Blog Archives - St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church

Remember!

11/25/2014

Habakkuk 3:1-16 click here for the reading

Have you heard what God has done? He created the world. Just think about that! The creative genius of God in all the intricate, wonderful parts of his creation. Think about your favorite animal or flower. Think about the spectrum of colors and the systems that make up our body. God’s amazing work!

God has done amazing miracles. Remember those famous moments: a rescue for Noah and his ark, the parting of the Red Sea, little David defeats big Goliath with a sling and a stone, Daniel stands protected from the lions in the den, 5000 are fed with a boy’s lunch, people are healed, lives are transformed.

Have you heard what God has done?

Habakkuk reminds us to remember who God is and what he does.

I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy. Habakkuk 3:1-2

Renewed strength and peace come when our thoughts remember this God who does great things.

God, in the midst of whatever I am facing today, help me remember and trust you.

Marcia Marquardt

A Holy Silence

11/23/2014

Habakkuk 2:2-20 click here for the reading

BUSY! BUSY! BUSY! What are you going to do today? Is your list of things to do greater than your schedule allows? At times, we live our lives at a hectic pace. Full schedules! High demands! Constant activity and noise! It’s hard to hear God speak to us when we are running at full speed.

Sometimes we live our lives with our ears stopped up—our hearts resisting God’s word for us. It’s hard to hear God speak to us when our focus is away from God.

Habakkuk shares a little gem with us in our reading today.

“But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!” Habakkuk 2:20

Take a moment today to create a "holy silence" before God. Turn off the music and TV. Let go of your focus on yourself and the things that have been occupying your thoughts today. Picture Jesus seated right next to you giving his full attention to you. Remember that he loves you no matter what has happened. Remember that he is for you and with you right now. Let his love and acceptance settle over you right now. Let his peace soak your spirit. Give him your full attention.

Jesus, you love me just as I am. In this quiet moment, help me know that you are here for me.

Marcia Marquardt

Keeping Watch

11/21/2014

Habakkuk 1:12-2:1 click here for the reading

I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. Habakkuk 2:1

Picture climbing to the top of a tower. Each step takes effort and energy as you proceed higher. Minutes pass as you make your way to the top. But the effort is worth it! When you get to the top, your view is expanded. Your limited perspective at ground level changes. You turn in all directions and can see the world with a new viewpoint. Things you hadn’t seen before are now visible.

Habakkuk is impatient for God to come and help. All he can see is violence and evil, and cries, ‘How long, O LORD, must I call for help?’

Have you been waiting for God to come and help you? Does he seem distant and unresponsive? Does everything look difficult right now? Habakkuk would understand. How does he handle the waiting? How does he get perspective on the challenges that he faces? He “climbs the tower” to keep watch for God to come.

Take a moment right now to look up to God. You may not be able to see what he is doing for you right now . You may not feel sure that he is really present with you. Habakkuk challenges us to keep hoping and trusting and looking to God to help. Did you see God in the sunshine today? Or in a person’s kindness? Did you see him in an answer to prayer? Or in a mysterious coincidence that happened at just the right time? Hold on and keep looking for God.

God, help me to trust you when things seem dark and the waiting is long. Lift my eyes and heart to watch for you.

Marcia Marquardt

Jeremiah's temple sermon

11/19/2014

Jeremiah 7:1-11 click here for the reading

In Psalm 48, the presence of God in God's temple is seen as a protective shield over Jerusalem that comes across as a feeling of invincibility. This leads to the leaders claiming safety even as chaos and violent threats surround them. Much like this.

God's presence is not a security blanket or a magic wand to ward off danger. Jeremiah speaks loudly to the people about the destruction that is about to occur. Babylon, the new super power, will soon come and take the people out of the land, raid Jerusalem the holy city, and Judah will fall.

Again, the prophet announces a call to justice which is a kingdom goal. That is because the world is filled with injustice. injustice effects all of us. The prophet then addresses our worship practices....that we have made God's house a den of thieves. This theme Jesus picks up on during the passover festival celebration and ultimately gets him killed. He too turned over tables and called out to God's people for their hearts to turn to God instead of the mechanistic approaches of our faith practices. And in that, both Jeremiah and Jesus remind us, our God is too safe. If we think that God is stuck up in the four walls of the temple or the church then we miss the opportunity to experience God's presence that does provide....not as a safety blanket but one that calls us to justice.

Lord, we know you see what is going on, turn our hearts to your presence and worship you truly, so that justice may roll down like waters.

Just a boy

11/18/2014

Jeremiah 1:1-10 click here for the reading

Jeremiah was called to be a prophet for God, to speak God's words into the lives of God's people. But here is the thing, Jeremiah was a young boy AND the words he is about to speak are not real comforting.

Have you ever doubted if you were old enough? Young enough? Smart enough? Good enough? Qualified enough? etc. etc. etc.?

Jeremiah is a young boy (think 12-14 years of age) being called to speak God's wisdom to God's people (that will be a post later his week).

Here is the thing though, God doesn't worry about Jeremiah's age because God has been at work in his life before he was even formed in the womb! God provides (AGAIN!) God's presence for the people God calls to do God's work!

Reading this story again for the first time, Jeremiah insists his disqualification is his age, not his ability, not his wisdom, not his gender, not his gifts, not his social status but his age. This might be more a projection about his fear in how he will be received by others than himself.

God again uplifts the calling rather than the person called. God continues the pattern of calling ordinary people to do extra ordinary things because it will be through them that God accomplishes God's desires for God's people. "Have no fear of the people, for I will be with you." God's promise of presence cannot be underestimated....again!

When is it that you have ever diminished being called to do something? What was it that you claimed as your disqualification?

Lord, you have called each of us to your service, help us accomplish what you have in mind regardless of what we think disqualifies us from doing it.

Nothing

11/17/2014

Isaiah 39:1-8 Click here for the reading

Nothing. That is what will be left. Nothing.

There is a good kind of nothing (which King Hezekiah alludes to) like when Paul asks us what can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Nothing. THAT is a good kind of nothing.

THIS? This is far different. Isaiah foretells of the great exile that will happen. The first 38 chapters of Isaiah have told of the other exiles that have happened in the Northern Kingdoms of Israel and of the Assyrian pressure that is happening upon Judah. And now the king has allowed this envoy to see everything in his kingdom. There is transparency and then there is espionage.

As wise and as strong in faith as Hezekiah is, the Lord is speaking. And the Lord has told that NOTHING will be left. Babylon will be the one who produces the end of this kingdom. The Babylonian exile (597 BCE-538BCE) will effectively end the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem its capital. The deportations of Jews would be massive but not the entire kingdom is deported....only its prominent citizens (tradesmen, wealthy, priests, professionals etc.).

These Jewish exiles will be relocated to Babylon and take up residence in that city. they will now be residence and strangers in a foreign land.

The Exile produced the truth of God's promise through the mouth of Isaiah. NOTHING will remain.

Is this bad news? Or Good news?

If you had to start over in proclaiming your faith, heritage, culture, identity.....where would you start? What would be the most important thing?

Prophecy of restoration

11/15/2014

Micah 7 Click here for the reading

God's challenge

11/12/2014

Micah 5 and 6 Click here for the reading

In Micah 5 and 6, God's challenge meets a tension between what God's judgement will be and God's saving action will be. God's judgement is to provide consequences of the people's disloyalty and neglect of God's ways AND God will provide a ruler to save them.

This challenge fits so well into a world that desire black and white laws of right and wrong and God seems to provide a muddled grey area of blurring that judgement and salvation. God also recalls that this is part of what God has already instructed: You know O mortal what God desires....to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

In a way God provides remembrance of old to the new path God is about to take. This future leader, the Messiah, will be rooted of old (in the house of David) with the provision of new paths.

Peace and promise

11/12/2014

Micah 4 Click here for the reading

In quite a contrast of God's judgement, Micah provides 4 elements of peace and promise.

1) Zion, the house on which God's house stands will become prominent in future days......but not right now.
2) Future generations will come and receive divine instruction toward international disputes.
3) There WILL BE worldwide peace. A future hope.
4) All people will have the means to pursue life to the fullest.

A great change of tone from the prophet and from God.

Every year I ask my mother what she wants for Xmas and every year she tells me the same thing...."world peace." One year in College I got the idea in the grocery store to buy my mother 'whirled peas." I told her it was the closest I could provide. God will provide the real peace of the world.

Lord, we look forward to the promise of peace.

Wicked rulers

11/10/2014

Micah 3 click here for the reading

The Kings of Judah and the Kings of Israel were supposed to be God's representatives of God's kingdom; a kingdom of justice, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, abundance and life. instead these kings worked for often worked for themselves. This kind of leadership found its mouthpiece in prophets who would remind people that everything is okay, even as they worked to ruin the prosperity of life for all people. Another time when the rich got rich and the poor got poorer. An injustice in the sight of God. When kings and prophets work for their own good they move away from God's voice and fill it with their own.

Micah accuses these kings and prophets of evil and injustice.

In recognition of these accusations that come against them from the Lord, Micah is able to announce the difficulty (Micah 1:8-16) of these accusations because he mourns for God's people. In the book "Gilead," Marilynne Robinson stated quite clearly; "The prophets love the people they chastise."

It is out of Love that Micah presents a case against these false prophets because they stopped speaking words from the Lord and used God's presence as a safety net for trouble and judgement; saying "no harm can come to us, for the Lord is here among us."

Micah stands in a long line of prophets that remind us that grace, mercy, and forgiveness are offered in response to the law that convicts us of our sin, wrongdoing, and offenses.

Micah has not yet revealed his hand on God's new plan but it is coming. Right now we hear God's judgement.

How uncomfortable are you in hearing words that may confront your way of life? the direction you are headed? the choices you make?

Yeah, me neither. Yet this is God's pronouncement of correction, so that we might repent and believe in something greater.