A Radical Advent- Week III

"Just a Taste" December 17, 2007 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Isaiah 35:5 Monday, December 17, 2007 Twice baked potatoes. Twice baked potatoes and beef roast and corn and buttered bread...but especially the twice baked potatoes. That's what I remember best about my grandmother's house. Even today when I eat twice baked potatoes I always compare them to how I remember them at Grandma's. And along with the taste comes a flood of memories of other things from those days. Do you have a food like that? One that causes you to remember other places and people? Something like that is happening in Mark chapter 7, when Jesus says to a deaf man "be opened," and suddenly the deaf man can hear. Jesus gives us just a taste of what Isaiah describes. Isaiah's prophecy is a picture of heaven. It describes the end of injustice in the world, deliverance from the diseases that plague us, abundant new life for God's creation, and a blessed washing from all the sin that has stained us. All this will be ours when Jesus comes again. But the fulfillment of that prophecy is still to come. In His suffering and death and resurrection, Jesus overcame sin and death for us. But that isn't the end. Not yet. The miracles Jesus performed were a taste of the healing we are waiting for, a healing of all creation. Ours is a Radical Advent because we're waiting the coming of a radical transformation. Just like the foods we enjoy because they remind us of so much more, our Advent and Christmas celebration are just a small taste of the gift that we are still eager to open. Savor it! Prayer: O Savior, lead us by Your Spirit to dwell in Your Word so that we may "taste and see" Your goodness, and eagerly await Your coming. Amen. -Written by Pastor Ken Klaus

A Radical Advent- Week II

"Shopping for Yourself" ... “Come, make us gods who will go before us. …” Exodus 32:1b

Have you ever wished you could buy your own Christmas present?

It ought to be fun! There’d be no waiting. There’d be no question about the right size or color. There’s no risk that you’ll get something you don’t want. So why does it seem so unfulfilling?

Perhaps when we were children we thought the most
important thing about gift-giving was the gift. If it was the right gift, we thought, that’s what really counts. But as we grow up, we slowly realize that the most important part of gift-giving is the giver. Unwrapping a gift you bought for yourself might have all the traditional elements of shopping, wrapping, and the tree, but it’s missing the love, the relationship, the act of giving.

God’s people grew tired of waiting for His gift and thought the same would be accomplished if they shopped for themselves. Instead of waiting for a savior, they invented one of their own – a god made of gold. It had everything they thought really counted. Drama. Glitter. Excitement. But there was no relationship. How can you love and trust in something you know is fake? Their excitement turned to ashes. Moses ground their golden calf
into powder, scattered it on the water, and made them drink it.

Is it possible that we, in our impatience, have gone shopping for ourselves, trying to pick out our own gift instead of waiting for the Lord? Whenever we do, we end up with a bitter taste in our mouths. But if we are content to wait – if we trust that God will keep His promise – then we will unwrap something far better. We will discover the fullness of an intimate and eternal life with Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me wait. My own ideas haven’t worked out so well. I am content, with Your Spirit’s help, to wait for Your perfect gift. Amen

-written by Pastor Done Neuendorf

A Radical Advent

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. Isaiah 11:1

Another December. Another shopping season. Once more we drag out the same old Christmas decorations, the same Christmas card list, and the same Christmas music and foods. This is a favorite time of the year for so many people, yet even the Christmas season can grow stale. Many people are depressed this time of year because they hoped it could be different, but instead they discovered the same troubles and frustrations as the year before. But what if we could cut away all the traditional and the familiar? What if we could experience Adcent- the waiting, and Christmas- the gift, just as if it were the first time?

To be "radical" means to cut all the way down to the root of something. That's the heart of God's promise for you this Christmas. His very first promise of Christmas was a radical one It began with a see, the seed of Eve. And from that seed came the fruit, the gift that God wants to give you. Can you watch and wait for one month? As you read these devotions, can you watch as God's promise goes from seed to root, from root to branch, and from branch to fruit?

If you want this Christmas to be a Radical Christmas, don't race ahead. Use the Advent season to experience the long wait of God's people through hundreds of generations. Set aside a few moments each day to consider where the root of God's love will spring up in your life.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, my life and my mind have become cluttered with many things. My calendar and my hands are full. Clear away everything that obstructs my life with You, and grant that this Advent season I may truly make ready for Your coming. Amen.

The Living Nativity

We want you to participate in one of the most cherished traditions at Saint Luke's Parish. Groups from all over come to witness the Living Nativity at SLP on Christmas Eve. We are looking for a few volunteers to play Mary and Joseph during specified slots of time on Dec. 24th.

We have the costumes. Do you have the time?

If you are interested, please contact Rev. Andrew Walter TODAY! and help continue the Story of the Nativity.

Homestar Runner

Homestar Runner ROCKS!

Austin's sermon from Youth Sunday

On Youth Sunday, Austin Anderson, the Senior Warden of the Youth Vestry preached at the 10am and 5:30pm services. Here are his touching words:

Today, we all listen to Jesus speak the words of judgment. The coming of the end of days – a day when not a stone will be left in its original place – is a mighty thought to behold. To be waiting on earth for the days when all be ended and every human being weighed and seen fit for heaven or not, is very grounding. Such an impressive ending to our survival seems over the top, unrealistic, or even incomprehensible. The words spoken today, the turning of “kingdom against kingdom” and “nation against nation,” the ‘great earthquakes and famines’ that will devastate the world and its people are real today. These problems exist today as an extension of all the war and famine and disaster throughout history.

We experience these wars every day on a much smaller scale [as well]. We may go to sleep at night with food in our stomachs, however many of us still suffer from our own famines and plagues. People can be plagued with a lack of love or affection. Disasters can be divorces and the battles for property that follow. Cancer affects each of us directly or indirectly. For a lot of us, the world can seem to be crumbling around us. Our hunger can be for a connection or friend that has moved on. Whether these friends move on to a new state, a new country, a new life, or the next life, it is difficult to live without these connections. We get eaten by our own hunger every day.

I grew up through my mother’s alcoholism and the divorce of my parents. I was in late middle school by the time everything was in full swing. I was young enough for it to have a profound effect on me and my psyche, but mature enough to know that it was having this effect. Beginning in the eighth grade, I knew true independence. I had more independence then than I do now. I learned, on my own, what the word walking truly meant. I did not have a good bike to ride, and rarely did I have it with me. So, when I called my mother after school, or after basketball, and found from her voice that she was in no shape to drive, I would walk. I walked all over town. I could have asked someone for a ride. I know I could have found a friend who was going home late too. But I felt from the beginning that this was my problem, and I could not put my burden on others. I would not be a charity case. So I lied. I told my mother I had a ride, and I told my friends my mother was coming to get me she was just running late. The after everyone else was gone, I would walk home. I would walk to the YMCA. I would walk to Hindley School to play basketball.

I was able to find a game that was built and played by those who could not or would not go home. I was able to identify myself as a person who had a basketball court first and a house second. In most places where basketball rules, that is the case. I was blessed with friends and mentors from all different walks of life. I found salvation and escape in a new place. My first church was a court. I found my religion in a YMCA. The basketball court is a place where you must stay strong and remain within yourself each and every day. You are judged on court every day by opponents, old and new a like. Each day is a test to become something better than you were yesterday. These daily personal tests are mirror images, scaled down, to those that face the entire world.

Most people fail to see this judgment in their life. Most anyone would have a hard time comprehending such a grave and almighty event. If you have read the Book of Revelations, or even seen some representation of the End of Days, know that such an occurrence is highly unlikely. The difficulty is realizing that judgment is every day. Every day you are alive and conscious of your faith, you are entering your judgment day. What we as people fail to recognize is that we can not wait for judgment to come to us and turn the world upside down and throw fire and brimstone. If that day comes, we are all too late. But each and every one of us has been given a chance to walk and love as Christ loved us every day. Every day something is going to happen, there will be adversity in every day of your life. That is something that none of us can change. The difference between strong people and weak people, strong Christians and weak Christians, is the choice we make to respond to that problem, that adversity. Many of us can have one hard fall. Many of us will get up and curse out our God, we will say things like ‘Why me?’ and ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ The truth is that you do not deserve the freedom from trouble as long as someone else is troubled.

More often than not, the adversity will pile on. Heavier and heavier these troubles weigh down on us. They build one atop another, until we think we can bear no more weight. It is a test, not a punishment. Can you stay standing next to Jesus when your father curses you out, when your mother stops loving you, when your brothers turn their backs? Can you stay with God, when everything tells you to leave him? That is the question God asks you daily when he places personal feuds in your life, or places a catastrophic event in your life, or when a loved one is taken from your life. Can you stand back up, seemingly alone and stripped, to tell everyone that you love God, even more, for sparing what he did.

Now, it is crazy to think that we must all uphold a constant sense of love and faith in the Lord. We are all guilty of not truly loving our neighbors. We are all guilty of not truly loving our enemies as if they were our family. We often can get caught up in this me-against-the-world mentality. It is important to know that we don’t have one chance. Life is not a pass/fail course. We do not have to plan how to defend our actions of yesterday. With faith in the Lord, we can wake up tomorrow and be completely different. All Jesus asked from us when he came was an apology. In exchange, He can give us the wisdom to speak and act with Him. If you wake up tomorrow, and you change the way you react to your own struggles, you can change yourself.

Caroling for Cans