The Youngest of Four

Back in March, my wife and I made a trip to Iowa for a family wedding. Who gets married in the middle of March in Iowa? My nephew, that's who! His wife is an engineer, and she really wanted to get married on Pi Day (Pi is the number 3.1415..., and so March 14, 2015 was that day!). We were blessed with 70 degree weather, and we were thankful for safe travels and on-time planes and connections.

Family events like this are the only time I get to see my three big brothers. Yes, I am the baby, the spoiled one, the one who got away with everything. I tell everyone that Mom and Dad just kept having kids till they got the perfect one! I can say that, but the truth of the matter is that I was the unexpected child. When Dad heard another child was coming, he mixed himself a martini! And when they found out they were having a fourth child, I know they were hoping for a girl. When the doctor came out of the delivery room, he said, "Fred, it's a boy." My Dad responded, "Oh my - Pat is not going to be happy with you." The doctor said, "Ah Fred, I think Pat is not going to be happy with YOU."

My brothers teased me something awful growing up. Mom said that they wouldn't tease me if they didn't love me. I guess they loved me a LOT! One of their favorite things to tell me is that when they were younger, they were all girls. And when they reached a certain age, they all became boys. It always happened to be my upcoming birthday was going to be the year I became a girl. I guess it is now when I turn 54 that it's supposed to happen.

I love getting together with my brothers and their families. Mom and Dad have been gone for some time now, so this is where I am able to touch the past and remember. It is also a time for us to see each other as parents and grandparents. All of my brothers are grandfathers, and I love to see them in that role. The love and joy they pour out on those children is great to see. In them I can see my Dad's gentle nature and caring attributes.

I know that family members can sometimes drive us crazy, and sometimes the things that we do or leave undone cause rifts that can last a lifetime. But I believe there are blessings from God we receive through family. Support, nurture, love. These are the people who have seen us at our best and our worst, and still call us brother or sister. These are the ones who often are there when everyone else has left us, These are the ones with whom we learned life's lessons. And these are the ones who are often an influence in our children's lives too.

My brothers - I give thanks to God for them!

Pictures from 2011, 1979, 2012 and 2015 (we are in the opposite order in the last one!).

Peace,

Pastor Charlie

A Caring Community and a Loving God

The story is told of the famous and saintly Mother Teresa of Calcutta who gave an interview during the last few years of her life that illustrates the point well. The reporter noted that religious orders in the west and many churches, for that matter, had been losing numbers. But the reporter also noted that Mother Teresa's order was growing by thousands, so she asks "Why?"

Mother Teresa answered without hesitation, "I give them Jesus."

"Yes, I know, but what strategies do you develop? How do you manage it?" asks the reporter.

"I give them Jesus" is the reply.

"Yes, I know, but can you be more specific?"

"I give them Jesus."

"Yes, we know of your fine work, but there must be something else," says the exasperated reporter."

I give them Jesus. There is nothing else."

This holy woman describes and defines the role, the purpose, and the mission of God's church. To present the love of God in real ways, to present Jesus as a human friend, companion, and guide. To do it in word, yes, but equally, if not more so, to do it in action.

A prime example of this is Epiphany's incredible outreach ministry called Operation Prom Dress. This year, over 170 girls were served by over 80 volunteers who welcomed them, loved on them, helped them find a dress, did up their hair and make-up, took pictures of them, offered food and beverages, and made sure they all knew that they were the reason we were here. One mother said to me, "What I love about this ministry is that there is more than enough." It was a great day, and a great opportunity to share God's love not just in word but in action.

Channel 2 - WDTN came out to do a story on the event. Pastor Jay and I stood behind the camera as they interviewed Tonya Johns, who is the coordinator of Operation Prom Dress. I had tears in my eyes when she told why we do what we do. 






A community that cares about them. A God who loves them.

That is what it means to be the church!

Peace,
Pastor Charlie

Saint Patrick

Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. While it is true that the Lutheran church does not hold the saints up in the same manner as the Roman Catholic Church, the saints can still be examples of faith for us, and we can benefit from their witness and example.  Patrick was born in Britain near the end of the fourth century to wealthy parents. At the age of 16, however, Irish raiders attacked his family estate, captured the teenage Patrick, and transported him to Ireland. Like any person taken away from a loving family, however, Patrick was lonely and afraid. It is at this point in his life that he turned to God for comfort and guidance, becoming a devout Christian.

After six years as a slave, however, Patrick began to hear a voice which he believed was God's voice telling him it was time to leave Ireland. Considering he was a prisoner, this was no easy task. But God created a means of escape, and Patrick snuck away from the marauders, walked nearly 200 miles to the Irish coast, and sailed back to Britain.

Years later, though, he received a second revelation from God telling him to go back to Ireland as a missionary. He listened to the voice once again, and the rest, as they say, is history. His mission lasted nearly 30 years, up until he died on March 17, 461.

I came across this hymn/prayer attributed to St. Patrick entitled St. Patrick’s Breast Plate. These words are like the breastplate of righteousness that protects what is at the core of your being and what you hold to be true.   These words emphasize the power of God with us and I find comfort and strength in them. I love these words.

If you are looking for a prayer to start your day, might I suggest this:

I arise today 

Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism, 

Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, 

Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension, 

I arise today 

Through God's strength to pilot me: 

God's might to uphold me, 

God's wisdom to guide me, 

God's eye to look before me, 

God's ear to hear me, 

God's word to speak for me, 

God's hand to guard me, 

God's way to lie before me, 

God's shield to protect me, 

God's host to save me.

From snares of devils, 

From temptations of vices, 

From everyone who shall wish me ill, 

Afar and anear, 

Alone and in multitude. 

Christ to shield me today 

So that there may come to me 

abundance of reward. 

Christ with me, 

Christ before me, 

Christ behind me, 

Christ in me, 

Christ beneath me, 

Christ above me, 

Christ on my right, 

Christ on my left, 

Christ when I lie down, 

Christ when I sit down, 

Christ when I arise, 

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, 

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, 

Christ in every eye that sees me, 

Christ in every ear that hears me. 

I arise today 

May the witness of the saints shine light on our journeys of faith.

Here's a short video about St. Patrick.

Peace,

Pastor Charlie

Subtle Shifts

Greeting to you today! We finally made it to the month of March, and there is hope that spring will soon be here! Humorist and fellow Lutheran Garrison Keillor wrote that every year in Minnesota (and we can relate that to our winter here in Ohio this year), nature makes a couple sincere attempts to kill you, and then we get the month of March, which God designed to show people who don't drink what a hangover is like! I will confess that I took a few days of rest and rejuvenation in a warm climate, and my wife and I have tried our best to bring the warmth and sun back with us.

This week, I want to share with you the following article from the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - Elizabeth Eaton. This appeared in the February issue of the magazine "The Lutheran."

We are in the middle of Lent — the season of spiritual warfare, or at least really good intentions. Many of us now engage in some form of Lenten discipline. We give up something: chocolate or coffee or FreeCell. Or we add something: Scripture reading, midweek worship or service projects. This seems normal and familiar to us just as the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday or crossing ourselves has become normal and familiar in many of our congregations.

I remember a time when none of these practices would be considered Lutheran by large segments of our church. Too works righteous, too showy, too … Roman Catholic! We didn’t need to, nor could we make ourselves holy or righteous. That was the whole point of justification by grace through faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:21-28, Article IV of the Augsburg Confession).

We over-corrected. Fasting, prayer, Scripture study, acts of service, imposition of ashes and making the sign of the cross are classical spiritual disciplines that not only have an ancient history in Christian practice but also serve to engage our whole selves in devotion to God. These practices serve to draw us closer to and make us more aware of the love of God shown through Jesus’ death and resurrection that justifies sinners, but they aren’t what justifies us.

As scrupulous as we have been in proclaiming grace and eschewing works in our faith practices, I’ve noticed the not so subtle shift to works righteousness in the work we do as the church. This exists in all three expressions — congregations, synods and churchwide — and all across the cultural spectrum. Jesus’ invitation to repentance and discipleship have become a kind of transaction between us and God where we figure out what we have done wrong, promise to work really hard to be better people, and then God forgives us. What we see as the moral wrongs that must be repented depends largely on our place on the cultural spectrum. The cultural right is preoccupied with private mores and behavior and the cultural left is preoccupied with political rights and the activities of government and business institutions.

Here’s how that plays out. While driving through the Smoky Mountains on a family road trip, I saw a billboard that declared: “No smoking, drinking, card playing, dancing, movie going, swearing ... there is no sin within 7 miles of our church!” Wow. There must not have been any people within 7 miles of that church. That is the works righteousness of the right.

The works righteousness of the left plays out a little differently. If there are enough sit-ins or protests, or boycotts or enough petitions, we could inaugurate the kingdom of God. Then we could extricate ourselves from this bondage to sin. We could build a perfect world.

There is a purveyor of high-end, organic, locally sourced groceries that is the temple of this persuasion. You can buy veal there without guilt because its source of veal is the little calf that, after gamboling across the fields, turns itself in to the butcher and declares (quoting Charles Dickens): “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.” No. Something has to die so we can live. We are complicit in the world’s brokenness.

We may work for justice or righteousness with the best intentions, and God knows there is plenty of work to do. But Jesus didn't die to change behaviors or political systems or institutions. Jesus died to end the fundamental brokenness and estrangement from God that is the result of human sin, our rebellion against God that infects every aspect of our lives.

Just as Jesus’ miracles in the Gospel of John are called signs that point to the new thing God is doing in Christ, so should our work for justice be signs that point to the new life we have in Christ. We’re pointing in the wrong direction if our work becomes the new life instead of a sign of the new life.

Lent can be a time to ponder this priceless gift. The death and resurrection of Christ has changed everything, a change no human effort could ever bring about.

Subtle shift to works righteousness
by Bishop Elizabeth Eaton - February Issue of The Lutheran

Peace,

Pastor Charlie