{"id":1163,"date":"2011-06-02T15:31:31","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T22:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2011-07-07T11:53:49","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T18:53:49","slug":"pastors-pen-for-june-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1163","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Pen for June 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cLord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus replied, <\/em><\/address>\n
\u201cIt is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.\u00a0 <\/em><\/address>\n
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; <\/em><\/address>\n
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\u201d <\/em><\/address>\n
\u2013 Acts 1:6-8<\/address>\n

Beloved of God,<\/p>\n

Well, we\u2019re still here\u2014in spite of the latest prediction of the world\u2019s demise.<\/strong> (This one by Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping.)\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 Apparently, God\u2019s plan for SHALOM isn\u2019t complete, and God still has work for the church to do.\u00a0 Surprise, surprise.<\/p>\n

Jesus promised the Spirit would be unleashed in the world.\u00a0 So, where do we look to find evidence of the Holy Spirit\u2019s work with\/through\/and among God\u2019s faithful people?\u00a0 <\/strong>The last month has provided some poignant and powerful examples.\u00a0 If you were in worship last Sunday, May 29th<\/sup><\/span>, you experienced one of them.\u00a0 Little Maeve, age 4, couldn\u2019t contain herself when she heard the melody for a song she knew begin playing during communion.\u00a0 She skipped down the aisle to the Lord\u2019s Table in her irrepressible way singing it, \u201cJesus loves me this I know.\u201d<\/em> And then, after we all had received a taste<\/em> of that love, she piped up from the back corner of the nave\u2014this time solo\u2014singing the song which so filled her being that the rest of us couldn\u2019t help but join in singing it once more! \u201cYes, Jesus loves me!…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Worship on May 15th<\/sup><\/span> took us to the other end of the \u201cyouth\u201d spectrum, with high school and middle school youth taking on many of the leadership roles within our worship service.\u00a0 Among them were seniors Elizabeth Menstell and Sofia Wagner who, with some help from freshman Lucille Bermes, delivered one powerful sermon on Good Shepherd Sunday. Who will soon forget Sofia\u2019s image of God\u2019s care for us, aptly illustrated by way of her own experience as the caretaker of a trio of flighty, hair-infesting chickens:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what? Even if \u201cthe birds\u201d (as we call them at my house) are misbehaving, I\u2019m still going to take care of them. When I signed up for this, I knew what I was getting into. I knew that they wouldn\u2019t always be so cute and innocent, but I\u2019m still going to nurture and care for them\u2026For me, that\u2019s how God is. It\u2019s easy to know that God loves good people\u2026 or innocent people\u2026 or godly people\u2026 but they aren\u2019t the only ones. He\u2019s still there when we mess up. And we\u2019re going to mess up. We ARE messed up. He might not like what we do sometimes, but He\u2019ll never turn away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or Elizabeth, summarizing her journey toward choosing a college and preparing for life\u2019s next adventure:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur favorite leader of the protestant revolution, Martin Luther, once said \u2018I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.\u2019\u00a0 With\u2026our future in our shepherd\u2019s hands, green pastures are sure to be found. Whether those pastures are a university, the decision of public, private, or homeschool for our kids, a job, or an assisted-living residence, we can be sure that our lives can be secure with trust in God\u2026We may not know where we are going or maybe even why, but our Good Shepherd does and it\u2019s His voice that we are to follow. \u2026 With trust in our shepherd, this time does not have to be scary but can be exhilarating.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 (To read the full text of the sermon on our website, follow this <\/em>link<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

See what I mean?<\/strong>\u00a0 There are other signs, for sure, daily ones\u2014if we only learn to recognize them.\u00a0 For often enough they come incognito<\/em>\u2014hidden\u2014as God himself once came. Our task is not to make predictions about when it all will end, or to judge who will find joy and who will find sorrow on that day.\u00a0 Our task is to keep reminding each other and anyone else who will listen that God is not finished with us yet; that there is still time to love and forgive, to hope and to sing.<\/p>\n

This month marks, for me, the 25th<\/sup> anniversary of ordination to Word and Sacrament ministry.\u00a0 There were many things that drew me to service in Christ\u2019s church.\u00a0 First among them was the conviction that against the backdrop of harrowing need and profound brokenness, the world needed to hear\u2014to experience\u2014the healing presence of God-with-us.\u00a0 Through the years it\u2019s been my privilege to bear that message, earthen vessel that I am.\u00a0 Over and again I\u2019ve also been blessed to be on the receiving end from too many people to count.\u00a0 Whether in brief, fleeting moments or via broad, sustained ministries, the Spirit of God uses it\u2014uses us\u2014all, credentialed and uncredentialed\u2014to get the word out that he\u2019s in love with the world and determined to stick with us, come hell and<\/span><\/em> high water; and by golly, we\u2014chosen and precious, sinner and saint\u2014ought to do the same.<\/p>\n

With hope and gratitude,<\/p>\n

Pastor Erik<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus replied, \u201cIt is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.\u00a0 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-newsletter","category-pastors-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1195,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions\/1195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}