3-19-2023

Good Morning All,

        Matthew 28:51; “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” 

    “I’m kind of a big deal you know!”  It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.  Many years ago, I was listening to my great nieces and nephews play at Christmas time.  They are mostly quite young.  One of them wanted to play the way he wanted and a different one wanted to do something else.  The first one wondered why the second one got to decide what they were going to do.  The response, “Well, I’m kind of a big deal you know!” 

    When you are “kind of a big deal”, you tend to think that the world revolves around you.  When the one who says this is two or so, it is funny.  When the one that says this is twenty-two, it is more troublesome.  Yet as we look at the events of our lives or the people of our lives there are times when it was “kind of a big deal” to us.  When I finally convinced the girl of my dreams that I would try and be a good spouse and she agreed, it was kind of a big deal.  When each of our boys was born, it was kind of a big deal.  Marriages, births, and deaths are kind of big deals in our lives.  So are health issues, job changes, graduations, empty nests, retirement, and the like are kind of big deals. 

    Our verse is from Matthew’s account of Jesus’ death.  The moment he died, the curtain torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks split.  That would have been kind of a big deal.  Not only did this happen but graves opened up and many saints were seen.  The death of Jesus was kind of a big deal.  It changed mankind’s direction.  For those of us who are the redeemed children of God, this event brought an end to the devil’s tyranny.  This event took us out of the spiral of sin and lifted us into Christ’s resurrection.  This event paid our debt, a debt that we could never pay and put us righteous before God.

     The Temple curtain tore, top to bottom, shoeing that God had destroyed the veil between us and opening up the path for us to come to him directly as a loving child comes to his loving father.  The earth shook and the rocks split; even creation knew that this was a big deal.  Christ took on mankind’s sin and paid for it all.  More importantly, Jesus took on your sins and mine.  We are part of this great blessing, this wonderful gift from God; it is kind of a big deal.  We have the promise of the Creator-Redeemer God that we will have eternal life with him.  That is kind of a big deal.

Dear Father, your mercies are new to us every day.  We give you thanks for the blessings of this life especially for giving us the hope of salvation in Jesus.  Be with those who are in most need of your grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret          

3-18-2023

Good Morning All,

        John 3:6; “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

    It seems like a simple concept to follow.  You are one thing or another.  If your pet is born a dog; it is a dog it isn’t changed into a cat.  If you have red hair; you have red hair.  You can try to hide it or change the color but in the end, this is only a deception because your hair is red.  It is a simple concept but one which many people try to deny and change.

    That which is born of flesh is flesh.  That which is born of a sinful nature has a sinful nature.  There are those who would deny this.  Some think you can stare at your belly button long enough to become God.  Some believe that God exists in us from the beginning and that they can coax him out.  Some will tell you that God exists in the hopes and dreams of little boys and girls and all we have to do is to wish for all to be well.  All the while they are deceiving themselves and others.  This is bad enough but then they are also missing the true free gift which God gives to us.

    By nature, we are sinful, we are flesh.  Yet it is by God’s grace that we are born, that is reborn, of Spirit.  We do this through Baptism.  We receive God’s Spirit by Baptism.  This is a completely unnatural act.  It doesn’t occur because we want it to or because we can make it occur; it occurs because God makes it happen.  As we look at the sacraments we see where God takes everyday things and makes them do extraordinary actions.  It is not because of the everyday thing, like water; it is by God’s Word that this occurs.  This is the free gift of God to us and we can relish it.  We can savor it and we can enjoy it.  God gives it to us so that we can be called his children.  We are heirs to his wondrous kingdom. 

    This change is not manmade, or man found.  While some try to claim that they found Jesus; remember Jesus has never been lost; it is always the other way around.  Jesus comes to you and after you with his Word bidding you to come to him.  He wants to bring you into his kingdom and he chooses to do this through “the washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit.”  We do not come to God, find God, make ourselves God or any other such thought; we are born of flesh and flesh we are. 

     Yet God, in his unfathomable love, re-creates by Baptism to be his children and heirs.  This gift, this wondrous gift, is given to us.  Then, God empowers us and encourages to go, and bring this gift along and give this gift to others.  So as you give your gifts this Christmas season, remember the greatest gift which is given to you by God.  We receive the washing and the cleansing of our souls and we are re-created into his children to life eternal. 

Dear Father, you give us the gift of spirit by your Holy Spirit.  Help us to see and to trust your grace to save us.  Give us the wisdom to go forth and to boldly speak of your forgiveness.  Strengthen our spirit to serve you only.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-17-2023

Good Morning All,

     Titus 3:4-5; “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

    “Veni, vidi, vici.”  This short phrase is the “official” report that Julius Caesar gave after a very short rebellion.  Caesar told, in these three words, how the war went.  “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Short and sweet, a complete report of a war that barely was.  Caesar told it in a simple matter-of-fact method.  He arrived at the region, he surveyed the situation and then he launched his attack.  The efficient general gives an efficient report.

   As we look at our text, this is an apt description of Jesus.  Jesus appeared.  The word used here is our word “epiphany” or to make known or to come to light.  Jesus came into the world bringing the light of hope.  He came bringing the wondrous news of God’s new covenant where God himself paid the bill which we owed.  He came as that wondrous covenant.  He came to bring the reconciliation of man back to God through his grace and his mercy.  He came to bring life to sinful man by removing the stain of sin.

    He saw.  Jesus came into this world to live the life of a man.  Jesus was like us in every way except for sinning.  He experienced the same pains, the same fears, and the same uncertainties of our life.  This is a tremendous blessing to us.  We have a God who has experienced our life.  He knows what it means to be human.  He knows what makes us weak and where we need the most comfort and the most support. When we cry to him in our pain and anguish; he knows our pains and comforts us.

    He conquered.  Jesus came and defeated the devil, sin, and the power of the world.  He overcame all those things which separated us from God.  He conquered so that we might have life.  He conquered so that we would have hope.  He conquered that we might have peace.  We no longer live in fear of tomorrow.  We no longer need to live a life struggling to try and earn eternal life.  We have it as a free and precious gift from Jesus our Savior.  He conquered so that the victory is ours given to us as we are marked with the sign of His Baptism where he washes away our sins and regenerates and renews our soul. 

    We want to remember why he came especially during this Lenten season.  He came to conquer; to conquer the devil and to rescue us from his control.  He came to claim us as his own dear brothers and sisters.  We are his by virtue of our Baptism through which God claims us with the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus came, he saw, and he conquered that we may have eternal life and the hope for his comfort in this world.

Dear Father in heaven, we give you thanks for coming to be a man and conquering for us so that we might have life.  Keep us strong in the knowledge of our salvation and give to us the peace which only you can.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-16-2023

Good Morning All,

     Leviticus 19:2; “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” 

    “You shall be holy.” or “You SHALL be holy!!” or “You shall be holy??”  It is interesting how we can read the exact same sentence and different people can interpret it differently.  How you read a sentence goes on to determine how you respond and react to it. 

    There are those who read this and see only God’s law.  These people then turn around and show only God’s law to people.  These people will see a situation and say,” your sin caused it and now God is punishing you for it.”  Unfortunately, this is the voice that many non-Christians hear.  They see the church as quick to judge and slow to aid.  Perhaps they have even experienced it.  A woman who had an abortion a few years ago and now is having other related health issues, a homosexual who has AIDS, a drug addict who is homeless; these are examples of people who may only hear the church say “Thou shalt not..”  They have needs and seek comfort but are we there to offer them God’s Gospel?

    Some read this as a promise to great prosperity.  If we are holy like God is then we should be powerful and wealthy like he is and since God does as he sees proper; so, can we.  These people read this as a license of entitlement.  They see it as “what God owes me.”

    We read it differently.  This verse doesn’t speak of our actions or character; it speaks of our relationship with God.  Because of what God has done, we are set apart from the rest of the world.  This doesn’t mean we are better or superior.  It does mean that God has blessed us far beyond any measure that we can conceive of.  We have been redeemed and called the children of God; we are declared heirs of his eternal kingdom.  Because of God’s grace, we have a relationship with him that is different than the unbeliever.  In the Old Testament, the Israelites engaged in many ceremonial rites and laws which clearly set them apart from their neighbors.  We too, should be seen as set apart not so much by our ceremony but by our actions within the society in which we live.  God gives to us the vertical relationship with him and then he calls us to live in a horizontal relationship with our fellow man.  We might call the relationship with God “liturgical” (church speak) and a relationship with our neighbors as an “ethical” (world action). 

    The world should see the results of our relationship with God.  In that relationship, we are forgiven entirely by God’s grace.  We should therefore deal with our fellow man with the same grace.  God has chosen you and he has chosen to reach out to the world through you.  You have been called to a wonderful task; the same task that Jesus lived while here on earth.  We are blessed and privileged to carry it out.  Go with God’s blessings in touching the world. 

Dear Father, by your grace you have set us apart; you have declared us holy.  Give us the courage and the wisdom to live our holy life-giving glory and honor to you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.    

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-15-2023

Good Morning All,

     Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

    I remember when I was in high school; something called “trust walks” were popular community building events at gatherings.  The premise was a small group of people, usually around 12, had to walk from point “A” to point “B”; they had to all walk together.  During the exercise about half would wear blindfolds and thus be “blind” while the other half couldn’t say anything and thus were “mute”.  So, essentially, the “mute” members had to lead the blind members along.  Then as you went, the mute members would slowly lose their sight until only one person had sight but no way to speak.  The group had to trust the last “mute” to lead them to safety.

    Sometimes this would lead to funny twists and failures; one time about 7 people fell down a flight of stairs; that wasn’t so funny.  Yet the idea was to build trust in those around you to keep you safe.  Yet as we think about this; how many people do you trust?  Can you truly trust 12 people maybe 24?  How many people would you trust with the most personal and intimate details of your life; are there any?  It can be difficult to trust especially if your trust has already been broken.  If a friend betrayed a story, or a business associate betrayed a deal, or if a spouse damaged the marriage; it can be difficult to trust.

     Yet this trust is exactly what God offers to us.  We can trust God to keep his promises.  The imagery of our verse can be very powerful if have ever experienced a flood or a fire.  Trying to wade through flood waters is a very scary event.  You are not sure of the footing or of what is going to get swept into you by the flowing floodwaters.  You are usually cold and usually very bewildered.  A fire can be almost the same.  The smoke makes seeing ahead difficult and hard to breathe.  The heat from the fire can be very scary and the noise of a fire can be intimidating. 

    Both of these are very similar to some of our life events.  Going to the hospital for the first time can be scary and vey foreign to us.  Moving to an assisted living center can cause panic.  When we change jobs, it can be scary. When we change schools, it can be scary.  If we stop and think; many of our life events can cause us anxiety.  Yet we know that we never have to go it alone.  No matter how scary the events, God will see us through.  This includes any event that we experience.  Maybe we see our children as more of a challenge that we thought they would be.  Maybe our parents are harder to get along with than before.  Maybe our in-laws seem to have changed after the wedding.  Relations can be hard to deal with.  They may be the most difficult events we deal with.  This is usually true because we have so much emotional capital invested; we have a lot of our own “blood, sweat and tears” on the line that we battle constantly. 

     So, as we deal with these, remember that we do not travel alone.  God is there to lead us through to safety.  He knows our needs and knows our fears and is there to comfort us when we need it.  Sometimes, the first step is the hardest and that is to let go of our plans and to trust in God’s plans.  Trust in God, he will deliver you.

Dear Father in heaven, you lead us safely through the floods and fires of life.  Father, as we struggle with relationships in our families; lead us to see that you are truly our only source of hope and salvation. Strengthen our trust in your will.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret               

3-14-2023

Good Morning All,

          Matthew 6:12; “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

    “Well, I might forgive them, in time, but I will never forget it!”  Have you ever heard someone say this?  Have you ever said it?  Have you ever had someone say this about and to you?  I have heard it said a few times and it is always a very sad situation.  I have known people who have carried this anger and grudge with them for many years and they always seem to be angry or sad and just have a bleak outlook on life.  They never seem to enjoy life.

     Yet it can be tough to forgive others.  The slights and the pain that other can cause, especially if we seem to lose ground and they seem to gain ground, can really bog you down with a sense of morose despondency.  Life is bitter because the sin we hold onto is bitter, almost like the bile of the body.  It leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

     Yet we come by this unwillingness to forgive others naturally.  For one thing, we like to have that list of “wrongs” that were committed against us.  We may even want to hold it so we can show God how much we endured here on earth.  We like to think that we truly are martyrs, even if it is in our own mind.  There seems to be a deeper reason that we do not forgive others and that is because we are so slow to forgive ourselves.  We spend a lot of time beating ourselves up remembering all the wrongs that we have done.  We then cling to the notion that if I am unforgivable than everyone is unforgivable.

    We have so much practice and not forgiving ourselves.  The devil likes to help us to not forgive.  As long as we do not forgive ourselves and we do not forgive our neighbors, reconciliation is almost impossible.  It is usually necessary that we forgive ourselves first.  We do this by repentance.  When we repent, we get rid of the guilt of sin.  The devil can no longer use that as a trump card in our life.  When we repent, the devil no longer has a hammer to beat us with; it is destroyed.  A life of repentance, where we continually see that our life exists only through God’s grace, frees us from the burdens and the guilt of this world.  When we lose that guilt; it becomes easier to forgive others. 

     This is part of the blessing that the forgiveness of sins has for us.  We can throw the guilt of sin, the sting of sin, out the door because Jesus has already paid the debt and God has already forgiven the sins.  We no longer have to bear the load of sin; the weight is no longer on our back.  God’s pure mercy gives us the victory to tell the devil to take a hike when he comes with his snide whining about how bad we really are.  We are God’s redeemed children.  We are at the same time saints and sinners but the most important thing to remember is that at the end of the day, no matter what, we are still God’s chosen, redeemed children.  That should always be a source of comfort to us. 

     That comfort should then help to provide the impetus to forgive others.  Hanging onto their sins is just as heavy a burden as hanging onto our own sins.  Let them go and enjoy the life which God has designed us for, a life of contentment and of reconciliation.

Dear Father in heaven, to you alone belong all glory.  Too often, we fail to forgive others and we fail to forgive our self.  Help us, dear Lord, as we go forth in life and lead us to the true knowledge that forgiveness gives us peace in you.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

3-13-2023

Good Morning All,

        Luke 10:41-42; “But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”  

    Are you one of those people who stress about everything?  If you invite someone over for dinner or an evening of entertaining, do you worry about it for days in advance?  If you are planning a trip, do you go over the details over and over?  When planning something, do you make a list and then wear the list out going over and over it?  You may just be very detail oriented, or you may be somewhat obsessive.  Usually, it isn’t that big of a deal, sometimes it even helps to have someone like this on a board or task assignment.  Yet there are times when this type of detail attention can cause problems.

    Our verses come at the end of the story of Mary and Martha at a time when Jesus visited them.  Martha hustled and bustled about fixing a wonderful meal, entertaining and then cleaning up.  Mary just sat and listened to Jesus.  Martha became very upset at her sister; Martha was worried about many things but not the important thing.  Martha was worried about all the fluff and not the substance.  She was more worried about looks and feels and not with the important part; building a relationship with Jesus.

    There are many times we do the same thing in our relationships with our family and friends.  We are more worried about the fluff; where do we go, where do we eat, how do we spend our time playing and we do not worry about what builds our relationships.  We need to listen to each other and share in our joy, excitement, our fears, and our pain.  When we only focus on the fluff the depth and the strength of our relationships are challenged.

     The same is true of our faith relationship with Jesus.  This past Christmas, where was your emphasis, was it on baking and gifts or was it on the joy of the Savior?  It is easy for the chaos of the world to distract us from what is truly important in our life; that Jesus came as a baby, grew into an adult and then died for your sins and rose again to show that it was valid.  This is the most important thing that we trust God’s promise of eternal life because of Jesus.  The rest of the stuff is just fluff.  So, we need to be careful not to be like Martha and let the cares of the world pull us down.  We need to look to Mary’s example and focus on Jesus.  We need to let the dishes go for a while and not worry about the exquisite meal.  We need to focus on our relationships with each other and especially with our Lord. Keep the necessary thing mindful.

Dear Father, too often we let the cares of the world bog us down especially when we think they are what is important.  Keep our hearts and eyes focused on you.  Keep us working on the relationships with the family and friends that you give us.  Hold u close in your arms.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen!

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret