Create – Isaiah 65:17-25

So today the word is “create.” I hadn’t gotten a photo yet today by the time our congregational council met. Pastor Dom, that’s him up there, was leading devotions tonight and used the #lentphoto17 Devotional. Now while that is not unusual, he was the writer for today’s word, so the Creator reflected on the word create.

Today in our reading from Isaiah we are reminded that God still creates, and will create a new heavens and a new earth. This ongoing and promised future creation of God is filled with hope and joy!

The good news is that God wants us to be a part of that ongoing creation, and doing of good things. So much so that he sent his Son so that in him we might be a new creation!

In many ways, Lent is about creation. We focus on the penitential, but that is to lead to joy, to positives, to re-creation in Christ. For that, I give thanks and seek to take my small part in working with God to create all that will yet be.

BLESSED – Psalm 72:18-19

So on Friday night we got to see the handsome young guy in the middle sing with his choir and other groups at Concordia University of Wisconsin where he is a student.

The hard work and the energy shared was a blessing to all of us.  Blessings are meant to be shared, the flow like water, even sloshing around a bit.  Sometimes it may seem like all flows out from us, and it can be hard to feel blessed.  But blessing is more than a feeling, it is more than objects or things, it is more deeply about relationship.

In our Psalm today it speaks of blessing God. We tend to think of blessings as a one-way street, but they are not!  Sure the blessings flow from God, but they also flow from us to others and back to God as well when we give thanks for all that God is for us in the good times and the hard times as well.

It can be hard to bless others, and even God when we are feeling down when we are spent and depressed, but that doesn’t stop God from blessing us!  That makes blessing God when we can that much sweeter.

 

 

Paying attention to the moment.

When my dog walking timing is right, this is a view I get at the end of my street!  The sunset on this day, in particular, was just gorgeous I pulled out my phone and took this picture.

Often when I am doing this end of the day walk with the pup’s, I spend time ruminating over the day’s events and occasionally fretting about how I am going to get to everything that needs to be got to!  I know I have missed beautiful pictures before because I was stuck in a whirlpool of worry about what might happen or what could be… So worried I couldn’t see what was.

Now I am not saying planning ahead is a bad thing, it isn’t. But fretting, wondering how something will turn out, and all the while missing out on what the day still has to offer is short changing yourself and shortchanging God.

I love what Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible says about this verse from Matthew.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Focus on what God is up to now… look at that sunset, notice your children as they play, tackle the challenges that are still in front of you and enjoy if possible the opportunity to do, to change and to be a part of something better.

Yes, things may happen in the future that will be difficult, but God promises to meet us in the midst of those as well.  What a freeing word, what a word of hope… no matter what happens tomorrow… no matter who is elected president… no matter the matter… as the old saying goes, do not fear tomorrow, God is already there.

Peace be with you.

Wind

Funny how things work sometimes!  The word for the day was wind, and boy howdy, was it windy the day I took this picture.

The thing you can’t see is the modern wind turbines just to the left of the frame. No matter what I tried, short of trespassing and a good long hike,  I couldn’t quite get the correct angle to make the shot work.

Then I thought, you know that is very wind like behavior!  You know its there, but you can’t quite get a handle on where it comes and where it goes.

That is how the Holy Spirit works too. You can always tell when it is at work and where it has been, but try to nail it down, get an angle on it, well good luck with that.  The key with the wind of the spirit is that it always pushes toward God in Christ.  Next time you feel a big ol’ gust of wind ask yourself this question, the spirit is up to something here, what is it that God would have me see, be or do?

 

Preach

So row 1; Uncle John, Uncle Robert, Uncle Web (aka David)  row 2 My dad, Uncle Jim and me.  Preachers each and every one.

My Grandpa Braaten was a preacher too; it is sort of the family business. None of us are “famous” none of us owns a jet,  in the eyes of the world, we may be labeled just garden variety ministers, parish pastors, parsons, padres or preachers.

We are blessed to be the ones who professionally bring good news, and let me tell you it is a sweet gig on many days.  But there are other days when people don’t want to hear the good news, or can’t hear it because of the other noise in their lives. Even on those days, we are called to preach the good news and so is every baptised child of God. We are all on some levels called to be preachers.  Some of us do it as a day job, some do it with words, others with deeds and still others with song.  The Gospel of Gods love, forgiveness and grace needs to be heard by so many and for many the only preacher they may get to know is you.

A quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi captures the life of the Christain very well. It goes this way “Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.”

 

 

 

Answer

Old churches are wonderful places if you have a taste for history.  Things like this are stuck in storage out of the way nooks for decades.  Looking at the names, I get a sense for when this was produced, likely sometime around the mid-1940’s. But the answer as to exactly when and why this was used has eluded me.

I may never know the answer, as those who could answer it have likely all gone to check on their status on the heavenly honor roll.   Who’s on that you might ask, now there I have an answer.  Those for whom Christ died, those who have been baptised into his name, and the reason for the list,  in God’s love we have become inheritors of eternal life.  Old churches and new churches for that matter can be wonderful places if you have a taste love, grace and forgiveness.  Go poke around and see what you find!

 

 

Cup

So in many places in this great country of ours, you can pull up to a Steak n’ Shake any old time.  But I get this treat rarely.  But this was the best, a Nutella shake… oh for good!

Now as a cup goes it isn’t holy, which for a shake cup is a good thing, but you get my point, it is just a styrofoam cup. But what was in the cup… oh… that was heaven.

When we gather at the table at church to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it is what is in the cup that makes the difference. I have had communion in plastic cups, silver cups, gold cups, coffee mugs, and likely any other typical cup type container.  I have had good wine, great wine, questionable wine, red, white, purple, and pink wine, wine is wine for these purposes. What made the difference was the word together with what was in the cup, and that is divine.

Where have you seen the holy under the ordinary?  When has something plain on the outside turned out to be spectacular on the inside?  How do you see God at work in such things?

 

Command

This a photo of the old Coast Guard and I believe the even older U.S. Life-Saving Service on Plum Island Wisconsin. In the past few years, much good word has been done on preserving this building and the little island it sits on with Range Lights, replacements for lighthouses.

The reason I chose this shot for this word was the tower in the middle. From there you could get  quite a commanding view. That means from way up high you can see much more than you could down at beach level. From that perch, I imagine you could see a ship in trouble a long way off and you could get there to save the crew.

That is sort of how God’s commands work too isn’t it?  God sees where we get ourselves into trouble and gives us the law to keep us safe.  The problem is that we don’t follow God’s laws well enough to keep us out of trouble.  In this setting  God has sent his Son, and the life-saving station is the cross where Jesus comes to us so that through him we might be saved.

 

Sing

This is a Road Runner, her name I have learned is Rhoda. I saw her run, but I never heard a sound come from her. I guess it is not unusual, Road Runners are not known for their singing, nor do they make the “beep beep” or “meep meep” sounds that you find on the cartoons. The noises they make, their songs as it did communicate things, and you can find out more about that here. 

There is much that gets communicated when we sing as well. Song and singing are things that the people have done throughout all of the time.  I think that is why songs have always played such a large part in worship. I think it is because you can communicate more with

Scripture is full of words, good words as it were, so what is so special about singing? I think it is because you can communicate more with song than with the words alone.  A song can be happy, it can be sad and every emotion in between.  But the music in a song carries with it nuances and waves of emotion.

Next time you sing a hymn or mumble along with the radio, think about what is being communicated by the song, words, phrases, music and instruments all play a role.

Great

So, yeah, I have three dogs now. The biggest weighs like 13 pounds; the other two weigh maybe nine and eleven pounds.  They would never be confused with a Great Dane; likely they will never do any great acts of strength, nor do they display great levels of intelligence.  They are not purebreds, they will win no trophies at Westminister, but they are great nonetheless.

They are great not because of what they are not, but because of what they are.

Too often we gauge greatness by what we see as great in others, and that nearly always frustrates us because we are not them. Our greatness comes from our unique nature as children of God. Each of us the same in God’s love, each a unique reflection of the image of our maker, and there lies our greatness.