Trip to the farm

I know, I'm surrounded by farms. But it's not all that often that I actually go to them.

However, one of my pastors has what he dubs a "farmette." It's ten acres of beauty, with lots of trees and a creek, along with a big garden and a veritable menagerie: five goats, four hens, two steers, a hog, a horse, a dog, and a cat. I was out there recently for a lovely afternoon of picnicking and enjoying the surroundings.


Meet Ringo, the pigo. He's very photogenic, is he not?




And with his proud owner, who really enjoys Ringo now and will enjoy him even more as bacon.




The lady of the house with the horse, Blue, who is 22 years old.




The hens, who may get more coop-mates soon.




A couple shots of the pygmy goats, who are quite adorable. There are three of these little ones and two regular-sized goats.







Future steak dinners.




Some of the land, looking at the back of the house.




Pastors chillin'.




Beautiful day, beautiful setting, beautiful fellowship.

Pentecost

Today is Pentecost, the church festival celebrating the giving of the Holy Spirit, recorded in Acts 2. It's a great day to give thanks for the ongoing work of the Spirit among us, that same Spirit that was poured out on each of us in our baptism.


"In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh..." (Acts 2:17, quoting Joel 2:28).




The Pentecost by Alexander Sadoyan


God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you sent upon the disciples the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, look upon your Church and open our hearts to the power of the Spirit. Kindle in us the fire of your love, and strengthen our lives for service in your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen (Lutheran Book of Worship).

Weekly beauty: Choral music

Last weekend there was a reunion of the St. Olaf Choir to celebrate its centennial anniversary. I didn't go but I heard from several different people that it was extraordinary. So I listened to some of the recording and now I'm passing it along.

You'll find video here.
The PDF program for the event is here.

If you're looking for familiar hymns, try these (with their timing in the recording specified):

Children of the Heavenly Father at 78:00
O Day Full of Grace at 99:36
Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee at 112:52
Beautiful Savior at 117:42

It's breathtaking music. Enjoy!

Youth in the park

Last week, the youth of several area churches held a get-together to celebrate the end of the school year and beginning of summer. Holden owns a park, so that was a great place to gather on a beautiful evening.

There was a fire...




And kickball (and frisbee and other such activities)...




And table tennis in the shelter...




And other silly fun games...




There was also ice cream and music and a very brief worship service. It was a wonderful event to bring together youth of the various churches of the community.

We have a couple more such events planned for the summer (canoe trip and movie night) so hopefully these things will gain momentum and lead to even greater collaboration in the future.

More on Memorial Day

I recently shared some thoughts and an article on observing patriotic holidays like Memorial Day. I wrote in favor of letting the Sunday observance take precedence over the holiday. In reality, of course, I realize that this isn't always the most appropriate pastoral move, and I must say that Pastor Dick Hegel did a great job weaving the two occasions together at Hegre over the holiday weekend.

In his sermon, he spoke of Memorial Day as an occasion of both remembering (bravery and sacrifices) and forgetting (old animosities), and he compared that to what God does for us, remembering (love and mercy and forgiveness) and forgetting (our sin and failures).

He compared the remembering we do at patriotic holidays to the remembering we do with the story of Christ...in both cases, it's about telling the story and letting the past affect our present and our future. It was very well done.

Meanwhile, Memorial Day weekend was a good chance for me to get away and spend time with family. I'm lucky that my grandmother lives close enough that I could easily spend most of the long weekend with my family without missing Sunday morning worship. So here you have it, Miss Dayla Elizabeth, my six-month-old niece.


With her great-grandma...




With her Aunt Amanda...




And cashed out...

June 5 sermon

Text: Acts 1:6-14
Preached June 5 at Dennison Lutheran Church (combined parish with Vang Lutheran Church)


Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Transitions aren’t always easy, are they? And this time of year is full of them—just look at the bulletin. Five of our young people are graduating from high school. One couple among us just welcomed a baby boy. Wedding season is in full swing and there are always retirements or job changes, recoveries from illness or surgery, and any number of other transitions happening at any given moment.

The disciples of Jesus experienced a major transition as well, as Jesus’ physical presence on earth came to an end. Our first reading comes from the book of Acts, written by Luke, the gospel writer. He tells us Jesus appeared to his disciples one last time after his resurrection, and then “as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

Jesus’ followers had already had to make a transition from the original, physical presence of Jesus the teacher, to the transformed (but still physical) presence of Jesus the resurrected Christ. And now they have to make yet another transition, relying on the Holy Spirit they will soon receive, in place of the physical presence of Jesus among them.

What a shock this must have been! They had such high expectations of Jesus at this point in his ministry. Just weeks earlier, he had defeated death itself, rising gloriously from the dead in order to bring life to all God’s people!

The disciples saw the upward trajectory of Jesus’ ministry, and they naturally assumed Jesus was nothing if not a rising star. They asked their teacher, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus had changed everything with his glorious resurrection on Easter morning. What else could be left but for the Messiah to restore the kingdom and bring all of history to its expected culmination? It was time for Jesus to reveal himself to the world as Messiah, wasn’t it? Time to validate the disciples’ faith and vindicate their experiences of ridicule and persecution.

But this is not what happens, as we know. Jesus did not march triumphantly through Jerusalem after his resurrection, issuing “I told you so”s to the religious and political leaders who had condemned him. Instead, he appeared only to his disciples and, after just a few short weeks, he vanished for good, as “a cloud took him out of their sight.”

This transition was not as unexpected for Jesus as it may have been for the disciples. He had been preparing them for this throughout their three years together. After all, any significant transition requires long-term preparation, doesn’t it? Graduates do not receive diplomas or degrees without a lot of studying and hard work. Couples do not get married without thinking carefully about what it means to share their lives and how that might work for them.

So Jesus had been preparing his disciples, and now he reveals just what it is he’s had in mind for them: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus commissions his disciples as witnesses. He makes it clear that his work must continue even after he has ascended into heaven. Can you imagine the disciples’ astonishment? What a scandal to be called upon to continue the work of the Messiah himself!

Jesus’ vision of the future was not at all like the vision the disciples had, of the immanent coming of the kingdom of God in all its fullness. Instead, God delays this coming of the kingdom so that these believers in Jesus can tell the story. God’s work in the world is to continue, and God needs people who will proclaim the word—who will tell the saving story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for our sake.

Jesus’ followers—then and now—are called to proclaim the kingdom, even though it is not yet fully revealed. For, as Jesus tells us in our gospel reading, eternal life is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. Jesus’ followers are invited into the eternal life that comes from knowing God in Christ. And Jesus’ followers are called to proclaim that same invitation to others as witnesses to God’s work in Christ.

And what does it mean to be witnesses? The angels at Jesus’ ascension give us a clue. “Men of Galilee,” they say to the disciples, “why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” Well, probably because Jesus had just been lifted up on a cloud out of their sight! It’s not something you see every day! But the angels let us know that witnessing does not mean removing ourselves from the world in order to gaze up at heaven instead. Witnessing means immersing ourselves fully into the world for the sake of our neighbors.

Witnessing happens amidst our day-to-day rounds of work and play. We witness to the living God made known in Christ when we explicitly tell the story of his saving work. We also witness when we simply do our jobs, pursue our hobbies, and perform our volunteer work to the best of our ability and to the glory of God. When our work benefits others, it is God’s work, and it witnesses to God’s love and mercy.

Luke tells us the disciples turned their gaze away from heaven in order to return to their lives in Jerusalem, and he says they were “constantly devoting themselves to prayer.” Prayer happens amidst our everyday routines as well, both in times set apart and in the middle of daily life. Sometimes we engage in what I call “drive-by prayer.” It can be thought of as an ongoing conversation with God—praying without ceasing.

Prayer is also mission—through our prayers, we support others in their work of witnessing to God. And how do we pray? “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray that we might help make known the signs of God’s kingdom and God’s will here and now.

Notice that Jesus never promises his disciples that their work of witnessing will be easy. Quite the opposite is true, of course. Peter spells it out in our second reading: “Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.”

The early Christians faced intense persecution, and each of the apostles became martyrs, giving up their lives as witnesses to their faith in the one true God and in Jesus Christ whom God sent. We may not face such threats to our very lives, but we do sometimes encounter opposition, ridicule, or exclusion on account of our faith.

But we are not left to do our work as witnesses alone. We have the power and authority to do this work, granted by the very one to whom we witness. In our gospel reading, Jesus says to the Father, “the words that you gave to me I have given to them.” Jesus prepared his followers—then and now—for the work of witnessing.

And in our first reading, Jesus promises the disciples, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you….” That same Spirit is poured out upon each of us in the water and the word of baptism—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the Spirit of joy in God’s presence. What Jesus calls us to do is achievable, not through our own talents and abilities, but through the power of the Spirit.

Witnessing is about God working through us, so part of witnessing is waiting for God’s direction. The disciples returned to Jerusalem but they didn’t set to work right away. Instead, they waited, as Jesus had commanded them. They waited for God to pour out the promised Holy Spirit, empowering them to fulfill their call.

This chapter of God’s story—the one in which we live—is still focused on God’s work in the world. It’s still about the expectation that God is on the move and up to something, just as it was for the first disciples. We may play a bigger role than those disciples originally expected, but it’s still God who is at work through us.

And so we wait for God to work, and we participate in that work as we are called. But this waiting is far from passive. The disciples were not just staring at one another and twiddling their thumbs. Instead, they were “constantly devoting themselves to prayer.”

Intentional stillness in the presence of God strengthens us for our calling and trains us to be attentive to God’s activity. It helps us to look for God’s work in and through and among us, and it helps us to discern how we fit into that work.

And, indeed, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Jesus calls us to be witnesses “to the ends of the earth,” so until everyone has heard the story, we’d better keep telling it. We’d better keep proclaiming Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us. We’d better keep announcing the hope of this story’s ending, which we know through God’s promise.

The angels tell us at Jesus’ ascension, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” God has promised that Jesus will return, restore the kingdom, and make all things new.

And so we wait, even in the midst of suffering, trusting that Jesus is not really “absent” but simply “ahead” of us. Jesus has not left us orphaned but has gone to prepare a place for us, as we have heard in our gospel readings in recent weeks. Jesus has commissioned us to be his witnesses—to share the good news of God’s love and mercy. And he has equipped us with the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill this calling.

We trust in the words of Peter in our second reading, that we can “cast all our anxiety on [Christ], because he cares for us” and we trust that “the God of all grace, who has called [us] to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish [us]” in our work as witnesses.

Thanks be to God! Amen.

Weekly beauty: Icon of the Holy Trinity

This Holy Trinity icon by Andrei Rublev is probably one of the most recognizable of icons, and you can find commentary on it here (caveat: I can't tell who wrote this information or for what context, but it sounds reasonable enough that I went with it this time).

My devotions at the intern committee meeting last night centered on this icon and included comments from Henri Nouwen's book, Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying With Icons. So it seemed an opportune time to share it.





And from Nouwen: "The more we look at this holy image with the eyes of faith, the more we come to realize that it is painted...as a holy place to enter and stay within....Rublev's icon gives us a glimpse of the house of perfect love."

Power and mission

June newsletter for the churches (which will bear some resemblance to the upcoming Sunday's sermon, I suspect, since it was inspired by the Acts text on which I'll preach).


Jesus told his disciples, “you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now….you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:5, 8). Then the Holy Spirit came upon the church on the day of Pentecost, with the rush of a mighty wind, with divided tongues of fire, and with a miracle of language (Acts 2:1-13).

That same Spirit was poured out on you in your own baptism: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the Spirit of joy in God’s presence (LBW baptism service, from Isaiah 11:2).

This means that, along with the disciples, you have been commissioned to be witnesses to the risen Christ in all the ends of the earth! And, along with the disciples, you have been equipped to fulfill that commission with the Spirit’s own power! The Holy Spirit gives us words when words otherwise fail us (Mark 13:11) and intercedes for us when we cannot even manage to pray (Romans 8:26).

So you need not doubt your ability to fulfill Christ’s command to proclaim the good news of God’s love and mercy. Instead, you can trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you to show forth Christ in both words and deeds.

Back to the cathedral

Last week I had a chance to make a (fairly brief) stop at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. I've said before it's one of my favorite places in the Twin Cities, and I hadn't been there since last summer.

During a busy day of visits and errands in the Cities last week, I finally had a chance to stop by with my supervisor. As an extra delight, the organist was playing while we were there, so the space was even more sublime than usual with the addition of music. Pictures and details about the cathedral organs here...together they have 4,560 pipes!

You can check out the pictures I posted before. Even better, take a look at the photo album on the cathedral website or take a virtual tour. Meanwhile, here are a few from my August trip that I haven't shared yet.

















And here's a new addition this time (at least, I hadn't seen it before): Lego cathedral. I cannot fathom having the kind of patience necessary to create such a thing. Very impressive.

Thinking theologically about Memorial Day

I was considering sharing some of my own reflections on the church's relationship with patriotic holidays, but then someone else read my mind and wrote basically what I would have written, only better. Far be it from me to reinvent the wheel.

So, with thanks to Katie for linking this article on Facebook, here you have it: "Thinking Theologically About Memorial Day," by Kevin DeYoung, a pastor in the Reformed Church in America.

I very much appreciate the balanced perspective he articulates: love of country is absolutely admirable, but it should not infringe upon Christian public worship. An excerpt:

Earthly worship should reflect the on-going worship in heaven. And while there are many Americans singing glorious songs to Jesus there, they are not singing songs about the glories of America....Are we gathered under the banner of Christ or another banner?

We should absolutely pray (in private and in public, including in worship) for our country, its leaders, and those who serve it in the military or otherwise. We should celebrate patriotic holidays with gratitude for our great nation and for those who have sacrificed dearly to make it what it is. But Memorial Day is on Monday, not Sunday.