This is the Day!

This morning I awoke to a new light of a new day. I sensed that no matter what lie ahead, there was hope and the promise that God was with me.

Still quite early, I drove north along the Hood Canal as the sun began to peep over the hills and then flood the blue waters with the clear sky above. My heart sang, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24).

When I lived in Tucson, Arizona, I attended a church where every Sunday morning, yes, EVERY Sunday morning at the beginning of worship, we would begin as a group with the words, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” It seemed to brighten even the saddest heart and faces would light up as we looked at each other!

Yesterday, I was learning about music of the early 16th century. William Byrd wrote a small motet entitled, “Haec Dies” for the Catholic mass of the day. The piece was based upon the words from Psalm 118, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” The words have carried people through the good and bad times for centuries!

Whether we feel on top of the world, or feel depressed, we can begin the day with these words of hope and encouragement: “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” God is present. Do not be afraid!

Prayer: O God of hope, help me to remember to begin each day with the words, “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” Amen

Overcoming Fear

Psalm 113

My fear of dogs began when I was young child when our family visited Aunt Evaline and Uncle Fred at their farm. Uncle Fred loved dogs and he would bring home every stray dog he found—a one man Humane Society in the 1940s. As our family turned into the driveway, Uncle Fred would emerge, calling his menagerie of dogs to him. Giving each a good scruff on the head or body, he’d methodically chain each dog to one of the willow trees lining the sidewalk. When the task was done, he’d come jovially to our car, open the doors, and give us each a big hug. I felt safe in his arms.

Aunt Evaline, in her off-white apron, carefully embroidered with colorful flowers, would be standing on the porch beyond, ready to welcome us into their home. I loved to come to her house because she always made lots of good food, had a real player piano in the sitting room, and the upstairs was a haven for little girls to play with her many dolls.

Yet, between her and our car, were four to eight dogs—mostly big dogs in brown, black or white coats. As soon as we would open the gate to walk down that way-too-narrow sidewalk, every one of those canines would begin barking and straining at the chains.

Now, I suppose it is possible that these dogs were just so happy to see us—our canine welcoming committee. I certainly did not feel it that way. As I walked by, I tried to be brave but that walk to the end of that sidewalk seemed to last forever and I was sweating, not from the heat of the day, but the damp sweat of fear! Any trip to the outhouse later in the day forced me to travel that same route.

Fear! From the perspective of a grown woman, I realize that Uncle Fred loved our family but he also loved those big animals he found and befriended on a regular basis.

Is that the way God is? God loves you and me. God also loves those who are quite unlike me, those of a different culture, those with different life-styles, and those we might call, “misfits”. God loves all of his creation. God wants to protect all of us. When danger is lurking around us, we sometimes wonder why God is looking out for “them” as well! It is the child’s thought, why give those awful dogs water and food? Why would God love and protect and care for the “other?”

But then, that is just the God we have! Jesus eats with publicans and sinners. Jesus heals the leper. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman by the well. Jesus interacts with and does kindnesses to the “other.” Why? Because God is in the business of protecting, loving, and caring for all of God’s creation. God wants us to join him in the task.

Prayer: Remove my fear, O God. Help me to see and act as you do!  Amen

Song:  “Where True Charity and Love Abide”        ELW 653

God's Design: Humanity 1.0

As we considered God’s greatest creative accomplishment, human beings, in our Faith and the Arts Class this week, it became clear that God was very thrilled with the results! In Genesis 1:26-28, God says, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in God’s image, in the image of God he created them; make and female he created them.” And God blessed them! And God saw that it was VERY good!

It reminds me of a slogan I saw years ago that said, “I’M SOMEBODY, CUZ GOD DON’T MAKE NO JUNK!”

Then in Genesis 2:7-23 the account is somewhat different, but the message is the same. Here it says, “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” And God placed man in the garden, created rivers for water and food from the plants and trees. Then God saw that the man was lonely for no animal or bird were appropriate for a partner for him. “So, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
             “This at last is bone of my bones
                   and flesh of my flesh;
             this one shall be called Woman,
                  for out of Man this one was taken.”

When we considered the Fresco in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, the art historian, William Kloss commented that the artist had created the face of God and that of Adam in such a way that they appeared clearly to be father and son!

Secondly, there is equality between the male and the female—both are created by God, both are in the image of God. Male and female God created humankind!

Third, note that though God created animals of every size and shape, birds of the air, and creatures of the sea, none were suitable for a partner to the man. So, God got the idea of creating a woman, not of the dust of the earth, but out of the very rib of the man—making her unique and equal to the man so they could share life together!

Prayer: Thank you, God, for your creative gifts—including me. Help me to always remember I’m not junk for I am made in your image, and you have declared that your creation of man and woman is very good! Amen.

Chaos into a New Creation

CHAOS INTO A NEW CREATION

The biblical story of creation begins by describing earth as a “formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” See Genesis 1:2.

Have you listened to the musical work The Creation by Haydn? At the beginning he introduces this musical story of Creation from Genesis 1 with his interpretation of chaos. He has the instruments at odds with one another, sounds that you would normally say, “They don’t go together! That’s not pretty!” Chaos is usually not “pretty, harmonic, or inviting!” And that’s the point! In the beginning, into the chaos of void, disorder, and confusion came God to bring an abundance of goodness! In the beginning God created a rich, functioning, beautiful, and providing world. And when God finished each step of the way, God smiled at the results and said, “It is good!”

That is what God continues to do. Into our chaotic lives, into our messy world, God wants to make it all good and beautiful! God is just waiting for us to say, “We need you to fix it, God. We need your creative hand to clean up our world, to bring harmony and goodness where we have failed.”

Amos, the prophet of old, invites the erring people of his time, the Israelites, to be humble—do an honest reevaluation of themselves, and begin the arduous task of changing their habits, attitudes, and dysfunctional behavior. Amos, speaking as God in Amos 9:14, says:
                              I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
                                      and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
                              they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
                                      and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
It applies to us as well. If we want justice and order out of our chaos, God will step in and give us a hand, remake that which is broken and harmful, and turn our chaos into a new creation that is “very good!”

Prayer: O God, I need help. Our nation needs help. Our world needs help. Come to our aid and help us bring new life into our chaos. Amen.

Note: This was the topic of the first of a series of classes called, “Faith and the Arts” presented by Tyger and Todd Penson at Faith Lutheran Church, Shelton, every Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. You are welcome to come!

Why Burn a Bush?

WHY BURN A BUSH?

Exodus 3
“The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed…God called to him out of the bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.”

Why burn a bush? The text comes from Exodus 3 where an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in “a flame of fire out of a bush” and from that bush the voice of God called to Moses. God first identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then God states his reason for getting Moses’ attention: God has seen the misery of those in slavery in Egypt saying, “I have heard their cry…I know their sufferings…and have come down to deliver them.”  Then God declares the reason for his burning bush encounter: “So come, I will send you” to deliver those enslaved out of bondage into freedom.

Now Moses had done the Egypt and Pharaoh thing (read Exodus 1:8-2:23) and was happily married, living a quiet life as a shepherd. This was home for him. This call from God was upsetting the cart of tranquility for Moses.  Yet God had need of Moses and those very real experiences of living in Egypt, being raised in Pharaoh’s home, and living in the wilderness watching sheep for forty years, were just the right tools to prepare Moses for the mission God had for him.

If this story is for me, I have a question. Why burn a bush with me, God? I identify with Moses. I have my life well under control and though it may not be all that easy, life is good just the way it is. Period!

Sometimes the only way God can get my attention, communicate with me about what God needs or wants me to do, is through unusual or unsettling experiences. They become my burning bush moments. It is what I do with them that counts. It is true that Moses argued with God about his qualifications, his abilities, and the probable difficulties that lay ahead, but God assured Moses, “I will be with you.”

God’s “I will be with you” is the necessary support you and I need. It is the encouragement that will allow us to move beyond our comfort level into an unknown experience that address the needs of our world—the suffering, the hungry, the injustices that so prevail. God is aware of the cries of his created children and knows that we are the ones who can help, who can make a difference. God really does need us!

So, let us look for those burning bush moments—those encounters with the reality of God’s world, the needs of those around us, and the calling of God for our intervention. We can do it! Why? Because God promises us, “I will be with you.”

Prayer: God, you call us into situations that need our help. When we respond, be with us, just as you promised.  Amen

Song: “Here I Am, Lord” by John Michael Talbot (ELW 574)

In the Garden

John 20:11-16

The groundskeeper met us at the cemetery office. We were looking for family members who had been buried in this cemetery decades before. We gave him the names and he knowingly nodded his head. They were buried here, and he would show us their plots. The gardener’s name was Ron, a middle-aged man who showed the signs of weather and professionalism in his physique and his mannerisms.  Acquiring a map, Ron began to draw small circles at various spots, with comments like, “Go down this road and watch for the very large rhododendron on your right” or “They are on the hill which I just watered, and it can be slippery. I’ll mark the spot for you.” He found us a few minutes later under the rhododendron at the correct stone marker. He pointed at the hill behind us where he had marked with red flags the rest of our family grave sites.

Ron had been at this cemetery, tending its grounds—mowing, watering, digging up weeds, and cleaning its markers for over 30 years. He was hesitant about leaving the site for even a week for a vacation since he did not feel his substitutes cared enough about the place. He proudly told us about his church where he serves as a sound technician.

Ron touched me. He cared so much about this place. He tended it lovingly. He knew these gravesites represented loved ones and he wanted their family and friends to find their resting places. Ron wanted this place to be an inspiration for all who came.  

I am reminded of the story of Mary going to the tomb of Jesus on the first day of the week and finding the grave site empty. Seeing a man there, mistaking Jesus as the gardener (the groundskeeper of the cemetery garden), Mary asks him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” I also hum the song, “I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the rosebuds…”, a song of Mary in the Garden where Jesus, her Lod, had been buried.

It was a special day for us. We found the places where our family were laid. We found a gardener who cared about this special place. We found a Christian man, serving God in his own humble way. I have thought, what an example for all of us—doing what he does the best he can and serving God through his work and caring.

Prayer: You call us into all kinds of work and responsibilities. May we remember that in whatever we are doing, we are doing it for You and those you love. Amen

Being Satisfied

 Exodus 16

A church in Arizona once did an online study of a small devotional book by Quinn Caldwell called, “All I Really Want.” I do not have this book, nor have I read it, but the title makes me think of all the wish lists we carry around with us. “I want a new jacket; our house is too small; I need a bigger TV.” The list goes on and on. There are complaints about how the HOA leaders of the neighborhood have their own agenda which does not fit mine. “Why don’t they listen to me?” The takeout food is cold; the temperature outside is too hot; the children are too noisy. As the saying goes, “As a rule man is a fool: When it’s hot he wants it cool; When it’s cool, he wants it hot, Always wanting what is not.”

Remember the Biblical story of the Israelites in the desert and God provides them with food: bread and manna, meat and quail, water.  Yet the people mutter and complain against Moses, Aaron, and God, longing to be back in the land of Egypt. They only remember having good food there—not the hardships and cruelty they endured. They have received so many blessings from God but only can complain about the negative—this food just does not taste very good!  The quail are sparse, and their meat is tough!

An unknown writer said, “Grant a man the necessities in life, and he wants the conveniences; give him the conveniences, and he prays for the luxuries; grant him the luxuries, and he yearns for the elegances; let him have the elegances, and he asks for the follies; grant him everything that he wishes, and he will complain that the price was too high and the quantity too small.”

I once read of two little girls who grew up on the wide, lonely prairies of Alaska. They played with each other, worked on the farm, learned to cook from their mother, and in the evening, learned to read and write and do arithmetic from their father. Their only book was the Bible and it served as their textbook for their learning. When they grew older, one became a teacher; the other, a nurse. What struck me most was their happiness, positive attitude, and gratitude to God, their parents, and distant neighbors for the possibilities and hope they had.

Pause for a moment and reflect on what God has done for you, what undeserved gifts you have received. We are all recipients of blessings from God. Thanking God for our blessings and learning to be satisfied is an attitude that is extremely precious and one for which we all should strive.

Prayer: Thank you God, for the many blessings you have given to me. (List them) Amen.

Song: “Praise and Thanksgiving”—Text by Albert F. Bayly; ELW 689

Beads of Love

Mark 10:13-16

Last evening, I received a phone call from Barb whom I knew when we lived in British Columbia in the 1960s. That is a long time ago. At the time, Barb was a teenager but was part of the singing group I directed. During the phone conversation, she told me a story about our daughter that happened back then. I never knew this story before.

Our daughter, Julie, was about 3-4 years old when she had to have surgery. Barb apparently went to visit her in the hospital.  Julie noticed a necklace of beads that Barb was wearing and thought they were so beautiful—where could she get one like it. Barb removed the strands of colorful beads and handed them over to this three-year-old Julie saying, “These are love beads.  Someone gave them to me to show her love and told me to share them with someone else who could use a little bit of love. You may have them. Maybe you will meet someone who needs these beads of love, and you can give them away also!”  (Perhaps you remember those hippie love beads of the 1960s and 1970s.)

A few days later, Barb returned for a second visit and noticed that Julie was not wearing them. She asked her where they were, to which our daughter replied, “Oh Jimmy left the hospital yesterday and I thought he could use them.” It has left an impression on Barb for fifty years!

Jesus knew the importance of children. They have so much to teach us. That is why in all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus blesses little children. He really wants to be around them. To those who thought Jesus was wasting his time with the children, Jesus said, “Let the Little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” I give thanks for Barb who visited our little girl and shared the beads she had with her. I give thanks that Julie was able to “pass it on” to bring love to a little boy she met in a hospital. May we all learn from these two special people the value of reaching out to others, sharing, and passing love around.

PRAYER: Lord, make me an instrument of your love. Help me realize that we can learn from small children, old men and women, and everyone in-between! Amen.

Focus on Better Things

2 Peter 1:3-8

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. Thus, he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I once read (author unknown), “In the history of the Christian church, wherever truth exists, error always follows.” In this letter to the church after 60 C.E., Peter writes instructions to help the Christians combat false doctrines. Peter wants to stress the need for believers to have true knowledge so that they might ward off error.

Today these words of Peter easily apply to us. God is present in our world giving us, his followers, everything we need for life and godliness so that “through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world…” If I choose to dwell on the “corruption” that inhabits the thoughts, minds, and actions of those I see on TV or who speak evil in our nation or world, I will fall apart with worry, hatred, suspicion, and despair.

God has a better plan for us: focus on God and God’s ways. Peter writes: For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.”

As Christians, we are not to sit around and mope, or follow those who chase after selfish satisfactions or speak false doctrines. Instead, we are to stand up for the truth of what God would have us do and be, be knowledgeable about the faith instilled in us through the Scriptures, and practice self-control, godliness, and mutual love of others. If we center ourselves on those things daily, regularly, we will be practicing what it means to be a true follower of Jesus. We will be effective witnesses of God. Amen! May it be so!

Prayer: God, thank you for giving me all that I need. Help me to ward off wandering from your ways and following what is popular. Amen. 

Song: “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace”

Steadfast

 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4)

The prophets of the Old Testament were people of conviction, passion, and steadfastness. They saw the wrong that was being done. They heard the voice of God proclaiming the message of warning or hope and asking them to be that voice. It was a treacherous assignment. Often they felt the ridicule, the anger, and the repercussions of those who opposed them, feared them, or hated their negativity. St. Paul was willing to go to prison for his faith.

Today we are on the Oregon Coast. We stopped in at one of our favorite lodges to inquire about a reservation for this coming summer. Heather, who has worked here for decades, spoke about the anger and rudeness of some of their guests who want the impossible. She said she had never experienced such animosity in all the time she has worked here. She spoke of her need to be strong and patient.

We stopped at a favorite park along the coast and looked out at the roaring ocean fueled with the fury of the high winds. In front of us was this tree—solid, worn, and beautiful. It has withstood the intense winds, the pounding surfs,  and human efforts to mar its trunk.

As I thought about, experienced, and saw these events and images today, I reflected on what it means to be a Christian. This was my conclusion: We are called to be the spokesperson for God when our family or neighborhood or nation are going down destructive paths—to show them the dangers ahead and give them guidance to correct their course. We are to be people who respect others, who do not take our anxieties out on others, or become defeated when we seem to be the blunt of another person’s nastiness. And, we are to be solid in our trust in God when our life seems to be falling apart, to stand firm when our faith is threatened, and strong when the storms of fear and anxiety rage against us.

May you look to God who never leaves you. Find your strength and hope in God and allow God’s Spirit to work through you to bring peace and hope to others.