Pastor's Notes

It’s A Wonderful Story

December 6, 2022

It’s that time of the year! A time when TV channels are inundated with old Christmas movies. C’mon…you have a favorite, don’t you? Sure, for the most part they are schmaltzy, sentimental, sappy, and mostly nostalgic teasing us with thoughts that Christmases past were idyllic if not perfect and tempting us to think this year’s Christmas too can be just perfect.

However, in some small way many such movies are a commentary on the Christmas story or at least someone’s understanding of the Christmas story and the meaning of Christmas. (In my experience the meaning of Christmas seems to differ from person to person.)

Take the Grinch, for example. Different and outcast he was able to steal the physical Christmas, but not the heart of Christmas. Not a bad parable for our time as we too often bury the heart of Christmas in consumerism covered up by calling it gift giving, and yet, somehow, the heart of Christmas breaks through and continues throughout the ages.

It’s a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart’s character, George Bailey learns the hard way the message of the Incarnation….God at work in and through human flesh. The impact of this savings and loan owner went far beyond interest rates, borrowing, loaning, and investing.

Even Christmas Vacation has a message however hidden in its comedy. Families are dysfunctional (hopefully not as much as the Griswold family) yet somehow in the end most seem to pull off being a family. The baby Jesus, Luke tells us, was born to an unwed couple. In addition, Christmas Vacation seems to be a parody on a Christmas whose meaning is in us and our efforts, and not on any spiritual meaning of Christmas.

Okay, maybe all this is a stretch so I can defend watching some of the schmaltz each year. Yet many seem to have some tug or nod however slight to a piece of the Christmas story.

What is missing in the movies, as in just about everything from Hollywood, is the true reality of life. Sometimes there are not happy endings in life. Missing from the Christmas movies is any hint of a shadow of the cross over the cuddly infant. Matthew tells us at least one of the gifts was a burial spice. Most Christmas movies do not have the scratch of the straw, the stench of a barn, nor the splinters of a manger that give hint to splinters on a cross yet to come and of real life that comes with pain as well as joy.

The Christmas story which we also romanticize and, to continue with a word, schmaltz, is real life. A baby is born into a challenging situation with many struggles yet to come. So often the Christmas story is reduced to our picture of an infant, cozy and wrapped in a blanket. Missing is the news of a God come to earth in this child. Missing is a God willing to stoop to be in a place and a way beneath any god.

I don’t know if God cares that this most powerful of stories becomes so superficial and almost trivial. I just know God seems to think the risk of being so reduced is worth it. God seems to think being with God’s creation and people is worth any and all belittling that may come God’s way from those viewing such a God as weak.

We can enjoy our plastic trees and our LED candles. We can look back nostalgically, and we can think for a moment that the true meaning of Christmas is a warm feeling. Yet somehow the Christmas story breaks through. Somehow it stays with us and will do so long after we are gone.

Life itself is the best commentary on the Christmas story. Neither the Grinches nor the Scrooges of the world can rob Christmas as the story of God coming to earth. Our imperfect efforts nor even our consumerist passion can blot out completely God’s gift to us at Christmas. Hollywood can have their endings. They may cloud or tarnish the Christmas story a bit, but they cannot contain it nor end its message. Joy to the World will always strike a more powerful note. Joy to the World seems somehow to break through our striving to make Christmas dependent upon us.

The Bible Tells Me So

November 29, 2022

How well do you know the Bible? Such a question generally means, “Do you know who Methuselah was? Do you know who Adam, Eve, Noah, Moses, and David were? Do you know who Jesus was? Who Paul was? Peter? Do you know who Lois and Phoebe were?
That is, do you know just the main celebrities and are you also aware of many of the lesser known characters.

What about Biblical stories? Many outside the Jewish or Christian faiths have an awareness of the Garden of Eden and what happened there, the parting of the Red Sea is commonly known as is the story of David and Bathsheba. Many even inside those faiths are unaware of a floating axe head and a chariot headed to the heavens.
those outside the faith often can retell the Christmas story as well as those inside the faith.

Knowing the Bible is not being able to recite stories or recognize characters. It isn’t even reading the Bible and remembering what it says about God, about us, and God’s expectations of us. One cannot truly know the Bible without having an awareness that it is to be read repeatedly. Done so over time these characters and stories speak to us
differently when we read them again. We too are different than the last time we read them, the times are different, and how they speak to us is differs with each passing year.

Too many of us depend upon listening to the reading of scripture in worship as our Bible reading time. The Bible read to us, is different than the Bible read by us. The Bible read to us sometimes is influenced by the biases of the reader; the Bible read by us can also be influenced by our own biases. These are not bad things. Both have a way of addressing us; one from the “outside” the other from the “inside.” Both have a way of bringing God’s speech, God’s word, to us in our own life situation.

What I am really getting at here, is regardless of how often we read the Bible, it seems the Bible knows us better than we know the Bible. As a word of God the Bible is free to address us how God wants us to be addressed, how you and I need to be addressed by God, with a word of correction, condemnation, or a word of affirmation, release and relief. The Bible comes to us as what we need rather than always what we want. If we have not had some Biblical reading or writing hit us between the eyes at times, there is most likely some misunderstanding of how to read the Bible and what the Bible as a word of God is all about.

To know the Bible is to understand we have a need for what it has to say to us: us as individuals and us as those of this time. It is a good thing to remember words of scripture and quote them as meaningful. It is a far more important thing to allow the words of the Bible to speak to us in all our present times and in all our life stations. The Bible knows us. Reading and listening with ears of faith opens us to having God speak to us.

Name Calling

November 23, 2022

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. This, as you may know, is a line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It implies names do not mean very much. To some degree that is true. Yet most who have ever expected a child often spend anguishing hours struggling with just the right name for their baby girl or boy.

Names do often mean a great deal. Some names are quite revelatory such as “Mary’s Beauty Salon.” By that name it is fairly obvious what happens in that place. Were it called, “Mary’s Place” it could be about many things in addition to or other than a beauty salon.

What about Christians? What’s in a name? Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, 7th Day Adventist, Unification Church, Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints…the list goes on. These names matter. There is great difference in many of these. Many would not even consider some Christian despite their claim or their name.

Christians first received the label “Christian”, the book of Acts tells us, in Antioch. It seems to have initially been a derogatory label like those used by teasing children on a school playground. Previously the movement that came to be called Christian called themselves “The Way”, again, according to Acts. Lutherans received their moniker in a similar fashion as they were most often called such first by their critics. Martin Luther did not like the name at all. He preferred simply to be called Christian. Some within the Protestant movements referred to themselves as Evangelicals.

So what about our name? We call our community University Lutheran Church and Lutheran Campus Ministry. Once I suggested we drop the Lutheran in campus ministry and simply called ourselves “University Campus Ministry.” I was almost run out of town.

Lutheranism is not the name of a church organization or institution. It is not even the label for a style of worship or a type of piety. We Lutherans are and have been all over the place on such things. Some could play cards and attend the theatre. Some could not. Some, including a group now in our own ELCA, refused to celebrate Christmas, Easter and observe Ash Wednesday and Holy Week, including Good Friday. Some had altars and pulpits, others had pulpits with only a small table beneath it for communion elements. Talk about different styles of worship and pieties!

Lutheranism is, at its core, the name of a body of faith. Its crowning attribute is not the sphere of polity or worship or even ethics. Our heart is in the sphere of religion and theology. Lutheranism is an understanding and expression of the Christian faith. We are, perhaps, the only main line Protestant “brand” who still adhere to and use our original body of doctrine, that is, our Lutheran Confessions, as collected and written in the “Book of Concord”. They include both the Large and Small Catechisms and the Augsburg Confession, among other writings. They are not to supplant scripture, but to put to common expression how a community with the name of Lutheran understands the basic tenets of Scripture and faith. In other words, they serve the Bible, which remains the rule and norm for faith. Many of my Protestant colleagues find this puzzling. They don’t understand how we find use for documents nearly 500 years old.

Ah, but one thing Lutheran doctrine is not is exclusive. That is, it does not proclaim we are the only or the truest of Christians. The Augsburg Confession is written in two parts: Part I is all about what we have in common with the Roman Church, to whom this document was presented. It is an ecumenical writing written and presented with the understanding we are all Christians, but we have some particular understandings and beliefs about some aspect of the faith.

One thing for certain: God is not Lutheran. God is not Christian, for that matter. God is God. The name Christian and its subtitle Lutheran are particular ways of understanding God in an attempt to live out the faith and the life God would have us live.

Names make a difference. With the names Christian and Lutheran those names do not bring with them privilege. Instead they identify a particular faith and a way of living that expresses that faith. We may or may not smell as sweet with different names, but we do have a somewhat unique picture of God using the names we have. We have the same mission of proclaiming the Good News of the Christ whose name Christians bear.

Mickey Mantle and Eschatology

November 15, 2022

Are you familiar with the word eschatology? When I went to seminary I heard this word for the first time when Dr. Burgess called something eschatological, I thought it had something to do with cleaning up after a pet. I learned it had to do with a different end; end times.

Though we may or may not be familiar with the word eschatology, we can’t escape talk about the end times. It seems many generations have different fears about an imminent end time. When I was in elementary school we were afraid the end might soon come from a nuclear war. Now it seems climate change is pushing the end times needle.

Eschatology matters. At least our thoughts regarding it matter. Our view of the end can lead to how we live now. Baseball great Mickey Mantle had an eschatological fear hang over him his entire life. His father, Mutt Mantle, a miner, died at age 40. Mickey was convinced he also would have a very short life-span, dying at a young age. Because of this Mantle lived life to the fullest; abusively so as it turned out. He didn’t take care of his body and surprised himself by living to the age of 63.

Toward the end of his life Mantle shared with many his surprise at living even into his 50’s. Had he known he was going to live as long as he did, friends were told, he would have taken better care of himself. Yes, how we view the end can determine how we live in the meantime.

You and I all know people who have very pessimistic thoughts about where the world is heading. We know people who also think their life won’t be a very long one. Every birthday and holiday my paternal grandmother would say, “This will be my last birthday. I won’t be here next year.” Her comments on major holidays mimicked her “won’t be here” line from birthdays. After I became older whenever she would say she this to us, I would always ask, “Why, where are you going, Grandma?” My response always brought a smile to her otherwise dour mood.

Life is not about how long we live. It is more about how well we lived. For what, for whom did we live besides ourselves? What impact did we have on those around us? What impact would we like to have during our brief sojourn on earth?

Does the end of human life have meaning? That is, does life simply end with a last breath and no longer matters? Can life only have meaning and purpose while we are alive?

Advent often looks ahead to some end time. It reminds us such ending is beyond our control and even our knowledge. We are aware that our genes are passed on. Are we aware also that some part of us, some part of our life, some part of what little or large contribution we have made to life continues on as well? Part of some lives were altered because we had lived. Some lives may have been shaped because we lived and had influence on them. Some with whom we shared our genes may look a bit like us. If we also shared our life with them, some part of them may act, respond and live as we did.

As we think about end times and our own end time, we need to look beyond our gene pool and even people who have helped to make us as we are. Sometimes the view we get by looking around can be like Mantle’s; a self-fulfilling prophecy. But God has some prophecies for us as well. We need to look above our own life and past ourselves and even loved ones. What do we see in the promises of Jesus? What do we hear in God’s various addresses to God’s children? Where might we see and hear God pulling us beyond our view of who we are?

Eschatology. God’s eschatology. We are more than the sum of our parts. Eschatology; a big word that really has to do with a much bigger God. Allow that vision to shape your present.

I’ll Have a Rum Raisin, Please…

November 8, 2022

Have you ever been to a Baskin and Robbins Ice Cream store? If my memory serves me correctly, they were about the first if not the first national ice cream chain that offered many choices of ice cream: 31 different flavors at a time to be exact. Now many other chains have multiple choices with multiple topping offerings and choice of cone. The world is no longer just our oyster, it can also be our ice cream cone (or dish).

We do like choices, do we not? We are fortunate in this country as middle-class folk. We can stand before a large display of meat wondering which type of meat, what cut, what size, etc. to buy for an upcoming meal. With freezers and refrigerators, we can buy many selections for several meals to come. We are not forced to eat whatever may happen to be available. Even during the midst of the pandemic’s worst shortages, selections abounded.

Often I write, preach, or teach, about fear. No wonder. Have you seen the political ads?
They are all about fear. It seems not that there are no legitimate fears. It seems instead, to which fears do we subscribe? Do we swallow them all? Or do we turn indifferently to them and plod on as though there is nothing to worry about?

Abraham Maslow, he of “Hierarchy of Needs”, writes: One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” Both choices can come at great cost. Retreat into supposed safety can allow those feared forces to gain strength. They can become even more frightening and eventually wreak more havoc. Moving forward for that which is important and has value is quite often a painful journey. Even the best of progress does not come without cost.

How does one raise children in an atmosphere of fear? Carefully, and with appropriate honesty. Parents do not do well to teach children life is easy or to just follow the rules and all will be well. Neither do parents do well to project fear onto their offspring and teach them the world is a scary place to be avoided. Such are good things to keep in mind for those of us not raising children, those of us who while being adults, yet have a certain immaturity in our faith and in our approach to life and life’s challenges.

There are times when retreat may be best. There are times when we may need to charge forward not even certain where we are headed. The lesson here is that we cannot choose one posture and live it at all times in all circumstances. Life is not all negative. Nor is it all positive. Life is life. It is a mixed bag. You and I need to deal with and live in its complexity. We have no choice. The choice we have is that of courage and faith or withdrawal and surrender.
Author and speaker Robert Fulghum once wrote a best-selling book titled, “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” I am tempted to write a counter tale and title it, “Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in a Hospice.” Personally as a pastor, I have gained much watching and listening to those in a hospice and to their families.

The wisdom we humans often have nearing the end as we look back is incredible. Mistakes, often major errors in behavior and life’s choices, are more readily admitted and talked about. Gratitude for what may often be considered the small things in life become more obvious and real. What I have learned most often is how those facing death fear it less than those of us seemingly distanced from it. There is more concern about loved ones and what their current march toward death will cost them. There can even be time spent wondering if their life had been well spent.

Faith is certainly there in hospice. Often it is not there in a wishful manner that some vision of heaven carried along in life will be met. Neither is it a fearful “what will happen to me” emotional state. It is frequently something simple. It is a trust that whatever comes God will be there. Simple perhaps, yet deep to have such acceptance and trust after often a long life of faith that has taught one basic principle of faith: trust God.

Interesting that such concern about loved ones seems to remove much of the care about oneself. Interesting that even many who once spent a great deal of time living in fear find themselves headed in a more peaceful direction of acceptance. Maybe everything I needed to know was not learned in kindergarten. Perhaps it wasn’t learned in a hospice either. Maybe everything we need to know is learned in life and living. We may certainly have choices in life; countless numbers of them. Yet life itself seems to be our best teacher even breaking into and through our choices. God comes in life as one to be trusted, breaking in to teach us that lesson of faith anew throughout life.