6-7-2020

Good Morning All, 

    Psalm 68:35; “God, the God of Israel, is awe-inspiring in his holy place.  He gives strength and power to his people.  Thanks be to God!"

    I had a neighbor who has an automotive/fix-it shop.  His wife was our mail carrier.  She drove a little pickup that had over 300, 000 miles on it.  I think it helped that he was a mechanic.  It seemed about every other week or so, he would have this little pickup up on the hoist and he was changing oil or replacing u-joints, or bushing, or brakes.  He was always fixing or replacing something.  Maintenance is always important to keep the vehicle running right.

    We used to notice this when we would go to farm sales where the sales were somewhat distressed.  That is the farmer did not want to sell but could not afford to keep farming.  You could see that often the maintenance of the equipment was not what it should have been.  You knew how it worked.  Maintenance takes money and when money is tight often maintenance is pushed down the list.  Yet it never takes long for this lack of maintenance costs more in the long run.  It often shortens the lifespan of the equipment plus you end up spending more on repairs as well.

    Our faith life is a lot like taking care of a car or other equipment.  You need to do the maintenance for it to work properly.  You need to do the maintenance so that the equipment works when you need it the most.  This is true of our faith life as well.  Now this does not mean that we must work on our salvation; that is already settled by God’s mercy.  Because of this mercy, God gives us the grace to face our daily struggles.  He gives us His Spirit to help us as we deal with our daily struggles.  He gives us the gift of His Words of forgiveness, his sacraments, and the gift of prayer and of His written Word.  We also have the gift of His Church, the body of believers, who are there to comfort and console us.  These gifts are all there for us to face the daily grind of our life here on earth.

    But we must use them and often.  This is how we maintain our faith.  We need to regularly attend worship services.  This is where we hear God’s Words of forgiveness and grace spoken to us.  We can hear the precious joy of God’s pronouncement of his unwavering love for us.  We need to share in Holy Communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  This nourishing of the spirit and soul will strengthen the bond of fellowship with our fellow believers.  We need to spend time in the study of God’s Word and in prayer.  This is the rhythm of our devotional life that can serve as a major part of our maintenance program.  God gives us the tools and the desire to follow through with them.  So do your maintenance every day!

   Gracious Father, you give strength and power to us as we face the daily struggles of this life.  Guard us by your Spirit and move us to maintain our faith in you.  Move us to search your Word, to partake in your sacrament, and to trust wholly in you.  Be with those who have let their maintenance lag.  Help them to return to the safety of your loving arms.  This we ask in the precious name of Jesus, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

6-6-2020

Good Morning All, 

    1 Corinthians 13:12; “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

    Have you ever gone through a funhouse with the mirrors?  The ones that have the curved mirrors that distort the way things look.  They are also usually smeared, and the lighting is bad so it can be hard to see clearly in them.  We can usually only get vague or hazy images.  We can never really tell exactly what we are looking at.  It is a dim reflection of what we see.

    Thousands of years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato, once described our life as one where we never really saw the true image.  We only saw a shadow of the image on the wall ahead of us.  It was as if life was occurring behind us and a strong light was casting the shadows on the wall ahead of us.  We saw the movement and the shapes, but we did not see the true form.  In some ways this is what Paul is telling us in this verse.  In this verse, and this chapter, he is explaining what true love is like.

    In this chapter of Corinthians, often called the love chapter, Paul is describing true and complete love.  In Greek it is agape.  This is the type of sacrificial love which God displays for us in Jesus.  God loves us so completely that He sent Jesus to die in our place and he did this before we loved him.  God did this for the portion of his creation that he loved so much he would not destroy them and start over.  He redeemed us, he bought us back from our own sin in order to make us his own again. 

    It is the kind of love which we can never fully grasp or understand in our current form.  We may speak of this kind of love, but no human truly has it.  We all have limits to our love.  We may claim to love unconditionally but, in our hearts, we have a limit.  It might be different for different people, but it exists.  So, when we talk of this kind of love; this never ending, sacrificial, all-encompassing love; we really cannot understand it.

    Paul is telling us that what we see, that is what we perceive, is just a dimmed reflection in a mirror compared to God’s love for us.  It is so far beyond our comprehension.  We have nothing to compare it to.  We only have God’s mercy showered upon us; declared to us in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.  There is no other kind of love that comes even close to this kind of love.  That is why Paul describes it as he does.  Love is patient, kind, never ends are just a few of the descriptions. 

    We will never fully understand it until we get to heaven.  It will always be upon us, but we will only be able to grasp it like a dull mirrored image.  So, we can take heart in a love so great, we cannot even imagine it.  With a love that great, we can know that our salvation is certain and our hope secure.

Gracious God, you are love.  Through you we see true love and yet we cannot comprehend.  As you send your love to us, help us to share some of that love with others.  Direct us to those who are in most desperate need of your love.  Guide us by your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-5-2020

Good Morning All, 

    Luke 7:15; “And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

    This verse is from one of the more touching stories in the Bible.  It is from the story of the widow from the town of Nain.  She was a widow and she was in the process of burying her only son.  This was not only an emotionally destructive event; it was also an economically destructive event.  It was most likely that any property that her husband had left to her son would now go to the brother of her dead husband.  So, unless he was willing to share, she was out of luck and out in the cold.  So, with the death of her son, she was completely destroyed.  She had no future; she was isolated from everything she had that would support her.  Everything that she counted on was gone.

    As the funeral procession was going out of town, Jesus and his disciples were coming into town.  The two groups met, and Jesus had compassion on the widow.  He restored the young man to life and gave him back to the widow.  He gave the man life and he gave the widow hope.  He had compassion and gave life and hope.  There is a lot to draw from this story but for today let’s look at it this way.

    As most of us read the stories of the Bible, we like to figure out who we would be in the story.  I’d like you to be the dead man for a moment.  That is what we are.  We are dead in sin.  We suffer from the torment of sin and we have no future for we are truly dead.  Yet Jesus, through his death and resurrection gives us life.  He gives us salvation.  We now have eternal life and the grace that He gives us to live.

   Yet too often we stop there.  Too often, we think, “I’m saved” and then we turn and walk away.  Yet we should remember that as Jesus gave the man his life back, Jesus also gave him back to his mother.  We should see this as part of our calling as Christians.  Jesus gave the man life and then gave him back to his mother; presumably for him to continue to care for her.  Jesus didn’t just free the man from death; he freed the man from death and then gave him a purpose.  Jesus gives us life, but he also gives us a purpose.

   He leaves us in this world for a while, for a purpose.  We are to show, share, and be his love in this world.  He empowers us to be his hands, his arms, his voice in this broken and sin filled world.  He wants us to be active in this world.  We know all the phrases; “Be witnesses”; “love one another”; “the least of these my brethren”  We know that Jesus has given us life but do we remember that he gives us back to the world for a while?  Do we remember we are to be the light in this world?  So, remember that you were given back to make a difference as well.

Father of grace, lead us to be your light in this world.  Keep us mindful that we are to be about your business as we wait for our eternal glory.  Use us to reach out to those who are suffering the most.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

6-4-2020

Good Morning All, 

              Mark 6:48; “And he (Jesus) saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.”

    I’ll keep my eye on you.  That is a phrase that parents will often tell their children.  The funny thing is that when the child is 5 or 6; they see it as a security blanket as they begin to venture out.  When they are 15 or 16, well it is seen as more of a hindrance or embarrassment.  They want their parents to see them as capable of dealing with whatever comes along.

    Knowing that someone is keeping an eye on you can mean one of two things.  We can be like the 5 or 6-year-old and see it as a comfort as a security.  Knowing that someone is watching out for you can be a comfort as you attempt something new.  Knowing that someone who has done the job, or driven the route, or has already had the experience.  It can be comforting knowing that someone with experience can step in and take over or at least offer some sage advice.

    Of course, knowing that someone is watching can be disconcerting as well.  There are times when we don’t want someone else to see what we are doing, hear what we are saying, or know what we are thinking.  There are times when we would like to think that no one is keeping an eye on us.  If no one is watching, stealing that piece of candy, or saying that unkind thing or know the thoughts that our sinful heart is forming.  It is at these times that we don’t want someone to keep an eye on us.

    As the sinful being that we are, we don’t want God keeping an eye on us.  We want to have some hidden time to let our hidden sins fester and grow.  The problem with that is that we do not have any hidden sins; all our sins are seen by God.  We only fool ourselves if we think that some of our sins are hidden.  God sees all.

    Yet as God’s redeemed children, we can take great comfort I the fact that God keeps an eye on us.  Living in a broken and sinful world, we are often making headway painfully.  We are making headway but there is a lot of pain and sorrow along the way.  Our headway is moving forward with our life; each moment we are closer to heaven.  But that journey is an arduous one.  We come upon times and events which are new to us.  The death of our parents, the time of learning who where are in this world, the time of marriage, the time of child rearing, the time of aging and the time of death are all new experiences.  We can take comfort that God keeps an eye on us.  He looks out for us and he prepares the way for us.  He gives us comfort and consolation along the way.  He goes ahead of us in order to prepare for us.  He goes ahead of us because he has already gone ahead and paid the price of our debt.  He has already experienced the pains of this life for us.  So, he has compassion on us.  His mercy is ever upon us.  The psalmist says that we are “the apple of your eye” and we are. God keeps his eye on us with his grace and mercy.

Father of all goodness, you guard and protect us and keep your eye upon us.  Keep s mindful of this truth so that we may have comfort and peace in the knowledge of your mercy.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-3-2020

Good Morning All, 

         Genesis 3:12; “The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

     In our local newspaper we get a comic called “The Family Circus” by Bill Keane.  It is about a family with small children.  Whenever something gets broke or spilled and the mother asks, “Who did this?”  There are at least two “ghost-like” figures running away from the mess.  One is named “Not me” and the other is named “I don’t know.”  It portrays the children avoiding responsibility and denying any actions which might get them punished.

    In a movie that I watched a few nights back, a soldier with the rank of corporal arrived at a new base to serve as an aide to a major where something had gone wrong.  As the corporal and the major were going into a meeting to discuss the problem, the major turned to the corporal and said, “I am going to blame the problem on you.”  The corporal, somewhat shocked, surprised, and even a little outraged, told the major, “I wasn’t even here!”  The major responded, “I didn’t say you did it; I said I was going to blame you.”  Isn’t that how life works sometimes?  One article about being a smart middle manager in a large corporation wrote that the most important thing to know who to blame when something went wrong.

    We love to blame others for our problems.  We blame the government, our spouse or family, we blame “bad luck”, we blame anything or anyone for our struggles and, eventually, we join Adam and blame God.  We blame God because our selfish sinful nature wants us blind to the truth.  The fact that we are under-educated, or that we are lazy or that we do not eat healthy foods or that we engage in unhealthy activities or that we simply make very poor choices has nothing to do with the situation that we find ourselves in; ultimately it is God’s fault; at least that is what the devil and our sinful nature wants us to believe.

    By believing or accepting that God is to blame places a wall between us and God.  It slips into our mind and into the back of our conscience and it causes us to not trust God and when we do not trust God, then we do not seek his mercy.  We look to other people or things for that support we so desperately need and seek out.

    It is important for us to recognize this as the devil’s attacks.  When we come to God and acknowledge, admit, and confess our sinful condition; we are also seeking God’s deliverance from the struggle that we are in.  We seek his grace and guidance to move past the pain of guilt that is often associated with placing blame.  When we turn to God, we see a God that has already dealt with the guilt and the sorrow by having Jesus pay the price for our sin.  He thus gives to us the blessing of that event.  We do not have to seek who we will blame; rather we can prayerfully seek to live better from now on.

Father of all mercy; lead me to see that placing blame only serves to break relationships.  Help me to see that this action leads only into pain.  Guide us by your Spirit to cling to the cross of Jesus and to see you as our only hope.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

6-2-2020

Good Morning All, 

        2 Corinthians 4:18; “as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

    We are experiencing a fair amount of tension these days.  There are times and places when we enjoy some tension.  We like to watch sporting events when the score is close, and the winner is not clear.  We like the tension this creates; one missed basket, or tackle, an error in the field, or a missed spike can change the course of the game.  We like to watch and wonder, “who will win?”  We like tension in our movies and TV shows.  We want the ending to offer a surprise or some element of uncertainty.  We like the intrigue in our entertainment but not so much in our daily lives.

    The world seems to be filled with tension. Every day it seems to increase.  It feels as though the whole thing is ready to explode.  Maybe it is maybe it isn’t.  We don’t truly know but what do we do in the meantime?  How do we go forward?

    I think one of the reasons why Christians struggle is because we live in tension.  We live in the tension of what theologians call the “now but not yet.”  Each of us, as Christians, have received from God the great and wonderful promises made to us through Jesus.  We have the forgiveness of our sins, we have eternal life, we have the promise of full healing, restoration, complete joy, and perfect love.  We have these promises, we cling to these promises, we seek these promises to deliver us from our pain, sorrow, struggles and suffering.  Our tension is that we have these promises, but these promises are not yet completely fulfilled.  We have the promise of eternal life and the end of death.  Yet this will not be complete until Christ returns and destroys death, the final enemy.  None of the other promises will be completely fulfilled until Christ returns.

    We struggle with that, especially in the United States.  We as Christians have never had a hard time in the US.  Our faith has always been allowed, even encouraged in many ways.  We tend to see ourselves as Christians as exceptional, worthy, and deserving of the “finer things in life.”  Nothing is farther from the truth.  The Holy Scriptures tells us to expect suffering and pain because sin still exists, the devil is still prowling around, and creation is still broken.

    So, we need to live in the “real” world.  This is a world where bad things happen and will continue until Jesus returns.  But we do not give up hope, for hope is our number one gift.  Since we have the complete hope of the fulfillment of the promise of God made through Jesus, we can and should dedicate our life to spreading that promise to all around us.  We can do this by striving for justice, for peace, for harmony and for loving our fellow man.  We will never fix the world, but we can be that one light in the darkness.  We can be that single beacon in the darkest of night.  We need to speak, against violence of all types and for the respect and the dignity of all people.   We know tension, but we know our Savior has won the victory for us and its assurance should lead us to peace.

Father of all love, we ask that you send your Spirit of peace to end the violence that is plaguing our land.  Give our leaders wisdom to make the choices according to your will.  Move us to be the light in this broken and hurting world.  Make us peacemakers for we are your sons.  Heal us Father, for the sake of Jesus our Lord and Savior, amen

6-1-2020

Good Morning All, 

        Isaiah 43:4a; “Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you”

     Do you remember the story of Snow White?  It had the wicked queen who possessed a magical mirror.  She would look into it and ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”  The mirror would always answer, “You are my queen.”  That is until one day when the mirror decided that Snow White was even fairer than the queen. 

    “Mirror, mirror on the wall, how do I look to you today?”  We use the mirror for many purposes.  We use it to see when we shave or put on makeup.  We use a mirror to be sure that our clothes are straight and neat; that our hair is combed and that nothing is still stuck in our teeth.  Most of us sigh and figure it looks good for what there is to work with.

    Now if that mirror could look into our hearts it would find all sorts of ugly stuff.  It would find jealousy, anger, greed, and the like; it would find sin.  As we look at that mirror, we would see ugliness.  If we asked this mirror, “who is the fairest of them all?”  It would not be you or me that is for sure.  Unfortunately, because of this sin, this is how God saw us too.  He saw us as ugly, vermin filled creatures.  He could have destroyed us and started over.  He could have just turned his back and walked away.  However, what he did actually do, was to send Jesus to correct this ugly mess.

    What did Jesus do?  He let a man named Judas betray him, a man named Peter to deny him, all his followers abandoned him, the priests mocked him, the soldiers cursed him, spit on him, and finally nailed him to a cross to die for you and me.  When the world’s mirror looked at him; he was far from the fairest in the land but when God’s mirror looked upon him; God saw the price paid and the beauty of us being restored by the sacrifice of his Son on the cross.

    So now, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we want to make sure we look in the proper mirror.  If we look in the mirror of the world, it will remind us that we are ugly and worthless.  But we get a different mirror, because we are God’s redeemed children, we get the mirror that God looks into.  We get to look into this mirror because God has forgiven us, has claimed us through Baptism and we see looking in with faith to see a whole new us, no longer ugly but beautiful because of God’s mercy.

    So, God looks at us we are precious in his eyes.  We are his dear children because of the sacrifice that Jesus made upon that cross.  It was a bloody and ugly event, but it gave to us the greatest gift ever and that is life eternal.  This is why we sing “Beautiful Savior.”  The beauty that we receive because of his sacrifice gives us hope for eternal life and lets us look into God’s mirror which sees us as his forgiven, redeemed children.

Heavenly Father, you give us a new mirror to see our life through.  It is not the broken mirror of the world, but it is the recreated mirror of your mercy.  Guide us down the path of the wonderful and loving life that you give us.  Your mercy pours over us like a river and our future in your loving arms waits for us.  Keep us safe and strong in your grace.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret