"Notes for My Family"

Last year I attended a retreat for new pastors. It was one of those mandatory things that I drag my feet and or arrive kicking and screaming to! Anyway, it was an entire three day event on ‘Stewardship’. I was pretty sure that I had ‘been there and done that’! Anyway, what do they know about my personal financial situation? As always, I ended up learning A LOT!

One of the best gifts of the weekend was a little handout, booklet-style, called: Notes for My Family. It was a document that included; funeral plans, important documents, insurance policies, assets lists and a host of other important information. It took me a while to complete, but I finished it and told my parents and my sister of the booklet. If something unexpected should happen to me, my family now knows that contained within this booklet is all the information of where to find everything and just exactly what I would like done at a funeral or memorial service. I keep the booklet in the same place and they know where to look. The booklet can be downloaded from the World Wide Web at:
http://www.elca.org/FO/notes.pdf

If you would like to have even more detailed information for a funeral or memorial service, you can always give the church your ideas/instructions for us to maintain in your family file.

I expect to keep kicking, screaming and dragging to things that are good for me, and I expect to keep learning for a long time, but just in case…..I have Notes for My Family.

Pastor Lynnae

The Beloved Disciple

This Easter season, we continue to read from the Gospel of John, despite the fact that we are in the year of Matthew. Each Sunday we read the poetic pre-cross/resurrection accounts of Jesus life. John seemed to see ‘telling’ accounts of Jesus’ glory and intent in everything he said and did.

The community for which the Gospel of John was written was a very special group of believers. They were among the first to actually understand theologically that Jesus was God. They worked out the presence of God in man or what we would later call ‘incarnation’. Because of their free thoughts of Christ, they were expelled from the synagogues and may have been a bit bitter about their treatment. The gospel is harsh on Jews and in fact can be read as anti-Jewish IF you are not careful. Most probably, the Johannine Community was arguing with their relatives! It was a family squabble.

I believe that the best way to read the gospel is to read yourself into it.

Throughout the book there are references made to the ‘beloved disciple’. The disciple is never named. This disciple could have been any one of the members of the Johannine community – or it could be you! And in just the same manner, we are the ones that shut out the radical, liberal gospel message of a God and man that walks among us. As the season of Easter comes to a close and we move into the ongoing mission and ministry presented to us in the Pentecost, may you be beloved and may you seek to open the doors of your faith to new and ‘resurrecting’ ideas.

Pastor Lynnae

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Beautiful Churches

When I was in seminary I read a book called “Re-pitching the Tent”. It was all about the building of church ‘buildings’. Faith community worship began on a mountain with a stone altar and has developed into the church structures of today. Some of the most beautiful churches that I have ever seen (other than the FULL ones) are churches that are built in a simple style and that have a story to tell.

Some of the most unusual, are “the wooden churches – the majority of which were built in accordance with laws that discriminated against non-Catholics. No other European country has as high a density and great a diversity of wooden churches as Slovakia, so of course, I am partial to them!

Slovakia has the highest density of wooden churches anywhere in Europe. In 1681, the Roman Catholic Austro-Hungarian Emperor dictated that only Roman Catholic churches could use hard materials (stone, metal). Protestant and Ruthenian/Rusyn Greek Catholic churches could only be made of wood and were not allowed to use nails in their construction. They had to be
erected within one year, start to finish, and were not permitted in the center of town.

Builders used ingenious carpentry techniques for joining together pieces of wood to create these lovely churches. Weathered, dark wooden shingles seem to ripple and flow, like snakeskin, over these organic-looking structures.” (from the CometoSlovakia.com web page)

Within the inner sanctuaries of these churches I first encountered ‘painted churches’. I found on the ceilings beautiful scenes of clouds and blue skies, depicted it seemed to be like looking into the heavens. One church had each of their organs wind pipes painted to look like a singing choir of openmouthed angels. Unknown artists worked painfully to grace the simple woodwork with images of the holy.

Upon returning to Texas, I was astonished to find the painted churches of our own areas had Czechoslovak and German immigrant heritage. In the Mid-19th century the immigrants
banded together in small communities on the rolling plains of Texas and churches were among the first structures that they built. Join us on April 17th as we take a tour of the painted churches of Texas and learn a little about our heritage. Call the church office to reserve your
place in the van!

Pastor Lynnae

The Book of Faith

From Pastor Lynnae—
I remember when people used to say that Lutherans were pompous because they knew scripture so well. They could find anything and everything in their well worn bibles and they had well informed opinions on the matters of life. Lutherans were famous for their schools of secondary and post secondary education. Lutherans were founded upon a solid base of God’s holy and living Word. I’m not sure that is so true anymore. What with the right-wing non-denominational churches spouting their manipulation of biblical politics and the so called bible-based churches quoting out of context… we are losing a bit of our own informed biblical heritage. I’m sick of televangelists telling us how to be ‘successful’ or how my dollars will bring about the second coming.

It is time to put our lives back on track. Get out your bibles – Lutherans, because here we GO! Bishop Mark Hanson has launched an initiative to get Lutherans back into Scripture. The Book of Faith initiative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America invites the whole church to become more fluent in the first language of faith, the language of Scripture, in order that we might live into our calling as a people — renewed, enlivened, and empowered by the Word.

We can’t take it all on at once, so we are taking the first step by getting back to our Lutheran heritage and basics. Starting April 13th I will begin teaching an Adult Confirmation Class at the 9:45 a.m. Adult Sunday School hour in the Activity Center. This will be a chance to review your catechism studies as well as a chance to examine some of the documents of our faith such as the Augsburg Confession, the Large Catechism and the Babylonian Captivity!

Never heard of them? Well, come to the class whether you are a life-long or a new Lutheran. Get started on your personal journey with the Book of Faith.

Pastor Lynnae

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Jesus Christ - Our Playing Coach

We have a ‘playing coach’ in Jesus Christ. I guess it’s no secret that I love basketball. Well, actually not so much any basketball, but NBA – OK really, I just love the Spurs!

It's getting down to play off time so I have been thinking about basketball a lot! I have learned a few things from being a Spurs fan. One thing that I learned is that those coaches who once played in the NBA themselves seem to make better coaches. They know the ropes (or at least the hoops!). They know the pressure and they certainly know the feeling of defeat. Coach Larry Brown is a ‘playing coach’. He can relate to his players. He can understand their fears, their egos and maybe even their fouls, because he experienced them himself when he played in the NBA!

Jesus came to walk on this earth and to experience life as we know it. He knew sorrow and joy, success and defeat. Forgive the comparison, but Jesus is really like a ‘playing coach’. Incarnational theology is the faith understanding that Jesus lives in and among each of us. I thank God that Jesus knows what I am going through. This season of Lent we have a chance to
get to know a ‘playing savior’. Take a time out – listen to the One who really knows.

Pastor Lynnae

I once heard a story...

There was a gentleman that stopped going to church. Many people speculated as to why. Some thought that he was too busy to attend. Some thought that he was angry with God and others knew that he was really just angry with the pastor!

One member did talk with him but the approach was not very comforting. “Why aren’t you coming to church?” Finally, the pastor made a call.

The gentlemen opened the door and the pastor stepped into the sparse yet friendly home. Without speaking, they sat by the fire. For many hours they watched the fire burn. Then the pastor made a bold move, taking a stick and separating one log from the burning fire. It didn’t take much time for the separated log to turn from bright red to black and almost cold. Just before the log went totally out, the pastor pushed the log back into the roaring fire and it quickly reignited. They sat there quietly for quite some time.

Then the gentleman said, “Pastor, you’ve made your point, I’ll see you Sunday.”

Wherever you’ve been, we’ve missed you. I hope you’re OK and if you need a call (or a push), just let Pastor Fetter or I know!

Pastor Lynnae

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Fasting and Prayer

“Blow the trumpet in Zion;
Sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
For the day of the LORD is coming, it is near –
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
A great and powerful army comes;
Their like has never been from of old,
Nor will be again after them in ages to come.” —Joel 2:1-2

The Old Testament lesson assigned to Ash Wednesday has Joel calling the people by the blowing of a trumpet to a fast. The Prophet Joel sees the recent ‘bad luck’ of the people as being a direct reflection upon their refusing to follow God, most especially in their worship practices.

I once was at an Ethiopian meal with a group of immigrants. One woman was ‘fasting’ and so she was eating only bread and fruit, maybe some vegetable greens. Being confused by her definition of a ‘fast’ I questioned her. “What does a fast mean to you?” This pious and faithful Christian woman from Ethiopia, who had struggled greatly to come to America and try to start a new life answered, “A fast is when you refuse to eat that which the rich people eat.” I loved that.

My idea of a fast was when you denied yourself. It was a physical fast that, hopefully ends up being a lesson to yourself about your reliance upon God. There are many different understandings of a fast in the Bible. Many times it meant a different diet, but not wholly
denying any sustenance. Always, always, always ‘fasting’ goes hand in hand with prayer. I believe prayer is an active communication. I believe that prayer or communicating with God leads to great and humble acts of faith. This Ethiopian woman gave me a new understanding of fasting. Her fasting was not showy or self centered. It was a statement that aligned her with Jesus, the champion of the poor.

Lent is a time to blow the trumpet. It is a time to sound the alarm about the ways in which we are not covenantal people. It is a time to reflect upon the ways of Jesus and the ways of society. It is a time to fast. Whatever fast you may take on, may it reflect your choice to follow Jesus, for the day of the Lord is coming near!

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