Pastor's Notes

We have a particular ministry here that I am not sure we always recognize. Each year we receive students new to our ministry. They come from Lutheran congregations near and far. Currently one of our Lutheran students is from India.

Students from other church backgrounds, no church backgrounds, and students nominally “churched” find their way here in various ways. Last year we had three students who grew up LDS.

What will this year bring? Most likely more of the same. Yet the one group we sometimes miss are those I call refugees from less open faiths. I don’t think I coined that phrase, but if I head it somewhere, I can’t recall where. Often those refugees seek us out on their own or are invited by our students after expressing to one of our students the hostility ….yes, hostility…they experienced in another campus ministry. Often, but not always, these are LGBTQ+ students. Sometimes they are those who have rebelled at another ministry or church’s position on LGBTQ+ folks and or how they view women or race.

Yes, we have a ministry to refugees. Not always those who arrive with all their possessions packed into one small suitcase nor those whose primary language is other than English. We have served some of these kind of refugees in the past and no doubt will again in the future. The refugee ministry which we have most years reaches out and welcomes those who felt constrained or even verbally abused in some cases in some other church or campus ministry.

One that stands out to me over the years is a student from some years back. This student was invited to have coffee with other students in their ministry. The student soon discovered coffee was instead a brutal and harsh “intervention” to change this student who had let it out to the ministry that they were bi-sexual. The student was traumatized by the “coffee.”

After being invited into our ministry by one of our students who lived in the same dorm, the student gradually began to discover when we say we welcome all we mean all. After getting to know this person, I sent them to ASU counseling as they continued to experience quite a bit of anxiety from the “coffee” experience. ASU counseling, after a few sessions, sent them to PTSD counseling. That’s right, the same counseling those traumatized by war receive.

There is a happy note to this story. The offending campus ministry no longer is part of ASU’s partnered campus ministries and lots its privileges at ASU. Other campus ministries had bad experiences to report to ASU about that ministry. The even happier note is the student became active here and the counseling helped them move past their experience to embrace both college life and a life of faith.

Refugees from less open faiths. Thank you for providing welcome and a church home to those seeking a more embracing God who sees them fully as one of God’s children. It’s part of what we all do here.

“Whatever Happened to Sin?” is the title of a long ago written book by Karl Menninger, an American psychiatrist. It does seem to be a word on the endangered species of vocabulary list. Most times I hear the word outside of worship or Bible study it has to do with eating high caloric foods that clog one’s arteries. You know, “That dessert is absolutely sinful”…meaning it is really bad for you but tastes, O so good!

Sin is a useful word. It supersedes the words mistake or error. Sin is a word that connects a wrongful act with God. If I make a mistake in measuring a space for a new refrigerator, it is simply a mistake between me and the person selling new refrigerators. God isn’t really into tape measures and refrigeration.

If, on the other hand I am constructing something and cut corners simply to make something cheaper or easier with no care for safety, that can be more than a mistake. God cares greatly about people being unnecessarily put at risk.

There is actually a mistake you and I make about sin. We think sin harms another. Indeed it can and often does. That is why sometimes the best confession made is not to God but to those against whom we have sinned. Ask any 12 Step group about this.

The mistake we make regarding sin is we get the part of what sin does to others while at the same time miss the effect and the affect sin can have on us. The truth is we do sin, but sin also does us. Yes, of course others have and will sin against us and we suffer its consequences. We are well aware of that. However our own sin has consequences to ourselves. I am not talking about punishment for our sin when it causes a valued relationship to break or has some ripple effect on others. Instead I mean that our own sin even when not noticed by others has a way of striking us. Guilt builds up over time and produces nothing very healthy.

Acts and even thoughts of racism have a way of embittering us. Disbelief in science and climate change while effecting us, effects those too with power to do something about it who fail to lift a non-pollutant finger. Racism can shape us in a way few sins can do. As we live it, act it, and deny it, these forces work together on us to make us into a person whom we would acknowledge God does not want us to be.

In sin we have a force, a power, from which we cannot escape. Sin-sick we hope for an escape as we often are aware we are becoming not only one whom God does not want us to become, but also we are aware we are becoming someone whom we don’t want ourselves to become.

This is why confession and repentance are so important. We need to acknowledge our sin for the sake of neighbor and for the sake of ourselves. We need to strive to turn from this sin for the sake of neighbor and oneself. This is loving our neighbor as oneself at its best. Love of self can often be stating we are too often not all that loveable. To acknowledge this can be to love oneself and one’s neighbor more deeply.

God wants confession and forgiveness not out of a hardness of God’s heart with hopes of convicting and punishing us. God wants confession and forgiveness for a better you and me, a better neighbor, and a better world.

Sin will always do the neighbor. Sin will always do ourselves. Sin always needs as response our acknowledgement and efforts to combat sin. Let’s provide an answer to Menninger. What ever happened to sin? It did not go away. Neither did it go underground. Instead sin has lost some of its grip on us. God’s forgiveness will help with that.

Water, especially in the form of ocean waves, can be a very powerful force. Its might can be witnessed along many seacoasts. In some nations the power of the waves is harnessed to create electricity. Along all coast lines there are visible signs of water’s force.

Not all that is struck by wave action have the same reaction. Some swimmers find themselves knocked around by the waves at the beach yet on the very same waves many figure out how to float on top to body surf or catch a wave with a surfboard and use its power to their advantage.

Entire coastlines are formed in part by the force and direction of the waves. Some seem to withstand it and remain rather straight and stalwart, perhaps receding over time, but retaining their straight formation. Other coastlines are sculpted with curves, jagged edges, points and small coves teeming with lifeforms in their tide pools.

Standing on some beaches one can see many of water’s art forms. On the beach are rounded, smooth pebbles, worn and polished by time and water. However out in the water and, perhaps, on the sides of the beach can be huge rocks enjoyed by sea birds and people who feel the need to scale them. These rocks are rough and can scrape both hands and feet on attempted climbs. The same waves that made small, smooth forms also created rough-hewn, giant monoliths standing guard over the coastline. The very sand on the beaches is often a result of constant pounding until all that is left are granular flakes that were once large rock.

Life is similar to ocean waves. Life has a way of coming at us, one wave at a time. Life, like ocean waves, is relentless. It never stops coming. Some waves are larger than others. Some are caused by storms even far away. Some can come simultaneously from different directions. Life again is similar. A war in a country many could not previously have found on a blank map has affected us. Of course, not nearly as much as those living in and around the war zone, but the ripples of military strikes have reached our shores.

Sometimes we can stand strong like those majestic seaside cliffs. Sometimes we stand strong, but visibly scarred like those jagged coastline rocks. Many times what life tosses our way smooths us. We become calm, accepting, understanding and patience. Many of us have or will have physical evidence of life’s force upon us. Bent over, lines, wrinkles, gray hair, muscles and joints that no longer work as they once did, and eyesight that isn’t quite what it used to be. Some of life’s pressure creates mental issues of depression, anxiety, or fear.

We as followers of Jesus follow one of whom it is said commanded the waves and walked on water. That is, faith has a power. As life does its best at shaping and forming us, followers of Jesus have another force that molds us. Regular attention to worship, prayer, scripture and efforts to live as disciples cannot prevent the forces of life from having impact. They can, however, help us withstand those life forces, and, at times, help us become stronger, even using those forces directed against us to grow and deepen our faith and our person.

Life’s challenges are not all that has power and strength. Physics tells us to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Faith that allows us to pick ourselves up and follow again can be quite a strong opposite reaction. That is the force we disciples have given to us to encounter the actions of life and the world.

Crossing the Rubicon is a cliché indicating one has made an irrevocable decision; that is one from which there is no turning back. The cliché has its origin with Julius Caesar. Caesar was headed south to Rome to battle and seize power. The Rubicon is a river in northeastern Italy. When Caesar and his troops crossed the Rubicon, there was no turning back. It was on to Rome!

Irrevocable decisions are both to be admired and feared. Making such decisions can take great courage. Making such decisions can get one in deep trouble if they are wrong decisions. Many times they can bring great rewards if they are good decisions.

To live is to cross many Rubicons. Not making a decision can be its own Rubicon at times. Many times as we wade through the waters of our Rubicon we emerge to discover we have made a huge mistake. Other times there is the reward of having chosen wisely, and occasionally we discover the decision over which we anguished produced nothing significant good or ill.

What Rubicons have you crossed? Is there one now before you over which you are struggling to decide? Caesar had horses and soldiers to accompany him. His decision to continue south would only be as good as the quality of the troops which he led and the forces that would oppose him.

The Rubicons which you and I pass through do not carry the weight of empire with them. They may affect people in a workplace, family, or an organization to which we belong, but the fate of the world does not ride upon them. Nonetheless, we worry. Some Rubicons we cross, others we decide to stay put.

God knows something about crossing the Rubicon. God crossed a Rubicon. God decided to hang in there with Adam and Eve. Every decision God made to stick with God’s creation, in particular, God’s human creation, was a result of his decision to stick it out with Adam and Eve. There was no turning back.

God decided to let David remain king and called Peter to be a leader in the early church. God decided to be hung with Jesus on a cross. It would seem from scripture God has had no regrets with God’s decisions. God continues to make the same kind of decisions with God’s people…hanging in there for them and with them.

I have learned a long time ago that it is better to make a wrong decision than no decision. Leaders are often those good at making decisions. They do not allow bad decisions to hold them back nor do they spend time glowing in the spotlight of a good decision. They simply move on looking for the next decision.

Leaders can do this. Those who are led can do this. Trusting in God’s decision to stick with God’s creation and God’s people we have hope and faith that God will have our back in any Rubicon we decide to cross.

Think of so many things that loom over us now. Climate change. Environmental issues of earth, water, and air. Gun violence. Hunger and poverty. What is certain is standing on the banks of these Rubicons will not help these issues. We have to first step into the waters and resist the current that would prevent us from crossing. When we have decided wrongly, we cannot give up. We must march on. When we have decided rightly, there is no time to gloat, other Rubicons await. We must not be afraid to get our feet wet. We cross armed with God’s decision to not give up on us. There has been no turning back for God. As a result, you and I can move forward. You and I need not give up on ourselves.

Heroes, generally speaking, get their due. They receive name recognition, credit, praise, and sometimes even develop a following. At times we learn some not so heroic part of their personality or life, but typically those things are not enough to knock them off their hero’s pedestal.

Jackie Robinson, for example, is someone baseball fans and people with no interest in sports recognize. Most people are aware of his legendary status as major league baseball’s first African American in the 20th Century (baseball did have African American players in part of the 19th century). Jackie earned his fame the hard way. The pressure he went through may have led to his death at only 53 years old.

Most of us, however, are not aware of many others who had to endure something similar. Imagine for a moment the very first African Americans in minor league baseball in the South where it was often illegal for races to play together on some fields. The African American players could not eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as their teammates. Sometimes they were not even allowed to ride in the same bus. The abuse often directed at them from fans, players on the other teams, and occasionally their own teammates, was horrendous. Yet who knows the name of any of these? They were heroes despite their anonymity.

The church has heroes. Usually they are called saints. Some in the Protestant fold have never acquired that churchly prefix but are honored just the same: Martin Luther, John Knox, Menno Simons, John Calvin, Martin Luther King Jr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to name just a few.

The world could not survive if all it had were heroes. The world needs day to day people who do ordinary daily tasks. The world needs people to prepare food, collect trash, wash windows, build buildings, work in retail, clean hospital rooms, and so on. During the pandemic we have called some of these “essential workers.” Indeed. Their value has risen if not in wages, certainly in our collective and individual esteem. Heroes are helpful. Day to day often anonymous people are essential.

So it is in the church. It is nice to have statues of St. Francis feeding the birds, Mother Theresa reaching out to a child, and stained glass images of Luther and others. They would merely be works of art with little value were there not lesser known and mostly little known followers of Jesus in the church around the world. We need always remember Jesus came to earth in a barn, not a palace. Jesus was born to a very ordinary couple who only later became known and understood as extraordinary.

The typical follower of Jesus may never have a church or college named after them nor a statue commissioned. For a typical follower stained glass church windows will be something to gaze upon and appreciate but never display their countenance. But a typical follower has exactly what the saints had: Jesus Christ, the one who seemed often to prefer the unheralded. The one who transforms the day-to-day person and day to day life into the extraordinary, the one who turns anonymous ones into saints.