The Pastoral Grind

 (Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column December 8, 2021) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore… (Isaiah 9:6-7) One of the things I enjoy when we get to this time of the year is planning some kind of special service leading up to Christmas. Usually, it involves a combination of Scripture readings, meditations, and (of course) carols. Something that has helped shape my planning is “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols,” which the King’s College in Cambridge, England has been hosting on Christmas Eve for more than a century. The inspiration for that service comes from one that was planned

  (Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column October 20, 2021) A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.   (Isaiah 40:6-8) As I’m writing this, it’s a dreary, damp, gusty afternoon. A chill is in the air, and the leaves on the trees are changing to shades of yellow. The cornfield beyond them continues to brown as it nears being ready to harvest. I love this time of year! I love taking drives to see the fall colors. I love that the hot, sticky days of summer are gone. I don’t mind that the season to follow brings all that white stuff and the promise of ice fishing…but let’s stick with fall for a few more weeks! You know as well as I do that as beautiful as the foliage is, it’s a sign of the leav

(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column September 8, 2021) The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. (Psalm 53:1-3). A couple years ago I wrote about remembering 9/11/2001 on my personal blog, so if your read that and some of this sounds familiar, that’s why. 20 years ago, I was 12 years old, a 6th grader in South Holland, Illinois, and on my way to school when I heard the first news on the radio of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I didn’t know anything about that building other than that it was a skyscraper in New York City. Knowing what skyscrapers in Chicago looked like, I tried to picture that in my mind—it seemed crazy. 2001 was a time before social

"Again!"  (Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin : Pastor's Column July 21, 2021) …“Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:1-4). Most of us have probably heard some variation of the following quote about insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.” With a little research, there’s actually a lot of uncertainty about the origin of this quote. There’s no source to show where Einstein said or wrote this or if it even came from him. Regardles

 (Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin : Pastor's Column June 9, 2021) “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 16:18-20). A couple months ago I wrote an article here wondering about justice in relation to the outcome of the Derek Chauvin trial. I shared how quite a number of people were saying the guilty verdict felt like justice or at least accountability. Yet I sincerely felt torn—not because I thought former officer Chauvin was perfectly right and good and undeserving of any punishment for what he did to George Floyd—but I wond

 (Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column April 28, 2021) He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8) But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24) Christians are to be people of justice, kindness, humility, and righteousness. We don’t always live up to those virtues. There have been times throughout history when people claiming Christ have been unjust, unkind, unhumble, and unrighteous. When we sin against other people, we’ve likely left at least one of these requirements behind. When we look specifically at “justice,” the Hebrew word in both these verses is dealing with fairness and integrity, governing or executing what is right, and justice is that which fits with God’s standards. Part of why the Old Testament Israelites were punished by God was for oppressing the poor and marginali

 (Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column March 17, 2021) What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?...Do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you…Do not speak evil against one another, brothers... (James 4:1-12) Every week, if not every day, it seems like there’s a new “crisis” people identify and are outraged over. Whether you’re a Christian or not, on the right or the left, the middle or associating with other ideologies, whether you consider yourself “woke” or any other cause or position you want to attach to yourself—people can find something to be worked up about. Some of the causes for outrage, anger, pain, or outcry are leg

(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column February 3, 2021) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,  that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-15) There are probably differences between you and I when it comes to how we see the world. What we pay attention to, what really gets us going likely is not always the same. We may watch or read different news sources. We may think differently when it comes to politics or theology or social matters. We participate in different aspects of community life, associate with different people, and choose to invest our time, energy, and money into different things.