Batteries

This last weekend I had a fun thing happen to me - I put the batteries in the microphone for church. Isn't that funny? Well, it isn't. What was funny is the bell started to ring and I did exactly what I do each service when the bell rings - I turned the microphone on. When I turn it on the light turns green. That means it is ready to go! When it is yellow, it means it is muted but on. So I held the button down and waited for the light to come on. It didn't. I held it down again. It didn't. I pulled it out of my pocket and held it down - nothing! What? It is time for the mic to work. I put the batteries in. They were charged. What is going on?

Now before I go on with the story let me ask you, "What do you do to help yourself to grow in your faith?" Read a devotion? Read the Bible? Attend worship? Receive the Lord's Supper? Nothing at all? You are a child of God, a believer in Jesus Christ, a person who follows the Lord with your heart and life each and every day. You know the power that the Lord gives to you. You are certain that you are doing things "just right" to make your faith grow.

And what happens, it seems that nothing happens. No matter what you do it seems that your faith is just what it is - not growing at all.Why not? You do all that you are supposed to do but nothing happens. You are sure the problem is with God.

The microphone was broken. Something was wrong with it. I was sure of it. I held the button down, no light came on, no sound came out of it. I did everything I was supposed to do to make it work so the problem is with the microphone. One last ditch effort to see if I could get it working before the bell quit ringing was to check one last thing - were the batteries in correctly? I opened up the mic and found that I had put the batteries in correctly! What was wrong? Then I looked closer. Wait a minute. That doesn't look right. Both batteries were in the same direction. That isn't supposed to be that way. They are supposed to be put in opposite directions. Who put them in wrong? Can't "they" get them right? Wait a minute, no one else put those batteries in - I did. I was the one to blame. It wasn't the mics fault. It wasn't the fault of someone else. I had to accept the blame. It was my fault there was no power for my mic.

Think about your spiritual life. Are you just going through the motions in your life? Is worship something that you go through without any thought at all? Are you "doing" devotions but not actually letting the devotion mold or shape your spiritual life? Do you have a Bible but never use it to feed your walk of faith? And when nothing happens, are you quick to blame God?

Now I am not making judgments here. I just am wanting you to take time to reflect upon your walk of faith. The Holy Spirit does amazing things through those Means of Grace. He is the power of our lives. When we mess things up (like putting the batteries in wrong), we can't blame Him. Reflection - how does your spiritual walk? I pray it is going well through the power of the Holy Spirit, His power!

Be still

I was getting the tire on the van fixed this morning (one of those fun tasks that need to happen before the tire goes completely flat while driving miles from home). It had a screw in it that I picked up somewhere, who knows where. It doesn't have to be from the construction out on the interstate exchange here at Troy (which, BTW, is said to be done by the end of June! WooHoo!). There is construction in various places. It could have even fallen off a truck or from a garbage truck and been laying in the road, just waiting for my van to go by so that it can attack my tire and cause me to wonder what happened. Getting in the van, having it ding at me and tell me that the tire is going flat is such a wonderful thing to have happen when you want to go somewhere. but at least the van lets me know when a tire is needing air. Saves me from the trouble of calling a tow truck while sitting on a dark desert highway, cool wind my hair, warm smell of...wait a minute. I have digressed into an Eagles song. sorry. In fact, this whole paragraph is a digression. I wasn't wanting to talk about the tire, the van or the warm air at all.

So anyway, there I sat at M & M (not the candies, unfortunately) in Troy, as they worked on my tire. I sat on the bench and thought, "I'm bored." Really? You are bored after sitting on this bench for 5 minutes? Take out your cell phone. So I did. Called a few folks. Texted a couple more. And sat there some more. Minutes seemed like hours. I watched the traffic on 40 go by, people on their way to work, people going hither and yon. I wondered where they were going. Then I thought again, "I am really, really bored. Should have brought a book to read. Maybe I should walk over to the Casey's and get a soda." You don't need a soda. You don't need a book. Sit and enjoy the time with nothing to do. "No way! I need to do something. I can't just sit here."

Then I thought (after arguing with myself for a few more minutes), "What is wrong with you? Why can't you just sit and enjoy doing nothing? Why can't you just sit and talk with God instead of arguing with yourself?" Because I am sitting here on a bench at M & M and have nothing to do. "What about that person who is ill? Don't you think they need your prayers?" Well, yeah. "And that person who is struggling in their lives with..." OK, OK. I get it.

Then I thought, "Isn't that the problem we have in our lives today? We cannot be still. We cannot just allow God to wrap us in His arms and let Him enfold us in the moment, the time, the feeling of the day." Then it came to me, "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10 ESV) We are so busy in our lives, we don't have time to be still and know God. Stillness is not something that we are able to do. We might desire it, but when we receive the gift of stillness (and it is a gift) we don't know what to do with it. We must act. We must do something. We must...I guess that is the struggle we face with salvation, forgiveness and the will of God.

We struggle with salvation because we want to do something to help God save us. "Don't I still need to do something to be saved?" No. You don't. God does it all. He saves you by faith and then He gives you the faith whereby you are saved. You are the beggar at the table of God. "But don't I still need to eat? Isn't that the action in which I work with God in order t be saved?" NO! You do nothing. God does it. Be still and know that He saves you.

Shouldn't I do something for forgiveness? No. Jesus did it all on the cross. But don't I need to do something to make His blood work in my life? Be still and know that He is God. He doesn't need your help. He is strong to save, mighty to forgive!

Then I thought (all of this while sitting on a bench wanting to do something - knowing that this was not from my wonderful mind but from the power of the Holy Spirit as I contemplated this Sunday, Pentecost Sunday), "That is the real problem we have, isn't it? It isn't so much about salvation that we struggle. We struggle with the fact that we must sit still, waiting for God to act in our lives - when we are ill, when we are weak, when we have problems, etc. We must wait for God to act and we don't like the fact that we are not the ones who are in control." Be still and know that He is God!

"Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all day long." (Psalm 25:5 ESV) I wait for the Lord all day long. No I don't. I pursue the Lord. I dog the Lord. I tell Him what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how it needs to be done. That is not right. Be still. Wait for Him to act. He knows. Take it to Him in prayer, yet He knows. He tells you to pray. Why? In order to teach you to wait for Him all the day long. To trust in Him. To pour out yourself to Him. To set your will aside and let His will be done.

Then it came to me, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord." (Psalm 27:14 ESV) Be still. Wait for the Lord. Be courageous. The Lord will act. The Lord is the King of kings, Lord of lords, almighty God, Prince of Peace, Alpha and Omega and whatever other name you can come up with as you think of the Lord. He doesn't need us to hound Him. In fact, if anything, we need Him to hound us, to continue to be after us because of how easy it is to be so busy, so active, that we don't have time for the Lord, for the stillness of faith, for waiting for Him.

Lord, thanks for giving me a screw in my tire. For today, sitting on that bench, waiting, I learned a lesson You have taught me before but that I needed again today. I learned to be still. To wait. To trust. To pray. And to know, You have it all under control.

Lessons from the dishwasher

I was putting the dishes away this morning (part of the morning routine) and began to think. The forks go here and the knives go there. The plates are stacked at this place and the bowls are there. The platter goes here, under this bowl which has these bowls in it. Everything has it's place.

But what if I didn't want to put the things where they belong. What if I decided to randomly put one bowl in this cabinet and one bowl in another cabinet. What if I mixed the knives with the forks and put the spoons in another drawer all together. Bwahahaha! The wildness of it all was intoxicating. I could do what I wanted. No one could stop me! I was the master of my destiny, the master of my world! It didn't matter what anyone else thought, wanted or expected. It was all me! All me, I tell you! I could put things where I want them and...

Then I stopped to think. Isn't that the way that we, as sinners, live our lives? We don't want anyone to tell us what to do or to think. We want to act in the way we want to act, when we want to act and we don't want anyone - a God, a Christian, another person - telling us what to do. And when they do tell us what to do, we get ticked off. When someone points out that they think what we are doing is wrong, we get upset, throw a fit and tell them to mind their own business. We remind them about how unloving they are being by not allowing us to live our lives as we want, doing the things we want, when we want and how we want.

I think about the whole same-sex marriage debate that is going on. Someone says, "I want to be gay. I want to live the life of a homosexual. I want to be in a same-sex relationship." When someone (namely a Christian because most non-Christians could care less about what is right or wrong unless it directly impacts them in their lives) says, "But that is wrong." They are told, "You are a terrible person for telling me that. You cannot and should not tell me that what I am doing is wrong. And if that "god" that you follow is saying that same-sex relations is wrong, then "it" is a terrible, unloving thing that shouldn't be listened to and what is more, you are just a rotten person for even thinking of condemning me and my actions. Go crawl in your ancient hole and don't ever come out again. Good bye!" (All right, maybe that is a little dramatic but isn't that really the gist of what is being said in response to the Christian stating what is right and wrong?)

Then I go back to the dishes. I put them away where I want, when I want, how I want. The family gets up and goes to get a glass. But low and behold, instead of glasses in the cabinet, there are the forks, a few bowls and box a cereal. What? OK. try another cabinet. Nope, not there either. "Hey Mitch! What did you do with glasses?" "What difference does it make?" I respond. "They belong in this cabinet." "So, I wanted to put them elsewhere. I can do what I want, can't I? " "Are you nuts? Just put the glasses in this cabinet, the forks in the drawer and the bowls in their place. And how did you figure that the cereal went in this one?" "I dunno. I just wanted it to be my way today." "Well forget it. Come in here and put it all where it belongs." "No way! You can't tell me where things go. It is up to me."

(Later that same day.) Looking for my shoes, I call out, "Penny, where are my shoes? They are always right here in the closet." "I moved them." "Why?" "Because I felt like I wanted them somewhere else instead of in the closet." "Where did you put them?" "I dunno. Just moved them as I wanted and could care less if they are where they should be or not." "That is crazy...wait a minute, does this have to do with the dishes this morning?" "Now you are getting it, sunshine! Think it through." Going to the cabinet, I open it, expecting my shoes and all I find is a note that says, "Not here. That would be too easy." I sigh, and realize, life is not about my wishes but is about what is right and wrong, about others, about fitting in with others and doing (ready for this) what is right in God's eyes and not just what I want.

So it is in all things. Lessons from the dishwasher. Just because I think I want to do something, doesn't make it right. Just because someone tells me what I did or want to do is wrong, doesn't make them judgmental. It is the way of the world. It is the way that God intended it. And that is a hard lesson to learn. I don't think society has learned it yet, and the farther they go from God, the less likely it will be learned.

More on this later...I think.

Passwords

I just hate passwords. I know that they are necessary because there are evil and sick people out there that will do their best (or worst) to reek havoc on just about any account that they can gain access to, but passwords are a pain. You have to have this password for one thing but you better not use the same password for another account because if one gets compromised then they could have access to all your accounts. And then you need to include letters and numbers and symbols in the password to make it harder for someone to hack into your account.

Why would someone hack an account? To gain information? To get access to financial gain? To be a pain in the neck? All of the above? I have often wondered why someone would want to spend their time doing those terrible things to other people. Does it give them joy? Does it give a sense of power? Or is it because they are just plain evil and want to hurt people and cause them all sorts of problems?

I guess we will never know because most hackers don't get caught. Why am I writing about passwords? Not because I was hacked, thankfully! It is because I have such a hard time remembering them. I was going to blog about the weather this morning - the rain, the lightning, the hail - but then I couldn't get onto my account because (you guessed it) I couldn't remember my password. I thought I did. But nope, not going to let you on. So I had to go through the whole routine of resetting the password, etc. Now I have to remember a whole new word that will give me access to this place. How frustrating.

And it is all because of sin, sinful nature, the fall of mankind, that which separates us from our heavenly Father. Thankfully, we do not need a password to sign onto our communication with our Father. Well, that isn't true, is it? We do need a password. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. We need to know Jesus as our Savior, or have the Holy Spirit working in our hearts to bring us to Jesus as our Savior, and then we have the password that we need to approach our heavenly Father as dear children.

Not everyone knows this password either! Believe it or not the name of Jesus is not a joyous name in all households. In many houses it is a name used in anger and frustration but never in prayer! It is a name that is taken and abused over and over again without any thought that it is the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. That is why we are to be about the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So others will have this special password of hope, life and eternity.

JESUS! The ultimate password for life, love and strength. Don't hide this password. Put it out there for everyone to know. They need to get online with Jesus!

Season of HOPE

Easter is upon us. It is tempting to say that Easter has come and gone but if you pay attention to the Church year, you come to know that Easter lasts for 7 weeks. It isn't over and done with. The morning celebrations are finished. The colored eggs have been eaten, made into egg salad or deviled eggs or thrown away. The chocolate bunny has lost his ears - and maybe more. The Easter dinner may be history, with the leftovers eaten on Monday. But Easter continues on! Hurrah for that. He is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We had "The Season of the Cross" during Lent this year. The "seasons" continued on into the Holy Week celebration. For the Sunrise service, we had "The Season of Hope." The resurrection of our Lord from the dead, His bodily coming from the tomb to new life, gives to us hope in the midst of the hopelessness of the world. Our lives have much hopelessness. Without Christ's resurrection, that hopelessness touches not only our lives but also our deaths. When we die, we would be condemned eternally, living in hell without the love and presence of our Lord. Death would indeed be the last great enemy that we could not defeat.

But Christ defeated that enemy. He faced death, going into the grave itself, totally and completely encompassed by death and the grave only to burst the bonds of death and the grave on that first Easter morning. As the stone is rolled from the tomb, Jesus rises victorious for us, giving to us the Season of Hope.

HOPE - what is is it? I used the acronym HOPE. Hearts Overflowing with Power and Excitement. Our hearts that are crushed and defeated by sin, death and the devil, are given new life in Christ's resurrection. New life comes to our hearts in the waters of our Baptism as we die to sin and rise to a newness of life. Those very Hearts are Overflowing - even as our cup overflows, not with what we have filled it with (which would be only sinful desires and wishes) but those very Hearts are Overflowing with Power - the Power of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God who has risen from the dead just as He said He wold. Those very Hearts Overflow with Christ's Power for our daily lives. He brings life, forgiveness, hope, peace, joy and eternity to each and everyone that believes in Him. His Power Overflows from Hearts which are given new life in Him. Those very Hearts also Overflow with Excitement! There is great Excitement as we peer into the tomb and see the clothes but no body. There is Excitement as we hear the words, "your sins are forgiven." There is tremendous Excitement as we receive the body and blood our Savior in the Sacrament.

Season of Hope - Hearts Overflowing with Power and Excitement. May your days be filled with that Season even as you struggle through the other seasons of life.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Dust Clears

It has been 2 days since the announcement that the LCMS is changing its "brand" in the corporate world. And the dust has cleared. Many who were upset by it have gone on with their lives - including myself. I can only imagine that was the hope of those who brought about the change. There will be an outcry at first, but then people will get tired of the talk, will go on with their lives and we can do what we want anyway. Do it during Holy Week, and even those who are upset by the actions of the powers that be, will not have time to do anything about it. And by the time they recover from Holy Week, they will be told it is too late to stop it because things have been put into motion, so just live with it.

Does the color of the "brand" make a difference? Nope. Not at all. There is personal preference by each one of us. I prefer the burgundy. Why? I think it looks more regal and stands out better. I am a fan of the color blue. Its my favorite color. Yet I think it looks weak and "soft" as the color of our "brand."

What's up with this "brand" stuff? We are told over and over again by our confessional brothers and sisters that the church is not a corporation as the world knows it. We are not to run things like a business but as the church. Every time one of the less-than-confessional brothers or sisters says something about the way the church works, it is immediately said, "The Church does not work as the world works. It is the Church." But when it is for something that is desired, suddenly we are the corporate world once again. We use the language. We use the ideas. We act just like them. Except I think that the corporate world would not have acted so brashly and brought out a change like this without more "study," etc.

I go back to the arrogance factor. "We want it. You can't stop us. And if you try, we tell you that it is adiaphora and it doesn't matter anyway. So let it be and let us go on doing what we want." It happens whoever is in power. It disgusts me when either side do it. When the last administration was in power, if they would have tried this, I can only imagine the outcry by the current group in power.

Oh well, not much we can do about it. It is a done deal. Rant all you want Mitch, but it won't change a thing. Live with it. Years from now, we will wonder why anyone even got upset. After all, it is only a color change. It will only cost a few bucks, not millions. The money could have been better used for other purposes like vestments or incense. Live with it. The current movement is firmly in place. Be upset with it - sure. But you are only one person who will not be able to stop the juggernaut that is rolling along.

A Blue Cross

It was just announced today that the LC-MS is changing the color of the logo cross from burgundy to blue. What's the big deal? Really there isn't a big deal. It is just a logo, a "brand" as it is called. It can be blue, pink, burgundy, black, etc. It doesn't really matter.

But it ticks me off. Why? Because I feel that the current administration is going to do what it wants, when it wants and we just have to live with it. Don't like the color of the cross? Spend several million over the next few years to change it because the leadership wants it. Change the names of the church calendar. Change the worship of the LCMS. Why? Because the leadership wants it that way. And they are "good ole boys" that would never lead us wrong. They know what is best for us in our lives and we just better follow along and be happy about it.

And if you complain, we will point to "adiaphora" and say, "It just doesn't matter. Don't get upset. Just live with it." When someone on the other side (politically speaking) tries to make a change, it is no longer adiaphora but doctrine and can't be done. Don't question us. We are conservative and confessional and if you question us, then you are liberal and non-confessional.

Is that truth? Probably not. But it sure comes out that way. I know, you will say that I am just ranting and there is no basis to my writing. Except when I was putting joint services together, they needed to be checked by my "confessional" brothers. When the "confessional" brothers put the service together I was told, "Don't worry about it. You don't need to check it because I am doing it." Arrogance? Yes. And that arrogance is shown over and over again when things like this logo change takes place.

What congregations had the chance to view it and see if they thought it was good idea? What pastors? The inner circle? Those that they knew would accept whatever the Bishop of the Synod said? Sorry, but we all can get things passed if we go to our friends and those who are in our pocket. The challenge is to go into the "other" camps and win them to your side.

I am ranting. I am upset. I feel that our current administration is going to do what it wants to move us in a certain direction. It is ultra-conservative, hyper-confessional and I don't like it. Interesting how the change comes out during Holy Week, when most of us pastors and many laity are so busy with extra services, sermons, etc. that there is no real time to do anything. Welcome to the politics of our leadership.