2008
Is there hope for the New Year? / January 2008
Church Guy 1 Corithians 1:17-23 / May 2008
By this everyone will know / Cannon Falls Beacon May 7, 2008
Relationships matter / July 2008
Everything Has Its Time / September 2008
It is better to take refuge in the Lord… ps 118.8a / October 2008
American Christians / Cannon Falls Beacon Novemeber 2008
Why does the Christ child come to you this year? / December 2008Is there hope for the New Year? / January 2008
Isaiah 43:1-25
I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I
will not remember your sins. Isa 43:1-25
Let me encourage you to read Isaiah 43:1-25. Read it, meditate on it.
When I was younger a priest told me, in order to become a priest or a
pastor you need to fall in love with Jesus. Then he told me to read and
meditate on Isaiah 43:1-25.
These verses are very helpful to us as we look to a new year. They have
most if not all that we need as we move into 2008. Let me explain. How
did things go last year? Did things go well? Did you do well?Were there
things you did that you shouldn’t have? Were there things you didn’t do that
you should have? 2008 will bring us all we can handle. There is no sense bringing
2007’s baggage into 2008, not to mention pre- 2007 baggage. We need to be
able to travel light and keep all of our time and energy with the task at hand as
we head into the new year. The prophet Isaiah reminds us of one of the benefits
of having the wonderful god that we have. Are you carry old baggage, old burdens
of past mistakes?
Lighten up, receive the Lord’s blessings. Isaiah reminds us that God blots out our
transgressions, our failures and sins. To top it off, he will not even remember our
sins once he’s blotted them out. Jesus offers you a 2008 free from all the mistakes
of 2007 and earlier.
Another benefit Isaiah points out of having the god we have, is his presence. God
doesn’t just give us life. God gives us life and travels with us. In the movie “Little
Miss Sunshine” which I am not recommending, especially for children, there is a
wonderful scene that gives us a glimpse of what God is offering us. In the movie
the family is traveling in a minivan on the highway. Dwayne the teenage son who
is obsessed with flying finds out he is colorblind and can’t becoming a pilot.
Dwayne freaks out. They have to pull the van over to the side of the road. Dwayne
jumps out and after yelling and screaming at everyone, runs away from the van and
down a hill. He sits on the ground and refuses to get up. No one can do anything with
him. Finally his little sister Olive walks down the hill over to her brother. She doesn’t
say a word, she just puts her head on his shoulder. After a while Dwayne regains his
composure and walks back to the van with his sister.
What joys and challenges will 2008 bring us? Whatever happens God is promising to
go with us. I know the scene from “Little Miss Sunshine” is just a movie. I know it’s not
real but if a little girl can help a teenage boy in the middle of the crisis of his life by just
placing her head on his shoulder, just think of what Jesus can do for you.
“But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, ……. he who formed you, …:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not
overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame
shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your
Savior. …” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
He goes with you into 2008. God bless you. Pastor Sharot.
Let me just clear up some
confusion. In reference to the title above, I am not getting
lewd and I did spell
buts correctly. Just before Easter as we
headed into Holy Week,
the pastors of our South East Minnesota Synod received
an email of encouragement
from Bishop Usgaard. He talked about the power of the
“but”; we are talking about
the word and not a particular part of our anatomy.
statement? For example:
Nobody
likes “negative” campaigning but it’s very effective.
…..
but to tell the truth….
This means that whatever was said before the but, is incorrect.
I know
it’s not nice to say this but ….
Bishop Usgaard illustrated this point by quoting 1Corinthians
15
"If Christ has not been raised, then our
proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain...But in fact Christ has been raised from the
dead."
We remember Holy Week because a
terrible thing happened 2,000 years ago at this time.
We, the whole human race
crucified and killed Jesus. Maybe we didn’t do it physically but
through our
sin we made it necessary for Christ to die for our sake. Jesus died on the
cross
and was buried BUT. BUT God raised him from the dead.
most to be pitied,
we ourselves are made to be liars because we say he rose from the dead
which is
not true if he did not rise from the dead. BUT, BUT HE DID RISE.
The gospel works really well
going in that direction.
Jesus died BUT he was raised.
We sinned BUT we are forgiven
We were still enemies BUT he died
for us.
For humans it is impossible BUT
with God all things are possible.
Jesus died for us BUT
He has risen BUT
I have new life BUT
I am a Christian BUT
to show love or to
justify hate? BUT could possibly be one of the most beautiful words in
the
world BUT it can also be a very ugly word, used in very ugly ways that deny the
grace
of God.
self pity. BUT
Jesus raises us from the dead to humility, for service, with love.
Pastor Sharot
Go to Writings By this everyone will know / Cannon Falls Beacon May 7, 2008
‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ John 13.35:
Once upon a time in a land far, far away lived an unhappy man. The unhappy man belonged to 3rd
Lutheran Church, a little but proud congregation. 3rd Lutheran Church was going through some tough
times. They were an aging congregation that was struggling financially and their building had some
serious structural problems. The state warned 3rd Lutheran that they had to fix those problems or they
would have no alternative but to close it as the building in its present condition was dangerous.
3rd Lutheran Church, for these and other reasons, decided to merge with 2nd Methodist Church another
congregation in town. 2nd Methodist Church was a young, growing congregation with a fairly new facility
and it was only a block away.
The unhappy man was a lifelong member of 3rd Lutheran Church. He was a strong supporter of his
church, offering his time, talents and treasures with no desire for recognition. The man was very unhappy
about the decision to merge. He was so unhappy that he worked himself into a tizzy.
The unhappy man entered the church building one morning. The pastor was sitting in his office with the
newspaper and his morning cup of coffee. The pastor seeing the man come in greeted him, “Hey, how
you doing?” “Fine,” said the man. “Whatcha doin?”, asked the pastor. The unhappy man with a sledge
hammer in his hand said, “I have some work to do in the sanctuary.” This was not uncommon; he often
did jobs around the building. “Well,” said the pastor,
“when you’re done I’d like to talk, I’ve been
worried about you.” “Ok”, the man said.
A few moments later there was a loud crash followed by a scream. The pastor ran into the sanctuary - his
heart pounding. He took one look then ran back to his office to call for an ambulance. The man had taken
the sledge hammer to the beautiful new piano. It was the beautiful new piano he had recently donated to the
church. He would not allow this new merged church to have that new piano. When the pastor looked in, he saw
what looked like the baby grand piano swallowing the man. The man smashed the piano with his sledge hammer
and somehow wound up inside. The man’s hand was right next to the little plaque on the piano that read, Donated
to 3rd Lutheran Church, to the glory of God.
We witness to God’s glory by the things we say and do. How will we witness to the world - the world to
which God gave his only son to die for us? Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13.35
Pastor Arthur Sharot, Urland Lutheran Church
Church Guy 1 Corithians 1:17-23 / May 2008
1 Corinthians 1:17-23
23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
Aaron from
Hey Church Guy,
Down here in
Lutheran Churches. Do ya’ll
believe in the bible? We preach the bible. What do ya’ll preach?
Aaron,
Good to hear from you. The
answer to your question is yes and no. The Lutheran church's life
was born out
of it is love and reliance on scripture. When Martin Luther questioned the
Catholic
churches policies way back in the 1500's the “Church”, the Roman
Catholic Church was the church
at that time, asked Luther to recant, to take
back his criticism. Luther told them, I can't, recant. In a
famous speech Luther said he would not recant, "Unless
I am convicted by scripture and plain reason - ......”[1]
We Lutherans hold the bible
in the highest regard but we do not worship the bible or preach the bible.
We
preach Jesus Christ crucified.
Aaron you might be asking yourself, what's the
difference? Let me tell you a little
story. Once there
were two men out for a early morning walk. The first man
stuck out his finger in front of the other
pointing and said, “look at the
moon”. But the only thing his simple friend
saw was his finger. Lutherans
believe that the bible is like the finger that points to the moon. The bible
is not the object of our worship,
it points to the object of our worship: God.
If God is
what you worship, why do you say you preach Jesus Christ crucified? Isn't that
depressing?
To put it simply, the bible
is one of our best pointers and it points to Jesus. Jesus is the way we get to
know God. Jesus dying on the cross for us is the best way for us to know who
and what God is and
was and will be to us. It is depressing to think
about Jesus dying so gruesomely especially since his
did it for us. It
is also fantastic and inspiring to know
that he did it for us.
don't
know it nearly as well as we should. Recently, I heard a speaker talk about our
familiarity
with the bible or lack there of, he said, “We need to kick it up”.
Our national church body, the
Evangelical
“Book of Faith”. The Book of Faith initiative invites the whole
church (every ELCA congregation)
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, empowered, and sent by the Word. [2]
I’m
looking forward to it.
Church Guy
[2] http://www.elca.org/bookoffaith/overview/
Go to Writings
Relationships matter / July 2008
In this chapter the Apostle Paul is speaking of love.
Technically Paul is talking about Christian love:
the love between Christians and
the love between the Christian and God. The perfect love that Paul
is referring
to is only experienced in the way God relates to us. We strive to reach that
perfection;
though we fail, we still strive.
chapter it
certainly does fit. He is not referring to love in relationship to a husband
and wife but this
love he is speaking of is as important and perhaps more
important in a marriage relationship than in
any other.
marriage, are important - but nothing is more important to the
institution of marriage than love in the
relationship between the husband and
wife.
decisions and gets pregnant. Right off the bat she admits that she is
not equipped to take on the
responsibility of the care of this child. (Of course it would have been better if she
realized this
before the making of the baby but then we wouldn’t have a movie,
would we?)
indeed heroic; not many teenage girls are able to selflessly give their
child up even when they cognitively
know it would be the best thing for the
child. Juno sets out to find a loving caring couple that want a child,
will
love it, and will give it everything she can’t. She takes her search to the
“Penny-saver” newspaper. She
has good intentions but she is only 16.
due date, disaster hits. Juno finds out the couple is
getting a divorce. She thought they were the perfect
couple. This hits her
hard. This couple’s breakup, the people who were going to take care of her baby
really gets to her. The break up stirs up other disappointments in her life.
She has had to live with the loss
she faced in her own parents’ breakup. Her
father stayed with her but her mother deserted her. She wonders
if anyone stays
together – if anyone stays in love with
each other?
their weddings maybe
because subconsciously they realize the importance of
love in the relationship between
a husband and wife, the importance of love in
a marriage. Obviously it is important for couples to love each
other and keep
the marriage together. It is also easy to see how the importance their staying
together affects
their children. The stability of marriage is important to
family and friends as well as the rest of society.
and relationally staying
together striving to love one another. This is important for all of us.
Naturally, God
is very interested.
Pastor Sharot
Ecclesiastes 3
Everything Has Its Time / September 2008
For
everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven NRSV:
Let’s use the energy of the new season for the Kingdom of God.
Most people enjoy the summer. We are programmed to love the
summer. When we were younger summer
meant freedom from school. Summer vacation is
a time to travel, to play, to enjoy the sun, and to just enjoy
the freedom from
the responsibility of school. I still get excited when school is out for the
summer even though
I don’t go to school anymore.
By the time summer is over and school begins again there is
a sense of excitement. There is energy that wasn’t
there during the summer. The
energy of the fall could have to do with the change of the season or the
beginning
of new things or maybe both. Let’s use this energy for the Kingdom of
God. All things are from God, let us use
them for God.
What should we do? What can we do? Look around at the things
we do at Urland. See something you’re interested
in? See something that is a
possibility? See something that needs to get done? Look around the community.
Remember
God is active in our community through people like you. God’s reach
through Urland goes as far as we reach.
This is a time to get involved in bible studies or to just get
back involved at Urland. Look at the calendar we have many
opportunities to get
involved. If nothing fits your schedule maybe you want to start a new group –
talk with me about it.
This new season is a time to help get others involved or
back involved at Urland. Simple invitations are wonderful
opportunities for
evangelism. You don’t have to be Billy Graham, but you can say, “do you have a
church home”,
“would you like to come to church with me”, “do you need a ride”,
“do your kids have a place to go to Sunday
school”. What could happen? If they have a place,
great. We are not looking to steal anybody else’s members.
That doesn’t help
build the kingdom of God. If they aren’t interested that’s ok at least they
know you care about
them. Someday they might be interested and now they know a
place where they are welcome. If you love Urland,
don’t be ashamed to others
about it and to share it with others.
Be on the lookout for new people coming to worship. People
are looking for new places to worship. Let’s make
sure they are welcomed.
God bless you and let’s have a great fall.
Pastor Sharot
Go to WritingsIt is better to take refuge
in the Lord… ps 118.8a / October 2008
These are not the
easiest of times we live in. Our country is at war, a huge financial crisis; we
are in fear of terrorism
and natural disasters along with other challenges. We
also have local and personal things facing us. No one wants to
face
these types of challenges but one of the good things you can say
about these difficult times is that it helps us gain
a better
perspective on life. It helps us to see what we can really count on. It helps us to see that it is
better to take
refuge in the Lord than in anything else.
Better is the one
who doesn’t put their trust in leaders,
Better is the one
who does not put their trust in military power,
Better is the one,
who does not put their trust in wealth.
Better is the
one, who trusts in the Lord.
We are still a great nation. We
do trust our Leaders, even the ones we don’t agree with. We do trust in the power
and wealth of our country; however, we do know or at least we should realize
that we may not always be a world
power with a mighty military and great
wealth. I am not trying to be unpatriotic; I’m just trying to be realistic.
Many
world powers have failed. History has showns us this many times.
Whether or not we remain a world power, we are not sure what we will
have to face in the future. Will we go to
war with Afghanistan or Korea or some
country we are not even worrying about right now? Who would have
thought that
some of our financial institutions would have to be bailed out to the tune of a
trillion dollars or more?
How will that all work out? I’m not even sure how
many zeros that is. No matter what life might throw at us one
thing is for
sure. We can count on Jesus. No matter what happens to our country as far as
our military, our wealth,
yes no matter who is elected president we can seek
our refuge in the Lord.
down with joy but we are not a
people without hope, left to despair. If we were to seek our refuge in earthly
power
and wealth we would be of all people most to be pitied. We have hope
because we seek our refuge in the Lord.
Better is the one who trusts in the
Lord!
Pastor Sharot
American Christians / Cannon Falls Beacon Novemeber 2008
Psalm 72 is most likely a prayer song for the coronation or annual commemoration of a King. It asks God
to bless the king with important attributes such as righteousness and justice for the rich and poor, that he
would defend the cause of the poor, deliver the needy and crush their oppressors. The psalm asks for long
life for the king that he may be faithful to God.
As Americans we have no king; we have a President. Last week, we elected a new President. It was avery
long and contentious election. This election was filled with hateful attacks and slander from both sides.
Many of us must confess that we have acted self-righteously at the expense of others. We have atleast
one commandment against such things.
As with all elections some were happy with the results, some were not. American Christians were on both
sides of the election just as we are often on both sides of many issues. As Americans we have aspecial place
in our heart for our country and its people. As Christians we are to care for other Americans and as well as
all God's children throughout the world. We must confess that sometimes, it's just easier to love our relatives,
friends and neighbors. [Well most of the time.] We feel a special bond to people we know, people who are
similar to us.
American Christians will not all agree on what a prosperous, compassionate, righteous country looks like.
We will not all agree on the correct way to get there. We will soon have a new leader, as Americans we do
not have agree with our leaders; however, as Christians we are to pray for our new President just as we are
called to pray for our current President. We pray that America will be prosperous, that we reach out to the
world as a compassionate, righteous example to the world. We pray that the President would work for the
people in his care-- the rich and the poor, Democrats and Republicans, Independents as well as everyone
else. We pray that the President and our whole country be about God's will and God's ways.
As Christians, there are things we do agree on: We are united in our love of God and trust in JesusChrist.
We are united in our concern for the widow and the orphan; in other words, Christ calls us tocare for and be
concerned for all those who are vulnerable and in need throughout the whole world.
As Americans we know we will not agree with each other on everything, never did, never will. While wewill
undoubtedly not all always agree with the new President and the direction of our country, let us commit ourselves
to be a positive force in word and deed for how we believe Christ is calling us to live.
Let us all agree and commit ourselves as American Christians to pray that God would lead all American elected
officials as well as the rest of us to be the America God wants us to be.
Why does the Christ child come to you this
year?
Throughout history, God’s people have cried out for salvation. God who is graciousand merciful, slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness has heard those cries and saved them. Many times God sent
a savior to redeem his people. God’s people cried out in slavery in Egypt and God sent Moses. They needed
someone to lead them into the Promised Land so he sent Joshua. When they were oppressed by neighboring
countries, he sent Judges like Deborah and Gideon.
God heard the cries of his people and sent an angel to a young girl named Mary,
who was betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph. The angel of the Lord tells her that
she will bear God’s son who will be the savior of his people. When Mary hears this
news, she runs and tells her cousin Elizabeth. Mary sings her famous song of praise.
In the song, she tells how this savior will save those in need, the lowly and the
hungry. God will save his people in remembrance of his mercy, according to his
promise.
God still listens to the cries of his people. Saviors are sent to people in need. Jesusthe ultimate savior was
sent for the salvation of the world. Jesus does not need to come year after year only at Christmas. He came
once and for all. Jesus does not need to die year after year at Easter. He died on the cross once and for all;
once for all people of all time.
During this season, we celebrate the birth of our savior year after year. Year afteryear, we remember how
he saves us. Jesus’ birth is a historical fact but Jesus’ birth is not just history, it is also contemporary.
Jesus walked on this earth 2,000 years ago but he is with us every day and to the end of the age as he promised.
So I ask you, why do you or should you celebrate his birth this year? What is it thatthe savior of the world
brings to you and your loved ones this Christmas? How is Jesus your savior today? I promise you that if
you seek the answer to these questions your Christmas cookies will taste better, your traditional food and
drink will be better (even the Lutefisk!) and you will appreciate your visits and celebrations more. If you
meditate on why Jesus lives with us every day of the year it will be a source of great comfort as you not
only remember the good of this year but also the bad.
If you realize why God sent you a savior you will not only remember yourneed for a savior, you will also
remember your love for the one who sent him and your realization will spread.
God bless you with a great Christmas,
Pastor Sharot