Simply Grace

Yesterday all morning long I kept being asked the same question, “Dad are you going to help me make the bad guy Legos”? At first I said, “Yeah, whatever, daddy needs a cup of coffee first.” After coffee again I was asked, “Daddy when are you going to help me with my bad guy Legos?” Well, then I had to help with the dishes to unclog the kitchen so that breakfast could be made. Then there were more dishes, and a sermon to write. The child asked me again for the 972nd time, “Can you help me with my bad guy Legos”? What are bad guy Legos anyway? I looked at the box. The day before we had opened bag one and put together a police care and police officer. Now bag 2 had the getaway care, a safe with some money, and a bad guy who carried a crowbar for his weapon, or tool? The bad guy really looked bad too, he had a mean scowl on his face, his clothes looked kind of aggressive. 

BadGuyLego courtesy flickr legopicler

The problem with bad guys, isn’t just that they exist, but how many there are. It’s a sad fact that almost anyone, under certain circumstances, might buckle and do really bad things. It is the human condition. And it is this condition for which God sent a savior in Jesus Christ whose birth and salvation we celebrate. How exactly does Jesus save us? There are many theories of atonement; and blessedly none are deemed to be the only correct way. In other words there are many different theories of atonement. One such theory is the Moral Influence theory. 

Moral Influence Theory suggests that Jesus shows how to live justly, and influences us to do so. The emphasis on the crucifixion in this theory is that Jesus non-violently resists the evil in the world. He shows how we should resist it too. What Would Jesus Do? That is a question at the heart of Moral Influence Theory. A saved person who does and Jesus would do. 

The epistle reading from Galatians conveys a Moral Influence theory of salvation. Paul says that at first we are like children being raised by a guardian. The guardian teaches us right from wrong according to the law. Jesus when he was born on Christmas and grew up as a child and into an adult showed us the way to live under the law. But long term we grow up to have the law written on our hearts. We naturally align with God’s intention for creation. We don’t worry so much about the laws or rules, but we follow God with joy!

The grace of God changes people’s hearts and makes them better people. But some people aren’t told the good news about God. They are more at risk of going down a path that leads to bad behavior. Furthermore, what does it mean if less and less people practice religion? What does it mean if Lutheran have a hard time growing? What does it mean for our future, and what does it mean for the future of civilization? 

There are three things that evangelicals do:

Experience salvation

Simeon the prophet is an example of what it means to be an evangelical. He was at the temple, like he was almost every day. A stirring in his heart and a whisper in his mind told him to approach a family that was presenting their child to God in a religious ritual. When he saw the child his heart filled with joy and he was overcome by emotion. He was so moved by this religious and spiritual experience that he took the child and blessed. He had a personal encounter. The evangelical experience of Christian faith is one that is marked by having a personal experience of accepting, seeing, or experiencing Jesus in a real way. John Wesley called it a warming of the heart. For many traditional Lutherans this experience happens during Holy Communion where you actually receive Christ.

Personal Testimony

The

This Christmas is a very special Christmas, because it comes on the heels of a very unique year. The year 2020 has been one to remember. Wildfires have ripped through much of the western United States ravaging property and threatening life. There has been loss of human life due to violence. Some of the deepest political division folks can remember have tested our social groupings often near the breaking point. Many relationships have suffered. But the biggest challenge of all has been the worldwide pandemic known as Covid19. 

The pandemic has challenged us in so many ways. Countless jobs and businesses have simply just vanished. Meaningful social interaction and support has been ripped apart by the need to distance and stay home. Millions of people are sick. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. And even though we are thankful for the development of vaccines; we are not out of the woods at all. Our lives have been disrupted. That is why we are worshipping outside and online. 

There are a lot of parallels to the Christmas story, actually. There was social unrest at the time of Jesus’ birth too. Jewish people were divided about how to faithfully follow their religion and live under Roman rule. There were extremist movements, and religious and political leaders divided about how to live. There was violence. We read that there was a mandate by the Roman Caesar for a census. We also had a census this year. But this mandated action of the government totally disrupted the lives of Mary and Joseph.

Mary and Joseph were literally forced out into the cold in Joseph’s ancestral home of Bethlehem because there was no room in the inn. Too many people were travelling. So when the time came for Mary to have the baby, they simply had to make do. They had to improvise. They had to think creatively about what they could do with what they had at their disposal. They had a manger, that is a kind of trough for feeding animals. That is where they placed the Christ child, the baby Jesus. Mary and Joseph had to make do.

Make Do Because of Christmas courtesy Malcolmon Flickr

Right after the baby is born a delegation of angels goes and announces the birth to shepherds keeping watch of their flocks by night. The angels tell the shepherds that a savior has been born. A savior!  A savior is born! Christmas is so special because yes it is Jesus’ birthday, but it is also more than just a birthday. The saving work of Jesus begins as soon as he is born. He is the savior! So what is it that a newborn child does to save? He gives Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the animals, and everyone a purpose and a reason to keep going when times are tough. He gives them a reason to make do. Mary and Joseph didn’t have time to wallow in the misery of being out in the cold, they had to take action, they had to make do! Now here we are two thousand and twenty years later and Jesus our savior is still giving us a reason to make do!

Our good friend Jeremy who is also godfather to our children was born early. Very early. He came premature. When his mother Jaimee went into labor the story goes, she was upset because they didn’t yet have a crib for the baby. Greg, Jeremy’s father, was a sheriff’s deputy. As a part of his training he took a course on childbirth in emergency situations. So when Jaimee expressed her worry about not having a crib, Greg simply said, we’ll make do. We have a laundry basket. We can just use that and put a towel in the bottom! Can you imagine the look on Jaimee’s face!? But they made do! Why? Because when you have something as precious as a baby to take care of, it puts things into perspective, and you make do. The baby child saves you from despair and the “paralysis of analy

We read in the Gospel according to Saint Luke chapter one beginning at verse twenty six that the angel Gabriel visits Mary while her cousin Elizabeth is already six months pregnant. The angel says to Mary, “Hail Mary full of grace, blessed are you among women.” That is quite a greeting, and it comes from none other than Gabriel. So how does Mary respond? She is perplexed and maybe a little disturbed by the greeting. She wonders what kind of a greeting this might be. In other words Mary was skeptical and cautious.. 

La Virgen Indígena by Walker

My first call as a pastor was in Santa Ana, California. There was this thing in Santa Ana that we called the “Santa Ana Stare.” It was a thing you do when you live in Santa Ana, and you use it pretty much every time you are in public and interacting with people you don’t know. You elevate the chin, stick it out a little bit to look tough, maybe cock your head to side slightly, definitely narrow your eyelids, and if necessary: you scowl. It was just something everybody did, and we learned to do it too. You never knew if someone was coming at you to hustle you, or take advantage of you. Put it this way, if you didn’t do this on a regular basis then you were seen as a soft target and pushover. Nobody took you seriously and assumed that you had driven into town from Laguna Beach or Ladera Ranch or wherever. Now I need to be clear that I’m not talking about mad dogging someone. That’s when you stare at someone provocative as if to want to start something. Don’t do that. The garden variety stink eye is just a way of letting people know not to give you a hard time. What if that’s how Mary looked at Gabriel? I could really see it. Mary knew how to be cautious and put up a wall; as to not be hustled. I could see her staring Gabriel down! Who does this guy thing he is coming into my space and telling me who I am? 

Gabriel senses this, because the next words he says are, “Do not be afraid.” He tells Mary that she has found grace with God. Now isn’t that something? She doesn’t find grace with God after she believes, or after she has faith. She finds Grace with God even while she is doubting and criticizing and picking apart these words of Gabriel. Gabriel continues and explains that she will conceive a child, name him Jesus, and that he will be a savior of the people. He will rule like King David, and his kingdom will have no end. What happens next? Does she believe? No! She questions Gabriel. How can this be, since I am a virgin? Mary is nobody’s fool. She knows how these things work. 

We often talk about Mary being a woman of faith, which is true, but we don’t always talk about how tough she must have been. She doesn’t just believe Garbriel at first. She doubts and questions.Once again, now for the third time Gabriel shares with Mary incredible words and promises. He says that she will conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God almighty will be on her, and the child will be called the Son of God. He says that her cousin who is old is six months pregnant. The kicker that Gabriel says is, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Finally Mary after the third attempt of Gabriel acknowledges and seems to accept. But her affirmation is very shrewd. She doesn’t jump up and down and get giddy. She simply acknowledges that God will do what God will do. Let it be. It isn’t a resignation; it’s not that she is worn down. She says it with her head held high: “I am the servant to God; let it be as you have said.” 

Back when we lived and served in Santa Ana, we gained the confidence of our friend Genesis. One day she watched our kids when Sheri attended to some visitations. When we came back we found Genesis standing in front o

I don’t know about you, but I am feeling a little blue this Christmas season. The main reason is the lack of social interaction. I miss not being able to see my family and spend time with them, and that makes me feel a little sad and lonely. But you know, it’s funny because if this were any other year I’d probably be feeling stressed out about having to deal with out of town relatives. Normally the holidays are known for an extra added level of stress in dealing with your relatives, friends, and family members. You know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about those disagreements and debates you get into with your relatives about politics, social issues, religion, money, and more. 

Peanut Butter and Politics, photo courtesy flickr GT#2

My brest friend from college and I agreed an almost everything, so we thought. We both really liked our math classes, mountain biking, hiking, and definitely had the same sense of humor. So we decided that we would be roommates! Everything was going great until we discovered we had a big difference. It had to do with the “p” word. Peanut Butter. I was die hard Laura Scudder’s oil separates naturally, and he was die hard Skippy partially hydrogenated oil that didn’t separate. How would we get along? But seriously, it wasn’t until after college that we discovered that we did disagree quite significantly on the other “p” word: politics. But we have stayed friends despite this difference.

Religion is definitely one area where there are differences of opinion. One such difference is between prioritizing acts of service or acts of ritual. On the one hand people will say that a truly faithful life is reflected in worship. That is making time to participate  in an organized religious service with prayer, music, word, tradition, rituals, and a sermon. On the other hand are people who argue that a truly religious and faithful life is shown in acts of service throughout the week, that is, in living a life that is holy and upright as God would intend. 

These differences of opinion are reflected in the Gospel reading from Saint John chapter one. The temple priests and Levites have left the temple in Jerusalem and gone out to see what John is up to in the wilderness. The priests and Levites would have emphasized traditions and rituals done in the temple as a core and perhaps primary sign of what it meant to be a faithful Jew. Others were critical of worship in the temple because it had become burdensome and weighed down by unnecessary practices and costs. 

The Pharisees, in fact, emphasized daily practice of following God’s laws rather than just doing religious rituals in the temple. Many of the Pharisees had a reforming spirit in which they attempted to interpret the laws of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, so that ordinary people would be able to follow them and practice their faith. But as a group they were criticized for being at times legalistic and overly worried about monitoring people’s behavior. 

We have the same arguments today. Some people argue that the most important thing is worship and ritual, while others argue that the most important thing is how we live our life. However, the real problem isn’t that there are differences of opinion, it is that there is often an unwillingness today to try to listen to and understand another person’s point of view. The reason why we have such a hard time listening to and appreciating a different point of view is because we are entrapped in works righteousness.

Works righteousness is a deadly and dangerous way of thinking. It holds that a person must by their own efforts make themself into a good and righteous person. It is the illusion that a person by hard w

Sheri and I decided to travel to Nicaragua to visit my friend Craig who was in the Peace Corps. It would be an adventurous journey. I bought the book, “Central America on a Shoestring Budget,” published by Lonely Planet Press. The only reservation we made for a two week journey was a one way ticket into Managua, Nicaragua, and another one way ticket from Costa Rica back to the Los Angeles International Airport. We didn’t pack suitcases. We packed backpacks. The plan was to travel by bus from Managua to Estelí. The bus we got at the airport was not a greyhound bus, no seats that recline, no AC, and definitely no toilet. It was a school bus. There wasn’t any room for our backpacks, so the driver let us put them at the front on top of the engine. We kept a close eye on them as we drove north into the mountains. The closer we got to Estelí the more road construction there was. Travel slowed to a crawl. By the time we reached the small city of Estelí the roads were totally torn apart with countless people working. 

Nicaragua Bus via flickr Hurd

Have you ever seen people building roads in a developing country? It’s a little bit different than what you might be used to. Think of cobblestone roads. Construction workers pour concrete footings and curbs only. The middle section has dirt that is tamped down and then bricks or stones are meticulously laid down in rows under yellow strings that are pulled tight as a guide to make the road level. Finally we lurched into the bus depot in Estelí and there was my friend Craig waiting patiently with a big smile. He welcomed us, and asked how the drive was. I said that it was slow because of all of the road construction. Sheri didn’t say much at all. I think maybe she was in shock. I asked Craig why there was so much construction. He laughed and said that it was because an election was coming up. The local governor was up for re-election. He had run on a platform of improving roads and infrastructure a few years ago. Now he was attempting to get the work done to prove that he was worth earning another term. Craig said that most people thought it was hilarious because the election is in a couple of weeks, so there’s not a whole lot that he can get done. The people were frustrated at the government for not caring for them, and for making life difficult.

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People in the time of John the Baptize were also frustrated with the government and religious leaders. The problem was that the temple based religion had become corrupt. It was expensive and burdensome for most people to physically travel to Jerusalem, go to the Temple, exchange Roman money for the Temple currency, and then buy an animal sacrifice to give to the priest in order to have their sins forgiven. It was a lot of expensive work! Does this remind you of anything?

During the time of Martin Luther it was also expensive and burdensome for most ordinary people to buy or earn and indulgence that would give them the assurance of sins forgiven and religious salvation. Luther studied the Bible and discovered that salvation couldn’t be bought or sold, or even earned, but that it was a free gift given by God to all of creation. You are saved by grace through faith and not by works. Luther took it as his life’s mission to proclaim the Word of God and make it available to as many people as possible. 

John the Baptizer also had a mission to proclaim the Word of God. He called people to repentance, baptized them in the River Jordan, which is how he gets his name, and declared to people the forgiveness of their sins. In other words John preached the grace of God that forgives, and not the work of going to Jerusalem and abiding by all of the rules to have one’s si

Sometimes you don’t see God

It is traditional to begin the season of Advent and the new year at the end of time. Mark chapter thirteen has been called the mini-apocalypse, because it sounds so much like the book of Revelation and a prophecy about the end of time. The language is poetic and striking. The sky will grow dark and the stars will fall from heaven. I can imagine the sky growing dark from smoke, but for the stars to fall this would suggest a total collapse of the galaxy and universe. That would be very bad. I read something like this and I wonder if Saint Mark had taken a modern astronomy class if maybe these words of Jesus would have been remembered differently. But the real kicker is when Jesus says that all of these things will happen before this generation passes. Well that was two thousand years ago. So what does that mean? We have been waiting for a long time to see the face of God.

What happens when people don’t see the face of God? According to Isaiah chapter sixty four, the people begin to behave very badly and live unethically because they begin to think that perhaps nobody will hold them accountable, and that they are alone in the universe. It is sobering to note that some of the greatest atrocities to humanity have occured while the Christian faith was reinterpreted into a liberal theology. Both the holocaust in Europe, and Jim Crow segregation in the United States with widespread lynching took place when high minded Christian theologians sought to separate Christian faith away from supernatural claims on reality to a more palatable and congruous. In other words something like the second coming of Christ and the end of time when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead was changed into an allegory to say that Jesus wasn’t really going to come back, but that was just the backwards thinking of a millenia ago. Rather than put their trust in Jesus, many people put their trust in their own work and inventiveness.

At the same time that Christianity sought to be relevant to a modern world, most Christian leaders, preachers, theologians, were silent in the face of cruelty and abuse of Jews in Europe and Blacks in America. At the time many people even saw a lynching tree as a good work that kep civil order. But it was precisely blacks in America who suffered unspeakable cruelty and Jews in Europe who out of anyone should be the ones to question where the face of God is. For many black Americans who knew mob violence it was in the cross of Jesus that they found hope and the strength to keep on going. 

La solución: Jesús viene

The good news is that Jesus is going to come. The prophetic words that he spoke in the Gospel of Mark did come true within his generation. The sun and moon were darkened, possibly by an eclipse. The powers that be were shaken from their thrones namely pontius pilate and the Roman rulers. And Jesus Chris the Son of Man did come into his glory. Jesus was glorified on the cross of Golgotha, he was hung from a tree. To many people they looked to the cross and saw only foolishness and weakness. But those who are being saved, but to those who are suffering, moaning, and groaning to see the face of God then the cross indeed is the glory of God. Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” These words give hope to anyone that has ever longed to see the face of God. Even Jesus who is God, felt like God had abandoned him on the cross. When you feel abandoned this gives you good news, because you aren’t alone. Jesus reaches out from the cross to give you his strength.  Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will remain forever. 

photo courtesy Mueller flickr

I like numbers. I was a math major in college. Numbers have a soothing way of being orderly in a world that can be very chaotic. I get along well usually with engineers, scientists, and other people who think technically. So if you are more of a social or emotional person, please be patient with me. Know that I love you, but know that you are dealing with a numbers person. For some time I’ve been thinking about how the first few garden variety positive whole numbers have to do with faith. So let’s start at the beginning shall we. 

There are at least six ways to know Jesus

Zero  - nothing without God there is nothing

One - There is one God

Two - The two natures of Jesus: Human and Divine, the mystic union of physical matter and spiritual essence

Three - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons perfect unity, The trinity gets its own Sunday

Four - The four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and also the four fold form of worship: Gather, Word, Meal and Sending

Five - The five books of Moses, the Pentateuch, The Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy

Six - What about six? Honestly this number has tripped me up for some time. I have always been a little freaked out by it, because of the mark of the beast: 666. Is there something bad about the number six? How relieved I was when studying the texts for this Sunday it occurred that six was a number core to the message. You see there are six ways that Jesus can come to us in our lives.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. Today we remember that Jesus will come back to Earth and judge as a righteous king. Jesus will judge each and everyone of your according to your actions. To determine if you are worthy of entering into the kingdom of God. Are you an unjust sinner? Or are you a righteous follower of God? I cannot be that judge, none of us can judge or know who is saved and who is not. Only Jesus can judge. But know this, you will be judged. Everybody will be judged, and nobody is above God’s righteous judgement.  

Are you worthy to enter heaven? When you stand before God almighty, how will you measure up? Well there’s good news. You are saved by grace through faith and not by your works. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you will be saved. You don’t have to worry about death, evil, or sin. All you have to do is have faith and believe that Jesus is real, and worship him. So what does that mean, exactly? To have faith in Jesus. Thankfully today in Matthew 25 Jesus gives us specific instructions for what it means to believe in Jesus. And as a math person, I love the fact that there are exactly six ways you can believe in Jesus. So let’s take a look. 

One - I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. Who is hungry? A hungry person is Jesus. Believe it! So give them food. The other night we were putting the kids to bed. Everyone had brushed their teeth, put on their jammies, and was tucked in bed. Then one kids says, “Daddy I’m hungry.” It was soul crushing. I had a glass of red wine with my name on it. The remote was all queued up for binge watching TV. But it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that we had already had dinner, and the child didn’t eat. A hungry person is Jesus. So if you believe in Jesus, you feed the child. This is the way. 

Two - I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. We adopted a dog. We did this, large part, due to some social pressure from some of you. You know who you are. We love our dog. And my wife asks the kids everyday. Did you feed and water the dog? Water the dog? What does that mean? If I just pour water on him, he’s not going to like that! But if the dog is thirsty you

This is your stewardship sermon 202. The Church.

Construction Tools via flickr

Sheri and I had decided that we would tithe. We would give 10% of our earned income to God. The problem was that on a regular basis I was asked for money or assistance. So we decided that we would have cash on hand to help people in need, and that the amount we would have was $100. So the next day a guy said he needed help buying tools. He was learning carpentry at a union school. We went to home depot with his list and when we checked out the total is $101.30. I opened up my wallet and pulled out five $20 bills. I had a hundred dollars even. 

So are we saved by works or not? The parable of the talents from Matthew 25 seems to suggest that work makes all the difference in the world. Two servants do a good job in doubling their master’s money. The master tells them, “Well done good and faithful servants.” They are rewarded for their labor. The third servant fails. He hides his master’s money and gives it back to him basically untouched. He is called wicked and lazy and punished severely. What’s the difference? On the surface the difference seems to be works. The two good servants work well and are saved. The third seems to not work, and is not saved. This is challenging for us, because the core of our confession of faith is that our own works don’t save us, but only God’s grace. So how are we to make sense of this parable? 

Could we suffer the same fate as the wicked and lazy servant? Could God chastise us and condemn us to eternal suffering? That all depends on you, doesn’t it. Remember that in this parable the owner of the talents leaves the servants alone for a long time. If God is the owner of everything, then has God left us alone for a long time? When was the last time you had a close encounter with God? When was the last time God walked the face of the earth directly in contact with human beings and the beasts of the created order? It has been two thousand years since Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven. I don’t know about you, but for me, two thousand years is a long time! Jesus promised that he would come back!

Today we read the last of the five consecutive readings from First Thessalonians. Paul again is encouraging the church in Thessaloniki to not lose faith that Jesus is coming back. It is inevitable, says Paul. It is like a woman who is going to give birth. She cannot escape the reality. We cannot escape the reality of Jesus coming back to earth. It will happen. Just as you cannot control the birth of new life you cannot control the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s going to happen. The question is, how will you measure up when the Lord of Heaven and Earth stands before you asking you to give account for the talents he has given you. Have you accomplished the task that Jesus gave you? Have you followed the 10 commandments? Did you love your neighbor as yourself? What will God say to you? Well done good and trustworthy slave? Or will God call you a wicked and lazy slave? 

In order to answer that question, it is necessary to clarify what exactly does God expect from you? And what exactly are the talents? Historically speaking a talent was a lifetime worth of wages. It is a quantity of money that only kings and queens dealt with. It represents the accumulation of hundreds and thousands of subjects paying tribute to the king. It is unequicicolly the most precious and valuable form of currency that exists. But you are no fool are you? You know that God does not value money above all else. You know that there are things that God values more than money. Quite simply: you and I. When you gather together not just money, but the people who earn and give mone

Have you ever felt abandoned by God?

Telecaster

The Problem: Waiting

Matthew 25:1-13

The groom was late, very late. He didn’t show up for the wedding until midnight. Some of the bridesmaids were foolish and assumed that he wasn’t going to show up at all. They thought very little of the groom and that it wasn’t worth their time to be prepared. Maybe he just wasn’t going to show up at all. Why bother bringing extra oil for the lamps. That is why they didn’t have any extra. This is the parable from Matthew 25:1-13. What if the groom in the parable is Jesus, and Jesus’ bride is the church? The foolish bridesmaids then, would be people who doubt that Jesus will ever show up to fulfill his promise. They are the doubters. 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Believe it or not the early church was so focused on the imminent return of Jesus that it was a surprise when Christians died of natural causes or old age. Sure there was martyrdom, that is, believers dying because of their faith. But when Jesus didn’t come back right away and older members started dying of natural causes the new church wondered about what was going on. Paul addresses this issue in his letter to the church in Thessaloniki. He encourages them not to give up hope. The dead will rise like Jesus rose form the dead and they will be a part of God’s kingdom. It’s okay to be sad, but don’t lose hope. That was Paul’s message to the church. Jesus will come, and when he does we will meet him in the clouds and be part of his entourage into the earth. These good words and good news give faith to all who hear them.

Amos 5:18-24

The Solution: Wisdom

Matthew: being prepared because you have faith that God will come

Faith is what keeps you going when you have to wait for God to act, to save, and yes to come back to save us. Faith is believing that God will be true to the promises made. Faith keeps you going through uncertainty. It is like oil that can be burned in a lamp. Even though the night is long and dark; oil is a wonderful thing like liquid sunshine that burns and gives hope in the darkness. Faith is a gift of God that does just that. 

You are saved by grace through faith and not by your works. 

So What: Save

One way to practice your faith is to save and prepare. The five bridesmaids who are wise also have faith. They believe that the groom will show up. The believe that Jesus will come back. They are so certain of this that they have purchased extra oil to keep with them so that they can welcome the groom at whatever hour he comes. Faith isn’t about sitting around doing nothing, faith is about taking your responsibility seriously because God will show up at any moment, and we want to show that we are ready to serve our Lord. 

So what does this have to do with stewardship? Stewardship is about how we manage the resources God has give you; your time, your money, and your life. When it comes to money God wants you to be wise and to save. Yes you should give money away, but you should also give money to yourself. God wants you to be wise and prepared like the five wise bridesmaids. They were savers. They were ready for the long night. Are you ready for a rainy day? Are you ready for the long night? 

Financial experts suggest having enough savings to pay for at least three months of expenses, but really six months is the goal. Do you have enough savings to live for six months: your rent or mortgage, utilities, food, etc? If you don’t then it’s time to start saving! Stewardship is about more than the money you give to God at church. God wants your whole life to be an offering. That means being pre

1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13

When are you going to open the church?

If I had a nickel for each time I have been asked this question, then I would have a whole pile of nickels. I might even have a drawer full of nickels. It is actually a very good question, but in order to answer this question we must first define what the church is. You see these buildings? They are beautiful. They are useful. But they are not the church. You are the church. Whether or not the church is open isn’t up to just me, it is up to each and everyone of you, because you are the church. So let me ask you? When are you going to open the church? 

We need to talk about being prepared not just for a spike in cases of Covid 19, but any kind of disaster that would prevent us from regularly worshipping together. The problem is that we think that in order to practice our faith we need a church building. But that’s not true. The good news is that God will still love you, forgive you, and bless you even if you cannot attend a traditional worship service. You can worship God anywhere. Today I will teach you how to organize a worship service, so you can worship God at any time anywhere. So check it out!

There are four steps to a complete worship service:

GatherWordMealSending

I will briefly explain each one.

Gather

Life is chaotic. Think about the strong winds we had this past week. They were so powerful as they blew down off the mountains and ripped through the valleys out to the beaches and sea. Consider the path of destruction they left. Trees were uprooted and fell onto cars and houses. Leaves, branches, and trash scattered everywhere. Halloween decorations strewn across yards and into the street. Of course it could be worse like Hurricane or Tropical Storm Zeta. The point is that these are extreme cases of an everyday phenomenon. Life gets messy, and order is disrupted. After a strong wind you go outside and gather what has been scattered. The first step of worship is to gather with God. 

In our household the best time for us to gather everyday is dinnertime. We use the fact that we all get hungry and thirsty to our advantage. Either Sheri or I will, and mostly it is Sheri, will prepare a meal and have everyone in the household sit down together at the same time. We gather around the table. When you gather you may listen to one another. How was your day? What was good? What was difficult? That’s it! It’s simple.

Not everyone lives in a family group. Many people live alone. Gathering is about much more than the physical. Today is All Saints Sunday. We remember that our loved ones after they die are with God. They are part of the “Cloud of Witnesses,” and the great multitude form every tribe and nation as prophesied in Revelation chapter 7. So even if you are alone in your apartment, when you take time to Gather with God you gather with the saints of the past, present, and future. You are with the Great Cloud of Witnesses. Not to mention new ways we gather with telephone, letters, and increasingly video conferences. 

Word

Worship in the Christian tradition must involve the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God. The simplest most accessible way to receive the Word of God is to open up your Bible and read. As a pastor I have to study the Bible everyday to prepare for the sermon and Bible Studies. So when we eat a meal as a family, I will sometimes just tell a story from the Bible that I have been studying. This is the easiest way to tell the word of God to children. Don’t worry about getting all of the details exactly right. Just do your best to tell the story. Sometimes there isn’t a good story to tell, or there might just be a really good verse to share. Read and meditate on this verse or story. Think about it. Ask question. What does it mean? Again don’t worry