Remembering an Old Friend today

Three years ago today a friend of mine from my college days passed away.  My old friend Mark Winquist lost his battle to cancer after a courageous fight.  I will always remember coming into work the day after Memorial Day and pulling up my e-mail account and seeing the title to an e-mail from my friend John Forman which simply read 'Mark'.  For whatever reason as soon as I saw that name I knew in my heart my friend from so long ago had died.  This was truly amazing for you see I didn't even know he was ill, unfortunately we had fallen out of contact with one another.  I had talked to him on the phone briefly about a year and a half before he died but prior to that it had been nearly twenty years since we'd visited.

Mark had been incredibly active in the Methodist Church in Brookings, SD and had been among other things their Youth Leader.  It is a testament to his service for his congregation that they built a 'Prayer Garden' in his honor.

Web page mentioning the Prayer Garden


Mark's passing hit me very hard at the time, and I suppose it still does.  I hate the idea that I've reached the age when my friends are now dying from disease and decay.  But the thing that really hit hard and hurt so much was the realization that I had lost contact with Mark and so many other people that had once meant so very, very much to me.  I also realized that if it hadn't been for me remaining a little bit in contact with our mutual friend John I'd have likely not known for years if ever what had happened to Mark.  

Many of my memories of Mark have to do with lifting weights.  My good friend John Forman, Mark and I used to compete in Powerlifting Meets.  Rather I should say that in our respective weight classes I was getting pummeled, John was in the hunt, and Mark was dominating.  Without a doubt Mark was the strongest man pound for pound that I will ever know personally.  When it came to physical strength he was the perfect storm of genetic potential, muscle attachments, determination, training and intelligence.  I remember well screaming encouragement as Mark hoisted weights that no sane man would crawl under, not to mention a man of Mark's size.

Mark Winquist receiving a trophy from Skip Parks
Sad to say both of these great lifters have passed away.
WmRoy Karlen photo

John Forman receiving a trophy from Skip Parks
WmRoy Karlen photo

Roy Karlen (me) receiving a trophy from Skip Parks.
John Forman is in the background.
WmRoy Karlen photo

Mark's death spurred me to reach out and reconnect with some friends who I hadn't talked to for many years.  It also forced me to, or perhaps more accurately gave me the opportunity to apologize to some whom I had injured in the past.  Thankfully, most forgave me and at least partially several broken fences were mended, or at least acknowledged.

I did travel back to South Dakota to attend the funeral and I tell you it was a great service.  At the one year anniversary of Mark's death I dedicated a sermon in his honor.  The video of that sermon can be found at this blog post. 

Blog Post with Sermon dedicated to Mark's memory

The process of reaching out to my old friends and loved ones, and realizing their grace towards me, ultimately gave me a theological revelation.  These experiences revealed to me how much, much greater our God and His love is than I had ever imagined.  It is a never ending source of amazement that God can use even the worst situations in our lives for our and His ultimate good.  Now please do NOT think that I am saying God causes bad things to happen to anyone.  I find that line of theological thinking to be extremely dangerous and damning for God.  Rather than bog down this blog post I'll put that in the back of my mind for a post for another day.  Just realize that your God loves you deeply and only wants the very best for you.

Now don't think for a second that I'm saying Mark was an absolute saint.  To say that Mark was eccentric may well be ranked as one of the greatest understatements I have ever made.  And the fact that he and I had become estranged wasn't entirely my fault, as I did try to contact him a couple of times during the twenty years or so that we hadn't communicated and the last time we talked, it was I that tracked down his phone number and gave him a call.  I don't think Mark ever forgave me for divorcing Carolin, my first wife.  He was very fond of her, and I'm certain that he was a bit more than a little jealous when he found out that I had asked her to marry me.  But envious or not, he was one of our groomsmen (along with my friend John).

Today as I remember Mark, I'm reminded as well that I need to contact some of those friends once again and see how the last three years have progressed for their lives.  I'd love to get some of them together and meet someday but who knows if that will ever come to pass.  I guess I better resolve myself to try and put this together.  Don't let those you love go by without knowing that they are in fact important to you, let them know today.

May this post find you all reminded of the many great people you have been fortunate enough to share your lives with.  God's abundant and never ending blessings and love to you all.

In His Glory,
Roy

PS: I am also sad to report that Mark's mother passed away earlier this year.  His father is still alive and I pray for him to be comforted after the loss of his lifelong mate.  God's blessings to him.

A Wedding and Roy's Ramblings

This past Saturday (May 17th) my nephew Bryant was married to his fiancee Emily.  The wedding was at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church at 118th and Fort Street here in Omaha.  I had never been inside of this Church before even though I used to live just a few blocks from it at one time.  It's a very nice building and it served as a wonderful setting for a wedding.  Bryant and his new wife looked to be a very happy couple and I pray that they have had adequate pre-marital counseling to help them forge their way towards a very happy, rewarding and lifelong marriage.

I really enjoyed the Priest's Homily during the service as he very ardently stressed the indisputable fact that a marriage is a covenant with God, and not something to be taken lightly in any way shape or form.  These are sentiments that I've shared on this blog before and ones that I desperately wish were beaten into the hearts and minds of each and everyone who goes before the Lord in a house of worship to recite vows of matrimony.

Past blogging on Marriage

The Priest also stressed the importance of children in a marriage.  While we may wish to simply attribute that to it being a Catholic wedding, it is something that is absolutely important for all of us Christians to consider.  Certainly one of if not the primary function of a marriage is to bring new life into this world.  Furthermore we need to raise that new life in such a fashion as to instill a love and devotion to God; this is the most important thing we can do for our children in trying to set them up for a successful marriage of their own.  Without a steadfast belief and realization that marriage is a covenant with God the Father, as well as our spouse we will always take our vows far, far too lightly.

It is no small thing when we go before God and pledge to Him that we desire to be joined together in His eyes as no longer two people but one.  It has been realized for many years that divorce is a serious problem for not only society at large but for Christians in particular.  Now there are studies that contradict each other as far as to the rate of divorce among Christians as a whole, as well as among the various sub-categories of Christians, and I really am at a loss to say which study may or may not be more accurate.  But honestly, who among us needs an actual study to realize the scope of this problem in society.  Which of us does not know of several Christian friends who have divorced. Which of us does not know of a minister of the Faith who has divorced, for crying out loud I know of ministers who have had affairs (within their congregations to boot) while in the pulpit, gotten divorced, remarried and are still in the ministry.  Can we honestly say that this is not a serious problem for us as believers.

Scripture tells us that Jesus himself held no place for the concept of divorce.  

Mark 10:2-12

New International Version (NIV)

2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

Luke 16:18

New International Version (NIV)

18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 5

New International Version (NIV)

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 19

New International Version (NIV)

1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

It is important to note that in Mark, Jesus does not provide any exceptions for divorce.  We see this repeated in Luke and then in Matthew we see divorce mentioned twice and both times the exception of sexual infidelity on the part of the wife (and the wife alone) is given as the only legitimate reason for divorce.  Now how can that be, why would Mark and Luke give no exceptions but Matthew clearly provide one.  Well in my opinion the answer to that is fairly clear and straightforward.  Let me elaborate upon that a bit.

Nearly all Biblical Scholars are in agreement that Mark was the first Gospel to be written (though almost certainly all of the genuine letters of Paul were written prior to any of the Gospels) and that the authors of both Matthew and Luke had copies of the Gospel of Mark along with what has come to be known as the 'Q Source' which was an early collection of Jesus' sayings and teachings.  No copy of this 'Q Source' has ever been found it's existence has rather been inferred from the writings of Matthew and Luke.

So why would Mark clearly provide no exceptions for divorce, then Luke follow suite, but Matthew decide to interject a way 'out' so to speak into his Gospel.  Much 'theological hay' has been made over this, but in my opinion the answer is clear and easily determined.  Mark is the earliest and also generally considered the most reliable of the three synoptics and the one generally defaulted to in times of disagreement.  Luke followed Mark's lead but Matthew, who it is extremely important to realize is writing to a predominately Jewish audience, included a very specific exception.

Matthew has allowed for a divorce in the circumstance that the wife has been unfaithful (and again please note there is no exception for an unfaithful husband).  But why add this exception, well Judaism is a very patriarchal culture and within traditional Judaism ancestry is of considerable importance.  One need only to look at the various genealogies in scripture to see the importance of this factor in Hebrew culture. If a woman has an affair and proven herself to be an unfaithful spouse, the husband can no longer be certain that any child born is in fact his own (there were no paternity tests in those days).  This would disrupt his family legacy and could result in having the child of another man inherit his property.  These are not things which would go over well in a patriarchal society.  As a side note it should be noted that this emphasis on patriarchy is a factor in the prohibition on homosexuality... but that's a whole other blogging subject that will have to wait for another day.

It seems fairly obvious that the author of Matthew added to or revised the teachings of Jesus as reflected in both Mark and Luke.  This exception was added to placate the group that this Gospel was originally addressed to, a group of Jewish Christians who almost certainly did not differentiate themselves from Judaism as a whole.  Rather this group would have viewed themselves as just another of several dozen different sects of Judaism that existed in the first century AD.  I've attached a link for those that might wish to learn more about the people and culture to which this Gospel was addressed.

Link to information on the Gospel of Matthew

For the author of Matthew to have completely banned all divorce after Jesus' lead would have likely been too difficult for this rigidly patriarchal society to have accepted.

Of course nearly always all of these passages are brushed away with the pass of a hand, saying something like, "in those days if a man divorced a woman she would be destitute, she would have to resort to prostitution just to survive."  Well, let's hold on just for a moment.  If Jesus was merely putting this strict of a position against divorce as a protection against women being left in poverty, than why didn't he merely require them to be provided for by the divorcing spouse.  And let's look further into these passages of scripture because there's something here that everyone loves to look beyond (or is it we just want to avoid it).

Perhaps the most troubling portion of all these pieces of scripture is all the commentary on adultery.  All  of these passages point to the man as committing adultery if he divorces his wife and remarries, but in Matthew and Luke the man who marries a divorced woman is also guilty of adultery, and than in Mark even the wife commits adultery if she divorces her husband and marries another man.

If Jesus' primary concern with admonishing divorce had to do with the financial welfare of the woman than something here does not add up.  For why would it be a sin (adultery) for the woman to divorce her husband and remarry another man, isn't she thereby merely shifting who is paying the bills so to speak.  And for crying out loud, why would it be a sin for another man to marry a divorced woman, shouldn't he be lauded as doing charity rather than condemned of a sin.  It seems painfully obvious to me that the old argument of concern for the welfare of the woman doesn't hold up to scrutiny.  Of course I'm certain that Jesus cared deeply for the welfare of all, but I don't believe that's the underlying theme here.

What happens in a divorce... well, we of course break a sacred vow, a covenant made not only with our spouse but with our God.  This 'brokenness', this betrayal of faith puts us out of relationship not only with our spouse but with God, this is the sin that is involved.  Above all else, God is a God of reconciliation.  God is in the business of love, grace, forgiveness and salvation but honestly in my opinion all of these are just stones along the path to reconciliation.  God wants you, God wants me, God wants all humanity and all his creation to have a deep and profound relationship with Him.  The problem with divorce as I stated before is the brokenness, we are out of relationship.  The problem with remarriage outside of the original marriage is also one of brokenness, for these remarriages prevent the reconciliation of the original covenant... the original marriage contract.  The husband that remarries blocks that reconciliation, the wife that remarries blocks that reconciliation, and (what seems so extremely unfair at first glance) the new spouse is in a state of sin because their marriage to the divorced person blocks that reconciliation as well.

So very many of us, myself included most of all, would love to see these passages of scripture suddenly disappear from the canon.  These are hard verses, and again so many of us just wish they were not there... but as I so like to say:

"If when reading scripture you never feel convicted, if you never see the hairy hand of God pointing a fat finger right back at you... well then you're not paying close enough attention."

But, there is power in these passages and we need to understand the gravity of the desire and drive that our God has to be reconciled onto us.  There can be little doubt that Jesus viewed divorce and remarriage as a sin, but what about all of us who have been divorced and who have been remarried within the Church.  Whereas I find myself in agreement with my conservative brothers and sisters on my stance on divorce being a sin, I part company with them in thinking that I can lay down any kind of pronouncement and/or judgment concerning it.  Long, long ago the church decided to look the other way concerning these passages and perhaps that's no small part of why we find ourselves encountering divorce so regularly today.

What are we to do about the messes we've made... in this world we divorce, we remarry and far too many divorce and remarry again or even again.  We are so very broken in the department of marriage that it simply has to be a considerable burden on the heart of our Lord.  God wants us to be reconciled, but for most of us this just simply seems impossible.  The good news is of course that we worship a God of love and grace, in Him and through Him there is nothing beyond repair.  Though many of us will simply have to wait for complete reconciliation until beyond the grave we are still able to turn to God, confess that we know we have strayed and broken His heart (not to mention all the human hearts we've trampled upon) as well as our sacred covenant with Him, and we will find that we are already forgiven.  

Now let us not say that "well okay since God is all graceful we can sin all we wish so who cares about divorce".  Paul addressed this in the letter to the church in Rome, since we are in Christ we are to be dead to sin.  Sin should no longer be within us, but of course we all know that Paul also said in Romans "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing"   We will never eliminate divorce entirely from our society, in fact we'll never completely eliminate it from within the church or even amongst the clergy.  But we simply must do all we can do to eliminate it from our own marriages, our own families, our own churches.  We must do as much as we can possibly do in our human capacity.  We need to encourage those that we know are getting married to engage in pre-marital counseling, we need to encourage those that we know are struggling in their marriages to go and receive counseling either from a minister or a professional counselor.  We need to love each other enough to forgive and move forward and not simply give up and move on.

Thus far I have addressed marriage and divorce strictly from a theological point, but are there any pragmatic reasons for divorce.  Generally the two areas which are universally accepted as means for a divorce are physical and emotional abuse.  In the case of physical violence and physical abuse I certainly believe that our Lord would sanction removing oneself from such a situation.  

The subject of emotional abuse is a bit more difficult to qualify.  It would seem to me that emotional abuse is a bit like the famous quote from a member of Congress who supposedly said something along these lines concerning pornography, "I can't tell you exactly what it is, but I sure enough know it when I see it."  I think in almost all marriages there is from time to time something done or said that would qualify as emotional abuse.  Certainly in my first marriage I was guilty of what could only be classified as emotional abuse.  But did it rise to the level which would justify divorce... no, I don't think it did.  I believe in my own circumstance as well as a great many others what was needed was an honest and sincere commitment to counseling and trying to salvage the marriage.  The problem is that through ego and anger we tend to let the relationship turn so poisonous that neither an honest nor a sincere commitment can be made to counseling.

Far too often (perhaps always) we divorce over things that should have been addressed in pre-martial counseling.  Money, family, sex, children, where we want to live, what status we hope to have in our community, and others.  So often failed marriages point to infidelity as the reason for the divorce but generally in my opinion that is just a symptom of the real issue.

I will confess a concern for Bryant and Emily as they are burdened with having had both sets of parents divorce during their childhoods.  One can only pray that the Pastor chose not only to stress the covenant with God during the Homily but also during the pre-marital counseling as well.  I will continue to pray for Bryant and his new bride, along with  praying for his younger brother Tyler who was married earlier this year up in South Dakota.

Please note that any interpretation of scripture is the result of my own study, research, reflection and meditation, and does not reflect the position of my denomination either locally or nationally.  Furthermore my thoughts concerning marriage, divorce, and remarriage are also my own.  These positions are the result of my own life experiences, personal studies and observations.  So please do not become agitated over any commentary of mine, these are my thoughts and opinions and as they say "your mileage may vary".

God's grace, peace, blessings and love to you all in abundance.

In Christ,
Roy

Been to Hell and Back... well to my class on Hell and back home that is...

Well this past Friday & Saturday was our class out at Hastings College (put on by Cotner College) on the 'History of Hell'.  The class was taught by Dan Deffenbaugh a professor of New Testament Theology at Hastings College.  This is the second class I've taken from Dan and he is a genuinely wonderful teacher.  One of the main things that hopefully all the class attendees went away with was the stunning transformation of Judaism during the period of the Babylonian Exile.  Specifically how both the concept of Satan and Hell entered into their religion.

A gross oversimplification would be the observation that prior to the Exile there was no concept of either Heaven or Hell only the idea of 'Sheol' which was a neutral realm of the dead.  In Sheol the good and the bad languished together not in torment nor in any blissful state as we tend to associate with Heaven.  In addition 'Satan' was merely another angel who fulfilled the role of accuser or messenger.  After the Exile we see 'Satan' fashioned more along the lines of the Zoroastrian god 'Angra Mangu' or 'Darkness'.  These changes were both the result of the need to modify their theology to explain how bad things happened to good people (Nations) and also why good things happen to bad people (Nations).  The Zoroastrian concept of resurrection also crept into the Hebrew religion at this time.

At any rate there is no way that I have enough time to blog adequately on these topics.  I would suggest that anyone interested in learning more read the book 'The History of Hell' by Alice Turner, or even in more depth and scholarly the book "The Formation of Hell" by Alan Bernstein.  I would also suggest Elaine Pagels book "The Origin of Satan" and the book "A History of the Devil" by Gerald Messadie.

We're looking at getting some potentially severe weather here tonight so we are watching the news closely.  The sky is looking pretty funky out there tonight with some odd clouds and already some tornadoes sighted further west of us but tracking straight for us.  Hopefully it will move by us without any incident.

Clouds over Omaha 5/11/14 around 5:30 pm  Photo taken by Sue Carson Moore of Omaha

Since I'm now done with classes that have required reading I dug out some books that I wanted to read yesterday evening.  Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate two books that I specifically wanted to read after taking our class on Hell.  The one I may have loaned out. I don't think so but I have loaned it out before but I know it came back after that.  The other I know I have not loaned out and I really want to read it, I suspect I have filed it in an odd location since it isn't a book that fits into any normal theological definition.  One of the problems with having so many books is I can go a bit crazy from time to time trying to find a specific book.  I'll locate them sooner or later, like I said I know the one is here someplace for certain.

The books I pulled out to read right now are one by Elaine Pagels entitled 'The Gnostic Paul' I purchased another one of her books recently and I have read a tiny bit of it already (I have it on my desk at work to read when time allows) that book is titled 'Beyond Belief, the Secret Gospel of Thomas'.  But today I've spent most of my time reading a book I purchased recently for the Kindle 'The Experience of God, Being, Consciousness, Bliss' by David Bentley Hart.  So far I have really enjoyed the book but much of it has been spent pointing out the faulty logic and errors of atheism.  This is a good book to read on the Kindle because the author has a penchant for unusual words.  He obviously has a extremely broad vocabulary and he relishes sharing it with his readers.

As I've been reading I've let a playlist of Melody Gardot's songs play from Youtube on my computer.  I love her voice so much and her song "Baby I'm a Fool" is I think my favorite song of all right now.

On Friday night after class I did some reading before going to bed and was listening to a playlist of 'Dido' on Youtube.  She is also a wonderful artist and I love her voice as well.

Well folks the weather is getting pretty spooky out there so with that I'm going to cut this blog entry off and get ready to take shelter in the cubby hole in the basement.

God's great and abundant Blessing to you all!!

Roy

Update:  The tornado has passed us, pretty strong winds at times but so far I don't know if we had any damage.  Still raining very hard here so unless it suddenly let's up I'll just wait for morning to go out and check things.  

Prairie Pastors Conference

This past week I attended the annual 'Prairie Pastors Conference' in Bellevue.  The conference ran from Monday afternoon until late Wednesday morning.  The guest speaker/instructor was David Finch who along with Geoff Holsclaw wrote the book 'Prodigal Christianity'.  David's presentation revolved for the most part around the book and was an interesting presentation.

I do agree with him entirely that the future of Christianity calls for us to 'go out' and be among the people.  Today though I really need to spend my time preparing for the class this weekend out in Hastings "The History of Hell".  I am very much looking forward to this class but there is a fair amount of reading that I need to accomplish yet.  So, that being what it is I will return next week and blog in depth about the Conference and the Class.

Proof that I was at the Conference.  You can see me in on the right side the second fellow in,
Ron French of course is the first soul from the right.  God Bless!

Let me just leave you for this week with this prayer, which seems very fitting coming away from a Conference for Pastors.


God's Workman
Lord God, who hast placed me in thy Church as a pastor, thou seest how unfit I am to fulfil this great and responsible office.  Were it not for thy counsel I would long ago utterly have failed.  Therefore do I call upon thee for guidance.  Gladly will I give my heart and voice to thy service.  I want to teach, and I long to be taught continually through thy Word.  Use me as thy workman, O Lord.  Only do not thou forsake me; for if I were alone, I would bring everything to naught.

Martin Luther

May this week find you all deeply and richly blessed by our provider God.

In His Continuing and Unending Love & Grace,
Roy

Easter

Well I pray that you all had a wonderful and restful Easter Sunday.  Our family attended the 8:30 am service at Benson Baptist for Easter Worship.  It was a full house with a mix of the normal early service folks, some of the second service folks and no small number of the folks that only seem to be able to make it to church for Christmas and Easter.  Pastor Paul and his staff put together a great worship time and the choir did a wonderful job with their portion.  It's sad that these days one rarely sees a full choir perform for a worship service.

I still haven't gotten Maddie to get the video for my Palm Sunday Sermon online for me, though she apparently found out what was going on and loaded an app on her phone and computer.  She was in the process of uploading from her phone yesterday but never got to the point where she was ready to put the video on youtube for me.  Hopefully, she'll get it up for me next weekend when she's home again.  If not I'm going to have to breakdown and buy an actual video camcorder so I don't have to rely on her phone.

The Maundy Thursday Service at Judson went very well and was a nice little service.  Not a big crowd but it's a very small church and there is a limited number of folks that come to Maundy Thursday Services anyway, but the church has always had a service for Holy Thursday and we kept that tradition alive for them.  Gail recorded the service on her phone but it's too long to put up, I can't believe anyone but me would commit the time to watch it all again.  We recorded it strictly for my own use in reviewing and correcting anything that needs to be corrected in future services.  I haven't tried taking it off of Gail's phone actually since it's the exact same phone as Maddie's I'm sure I'll run into the same conflicts, sometimes I don't think it's worth updating your technology.

On Friday night several of the men from Sunset Hills Baptist met me at Mary Alice's (Gail's mother) house and helped me clean up her yard.  She has some enormous trees and we pulled 43 lawn bags of leaves and 8 trash cans of branches out of her small back yard.  The front yard had already been cleaned up for spring.  There is likely another 2 or 3 bags worth of leaves back there but we ran out of bags and it was getting dark as well.  My mentor Bob Molby was one of the men and we visited for a while after the rest of the men had left.  I loaned Bob a couple of books when we had lunch a couple weeks back and he returned them to me already.  Bob preached at Judson Baptist yesterday and I haven't heard how it went but Bob has so many years in the pulpit that there is no way he can give anything but a great sermon.

Maddie's car broke down on her Friday night as she was running an errand and we had to have it towed to the shop.  I'll be waiting today to hear just what is the matter with it, not exactly what I needed right now as her last installment of tuition is due this week as well.  Going to be an expensive week.  Oh well, the Lord will provide I'm certain of that.

My preaching engagement for May has been canceled as the Pastor of the Church where I was to preach has had a change in their travel plans and will be in town that weekend after all.  I continue to pray and anticipate more chances to preach and spread the good news of God's abundant love and endless grace.  I shall continue to wait in anticipation as to where this path He has placed me on will ultimately lead.

May you all be richly blessed and find comfort in the Lord for whatever trials may come your way this week.

In God's Grace & Peace,
Roy

Palm Sunday with Judson Baptist

This morning Gail, Maddie and I attended worship services at Judson Baptist Church in La Vista.  I had been invited to do pulpit supply for them on this Palm Sunday.  It was a great worship service, in spite of the fact that due to the weather their organist was stuck in Lincoln.  We went without an accompanist for the hymns and it went just fine.  My sermon was entitled "His Will" and it seemed to be very well received by the congregation, with a great many of them commenting on how much they enjoyed it or needed to hear that message.

There was cake and refreshments after the service and then we went along with approximately twelve of the church members and had lunch at the Pizza Ranch.  I'd never been to the Pizza Ranch but it was very good, and I'll have to remember it when I next need a 'cheat meal'.

Gail and I will be going back to Judson this coming Thursday night to conduct a Maundy Thursday Service for them.  They are currently without a Pastor, and so I am filling in for these two events for them and then my friend and mentor Bob Molby will be conducting the Easter Sunday Service for them.

We truly enjoyed our visit with the folks at Judson, they are a very friendly and laid back congregation, and are very open and welcoming to visitors.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing them all again Thursday night and I think we have a good program set up for them.

Maddie did record a video of the service but for some reason it's giving her fits trying to upload it to youtube or photobucket.  I'm not sure what the issue is but I'll keep fussing with it and sooner or later I'll get it up for you all to view.

Yesterday April 12th was as always the toughest day of the year for Gail and I.  April 12th was the day that our second child Wyatt Christian Karlen was born into heaven.  It's hard to believe that it's been 21 years now since we lost that little one, but the pain is still there.  When we lost our little boy we immediately decided that we did not want to have him buried in case we ended up in another part of the world, and he would be left behind here in Omaha.  So we had his little body cremated and since there were no urns that were available suitable for a baby we went to a silversmith and had a silver piggy bank modified to become an urn.  This little bank has several teddy bears on the top of it and so we started the tradition of purchasing a small crystal or pewter teddy bear for Wyatt each year.  

Our agreement is that Wyatt will be buried with which ever one of us passes first.  But I can tell you that if I survive my lovely wife, I will continue to purchase these little bears up until the day I too pass.  I honestly think Gail will likely do the same, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that once we're both gone Maddie will continue to collect bears for her big brother.  She has always been very keen on being involved in selecting these birthday gifts and I know the ritual is very important to her as well.

It's late and I need to get some rest so with that I'll post again come Thursday or Friday, until then...

God's Blessing & Grace to you all

Roy

More Preaching Engagements

Well as of now I am not only preaching at Judson Baptist on Palm Sunday but I am now going to serve at their Maundy Thursday Service.  I found an outline for a nice service on 'Fat Pastor' which I am in the process of modifying for their use.  I'm excited to do this service since I've obviously never done a Maundy Thursday Service.  It's a brand new experience and I'm very much looking forward to it.

In addition to serving at Judson Baptist I will also be preaching on May 4th down in Louisville at the First Christian Church there.  This is a Disciples of Christ Church and is the congregation that my friend Chuck Snow from ELM belongs to.  Their Pastor has recently stepped down so please keep them in your prayers as they begin the process of looking for an Interim and going about a call process.

I took Maddie back to UNL last night, she had been home for a week as it was their Spring Break.  As always now the house feels so much emptier with her gone.  She has been really mulling over what she wants to do next year and she had been planning to transfer to UNO, but has just recently decided she wants to just take some classes at Metro Tech next year and try and figure out just what she wants to do for a career.  Much to her credit she doesn't want to spend a bunch of money and then come to the realization that she isn't in the proper field of study for what she really wants to do in life.

We went to 'Half Price Books' yesterday and she got a book on various career paths.  She immediately started reading through it when we got home and she said she was going to look at it some more last night after I dropped her off in Lincoln.  Of course while we were at 'Half Price Books' Gail and I also had to purchase some new books.  Gail picked up several books on sewing and I found a copy of the Jerusalem Bible (which is a translation I didn't have) and a book on 'Near Death Experiences'.  The book on NDE presents a case for the afterlife and is written by a secular scientist so I thought that could be interesting to read.

On Saturday Gail put up a booth at a new Artisan and Handcrafted show here in Omaha.  She did pretty well with her bags, sold several and had a great number of folks pickup business cards from her.  She's had several folks approach her about setting up her booth at other shows that are upcoming so she's very excited about that.  She has created a unique design for her bags which allows them to carry a good deal and still not be bulky.  They also are perfect for carrying files, magazines, books, laptops, Kindles, Ipads, and they have a special pocket for your phone as well.

I'll close this short update with this Communion Prayer from the Didache.

May you all be filled with joy and blessings on this beautiful day.

In Christ,
Roy

Didache 10:2
We give Thee thanks, Holy Father,
for Thy holy name,
which Thou hast made to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality,
which Thou hast made known unto us
through Thy Son Jesus;
Thine is the glory for ever and ever.

Didache 10:3
Thou, Almighty Master,
didst create all things for Thy name's sake,
and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they might render thanks to Thee;
but didst bestow upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through Thy Son.

Didache 10:4
Before all things we give Thee thanks
that Thou art powerful;
Thine is the glory for ever and ever.

Didache 10:5
Remember, Lord, Thy Church
to deliver it from all evil
and to perfect it in Thy love;
and gather it together from the four winds- even the Church which has been sanctified-
into Thy kingdom which Thou hast prepared for it; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever.

Didache 10:6
May grace come and may this world pass away.
Hosanna to the God of David.
If any man is holy, let him come;
if any man is not, let him repent.
Maran Atha. Amen.