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The Work of Christmas

wvanarsdall — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:17:15 +0000

As we begin the new year, I would like to share a Christmas Prayer written by the famous 20th century African-American civil rights leader and theologian, Howard Thurman.

The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flock,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among others,
to make music in the heart.”

Hope

wvanarsdall — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:46:57 +0000

My prayer for us this Christmas season and beyond is to believe that Jesus has come to work real change and do real things, not just be a babe in a manger but to be a force in our lives.

The biggest and best Christmas present of all is given and it comes with something of a warning label for us. God is good, God is love, but don’t ever think that God is safe. This Jesus who breaks into the history of the world does so with a mission and that mission is to totally transform and change our lives. For sinners in a bind that is good news, but for the comfortable people who are getting ready to settle in for a week of bowl games in front of their new LCD flat screen hi-definition TV, it might be a little hazardous. Jesus Christ has come to transform the things we think are valuable, the goals of our life, the things we believe are most important. The world may well think we are odd if we listen to Jesus. Our heart might just be softened to the plight of a needy soul or we may be transformed in the way we treat others. Are we ready for that? Jesus has come, Jesus has a mission. Jesus will not be deterred but will keep coming to us.

But there is good news in this too. The mission is for us. Jesus will purify us for heaven and give us a joy which does not fade like the gifts that are lying under our tree. He comes to make us zealous for good to make us fit for heaven, to open our eyes to really see and to wait with an eager expectation for the day of his revelation. This child is not at all safe for us.

May we all wait in hope for that which we can not see. Peace to each of you.

Fear Not, My Child

Wayne Moore — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:26:18 +0000

Matthew 28:10 – Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Don’t be afraid. Jesus wants to take away our fear because fear gets in the way of our joy and our mission as his resurrection people. We know that simply telling folks does not take away fear. But then again Jesus once told the wind and waves to be quiet. He once told Peter to feed a multitude with a few fish and loaves of bread, he once told a blind man to open his eyes and see, he told the demons to leave, well….you are getting the point. When Jesus says something it is not like when you and I say something. Jesus’ words have a power which creates the very thing they describe or proscribe. Jesus takes their fear away.

That Jesus, risen from the dead, would also take your fear away. My 96 year old mother is not afraid as she bravely faces death. She lives her resurrection faith with courage.

Think of the persecuted Christians who have endured terrible things because they heard this same Jesus call them and assure them that theirs was a crown of righteousness.

This Eastertide Jesus takes your fear away as well. He is risen from the dead and your death is undone. He is risen from the dead to care for you. He is risen from the dead, your sad and fearful duty is no longer necessary. It is a day to rejoice!

Sabbatical – Rest, Renewal, Revival

Wayne Moore — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:45:23 +0000

As I begin my eighth year of ministry at First Lutheran Church (FLC), I realize the need to plan for a sabbatical in the year of 2011. It is time for renewal for the congregation and myself.

The term “sabbatical” comes from the Hebrew word, “Sabbath”, which means a day or period of rest. In Mosaic law, the “Sabbatical Year” became the “seventh year” a “fallow” year for all of the land, vineyards and fields. This was a stewardship issue for the Israelites, in which they acknowledged the need for “resting” the land which gave them life. As an additional sign of God’s love and mercy, the “sabbatical year” was a time to release all debtors from their debts. Today a “sabbatical leave” is a time for rest, reflection and concentrated study. For pastors it is a time to deepen their faith practices, to rest, to have a break from the daily routine and to strengthen their ministry skills. At the end of the sabbatical the pastor continues in his/her position for an extended period with a sense of renewal and renewed energy for ministry.

A sabbatical not only provides an opportunity for me to have some much needed time for rest, spiritual growth, and reflection, but this is also an occasion for FLC to reflect upon mission and to consider ways to strengthen and improve our ministry together. A sabbatical period can be a first step in a strategic planning process that can take our partnership together in the Gospel to a new level.

Sometimes there is a certain amount of fear connected with “letting go” of a pastor for a period of several weeks. It is believed, however, that sabbaticals are ultimately about not just rest but also trust–trust that the Lord truly will provide when we let go.

Please pray along with me as I begin inviting others from FLC to join me in the planning process. The purpose for my sabbatical will be that of refining and updating professional skills and refreshing my spiritual life. FLC will benefit as a congregation as you are led to reflect upon what God is calling the church to do in relation to sharing the Gospel with others more fully.

Finding the Joy in Suffering

Wayne Moore — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:38:35 +0000

The readings this week will focus our attention on pride and humility. Jesus will rebuff us in the very areas which we often take our greatest pride: Our families and our ability to control and predict nature.

Jeremiah’s message will revolve around the pride which seems to afflict every age: The idea that of us choosing which message to hear and obey, as if God’s Word was some great multiple choice test. Such an approach to the Word renders us the decision maker and effectively puts us into the divine driver’s seat.

The writer to the Hebrews catalogues the saints of old reminding us that they were harassed and beaten, martyred and stomped on. Yet the world was not worthy of them. This is our example, not one of winning in the eyes of the world but of being a pitiable loser – our hero is, on this side of the grave, a carpenter nailed to a cross and buried in a borrowed tomb.

The gospel will be found in the fact that we have good company when it comes to humiliation and losing. Jesus mastered that on a cross when he underwent its torture and scorn, for the joy, and we are the beneficiaries of that cross. The rub here is that as beneficiaries we cannot say that we are above it. In fact, our lives will be conformed to it. The Christian way is not one of easy chairs and comfort, but one in which we participate in the suffering of the world, sometimes to a frightening degree. The good thing is that when lying flat on one’s back, the view is always up.

Forgiveness

Wayne Moore — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:35:53 +0000

The initial Sundays after Pentecost draw our attention to the very basics of our faith. Last Sunday’s readings focused us on the person of Christ and his power over death. Only God has that sort of power because God is not subject to death. But when the Lord of Life spoke, death also had to obey and render up its captives. God did it in the Old Testament and in the New, but in the New he bore the name Jesus.

Today we again come to one of those basic truths that Christians confess. Jesus is the answer to the problems that often trouble us the most, the real problems we have with other people and they have with us. Jesus forgives sins. Last week we saw him looking compassionately on the plight of the poor widows. This week, the focus is on the broken relationships which afflict every life.

This is where we explore the very nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness is much misunderstood and yet strangely fascinating for the larger culture. When someone wrongs us, we have a number of non-forgiving options before us. Responses generally fall under a handful of broad categories.

1. Revenge – I can get even

2. Rise above it – I can be tough

3. Sit on it - I can bear a grudge

4. Delay action – I can gunny sack it

5. Put myself in their shoes – I can understand it

It appears that understanding it the best option of all of these. But there are times when understanding fails us. So there must be another way.

When we forgive according to the love of Jesus Christ, we are saying no to options 1-5. I don’t need to understand it, I won’t try to get even, I won’t bear a grudge, I am not tough, and I am not going to carry this around for a while.

We are saying that there was a wrong committed but that does not give anyone a right to get even, etc.. Forgiveness is not weak, nor is it a milquetoast response. Until the other is ready to admit that the deed was actually wrong, then our forgiveness cannot really be received. This is pretty important. Sometimes the offending party can not or will not repent.

But we can forgive, be forgiven and live in resurrection faith. We can say that this sin, this wrong, this hurt, was dealt with on a cross by Jesus’ death nearly two millennia ago. When confronted by the hurt, we can say Jesus died for that.

Then we can promise to always see that hurt red with his blood. Please know that God never commands us to forgive and forget. That phrase is actually native to Shakespeare, not the Bible. We learn to forgive and try not to repeat the wrong. What is really important is that Jesus forgives and in the forgiveness empowers our own forgiveness as the body of Christ.

Trinity

Wayne Moore — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:10:00 +0000

For many years the Trinity was an obscure field of study which only strange academic sorts actually cared about. All this has changed in the recent decades. There has been a revival of interest in the doctrine of the Trinity and its history. What was once an arcane theological subject, has for a variety of reasons come to be a “hot” topic. Some of them are seeking rationalistic explanations and are well on their way to Unitarianism or some other form of ancient heresy. Others, however, are looking for the opportunity to reconnect to the very roots of their Christianity.

This Festival of Holy Trinity is unique in the Church year in that it really celebrates a doctrine, a doctrine that was subscribed to at what can be thought of as the mother of all voters meetings, the councils of Nicea and Constantinople in the years 325 and 381 respectively. Since this is a while ago, perhaps a bit of review is in order.

The Bible had referenced all three members of the Trinity in a number of places, but the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had never really been explicitly stated in Scripture, at least not in a way that everyone could agree to. We know that this was an issue for some in the first centuries of the Church because as early as Tertullian in the late second century and Origen in the 3^rd Century, there are statements about the Trinity. This simmered along for some time. It was not that the Church did not care about such things, but it was making the transition from movement to institution and for several decades in here it was facing brutal persecution by the Roman Empire. Other matters seem to have occupied them, naturally.

But by the time Constantine ascended to the throne, he needed to deal with this. In some large cities the Trinitarian debate was spilling out of the Church into the streets, with various proponents of one or another teaching about Christ’s relationship to the Father nearly rioting. It was because he wanted to solve this problem, giving him a united Church behind him as he stood in the gap against the barbarians, that he called the first council in Nicea.

Everyone was concerned that they maintain continuity with the Old Testament where it was clearly stated that there was only one God (Deut 6:4, Is 40-43, etc) But how did one then account for the Son and the Father? Two Gods was out, but what were they if not a singular One?

The debate continued and building on the word of John some would suggest that Jesus was a human body with a divine soul. Through centuries of debate, the Western church professes One God with Three Persons. All revolves around the cross and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which gives the gift of salvation which we celebrate. On the Feast of the Holy Trinity we say the words of the Nicene Creed because we believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our Lutheran Church is a creedal church which means we regularly join together in professing our faith by using the Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed which helps us to strengthen our faith in the Triune God.

Knowing the Spirit

Wayne Moore — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:28:15 +0000

We have come to this really strange time in the Church year. It is sort of the Advent/Lent of Pentecost. Jesus has ascended; his disciples are left gaping as they stare into the sky, hoping to catch one last glimpse of him. The Spirit has not yet been poured out, at least we would remember that day when that had not yet happened, just as in Advent we remember the time before the birth of Jesus when the children of Israel had to rely upon this promised Messiah.

This is a beneficial thing for Christians to do. The Holy Spirit is a gentle member of the Trinity, always pointing us toward Jesus. As a seminary professor once, said, “The Holy Spirit is shy.” The Holy Spirit prefers to stand behind something or someone. Rarely does the Spirit show up front, lest the Holy Spirit detracts or distract from Jesus.

But the Holy Spirit is so necessary. I like to compare the presence of the Holy Spirit to an extension cord. Without that bit of wire and insulation, my light, my radio, my tools don’t really work. They are functioning just fine, but not empowered. But the Spirit does not make the forgiveness or the life which I need. He brings it to me. It is Jesus who died on the cross, not the Spirit. But without the Spirit, the cross is but a historical event, a truth which happened long ago, in a distant place, for people other than myself. It takes the Spirit to make me into one of the people for whom Jesus died, to connect me to Calvary and the Word which gives life. It is the Spirit who makes my heart sing in praise of Jesus, who plants and tends the relationship we label faith.

This Sunday is about imagining what it might be like without that Spirit, so that next week when we proclaim the feast of Pentecost and read the account of that first outpouring, and the beginning of this thing we call the Church, we are ready to hear it. But we don’t focus on the absence of the Spirit; we grow in the Church which has been empowered by that Spirit. We imagine what it must be like, because we cannot actually go there. The Spirit is poured out, our hearts and minds are enlivened and resurrected by that Spirit in the waters of our Baptism and in the Word and Sacrament which impact our senses. In those moments as Jesus prays, we are made one with God, united with him far more intimately than if Jesus were standing right before us. Indeed, he has come “in us.”

We await these uncomfortable ten days between the fortieth and fiftieth day, when the house was shaken and tongues of flame blazed on the heads of the disciples. But while we imagine the discomfort of those days, we don’t really know them, for the Spirit is given us, fully, beautifully, and completely. We really are citizens of heaven!

Psalm 23

Wayne Moore — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:11:04 +0000

The 23rd Psalm is the most well-known psalm, in which the writer sees himself as being led through life to his ultimate resting place. He is taken by the Lord – who is the shepherd – to green pastures and still water, but he’s also led through dark valleys. The shepherd himself is well equipped to take care of the sheep while on this pilgrimage through life. He restores the soul, his staff comforts, he has a horn of oil to bind up wounds (surely branches and nettles will prick the flesh of the legs of the sheep as they traverse dark and narrow crevices) and he knows the “right paths.” (v.3) The metaphor shifts abruptly in the last two stanzas, and now the sheep has become a pilgrim for whom the Lord has prepared a lavish table even in the very presence of his enemies – not to speak of a final abode where the pilgrim will reside his “whole life long.”
Jesus is somewhat of a tour guide. Have you ever been responsible for a large group of people – adults, children, students – as you traveled to some destination? Talk to some elementary schoolteachers about their experiences herding first-graders on a field trip to a museum or some such place. Your conversations and experiences will give you context for the idea of a shepherd trying to get a flock of sheep from pasture to pond through thick and thin and finally to the fold at the end of the day. What’s the goal of a teacher when she takes 20 children into the city to see the museum? Safety is a primary concern, of course. What does she do to ensure safety? She counting heads every 15 minutes. She’s arranged for a buddy system, too. Learning is another goal. She leads the kids to a place where their minds and souls are nurtured. Sometimes it might be boring, but still, the students can’t help but come away from it with something. Then the dark valleys. She stands in the street while her students cross to the other side. And then at the end of the trip, she prepares a table in the cafeteria in the presence of their “enemies,” i.e., all the adults who, when seeing a group of little kids walking into the café, groan and bemoan their bad luck.
This story and other stories of real life unfold in ways that only God knows the outcome. May we feel anointed with the grace of God as we realize that all blessings do indeed come from our Shepherd. Let us dwell with our Lord and Savior as we follow and encourage others to follow the right path for the sake of God’s world.

You Can Make a Difference

Wayne Moore — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:32:14 +0000

In Acts 16:9-15 we read about another example of “The Kingdom Comes.” The Christian today might be tempted to look about and think that the Christian movement has run its course. But the Christian movement has always been empowered by the Spirit of God and built on the simple changes that God continues to make in lives like Lydia, the seller of purple cloth, who was given the gift of generosity.

Perhaps it is the news of the church scandals or perhaps it is the lethargy than has settled in on many churches, but it seems to be open season on the Church and the Kingdom of God. The Christian may well be discouraged and wondering if this Jesus is still working in this broken down collection of failures, poverty and sinners called the Church.

But let us be reminded that the work of God’s Kingdom is not measured in cathedrals and bank accounts, but in lives touched, blessed, and changed. Nearly everyday I hear from people whose lives have been touched and changed right here in our community because of the love of Christians in our midst who truly care and live the generosity of Lydia.

There are countless communities like ours around the world that are touched by the works of the Church. Generous Christians are changing lives through loving and caring acts inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is not some defense of the institutional church, it is a redirection from the scandals to the real Church of God. Let us turn eyes toward the good which God is doing through us and away from the failures of humankind.

Stories abound at First Lutheran Church and elsewhere in relation to baptisms, shut-in visits, neighbors fed, or a person whose life has simply been blessed because God has worked something good in that life. I hope we are all inspired by Lydia’s example which shows how just one person can make a significant difference in a world so in need.