On Responding to Evil

Greetings in Christ,

    What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.    Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV)

    The writer of the book Ecclesiastes does not have a very high opinion of human nature.  And, given what has taken place in our world in recent days, one would be tempted to say he is pretty much spot on.  We are shocked by the violence done to innocent people in Paris last week and by the senseless violence in our own community.  We are shocked but not terribly surprised.  Human nature has not changed since the Garden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God.  The violence of Cain against his brother, Abel, foreshadows human relationships since that time to this. And, as the writer of Ecclesiastes bemoans, ‘there is nothing new under the sun.’

    Our first impulse is to do something against those who did this great evil.  It is right to bring those who do evil to account for what they do, but we must take care as we seek those who are responsible.  We may be tempted to act in such a sweeping way that we may give evil to others who are innocent of any crime, but who look like those we think are responsible.  It is the nature of evil, and of its father the devil, to incite us to ever greater evil in our desire to hold accountable those who are responsible.    If we bomb a village in Syria because it may harbor terrorists and kill dozens of innocent civilians, we have descended to the level of those who have done these crimes.  If we lash out at a neighbor because they appear to be from the Middle East, we have let the evil of those who have murdered the innocents dictate our actions.

    Our Lord teaches not to return evil for evil, rather to return the evil of others with the goodness of Christ.  Yes, hold them accountable for what they have done.  Yes, prevent them from doing further harm.  Yes, if we must, fight them to prevent them from greater evils, but we must not let the evil, the hatred of life, that drives their mad actions to infect us as well.  As we hold those who have done this evil accountable, we will also show them the mercy of Christ who can lead even the most wretched sinner out of sin, death and the power of the devil.  May Our Lord through His Holy Spirit transform their hearts as He has transformed ours.

Living in God's Presence

Greetings in Christ,

Today, November 9, is Sofie Davis’ 101st birthday. Sofie is a member of First and we gave God thanks for her many years in worship yesterday and pray, if it pleases God, that she may have more years of blessings among us.  As we celebrate Sofie’s birthday we are reminded of our own birthday. Each year as we observe the day on which we were born, let us be reminded of the gift of life that is given to us by our heavenly Father.

It is the purpose of God that we all know we are created in His image and are intended to be known and loved by Him.  Our Father keeps His purpose for us in that His love never ends for us and He knows us perfectly in all aspects of our lives.  For so great a love and mercy, we give God thanks, yet we know that not all lives are filled with the blessings God our Father desires for us.  Nearly everyone faces some challenges to joy in their lives, some seem to have no end of pain, loss and sorrow.  

It is easy to ask if we have a loving God as our Father, why do so many of His beloved children know pain and suffering?  There are answers that attempt to explain why this is so, sadly most fall short of giving the peace and understanding we seek.  As I live with the reality that our world still groans under the weight of sin and death, and that many, far too many, know the pain of sorrow and loss, I must remind myself that God our Father has promised that one day all this will not even be a memory, that the beauty and joy of His Kingdom will come in it’s fullness, and we shall all know the unending love of His presence.

Until that day, I hold close the words of the 23rd Psalm, fourth verse: “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou are with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.”  

The presence of our loving Father be with you all today.

The Beauty of Worship

Greetings in Christ,

‘Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness;’ Psalm 96.9

My son, Matt, teases me at Sunday dinner, at least I think he is teasing me, about how the pastor went on and on during worship.  It is funny how we look at time.  Last Saturday night Matt and I went to the Iowa State game against Texas.  The game started at 6:00 pm and ended at about 9:30 pm.  Neither of us complained a bit that it was taking too long, in fact we probably would have enjoyed even more time watching the Clones win.  We enjoyed the time at the game because our hearts saw the beauty of the game.

If we regard worship as an obligation to be fulfilled, then worship will not be beautiful for us.  If it is not beautiful to our hearts, then the minutes will drag and an hour given to worship will seem unending.  How does worship become beautiful?  How can it be transformed from something to be endured to something in which our souls rejoice?

We discover the beauty of worship by heeding the Psalm, the beauty of worship is in the beauty of the Lord.  Whenever someone says to me that worship is boring or uninteresting, I remind them that we encounter the living God in worship.  Such an encounter is never boring.  Worship, our encounter with God, may be poorly led, badly planned by those who lead it, but coming into God’s presence is never boring.

There are a few things we can do so that we may discover the beauty of the Lord in any worship service.  The first is our attitude.  If we come expecting that we will meet our Lord in worship we will find our spirits open to His presence in even a poorly planned or led worship.  Secondly, we should give some time to learning what each part of worship is about and what it means.  The more fully we understand what we are doing, the more fully we become involved in the worship.  Thirdly, we should be in prayer for those leading worship.  The vast majority of pastors want to lead worship in a holy and useful manner.  Some are more gifted than others, but most are doing the best they can with the talents they have.  Our prayers will go a long way sustaining them as they lead as well as preparing our hearts to worship.  Lastly, if the worship is not showing us the beauty of the Lord, then we should talk with those who are given the responsibility to lead worship. It may be that together any deficiencies in our worship can be discovered and improvements made.

Worship is at the heart of our relationship with God our Father.  Let us seek to discover the beauty of Lord in holy worship.

All Saints Day

Greetings in Christ,

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, as is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’  Hebrews 12.1-2

This coming Sunday is All Saints, the day in which we remember those who have died in the year past. We also remember those who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Our baptism into Christ is also our entry into His triumph over death so that as we come to All Saints Day we need not be overwhelmed by the fear of death.

Death is a reality that no human being can ignore nor escape.  We are fortunate that we live in a land where death is held at bay by modern medicine and most folk enjoy long lives with relatively few health concerns.  Still, even we must face our final day’s approach in the knowledge that we cannot prevent its coming. 

We face this reality in the confidence that comes from Christ’s having already confronted death and conquered it. By Jesus’ rising from the dead on Easter, we need no longer see death as the end, rather as the beginning, the door by which the child of God is ushered into the new life of God’s Kingdom.  As St. Francis of Assisi wrote in his hymn, ‘All Creatures of Our God and King’ 

    And you, most kind and gentle death,

    Waiting to hush our final breath,

    Oh, praise Him! Alleluia!

    You lead to heaven the child of God,

    Where Christ our Lord the way has trod.

In the glory of our Risen Lord, even death itself becomes the servant of God.  For what death seeks to take from us God gives back in our rising in Christ.  

Let us give thanks this All Saints Day for those baptized into Christ and for those at rest in Him as we all await the day of our resurrection.

On the Eighth Commandment.

Our parish website is up and running.  You can find it at wwwfirststpaul.net  We live in a marvelous time when it comes to communication.  We have news 24 hours a day through TV, radio, and the internet.  One can find out information on any subject with a simple web search.  We are better informed than any previous age and that is a good thing.

However, the same speed and widespread nature of information that is a blessing to us can also be a source of terrible misinformation.  Not everything you see is alway 100% accurate, is incomplete or just flat out wrong.  Last week there was a news story about a woman who sued her 12 year old nephew for injuries she received at his birthday party when he hugged her.  The initial news story made her out to be the worst aunt ever and everyone was upset about how she could do such a thing.  A day later it came out that her injury required surgeries and her insurance company insisted that the homeowners insurance of her nephew’s parents pay for it.  Apparently under the laws of the state in which they lived, the insurance company couldn’t be listed as the defendant, so the 12 year old nephew had to be named.  Nobody wanted to do it, but to get her medical bills paid that is what had to be done.

The lesson we learn is what we learn from our Catechism in Luther’s explanation of the Eighth Commandment, ‘You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor.’  Luther reminds us: ‘We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.’  

As Christians we always seek the truth about others so that we may speak of them in the kindest way.  As St. Paul reminds us, we are to speak the truth in love, regarding those about whom we speak as someone worthy of the death and resurrection of our Lord.

On Prayer and Song

I have a needlepoint on my bookshelf that was given to me many years ago with a quote that is attributed to St. Augustine - “He who sings prays twice.”  It is a sentiment that is borne out by our worship life in the Church.  So much of what we do in worship grows out of singing.  There is something about singing that draws the heart of the believer in to a deeper appreciation of God’s Word that merely speaking the words cannot do.  Each of us has a favorite hymn or part of the liturgy that resonates in our hearts like nothing else is able to do.  John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, instructed his followers to sing and not worry about how harmonious they might be as the act of singing helps the faith to grow.

Luther also saw that music could encourage and teach the faith in a way that nothing else could do.  He wrote several hymns and encouraged Lutherans to sing in worship, a tradition that we still follow today and for which we can give God thanks and praise for voices lifted to Him in song.