March 31, 2015

“As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of G*d might be made manifest in him.” John 9:1ff

“Charity is the very face of Christ. He is gone – yet he is here always, dwelling in the faithful and the holy. Oh, if Christ, the suffering, Christ, the hungering and thirsting, the naked and the sick, the stranger and prisoner, still abides on earth in the persons of those who suffer…his love makes him one with them.”   Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823 – 1883) “For All The Saints” volume I (p. 918)

Have you ever, when you looked into the face or at the body of someone who is severely disabled, have you ever pictured Christ standing before you, or looking you in the eyes? When Jesus says that the blind man was born blind so that G*d might be manifest in him, in essence he is saying that in the body of the man born blind is the very essence of G*d. The other day I went to the home of a man who had come to the church looking for some assistance with frozen pipes. His mother was recently placed into a nursing home for recovery, and possibly as a permanent residence, and he was trying to deal with an older home that needed a lot of repairs. He is retired and does not have the income to cover all of the repairs that are needed, besides the emergencies that have beset him this winter. I knew that he was having a hard time asking for help – which, believe it or not, is common with some generations. As I approached his home to offer him some assistance, he came out of the door of the home with a picture in a frame. He said, “Pastor, I want you to keep this painting for me. It was my father’s and it hung in his office. I am loaning it to you to keep for me as we try to figure out what to do with the house. If I never see you again, then you can keep this painting as a reminder of me.”
I thanked him for the painting (after telling him it was not necessary to give me anything, though I felt better when he said it was “on loan”) and went to my car. As I looked at the painting when I returned to my office, I discovered that it is a painting of a pastor sitting in his office, and sitting next to him and talking to him – is Jesus.

I am planning to hang this painting on the wall of my office to remind me that, whenever there is someone sitting in my office who has come to ask for help, or ask for guidance, or is planning a wedding, funeral, etc. whoever that person is who is sitting across from me, they have inside of them, the essence of Jesus – G*d manifest in that person. Can you continue your week reminding yourself that in everyone you meet, young or old, abled or disabled, male or female, black or white, within each of those people G*d is manifest?

Pastor Dave

March 27, 2015

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“The cross comes before the crown…It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken….Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) A Sermon, “The Weight of Glory”

Do you know all of your neighbors? Do you love all of your neighbors? Do you have a neighbor whose dogs bark all day and night? Do you have a neighbor who leaves his garbage cans out three days after the trash has been picked up? Do you have a neighbor who does not shovel his sidewalk when it snows? Neighbors are one of the most difficult things we will have to navigate in our lives, or so I think some days. I do love my neighbors, but there are many that I struggle to “like” every day. And there are neighbors who do not like me. In one neighborhood that I used to live, one of my neighbors was so mad at me because I complained to the police that he ran the stop sign in front of our house every morning, that he would beep his car horn every time he came to the stop sign in front of my house. In another neighborhood we lived, one of our neighbors would park so close to our cars that we couldn’t move our cars because she thought we took her parking space.

C. S. Lewis says that “your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” I agree with Lewis that my neighbors are a weight, and a burden in my life – as well as a joy and a blessing. And it is true that the burden of my neighbor can only be supported and carried by humility. The couple who lives beside my wife and me have both experienced health problems in the last few months. With the snow that we have experienced this winter, I and my fellow neighbors have determined to clean off their driveway whenever it needs it. It is not always convenient, it does not always fit into my schedule, but it is something I need to do – not for thanks or other kudos, but because it keeps me humble, which only happens when I get outside of myself, and serve my neighbors.

Pastor Dave