Blog Archives - St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church

It's a start

12/24/2015

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Observation: The Birth of Jesus went down way different than how we celebrate it.

Application: The sentimentality of the xmas season gets in the way of the reality of Christ's birth. Today will bring some closure and finality to christmas for many. Maybe not tomorrow but definitely by Saturday, we can begin counting the xmas trees tossed in front of houses, because for many, xmas has come to a close. The stores will clearance all Christmas items and stop playing the xmas music (granted they started in october).

But for us, we have only begun to celebrate God with us. For us, this is not a close to a season it is the beginning, it is a start. It is a start of something new! Now that God has come to be among us, everything is different, everything is new.

The incarnation reality (God to be with us in flesh and blood) is a start of something new for us.

Today, people are longing for that something new but we all might be blinded by what gets in the way....the sentimentality of this child's birth.

It's not snowing, we might not play someone favorite hymn, some family members are unable to come, we might not get the gift we wanted.....yada, yada, yada, and yet Christ still comes to us to meet us in the manger. To be with us, at our most joy filled and at our most sorrowful.

Prayer: Oh, Come, Oh come Emmanuel.

How can this happen?

12/23/2015

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Observation: This is Mary's interaction with the angel Gabriel, announcing the good news about her bearing God's only son. She asks an important question; "How can this happen?"

Application: Having recently asked that question concerning the news of my wife being pregnant with Reuben, I can relate to the panic, the fear, the joy. When I announced it to our church's leadership I even made the comment "How did this happen (joyfully surprised) and one of our leaders said, pastor, you know very well how this happened!" LOL

This story and question remind me that God's wisdom is very different than our own. As it was for Mary, so it is for us. The impossible things for us are always possible for God.

That is the beauty of Xmas!

Prayer: Lord thanks for making the impossible possible. You provide gifts for us that we may not understand!

Speechless

12/22/2015

Scripture: Luke 1:14-25

Observation: Zechariah is promised a child in his old age by a visitation of an angel. In response he is speechless because he did not believe this could happen to him and his wife. As a priest, not being able to speak was also a loss of job function....no longer able to offer sacrifices for people, say prayers etc.

Application: Sometimes God shows up in ways that do make us speechless. Finding out Becky and I were having a son in our old age, left me a bit speechless so I can relate. But there is something really wonderful about silence. James later goes on to offer this wisdom "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry."

In the busyness of life we can miss the opportunities to hear God speaking. Having recently taken a 36 hour retreat by myself, my favorite part was the silence. The constant chatter of 3 small children, a busy household, a growing church, my own thoughts, and life in general can be a constant distraction. Silence can produce a connection with God and God's Spirit that cannot happen in the background of all the chatter.

St. Francis once offered "Preach always, use words when necessary." Then there is this gem; "I would rather see a sermon lived out than preached." Even recent studies have shown that only a small percentage of people are auditory learners. I reflect on all of this as I am preparing 3 sermons in the next 6 days.

Zechariah realized how awesome God's gesture to his family when he returns home after a week in the temple to hear his wife proclaim "How kind is the Lord!"

Prayer: Lord sometimes we are speechless in your midst because of the grace you pour out into our lives in big and small ways.

What's Your Story?

12/21/2015

Scripture: Luke 1:1-4

Observation: Luke begins to share the intention of his Gospel. He writes to Theophilus "so that he may be certain of the truth of everything you were taught." Luke writes 30+ years after these events ended. An important event happened in 70 CE that helped Luke focus his attention to the opening of this letter/Gospel - the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Roman ruling power.

Application: If the world was hanging on by a thread in 70 CE than imagine how these words help us focus our attention in 2015. The story Luke begins to tell is to help us understand what has already been told to the disciples. It causes me to imagine that Theophilus was already a learned disciple, knowing the stories of Jesus and being baptized in his death and resurrection.

Just as Luke wants to tell the story of Good News while the world around him seemed to be crumbling, we have a chance to recapture that same story, a different story than the world is telling.

This story is an alternative to the story that is being told to us by the world. It is a story of an outcast family, literal refugees, being counted for the benefit of the ruling power. It is a story of impossible things made possible by God. It is a story of a light being shone in the darkness. It is God's story, the same then as it is now.

What's Your Story?

Prayer: Lord bring us your presence as we enter into your story.

Sing a New Song!

12/10/2015

Scripture: Isaiah 42:10-20

Observation: The coastlands and creation are impartial observers of justice and liberation. Creation and all nations burst into song at the deliverance of the Lord.

Application: Isaiah invites us to sing a new son of justice and liberation. A song different from the tired old story of injustice and captivity. Singing a new song helps us know that we worship a living God! Singing a new song is a reminder that this song is different from the songs we used to sing at the side of the river when we wept in exile, in captivity.

This new song is a song of freedom that we embrace to know that we are no longer living in prisons of our own doing and if we are, release is coming. Songs are an important part of our faith. Singing this new song illustrates for us that God is at work in the world and that we get to participate and join in this new song.

Prayer: Oh Come, Oh come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.

A light to the nations

12/9/2015

Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-9

Observation: Among the servant songs of Isaiah we hear the mission statement of God's chosen servant(s). "And you will be a light to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the blind.
You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons."

You is plural. Isaiah is prophesying to the people of God. Jesus later embodies this as God's only Son.

Application: Mission remains the same. We are called to be a light to guide the nations. The imitation of Christ in our lives brings hope for those who are hopeless, light to those who live in darkness. The preparation for advent brings us for the fulfillment of this mission; both in the christ child's birth and also in Christ's return.

Looking around the world it appears to need a bit of light.

Prayer: Lord, burn the light of Christ in my heart so that I reflect the mission you poured upon your servant.

Idol hands

12/8/2015

Scripture: Isaiah 41:21-29

Observation: Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, invites a defense on the idol worship of the people. "Present the case for your idols, let them show what they can do. Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked. See, they are all foolish, worthless things. All your idols are as empty as the wind."

Idols are false promises people worship.

Application: These last words move me. 'All your idols are as empty as the wind.' Given recent controversies, I wonder if we have lost the art of hearing prophets....even the ones of old like Isaiah. Christians have been in the news recently....not for sharing the good news but defending idols worship that is so part of our culture now....as it was then.

'Christian' presidential promoting the exile and exclusion of all muslims from 'merica'.

Christian university presidents encouraging the conceal carry on university grounds to do away with all those muslims.

An attack of innocents with guns and automatic weapons.

A unquestioned belief that we are a 'christian nation' yet we hold our nation as an idol as well.

We seem to cling to all the things that we believe are right rather than want and desire for God to speak to us through God's word. As Isaiah points out: maybe those things we worship are really empty to begin with!

What are the idols that we attempt to defend?
Nationalism (extreme love of nation)?
Guns?
Political party?
Pornography?
Green Bay Packers?
Beer?

All of these can be intrusive to our worship of God.

In a showdown with the things that we idolize, God will always win out.

Prayer: Lord remind us of the power you have and let our idol hearts be changed to hear a prophetic word that our hearts might desire you most of all.

Planting trees in the desert

12/7/2015

Scripture: Isaiah 41:1-20

Observation: God promises to do extraordinary things for God's chosen people. God provides miracles, like planting trees in deserts, so that all who see these miracles will know that it is from the Lord.

Application: I can't help but see God's provision for God's people popping up in this Scripture. That is that God will do it! So often I get caught up in the need to do rather than the trust that God will do. In the darkness of the world we live in, mass shooting, terrorist attacks et al, it is easy to get caught up in the darkness. Isaiah is providing a word of hope, a light in the darkness.

The imagery of planting trees in the desert is an appealing one because it speaks to the impossible nature of the world and the possibility of what the Lord can and will do.

Martin Luther famously said, "if the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today."

In this advent season, we cling to the hope of trees planted in the desert so that we are reminded of life coming out of death, fruitfulness out of barrenness.

Prayer: Lord, we look to you for your provision of life in the midst of death for the hope of the world. We anxiously await for your presence and peace until you make the fullness of your kingdom greet us.

and you will know I am the Lord....when?

12/3/2015

Scripture: 2 Kings 23:15-20

Observation: Josiah continues the destruction of the things that inhibit having a true relationship with God, including murdering the pagan priests, destroying the altars of their gods, and laying waste to pagan statues and temples.

Application: Some people get offended when God, or in this case, God's representatives, goes a little off the reservation concerning the practices we live by and the gods and idols we set up. One of my favorite movies of all time is pulp fiction. Jewels (Samuel L. Jackson's character) often misquotes the prophet Ezekiel when he murders someone, saying: "And you will know my name is the Lord when I strike down my vengeance upon thee."

Later on Jewels comes to a moment of clarity and realizes that is not what the prophet meant at all.

In a time when the world feels like it is going to hell in a hand basket (again after another mass shooting) I sometimes wish God, or God's representatives could go off the reservation and say stuff like this. But in reality, we are called to live out a different kind of radical righteousness....not of indignation but of + radical peace keeping in the midst of radical violence,
+ extreme love in the midst of extreme hatred,
+ monumental kindness in the midst of monumental chaos.

This advent season, we hold steadfast to the anticipation of the one who is to come and make all things new, all things right, all things just.

That's the difficult thing of Advent is waiting for the hiddenness of God to be revealed.

Prayer: Come, Lord Jesus!

Reformer

12/2/2015

Scripture: 2 Kings 23:4-14

Observation: Josiah tears down the barriers and practices of worship life and community life for the people of God. He starts in the southern kingdom and moves north before heading to Jerusalem. The people of God and their leadership had become so corrupt in their idol worship that Josiah had to bring reform.

Application: Sometimes you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet. Change is hard but necessary. Throughout the life of God's people certain reforms were necessary in renewing the covenant between God and us. Martin Luther had such a reform for the church. That was 500 years ago....almost. But the celebration of that reform is being revisited, literally. Trips are being booked to go to Germany for the 500th anniversary of Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenberg door.

Reforming is an ethos that we are constantly changing in order to meet the needs of our context and the promise of the gospel. Revisiting old reforms is not reforming at all. It is the exact thing that gets us stuck.

Prayer: Lord, you made Josiah king for a reason and a season of reform. Help our hearts to burn toward our reforming nature so that you might be glorified instead of the past accomplishments of human history.