Valentines Day

The ministerial alliance of the town I serve in holds an annual Golden Sweetheart Banquet for those couples married 50 years or more. This banquet is held on the Tuesday before Valentines Day and has become a tradition in our community over the many years. This year we had almost 150 people in attendance.

I do believe this last one was the most special one yet. One of the local choir masters accompanied an excellent vocalist as she sang songs these couples would have heard when they were courting.

Standing off to the side I observed a couple across the banquet hall. The husband had his oxygen tank with him and from time to time he would reach over and pat his wife’s hand. Finally, on the last song, the husband took off the oxygen tube and stood up. He leaned over and whispered something in his wife’s ear. She looked up at him for a split second. Then he held his hand out to her and she got up, embraced him, and they danced.

It was only for a few seconds because the husband needed to get back to his oxygen, yet, it spanned 50 years and more. It was magical. It was a confirmation that love does last; that if you spend your time picking the right one, you won’t ever get tired of them. I do know this couple, but I don’t know them well. Yet, they have inspired me. It was truly the most romantic thing I have ever seen because it wasn’t scripted, it wasn’t planned, and it was totally from the heart. It was just the two of them. None of the rest of us mattered. It was just like it was 50+ years ago on their wedding day, just like yesterday.

Happy Valentines Day,

Pastor Craig

The Deep Waters

The novel A River Runs Through It ends with these sentences.  

“. . .but you can love completely without complete understanding." 

Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them. 
Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. 

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters."

 I think of the big waters as being somewhat like the deep waters of Jesus’ command to Peter. I am sure there are those far more experienced than I at net fishing who could give a number of reasons why the deep waters would be the place to find the fish at this particular time of the day, but that is an article for another time and place. The deep waters are waters that we fish alone with the Spirit of our Lord to guide us. There is a depth to which Christ calls us that we can never attain by standing on the bank with a rod. We must venture out, realizing that Christ calls us to a relationship that is more than a back-slapping buddy one. He calls us to call unto him when the big waters swallow us up, when the swells go over our head, when our feet cannot touch bottom and we have forgotten how to swim. In a paraphrase of the quote above, “We do not have to understand all the ways of God to be totally committed to loving Him and following those ways.” We are not haunted by waters. We are, indeed, washed and baptized by them!

Pastor Craig

There were many, but. . . The phrase is plucked from Jesus’ comments after receiving the compliments of the people of the town of Nazareth in response to his brief homily on a passage from Isaiah 61. The crowd spoke “well of him” and were “amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.”

Why is it that Jesus seemed to turn on them and proceed to comment about prophets being without honor in their own home town, about how the children of Israel had been overlooked in the time of Elijah and Elisha and these prophets poured out more of a blessing on the gentiles than their own people.

It is perplexing. Isn’t it? It seems that Jesus could have used his celebrity status in Nazareth to pull people to the Kingdom of God as he preached it to them. However, Jesus constantly rejects the spotlight in favor of something less glamorous. He tells people attending a feast to sit in the back row, in the most inconspicuous place they can find, so that the host of the feast, if he so desires, can come get them and escort them to the front in front of all the other guests.

In the end, it’s not about getting to sit at the front or having to sit in the back. It IS about pride. These people wanted to feel good about themselves. We are important because we are the home town of Jesus of Nazareth. They got so caught up about being close to Jesus that few of them ever bothered to really get to know Jesus.

Jesus didn’t come to make celebrities, not even of himself; he came to call servants. Those who make the transition easiest are those who are out of the spotlight – the poor, the blind, the lame, the sick, the gentiles.

Jesus commented on how impossible it was for a rich man to get into heaven. “Easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle,” he commented. It is indeed difficult to get those who have so much to think about doing without. Many of them have spent their entire life working so they WOULDN’T HAVE TO DO WITHOUT! Now, they are being told that they mustn’t hold onto the very things they have worked so hard to obtain, but, instead, it might even be better if they were to sell all that they had and spread the money among the poor, becoming one of them themselves. How ironic! How difficult!

The people in Nazareth wanted to destroy Jesus. What is your answer when He comes to you and rejects all that you have worked to grasp and asks you to become an outcast with him? Are we able to rethink our worth, our self, our very existence?

Pastor Craig

Today

Today – Today used to bring us a great deal of excitement. The promise of a long planned trip, treat, or event was out there somewhere. Maybe it was a birthday when we were very young.

“How long until my birthday party, Mama?” we would ask.

“Oh, not yet,” she would answer. “It’s not until next month.”

“How long until my birthday party NOW,” we would ask in a few days.

“Oh, it will be here soon. It’s less than a month,” would be the answer.

After many more requests and a combination of patient an maybe impatient answers, “How long until my birthday party, Mama?”

“Tomorrow!” we would finally hear. But, tomorrow is not yet today, is it? We were anxious for the day to arrive. We wanted it to come. We were anxious to see our friends, to find out what kinds of presents might have come our way, and to be allowed one of the few days out of the year when we were allowed to do everything first and eat almost as much unhealthy food as we could ever want!

Today we live in the world of now. We have microwaves to speed up our meal preparation. We have instant coffee, instant rice, instant just about anything you could imagine. We have cameras that allow us to view the picture seconds after we have taken it. We want our internet speedy. We want what we want, when we want it. We carry our phones with us because we can’t wait to get home and get our messages. We have call waiting so we don’t have to call back when the line is busy.

All of this seems to have made us less patient instead of more. Imagine the Israelites gathered in the synagogue when Jesus opened the scroll to the passage from Isaiah. 


Isa 61:1-2
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me 
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,


He selected a passage written by the prophet Isaiah some 700 years prior to that day. Imagine the longing of the people present on that day, people who were poor, who were in bondage, who were blind in so many ways, and who waited, and waited, and waited for the Year of the Lord for generation upon generation.

What sort of interpretation did the congregation expect that day? The probably expected to be encourage to “keep the faith,” maybe to “suffer patiently,” perhaps a condemnation issued upon the oppressors of the people of Israel. I think it is safe to say that no one expected to hear “This day this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!” Today has arrived. Praise God!

Pastor Craig

Trusting the Shadows

Trusting the Shadows – Shadows are generally the places of which we are afraid. When we were young, we turned on the lights before we walked down the hall to our room. We weren’t afraid of stubbing our toe on a toy left behind from the day’s play. We did want to get a clear view of just who, or what, may be there in the shadows of the hallway or stairs. We may have slept with a nightlight on or a closet light peeking through a partially opened door.

My Grandmother always had a nightlight going into the kitchen. Living 6-7 miles outside of town in rural Wisconsin, there was some wisdom in doing it that way. She actually did get up and need it every single morning of the year, even during the summer months. There is never a day to sleep in for Wisconsin dairy farmers. She would get up and help my grandfather get started milking the cows long before I ever thought of getting up. Then she would manage to have breakfast cooked and on the table before the majority of the house was awake.

Yes, most times we want to banish the shadows so we can clearly see the situation around us. However, today we welcome one shadow. The shadow we welcome is the shadow that is cast over us from the protective cover of the wings of God. The Psalmist tells us “How precious!” this protection truly is. Jesus commented on it as well in the Gospel of Luke. “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!”

Under those wings we find protection. Under those wings we find nurture. Under those wings we find sustenance. Under those wings we find all the things for which we stray so far from those wings to seek. All the time they are in the very place God calls us to.   

Living in the shadow of God’s presence is such a blessing. I am astounded that we spend so much time running from it. We seek satisfaction and protection in so many other things, but the truth is there is no safety when we seek fulfillment away from our Heavenly Father.

All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for they harms,

But just that thou might’st seek it in My Arms.

All which they child’s mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored up for thee at home.[1]

Pastor Craig

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[1] The Hound of Heaven Francis Thompson

How to Remember Your Baptism

How to Remember Your Baptism

This Sunday, the lectionary passages recount for us the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptizer. It is common on this Sunday that we ask the members of the congregation to remember their baptism, for many Presbyterians a difficult task since it is traditional practice to baptize infants.

Maybe it is more accurate to ask us to live up to our baptism. The Scriptures and the confessions teach us that baptism for us involves the in-grafting of the baptized into the body of Christ. As parents baptizing children, we do this in the same way God commanded the Israelites to circumcise male children on the eighth day of their birth. These children are now a part of the covenant family and members of the Kingdom of God.

This entrance into the covenant is also why we refer to the period of instruction leading up to membership in the visible church as confirmation. The individual is not merely being given instruction regarding the church sacraments and his/her ability to understand what happens through participation in them, nor are they learning about the governmental structures of the church or denomination the person is seeking to join. These persons are confirming the faithfulness of God through his covenant, that they have indeed grown up into their faith, into the promises made on their behalf by their parents years before.

The promises were originally made for you, if you were baptized as an infant, when you were unable to voice your own choices. Your parents made a commitment to pray with you and for you. They promised to live the Christian faith before you in such a way that finding Christ would be as simple as watching them and how they acted, reacted, and treated those around them. So, remembering your baptism means remembering and living out that moment in your life when your parents’ faith became your own faith. This is the time when the covenant became real, when the faithfulness of God came through, when your parents’ prayers for you became reality and you allowed the Holy Spirit to draw you to your Savior, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Craig

The Gathering

The Gathering – Gatherings are nice. We have just come through “gathering” holidays, those holidays when most of us make considerable effort to connect, or reconnect, with family and friends. We visit those we can and write to those we cannot. We send out letters highlighting life changes and achievements that have been a part of our lives, or our children’s and grand-children’s lives for the past year. Some of us actually read these letters that other people send to us talking about people we have never met, and probably will never meet!

Jeremiah 31:7ff talks about a gathering, one that brings great joy, a gathering from the remote places of the earth. I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return. Yes, Almighty God will find those that are His wherever they have wondered over the course of their lives, whatever their circumstances. He will bring them to Himself. He will not abandon the black sheep of the family because of the things they have done. He will not shut the door and lock them out. All he asks is that we, yes I said we, return joyfully, that we recognize that it is God who leads us back home, that we put away our self-righteousness and stop thinking that this is something we have achieved on our own efforts and by our own might.

As the Prodigal Son returned to the grace of the Father, so shall we. He will strip off the things that label us as slaves and dress us as royalty, as children of the King, as ones who dress who belong to the Kingdom of God. 

Maybe you feel like the Prodigal Son. You might feel that you have not used 2009 to follow the Savior in the way you had planned a year ago. It is time to come home and change clothes. Your Heavenly Father accepts no slaves, only sons and daughters. The feast is prepared. Your clothes are laid out on your own bed. Your Heavenly Father is in the tower watching for your form on the horizon. He knows the way you walk. He knows your little mannerisms. He knows everything there is to know about you. He even knows the very number of the hairs on your head. Be gathered in, in 2010!

Pastor Craig