Word for Today

From "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" prayer of the day for the First Sunday of Advent:

Let us pray.

Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection alert us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and redeem us for your life of justice, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

From Jeremiah 33:

.. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

Do you know the story behind your name? There is power in stories like that! The more spectacular the story, the more a name becomes the core of a person's identity. I would love to hear your naming stories.

The little verse from Jeremiah is a naming story. Judah has been having trouble with its identity. Wayward worship in particular made her fall away from God's favor. Judah, and Jerusalem especially, could be a definition of "unrighteousness."

So God promises to intervene. God promises to rename the people. When the Lord acts, they will be called "The LORD (Yahweh) is our righteousness." God will be righteous for them.

God will be righteous for us. This is the promise of Advent. It calls forth honesty and humility, but also faith in One who comes to make all things (including our hearts) new.

We start lighting Advent candles this Sunday.

If you are part of another faith community, you might like to start the practice of inviting a member of the community to light the candles. Here's how we do it at St. Paul:

Advent One: the oldest (or near oldest) member of the church lights the first candle.

Advent Two: someone retirement age lights the first and second candle.

Advent Three: a young adult lights the first three candles.

Advent Four: a young child or infant (with mom or dad helping) lights all four candles.

We're counting down, backward through the years, to the Promised Christ-Child.

Advent blessings to you!

James Aalgaard

St. Paul Lutheran Church

Giggles & Grace Early Learning Center

Ontario Oregon

Word for Today

From Revelation chapter one:

  ⁸I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Christ the King Sunday is this week. It marks the end of the liturgical church year. The Sunday coming next is the first Sunday in Advent, which begins the time of waiting for the Christ Child.

When you think of endings, do you think of the "end of the line," the "final mile," or the "last hurrah?" I think of endings in such a way. As if it's a line on a page.

But in Christ, there is something else working. It is as different as time is to eternity. Christ teaches us that he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last letter of the alphabet. Simultaneously! Only the Lord of heaven and earth can be both the beginning and the end, never becoming less of the other!

The picture here is a celtic pattern. You can trace the pattern until you become exhausted, but you will not find the end of it. You will come to the end of your patience before you find the end of the pattern!

This must be a very simple picture of the eternity we get to know in Christ. The ruler of all, Jesus the Human One, has always been and always will be. The Word today, is that because you belong in him, you get to find yourself somewhere there, in Eternity.

Alleluia.

Word for Today

From Psalm 16,

⁷I will bless the LORD who ^| gives me counsel;

my heart teaches me night ^| after night.

⁸I have set the LORD al- ^| ways before me;

because God is at my right hand, I shall ^| not be shaken

Dear friends, I have a prayer for you today, that your heart will teach you what you already know; namely that God is at your right hand, steadying you through life.

Night after night, I hope you will hear that reminder from your ver own heart, fluttering and pulsing within you. I also hope you will gain the fortitude, the steadiness it takes to experience the steadiness of God through you into the life of a neighbor.

That is all.

Pastor James Aalgaard,

St. Paul Lutheran Church

Word for Today

From Mark 12,

 ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.

Do you have a solar powered calculator? Probably. Maybe you received one in the mail as a thank you from your realtor some time ago.. exactly how long ago you can now calculate! We have a handful of them around the home. What an awesome technology. The calculator is able to sip enough energy to keep on going even when the lights have gotten quite dim.

Jesus has a Son-powered calculator. One would think he would want to upgrade someday, get one of those fancy graphing calculators perhaps, or an adding machine. With such contraptions he could even figure out derivatives and amortization schedules. No, his Son-powered one is all he wants. It comes up with crazy calculations, but he likes it that way.

He said in this Sunday's Gospel reading, as he was watching the donations come into the temple treasury, that this widow's little gift was worth more than the large sums of money from the "major donors." That Son-powered calculator was operating like it always has, finding value where the world would find.. well.. nothing.

What is the value in the widow's gift? With her very scarce donation, she gave her self. Jesus noticed it right away. No one else did. He had to point it out to others. She almost got trampled, jostled about and ignored by the movers and shakers. She was not ignored by the Messiah. Jesus recognizes immediately when the self is given, because it's what he does. There's an affinity coming out loud and clear in this episode. According to Jesus' calculations, he's looking through a window to the New Creation. In the New Creation nothing is "amortized."

Thank you to James C. Christensen for this provoking artwork. I find myself leaning in toward this widow's face, wanting to accept her gift with celebration while at the same time wanting to shrink away in humility. There is power in that little gift of two coins that equal one penny. Standing in front of her, I am on holy ground.

Pastor James Aalgaard

Fwd: ...In the Meantime

Here's an email devotional I look at from time to time.

Blessings to you!

Pastor James A.

Begin forwarded message:

From: "...In the Meantime" <DavidJLose@gmail.com>

Date: November 3, 2012 12:13:00 PM MDT

To: aalgaard@gmail.com

Subject: ...In the Meantime

...In the Meantime

---

• Daring Greatly
• Philippians 2:17-18
• Campaign Fatigue

Daring Greatly Posted: 03 Nov 2012 10:25 AM PDT Today's poem is, well, not a poem. Rather, it is a portion of a speech given by Tedding Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, in Paris, in 1910. I was introduced to it by reading Brene Brown's recent book, Daring Greatly, which is not only a fantastic read but whose title is inspired by Roosevelt's measured and even metered speech. I thought of it today as we approach the end of the election cycle and an opportunity to exercise our civic right and responsibility to vote. After so many accusations…and promises…and attempts to blame others…and calculated presentations of oneself and all the rest, the person I want to vote for the is man who is ready to enter the arena and give it his all. The man, that is, who will not be changing positions or platforms at each turn, shaping himself into a more attractive candidate but who will come forth as himself, ready to stake his claims, take responsibilities for his mistakes, shoulder his responsibilities, and dare great things whether he succeed or fail. What I want, I guess, is integrity. You will be making your own decision soon for your own reasons, but as you read Roosevelt's lines, I'd invite you to allow them to inspire you to want and expect more from our leaders – all of our leaders – than the media barrage we've endured of late suggests we should expect. And in the meantime, make sure you get out to vote. It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. "Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Philippians 2:17-18 Posted: 03 Nov 2012 07:10 AM PDT But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me. And now it gets hard. Paul really has no idea if he will survive his present ordeal. Except for him this isn't hard. He has not only reckoned with the very real possibility of his death but even sees its advantages. It would be good, senses Paul, to be able to set down his task and labors and move to the nearer presence of God. Moreover, if his death solidifies the faith of the Philippians in that he has provided an example of faithfulness to the end, that also would give Paul joy. That may seem an odd sentiment to us, but Paul does not see death as the end, but only as another beginning. There is a danger here of reading too much into Paul's imagery. He does not imagine, for instance, that he is in some way dying for the Philippians. The sacrifice of which he speaks is not the sacrifice of exchange, as if he were implying some form of sacrificial atonement that he is imitating. Rather, he is employing the rich imagery or first century worship, where a glass of wine would be poured out at the time of religious ritual or commemoration. Think of it as akin to lifting a glass in tribute to the deceased at a funeral, where rather than drink the wine the one making the toast pours it into the ground in tribute. So also, Paul reckons that if his life is to be "poured out" in death, it will only be as an act of thanksgiving for and tribute to the faith, friendship, and partnership in Christ that he has shared with his beloved Philippians. This may all sound very odd to our ears because we live in a culture dominated by the ideal of perpetual youth, such that the worst thing that can happen is to grow old and die. But sometimes life is sweetest when you know it will not last forever. As the poet Ranier Maria Rilke once said, "the knowledge of our impermanence that haunts our days is their very fragrance." So also with Paul – knowing he will die, perhaps soon, gives the present moments he shares with the Philippians a piercing joy and rich fragrance, and Paul wants them to know that it is the fragrance of thanksgiving. Prayer: Dear God, let us live mindful that we will one day die, and allow this knowledge not to daunt us but, by faith in you, to enrich every moment of our living. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Campaign Fatigue Posted: 02 Nov 2012 11:06 AM PDT The young girl pictured here is Abigael Evans, and this is her reaction after seeing one – or maybe one hundred and one – too many campaign commercials. Abigael's mother posted this on YouTube this past Tuesday and four million views later I think it's captured the way a lot of us feel as we approach the end of this election season. So much so, in fact, that NPR posted an apology to Abigael: "On behalf of NPR and all other news outlets, we apologize to Abigael and all the many others who probably feel like her. We must confess, the campaign's gone on long enough for us, too." So there it is: we've got 5 days left until we can not just see this election come to an end but help make it a good end by voting. In the meantime, we can remember the wise words of Abigail's mom, "It'll be over soon." Note: If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video.

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