Of Elections and Life

"Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife"

Mark 10:2

 

 

 

This Gospel text is tough, because there are many who are divorced and know that pain, and there are also a number of people who have talked about divorce or contemplated divorce.  But lets look at this text and matter in a larger perspective.  It isn't as though Jesus picked this topic out of the air and decided to address it.  Rather, the Pharisees are once again trying to put Jesus to the test.  The Pharisees came with one test after another.  Divorce is a tough subject.

 

You see in this section when Jesus talks about divorce it takes us to the broad context of how so many times he talks about the brokenness of all kinds of relationships and most profoundly the brokenness of our relationship with God.  We are reminded of when Jesus says, "why do you see the sliver in your neighbor's eye and ignore the log in your own eye."  And when he says, "as you did it to one of thee least of these you did it to me...."  When the Pharisees ask Jesus about the greatest commandment he speaks of loving God with your whole being, and a second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Divorce represents one aspect of the brokenness of our lives, but there are a whole lot of other relationships that are equally broken.  The truth is I am not sure we are very good at relationships.  Friendships, relationships with people we work with, or relationships between parents and children, even within the church our relationships can be far from exemplary.  No we are not always very good at relationships nor do I think we are getting a whole lot better with relationships.

 

It is election eve in our country and we are suffering greatly from a profound brokenness with each other.  No matter who wins the elections working together looks rather bleak.  Maybe if we start at home in the relationships that we own most closely, with our family and friends, our neighbors and co-workers, maybe grassroots efforts of living in relationships with each other that are respectful and caring can help win over those in higher places to a kinder and gentler day.  You see in and through the cross of Christ God meets us in our brokenness and seeks to take us to a new day.   

Distance

When a relationship is struggling people may use the word distance to describe what is happing.  Even when the two are side by side, it can seem as if a great gulf is between them.  That kind of distance is a great tragedy, but it can be resolved.  Through patience, deliberate communication, forgiveness, and prayer those imagined distances can be traversed and relationship can be revived. 

There is a flip side to this dynamic, and just as the first is a great tragedy its converse is one of the greatest joys of life.  It is a fact that there are some people who are so precious to us that no physical distance can change how we feel toward them.  As I am fond of saying in sermons, the Lord blesses us with the gift of each other.  As we go about our daily tasks we do things that remind us of them.  A song, a restaurant, the echo of our friend in the voice of another, and a thousand other minutia can make our loved ones as present to us as if they were standing right beside us still.  As I sit here in Hutchinson Kansas I am aware of people I love in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Mississippi, and of course right here in my own town.  They are the people who have helped to make me who I am.  We do not live this life alone, but rather we only know ourselves as we know each other.  I can sit here physically alone, and yet not alone at all. 

It is comforting on this anniversary of a great tragedy for our country to remember that despite any distance, even the distance between life and death, that we are all connected in a holy bond.  We are gathered together spiritually into one body from which nothing in heaven or earth can separate us.  We may of course still feel alone at times.  We may miss those who have gone on before us.  But in Jesus all distance is temporary, and in that knowledge we give thanks for Him and for those we love who, for whatever reason, are not by our sides at the moment.  We are united in Christ.  More than any dogma or doctrine, this is the mark of who we are. 

 

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:35

 

 

Pr. Phil

The State Fair

The State Fair is at hand.  The State Fair is an event that for 10 days comes into our lives and our community with sights and sounds, tastes and smells.  What is your favorite place at the Fair?  I have those regular places I go.  I go to see the biggest pumpkin and watermelon and other exhibits in the Pride of Kansas Building.  I go to the Domestic Arts Building to see the beautiful quilts and handwork that are such works of art; the ladies of the congregations that I have served who love to quilt would be proud of me.  While in the Domestic Arts Building I also check out the cakes and other baked items, such creativity, and all I can say is that it is a good thing they are behind glass.  There are so many other things, new born animals, large fish and snakes, and all the rest.  I see lots of people I know.  I see members of my congregation, people I know from the community that our paths just don’t cross often enough, and I meet new people every year. 

I encounter God at the State Fair.  God is in the people that come, the gifted exhibitors who have been  blessed with wonderful talents, in those who care for and show animals and those who man exhibits inviting us to learn, understand, and grow.   God is in us, the residents of this community that welcome the State and beyond to our hometown.  And every evening that I am there I just like to sit there by where the train stops and the kids play in the water that squirts up from the sidewalks, and I like to breath deep and watch the people and listen and realize the God can even be at the Kansas State Fair.     

Pr. Tim

Of Forks and Relationships

I found them in the car, in the center console where they had been since that day.  My wife, Jean, and I had visited a member in another community and were too full from lunch to have a piece of pie, so we decided to take one to go.  On the way home the food had settled and I stopped at a convenience store and got some plastic forks and napkins, and we went to the city park and shared the pie.  So the other day as I was cleaning the car I came across the forks, but I left them for another day and another time in some park in some small town. 

Jean often says, “just surprise me”, whether it is where we might go to eat or what we do on vacation. 

We too often become creatures of habit, doing the same things over and over again, in the same way.  Some habits and routines are okay and good to have.  But sometimes doing things in a new way helps us see things in a new perspective.  One of our members last Sunday was sitting in a different place in worship and I went up and asked her if she was feeling alright.  Not really, but I did ask her about sitting in a different place, to which she responded, she thought she would get a different perspective on things.  Jesus invites us to see things from a new perspective.  Jesus invites us to see things often as God sees things.  Jesus uses powerful images of unlikely people to speak about God and God’s grace and love.  Again and again we see it in the gospel narratives: a Samaritan woman at a well, a widow and her mite, a prodigal son and his loving father, a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go look for one lost lamb, and so many others. 

Sometimes we get set in our ways, we get in ruts and ride the ruts until it is quite difficult to get out of them.  It is true of people, communities, churches, and all kinds of institutions.  It not only can be difficult to get out of our ruts it can be difficult to see life outside of the ruts.  Our relationships can become that way.  Sometimes we find our relationships are suffering because they have become predictable and centered so much on ourselves that we fail to see the other person from a new and healthy perspective.  Look at things from a different perspective and act in a new way.  

The secrets to a great marriage:  forks in the center console and pie in the park; surprise each other; and sit in a different pew (see things from a new perspective).   

First steps

Our little Zoe has started waking.  After a few hesitant attempts at standing she took two stumbling steps before falling.  It was not long before she tried again and this time managed three steps.  In the course of a week she was able to master the process and now can walk just about as far as she cares to, which is usually the length of the living room.  At the end of every tiny journey she gives herself a round of applause and smiles up at us, knowing that we are rooting for her.  It is a big week for first steps in the Vickers house.  Autumn is also starting Kindergarten.  She is excited and I know will do much better than I did.  She is more of a go-getter than I am.  It is a time of joyful new beginnings.

These days make me wonder at the awesome fact that Jesus taught us to call God "Father."  I believe that Jesus gave us that name for God knowing that we would fill our thoughts of God with all the good things that name can conjur.  Since God has so chosen to name himself as something so close to our experience, then surely even as I look down at little Zoe, He is looking down on us all.  Our own hesitant and stumbling attempts at righteousness are under the watchful gaze of not a hateful judge, but a loving Father.  I am so  glad these days that Jesus taught us to pray to God our Father.  It makes it easier to get up and try again knowing who is looking down on me. 

Pastor Phil

Drought

It has been a long time since a post has been put forth.  It is kind of like the weather, it might best be described as a drought.  A drought is gripping a great deal of our nation and in many places crops have been sown only to die in the fields.  Record setting tempatures and lack of rain is taking its toll on almost everything. 

This summer in an adult Sunday School class we have been studying the general or catholic epistles.  They are letters written not to one particular congregation, but to God's people in a variety of places and times.  This Sunday we studied the book of Jude, a short but powerful scripture that has a profound message for God's people in any time.  In verse 12 the author uses these words: 
"They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted...."  These are the descriptive words of dought... waterless clouds, autumn trees without fruit....and it is a powerful analogy of life that is lived out far from our calling to be God's people. 

Jude was written in a time of great struggles in the 1st century church, where there were those who were failing to live within the grace of God and who were instead perverting it.   At times each of us might be able to say that our own life looks more like a waterless cloud and fruitless trees, we each fall short of the glory of God and time and time again fail to be the people that God has called us to be.  Maybe there are times that we feel that we are in a "spiritual drought". 

If that describes your spiritual journey at this time, why not take the time to drink deeply from the well of God's grace, to immerse yourself in the refreshing presence of God that comes in worship, in bread and wine, water and word.  The God who brought forth life from a tomb can bring forth new life in the desert places and renewal in parched places of our lives. 

 

Fishing

I went fishing the other day.  I hadn't been fishing in a long time.  My father taught me how to fish and in the early years of our marriage my wife, Jean, and I enjoyed sharing time fishing.  As our children came along we taught them how to fish and have fond memories of fishing on family vacations.  In my first church I had the opportunity to fish many farm ponds of Kansas' beautiful Flint Hills.  I have one fish mounted, a 7 pound bass I caught from a small farm pound.  How exciting that catch was!  It was good to be back on the shore the other day with my pole in hand, sharing some time with friends, away from stresses of life. 

I went again last night, sharing an hour again catching and releasing back some fish with a friend.  It is good to go back to what we have been taught.  It is good to pick up again some of those things we were about in earlier days.  We learn some things in life that are valuable, but to often somewhere along the line we leave them behind and never pick them up again.  My fishing license is in my wallet.  I will visit the waters again and share some time with friends and with God on the fishing bank. 

After Jesus was crucified the disciples go back to fishing and while on the sea fishing the Risen Lord appears to them.   You can find the disciples fishing trip in the 21st chapter of John.  Take a look for yourself.   Go back to what you have been taught, visit again some of the special things of life that you have left behind. 

Pr. Tim

library

I miss going to the library.  As I write this I have just purchased a book from Amazon that was delivered wirelessly to the kindle on my phone.  It is crazily convenient and affordable.  I would always go to the library back home with my grandfather when I was a child.  My grandmother never wanted to go.  She was an avid reader but would just tell Popaw to get her afew mystery novels.  It would turn out she had already read half of the ones he would bring back, but even this never coaxed her out for the trip, so it was always just us guys.  Popaw would never take the interstate even though it would get us to the library ten minutes sooner.  He would take what was called old Carrolton road.  "Why would I want to go way up there?" he would ask as we drove under the interstate bridge.  We would always ride with the windows down with the smell of the deep woods and the dusty smell of the road rolling in.  Popaw would dip snuff and lift the pointer finger of his left hand from the steering wheel to greet every car that passed us going in the opposite direction.  He would go too fast over bumps in the road to send us reeling and I would laugh as I looked over to his dark smiling eyes and bushy black beard.  Then of course there were the books to search through when we arrived.  It was an infinite number to my young eyes.  I would follow behind him while he loaded his arms with mystery novels for his wife and war histories for himself.  I would never want to go to the children's section, but would instead check out an armload of books too advanced for me, but Popaw let me do as I liked.  Popaw and I never did talk much but it was one of those situations where you didn't have to.  There was truly nothing that we had to say.  We understood each other without words.  I wonder if he ever imagined that one day I would be a grown man thinking of him every time I buy a  book with one click of a button from my office, and I wonder if he knows that I would trade that convenience in order to once again climb up into the seat of his old blue ford escort to head down to the library to go reeling and laughing down the dusty road.  I hope that he knows that the feeling of safety and joy that I had in his presence gives me a model to begin to understand what it must feel like to be in heaven, and makes me wish that feeling for others.  Its funny that life can attach so much to the click of a button. 

Pr. Phil

Identification

In daily life we deal with people as they come to us.  But behind each of them, Jesus says, stands God.  What we do to that person, we do to him.  Thus in a sense that outrides all human sense, God has become our Brother.  Not only by taking upon himself our sin, but because he has made himself the advocate of each and every one of us, and regards our interests as his own.
                                                                                             - Romano Guardini


In our Scriptures we are confronted by this notion of God's identification with his people.  When we are thinking of ourselves this concept is easily celebrated.  God has united himself with me.  He has taken my sin and given me his righteousness.  He has made himself my friend in the cross.  There is a further joyful opportunity and responsibility that we only take advantage of when we look outside of ourselves to see God in the other and in the world around us.  Because God has identified himself with his people in Jesus, every relationship we are in with a person is an opportunity for us to worship God.  Not by worshipping the person, but by honoring them as a child of God.  This awareness need not set us on pins and needles, but it does help us to expand our perception of Holy Ground.  Our religion is not something that can be contained by the Sanctuary, nor does our sense of Holy presence end when we walk away from the communion rail.  We are awash in opportunities to experience the divine presence in the other.  The divide between Church and secular is an artificial one for the Christian, because she knows that everyone she meets is a soul for whom Christ gave his life.  This is a difficult awareness to come to and an even more difficult awareness to maintain in the comings and goings of sin and life, but the reward is that we walk and talk with God every day that we live. 


Because Christ is the perfect Love, his life on earth can never become a life of the past.  He remains present to all eternity.  Then he was alone, and bore the sins of men as one whole, alone.  But, in death, he took us all into his work.  Therefore the Gospel is now present with us.
                                                                                                                         
                                                                                    -  Mother Maria of Normandy


Pr. Phil Vickers

The Sequel!

Just when you thought the story was over there was one more surprise.  The extraordinary neighbor that went so beyond what one might expect a neighbor to do didn't stop there.  She wrote a thank you to the church on behalf of her neighbor.  Hear it again!  The woman that wrote the letter seeking help for her neighbor who needed her yard cleaned up, the woman who had pop for workers, and greeted us with a warm smile and great joy, that woman sat down and wrote a thank you on behalf of her neighbor.  What a different world this might be if everyone was a neighbor like this. 

Jesus acted on our behalf.  He advocated for us all the way to the cross at calvary.  With one more surprise an empty tomb, a living Lord, who invites us to become Easter People, extraordinary neighbors and witnesses to the world of God's grace and love. 
                                            "You are witnesses of these things...."  Luke 24:48

Pr. Tim

What a neighbor!

About 25 people from Emanuel went to work Sunday afternoon doing a yard clean-up for a woman with some health concerns.  The need came to our attention from her neighbor, who knew of her need and searched the internet for possible help for her neighbor.  She found our Church and then sat down and wrote a letter.  She was overjoyed when I visited, hardly able to believe that her letter had brought results.  Sunday afternoon she was there to welcome us with great joy and a wonderful spirit.  It wasn't even her yard, but she was thrilled for her neighbor and friend.  She had garbage bags for us and pop in a cooler.  She thanked us over and over again for our work.  What a neighbor this woman is! 
Jesus said, "love your neighbor as yourself". 
Pr. Tim

A New Journey

Amidst this season of Easter why not begin something new.  That's what Easter is about, the new and empty tomb.  They laid His body in a tomb that was never used and then it was only used for three days.  Found empty on that Easter morning, the presence of the Risen Lord would appear in profound moments of new life, from the road to Emmaus to a sea-side presence on a morning, with nets full and breakfast to eat.  We are fed in many ways as God's people and again and again God comes in new and profound moments of grace.  We journey together, perceiving the presence and grace of God. 
Welcome to our Blog as Staff of Emanuel, "God With Us".