December 2018 Newsletter Article - Be a blessing to someone today!!

Here is my December Newsletter article.  Hopefully, I'll be back later today or possibly tomorrow to add to the blog both the sermon from last Sunday and last night's Thursday night sermon.  It's been a bit of a hectic week and I'm running behind on posting Sunday's sermon.

Tomorrow morning I will be performing the funeral for Maxine Visner at the Church.  I'll thank all the women in advance for putting on the luncheon for the funeral.  It's always a great ministry and it's always appreciated greatly by the families.  Thank you all!

With that, I will close for now.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

Pastor's Ponderings:

Well, Advent begins this Sunday!  And we will be lighting the candle of 'Hope' this week and then in the proceeding weeks, we'll light 'Peace', 'Joy', 'Love', and finally during the Christmas Eve Program we will light the 'Christ' candle.  This procession of candles are intended to prepare us in spirit for the coming of the Christ Child, but even more-so these candles are intended to prepare us spiritually for the second coming of Christ.

Just as Jesus came to this broken world with His message of hope, peace, joy, and love back so long ago... He will come again into this world.  Are we truly making preparations in our hearts, minds, and spirits for this magnificent day?  Recently, I've preached against the inclination to try and discern the date of the Second Coming of our Lord, but this stance against any attempt to plot out His arrival doesn't mean that we are not to make preparations.  Rather, it means that we cannot put off these preparations, we need to live each and every day with a spirit of hope, peace, joy, and love for our fellow man and for our Lord's Creations.  Reach out and be the blessing that someone needs in their lives today!

This last month we had as you hopefully all know, our “God's Portion Sale”, included in this Newsletter is a listing of all the local businesses that were kind enough to support this event.  Please take a few moments and call or write a card/letter to these kind souls and thank them for their support. Doing so not only helps us next year in doing our solicitations but it allows these business owners to receive the blessing of knowing that their contributions are not only appreciated but that they have blessed us by their giving.  Sometimes (often) the greatest blessing that you can give another is to acknowledge that that person (or business) is a blessing to you and to others.  In blessing, you will be blessed.

Also, thank you to everyone who helped out in both large and small ways in the operation and preparation for the “God's Portion Sale”, there are far too many involved to list everyone so THANK YOU each and all!  We should though thank Donna Westcott for running the Luncheon, it was GREAT Food!  I'll also point out that this year Leon & Judy purchased the 'Reserved Parking Spot' and Leon had a great time bidding... he must have had because I believe he paid a record amount for that spot!  Thank you, Leon & Judy, enjoy your parking spot!

Thank you also goes out to Brenda & Barb for preparing the turkey for the Annual Thanksgiving Dinner, as always this was a great event and the food was amazing!  Thank you to everyone who brought side-dishes, desserts, and salads!  There's really nothing like a Pot-Luck dinner in a small town church!  How can you go wrong!!  And I need to thank those that stuck around and helped decorate the Church for the Christmas and Advent season, it looks great!  Thank you all!

I'm not sure if you are all aware but Willy Scalf passed away on Thanksgiving morning.  Willy used to attend here at Woodlawn and his daughter Star came to Sunday School.  Star will be staying with the Best family here in Lake City, and I have invited Star and the Best family to come and visit us.  If you see them, please also extend an invitation and give them your blessing and love.  Please pray for Star, it's such a terrible thing to lose a parent especially during that all too difficult age of a middle-schooler.  Thank you for your prayers.

We've had some new visitors lately, please remember to welcome any new faces (and old ones too!) that you see, praise God for the blessing of visitors!  This is the perfect season to invite friends and family to come to church, even if you've invited them before, ask again... sometimes we have to knock at the door repeatedly before it's answered.

Revelation 3:20 New International Version (NIV)
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Be a blessing to someone today!  (Invite them to Church!)

In Christ,  Pastor Roy

Funeral for "Willy" Scalf (William Dennis Scalf) November 24, 2018

Today I had the sad role of performing the funeral for Willy Scalf.  Willy died far too young and he leaves behind a young daughter.  Please pray for Star and the rest of Willy's family, may God grant them strength, comfort, and peace.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

Order of Service – Funeral for William “Willy” Scalf

Entrance: “If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away”

Call to Worship:
Gathered in Christ's name, let us praise God
who is our certain hope in all life's varied circumstances.
In the face of death believe the good news the scriptures proclaim:
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.
(Isaiah 66:13)

Greeting:
We have come together within the strengthening fellowship of friends and family:
to praise God for the life of; William Dennis Scalf;
to share our grief with God and with one another;
to reaffirm our faith in God's unfailing goodness;
to hear again God's promise of resurrection;
and to commend Willy to God's everlasting care.

Opening Prayer:
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our brother Willy.

We thank you for giving him to us, his family and friends,
to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage.
In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn.
Give us faith to see death as the gate of eternal life,
so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth,
until by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Reading from the Old Testament:
Psalm 139: 1-18
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end—I am still with you.

Reading from the New Testament:
Matthew 20:1-16 New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Music: I Can Only Imagine

Message:  Pastor Roy Karlen 
Woodlawn Christian Church, Lake City, IA

William Dennis Scalf, better known as simply “Willy” was born here in Lake City, on August 8th, 1971.  Willy's parents Dennis and Beverly were blessed with the birth of two little boys on that day, Willy and his brother Gene.  Forty-seven years later, Willy died in the same hospital where he was born. He passed from this world and into the next during the early morning hours of Thursday, November 22, 2018, it was as we all know Thanksgiving morning.  Today we are gathered to give thanksgiving for Willy's life and to give thanks for the love and the grace that our Father in Heaven holds for each of us, and for Willy.

Recently, I read an article that talked about how none of us truly has just one identity; each of us is viewed through the eyes of so very many, many, different people and each of these people constructs a slightly different, or even vastly different identity of our being... it seems nobody, not even we ourselves really knows the 'real' us... for there really is no single us... we each play different roles and have many identities in the lives and eyes of those around us.  Such was the case with Willy, each of you seated here today knew a different William Scalf.  Each of us knew Willy in a slightly different context, for some of you he was a friend, for some a son, for Gene he had the always incredibly close relationship of being a twin brother, but for Star... Willy was her father.

In the short while that I got to know and visit with Willy, I believe that was the identity he loved the most.  When I first met with Willy earlier this year he was in the hospital but his main concern was for Star and her well-being.  We really didn't talk about his illness, we talked mainly about Star. He talked about the preparations that he was making for her to be cared for after he had passed and it was obvious that his love for his daughter and the knowledge that she would be cared for... this was his primary focus.

Yesterday when Abby asked Star to select a poem for her father's funeral folder, Star selected this poem:

Daddy,
If tears could build a stairway, 
And memories a lane,
I'd walk right up to heaven
And bring you home again.

Many of us gathered here today are mothers and fathers, I can tell you that not a one of us is or ever will be a perfect parent.  Willy wasn't a perfect parent but he did the very best he could and there was no doubt how much he loved Star.  In the end, being a parent is one of, if not the most important role or identity that we can have here in this world.  Just as Star's greatest desire is and will long be to bring her Daddy home again, our Heavenly Father's greatest desire is and will always be for us to come home to Him.

It has long been my personal contention that it is impossible to grasp the love and grace of God without considering the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  The metaphor of a loving father is perhaps the easiest and maybe the only way for us to try and understand our Lord.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son - Luke 15: 11-24
11 Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

The parable tells us of a father that loves us so very much that he is always watching, waiting, and ready to greet us home.  It tells us of a father whose only desire is to be reunited with us... to throw his arms around the child that has rejected him and his love.  This parable, taken along with the parable of the workers in the vineyard, and the reading from the Book of Psalm that you heard earlier, paint a picture of a loving father, a father that is with us no matter what and no matter where... and that our Father in Heaven waits patiently for us to decide to return home to His love, grace, and forgiveness.

A father's love is like that, it never dies... Willy's love for Star will never die it will remain with her. Though being separated from Willy is difficult and will always be difficult, she can always rest assured that just as God will always love us, Willy will always love her so very, very much.  

Though we are parted but for a time, we can take solace in the words of Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 13:1-8
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends.

Even though we are apart, as long as we have their memories, and as long as these memories continue to influence our lives, our relationship with our loved ones that have passed remains.  And when that time comes that we are reunited in God's presence our joy will be complete.  In the knowledge that this separation is only temporary and with the love and comfort of our Lord along with the love and support of our family and friends, we can endure this brief separation.  For love remains, it never dies, it is there still with us.  For as Paul said;

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends, love always remains.

Praise be to God...

Eulogies and Reflections:
The family would like to allow those gathered here today to share some memories about Willy with each other.  Perhaps some stories that Star might cherish about her father as she lives out the remainder of her life.  If you like you may come forward to speak or if you are more comfortable please stand and speak from where you are.  Let us first hear a few memories from Willy's twin brother Gene.

Closing Prayer:
Let us please close with a prayer...

O God, our Strength, and our Redeemer, Giver of life, and Conqueror of death, we open our hearts to you just as we are.  We celebrate your gift of life freely given but are grieved by a sense of loss in the face of death.  The love which binds us to one another leaves us aching as ties are broken.  Accept our tears as emblems of devotion, and transform them into waters of life to nourish us in the days ahead.

We trust you.  We love you.  We know in Christ that your love is everlasting.  Nothing can separate any of us from your abiding care.  With you is eternal life.

With confidence, we now entrust Willy to your unfailing love and overflowing goodness.  Through the power that raised Christ from the dead to live eternally with you, lift up this, your servant, to a life fulfilled beyond our imagining.  We give you but your own.  Accept him as he is with all his frailties as well as his strengths.  Enfold him in your everlasting arms.  Embrace him for he is your child.

Now strengthen us, through the gift of your Spirit, to face into the future with confidence that you stand with us.  Grant that the changes of life may leave us stronger as we journey through life.

Reassured of your abiding presence, help us to knit more firmly the ties that bind us one to another.  Renewed by your love, help us to love in ever larger circles so as to embrace your people everywhere till at last we are all united eternally through Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Closing and Benediction:
“May the Lord Bless you and keep you, and may His face shine down upon you and grant you all His Peace”  Amen.

Sending Song: Dance With My Father

1st Samuel 1:1-20 "The Faith of Hannah"

Photo by Christian Begeman

Last Sunday's sermon was over the beginning verses of the Old Testament book entitled "1st Samuel".  Here we meet Hannah who is in a very difficult place as far as things can go for a married woman in the ancient Hebrew world.  She has no son, or daughter for that matter, she is one of two wives and her rival has multiple children.  The name Hannah in Hebrew means 'attractive' so she is as we can read the favored wife by her husband Elkanah, her rival is Peninnah whose name means 'fertile'.  In the ancient Hebrew world a married woman's worth depended upon their ability to have children, and beyond that their very survival once their husband had passed away depended upon having a son to provide for them.  Wives did not inherit property in that time and the woman was dependent upon their male children for support in their old age.

Hannah goes to worship and asks for a male child but then she does the unexpected and vows to pledge the child to the Lord.  To give the boy up to God in this fashion would mean the boy would not be able to provide for Hannah when the time had come that Elkanah had passed and she was left alone.  Hannah has done something remarkable here.  She is blessed by God through the blessing of Eli and we learn in Chapter 2 that she is blessed not only with Samuel but with more children.

Hers is a wonderful story of faith, and the role that she, Eli, and her son Samuel play in the history of the Hebrew Nation is one of great, great significance... take a listen to the sermon to find out more about Hannah and her faith in her God.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ,
Roy

1 Samuel 1:1-20 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Samuel’s Birth and Dedication
1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite[a] from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. 4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; 5 but to Hannah he gave a double portion,[b] because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

9 After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord.[c] Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. 11 She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite[d] until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants,[e] and no razor shall touch his head.”

12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14 So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” 15 But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” 17 Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters,[f] ate and drank with her husband,[g] and her countenance was sad no longer.[h]

19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20 In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

Footnotes:
a) 1 Samuel 1:1 Compare Gk and 1 Chr 6.35–36: Heb Ramathaim-zophim
b) 1 Samuel 1:5 Syr: Meaning of Heb uncertain
c) 1 Samuel 1:9 Gk: Heb lacks and presented herself before the Lord
d) 1 Samuel 1:11 That is one separated or one consecrated
e) 1 Samuel 1:11 Cn Compare Gk Q Ms 1.22: MT then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life
f) 1 Samuel 1:18 Gk: Heb went her way
g) 1 Samuel 1:18 Gk: Heb lacks and drank with her husband

h) 1 Samuel 1:18 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain

Veterans Day Sermon - November 11, 2018

Photo by Christian Begeman

Last Sunday was of course 'Veterans Day' here in the USA, the sermon highlighted the history of this day along with the history of World War I.  The message of the sermon was concerning that if we seek justice without a grace-filled heart we will only do more damage and ultimately all is lost...

I've included both the sermon video and the manuscript of the sermon.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In His Grace,
Roy

Sermon given on Veterans Day 2018

On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918 the battles stopped and the guns fell silent... and bells were heard across Europe and the world.

(bell rings 11 times)

Today we post Veterans Day on our Calendars and we celebrate and recognize all those who have served our Nation in the Armed Services.  I would like to ask all those who have served in the Military to please stand and allow the rest of us to recognize and applaud you for your service.  Please stand if you have served this Nation or any Nation.

(Congregation applauds our Veterans)

Thank you all so very much for your devotion and your service.

We honor all those who have served our Nation in the Armed Forces, whether they served in times of War or in times of Peace... whether they served in combat or whether they served in a support or an administrative capacity, we recognize and say thank you to all of these brave men and brave women.  Thank you all for devoting your service to our Nation.

Today... is as I said Veterans Day, a day that was originally known as Armistice Day, it was recognized as a National Holiday here in the US in 1919 and it took place on the first anniversary of the end of World War I... November 11th.  The bells that tolled at the beginning of this sermon were in the tradition that persisted many years ago of marking Armistice Day by ringing bells for eleven strikes on the 11th hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.  The first Armistice Day was memorialized here in the US in 1919 as decreed-ed by a Congressional Resolution.  But, it's important to remember that this wasn't just a celebration here in the US, it was a date recognized around the Globe.

The poem “In Flanders Fields” has long been associated with Armistice/Veterans Day:

In Flanders Fields: By Dr. John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The poem “In Flanders Field” was written by Dr.  John McCrae in memory of his friend, Alexis Helmer:
Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was an officer in the 2nd Battery, 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery. He had become good friends with  Major John McCrae. On the fate-filled morning of Sunday, May 2nd, 1915 Alexis left his dugout and was killed instantly by a direct hit from an 8-inch German shell. What body parts could be found were later gathered into sandbags and laid in an army blanket for burial that evening.

Alexis was 22 years old and a popular young officer. Before the outbreak of war, he had graduated from McGill University with a degree in Civil Engineering. He was the son of Elizabeth Helmer and Brigadier General R. A. Helmer.

Lieutenant Helmer was buried on May 2nd, and in the absence of the unit's chaplain, Major John McCrae conducted a simple service at the graveside, reciting from memory some passages from the Church of England's “Order of Burial of the Dead”. A wooden cross marked the burial place. The grave has long since been lost. Lieutenant Alexis Helmer is now commemorated on Panel 10 of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres; he is one of the 54,896 soldiers who have no known grave in the battlefields of the Ypres Salient.

The poem that Dr. McCrae wrote in memory and in suffering, trying to come to terms with the loss of his friend... and the loss of so, so many, many other young souls, is one of the connections that we still retain to those lost in the First World War.  There are of course memorials all across this land dedicated to those souls lost, and there are far, far, far more memorials from one end of Europe to the other.

One hundred years ago today, on November 11th, 1918, World War I, had come to an end... the war to end all wars as it was called at that time.  Ironically, it was a war that easily might not have been.  It was a tragic series of events, treaties, and alliances that allowed this war to come to be, though where it originated was no surprise to anyone at the time.  In the end, many millions where dead... and numbering vastly more than the dead were those left injured and maimed by the conflict.  The war was horrific even by the standards of war, and the use of chemical weapons made it all the more horrific.  These horrors of World War I are why we take such exception today toward chemical and biological warfare, and it is why these agents are not allowed by the Geneva Protocol. The war drug out for over four years and had it not been for the advent of the Spanish Flu, the war might well have gone on even longer.  In the final year of the war, more men were lost to the flu than to the fighting, the Spanish Flu, as it was called, may well have brought to an end the insanity of the fighting.

It was a war embroiled within the European Monarchies, most of whom ironically were related.  Many were related to the late Queen Victoria of England, who it was believed by many could have prevented the war from occurring had she still been alive.  Queen Victoria had seven direct descendants on thrones across Europe, and three of the main characters were cousins of one another,  Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V of England; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.  Wilhelm and George were first cousins, George and Nicholas were also first cousins, and Wilhelm and Nicholas were third cousins.  Tsar Nicholas of Russia and King George V of England appear in many photos together as they had, as family, vacationed together and indeed bore such a startlingly resemblance to one another that they looked like brothers if not even twin brothers.

The end of this most tragic war left those on the victorious side... looking to avenge the loss of so, very, very, very many lives, and the destruction of property... entire villages, towns, and cities had been leveled and virtually removed from the face of the earth...  So the Treaty of Versailles was officially signed in 1919 to end the war and though there were those among the victors that wished to bring some mercy to the surrender, those that wished to punish and punish brutally held sway and the terms and conditions were well beyond justice and no desire for reconciliation was to be found.  Germany was especially brutalized by the treaty and their representatives literally forced to sign the agreement. There was, in the end, no justice... no justice at all... but how could there be justice with the scope and scale of the wrongs that had been heaped upon the world... there was only revenge... Sadly, this desire for revenge set the stage for what ultimately had to come out of this lack of grace... and that was an even more destructive and catastrophic war... World War II.

What do we as Christ-followers need to bring from this lesson of history into our own time here and now in this world... to God's Kingdom... what do we bring from this into our every day, hum-drum, seemingly mundane daily lives...

In our encounters with each other do we seek justice for ourselves and for others... or do we seek punishment... revenge... spurred on by our pride and egos... just like those Monarchs of World War I.  Do we rise to defend our friends even when we know that they are in the wrong, do we ratchet up our rhetoric when we know we're in the wrong... do we attack rather than forgive?  Do we hate rather than extend grace?

To quote myself from another sermon from another day: “The desire for revenge and punishment is all too prevalent in human justice, but to imply that it is a component of God's justice means forgetting entirely what we celebrate each week at this communion table.  The pursuit of human justice will never give us God's peace.  Any cry for justice that does not include and offer front and center grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation is not God's justice and will not bring us God's peace.”

This desire for revenge, for retribution, is so ingrained within us that we scarcely even recognized it within the words of “In Flanders Fields”... did any of you catch it?

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The lesson of World War I rings loud and clear... a desire to punish, to implement revenge... to obtain your pound of flesh... will only, and will always... end up causing further and even greater destruction and chaos.  Ultimately, we too lose...  we all lose... for our Father calls us to forgive so that we too might be forgiven...

Matthew 6:14-15   New International Version (NIV)
14  For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Mark 11:26  New King James Version (NKJV)
26  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Luke 6:37 New International Version (NIV)
37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Grace, forgiveness, reconciliation... these are such gravely important matters that all three of the Synoptic writers chose to include these verses... we forgive because our Father has said we must... we forgive... because our Father COMMANDED that we must...

Our misconception of justice isn't just a personal issue, it is a corporate affair as well... corporate as in we as a whole, as a body of believers, as the body of Christ... we are as a whole... I am afraid to say, guilty of ill-conceived and misguided concepts and motives for justice.  As I see it today, the all too fashionable justice movement has at its root... and it's core... a desire not for the concept of justice but rather the desire for retribution... the desire and clarion call for a pound of flesh... those that have wronged me must now be wronged as well... in the end this road, this path... leads only to destruction and we... if we're honest with ourselves... we should be able to see this all around us in the world today.  There is no one, not one calling for true grace, for true forgiveness, there are none that burn for true reconciliation... none save the man, our God... the figure upon the cross.

If we due to our alliances, our pacts, our associations, just like those ill-fated monarchs of World War I... advocate the destruction of one vulnerable class while advocating for the protection of another... we have lost our way.  If we call for violence against those with whom we disagree and in turn cry out when we too are attacked... we have lost our way.  If we in our pursuit of 'Justice' do not first reach out our hand and say “I forgive you brother/sister, can we sit and discuss our conceptions and misconceptions of each other and our situation”... if we cannot do that... we have lost our way... WE HAVE LOST OUR WAY...

When I look in the face of far too many and I see piety masking hate, anger, and a desire for retribution... I cry within myself for the anger and hate that wells up within me... and I cry out in my own soul... “Father forgive me”...

It's time that we as a society, as the world... both religious and secular turn from this path that we are all so hell-bent on following... if we continue to follow it, we follow it only to our own graves...  and before any of us in our self-righteousness look at our brother or sister and say it's their doing, it's they that are wrong... they're the problem, it's their fault... we're all wrong, it's all our problems... we all... in our fallen human state... we are all seeking human justice... and far, far, far too many want to claim it's in the name of our God.  And trust me... I know all too well... I fully acknowledge... and realize that as I point a prophetic finger... that there are three pointing right back at me...

Jesus, upon the cross, did not seek nor desire to mete out justice... His desire was ONLY... for grace, forgiveness, reconciliation... He desired those things so, so, so much that He alone took upon Himself the burden of all of our failings... all of the injustices that we have heaped upon each other, all our desires for that other SOB to pay... He paid it... He paid it ALL... if we seek revenge and retribution in the name of Christ... we heap coals upon the head of the God that we claim to worship and obey...

God help us all... 

November 4th, 2018 - Sunday Service - Mark 12:28-34 "The First Commandment"

Last Sunday the Lectionary brought us to that well-known story that is found in one form or another in all three Synoptic Gospels, the "Greatest Commandment".  We are called to love God with all that we are and likewise, we are called to love our neighbors equally to our own being... no small order.  It is difficult for us to love anyone as much as we love ourselves, and that doesn't even address the fact that far too many folks are just plain unlovable. (myself included at far too many points in my life)

But, no matter how terrible the soul is, we are called to love them none-the-less... this being a Christian can be hard at times.

At the end of the sermon, I addressed the comment by Jesus that the Scribe is not far from the Kingdom of God.  You'll have to listen to the video to see how I addressed this, but one angle I didn't explore was that 'literally' the Scribe was not far from the Kingdom of God.  He was, in fact, talking to the King face to face at that very moment...

Be a blessing to someone today!!!

In Christ alone,
Roy

Mark 12:28-34 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The First Commandment

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Thursday Night Worship Service; Hebrews 9:6-15

During the sermon last Thursday night, I posed the question of "Did Christ have to die on the Cross?".  The reality is that no... He did not... God could have chosen any means He wished to demonstrate His grace to us.  The question isn't really valid, the reality is He choose to demonstrate grace and forgiveness to us in this manner.  We can ask why this 'symbolic' representation of the forgiveness of sin?  But, really we can't say did He have to do it this way, to do that ignores that God is all powerful and can do whatever He chooses to do in whatever fashion He chooses.

A good 'symbol' is impactful and weighty, it serves to drive home the point of the great meaning behind the symbol.  In this regard, the crucifixion and the resurrection with all their violence and blood... are perhaps the greatest symbols ever devised.  Our job as Christians is to pass the weight and import of the 'blood' of Christ and the meaning of the Cross on to our children and grandchildren.  

I had prepared several OT references to use during the sermon and I have those attached below.  Time did not allow me to use more than one though I believe several of these could pertain to a longer sermon over these verse in Hebrews.

Be a blessing to someone today!  (Tell them about Jesus!)

In His Grace (and by His blood),

Roy

2

Hebrews 9:6-15 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent,[a] performing their ritual duties; 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent[b] is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various ablutions, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,[c] then through the greater and more perfect tent[d] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking[e] not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your[f] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.[g]

Footnotes:
a) Hebrews 9:6 Or tabernacle
b) Hebrews 9:8 Or tabernacle
c) Hebrews 9:11 Other manuscripts read good things to come
d) Hebrews 9:11 Or tabernacle
e) Hebrews 9:12 Greek through
f) Hebrews 9:14 Other manuscripts read our
g) Hebrews 9:15 The Greek word here used means both covenant and will

Isaiah 1:11-17
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

Ecclesiastes 5:1
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.


Psalm 40:6-8
In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”



Amos 5:21-24
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.


Micah 6:6-8
“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?


Jeremiah 7:22-23
For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’


1 Samuel 15:22
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.


Proverbs 21:3
To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.


Hosea 6:6
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.


Psalm 51:16-17
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Sunday October 28, 2018 - The Healing of Bartimaeus, Mark 10:46-52

The story of the healing of Bartimaeus is one that I've now preached over three times since starting this blog... that's hard to believe!  It's a great story though and one with which we all should be able to relate, not in that we are all physically blind, but rather, that at some time or another (or many, many, many times) we are all at least a bit spiritually blind.

We are spiritually blind just like James and John are in the story immediately preceding this story of healing.  Bartimaeus is in fact spiritually more capable of vision than the sighted are in this story.  He for the first time of anyone in Mark's Gospel sees Jesus as the 'Son of David', the Messiah, the Christ.

All of us are as I said at times in our lives 'spiritually blind', often though... it's a willful blindness... "there is none so blind as those that would not see".  We don't always want to see where and when God calls us because... it's often not a fun thing that He's calling us to do.  We don't want to see because we don't want to go...

When we see our brother and sister in need of comfort and support... let us be attentive for God's inclining for us to intervene.

Be a blessing to someone today!

In Christ alone,Roy

Mark 10:46-52 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus
46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,[a] let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Footnotes:
a) Mark 10:51 Aramaic Rabbouni