Word for Today

Dear fellow sheep,

This Sunday is "Good Shepherd Sunday." Psalm 23 (The LORD is my shepherd..), John 10, (I am the good shepherd..), First John 3 (we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us..)

Our resurrected Lord is our good shepherd. And so we are sheep.

What are some characteristics of that relationship? I'll do a little brainstorming here:

*The shepherd depends on the health and well being of the sheep. (It is a stretch for me to think that Jesus depends on me.. I depend on him, this is true. Can I also say that he depends on me? Is there something reciprocal going on?)

*The shepherd brings the sheep into the wild. (I guess we can draw our own conclusions here)

*The shepherd knows where the best grazing can be found. (We will find the work of God happening in the most unlikely of places)

*A sheep is shorn more than once. (Time and time again we have the joy of giving. Sometimes it cuts a little close and we bleed. Another coat will grow regardless, especially if we follow the shepherd to choice pastures, in the wild. If we resist being shorn, our coat will become matted, tangled and course)

*A group of sheep can be called a herd, flock or mob. ("Herd" has a certain heaviness, "flock" a certain lightness, "mob" a certain tunnel-visioned frenzy. Christians can be described this way too.)

*Even the largest herd of sheep will cluster, and because of the clusters one shepherd can lead very many. (small groupings of Christians, congregations, etc. The distinction between the clusters is not so much how they think or whom they include or exclude. The distinction is where on the pastureland they happen to be clustered. In the shade? In full sun? On the edges?)

*Sheep respond to the voice of the shepherd. His voice brings about calm. (Lazarus come out! This is my body. This is my blood. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Peace. Feed my sheep. Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last)

*The shepherd puts his life on the line. (with a loud cry he breathed his last)

*Your observation ______________

*Your observation ______________

*Your observation ______________

Blessings to you!

"Sheep become considerably stressed when separated from others" (From the Encyclopedia of Life, www.eol.org)

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Giggles and Grace Early Learning Center, www.gigglegrace.org

Word for Today

From Luke 24

⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"  ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.

If it were me, I would have picked another food. Broiled fish... mmm.

What strikes me in this passage from Luke is the plainness, the ordinariness of life even for the resurrected Christ. In this passage the disciples are being tossed to and fro by so many variations of emotion. Joy, disbelieving and wondering simultaneously! Jesus brings the simplicity of the presence of God once again by offering to eat something for them. I shall prove that you're not imagining me. I will eat some of your fish.

Let's say living the crucified and risen life is like preparing a meal, then eating it. In the preparation, parts of the meal are chopped, baked, peeled, boiled, sauteed, roasted, grilled, marinated and skewered. You probably don't want to think about the many ways your food was harvested before arriving in your home, ways involving death. When the meal has been prepared, you sit with your loved-ones (in our case sometimes in front of the TV) and you eat in order to live. People who are watching their wight will sometimes say "not live to eat.. eat to live!"

When the resurrection appearance of Christ happens for us, soon we are able to re-piece our own lives, identify death and resurrection, dying and living, crucifixion and new life.

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

Word for Today

"One More Chair"

From Evangelical Lutheran Worship for the 2nd Sunday of Easter:

Holy, life-giving God, breathe your Holy Spirit upon the people of your church. Lead us to proclaim the good news of Christ's resurrection, so that all may have life in his name. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

From First John:

we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.  ⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Dear friends, we're still in the glow of Easter. We have so much to celebrate, especially the new life that radiates from that hole in the ground, the tomb where dead things are placed. Christ is risen. God is indeed great. The Holy Spirit enlivens each of us.

Seems to me the scriptures for this coming Sunday have something to do with including as many as possible. "We declare.. so that you may have fellowship with us." A community wants to keep including more people into the community. That is so refreshing in light of all the ways humans like to define themselves by what and whom they are not. How much better it is to define ourselves by what we are. We are resurrection people. There is no turning back.

Have you used the One More Chair principle? Have you been on a planning team, ministry or committee where the group intentionally adds one chair more than there are people. This is a reminder that there is room for another. There is room for (and openness to) the ideas, stories, perspectives that the newly welcomed will want to contribute. A community that does not fear the idea of welcoming another person is a community that is full of resurrection life.

Tell me a story about a time when the newly welcomed was just what the group needed. I would love to hear about it!

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

"Joy is a net of love that can catch souls" (Mother Teresa)

Word for Today

From Isaiah 52..

 ²For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Dear friends in Christ, Good Friday is coming toward us. If you come to worship with us at St. Paul, you will be asked to place a cross at the altar. The crosses will be made from Palm Sunday palms. The way to the altar, to the cross, will be also marked by palm crosses. You are welcome to come to this tender time.

The words from Isaiah talk about a person who was plain, un-extraordinary and even undesirable. This is good news! Very few of us are extraordinary and desirable. You and I are plain.

Our Christian faith calls the cross of Christ the Tree of Life. I don't know about you, but a cross to me seems dry, dead, and good for only one thing. A cross is good for bringing death. No fruit is borne from that tree.

However, I think you know how the cross could possibly be the Tree of Life. In theology there is a saying that God reveals God's self most clearly "under the form of its opposite." That means that the "plainer" our Lord can be, the more beautiful he is becoming. The more undesirable Christ can be hanging there on that dry tree of life, the more he draws us to his beauty, the harder it is for us to look away. I think there is a profound reason this is called the Passion of Christ. Perhaps we can add, "The Passion for Christ."

Will you have the courage to go deep into your plainness and meet Christ there? I want that for me, and so I remember a phrase from my ordination.. "I will, and I ask God to help and guide me."

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church