Born Again – Mt. Olive Lutheran Church

SACRED WATER

As our Foothills community leaves behind the annual “May gray” and “June gloom” season of overcast mornings with occasional small weather systems coming through, we are now entering the bone-dry season of July through September/October. And although we can sometimes forget we live in an arid climate because of all the irrigated landscaping we enjoy, the simple truth is that we live where the desert meets the sea. Therefore, large-scale desalination (making fresh water from salt water), using a combination of low-carbon energy sources (wind, solar, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear and hydroelectric), along with increased large-scale water storage, are clear and present necessities for the sustained wellbeing of Southern California.

However, the arid climate of our part of the country and the 3+ months of dry season we’re entering are powerful reminders of the preciousness of water and its sacredness when connected to God’s Word for the baptismal covenant that God makes with us in Holy Baptism. For indeed, water is sacred both because it’s the most basic molecular element for physical life and because it’s the most basic sacramental element for incorporating us into God’s New Covenant established through Jesus Christ our Lord. In fact, the New Testament of the Holy Bible is clear about the sacramental and covenantal use of water according to God’s Word…

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
ROMANS 6:3-4

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the bathing water [mikvah] of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This saying is sure.
TITUS 3:4-8a

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
MATTHEW 28:19-20

While some Christian traditions teach that Holy Baptism is exclusively for adult believers, not for young children or infants, Lutheran Christians understand the Bible as presenting the Sacrament of Baptism as inclusive of people at every stage of life. For Lutherans, we acknowledge that the early Church of Jesus Christ baptized both adults and entire households, including young children and infants. And we know this from the baptisms of whole households in the biblical Book of Acts as well as from the earliest of Christian Church writings from the First Century AD. Moreover, we Lutheran Christians also see the Holy Bible as presenting a covenantal understanding of Holy Baptism that’s similar to but exceeds the covenant of circumcision in the Old Testament.

Just as the Old Testament sign and seal of the Hebraic Covenant is physical circumcision — and afterward the circumcised Jewish male is expected to respond to and affirm this covenant of God in his adult life — so likewise Holy Baptism is the New Testament sign and seal of God’s New Covenant in Christ that we (both male and female) are to respond to and affirm for ourselves in our adulthood by the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this covenantal theology of the Lutheran branch of the Christian Faith differs from Christian traditions which teach that Holy Baptism is merely symbolic.

Thanks be to God for our new birth into a living hope through God’s baptismal covenant with us! Baptized into Jesus Christ and his Church, the resurrection life of Jesus becomes our resurrection life. And as often as we affirm and abide in this baptismal grace through faith, we are “born again from above” (John 3:3-8) with a spiritual “circumcision of the heart” (Romans 2:29), over and over again, granting us continual renewal as beloved children of God throughout our lives.

Grace & Peace, Pastor Tim

ROW YOUR BOAT GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM

My dad died in 2003, then later my mom died in 2014, and so, at these very difficult times of great loss and grief, I found myself spending a lot of time and energy looking back. Naturally, this is a normal response when we experience the greatest losses in life, such as the death of a parent or a longtime spouse. Indeed, dwelling on the past with enormous amounts of mental and emotional energy like this is very much a part of the grieving process for up to a couple of years afterward.

Sadly, we can sometimes become stuck in the past — year after year, and even decade after decade — and this imprisonment in the past drains and robs us of being fully present right here and now. However, thanks be to God we can become unstuck by the good news of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord! By God’s great mercy, we have been reborn into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And this great hope lifts us up and rescues us from being hopelessly and endlessly stuck in the past and in our grief. As St. Paul the Apostle of Christ writes in his second letter to the Christians of the City of Corinth:

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is achieving for us an eternal glory beyond all measure. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
(Second Corinthians 4: 16-18)

Similarly, we can be tempted into the trap of being overly focused (to the point of obsession) on the future. We can exhaust ourselves with worrying about what the future might hold for us. Yet again, we can find ourselves drained and robbed of being fully present right here and now, except this time the culprit is our anxiety about the future. However, the cure for this is the same cure that saves us from being stuck in the past. The cure is the good news and eternal hope of Christ! For our Lord Jesus teaches us with his immortal words in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew and in chapter 14 of the Gospel of John:

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life… But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for today is its own trouble.”
(from Matthew 6: 25-34)

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
(from John 14: 2-7)

In other words, we should not obsess about what the future might hold for us, because we know The One who holds our future in his hands — our Heavenly Father. And because our Heavenly Father has provided his only begotten Son to bring us atonement, forgiveness and renewal of life, we have an all-surpassing future hope. Christ has died, yes, but Christ is now risen and we shall arise too. He is the Lord of all life and light and love, and this wonderful Lord is also the Lord of our everlasting future together.

Therefore, we need not fret over the impermanent nature of this temporary earthly existence that we all must journey through. It is a temporary condition during which we experience all sorts of tests and trials, but it is only momentary compared to the eternal glory that awaits us through Christ. For again as the Apostle Paul writes, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

The gospel of Christ empowers us to more gently row our boats through this life. Not futilely rowing backward against the flow of time, stuck in the past. Not frantically and exhaustingly rowing forward with great anxiety about the future. Rather, we are enabled to row gently down the stream — mentally and emotionally present in the here and now — by the power of the faith, hope and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

During our Lenten Season and on into Eastertime, and indeed for the rest of our lives, may we continually learn to row our boats more gently down the stream of this life — “merrily, merrily,” as the old song goes — for we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Blessed Season of Lent! Pastor Tim

JESUS, GOD’S PRISM

The Seasons of Advent, Christmastime and Epiphany all share together the theme of spiritual light. And Jesus of Nazareth is the Holy Son of God who shines God’s Eternal Light on us and the whole world.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
(John 8:12)

Our risen Lord and Savior is the Light of God that’s revealed to us in specific and concrete ways. Through Jesus Christ, God’s Light is not only reflected to us by Jesus but it’s also refracted to us by him in very specific hues. Through our Lord Jesus who is God’s Prism, we see the Light of God refracted into its specific spectrum of colors for us to clearly see and understand.

The Universal Light of God is made known to us in the sevenfold spectrum of Jesus’ birth, his life, his teachings, his suffering, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. Through these seven rays of Jesus’ earthly and heavenly ministry, the rainbow spectrum of God’s Light is shed upon our lives to save, redeem and guide us.

Jesus said, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
(John 14:7)

Therefore, as we avail ourselves of the full rainbow of God’s Light in Christ our Lord through his gracious gifts of Word and Sacrament, we receive grace upon grace, and we are strengthened and kept in true faith. And the continuing challenge to all of us is to recognize that this grace and truth of God in Christ will never fit neatly into either a loose universalist faith or a strict fundamentalist faith. Jesus Christ is God’s grace and God’s challenge to absolutely everyone.

Revealed through Jesus Christ and his Apostles, may the New Covenant rainbow of God’s Light grant us the new life of a born again spirit (see John 3). And may Christ’s New Covenant rainbow of God’s Light fill us, challenge us, change us and renew us. Amen.

Good Advent, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Blessed Epiphany!!!

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim