8-7-2020

 Good Morning All, 

        Luke 4: 18-19; “The Spirit of the Lord is with me.  He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin, to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

    This was part of the reading from Isaiah that Jesus read to the people in Nazareth when he first began his ministry.  That would be quite the announcement.  That is the kind of announcement that I would like to make in church one Sunday: “He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin, to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

    That should really make people sit up.  They might even adjust the radio.  I wonder how some would react to me saying that.  I bet some would get offended if I said that.  I am sure some would figure that it wasn’t really my place to say this.  It would take a lot of nerve to make a statement like that.  I could probably get away with in Stratford but at Mansfield it would be over the radio and someone would hear it.  Then there would be trouble.  I know some would not like it.  The ironic thing is that the people of Nazareth did not like it when Jesus said this either.  They thought he was being a little “out of his league.”  He was just the carpenter’s son; he has no authority to say this.

    Yet we know that Jesus is the Son of God and this message definitely applied to him.  He came to the world to make this announcement.  His coming made a dramatic and climatic change in human history.  His death, resurrection and ascension give him the power and the authority to say this; but what about me?  I am just a farm boy from South Dakota.

    What gives me, and you, the power and authority to say this?  Jesus does!!  He tells us to announce the grace of God to everyone.  We are to announce the Good News, actually, we are to proclaim it from the highest hill, especially to the poor in spirit.  Those who know of their failures of their lack of goodness; those who know that they have not kept God’s law and feel the pain of it.  To those people, we announce the forgiveness to the prisoners of sin.  Those to whom the weight of sin brutally pushes them down, we offer relief; we offer hope.  To those whose lives have been shattered and destroyed by sin, to those who have had the very depths of their soul scourged by the pain of sin; we announce the year of the Lord’s favor.  We announce it to the world because Jesus announced it to us.

    So, we share this Good News!!  You are forgiven and freed from the bondage of sin.  We are rejuvenated by His grace and mercy.  It is truly the year of the Lord’s favor- you are redeemed!

Father of all grace, in you we have favor.  In you we have salvation and hope.  Help us to proclaim that favor and that hope.  Help us to reach the poor and those imprisoned by the weight of sin.  Help them to know your forgiveness; help them to experience your grace.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret   

8-6-2020

  Good Morning All, 

    Psalm 28:1; “To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.”

    Ssssh!!  Be very, very quiet; I’m…. no, we are not going to go there.  Sometimes the idea of silence can be a good thing.  Think in terms of a bunch of 7 and 8-year olds who have had their fill of Mountain Dew and Milk Duds; silence would truly be golden.  After a day in a crowded gym, silence can be appreciated.  Getting up early in the morning, as the sun is coming up, the silence can be peaceful and calming.  There are times when silence is a good thing; it is a desired thing.  Yet sometimes it is not.

    If you have ever had a loved one out driving in bad weather and you try to get hold of them but cannot, silence is not golden.  If you are waiting for a doctor’s report, silence is not what we want.  There are times when we have silence for a few days or weeks, and we think we will go crazy waiting.

    But what happens when it seems that the silence goes on for years?  What happens when the silence for the couple that longs for a baby and prays over and over for a baby, yet no infant arrives?  They watch their friends have children, their brothers and sisters have children and they must smile and be excited and happy yet the silence from God seems so harsh.  Why doesn’t God answer their prayer?  They watch the news on TV and see another child that the parents decided they didn’t want or care about and they wonder at the silence.

    Or the person who is lonely and is looking for a mate; they pray for guidance and for the right person to enter their life, but they remain alone.  Despite their prayers, the silence remains.  There is a similar pain when a loved one dies; we cry to God, but we hear silence and the pain remains.  “We become like those who go to the pit.”  It seems as though God is silent and our pain too great.

    We need to remember that silence does not mean inaction.  God is still active in our lives.  He still sends his Spirit into our lives and into our hearts to give us hope.  He still uses the people around us to give us the consolation that we need.  He continues to pour his grace upon us and give us the forgiveness of sins that we so desperately need and the hope of salvation that sustains us.  We may never hear the answer that we want to hear but that does not mean that the silence is rejection.  It does not mean that God does not hear or care.  It does not mean that he is not acting for us as a loving and gracious Father; it only means that we may not hear him, especially if we have something specific that we want to hear.

    So even in the depths of our pain, as we cry out God hears us, and he acts for us.  The silence is not rejection nor is He turning away from us.  His love for us knows no bounds.

Father of all mercies, even when it seems that you are silent you are there for us.  Even if we do not hear you, we know that you are there acting for us and lifting us up.  Guard us by your grace.  Be with those who are feeling that you have been silent too long.  Give them the comfort of your Spirit and bring us to give them the consolation that they need.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret        

8-5-2020

  Good Morning All, 

    Psalm 103:12; “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

    As I was typing this (or is it word processing it?) I got about 1/3 of the way through and didn’t like the way it was going.  This was mostly because it was not going anywhere.  So, I pushed the left click button and highlighted the portion and then hit delete; “Poof” it was gone.  There was a time when you would have pulled the paper out of the platen, crumpled it up and tossed it in the waste basket, pulled out a new sheet of paper and twisted it in and started over.

    Now if it were only a mistake or two, you could use your correcto-ribbon if you had a Smith Corona Electric typewriter.  Otherwise you had to break out the white out.  Now we only backspace to get rid of an extra letter or two.  If we still used white out, I would have to buy it by the gallon.  But nothing beats the backspace or delete button to rid yourself of those pesky typing mistakes or even the entire rambling paragraph.

    There have been other times when I wish I could have had a delete button in my life.  Maybe, just maybe, some of those dumb things I said or did could have been erased before they had a chance to hurt the feelings of others.  Maybe I could have backspaced a couple of times when I had my mouth engaged but my brain in neutral.  Deleting a couple of painful actions would be nice as well but we do not get to do that do we?  While we cannot always delete past mistakes, we make with people; God makes it possible for us to delete our mistakes with Him

    Because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven, forever deleted from God’s memory.  He does this out of love for us.  He does this to bring us back into the loving, family relationship which he wants to have with us.  He does this because we need to be holy to be in his presence.  By declaring us holy and paying for our sins himself, our sins are removed.  The barrier of sin is removed, and we are once again His beloved children.

    But if God hadn’t forgiven us, we would still be in our broken relationship.  We need to see the importance of this.  If we do not forgive, then our relationships continue to be broken.  Remembering other sins, real or imaged, only cause us pain.  As long as we hold onto the sins of others who commit them against us in our hearts and minds, we will never know peace.  Until we hit the delete button and erase those sins, those memories of pain, so that we only have a blank screen, we will suffer the consequences of having unforgiven sins in our lives.  By holding the sins of others in our heart, we tend to view our sins as unforgiven and being retained by God.

    Yet God does forgive our sins and he desires that we forgive others as well.  To delete the sins of others frees us to experience the complete freedom of God’s forgiveness.  So, delete away, God has.

Father, you remove our sins and bring us back into your grace and favor.  Lead us to forgive others as well.  Lead us to see that in this way, we heal ourselves even more than we help to heal others.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

8-4-2020

Good Morning All, 

        Matthew 2:2; “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

     In 1980, the R&B group known as The Manhattans had a song entitled “Shining Star”.  It was a love song about how the singer saw his girlfriend as the shining star in his life.  It seems like there are people in our lives who provide us with that spark or light that we crave so much.  We look to them for examples of how things are done properly.  We look to them for inspiration and we look to them for direction and answers.  We look to them for guidance.

    For many young athletes, this person may be a coach or an older player on the team.  It might be a teacher or a mentor from the church.  It might be a co-worker that is our light; it might be a neighbor or a friend.  Most of us have someone that we look to for inspiration; to be a light to our life.  This seems to be human nature.

    It is that human nature that makes being a light so important.  The Magi saw a star that told them that something amazing had happened.  Their understanding of the prophecy told them that “the King of the Jews was born.”  This must have unnerved Herod, the sitting king, when he was asked, where is the King of the Jews?  Yet the Magi had seen the star and went on looking just as the Spirit had guided them to do.

    Later, Jesus told his disciples to let your light shine that the world will see your good works and give glory to God the Father.  Then he told them about being a city on a hill.  Then he told about the foolishness of putting a lamp under a basket.  Jesus is big on light, isn’t he?  This is because he is the light of the world and he gives us the path to follow and the light to see it.  As he was speaking to the disciples after his resurrection, he told them, in essence, “while I am gone, you are the light now.”

    So that is where we are, we are the light in the world.  We are the ones who are to be that light on a hill showing the world God’s love.  You are to let your light shine so that the glory of the Father may be seen.  How do we do this?  Jesus gives us many examples both by word and deed.  He tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison.  This is the continuation of God’s call to His people in the Old Testament.  “Take care of the orphan, the widow and the alien in your land.”  He showed us his love by healing the sick, raising the dead and, ultimately, dying for us to remove our sins.

    So be the star in the night, be the light in the dark world.  Jesus empowers us to be this light.  Show God’s love to those around you, especially your family and your friends; they may need it the most.  Epiphany is about revealing a truth to the world.  Make this the year that you reveal the truth about Jesus to someone.

Father, help my light to shine so that others will see your love, your mercy, and your glory.  Make me to shine brightly.  Guide me to those who are in the greatest need of your loving hand and grant them your peace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-3-2020

Good Morning All, 

    1 Timothy 2:1; “First of all, I encourage you to make petitions, prayers, intercessions, and prayers of thanks for all people”

     Probably the greatest gift that God’s gives to his people is the gift of prayer.  I think this because no matter who you are, whether you are 8 or 88, you can pray.  God hears all prayers, whether you are the richest person or the poorest person, the most educated or the least educated, it does not matter God hears you.  You can pray for someone in your house or someone who is half a world away.  It can be your bestest friend or someone whom you have never met.  The wonderful thing about prayer is that it is between you and God; the people that you pray for are the beneficiaries of your prayers.  Prayer is about the ongoing dialog with God; it is the life sustaining rhythm of God speaking to us and we are speaking to God.  So how should we pray?

   One way that I learned to pray as a child was called the “hand prayer”; some call it the “five finger prayer”.  The thumb is the closest to your heart, so you first pray for those closest to you, like your family, friends, co-workers, etc.  We pray for their safety and health and that God would keep them in faith.

    The next finger is the “pointer” finger.  Here we pray for those who point the way for us.  Here we pray for teachers, preachers, missionaries.  This is also where we pray for the right and proper use of God’s Word and the expansion of the Church.

    The next finger is the tallest.  Here we pray for our leaders, the president, governor, judges, and legislators.  We would also add community leaders, police, firemen and our armed forces people.

    The next finger, the ring finger, is the weakest of the fingers on your hand.  So here we pray for the weakest ones.  We pray for the sick, the homeless, those who have suffered a great loss like the death of a family member or those who had a disaster like a hurricane or tornado.  We pray for little children who are abandoned or abused.  We pray for broken families and the pain that is there.

    The last finger is the pinkie finger.  It is the smallest, so this is where we pray for our own needs and wants.  It is the last and the least because we are to put others ahead of ourselves.

    This is a simple way to pray.  You can teach it to your kids and grandkids.  It is not fancy but that is the point.  God does not want fancy; he wants you, just as you are, to come to him in prayer.  He wants you to pray for others as part of the ongoing holy conversation that he wants us to engage in.  So, if you need a guide to prayer, this is one way but whatever way you choose, choose to pray.

Father of all tender mercy, you call us to pray for others.  Too often we are lax and fail to pray for others.  Lead us to see the greatness of the gift of prayer.  Lead us to use it often as bring the cries of others before you and into our minds.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

8-2-2020

  Good Morning All, 

    Matthew 11: 4-5; “And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them”.

    When our boys were little, we would play a game with them.  We called it “I Spy.”  We would start with the phrase, “I spy with my little eyes” and then go on to describe an object in the room.  We might look at the picture on the wall and say, “I spy with my little eyes something square, with colors of blue and red and green.  I spy with my little eyes something high up and looking down on me.”  Hopefully, they would figure out what we were talking about and point it out to us.

    The essential part is to give good clues.  You try and make them somewhat age specific.  You try so that they are not too easy or too hard.  The clues should provide the answer that you are looking for.  As the boys got older, we tried to make the clues a little harder.  Sometimes we did too good a job.  Sometimes they would be distracted by the television or a handheld game and forget some of the earlier clues.  Then they would get flustered and miss the object that was being spied on.

    Our verse for today is about a man who missed some of the clues.  John the Baptist was in prison and waiting for Herod to kill him.  He had been out and preached the repentance that the Holy Spirit directed him to do.  His was a ministry of about six months’ time and he possibly baptized many thousands of people.  He even identified Jesus as the Messiah, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Yet sitting in prison waiting for your execution can make you miss some of the clues.  He wondered if Jesus was really the one, they were waiting for.  He sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus that very question.  What Jesus gave in response are the clues that John had forgotten for the moment.  When he heard these, he was renewed.

    If John the Baptist can miss the clues, you know you and I can.  If John can question while under duress, you and I will also.  But just like John, Jesus keeps reminding us of the clues of his love for us.  He reviews the words of redemption, the words of consolation and the words of hope.  We have his Spirit, grace, blessings, gifts, and mercy.  The clues are there even if we get distracted or confused.  God’s grace is revealed to us through the Scriptures.  Sometimes the devil will use whatever means he has to confuse us; sometimes it works.  But God keeps coming to us, showing us his love and grace, and bringing us back into his loving arms. 

    We may fall short occasionally, but God’s love is always there.  We may miss it because of the distractions that we have but God’s love is still there.   God’s love is always there.

Father of grace, we give you thanks for the blessings of today.  Father we often overlook your love and mercy and fail to see the truth of your grace.  Strengthen us to see your mercy alive in our lives and active in our days.  Help those who are especially missing the signs of your love.  Let them spy on your grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret     

8-1-2020

Good Morning All, 

    Hebrews 4:15; “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

    I always used to hold to the theory that anyone who was going to teach, or coach had to do so in the class that they had the most difficulty.  If, when the teacher was a student, and had trouble with English but had no trouble with math, he should teach English and not math.   The reason for this is because if a teacher does not struggle with a class, he may have difficulty in relating to a student who has trouble with the class.

   I came up with this theory while I was in college.  We had an instructor who was teaching Intro to Math.  It was the most basic of basic math.  Some of the students struggled even with this.  The real problem was that the instructor had taught at the Naval Nuclear Propulsion School the fall before.  His math skills were so far above the students who struggled that he simply could not teach them.  He could not relate to their struggles with math.

    That is part of what our verse is talking about.  Jesus is our high priest.  He came to earth and lived as a man, not a king or a prince or a wealthy landowner but as a man who had to work for a living.  He was a man who was subject to the laws and was even subject to the harassment of the Roman soldiers.  But more than this, he was subject to the frailties of man.  He knew what it was like to have a customer yell at him for some imagined error.  He knew of the pain of hitting your thumb.  He knew about people and their cruel comments.  He knew about being hungry and tired and aching after a hard day’s work.  He knew the temptations of life in a sinful world.  He understands what it means to be human.

    So, when we are tempted, or when the life we lead just gets extremely difficult; Jesus understands and will empathize with us.  He knows the struggles.  He knows the emotionally draining effect of one crisis piling upon another.  Even if they are simple or mundane, he understands.  He understands the parent who started the evening with one screaming child but soon escalated into three.  He understands the struggles you have with a boss or a co-worker.  He understands the battles you have with some addiction like alcohol, drugs, or porn.  He understands how hard it can be when you have a roving eye.  He knows what and where temptation can hide and the rise to show its ugly face.

    So, when we face temptation, we can turn to him in prayer and he will empathize and give us the courage and strength to stand up to the devil and his lies.  He will offer us a way out.  He will show us how to withstand but we must act with faith and we must trust and with prayer seek his help.  He will help; he has promised to care for us.

Father of mercy, we need you every hour.  We need your guidance and support.  We need your Spirit to keep us from temptation.  Give us the strength to withstand the tempter’s power.  Be with those who are especially feeling the devil’s assaults.  Keep them strong.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret