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Summer ‘10
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27 In chapter 10 of his Gospel, Luke records the story of Jesus being tested by a lawyer. The lawyer asks which commandment is the greatest, and Jesus asks him what the Scriptures say. The lawyer answers, and when Jesus tells him his answer is right, the lawyer pushes it a little further. Wanting to justify himself, Luke tells us, the man asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. What I find most interesting in this story from Jesus’ ministry is that the lawyer doesn’t try to quibble with the commandment about loving God. It’s the commandment about loving his neighbor that leads him to look for a loophole, some wiggle room that will let him get by. I think that same sort of quibbling goes on today. No one seems to dispute the idea that we are to love God with our whole being. Not many people try to look for loopholes in things like “you shall not kill” or “you shall not commit adultery”, but all kinds of word games, rationalizations and other wiggling goes on when it comes to the command to love our neighbors as ourselves. Some ask, as the lawyer did, “Just who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered that pretty eloquently, so I’ll just summarize: if they’re breathing, they’re your neighbor. Then come the debates about the difference between loving people and enabling them to continue in bad behavior. I hear this one a lot with regard to the poor of our community. Frankly, most of those debates sound like excuses to not do anything. That’s not to say that loving people means doing whatever they want you to or giving them anything they ask for. (For Jesus’ response to that idea, see Mark 10:35-40.) But even if loving our neighbors means saying “no”, that “no” is not the end of the conversation. Loving our neighbors means entering into a relationship with them, seeking the best for them, not simply ignoring them on the flimsy excuse that helping them would just perpetuate some social problem. There are all kinds of other attempts to find a loophole in this commandment, but you get the idea. They all seem equally flimsy and shallow when we speak them at the foot of the cross. Perhaps the problem is the flimsy and shallow way in which the way the word “love” is thrown around in our culture. We can talk of “loving” the Phillies, or NASCAR, or fishing, or maple nut sundaes with whipped cream and sprinkles. Perhaps we need to redefine the word love, or at least reclaim the Bible’s definition of the word. Love, as the Bible describes it, is not so much a feeling as a set of actions. It is possible, in the mindset of Scripture, to love your neighbor without actually liking your neighbor. This makes sense if you think about it. We can’t control how we feel, and I don’t think even Jesus likes everyone. But he does love everyone, and he does expect us to love everyone. Love of neighbor, the way the Bible depicts it, is a matter of remembering that every human being is created in the image of God and is precious to God, and then acting on that belief. That means seeing a precious child of God in the angelic baby sleeping on her mother’s lap, and in the face of the tyrannical two-year-old screeching down the aisle on Sunday morning. It means seeing a precious child of God in the 90-year-old saint in the nursing home, and in the tattooed addict smoking cigarettes in front of the bar. It means seeing a precious child of God in the sweet, caring, giving ICU nurse, and in the nasty, crabby, grouchy old so-and-so next door. Loving our neighbors means seeing every living human being as one of the people Jesus loved enough to die for. It also means acting on that belief. It’s not enough to say “Jesus loves you” and walk away. It’s not enough to give away a bowl of soup and not work to break the person out of the cycle of poverty. It’s not enough to say, “Our doors are open and you’re welcome” and never actively go out and invite. It’s not enough to claim that the suffering of God’s beloved children in our community is their own fault, or that it’s beyond our power to fix. Loving our neighbor, the way Christ meant it, means building our lives around the good of our neighbor and never giving up in our determination to seek the very best for them. After all, isn’t that the way Christ loves us? Yours in Christ, Pastor Bob
May ‘10
Father in heaven, for Jesus’ sake, stir up in (your name here) the gift of your Holy Spirit; confirm his faith, guide his life, empower him in his serving, give him patience in suffering, and bring him to everlasting life. ~ Blessing in the Rite of Confirmation Service, ELW p. 236
Many years have passed since my confirmation day, yet vivid details of that important event are etched into my mind. I remember the joy I felt in going shopping with my mom to find a beautiful white dress, and selecting the strand of pretty pink beads I would wear. I remember the smile on my pastor’s face, as she put her hands on my head to speak my name and bestow the confirmation blessing on me. I remember the pride I felt in reciting my chosen Bible verse to the congregation, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5). I remember the warm embraces that I received from so many members as I awkwardly stood in line with the others in my class to greet young and old. Most of all, I remember feeling a tremendous sense of belonging. This was home. Here was a place where I was loved, just for being me.
On the Day of Pentecost, May 23rd, we as a congregation will celebrate the Rite of Confirmation for six young men and women, as they affirm the promises their parents made in baptism. They too will stand before the congregation, will be blessed and prayed for, celebrated and loved. They are continuing a journey that each of us share: walking together as God’s beloved children, knowing one another in love as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Often we think of Confirmation as the end of a process of study, a time when you are expected to know the “right things,” believe the proper creeds, and recite the correct information. I hope for these six amazing young people, this event will be more. I hope it is a milestone in a lifetime journey of knowing God and being known by God. I hope it is a reminder for all of us of the importance of knowing each other, celebrating one another’s gifts and supporting one another as we grow in faith.
In these weeks please pray for our confirmands and their families, as they prepare for this important milestone of faith. Noah Anderson + Joseph Hasse + Olivia Hiddemen Levin Holloway + Alex Keulmann + Alexis Ulmanis
May God continue to bless us all along the way.
In Christ’s love, Pastor Kathy
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