A Word From Pastor Mike - The Love of God

The foundation of the Christian faith is that God is love. You heard it in our lessons today:

• The lord has set his love on you and chose you..... Deuteronomy 7:7
• The Lord loves you..... Deuteronomy 7:8
• The Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love to those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations..... Deuteronomy 7:9
• Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ..... Romans 8:35
• No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.... Romans 8:37
• Nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our lord... Romans 8:39

It is there in the Old Testament. It's there in the New Testament. God loves us. God loved Israel. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

What's not clear? God loves Israel. God loves the world. Case closed, right?

Well, sometimes people don't feel loved by God for one reason or another, but the Bible is clear. God loves us.

This past week Sue and I were in Montana for my Aunt Eleanor's Memorial Service.  Eleanor was 101 years old, close to 102. She died peacefully in her sleep. The foundation of her life was the love of God.

Eddie and Eleanor Harmon were my godparents. Eleanor was there when Sue and I were married and when I was ordained. She made the red stole I wore for my ordination. She was going to make them all but found it was so hard that she gave the rest of the material to Sue and said, "You can do it."

I said the foundation of Eleanor's life was the love of God. I want you to know that she held that conviction throughout her life but it wasn't always easy for her. 

Eleanor was born in Norma, ND.  Her parents were in banking when the Great Depression hit the U.S. in the 1930's. Her family moved West. She had to live in a tent in Hogeland, MT for awhile until a house was moved to town. 

My Mom said that she thought that Eleanor would never marry but then Eddie Harmon came along. He was a great guy. They got married.

Later, when I was in grade school, Eddie died while driving the tractor. Eleanor relocated and eventually married Bill Bickel and moved to Hamilton, MT. Later Eleanor would have an encounter with breast cancer and survived.  Eventually Bill died.

The last years were difficult for Eleanor. She was in assisted living. It was hard for her to converse but she could listen. Even so, I would say that Eleanor lived a good life, held to her faith and now rests in God's peace.

Although life wasn't always easy for her, she kept faith. She kept her foundation, that God is love.

Alvin Rogness was the President of Luther Seminary and many years ago he wrote, "The Bible is God's love letter to you...From the Bible, the most important thing you learn about God is that he loves you and is trying to reach you. God is searching for you. He loves you and you can't stop him from loving you and from running after you. You can try running away from him but you can not stop him from staying on your trail."

The problem is not a deficiency of God's love. We've already heard John 3:16. In Romans 8:31-32, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will we not also with him graciously give us all things?"

The grand conclusion of this section of the Book of Romans and perhaps of the whole Bible is this, 

"Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So the problem is not a deficiency in God's love. The problem is sin, the devil, the world, our sinful self. We live in a fallen world. There will be struggles. Yet Paul reassures us, "For God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

When I listen to people like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer they say that people are always telling them that "God could never love me; you don't know what I've done." Then they proceed to tell them their list.

The problem is in us. The reality is God knows every bad thing we've done and still loves us. The reality is God is good at forgiveness. God is good at 2nd chances. God is ok with leaving the past in the past and starting over but we aren't.

One of the best things we can do is trust in God's forgiveness. "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The way forward is to build on the foundation of God's love, like my Aunt Eleanor and many other believers in the past. They knew they were not perfect but they confessed their sins and trusted in God's forgiveness and love.

Recently when I was back on our farm. I noticed this old building. It's listing now just a little bit. How much longer will it stand? I don't know, but you know what will remain even if the building falls? The foundation will remain.  You see it all over the homestead areas, the buildings may fall but the foundations remain.

How does Jesus end the sermon on the Mount?  With a story. "Everyone who heard these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock."

I started this sermon with a bunch of verses about God's love for us. That's our foundation. God loves us. Come what may, God loves us. The way forward is to build on the foundation of God's love, keep trusting. Then, like my Aunt Eleanor, we will die in peace and awaken to God's glory.

Bitterness

Ephesians 4:31-32

English Standard Version (ESV)

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

(In case you can't tell, I used this photo to represent BITTER cold.)

 If I said the word "bitterness" to you, what comes to mind?  A food? Maybe a person? Have you ever talked with someone and found yourself thinking they were very bitter? I've experienced that from time to time. Sometimes I meet someone and within minutes, their bitterness oozes out and sometimes a bit of it gets on me. It makes me want to go wash it off. It makes me want to get far away from that person.

When I went online to find a definition of that word I first found, as you would expect, a reference to taste. The second definition, though, referred to feelings. Words associated with bitterness were:

anger

disappointment

resentment

Those are not very positive words, are they? However, we all have those feelings from time to time I suppose. Does that mean we are bitter people? 

I'm not sure why but that word has come to my mind on several occasions lately. Something I've noticed is that most of us have trouble avoiding bitterness.  Do you think it is associated with a mentality of victimization? Do you know what I mean? We all have things in our past that we could latch onto to feel we were victimized in some way. We've all experienced times of being treated unfairly. I think it is our response to those experiences that determine whether or not we are going to become bitter.

I don't even know why I am writing about this. I don't have much of a psych background. Sure, we had to do some of that in nursing school but truthfully, I wasn't that good at the psych stuff. Also, I don't remember ever learning about bitterness and its effect on people during those class discussions. So, I hope you aren't looking for any insightful answers here. There you go. That is my little disclaimer.

The only thing I'm thinking is that there is a strong link between bitterness and the lack of forgiveness. Think about it and tell me if you agree. When I tried to examine things from my past that left me feeling angry or resentful, I noticed that there were a few feelings of bitterness that still popped up. There were maybe some people I needed to forgive. Ouch! I wanted to think about bitterness in others, not myself! 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have a few things to work on. I'm still nurturing several areas of bitterness. Did I say "nurturing"? Yep. I realized that I kind of wanted to keep those things on a nearby shelf, so to speak, so that I could pull them out and dwell on them when I wanted to have a pity party or just enjoy a good "mad". I may even want to pull them off the shelf to use as an excuse for my own behavior sometime. Oh come on! You do things like that, don't you? I'm not the only one, am I?

Here's what I know, though. Bitterness leaves a terrible taste in your mouth. Bitterness spreads to others. Bitterness can be neutralized when sprinkled with sugar. Maybe forgiveness is the sugar. Oh, hey, that sounds kind of insightful, doesn't it? I'm so proud of it, I will say it again...

Forgiveness is the sugar.

       

Healing Bitterness

Well, I decided this post was worth the effort to re-write it. I'm trying to let go of my bitterness toward BLOGGER for losing my post yesterday.

I am enjoying Bible Study with some friends on Monday nights. This week we talked of many things, including God as healer. I liked that! Maybe because I am a nurse, I don't know, but I really like to think of God as a healer.

It is easy to think of healing in regards to disease and injury. Something discussed Monday night, though, was our need for healing of bitterness.  Yes, bitterness. Of course I first started thinking of people I know who seem really bitter. It's always easier to see what is wrong with someone else, huh? The trust is, though, most of us have something that can makes us feel bitter.

Often people who are bitter about something don't realize it or wouldn't call it bitterness. Can you think of anything about which you might be retaining some bitterness? If you can identify something about which you are bitter, you have likely found something for which you need to consider offering forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a tricky thing. Sometimes we want to hold on to our pain, including our bitterness. Sometimes we want to wallow in it, huh? Eventually, though, it starts to smell bad, so to speak. In fact, one of the things we read was bitterness is like a cancer. It can grow and spread until you don't really even remember where it all began. 

So, how to wash yourself clean of bitterness? As I said, forgiveness is usually the ticket. God shows us forgiveness; we need to pass that on. Another tricky thing about forgiveness, though, is that we may worry about what message we are sending. Sometimes our bitterness is based on something really seriously bad that someone did to us. Does offering forgiveness mean to say that the wrong done to you was really ok? Nope. Forgiving and letting go of bitterness is not about saying a wrong is ok, it is about saying YOU are ok. It is to say you wish to quit allowing the wrong thing to keep hurting you. You want to be rid of it. You want to be healed of it.

OK, that is one of the things we talked about and I really wanted to share it. Now, I have. I feel better.

From Pastor Mike - The Freeing Word

 The following is a sermon Mike wrote based on Mark 7:24-37.  So, in my husband's words...

The first time I saw Rich he was sitting next to a window overlooking downtown St. Paul.  Rich was a patient at the Ramsey County Hospital Psychiatric Ward.  He was 23 years old.  He had a severe case of acne and he had a slight quiver to his movements.

Rich was an addict.  He told me he chain smoked cigarettes, drank 3 pots of coffee a day, smoked marijuana when he could and drank alcohol to excess.

Rich came to the hospital when someone became concerned about his behavior. He said he wasn't doing anything bu the cops threw him down, handcuffed him and took him to the hospital.

Rich told me, "I didn't have any problems until I started drinking. I drank my first beer when I was 12 years old and I immediately knew that I had a problem with alcohol."

Rich said he suffered from schizophrenia.  He said, "It isn't good when I start drinking heavily.  Sometimes I hear voices from cars or radios.  Sometimes I wake up and wonder if I just dreamed something or if it really happened."

When I talked to Rich, I realized he was a man imprisoned. Sure, he was in a psychiatric ward with bars and locked doors, but his prison seemed deeper that that. He was a prisoner looking to be free from addiction and mental illness.

In our gospel reading for today Jesus encounters two people in prison, a woman who had a child with an unclean spirit and a man who was deaf with a speech impediment. In both cases, Jesus speaks a freeing word and people ARE set free.

The demon or unclean spirit was cast out and in the deaf man's silent world he could suddenly hear the sound of his own voice. The actions of Jesus reflected the words of Isaiah 35. The eyes see, the ears hear and the lame leap, the speechless sing for joy.

The healing ministry of Jesus was like Jesus going to a prison, opening the lock on the door and speaking the words, "You may go now.  You are free!"

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus traveled back to his home town, went to the synagogue, opened the scriptures and read from Isaiah that he has come "to bring release to the captives."

As humans we can become imprisoned by so many things, some of our own making, some we don't understand, some we have inherited from ancestors or from birth and sometimes it is others who imprison us with their actions.

As for Rich who was in the psychiatric hospital in St. Paul, I prayed for him be he didn't become immediately healed.  I talked with the chaplain on that floor. He said we are not Jesus but prayer is a good thing.  He encouraged me to keep praying for people.  He said he has seen many people become better through prayer, talk therapy and medicine.  He told me not to give up hope in Jesus who speaks the freeing word.

Sin is another power that can enslave us. We say that sometimes in our confession.. "We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves."

At the  beginning of every worship service I appreciate the time of confessing and forgiveness.  It is a time to be set free so we can turn our focus to the worship of God and to be strengthened by God for our journey through this life.

Jesus died on a cross to set us free from the power of sin.  I like the word REDEMPTION. It's a word that is sometimes used in the Bible to speak of slaves being set free for a price, through the death of Jesus. We are set free. We are no longer in sin's power. The door is opened. We have received God's forgiveness.

Martin Luther often felt deep remorse for his sinfulness. He felt like he deserved to die by the gallows, run through by a sword or burned at the stake for his sinfulness. He knew he had offended God with his sin but as he read the Bible he knew God didn't want him imprisoned by sin but rather set free by Christ. He wrote, "This is wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside ourselves. I am justified and acceptable to God although there are within me sin and unrighteousness. Yet I must look elsewhere (to Christ) and see no sin. This is wonderful not to see what I see, not to feel what I feel. Before my eyes I used to see a gallows or a sword or a fire. But now, through Christ, I can say there is no gallows, no sword, or fire. This is what the forgiveness of sins is like."

I believe the ministry of "the freeing word" is something that Jesus passed on to the church. Jesus told his disciples, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them..." And so we make confession and forgiveness and Holy Communion key components of our worship services.

And all of us, as Christians, have many opportunities to speak freeing words to one another, like...
"I forgive you."
"I'm sorry."
"I love you."
"Peace be with you." The sharing of the peace is more than a handshake and a phrase. It's a time for us to say, "I hold nothing against you. I want God's peace in your life."

It's so easy to be negative with someone, to hold a grudge, to keep people down when you've got them down. But we set ourselves free when we are able to speak a freeing word to others.

Finally, I want you to hear a word from a former teacher, Gerhard Forde. He asked our seminary class, "Now that Christ has set you free, what are you going to do?"

The ways we live out our lives before God is to serve in and beyond the congregation. Now that Christ has set you free, what are you going to do? We need ushers, readers, greeters, communion servers, fellowship servers, teachers, helping at the rescue mission, serving comfort food and so on.

Are you already serving on or beyond the congregation? Well, take somebody with you.  Be a mentor. Be a teacher, a discipler. The book of James reminds us that the works we do are a response to the faith we have.

Hear and do the word.

You are free!

Go.

Serve the Lord this week.


Mark 7:24-37 RSV

24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house, and would not have any one know it; yet he could not be hid. 25 But immediately a woman, whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoeni'cian by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 28 But she answered him, "Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 And he said to her, "For this saying you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter." 30 And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone. 31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decap'olis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him. 33 And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; 34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Eph'phatha," that is, "Be opened." 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."

Confession and Forgiveness

Following is part of the most humbling yet meaningful parts of our church service.

Confession and Forgiveness

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, 

all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: 

cleanse the thoughts of our hearts 

by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, 

that we may perfectly love you and 

worthily magnify your holy name, through 

Jesus Christ our Lord....

Most merciful God,

We confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.  We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, 

by what we have done and 

by what we have left undone.  

We have not loved you with our whole heart; 

we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  

For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.  Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, 

so that we may delight in your will 

and walk in your ways, 

to the glory of your holy name.  Amen.

 In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was 

given to die for us, and for his sake 

God forgives us all our sins.  

A Word From Pastor Mike: Top 10 Reasons to Worship Weekly

Yesterday Mike began his sermon with the "Top 10 Reasons of Why You Should Worship Weekly."  I thought you might enjoy them.

10)    Going to Worship is better than listening to someone scrape their fingernails on a blackboard.

 9)     People who worship have fewer cavities than people who don't brush at all.

 8)     Worship promotes weight loss.  No big meals - only low calorie bread and wine served at      communion.

 7)     Worship provides aerobic routines for you... stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down...

 6)     Worship provides another place for you to sing other than the shower.

 5)     People who worship cut down their exposure to dangerous ultra violet rays.

 4)     Baptism provides the side benefit of clean hair.

 3)     Candle lighting at worship provides a safe environment for your children to play with fire.

 2)     Worship exposes you to some of the nicest people and the greatest sinners.  Have fun by guessing who's who.

 1)     People who worship receive free grace, unconditional love, and a great retirement plan.

Yes, most of it was tongue in cheek.  That last one is a kicker, though, don't you think?

Mike's sermon spoke of God's ability to change and transform lives.  He spoke of Jesus welcoming imperfect people.  He spoke of how he strengthens the faithful, forgives the sinner, gives hope to the hopeless and changes stubborn minds.  I think most of us need to hear these words.

October Baby

Mike & I went to see October Baby this past week-end.  I really would like to recommend it to everyone.

The movie deals with the issue of abortion.  It could've been made in a very judgmental tone, in a way that would cause even more harm.  I don't think it did that, though.  Yes, it is most definitely a pro-life film.  However, I believe it is also tenderly trying to tell women who have already aborted that they are loved and forgiveness is available to them.

I don't want to tell you the whole film but a part that blew me away was actually a clip shown after the movie was over.  It is an interview with the actress that played the abortive mother.  As it turns out, she had a secret of her own and she found healing from this movie herself.  Here's that clip...

Old Maid and Forgiveness

Yesterday Mike's sermon was about my blog and Old Maid.

OK, that wasn't really the point of the sermon. 

The sermon was actually about forgiveness.

He spoke of the verse in Matthew 18 where Peter asked Jesus

how many times he should forgive someone.

Basically he was told that he should keep forgiving indefinitely.

Mike also said that witholding forgiveness is like carrying

around something that is dead and stinky.

I really liked that description as it

so clearly gives the mental picture

of how horrible it is to keep dragging

around those feelings of

anger and resentment

and

refusing

to

put it down.

Anyway, back to Old Maid.

Did you read this post that had a little teeny, tiny

mention of playing Old Maid with Mike and his Mom?

Well, Mike referred to that post and

 told the congregation that I had

slandered him on the internet!

(I hope you are smiling right now, as this was all in good fun.)

Mike went on to say how difficult it was to

forgive me

for the public slander.

Finally, he said that he would forgive me since

I am so beautiful and ....................... he said more nice stuff about me

but after hearing "beautiful" I was unable to focus on

much of anything else.  I felt embarrassed but it was the

good kind of embarrassed.

So, because Mike publicly called me beautiful

I will forgive HIM for being such a cheater

at Old Maid...

...but I don't think I will play it with him again anytime soon!