My pre-teens, translate six year olds, are really into music. They have been listening to Christian music both hymns and contemporary since they were born and we try to expose them to as much Christian music as we can listening to the radio and playing CD’s in the car and at home. They also have grown up listening to a lot of secular music, my wife and I love 80’s rock and roll and yes even some country music. We for the most part are able to control what they listen to when we are around but we are not always around and so sometimes they get exposed to things that we are not really happy about. Unfortunately my son is gaga over Lady Gaga. There are a few other younger singers that we are not too pleased with either like Justine Bieber, sorry but I just don’t get how he is popular. One singer though that we kind of like because she was on Disney Channel for so long is Selena Gomez. She has now transitioned to making CDs and my kids are always listening to her songs. The latest and most popular of her songs is entitled “Love You Like A Love Song.” The main chorus in the song is “I, I love you like a long song, baby.” It is very catchy and I find myself walking around the house repeating the chorus.
When I stopped to think about it I realized I didn’t really know what that meant. So I went and looked up the lyrics on line. Most of the song is the chorus repeated over and over again, but there are two verses and a bridge that surround the chorus. So I thought well the lyrics will explain it right? Well, they do, but I am not so sure I like the explanation. I don’t have a problem with the lyrics I just think they are superficial, like I was supposed to expect anything else from a pop song. If you haven’t heard the lyrics, the first verse goes like this, “It’s been said and done Every beautiful thought’s been already sung And I guess right now here’s another one So your melody will play on and on, with the best of ‘em You are beautiful, like a dream come alive, incredible A centerfold miracle, lyrical You’ve saved my life again And I want you to know baby.” And then she transitions into the chorus.” Okay nothing offensive, which is a plus compared to some of them out there. Basically she is saying she looks upon him as a beautiful love song come alive in her life, heck I could even hear those lines included in wedding vows, not any wedding I would perform, but I could see it done.
So what’s my problem if they are not objectionable? Well my problem is not in what is there, but in what is not there. If the words of the lyrics are the basis for love, then that love is probably not going to last very long. Love songs come and go. In other words new ones are always replacing them. The lyrics even contain the line, “So your melody will play on and on, with the best of em.” So in other words there are other love songs and maybe other people as well. I know I am nit picking and for crying out loud it’s a pop song by a teenage girl. My goal is not to put down Selena Gomez, so far in my book she is a nice girl.
The problem is not Gomez and it’s not the song, it’s the fact that many people’s idea of love is as superficial as this song and most other pop songs about love. I run into the problem a lot when I sit down with young couples who are getting married. They are in love, he or she is perfect, they are that love song. And so I ask them how they met and what they like to do together and its’ always so wonderful. I usually let them go on for awhile about how wonderful it is and then I stop them and ask, so what are you going to do when it’s not so wonderful? What are you going to do when you realize that she or he is not perfect, matter of fact there are a lot of things about them that just flat irritate you? What are you going to do when the finances fall apart, when you can’t agree on how to raise the kids, when your mother-in-law drives you nuts? What are you going to do when the music stops?
Most of us who have been married for awhile realize that no matter how much we love our spouse, those things are going to happen. Every marriage that I have been around has gone through some sort of trial at some point and some have even been through the fire once or twice. So what are you going to do when that happens? Unfortunately we live in a society where too many people love their spouses like a love song by Selena Gomez. Those marriages usually fall apart. They have nothing to hold them together except some emotions, some good feelings. Loving someone like a love song is great when you are a teenage girl in love with a cute teenage boy, but it doesn’t work when you are an adult and married to a real person who has real faults just like you do. Very quickly that pop love song becomes a Mark Chesnutt country song with the words, “I’m going through the big D and I don’t mean Dallas.” I guess somewhere we need to find a balance between pop love songs where every relationship is perfect and country songs where every relationship ends in divorce.
As I said before my problem is not what is in the lyrics but what is not in the lyrics. What is not in the lyrics is the word commitment. Real love always involves commitment, because real love is more than an emotion it’s an action, it’s a way of living. When you love someone you don’t just feel good about them, you do things for them, you care for them, you support them, and you are there for them through thick and thin. Real love stays when the chips are down. Real love forgives, builds up and protects.
When I tell young couples that sometimes they look at me like I just took their CD out of the player and broke it in half. When I see that look I know I have done my job. I have introduced them to reality. If there is no C word there will no doubt be a D word somewhere in their future.
When I realize I have their attention and I sense they are a little worried I introduce them to another C word, Christ. Christ is the big C word because it is from him that we get the strength to be committed to each other. As sinners we humans had offended God in so many ways I don’t have time to name them. God had every right to just get rid of us, but in spite of all of our sin God continued to love us, he continued to be committed to us. The greatness of that commitment was demonstrated in his sending of his Son Jesus Christ to save us. Christ showed that commitment to us by going to the cross and dying for us, even suffering the pains of hell for us. Bottom line He saved us from eternal destruction because he loved us with real love, committed love. As believers in Christ we are now called to love others, especially our spouses, the same way. We love others because Christ first loved us. The chorus “I love you like a love song baby,” although not objectionable is so weak that it is pitiful and certainly not the basis for a real relationship. No real love, committed love that lasts says, “I love you like Christ loved me, baby.” Maybe it’s not as catchy but it’s the type of love you need in reality.
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
What Are You Thankful For?
Next week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not an official Christian holiday but we usually do hold special services to commemorate it. We will be doing that here at 7 p.m. on Wednesday the 23rd and then we are going to have a Pie Social afterward. So if you are in the area join us for worship and some pie. I will be conducting the worship service and I preaching on how thankful we are to be, that is usually what pastor’s do for Thanksgiving services. I am not staying for the Pie Social though because I have to be in San Diego for Thanksgiving with my extended family. So we will be leaving a few minutes after the benediction. I am actually looking forward to the drive because I know the kids will fall asleep quickly and I won’t have to stop for sixteen potty breaks between here and California. Plus I like to drive at night when everyone is asleep, it lets me think my own thoughts and not be disturbed. Our CD player and radio went out in the van awhile ago so there will be no music either. It will just be me, the headlights, the ribbon of road, some wildlife and maybe a few illegal aliens trying to sneak across I-8 in the middle of the night. I have never seen that yet on the drive, although I often look over into Mexico at times when we are near the border. Whenever I see the hills of Mexico off in the distance I am reminded of Clint Eastwood in all those spaghetti westerns, which were really filmed in Italy, hence the name spaghetti western, but always seemed to end up in some dusty little village in Mexico. But that’s another topic, back to Thanksgiving.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving because I am going to spend it with a large part of my family this year. That hasn’t always been the case for me. I have spent a number of Thanksgivings in other places in the country without family. I always had friends mind you but family was thousands of miles away. Over the years I have spent Thanksgiving with close friends in Nebraska, with congregation members in Michigan, North Dakota, and Indiana, all of them nice but not the same as with family. I had three Thanksgivings that were to say the least strange. The strangest one was in Cambridge England when I was going to school there. It occurred to my friend and I that the Brit’s don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. We didn’t know what to do. The Brits somehow picked up on our confusion and threw a Thanksgiving dinner for us with all the trimmings. That was nice, I still remember that. I don’t remember much about the dinner but I do remember with great thankfulness their hospitality and what it meant to my friend and me. I spent another Thanksgiving in a restaurant in North Dakota. I was supposed to join a farmer and his family for Thanksgiving but the night before it snowed two feet and they shut everything down. North Dakotans are a resilient group though and someone talked to someone who talked to someone else who arranged for the entire town to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the local diner together. There were 250 people in the town so it was a little confusing but again, it was wonderful. I will never forget my Thanksgiving on the road though. It was also in North Dakota but several years before the one I just talked about and before I was a pastor. Another friend and I left Idaho together, he was headed for graduate school at North Dakota State in Fargo and I was headed to Seminary in Fort Wayne Indiana. He was going to start after Christmas break and I was going to start after Thanksgiving break and so we decided to drive out together in the bad weather. We got caught in a horrible snow storm right before Jamestown North Dakota, in which we came very close to getting killed, and so we ended up staying the night there. The next day was Thanksgiving. As we filled up at the gas station we both grabbed a frozen burrito and heated them in the station’s microwave. We nodded to each other and said, “Happy Thanksgiving.” In this case it was just good to be alive. As we left Jamestown and headed East we realized how blessed we were, the roadside was littered with overturned trucks and cars. Many people have similar Thanksgiving stories; many probably have stories of Thanksgivings in faraway places such Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, or a number of other places that have left indelible memories. I have been blessed for the past fourteen years to spend every Thanksgiving with my family, sometimes it was just me and my wife but we were family. For the past six years it has been at the very least the four of us and there has also been a lot of extended family and friends at times as well.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving this year because the four of us are going over to join my mom and my nephew and niece for Thanksgiving north of San Diego in San Marcos. As the years go on and I attend more and more funerals of family and friends I realize how important and precious times like these are. The people you value the most aren’t always going to be there. You never know when you are spending your last Thanksgiving with them. We have a tradition at Family of Christ here in Phoenix. Right after the sermon we ask people to stand up and tell everyone what they are thankful for. If you understand anything about Lutherans you know that is pushing the envelope. We Lutherans don’t usually talk about our feelings, especially in front of groups of people. Therefore I am always amazed at the number of people who do stand up and express, sometimes very emotionally, what they are thankful for. Many times what is expressed is that they are thankful for their families and for each other. I know that is what I am thankful for. I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the family he has given me both inside and outside the church. In fact I am thankful for so many things I have that I can’t begin to list them.
As I said before Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, at the same time thankfulness is a Christian virtue. We have so much to be thankful for. As Christians we have been adopted by Christ into his family. We have been saved from death and damnation through our faith in Jesus. If there was ever anything to be thankful that would be it. In addition to that he has given us so much more, namely our families and our friends that we share our lives with. He has also given us homes and jobs and health and food you name it. Too often we take those things for granted and we only think about them when they are gone. The holiday of Thanksgiving is a way of guarding against that. So this Thanksgiving wherever you are, gathered around the family dinner table with those you love, at a friend’s house, at a roadside gas station in the middle of nowhere, take the time to think about what you are thankful for, and also take the time to thank God for them, and then thank the people around you for being who they are in your life. Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, but maybe it should be.
Pastor Fred
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving because I am going to spend it with a large part of my family this year. That hasn’t always been the case for me. I have spent a number of Thanksgivings in other places in the country without family. I always had friends mind you but family was thousands of miles away. Over the years I have spent Thanksgiving with close friends in Nebraska, with congregation members in Michigan, North Dakota, and Indiana, all of them nice but not the same as with family. I had three Thanksgivings that were to say the least strange. The strangest one was in Cambridge England when I was going to school there. It occurred to my friend and I that the Brit’s don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. We didn’t know what to do. The Brits somehow picked up on our confusion and threw a Thanksgiving dinner for us with all the trimmings. That was nice, I still remember that. I don’t remember much about the dinner but I do remember with great thankfulness their hospitality and what it meant to my friend and me. I spent another Thanksgiving in a restaurant in North Dakota. I was supposed to join a farmer and his family for Thanksgiving but the night before it snowed two feet and they shut everything down. North Dakotans are a resilient group though and someone talked to someone who talked to someone else who arranged for the entire town to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the local diner together. There were 250 people in the town so it was a little confusing but again, it was wonderful. I will never forget my Thanksgiving on the road though. It was also in North Dakota but several years before the one I just talked about and before I was a pastor. Another friend and I left Idaho together, he was headed for graduate school at North Dakota State in Fargo and I was headed to Seminary in Fort Wayne Indiana. He was going to start after Christmas break and I was going to start after Thanksgiving break and so we decided to drive out together in the bad weather. We got caught in a horrible snow storm right before Jamestown North Dakota, in which we came very close to getting killed, and so we ended up staying the night there. The next day was Thanksgiving. As we filled up at the gas station we both grabbed a frozen burrito and heated them in the station’s microwave. We nodded to each other and said, “Happy Thanksgiving.” In this case it was just good to be alive. As we left Jamestown and headed East we realized how blessed we were, the roadside was littered with overturned trucks and cars. Many people have similar Thanksgiving stories; many probably have stories of Thanksgivings in faraway places such Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, or a number of other places that have left indelible memories. I have been blessed for the past fourteen years to spend every Thanksgiving with my family, sometimes it was just me and my wife but we were family. For the past six years it has been at the very least the four of us and there has also been a lot of extended family and friends at times as well.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving this year because the four of us are going over to join my mom and my nephew and niece for Thanksgiving north of San Diego in San Marcos. As the years go on and I attend more and more funerals of family and friends I realize how important and precious times like these are. The people you value the most aren’t always going to be there. You never know when you are spending your last Thanksgiving with them. We have a tradition at Family of Christ here in Phoenix. Right after the sermon we ask people to stand up and tell everyone what they are thankful for. If you understand anything about Lutherans you know that is pushing the envelope. We Lutherans don’t usually talk about our feelings, especially in front of groups of people. Therefore I am always amazed at the number of people who do stand up and express, sometimes very emotionally, what they are thankful for. Many times what is expressed is that they are thankful for their families and for each other. I know that is what I am thankful for. I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the family he has given me both inside and outside the church. In fact I am thankful for so many things I have that I can’t begin to list them.
As I said before Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, at the same time thankfulness is a Christian virtue. We have so much to be thankful for. As Christians we have been adopted by Christ into his family. We have been saved from death and damnation through our faith in Jesus. If there was ever anything to be thankful that would be it. In addition to that he has given us so much more, namely our families and our friends that we share our lives with. He has also given us homes and jobs and health and food you name it. Too often we take those things for granted and we only think about them when they are gone. The holiday of Thanksgiving is a way of guarding against that. So this Thanksgiving wherever you are, gathered around the family dinner table with those you love, at a friend’s house, at a roadside gas station in the middle of nowhere, take the time to think about what you are thankful for, and also take the time to thank God for them, and then thank the people around you for being who they are in your life. Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, but maybe it should be.
Pastor Fred
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
I Have Found The Sinner and He is Me!
One of my biggest pet peeves in life are people that go through the drive thru lane at a fast food restaurant or someplace like Starbucks and then order for a bunch of people. They take forever to order and then when they get to the window it seems like they are never going to move. You know the scene, the person inside hands them a cup of coffee, and you think okay, but they don’t move, then the person inside hands them another cup of coffee and a bag holding some pumpkin bread or something. Still the car doesn’t move. Slowly another cup of something is handed to them, then the person inside leans their head out the window and you know they are listening to some complaint, and sure enough there goes a cup of coffee back to the server and the car doesn’t move. Several more minutes go by and then another cup of something passes through the window to the person in the car, obviously the replacement for the wrong drink they had received before. The worst part is that you know it was probably the person in the car who messed up the order in the first place, Aunt May wanted caramel in that drink and they forgot to mention that. So now you think the car is going to move but no the server sticks her head out the window again and the person inside the car hands them a wad of cash. Don’t they know everyone uses credit cards these days! Now the server is going to have to count them and invariable will count them wrong and there will be more conversation between the car and the window. This is one of my biggest pet peeves as everyone in my family knows all too well.
When this is going on I am saying things like, “Oh for crying out loud people, if you are ordering for more than two go inside, that’s what inside is for. Those of us out here in cars are in our cars for a reason, we are in a hurry, you’re in a car, you should know that, but NO, you’re too important to go inside, who cares if the rest of us have to wait, we really don’t matter after all do we?” “I mean how rude and inconsiderate can you get, I bet his guy also brings a full cart to the 15 or less items line at the grocery store”, another pet peeve of mine. My wife is always saying, “Please stop, it’s not going to speed anything up, we just have to wait.” My response, “You’re right we have to wait because that guy decided to order for the whole office in his car!” My kids by this time are laying back in their seats staring out the window, hoping no one hears my ranting. Patience is not a virtue of mine when it comes to waiting behind people who order for half the community in the drive thru. Now I don’t go through the drive thru at Starbucks every day, not even most days, but it seems that when I do, I always get behind one of these horrible sinful people who should know better.
Saturday Charlie had baseball practice early in the morning. After practice I usually like to take him someplace for a treat, and that morning I decided that I would get the whole family a treat, so after practice Charlie and I drove to Starbucks. I asked Charlie what he wanted. He said that wanted some of those pink birthday donuts that Starbucks serves and that he also wanted a drink. I though well if I get that for him, I also have to get that for Jasmine as well, and then I also need to get something like for Darla and come to think of it that sounds pretty good for me too. As we were pulling up to Starbucks Charlie said he wanted to go inside, I said, “No, not this morning, mommy and Jasmine are waiting and we have a lot to get done today we will just go through the drive thru.” So when I got to box where you order I put in my order of a Venti Americano with cream, a Grande strawberries and cream and two Grande hot chocolates, plus I also wanted six of the birthday donuts and a brownie. The voice in the box said, “I don’t know if we have six birthday donuts, let me check”, so I sat there in line while she checked. She came back and said, “No I only have three of those.” Oh I said, “Well how about those pink birthday pops, how many of them do you have?” She said, “Wait a minute let me check”, so I waited there while she checked. She came back and informed me she had plenty of those and so I said “Give me three birthday donuts and also three of the birthday pops and drop the brownie.” “You don’t want the brownie sir”; “No” I said “I don’t want the brownie.” “Okay” she said and then proceeded to run through my order with me. After she did, I said “No I don’t want cream in that Americano, I want whole milk.” “Oh I thought you said cream?” “No whole milk”, actually I had said cream because that is the way that I order coffee at Dunkin Donuts. So finally we were done. A few minutes later I found myself at the window. The server opened the window and started to hand me a drink, but I stopped her, and asked if she could please put all the drinks in a cup holder, so she took the drink back and closed the window. The window opened again and she handed me the tray of drinks which I put on the seat beside me and before I did anything else I took the Americano out and tasted it to make sure it was whole milk and not cream. I turned back around and she was handing me the donuts and pops. I took them and made sure I looked in the package to see if they were all there. Then I reached for my Starbucks gift card, which I had forgot to put in my wallet so I had to start digging through my pockets. Finally I found it and handed it to her. The window closed and then opened back up again and she informed me that I still owed a little over seven dollars. Not wanting to use my credit card I started rummaging for dollar bills in my pockets again. I finally end up with a wad of cash in my hand and I figured there was at least seven dollars in there and so I just handed it to her. She started to straighten it out and count it and then window closed again. Finally she opened the window and said I need another dollar. I didn’t have another dollar so I asked for my money back and handed her my credit card. As I did I looked in the rearview mirror and it hit me. Opps!
When this is going on I am saying things like, “Oh for crying out loud people, if you are ordering for more than two go inside, that’s what inside is for. Those of us out here in cars are in our cars for a reason, we are in a hurry, you’re in a car, you should know that, but NO, you’re too important to go inside, who cares if the rest of us have to wait, we really don’t matter after all do we?” “I mean how rude and inconsiderate can you get, I bet his guy also brings a full cart to the 15 or less items line at the grocery store”, another pet peeve of mine. My wife is always saying, “Please stop, it’s not going to speed anything up, we just have to wait.” My response, “You’re right we have to wait because that guy decided to order for the whole office in his car!” My kids by this time are laying back in their seats staring out the window, hoping no one hears my ranting. Patience is not a virtue of mine when it comes to waiting behind people who order for half the community in the drive thru. Now I don’t go through the drive thru at Starbucks every day, not even most days, but it seems that when I do, I always get behind one of these horrible sinful people who should know better.
Saturday Charlie had baseball practice early in the morning. After practice I usually like to take him someplace for a treat, and that morning I decided that I would get the whole family a treat, so after practice Charlie and I drove to Starbucks. I asked Charlie what he wanted. He said that wanted some of those pink birthday donuts that Starbucks serves and that he also wanted a drink. I though well if I get that for him, I also have to get that for Jasmine as well, and then I also need to get something like for Darla and come to think of it that sounds pretty good for me too. As we were pulling up to Starbucks Charlie said he wanted to go inside, I said, “No, not this morning, mommy and Jasmine are waiting and we have a lot to get done today we will just go through the drive thru.” So when I got to box where you order I put in my order of a Venti Americano with cream, a Grande strawberries and cream and two Grande hot chocolates, plus I also wanted six of the birthday donuts and a brownie. The voice in the box said, “I don’t know if we have six birthday donuts, let me check”, so I sat there in line while she checked. She came back and said, “No I only have three of those.” Oh I said, “Well how about those pink birthday pops, how many of them do you have?” She said, “Wait a minute let me check”, so I waited there while she checked. She came back and informed me she had plenty of those and so I said “Give me three birthday donuts and also three of the birthday pops and drop the brownie.” “You don’t want the brownie sir”; “No” I said “I don’t want the brownie.” “Okay” she said and then proceeded to run through my order with me. After she did, I said “No I don’t want cream in that Americano, I want whole milk.” “Oh I thought you said cream?” “No whole milk”, actually I had said cream because that is the way that I order coffee at Dunkin Donuts. So finally we were done. A few minutes later I found myself at the window. The server opened the window and started to hand me a drink, but I stopped her, and asked if she could please put all the drinks in a cup holder, so she took the drink back and closed the window. The window opened again and she handed me the tray of drinks which I put on the seat beside me and before I did anything else I took the Americano out and tasted it to make sure it was whole milk and not cream. I turned back around and she was handing me the donuts and pops. I took them and made sure I looked in the package to see if they were all there. Then I reached for my Starbucks gift card, which I had forgot to put in my wallet so I had to start digging through my pockets. Finally I found it and handed it to her. The window closed and then opened back up again and she informed me that I still owed a little over seven dollars. Not wanting to use my credit card I started rummaging for dollar bills in my pockets again. I finally end up with a wad of cash in my hand and I figured there was at least seven dollars in there and so I just handed it to her. She started to straighten it out and count it and then window closed again. Finally she opened the window and said I need another dollar. I didn’t have another dollar so I asked for my money back and handed her my credit card. As I did I looked in the rearview mirror and it hit me. Opps!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
A Change in Seasons
A change in seasons has happened. Yes we even get changes in seasons in Arizona, although not quite as dramatic as in other parts of the country. In fact when you are new here you really don’t notice it that much. It is sunny pretty much every day in Arizona and it very seldom gets real cold. The first few years you are here all you really notice is that the heat finally goes away and it gets comfortable for several months before the heat gets turned back up again. After you have been here awhile though you start to notice the subtle differences in the seasons, in a sense you learn a new normal. Basically you learn to complain about different things and rejoice in other stuff that many people would think strange. For instance in the summer when the temperature drops to 99 you rejoice that finally you have a cool day. When it’s 109 you rejoice that after 18 days in a row it’s not above 110. When it drops below 32, which doesn’t happen often, panic and hysteria kick in because in Arizona most of the piping is outside and nothing is insulated from the cold so pipes start breaking throughout the community. I have lived in North Dakota, Indiana, Idaho, Montana, Michigan and even in Wyoming where it gets really cold and my pipes have never burst. So it was ironic that the day I arrived in Phoenix it dropped below 32 and my pipes broke in my house. I had lived through winters of weeks on end of 30 below without a problem, first day in Arizona with 32 above and I have a major disaster on my hands. But that’s Arizona, sunny, warm, hot, sometimes wonderful and always a little strange.
A change in seasons is about to happen in the church as well. In a little over a month we will be ending the season of Pentecost and entering the season of Advent and with that a whole new church year. For those us who follow a liturgical calendar we will be entering season B. It is a three year cycle of A, B, C and then we start the whole thing over again. As a pastor who went through his phase of trying to “be with it.” I used to make fun of the church year and all the colors and old traditions. At a certain point along the way I realized that I wasn’t “with it,” in fact I had probably lost it along the way but just can’t remember where, to loosely quote Johnny Carson. I know if you reading this and you are under 40 you are probably asking yourself, “Who is Johnny Carson?” More evidence I am no longer with it. I have relearned recently to deeply appreciate the change in seasons in the church. I know they are not in Scripture and they are certainly not points of doctrine, but that doesn’t make them unimportant. Right now we are in the season of Pentecost. This season starts with the Day of Pentecost which usually occurs somewhere in late May or early June, depending on when Easter is. It is day of red. Red represents the fire of the Holy Spirit coming down on the church. It is a color of power and strength. The Sunday after that is White because it is Trinity Sunday. White stands for purity, and sinlessness, perfect for a Sunday focusing on the three persons of the Godhead. The next Sunday the color turns to Green and remains Green for usually twenty some weeks. Green is the color of life and growth and the season of Pentecost focuses on the life of the Christian, it is also sometimes referred to as the non-festive half of the church year. There is one festival though that we as Lutherans celebrate and that is the usually the last Sunday in October when we celebrate the Reformation, where the color is Red again. The new Church years usually starts at the end of November with Advent. The color for Advent is Blue, which is a royal color and a color of anticipation. During Advent we celebrate the various comings of Christ. We celebrate his first coming at Christmas, we celebrate his coming into our hearts by faith and we celebrate his second coming which we are still waiting for. Advent is of course followed by the season of Christmas which is also White. The season of Christmas takes us into the New Year and is followed by the season of Epiphany which is Green. Epiphany means shining forth and during this time we celebrate the miracles of Jesus while he was here on earth. Jesus was both man and God but for the most part people just saw his humanity while he was here on earth, but at times he would perform a miracle and his divinity would shine forth out of his humanity. Epiphany is then followed by the season of Lent which is represented by the color Purple, which is a color of suffering. During Lent we walk with Jesus to the cross. We look at his coming suffering for us and it all leads up to Good Friday which is represented by the color Black, the color of sin and death. Thankfully two days later we celebrate Easter with the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The season of Easter is presented by the color of White. This season then leads us back to Pentecost where we started. Each of these seasons has a different color and a different focus. These seasons keep us on track and keep us in a rhythm. We also have special celebrations during all of this, unusual things happen in the church, sometimes some big event in the world will cause us to stop and take notice and related it to God in some way, but for the most part the seasons come and go and we continually get reminded of the law and the gospel. The law shows us our sins and the Gospel shows us our Savior. Each season looks at those two things differently but at the end of the day it all comes down to the fact that Jesus died for our sins and that he offers us his free forgiveness through faith in him.
I will admit that I miss the four seasons, I particularly miss the early fall. I believe there is even a Clint Black song that contains the line, “There is just something about the early fall.” Early fall in Arizona is not as different from summer as it is in other parts of the country. I make up for that by making pumpkin bread and drying pumpkin seeds. I also observe the seasons of the church which in fall begin to change as well. There is also something about the early fall in the church, the pace changes, the air changes, and I like that. A cold cloudy day wouldn’t hurt though. Just a special request.
Pastor Fred
A change in seasons is about to happen in the church as well. In a little over a month we will be ending the season of Pentecost and entering the season of Advent and with that a whole new church year. For those us who follow a liturgical calendar we will be entering season B. It is a three year cycle of A, B, C and then we start the whole thing over again. As a pastor who went through his phase of trying to “be with it.” I used to make fun of the church year and all the colors and old traditions. At a certain point along the way I realized that I wasn’t “with it,” in fact I had probably lost it along the way but just can’t remember where, to loosely quote Johnny Carson. I know if you reading this and you are under 40 you are probably asking yourself, “Who is Johnny Carson?” More evidence I am no longer with it. I have relearned recently to deeply appreciate the change in seasons in the church. I know they are not in Scripture and they are certainly not points of doctrine, but that doesn’t make them unimportant. Right now we are in the season of Pentecost. This season starts with the Day of Pentecost which usually occurs somewhere in late May or early June, depending on when Easter is. It is day of red. Red represents the fire of the Holy Spirit coming down on the church. It is a color of power and strength. The Sunday after that is White because it is Trinity Sunday. White stands for purity, and sinlessness, perfect for a Sunday focusing on the three persons of the Godhead. The next Sunday the color turns to Green and remains Green for usually twenty some weeks. Green is the color of life and growth and the season of Pentecost focuses on the life of the Christian, it is also sometimes referred to as the non-festive half of the church year. There is one festival though that we as Lutherans celebrate and that is the usually the last Sunday in October when we celebrate the Reformation, where the color is Red again. The new Church years usually starts at the end of November with Advent. The color for Advent is Blue, which is a royal color and a color of anticipation. During Advent we celebrate the various comings of Christ. We celebrate his first coming at Christmas, we celebrate his coming into our hearts by faith and we celebrate his second coming which we are still waiting for. Advent is of course followed by the season of Christmas which is also White. The season of Christmas takes us into the New Year and is followed by the season of Epiphany which is Green. Epiphany means shining forth and during this time we celebrate the miracles of Jesus while he was here on earth. Jesus was both man and God but for the most part people just saw his humanity while he was here on earth, but at times he would perform a miracle and his divinity would shine forth out of his humanity. Epiphany is then followed by the season of Lent which is represented by the color Purple, which is a color of suffering. During Lent we walk with Jesus to the cross. We look at his coming suffering for us and it all leads up to Good Friday which is represented by the color Black, the color of sin and death. Thankfully two days later we celebrate Easter with the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The season of Easter is presented by the color of White. This season then leads us back to Pentecost where we started. Each of these seasons has a different color and a different focus. These seasons keep us on track and keep us in a rhythm. We also have special celebrations during all of this, unusual things happen in the church, sometimes some big event in the world will cause us to stop and take notice and related it to God in some way, but for the most part the seasons come and go and we continually get reminded of the law and the gospel. The law shows us our sins and the Gospel shows us our Savior. Each season looks at those two things differently but at the end of the day it all comes down to the fact that Jesus died for our sins and that he offers us his free forgiveness through faith in him.
I will admit that I miss the four seasons, I particularly miss the early fall. I believe there is even a Clint Black song that contains the line, “There is just something about the early fall.” Early fall in Arizona is not as different from summer as it is in other parts of the country. I make up for that by making pumpkin bread and drying pumpkin seeds. I also observe the seasons of the church which in fall begin to change as well. There is also something about the early fall in the church, the pace changes, the air changes, and I like that. A cold cloudy day wouldn’t hurt though. Just a special request.
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
PATIENCE SOUP
I love making soup. Typically when people think of soup they think of something that they eat in late fall or in the winter. In Arizona most people consider it too hot to eat soup in the summer. I mean who wants to eat soup when its 115 outside? I get that, I understand that, but I love soup all year round. I eat soup even when it is 115 outside. I stand over the pot stirring whipping the sweat off of my brow and then I eat it with more sweat pouring out. I just love soup. It probably helps that I also like hot weather, although sometimes 115 is pushing it. If I had my way we would eat soup every night I like it so much. The other members of my family though, are not quite as fanatically about it as I am. My wife likes soup. My kids are not big fans yet. I say yet because I am slowly working on their taste buds and they are starting to eat some of my soups. They particularly like my homemade chicken noodle soup. I have several soup books in my library. The books all have different approaches to soup. For instance I have one book entitled, “500 Soups”. It has a bunch of different categories like cold soups, meat based soups, and grained based soup etc… and then every soup has about 6 variations. The soups in this book are all very good and they usually only take at most 45 minutes to make. There is a soup in there called, “Chili beef soup with cheese topped tortilla chips.” I use lamb instead of beef and my family says it tastes just like the “Mexican Pizza” at Taco Bell. The difference the soup is healthy for you while the Mexican Pizza isn’t. The soups from the book are easy to make and don’t take a lot of time. We eat a lot of soup from this book.
I have another soup book though that takes a very different approach it is called, “The Best Soups in the World.” It literally has soups from all around the world and even from different time periods in world history. The recipes have ingredients that are sometimes hard to come by and the instructions can be very complicated and time consuming. Some of the soups in this book can take hours and hours to make and one mistake and you might as well pour it down the drain. Soups in this book have names like, “Basler Mehlsuppe” which is from Switzerland. “Armenian Trahana Soup” which is from Armenia and takes a week to make from start to finish. Then there is “Soupe de Poisson” from Marseilles which has recipes within the recipe. Whenever one of these soups is on the schedule my family takes a step back because they never know what is going to happen. They just know I am going to be obsessed with my cast iron Dutch oven over the stove for several hours and that I am not to be disturbed. I absolutely treasure this book. I don’t even let people turn the pages in it until I have a blood sample, social security number and their first born child as collateral. I usually only make two soups a month from this book, because of time constraints, I need to make sure there are no conflicts on the calendar and that I will have time alone to make the soup. These soups require preparation and great care and above all these soups require patience. With the “500 Soups” book you just kind of put it together and cook it and the soups are pretty good. With these soups though, much patience is require and the ending result is either something out of this world or it is horrible. The conclusion I have come to in the last six months is that really good soup, soup that causes you to forget where you are at and what you are doing and why you even exist, requires patience. Patience is a key ingredient.
The thing about a good soup is that it needs to slowly cook and certain ingredients need to be added at certain times. The amount of the ingredient is many times measured by taste and smell. You have to let it simmer, you can’t rush things, you can’t speed up the process and get really good mind blowing soup. Things need time to cook down, to cook together, and to release flavors. Spices need to be added in small amounts and herbs need to be stripped from the stems and crumbled just so between your fingers over the soup. If salt is being added, it can’t be put in until the last minute and then you can’t over salt because you can’t take it back. Pepper needs to be ground at the last minute also, but only to the point that its taste comes out and not to the point that people choke when they eat it. Patience and calm is needed in all of this.
I never have understood the concept of the angry soup maker that is sometimes portrayed on TV. After I get done making soup, I am the calmest guy in the room. All of my stress is gone and I am in a very good mood. I am also very patient at this point. I have taken ingredients and put them in a pot and added heat and over the course of a couple of hours I have added this and that, stirred endlessly with my wooden spoon, covered the pot and let it simmer on its own, checking every once in a while on its progress. If I have added wine, I probably I have also drank some, my hands smell of garlic and maybe mint, thyme, sage, pepper, basil and a few other herbs and spices. The house smells wonderful and now all there is to do is eat the soup that patience has created. The thing about this patience soup is that it seems to translate to other areas of my life as well. I tend to be more patient with people in general after I have been making soup.
Now I know the standard Christian response to this will be, pastor what you really need to do is read Scripture and pray if you want patience. I agree and I do that, but I also believe that God works through the common everyday things that we do. When we are in need of some quality like patience or kindness, he doesn’t just say take a couple of Bible verses and call me in the morning after you pray. He gives us vocations, avocations and sometimes vacations to keep us healthy. I need patience, therefore in addition to prayer and Scripture, I need soup. I think that is true of everyone. It may not be soup for you, but maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s a hobby or a craft like cooking, but everyone has something. How do you slow down and focus and develop things like patience? If you don’t have anything right now what are some ways that you can start to find them?
Pastor Fred
I have another soup book though that takes a very different approach it is called, “The Best Soups in the World.” It literally has soups from all around the world and even from different time periods in world history. The recipes have ingredients that are sometimes hard to come by and the instructions can be very complicated and time consuming. Some of the soups in this book can take hours and hours to make and one mistake and you might as well pour it down the drain. Soups in this book have names like, “Basler Mehlsuppe” which is from Switzerland. “Armenian Trahana Soup” which is from Armenia and takes a week to make from start to finish. Then there is “Soupe de Poisson” from Marseilles which has recipes within the recipe. Whenever one of these soups is on the schedule my family takes a step back because they never know what is going to happen. They just know I am going to be obsessed with my cast iron Dutch oven over the stove for several hours and that I am not to be disturbed. I absolutely treasure this book. I don’t even let people turn the pages in it until I have a blood sample, social security number and their first born child as collateral. I usually only make two soups a month from this book, because of time constraints, I need to make sure there are no conflicts on the calendar and that I will have time alone to make the soup. These soups require preparation and great care and above all these soups require patience. With the “500 Soups” book you just kind of put it together and cook it and the soups are pretty good. With these soups though, much patience is require and the ending result is either something out of this world or it is horrible. The conclusion I have come to in the last six months is that really good soup, soup that causes you to forget where you are at and what you are doing and why you even exist, requires patience. Patience is a key ingredient.
The thing about a good soup is that it needs to slowly cook and certain ingredients need to be added at certain times. The amount of the ingredient is many times measured by taste and smell. You have to let it simmer, you can’t rush things, you can’t speed up the process and get really good mind blowing soup. Things need time to cook down, to cook together, and to release flavors. Spices need to be added in small amounts and herbs need to be stripped from the stems and crumbled just so between your fingers over the soup. If salt is being added, it can’t be put in until the last minute and then you can’t over salt because you can’t take it back. Pepper needs to be ground at the last minute also, but only to the point that its taste comes out and not to the point that people choke when they eat it. Patience and calm is needed in all of this.
I never have understood the concept of the angry soup maker that is sometimes portrayed on TV. After I get done making soup, I am the calmest guy in the room. All of my stress is gone and I am in a very good mood. I am also very patient at this point. I have taken ingredients and put them in a pot and added heat and over the course of a couple of hours I have added this and that, stirred endlessly with my wooden spoon, covered the pot and let it simmer on its own, checking every once in a while on its progress. If I have added wine, I probably I have also drank some, my hands smell of garlic and maybe mint, thyme, sage, pepper, basil and a few other herbs and spices. The house smells wonderful and now all there is to do is eat the soup that patience has created. The thing about this patience soup is that it seems to translate to other areas of my life as well. I tend to be more patient with people in general after I have been making soup.
Now I know the standard Christian response to this will be, pastor what you really need to do is read Scripture and pray if you want patience. I agree and I do that, but I also believe that God works through the common everyday things that we do. When we are in need of some quality like patience or kindness, he doesn’t just say take a couple of Bible verses and call me in the morning after you pray. He gives us vocations, avocations and sometimes vacations to keep us healthy. I need patience, therefore in addition to prayer and Scripture, I need soup. I think that is true of everyone. It may not be soup for you, but maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s a hobby or a craft like cooking, but everyone has something. How do you slow down and focus and develop things like patience? If you don’t have anything right now what are some ways that you can start to find them?
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
STOP SO I CAN CATCH UP
Ever heard those words, stop so I can catch up? Ever heard them being said to you by you? This past weekend my family engaged in fall cleaning of the house, mainly because my mother-in-law is coming next week and my wife wants the house cleaned. We made some good progress; the problem is life does not stop to wait for cleaning. There was still all the other stuff that needed to be done. Meals still needed cooking, shopping still needed done, homework still needed done etc… The result, nothing really got done. The house actually looked worse on Monday then it did on Saturday morning. The result frustration. The problem is Monday brought a whole new bunch of stuff that needed accomplished. There were meetings, notice the s as in plural, there were practices to attend, there was dinner that needed cooked, again etc… As a result, the house even looked worse on Tuesday. The result of that and too many meetings, even more frustration. The result of that, the inner cry of stop so I can catch up or let me off this merry-go-round. As Regis Philbin used to say, “I am only one man!” The next question, when does the sheer exhaustion end? Or how can I make it end, and are the consequences of doing that bearable? I know I am not the only one in this crazy world that feels that way. When you get to that point I think that there are only three options.
One, you can continue on the road that you are on and eventually you will either crash and burn or just walk out of the door of life and disappear someday. You know one day you are stressed to the max and the next day you wake up and you are in another country washing dishes and speaking Portuguese to a bunch of people that call you Padrozah, which means, “Strange guy that wandered into village one day looking lost.” Makes for a good book or a movie but not exactly a very good life.
Two, you can totally change directions and avoid it all, which is some cases can be good, but in most cases results in disaster, because you are just avoiding the problems that you need to be dealing with. The result even more stress as you look back and realize you really messed things up by running away from your problems and now you spend all your time dealing with guilt and regret and the situation you are in is even worse than the one you wanted out of. Makes for a good setting to learn more about yourself and God, but is horrible on the central nervous system and family relationships. Not a good option.
Three, you can deal with reality and realize that you can only do what you can do, and most importantly you can take it to God and leave it at the foot of the cross. It means dealing with the reality of the situation and realizing some things are not going to get perfectly done. If the house is not perfectly clean when my mother-in-law gets here, well so be it. At the end of the day, kids need to be fed, homework needs to be done and jobs need to be accomplished, the rest is gravy. It is the same with any situation, the important stuff needs accomplish and the less important stuff will be done if there is time and if there is energy. As they say no one says on their death bed, “I wished I had spent more time at work.” Or, “I wish I had run another program, or had a cleaner house.” People talk about their relationships with their family and the important things that they did in their life. So in other words the best way to deal with a crazy out of control life, is exactly that, deal with it. Don’t walk away, don’t avoid, face it and prioritize it and deal with it and hand the stress over to God, and let the chips fall where they may. Sometimes you need to stop so you can catch up.
Pastor Fred
One, you can continue on the road that you are on and eventually you will either crash and burn or just walk out of the door of life and disappear someday. You know one day you are stressed to the max and the next day you wake up and you are in another country washing dishes and speaking Portuguese to a bunch of people that call you Padrozah, which means, “Strange guy that wandered into village one day looking lost.” Makes for a good book or a movie but not exactly a very good life.
Two, you can totally change directions and avoid it all, which is some cases can be good, but in most cases results in disaster, because you are just avoiding the problems that you need to be dealing with. The result even more stress as you look back and realize you really messed things up by running away from your problems and now you spend all your time dealing with guilt and regret and the situation you are in is even worse than the one you wanted out of. Makes for a good setting to learn more about yourself and God, but is horrible on the central nervous system and family relationships. Not a good option.
Three, you can deal with reality and realize that you can only do what you can do, and most importantly you can take it to God and leave it at the foot of the cross. It means dealing with the reality of the situation and realizing some things are not going to get perfectly done. If the house is not perfectly clean when my mother-in-law gets here, well so be it. At the end of the day, kids need to be fed, homework needs to be done and jobs need to be accomplished, the rest is gravy. It is the same with any situation, the important stuff needs accomplish and the less important stuff will be done if there is time and if there is energy. As they say no one says on their death bed, “I wished I had spent more time at work.” Or, “I wish I had run another program, or had a cleaner house.” People talk about their relationships with their family and the important things that they did in their life. So in other words the best way to deal with a crazy out of control life, is exactly that, deal with it. Don’t walk away, don’t avoid, face it and prioritize it and deal with it and hand the stress over to God, and let the chips fall where they may. Sometimes you need to stop so you can catch up.
Pastor Fred
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11TH
When I was growing up I remember my parents talking about Pearl Harbor. For my parents born in the 1920’s Pearl Harbor and then the assassination of President John Kennedy were the defining moments of their lives. My parents could both tell you exactly where they were at and what they were doing when they heard about those horrible events. It was seared into their memory. I remember listening to their stories of how they reacted to it and what happened as a result of it in their lives. Pearl Harbor literally turned their lives upside down. My dad would end up joining the Navy and spending time in the Pacific and on the island of Okinawa. My mother would marry a man who would go into the Army and would learn to grow up fast. The results of World War II would remake our nation and my parents lives would be shaped forever by those events. Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination were unifying events for us as a nation. Everyone it seemed was affected in some way and everyone came together as one. After those events it seemed another event of great magnitude would never happen to us again as a nation. There was of course the Korean War and the Vietnam War but neither of them had a huge national event that unified the nation. There was also the landing on the moon but it didn’t really unify people or bring them together. There was the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan but he survived. There was the shuttle blowing up on takeoff in the mid 1980’s but nothing of the magnitude of Pearl Harbor or John Kennedy.
Then 911 happened. Like Pearl Harbor it felt like a punch in the gut to the nation as a whole. The vast majority of Americans were nowhere near the tragic events that unfolded that day and yet we all felt like it was in some way aimed at us. The real time coverage of the event made it even more so. I like you remember the events of that morning in very clear detail. It was a Tuesday morning and I was living in Fort Wayne Indiana. My wife had already gone to work and normally I would have been in my office at the time as well, but I woke up with a sore throat and decided to stay home for awhile. I had just sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Katie Couric was about to sign off on the morning show when she announced that a plane had just crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York. They began to show live video of the smoke coming out of the building and starting talking about how it must have been a small cargo plane. Suddenly right over Couric’s shoulder on the video screen I watched live as the second plane crashed into the next tower. It was then that we all realized this was not an accident. I watched the TV for several more hours that morning as the nation went into panic mode, as another plane flew into the Pentagon and yet another went down in field in Pennsylvania and as both of the towers went down. I don’t think I even went to the bathroom that morning and at times wondered if what I was watching was actually real. Could such a horrendous thing as this actually be happening? I eventually went to work that day but there was no escaping it. The videos, the pictures were everywhere. I don’t think any of us knew what was going to happen, if this was the end of it or if there was more coming, but we did all know one thing, our lives would never be the same again. There was a bad wind blowing and we could feel it we just didn’t know what the ending result would be.
Ten years have now passed since that tragic day and how our country and our world has changed. Even if you were not close to the events of that day, and even if you didn’t know someone who died that day, in the last ten years you have been personally touched in some way by the events that followed. Around five thousand Americans have been killed in the war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan and several other places, and many times that have been wounded. I think everyone in the country knows someone who has served in harm’s way in the last ten years. How we travel has drastically changed. I find now when I tell a story about travel by air I have to say this was before or after 911 because getting from point A to point B on a plane anymore is very different. Security for public events is also very different and how we view other people has changed. We are not as trusting as we once were. This Sunday at Family of Christ we want to recognize that and the sacrifices that have been made by so many over the past ten years. Therefore we are holding a special service at our regular time of 9:30 a.m. that will be a service of remembrance and also a service of worship of the God who has sustained us over these years. There will be special videos and our school kids will be singing God Bless America. So we invite you to join us this Sunday as we take a moment to think about those who have given so much.
Pastor Fred
Then 911 happened. Like Pearl Harbor it felt like a punch in the gut to the nation as a whole. The vast majority of Americans were nowhere near the tragic events that unfolded that day and yet we all felt like it was in some way aimed at us. The real time coverage of the event made it even more so. I like you remember the events of that morning in very clear detail. It was a Tuesday morning and I was living in Fort Wayne Indiana. My wife had already gone to work and normally I would have been in my office at the time as well, but I woke up with a sore throat and decided to stay home for awhile. I had just sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Katie Couric was about to sign off on the morning show when she announced that a plane had just crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York. They began to show live video of the smoke coming out of the building and starting talking about how it must have been a small cargo plane. Suddenly right over Couric’s shoulder on the video screen I watched live as the second plane crashed into the next tower. It was then that we all realized this was not an accident. I watched the TV for several more hours that morning as the nation went into panic mode, as another plane flew into the Pentagon and yet another went down in field in Pennsylvania and as both of the towers went down. I don’t think I even went to the bathroom that morning and at times wondered if what I was watching was actually real. Could such a horrendous thing as this actually be happening? I eventually went to work that day but there was no escaping it. The videos, the pictures were everywhere. I don’t think any of us knew what was going to happen, if this was the end of it or if there was more coming, but we did all know one thing, our lives would never be the same again. There was a bad wind blowing and we could feel it we just didn’t know what the ending result would be.
Ten years have now passed since that tragic day and how our country and our world has changed. Even if you were not close to the events of that day, and even if you didn’t know someone who died that day, in the last ten years you have been personally touched in some way by the events that followed. Around five thousand Americans have been killed in the war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan and several other places, and many times that have been wounded. I think everyone in the country knows someone who has served in harm’s way in the last ten years. How we travel has drastically changed. I find now when I tell a story about travel by air I have to say this was before or after 911 because getting from point A to point B on a plane anymore is very different. Security for public events is also very different and how we view other people has changed. We are not as trusting as we once were. This Sunday at Family of Christ we want to recognize that and the sacrifices that have been made by so many over the past ten years. Therefore we are holding a special service at our regular time of 9:30 a.m. that will be a service of remembrance and also a service of worship of the God who has sustained us over these years. There will be special videos and our school kids will be singing God Bless America. So we invite you to join us this Sunday as we take a moment to think about those who have given so much.
Pastor Fred
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