9-30-2020

 Good Morning All, 

       Isaiah 25:6; “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.”

    We all have one or at least had one; maybe you are becoming one.  You may even be a full-fledged member- “the grandma who doesn’t know ‘whoa.’”  You know the type; you never leave the table without at least three helpings of everything.  If you pause to catch your breath, they ask, with a very pained look, “You’re not done yet, are you?”  Whatever you do; do not tell them that you are done.  No one gets to be done.  If you tell them that you liked something; they will make a whole another batch and send it home with you.  You will NOT leave their home empty-handed; you will take the leftovers even some food that did not make it to the table because there was not room for it.  As you leave the house, you are fairly sure you will not eat this coming week. 

    The generosity of this type of grandma is incredible.  Many have one simple trait.  They love to cook.  You add in the factor that they love the people that they are cooking for and the combination makes for plates that will never hold the portions.  While they are the subject of family jokes and quibbles; nobody misses a meal!  The food, the fellowship and the love that is exhibited by the host draws us back again and again. 

    Our heavenly Father engages us in much the same fashion.  We see God’s extravagance, not so much in a meal beyond measure, but in the depth of his grace.  God forgives our sins and he is not stingy!  He pours it on; he ladles it on; he slathers us with his mercy.  He does not hold back.  He forgives and forgives, and he forgives us with grace that is not even on the plate yet!  No matter, what we have done; it is in the past.  The feast waits for us.

    While God does promise to provide for our physical needs, it is the forgiveness of our sins which shows us the height and depth of God’s grace.  His love overflows even the most wretched of sinners.  He is not stingy with his mercy; it is poured out on us with the largest ladle imaginable.  He serves up forgiveness and quenches our desire for healing and he does it in the richest and most precious method possible; he does it with the sacrifice of his only Son.  Through this all availing action, through the death of Jesus which paid all the price of our sin, God chooses to nourish us and to bring us back into his loving family and to live graciously in his kingdom.  Feast on God’s mercy and taste the richness of his love.  Taste and see that it is good.

Father of all good things, you feed us with the luxury of your incredible love.  In you we feast on the richness of your grace.  We never cease to be in awe of your love.  Be with those who hunger for your healing.  Be with those who are starving because of sin.  Send your Spirit that they may know you and know of your forgiveness.  Heal them with your touch; feed their souls.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-29-2020

 Good Morning All, 

           Acts 10:44; “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.”

      I was watching a video the other day that showed a variety of pranks being played on people.  Many involved water being dumped on someone in many different ways.  Some were using buckets that tipped from door frames.  Some were buckets of water being poured out of the second or third story of a building.  One involved a huge water balloon that completely drenched the man and his friend who was standing beside him.  It was funny to watch, probably more so because I wasn’t the one getting wet.

    Yet if we keep that image, the image of a bucket of water being poured out onto a person and the person being completely drenched by the water, this is a good image of how the Spirit works in our life.  First, we want to see how, when the person gets drenched, it is someone else who does the drenching.  The recipient just stands there and gets wet.  He does not go door to door and asks, “Can you get me wet?”  That would probably get him a quick trip to the local police department.  No, it can be somewhat more unexpected.

    The Spirit of God goes out from wherever the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus, and his saving sacrifice, is preached.  The Spirit enters the hearts of those who hear the Word.  In the hearts of those listeners, the Spirit begins the flame of faith.  Now in some, the flame is blown out and rejected by the listener.  Yet in some, the flame takes hold.  Faith grows as the listener clings back to this wonderful promise from God.  Faith grows because the Word is preached and as the Word is sent out into the world; God has declared that it will not return empty.  It will fulfill its task either to condemn or to bring salvation.

    All believers have had the Spirit fall on them.  For many, it was a soft landing.  We grew up in the church, guided by faithful parents and the message of God’s salvation grew in our hearts and our lives.  Some came to have the Spirit dump fully and dramatically on them.  Perhaps you remember the story of the young man who finally heard the story of God’s grace while he was lying on the floor of the Hughes county jail.  For some it is dramatic and for some it is a calmer ride but for all the Spirit is poured on you; it falls on you because of God’s love for you.  As we get wet from it, we can run away and try to dry out or we can rest in the cooling and refreshing effect that it would have on a hot summer’s day.  God pours his Spirit on us through his Word; we can relish it or reject it.  We can cling to it and have it as our source of comfort and hope or we can walk away and try it on our own.  Clinging to God’s grace through the faith which he instills is the method to live in his peace; choose wisely.

Father, you pour your Spirit on us so that we might be filled with your Word and enliven with your faith.  Fan the flames of the spark that you kindle.  Build us up so that we may grow closer to you.  Build us up so that we may always trust you.  Continue to fan the spark that exists in those who are hurting now.  Send them your healing.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-28-2020

 Good Morning All, 

         Acts 1:8; “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

     This is one of the “biggies” in the Bible.  This is one of those verses that have a great impact on what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  “You will be my witnesses”; that is a powerful statement.  It can be a statement that brings out fear in many a person’s heart.  It brings fear because often we have visions of traveling to some far-off distant land and becoming a missionary.  That thought can terrify most of us.  I cannot count the number of people who have asked me, “How do you stand up in front of people and talk the way you do?  I could never do that in a million years.”  Yet Jesus tells us to be his witnesses; how?

    That is a question that has been around for a long time.  Many people have always felt inadequate in being witnesses.  They look at the lack of education, their fear of speaking in public, their lack of understanding or of insight and many other reasons for shying away.  It was common for the “common” man to feel completely unable to be a witness and therefore, someone who falls far short of what Jesus desires from us.  Yet Luther saw it differently and saw within the Scriptures a different truth than what was being expressed at the time.

    Yet Luther saw that the Bible spoke to all people.  It speaks to the clergy, to the farmer, to the slave, to the slave owner to the widow and to the married and the unmarried and to everyone.  In fact, Scripture not only speaks to the person, but it actually speaks to the situation that the person finds himself in.  Luther called this idea “vocations.”  It is where we are at any given point in time.  For example, I am a son, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a father-in-law, a brother, a pastor, a neighbor and so on.  But I can also find myself as a customer in line, a driver in heavy traffic, someone who has been put on hold or any one of a hundred different situations.  In each and every one, I can witness to my faith in Jesus.

    A few weeks ago, I was in the checkout line at our local Walmart.  The person ahead of me was incredibly rude to the poor young clerk and berated her the whole time she was there.  This person took an inordinate amount of time to check out and left verbally assaulting the young lady.  When it was my turn to check out, the young clerk apologized to the delay.  Now I could have picked up where the other one left off or I could witness to my faith and tell her that I understood it wasn’t her fault and that I was sorry she had to endure that from the other person.  Fortunately, the Spirit moved the second choice and a young lady’s heart was lifted.  Did she get a huge testimonial?  No, but she did receive compassion and those behind me in line did as well and all who commented said the same thing and a little mercy was shared by all.

Lord Jesus, you call us to be witnesses.  Move us by your Spirit to see that every event in our life is an opportunity to share your love and to have compassion.  The world knows neither; let your light shine through us as we spread the kingdom of God to all who we meet this day.  Move us to have compassion on all.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret      

 

9-27-2020

Good Morning All, 

          Psalm 23:1; “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

There is a difference in the way we think and the way we should proceed.  Some think one path or method is correct while someone else has a different view.  One example is in how we view the Word of God.  Some see it as a static monograph which only delivers information and thus requires human influence.  Others see the Word of God as alive, active, and dynamic.  They recognize it as the creative and re-creative power of God.  Another difference is that some see the Bible as a book of anecdotal information which gives good advice.  Others read it in a different light.  They read it as God speaking to them in a way that will give them comfort, guidance, and hope for their life.  They see a difference in just memorizing the Bible for advice and living in a biblical context and understanding.  There is a difference between believing that God’s Word is right and knowing that it is true. 

   So, in order to follow this line of thought we look at a very familiar verse from the Bible.  The 23^rd Psalm is among the most read, most memorized, and most familiar portion of the Bible.  It is only rivalled by the birth account of Jesus, the Feeding of the 5000, the parable of the Prodigal Son and the resurrection accounts.  Yet some look at this from an entirely spiritual event.  They read it as never being in need of another God.  They see it as Jesus being this other-worldly guidance program that will provide for them in the afterlife.  They think that all they must do is to endure this life and, after they die, everything will be wonderful, and they are right to a point.  Everything will be wonderful when we live with Christ.

    Yet this psalm, especially this verse, tells us so much more.  “I shall not want.”  I shall not want for guidance in this life.  God has a plan for you.  He has a plan to prosper you.  We need to listen and more importantly to hear what he is saying and then follow his will.

    I shall not want for renewal.  I am continually renewed, and this occurs from the inside out.  It begins with God’s Spirit which dwells within us and seeks to renew us to be new creations in Christ.  This occurs on a continual basis as the active Word of God re-creates us every moment of ever repentant moment.

    I shall not want for courage.  This is especially true as the world bombards us with negative and divisive attacks.  The courage to love ourselves is a vital element for our survival here in this life.  Jesus died for you because he loves you.   You are valued by God and you should value yourself.

    I shall not want for joy.  God has promised to bathe us in the oil of joy as he fills our table and an overflowing cup.  Having joy is one of the surest methods of knowing God’s presence.  Through our total surrender to Jesus we will we know his will for us in this life as well as the next.

Gracious Lord, in you we have no wants.  All our needs are met by your loving providence. Guide us by your Spirit and give us peace, joy, and the certainty of hope that you desire us to have.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

9-26-2020

  Good Morning All, 

                    Matthew 6:26; “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

      If you were walking down the street and you saw a penny on the sidewalk; would you stop and pick it up?  Most probably would not but at what amount would you, a dime, a quarter or does it have to be paper money before you even look?  As I thought about this; I realized how much my actions depend on the circumstances.  If I am in a hurry, I probably would not even see the penny.  When I am in a hurry, I tend to be in my own little world in my own little mind.  I am sure that I have walked right past friends and family and never even saw them.

    If I am not in a hurry, it would depend on the crowd.  If it were crowded, I probably would not stop to pick it up.  It would make a scene as people would have to divert around me and what would they think, a grown adult stopping to pick up a penny.  I would just keep moving; it is just a penny.  I would probably justify my action by thinking of some anecdote like how the military does not ship pennies to their bases because it costs more to ship them than they are worth.  After all, it is just a penny and I am too busy and too important to be bothered by them.  I even usually leave them at the counter when I buy something; who really wants to bother with them anyway?

    There are times when I feel like that penny on the sidewalk.  Nobody bothers to pick me up.  Sometimes I get stepped on or worse.  I just lay there not worth the effort to bother with.  My fate as a penny is probably just to be swept into the storm drain during one of the sweeping scenarios that occur in a city.  I feel that way when it feels like I am alone.  There is so much to do, and it feels like more just keeps getting piled on.  I feel the weight of the world and I am left alone; the penny that no one will pick up.  Maybe if I were a quarter, I would be more important and someone, anyone, would pick me up.  Maybe if I were shiny and new, I could catch someone’s eye, but I am old and dull and a little beat up by the way I have been used through the years.  There are times when I feel like that penny; perhaps you do as well.

     The cares of the world, the weight thrown upon us can be unbearable.  Maybe someone has abandoned you, a parent, a spouse or some other loved one.  You just weren’t worth the effort to them; you were only a penny that they wouldn’t pick up.  Maybe your job decided that you weren’t worth keeping.  Maybe it feels like the world has left you behind.  The technology is past you and you cannot afford it anyway.  Your friends speak of trips to the Bahamas or Mexico and you cannot begin to afford that.  You feel like a penny, left on the sidewalk, waiting to be swept into the sewers.

    God sees you and knows that you are worth picking up.  God sent Jesus to rescue you, from the streets, even from the very sewer where you ended up.  Jesus reached down and picked you up and claimed you as his.  He claimed you as his own because he values you.  He was not too busy or too embarrassed to pick you up.  You have great value to him, and you always will.  You have enough value that he sent his Son to die for you.  He will never abandon you or leave you to bear the pain of this world by yourself.  His love for you lifts you up and gives you peace.  He gives you hope.

Father, you sent Jesus to pick me up from the sorrows and pain of the sewers that was my fate but now I wait for his return so that I may have eternal life with him forever.  Guard me until that day.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.  

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-25-2020

 Good Morning All, 

         John 11: 25-26; “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

    “KISS”.  This is the mantra of every single speech teacher I have ever dealt with at any level of learning.  My first English teacher in high school who taught us “Speech I” emphasized the “KISS” method.  She reiterated it in “Speech II.”  When I got to college it was again reinforced as the preferred method of public speaking “KISS”.  Even when I took “Sermon I” and “Sermon II” it was “KISS.” “KISS”; Keep It Short and Simple.  This is how the current thought in public speaking is going.  The average attention span is shrinking to just a few seconds and then you need to change something; like the pitch or tempo of your voice, move around, use video or audio but do something different or you will lose your listener.  “KISS” 

    When Lazarus died and Jesus was coming to the family, Martha met him on the road.  Jesus spoke to her in a simple fashion, simple and direct.  He made the statement of faith to Martha and then asked her the simple question, “Do you believe this?”  The statement of belief is short and simple; “if you believe you will live”.  This is pretty straight forward and simple enough for anyone to understand.

    Many of the different religions around the world and throughout time require long and drawn out rituals and rites.  Some are deadly, like human sacrifices, some are painful, some are expensive, some take years to accomplish.  Manmade teachings are always complicated and confusing; God keeps it simple; “Do you believe?”  Do you believe that when Jesus died on the cross; his death paid for your sins?  Do you trust God when he says that this payment is enough?  Do you believe?  Do you believe that you are forgiven?

    These are easy questions, but the devil does his best to complicate them.  He wants you to think through and try to make God’s way to fit into your logic and your motives.  Our old sinful nature gets in the way and always wants there to be something harder.  This seems too easy; there must be a catch; nothing is ever freely given; somewhere there is a price to pay.  Well there is a price, but Jesus paid it.  He paid our debt and then turned around and gave it to you because he loves you.  “Do you believe?”  Because when we believe, we trust.  Because when we believe, we grab hold of God’s promise and cling tightly to them.  We can find our comfort in the certainty of his love for us.  Faith can give us a refuge from the sorrows of this life and a hope for a better tomorrow; do you believe?

Father, I believe.  I believe that Jesus died and rose again and that this is sufficient to pay for my sins.  Keep me strong in this faith.  Father, I believe that you Holy Spirit is with me to go with me and walk with me on my journey in this life.  Father, I believe that Jesus will come again to complete what he has started and end all the pain and sorrows of this world.  Father, I believe in your love.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen and living savior I pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

9-24-2020

   Good Morning All, 

          Psalm 56:3; “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you”

     “FAIL”; it is an internet sensation.  It shows pictures photographed at just the right time to show someone having a little misfortune.  It might show a person walking down the street being splashed by a passing car.  It might show a person slipping and falling while carrying cake.  It might be the sign that is misspelled.  There are limitless options to this viewing.  Some are more painful than others, some are funny; some are cruel, but comedy is often in the eye of the beholder. We can see failure everywhere we look; often we feel it our own lives.

    Perhaps you feel that you could sum up your life in that one word; “FAIL.”  There are many people who do feel that way.  Does your mind swirl with thoughts of inadequacies and confusion?  Do you look at what is going on in your life and, according to your measurement, it failed?  “What did I do wrong?”  “Maybe I simply cannot do this; or anything right!”   I remember dealing with a preacher who would plan an event for his church.  He would spend months working on it.  He would totally immerse himself in the project, getting very excited about it.  Soon his expectations about the event began to climb.  He was expecting hundreds.  When the event occurred, there were only a few more than the 80 members who usually showed up.  To him, it was a colossal failure.

   Maybe you do that as well.  Maybe you are the parent who feels they have failed if your child is not a straight “A” student.  Maybe you are the woman whose house is not as clean as you would like it, with three kids, a dog, and a fulltime job.  The people on TV get it done; why can’t I?  Maybe you are the dad that can’t get to your son’s game this week while everyone else does and you haven’t called your mother in two weeks but then you will only hear about your perfect sibling.  The world seems to define you as a failure and often; you are your worst judge.

    You are not alone in this feeling.  The devil does his best to make sure you know of all your inadequacies.  He wants you to always remember those times when you came up short.  He wants you to think that God will view you in the same light, as a failure.  Yet God does not view you as a failure.  He views you as a parent views his child.  He views you through the eyes of love; a perfect love that knows no bounds or limits.  He loves you and then tells you to trust in that love.  We can be confident of God’s mercy for us.  When we think of confident, we should think in terms of "set in place, make secure, to be made ready, be attached" like an anchor in a storm.  When we fear, whether it is life, death, failure, rejection or loneliness, God is there to comfort us and to give us hope for a certain tomorrow living in his grace.  Trust in his promises; he has never failed you.

Father, your mercies are new every day.  Give me courage to see that, because of Jesus, I am not a failure.  Give me wisdom to hold onto the fact that I am your redeemed, beloved child.  In your hands we are safe and secure.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

9-23-2020

 Good Morning All, 

          Matthew 14: 16-17; “But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”

    So, are you prepared?  Are you prepared for the unexpected?  I can remember as a kid that, more often than not, my mom would keep a John Morrell ‘easy cut’ ham in the freezer.  That way, if company showed up one day, she could feed them.  It might have been baked or sliced and fried or just sliced for sandwiches, but she could always feed them ham.  She was always ready to feed someone who showed up at dinner or suppertime.  She loved it so you usually had enough “reserve resources” to manage a houseful when she needed to.  Perhaps your mom is or was like that as well.

   In our verses, from the Feeding of the 5000, one might be tempted to think that these disciples needed a Lutheran mother to be ready to feed a crowd of unexpected company.  The disciples and Jesus had sought out a quiet out of the way place so they could take a breather for a moment.  They had just gone out on an evangelism program and came back to tell Jesus.  As they were coming together, they received word that John the Baptist had been executed.  So, they desperately wanted some quiet alone time.

    But the people recognized Jesus and began to gather.  First it was dozens, then hundreds and finally thousands of people; perhaps as many as 25,000 people.  It was approaching the supper hour, so the disciples went and asked Jesus to send the people away to find food on their own.  They had looked around and saw nothing for food for the people to eat.  They were away from the cities and even then, did not have that much money.  The disciples figured the only way to resolve this was to send the people away before they got too hungry and restless. 

    Yet Jesus gave them a different and a direct command, “you give them something to eat.”  The disciples scrambled and found two fish and five small loaves, roughly two McDonald’s fish filet sandwiches for 25,000 people.  They panicked and were lost and confused.  The problem was that they looked to themselves for their answer and supply rather than to Jesus.  Eventually they came to Jesus for the supply that they needed.

    One thing that comes through to us is this simple fact; our source is always Jesus.  When the need arises, we can look to him first knowing that he will provide for our needs or we can wait, try it on our own, suffer from fear, anxiety, worry and discomfort then look to Jesus.  It might seem somewhat strange, but it is our decision.  Do we look to Jesus right away or do we bear a burden that we do not need to bear?  Which is it for you?

Father, the eyes of all look to you and you furnish their meat in due season.  Lead us by your Spirit to look to you as our only source of hope, joy, and peace.  Be with those who are trying to bear the burdens of this life on their own.  Lead them to see that all things come from you and our help is in your hands.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

9-22-2020

 Good Morning All, 

          Hebrews 10:23; “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

     “The situation is hopeless.”  There is probably no more painful message than this.  Whether it is a light situation like a basketball game where the one team is behind by 10 points with 25 seconds to play or a serious situation that involves life and death; this message brings about discomfort and pain.  Sometimes, this message comes late like when the firefighters were climbing the stairs in the World Trade Center after the 9/11terrorist attacks.  When they were told to get out that the situation was hopeless; it was already too late.  A few years ago, we came upon an accident.  We began to perform CPR until the ambulance showed up.  It was apparent that the man was dead, but the deputy refused to quit giving CPR.  The situation was hopeless, but he refused to accept it.

     There are times when we face events that seem hopeless.  A car accident, where the vehicle sinks into some water and after a few minutes of being submerged; the situation is hopeless and those on shore watch, worry, fear then despair.  When you watch someone who has cancer and they begin to fade away, first losing a lot of weight, then the color of their skin goes ashen, they can’t get around very well and soon they are bedridden; the situation is hopeless.  We usually do not see situations as hopeless unless death is involved.  If we suffer estrangement from a friend or a loved one, we figure, eventually, we will fix it but when that someone dies, the situation is hopeless.  Hope is about life; hopelessness is about the end of life.

    Once sin entered the world so did death and so did hopelessness.  Once the enormity of the cost of their sin began to sink in, Adam and Eve experienced hopelessness.  Their perfect world was no more.  They knew pain, sorrow, suffering and hopelessness.  So, God gave them hope, hope for life.  He told them that he would send one to destroy the devil and death.  This One would redeem them and give them life.  It was the same promise that God made to his people throughout the Old Testament.  It was a promise that held out hope.  It held out hope that death and the devil would never be the final victor.  It was a promise that said those who believed and trusted in that promise would live forever.

    That promise was kept on a hill called Calvary.   It was there that Jesus defeated the devil and death.  It was there that the promise was completed, and we only have to wait for the final few ticks of the clock to run out and the victory is completely ours.  Death no longer has hold of us; it is but a door for us.  No matter what life throws at us, it can never take away the victory that Christ gives us.  We will always have hope; we will always have life.  This is the promise that God has made and kept to us.  We always have hope.

Father, in you there is life. You give us hope.  Guide us to always rely on your delivered promise.  Teach us to always hope in you.  Be with those who feel they have no hope.  Open the darkness so the light of your truth may enter.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

9-21-2020

 Good Morning All, 

Genesis 3: 17-18; “And to Adam he (God) said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field.”

   Thorns: it always gets back to thorns.  While Adam listened to God tell him part of the price that his sin was going to cost, he heard things that most people do not want to hear.  He heard “cursed” “in pain” “thorns and thistles”.  Talk about a list that you do not want to have; that list probably is just about as bad as it gets.  Adam was told that the ground, and his life, was not going to be fun.

   I grew up on a farm.  I spent a lot of my years farming.  Most of the members of my churches are farmers.  Most of the people I went to school with are farmers.  Most of the people I know are farmers.  I know what it feels like and what it looks like when you think the ground is cursed.  I know what it is like to have the ground refuse to yield its bounty, even in a meager fashion.  I know what it looks like when thorns and thistles rob the land of moisture and nutrients and leave nothing to harvest.  Even in the direst of years, when a single sprout of grain refused to grow; thistles and thorns grow with a voracious and destructive ire.  They will take what little is there and, with a mocking smile, look to the farmer and laugh.  The emptiness and the meagerness hollow the farmer out leaving a pit in your soul larger than life.  Thorns and thistles cause pain beyond the simple prick of the finger or the scrape of an arm; thorns and thistles suck the marrow from your spirit.

   If you have never farmed, you have probably felt the same way at other times of your life.  A loving relationship that dries up and blows away is just as painful.  False accusations and false stories that harmed your reputation or your standing with your family and friends gone.  Drugs or alcohol can hollow you out just as easily.  Sin looks at us and mocks us leaving us feeling cursed, in pain, dealing with thorns and thistles that never go away.

   As we begin Holy Week, we begin to look at a time when Jesus, God’s own Son, was “cursed” “in pain” covered with “thorns”.  He took it all; all the cursedness, pain and thorns that God’s wrath, for you but directed at Jesus, so that you and I would be blessed, be healed, and live without thorns.  It started with thorns, so it is probably poetic that it ends with thorns.  Yet it is not some poetic justice that we read; it is God’s incredible love poured out upon you and upon me.  We have God’s blessing, not his curse upon us now.  We have a life filled with love and hope and no thorns waiting for us because Jesus took our cursedness, pain and thorns and gives to us love, hope, peace, and salvation.

Father, we deserve all the pain and cursedness yet in your amazing grace and mercy, you poured it out upon Jesus to give us life.  Move us to live our life in total thanksgiving to you.  Keep us in your loving arms and lead us to reach out in love to those who are stuck in the cursed, pain and thorns to hear your words of life and hope.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

9-20-2020

 Good Morning All, 

          Hebrews 11:1; “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

     During one of my high school English classes, we spent a fair amount of time doing some pre-journalism class stuff.  We looked at what it took to be a good journalist.  A good journalist did not go into a story with a preconceived idea of how the story was going to flow.  When you did this, it was too easy to find the “evidence” that supported your idea and also too easy to discard “evidence” which showed your idea to be false.  A good journalist would always try to answer the following questions: who, what, where, when, how and why?  Once these questions were answered, the story to be told would unfold naturally.

    As we look at these questions, the first four are pretty standard and are really only informative.  We can know who is involved in the story; we know what the story is, and we know where an event occurs, and we can know when it occurs.  These are elements of the story that are very observational.  The evidence can exist for many years allowing us to look back in time and to see the events unfold.  Yet these four questions provide only the body of the work, they only answer the rudimentary questions.  The difficult questions are often how and why.

   The questions of how and why probe into the internal mental and spiritual thoughts, plans and desires of the event.  The how and why can and are at times difficult to imagine.  If you were in a car accident a year ago, you have answered three of the four questions in those 10 words.  Why did the accident happen and how will you go forward after it?  Will you be able to drive again?  Can you go forward?  How will you go forward?  These are the questions you ask.  Sometimes the questions are harder to answer.

    If you are sitting at the funeral of a loved one, like a spouse or a parent; how will you go forward?  How will you go on to the next day or week or month?  What if it is that you are experiencing a very severe sickness, it may take months to recover, if ever?  How do you make it through tomorrow or even the next hour?  How do we go forward?

   Going forward always requires faith.  Going forward is unseen; going forward requires us to trust that it will work out.  How will it work? We must trust God to keep his promise to us.  We must trust God to keep the promise that he made to us in our Baptism to love us and to claim us as his children.  This is what faith is.  Faith is trusting in God’s promise even when we cannot see the path or the method of accomplishing this.  Faith is taking one more step.  Faith is turning one more page.  Faith is knowing that, through it all, God goes with us protecting us from harm and danger and giving us hope for the better tomorrow that he has promised.

Father, strengthen my faith.  Lead me forward by your great mercy.  Uphold me in your hand.  Keep me safe from the terrors of uncertainty.  Lead me to trust in your promise of love and salvation.  Lead me to know that in all things you are in control.  Give courage to those who are facing challenges at this time.  Give them the faith they need to see them through.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

9-19-2020

 Good Morning All, 

          Luke 23: 42-43; “And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

     How do we view these verses?  This is part of the exchange between Jesus and one of the men who were crucified with Jesus.  We have both men, suffering incredibly, and yet there is dialogue, there is interaction.  It begins with those who are watching the crucifixion hurling taunts and insults at Jesus.  Soon one of those who were also being crucified joined in.  The other man rebuked the first and then said to Jesus “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Jesus answered with the familiar, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  How do you view these verses?

    For some, these are troubling verses.  We know little of this man other than “the thief on the cross”’ we don’t know his name or anything about him.  He does not seem to be a follower of Jesus or that he even particularly believed in Jesus.  Je made a request for Jesus to ‘remember me.’  There was no apparent confession of sins; there was no apparent repentance; there was no apparent confession of faith in Jesus as Lord over all; there certainly appears that there is no baptism, at least at this time.  Some have suggested that the thief had experienced the baptism by John the Baptist.  It is possible but nothing in Scriptures suggests this.  We only have this short exchange and in it, we hear Jesus making the statement that today you will be with me in paradise.

    Many people struggle because the thief did not ‘do anything’.  He should have had to do something to show that he had received Jesus.  He should have had to do something.  Many think that they give up something to be a Christian.  I remember one young man saying he was going to wait to be a Christian because he wanted to have ‘fun first’.  It is strange what we think is fun.  We abuse our bodies, we abuse other people with shallow or non-existent relationships; we scheme, connive, contrive, and make all sorts of foolish ventures.  Through it all, we try to avoid God, his grace and peace, and think we are having fun.  So, if I must give up my ‘fun’ why didn’t he?  It is as if he got in for nothing and that is exactly the point.

   The man was given paradise by a merciful Jesus; that is the same way we get paradise.  It is given to us by a merciful Jesus.  These verses should give us a lot of comfort and hope.  It was not what the man did or did not do; it was that Jesus showed him mercy; the same mercy that he has promised to show you.  The only possible way for the thief to enter Paradise was for Jesus to allow him to enter, for Jesus to have mercy on this thief and to bring him into paradise solely and completely out of love; the same way you and I get in.  “Jesus, remember me in your kingdom.”

Lord Jesus, remember me in your kingdom.  I only have your grace to save me.  I am only a worthless beggar before you and so I beg for your mercy and you give it to me without reservation, without demands, without restrictions but with total love.  Keep me safe in your arms.  In your precious and loving name, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

9-18-2020

  Good Morning All, 

1 Peter 2:24; “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

    It all started at a tree.  Trees on the high plains of South Dakota are rare.  If they are here, someone put them here.  Away from the creeks, streams and rivers, there are very few indigenous trees; the probability is that someone planted the tree.  Sort of like how God planted the trees in the Garden of Eden.  “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:9).  So, the trees began to produce food and beauty and shelter and a peacefulness that only exists in a garden.

   Yet we know the rest.  A serpent, the devil actually, whispered and deceived Adam and Eve and soon death, sorrow, pain, sadness and all the troubles of the world showed up and the trees that once gave only food, shelter and beauty now gave spears, arrows and ways to provide death.  Wars are fought over the territory that trees now occupy, and trees are often used as shields or walls to protect or hide behind to fight.  The value of trees has shifted.

    Soon empires and rulers began to use trees in despicable ways by using them as instruments of hideous deaths.  Some would impale their victims running a spike through the lower bowel region and exiting through the collarbone region.  The goal was to miss all vital internal organs so death would be slow and painful.  Some empires and rulers preferred to hang their victims from a cross shaped tree and let them slowly die of asphyxiation.  The crueler ones would use nails to add to the pain and the suffering.  Trees had come from things of beauty and of nurturing to things of death and terror.

    It was this kind of tree that Jesus used to win the victory.  On the cross, he crushed the head of the serpent that poisoned the first tree of life.  Now Jesus has made this second tree the new tree of life for us.  With his blood we are cleansed.  With his blood we are redeemed.  So, as we look at this tree we should not be consumed by guilt.  We should not respond out of guilt thinking that we somehow owe God and can repay him.  Rather, we should look at the cross and see God’s unimaginable love and his unfathomable mercy.  Rather than guilt we should feel thankful, joyfully, exuberantly thankful.  We should experience a rebirth of desire, desire to serve God.

    For God invites us by his love to come into his kingdom and to serve him with love.  He calls upon us to see the beauty of this once hideous tree.  He calls us to cling to this cross so that we might always know of his mercy.

Father, we give you thanks for the redemption which you have so freely given to us because of what Jesus has done for us upon the cross.  Lead us to see the cross with hearts filled with thanksgiving and joy.  Let us see the cross as your great gift to us.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

9-17-2020

Good Morning All, 

           John 20:19; “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

     The hardest part is the waiting.  I have sat with families while they wait for a loved one who is surgery.  Even the most routine, commonplace surgery is still surgery.  It is the intrusion into the human body with foreign objects and chemicals.  It is controlled, planned, and in a clean environment but it is still placing the human body in an undesired condition.  Even with the most common, it seems that all anyone remembers is those words from the surgeon, “there is always a chance that something can go wrong.” 

   When our youngest son was only about six months old, he had a same day surgery procedure.  It was routine surgery; yet, as we handed our new son to the sweet and kind nurse; she morphed into Nurse Ratched (in my mind) and the wait was on and it was one of the longest waits that I have ever experienced. 

    One of the more difficult events during the wait is the telephone call.  Often, during the procedure, a nurse from the operating room will call to the waiting room to inform the family what is going on during the procedure.  Many families struggle with “the phone call”; it is not uncommon for the family to ask me to do the phone call; they are not comfortable with it.  When there is more than one family waiting, you can see a fidgety jump when the phone rings and the nurse at the station calls out a name to be spoken to.  Cognitively, you know they would never call and tell you something went horribly wrong yet emotionally; it is hard to suppress that thought.

    If you have ever experienced that kind of wait; a wait that involved a period of uncertainty about a loved one; you have had a taste of what the disciples went through on Saturday.  The one whom they loved with all they had, their teacher, spiritual leader, friend, confidante, the one whom they thought was the Messiah, was lying in a tomb, killed in the most horrific and humiliating fashion.  Everything had gone completely wrong and they knew not what to do.  They were lost, like those sheep that Jesus often spoke of.  You can imagine that, if they would have had clocks, each second would have ticked off slowly and loudly.

    So, when Jesus appeared to them, the first thing he offered them was peace.  He was offering a quiet and confident heart and a content spirit.  His appearance, though not fully grasped yet, meant that everything, from that point forward, was going to be different.  It was different for them, for the people they taught, and it is different for you and me as well.  It was certainly worth the wait!

Lord Jesus, your rest in the tomb has sanctified the tombs of those faithfully departed.  As we wait for your promised return, we celebrate the newness of life that you give us.  We celebrate the peace that we have and the certainty of life everlasting with you.  In your blessed name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

9-16-2020

 Good Morning All, 

        John 20: 24-25; “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

    Many years ago, I had a great uncle who loved the sport of boxing.  Of course, he grew up in the era of great boxers, Jack Dempsey, Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and the like.  So, one evening my mom invited him and my great aunt out for supper and then we were going to sit down and watch a fight night.  I was watching the start and hollered out to him that it was starting.  The fight had started as he came in and got settled in.  He looked at me and asked, “what did I miss?”  I had to tell him, “the whole fight.”  One of the boxers got punched in the throat; it stunned him for a moment, and, in professional boxing, a moment is the whole fight.  The stunned boxer was met with a crosscut to the jaw and the fight was over.  The whole fight took less than two minutes.  By the time my great uncle got sat down; he missed it all and he could not believe what had just happened.

    It is like that often; isn’t it?  You have important news; you announce it but someone who is not there to hear it simply cannot believe what you announced.  “I just can’t believe it!”  “I just can’t believe he would retire.”  “I just can’t believe they would leave.”  “I just can’t believe this store is closing.”  And these people do not believe; they will not believe until they see the empty store; they will not believe unless they hear it from the person himself.  It might be a question of trusting the person delivering the message; it might be that the news is so out of context of the person involved; it just cannot be.

    This is where Thomas found himself.  We are often tough on Thomas, but wouldn’t we be the same?   The idea that someone, who was dead, was suddenly seen again, alive; would make us wonder, to question the news as well; wouldn’t it?  Thomas takes a normal human view; I do not believe what I cannot see.

    This attitude is very human, and it is designed to limit a limitless God.  It is designed to make God’s way to conform to what man’s limited thought process can manage to conceive.  Yet God goes so far beyond our limited means.  God, who created the universe and all that is in it with a mere spoken word, is never limited in what He can or will do.  A limitless God has limitless power, limitless, knowledge, but above all, limitless love which moved him to die for you and for me.

    It was the plan from the beginning, for Jesus to die to pay for your sins.  This act of limitless love, beyond our understanding, shows us God’s very nature, even his very heart and it shows the incredible love for us. 

Gracious Lord, through your death and resurrection you show us the greatest love ever displayed.  Help us to trust in this love and help us to share this love to all those whom we meet.  Lead us to celebrate your wonderful mercy and love.  In your precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

9-15-2020

  Good Morning All, 

          Luke 24: 45; “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”

     There are many verses in the Bible that, though not hugely significant in terms of our theology, really intrigue my mind.  This is one of those verses of Scriptures.  It occurs after Jesus’ resurrection and has Jesus teaching the disciples.  He starts by telling them “these are the words that I spoke and this is what the Psalms and the Prophets and the books of Moses say about me” and then he begins to teach them in a way that “opens their minds.”

    Have you ever listened to someone who has such a clear understanding of the subject matter at hand that listening and talking with them really opens your eyes and your mind to looking at the subject in a new way?  I have had this wondrous experience a few times.  I always marvel when I experience it or later when I think about it.  These people have a knack or a method about them that seems almost “folksy”; they rarely seem or act in some sort of professorial manner.  They never seem to act in a demeaning or condescending manner.  They never seem to be exasperated when they talk about the subject that they love and know so much about.  The amazing thing is how they simply lay the facts out and weave them into an intricate story that seems to complete itself.  As they discuss, any question does not throw them off their speech as it does to someone who is giving a canned presentation.  You can almost hear the love and the reverence they feel for the subject at hand.

    What would that have been like, to be one of the disciples, as Jesus “opened their minds to understand Scriptures?”  Remember that often during the three-year ministry of Jesus; they were confused and did not really understand what was going on.  They knew it was big and life changing but not to the degree that Jesus really changed everyone’s life.  Before they pretty much just muddled through but now, now their minds were being opened and the clarity would set in.  The deeper meanings of the messianic prophecies would make sense now.  David’s psalms would have new and renewed meaning.  All the Old Testament was designed to point to Jesus as the Son of God who would redeem mankind through his death on a cross.  The coming of Jesus began the kingdom of God reclaiming creation from the devil.  The empty tomb meant that death was no longer the great enemy which always won; it was now just a door to heaven until Christ returns and completes what he began at Calvary. 

   “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”  He did it for the disciples and his Spirit offers to us the same benefit.  He opens up his loving forgiveness and his eternal grace and mercy.  He opens up life everlasting and he opens our hearts to trusting his loving promise and offer of peace.  He opened the minds of the disciples; let him open yours as well.

Father in heaven, open our minds to the certainty of the knowledge of your wonderful forgiveness.  Open our minds to seeing the truth in your love.  Open our spirits to cling only to your mercy. Open our hearts that we might go forth sharing that same love with those we meet.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret