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Hop on social media, and you’re likely to see various memes like the one above. As human beings we strive to make meaning out of our lives and the world. What’s the point of it all, anyway? Some might suggest that the point of life is whatever we want it to be, while still others might suggest that the meaning of life can be found entirely within ourselves. So then what do we say as followers of Jesus? 

Last week, I participated in a webinar sponsored by Faith+Lead, an organization sponsored by Luther Seminary (an ELCA seminary in the Twin Cities). As a part of the presentation, I was reminded that as followers of Jesus, we believe that, indeed, Jesus does make a difference in the way we make meaning out of our lives and the world around us. Now, for many of you reading this, likely your response to that statement is, “Of course, Pastor! Of course Jesus is central to how we make meaning of our lives and the world!”

But if that is our response, then how might we be led to witness to that truth? And how might that impact the way we live our lives, and even how we spend our time?  

The truth is that there are plenty of things that we could turn to as we seek “meaning” for ourselves and those around us. And, there are plenty of activities that help form us as “good people” and provide a sense of community. But in the midst of all those things, it is vital for us to carve out time to be formed by the only one who gives our lives meaning: Jesus Christ. 

So as the school year ramps up, and as activities fill our calendars once again, I urge you to make a commitment to carve out time in order to be formed by Jesus. Make a commitment to come to worship, engage in a Bible study or small group, or offer yourself in a time of personal prayer. Whatever it is, make space for Jesus to meet you where you’re at, and make space for Jesus to help make meaning out of whatever it is that you’re experiencing and whatever it is that is going on around you. 

In June, a group of youth from SOTC, Zion, and Grace went to Camp EWALU for a week. Of many activities, the middle school youth had the opportunity to participate in high ropes course challenges. One – accurately named the “Leap of Faith” – asks participants to climb up a 35-foot tall telephone poll. Then, either from a standing or a sitting position, participants leap to a trapeze that is hung from a hefty branch.

Often, once participants end up on top of the pole, that’s when fear sets in. Which is exactly what happened for two of our youth. On top of the pole, they froze. No matter what any of us were saying on the ground, they couldn’t imagine leaving the top of the pole. For safety reasons, we couldn’t pull either one off the pole. But if they could move just an inch, then we would be able to assist them and give them momentum to fall. In time, both of these brave campers did just that. Sliding an inch forward, and then another, and then another, we gave a little extra pull on the rope and got them safely to the ground. 

In many ways, our walk of faith is similar to this challenge. Because, truth be told, to live a life of faith is risky. And, it might be scary at times to consider allowing ourselves to jump into something. But even then, what is asked of us is not to do “everything.” Rather, we are asked to move an inch. And then another inch. And maybe one more inch….trusting that our harness – God – is protecting us from harm, and trusting that those around us will be pulling for us. 

So, if you’re facing something that just seems “too big” or “too scary” or “too much to ask” right now, try sliding forward just an inch. Then, as you’re ready, slide forward yet one more inch – trusting that you’ve got people around you encouraging you to complete that which is before you, and trusting that your God will hold you, protect you, and give you all that you need as you move forward in faith. 

Have you ever tried catching the wind? Maybe as a kid you might have thought you could grasp it in a jar. But the reality is that no matter how hard we try, we just can’t do it. 

In one of our readings from this weekend (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23) we heard the writer reference much of life as a “vanity of vanities.” Literally, in the Hebrew language, the word that references “vanities” means vapor or mist. The author claims that though we chase after things, experiences, wealth, and even happiness in life, all of these things may be like a “chasing after the wind.” (Quite a depressing image…) But even Jesus says something similar in our Gospel passage, reminding us that there are many things we spend our lives trying to achieve or build up. Not just material possessions, but also time spent on getting “ahead” in life and achieving the our next “accomplishment.”

But are these the things that matter? No. Many of us know it. And yet, it’s all too easy to get caught in a trap of chasing after something that is not all that important.

So what’s actually important? In the words of Aryn Michelle, perhaps “the realest things are things you can’t touch with your hands. The realest things are things you can’t see with your eyes. Maybe the realest things are things like hope and love and peace. The realest things are things you believe.” For each of us, the “realest things” might look different. But love lasts. And work done for love of the Lord lasts. And the Lord is ever-lasting. 

So this week, turn yourself to your Lord who is ever-lasting. And in your prayer, ask Jesus to guide you to seek that which is lasting – for your sake, for the sake of your relationship with God, and for the sake of your relationships with others. There may be plenty of things that escape our grasp like vapor in the wind, but grounded in Christ, there is purpose to our lives as we seek that which lasts eternally. 

 

Prayer. It’s seemingly one of the simplest things, and yet the most complicated. As simple as Jesus made it sound in our Gospel reading from this past weekend, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you,” sometimes life makes it seem more complicated than that. 

I don’t think I’m the only one who’s ever wondered if God hasn’t heard my prayers, or wondered if God has left me “without” an answer to my prayers. But recently, I’ve begun thinking about prayer a bit differently. Thinking about our passage from Luke, though Jesus promises to provide for us, Jesus doesn’t promise to give us the very thing we ask for. In the words of Elenore Stump, “He [Jesus] says that if we ask, we will receive; but he doesn’t happen to mention what we will receive.” 

Think of it this way: When you’re physically sick and go to a doctor, it’s not your job to determine what you need to be healed. That’s the doctors job. Your only “job” is to ask for help, seek the guidance and healing of another, and open yourself to receive what the doctor may be able to provide for you. 

Again, using the words of Stump, “In the same way, the Lord’s prayer requires us to trust God enough to tell God what we want – over and over and over. Our job is to ask continually.  God’s job is to figure out what to give us that will really fill us and heal us.” 

This week, dear Shepherds, allow yourself to come to your Father in prayer. Seek to unite yourself with Christ, and be honest with God about where you’re at. And in time, you just might receive that which Jesus promises us in Luke 11: the gift of the Holy Spirit, filling us with grace, with peace, and with life. 

 

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to dwell in the story of Mary and Martha. Though I wasn’t able to worship with you all this weekend due to a positive COVID test, the statement that Jesus tells Martha just wouldn’t leave me last week. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…”  Finishing up a full week with Vacation Bible School, looking ahead to things for the fall, and trying to be present to the joys and sorrows of those within our Shepherd community, I felt a bit like Martha: running around, serving others, attending to their needs, but not taking one moment to sit and be still in the presence of my Lord. 

But by the end of the week and into the weekend, the tone of what Jesus said to Martha took a turn. Instead of hearing Jesus’ voice in an accusatory way, saying with a clip in his voice, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…” I heard this statement from Jesus with more care and compassion. And instead of hearing Jesus direct this statement to Martha, I heard it directed toward me. “Aleese, Aleese, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” 

On Sunday morning, as many of you worshipped together at Shepherd, I was still in bed. When I did wake up, I confess, I didn’t watch the livestream immediately. Later in the day I did. But that morning, in between coughs and some sips of tea, I chose to sit on my couch, to journal, and to put myself at the feet of Jesus for just a bit. 

So this week, I encourage you to find those moments to come and sit at the feet of Jesus. Even if it is for just a moment, sit and receive what Jesus has to offer you. And hear from Jesus what that “one thing” is that you need for the road ahead of you. Distractions, and the work around us, will never cease. But our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ will never, ever be taken away from us. 

 

This past Sunday, we heard the beloved story of the Good Samaritan. Many of us have likely heard, studied, and pondered this text numerous times. Yet still, even after hearing this story over and over again, it continues to challenge us to see one another as our neighbors, to draw near to them, and to reach out in acts of service.

Easy to say. But in practice? Sometimes that asks a bit more than we are willing to give. Yet, drawing on the words of Martin Luther King Jr., as people united to each other in the body of Christ, we don’t have the luxury of isolating ourselves from one another. He writes: 

“On the parable of the Good Samaritan: I imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But by the very nature of his concern, the good Samaritan revised the question, ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'”

What would happen if we approached our neighbors, especially those left half-dead in our society, through the lens of the second question? And, what would happen to us, as we open our eyes to see our neighbors as people full of dignity, deserving of respect?

This week, consider reframing the way you see those around you.  Even today, there are those on the margins who are barely noticed – let alone seen as neighbors – within our communities, within our country, and within our world. If we, as the body of Christ, do not pay heed to the pain of those around us, what will happen to them? 

Having just celebrated the 4th of July holiday, themes of freedom and independence are on my mind. With thanksgiving, we honor those who have helped ensure the freedom and independence that many in this country enjoy. 

But borrowing a quote from Spiderman, “with great freedom comes great responsibility.” As citizens of this country, not only are we called to give thanks for our freedoms, but to help ensure those freedoms for all people. And, even further, as disciples of Jesus, we are called to use our freedom to serve our neighbor. 

Martin Luther coined the phrase during the Reformation that we are “freed from sin and freed for service.” Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have been freed from the bondage of our sin. Indeed, as Paul writes in Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” But now that we are freed, now we are sent as laborers into God’s harvest: to share God’s gift of freedom, of healing, and of grace with those we encounter. 

So as you move out of the holiday weekend back into the work week, challenge yourself to see those around you as your neighbor whom you have been freed to serve in Christ’s name. And then consider how you might be called to share God’s gift of freedom, of healing, and of grace with those you encounter. 

This summer we are exploring a new liturgical setting (the setting we use to sing pieces in our worship like the Alleluia, Holy Holy, and Lamb of God). Our new setting comes from a new hymnal resource, All Creation Sings, which was published in November 2020. Similar to With One Voice, the intent of All Creation Sings is to be a supplement to our primary hymnal – Evangelical Lutheran Worship. 

From All Creation Sings, our Worship and Music Team intentionally chose to use a bilingual liturgy. Across the ELCA, there are a growing number of Spanish speaking congregations. Close to home, even in our greater Muscatine community, we also have a large contingent of Spanish-speaking neighbors. 

So, to join with our siblings in Christ who may speak another language than us, we’ve been inviting the congregation to sing our Alleluia in Spanish. But here’s one more invitation: Each of the liturgy pieces were written in a Spanish speaking country. The Alleluia stemmed from Honduras, the Holy Holy from Puerto Rico, and the Lamb of God from Mexico. Take 5 minutes and Google what’s going on in those countries. Uplift their joys and their sorrows in prayer. 

In so doing, we join ourselves with Christians not just in our neck of the woods, but across the world. Together, we are bound together by the power of the Holy Spirit. So join me this summer in uplifting our siblings from around the world in prayer. 

This past weekend, we heard a story of a man who was plagued by many demons. In our culture, hearing about being possessed by unclean spirits may sound quite foreign. But think of it this way: A sponge, when submerged in liquid, will absorb that liquid. If the water is clean, the sponge will be filled with clean water. But, if the water is dirty, the sponge will be filled with dirty water. 

During Jesus’ time, people believed that humans were porous creatures. As such, humans were open to various spiritual influences. Through those pores, humans could be filled with something good or something bad. Throughout the Gospel of Luke, the gospel writer tells us that Jesus was “filled” with the Holy Spirit. But, then we also get readings like what we heard on Sunday of a man who was filled with something that was not of God. 

At first glance, this way of understanding the world may seem archaic. But even today, any number of death-dealing forces are often experienced as “possession” or being “caught up” in dynamics that exceed our intentions or control. Think of how addiction overwhelms individuals and families; how racism shape-shifts over time; how anger consumes us; how envy devours us; or how sexism creates pervasive cultures of degradation. We may not call addiction or racism “demons,” but they are certainly “demonic.”

So this week, take stock of what you’re filling yourself up with. Sometimes, it may be out of our control what sort of water we find ourselves in. But other times, we do have the choice to intentionally take ourselves out of what “things” might be seeping into us and plunge ourselves into the power of God’s Spirit.

Along with many in the Muscatine community, recently I took my annual pilgrimage to the local greenhouse to purchase a selection of vegetables and flowers. Carefully transferring these delicate samplings into my car and then into the ground, I was proud of myself creating an environment for those little guys to grow.  Taking a step back, it baffled me to think that, by the end of the summer, those thin samplings would emerge into full-blown plants needing cages to support them!

Dusting off my gloves, I made my way inside. But as I was grabbing a glass of water in the kitchen, my eye caught a succulent in a small, small pot. The succulent was a gift from a friend, given years ago, and clearly, the plant had outgrown the pot. For quite some time, repotting the plant had been an item on my to-do list. But I’d been stalling. It takes work to re-pot, I told myself. It takes time. It takes energy. And it takes new materials to work with. So, with all those excuses, for months that little succulent had stayed in a miniature pot even though it truly, truly needed something bigger.

But alas, after tending to plants outside, I recognized that maybe it was time to create a better environment for my plants inside. So, with a trip to the basement for a bigger pot, and a trip to Menards to get the right potting soil, that little succulent finally got a better home. And lo and behold, in the short time since that succulent has been in a bigger pot, the growth I’ve witnessed has been nothing short of mind-boggling.

Cleaning up my materials, it made me wonder about the times in our lives in which we keep ourselves in a smaller pot than we really need.  We might recognize that something needs to change, that we’re settling, or that we need something “more” to really grow. But that takes extra work. Extra time. Extra energy. And, sometimes, other supplies or tools than we currently have at our disposal. So, we make excuses. Other things, or other people, need our attention, we tell ourselves.

But here’s the thing: when we finally allow ourselves to be replanted in a bigger pot, there’s often a heck of a lot of growth. So much so that it’s mind-boggling.

So as you look to the summer, I encourage you to consider if there are ways in which you are keeping yourself in a smaller pot than you really need in order to grow. Might there be parts of your life that need to be re-potted? Where are you feeling constricted? Where are you playing it “small”?

Just like those small samplings at our local greenhouses are not meant to stay six inches tall, you also are not meant to remain the same. You were created to grow and to thrive. So seek out those extra supplies and tools if you need ‘em and get your hands a little dirty. Because the result might very well be mind-boggling growth.