“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth a hymn of praise to our God.” Psalm 40: 2-3
I love my woods. Actually I need to clarify something right from the start – they aren’t my woods at all – they belong to the person that owns the farm ground surrounding my home and he quite graciously allows me free access to them for my enjoyment. I also need to clarify the term ‘woods’ this area is really what most folks in Iowa would refer to as ‘scrub timber’ with lots of fallen trees, weeds, brush and in need of pruning (or burning). But be that as it may, I’ve grown to love this little piece of ground that borders a small creek and river along the adjoining fields. I walk the well worn path every day with my dogs and ride through it often on horseback.
This small piece of ground provides a living mural of the changing seasons and a constant reminder of the wonders of creation and our Creator. It’s easy to talk and listen to God in this environment. His presence is everywhere. There is no way to escape the absolute awesomeness of His Creation. I feel truly blessed to be able to experience this wonder on a daily basis. I often wonder how different life would be without this daily dose of humility – what it would be like to wake in a high rise apartment in a congested city and maybe go for months or years without experiencing anything that wasn’t man made. Thankfully, this is not the life He chose for me so it has become easy for me to ‘Grow where God plants you’. But I digress……..
I’ve been given another great blessing of 5 grandchildren (I think this one is to offset some of the other ‘blessing’ of growing older!) Through the years, we’ve all spent a lot of time walking in the ‘woods’ together (long walks on short legs result in long naps) and they’ve come to love it as much as I do. A couple of years ago, around late April, two of the grandkids, Parker (4) and Allison (3), came out to spend the weekend and were really looking forward to our walk in the woods – we had just come through a couple of days of spring rains and the path was really muddy so it didn’t seem like a very good idea. However, as most grandparents know – “No” is a word very rarely used in conversations with grandkids, I finally relented to their pleas but under the condition that they had to follow exactly in my footsteps – thinking I would keep them on the grass and out of the mud. (silly old grandma!) Things went pretty well at first – kind of a short lived game of Follow the Leader – then a bunch of wildflowers caught Allie’s attention and within the blink of an eye she shot off across the thick, soggy timber soil to pick ‘just one’ (didn’t matter if she picked one or a dozen – fact is she was in the mud). And by the second blink, Parker was in hot pursuit (after all big brothers are supposed to be watch out for their little sisters), leaving me, the ‘Leader’, with the only clean shoes still firmly planted in the clean green grass next to the muddy path.
Within just a few steps, my little nature enthusiasts learned a new lesson…..not all mud is created equal. Wet timber soil is not only dirty, slick and messy; it’s sticky – real sticky – almost like gum. It sort of grabs hold of you and sticks you in place – or at least your shoes. You guessed it – they were stuck in the mud. So much for my clean shoes and “I told you so” – there was only one course of action……get into the mud myself and pull them out – no way of doing that without getting myself at least as dirty as they were, probably worse. I’m happy to report that the rescue was successful, even the handful of wildflowers was saved – in fact they were the only ones that came out without one bit of ‘Yuk’ stuck to them.
We headed back to the house, got hosed off in the spare tank and finished off in the shower. While the shoes and clothes were in the washer, we sat down with a snack (the wildflowers in a glass of cold water providing a beautiful centerpiece) and discussed how much easier it would have been to simply follow the rules (we also had some good giggles about how silly they looked stuck in the mud).
Reflecting back on this afternoon, it came to mind that this brief episode is really what happens to all of us on a daily basis…….God says “follow me and I will take care of you” and we start out so enthusiastically, following exactly in His footsteps but within a very short time, we take off on our own, trusting our own judgment, changing the rules to suit our self-interest, looking for shortcuts, chasing after the first thing that catches our fancy and the results are always the same. We get stuck in the mud of life. The harder we try to get out on our own, the dirtier we get. The only way out is for our ‘Leader’ to save us and the only way he can do that is to get right into the mud with us – and that’s exactly what He does isn’t it? Jesus comes right into our messy world to pick us up, take us home and make us clean again. And just like silly old grandma, He loves us just as much when we’re dirty and muddy as when we’re all clean and shiny but we sure feel better after He’s cleaned us up again.
-Submitted by Sandy Anderson
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Slow Down, Listen!
The following is Pat Barnes' sermon from February 8, 2009.
Mark 1:29-39
“As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother in law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, where he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let’s go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.”
(Psalm 147) “Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting! Great is our Lord, and abundant in power, his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.”
I love the Psalms and these words from today’s Psalm is so fitting for this season of Epiphany, this season where we recognize and celebrate the light of our Savior Jesus Christ. We celebrate his presence in the world. We celebrate the Lord who brings light and hope to a world full of darkness. His light would forever change the world. The Magi followed that light, and discovered the Savior. In the light of his baptism he was filled with the Holy Spirit. On the Mount of Transfiguration his glory was revealed. In the light of his resurrection we can know his promise is real. His glory is revealed in so many ways. It’s a glory that we want to be connected with, a glory that we never want to lose sight of. It’s a glory that we want to tell the world about. It’s his glory that has given us life, and faith, it’s what makes us Christian.
If we look back into the earlier verses of this first chapter of Mark, we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism. Verse 10 says that as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. A God says from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” And immediately Jesus goes into the wilderness, he’s living among the wild animals, and being tended to by angels. And don’t you suppose that he was in constant contact with the Father? Then he is tempted by Satan, and then he begins his ministry. Here is God taking care of his own. Here is God’s glory being revealed.
Don’t you feel like that some time? This is how I see our lives as Christians, we are baptized and we are made God’s own, and his glory is revealed in us, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we begin our life of faith. Then we’re thrown into the wilderness of life where we’re tempted by Satan, living among the wild beasts which threaten our well being. We have demands being laid on us. From one day to the next we never know how our life might change. But there is always something we can count on, Jesus is always with us, to guide us, to nurture us, to strengthen us, to help us grow as Christians, and help us grow as disciples. How hard would life be without Jesus Christ to help us through it?
You’re going to hear this over and over in this sermon, Jesus Christ is present and active in our lives.
In our Gospel lesson for today, the mere touch of Jesus hand brings healing to a sick woman. With his word, the mere sound of his voice, he brings demons down to their knees. I’d love to see that. And in the middle of all this, he goes to a quiet place, and drops down to his knees and prays to God. He took time to slow down and connect with God before continuing on with his work.
Isaiah 40 tells us, "The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary: his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
This is a great song to sing during Holy Communion. Jesus is present and active in the bread and wine. In this way he strengthens us and renews us. We connect with him and celebrate him. He lifts us up with wings like eagles…..Focus on this song as you receive communion today. What a beautiful experience.
Soon after the 9-11 tragedy, stories started appearing in the various media. Stories from the rescuers, the policemen, the firemen, and the citizens who were involved in the rescue efforts. These were stories of sadness and horror, stories of amazement, stories that brought people together. The twin towers were brought down and what remained was a mass of carnage and death. Columnist Anne Coulter wrote an article that was published about one of these stories:
The rescue workers found a cross standing in the rubble of Ground Zero. It was discovered just a few days after the attack. While performing the soul-numbing work of pulling human bodies and body parts from the smoking wreckage, construction worker Frank Silecchia happened upon a perfectly symmetrical cross in the midst of the wreckage. It was standing straight, 20 feet high, surrounded by many smaller crosses. Silecchia stopped in his tracks and stood crying for 20 minutes. "When I first saw it, it took my heart," Silecchia said. "It helped me heal the burden of my despair, and gave me closure on the whole catastrophe." Hard-hat Silecchia brought his fellow rescue workers to the site of the cross, and they have been making regular pilgrimages to the cross ever since. Many of the men call it a miracle. The daily horror of pulling human remains from the rubble has the rescue workers at the breaking point. Someone etched "God Bless Our Fallen Brothers" on the cross. The cross at Ground Zero was not simply the cross beams remaining from an existing building. It was formed out of beams from Building One plunging, splitting and crashing into Building Six. "There's no symmetry to anything down there," the FBI chaplain said, "except those crosses."
. Do I believe God placed those crosses there in the midst of the carnage? I don’t know, but what I do believe is that in the midst of tragedy and despair, in the midst of heartache and sadness, in the midst of the crisis in our lives, we can be reminded of the presence of Jesus Christ. He is active in our lives. In this case those crosses were right in the middle of the worst tragedy most of those people will ever face, and they stood as a reminder that God was with them, comforting, warming, uniting them together, and letting them know that he is there with them. He’s there in the good times as well as the bad. These seem like dark days with the economy going bad, people losing jobs and their homes, and sickness seems to be everywhere. The wild beasts are all around us. In the midst of our busy lives, in the coming and going, our jobs, our home life, and school activities, we should to take time to slow down and feel God’s presence. Jesus did that in our Gospel reading for today. Amid all the healing and demon bashing, he stopped and went to a quiet place to pray. He wanted to communicate with the Father. He wanted to get away and talk to God, and feel his presence. It gave him the strength to continue his work. As Lutherans, we focus on the Word. God strengthens us through the Word. Sometimes the Word can come to us in the silence. I’ve prayed alone and have been in group prayer many times, and some of the most powerful prayer experiences have been experienced in the silence.
I’ve recently read an article titled, “Make a joyful silence” by Ruth Haley Barton. The theme of this article is about how we, as Christians, should take time periodically, to just stop and have a little quiet time. Time to stop and listen for God’s voice and feel his presence. She used the example of a jar of river water, “Sometimes you are like a jar of river water all shaken up. What you need is to sit still long enough so that the sediment can settle and the water can become clear.” Our lives sometimes seem to be like a whirlwind, and finding a quiet time is almost impossible. But the stillness and the silence can be very rewarding for us as we connect with God.
Another similar article recently appeared in the February issue of The Lutheran Online written by Joann Nesser entitled, Solitude and Silence. She is quoted as saying, “Often we must get away from our surroundings to really begin to experience the presence of God even when our circumstances are very ordinary. This is even truer when we are surrounded by constant noise and busyness or when we are going through difficult times of depression, loneliness, or fear. In the place of solitude and silence we can begin to hear God and experience God’s intimate, loving presence in our lives.”
God reveals himself in His written word, in prayer, in music and singing, in our friendships, and especially in his real presence within the sacraments. Many times I’ve felt God speaking to me in these ways. But we may also find his presence when we stop and quietly listen. I feel that when we do, he’ll help us deal with all the things that drive us crazy, all the stuff that drags us down, that makes us sad. He’ll help us celebrate our triumphs and our good times, and our faith will grow stronger. He’ll help us strengthen our relationships, in our homes as well as our friendships among our Christian brothers and sisters. We can lean on each other and support each other. That’s where God’s presence may be found.
Mr. Silecchia found Christ’s presence in those crosses in the wreckage of the twin towers. It was a powerful presence that brought him and others a sense of peace and hope in the midst of tragedy and despair. Again as we understand from our Gospel lesson, Jesus Christ is present and active in our lives. I love this verse from Revelation 3:20: “Listen! (Do you hear what he’s telling us, how can we hear him if we don’t listen?) Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” That’s what he wants for us! He wants us to slow down and quietly listen, and hear his voice.
Paul told the Ephesians, "Pray at all times and on every occasion",
he told the Romans, "Always be prayerful",
and he told the Thessalonians, “Pray without ceasing".
Prayer is so essential.
What was Moses and the Israelites doing after the walls of the Red Sea closed in behind them? They were praying to God. What was Jonah doing when he found himself in undesirable surroundings? He was praying to God. What was the disciples doing as they huddled in the upper room after Jesus crucifixion? They were praying to God. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. Acknowledge His presence everywhere you go. As you stand in line at the grocery store think, Thank you, Lord, for being here. As you go about your day at work, pray to God for being there, as you sit in the classroom at school, pray to God for being there, and as you’re driving down the road turn the radio off, and quietly pray and listen for God’s voice.
As you go about your busy lives , slow down and find a quiet place and feel his presence and hear his voice and experience his light, then we will be able to truly say, “Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God!” Amen
Mark 1:29-39
“As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother in law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, where he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let’s go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.”
(Psalm 147) “Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting! Great is our Lord, and abundant in power, his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.”
I love the Psalms and these words from today’s Psalm is so fitting for this season of Epiphany, this season where we recognize and celebrate the light of our Savior Jesus Christ. We celebrate his presence in the world. We celebrate the Lord who brings light and hope to a world full of darkness. His light would forever change the world. The Magi followed that light, and discovered the Savior. In the light of his baptism he was filled with the Holy Spirit. On the Mount of Transfiguration his glory was revealed. In the light of his resurrection we can know his promise is real. His glory is revealed in so many ways. It’s a glory that we want to be connected with, a glory that we never want to lose sight of. It’s a glory that we want to tell the world about. It’s his glory that has given us life, and faith, it’s what makes us Christian.
If we look back into the earlier verses of this first chapter of Mark, we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism. Verse 10 says that as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. A God says from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” And immediately Jesus goes into the wilderness, he’s living among the wild animals, and being tended to by angels. And don’t you suppose that he was in constant contact with the Father? Then he is tempted by Satan, and then he begins his ministry. Here is God taking care of his own. Here is God’s glory being revealed.
Don’t you feel like that some time? This is how I see our lives as Christians, we are baptized and we are made God’s own, and his glory is revealed in us, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we begin our life of faith. Then we’re thrown into the wilderness of life where we’re tempted by Satan, living among the wild beasts which threaten our well being. We have demands being laid on us. From one day to the next we never know how our life might change. But there is always something we can count on, Jesus is always with us, to guide us, to nurture us, to strengthen us, to help us grow as Christians, and help us grow as disciples. How hard would life be without Jesus Christ to help us through it?
You’re going to hear this over and over in this sermon, Jesus Christ is present and active in our lives.
In our Gospel lesson for today, the mere touch of Jesus hand brings healing to a sick woman. With his word, the mere sound of his voice, he brings demons down to their knees. I’d love to see that. And in the middle of all this, he goes to a quiet place, and drops down to his knees and prays to God. He took time to slow down and connect with God before continuing on with his work.
Isaiah 40 tells us, "The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary: his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
This is a great song to sing during Holy Communion. Jesus is present and active in the bread and wine. In this way he strengthens us and renews us. We connect with him and celebrate him. He lifts us up with wings like eagles…..Focus on this song as you receive communion today. What a beautiful experience.
Soon after the 9-11 tragedy, stories started appearing in the various media. Stories from the rescuers, the policemen, the firemen, and the citizens who were involved in the rescue efforts. These were stories of sadness and horror, stories of amazement, stories that brought people together. The twin towers were brought down and what remained was a mass of carnage and death. Columnist Anne Coulter wrote an article that was published about one of these stories:
The rescue workers found a cross standing in the rubble of Ground Zero. It was discovered just a few days after the attack. While performing the soul-numbing work of pulling human bodies and body parts from the smoking wreckage, construction worker Frank Silecchia happened upon a perfectly symmetrical cross in the midst of the wreckage. It was standing straight, 20 feet high, surrounded by many smaller crosses. Silecchia stopped in his tracks and stood crying for 20 minutes. "When I first saw it, it took my heart," Silecchia said. "It helped me heal the burden of my despair, and gave me closure on the whole catastrophe." Hard-hat Silecchia brought his fellow rescue workers to the site of the cross, and they have been making regular pilgrimages to the cross ever since. Many of the men call it a miracle. The daily horror of pulling human remains from the rubble has the rescue workers at the breaking point. Someone etched "God Bless Our Fallen Brothers" on the cross. The cross at Ground Zero was not simply the cross beams remaining from an existing building. It was formed out of beams from Building One plunging, splitting and crashing into Building Six. "There's no symmetry to anything down there," the FBI chaplain said, "except those crosses."
. Do I believe God placed those crosses there in the midst of the carnage? I don’t know, but what I do believe is that in the midst of tragedy and despair, in the midst of heartache and sadness, in the midst of the crisis in our lives, we can be reminded of the presence of Jesus Christ. He is active in our lives. In this case those crosses were right in the middle of the worst tragedy most of those people will ever face, and they stood as a reminder that God was with them, comforting, warming, uniting them together, and letting them know that he is there with them. He’s there in the good times as well as the bad. These seem like dark days with the economy going bad, people losing jobs and their homes, and sickness seems to be everywhere. The wild beasts are all around us. In the midst of our busy lives, in the coming and going, our jobs, our home life, and school activities, we should to take time to slow down and feel God’s presence. Jesus did that in our Gospel reading for today. Amid all the healing and demon bashing, he stopped and went to a quiet place to pray. He wanted to communicate with the Father. He wanted to get away and talk to God, and feel his presence. It gave him the strength to continue his work. As Lutherans, we focus on the Word. God strengthens us through the Word. Sometimes the Word can come to us in the silence. I’ve prayed alone and have been in group prayer many times, and some of the most powerful prayer experiences have been experienced in the silence.
I’ve recently read an article titled, “Make a joyful silence” by Ruth Haley Barton. The theme of this article is about how we, as Christians, should take time periodically, to just stop and have a little quiet time. Time to stop and listen for God’s voice and feel his presence. She used the example of a jar of river water, “Sometimes you are like a jar of river water all shaken up. What you need is to sit still long enough so that the sediment can settle and the water can become clear.” Our lives sometimes seem to be like a whirlwind, and finding a quiet time is almost impossible. But the stillness and the silence can be very rewarding for us as we connect with God.
Another similar article recently appeared in the February issue of The Lutheran Online written by Joann Nesser entitled, Solitude and Silence. She is quoted as saying, “Often we must get away from our surroundings to really begin to experience the presence of God even when our circumstances are very ordinary. This is even truer when we are surrounded by constant noise and busyness or when we are going through difficult times of depression, loneliness, or fear. In the place of solitude and silence we can begin to hear God and experience God’s intimate, loving presence in our lives.”
God reveals himself in His written word, in prayer, in music and singing, in our friendships, and especially in his real presence within the sacraments. Many times I’ve felt God speaking to me in these ways. But we may also find his presence when we stop and quietly listen. I feel that when we do, he’ll help us deal with all the things that drive us crazy, all the stuff that drags us down, that makes us sad. He’ll help us celebrate our triumphs and our good times, and our faith will grow stronger. He’ll help us strengthen our relationships, in our homes as well as our friendships among our Christian brothers and sisters. We can lean on each other and support each other. That’s where God’s presence may be found.
Mr. Silecchia found Christ’s presence in those crosses in the wreckage of the twin towers. It was a powerful presence that brought him and others a sense of peace and hope in the midst of tragedy and despair. Again as we understand from our Gospel lesson, Jesus Christ is present and active in our lives. I love this verse from Revelation 3:20: “Listen! (Do you hear what he’s telling us, how can we hear him if we don’t listen?) Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” That’s what he wants for us! He wants us to slow down and quietly listen, and hear his voice.
Paul told the Ephesians, "Pray at all times and on every occasion",
he told the Romans, "Always be prayerful",
and he told the Thessalonians, “Pray without ceasing".
Prayer is so essential.
What was Moses and the Israelites doing after the walls of the Red Sea closed in behind them? They were praying to God. What was Jonah doing when he found himself in undesirable surroundings? He was praying to God. What was the disciples doing as they huddled in the upper room after Jesus crucifixion? They were praying to God. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. Acknowledge His presence everywhere you go. As you stand in line at the grocery store think, Thank you, Lord, for being here. As you go about your day at work, pray to God for being there, as you sit in the classroom at school, pray to God for being there, and as you’re driving down the road turn the radio off, and quietly pray and listen for God’s voice.
As you go about your busy lives , slow down and find a quiet place and feel his presence and hear his voice and experience his light, then we will be able to truly say, “Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God!” Amen
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