In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, the Apostle Paul writes: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
How can we rejoice always? Personally, I do not always feel joyful. I don’t know anyone who feels happy 100% of the time. How can we rejoice when children die of starvation or veterans sleep on the street without a home? It sounds impossible.
Since the very beginning, the pursuit of happiness has been a part of our American cultural DNA. At the heart of the Declaration of Independence are the famous words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
My mom comes from a family of seven kids. Every weekend while she was growing up, her dad would polish the family’s shoes so they would look nice for Sunday worship and for school in the coming week. He would turn on the radio and line the shoes up on newspaper to shine, polish, and brush. My mom says my grandpa would use this time to think about and pray for his kids too. When he would give the shoes back, he would say to each of them, “It was a labor of love.”
A few weeks ago, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to the sound of a man singing in Arabic. The sound was the morning call to prayer coming from a loud speaker at one of the mosques near our hotel in Bethlehem, Palestine. I’m used to the sounds of church bells and chimes, but the sound of the Muslim call to prayer was new and strange to me.
In November, my spouse Kristin and I spent eight days visiting people and places in Israel and Palestine. Over and over again, the people and stories, sights and sounds challenged and stretched my heart and understanding of the world. I saw first-hand that newness and strangeness can carry hidden blessings.
When I was growing up, I remember my dad singing a song to me before bed: “Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me. Bless your little lambs tonight…” My grandma sang this lullaby to my dad when he was a child, and my great-grandpa sang it to her before that. And when my great-grandpa was dying, my grandma sang this song by his bedside. Singing this song has become a family tradition for us.
Is there a place in your life where you can find peace? If you’re like me, you find it easy to get pulled into the busyness, noise, and stress of life. I have a sense that many of us are yearning for peace in our hearts and lives. There are the everyday stresses of work and family. There’s the information overload that comes through our televisions, computers, and smart phones. Then, there are the extraordinary stressors like disease, job loss, grief, war, and financial strain. When was the last time you experienced peace?
Back in July, members of Orfordville Lutheran got together for a family fun event to play bocce ball, swim in the pool, laugh together, and, of course, to eat food. It was one of my favorite moments of the summer. Summer can be a time for friends, families, and communities to have fun and laugh together. I wonder, where have you seen God in your moments joy and laughter?
When did you last receive a word of blessing? When did you last give one? As a new pastor, I am often asked to offer words of blessing over food or an event or a person. A few weekends ago, for example, I said a prayer of blessing for a couple at their wedding. I asked for God to bless them and their new life together. More frequently, at the end of every Sunday worship service, I say the ancient words from Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.” It’s a privilege to proclaim God’s blessing.
Relationships across different generations are important in the church and in our communities. Increasingly, however, it seems like there are fewer opportunities for people of different ages to spend time together. Our communities can become segregated by age when our kids are in school and our elderly are in retirement communities or health care facilities. We may even develop harmful stereotypes about different age groups like teenagers or older adults. We know though that these relationships are meaningful, and I wonder how we can foster connections between people.
Wednesday, February 18th is Ash Wednesday for many Christians around the world, so you may see people walking around with black crosses drawn on their foreheads. It’s a day when we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
In one of the great ironies of our church year, we always read from Matthew 6 on Ash Wednesday where Jesus admonishes us: “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them.” Maybe it seems a bit hypocritical that we piously and somberly wear black crosses on our forehead as a public sign on the same day Jesus tells us not be show offs about our faith.
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