We read plenty of encounters with God in the Bible.  Sometimes we may ask ourselves why we do not

My God moment this week was seeing everyone come together for something good.  It was learning how to do a new task that I had never done before.  I have been on nine mission trips, and this was the first one that our project was wiring electrical.  Other God moments was seeing elk in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.  It was also in seeing how everyone else on the trip, many of whom were on a mission trip for the first time, really were able to enjoy themselves and feel like they were contributing to the work being done.  Perhaps it is being helped and cared for in one of your difficult times.  We want to thank you for your prayers this week.  Thank you for taking a name to pray for; we all needed and appreciated your prayers.  At the end of the week, as we were leaving yesterday, we were sad that our week of work was done.  But we all came away with a firmer grip on the line, which will keep us from losing our way in the blinding snow.  May all glory and honor be to God!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Reaffirmation of Baptism - Part 4 of Sermon Series

I read these six baseball lessons this week, which Pastor Craig Groeschel learned from his father. I want to share them with you.

1. Keep your eye on the ball.

2. You can’t win with a bad attitude.

3. You never score runs staying on first base.

4. Always run through the bag.

5. Don’t ever go down taking strike three.

6. You win by moving one runner at a time.

Reaffirmation of Baptism - Part 3 of Sermon Series

I have three challenges for you to take from today: First, recommit your presence. When you were baptized, you promised that you would offer your time to grow in your faith and to be a faithful member of the church. Recommit to those goals; I hope that no one just comes to church and goes home unchanged. We are meant to be changed. We are meant to grow. Second, think about what is rich in your church experience. Take a moment to write it down in the space in your bulletin; what is rich for you about church?  What makes you want to keep coming back? If you cannot think of anything that is currently rich, write down something that you think you need to make it rich, and then please share it with myself and others. Together, we can make our experience of God rich, so long as we are both committed to spending the time to make it happen. Psalm 112 tells of those who delight in the commandments being happy because they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. They “conduct their affairs with justice” (112:5) And, “in the end they will look in triumph on their foes” (112:8). Isaiah offers us a conditional statement: “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, … the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like the spring of water, whose waters never fail” (Is. 58:9-11). This contains your third challenge: Remove the pointing of the finger and the speaking of evil from among you. Do not cast blame. Only spread love. To fully experience God’s presence, we need to bring our presence in our commitment to our promises and to the growth of Christian love. That is why we are here. We can only grow together. May all glory and honor be to God! Thanks be to God! Amen.

Reaffirmation of Baptism - Part 2 of Sermon Series

In your bulletin you will find a space for a breath prayer.  Please take a few moments.  What sentence will remind you to refocus on God?  What sentence will remind you to refocus on God as a commitment to your baptismal vow to serve God and continue to get to know God better?  Remember that in this season of Epiphany, we are in a four part series to remind ourselves to reaffirm our baptisms.  We reaffirm our baptism and our commitment to God through prayer, through presence, and through service.  Last week, we talked about baptism.  This week, we talk about prayer.  I am challenging you to write down a sentence that you can pray over and over again, to remind you of God’s love, or God’s presence, or of the hope that you find in God.  And if you cannot think of one today, take your bulletin home, go read some Psalms, and make the commitment to write something down that you can keep on your desk, or on your refrigerator, or in your car, or somewhere where you are going to see it and be reminded of it repeatedly.

Would any of you like to share your breath prayer?

Through our breath prayers, we will remind ourselves to trust God even when it is hard.  And even when it is hard, we can still find a way to come to God.  We read a lot in the Bible about people giving thanks.  Paul begins nearly every letter to the people of various churches with a note of thanks for their work, even when he was upset with them and about to point out all the things they were doing wrong.  When you have not prayed for awhile, or you are feeling lost, and you do not know what to say, thanks is a great way to start.  When you know you are about to have a very difficult conversation, why not start with a word of thanks, or a word of prayer, or both?  Wherever you find yourself today, I encourage you to write down your answers to these questions as well:

What are you thankful for?

What is God doing in this world to be thankful for?

What is God doing in this church for which you would like to give thanks?

Reaffirmation of Baptism - Part 1 of Sermon Series

Does public prayer need to be a more common practice in society?

How can we promote the public presence of God in our community?

Is trusting God hard when we cannot see as far as He can?

At the start of this year, I challenge you to these tasks: First, spread love. The world needs love. In order to trust in a God that is good and promises good things, the world needs to be able to believe that love still exists. When we spread love to our neighbor, we help promote the goodness of God. And in turn, we will help others trust in the goodness of God a bit more. This leads us into our second task: Trust God. As Christians, we need to trust God. Trusting God is how we find hope in good things to come. Without trust in God, we may start placing our trust in other things, and we are journeying away from God. Give God more opportunity to earn your trust, or better yet, trust in God anyway from the start. And even when God seems to break your trust by not doing what you wanted or prayed, know that God cannot control everything and sometimes is already working out something better for you that you just have to wait for and have faith for. I know it is easier said than done, which is why we are going to work this year on our theme word of “trust.” Last year was our year of prayer. This year is our year of trusting. Your third challenge is to believe in love and trust. To spread love and to trust God, we need to believe that they still exist. We need to believe that there are still people who love each other and place faith in one another. We also need to believe that we can still trust one another and God, and not assume that everyone out there is just going to break it. The world seems to want to take love and trust from us; it is our responsibility to counteract that and put a little bit of it back.

In the gospel today, we read about the angel appearing to Joseph, telling him that he should go forward with Mary and trust God. The angel confirms everything that Mary had said. The child is to be named Jesus because he saves. They shall call him Emmanuel because God is with us. He is the Messiah, the chosen one. This is more than love shared from person to person. This is love from God. God loves the people so much that He wants to be with them. He does not want them to succumb to their sins. He wants them to be saved. And God wants the same for us today. This is why, still two thousand years later, we are telling the same story of God coming down to earth for a visit. We are sharing the same story, of Joseph and Mary deciding to trust God even though everything they knew went against it. They showed an extraordinary trust in God. They trusted in God’s extraordinary love.

In Psalm 80, we find a resolve. Our focus is to resolve in God’s love. Hear these words at the end of the psalm: “Give us life, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80:18-19). Do you think this prayer will be answered? Perhaps we will find out this week. It is a call to God’s love. The people trusted in God’s love. They asked God to let his face shine. In the birth of the Christ child, I believe God’s face shone. I know that the people were saved. And just like the prayer in the psalm, when God gave life, God in the flesh, many people called on his name.

Do whatever you can to recognize the love of God among you, for God is with us indeed. Then, work on trusting in God’s promise more than you ever have. Pray about it if that helps; it almost always does. And once you have recognized God’s love shared with you, and faithfully trusted your life to God, you can confidently share God’s love with others, wanting nothing in return. God is with us. Let God’s love be shown. Let all honor and glory be to God. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Part 3 of The Visitor Series

Life is not measured by time. Life is measured by moments. We can experience joy in the desert because God is sending a message to us. God tells us that this is not the only way, and this is not the final end. The angel told Mary that nothing will be impossible with God.

Part 2 of The Visitor Series

When John the Baptist challenged the people with the coming of the Messiah, he called them to repent. That is, he called them to turn away from their comfortable life. He called them to make a change. This may mean that you have to do something outside your comfort zone. If you have to repent from a wrongdoing – if that has been holding you back from God – do so; if you have to take a bold step that you may have been afraid to take, try that. For some, it may be getting up in front of people to light a candle, or reading, or even doing the children’s story. For others, it may be welcoming someone into our lives who we have been afraid to face. It may be going on a mission trip even though you are not sure right now how you can help. You trust that if God has called you to something, God can use you. Being with God requires a bold step. Preparing the way for God requires us to take a bold step.

The motto of the United Church of Christ is this: “Whoever you are, and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” We know all too well that people in the days before Jesus would not welcome everyone; sometimes there is just no room, and sometimes someone may turn out to be a robber. We have the same barriers today, and they are legitimate barriers. But can we welcome one another into the space that is our hearts and our church? When we meet someone, can we make them feel loved? Regardless of where they or we are on controversial issues, in politics, on LGBTQ, we are called to love our neighbor. We do not have to affirm the belief of our neighbor, but we should accept them and create a welcoming space. As Paul encouraged us in Romans 15: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom. 15:5-7). Acceptance makes someone feel loved. Forgiveness makes someone feel loved. Encouragement makes someone feel loved. They all make someone feel welcome. How can we be more accepting, more forgiving, and more encouraging to not only prepare the way for God in our own lives, but prepare the way for God in another’s life?

Part 1 of The Visitor Series

When we begin to see other people in our lives as opportunities to minister, and not distractions to our schedules, we are beginning to love more like God. Does God set times with us, or make us make an appointment? Did Jesus refuse to tend to those who tugged on his robes, when he was on the way to see someone else? We are often God’s unexpected visitor, and God loves it. God loves it when we make time for God, and God loves it even more so when we make time for God that was not first planned into our day.

There is a song that we sing in Scouts which is called Scout Vespers. It goes something like this: “Softly falls the light of day as our campfire fades away. Silently each scout should ask, “Have I done my daily task? Have I kept my honor bright? Can I guiltless sleep tonight? Have I done and have I dared everything to be prepared?” Have I done all I could to be prepared? Have I lived my day honorably? Have I done all I could for the Lord today?