In looking ahead to this Advent season, I was paging through the hymns assigned for the season.  The words of  “Each Winter as the Year Grows Older”   (WOV #628) caught my attention.  It is not a hymn that I’m familiar with, but it begins like this:

“Each winter as the year grows older,

we each grow older too.

The chill sets in a little colder;

the verities we knew seem shaken and untrue.”

:Now maybe I’m a little sensitive to the ‘growing older’ line, since so many have had to comment on my recent birthday, but the long dark nights and cold winds do seem to sink in a little quicker.  The news of the day seldom provides much relief, and it is easy feel a little shaken by the events all around us.

So this season of hope and expectation could not be more welcome.  I need to hear the promise again this year of  ‘good news of a great joy that shall be to all the people’.  We need to come together to sing, gather around the warmth of family and friends, share meals and celebrate to goodness of our God.  We need to bask in the light of the promise that God’s love is Christ is enough to warm the coldest night, and mend the broken heart.

The hymn continues with this verse:

“Yet I believe beyond believing,

that life can spring from death;

that growth can flower from our grieving,

that we can catch our breath, and turn transfixed by faith.”

My friends, breathe in the goodness of our Lord and celebrate light, life and hope this season.  Come together to celebrate, and share the blessings of this season with those who might still be feeling the cold and darkness closing in.  Jesus comes to bring life, healing, and hope, and we need that this day, and every day.

Peace,

Pastor John Twiton

And this, then,

is the vision of that Heaven of which

we have heard, where those who love

each other have forgiven each other,

where, for that, the leaves are green,

the light a music in the air,

and all is unentangled,

and all is undismayed.

– Wendell Berry,
from his poem “To My Mother”

The beginning of each November we pause to commemorate All Saints Sunday, and my mind wanders among images of those who have gone before me, both in the history of the church and in my lifetime’s memories.  I don’t know what heaven looks like, but I like the feel of what Wendell Berry captures in his poem printed above.

The primary image the Bible conveys is that we shall be in the presence of the Lord and that in God’s love there will be a new creation, free from the sin, pain, and tears of this world.  The dark, cold, and wet days of the past week have left me longing for the green leaves, and music, and light that Berry describes, but even more I need the presence of the love and forgiveness that precede them.  When I feel entangled by the tendrils of doubt, conflict, and fear, I need the promise of freedom.  When I could give in to the dismay that this world heaps up, I need the word of hope that comes only from Christ.

Then I realize that in faith we can have a glimpse of those things even now.  God promises to be present with us each day.  The light of this world has come to dwell among us.  Forgiveness and love are available to us today, not just off in some future.  We can, and must proclaim this kingdom of God right here, right now.   We can celebrate the saints of the past, and the saints in our lives, but we are called to be today’s witnesses to another reality, the kingdom of God, today.

“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness

and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”  Romans 14:17

“A family in faith, reaching out to share God’s love with all people.”
–Mission statement for Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mt. Horeb

Sitting on my parent’s porch the other night, we spent a long time looking through old slides of family pictures going back over fifty years.  It was a chance to remember, and to retell the stories of people, events, and places that have brought us to where we are.  (As well as Tom laughing at the pictures of when I had hair.)
Each Sunday our mission statement is on the front of our bulletin, reminding us that we have a ’faith family’ as well.    As we look forward to beginning a new season of Sunday School, Confirmation, Wednesday night potlucks, and so forth, I am reminded that what we do as a church family is also to remember and tell the stories of the people and events that have made us who we are.   Mostly we tell the story of how Jesus has united us into this new family, surrounded us by His grace, and strengthens us for the tasks at hand.
We need to spend time with our separate families, but we also need to spend time with this ‘family in faith’.   The ELC family needs each other.   We respond together when there is need, and I ask you to keep our sister Cari Hadac and her family in your prayers as she faces a serious battle with a brain tumor.  I am always thankful to see members of our community involved in helping out in so many ways.
But we also need to pay attention to the task of reaching out beyond ourselves.  When is the last time you invited someone to an event at church?   This month’s festival is a great event for people to share.   You could reach out to a new neighbor, or call up an old friend you haven’t seen for a while.  We have so much to share at ELC.  Come join the family at worship, Sunday School, Confirmation, potlucks, or Bible Studies.   Come help us work together for our neighbors and our world.

(Jesus) said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’  Mark 6:31a

We read this portion of Mark’s gospel recently in worship, but it continues to come back to me throughout this summer.  This is the theme for the week’s Bible study and worship at Sugar Creek this summer, and I am very thankful for the opportunities that our ministry through Sugar Creek is providing for so many young people to “Come away with Jesus” this summer.  I am also thankful to so many of you who have supported this ministry with you contributions and volunteer efforts.  As Garrison Keillor is fond of saying:  “Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.”, but especially providing an opportunity to experience God’s love through camping ministry is a great gift for many.

All of us need that time for rest and renewal that Jesus invites his disciples to share, even if we don’t travel far.  It is wonderful just to be here during these summer days.  Watching the people wander the Art Fair and the Kaffe Stua, enjoying the music in the park on Wednesday evenings, or just lingering over coffee on the back patio during a summer morning, there is a time to give thanks for a change of pace and a beautiful place to live.

But you know the story, the time away is not a destination, only a respite along the way.  We are called to come away, but we are also called to go into the world, to make disciples, teach, heal, feed, build up, reconcile, and show compassion, all in the name of the one who has blessed us so richly.  I pray that each of you will find the blessings that surround you this day, and then find a way to share those blessings with your neighbors near and far.

From the Pastor

“With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?  It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32 (RSV)

When preaching on the parable of the mustard seed last Sunday, one of the stories that I told was the true tale of “The Man Who Planted Trees”.  This story from France tells how each morning this single man would get up and carefully plant one hundred acorns.  By his faithful labor over many years the landscape was transformed from dry desolation, to a place of new life and growth.  Much in the same way Jesus told how the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, starting very small but transforming its place.

As I reflect on “The Man Who Planted Trees”, along with other of Jesus’ parables, I’m also reminded that not only the kingdom sometimes come slowly, it also comes with many not so successful plantings.   The man who planted trees figured that only one of ten acorns planted would become a tree.  Jesus talks about seed scattered on both good and bad soil, and only some of them growing.

It makes we wonder, what marks will the world show of our ministry together here?  It is also a reminder that our task is to faithfully be about the work of planting seeds of love, mercy, kindness, and hope.  We shouldn’t be surprised that not everything works like we imagine.  Kingdom growth takes time, patience, and persistence, but it does happen, because the one who call us to this work is faithful.  So thank you for your time, patience and persistence.  Never quit trying good things, sharing new ideas, and doing compassionate works, and never fear, for God will provide the power to change the world around us.

Peace,

Pastor John Twiton