because there's a lot of grey in the sideburns and a really noticeable patch of grey on my chin. My brother gave me a gag gift (I hope it was a gag), Just For Men hair colour for beards.

How long, to sing this song?
How long, to sing this song?
How long...

How Nerdy Am I?

Pray for Peace

Today is the International Day of Prayer for Peace. A few years ago the UN passed a resolution marking September 21 each year as a Day for Peace. Subsequently the World Council of Churches designated the same day as a Day of Prayer for Peace and encourages churches around the world to make some observation of that day, and to pray. We're having an Evening Prayer service tonight. Below is a prayer that we'll be using. I think it's written by young people from Latin America. Do something yourself to mark this day. Pray for peace. And if you don't read this until after the 21st you can pray anyway. Your prayer won't be wasted and it won't be less effective because it was prayed late. Shalom.

Prayer for Peace

God of all goodness, You have been our refuge from generation to generation. Your will is that peace should shine on all people everywhere.

With your spirit, guide the efforts of humankind to bring peace and justice to the nations of the earth, and give strength to rulers and all who work to establish peace and justice in the world.

Inspire those who come together in search of ways to bring about peace, and through your word, change the hearts of all people so that we shall strive for:

Peace, and not war,

The Common Good, rather than individual wellbeing,

Your Justice, instead of our own glory.

You have given us your peace. Enable us to share that peace with those around us, so that love and harmony may be always present in our lives, that all the world may know happiness, that we may live with dignity as brothers and sisters, and that all may rejoice in your presence. United in diversity, we call upon your infinite grace, humbly asking you to receive our prayer and make us instruments of your peace.

Amen

Good Shepherds and Lost Sheep

On September 11, 2001 I was a senior in seminary. I had one class that day, a homiletics course in the afternoon. That morning I turned on the TV, just to kill some time before I had to leave, and I saw smoke coming from the first tower and the reporters weren't really sure what had happened. I watched as the second plane flew into the second tower. Then there were reports about another plane and the Pentagon, and another plane that crashed somewhere in a farmer's field but details about any of this were sketchy.

8 days later it was my turn to preach in the seminary chapel at our regular Wednesday, noon Eucharist. We always used the propers for the previous Sunday but weren't necessarily bound to the lectionary. I found the lectionary gospel reading appropriate and below is what I preached.

September 19, 2001
Luke 15. 1-10
Thomas Arth

Wouldn’t it be nice to be a sheep?
Sheep don’t fly in airplanes.
Sheep don’t work in office buildings.
Sheep aren’t compelled to risk their lives in order to save others.
Sheep don’t watch television.
Sheep don’t feel so deeply when others,
hundreds of kilometers away,
are tragically slaughtered.
If only we were sheep.
We might have avoided the pain, sadness, fear,
anger, despair,
and a host of other emotions
that have engulfed us these eight days.

But I guess sheep do get lost.
That may be a description of what has happened to us
in the wake of last Tuesday’s horrible events.
The people of the world whose hope and love is for peace
have become lost.

"The darkness is still there and the chaos still returns!"
is the way one theologian put it.
We’re not strangers to
injustice, un-peace, and the disintegration of creation
but it doesn’t always hit so close to home.

Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s third symphony is titled
‘Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.’
I’ve listened to this piece,
at home and in my car,
about a dozen times since last Tuesday.
It begins with the double basses playing a long, slow, quiet melody.
It sounds like a groan.
Slowly and steadily,
bit by bit,
the rest of the strings join in.
The music builds from what was a whisper
to a pitch and intensity that becomes a wail and scream.
In the third movement a solo soprano sings the words of a Polish folk song.
The music and the words
capture some of the emotion that I’ve felt these days.
The translation goes like this.

Where has he gone
My dearest son?
Perhaps during the uprising
The cruel enemy killed him

Ah, you bad people
In the name of God, the most Holy,
Tell me, why did you kill
My son?

Never again
Will I have his support
Even if I cry
My old eyes out

Were my bitter tears
to create another River Oder
They would not restore to life
My son

He lies in his grave
and I know not where
Though I keep asking people
Everywhere

Perhaps the poor child
Lies in a rough ditch
and instead he could have been
lying in his warm bed

Oh, sing for him
God’s little song-birds
Since his mother
Cannot find him

And you, God’s little flowers
May you blossom all around
So that my son
May sleep happily

This week many have cried with thoughts like these.
Where have they gone?
Why did the cruel enemy kill them?
Mothers and brothers and daughters and husbands have asked
Ah, you bad people, why did you kill them?
They’re gone and a river of tears won’t bring them back.

But the song is both elegy, and redemption,
for the mother prays that,
though her son is lost,
he may hear the song of the song-birds
and sleep happily among the blossoms of God’s little flowers.

When sheep have lost their way,
good shepherds go to find them.
Then they can lie down in green pastures,
where God’s little flowers bloom
and be led beside still waters,
where the little song-birds sing.

When those towers in New York were burning
some shepherds ran in to save the lost
wearing firefighter’s uniforms
lugging cases of emergency medical equipment
and they ended up giving their lives for the lost.
The parables in the gospel reading don’t begin with
"The kingdom of God is like . . ."
they come as a response to the Pharisees’ and scribes’ grumbling
because Jesus ate with sinners.
So, we could simply make Jesus the shepherd and the woman,
looking for the sheep and searching for the coin.
The one who comes to save the lost,
the physician come to heal the sick.
And he certainly is.
But maybe we could expand on that.
Maybe the reign of God is like . . .
A shepherd looking for a lost sheep.
A woman searching for a lost coin.
A firefighter who risks his life and runs into a burning building
because someone might be lost.
A priest who goes to the site of a disaster
because someone needs last rites.
A mother who stands behind the barricades
clutching a picture of her daughter
waiting for any word or sign.
The reign of God is like
a shepherd who goes to find the lost.

In the midst of the evil that can seem to overwhelm us
the reign of God breaks in.
The faith that the Holy Spirit forms in us,
enables us to affirm the world
even when it makes us cry.
God’s grace, through eyes of faith,
enables us to see the world as it can be.
The reality that God intended from the beginning,
the reality realized in Christ,
the reality that is being achieved through the creative Spirit
is the world as it can be.

We can hope because we’ve been washed
and became part of that reality.
The font is a reminder that we have been found.
And we can hope
because we get a foretaste of that reality
when we have our meal together.
At the table we get a glimpse of what it’s like to be found.

In a world where we have just witnessed the un-peace that exists
where un-peace is even permitted,
we can reject and resist it
and believe that peace is possible
by the grace of God.
We are part of the world that is becoming.
John Newton wrote the line
"I once was lost, but now am found."
Maybe it should say
"I once was lost, and I’m being found."
I wouldn’t presume to say that I’m there
but I’m on my way.
We wouldn’t presume to say that the world
has become what it can be
what it was created to be
but it’s on the way
it’s becoming.

The world seems lost — is lost.
I feel lost.
Maybe you count yourself among the lost.
But the Good Shepherd has gone to find us.
And we will be found.

Oh, sing for him
God’s little song-birds
Since his mother
Cannot find him

And you, God’s little flowers
May you blossom all around
So that my daughter
May sleep happily