I have a lot of books in my office. A whole shelf is dedicated to books about preaching. One of my favorites on that shelf is a book of sermon poems by James Weldon Johnson called God’s Trombones. James Weldon Johnson was a poet who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We sang one of his hymns last Sunday, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Some of you were perhaps not too familiar with that hymn. That was probably only the third time I’ve ever sung it. But I’m sure others were more familiar with it. That hymn has been called the African American National Anthem, and it speaks of challenges overcome and challenges ahead.

Perhaps the most striking phrase in the hymn is in the very beginning.

Lift ev’ry voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty.

The harmonies of liberty. What a phrase. It reminds me of driving in my car with the windows down, listening to a great song and trying to invent my own harmonies with the music.

Harmony is a beautiful thing. It’s when two or more people are singing different notes, but they somehow sound good together.

Harmony and liberty are at the heart of the body of Christ. As the body of Christ, we are all different. We are all gifted in different ways. Yet we all work together in a way that is pleasing and useful. And we are all free to give of our time and gifts as we see fit. Nobody is going to force you to do something you don’t want to do. For example, I once had a band director who was willing to do anything at church except music. To him, music was work. He had other ways he preferred to serve his local congregation. He was at liberty to do that.

Johnson’s hymn is a fantastic reminder of the challenges we face as a nation, as a church, as the human race. And it is also a fantastic reminder of the hope we have in God who always provides for us, even in the midst of disharmony.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Last Sunday, I mentioned our Sunday School switch and our desire for more Sunday School teachers. As the number of children in our congregation grows, the need for more teachers is evident. In the fall of 2020 we will have a group of young people starting confirmation. These are good challenges to be facing, but we have to prepare for them.

If you’re anything like I was the year before I started teaching Sunday School, back in 1999, you probably had no inkling it was something you’d be asked to do. Perhaps at the thought of yourself teaching Sunday School you say to yourself, “I don’t know enough,” or “I’m not good with kids,” or “I’m too old,” or “I’m too young,” or some other negative thing about yourself. I know I’ve done that about myself. In 1999 I had to be the youngest Sunday School teacher St. Paul Lutheran Church had ever seen in its 100+ year history, but God shaped me through that experience, and he shaped my four kindergarteners.

In 2003, in my first year of college, I started having unwanted, unbidden thoughts that maybe I should become a pastor. I tried to repress them, hide them, explain them away with how I wasn’t enough. Despite my best efforts, God had other plans. People I barely knew started coming up to me and asking if I’d ever thought about being a pastor. No joke: there was one week where at least a dozen people had this conversation with me. Some of them were strangers at a church I had never even attended before.

Sometimes God does that. Sometimes God works through other people to nudge us in the direction that He wants us to go. I didn’t listen very well. It took 10 years before I actually stepped foot on the seminary campus for my first day of classes, but I don’t know that I would have kept thinking about it if it hadn’t been for the encouragement of others.

Teaching Sunday School might not be your gift or your calling. That’s okay. You may be called to some other form of service in the church and community, but you also might be surprised by how well you take to the task and how much God blesses you as you pass on the faith to His children. Think about it. Pray about it.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy  

This Wednesday we began the season of Lent. Numerous things might come to your mind when you think about Lent. You might think about the ashes of Ash Wednesday. You might consider Lenten disciplines such as giving up something like chocolate, coffee, or meat. You might think about the tender moments of the Last Supper or Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. You might ponder the agony of Gethsemane or the cross.

It is a tradition at First Lutheran (so I am told) that for the Lenten season we switch from our usual order of worship (Divine Service, Setting Two) to Divine Service, Setting Three. If, like me, you grew up with The Lutheran Hymnal (also called TLH or “the red hymnal,”) this is page 15.

The wording of this order of worship is a bit different. One word that I often hear people complain about is in the confession of sins. Together we confess before our almighty God, our merciful Father, beginning with these words, “I, a poor, miserable sinner…”

Miserable. There is a word with some baggage. I immediately think of how a person might feel if they had the flu. Miserable, achy, wretched, a person to be pitied.

Miserable has become almost entirely negative in its usage. Nobody wants to be miserable. Confessing that we are miserable might not be terribly true if we only think of miserable as a wretched, unhappy person that none of us wants to be around.

At the root of miserable is the Latin word miser. It’s where we get our English word “miser,” as in a stingy person. But it also appears in the Latin version of our historic liturgy in the Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God).

It’s this phrase: miserere nobis, which means “have mercy upon us.”

To be miserable in that sense is not to be unhappy or stingy or wretched, but rather to be one who needs mercy. Since that is the case, I think we can all easily confess that we are miserable, for we are truly in need of God’s mercy, and He has given it to us in His Son, Jesus Christ.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Something new we’ve been trying this past year is a way of showing appreciation for our preschool teachers called “Adopt-a-Teacher.” The idea is that members from the congregation are assigned teachers and aides in the preschool to give small gifts to, thank you cards, that sort of thing. Not only does this help show appreciation for our excellent preschool staff, but it also helps build relationships between the preschool and the church.

This coming week, May 6-10 is National Teacher Appreciation Week. It would be wonderful if everyone who adopted a teacher for this school year could show their appreciation for their teacher during this wonderful week. And even if you didn’t adopt a teacher, you are more than welcome to show your appreciation with cards, candy, cookies, cake, and other things (whether or not they start with C).

If you need a reminder about which teacher you’ve adopted, let me know! I’ve got a list in my office.

And thank you to our preschool director, Mari, and everyone in the preschool for being so amazing and passionate. They truly embody our mission statement as they are making many friends for Jesus.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

The New Year often comes with new goals, new resolutions, new hopes and dreams for the coming year. While many people tend to focus their New Year’s Resolutions on diet and exercise, I’d like for you to consider a few other possibilities as you continue to follow Jesus. Here are some suggestions.

1. Serve at one event that you haven’t helped with before.

The crab feed is coming up January 26. It won’t be long before Easter hits and we have the annual egg hunt on Saturday, April 20. There’s always VBS over the summer. And don’t forget about Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving, Breakfast with Santa, and numerous other options.

There are days when the trustees fix things, days when the altar guild and others decorate, and there are always new events being planned. Find a way to involve yourself in one of these or create your own. Meet some new people. Serve the Lord with Gladness.

2. Read one book of the Bible multiple times.

It’s popular to try and read through the Bible in a year, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a worthy discipline. Although, I have found my mind and soul sparked more often by reading one biblical book many times. One class I had in seminary required us to read the Gospel of Matthew three times a week for eight weeks. After that many times through one book you begin to notice things. Patterns emerge. Associations come to light that you would not have seen otherwise. You can choose something a bit shorter, perhaps Philippians, 1 John, or Jonah. You can challenge yourself with something a bit longer such as Exodus, Romans, or the Gospel of Luke. Whichever you choose, see if you can read through that book more than ten times this year. See what you discover, what questions are raised, what answers are found.

3. Invite people.

One of my pastor friends in Hayward said that he has this rule for his congregation: don’t invite someone to church unless you have first invited them to your home. I’m not going to make this a rule for you, but it is something to think about. As we continually make friends for Jesus, let’s honestly consider the first part of that: making friends. I read a recent survey of people who recently started attending worship services. 86% said they started attending because a friend invited them. A friend. I can attest to the reality that making friends is not easy, but consider people whom you consider acquaintances that you could know better. Invite them to coffee or lunch. Invite them over for dinner and a game. Maybe invite them to church then brunch. Whatever happens to work for you, think about how you can invite people to be a part of your life and a part of God’s family this year.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Sometimes, it is good to just remind the congregation of a few things that don’t always get mentioned. I’d like to remind you all of our website and some of the useful resources you will find.

Online Giving

Sunday Mornings can be hectic. You might not remember to grab your offering envelopes or your checkbook. One option for our members, guests, and friends is to give online. If you go here: Simply Giving Online Give/Donate,  you will be taken to a secure site where you can make a one-time donation or set up a recurring donation for weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly giving. Several people in the congregation are already doing this. Stephanie and I utilize this resource because it ensures that the first fruits of our labor go to the Lord and His work and that we won’t forget or make up some excuse to not give. I would highly encourage you to give this some thought and prayer.

Sermons

If you are out of town and happen to miss a Sunday, or you just really want to listen to a sermon again, they are all archived on our website as well. If you go on this link: Pastor's Page, it will take you to a list of my articles from First Notes and links to previous sermons will show up on the right side of the screen.

Facebook

Here is a link to our Facebook page. We use the page as a way to communicate announcements, events, and share encouragement with our church and preschool community.

That’s all for now. If you need any help navigating these things, let me know. I’m happy to help.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Over the past three weeks, I’ve offered some of the reasoning behind our proposed Sunday School change, where we will move Sunday School to after the service, coinciding with the Adult Bible Study. A lot of the questions that I have heard in relation to this change are about logistics. Where are the kids going to meet? How long is Sunday School going to last? What about cake Sundays?

All of these are good questions that we’ll work through together. But I wanted to offer some ways in which I see opportunities in the logistics of our situation.

Currently, I am not able to be involved in Sunday School because I’m leading worship and preaching while the kids are in Sunday School. In our proposed switch, I would be able to take a turn in teaching the Sunday School kids on occasion, leaving opportunity for another leader to facilitate Adult Bible Study.

Currently, the Sunday School teachers rotate from week to week. The Adult Bible Study typically works through a study in a set number of weeks. We may have opportunity to use more of a block schedule. This will allow Sunday School teachers to be present for an entire Bible Study series, instead of missing a week here and a week there.

Also, we have a growing group of Sunday School kids who will enter into Confirmation instruction in the Fall of 2020. Having the Sunday School, Bible Study, and Confirmation classes all at the same time will be far more convenient for families with children of multiple ages than trying to arrange schedules to meet on a weekday evening for Confirmation.

Furthermore, the synchronized timing of our education hour may provide opportunity for us to coordinate what we are studying so that parents, confirmation students, and Sunday School kids can all be looking at similar material that is tailored to their age group.

In my view, God has blessed us with an amazing problem: We have a growing number of children in our congregation. The change in Sunday School timing reflects a positive change in our congregation: we are growing and growing up together. As we follow Jesus, let us do so together, studying God’s Word as one, united church.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Palm Sunday is one of the few Sundays during the year where there isn’t a sermon. In part this is so that we take the time to listen to the entire narrative of Thursday and Friday of Holy Week, so that we reflect upon Jesus’ anguish in Gethsemane, His arrest, His trial, His suffering, His time on the cross, and His death.

This is certainly important, but it’s at the expense of not spending much time focused on the events of Palm Sunday itself. There are very few events recorded by all four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Mark doesn’t cover Christmas. John doesn’t cover Jesus’ temptation, Jesus’ Transfiguration, or the Last Supper. Only one miracle is covered by all four (the feeding of the 5,000). Jesus’ suffering and death are recorded by all four, but even Jesus’ resurrection is only pronounced by Mark. Jesus doesn’t actually appear risen from the dead in Mark’s Gospel.

But each writer covers Palm Sunday and Jesus procession into Jerusalem as He rides on a donkey. Each author tells the story a little bit differently, but we see a crowd gathered that shouts “Hosanna!” which means “save us now.”

What the people shouting “Hosanna!” wanted was an earthly salvation, a deliverance from a political occupation that left the Jewish nation as second-class citizens in their own land. Jesus did not deliver what they expected or wanted. Jesus delivered what they needed: salvation from sin and death.

This is often true in our lives. We shout “Hosanna!” to Jesus hoping to be saved from one thing or another. And Jesus always delivers. He always saves us, but sometimes we don’t realize exactly what we need to be saved from. Sometimes we don’t realize that God is constantly working to save us from all sorts of evils.

It is at this point that the Lord’s Prayer becomes so important, as we pray both “Thy will be done,” and “Deliver us from evil.”

As we enter Holy Week, we pray Thy will be done, Lord. Thy will be done to save us from the evils that we don’t even realize are at our doorstep. Hosanna! Save us now.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy  

I’m on vacation this week back in my home state of Minnesota. Even though Stephanie and I haven’t lived in Minnesota for a decade, I don’t think I’ll ever stop thinking of myself as a Minnesotan. I grew upon a farm in the south-central part of the state, eight miles from the nearest town. I knew from a very early age that farming wasn’t going to be my chosen vocation. I didn’t mind the hard work, but I just wasn’t mechanically minded. And if you didn’t know, more than half of a farmer’s time is spent fixing things that are broken be it tractors, trucks, or some specialized piece of equipment that most people don’t know exists.

Despite not wanting to be a farmer and not being gifted with the skills to be a farmer, such an upbringing has been incredibly useful in ministry. As a farmer, you have to learn to go with the flow. Sometimes it rains and you can’t do the work you had planned on. Sometimes something breaks and you have to take the time to fix it. Sometimes prices are good and you have to sell the corn and the beans that are in the bin. Sometimes prices are terrible and you have to tighten your belt and wait. Farming is a life of patience, a life of persistence in the face of uncontrollable factors.

The same is true as a pastor. Sometimes a member is hospitalized and the things I had planned have to wait. Sometimes people are broken spiritually, and they need healing. Sometimes attendance and giving are up and things look really encouraging. Sometimes they are down and things look a bit bleak and desperate. In each circumstance, pastors simply have to keep moving forward, doing the work that is given to them, serving the people they have been called to serve.

My farm upbringing has taught me many valuable things including the need for flexibility, patience, and hard work in the face of things beyond my control. This is a reality for both farmers and pastors. Such lessons promote a dependence upon God to provide the growth, both in the field, and in the church.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy 

When Stephanie and I were living in Germany, we had the opportunity to travel to Paris for our fifth wedding anniversary. Paris is a beautiful city. Iconic sites like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triumphe do not disappoint.

And then of course there is the Cathedral of Notre Dame which was so sadly engulfed in flames last week.

Before the flames had even been put out, while the building was still smoldering, people from France and around the world were dedicating millions of dollars to rebuilding this beloved building so rich in history and beauty.

Yet the dedication of so much money to such a landmark was criticized by some who would rather see such donations go to food, clean water, and medicine to those who lack such things.

The whole situation got me thinking about a lot of things. But we all face such decisions and criticism related to our stewardship, albeit on a smaller scale. It’s not always money that is the concern. Sometimes it is our energy, sometimes our skills, sometimes our time.

I face this dilemma as a pastor with some frequency. I don’t have an infinite amount of energy and time, so how do I spend the 50 or so hours I work in a week? How much do I dedicate to preparing for Sunday morning? How much to time with the preschool? How much to visiting shut-ins? How much to outreach and being in the community? How much to serving the church at large, the circuit, the district, the synod? If you all got to choose what my time allotment would be, I doubt any two people would choose the same schedule for me.

All of this leads me to appreciate the importance of two things: grace and trust.

We all make different choices with our lives, with our time, with our money. We should have enough grace with our fellow human beings to let them focus where they feel led to focus, and we should focus where we feel led to focus. Complaining that a billionaire doesn’t give money to the poor is ironic and hypocritical if I am not giving any money to the poor. As Jesus says in Luke 16:10, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” Let’s be gracious and faithful with whatever we have.

Finally, thank you for your trust. You have entrusted me with the spiritual care of this congregation. Such care is something I do not take lightly. As I continue to learn how to be your pastor, I hope you will continue to grace me with your trust as we continue to follow where the Lord leads, together.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Last Saturday, March 16, the council members gathered for a meeting in which we took some time to think and talk about the current state of First Lutheran Church and Preschool, and we envisioned what things might look like in the next five to ten years.

My agenda for the day was pretty simple: ask some questions. I came into the meeting with six questions, but we were blessed by an abundance of good conversation and only got to four of them.

We contemplated where we saw First Lutheran in the next 5-10 years.  We discussed what First Lutheran does well. We shared some places we thought First Lutheran could see some improvement. And we considered the needs of our surrounding community.

These conversations covered a lot of ground that I don’t need to go into detail about, but it was a joy to hear people speak with hope about the future of First Lutheran. There seems to be a sense of energy and optimism that was quite refreshing. There was a consensus about several things we do well. Our preschool was mentioned as a consensus strength that meets a major community need, has a good reputation in the community, and furthers our mission of making friends for Jesus. The events we sponsor was a consensus strength. The hard work and dedication that goes into Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving, Breakfast with Santa, the Crab Feed, the Easter Egg Hunt, VBS, and other events helps our reputation in the community and provides opportunities for fellowship and service.

There were many other strengths mentioned, but there were also a few items that need our attention in the weeks, months, and years to come.

At my ordination, Pastor Zelt gave me five pieces of wisdom to hold on to. The first was, “Lead your people where God wants them to go.” I’m the type of person who likes to lead by building consensus. In seeking to build this consensus, the council and I will be seeking some feedback on a few changes we are considering. Nothing is set in stone. None of these are earth shattering. None of these are being pushed forward by one person. They are each considerations the council wants to pursue because we believe this is where God is leading us at this point in our history.

As we move forward in faith, I want to communicate how encouraged I was by this council meeting, by our organization’s leadership, and by what God is doing in our midst. I hope you are encouraged as well as we continue to follow Jesus together.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

When I was on vacation last week, I got to spend some time with three of my friends and classmates from seminary. Such time got me thinking about perceptions and life stages, about how I have been viewed in the various stages of my life. In seminary, I was seven years older than the majority of my classmates. I was an old, wise man to them. I was the guy who had seen the world and could offer different perspectives on the Scriptures or a piece of doctrine.

Here at First Lutheran, nobody views me as the wise, old man. I’m perceived by most of you as young.

As a congregation, you get different glimpses into who I am than my classmates at seminary had. They saw me in the classroom, on the basketball court, in the cafeteria, and occasionally at a brewery. You see me at the altar, in meetings, and at hospital bedsides.

I haven’t become a different person, and yet you can perhaps see how the version of me that you have seen is vastly different from the one my seminary classmates have come to know. Likewise, I’m guessing that you are perceived differently by your closest friends than perhaps you are perceived by other congregation members.

Our God has called us into relationships. Trust gets built and earned in these relationships through quality time, and I’d love to spend more quality time with you all. If you’d like to get coffee or lunch sometime, let me know. If I invite you to coffee or lunch sometime, I hope you’ll say yes.

As I noted in a sermon a few weeks ago, the early church devoted itself to fellowship, to communion, to eating and drinking together, to deep relationships that strengthened the church. Let’s follow their example.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

This Sunday we celebrate a feast day entitled “St. Michael and All Angels.” We don’t celebrate this every year, only when the specific day (September 29) falls on a Sunday. There is a lot of confusion about angels in our society today, so I thought it would be appropriate to address a few myths about angels that are commonly spread around in today’s world.

Myth 1 – When you die, you become an angel.

This seems to be the assumption of every movie, television show, and cartoon out there. I blame the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life for the prevalence of this. Angels are not dead humans. Angels are created beings that serve various functions in heaven and on earth. The word “angel” means “messenger.” This is one of their primary tasks. We see angels appear regularly through the Bible and very often they are delivering messages from God to God’s people.

When we die, our hope is not to become angels. Our hope is to be raised from the dead as human beings. When Jesus is raised from the dead, He has a resurrected, perfected, human body. He is not an angel. The same thing that happened to Jesus will happen to us when Jesus returns.

Myth 2 – Everyone has their own, personal, guardian angel.

I’m not saying this couldn’t be true, but there is no biblical evidence to support this idea. Yes, some angels are charged with spiritual battles on earth that involve our protection. We see this in the book of Daniel and a few other places. Yes, some angels could easily be called "guardian angels," but that doesn't mean each person or even each Christian throughout the world has their own guardian angel only charged with guarding one person. God’s protection of you may certainly involve the use of His angels. But never forget it is God’s protection. He is the one who deserves the credit, glory, and praise.

Myth 3 – Angels are cute.

In the last 50 years, angels have become this cutesy, kitsch decoration item. They look comfortable and harmless. The picture we have in the Bible of angels is quite different. Angels are often depicted with six or eight wings, and every time an angel shows up in the Bible, people are terrified. As Luke writes in the Christmas story, “And an angel of the Lord appeared to [the shepherds], and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.” The first thing out of the mouth of whichever angel appears is, “Fear not!” or “Don’t be afraid.”

I’m not saying you should throw out decorations or anything of the sort. I just want to make sure what we are passing down to the next generation is not from TV or some marketing scheme, but rather from God’s Word. Angels are created beings that serve God. Humans are also created beings that serve God. But we are in fact very different from angels.

God’s richest blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

This past week we celebrated VBS Sunday. The kids and adult servants led us in a service of worship and praise that reminded us to remember that God is good in every circumstance.

Since we deviated from our regular scheduled programming of Sunday mornings, we missed out on one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament: The Good Samaritan. Since the Scripture reading system we use for worship continues on with new readings for this week, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on that Good Samaritan story.

The story Jesus tells in Luke 10 is in answer to a lawyer’s question – “And who is my neighbor?”

A man falls among robbers, is beaten, and left for dead. Three people come upon the man. Two of these, a priest and a Levite, pass by on the other side and do not help the beaten man. A third person stops and cares for the beaten man, showing him mercy. The one who shows mercy is a foreigner, an outsider, a Samaritan.

Have you ever wondered why the priest and the Levite didn’t help the beaten man? I don’t think they are acting from indifference or hatred. Their actions stem from an ideology that says upholding the law is more important than helping a neighbor. You see, if the beaten man had died and the priest and Levite touched the corpse, they would have been unclean. They would have broken their religious law. The priest and Levite are doing everything they can to uphold the law, but they do so at the expense of this beaten man, even at the expense of his life.

Two thousand years after this story, we are still asking the question – “And who is my neighbor?” Oftentimes, we ask it for the same reason as the lawyer in the story. We are seeking to justify ourselves. We are seeking to call our current behavior right and good and in no need of changing.

But Jesus tells us the same story. Jesus tells us exactly what He tells the lawyer: You go and likewise show mercy. You go and have compassion for those who need it. You go and be a neighbor.

Though we live in a different time and place, we can still hurt our neighbors by our inactivity, by passing by on the other side. We can still get ourselves into trouble by trying to hold to an ideology rather than showing mercy.

Your neighbor is anyone in need of mercy, regardless of race, ethnicity, legality, language, clothing, or religious belief. I hope we can prove to be neighbors like the Good Samaritan.

Over the past few weeks, we have talked about stewarding our talents and skills, our relationships, our time, and this week we talk about financial resources.

Oftentimes stewardship reminders are heard simply as pleas for people to “give more money.” But my responsibility as your pastor is not to fundraise more dollars. My responsibility is to walk with you as you grow in faith. And (whether you want to hear this or not) how you steward the financial resources God has given you is a pretty good indicator of your (hopefully growing) faith.

God has put each of us into different situations where we have varying financial resources as well as varying responsibilities that demand portions of our financial resources.

Some people are given massive amounts of financial resources and are able to give vast quantities to the church and other non-profit organizations without ever being in any financial danger.

Others (probably most of us) have been blessed financially, but we still have to be careful about the money we spend. We can’t go out to eat for every meal. We can’t be on vacation constantly. We don’t have an infinite amount of resources. We have to be wise with what we’ve been given.

And there are others who are truly struggling financially, who aren’t sure how they are going to pay their bills this month, who can’t fill their gas tanks entirely full and have to hover between quarter and half a tank in perpetuity.

No matter where you land on this spectrum, faithfulness in giving is part of the Christian life. That doesn’t mean that everybody has to give 10% (commonly called tithing) as a hard and fast rule. For a person struggling financially 1% of their income may be too much. Faithfulness in giving might mean starting to give at a dollar a week or five dollars a month. For a person who has been abundantly blessed financially, 10% might not affect them at all. Faithful giving likely means far more than 10% for people in such situations.

But faithful giving isn’t about dollar amounts or about percentages. Faithful giving is a matter of the heart. It’s about trusting that God will provide, that we can depend on God for our daily bread, that God gives us all that we need to support this body and life.

No matter where you are with giving right now, no matter what the dollar amount is or the percentage is, I want you to prayerfully consider stepping out in faith and increasing that giving. There are many reasons people may ask you to give more, but my reason for asking is for the sake of spiritual health, for the sake of depending less on money and more on God.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way in Mere Christianity:

“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.”

You might not be ready for that this year. But I hope you’ll step toward that, or at least begin to lean towards it.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

When it comes to stewardship, the typical tagline I usually hear is “Time, Talent, and Treasure.” Indeed, these three things are very important gifts for us to steward. We need to use our time wisely, committing to the true priorities in life. We should be using our talents and passions, not just for earning a living, but also for the extension and strengthening of God’s kingdom. And we must steward our money wisely as well. Jesus talks about money way more than you might expect. He knows that money is one of the things that trips us up. We invest too much in things that have no lasting value.

But there is (at least) one gift missing from this “time, talent, and treasure” tagline. Relationships.

God has given us a variety of relationships, and just like with time, talent, and treasure, our relationships are good gifts from God that we must steward wisely for the extension and strengthening of God’s kingdom.

Some of you are parents, and you must steward your relationships with your children. There are dozens of decisions you need to make every day in this regard. What do you feed them? What do you teach them? What do you let them watch on TV? Or if they are older, how often do you call, text, write? How available are you to watch grandkids? 

Some of us are married, and we must steward that relationship, nurturing it toward continued growth and health and love. 

All of us have friends. Each friendship requires varying actions and activities to show and share our care for our friends.

Stewarding relationships is in my opinion the most challenging part of being a steward of God’s good gifts. If a friend doesn’t know Jesus, how and when do you say something about it? If one of your adult children has walked away from the church, how do you bring that up in a loving way? How do you help people move closer to Jesus without harming your relationship with them?

That’s a lot of questions that I don’t have the answers to. But this Sunday, we will look at two people who stewarded their relationships well, resulting in the extension and strengthening of the kingdom of God. Their names are Eunice and Lois.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

This week we continue our stewardship emphasis. Two weeks ago, we talked about our talents and skills. Last week we talked about our relationships. This week we talk about time.

Time is one of the most challenging things to steward in today’s world, especially in metropolitan areas like our own. Many people in our area are happy if they only have to commute one hour, one way. That’s pretty outlandish for much of the country, but here, that seems to be on the low end.

Even if you don’t have a long commute, you probably have family activities that take you all over the Bay Area, whether it’s your own activities or those of kids or grandkids, everybody seems to be on the go all the time.

One of the things that gets lost in this overscheduled world is the ability to rest. I’ve fallen prey to this quite frequently. When I actually do carve out some time to rest, I feel, well, restless. I feel jittery like I need to be doing something, like I’m wasting time.

Rest is not a waste of time. And I think we all probably need more of it.

Jesus’ sets a good example for us. Numerous times throughout the Gospels, Jesus withdraws to be alone. He withdraws to spend time with His heavenly Father. He withdraws to pray and rest.

I don’t think any of us can honestly say our busy lives are filled with more important tasks than Jesus’ life. We need to find ways to set up boundaries in our lives to find rest, and I should certainly need by example.

Monday is my day off. While I initially started off doing pretty well at keeping that day as a rest day, over time I found myself working here and there throughout Monday. I’d answer an email that could certainly wait. I’d write down some ideas for my next sermon or Bible study. I’d agree to a visit that could have been rescheduled.

As I considered my own stewarding of time, I realized I had moved to a place that was lacking health and wisdom. So, please, don’t be offended if you don’t hear from me on Mondays. In order to steward my own time more wisely, I need to create a boundary around that day. And I think I’ll be a better pastor, servant, and leader because of it.

Thanks for your care and understanding.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

On Sunday at the voters meeting after church, the council introduced a change that we’ve been discussing for a few months now.

The proposed change involves the way we teach Sunday School to our children. Currently, the children leave the worship service after the children’s chat and come back into the worship service at some point during or after the offering. Starting in September, we’ll be trying a test run of having the kids remain in the worship service and holding Sunday School for the children at the same time as Bible study for the adults after worship.

The current plan is to try this from September through December, assessing if we should continue the practice into 2020 and beyond.

I know that this is a big ask. It is a lot to ask of parents, Sunday School teachers, and probably most especially of our Sunday School kids.

There are pros and cons to the current way we handle Sunday School. There are pros and cons to the change we will be making. I know I’ve spoken with several of you about this, but I haven’t reached everybody one-on-one, so I wanted to speak to this change here in the First Notes. Over the next few weeks I plan to lay out some of the reasoning behind the change and how the congregational leadership hopes it will better form and instruct the congregation’s children as we all seek to follow Christ together.

As Ellen noted in the meeting on Sunday, this began with a simple question from me wanting to know the history of how we came to have the current policy for Sunday School. Discussions with the council, the elders, other congregation members, and nearby pastors have led me to support the change as the best course of action at this time for First Lutheran Church and Preschool.

I know there are a lot of questions and a lot of logistical challenges to work through before we launch in September. I want to be as transparent about this change as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please talk with me about them. Let’s do our best to refrain from gossip. Let’s walk forward together into this change with hopefulness that this is where the Lord is leading our community.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

When I was in college, I sang in various choirs throughout my time there. We always did tours during Holy Week around the country. On one of these tours, I think my sophomore year, our choir director selected the most difficult song I’ve ever had to sing, a song I actually couldn’t sing the entire way through. It was called Song for Athene. If you search for it on YouTube and give a listen, you might be wondering why it was so challenging for me to sing. It’s a hauntingly beautiful song, but it’s pretty slow and standard for a good choir.

In those days I sang Bass 2, the lowest notes on the page. The Bass 2 part for Song for Athene is one note. One. Note. Now you’re probably really confused. How could one note be the hardest song I’ve ever sung? The one note was an F. It’s the note just below the staff in the bass clef. My fellow Bass 2s and I had to hold that F, staggering our breathing, for about seven minutes. I sang that song nearly 100 times and I never ever made it to the end. About four minutes into the song my voice couldn’t hit that note anymore. I waited for 30 seconds, tried again, and just struggled into the song was over.

Sometimes the most challenging things in life are the things that don’t require a lot of flash or thought or even talent, but they do require prolonged consistency and steadiness.

This is how Lent feels to me. Lent requires a level of persistence and steadiness that is hard to maintain. The tasks are no more challenging than in Epiphany or Advent or any other time of the year. But in Lent, I sometimes find myself needing a breath, needing to take extra breaks before I start again.

And that’s okay. I am, after all, only human. Life continues its symphony around me, even when I need to take a break and breathe.

As you journey toward the cross this Lenten season, don’t forget to breathe.

God’s Blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy

Aside from running, one of the things I do in my spare time is listen to audio books. I recently finished (not for the first time) C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength. It’s the third book in his so-called “Space Trilogy.”

It’s pretty strange. I’m not sure if you’ve read it, but it’s a science fiction thriller filled with an odd combination of myth and religion and politics.

One of the concepts Lewis unfolds that is absolutely fascinating is the concept of the inner ring. This is a sociological phenomenon in which people try to get to the center of power and control. It doesn’t necessarily mean having the highest position, but rather having the most influence, seeming like the most important person.

You see this in every institution. At the seminary for example, one professor put it to me this way in his own experience. There are only a select few who get to teach at the seminary. There are even fewer who teach the most important department: practical theology. There are even fewer who teach the most important subject: preaching. And even fewer, only two, who teach preaching full-time…and I’m better than the other guy.

Notice how the rings narrow down smaller and smaller (from school to department to subject to full-time on the subject) until it is just you. Some people are drawn to this sort of exclusivity and selectivity. Their ambition drives them further and further toward power and self-importance.

This sort of thinking does not work in the Body of Christ. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you.’” In the church, the choir cannot say to the Sunday school teachers “I have no need of you.” The elders cannot say to the trustees “I have no need of you.” And the pastor cannot say to anyone “I have no need of you.”

Everyone is important. Everyone is needed. Every gift and skill and passion that God has given to us as His people is necessary for the health and vitality of the church.

Which also means that you cannot say of yourself, “The church doesn’t need me.” Because we do. We need you. We are not healthy without you.

God’s blessings on your week.

Pastor Andy