The Lutheran Review

St. Andrew, Apostle

 

 

Since Andrew’s day falls on November 30 right at the beginning of Advent, he often receives short shrift. This year, 2011, his day falls on the first midweek Advent service. I suspect most pastors, including me, won’t take much notice of him today. We are most likely to hear of him in connection with the British Open when it is held at St. Andrews golf course.

Originally he was a disciple of John the Baptist. One day John was standing with two of his disciples when Jesus walked by. Jesus said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples of John followed Jesus. One of them was named Andrew. He immediately went out and found his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus.

 

When Jesus was confronted with five thousand hungry people, it was Andrew who knew of a boy who had five loaves and two fish, though he wondered how far they would go in feeding so many. Later when some Greeks wanted to see Jesus, Andrew along with Philip, told Jesus.

Early church historian Eusebius quotes Origin (c.200) that Andrew preached in Asia Minor (Turkey) along the Black Sea as far as Volga and Kiev. He was martyred by crucifixion in western Greece. In the Middle Ages a tradition arose that he was crucified on an X shaped cross. He is held in special honor in Scotland, Greece, and Russia.

Prayer for Andrews Day

Almighty God, by Your grace the apostle Andrew obeyed the call of Your Son to be a disciple. Grant us also to follow the same Lord Jesus Christ in heart and life, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Advent Solitude and Exuberance

 

Yesterday I did what we preachers really don’t want our parishioners doing.  My classmate Dick Thur had the service and I took the day off, I stayed home.  My pew was the couch.  I read Henri Nouwen’s meditations on Advent that Creative Communication collected into a devotional booklet.  Nouwen called us to BE ALERT.  He urges us to be alert to the sign’s of God’s continual coming.  He calls us to listen carefully with the Spirit to the sounds of the New Earth that are manifesting themselves in the midst of the old.

I also read a Latin Advent hymn from the 8^th Century.  From my pew couch I contemplated one translated verse in particular.

Come, Sun and savior, to embrace

Our gloomy world, its weary race.

As groom to bride, as bride to groom;

The wedding chamber, Mary’s womb.

As the sunlight lessens day by day in Advent and the days are often cloudy grey we prepare for the coming of the Son.  God wedded himself to us, his bride.  We humans were made the bride of Christ in the chamber of Mary’s womb, from that chapel our Savior emerged.

In the afternoon I intermittently watched a show on NBC featuring the Mannheim Steamroller accompanying skaters as they skated to Christmas music.  I had some trouble getting in it.  I also wondered if it was appropriate.  So I switched back and forth between football games and the ice show.  But I tuned back in for the finale, in which Mannheim Steamroller played Joy to the World while all the skaters skated in an exuberant display of figures and spins.  Then I thought of Psalm 98 upon which the carol is based.  “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!  His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.”

Some exuberance was a good balance for solitude.

Side bar:

The Roman Catholic introduced a new translation of the liturgy for the faithful.  Actually it is a new translation that tries to recapture the Latin.  I had asked Becky’s cousin to let me know how it went.   Steve emailed last night that outside of the usual problems of the brain reflexively speaking the old words it went well.  He said that actually there weren’t that many changes and they had “cheat sheets” to help them.        

Advent Prayers

 

The Prayers of the Day for Advent remind me of Christmas cookies.  While growing up on the farm the days and weeks following Thanksgiving involved stirring up flour, sugar, brown sugar, shortening, butter or lard, eggs, spices, honey, molasses, peanut butter, oatmeal, milk, baking powder and soda.  All of the cookies involved a good deal of beating and stirring before the dough was dropped or cut into forms and put in the oven.  Making Christmas cookies from scratch required some arm strength.

“Stir up Your power, O Lord and come,” begins the prayer for the first Sunday in Advent.  The beginning of the prayer certainly fits in with the start of one of my favorite texts from Isaiah, 64:1, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”  Can’t you just picture God ripping open the fabric of the sky and descending?  We only see that sort of thing in super hero movies.  A super hero God is what the Isaiah thinks he and the people need.  “Rend the heavens and come down that the mountains might quake at your presence…to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!”

The problem is that God is angry because his people have continued in their sins a long time.  The troubles are not only from the side of the people, but also on the side of God who has hid his face from them.

God did indeed tear open the fabric of heaven and come down to save his people from their sins.  But how does he come?  In the first gospel lesson (Mark 11:1-10) our super hero God comes riding on a donkey.  Of course we know what happened to him by the end of the week, crucified, dead and buried.

The alternative Gospel lesson (Mark 13:24-37) God does come with power and glory.  His angels will gather his chosen people from the four corners of the earth and the ends of heaven. 

When will this happen?  Nobody knows, not even the angels nor Jesus Himself, so Jesus and the angels must be on their toes at all times, and so must we.  To that end we pray,

“Stir up your power, O Lord, and come, that by your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”

         

Thank God for People, Places and Things

Thanksgiving, 2011

Colossians 1: 3-12, Thanks for People

Joe Holleman writes his “Life Sherpa” column for the Sunday Post Dispatch.  Last week, someone wrote, “We are recently married and are hosting Thanksgiving for the clan…What are the must –haves and have-nots of the table?”

“Dear wedded,” wrote the Life Sherpa, “It’s a simple list, and the best part is that no special shopping or preparations are required.  Have – nots: Anger, resentment.  Haves: The people you love.”

Where do we begin when we give thanks?  Paul tells us we begin with God.    Not just any God, but the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  This is our God to whom all thanksgiving is directed, the Father of our creation; the Father of our salvation; the Father who assigned his own son, our Lord Jesus Christ to the cross; the Father who raised his son from the dead; the Father who will one day send his son again to his own to bring with him into the presence of the Father.

“Always,” writes Paul.  “Always?  Isn’t there even a tiny slice of time for complaining?”  “Nope, “You’ve got too much to be thankful for to waste your energy and effort on complaining.   Remember Jesus’ cross and his resurrection.  If you should ever find yourself neglectful and indifferent in regard to God’s blessings, the cross and resurrection covers your neglect and indifference too.”

 “Always,” also points to people.  Always thank God, whenever you pray for fellow believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.  There are three reasons for praying in thanksgiving for fellow Christians.  One is their faith in Christ Jesus.  Faith is the number one necessary mark of a Christian, without faith there is no Christian and no church.  Without faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we have no reason to be here this morning.  The second mark of a Christian is love for all the saints.  You see what Paul is doing here?  If we only had to deal with our faults, failings and foibles, well, we deal with people like that every day, ourselves included.

But Paul calls them “saints.”   I can readily see the faults, failings and foibles, but sainthood is a little harder to ferret out.  That’s why Paul prayed for the saints that we might have endurance and patience, with joy, “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

What better way to spend thanksgiving morning and the rest of the day than with the one “must have” that Joe Holleman lists, “The people you love.”

 

 

Genesis 28:10-19 Thanks for Places

            There was a father who, if he believed in God at all, allowed that God might be somewhere out there, but nowhere near here.  He had a daughter.  And above her bed he posted a confession of unfaith.  It simply read, “God is nowhere.”  In the course of her growing up she met a Christian family.  They invited her to VBS.  They received permission to take her to Sunday school and worship.  What could it hurt, reasoned father?  All the while the confession of unfaith remained posted over her bed.  One day, she invited her father into her room.  She had taken a marker and drew a line between the “W” and the “H”.  She turned the confession of unfaith into a confession of faith.  Now the sign read, “God is now here.”

A small sign in a yard in Collinsville, reads, “In 1763 nothing happened here.”  Jacob, in our lesson was caught at the end of a day in a nowhere place.   In that nowhere place where there was no one to offer him the hospitality of shelter, a meal and a bed, he beds down with a rock as a pillow.  In a dream, a stairway to heaven is filled with ascending and descending angels.  The Lord stood over him, introduced himself telling him, “I am with you, and will bring you back to this place.”  Upon waking Jacob realizes that a no where place has become a place where God is now here.

There is now nowhere where God is not.  Isaiah preaches, “Now says the Lord, he who created you O Jacob, Fear not, I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”  We have passed through the waters, the waters of baptism, in which God made his place that he might find a place in you.  Thus even though we pass through troubled waters “they shall not overwhelm you, promises the Lord.”  Where can we go where God is not?  For our God even went to the cross in His son our Lord Jesus Christ.  God went to the grave in the body of Jesus.  The Psalmist catches the breadth and depth of God’s presence, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”

Are we always aware that God is in whatever place we are?  Our homes, living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens.  Speaking to our children, our wives, our husbands, our neighbors and co workers.  When we are working or playing.  Whether we are in the place of our youth, adulthood, middle age, or a seasoned adult, God is in that placed too.  As Jesus told his disciples, “Behold I am with you til the end of the age.     God is not nowhere, God is now here.

Matthew 6:25-33, Thank God for Things

When I read this text, the voice of Julie Andrews popped into my head.  “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens; bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens; brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things.”

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount does not disparage things; he says not to be anxious about them. It would be the height of hypocrisy to disparage things.  While I wrote this yesterday, Becky was cooking the turkey, had been to the store to buy a long list of our favorite Thanksgiving things.  When we get home today, we are going to eat those things.  I plan to watch the Packers on a TV thing, and hope the Packers can put that football thing into the end zone more often than the Detroit Lions do.

It was God who first made things.  We confess in the creed, “I believe in God, the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth.”  Martin Luther enlarges on that article of faith.  “God has made ME and all creatures…He also gives ME clothing and shoes, food and drink…He defends ME against all danger and guards and protect ME from all evil.  He does this only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.”   It doesn’t matter whether I deserve those things or not.  All God wants in return is the sacrifice of thanksgiving, praise and a life of service and obedience.

Ah, but that is where we hit a slippery spot.  Our sacrifices of thanksgiving seem to be always mixed with some anxiety, our praise raised with a bit of hesitancy, our service and obedience clouded with worry about, who will serve me?

But it is God who took on the thing he first created, a human body, and in the person of Jesus walked in and lived among the things of this world.  Jesus brought with him the kingdom of God and the gift of his righteous life.  He gave up his greatest thing, his body into death.  And bought us back from our death His holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death.  It was upon a thing, a wooden cross that he redeemed us. Now kingdom of God, the gift of his righteous life, his bodily death – these are a few of my favorite things.

My heavenly father knows we need things like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string.  Today, we offer our sacrifice of thanksgiving for all of our favorite things.

   

 

 

 

  

 

 

        

     

 

 

Blame the Christmas Cactus fault

 

Not long after I brought the Christmas cactus in it started to bud and this last week burst into full blossom.  I took that as a sign that Christmas was just around the corner.

I was puttering around outside on Friday when I walked in the garage and saw the box of outdoor Christmas lights.  The day was warm and the sun shone between fluffy clouds.  Why not put the lights up along the back fence?  I don’t clamber along the roof anymore.  It was off to Home Depot to find some means to attach the lights.  I found what I thought would work and proceeded to the check out.  As I felt in my back pants pocket I discovered that I had left my billfolds at home.  I waved off the cashier and told her I would have to get my billfolds.  “No problem,” she said, “Your stuff will be right here.”

Soon I returned with the necessary means of purchase and was on my way home.  And in an hour or so the top of the back fence was lined with blue bulbs.  I intended to wait until Thanksgiving evening to turn them on, but I couldn’t resist showing Becky last night.

She was home for awhile this morning and decided it was time to decorate for Christmas.  Soon our sunroom was turned into a Christmas room.  We put our large outdoor figures of the holy family on a table with the Christmas cactus.  We pulled our “Christmas tree” with the little whatchmacallit lights at the end “needles” out of it box and set it up.  Out came the Christmas Village.  Several lights needed to be replaced.  And finally a few of the manger sets.

The  petunias still bloom in the outdoor pots.

Have we jumped the gun?  I’m blaming the Christmas cactus.      

Seeing Jesus

Christ the King, Immanuel Chapel, 2011, Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew 25:40, “The King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

            Controversy has risen over a T shirt being worn by some fans of Denver Bronco quarterback Tim Tebow.  Above the number 15 they have replaced Tebow’s name with “Jesus.”   The T – shirt raises a couple of questions.  Where do we see Jesus today?  How will Jesus recognize his own when He returns as King?  I submit that we should all wear T shirts with “Jesus” printed on the back to remind ourselves whose we are and who we really are, little Christ’s.  Furthermore, we should carry a bunch of Jesus T shirts with us so that when we come upon someone in need we put the shirt on them to remind ourselves of who the person in need really is.  Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

            Jesus is the royal descendant of David, born in Bethlehem where the maternity ward was a stable and his crib a manger.  Jesus, hosannaed on Palm Sunday as the blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord, was enthroned on Friday on a cross, with the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.”  From the throne of the cross he issued his royal edict of forgiveness and proclaimed, “It is finished.”  Upon his resurrection from the dead the Father gave him all authority on earth and in heaven.  He is waiting for that day when the Father will declare that time has run its course – history is completed.   At that time, King Jesus will reveal our inheritance of a life in the presence of God which has been prepared from before the beginning of time.

            But how is Christ to recognize us?  He will be looking for people who have a likeness to himself. The Bible, both the Old and New Testament, are an unremitting witness to the character of Jesus subjects.  Listen to this:  “if you feed the hungry from your own plenty and satisfy the needs of the wretched, then your light will rise like dawn out of darkness…I command you to be open-handed with your countrymen, both poor and distressed…Happy the person who has concern for the helpless.  He who despises a hungry man does wrong, but he who is generous to the poor is happy.  When you give a party, ask the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and so find happiness…for they have no means of repaying.” St. Paul wrote, “They (Macedonians) begged us to be allowed to share in this generous service to their fellow Christians.  And their giving surpassed our expectations; for they gave of themselves…for God loves a cheerful giver.”  In Proverbs we read, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.”

            To know King Jesus is to become like him, but to become like him begins in Him.  Long before the righteous give, they receive from His mercy and are blessed by His serving.  We the righteous know what it is to be hungry and thirsty, if not physically, then in the dryness and death and guilt of our hearts.  But it was He who came to feed us with His Word and give us an eternal drink.

            We were the strangers, outsiders and sinners, with no one to gather us, until he came.  We were the sick, possessed by demons, we did not even know or dream of, until He came to drive them out and cleanse us.  We were bound in our prison under the impossible demand to prove our worth, and preserve a show of rightness –until he came to loose us and set us free to know and serve him.  We were the least and yet he called us His brothers and sisters, brought us into His family with baptism and blessed us as heirs of His kingdom.

            He became what we were.  He came to his own and they regarded him as a stranger.  He lived on earth as one who had no home.  He was hungry and refused to turn rocks to bread for his own satisfaction.  He was arrested and unjustly put on trial and condemned so that we would not have to be justly condemned.  He was the outsider as he hung on the cross.  He thirsted.  He was naked.  And all fled him, even God, so that we would have our hunger and thirst for righteousness filled and quenched- our sins covered.

            The words of welcome to the sheep at the last judgment are outrageously generous.  Poor battered sheep who in truth acted more like goats much of the time are welcomed as conquering heroes.  They are welcome because they bear the mark of the shepherd; they too sought his sheep.  Oh, they wandered off the trail too, and fed in some strange pastures, and only the great shepherd could recognize them.  They’ll be a fairly mangy lot, not much glamour or many obvious marks of success.  But that’s the way their life has been, through shadowy valleys and dangerous trails and long stretches of very dull, unexciting pasture.  But they followed the shepherd through it all, hardly suspecting that that was the test.

            Where do we see Jesus today?  When I was a pastor in Collinsville, I made calls on members in St. Elizabeth Hospitals, in Granite City and Belleville.  They were named after Elizabeth of Hungary, born in 1207 to King Andrew and his wife. At age 14 she was given into an arranged political marriage.  She had a spirit of generosity and charity, and the home she established for her husband and three children in Wartburg castle was known for its hospitality and family love.  She often supervised the care of the sick and needy and at one time gave up her bed to a leper.  Widowed at age 20 she provided for her children and entered into the austere life as a nun in the Order of St. Francis.  Her self-denial led to failing health and she died at age twenty-four.  Yet she is one who could have worn a T-shirt with Jesus on the back.  She could have handed out similar T-shirts to all the sick and needy she helped.  Thus she was Jesus who viewed the needy as Jesus.

            The theme for our ministry at Immanuel is, “Providing God’s house as a home.”  People in our community have needs of many kinds, employment, and education in the English language, tutoring in school, a church home where they can learn of Christ and worship, a place where they can find welcome acceptance.  To that end we have been involved in Partnership in Ministry the past months, not just to save our building, but that we might use our facilities as a place of welcome and a launching pad to go out and serve those in need.  Then we too may hear Jesus say to us, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”     

 

Elizabeth of Hungary

Elizabeth

When I was a pastor in Collinsville, IL, there were two hospitals in the area named St. Elizabeth. They were named after the Elizabeth we are remembering today.

Elizabeth, the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, was born in 1207. At the age of 14 she was married to the Landgrave of Thuringia in central Germany. The family lived in Wartburg Castle near Eisenach. (Wartburg Castle is where, in 1521, Martin Luther was taken for his protection after the Diet of Worms) Elizabeth gave away large sums of money, including her dowry, for relief of the poor and sick. She founded hospitals, cared for orphans and used the royal food supplies to feed the hungry. Nevertheless, she was not popular within the royal court. When her husband died of the plague in 1227, she was driven out. After she saw to it that her children were provided for, she joined the order of St. Francis on Good Friday 1228.

She was treated ruthlessly by her confessor, living in extreme austerity. She died on November 27, 1231 at the age of 24. Because of her life of generosity many hospitals are named after her.

Elizabeth is a pattern for us as we hear the gospel for next Sunday, Matthew 25: 31-46. Jesus comes in all his glory to judge the world. To those who have been blessed by the Father through Jesus death and resurrection, Christ the King says, “I was hungry and you gave me food…I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

The Treasury of Daily Prayer offers the following:

Mighty King, whose inheritance is not of this world, inspire in us the humility and the benevolent charity of Elizabeth of Hungary. She scorned her bejeweled crown with thoughts of the thorned one her Savior donned for her sake and ours, that we, too might live a life of sacrifice, pleasing in Your Sight and worthy of the name of Your Son, Christ Jesus, who with the Holy Spirit reigns with You forever in the everlasting kingdom.

　

No Naughty Words

No Naughty Words

The Sugar Plum Fairy got fired recently for cursing.  For the past six years, Laura Coppinger, 29, has played the Sugar Plum Fairy in the St. Charles, Mo. Christmas Traditions festival.  She went to take a drug test mandated for all city employees.  However, out of habit she flushed the toilet.  That’s a no, no.  So she had to wait for her kidneys and bladder to do their job.  Being 29 rather than 69 meant she had to wait quite awhile.  While she waited she was missing a job interview.  It was during this time that she cursed.  She learned that St. Charles takes their no naughty words clause for Christmas Traditions festival characters seriously.

Now understand she cursed on her own time, not while playing the Sugar Plum Fairy.  Of course, cursing is cursing.  All cursing, if it really is cursing, is taking the name of the Lord in vain.

Questions and observations come to mind.  What does the Sugar Plum Fairy have to do with Christmas anyway?  Whatever, happened to the Christmas Tradition of the angel’s announcement, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOR who is Christ the Lord?”  Who of us have not called God to damn one thing or another?  I’m glad the city fathers of St. Charles aren’t God.  No one would be able to stand.  She said she tried to apologize, but the city told her it was too late. Psalm 130:4 doesn’t seem to have entered the picture, “But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.  Would not offering the foolishness of forgiveness be better than the just plain foolishness of the city?

On the level of civil righteousness it seems that things will be worked out.  Mike Swart has started a facebook page.  He is organizing the Hunger is a Naughty Word Food Drive to collect sweets and traditional food pantry fare.  Some of the business owners may hire her under a private contract to work the month long festival.

Said Coppinger, “I think it’s lovely, absolutely wonderful that something good is coming out of this after all.”  What else is lovely, absolutely wonderful and good, is our SAVIOR, Christ the Lord.   

  

       

Children of Light

Pentecost 22, 2011, Immanuel Chapel, I Thess. 5:1-11

            Mr. Harold Camping, president of California’s Family Radio, predicted that on May21, 2011 three million people would be saved, the rest would perish.  When that did not happen (though a “spiritual salvation” was alleged to have occurred) the end of the world was recalculated for October 21, 2011.  When that didn’t occur Mr. Camping conceded that only God knows when the end will come.  A news reader on Channel 2 commented, “Maybe that is where he should have started.”

 Jesus concludes our gospel lesson, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  Since any calculations on our part are futile, its one less thing to worry about.  Jesus simply wants us to be ready.  There is an ad on TV from Ready.Gov.  The wife is in the foreground working on a rose bush, while a tornado is stirring in the background.  She quizzes her husband about their preparedness for disaster, while he sits reading his paper.  They are both unconcerned.  They are ready.  So for us in Christ, we are ready for his return.  Our preparedness comes not in following ten rules, but by keeping the oil of our faith ever burning until the end of days.  By His Holy Spirit God has already given us, through His word, the fuel of faith in Jesus as our savior.   He keeps replenishing that fuel through his word and his holy actions in Baptism and Holy Communion.

St. Paul also relieves us of speculating about where heaven might be or the condition of those who have died before he returns.  Paul focuses our attention on the bodily resurrection of believers.  It’s all based on our believing that Jesus died and rose again.  God through Jesus will bring with him those who are currently sleeping in death.  Are they conscious of their state or unconscious?  Paul isn’t interested in such speculation either.  He is interested in the order of business on the Day of the Lord.  The first order of business is it the risen Jesus who is returning.  The second order of business is the bodily resurrection of those who have fallen asleep.  The third order of business is that those who are still alive and those who have been resurrected will together meet our resurrected Savior in the air.  In other words, all who trusted in Jesus death and resurrection will be part of a great reenactment of His ascension.  “And so we will always be with the Lord.”   What else is necessary to know?

Therefore we have nothing to worry about.  The creation of the universe was in God’s hands.  The salvation of humanity was handled by the Son of God on the cross. The how, when and what’s of his return and our resurrection is also in God’s hands.  When God decides to shut everything down, or reboot it, it will be abrupt, impossible to clock and unstoppable.  Whenever that happens, for those in Christ, there is not now nor will there be, any condemnation that anyone including God can level against us.   Furthermore, there is nothing in this world or in the heavens which is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Those words change how we view one another.  In another letter Paul urges his readers to look at one another, face to face, one by one. Each one must certainly recognize the other as belonging to Christ.  In Baptism each of us has exchanged the old clothes of sin and death for the garments of holiness in Christ.  Each of us has put on the chest protector of faith in Christ and the love of God.  We have all donned the helmet of hope of our salvation.

In the hope of our salvation we are destined to receive God’s ever present love; not wrath.  Jesus died for us that whether we are awake, that is alive in this world, or asleep in death will live with him.  In that hope of being with Jesus we comfort one another at the time of death and sorrow and build one another up. 

Paul begins this section asking and urging us that since we have been taught how to live in this time and place in order to lead God pleasing lives, that we do so more and more.       

How, then, shall we live in the light of our salvation and Jesus Second Coming?  The best way to live is to make the most of Jesus First Coming; to make his first coming as influential in our lives and in the lives of others as possible. To practice living our ordinary lives in the light of our eternal life.  In May 1789 in Connecticut at noonday the sky suddenly darkened.  People were terrified.  The state legislature was in session, and some members believed that the Second Coming was at hand.  One made a motion, “Since this is the Day of the Lord, let us adjourn our business.”

Whereupon, Abraham Davenport rose and said, “Mr. Speaker, either this is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ or it isn’t.  If it isn’t we’ve got nothing to be concerned about; and if it is, I prefer to be found doing my regular job in the proper way.  I therefore move the candles be brought.”  The motion was approved.  Candles were brought, and the legislature resumed its business.

We are free to live as members of Christ’s family seeking every opportunity to build one another up.  We are not in the dark.  As Christ’s brothers and sisters we are sons and daughters of light.  If we walk in the light of Jesus that shined into the darkness of our sin and overcame it, then we have fellowship with one another.  Because every other believer is also a brother or sister in God’s family.             

We are free to take risks like the servants in last week’s gospel who invested the talents the master had given them.  For this they were commended.  But the one who lived in fear hid what he had been given in the ground and he was condemned.  We are free to act with reckless adventure in our life in Christ placing our lives at the disposal of the Lord however; he would use us however he would choose.  Our security does not depend on the peace and security that the world seeks, but our peace and security consists in belonging to God.  Success is not found in what we do, but rests on Jesus success in defeating sin and death.

We don’t have all the answers.  Sometimes our witness is garbled.  Therefore, a prayer out of the African-American church is fitting. “Lord, we’re not what we want to be, we’re not what we need to be, we’re not what we’re going to be, but thank God almighty, we’re not what we used to be.” 

   

   

11/11/11

Louie Zamperini was a runner who was on track to be the first to break the four minute miler.  He joined the army air force during WWII and became a bombadier on a B - 24.  On a search mission for another plane, his plane crashed in the Pacific.  He, his close friend Phil who was the Pilot and a third man were the only survivors.  They floated on a life raft for 46 days until they came upon a Japanese occupied island.

The book by the author of Sea Biscuit recounts his life in a series of Japanese war prisons.  I won't tell you how the book turns out, but the excerpt below especially caught my attention.  What parable of Jesus does it remind you of?   

 

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand

p. 286

Spring 1945 B -29’s had been bombing Japan regularly.

The Japanese POW camp in which Louie Zamperini was kept was run by a particularly vicious and brutal sergeant nicknamed “The Bird.”

"Louis lay in the barracks ravenous. His dysentery was increasingly severe and his fevers were growing worse. To get his rations restored, he had to find work he could do on one leg. …he went to the Bird and begged for work. The bird savored his plea. From now on, he said, Louie would be responsible for the pig in the compound. The job would earn him full rations, but there was a catch: Louis was forbidden to use tools to clean the pig’s sty. He’d have to use his hands.

All his life, Loue had been fastidious about cleanliness, so much so that in college he had kept Listerine in his car’s glove compartment so he could rinse his mouth after kissing girls. Now he was condemned to crawl through the filth of a pig’s sty, picking up feces with his bare hands and cramming handfuls of animal’s feed into his mouth to save himself from starving to death. Of all the violent and vile abuses that bird had inflicted upon Louie, none had horrified and demoralized him as did this. If anything is going to shatter me, Louie thought, this is it. Sickened and starving, his will a fraying wire, Louie had only faint hope of the war’s end, and rescue, to keep him going.