God Swims to Iowa

Dateline: Cedar Rapids, Iowa.



The lead paragraph in the New York Times said in part ..."and churches with flood waters up to the stained glass windows." That got my attendion. I imagined Mt. Zion, it's sanctuary filled to the window sills with murky, toxic water. Even though my own basement was filled with 8" of rain water, the depth of loss didn't hit me until I visulaized my own church submerged.



These catastrophes always invoke the name of the Lord. People scramble to make meaning and something this big can only be attributed to God. Some immediately connect to vengence and The Flood of Genesis. Others blame God, still others use the scope of suffering to build a case against the existence of God. Bad theology and bad anti-theology all around.



The unbearable fact is our fellow human beings are in great distress. Homes and farmland and businesses are gone, many never coming back. In The Dells a whole lake disappeared washing away retirement dreams, small buinesses and a whole piece of the tourist industry. The suffering is not measureable. Who can blame anyone for being mad at God or wondering if there is a God? And yet it is God who saw everything that was made and surmised it was not just good, but as the bible says, very good.



Though I've little doubt part of the problem is our arrogance, a dangerous sin via broken levees, greedy building on wetlands, the foolish notion that rivers can be contained or global warming, I don't see God acting capriciously and vengefully.



God's presence will be clearer to those filling sandbags and mopping up college dorms. Soon semi-trailer loads of food and clothing, water and cleaning supplies will begin arriving all over the midwest followed by armies of volunteers taking family time and vacation time to wade through filth and grime and mold and despair. And God will see this and God will see that it is indeed, very good.

Shoveling for Jesus

It seemed like a cruel joke. Ash Wednesday services canceled by a snowstorm and then Good Friday services canceled as well. Bookends to the strangest Lenten season I've ever experienced. Lent/Easter based on the solar and lunar calendars won't come again this early for 150 years. That's right, Easter will be this early in 2158. Of course by then there will be palm trees in Wyoming and cacti in Door County so it won't matter.

This year it mattered. We got hit by several weekend snowstorms that played havoc with attendance, utility and snow plowing costs and the rhythm of liturgical Lent. We all want to come out of church on Easter Sunday and see some crocus and daffodils poking up somewhere, some buds on trees, the need to take off our parkas and walk around in just a sweater. Alas, 15 inches of snow later we were once again buried in white cold death.

No Good Friday meant an Easter without the contemplation of the depth of our sins and the horrible specter of that empty sanctuary with the cross draped in black. No opportunity to sing "Were You There?" and leaving the sanctuary with that empty feeling.

Now I know there are many, the majority actually, who don't attend Good Friday services. After my experience on Friday, I just shake my head. I will never understand skipping that part of the story, the depth of emotion. I need to feel some accountability for my part in crucifying Jesus, for my tongue, my thoughts my dirty deeds.

On the other hand, watching the disappointment on the faces of the folks at the airport who couldn't get out of town to see loved ones, sitting in my house waiting for the snow to slow down so I could shovel, I started thinking about that first Holy Weekend; a confusing, unsettling couple of days with folks stumbling around wondering what to do, how to proceed and how to make sense of the senseless. Good Friday's snow and worship cancellation made me look inside myself, giving me time to think about the real pain of the story rather than worry about candles and lighting and which hymn verses to sing and how to pronounce sabbachtani.

It wasn't what I hoped for and needed and wanted, but it was what I got. Over a foot of snow, the kind that buries. An isolated feeling, the kind that invites loneliness, a helplessness, the state of being exactly like that of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

And, snowstorm or not, services or not, Easter came. A brilliant blue sunny sky, a church full of excited children and warm greetings and fragrant flowers. In the stained glass air there were more than a few hopes being held, broken hearts being mended and broken dreams being patched together. Between the notes of the hymns and just after the comas in the creeds and prayers, unwritten and unspoken petitions for miracles found their way to the altar. Good Friday or not, we were relieved to find out once again that the tomb was empty, that Jesus had come looking for us and that life lay just under the snow.

The faith built by first communion

It was hard not to be moved in the service today. The sanctuary was full, and especially full of the families and loved ones of the 12 young people coming to the table for communion for the first time. Pastors Johnson and Mohn were visibly moved, and they served the bread and wine to that section of the church together; so that each first communicant could receive the sacrament from both of her/his pastors. Most touching for me was the story told to me later by one young man's parents. He asked the pastor in the preparatory class if he could continue to receive a blessing at the table now that he would be taking communion every week.

But, don't we know that we receive that blessing at the table each time we're there? Do we not feel the prayer in the words spoken to us: "The body of Christ given for you; the blood of Christ shed for you" ? If we happen to glance up to meet the pastor's or the deacon's eye, can we not feel that blessing there? We are blessed at the table by Christ's real presence in, with and under the meal.

My favorite musician is a "Gen X Lutheran singer-songwriter" named Jonathan Rundman. In his song, Narthex, he describes the congregation moving through the church to the altar "like blood through a heart". As a cardiac nurse, I appreciate that metaphor. Blood returns to the heart to receive life sustaining oxygen....as we return to the table each week for the life sustaining blessing of the eucharist.

Ash Wednesday

We're all home (I hope); looking out our windows at the snow, or outside blowing the snow into ever higher piles. What we are not doing is preparing to go to church and to stand quietly before our pastor and receive a cross of ashes on our foreheads.

And that seems so very strange, doesn't it? Lent begins with this observation of our humanity and deep sorrow and regret over our sinful, broken natures. I read The Word in Season as a devotional. Today, Pastor John Horner-Ibler from Cross of Life Lutheran Church in Brookfield writes about the incongruity of this 'outward showing of piety' in people of faith who listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:1.

So, perhaps tonight, we might quietly stand before our God, at our windows, in our chairs, or in our beds, and confess our brokenness, and then make the sign of the cross on our own foreheads, or each other's, and begin our Lenten observance in a world made quiet, hushed and white with snow.

Advent Devotion-Dec. 5th

Wednesday, December 5: Pat Campbell

The Battlefield

Psalm 124 — If the LORD had not been on our side— let Israel say—if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.

Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (NIV)

I’ve never been in the armed forces, but I’ve been on the battlefield many times in my life. I’ve faced numbing fear, despair and inadequacy on my battlefields. In my years as a single parent, my battlefield often was financial,

along with those wearying difficult parenting decisions that I had to handle alone.

Recently my battlefield has been coping with pain from rheumatoid arthritis and an injury from an auto accident..

Each new battlefield brings its own challenges. It gets easier only because of my strength training (reading Scripture, praying, worshipping). I am learning to remember that when I’m on the battlefield, there is no other answer but the Lord.

Psalm 124 is one that I keep in my arsenal for times when the battle just seems too much. It helps me remember that the LORD is on my side and brings things back into perspective.

Lord, Help us to be prepared to face

our battles and to remember that You are our help. Amen

Advent Devotion-Dec. 4th

Tuesday, December 4: Alex Hall
God and Promises

Genesis 9: 8-15 — Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “ As for me I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and every living creature that is with you, and the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all the flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said “This is the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh”

T

he promise that God gives us here is a simple yet complex one. He states that when he pours rain upon the earth, he will show us his rainbow and remember not to create a giant flood. Promises can be hard to keep. I myself know this because I often make a lot of them yet find myself not keeping them. Promises are meant to bring us closer together and make new binds with others. God makes his promise to Noah to renew his love towards him after destroying the earth. I see this as a sign of God’s affection and more human characteristics than we expect. It is an apology and a sign that he intends to keep his promise. Through the ark, God became very close to Noah and his family. He created a bond with him and he didn’t want to break it so he gave Noah the sign of the rainbow. He gave it to him as a sign of his affection towards him. Noah trusted in God and built the ark for him and believed that it would do what God intended it to do without question and doubt towards God. He built it through the mockery that his neighbors gave him and continued to build the ark. We need to follow the example that Noah set for us in our everyday lives. We need to trust what somebody tells us without a doubt, through insults and all that are in denial.

Dear Heavenly Father, Please help and guide me to follow in your way, like Noah before me and help me to keep the promises I make with you and others. Through Jesus Christ your Son, Amen

Advent Devotional-Dec. 3rd

Monday, December 3-Alicia Mohn

The Meaning of Advent

Romans 6:3-5 — Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

When I was younger I always wondered why we had to talk about Jesus’ death during Advent. I thought that Advent and Christmas were supposed to be a celebration of Jesus’ birth and life, and I couldn’t understand why we focused on what I saw as the sad and depressing time of Lent and Good Friday. As I got older I came to realize that Jesus’ birth and death are so connected that we can’t separate them. Even though we wait for Jesus’ birth during Advent, we are also anticipating Jesus’ sacrifice in dying to bring us new life.

The Romans verse captures the entire picture of what Jesus’ sacrifice means for us. We are baptized into not only the birth, but also into death. Jesus’ birth does not have the same meaning without also thinking about his death and sacrifice for us. We should take this time to celebrate and reflect on the entire gift that Christ Jesus gave us — his birth, death, and sacrifice to ensure we live eternally. These events made it possible so that we are saved. Just because we talk about his death in Advent doesn’t mean we don’t know how to celebrate and be happy; instead it just means we know why we’re celebrating.

Loving God, thank you for giving meaning to our reflections and celebrations.

Help us to see the connections between Jesus’ life, death, and sacrifice

to give us newness of life. Guide us in showing our appreciation for this gift

through our interactions with those around us. Amen