Most kids will eat practically anything if you put enough ketchup on it (or is it catsup?) with the possible exception of liver or some vegetables. But just when you think you have that figured out as a rule for kids, you find the exceptions. You watch as a grandson at eight years of age orders steamed broccoli in a restaurant and eats every bite! One grandchild would like on rice, cheese, and tortillas only with no meat, thank you. Her younger sister is a true carnivore, willing to down big portions of meat, especially if it is hot off the grill. Just when you think you have kids figured out, you learn again that they are all so very different. What is true of children is also true of adults. When we make judgments about all of a specific group, we are always mistaken about any individual in the group. Whether we are talking about men or women, black or white, young or old, no one perspective fits all. We have a natural tendency to want to group people and things into easy categories, but it never really works. We would be so much better off to drop the stereotypes and just meet each new person as the unique individual that they are. I suspect that is how God looks at each one.
01/29/2023
With apologies to the composer of a popular old song “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” we could hum, “there’s no business like snow business!” To those of us who have lived in snow country like Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and others, snow is only a minor inconvenience until it really is a big storm. Two inches can cripple a southern city but for rugged northerners, we nearly need a foot before we are really slowed down or kept indoors. At least, that is the way our bragging suggests. When Sue and I lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a massive storm buried the whole metropolis. Even with great city snow equipment, the whole city was shut down. Church was cancelled everywhere. Nothing could move out of the neighborhoods. When we finally shoveled our way past our door and helped the neighbors shovel out, we invited several of our neighbors to come to our house for a simple Sunday worship service. The result was among the warmest and most lovely experiences of our life in Kalamazoo. How often the inconvenient, and at times even the tragic, becomes the opportunity for God to show us His blessing, no matter what the circumstance!
01/22/2023
A few days ago, I realized that my car battery was dead. I turned the key and not even a click was heard. It was “No show, no go!” It turns out that a door was left open, draining the battery. I had only been making short trips so the battery had inadequate time to re-charge. The battery is relatively new, but all car batteries need re-charging. It is another example of “use it or lose it.” Neglect, even if unintentional, can result in problems. I have often thought that it is better to pray beforehand than just pray hard in the midst of an emergency. During a funeral is a rather late time to prepare for death or grief. It is certainly good to learn, even late, but better to prepare ahead. Even something as basic as spoken and written language can deteriorate, if unused. Even native speakers can find it difficult to remember their first language vocabulary when they do not have opportunity to participate in spoken and written language. Even spiritual gifts can weaken when neglected or not utilized. Fortunately, much which is initially lost can be regained. Whether in the practical world or the spiritual world, it is better to use what we are given. It keeps things fresh and vital.
01/15/2023
The New Year brings many changes. This year brought a new prescription change due to a new Medicare Part D plan. This change means a new set of prescriptions from all of our doctors. There is a new formulary for what is and is not covered, and at what level each is covered. Our family will probably be better off for all the changes, but it still feels annoying to have to analyze and implement all these changes. For all my talk of staying open to change, I still find myself resistant when I have to make the changes. This is not simply a factor of old age as anyone who has made changes in a young child’s routine has learned. We may long for change at times, and conversely rebel at having to make change. We enjoy the stability of things staying the same and may even fear what change may bring. I think that fear explains much of what is happening in our world. What we don’t like we want to see changed, and what we treasure we want to remain the same. Change engages the unknown. What if our deepest fears come to pass? We can’t even predict the weather, let alone the changes which the future might hold. No doubt the future will not be as bad as we fear or as good as we hope. Perhaps that is why Jesus spent so much time telling his disciples, “Don’t be afraid,” and “I am with you always to the end of the age.” Whatever the future holds, God’s people can be confident that God will always be with us.
01/08/2023
We are well into “the year of our Lord, two thousand twenty three.” It is an old-fashioned way to state the date, but also a good reminder that each new year is “the year of our Lord.” There is nothing in this new year that the Lord is not prepared to help us face. No terror or tragedy that this year may bring is unanticipated by the sovereign Lord. This year will bring new blessings, new comforts, new opportunities, and new joys. This is indeed the year the Lord has established -- another year of the Lord’s favor. It is, however, a new year and that means some adjustment. It will take a while to put 2023 on checks and letters, if indeed you still send letters by snail mail, or still write checks instead of using electronic pay systems. Laws will change, new circumstances will emerge. Though we cannot anticipate all that the year 2023 will bring, we know that all our tomorrows, like all our yesterdays, rest in the Lord’s hands. So rejoice, people of God! Our God has never let us down in the past and He will not abandon us in the yet-unknown future. He is the faithful God whose mercies are new every morning. God is good, and because of His loving kindness, we will come to the end of 2023, having reason to proclaim “It was a good year!”
01/01/2023
I never understood the significance of the Watch Night Service on New Year’s Eve. Perhaps, it was because I could see no connections to Christian traditions. Recently I became aware that the Moravians and latter John Wesley observed the practice as a time of reflection on the past year and anticipation of the coming year. The reflection was meant to focus on the spiritual issues past and future. In the African American church community there was another significance. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves was enacted. Anticipating Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Proclamation many African Americans held services all night on December 31, 1862, waiting for the announcement of their freedom. Many African American congregations still celebrate with services beginning in the evening and extending to midnight. These new understandings have caused me to rethink what a Watch Night Service could be. It might even be worth staying up past midnight to celebrate freedom and reflect on our past and future together.
12/25/2022
On this bitterly cold Christmas Morning, we can easily call up images of the holy family shivering in the cold of the stable in the midwinter. In her poem of Christmas morning Christina Rosetti pens “In the bleak midwinter frosty wind did blow, earth stood strong as iron, water like a stone. Snow was blowing, snow on snow in the bleak midwinter long-time ago.” We now suspect that the time of Jesus’s birth was not mid winter, the but image still has value. It captures that sense of Jesus sharing in the whole lot of human kind. We may find ourselves cold and hungry like the baby Jesus. He shares all our humanity. Our brother Jesus knows our suffering and our joys. The divine has come down to our level that we might be sure of God’s understanding and love. He put himself in human hands that we might place ourselves in his hands. Now is born the divine Christ child so let us rejoice and sing in praise and honor of his coming. Allelujah! Praise God! He has come to be with us that we might come to be with him.
12/18/2022
One of the hardest parts of putting meals on the table is not the actual cooking, but the planning of what to cook. While Thanksgiving dinner can be a huge amount of work, there are traditional dishes that can help with planning. Turkey is traditional and dressing (or stuffing), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, baked sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin or pecan pie. One could add a salad or vegetable, but it will probably be ignored in favor of the other items. Christmas dinner is more uncertain. One could do a rerun of Thanksgiving, but otherwise what would one do? The grocery store seems to favor ham or if you are flush with cash, the Prime Rib. If you get too frustrated you could settle for Chinese carry-out. Easter is an ever greater puzzle. Lamb would seem a logical choice but rarely done in the U.S. Ham is on the grocer’s agenda. How did we think of Easter ham? Was it because it rhymes with lamb in the crazy English language spelling? In the end it is more important who is sitting around the table than what is sitting on the table. So relax. If you are lucky enough to be with the people you love, then the dishes will be more savory and the desserts sweeter because of the tasty company.
12/11/2022
In our family we open Christmas stockings on Christmas Eve and open our larger presents on Christmas Day. Our stockings have small gifts and treats. We all try to be creative and include things meaningful to each other. Only rarely is a stocking gift expensive. Sometimes it is funny or poignant. Favorite candies are often included along with a toothbrush. It is a favorite time with less emphasis on the gift than on being together. It is about being a family together. We each have stockings with our names embroidered on the cuff. As new members come into the family they each have a personalized stocking to hang over the fireplace to show they belong. Recently one in our family decided to change what she wanted the family to call her. This resulted in a new stocking with her new name. It said to the whole family “We support you and you will always be part of us as you learn and grow.” In the Bible a change of name often signaled a new beginning, a new life. These names signified a new relationship with God. God knows our names and our nicknames. He calls us by name and that signifies his deep and profound recognition of us. He knows our name and we belong with him.
12/04/2022
I learned early how to be frugal with the pennies, but the pounds still did not always work out. Even in the generous time of Christmas we still watch even the small things. We always saved the bows and ribbons from the gifts and were even able to save the paper for future smaller packages. I learned later that some of those small economies actually had a kitchen drawer with bits of string too short to be used. I often wince at our current throw-away world. Products with built-in obsolescence seem basically wrong to me. Why can’t products be built that can be fixed easily and efficiently? So many things now seem not to last as long as they should. Is it just me or are products designed to break down just after the warrantee expires? Now days I still practice small economies. I save left over foods. I recycle anything I can. I reuse the aluminum foil. I mend clothes. I find new uses for old things. I save glass bottles. I do it not because of expense but to cut down on the junk piling up on God’s beautiful world. It seems like good stewardship to me. If I could only learn to not buy the junk in the first place! O well, It gives me something to work on for 2023.
11/27/2022
It always comes as a surprise that the Advent season comes at the end of November. It seems like it should all be in December, but here it is “early” every year. At a Doctor’s appointment back on October 20 the staff wished us Happy Holidays. We were not yet to Halloween or All Saints and one month from Thanksgiving. Advent is the season of anticipation as we focus on the coming of the Messiah. It would be easy for this rushed season to be the season of anxiety rather than the season of anticipation. So let’s corporately take a deep breath and try to relax. Focus our attention on anticipation and preparation for the coming of Christ. I know there are so many things to accomplish, so many traditions to honor, so many people to care for, but can we just put down enough of the seasons birthday to experience the hope, joy, love and peace that the season beckons us toward? We not only need to keep Christ in the season, but keep ourselves in it as well. There is much good that we plan to do, but the best we can do is to welcome Jesus home in our hearts.
11/20/2022
The gospel song says “This world is not my home, I’m just a traveler here.” I understand and I agree with this sentiment, but for now this world is at least my temporary home and it is the only home I have experienced so far. So even with my eyes cast toward heaven bye and bye, I strive to be at home in this world. I want to enjoy the blessings of God in this world. This world has so many wonderful benefits. We joke that it can’t really be heaven if here is no pizza or steak. Seriously, we know the glories of sunrise and sunset. We relish the simple comfort of home and family. We thrill to the sound of great symphonies and to unaccompanied vocal solos. We love lofty hymns and simple choruses. We are moved in our emotions by great athletic victories and children enjoying their play. Spectacular movies catch our attention but so do simple Christmas pageants with freckle faced shepherds and bath robed wise men. Grand vistas in nature fill us with awe but so do bedewed gardens on misty mornings. Until that heavenly home comes to reality, I intend to enjoy the blessings of this present world.
11/13/2022
Today I chose to have a good day. It was not as if everything was going perfectly. In fact there were a number of small irritating things that popped up. I was tempted to let those irritations set the agenda for the whole day, but I decided that I could choose how I would view my day. It is a lesson I learned from my father-in-law. Dad was by nature prone to be depressive and had a mother who could see the dark side of any cloud. For her there was no silver lining. My father-in-law transcended all of that and chose to be positive and lived out that choice. He benefitted by his faith and the sermons and writings of Norman Vincent Peale (The Power of Positive Thinking). I have benefited by his example. Some days can be overwhelming but most of the time I know that I can choose what kind of day I will have. The circumstances of any day doesn’t determine my response. I can choose to be positive. My faith helps me in this. While I acknowledge the stresses and difficulties, pains and problems of this life I know that the grace and love of God gives me a reason to choose hope and even on the difficult days.
11/06/2022
Nobody has ever referred to me as Saint Spencer, but perhaps they should. Not because I am so obviously “saintly.” Saint Paul, the apostle referred to all believers as saints. It was later in the churches life where “saint” came to designate the heroines and heroes of the faith or those Christians whose lives were most full of the heavenly virtues. The idea that simple folk could be thought of as saints became more dim in much of the churches’ memory. All Saints Day, November 1 and All Saints Sunday (this year, November 6) recognize this more universal meaning for saints. When in the service we remember those who have passed away we especially honor those believers who have gone before us, but we do more as well, we recognize that it is we saints who remember those saints who have gone to their eternal rest. We mean to be like them and live out our faith as God’s saints in this world. Our Lord Jesus and his faithful followers throughout the ages are our examples until we come to our eternal rest. So come Lord Jesus and gather your saints home for as long as this world lasts.
10/30/2022
Benedictions are often viewed as the closing prayer of a worship service, but they are intended to be more than that. The elements of the words suggest that it means “to speak a blessing.” I think of it as one of the roles of a pastor in a worship service to deliver a final blessing on the congregation before we go on our separate ways. At time, I might use one of the many blessings found in scripture. These long shared benedictions have a special strength tying us to the longer tradition. Through those words the great leaders of the faith reach out yet again to bless us. At other times, I compose a blessing to fit the theme and focus of the sermon and worship service. At other times the benediction is a spontaneous expression of the momentary inspiration that the service has inspired. On occasion it may be a more contemporary blessing written by a present Christian leader. Whatever the source the benediction it offers the opportunity to bless the members of the congregation both individually and corporately. It is a great privilege to be the one offering this blessing to our brothers and sisters.
10/23/2022
I remember the tag line to a popular song, “The future’s so bright that I got to wear shades”. That kind of optimism appeals to me, but it is not the message that I most often hear from the world around me and even from Christian sources. I think I am sufficiently aware of the presence of negativity and even evil in our world. I know there are wars and rumors of war. I know that there is still much injustice in our world near and far. I notice that there seems to be ten painful stories for every positive one on the news every night. Will everything keep getting worse and worse until Jesus returns or has the Christian hope for this world and the world to come transformed our views of what the future will bring? Can we have confidence that with God’s help and guidance, the future will indeed be bright? I hear the words of scripture, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, on them has the light shined.” This is more than Pollyanna thinking. I believe that there is a promising future in the promises of God. There can be dark days and nights, but eventually the sun will rise and shine again even brighter as the darkness is blazed away in God’s light. “Shine Jesus, shine fill the world with the Father’s glory.” So until that time comes I’m going to hold onto my shades.
10/16/2022
When I was a child I went barefoot almost all summer, inside and outside. I was not quite as rough and tumble as my cousins who I remember seeing outside in the snow of a wintery Utah totally barefoot and with no coat or hat. They were rugged farm kids unlike citified small –town kids like my brother and I. The wrath of our mother may have been a factor in keeping our shoes on our feet. I still like to be bare foot at home in the house, but I am now too much of a tenderfoot outside these days. One of the first things I do on arriving home is to shed my shoes. This is about what feels good rather than necessity. Some of the great Kenyan runners have trained to run barefoot because of the cost of proper running shoes. Not having shoes is one of the marks of poverty even now in our world. The African American spiritual says, “I got shoes, you got shoes, all of God’s children got shoes. When I get to heaven, going to put on my shoes, going to walk all over God’s heaven!” Having shoes stands in for all the blessings of God now and in the world to come. Rejoice, all God’s children got shoes!
10/09/2022
Recently I had the rare delight of spending a day with my grandson who is now 18 year old and working at a store. Since he lives in Sarasota, Florida, I do not get to see him often. Even as a child he was fun to talk with. He is an even better conversationalist now as an adult. We visited a game store, a book store, a guitar store and a Lego store. Now from his job he has money of his own to spend although grandpa treated him to an Italian Garden lunch (his choice). The most fun of all was the conversations that we shared. We talked about music and politics, movies and religion. We agreed about the issues of the day and found agreement on some of the possible solutions. We talked of family and his and my future. I learned some things about his deeply held belief and commitments and even learned of some of his sorrows. I found out that one of his deepest convictions was the importance of respect for people and their opinions even when one disagrees. Some “grown-ups” seem not to have learned that value. What a delight to converse with and learn from a bright, thoughtful young person. It was a fantastic day together.
10/02/2022
If I want to be sure to get in touch with my daughters, I send them a phone message. This form of the texting is more effective than e-mail or even a phone call. By the way, how does a noun like ” to text” become a verb almost overnight? This is how I learned to “text”. It would not have been my preferred method of communication. Unlike some students who can type with magic thumbs on their phones with nearly light speed while I hunt and peck while being passed in my lane by snails, sloths and tortoises. I don’t text because I like it or find it efficient, I text because it works to get me in touch with my beloved daughters. I could just say :I am old, why should I have to adapt to a new way of communicating?” The answer in my mind is\that I prefer the connection to my daughters over my own convenience. Is there a principle here that could be applied to the work of the church? There are my preferences for programs or for worship or for music, but what would our process be if we asked what are the preferences of those we would like to reach? How can we best make contact with them?
09/25/2022
Once I read this statement, but fail to recall who wrote it, “I have settled my complaints with the ruler of the universe.” I wish I could easily say this . Certainly some of my earlier complaints have been settled, but like most of humanity I seem to have a frightenly large reservoir of complaints to draw on from the size of the avocado pit to why the righteous suffer. Large and small I can find plenty to moan to the Eternal about on a frequent basis. On the other hand I find much in life around me to celebrate. So many things cause me to be glad from small to great. I delight in the first buds of spring, in the joy of new fallen snow, in a cooling summer breeze, in a good joke, in a well turned phrase in literature, in a quiet moment at evening,, in a majestic sunset. Even bigger part of society make me rejoice. The family focus of many young fathers, in gains against racism, in acts of charity that expect no reward or recognition, in the receiving of refugees, in the growth of peace in some areas and the hope for peace in others. I am settled in my praise for the ruler of the Universe for all good things.