Identity

by | Aug 18, 2018 | Pastor's Blog, Uncategorized

Identity. Person fixed to occupation. What when the occupation is taken from the person, or the person leaves the occupation? Does the person cease to exist? If I am what I do, and I don’t do, then does this mean I am not?
Relationship defines us, not occupation. Family is a life history of relationship. Sometimes sweet, sometime not so sweet, but it endures. Take a look at the obituaries. They include occupation, but they are rich in relationship.
What of more than the self? The whole person, the soul. Is this occupation? No, it is relationship. Relationship with church people? Maybe. This can be sweet, but sometimes not so sweet. How about a step deeper?
Relationship with God. With Jesus. With the Lord. With the one who calls us into being and graces us with life, even eternal life. BY what means? Grace. God’s grace. Poured out upon us in the waters of baptism. As Luther reminds us, it’s not only the water, but the water with the word.
And the word is a blessing. “You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.
There. That settles it. Your identity is absolutely rooted in the one who created you, who sustains you, who will love you for all time and beyond all time!
Now, go to work. Go to your occupation, go to your family, and go to your pastime. But don’t go empty. Go as the creature of God’s creation. Claimed, named, saved and blessed.

Pen of the Pastor

by | Aug 2, 2018 | Pastor's Word, Uncategorized

Hello. This is my penultimate newsletter article.
OK, you wonder what that word means? “Penultimate”? It is the next to last. Merriam Webster says this; The word ultimate itself comes from the Latin word for “last, final, or farthest.” The pen- part of penultimate is simply the Latin prefix that means “almost,” so the word literally means “almost last.” So the last newsletter article from me to you is September. It is the ultimate one (better be a good one!). The August newsletter article is next to the last. It is the penultimate one. It doesn’t mean this is article is one notch poorer than the last one, it just means this is next to the last one.
So, what does that mean? It means things are shutting down. Hmmm. Things are shutting down. That doesn’t sound particularly energizing. It sounds a little sad. We don’t like it when thing are shutting down. We like it when things are accelerating, “revving up” and moving forward.
We don’t like decrease in income. We certainly don’t like decrease in health! We don’t like the end of things. We like hope, optimism, and continuous growth. Our trouble is with reality. What we like, may not happen. What we don’t like, may well happen.
What shall we do? I think we need to get religion. To put it another way, I think we need to attach ourselves to something more permanent than the experience of “things are shutting down”. St. Paul says it well in Romans chapter 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Paul is talking about decrease and loss, and Paul welcomes it. Paul welcomes the decrease of death because it results in a glorious increase and gain. God takes death and makes life from it. A very good thing for us to bear in mind when we suffer our various losses and decreases. In our every experience of decrease and loss, we might wonder, and pray, what will God make out of this?
Paul ways it well again in his letter to the Romans. For I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do… Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Grace of God does not abandon us to loss and evil, but rescues us to a life of Christ. God is in action again, rescuing us from the loss of death to be blessed. This is the ultimate of God for you and for me. Rescue. Life. Right now we know these gifts of God are coming our way. Our present experience is penultimate to God’s ultimate. The ultimate is grace and this grace is coming to you.
‘Till’ next month,
Pastor Tom

August Blog ~ Fire

by | Jul 30, 2018 | Pastor's Blog, Uncategorized

Fire.  The Carr fire.  The Ferguson fire.  The Whaleback fire.  The Mendocino Complex fire. Were that not enough, there are more fires in Southern California.  And there are fires here in Nevada. When I look out my window, I cannot see the mountains anymore.  I see smoke. I breathe smoke. I am uneasy and a bit afraid. How can we be saved from fire?

I use fire; so do you.  I have a barbecue on my porch that I put fire in.  I have a vehicle; probably so do you. The engine runs on combustion caused by explosive fires that cause pistons to move.  In many ways fire is our servant.  We cannot do without it. Fire is both a threat and a servant.   It may help us or harm us.  How must we treat fire?

We must understand ourselves in relation to the power of fire.  We must know our vulnerability!  As we see video of the fires now burning we see the danger.  We must be full aware of that danger and not dismiss it.  We must be humble before the force of fire.  At the same time we must know that fire is our servant.   We are full aware of the threat that fire can cause and therefore we treat fire with enormous respect.

There is a common theme in this discussion.  Not a theme of fire, but a theme of persons.  The common theme is, as Socrates once said, “know thyself.”   We know ourselves as creatures and not as powerful gods.  Fire reminds us of who we are.  We know ourselves to be servants.  As servants we seek to use fire for our benefit.  Fire reminds us of who we are.

Fire reminds us of who we are not!  We are not invincible.  We are not all-powerful.  We are subject to weakness and pride.  These are the attitudes beg us to undertake a religious attitude.  We are people of need.

God comes to people need with God’s grace of forgiveness and love.  When we receive these gifts we admit who we are.  When we know ourselves to be the creatures of God’s creation, we accept proper responsibility as God intends. We live in the presence of God who creates us, who saves us, who remains with us, and we can do what we must, we can live with fire that can help or harm.

Pastor’s June Word

by | Jul 21, 2018 | Pastor's Word, Uncategorized

I am surprised at the process of letting go. As I approach retirement, I have to do a few things. Clean up my office. Reorganize my files. Distribute some books. Each one of these sounds like it falls in the category of housecleaning, but that is the surprise.

I don’t like letting go of things. Maybe some old files, some old projects, but probably not the books. Even if I have little chance of using them I still want them. Volumes of Greek dictionaries. Hebrew dictionaries and concordances. Lotsa stuff I’ll never use.

So what’s the grief? Isn’t this a good thing? Why should it be troubling? I think I am missing past unfinished things. I have to admit, now I won’t improve my biblical language skills. I hate to let that go. I won’t spend time studying Luther’s Works. This is too much work for my energy. I hate to let that hope go.
What is there to do about this? How can I let go? I think I let go better when I put down what I am doing to reach out for a new thing. I mean, exchange the past for the future. This is really a faith thing. I need to trust in the future.

All of us have a support for doing this, for trusting in the future. We even say it out loud to one another. Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. There is the future! Not on a calendar but in a person. The person is our Lord, who owns the future and brings it to us! Our grieving over the past is replaced by joyful anticipation of the future.
There. I feel better. But I still need to go through a batch of books.

Pastor Tom