We live in hope!

Today's second lesson was from Romans 5.  During these anxious days as a virus is spreading rapidly, these words remind us that we are a people who live in hope:

¹Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5: 1 - 5)

And as Pastor Tuula reminded us in her sermon today:  God is with us.

What is important in life?

We are in the season of Lent, forty days of reflection and repentance that lead to Easter.  Lent is the season to discern what is important in life, and begin the hard work of finding home, not in the outward trappings of life that we work so hard to build…but in God. 

To help you in your discernment, I would like to share a story: 

A man traveled from America to visit the great Rabbi Israel Kagan in Poland.  The man made the pilgrimage to meet the great thinker, and he was excited as, finally after a long journey, he knocked on Rabbi Kagan’s door and was greeted by an elderly, stooped gentleman who asked him to enter.  The man entered the house and looked around, a bit stunned.  The rabbi’s house was totally empty, bare of furniture as if no one lived there. The room contained only the very basic spare furnishings: one table, two chairs, a bookcase, and a bed.

This was the home of a famous rabbi, so the man was confused.  “Rabbi, may I ask a question?” said the man.  “I don’t notice much of anything here in your home.  Where are your things? Have you fallen on hard times?”

The rabbi turned to the visitor.  “And may I ask you a question, young man?

“Certainly,” came the reply.

“Where is all your furniture?”

“I have an oak dining room table, and a beautiful bedroom set all at my house in New York,” said the man.  "Do tourists generally take such possessions along in a moving van? I’m just passing through!”  

The rabbi gave his guest a gentle smile.  “As for this world I, too, am just passing through,” said Kagan. 
“Then again, aren’t we all?” 

Fasting for Lent?

If Lent is to be a time of transformation – sorrow over our failings, contemplation of Christ’s sacrifice for us, and making change because of these things – a journey to focus on how to change and grow in grace, then giving up coffee, meat, or candy don’t have much chance of inspiring the change, the transformation, we need. 

Instead, how about returning to God “with all our heart” (Joel 2:12) through our thoughts, words and actions?  Check out this list of What to give up attributed to Pope Francis in 2017:

1. Fast from Hurting Words and say Kind words.                  
2. Fast from Sadness and be filled with Gratitude.
3. Fast from Anger and be filled with Patience.
4. Fast from Pessimism and be filled with Hope.
5. Fast from Worries and Trust in God.
6. Fast from Complaints and contemplate Simplicity.
7. Fast from Pressures and be Prayerful.
8. Fast from Bitterness and fill your heart with Joy.
9. Fast from Selfishness and be Compassionate to others.
10. Fast from Grudges and be Reconciled.
11. Fast from Words and be Silent so you can listen.

So, give up indifference and procrastination, refuse mediocrity, and grow in being the Christian you can be.  Have a holy Lenten journey!  You can do this.

A prayer for Lent...

Merciful God, this week we prepare to embrace the season of Lent.  We prepare ourselves to walk with Jesus to the cross.  Speak to us, we pray, the truth of Christ's passion.  Remind us that there is no life without death, no communion without separation, no glory without suffering.  Give us courage and faith to receive these difficult truths and to align our hearts and lives with them.  May we choose to lose our lives so that we may gain them; to endure the pain of separation that we might enjoy the fellowship of all your saints; to enter Christ's suffereing by entering the suffering of your children on earth that we may one day share in your etermal glory.  For the sake of Christ, we pray.  Amen

God loves

Valentines Day is on the calendar today, and all thoughts turn to love.  We need to tell the world, to tell all people, they are loved.  God loves.

Here are some thoughts from Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, written in her monthly message April, 2018 (https://www.livinglutheran.org/2018/04/god-loves/):

During a recent chapel service at the Lutheran Center, Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director for Global Mission, shared his favourite Bible verse with us: “Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Jesus was in Jerusalem in the upper room praying with his disciples, modeling selfless service as he washed their feet, and preparing them for his glorification that would take place on the cross.

“He loved them to the end.” To his bitter end on the cross, but to the end of so much more—to the end of the deadly grip of sin, to the end of everything that would try to mar the image of God borne by every human being, to the end of death.

And Jesus loved them, 12 flesh and blood human beings who carried all the “stuff” people carry—passion and humour and courage, fear and doubt, the need to be seen and affirmed, great faith and quaking uncertainty. Jesus did not love the concept of disciples or the theory of people— Jesus loved them, Jesus loves us.

Jesus loved. How does one describe that? At my cousin’s wedding, the priest noted in his sermon that human language is too small for God. All the poetry in the world can’t express the love for one’s beloved or for a new baby or for family. All of the hymns ever written or sung can’t convey the love we have for God. Neither can words convey how much God loves us. It’s almost incomprehensible how much we are loved by God. It is too much to take in. But it is true.

This is the message that the Lutheran movement still has to speak to the rest of the world. God loves us. God means well for us and for the world. God’s love is deep and constant. And God’s love is not sentimental. The Incarnation was not a whim. Emmanuel, God with us, was a deliberate immersion into human brokenness in order to bring about healing and wholeness. “For while we were still weak … while we still were sinners … while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son …” (Romans 5:6-10).

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God loves us. God means well for us and for the world. God’s love is deep and constant. And God’s love is not sentimental.

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The Lutheran movement presents an alternative face of Christianity to the world. Too often the image of Christianity seen in popular culture is of a judgmental transactional God demanding perfection from an imperfect people, a people who, in desperation, work harder and harder to save themselves. Rules for purity are erected—pure theology and pure morality. Stark lines are drawn defining who is in and who is out. Faith becomes work. Righteousness is our righteousness achieved by ourselves.

Grace—God’s love freely given—is God’s work. It is not our doing. It is a gift. It is freedom. This is not for a minute to deny the truth of our sinfulness or that God does judge us and finds us falling seriously short. Grace doesn’t give us a free pass, nor does grace gloss over the reality of suffering and evil in the world. This grace, this freedom, makes it possible for us to realize the love of God in Christ in the world and in our own lives. And no human can set bounds on God’s grace.

Jesus loves his own and loves us to the end. Jesus doesn’t expect us to do the same—Jesus makes it possible for us to do the same. Therefore, we have nothing to fear and nothing to lose when we reject the notion of racial supremacy, when we welcome the stranger, when we confess that God alone is first. We can tell that story.