Word for Today

Dear friends,

These are the times (after Easter) when we examine what it means to live a resurrection-life. The resurrection-life is one that has the old shaped into the new, the broken shaped into wholeness. This is the season where Grace has a Place. When Grace has a Place, grace can really get to work bringing about a New Creation.

Here's a little story by Kevin Kling:

  Back in the days when pots and pans could talk, which indeed they still do, there lived a man. And in order to have water, every day he had to walk down the hill and fill two pots and walk them home. 

  One day, it was discovered one of the pots had a crack, and as time went on, the crack widened. 

  Finally, the pot turned to the man and said, "You know, every day you take me to the river, and by the time you get home, half of the water's leaked out. Please replace me with a better pot." And the man said, "You don't understand. As you spill, you water the wild flowers by the side of the path." 

  And sure enough, on the side of the path where the cracked pot was carried, beautiful flowers grew, while the other side was barren. "I think I'll keep you," said the man.

John 21:15 - When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."

Resurrection-life is about letting the abundance of God's love in Christ spill out, and the best water-way is the place in ourselves where we have experienced the deepest wound.

This is a photo by Lisle Boomer

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

"Scrolling Down"

Philippians 2:5–11

(Read responsively today)

⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

  ⁷but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

  ⁸he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death — 

even death on a cross.

  ⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

  ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

 (All) ¹¹and  every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

As we come to the Sunday of Christ's Passion (also called Palm Sunday) we hear longer passages of scripture that require focus and a longer attention span. Attention span is a challenge for us today. So many fantastic distractions.

Even when writing emails, I try to write brief, so the reader doesn't have to be burdened with the need to "scroll down."

Today's passage from Philippians is a wonderful ancient hymn for the easily distracted. It quickly gets to the motive, the commotion, the emotion and the promotion of Christ. I believe we could say that when God highly exalted Jesus, God put the scroll down so we could focus and worship without distraction.

This photo is taken by Bo Løvschall of Denmark. It is of the "Hill of Crosses" in Lithuania

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

From Isaiah 43:

  ¹⁸Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

  ¹⁹I am about to do a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

From John 12:

 ³Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 

http://www.bulloughphotography.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=9&p=0&a=0&at=0

I invite you to click on the link above for a few spectacular examples of "rivers in the desert."

Bill Bryson, in the book "A Walk in the Woods" muses about the U.S. Forest Service. For all the good the Forest Service does, they also have a tendency to build a lot of roads. Paraphrasing Bryson, the Forest Service will look at a mountain-scape and say, "wow, that is so beautiful. I bet we can put a road through there."

Is this what the book of Isaiah means with this image? Is God interested in providing water for those who live in the desert, or a highway for those who want to get through the mountains?

I think the metaphor speaks for itself and is even more powerful as such. Through God's own power, God is going to make the impossible possible. God will make safe passage through the wilds of life, and will be satisfaction for the driest of souls.

Think of Mary's gift as a stream in the desert. Her love and devotion to the Lord changed that moment, even the air in the room was different!

May God be for you the way through the wilderness, the river in your desert.

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church
541.889.9349

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Word for Today

Preemptive Celebration

From Luke 15

²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

This Sunday we have the story of the Prodigal Son. It can also be called the story of the Forgiving Father! You can probably reassemble parts of the story from memory..

  Son wants to leave home

  Son claims inheritance

  Son leaves home

  Son blows all his cash

  Son reconsiders his home

  Son plans to work as a servant

  Father welcomes son

  Father throws a party

  Other son feels slighted

I would like to take another step. I find myself wondering what the other members of the household might be thinking. There may be some who don't know exactly what to think about him. There may be some who are as glad as the father to see a family reunited. Some may have thought of him as a dead-beat, a brat who only wanted to live on the edge without a care for those who cared for him most.

Now, back to the forgiving father. What if, along with wanting a celebration for the sheer joy of it, the father wanted to influence the attitudes of all the others in the household? What if the father wanted to direct his people to organize a preemptive celebration? Minimize the awkward moment while people try to figure out how they should think.

Perhaps you know people who throw together preemptive celebrations. You are blessed to know them!

Communities of faith - how about preemptive celebration as a guiding principle?

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

From Psalm 27:

⁸My heart speaks your message— "Seek my face."

Your face, O LORD,  I will seek.

From Genesis 15:

 ⁵ God brought Abram outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."  

Wouldn't you love to get lost in this star scape, lying on your back in the middle of a mountain meadow on a moonless summer night?

I wonder what the star scape was like when Abram looked at it. God was giving a promise to a childless man (childless from one perspective!). The promise was that Abram would be the father of many. Children are divine blessings. I don't suppose God and Abram lied down on their backs in order to gaze at the stars that night, but the mental picture is nice!

I hope this image stirs your heart a little. The psalm above mentions something about a message that the human heart knows. As if a dialog is happening between the heart and the mind:

Heart: "Seek the face of God."

Mind: "Yes! I will."

I pray for that kind of harmony between my heart and mind. I also pray for the driving passion that comes from the heart, which is created to seek God. I pray for you and me to seek God's face. Together.

Read about this picture here

Pastor James Aalgaard

www.wanderingnorwegian.blogspot.com

St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

From Psalm 91:

¹You who dwell in the shelter of ^| the Most High,

who abide in the shadow of ^| the Almighty—

²you will say to the LORD, "My refuge ^| and my stronghold,

my God in whom I ^| put my trust."

This is a monastery called Metéora in Greece. It's an Orthodox monastery that was begun in the 11th century, shortly before the invention of cargo helicopters. Someday it would be a blast to visit this place. I would hope for a smog-free day.

Take another quick look at the Bible verse above. Do you think the psalmist was thinking of a place like this? To be suspended above the rest of the world and her problems seems nice. Maybe it would actually work to disengage like that.. for a time. Then thoughts and worries would span the crevasses that we created, and we would find ourselves right back in the midst of the world that still wants and needs us.

Where do we go to find God? Do we go to a high elevation? How about an exotic (read 'warm') place?

I take my cue this morning from the little phrase "shadow of the Almighty." Wherever there is a shadow, there is the Almighty watching over. Can you find a shadow near you? If so, then claim right now the protection of the Almighty.

The season of Lent is about drawing shapes around shadows, studying them, feeling their chill. But remember this, shadows can only exist with the Son nearby.

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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Word for Today

From Exodus 34:29

"As (Moses) came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God."

From Luke 9:29

"while (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white."

Lene Vestergaard Hau, a Danish-born physicist, has developed a method for slowing down light. (Thank you Radiolab for a wonderful radio program). She uses sodium as her medium, cooling the substance so that when it's a supercold atomic gas, light itself will slow to 17 meters per second. That's quite an accomplishment when you recognize that light's natural speed is 186,000 miles per second! Light can take on wave-like properties and particle-like properties. There is so much to discover in light. It bears information. It's movement is efficient. It brightens our darkness.

This Sunday is the Sunday of the Transfiguration. Jesus goes to a mountaintop to pray, and his appearance changes. He captures light. He harnesses the light of the world. He glows with hope and possibility. If I were with him on that day, I would have joined Peter who said, "Let's hang out here for a while. I will start setting up the tents."

But this moment in time, or out of time, can be a light that brightens the darkest moments of our lives. From the mountaintop, Jesus goes down then up to Jerusalem, where he becomes enveloped by darkness, thus becoming the Light of the World. This is THE hidden will of God and our source of life.

Makoto Tojiki loves to use light in his art. Instead of commenting on it, I think I will just let you gaze and wonder yourself!

Blessings!

Pastor James Aalgaard
St. Paul Lutheran Church

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