May 29, 2023 — Psalm 43 

“Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 43 

“When reading Psalms such as this, do you see the danger in telling Christians that they have the abundant life and will be happy all the time? Yes, they have the abundant life, but they are not always happy. As a matter of fact, most of the Psalms are spent agonizing over our sin and/or the sensible lack of God’s presence. Yes, God is always with us; but that doesn’t mean we always feel that presence! It’s much easier to feel like a Christian when everything is going great in our lives. However, our faith is tested and grows during the difficult times when God seems far off.” (devotional-reflections-from-the-bible.com; Psalm 43)

The Psalm prayer for this Psalm brings us the mention of “our joyful participation at your altar” — or as I interpret this, our participation at the table with Holy Communion. As per our “right practice” as Lutherans, we cannot consecrate the communion elements in isolation from the physical gathering of the community of believers — it is part of our understanding of Jesus coming t0 be a part of the bread and wine.

Yes we are to put our hope in Christ, but agreeing with the Psalmist here, we also trust that “the Lord directs his love” — and there are no barriers that can come between that love — whether it is through prayer, through worship, through mindfulness, or Holy Communion. But in the end, I believe we trip all over ourselves walking over and around the road bumps of “right practice”. Perhaps this is the best that has come out of the pandemic – that we have found many ways to once again gather as a community, whether virtually or within the church building, we continue to joyfully participate at the altar of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

Prayer: Almighty Father, source of everlasting light, send forth your truth into our hearts and pour over us the brightness of your light to bring us, through our joyful participation at your altar, to your eternal dwelling on high, where you live and reign now and forever. 

Amen. 

May 28, 2023 — Pentecost Sunday; Acts 2:1-17, 21

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”  But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

Pentecost – literally translated as “50^th Day”. It is an ancient harvest festival call “Shavvot” or “The Feast of Weeks”. It was a one day festival celebrated by the Jews as appointed by G-d in Leviticus 23 – celebrated 50 days after the Passover. Israelites from all over would travel to Jerusalem to praise G-d for the bounty and grace they had received from G-d. In the miracle of the harvest, they would have seen the hand of G-d blessing them – and as such they felt the need to thank G-d. For you and me, the day of Pentecost comes on the 50^th day after the Resurrection of Jesus. On the 40^th day Jesus ascended into heaven – promising his disciples that he would return to them one day – but also promising them that they would receive the gift of the spirit. Ten days later, as they were gathering for this harvest festival, the Holy Spirit did come – in a rush – in a dramatic fashion – promising to continue to blow open the doors if not blow down the doors of their faith. What they would do with the power of the Holy Spirit is recounted in the rest of the book of Acts.

What are we going to do? What can we do empowered by the Holy Spirit? That is our question to ponder this day. About 120 disciples gathered during the festival and they were playing a big game of “The Waiting Game”. Why do I say that? I say that because it appears that the disciples were participating in the waiting game Jesus placed them in – even though it was a festival day. After all, Jesus had told them: “…while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised…”

So they were waiting for something to happen – they weren’t sure what – but they were waiting. What are you waiting for? We all are waiting for something: a package to arrive, a phone call, a check in the mail, a visitor, a vacation, a birth, a death. So, what are we waiting for? Are you waiting for that big ball of light to come from Heaven telling you to get off the couch and do something? Or are you waiting for a big miracle to convince you that G-d loves, G-d cares, and G-d knows you exist?

There is no time to wait……there are plenty of signs around us — we need to allow others to witness how the power of the Holy Spirit is leading us – through our words and our actions of love, mercy and Grace.

Pastor Dave