The Big Brothers Big Sisters' Bowl for Kids was a tremendous success! The Parish Youth raised over $900 and we had two teams with five on each team. Even more important is the fact that we had a fun time doing a good thing for our community. Thanks to everybody who supported this effort!

Lent 1 B 2008

These days with modern transportation such as jet liners and interstate highways, it is rare that we make journeys that last for more than a few days. It is hard for us even to imagine what it would be like to journey for weeks at a time as our ancestors may have had to do in order to get from one place to another. For all of us living today there was not a time when Trans-Atlantic voyages on ocean liners and trips on trains using steam engines only took days to get you to your destination. The world has become so small as the result of our technologies that it really is impossible to imagine a trip that takes years to prepare for and months to complete. But there is one modern journey that as a boy captured my imagination.

On March 7, 1986, the Steger International Polar Expedition, made up of seven men and one woman, set out by dogsled to reach the North Pole. In a deliberate throwback to the early explorers, they sought to complete the journey without re-supply. They would be entirely reliant on the three tons of supplies they brought with them; there would be no airlifts with rested dogs, no new equipment, and no extra food or fuel. I remember, as a ten year old, hearing of the completion of their expedition. It was in the news for weeks as several members of the expedition were from my home state of Minnesota.

One of the members of the expedition even came to our town to tell the story. All the students from the different elementary schools were bussed to the High School Auditorium to hear first hand the unbelievable account of adventure, survival, and determination. The name of the explorer was Ann Bancroft (not the actress who played Mrs. Robinson in the film the Graduate). She gave up her teaching post in 1986 in order to participate in the “Will Steger International North Pole Expedition". She arrived at the North Pole together with five other team members after 56 days using dogsleds. This made Bancroft the first woman to reach the North Pole on foot and by sled.

56 days of arctic cold and limited rations…56 days of barren landscape and treacherous crevasses…56 days without the comforts of home and family…but despite the danger and deprivation the adventure of it all still captures my imagination. And to those explorers who were successful in reaching the North Pole, for them the effort is still worthwhile. The sacrifice is still worth it, not just for the glory, but for the experience itself. During those days the members of the expedition grew in many ways. Though they had the goal in mind, reaching that patch of snow and ice at the top of the world was not all that was to be gained from the journey. They were changed by the experience itself.

On Wednesday we entered onto a forty day journey. On Wednesday we stepped out into the barren landscape of Lent. We enter into these forty days of discipline and self denial to arrive at that patch of dirt, tears, and blood where Jesus was crucified. And though we have this goal in mind there is more to be gained from this journey than a remembrance of his sacrifice. As we travel from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday we enter into an experience that strengthens and deepens our faith. This is a time that captures our imaginations. That recalls forty days and forty nights of flood and destruction and God’s deliverance of an ark full of animals and people from which life on earth would start over.

On Wednesday we entered into a forty day journey that recalls the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the desert of deprivation where the breakdown of discipline and self-denial nearly threatened to break the bonds of love between God and his people. On Wednesday we entered into a journey that recalls Jesus’ time in the wilderness when he was tempted by Satan. This forty day journey to the cross is a time to set aside what is unnecessary, frivolous, petty, and distracting. This forty day journey is a time to focus on what is really important, necessary, and life-sustaining. It is a time to live into God’s life-giving promises.

Those promises of God are always marked by a sign. There is always a visible reminder of God’s promises. In the case of the Great Flood the sign was a seven color promise. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet are the colors of the Roy G. Biv Covenant. God’s bow in the sky shows forth God’s promise never to destroy the earth again. But now God uses a different kind of flood to signify his promise to us. And like the Rainbow Covenant, this promise is once and for all. This promise was not based on the death of the disobedient many, the rebellious hordes or evil men and women, but on the death of the one obedient person. This promise is not signified by a rainbow in the sky, but by the sky being torn apart, the descending of a dove and a voice from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

This new promise, or new covenant, is signified by something plain and simple that we use in every day life. This new covenant flows out for us freely and abundantly because of one who let his life blood flow freely and abundantly for us. This new covenant is marked by our daily journey into the death resurrection of Jesus. This covenant is revealed by our baptism into the cross and into the empty tomb. This covenant is shown forth by our daily dying to sin and rising to new life with Christ. This New Covenant is the promise of our salvation.

“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.” These are the first words of the ministry of Jesus according to Mark. With the arrival of the Messiah, the anointed One of God, a new age is ushered in. The end time has begun. The time is fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled; the Kingdom of God has come near and gets closer every day. During Lent we journey even closer to this reality. During Lent we show how this promise has changed our lives. We do this by renewing our commitment to repent: that is to turn away from our sin and turn closer to God. We do this through exercises and disciplines that God may use to help deepen and strengthen our faith in the good news of Jesus Christ.

On Wednesday you stepped aboard. Marked once again by the cross of Christ your ticket was punched, your fare was paid. You have begun the forty day journey, a journey of transformation. It is a journey that will take you to new places—some of which may seem a bit strange and uncomfortable at first. It will not be always be easy, but because God is faithful, we know it will be worth it.

Bon Voyage.

A Pastors’ Page on the Darker Side of Baptism

When I instruct parents of children who are going to be baptized or candidates for baptism it is easy to talk about the positive aspects. I usually talk about how baptism does spiritually, what water does physically. It renews and cleanses. We are carried in water and the word in the same way we were carried in water before we were born. We are reborn out of this water into eternal life as children of God (See Titus 3:5-8). All of this, though it some if it sounds weird, is relatively positive and easy to understand.

The water and word of baptism refreshes and renews like the water we drink. The water and the word cleanse and purify like the water in which we bathe. The water and the word carry us into life like the amniotic fluid that carries us into the world and by it we are reborn children of God. That’s the lighter side of baptism. But there is a darker side, and being that this is Lent, it is appropriate that we should explore this darker side.

When asked what baptism signifies Martin Luther Answers: “It signifies that the old person in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drown through daily sorrow for sin and repentance.” Spooky right? Baptism involves a sort of death of our sinful selves. Through daily sorrow for sin and repentance our old person with all its sins and evil desires is put to death. Baptism is a kind of death. It gets even spookier.

Paul writes in Romans: “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….” Like water here on earth, baptismal water, that is water with the word of God, can be dangerous. It drowns sinners. It suffocates the old Adam and Eve who is in the heart of each of us. This is powerful stuff. This is shocking language. You who have been baptized have been submerged in death, the death Jesus died on the cross. But there is a reason for this.

Remember how Martin Luther said that baptism signifies the drowning of the old sinful person? He goes on to say “that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” In other words baptism is something we live out daily. Lutherans like to say that because of baptism into Jesus we daily die and rise with Him; each and every day we die and rise with Christ.

After Paul says that we have been baptized into Jesus’ death he goes on to say, “...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.” We die with Him so we can be raised with Him. That is what baptism and faith in God’s word accomplishes.

As Lent begins we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. This is an affirmation of our mortality. God created us out of the dust of the earth, but with Christ things do not stop there. By baptism into Christ we are reformed, remade, and reborn children of God. The darker side of baptism acknowledges death, but the lighter side, the resurrection side, promises abundant life. The painful death we die to sin gives way to the resurrection promise of new life.

God bless you as you begin your Lenten walk to the cross. May this be a time of new disciplines and deepening of faith so that when we come to the end of it we can cling even closer to the baptismal promise and hope of the resurrection of our Lord.

In Christ,

Pastor Christian

Born and raised in the isolated Finnish-American communities of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Jonathan Rundman has been writing songs and performing across the country since he was 18 years old. He emerged on the national music scene in the late-90s as a Chicago-based touring artist, generating rave reviews in Billboard, The New York Times, Performing Songwriter, Paste, and countless regional publications. Now living in Minneapolis, he continues to tour and record. Jonathan's songs can be heard on radio stations across America, in Scandinavia and England, and have been featured on the Ellen Degeneres Show.

Jonathan will be live in Concert at Zion Lutheran Church
Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 7:30 CT
Doors Open at 6:30

The Christ Lutheran Parish Youth are bowling in the 9th Annual Gogebic-Range Bowl For Kids on Saturday February 28, 2009 at the American Legion Bowling Lanes in Hurley, WI. If you wish to sponsor any of our bowlers please contact Pastor Christian at the Parish House 932-2538.

Many people are familiar with Big Brothers Big Sisters' traditional mentoring programs, but not many know that in our community BBBS also supports and facilitates the High-Five Mentoring Program that provides grade school kids with positive mentors from high school. This is their primary fundraising effort.

Bowling for Kids gives our youth a chance to do something good for their own community while having fun at the same time. Thanks for your contributions to this effort!