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He Brews…. Not a Brew Pub!

April 20, 2021

Hebrews 13:7. When is the last time you looked to the book of Hebrews for a quote? There are some good ones. Hebrews 1:2 does also come to mind.

Hebrews was written by an unknown author. Occasionally some attribute it to St. Paul, but most scholars on the left, right, and in between don’t agree.

Hebrews 13:7 is typically translated as saying “ leaders “. Occasionally it is translated as “teachers.”(Notice with both Hebrews texts,I do not provide the text.. I actually want YOU to read it!)

Do you see yourself as a leader in the faith? As a teacher? Perhaps a scary thought. Who me? Yet throughout the years when I hear students speak, this is exactly what I hear. Many over, the years, have even specifically mentioned names of members who serve or have served as their role models for various reasons. Knowing you and students, I easily concur. More than once I have heard a student say, “I want to be just like _______________.” Yes, an actual quote heard throughout the years.

Young adults are looking and watching. What is it we are leading/teaching? Do we offer something different than they see on campus/ in the world? I think we do! And this might just be one of the primary reasons ULC/LCM exists in its partnership. I first became convinced of this when serving in Fort Collins, CO. Our church was about a mile from campus. Yet many years with no intentional recruiting of students, we had as many or more students than the Lutheran Campus Ministry located across the street from all of the Colorado State University dorms.

Over and over I heard how they preferred a congregational setting. There they could pick and choose among multiple ministry options. In a congregation were people of all ages reminding them of grandparents, parents, and siblings at home. Again, more than once I have heard students call some members their “surrogate grandparents.”

As this academic year draws near a close I thought this a good time to bring this up. Thank you for being you! Thank you for leading/teaching! Certainly you have led & taught me these 21years! Hebrews 13:7: Read it! Keep on working to be it!

Campus Center Pergola Ramada Removal

April 11, 2021

UPDATE: You received an email on Monday saying the pergola would be removed with the pillars remaining while council completes a plan for a probable shade structure or structures. The removal was completed Tuesday. You can see our “new look” in this photo.

The pergola surrounding the Campus Center on the south and east sides of the building has rotted and turned into a safety issue. Timbers have fallen and will fall. Fortunately no one has yet been hurt. The pergola, an addition to the Campus Center years after its construction, has been worked on twice in the last 12 years to replace some of the boards and to paint it. However far too many boards are in need of being replaced including the large support timbers which are original to the pergola addition. Council has been working for some time on a plan for shade on both the east and south side of the Campus Center but has yet to finalize a plan. In the meantime a bid to remove the wooden portions of the pergola for $500 has been submitted only if we accept the bid now. Council, in their meeting April 11, voted to accept this bid.

Yes, this means the pillars will remain for now. It may not be the best look for awhile until a plan and funding for the plan are completed, but it will make us safer. Think of the pillars as socially distanced soldiers willing to stand guard as we are now made safer.

BEFORE

In Person Indoor Worship

April 11, 2021

For the time being we will continue outdoor worship as we have been doing. The time will move to 9am May 16. Currently it does not yet appear safe enough to move indoors to our small sanctuary with a low ceiling. Council has set a hoped for target date of September 12 to return in person indoors. The COVID numbers, CDC and synod recommendations will continue to be used as guidance. Stay tuned! In the meantime online virtual worship will continue. The plan is also to live stream worship once we return indoors and have purchased the needed equipment and gathered and trained people to operate the equipment. Interested in contributing to the equipment fund? Send your check to the church office marked “video equipment”. Some folks have already done so. Thank you! Interested in helping out? Contact the church office info@ulctempe.org or 480.967.3543.

Timely Thinking

March 30, 2021

We have three clocks in our Campus Center. All three have vastly different times displayed on their face. It is because all three have stopped. They are powered by battery and, with such little use of our building, I have seen no reason to change batteries. Except for staff, there are very few in need of knowing what the current time might be. I guess we could say that at University Lutheran Church/Lutheran Campus Ministry time has stood still.

Of course this is not really so. With our without properly working timepieces, time moves on. We are not in need of any devices to tell us so.

I find it interesting; strange, even, that during our pandemic that forces us to be home and venture out only rarely, time seems to be going by faster than ever. At first I thought this was just my experience, but every time I mention it to someone else they, often emphatically, agree.

I would be interested in your theories as to why tempus is really fugiting* during a time we spend an inordinate amount of time at home. Let me know your thoughts.

In the New Testament there are two words for time: chronos (chronological) and Kairos (God’s time). Kairos is used 86 times in the New Testament. St. Paul is a fan of the word. Kairos is a time of opportunity, a time to act, a time, even, of conversion or transformation.

Why might this be so? I don’t think it is because we are fixed on some future time period when all this will have passed. At least that never worked for me as a kid anxiously awaiting the arrival of Christmas. Is it because our lives and routines are so changed we are not stuck in the rut of routines we have lived out for many years? One day would look much like the previous day and the one to follow. I’m not certain of that, either. Pandemic living has brought some boring moments and have developed their own routines.

The question I have posed concerning time seemingly flying by is a time of chronos, chronology. Naturally pandemic time is such. Yet it can also be a time of Kairos; a time of God, a time of opportunity and a time to act. Maybe, just maybe, time is zipping by because we have been forced to recognize what things are really most important. We have been forced to realize how even the ordinary and routine have their own importance and even a hint of sacredness in them. Maybe, just maybe what moves us along is that this has been in a more obvious way, what time has always been: God’s time; Kairos.

No pun intended, but this is a timely message for Easter. The events of betrayal, arrest, torture, trial, and crucifixion were not able to stop time as they were not able to stop God. As difficult as this pandemic has been, it has not prevented God from coming to God’s people and finding ways to use God’s people however differently.

Let your fugit tempus. Not even pandemic time has been a waste of time. Our lives this past year may not have been as full as we would have preferred, but there was a certain fullness in them. A shut-down of our normal lives was not able to shut out God. All Chronos is Kairos. All time belongs to a God who refuses to be stopped.

*Years ago clocks would often have “Tempus Fugit”, Latin for “Time Flies” written on their face.

Tigger or Eeyore?

March 23, 2021

Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person? Is life a grand and glorious experience or one difficult thing after another? Do you lean toward pessimism or optimism?

We all know someone who constantly seems to have a smile on their face whistling through life. We all know someone who can find struggles in the best of situations. I remember saying about one person: “If they won millions in the lottery, they would complain about the penmanship of the one signing the check.”

Try to put Jesus in either of these categories. I don’t think it will work. Jesus pointed out the good even in the hated enemy. Jesus also called Herod a fox, uprooted tables in a temple, and was said to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It seems to me Jesus is not someone who looked at life through any philosophical lens or constant attitude. Jesus looked at life as it was. Jesus called life what it was: the good, the bad, and the ugly. This gives you and I license to be who we are in all the circumstances that life throws our way. Want to shout and dance with joy? Go ahead. Feel like crying, complaining, or whining? Woe is me is permissible in some of life’s experiences.

Reading a book on Abraham Lincoln’s last speech, I am struck by the context. The speech was delivered April 11. The North and some of the South, especially the slaves, were celebrating. The awful war was over! There were fireworks, parades, and loud cheers. Yet just days later, April 14, Good Friday, the same Lincoln cheered during his speech, was the victim of an assassin’s bullet, delivered by one who was on the White House lawn listening to the speech.

We are nearing the end of Lent. Lent began with ashes, continued with temptations, marched on with stories concerning the cross, and will soon have its own parade, Palm Sunday. Lent goes downhill from there. How many times in life have you had some great experience, only to be struck with something quite difficult almost immediately following?

Which is life? The parades or the great difficulties? Both are. Lent is something to be endured, not celebrated. It is something to go through. Lent is also a teacher. It teaches us that many things cannot be overcome but they can be endured. We can go through them. Few of us can get over the death of a close loved one. Yet we can get through it. We can endure grief to come out on another, better, and, perhaps, stronger side. Maybe you and I ought to think of this pandemic experience as one lonnnngggg Lent. It has had its teaching moments. It has had some good things. It has had many difficult challenges and sad moments. I don’t know anyone who wants to repeat this experience except, perhaps, our dog. Is one of the lessons learned that we can endure? Do we feel like maybe….just maybe….we are going to come through this?

It is hard to go through life like Tigger and even harder, perhaps, to go through life like Eeyore, both characters in Winnie the Pooh. Life does not provide a consistent experience where either of these attitudes would always be appropriate. God, however, provides us with Jesus and a scripture that runs the gamut from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and a lot in between. That is, God provides us with an awareness that life doesn’t always offer a level experience. If God, then, is with us ,if God, then, knows about life’s hills and valleys, you and I can endure. We can go through and come out on some other side.

Fill your glass, empty your glass, or leave it sit. We can have a realistic approach to life trusting we have a God who also has a very real understanding of us and of our life.

Whistle joyfully or trudge along with head bowed. There is one whistling with us and one despairing with us. We learn in our Lenten trek we are not without God. We can endure. We can go through to the other side. Good news for those caught up in a pandemic. Good news for those caught up in life.