8-9-2018

 Good Morning All,

     James 1: 19-:20; “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.”

    I was listening to the radio the other day and it was playing “American Pie” by Don McLean.  If you are under 70 or so you probably remember it well.  It was known for the meaning of all the lines and the verses; who did this refer to or what is that a reference to.  There is one line about “my hands were clenched in fists of rage.”   This line refers to the anger and violence which occurred in the 60’s and early 70’s with all the riots and the anti-war protests.  It was a time when it seemed anger was the way to move forward.

   It sounds like it is that time again.  You sure hear a lot of anger when you listen to the news or any political review.  The painful reality looks like we don’t talk with each other, we don’t even talk at each other; we talk around each other.  What is really painful is that we seem to take this attitude into all of our life.  Do we really have meaningful conversations with each other anymore?  Do we really listen to each other or are we too busy trying to think of a rebuttal (not reply) for what the other says?  Do we really converse with our co-workers, friends, spouses, children/parents?

   Make a “fist of rage”.  What does it look like?  First, it is closed, tightly closed; like our willingness to listen and to love the other person.  It is shut to any words that someone else can say to us.  We don’t WANT to hear it.  We can but we don’t want to.  Notice how it is turned in.  We turn all our attention inward; we focus on our real or imagined pain, indignation, and self-righteous arrogance.  When our hands are tightly closed, the only thing we can hold onto is our self.  Try to hold someone else’s hand and make a fist; you can’t do it.  When our hands are clenched in fists of rage, either literally or figuratively, our sinful nature focuses selfishly inward causing us to dream up all sorts of real or imagined hurts that we are suffering and someone has to pay for the pain we feel.  This ties into another line in the song “I saw Satan laughing with delight.”  The devil wins when we are angry because it does not produce the righteousness that God requires.

    Remember what Jesus told his disciples (you and me), “Love one another” “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.  There is no place for anger in our lives; it does us no good.  Listen to what is said.  This takes not only our ears but our eyes and our hearts as well.  How does he look when he says this, what tone does he use, is it from pain that he speaks?  Choose your words carefully.  Wait until he is done speaking, let it sink in for a minute or so, then respond.  Try to speak in a calm and quiet tone.  This is one of the devil’s best temptation to cause us to get angry and then to stumble into sin because of a careless word or thought.  Seek God’s help in controlling your anger, especially if you are actually in the right and the desire to defeat the other is great.  Use a gentle answer to turn away wrath. Anger only produces sin not the righteousness which God requires.

Father in heaven, all too often my fists are clenched in rage; forgive me that I am slow to listen and to forgive as you have forgiven me.  Strengthen me and give me the courage to open my hands to those around me and hold them as dearly as you hold me.  All this we ask in Jesus’ precious name, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-8-2018

 Good Morning All,

          Colossians 2:6-7: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

    Have you ever tried to pull or dig a bush out of the ground?  We have battled dying/almost dead bushes through the years. It looks easy but you know it is going to be a bear to get out.  The roots are deeper than the bush is tall.  We’ll pull and dig and probably rip up the lawn to dig it out.  It is rooted well.  It will probably come back the next year.  It went down to find water and nutrients.  It did this in order to survive the dry summers and the tough falls.  It stores nutrients in the roots in order to survive the winters. 

    Scriptures tells us we are to be the same way when it comes to our faith.  We are to be like a tree planted by the waters with roots down deep trusting in God’s grace and mercy to see us though.  God’s Word and sacraments nourish us and sustain us.  Even in our lives; when we feel that we are in the greatest of droughts; God gives us the faith to pull through.  It is still a drought; it still gives us pain but God sees us through.  When we are rooted deep in the Lord, we will survive.  The roots which we have because of faith will hold us secure.  The world and the devil may attack and hurl stones at us.  They may send storm after storm our way.  The world may cause parts of us to be damaged but we will survive.  Our faith is established and because of it we can live a life of thanksgiving.  We can live a life that is content in the knowledge that our Savior Jesus has already defeated the devil and gives to us the victory.

     Too often we see each day as a lifetime.  We see the false boasting of the world as the truth but it is never right.  What occurs in one day, we see as forever; yet it is only one day just a fraction of our life and an infinitesimal part of our eternal existence.  God looks at you and sees a child that he loves for eternity.  God laid the foundation of the earth after He prepared heaven for you.  We should give thanks for this and all of God’s blessings on us.  Most we take for granted; we don’t see them as gifts to be thankful for but as something we deserve.  God’s grace leads us on.  He keeps us rooted by faith in the living waters which flow from his mercy and nourishes us with his grace.

    We are rooted in Christ, by faith, so we can live the life that God gives to us.  We may have a life that has its challenges and its pains but a life that is rooted in the promise of life eternal with Him in heaven.  We have God’s holy and sacred promise and nothing can ever take that away from us.

    Father of all good gifts, we know that your will is done with or without us; yet you have given us the blessings of prayer.  We ask you to send your Spirit of comfort to those who are in pain and to those who are lost.  Keep us firmly rooted in Your Word always trusting in your promise.  All this we boldly ask in the Name of Jesus, Our Lord,  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-7-2018

Good Morning All,

          Matthew 15: 26-27: “And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”   She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 

    This is a portion of the story of the Canaanite woman and her faith.  She came to Jesus looking for a miracle for her daughter and the disciples tried to send her away.  It appears that Jesus is as well as He tells her He came for the lost sheep of Israel and she was not one of them.  She continues to pray and plead with Jesus until He relents.  Then Jesus praises her faith and heals her daughter.

    To many this seems to be a story about how nagging will win the day.  If you just keep pestering God long enough He will give in and give you what you want.  But that is not what is going on here.  This is a better case of playing “who am I in the parable?”  Whenever we play this game we always want to be the good guy.  We always want to be the Good Samaritan when we read that story; we want to be the example of goodness and right faith.  But if we are honest; are we the good guys or are we the foolish guys?

    In this story we want to be the Canaanite woman who, even though seemingly rejected by Jesus, continues to plead and beg our Lord for His mercy.  Is that really us?  Do we continue to pray and pray until God answers our prayer?  Or do we give up and begin to play the Schleprock card and say, “woe is me I never win at anything; I never get what I need, I am always the loser; my life is so rough.” 

   The unfortunate truth is that we are usually more like the disciples were in this story.  Eating a feast at the table with Jesus; spilling and wasting enough food that a poor outsider saw it as enough to live off of.  Isn’t that really how we are?  We receive such an abundance of blessings from God that we fail to see how great they are and then we begrudge someone else who seeks just a scrap of the blessings that we have.  Most have multiple TV’s in their homes, most have multiple cell phones, and many have multiple computers.  We spend thousands of dollars on health care because we are overweight while a huge chunk of the world slowly starves to death.

    Does this mean we are bad people because we have wealth?  Not necessarily, wealth is a gift from God but do we give thanks for that wealth like we should or have we reached a point where we feel entitled to this prosperity?  We need to be thankful to God for all that He has given to us and we need to pray that we do not become so hung up on what we have that wealth becomes our God.  We need to see God’s hand at work in our lives and give thanks to the Lord.  Then we need to look for ways to share God’s love and blessings with those around us both near and far.

Dear Heavenly Father, too often we sit at your table and feast and do not see the great and wonderful blessings that we have.  We confess that all too often we are like the disciples who assume blessings and dismiss those who are in need.  We ask for your divine mercy.  Give us strength to follow you and to be your hands here on earth and that we show mercy to those who are in need.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray,  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret