Hi, Ho, Silver!

Susan and I just celebrated 20 years in May. Here is a great perspective on marriage from Steve Gruenwald in the Fall, 2009 issue of Better Health:

Hi, Ho, Silver!
By Steve Gruenwald

I used to think that any husband buying something made out of silver to give to his wife after 25 years of marriage was being predictable and unoriginal. I changed my mind, however, after becoming a bit more educated about silver. What I learned about this soft, white, lustrous metal is that it is both ductile and malleable. Yup, I had the same catechismal thought that perhaps you’re having right now: “What does this mean?”

Those highfalutin words simply mean that silver can deform under tensile stress (it can be stretched into a wire) and it can also deform under compressive stress (it can be massed together in a bar or column). Either way, the important understanding is that silver has tremendous, forgiving qualities that allow it never to snap or break whether it is lengthened or squeezed together. Those qualities are quite symbolic and fitting of any marriage that has reached the 25-year milestone! For a marriage between two imperfect, sinful human beings to endure and grow through a quarter of a century – perhaps with kids added along the way – it’s an understatement to say that the marriage has endured its share of stress.

Yet despite getting pulled and compressed every which way for a quarter century, the union has endured: to God be the Glory! Oh, I’m sure there may have been moments along the way that have tarnished the sheen. No marriage is perfect and no couples are perfect; but thanks to God’s grace and forgiveness, couples can also forgive one another. So regardless of the obvious blemishes (perhaps only noticeable to the couple), the core of the union is still strong and still shining brightly. Ultimately, however, it’s not simply the quantity of twenty-five years that is a testament to the marriage. Instead it is the essence of the relationship after that length of time that is a more reliable showing of the true mettle of the marriage. If the marriage is solid – bonded with Christ to make a three-stranded alloy, as it were – the core is better equipped to withstand the corrosive elements that have the potential to deteriorate a marriage over time.

While reaching the silver plateau of 25 years is just one of many markers along the marriage journey, it is certainly not the end. In fact, were we to apply another metal analogy, we know that for many couples, silver is not enough: the higher goal is to shoot for the gold! May God continue to guide and strengthen all marriages – whether paper, bronze, silver, or gold – so that they may continue to be a witness to His love, grace, forgiveness, and peace.

(permission to re-publish received from the Author/editor of Better Health)

Oh, that I were 90!

Yesterday we celebrated Dorothy (Lemke) Sukstorf's 90th Birthday. All of her kids and most of her grandkids and great grandkids were there (excepting those at home with H1N1 or who had to work). It was a great party, even if we spent 8 hours in a car to get there and back.

Grandma was told many times over the past month that we would be honoring her on Sunday but, due to her memory issues, when she was brought into the party room and saw the tables decorated and the cake and some of her family who had begun the festivities, she was overcome with emotion and brought to tears of joy. She was especially pleased that me and my family had made the trip up from KC.

I got to thinking, what if each day were so new that we could only see the joy and opportunities that were unfolded before us? What if we were capable of forgetting all the hassles and pains of yesterday and to see each day as a blessing and each and every person we meet as a gift to treasure and behold.

I think that might be kind of like the vision John had when he wrote to the churches in Revalations. (see below) Pastor Reinke in his sermon Sunday talked about fixing our eyes on Jesus and on his second comming as we seek the Simple Church. I know that Grandma has her eyes fixed on Jesus, and for some reason, he has seen fit to ensure this through memory loss of the short term stuff. Perhaps each of us would do well to try to emulate the same sort of knowlege--forget about what happened yesterday or the day before and, instead, remembering the faith we received so long ago, look forward to the day when we will all see Jesus and live our lives toward that end and that goal.

My prayer for each of you today is that you too might forget the past and seek your future in Christ Jesus--whatever that is--which he has in store for you.

Peace,
RevnPadre

Revelation 21:1-7 NIV
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Keeping Priorities Focused in the Right Direction

Receive Others, Receive Jesus, Receive God Mark 9:30-37
Proper 20B, Pent 16 Sept. 20, 2009 Redeemer, Olathe, KS

When studying God’s word it’s really easy to become detached from the stories we read because of the great distance and time which separates us from the personalities we find in the Bible. As we quickly read our Gospel text we might be inclined to ignore those bumbling disciples, who, once again, just don’t get it. They can’t seem to understand what Jesus is saying and then we move on to the meat of the story, Jesus using a child to make his point, whatever we decide that is. But the point we make at the end of the passage can’t really be made until we really understand what is leading up to that point. For that reason, I’m inviting you to go with me on a little field trip this morning, but we won’t leave our seats. I would, however, like each of you to transport yourself, in your mind of course, to the year 33 AD and pretend you are one of the 12 disciples of Jesus and together we are listening to him teach. I hope you come along with us on this journey.

Right now it’s just the 13 of us. Jesus, you, me, and 10 other disciples and you are pretty much paying attention to every word he is saying just as you have since the day he called you two years ago or so. You know him well. You love him like a brother. Some of you might even love him like a father. You also know that he is the Messiah—whatever that means, and, indeed, it means something a little different to each one of you. Jesus knows that about each one of you too, so this meeting is important because he’s trying to tell you how things are all going to play out in the near future.

Here’s what he has to say to you. (Mark 9:31) "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise." The color now drains from your face. This is the second time Jesus has told us this and we know that when he says “The Son of Man” he’s talking about himself. But what is he talking about? He’s the Messiah! He’s the one who will save all Israel! How in the world can he save God’s people if he’s dead? You look around and no one is saying anything. The last time Peter tried to refute this notion Jesus commanded Satan to leave him and to stop such talk. You decide to say nothing. Better to be confused and quiet, than speak up and be embarrassed or scolded or told that Satan has a hold of you!

Evidently your fellow disciples have made the same judgment and no one speaks up or questions Jesus on this point. But now it is time to move on down the road. We have to get to Capernaum tonight because we’re on our way to Jerusalem. But our failure to our leader is immediate. As soon as we begin our walk Jesus takes the lead out front and we start to lag back a little bit. We want to chat with the others to see if they understand any better than we do what Jesus was talking about. What we all finally deduce is that Jesus is convinced that he will be killed for what he has been preaching and for the miracles he has been doing. A lot of influential folks who have been around these parts for a very long time and who run things at the synagogues are really upset and there seems to be a plot stirring to get rid of him.

All of this talk about Jesus getting killed though makes you nervous. Around here, guilt by association is just as punishable as doing the deed yourself. But on the other hand, if we do manage to survive any plot to stop Jesus’ teachings, what will happen to us? Who will lead us after our teacher leaves this place? Who will help us learn and understand what God wants us to do next? Is it John? No, he’s too nice. All he talks about is love and kindness. Our movement will never get anywhere if he’s the leader. Yet, Jesus seems to really appreciate and trust him. There’s Peter. He’s a natural born leader, even if he is a little pushy. And, even though Jesus has to reign him in from time to time, he really seems to see something special in Peter. Matthew might be good at greasing the skids with the Romans, but our Jewish brothers and sisters all see him as a traitor. I don’t know. Who’s the best among us? Who will be our great leader after Jesus is gone? We’d better keep it down though. He might hear us. Besides we’re almost to the house where we’ll be staying.

Ok. Let’s take a break from our field trip and examine what just happened. As we put ourselves into the situation, it made a little more sense and gained a little more meaning didn’t it? As you placed yourself as one of the disciples, it doesn’t seem so preposterous to go the direction they went does it? When faced with a problem to which they didn’t understand for which they had no answers they filled the void with their own ideas and solutions. They reacted to what they saw in the way they best knew how based only upon the information they had at the time. Now, as you place yourself among the 12 again—as we go back out on our field trip--who could blame you (one of Jesus’ 12, trusted disciples) for coming to the conclusions and the answers you formulated given the circumstances before you? Yet, they were still wrong because you didn’t understand and you didn’t ask Jesus to help you do so.

So, we’re at Capernaum now and we’ve found the address of the folks that are putting us up for the night. We’re out of the public eye again and Jesus then asks us, (Mark 9:33) "What were you discussing on the way?" You don’t say a word, but you’re thinking, “If we wanted you to know we would have included you in the conversation!” But, we should have known better. Of course we know that Jesus seems to know what people are thinking. He’s done that many times before with the Pharisees and even with us when he would ask us why we doubt him. Sometimes I think he’s just really perceptive, but not this time. This time you can tell. He knows exactly what we talking about. Without our telling him what we were arguing over he answers our question and says, (Mark 9:35) “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."

Boy, do I feel stupid. Here we were, arguing all the time about which one of us was the greatest so that we could take his place. All the while, we should have considered how he led us! Did Jesus ever lead us by force, power, or intimidation? Did he ever try to make a scene or get noticed? Did he ever show off or make any of us feel inferior before any of the rest of the group? No! He was always the humble one. He was the one who always helped others. He never pushes to the front of the line or talks louder than the rest so that we notice him. He has led us by the relationship we have with him, not because of what he can do or the influence he has on others!

As we’re all seated around Jesus, kind of in a circle I guess, Jesus calls over a child who I guess must live in the house we’re staying at. Maybe she’s a neighbor kid. I don’t know, but Jesus has noticed her watching us from around the corner and calls her over to where we are. She comes over to him and he scoops her up and sits her in his lap. I don’t know if they’ve ever met, but she sure seems comfortable there. Jesus now says, Mark 9:37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." And at that moment we finally begin to understand, but we have so much more to learn.

As our field trip comes to an end we must now head back here to 21st century Olathe. We have lots to ponder and think about. We thought we were going to have a problem which we had to solve. But Jesus made it very clear that its not ours to solve because its not about us, or about our group, or even about the church. Its about “receiving one such child”. Whether we are on our little field trip, or sitting here in this church, we have a tendency to make ourselves the focus of Jesus’ ministry. And when Jesus spoke of that child, he was speaking in terms of the kingdom of God and our role as the church. Just as a child has no influence or power to do anything to save itself in this world outside of its parents, neither does an unbeliever have any power to bring themselves to eternal life. We must show them the way and bring them to Jesus. That’s what we are all about. .

As we think back to the first couple of verses of our Gospel lesson, and the confusion of those disciples, we must consider our own confusion at times when we hear God’s word—especially when its something we don’t want to hear. But Jesus has things he tells us which are just as difficult to hear as what the disciples heard that day. Things like: Love one another. Bear each other’s weaknesses. Honor the Sabbath. Do not kill. Do not lie about your neighbor. Lift up one another in prayer, and many more. And just like the disciples when we don’t like or understand what we hear we take it upon ourselves to rectify the situation.

And , just like the disciples, when we try to “fix” God’s word to make it more palatable, we are doing a very grave thing. John cautioned that nothing is to be added or taken away from God’s word and that if we do, we must be prepared for a punishment of plagues in this life and eternal damnation in the life to come. Likewise, if we, like the disciples, seek to help God out by taking charge of things in which he has not given us charge of, he will put us in our place, just as he did with the disciples when he told them that in order to be first (as they supposed they needed to be) that they must put themselves last, and therefore, not be in the running at all, because only Christ is our leader. We always follow him and receiving the babes in the faith are who we are to focus on if we are to truly receive him and thereby receive the Father.

Knowing how to navigate these waters of faith is not always an easy task though, is it? We experienced that when we put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples; when we ourselves allowed ourselves to stumble into the same error they did. We might say, “Yes, but they had Jesus right there with them? How could they be so blind?” Ah, but don’t we have him as well? We have his very word here. In addition we have his body and blood before us in the bread and the wine, just as he himself said he would be. We are no better or no worse off than the 12. And so, we must learn from the lessons Jesus taught them, even when they were not model disciples.

When faced with difficult situations and painful, incriminating evidence of sin in our lives or in our midst, do we just hush up and talk quietly amongst ourselves as if Jesus can’t hear us, or, do we seek the wisdom of Jesus in his Word and seek his absolution as we confess our sins to God and to one another? When we face a transition or lack of leadership in our churches do we seek to find the solutions for our church in ourselves and our own abilities or ideas? Or, do we look to Jesus?

In our Gospel lesson today, it’s pretty clear what we must do. We must look outside of ourselves and let Jesus take care of the rest. All we have to worry about is receiving others so that they might come to Christ and through Christ we will receive the Father. Perhaps a little baseball analogy would be helpful. When the bases are loaded with two outs, the fielders know all they have to do catch the ball and the inning is over, regardless of the score. You don’t have to worry about stolen bases, or double or triple plays. Just receive the ball in your glove and the rest will take care of itself.

May each of us be given the strength to keep our eye on the ball and focus on receiving others, letting Jesus take care of the rest so that we will all one day see the father in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Encouraging Words--favorite Bible verses

I've been trying to catch up this morning on a daily e-mail devotion our church subscribes to. It's called "e-dibs" (electronic daily bible study). Each one only takes about 8 minutes which is just about the right amount of time for me to take a nugget of scripture and ruminate on it for a while.

Right now Pastor Paul is walking us through 1 Timothy. I'm caught up through Sept. 10th as of this AM and have been blessed by the encouragement that Paul gives to Timothy. I too have had a tough few weeks and so this study comes at just the right time in my life.

My question to you all is this: What scripture verses pick you up or encourage you when you are at a crossroads? What word or words from God do you hang your hat on when you are contemplating the next big crisis in your life?

That's all for now. I hope to post yesterday's sermon tonight. Some thought it was profitable for hearing. Maybe for reading as well.

Kierkegaard on why we can't follow God's Word

Reflections from an Ecumenist, a Charismatic, and a Philosopher — Lutheran Forum:

Sorry for the (1,2,3,4...) Fifth-hand passing of a quotation, but this is a good one.

It's found in this excellent article from Sara Wilson and the gang over at the Lutheran Forum which quotes Larry Christianson, writing in Micheal Root's blog and ends with this quote from Soren Kierkegaard (as any good Scandihoovian would!) It sums up the reason why major church bodies can pass "statements" and "policies" which are clearly against God's word by showing how we as individuals do it all the time in our own lives.

"'The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any word in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world?'
(Cited from Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, ed. Charles E. Moore [Farmington, PA: Plough, 2002], 201.)"

Forgiving and Forgetting

Forgiving and Forgetting

as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12 (ESV)
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
The Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

“Forgive and forget.” That’s the old saying. Its been taught to us for so long that we have passed it down to our children. If we truly stick by those words and fully implement their intent, the world would, indeed, be a much more grace-filled place. But, as imperfect humans so often will do, we get the words twisted around—even if there are only three of them—and just make matters worse.

Somewhere along the way we began equating forgetting with forgiving. Instead of forgiving someone first, we just move right to the forgetting. We try to forget their error or, worse yet, they themselves. When we or someone we know has been wronged, instead of confronting the offense, we try to just forget about it. When a problem arises we say, “Just leave well enough alone, you’ll only make it worse.” Sometimes we try to rationalize our behavior by saying, “Oh, just ignore him/her. If you confront them you’ll only encourage them.” While great ways to avoid confrontation, these are not good ways to “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV) In fact, many people who have never resolved conflict with another wait their whole lives for “the other shoe to drop,” wondering when the other party will get even or bring up the conflict as a way of bringing hurt and pain to the other. “Forgetting” before forgiving almost always guarantees that NO ONE will forget about it.

This month I’d like to challenge the wisdom of the ages and ask you to venture with me into two very important passages of scripture we know very well so that we might get a grasp on what true forgiveness is. The first is Psalm 103 and the second is from the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. In each of them we see that forgiveness is an act of love between God and us as well as between you and me and you and your neighbor.

Psalm 103 gives us the reassurance that in knowing our sin, God can make sure it is far removed from us. That was the whole point of sending his Son into the world; to be the largest wedge there could possibly be to separate us from our sin. By being sinless and then dying the sinners’ death, he became our sin so that we would no longer be identified by or with those sins. When God sees us he has not forgotten our sins, for they cost him dearly. He knows exactly where they are; on the crucified body of Jesus, far-removed from any of us. We are here on earth, while our sins are on Jesus who awaits us in heaven. If Christ had not been sinless, our sin would not be at the opposite end of the universe as the Psalmist posits but, rather, would still be clinging to us. Give thanks today that God knows exactly where your sins are; away from you and on Jesus.

The Lord’s Prayer continues this line of thinking as our Lord is the example by which we are to treat one another. As we pray to our Father to be forgiven, we realize that out of his great love and compassion he has already done so by Jesus’ death and resurrection and has fulfilled what the Psalmist prayed for in Psalm 103. In this prayer our Savior instructs us to extend forgiveness to our fellow brothers and sisters, for it is by His forgiveness that they are saved, just as we were.

By paying attention to God’s word in these verses we avoid the trap of forgetting without forgiving. To not forgive another is to say that they are less worthy of forgiveness than we. By doing this we say that our sin is not nearly so bad as theirs and that while Christ’s suffering and death was sufficient for us, it was not for our brother or sister. This diminishes our Lord's suffering and death. An inability to forgive others also tempts us to place ourselves above God as we become our own god, judging who shall and shall not receive grace; grace that isn’t ours to give.

If we are to truly receive AND REJOICE in our forgiveness we must forgive one another of our sins against each other, whether that is a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor or a fellow church member. But before we can forgive and be forgiven, there must be repentance; otherwise we are just forgetting our offenses in hopes that they’ll be forgotten.

This month, let’s all pray Psalm 103 and the Lord’s Prayer with new vigor as we seek and extend God’s forgiveness which is found in Christ Jesus. Pray that your heart will be open to repentance where you have offended others and pray that you might be willing forgive when others repent to you. This is the way in which God reconciles us to him and it’s the same way that we reconcile with one another. And when the Body of Christ lives in God’s grace it’s a beautiful and bountiful thing.