I have accepted a new call as co-pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Litchfield, Minnesota. Kateri, Augustin, and I appreciate all of the love and support we have received here in Ironwood. This is a bitter sweet moment for us as we begin to say goodbye to the friends we have made here.

There are many changes in store for all of us as we move forward discerning how God is using us and His Church to accomplish His purposes to love, save, and bless the world. My hope for you is that in the struggles to come you opt to be a part of His mission and where mere buildings and bank accounts stand in the way you gracefully bound over those obstacles choosing the "better part" of what God is doing in your context.

The future in Christ is full of hope, peace, and joy. Take hold of Christ and let go of all fears. Be not afraid, the Lord is with you.

Pentecost 3 B 2009

Nobody ever said being a Christian would be without difficulties, dangers, suffering, or turmoil. Nobody ever said that somehow Christians were exempt from the things that shake our faith and rattle our nerves. Nobody ever said that the winds and the waves of this life would never encompass us. But what scripture tells us is that God comes among those winds and waves. God comes when we are being tossed about on the sea of life. God comes to be with us, and that God has the power to still the seas and calm the storm.

There is so much uncertainty and risk involved in life and this has always been true. Nothing seems certain when the storms come up and the seas begin to roll. The veil between life and death sometimes seems so thin as to make us anxious to even venture out of our dwellings. Relationships seem so filled with difficulty and turmoil that it makes us wonder if we should even begin to love. Financial difficulties loom so large that it is hard to make any investment in the future at all. When tossed about on rough seas it is easy to be defeatist and fatalistic.

Like Job we cry out to God, “it is not fair!” I’ve been investing since I started working and now these investments are worth little or nothing. I’ve put everything into this relationship only to see it come to a disgraceful end. I’ve taken care of this body and have used it in service to God and neighbor and now it is failing! My bowstring has been loosened and now I am good for nothing! The waves stir, the wind blows ever stronger, but God does not sit by idly.

As Christians we should expect to endure afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger. By the grace of God we endure these. We can and will endure, not by any strength of our own but by God’s miraculous gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. By this gift comes purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech and the very power of God! It was true for the Corinthian Christians and it is true for us today. We are given the miraculous gift of the power of God’s salvation to help us endure whatever befalls us, even death itself.

The power of God is salvation and sometimes we overlook that power and cry out in distress, “Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?” We assume that our Lord sleeps while we suffer. We call to the Lord assuming that he is not listening. We cry out not expecting an answer. He is with us always to calm the seas of chaos and fear, He stills the waves of pain and anguish. He is not the one who needs waking! It is us. Like Jesus’ disciples adrift on the Sea of Galilee, we are the ones who have to be asked the abrupt questions, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

But we do have faith in God’s salvation. We are given faith in the midst of our stormy seas. God is with us preserving us from danger, the primary dangers not being bodily death, but spiritual fear and unbelief. The real dangers in life are not afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger. This is not saying that we should accept these realities for ourselves and for others, but we will fail at doing justice if we do not first have assurance of salvation and trust in God. We will not be able to steer the boat into safe harbors if we do not trust that Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who stills the waves and calms the storm.

When we trust in God and rest assured in Jesus’ salvation we will live to see the breakers give way to still waters. Trust, you see, is the antidote of fear. Faith is what makes the swells of life seem like little ripples. The reality is that the world is not perfect, but God is not to blame for the chaos, for disease, for oppression, for economic downturn, for famine, for war, for brokenness of relationship. God made the world good, but when we go boating in bad weather, God will not abandon us. When we languish in a hospital bed, God is there. When we stand around the grave of one we love, God is there. God did not create the suffering, but He is there in the midst of it, and has the power to help us overcome it saying, “Peace, be still!”

As Christians we expect suffering because we know it is a broken world. But at the same time we do not accept suffering as our lot. God’s faithfulness is our lot. God’s love for us is out lot. Eternal life with God in Christ is our lot in life forever. Amen.