Grace Lutheran Church & Preschool

Covina. California

From the Pastor

God’s Will and Dark Places

Dear Grace Family,

As I write this article for the June newsletter I am filled with a variety of emotions in the wake of the mass shooting, the murder, of a classroom of children. I am broken hearted. I am confused and frustrated. I am angry. And I feel helpless. And that doesn’t really begin to describe all that I am feeling as it has been less than 24 hours since I first learned of this horrible, unimaginable tragedy and I am still trying to process something that will never make sense. I imagine you are, or did when you first heard about it, feeling similarly.

I really dread writing about it. I do. I would rather not be writing about another instance of senseless gun violence that has become all too common in our country. I do not have any insight theologically, existentially, psychologically, politically or societally that you have not already heard. I also do not have an answer to how we can, as a society, stop this from happening again. But I am outraged and as your Pastor feeling somewhat obligated to say something because these tragedies often raise questions that involve God.

Now, God does not me to defend Him, not do I have the wisdom to understand God, as I have said a number of times. But, there are a few things I believe to be true that bear mentioning. God did not cause this to happen just as God is not the cause of any tragedy, natural or unnatural. From the most basic theological perspective sin is the cause. Sadly, in the past I have heard that God brought tragedy into our world as a punishment for sin. This happened when hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans area. I heard it when there was a mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas several years ago. I heard it when the AIDS virus first reared its ugly head and killed thousands.

It is unlikely that anyone would say the shooting in Texas happened because God was punishing specific people, but it would not surprise me if there is some wacko pastor out there saying God is punishing our country for some form of immorality. One of the many reasons I do not agree with this argument is because it misrepresents how God understands sin or sinful acts. God does not have a ranking system for sin. We are all corrupted by sin and each act of sin, no matter how ‘great’ or ‘small’ is an offense to God. The unkind thought is just as bad as the mass murder of children. That is hard to type, and hard to believe, but it is true. This is one of the many things that makes God’s grace so amazing.

I also believe that God is not responsible by omission. In other words, God did not make a choice to allow or prevent this tragedy, or any other tragedy, as a matter of His will. I have heard it said after a tragic event that it happened because it was God’s will. Death and pain are not the will of God. God’s will for us was peace and perfect tranquility and He gave us the option to live that life and Adam and Eve chose a different option. A cruel simile would be, ‘We (humans in general) made our bed, now we get to lay in it.’ It is much more complicate than that. There have been countless books written about this subject and this is simple newsletter article, so the simplistic viewpoint will have to do.

I also believe that God’ heart is even more broken than yours, mine, or the totality of humanity over this horror. God’s love for each of us is infinite and anytime something like this happens God is heartbroken. I cannot begin to imagine how God feels watching over an over the unspeakably horrible things we humans do to each other since the dawn of time. And yet he never gives up on us. That is immeasurable grace. Here is another difficult truth. God’s heart breaks for the perpetrator of this heinous act because he was also one of His children. That is radical grace. Can’t say that like that one. Just being honest.

So, what can we do? I wish I knew. What we cannot do is what seemingly we as a society and we as a government have been doing in response to these kinds of tragedies, and that is nothing but lip service. We send out thoughts and prayers to the victim’s families and the communities where they happen, and we mourn for a couple days then we move on until the next mass shooting. Has there been any legislation passed to address this kind of gun violence? Has there been enough discussion about what leads 16-23 year old males to resort to mass murder as an option in life and the mental health issues in our country? How about holding social media outlets more accountable instead of accepting they are protecting people’s privacy when so many of these young men post obvious evidence that they are about to snap and nobody is warned? Can we sit idly by and wait for the next tragedy?

I for one feel helpless. The problem seems overwhelming. It is. We will never bring an end to senseless violence completely. That will happen at the Second Coming. But, we have changed the course of history before when enough people say, “ENOUGH!” Is now such a time? I pray that it is.

I realize this is probably not going to be one of your favorite newsletter articles you have read from me. It is uncomfortable and lacking the typical positivity I usually write about. But, discomfort is what often leads to change and as your Pastor I am not just charged with sharing the good news and the happy things in life. God has always chosen people who live in a broken world to be truth tellers and a light in the darkness because darkness is also part of our reality. And He chose us to identify the dark places in our world and to do something. We are the light. How will you shine yours?

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Steve

“Good” Friday

He is Risen!

Greetings Siblings in Christ,

He is risen indeed! Obviously this article will be available weeks before we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, but the truth and power of the resurrection is something we proclaim and a reality we live into every single day of our lives. And that is a reality for every believer pre and post resurrection for all eternity. Normally this month’s article would be focused on Easter, but this year my focus will be on the second day of what is called the Triduum, otherwise known as Good Friday.

I have always felt a little uneasy with the ‘good’ in Good Friday. It certainly was not a good day for Jesus’ followers, those who witnessed His persecution and execution. From Jesus’ human perspective it most definitely was not a good Friday, but from a divine perspective it was one of the best days. That is hard to imagine or understand and that is part of the tension that exists in that blessed day. Undoubtedly it is a very good day for believers like you and I. I suppose my discomfort resides in the tension that is very much a part of that day.

Christianity focuses much more on the birth and life of Jesus. Sure, we talk about the cross often, but it is usually pretty sterilized, or disconnected, with Jesus’ actual death. The cross makes allusions to His death, but the horrifying details are left unspoken except for on Good Friday when we read the story of Jesus betrayal, arrest, trial and execution. It is not a typical worship service at all. In every other instance our worship services are uplifting, encouraging, comforting, and generally positive. Not this day. It is somber, really somber. We enter in silence, leave in silence and in between are reminded of the cost of our salvation and reminded that we are all co-responsible for what happened to Jesus.

But, we would not have the hallelujahs and empty tomb without the death. Death is what gives us life and that is uncomfortable and filled with tension. In every other instance when humans die it is traumatic and the finality of it is one of the aspects that makes our grief so difficult. The death that Christ died is and was different. It was not the end, it was the beginning for you and I and every other believer. Just as Jesus was raised again to new life we too have the promise of eternal life and a new beginning.

That is the reason we call it Good Friday and that is what the gathering on the Friday before Easter is really all about. It is the painful reminder of how horrific death was for Jesus, the cost of our salvation, that leads to a more profound and life giving HALLELUJAH on Easter morning. There would not be an empty tomb without a bloody cross. For me attending the Good Friday service has always made Easter Sunday that much more powerful and joyous because I experience the full range of emotion that is a byproduct of the tension of the Tridium, or three days. If you have not been in the habit of attending Good Friday services I hope that this article will encourage you to join us that Friday before Easter. If you were or are in the habit of attending Good Friday services then you know what I am talking about. There is no empty tomb without the cross.

Blessings,
Pastor Steve

Lent and Intentionality

Greetings Grace Family,

As we turn our calendars from February to March we also begin the season of Lent. It is one of my favorite seasons of the Church year, and not because I get to wear my purple stole for the next 7 weeks. It is the time when we are encouraged to follow Jesus on His journey to the cross and it starts with the reminder that we were formed from the dust of the earth and to the earth we will eventually return.

Those words spoken on Ash Wednesday remind us of our mortality, but also that in addition to God forming Adam and Eve from the dust God also breathed His Spirit in to us forever connecting us to our Maker. It is also a reminder that our time here on earth is temporary, but at the end of this journey we will return to the Source of Life for all eternity thanks to the event that comes at the end of our Lenten journey.

Throughout the season we are invited to be intentional in our self-examination. There are a plethora of spiritual disciplines that we can use in order to take an inventory of our lives and our faith. Of course, the most common of these disciplines is the removal of something in our life. It could be a certain type of food, or social media, a favorite eating spot, television, or anything else we become too dependent on. The point of this discipline is multi-layered, but ultimately reminds us on our dependence on God when we feel the sense of deprivation from whatever it is that was given up.

However, there are other disciplines like daily prayers of thanksgiving, or confession. Meditating on scripture, a daily Psalm reading, or spending time in silence to be more attentive to what God is saying to us (we are generally much better at talking than listening, especially to God!). Service to others, or donating to a ministry or charity in honor of the season are ways for us to ‘love our neighbors’ which was one of Jesus’ more familiar commands. Over the last several years I have suggested adding something to your life of faith rather than the deprivation partly because after 50 days of doing something it is likely to become a permanent part of your spiritual life.

One of the reasons I love the season of Lent is its intentionality. Let’s face it, we are creatures of habit and if we are always doing the same thing over and over life can become a bit stale, and that’s true of our faith and relationship with Jesus. Changing things up makes us more aware and gets us out of our routine. It can be uncomfortable, but we are much more likely to grow when we stretch ourselves or when we are a bit uncomfortable. And who among us has perfect faith? God is always ‘working’ on us. This is the process called sanctification, becoming more like Christ. Is that not something we would all say as Christians we strive for?

Sisters and Brothers, I urge you to take advantage of this season of intentionality that has been a part of Christianity for a very long time! You have nothing to lose (no pun intended) and everything to gain.

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Steve

The Body of Christ

Dear Grace Family,

Having just held our annual Congregational Meeting, I want to take a moment to offer my thanks to a number of people. First, I want to thank all of you who attended the meeting. I realize that annual meetings, or meetings in general, are not the most interesting or exciting activities. But, the annual meeting is not about the excitement or meant to entertain those that attend. It is about the life and future of Grace Lutheran. We hold these meetings not for the sake of passing along information, but making decisions about leadership, how we will utilize the tithes and donations we will receive this year, and the important reminder that we are a community as much as we our a congregation and that everyone who is a part of Grace has a voice.

I, as your Pastor, am not the CEO, or president, or the ‘boss’, though my role includes some features of those titles. My most important role is as your spiritual leader, encourager, and guide. So, I do not nor do I want to be responsible for every decision that gets made regarding the future of Grace. We hold these meetings and make decisions together with the understanding that we all play a vital role in the life and future of our community.

We recently read from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 on consecutive Sundays. This chapter might be referred to as the ‘Body of Christ’ chapter because in this chapter Paul describes how every Christian who is a member of the Church is like a part of the human body. And though each part of the body has a specific function or role every part is important and vital to the function of the body. No one part is more important than another. Christ is the head, or the Leader, but we all work together for the good of each part and for the good of the whole, and ultimately for the good of the Kingdom of God.

Our annual meetings are an expression of our unity and an affirmation that every part of the body plays an important role in our congregation and that we will all work together toward the common goal of being God’s witnesses and not thinking only about what we desire individually. For me it is a beautiful expression of our unity with God and with one another and why the Church of Jesus Christ has endured for almost two millennium. Powerful stuff!

I say all of this with the understanding that not everyone is able or has a desire to participate. And that’s OK because there are so many other ways and opportunities to be the Body of Christ and to use the gifts, talents, and treasures that God has blessed us with for the sake of the Body. So, I am not being critical or judging those of you who couldn’t participate. Every person who is a part of our congregation is important and vital at whatever level of participation one has, but knowing that you matter just as much as any other part of the body, perhaps you might be encouraged to be more active, or more involved, or more invested in the life of Grace.

The really amazing thing is that the more active, involved, or invested you are the more you bless the church, bless God, and in return the more blessed you will feel. It is a win-win in every possible way! Life is a mix of good and bad and doing it in isolation or alone is nearly impossible. God made us to live in community and I cannot think of a more life giving community to be a part of than the Body Of Christ! So, thank you all for being a part of my family at Grace! I am truly blessed by each and every one of you!

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Steve

 

 

A New Year proclaiming the Gospel

Greeting Grace Family and Friends,
 
As 2021 has come to an end, it is once again time to reflect on yet another year in the life of Grace Lutheran Church. This is the sixth one of these year end reports that I have penned, which also means the fifth anniversary of my ordination and call to serve Grace have passed. It has been an amazing almost six years serving God and you all at Grace! But nothing could have prepared me for the last two years and the challenges of a global pandemic.
 
Last year at this time I reflected on the first year of the pandemic and the challenges faced at Grace and in our own lives. I could have never imagined I would be duplicating that theme in 2022, but here we are. Because we have been living under the cloud of Covid for so long, it may seem all too normal and easy to forget what life was like prior to March of 2020. It has only been seven months since we returned to worship in our sanctuary, having spent well over a year with outdoor or online worship. I am so thankful and appreciative that we are able to worship together in our sanctuary! I am not sure how much longer I would have been able to preach to a cell phone in an empty sanctuary.
 
Although worship has returned (with those tiresome masks) the rest of our life together has remained ‘on pause.’ We have yet to resume our occasional fellowship events (I was poised to bring home a third chili cook-off medal when the pandemic hit!), we have not been able to host the Easter Egg Hunt or Trunks of Treats since 2019, and the plan to fund the facility renewal fund and actually use those funds has been mostly on pause because of the uncertainty of our finances and the impact the pandemic could have had. These are just a few examples of the impact Covid has had, and a reminder of what life was like prior to the virus.
 
Yet, despite the challenges there have been a number of things that we ought to celebrate and thank God for. I am very thankful for your faithfulness in supporting the Church, the Preschool, and the Action Food Pantry during the past 21 months. Giving has always been though to be directly tied to attendance in worship, but that proved not to be the case as we experienced more consistency and generosity with your offerings! I also continue to rejoice in how many of you have stayed connected in spite of having less opportunities to meet in person. We also continued our benevolences in 2021 to local, national, and global ministries both directly to some and through our offering to our Synod and the ELCA. We have also become fairly adept with our use of technology.
 
And one of the things I am most appreciative for are the staff members and those who give and have given their time and talents in service to God at Grace Lutheran. There are far too many to name and I hope you all have heard from me how thankful I am!
 
I do not imagine any of us can predict what 2022 will bring after the last two years, and that makes planning a bit of a challenge. One thing I will be doing is spending more time emphasizing the facility renewal fund and our aging facilities. Remember two years ago in 2019 at our Congregational Meeting we approved and committed to raising the necessary funds to proactively replace and repair things like our doors and parking lot, electrical panels and A/C units, an aging roof and old plumbing.
 
I realize we ask much of you all just with our regular giving, but we are asking everyone to go an extra mile for a few years. It is vital to the future of Grace, but also a sign of trust and hop in God that we will continue to serve our community for decades to come. I expect that we will be doing some of those upgrades in 2022 with the funds we do have, but we need all of you to help if we are going to complete all the projects that need to be done.
 
Even with some uncertainty, what I, and we, can count on is God’s continuing and ever-present grace and love. God has been faithful and steadfast to Grace for well over six decades! All that we have and have ever done is all thanks to Him. And I will continue to encourage us all to fulfill the call our Lord places on His churches not just proclaim the Gospel with our words but to also proclaim the Gospel by our actions.
 
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Steve

God with us

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Grace Family!

We have come to the end of another calendar year, but we are just getting started with the church year. I am not sure why the two calendars are off by a month, but I suspect it has much to do with Christmas. The birth of Jesus was obviously a beginning, God doing something new in coming to live among us, and so it kind of makes sense that our ‘faith’ calendar starts in the month we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us.

I have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. Emmanuel is at the top of my list of the ways in which we refer to Jesus. It is not a name we use often outside the context of Christmas, but it is perhaps the most impactful, at least for me, aspect of the incarnation. Lord and Savior is also a very powerful and impactful title for Jesus as is His ‘proper’ name, Jesus, the most common way we refer to God’s Son.

In ancient times a name was more than just a way to identify a specific person. In scripture most of names of characters in the Bible mean something. For Instance, David means ‘Beloved’ and Abraham means, ‘Father of the Multitude.’ John means, ‘God is Gracious’, and Peter means, ‘Stone’. Of course, it will not surprise anyone to know Jesus means, ‘God is Salvation.’ Perhaps the most obvious example, which goes way beyond our understanding, is the proper name of God, which is YHWH, otherwise known as the Tetragrammaton. It is a name so sacred that Jews rarely speak or even write it because it invokes all that God is.

This dynamic is what is behind my fondness of Emmanuel. For me it is not just God is aware of me or present in Spirit, or that God is on my side. It includes a deep sense of awe that stems from the greatness of God, God’s willingness to be physically present with humankind, God’s infinite and unconditional love revealed on the cross, and God’s desire to have a deep, abiding relationship with me. WITH ME! It is unimaginable to me!

I sometimes loose track of this perspective in the midst of a busy and often complicated life and too often get caught up in my own little world. But you know what? Emmanuel means that God never forgets about me. God is never distracted even though God watches over all of creation. Even in my worst moments, God never checks out, even for a second. And this is most impactful for me when I think back on the most difficult times in my life. The poem about footprints in the sand sums this paradigm up beautifully. Emmanuel does not mean a life free of trials, but it does mean that regardless of my circumstances or mindset God is there. Emmanuel does not depend on me; it is who God is.

Emmanuel is also vital to Holy Communion. That probably seems obvious. Communion is more than a small piece of bread and sip of wine, or a way to remember Jesus. It is the embodiment of Emmanuel as the bread and wine become very much a part of us because it is Jesus in the bread and wine. This is a beautiful aspect of the sacrament that I think of every time I am invited to the Lord’s Table.

God with us is one of the countless aspects of Christmas that give this holiday its meaning and power and it all began in a stable in Bethlehem thousands of years ago. The beginning of human life meant the end of death and sin’s grip on us and because of Emmanuel it never wears off or gets stale. The birth of Jesus is the only beginning that has no end and we have God to thank for that. My hope and prayer for you this month is that in the midst of your busy life or any trial you may face that you remember and cling to Emmanuel and all that it means.

Blessings to you all,
Pastor Steve