Overheard at the funeral home

From a five year old talking about death:

"It's ok. God has toys in heaven."

A Grundtvig Hymn

I have mentioned in the past my great admiration for the hymnody of the Danish theologian and poet NFS Grundtvig. While it is a shame that we do not have a better collection of his hymns in English, it is a greater shame that we don't sing the ones that we do have more often. Here is the text of Peace to Soothe Our Bitter Woes (I believe this 1904 translation is now in public domain, as is the tune). The tune, Fred Til Bod, was composed specifically for this hymn. It is often also associated with the hymn Hallelujah! Jesus Lives! (C.B. Garve). The LBW categorized this in the "Christian Hope" secton of the hymnal (LBW #338), ELW places it in the Easter section, where it properly belongs (ELW #381). As a way to introduce a congregation to the hymn, it may also be sung to the tune Dix (Usually associated with As with Gladness Men of Old) or Toplady (Rock of Ages) - or I suppose Gethsemane (Go to Dark Gethsemane), although that tune clashes with the text some. Personally, I find it to be a beautiful hymn, and think it would make a perfect funeral hymn.

Peace, to soothe our bitter woes,
God in Christ on us bestows;
Jesus bought our peace with God
with his holy, precious blood;
peace in him for sinners found
is the gospel's joyful sound.

Peace within the church still dwells
in our welcomes and farewells;
and through God's baptismal pow'r
peace surrounds our dying hour.
Peace be with you, full and free,
now and through eternity.

A Clerical Holy Week

It has been my experience that few lay people (although I have encountered some wonderful exceptions to the rule) have a good sense for what is entailed in the preparation and execution of Holy Week for clergy. So here it is.

My Holy week really began on the last Wednesday of Lent, with a visit from the synodical bishop. It was a wonderful visit, but required coordinating our lay leadership to be able to come and meet with the bishop prior to our early Lenten service, and still preparing a sermon for the late Lenten service (the bish was only there for one service). That last week of Lent continued with a funeral on Friday.

Sunday was Palm Sunday, which we made a big deal of this year. A procession, especially involving the children, a multi-part reading of the passion narrative, and different liturgies (orders of service) for each service that morning.

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are two of the most important services of the church year - they are also two of the hardest to put together liturgically. There is a balancing act between the importance of the services in the life of the church, and the reality of the low attendance on those days, and the length of the services. They are also two of the harder services to preach every year.

The rest of Friday and Saturday are usually spent at the church - fine tuning the services, helping with the arrangement of the sanctuary, etc, etc.

Sunday begins before the sun rises. We used a liturgy that I crafted which combines elements of the festival Easter Sunday service with the Easter Vigil. Again, it is a balancing act. At St John, the early Easter service is essentially thought of as a festival service, but the Vigil is too important to entirely neglect. At the late service, we pulled out all the stops, with some wonderfully uplifting music.

Again, Easter Sunday is notoriously difficult to preach. You have at least three audiences: (1) Your regular attendanders, who are looking for a conclusion to Thursday and Friday, (2) The irregulars, who come every few Sundays and are looking for somethign set in the broader context of our congregational life, and (3) the Christmas and Easter crowd and visitors, who have no context in the rest of Holy Week, or even Lent.

In total, for those ten days:
* 6 Sermons preached
* 8 different liturgies and bulletins to plan
* Helping to arrange the church
* Helping to coordinate the music with the liturgy
* The prayerful preparation to get into the right mindset for each service
* Holy Week visits to shut-ins
* Sending out my pastor's easter letter
* Planning advertising and promotion

Holy Week is, in the life of the church, the foundation of what it means for us to be the church. It is for your clergy a spiritual, emotional, and physical marathon.

At the Banquet of the Lamb

As we enter into the celebration of the Great 50 Days following the resurrection of our Lord, the family of Saint John Lutheran Church lost one of our saints today. While we trust always that we will be reunited at the great wedding feast of the Lamb, and we celebrate her life and the power of the resurrection, we also mourn the empty space she occupied in our mortal lives.

Please pray for the family of Easther Schroeder - and for our family of faith - as we say our earthly good-byes.

**Services will be here at St John, Thursday at 2:00 pm. Visitation will be Wednesday, 6:00-8:00 pm at Memorial Oaks.**

The Paschal Homily

What follow's is the Easter sermon of John Chrysostom. It has been called the best sermon ever preached by Christianity's greatest preacher (ca. 400 ad). For centuries it has been read as the the meditation for the Easter vigil, and indeed it continues to be preached in many Orthodox churches to this day.

Are there any who are devout lovers of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Are there any who are grateful servants?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!
If any have toiled from the first hour,let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,as well as to him that toiled from the first.

To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry.
Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it. He destroyed Hell when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he said,"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?O Hell, where is thy victory? Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice
!Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Maundy Glory

Ok. I know full well that Thursday and Friday of Holy Week are somber and reflective days - certainly not days in which celebration is entirely appropriate. But I can't help myself. I was home for just a couple of hours this afternoon, and for the first time our little one strung together a couple of "da-da-da-da"s. She has been working on consants for some time now (mostly B's), but this is the first appearance of the D sound - and in that great string of da-da no less.

Yes, I am well aware that she has no idea what she is saying. But I really don't care. I am beaming from ear to ear in these last moments before our Maundy Thursday service.

The best Easter Card

In Wal-Mart last night, I found the best Easter card I have ever seen.
Exterior:
(Picture of a robed preacher in the pulpit). "Today's Easter message is ..."
Interior:
"Where the hell have you been since Christmas?"


Perhaps its only funny to clergy, but it made me laugh out loud in the store.

Maundatum

We all know the story of Maundy Thursday - of how Jesus washed his disciples feet as an example of service. And then there's the bit where Peter tries to refuse.

Maybe Peter just had ugly feet, and didn't want to take off his sandals.

Random Visitors

It is always fun to look and see how people get to this little site. We have had visitors from all over as of late - someone from Geneva with a World Council of Churches IP, folks from Australia, many visitors from England (though not, I understand, Wales), and from all over the US. How do they find this little corner of the internet? Some recent search terms that led here:

• Carolingian Creed
• Nikolaj Grundvig (this one brings people in fairly regularly)
• Funeral Sermon Outline (and many variations - apparently lots of folks are looking for help with their Funeral sermons)
• Evangelical Lutheran Worship
• david hansen (some folks apparently looking for me)
• Blogging Lutherans
• ELW Baptism liturgy
• Holy Week trivia (looking for sermon illustrations, maybe?)
• Pastor's kid blog

A Palm Sunday Homily

... No one can make us look on the cross. No one can force us to make the trip up Golgotha.
But there’s just one problem. If we want to stay at the party, we do so alone – Jesus has left. Jesus has left the party ...

Read the rest of my Palm Sunday reflection: "The Party & The Passion"

Sunday Trivia Answer

With yesterday's celebration of Palm/Passion Sunday, the church has entered into the time known as Holy Week. It is undoubtedly the most important week in the life of the church, and has been for centuries. Yet where and when does it come from?

The celebration of Easter, the Christian pasch, is probably as old as the church itself. We have records that talk about the church's celebration of the resurrection of our Lord at least back to the 2nd century, and the controversies around the dating of Easter are some of the first controversies in the church. Yet, Easter alone does not make a Holy Week. It was the addition of Good Friday and Maundy Thursday which began what we would call Holy Week - and once they were added, they remained a central part of the Christian year ever since.

We cannot say exactly when the celebration of Holy Week began. But the first record of the celebration come from the late fourth/early fifth century. It was the Spanish nun Egeria who made a pilgrimage to around the holy place of the Mediterranean - from Mt. Sinai and Egypt, through Jerusalem, on to Galilee. And it was from Jerusalem that Egeria brought the first account of Holy Week.

With the end of persecution, Christians from all of the world began to seek out the places of their Holy Scriptures. Naturally, this meant a draw of pilgrims to the city of Jerusalem, the place where much of the Bible - both Old Testament and New - took place. Rites developed around these holy places, commemorating the events that took place there. And so it was a natural development that the church in Jerusalem began to commemorate and re-enact the last events of Jesus' life in the the places where they happened, in the week leading up to Easter.

With the Protestant Reformation, the celebrations of Holy Week became less emphasized. In many reformation churches - especially those of the Calvinist/Reformed family - the days of Holy Week were only mentioned within a normal service of Matins or Holy Communion. With the liturgical movement of the middle to late 20th century, there was a recovery in many Protestant churches of the centrality of Holy Week (especially the Vigil) and a return to the timeless liturgies that began in Jerusalem in the fourth century. You can see this shift reflected, for example, in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and the 2006 Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

Sunday Trivia: Holy Week Edition

We enter this week into Holy Week - the most important week in the life of the church. When and where does the first record of the church's celebration of Holy Week come from? And who recorded it?

Tax Time II

The entire economic stimulus plan is paying out somewhere around $150 billion. With roughly 80% (as I recall) of Americans describing themselves as Christian, that means that if every Christian would tithe their rebate, there would be around $12 billion of unexpected funds for ministry. Can you imagine?

Draft Sexuality Statement

The ELCA has released the draft of a new statement on sexuality (it can be downloaded here). From what I understand, no decisions are made in this statement about the ordaination of openly gay and lesbian persons in committed relationships - rather the document tries to establish a firm foundation of common ground in our language about sexuality and love. (you can also always check and see what the secular press is saying online about the ELCA)

But that's all I know about it. I haven't read it yet. I've downloaded it, so I have it for when I am ready to read it. But right now, I have the much more important work of Holy Week to attend to. Once I am through Easter, I will give a once over - until then, I am just too focused on other things; like the death and resurrection of our Lord.

Tax Time

As a part of President Bush's economic stimulus plan, most Americans will be receiving a rebate come May. The estimate that I received puts the total rebate given to the members of the ELCA at $1 Billion. That's right, $1,000,000,000.

Imagine ...

What would happen if the members of the ELCA all tithed from their tax rebate checks? $100 Million dollars, committed to ministry and mission. Many of the ELCA's bishops, including our own Synodical Bishop, have pledged to do just that - to give 10% of their rebate checks to "Blessed to be a Blessing", which is the ELCA's "ministry among poor people" (MAPP).

If my math is right (and it may not be), and if the estimate I received is correct, then that means that members of this congregation - St. John Lutheran Church - will be receiving just under $100,000 from the tax rebate; which puts a tithe for our congregation at $10,000 - which is no small change for a congregation our size.

What about you?
What are your plans for the rebate check?
Maybe a down payment on a new car ... Maybe some new electronics ... maybe paying down debt ...
Do your plans include setting aside a portion of this unexpected windfall, and offering it back to God?
Do your plans include using this money to help provide for our neighbors?


Let's be honest, when it comes to stewardship, we modern Christians are not the best. On average, we give something like 3% of our income - that is, a third of what Scripture tells us God asks for us to offer in thanksgiving. And, most of the time, we do it grudgingly and half-heartedly - rather than joyfully and with hearts filled with thanks for all that God has given us.

This is our opportunity. Prior to January, none of us was planning on having this money. We were not counting on it to make ends meet this year. Before we have a chance to earmark this money for some extravagent expense that we would usually forego, let's pledge to at least offer a tithe of this money back to God.

What wonders could God work through our offering of $100,000,000?

Coming Up

It's here. Holy Week. The marathon of ordained life. I'm not quite sure how we got through it before we hired a Director of Music and Worship - she has made this all go much more smoothly. On the Pastor's plate:

• A congregational visit from the Bishop on Wednesday
• 6 sermons to prepare - including a funeral
• A short visit from the in-laws over Palm Sunday weekend, and my parents arriving for an extended stay at the same time
• 8 separate liturgies (we are using slightly different orders of service for the two worship services on both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday)
• Finishing the remodeling of the front entrance to the church
• Working around an almost finished front entrance for a funeral and Palm Sunday
• Praying that the entrance is finished for Easter

It will be hectic and a little crazy. But it will also include that wonderful journey through the darkness of the tomb - which really recharges me for the rest of the year. For all of the stress and busy-ness of it all, Holy Week is an amazing time to work in the church.

At the Banquet of the Lamb

As we quickly approach Holy Week, the family of Saint John Lutheran Church lost one of our saints last night. While we trust always that we will be reunited at the great wedding feast of the Lamb, and we celebrate her life and the power of the resurrection, we also mourn the empty space she occupied in our mortal lives.

Please pray for the family of Emma Steinfeld - and for our family of faith - as we say our earthly good-byes. Services for Mrs. Steinfeld are being planned for here at Saint John, on Friday, March 14, at 10:00 am. Visitation will be Thursday from 6:00-8:00 at Brenham Memorial Funeral Home.

Easter Message

The following is the Easter Message from the ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. (You can read all of the Bishop's messages here).

"For you have died, your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory." (Colossians 3:3-4)

"You have died." The words resonate because this world's violence and suffering--so pervasive, so needless, so relentless--haunt every human community and life. Where death rules, hope lies entombed in endless grief.

Another death--the crucifixion of Jesus--changed everything. God is not hidden, but present through suffering, sorrow, and death. Jesus is God's resounding "yes!" to the steadfastness of God's forgiving love, embodied on a cross.

The death of Jesus shows no partiality. It was for all nations and all people--for them, for you, for me. Your life is now with Christ. In baptism you have died. Hidden with Christ, no longer entombed in grief, your life carries the promise of glory.

From that first day of resurrection onward, God has been raising up messengers of salvation, heralds of peace, and testifiers of the promised glory. You are a witness of the hope to come. Quite simply, Christ is your life, my life, our life. You have no other than this One who lives resurrected in you.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Of PKs

When I tell folks that I am a PK of a PK of a PK, they usually go on to comment that it is natural that I chose this line of work. And yet, the story of those who grow up in the families of clergy is no where near that simple. Many a pastor's kid has left the church, never to return. Others stay on the outskirts of congregational life, refusing to engage in the community of church life in order to also avoid the politics of church life.

I stumbled upon a very insightful reflection on the life of a PK at philosophy over coffee - it is worth checking out.

A Eucharistic Parable

Ben - who hosts one of the most theologically insightful blogs around - posted the following little parable entitled "Eucharistic tears". I think his instinct to post it without comment was right on - so here it is:

At my local parish, young children are allowed to receive the bread at
Communion. But this morning our rector was away, and the visiting priest
followed the usual Anglican procedure of giving the children a blessing instead
of bread. I didn’t really notice this until my family had returned to our pew –
when we had sat down, my three-year-old daughter burst into tears and exclaimed
loudly: “But where’s my body of Christ?”

Gonna make these dry bones walk

My inspiration for the sermon for the 5th Sunday in Lent came from the song "Dry Bones" by Lost and Found - a Lutheran group who were huge when I was involved in youth ministry (maybe they still are). The central part of the refrain to that song was (as I recall it) "Gonna make these dry bones walk", a phrase that has stuck with me as Lost and Found applied it not to the bones in the valley - but to the life of every Christian.

...Then God commanded Ezekiel to preach to the bones.
Now, I know that I have said that there are Sundays when ya’ll seem dead – when you haven’t quite woken up before arriving here. But can you imagine preaching to an open-air grave? But Ezekiel did it.
And as he preached …
Bones began to clack
and click …
Sinews and muscle and veins began to connect bone to bone …
Skin covered the muscle and bone …
Yet they remained lifeless, without breath. Now, I don’t know about you, but this sounds to me more like the night of the living dead than it does the Bible – it certainly wasn’t in the children’s Bible that my parents read to me from at bedtime; if it had been, I might never have gotten to sleep.
But then it happened, God breathed on them, air entered into their lungs, and the dry bones walked. It is haunting, disturbing image. It is the stuff of horror movies and Halloween ...

Read the rest of the sermon of the St John website.

Sunday Trivia: Answer

Well, you all assumed, that Art hit this one on the head in the first response to the question - and he was remarkably close, but just a little off. March 23rd is the second earliest calendar date possible for Easter. Easter is, as many of you know, based on the Lunar calendar (rather than the solar calendar, which is the basis for our calendar) and falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox.

Easter last fell on March 23 in 1913. The last time it fell on March 22 was 1818.

Art had correct that Easter will fall on March 23rd in 2228 - however, it will be on the 23rd one other time before then, in 2160. It will not be not fall on March 22 until 2285. (This site lists all the dates of Easter from 1700-2299).

Tip of the hat to Hal for sending me this info.

Sunday Trivia

The source for today's trivia question is our congregational webmaster, Hal:

When will Easter again be as early as it is this year?

And for extra credit - when was Easter last earlier than March 23?

The worker's wages

For some reason the question of clergy compensation - especially the motivation behind such compensation - has been floating in my head for the last few days (and let me say at the outset that I am quite happy with the compensation provided by my current congregation, this is just an intellectual wandering, not a complaint).

With most church budgets being occupied 50-70% by pastoral compensation, it is no shocker that the pastor's pay (and attending costs) are subject to more discussion every year than any other single element of the budget. Indeed, I would argue that the pastor's compensation is the most consistently contentious issue in church life.

Part of the reason, I think, is that we have different understandings of what should be the determinative factor when setting pastoral compensation. In fact, there is a whole list of issues that could be, are, or should be factors in determining such compensation (to name a few):

1. Amount of education
2. Amount of ordained experience
3. Quality of ministry
4. Quantity of ministry
5. Measurable results of ministry
6. Amount of experience prior to ordination
7. Number of additional staff supervised
8. Size of the congregational budget (i.e., what can we afford)
9. Amount paid other professionals in the area
10. Regional cost of living

The readers of this blog are, as I count it, pretty well split between clergy and laity. So what say you? What should be the determining factor(s)? And what, in our churches, usually is the deteremining factor(s) when it comes to pastoral salary?

Recommendation

When I was in grad school and college, I did a fair amount of IT work to help pay the bills. In fact, I have done some sort of IT work or another ever since high school. That has meant that I have always ahd access to the latest software, and I sort of got spoiled by that. In particular, I always loved photoshop and prefered to use it to work with graphics on my computer. However, once I was out of the IT world, I was not about to shell out $650 dollars to put photoshop onto my personal computer.

What I have found, however, is a wonderful solution. GIMPshop is a free, open source photo editing software, developed to mimic photoshop. If you do a fair amount of photo or graphic manipulation, GIMPshop (or its predecessor, GIMP) are worth looking into. They are certainly more affordable.

Easter comes early

Normally I am a bit of a liturgical stick in the mud. You should avoid celebrating Christmas during Advent and you should avoid celebrating Easter during Lent. However, when the liturgical faux pas is this cute, who can object?

Clerical troubles

Laity often have a different set of expectations for clergy than they do for anyone else. Now, usually, I would make the argument that this ought not be the case - that clergy are just ordinary people with a specific job. And I do believe that to be true. However ...

Our specific job is in a position of trust, and I am indeed more disappointed when I hear about the very public and especially egregious shortcomings of a particular member of the clergy (like yesterday's story about the Lutheran pastor in North Carolina). I am not trying to say that we should be able to avoid such temptations because we are of a better moral character than the average public (which anyone who has followed the news releases about clergy in recent years knows to be untrue). I would, however, argue that the public nature of our position makes such public failings doubly hurtful.

I have no doubt that Pastor Graff was a decent pastor, and I do feel sympathy for his family. However, my prayers today go out to the community he served and those whose faith will falter because of this betrayal of trust.

And I wonder - where was any sort of accountability? It is imperative for clergy to be able to turn to a spiritual director, a counselor, or have some sort of accountable relationship to help prevent such incidents. A pastor who does not take care of his or her own spiritual health is simply unable to take care of the spiritual health of others.

Of Leo, Luther, & Benedict

It seems that Pope Benedict may be reconsidering Pope Leo's condemnation of Martin Luther as a heretic. If so, it is quite a step forward from Cardinal Ratzinger's 1998 reaction to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification ... but I will believe it when it moves beyond media speculation and the words actually come with a Vatican seal attached. Read the entire story in the Times online.


(Tip of the Hat to the Reformed Catholicism blog for posting this story).

Building Work

Undoubtedly, it is time to replace the photo at the header of this blog. It no longer quite reflects the state of the exterior of St John Lutheran Church. Below is the photo that the steeple shot at the header is taken from, next to it is an (almost) current picture of the church for comparison (notice the lack of dirt and grime on the right):

We have had workers at the church, in one capacity or another, almost non-stop since last summer. The most noticible improvements have been a new paint job for the entire facility, a new roof on the parish house, and replacing the ash trees out front with live oaks. Less noticible (from the front of the church) has been a renovation of the interior of the parish hall, renovation of the office bathrooms, residing the office annex portion of the building, and numerous other more minor updates.

I like to think of this building as a gift. We who worship here today received a gift from the generations before us - a beatiful place to worship the Lord and gather for fellowship. I am extremely pleased that we are caring for this gift, and thinking about what sort of worship space we want to leave for the generations that come after us.

Suffice it to say, we have been busy here at Prairie Hill. Up next: the front entrance is currently closed, as we build in new steps and a handicap ramp to to the front door.

(The church building - as rebuilt after the fire of 1912)

Our Little One

Since its been a while, here is a dose of our little one for you.Try not to OD on the cuteness of it all.

As baby Jesus at Christmas:

Reading with Dad:

Heading out into the world:

A Litany for Lent

For our Lenten services, we are doing a series entitled "In the Footsteps of Jesus." I tend (or at least so far) to not use the prepackaged Lenten programs, in favor of creating my own. Which means that I wind up writing my own service elements that are specific to the topic forthe season. The following is a litany and an offering prayer that I wrote for this series.

OFFERTORY PRAYER
Let us pray.
Gracious God and Father,
source of all that is good. You have blessed us in this pilgrimage here on earth with more than we deserve and more than we need. Too often we cling to what you have given to us; but tonight we gather our gifts and we offer them back to you. Use our lives, our talents, our money, and our possessions to bring about the Kingdom of your Son, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


LITANY OF THE FOLOWERS
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, you were one with the all-powerful God, yet chose to be born humbly in a stable among the livestock,
We will follow you.
Throughout your ministry, you loved and served the poor and the outcasts, those who were rejected by the rest of the world.
We will follow you.
When those around you were hungry, you gave them food; when they were ill, you healed them; when they were broken and hurt, you loved them.
We will follow you.
Lord, you could have had the rich, the educated, and the powerful, but called your disciples and apostles from among ordinary people — men who labored hard, women who raised their children, disciples who knew the troubles of this life.
We will follow you.
In the end, your path led you alone friendless up a hill outside of Jerusalem, where in great love you offered your life for the sake of others.
We will follow you.
Our lives are often selfish and sinful, yet you continue to call us. You call us to live as you lived, to follow your way, to give as you gave, and to love as you loved.
We will follow.
Dear friends, the way is not easy. It will challenge us and it will try us. It will be uncomfortable and at times unpleasant. Yet it is the task to which all who bear the name “Christian” are called; it is the task to which you were called in the waters of baptism.
Are you prepared to follow the way of Christ?
AMEN!

Website updates

In the time I have been away from regular blogging, our congregational webmaster has been busy. You can read some of my latest sermons (scroll down to the bottom for the latest ones), see the latest news from our new Director of Music & Worship, see what you missed by glancing at last Sunday's bulletins, and much more. Thanks to Hal for his continued hard work, which has provided us with a comprehensive and up to date web presence.

Look - Up in the Pulpit ...

It's a counselor, it's an adminstrator, it's SUPERPASTOR!

For all of you who have left me encouraging notes, sent me emails, and continued to leave various holiday greetings on my Thanksgiving post, thank you. I know that many of you who read this blog do not have a real-life connection to me, so here is the Cliff Notes update:

Everything is going well - fantastic even. In early December, the combination of cold season and the holiday season got me out of the habit of blogging regularly. I really do view this as a discipline - to give me an reason to keep my writing skills sharp and stay connected with others. And, like all disciplines, once I got out of the habit it was eay to stay away.

My beautiful daughter is doing very well - 5 1/2 months old now, and full of personality. At St John, things are going great. We have hired a very qualified part-time Director of Music and Worship (my beautiful wife, Julia) and are continuing strong in our mission and ministry.

Hopefully, I am now back to writing regularly (at least that is my intention). The Blogging Lutherans membership has also been updated, giving us now close to 150 members.