Sabbath Time

In our crazy lives, time is one of our most precious commodities.  We complain that we do not have enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done.  We find that the demands of our schedule dictate our lives.  We spend our time juggling all of our commitments.  Time is the one thing everyone wants and time is the one thing we feel we can't afford to give. We find ourselves saying we would do many things if only we had the time.

As with everything else in our lives, God understands our dilemma.  The struggle with time is universal and has been with us from the beginning.  One of God's most gracious gift is the gift of Sabbath, a holy time set apart from the craziness of life.  A time for God.  A time for family.  A time to be still.  Back in the day, Sunday used to be that time.  Sunday is not sacred as it once was, but Sabbath should be.  God invites us to create Sabbath in our lives.  It doesn't have to be Sunday, but it needs to be for our emotional, mental, and physical health.  Sabbath is also needed for our spiritual health.  Mother Theresa was once asked how often she prayed.  She said she prayed for an hour every morning.  She was then asked how often she prayed when she was busy.  She answered that when live got crazy, she prayed two hours.  Her surprising answer comes with some much needed truth.  God calls us to set aside a time for Sabbath.  Sabbath was created for us.  May we restore that holy time to our lives.

Peace,
Pastor Summer

Youth Gathering - Review

There's nothing like having your ipad die while you are away.  My hope was to continue blogging during the gathering, but technology ended that dream.  I'm back in pocket and still living in the afterglow of Detroit.  The Youth Gatherings tend to be mountain top experiences, and this one was no exception.  Detroit is an amazing city.  Unlike our experience in New Orleans, the challenge has not been a natural disaster, but an economic one.  The city felt almost deserted.  The architectural beauty was still there, but faded.  There were fewer people than you might imagine in a major metropolitan area.  As with all gathering, the evening community events were filled with wonderful speakers, great music, and lots of energy.  I would recommend going the ELCA Youth Gathering website and catching some of the videos.

The greatest take away for me was the encounter with the people of Detroit.  We had the opportunity to go out into the community to do some much needed work.  In particular, we were sent to spruce up 100 blocks north of the city.  Many of the homes are abandoned and look that way.  With shovels, saws, clippers, and plastic bags, we cleared and cleaned yard after yard.  We removed trash, weeds, overgrown vines, and unsafe porches and structures.  The people in the neighborhoods were amazed.  An older woman on a porch  told me she never saw so many white people and, since we were wearing orange, were we carrying out some sentence.  When I told her we were not convicts but Lutherans and that we were doing it for free as a witness to Christ, she was overwhlemed and clearly grateful.  No one had done anything like this for them.  One woman stopped her car in the middle of the road, got out while the car was running, and blessed all of us.  She then had everyone gather around the car while she prayed.  A little boy, with his mother's permission, shared his Pringles with us.  These are just a few of the stories.  There are many more.  While we were in Detroit, we had the possibility of bringing hope to a community that has known very little.  We got the chance to live out and experience the gospel.  Those are memories that will stay with you for a lifetime.

If you get the chace, talk with someone who went to Detroit.  They will have stories to tell.  It will be a week that I will always remember.

Peace,

Pastor Summer

Youth Gathering - Day 2

Today was the first official day of the Gathering.  We explored the city on the People Mover and ate lunch in Thomas Edison Park.  We discovered a great restaraunt called Bucherest Grille.  The rest of the day was spent getting autographs for our T-shirts.  Detroit is an interesting city.  It seems almost deserted.  The people are so glad to have us.  The weather was perfect and the Riverwalk was beautiful.  We went to Ford Field was the opening program.  We were fortunate enough to be on the floor.  With 30,000 young people, the energy was amazing.  The music was I spiring.  It was a great way to start the Gathering.  The trip back to the hotel took some time and we didn't return to almost 11:30.  The bus heads back to the city tomorrow morning at 7:15.  It will be a full day.  I keep you informed tomorrow.

Peace
Pastor

Youth Gathering 2015

The adventure has begun.  We are safely in Detroit.  The Gathering officially begins tomorrow.  The theme is "Rise Up".  We have been traveling two days on bus with 190 other people from the New Jersey Synod.  You can feel the excitement building.  Tomorrow we will "rise up" early and take in the city.  We'll also go to the Cobo Center and get our first taste of the Gathering.  We will be wearing our autograph shirts and New Jersey ties.  You will be able to catch pictures of us on Facebook and Twitter.  Kathryn Schaefer is handling the social media outlets.  We won't be returning to the hotel until late tomorrow night.  I'm not sure when I will be able to blog, but I'm going to make the effort.  Keep the Gathering and our young people in your prayers.  We off to a great start.

Peace,
Pastor

Book of Faith - The Fourth and Fifth Commandments

The conversations around the Ten Commandments continues with Luther's Large Catechism as our guide.  We have been studying the Fourth and Fifth Commandments.  What became very clear with Luther's interpretation of the Fourth Commandment, You shall honor your father and mother, is how important the family was for him in faith formation.  Mothers and fathers have a key role in the faith life of their children.  In Luther's words, "For if we wish to have excellent and apt persons both for civil and ecclesiastical government, we must spare no diligence, time, or cost in teaching and educating our children, that they may serve God and the world."  These words still have the ring of truth.

In the Fifth Commandment, You shall not kill, Luther takes the commandment and pushes the meaning even farther than Jesus.  Jesus spoke of breaking the commandment when we grow angry with another person.  We did not need to "kill" a person to do them injury.  Injury can take many forms.  Luther pushes the boundaries farther.  Luther argued that if we are in a position to help another person in need and do not do so, we have broken this commandment.  This understanding echoes the prophets of old and still speaks to our lives and time.  

Keep the conversation going!  We meet every Wednesday at noon at the Christian Education Building.

Peace,

Pastor Summer

Book of Faith - The Apostles' Creed

With the return of fall, we are back in conversation.  The group decided to take a little detour by discussing the Apostles' Creed.  Unlike the other great creeds, the Apostles' Creed does not have an exact date though it begins to appear around 104 A.D.   The creed was a fuller explanation of the faith than "Jesus is Lord".  The early church began to encounter interpretations of the faith that stood outside of what was understood as the gospel.  There were those who proclaimed that the God of the Old Testament was not the God of the New Testament.  There were those who proclaimed that Jesus only appeared to be human.  There were those who proclaimed that Christians had secret knowledge. Against these claims, the Apostles' Creed arose as a response.  In many ways, all of the creeds were battle documents equiping the faithful to meet the spiritual challenges they were facing in the world.  By seeing the Apostles' Creed as a battle document helps it to come alive in a very different way.  To see the creed is such a way invites us to ask what our the spiritual  challenges of our day and age that need to be address by our faith.  This served as the starting point for our exploration and conversation.

The group named a number of spiritual challenges.  First, we live in an increasing secular world.  It's more than soccer on Sundays.  Talk of God in not a part of the conversation for most people.  The need for the language of faith in ways that speak to people in our time becomes even more important.  Second, we live in a world where loneliness is a significant issue.  We are interconnected in a thousand different ways through technology and still feel alone.  The creed speaks of God connecting us and forming us into a community, a family.  Sin is what pulls us apart.  God and the work of the Holy Spirit is what brings us together.  In one way or another, we have all experienced that work of the Spirit, whether we call it the Holy Spirit or not, when we are brought together or are reconciled with another.  Third, we live in a world where the faith is either polarizing or vague.  The creed helps us to articulate who we are without being judgmental.  For me, the faith has been the answere for my life.  I share it because of what it has meant to me.  I make no demands of another.  The clearer my understanding and experience of my faith, the more patient and gracious I become.  I do not need to prove myself or my faith, I simply witness to it.  

Peace,
Pastor Summer

Book of Faith - Ephesians 6:10-18 - The Two Battles

We talked about Ephesus being one of the first Christian communities.  The language of the letter seems a little strange for Paul, though it is Pauline in its theology.  Paul usually addressed specific issues that were impacting the churches that were receiving his letters.  Ephesians is more general, though the points are significant.  Paul talks about putting on the whole armor of God.  This language sounds a little strange to modern ears, but the group felt that the imagery was very powerful to the community that received this letter. The power of darkness can be overwhelming.  For the early church, they certainly felt that power.  They had no army, no political clout, no social standing, no great wealth.  How could one stand against the powers of the world?  The imagery of armor had significance.

We then talked about doing battle against evil, the darkness of this world.  Left to ourselves, we will fall short.  It is only with the power of God that we can stand.  We talked about experiences where God (the Holy Spirit) helped us to stand.  As an example, my father walked into a riot that had broken out in the prison he was serving as chaplain.  In the cafeteria, black inmates were on one side and white inmates were on the other. It was a tinder box ready to explode.  My father was warned by the guards not to go into the cafeteria alone.  My father's answer was that he was not entering alone.  God was going with him.  He walked into that situation with the armor of faith and that armor made all the difference.  My father does not remember what he said, but the situation was defused.  My father gives all the credit that day to God.  He was just an instrument of God's grace.  It is that kind of empowerment that Paul lifts up in his letter.  An empowerment than can come to all of us through the Holy Spirit.  An empowerment that can have us face the evil of this world.

The Book of Faith will be taking a vacation during the summer and return in the fall.  I hope you have been following the blogs so far.  I hope you will join us again in September.

Peace,
Pastor Summer