12/17/2023

Did you hear about the couple who had been married so long that they were on their fifth bottle of Tabasco sauce? Time quickly seems to get away from us. Unnoticed, the years begin to pile up until those behind us are far beyond the years before us. Considered in the light of eternity all our long years of life are like a vapor swept aside by the breeze. Still as we measure the time ahead of us we wish each moment to still be weighty. Can the future be full of goodness and joy even if the changes of life offer new challenges which we did not anticipate? The most perfect-seeming life can be invaded by unexpected turmoil, but with help from God we may still find rest for our souls. In times past we gathered resources to face our present challenges. We may be tempted to rage at the dimming of the light or we can remember that when we can’t clearly see the road ahead, there is One who holds our hand & leads us out of the darkness into the light. Christ is our light & his glory will shine in us no matter how difficult the way. Part of my growing-up years were spent in mountain country. I remember seeing beautiful sunsets in those years, but what I remember most fondly were sunrises. After the deep darkness the sun began to peek over the mountains lighting up the sandstone peaks in oranges and reds above the deep purples of the valleys. No matter how dark the night had been, I felt a surge of joy at the coming of sunlight with every moment growing brighter & sparkling off the rocks and streams. Even now, if the darkness seems especially heavy I know that just over the mountaintop the sun is coming up & everything will

again be bright.

12/10/2023

What was the most memorable gift you ever received on Christmas? Was it a perfectly wonderful present or an unmitigated disaster? I have had some of each. When I was still in elementary school, all my family met at our grandparents’ on one side of my family. All the cousins, aunts, and uncles were included. With a large gathering we chose names ahead of time to limit the expense but the gifts were always nice. We also had stockings with simple gifts inside. We opened the stockings first. Someone thought it would be funny to put a lump of coal in my stocking. The effect on me as a child was devastating. All the rest of my gifts were very good, but I could hardly even see them. Had I really been such a bad boy to deserve a lump of coal? Even at my advanced age, I still remember the event although I now see it from a different perspective. On balance, in my life, I have never had anything but lovely Christmas gifts, often far better than I even hoped for. It is interesting that all those memorable gifts were so much better, yet it is that one small joke that still sticks in my memory. It is a good example of how the negative seems to attract our notice more than the overwhelming positive every day. This may explain the bad news which is the center of much contemporary reporting. In contrast, the Gospel of Christ is the good news of God sending his Son to us. So, let’s leave behind the bad news or at least keep it in perspective, as we day by day experience the blessings of God’s Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.

12/03/2023

In an earlier era, little boys were often dressed in short pants even for formal occasions.  One can see that tradition in some of the formal pictures of the British Royal family. That tradition is mostly missing in modern life. For little boys in an earlier time, the transition from short pants to long pants marked a new level of maturity for your boys. Now days one can see eighty-year-old men in short pants (we just call them “shorts”), and while they may show knobby knees and paler skin, they say nothing about maturity. The question might be, are there any marks of maturity in our world? We have all known young people who are remarkably mature for their age and may have known elderly people who are still rather emotionally immature.

     Paul says, “When I was child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish ways” (paraphrased).  That should be the norm, one would think, but not everyone matches the norm.

     How would Christian maturity differ from the maturity that the world expects? What would be the observable marks? If asked, would family and friends observe marks of our Christian maturity? It is a Christian goal to stay childlike, but not childish. We need to be mature enough to go deeper into the faith and into our relationship with God without losing our childlike joy and delight.

11/26/2023

Due to the appropriate and poignant content of the article, the Pastor’s Notes from November 27, 2022, is being republished today.

     “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. (Today is the Sunday before Advent begins on December 3, 2023, so we even have a skip week in between this year to prepare our hearts and minds for the celebration of Advent.)

     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 season’s 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.”

11/19/2023

This is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It is Harvest-time’s end.  As the hymn, Come Ye Thankful People, Come, states it, “All is safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin.” Many of the leaves have fallen, and the corn and grain have been harvested.  “Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.”  For some this is a time that can seem a depressing end of the year.  So a time of expressing the goodness of the preceding year and celebrating the abundance of God’s blessing with the savory and sweet tastes of that abundance is quite appropriate, even if the table is groaning from that abundance as we ourselves may also be. 

     Celebration is a gift from God which we share with each other reminding us we need not fear the winter’s blast in the warmth of the Heavenly Father’s love. It is a time of sharing, an opportunity to care for those who may be in need, and to plan to help beyond this season when the real needs may be manifest.  This year with rising cost of groceries and other necessities there will be more hungry people among us than perhaps in recent memory. The richest among us will fare alright while Jesus’ words, “the poor will always be among you,” are going to  be proven yet again. The gospel of Jesus Christ is aimed at the whole person with the goal that all persons may be fully whole.

     I am thankful when I am able to share even a cup of water in the name of Jesus. I remember, “I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.” I have never done as much of this as I should have, but every year Thanksgiving reminds me to consider deeply what I have done for others.

11/05/2023

My children are part of the group known as Generation X (1965 – 1980). While no individual in this age group fits fully into the stereotypes, it can be helpful to know some of the things they often share. They are a much more diverse group than the Baby Boomers. Having watched their parents work hard & long, they often were left on their own. At times, they have been called the “latch key” generation. Perhaps because of that, they have worked hard at a better balance between job & family. As a group, they tend to value diversity & accept change more readily than the previous generation. They are comfortable with technology.  As the Baby Boomers begin to retire, Gen Xers are moving more & more into leadership positions. They may find the overpowering size & power of the Baby Boomers to be a source of irritation & a block to advancement. They are often better educated than the preceding generation. They grew up in the context of the Cold War, Watergate, AIDS, financial disasters, wars in Bosnia, Afghanistan, & Iraq. They are familiar with job changes, layoffs, restructuring, outsourcing, etc., & have been forced to be adaptable. Sometimes, they have been called the “sandwich” generation caught between the Baby Boomers & and the Millennials, two generations which largely do not understand each other. Often they find themselves interpreting each group to the other. They are, as a whole, creative, & able to receive input while retaining independent thinking & action. You may know Gen Xers who don’t fit any of these patterns, but many of their peers do. In general, they are less active in church than previous generations, seeing religion more privately. Perhaps the question for us is, “How can we help them see the church as a resource for good in the world around them & for the family life they value?”

10/29/2023

The Baby Boomer generation in the U.S. is calculated as extending from 1946 – 1964, which means they are currently 57 – 75 years of age. This matches the post-World War II baby boom for which that generation is named. They are currently numbered in the U.S. at 71.6 million in population.          Since my wife & I were born in August 1945, we are part of what is called the Silent Generation, those whose births are included in the years from 1925 – 1945. Our generation wanted stability after World War II. There was high respect for authority & loyalty to employers. In contrast, the Baby Boomers were concerned for change & progress, but with a focus on personal fulfillment. They were the first generation to witness the rapid growth of technology & its effect on human life. Of course, all of these are generalizations, which would not match all people in these generations. Being right at the edge between two generations, I have always felt more identified with the Baby Boomers. As I reflect on all this & on the following generations: Generation X (1965 – 1980), Millennials (1981 – 1996), Generation Z (1997 – 2012), Generation Alpha (2013 – 2025), I can see many of the values & challenges that each, and society in general, faces in relationship to the generations.  For the Baby Boomers, retired & facing retirement, there are new challenges. There will be for most of them a change in the power they wield. This is the largest group of the recognized generations. As we live longer, illness & diminishing ability will bring challenges to U.S. society at large. The growing number of persons in this group with Alzheimer’s & other forms of dementia presents a future which no one has fully addressed. In the midst of generational change, is there a significant ministry for the church?  Rather than this being a significant problem alone, could it be an opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well?

10/22/2023

There’s an old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” In general, that saying rings true, but sometimes trash is just garbage. Any time one cleans out the garbage can, one can be thankful for the people who pick up our garbage and trash. The pandemic made all of us aware of how much we depend on largely unnoted people who serve us. There are many people who smooth the way for us whom we may not notice. We rarely take time to express our gratitude to those who are “just doing their job,” but we really miss them when they are not on the job. There is a very sweet story about a three-year-old girl who every week waits for her friend, the trash man, to arrive. Every week she greets him with a special cupcake to celebrate their friendship. The picture of the big burly trash man & the tiny tot interacting with each other is a vision of sweetness & what a world should be like. The real treasures in life are people, not objects. Jesus seems to have known this. He welcomed people of all kinds & saw in them value others had missed. Some in his day were shocked by the people he included as friends & companions. I think it would be good to look around at the people around us & notice who is the neglected, unnoticed, underappreciated among us & find some kind of “cupcake” to indicate our appreciation & potential friendship with them. Among those that some people might call trash, it is probable we will find treasured friendships. It’s the kind of thing that Jesus & his people are known for. It is the kind of treasure that reaches from earth to heaven.

10/15/2023

Two of my friends have very differing takes on the importance of meetings. My one friend loves to have meetings and glories in the interaction of thought, plan, and personalities. My second friend maintains that it takes a really fantastic meeting to be better than no meeting at all. As you probably suspect, I am somewhere in between in my feelings about meetings. Some meetings do seem like just going through the motions, while other meetings give me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.  I have known tense meetings where feelings were high and conflict, obvious. At times, they were quite painful, especially when there was no good resolution. I have also experienced meetings that began with confusion and conflict, but ended with sweet mutual compromise.

   The early church had such moments. There was a church conference which considered the question of what should be expected of Gentiles who became followers of Jesus. There were divergent points of view. Some thought they should be circumcised, while others thought that was not necessary or even helpful. Testimony from those who had worked with Gentile believers was given. Arguments were presented. Finally, the coming of the Holy Spirit on uncircumcised Gentile believers swayed the discussion. A simple set of rules was proposed and adopted by the group to make sure Jewish believers and Gentile believers could eat together in communion and common fellowship. Now that is what I would call a fantastic meeting!

10/08/2023

I am often amazed at the technology of our time. So many things now have miniature computers with the kind of power that used to require a whole room to house the computer. In fact, the power of these tiny computers is often far greater than those room-sized computers of old. While there are some problems to work out with self-driving cars, the safety features on modern vehicles make even poor drivers far safer and more skilled. The advances in medical technology can do things only imagined in science fiction of an earlier time. I am often heartened by the advances in technology, but at other times I am not so pleased. Like other things in life, good things can also be used for bad or even evil purposes. Earlier in the development of computers, delays had to be programmed in because the speed of computers spooked some users. Speed can be its own problem. With the instant communication and cell phone cameras, we often receive news so quickly that we have little chance to evaluate or even find factual information, so our emotions may be engaged so quickly that our minds can’t keep up. Good judgment is hard to achieve on the spur of the moment. We usually make better decisions when we have time to consider or even meditate before responding. The old advice, “Be quick to listen and slow to speak,” is one expression of the need to be more reflective and less reactionary. The speed of technology and its rapid development have not been matched by greater wisdom or stronger moral sense. Unfortunately, morality and wisdom can’t be programmed into a computer chip. These profound things most often come as gifts from God, not from technology.

10/01/2023

I know what it is like to be a groom celebrating a marriage, but I don’t know what it is like to be a bride. I could use my imagination, but I know it will always fall short. If I had been a bride, would I have been joyfully ecstatic; would I have been anxious or even fearful; would I have been reluctive or even passive? I just don’t know.

   Most of the time in the Scriptures, marriages are happy occasions with a few exceptions. In a very male-dominant society, St. Paul used the metaphor that the church is the bride of Christ. As a male, how do I wrap my mind around that? Women may be more conscious of how our gender impacts our understanding of life, even the life of faith.

   In the present world I am conscious of t0he need to say “sisters and brothers” even in a church known as the Church of the Brethren. I am less sure that I always recognize how my gender affects my understanding of life, and the life of faith.

While I wonder if too much can be made of gender difference, I am also sure that too little can be made of its importance. I think that when Paul writes, “In Christ, there is no longer male nor female,” he did not intend to imply that there are no differences. Even though males and females are different in some ways, we still can be one in Christ.

09/24/2023

I have learned over the last few years how important and how ephemeral memory can be. How easy it is as the years stretch behind us for what was once quite clear to become hazy and even displaced in time. What came before and what came after can easily be transposed. Our memories can be distorted by our emotions which may surround events, especially those that were painful. At other times we may surround a joyous event with a kind of halo that may be more a product of our feeling than an account of the facts of the event. Some memories may be quite clear and accurate, even indelible in our minds. We are also capable of calling up memories purposely. Memories of the events of the faith were important to ancient Israel. They were not only to remember God’s acts of rescue and liberation, but to teach them to their children and descendants, that they might also experience and “remember” those great events. Jesus initiated that kind of remembering at what we call the Last Supper. When he said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” he had in mind more than the anniversary of his death, but a participation in his great sacrificial act of salvation and resurrection. Even now when we celebrate the communion supper of our Lord, we know that he is present with and we are linked with all the saints who have come before and all those who will follow after. Next week, we will celebrate World Communion Sunday. We will experience again the presence of the Lord, and remember the breadth and depth of that redemptive fellowship beyond time and space. Christ is alive and because of his death and resurrection, so are we!

09/17/2023

 I know that I have gathered enough years to have gained wisdom, but I am less certain to have developed wisdom. I have known people to have reached old age and do not seem to me to have yet gained wisdom, and I know young people who seem to have a store of wisdom even from a very young age.

   Wisdom is certainly different than intelligence. Who has not known some very smart individual who seems to lack common sense? I am not disparaging what wisdom I do possess, especially when measured against my previous mistakes, but I do also keep discovering areas of life where I have not made the wisest choices. I doubt that I am exceptional in this way. Usually, we are better at noticing the unwise decisions of others than noticing our own unwise decisions. Maybe one of the marks of developing wisdom is the ability to learn from our mistakes. We often see others continuing to make the same life mistakes, without realizing that they are doing so. “I just didn’t think?!” can be the chorus to a lot of different verses. The “post trauma” response, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that,” shows that thinking and using our common sense could help us decide more wisely.

   So how can we gain wisdom? James 1:5 gives us a strong clue, “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.” We can have faith that God will help us become wiser as we gain years if we are willing to listen to divine counsel from the Holy Spirit, from God’s word, and from those who have gained wisdom. So, I keep asking God for wisdom in all my situations. It seems like a wise decision.

09/10/2023

When a restaurant patron received the bill for his lunch, he noticed a request for a tip and a list of appropriate percentages based on the cost of his meal. In addition to his monetary contribution, he left this note, “Buy low, sell high.” That was no doubt excellent advice, but applying it in real life is actually quite difficult. If you buy a stock, no matter what expert’s advice your receive, you don’t really know where the low cost or high cost is. If it were easy, everyone could be as rich as Warren Buffet.

   Predicting the future is a dodgy business at the very least. Change is always going to come, but when and where is only obvious after the fact. I have no trouble believing that God knows the future as well as the present and past, but doesn’t usually make it plain to all of us mortals. If we knew what was to come in detail, our life would be even more stressful than it already is.

   What are we to do? We can prepare as much as we can for the dangers we anticipate, and then trust God for the future we cannot see. While the present and our anticipation of the future may make us feel insecure, we can find security in the continuing grace and mercy of God. God’s grace and mercy are revealed especially in the sacrificial life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but are also shown in God’s acts of grace and mercy in the everyday lives of God’s people.

   “Your mercies are new every day,” could well be the daily prayer of thanksgiving for God’s people, as every day we walk with Jesus on the Kingdom Road. Thanks be to God!

09/03/2023

This summer’s heat has me asking, “How did we survive without air conditioning?” I remember fans blowing across blocks of ice, and water-based air conditioners for cars. The first worked a bit, and the second hardly at all. In our recent heat waves, some have died from heat stroke and dehydration. We did generally survive in past high heat conditions, but what physical joy there is to come into a cool room out of the blistering temperatures!

   Some people seem to thrive in the warmest conditions. Personally, I prefer the 55o to 75oF. A sweater in the morning and short sleeves in the afternoon seems ideal. An open window at night with a cooling breeze seems just about perfect. Having spent my growing up years in South Dakota, that was not my experience. Winters that can reach 20o to 30oF below zero and summers which can reach over 100oF are a long way from the ideal. The amazing thing is that human beings live in areas that are far from comfortable and thrive under the most difficult of climate conditions.

   Apparently God created us humans with a great capacity for adaptation. Do you suppose that our minds have the same kind of capacity for adaptation? The modern fast pace of change might call that into question, but in one lifetime, my Grandmother traveled to North Dakota in a wagon and lived to see a human being walk on the moon. Maybe we are more flexible than we have been led to believe. Perhaps God built into us the capacity to survive and prosper whatever new situations life presents to us. As much as we protest the fast pace of change, perhaps it is what we were designed for.

08/28/2023

Sometimes I really prefer simple things. In summer in Indiana, there is nothing like a sliced fresh ripe tomato on a good bread toasted with a nice smear of butter (although some prefer mayonnaise). A fresh ear of corn just warm from the cooking is a close second. My wife likes hers with butter and salt, but I’m happy with just the corn for the first two ears.  Maybe you want watermelon fresh from the field or maybe cooled down in the creek. There are recipes that are more complicated and fancier, but to my mind are no better than these simple flavors. 

   In music, I often feel the same. While I can enjoy a full orchestral accompaniment, I really like the simple, unaccompanied voices or the lone voice of a cello filling the listening space. The cluttered opulence of a Victorian room can have great appeal, but so can the clean sparce lines of a Japanese-style room. Simplicity can be its own strength.

   I have often counseled brides and grooms against including everything they have seen in weddings plus one new and original idea. Simple has its own elegance. Clean lines and clear vistas often are superior to cluttered sight lines and obscured views.

   Much of the gospel of Jesus Christ is at its heart quite simple. Certainly, there are deep and complicated ideas that can challenge the finest minds, but grace, forgiveness, trust, and love are understandable to the simple childlike mind. “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest,” is straight-forward and simple enough for anyone who will listen.

08/20/2023

     This week, several of the online gardening sites had information about plants to set out in August for a final fall harvest. I had forgotten that that was even an option. I did remember that kale is a late possibility. A friend of mine left kale out even after winter snows and harvested all winter long. My friend maintained that the freezing sweetened and tenderized the kale.

     I have enjoyed kale in Italian Wedding Soup and a few other dishes, but I am not totally convinced about kale.  Sweetening and tenderizing seem like good ideas. I do understand that kale is a very healthy vegetable.  Too often my mind doesn’t see all the possibilities.  

     We all can be stuck in our old patterns of thinking even when we have evidence of a better way of looking at a situation. We don’t need to punish ourselves for the limits of our current vision, but it is helpful if we can open our minds to new possibilities.  This can be difficult in religious setting since there is much that is precious to us that we would like to preserve. Maybe the question is, “How can we hold on to that which is valuable or even essential, while being open to whatever new directions God may be directing us toward?” This has never been an easy balance to achieve as the history of the Christian church has demonstrated over the last two thousand years. It is, however, a necessary struggle that we must attempt, if we are to be all that God wishes us to be.

08/13/2023

Next May will mark ten years since I became your pastor. I am very glad for those years with you! When I first came on board, we worked out a vacation schedule. As you know, my work as your pastor is officially a half-time position, so I am very grateful for your generosity & care for me & Sue over these nearly ten years.

     Church of the Brethren guidelines entitled me to five weeks of vacation because of my number of years in ministry. I negotiated with the church for an additional two weeks with a reduction in the salary to account for those two weeks – that was to be seven weeks in total. An additional week was involved with Annual Conference. This arrangement helped since our children live so far away from us. My plan was seven of those Sundays to be during my weekly vacations & one other being during Annual Conference.

   For the first few years, we usually took all of those weeks with a minimum of two visits to each of our children. We went every year to Annual Conference & used the other weeks for vacations & special visits to friends & relatives. The COVID pandemic changed all that!

   For a while, none of us could travel & we did services online with a limited number participating. During that time, Sue & I only had one visit to our family in Colorado during a break in COVID, but had to cancel a trip to our Florida family during another surge of COVID. Because of my perception of the need for continuity, I did not take any other extended time off during that time.  This because a bad habit.

   The Pastoral Relations Committee has gently let me know that this is not healthy behavior. Sue’s illness & increasing inability to travel made this worse.  The committee suggested that I plan one Sunday a month off. During these four additional Sundays, I will only take the Sunday off & will work within my regular office hours & other availability during the week. The Committee will secure speakers for the monthly Sundays with John Wenger volunteering to coordinate finding speakers from both inside and outside the congregation.

    I have to acknowledge that the Pastoral Relations Committee was correct that I needed to be more diligent in taking time off for both my health & Sue’s health.  I hope this explanation helps all of us to share a common understanding of the time-off plan for me as your pastor.

    I am honored to be your pastor.  Thank you for being you!

08/06/2023

My first driving experiences were on tractors. The small tractor was easy to learn on, but my very first ride was when the tractor broke down. My uncle tied a rope to the tractor and to the hitch on his pickup truck. My job was to steer the tractor at the end of the rope and apply the brake when there was a stop. It did not go well at first as I constantly over-corrected from one side of the road to the other. After a while, I figured out how to stay in my lane.

     I think now about how dangerous that all was. Later I learned to mow hay and cultivate crops and other tractor tasks. In many rural areas young people could legally drive farm equipment in their early teens. Some started even earlier around the farm. We were expected to be responsible for our actions and to use “common sense.” I sometimes wonder if the late development of responsibility in some young people is the result of not having opportunity to take on more adult tasks that were important to the family. There was nobody else who could have ridden the roped tractor in for the repair, so we did what was necessary. The cost of having the tractor towed would have made the repair cost prohibitive.

     I have sympathy for parents and others who sometimes do risky behavior because they feel that they have no choice, but I am glad that there are now safety laws to protect children and young people from injury. More than once I survived situations which I now realize were actually dangerous even though I did not realize it at the time. I am much more careful now, but I do wonder if some things I take for granted might be more dangerous than I realize…

07/30/2023

Do you suppose that the free lunch program began with Jesus? When Jesus fed the 4,000 the disciples contributed some to the impromptu church supper, but the main fixings rested on Jesus. It was a compassionate act to save those gathered from hunger and distress.

     I’m not sure if anyone actually thanked Jesus for his largesse. The text does not tell us. I hope some did, but Jesus would have done what he did whether or not there was a thankful response. We always feel good when our good actions produce thankfulness, but we should still do them no matter what the response, if they are the right actions. Keeping an appreciation score card can make one miserable. Better it is, to do good and not expect a reward; then when thankfulness is expressed, we can experience that delight but not be diminished when the response is lacking. We can change the atmosphere by being those who express gratitude and thankfulness. It has some of the shared contagion of a smile. Gratitude can produce gratitude.

     How often have we expressed our gratitude for the beautiful world God has created? Far beyond practical functionality, God made so much that is strikingly lovely -  from purple-headed mountains to shining seas, from iridescent hummingbird wings to wooly lambs, from soft baby skin to weathered character faces. There is so much in our world that is unique and wonderful!  So, scripture proclaims, “O Lord, what amazing variety you have created!!”  Not only is there free lunch, but a whole world of freedom and beauty quite beyond our imagination!