May Newsletter - Ascension and Pentecost

He is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

This month we see the end of the Easter season, and entering into the season of the Church which is the time after Pentecost. Before we leave Easter though, we see two more celebrations: The Ascension and the day of Pentecost. Each take place a specified number of days after Easter and continue the story after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Ascension

Ascension occurs 40 days after Easter, as witnessed by the Book of Acts chapter one. Because of this, the official date of occurrence is on a Thursday, but it is frequently observed on the following Sunday by the church. Jesus had spent these 40 days teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God before he left to be with his Father in heaven. The church continues to live in the teachings of Jesus Christ after his ascension.

Through this feast we are celebrating the day that Jesus ascended to sit on the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Jesus did not leave his disciples alone, he promised that he would give to them the power of the Holy Spirit. It is also promised by the angels that he will return again.

The theme hymn for Ascension, “Up through Endless Ranks of Angels” draws upon the exultation of Jesus Christ and his victory over death. The church does not need to be afraid because Jesus has restored life and intercedes for us before the Father. This shows the continuing results of Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday.

UP THROUGH ENDLESS RANKS OF ANGELS

Up through endless ranks of angels,  cries of triumph in his ears,  to his heavenly throne ascending,  having vanquished all their fears,  Christ looks down upon his faithful,  leaving them in happy tears. Death-destroying, life-restoring, proven equal to our need, now for us before the Father as our brother intercede: flesh that for our world was wounded, living, for the wounded plead.

Pentecost 

The title Pentecost comes from the Greek and refers to 50 days after Easter. Pentecost is the continuation of where Ascension left off in the reading of Acts. In the ascension reading Jesus tells his disciples, “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with2 the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). There is little explanation what this will look like and the church is left unsure of where to go.

Now Pentecost itself dates before even before the time of Easter as it had been celebrated by the Jewish people as The Feast of Weeks, which was a harvest festival. Since it was a feast, it would have been common for people of all places to be out and about celebrating. The Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles and they were able to speak in many tongues, so that all were able to hear their preaching about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was the baptism of the Holy Spirit that had been promised to them by Jesus.

We use the color red for the day of Pentecost to symbolize the tongues of flame that rested upon the heads of the Apostles. The hymn, “Come, Holy Ghost, God And Lord” demonstrates the focus of this Sunday. We celebrate the work that the Holy Spirit does, which illumines our hearts to the Glory of our God and King.

COME, HOLY GHOST, GOD AND LORD

Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord, With all your graces now outpoured. On each believer’s mind and heart; Your fervent love to them impart. Lord, by the brightness of your light In holy faith your Church untie; From every land and every tongue This to our praise, O Lord, Our God, be sung: Alleluia, alleluia!

Teaching the “Gospel of the Story” over the “Moral of the story”

The doctrinal contents of the entire Holy Scriptures, both of the Old and the New Testament, are made up of two doctrines differing fundamentally from each other, viz., the Law and the Gospel.

                                          – Thesis I, C.F.W. Walther’s Law and Gospel

As children, we were often taught how we are to act and be through short stories like Chicken Little and The Ugly Duckling.  Parents and Teachers helped us to recognize the “Moral of the story” so that we could become better people.  These stories served as examples for us to live by, or as examples of what not to do.  These morals of the story helped to shape the person that our children strive to be.  The “Moral of the story” is a good teaching aid.
Because we are taught the “Moral of the story” in school, Christians often want to apply the same understanding to the Bible.  And in one sense this works, because the Bible does tell us how we are to be and what we are not to do, but this does not grasp the whole scope and message of the Word of God.

In the Lutheran Church we understand that there is a doctrine that helps us teach the Word of God to His people, namely the proper distinction of the Law and the Gospel. When we teach the “Moral of the story” we are teaching how the Law applies to us in our daily lives.  Morality is good, but we are only condemned by the Law because we can never fully live out the Moral of the story.  Nor does being a “good person” make us a better Christian.  Instead we need the power of the Gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of all of our sins to make us forgiven children of God.  For this reason,  when learning about our faith, perhaps we should focus upon the “Gospel of the Story” instead of the “Moral of the story.”  It is the Gospel that makes us uniquely Christian, and we should proclaim it for all to hear.  You don’t need to be Christian to a moralistic person, but you do need Christ to be a Christian.

March Newsletter - Living on a Rollercoaster

Our entire lives are made up of good times and stressful times.  Life is wonderful when we are in the good times, and life is difficult when the stressful times take over our lives.   And sometimes, those good times and those stressful times can be so close together it feels like life is a roller-coaster, one moment you are soaring high, and the next moment feels like an uncontrolled plummet.  Personally I like roller coasters, they can make for an exciting time, but I don’t think anyone would want to live on one permanently. 

One of the dangers of Life can be looking at the rollercoaster of life and misinterpreting why some times go up and other times go down.  The World tells us that when things are going well it is because we are doing the right things, that we are in control of our future, and we are making it better.  Its only when things are going bad that the world considers getting religion.  Contracts that are broken because of “an act of God” assume that God is directly responsible for the bad things that have just happened to you, that you had no control at all.  Somehow for the world it is the stressful times that God is in control and thus everything is spiraling downward.  Even the world’s advice reflects this, “it’s not my fault but I can make it better” mentality.  “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade” only emphasizes that it’s not your fault that things are difficult, but if you work hard enough you can improve your situation.  If only it were that easy.

For Christians the picture is completely reversed.  It is when God is in control that things can go upward, and when we attempt to be in control that is when things spiral downward.  When Job went to God with his plea saying that he had done nothing wrong, God asked him, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  Tell me, if you understand.” (Job 38:4) We don’t understand the working of the world, so how can we expect to control the things happen to us?  Yes there are stressful things in the world, but that is because of the sin of man.  Our sin drags us downward, and we cannot lift ourselves out of the pit through our own strength.  But through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a savior that lifts us up and comforts us with the knowledge that we are forgiven, and through him we have Life eternal, a life that will have no more downward plunges.  Trust in the Lord, for he has done marvelous things.

God’s Blessings,

Vicar Shupe

AFTER CHRISTMAS IS A SEASON OF THANKSGIVING

If Christmas is the season of giving, it seems only appropriate that the following season should be the season of thank you.  If I didn’t think that people would revolt at extending the holiday season I would say that thanksgiving belongs in the middle of January.  Everyone has received a lot from many and so now is the time for thank you cards.  Alicia and I certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year, with generous gifts given to us from this congregation.  I have discovered over the years that I am slow at writing thank you cards.  This does not mean that I am not thankful, instead it simply means that it is a practice that I did not get into the habit of as a child.  This is why I was happy to finally finish thank you notes only six months after Alicia and I were married.

There are different ways to be thankful, though. I personally like to be able to go to the people and thank them for their wonderful gifts. For many children, you can see their thankfulness not necessarily in their works and actions toward the giver, instead in their words and action toward others about the generous gift.  Many a Sunday School teacher has experienced this first hand. The young boy that brings in his new toy wanting to show off the treasure given to him by Grandma and Grandpa is another great example.  He shows what is important to him to those people in his life that are important to him: his friends, his family, and to those he respects.

It seems appropriate then that in the church the season that follows Christmas is Epiphany.  A major focus of Epiphany is ministry; the telling of others what God has given us.  We have been given everything through the child that came at Christmas. There are many ways to give thanks unto the Lord.  We worship and adore him here in church, giving thanks to him.  We also have the chance to be like the young child again, telling others; “Hey look at what has been given to you and remember a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

Resolutions

We are coming up to the end of a new year and the beginning of another.  With the holidays and the celebration of New Year’s Eve we tend to make resolutions to be better in the New Year.  You can end this sentence, “This year I promise I will…” with a variety of endings.  Most likely it would be a good thing to be resolved, but promise without action means nothing.  Promising to diet is great until you realize you still have five batches of cookies to eat.  The promise of exercise is great until you realize that you have gone so long without exercising that the first session you exercise again make you stiff for a week.  Resolutions are often better remembered as great ideas that you haven’t been able to keep in the past, but this year will be different.  And what makes it worse, is most resolutions are things that we should already be doing. Call it willpower, lack of time, or whatever you will, but we are sinful humans and we tend to be good at finding excuses for not doing the things that we ought to be doing already.  Exercise, eating healthy foods, and other resolutions are things that we should be attempting to do anyways, without “New Year’s Resolutions.” 

We make the resolutions to become better human beings though because we know that we are not perfect.  We know that we should be better, but we seem to be unable to overcome our shortcomings.  Even Paul had this same problem.  In Romans 7:19-20 he declared “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”  Because of our fallen nature we are unable to fix ourselves.

Thanks be to God that we don’t have to fix ourselves.  We have the Savior that came as a baby to take away all our brokenness and to declare to the entire world that we are a blessed child of God.  He had no need for resolutions because he came in perfection to wipe away all imperfections.  We can rejoice that God has done what we could not.

Go ahead, make New Year’s resolutions.  Remember, even if we fall short another year, we are still children of God.

God's Blessings,

Vicar Shupe

Resolutions

(This is a re-posting of my monthly letter for the newsletter for Holy Cross)
We are coming up to the end of a new year and the beginning of another. With the holidays and the celebration of New Year’s Eve we tend to make resolutions to be better in the New Year. You can end this sentence, “This year I promise I will…” with a variety of endings. Most likely it would be a good thing to be resolved, but promise without action means nothing. Promising to diet is great until you realize you still have five batches of cookies to eat. The promise of exercise is great until you realize that you have gone so long without exercising that the first session you exercise again make you stiff for a week. Resolutions are often better remembered as great ideas that you haven’t been able to keep in the past, but this year will be different. And what makes it worse, is most resolutions are things that we should already be doing. Call it willpower, lack of time, or whatever you will, but we are sinful humans and we tend to be good at finding excuses for not doing the things that we ought to be doing already. Exercise, eating healthy foods, and other resolutions are things that we should be attempting to do anyways, without “New Year’s Resolutions.”
We make the resolutions to become better human beings though because we know that we are not perfect. We know that we should be better, but we seem to be unable to overcome our shortcomings. Even Paul had this same problem. In Romans 7:19-20 he declared:

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Because of our fallen nature we are unable to fix ourselves.
Thanks be to God that we don’t have to fix ourselves. We have the Savior that came as a baby to take away all our brokenness and to declare to the entire world that we are a blessed child of God. He had no need for resolutions because he came in perfection to wipe away all imperfections. We can rejoice that God has done what we could not.
Go ahead, make New Year’s resolutions. Remember, even if we fall short another year, we are still children of God.

O come, O come, Emmanuel – A Prayer for the Future

Advent (from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming") is the season of looking forward and preparing for the coming of the “Babe of Bethlehem” with was called “Emmanuel” which means “God with Us”.  We adorn the church in blue as a symbol of hope, looking forward to the future.  This coming that we are looking for is not just the simple remembrance of that first Christmas morn that our savior entered the world; instead it is the second coming of Christ from heaven to bring life eternal to all believers and putting an end to all earthly strife. 

Right now looking forward in hope is difficult if we focus too much on the troubles of the world.  There is a lot of conflict in the political and economic realms, and it does not look like these conflicts are going to be resolved anytime soon.  The result of sin entering into the world was a broken world that is not able to find peace only sorrow.  As the church then we take up the blue banners of advent and stride forward knowing that even as we walk forward into great tribulation, we have the Lord of Life with us at all times.

This advent season’s theme uses the great hymn of advent “O come, O come, Emmanuel” and the Epistle lesson for each week and focusing on the church in prayer.  We renew our prayer for the one “God with Us” because this earthly life is too much for us to bear on our own.  Each week we will look at how God hears our prayers for Wisdom, our prayers for Life, and our Prayers for Answered Prayers.  We can pray all these things in confidence because Christ has already come and will come again.

God's Blessings,

Vicar Shupe

It’s not Christmas yet!

Already I have been witnessing Christmas decorations going up in the stores, and all I can think of is, “ITS NOT CHRISTMAS YET”. Thanksgiving and advent haven’t even come yet.  Thanksgiving was plenty early for me as a kid to get all excited about Christmas, and now stores are trying to make up for more conservative shoppers by pummeling them with Christmas shopping before they have even had a chance to buy after Halloween candy at half price.  It is no wonder that the message of Christmas is being lost in the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparation. 

This is what makes observing the church year so valuable, because it gives the year a structure that is centered on Jesus’ life and his teachings.  Each season contains a different focus that emphasizes a different part of his life or teaching that provides a full look at who Jesus is over the course of a year.  Even Advent, which comes before Jesus’ birth in the church year, helps us to understand Jesus’ life through the stories of John the Baptist and the predictions of Jesus’ coming.  We see Jesus through his life as a baby through Adulthood and also after the resurrection.  By using this focus, it helps prevent a one sided view of Jesus as his miracles, parables and teachings come out throughout the year, as seen in his teachings.  This also simplifies the year, by not having to decide what parts of Jesus’ teachings and ministry to cover in the Gospel lesson from week to week because they are all spread out in a carefully planned order, in order to present the full teachings of Jesus.

The use of the Liturgical year helps the modern church connect to the historical church through the passing down of simple traditions.  The church year did not spring up overnight, but slowly grew and evolved to help shape the worship of the church.  Easter was the first and most prominent season, because of the early church’s focus was upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That mortal focus helped remind Christians each year of the salvific work that Jesus accomplished through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb.  The rest of the year grew from the leading into and from Easter, giving the actions of Holy Week more context to Christians.  By going through the entire narrative of Jesus’ life the historic church was simply reading through the Gospel week to week.  This structure comes from the texts that we profess and it is good, right, and beneficial that we let the texts guide our worship life.

As we go through this November, we should remember Christmas and the joy that came on that first Christmas day, but we should remember that we have more than a day, we have an entire year that remembers the blessings and teachings of God in Christ Jesus.

God’s Blessings

Vicar Shupe

A Time for Everything

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:   a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.   Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

As time moves on the seasons change.  As we shift into the autumn weather, we have to face that the
seasons of the church change as well.  I have been here nearly two months and I have enjoyed every moment serving here as your Vicar.  In such a short time I have been witness to Bible Studies and Divine Services, and participated in visitations.  I have seen plans for a renovation and plans for repairs of a 50 year old problem.  I have seen 2 baptisms, a wedding, and 4 funerals.  Two months is the grand scheme of things is but a blip in the course of history, yet many things change swiftly.  It means that as much as we attempt to prevent change, we only fight in vain against the currents of time.  Even the folk singer and songwriter, Pete Seeger recognized the wisdom of the words of Ecclesiastes 3 in his song "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)".  Everything continues to change and move forward.
We are turning to a season for the church in which the church is no longer held in respect.  The church
that was once blooming, is now aging.  In this church the funerals outnumber the incoming members and the
baptisms.  The influence of the church is being replaced by science and ―acceptance‖.  In the public square the symbols of the one true faith are being replaced with the coexist symbol.
The thing to remember though, even with the influence of the church waning, is the love of God never wanes.  As war and recession impact people of all walks of life, there is a peace that can only come from the church.  If a neighbor is suffering, the best words that he or she can hear is the power of the gospel which promises the love of the one true God.  There is a time for everything, and for God’s love it is always time.