Pastor’s June Blog

by | Jul 21, 2018 | Pastor's Blog

June’s Blog

Before I made my first visit to my wife’s grandfather I was given guidance to enable a peaceful conversation. “Just don’t say anything about religion or politics.” Well, we had a short conversation about the weather.
Religion and Politics. Why are these volatile subjects? Religion and Politics. Why must we run away from them? Religion and Politics. Is there an underlying concern? Is there a superior value that governs our conversation?
Recently I read an article from the Wall Street Journal. It described how some churches dealt with the topic of Religion and Politics. In some churches, members leave. They are angered. In some churches, membership grows. In those churches people are pleased to enter into conversation.

Hmmm. I wonder if there is a power issue here. The same power issue evidenced by a reply to Religion and Politics. “It’s OK as long as your politics are the same as my politics.” This suggests that the superior value is agreement in politics, which in turn suggest that politics is the more important thing. What shall we do with the first commandment? “You shall have no other gods.”

I wonder if we devalue religious values in deference to political values. What shall we do at Christmas and Easter when we proudly sing of Jesus as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords?”
Or is the issues not Religion nor Politics at all. It is emotion. We just don’t want to get upset. We don’t want to be angered. As the saying goes, “If you can’t say anything nice about a person, don’t say anything at all.” It we substitute the words religion and politics for “person” we can decide to be rather quiet people.
Merriam-Webster offers a definition for “religion.” It is defined in the definition 1b: the service and worship of God or the supernatural. The same dictionary offers a definition for “politics.” It is defined in the definition 5b: the total complex of relations between people living in society.

I hope those who confess they are persons in the service of God would bring that service into the complex of relations between people living in society. And do so gently, gracefully and lovingly. I hope the affections of our religion would redeem our politics.

Immigrants

by | Jul 21, 2018 | Pastor's Blog

Immigrants

My family, probably similar to yours, is a history of immigrants. Not from Guatemala or Mexico, but from northern Europe. Philemon, from Württemberg in 1854. After Napoleonic wars calmed down and there was period of peace in that land. He was an educated person. He was a religious person. He left his native land and journeyed across the ocean with hopes of a better life. He traveled from New Jersey, to Missouri, and then to California by ox cart. Seeking his own kind he located an area of largely German immigrants, Woodland. He was granted citizenship. He was granted a homestead. [Thank you, President Grant]. And a beginning was made, Americans were shaped. A family was founded.
Liv, from county Buskerud in Norway came to this country in 1886. She and her family were at first, farmers. Like others of that time she was anxious to be an American rather than a Norwegian. Another family was born. A family that became farmers, carpenters, and one, a WWI soldier. They shed the old tongue for English. Americans were shaped.
I see in the faces of the new immigrants the old immigrants. My family. I see in the hopes of the immigrants new the hopes of old. I see in the immigrants new the stamina and determination to succeed. I welcome these immigrants to become shaped as Americans.
This is the strength of our country. We are all Immigrants. We must look kindly on refugees. They are who our family ancestors were.
This is the strength of our faith. Our inheritance of faith must include Joseph, Mary and Jesus who fled to Egypt; who were threatened by Herod. Our inheritance of faith must include Israel, who fled Egypt and Pharaoh’s threat. Out inheritance of faith must include Ruth and Naomi who fled from a life of poverty and God surrounded them with promise and hope.
May your religion inform your politics. May America bless God. May we bless all those immigrants!