Tag: Praise the Lord

NOW THAT IT’S IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR

I’m sharing a picture of me with my quarantine lockdown beard that I grew back in 2020. This was taken at the height of the lockdown when I was doing video announcements, devotions and messages from my office. And growing this wizard beard was fun for me to do during an otherwise very difficult time for our nation and world.

Since the time of this photograph two years ago, the pandemic has moved into our rearview mirror. As in the rearview mirror of an automobile, we can still see the effects of the virus but the pandemic is now behind us. It’s essentially over since it has moved into an “endemic” reality. We have moved from the pandemic into an endemic phase, which means this virus is always going to be with us as a part of the overall ecosystem of annual illnesses. Consequently, there will always be new variants just as there are with influenza each year.

We have also learned that the expectation of never getting this virus is simply an unrealistic one. The truth is that, if we haven’t had it already, we are all going to get it at some point. But thankfully, due to the artificially activated immunity from the vaccines and boosters, and due to the naturally occurring immunity that comes from getting this illness, we now have widespread “herd immunity” moving forward. In addition to all of this, the various excellent therapeutics that have been developed also give us further confidence that we are free to embrace life and ministry to the fullest once again.

As a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ, we certainly should never again take for granted the opportunity for connection with God and each other that is provided to us through regular participation in Bible study, choir, ministry committees, worship, and Holy Communion with the Lord at his Holy Table each week. Therefore, “not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some” (Hebrews 10:25), let us recommit ourselves to the blessed habit and weekly rhythm of congregational life — especially to in-person Sunday morning worship, face to face. Let us resist turning Christianity into something to be consumed electronically, understanding that Christian fellowship, discipleship and spiritual growth happen best in the week-to-week interaction of in-person community, which is beautiful (but sometimes difficult) and always truly necessary for us.

So now, let’s sing loudly together from our pew seats at church. Let’s boldly praise the Lord without inhibition. Let’s resoundingly speak our liturgies and sing our hymns by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s walk away from the Lord’s Table each week with a lingering foretaste of the Kingdom of God in our mouths and hearts and souls. And let’s reach out to our unchurched neighbors with the good news and lovingkindness of Jesus Christ, inviting them to the variety of outreach activities and events we are now offering, which include the following:

+ MOLC Summer Day Camp

+ MOLC Trunk or Treat

+ MOLC Holiday Artisan Festival

+ MOLC Community Luncheon

+ And more to come…

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be changed by what we’ve experienced over the past several years to live more fully, to love more joyfully, to worship more faithfully, and to share the gospel more urgently. And may we always remember that God is with us to guide us, empower us, and embolden us forward in mission and ministry. God is here in our midst, giving us new life and hope and courage.

A very happy and blessed Fall be with all of you!

Together in Christ Our Lord, Pastor Tim

IN GOD WE TRUST

When we were little children, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely positive lens.  They could do nothing wrong in our eyes.  When we became adolescents, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely negative lens.  They could do virtually nothing right in our teenage eyes.  And periodically during adolescence, teenagers will slip in and out of a childlike orientation toward their parents as they grow.  However, if we had a loving set of parents, we matured to later realize as adults that our parents are basically good and decent people despite their various imperfections.

In a similar way, our United States of America has arguably been in its adolescent phase of development in recent decades as our national life has been marked by a great deal of adolescent-like negative angst about our national history and heritage.  So while some view our USA as virtually doing no wrong in the world, there are many who now view our USA through an almost entirely negative adolescent lens. 

Of course, the truth is that there is no such thing as a perfect nation.  All nations have negative aspects to their histories and present realities.  Yes our USA is not perfect, but our history and heritage are not a horrible travesty either.  The USA has been, by far, and continues to be, by far, a great blessing to our world.  Therefore, it is indeed right that we should have a healthy sense of patriotism for everything that is good and laudable about our national founding and history and heritage.  While acknowledging the bad historical aspects, and learning from them, we uplift and give thanks every Thanksgiving for the good historical aspects of our nation above all else, and it is these many good aspects of our nation that our national symbols (especially the US Flag) point toward and represent.

As we are on the brink of the yearlong Presidential campaigning season for 2020, I believe it is important to be mindful of the fact that our national inheritance is truly a great good — although we have at times failed to live up to our highest ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers.  I also believe it is important to remember that, as our two national mottos declare, “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum” (meaning “out of many, one”).

In his book Mere Christianity, the great Christian author and lay theologian C.S. Lewis wrote the following… “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”

As the people of the Church of Jesus Christ, we know this wonderful statement by C.S. Lewis to be most certainly true of both individuals and entire nations.  So no matter what, we recognize that it is in God that we place our trust and hope, first and foremost, because our first citizenship is in God’s universal kingdom of grace and truth.  As it says in Philippians 3:18-20… “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And we also ought to recall the following biblical admonition from Psalm 146:3-5… “Do not put your trust in rulers, in mortals, in whom there is no salvation. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. Happy are those whose salvation is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

The font of life and salvation is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Therefore, no matter the outcome of this next year within our national life together, let us always remember our first citizenship in God and our true salvation in, with and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In God We Trust!  Thanks and Praise Be to God!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Together in Christ,  Pastor Tim