12-31-2015

Good Morning All!!   

          Psalm 9:18; “For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.”

    When we look at the news, it seems that the number of people in the world that seem to be regarded as “disposable” or to be “throw-aways” is on the rise.  It looks as if more and more the world has the attitude of someone is not “worth the effort.”  We see the teeming number of refugees from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Central America in ever greater numbers.  Some in this country want to build walls and keep them out; some want to open the doors wide and invite them in. 

     The vast majority of us have never been in this position but there are times when we tend to feel like the world around us has left us behind.  It can occur in many fashions.  It can occur when we refuse to follow the crowd and soon we are left out of all the activities.  We are soon lonesome.  It can occur when we don’t look or act like everyone else and the world tosses us aside.  It occurs when the world views us as having no great or useful value.  It can occur if you are poor, it can occur if you have an illness or a disability, it can occur as you age and your usefulness seems to decrease to the world.  The world is cold and cruel.  It will, eventually, chew up and spit out everyone defining them as useless and having no value.  The world will declare you to be worthless, disposable and something to throw away.

    It was into this world that Jesus came declaring that all have value.  All are of God’s creation.  It is God who determines the value of a person and his life.  It is God’s decision and he placed the value of life as that of his own dear Son.  Jesus suffered and died because God loves you, he values you that much.  God has promised to never forget and to always give us hope.  No matter what the world values you at, no matter how much the world thinks you are “worth”; you are worth the life of Jesus.  You are worth the life of the Son of God.  You are of unmeasurable worth to God.

    So don’t listen to the world as it beats you down.  Don’t listen to those who only see value in what you can do for them.  Listen to God who values all from the newest unborn to the oldest one born still living; God values you.  Whether you are handicapped, broke, lost, confused, or whatever label the world chooses to impose on you; God looks at you as his child, his redeemed, his beloved from all ages.  We are valued by God; nothing can or will ever change that.  God has declared his love for us by sending his Son to redeem us; we are always his and his love will always carry us.

Father, there are many that the world deems as worthless, yet in your mercy you claim all as your children.  Send your Spirit to move all those who are hurting to hear your message of hope and salvation to cling to your wonderful promise.  Bring peace and hope to all who are lost and hurting.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

12-30-2015

Good Morning All!!   

       Luke 2:16; “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.”

    We see them everywhere this time of year.  The Crèche is probably the most common Christmas display.  It is traditionally Mary, Joseph and Jesus but quickly added livestock, shepherds, angels and wise men.  St Francis of Assisi is considered the creator of the event.  He first used live people and animals in a cave but they were soon replaced by statues.  These were usually owned by wealthy patrons or cities.  By the late 19^th century they statues were made of terra cotta and were made smaller to be more affordable to the masses.  Today many are made out of plastic to withstand the elements and contain a light to show brightly at night. 

    The interesting thing is that through the years, the appearance of Mary, Joseph and Jesus the family as Caucasian and of Teutonic extraction.  Later efforts were made to have a Jesus that was Asian, African, Slavic, Scandinavian and so on.  Most will claim this was to make the Nativity scene more approachable for the common people.  Yet it also points to something that many of us do; we mold our Jesus into the Jesus we want.

    If we tend to be conservative then Jesus is a conservative; if we are liberal then Jesus is a liberal activist.  White people have a white Jesus and red people have a red Jesus, black people have a black Jesus.  I suppose purple people eaters have a purple people eater Jesus.  Yet we continue to go down a path that is destructive; we make Jesus into our own image.  We take our plastic Jesus and have him stand for and believe in and espouse the exact same things that we believe in.  It is really quite uncanny how Jesus is exactly the way I want him to be; how “the God I believe in” is just that the God I have created.

    We need to be sure that we see Jesus as he really is.  Jesus is clear in the Scriptures; he is about his Father’s business.  He has come into the world for a specific reason.  That is to bring about your healing, your redemption and your salvation.  It is not about being pro- or anti- anything.  It is about restoring the kingdom of God and bringing all people back into his holy family.  It is about repentance and turning from what is destroying our relationship with God.  It is about humbling ourselves before his presence.  It is about clinging to the cross as our only hope of salvation.

    When we mold Jesus into our desires, we fail miserably and fall short of God’s wonderful grace and love.  We miss it because we have turned away.  Knowing who Jesus is, the Lamb of God who came to heal you will keep us from trying to mold Jesus.  Jesus comes to us to be about the business of making you the Father’s child by uniting you to Himself, that who He is, you also may be.

Father, mold me in your image that I may always be your child.  Keep me focused on the true Jesus and the forgiveness that I receive through him.  Lead me in your paths of righteousness.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

12-29-2015

Good Morning All!!   

        Luke 23:46; “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” After he said this, he died.”

    It is always fascinating to me how intertwined the story of Christmas and Easter are.  First you do not have one without the other.  If there was no Christmas, no birth of a Savior, there would be no death and resurrection and without the resurrection we have no Savior born.  Yet the two are so entwined that we can actually take portions from one story and see them in the other.  One of the readings for the First Sunday after Christmas speaks of Mary having her heart pierced because of Jesus’ effect on the people of Israel, an obvious reference to her sorrow when Jesus was crucified and she watched. 

    The verse for today shows us this again.  In this final cry, Jesus places his eternal post mortem existence into the hands of God the Father; but it truly goes far beyond that.  It speaks to the deliverance, promised by God, and it speaks to God’s faithfulness.  It speaks to the certainty of God the Father loving and caring for and sustaining the Son.  We see this in part of Jesus’ comments to Mary and Joseph in one of the reading for the Second Sunday after Christmas where Jesus speaks of “My Father’s house” and being “about the business of My Father.”  The close and intimate relationship between the Father and the Son is displayed in both accounts.

    With the coming of Jesus; with his life, death, resurrection and ascension; we are in this same intimate relationship with the Father.  We can confidently say “I entrust my spirit” to the Father.  We know that we are placing our trust and hope in the hands of a loving Father who cares for his children.  We are not placing our hope in an angry God or a mercurial God where our existence, present and future, is in doubt.  We know that our loving Father has plans to prosper us.  We know that in all things nothing can ever separate us form God’s love.

    So as we wait for the events of our life to unfold, we can confidently say, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.”  The results of the lab tests or surgery, we can entrust to our loving Father.  The struggling relationships with family and friends, we know that God will lead us to resolve the issues, oftentimes with changes we need to make.  As we age and wonder about tomorrow, we are entrusting all that we are and all that we have to our loving Father.  When we know that our loving Father is in control and that by entrusting our spirit to Him; we can know that we have God’s peace.

    It really is quite a trade, we entrust our spirit, our future, all our worries and troubles to God and he offers us peace, hope, comfort, joy and the certainty of life eternal.  Accept God’s trade, give him your worries, entrust your spirit to his loving arms and take his peace into your heart.

Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.  Help me to live this statement.  Lead me to trust, strengthen my faith that I may always know your peace.  Be with those who do not know your grace and peace.  Guide them to trust you in all that the do.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

12-28-2015

Good Morning All!!   

       Micah 7:18; “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?  He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”

    I remember when I was growing up; we used to watch some old Charlie Chan movies.  He was a detective with the Honolulu Police Department.  He used to always get involved in murder mysteries while traveling with his “number one son”.  The interesting thing about those movies was you always knew when Charlie found a clue by the way he would raise his eyebrow when he saw or heard something.  Then at the end of the movie, he would explain each clue and how it pointed to the murderer.

    The Bible gives us many clues about God.  As we read it, God uses the Bible to reveal himself to us.  This is one of the purposes of the Bible.  It reveals to us who God is.  The Bible isn’t necessarily a history book, although it contains some history; it only contains the stories by which God chooses to reveal himself.  As we read the Scriptures the very nature of God is revealed to us. 

    Many believe that in the Old Testament, we have an angry God.  What is really revealed is a just God who punishes wickedness and sin.  Yet to a much greater degree we see a patient God; waiting for the people to repent and when they don’t; even through the punishment, God shows mercy and saves a remnant of people to continue on.  When God flooded the earth, he kept Noah and his family.  When the Israelites were taken into captivity, God saved a remnant of the people. 

    God continually was remaking the covenant with his people and each time the people failed to keep their part of the deal.  God keeps coming to his people and they keep turning away.  Until finally, God the Father provides for us the ultimate payment for our sins.  Jesus came and took our place so that we could be saved from eternal damnation.  Through this God reveals his nature; he reveals his steadfast love and mercy.  We don’t earn it or deserve it.  God gives it to us freely.

     This is the message throughout all of Scriptures from Genesis through Revelation; we see God’s love coming through.  We see wherever man becomes involved, pain and suffering but then God reveals his nature and we receive the blessings of God; his peace, forgiveness, and tender love and mercy.  The single clue throughout the whole Bible is that God loves you.  He calls you by name, seals you as his chosen child in baptism, nourishes you through his Word and sacrament, listens to your cries of joy or sorrow and through it all pours out his Spirit upon you to guide you and keep you safe.  We can trust in God’s mercy, in his steadfast love, forever.

Dear Father in heaven, you love and grace abound in our lives.  You daily and richly bless us in all that we do and have.  Keep us safe in your loving arms and draw to you those who are lost in this world’s snares.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

12-27-2015

    Good Morning All!!   

Haggai 2:5; “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” 

    Have you ever seen any of the children’s book series “Where’s Waldo?”  It is a series of books where the main character Waldo dresses in red and white stripes.  He is hiding in a picture and you have to find him.  It is not as easy as it sounds.  The artist uses combination of colors and hues to give the illusion of Waldo when it isn’t really him.  You can spend hours on a book trying to find Waldo in the different areas of the picture.

    Looking for something has been part of the human experience for a long time.  The Greek cynic Diogenes carried a lantern and searched for an honest man.  Peter, Paul and Mary asked the musical question, “Where have all the flowers Gone?”  Whether it was the truth, true love or just a really good cheeseburger; people have searched for something that they couldn’t find.

    There are many times in our lives when we feel like we can’t find God.  We look around and see troubles in the world, in our nation even in our lives and we feel like we are looking for Waldo.  We see violence throughout the world.  We see hatred.  We see part of the world with more money, food and power than it could ever need or use while another part lives on pennies a day with little food and no way to control their own destiny.  We look at our nation and see a people divided on virtually every issue that exists.  We look at our own lives and see pain and problems.  We see job troubles, relationships, even our own inner peace as issues and events that we search for but often times fail to find.

    One of our biggest problems is the same as when we look for Waldo, we are easily misled and we end up looking in all the wrong places.  We look to drugs and alcohol; we look to crackpot self-help gurus; we look to our own strength and wisdom.  All these lead us down the wrong path; toward the path of destruction.  We tend to look to anything besides God. 

     The wondrous thing is that even though we look away from God; he never looks away from us.  He remains in our midst; offering us the peace and the hope to survive this world.  He is always there to lead through the difficult times; never abandoning us but always there to offer us comfort and hope.

     He does this through the creation which he has made.  He does this through the Church which he formed.  He does this through you and me whom he has redeemed.   God is always in our midst so we never have to fear.  We are never alone, even when facing our darkest fears; God is there to comfort us.  He is in our midst and we have nothing to fear.

Dear Father, you graciously live in our midst and protect us from all the devil’s ways.  Keep us safe and cause us to see that our comfort is in you alone. Be with those who are searching but looking in the wrong place.  Lead them to your loving arms.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret