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Greetings Grace Family!

It’s time for my annual Thanksgiving newsletter article. It seems appropriate for November to pen an article about gratitude considering the national holiday at the end of this month.

Gratitude is a vital component of our faith. It is the primary motivating factor in discipleship, thanks to God’s unlimited grace. Think about it, God’s gives us all the blessings without us having to earn them and the continuation and consistency of His blessings are unconditional. God will always pour out His blessings whether or not we are ‘doing the right things.’ This is all thanks to the cross and Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Prior to that the blessings of God were somewhat conditional. I say somewhat because the covenants God initiated with His people generally had a component of expectation; God will bless if the people do...fill in the blank. It was, in theory, a great motivator for the Israelites to be obedient and observant to the agreement though they consistently failed to uphold their end of the bargain.

One would think that instead of loosening the restrictions God would have ramped up the requirements of blessings considering how often His people failed. But, God does not think or act like we do and instead removes anything that might be considered the conditions of blessings and unlimited grace is actualized. Instead of ramping up the conditions God ramped up His love. Very counterintuitive. Paul writes in Romans about the removal of the restrictions of the law by asking, hypothetically, “without the requirements of the law, should we go crazy with sin?” That is a paraphrased version, but pretty much sums it up. He answers emphatically in the negative in light of what Jesus did for us. In essence Paul implies that everyone should be so grateful for the extraordinary blessing of imparted righteousness that any response besides complete devotion is absurd.

How are we doing with that? Personally, I could do better. Human nature still gets in the way of my total devotion, but I have make great strides when I look back on my walk with our Lord. One of the main factors was a much greater sense of gratitude. For years I based my attitudes and perspective on bad theology and unrealistic expectations. By all accounts life was pretty good from a worldly perspective but something was still missing. I was generally unhappy most of the time. Most of you have heard some version of my story, so I wont fill this article with things you’ve likely heard before. At the heart of the change in my life was the internalized realization of grace, God’s unlimited blessing, and a profound sense of gratitude. It was life changing.

Ironically I experienced some of life’s greatest trials after that change of perspective, but because I had adopted a spiritual discipline of gratitude I never felt abandoned by God. I know it sounds corny and maybe even disingenuous, but it is true. You might be wondering what some of the aspects of a spiritual discipline of gratitude are. The simplest answer I can give is another corny saying, “count your blessings” with the added component of thanking God for those blessings.

Life is rarely ever 100% happy or 100% miserable. It is a mix of a lot of things. Certainly during the periods closer to 100% miserable, counting blessings is nearly impossible. But, for the most part there are countless things we have to be thankful for. I’m not going to list mine, but I would encourage you to do a personal inventory of the things you are grateful for. Take time regularly to take inventory and I promise that over time you will draw closer to God. Thanksgiving is a one-day holiday. Giving thanks is our reasonable response to grace. That’s another paraphrase from Romans. What are you thankful for?

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Steve

Greetings Grace Family!

The fall season has arrived! In places like the Northeast seasonal change can be seen in cooler temperatures and autumn colors, leaves turn from green to brilliant orange, red and bronze. In Southern California we’re still waiting for the cooler temperatures and most of our trees are evergreen. In the Church, however, fall means the end of "ordinary time." Reformation day is just around the corner followed by Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. I love the rhythms of the Church and look forward to the conclusion of "ordinary time."

Despite the title, "ordinary time" is far from ordinary in terms of the work and influence of the Body of Christ. After the rapid change in seasons during the rest of the year, ordinary time is set apart for a focus on the work of the Church. As a smaller, aging congregation we are not as active as once was the case years ago, but we still had opportunities to ‘go and do likewise’ as Jesus commanded His disciples after washing their feet at the Last Supper. Individually, you all do have an impact and are people of influence as you shine the light of Christ in your homes, within your families and circle of friends, workplaces and in the community. You may not think of yourself as being a particularly bright light, but because Christ dwells in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, His light is always shining through you! Ordinary time is a celebration of that reality.

Corporately, as the Church, we also continue to have an impact in our community. We support two other congregations who use our campus. These congregations minister to communities that we would be less likely to connect with due to a variety of reasons. The Gospel is proclaimed by the Evangelical Gospel Ministry and The Apostolic Fellowship and they to impact our community for the sake of and to the glory of God. The Action Food Pantry is doing amazing ministry and they also receive support from Grace. Our Preschool is doing the invaluable ministry of caring for children in our community and teaching them about the love of Jesus. We also support a quilt guild that is more than just a quilting club. They are very civically minded and impact the community in a variety of ways. Though we are not directly involved with these groups in large numbers, we support and partner with them so that collectively the things that happen on our campus are worth being celebrated and far more than ordinary.

I do want to celebrate our recent service event on the ELCA’s annual God’s Work, Our Hands service day in the month of September. Thanks to your generous donations and time we gathered a wealth of supplies and put together over 100 blessing bags that have been and continue to be distributed to the homeless and those in need in our area. As we heard in worship on Sept. 24 from a couple of our members, those who were recipients of these blessing bags were truly blessed by the simple gesture. It may seem like a simple gesture to some, but to the recipient it is evidence that someone actually cares about them, not a thing those folks experience on a regular basis. Loving a neighbor is at the heart of the Gospel and those blessing bags, as ordinary as they may seem, fulfill what Jesus said was the most important thing we can do beside loving God. Remarkable! I’m happy to report that in just a few short weeks almost all of the blessing bags have gone home with someone and have likely already been a blessing to someone. And just to prove my point that we are partners with the ministries that share our campus, The Apostolic Fellowship joined us in the distribution of those bags! Thank you to everyone who participated!

You may be wondering why I chose this theme for this month’s newsletter article. First, I think it is important to remind everyone that in spite of the fact that we are a small and aging congregation, we are still active and fulfilling the call to love our neighbors in really impactful ways. Don’t ever equate small with insignificant! We are making a difference!

The other reason is I recently started reading a book that dispels the myth that because we are a small church we don’t matter especially when compared with larger congregations and mega churches. I will likely have more to say once I’ve finished the book, but for now let’s celebrate not just what God has done through Grace in the past, but what He continues to do in us and through us today. Well done Grace!

Yours In Christ,

Pastor Steve

Greetings Grace Family,

After taking last month off writing an article for this newsletter (due mostly to writer’s block, but also because I really enjoyed Bishop Eaton’s article. I hope you did too!), I’m back! There were a number of topics I considered writing about this month like fear, or the history and purpose of why we do the things in our worship services that we do. But I decided to write about Romans. Not the residents of Rome, but Paul’s Epistle.

As long as I’ve been at Grace and teaching Bible study, I have mostly taught from the historical narrative books. Genesis, Exodus, the Samuels and Kings, even Acts from the New Testament, just to name a few. I find the historical books fascinating for many reasons and they are also fairly easy to follow. After finishing 2 Kings I decided to venture back into the NT and explore faith and theology with those who participate in Bible study. Studying Romans did present some challenges for both the teacher and students. One of those challenges is the density of Paul’s theological work and his writing style. One of the other challenges is studying a book that requires one to examine one’s theology. That may not seem like a big deal, but the truth is we humans tend to have a pretty simple understanding of topics like grace, righteousness and salvation. But these are deeply intellectual topics that can make one’s brain start to ache when exploring the endless layers of some of the key tenants of our Lutheran Doctrine.

It is not a criticism to say we tend to have a simple understanding of our doctrine. When presented with the reality that Jesus dies for our sins and as a result those who believe receive salvation and eternal life, it is like receiving the greatest gift ever! I do not have to know, necessarily how that gift was made or how it works in order to understand and appreciate its incredible value. If Jesus said it is true, that is good enough for me! Taking grace at face value does not diminish its blessings. I was perfectly happy with face value for many, many years of my life as a Christian.

When I started my education to become a pastor and began to explore the how’s and why’s of my faith I did not anticipate the depth of the change that it would create in my relationship with God and my worldview. Silly me! It was challenging for sure, but I am so grateful for the process and its results, results that continue to evolve. That is one of the beautiful things about this kind of study. The deeper I went the more I wanted to learn and grow! But the truth is it can be uncomfortable at times having deeply held beliefs challenged and it requires a great deal of thought. It also does not change the basic truth of saved by grace through faith.

So deciding to teach from Paul’s letter to the Romans, perhaps the most theological book in all of scripture, was accompanied by the concern that my fellow learners would quickly lose interest, thinking, “Why do I need to know how grace works if it does not add to its benefits?” I imagined I would be teaching a class of one (That one being Lindi because she would never want to hurt my feelings) after a couple chapters of rich Pauline theology. Well, I am happy to say that as of this writing and four chapters of Romans I have not lost any of the folks who regularly attend the study!

I hope one of the reasons for that is studying a book such as Romans, as hard as it is at times to understand, has resulted in what I experienced in seminary. That ‘going deeper’ has resulted in a closer relationship with Jesus and a greater appreciation for the Gospel. This is what I experienced throughout my education and what I continue to experience today as I am being transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2). It’s never to late to join our Bible study! You might just discover that below the surface the riches of God’s grace are infinite!

Yours In Christ,

Pastor Steve

Greeting Siblings in Christ!

As we are well into the summer months it is typically a time when we see less activity at Grace than the rest of the year. There are a number of reasons why this is, but that is not the focus of this month’s article. Our entire campus does not slow down during the summer and one space that remains busy and vital to the life at Grace is our Preschool. Theirs is a year round time of busyness with many children being cared for, loved and learning about the love of Jesus.

I want to dedicate this article to the group of faithful servants that care for, love and share Christ’s love with those precious children because they deserve to be recognized for their dedication, but also over the last three plus years they have endured unprecedented challenges unlike any time in recent memory. Ms. Christy and the teachers at our Preschool deserve sainthood for pushing through the pandemic and doing it as well as could have possibly been imagined, and truly without complaint. None of us outside of the childcare community will ever understand what they dealt with, and continue to deal with since early in 2020.

More recently the issue Ms. Christy has been dealing with is finding and keeping qualified teachers employed at the school. This year there have been two teachers that have left the preschool for different reasons, leaving just three full-time teachers and Ms. Christy to care for the infants and children. They are still operating with full compliance of the State of California’s requirements for teacher to children ratios, but being two teachers down has made life more challenging for Ms. Christy and her faithful staff.

I have said it before and will continue to say, “We are blessed to have the best preschool director anywhere!” It is a difficult job under the best circumstances, but under the current conditions it is nearly impossible, yet Ms. Christy has never let the quality of care at the Preschool dip even a little. It means that she has to do more in order to ensure the children remain the only priority, never compromising the standard she has upheld for the decades she has been our director. And she has done it with less help than ever.

Ms. Christy is not the only one doing extra work. Ms. Jules with the 2-3 year olds, Ms. Cerise with the 4-5 year olds, and Ms. Shraddha in the infant care room have gone the extra mile, more like 10 miles, in maintain the standard of excellence at our Preschool. I cannot say enough about the dedication of these three extraordinary teachers! They are willing to do whatever is needed to keep things running smoothly, not because they are well paid, but because they love what they do and the children they take care of. Ms. Christy and these three teachers exhibit the love of Christ, His sacrificial love, in ways that are truly admirable.

You may be wondering, “Why doesn’t Ms. Christy just hire more teachers?” It seems as if since the pandemic many people in early childhood development have left the industry to seek employment elsewhere. Ms. Christy has been advertising and networking for months in search of qualified teachers and she has had very little interest from qualified persons. There simply are not qualified candidates to fill those two openings. And it is not just at Grace that this issue exists. According to Ms. Christy and her friends in the childcare business it is an industry wide problem.

So, what can we do? Well, pray…daily…multiple times a day for qualified candidates, but also for Ms. Christy, our teachers and children. Spread the word. Do you know anyone who has childcare experience or is qualified to work at a preschool and is looking for work or a new opportunity? Please tell them about the openings at Grace. Unfortunately, volunteering is not an option unless you have the certification to work at a preschool. But we can offer our thanks to Ms. Christy, Jules, Cerise and Shraddha. Cards would be nice. Maybe buying lunch for the four of them? Gift cards? Flowers? Anything that conveys a message of gratitude and that recognizes how blessed we are to have the dedicated staff at the Preschool. I’m probably going to get in trouble with Christy for writing this article because she does not do what she does to be recognized, but God put it on my heart to let you all know how blessed we are in the hope that that would result in a huge outpouring of appreciation from you all.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Steve

Greetings Grace Family,

The summer solstice falls on June 21 this year and the longest day of the year marks the beginning of summer. It may feel like summer will never arrive based on a very long fall and winter and a spring that was not very springy. But, summer will come with or without hotter weather. The flipping of the calendar from May to June and the change of season has me thinking about the seasons of the church.

The day of Pentecost, which just happened on May 28, marks the end of six months of seasonal changes in the church calendar. I would not say it is fast paced but there are six seasons that begin at the end of what is called “Ordinary Time” in Church parlance. This year it spans from June 1 until November 29, or about six months of the year.

I have always found it odd that it is called ‘Ordinary Time’ for a variety of reasons. More on that later. Once we are through the longest season of the Church year, Advent begins. It is followed by, of course, Christmas. Then comes Epiphany and the time after Epiphany followed by Lent, the Three Day (otherwise known as the Triduum) and Easter which lasts 50 days.

There is a rhythm to the various seasons and the order in which the come, coinciding with the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Advent is the time of anticipation for the birth of the Savior of the world (Christmas). We ponder what the Incarnation means for us and the world as we discover with the Wise Men who the child born in Bethlehem is and will become (Epiphany). Lent has both a sense of anticipation and sel-reflection in light of the death of the One Who Came to Save Us. Easter is the time for halleluiahs and rejoicing with the heavens at the defeat of sin and death, God’s grace manifest in an empty tomb. The 50 days coincide with the amount of time it is believed that Jesus spent on earth after His resurrection and completing His earthly life with His ascension.

The seasons, to a large degree, and their respective themes mirror the rhythm of our lives though not necessarily in the same order. The dash between the date of our birth and the date of our death is representative of a life filled with happy times, sad times, times of reflection and anticipation, what we call ‘seasons of life’. For a more detailed list of those seasons read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. We also experience what can be called ‘ordinary times’ when things are well, pretty ordinary. Perhaps that is what those who labeled the seasons of the Church had in mind when they named the time after Pentecost as ordinary?

The main reason why I find the very mundane label for our longest season is I do not see anything ordinary about the mystical body of Christ otherwise known as the Church. For almost 2,000 years the Church (not the buildings but the people of God) have borne witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in ways that are anything but ordinary. If you know the story from the Gospels you know that at Jesus’ ascension he instructed His followers to go, not to a specific location, but to take His love and the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Since that time billions have come to believe in Jesus. I would call that extraordinary.

And that is really what ‘Ordinary Time’ is all about. It is about being the witnesses. It is about the going. It is about the work of the Church, not just what we do on Sunday but what we do out in the world as individuals and as the Body of Christ. We need time for the various seasons of anticipation, discovery, contemplation, rejoicing and lament that are a part of the seasons of the Church. We have six months of mostly time for self, but there should be an equal amount of time spent being the selfless witnesses we are called to be. It is an amazing balance and mix that is divinely designed to help us maximize our witness.

Perhaps it should be called ‘Extraordinary Time.”

Yours in Christ,
Pr. Steve