Rev. Reed Lee Pedersen's
As much as I love warm and hot weather, it is hard to beat the beauty of fall. Fall is the time of transition and the time for change. It is the time where life still abounds, but plants begin to wither away. I love fall for many reasons. The colors, cool weather, and football are just three of a long list of reasons for loving fall. So what can fall say about our faith life as Christians? Changing colors: As much as we may resist it, change always happens. (Just like Mondays will always happen whether we like it or not) The cool thing about the changing of the leaves is how beautiful they become in the process. Our faith when we are young is “green”. It needs to be fed and nourished so that we can learn more about God and how to serve God. As we get older we change and so does our faith. It may be through joyous times and harsh time, but either way, our outlook on God changes. As we witness to these changes, it is my hope that you can recognize the new beauty and meaning and can bring to you. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1 Cool weather: That feeling of needing a sweatshirt or light jacket in the morning while fully knowing you won’t need it when the heat of the sun comes in the afternoon is my favorite type of fall weather. Cool but not cold. A reminder that while the Holy Spirit burns within us and provides us our faith in God, perhaps it can melt away some of the cold relationships we share with others. No matter how fractured and cold they may be, cool weather reminds us of the importance to thaw out some of our hardships with others. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 Football: Playing football is what I miss most about the season of fall. It’s hard to look at the harvesting going on in front of me and not think of weekday practices and football games. Sure we can watch it from the stands on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, but it just isn’t the same when you have that view from the sidelines. Football has changed for me since my last game in college, but if I spent every football game today thinking about how much I miss it then I would never get to enjoy what is being played now. We cannot serve God and our communities and God the way we could have in the past, but if I dwell on the past then I can’t move forward. Faith pushes us to look around instead of behind so that we do not miss out on the blessings of today. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7 Points to Ponder:
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The rambling this week is short and sweet. The cover of our bulletin had the line, "Jesus is ________." I invited the congregation to put in that blank space what first comes to mind. I heard responses like Jesus is "here", "teacher", and "Savior". So what comes to your mind first when you see the statement "Jesus is ________."? That was just step one! Here is step two: using whatever you filled in the blank finish this statement, "Jesus is ________, so I am ________." If Jesus is "here", then what does that mean for you? If Jesus is "teacher" and so I am "student" what does that mean for my life? If Jesus is "Savior" and so I am "saved", how does that affect the people I am going to see this week and how I interact with them? This is an exercise in contemplation of what Jesus relationship to you means for your life. Enjoy! For those interested, here is the sermon which sparked today's rambling. It is based off of Mark 8:27-38. In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing. (Ecc. 7:15) “The Riddles of Life” is the title given to a portion of Scripture from Ecclesiastes (Ecc. 7:15-29). This first riddle is a good one. There are bad people and good people who get what the world says they ‘deserve’, but what about the good people who are persecuted and the evil people who prosper in today’s world?
There is a form of Christianity that tells its followers that if you pray and believe enough in Jesus then you will receive monetary rewards on earth. These are usually the same preachers asking for a new jet as if Jesus does not want his pastors in coach or even first class. This line of thought is easy to follow as long as the “wicked” don’t have a dime to their name and the “good” people have a comfortable life. Some might point out that this breaks down in the midst of tragedy, but I would take it a step further to say this line of thought about how faith works breaks down when we actually look at the reality of the world. Every person who is rich is certainly not a saint by any stretch of the imagination. Also, there are true saints and good followers of Christ who still are without daily essentials like housing, daily food, and people who will look after them. This line of theology tells the poor, handicapped, orphaned, and persecuted people they must be getting what they deserve, right? This is the type of thought where someone blesses and thanks God because they were sick and could not go into work on September 11, 2001 to the World Trade Center. But what about the almost 3,000 people that last their lives? Did they ‘deserve’ that? This type of belief about how God works in our lives is exactly what someone in my situation might like to hear. I am white, male, heterosexual, come from a middle class home, left college and seminary with no personal debt, and have had an overall privileged upbringing. Of course I would love to hear the message that I am this way because God is rewarding my faith. In reality I won the genetic lottery in having great parents and siblings. I won the college lottery by meeting the love of my life, my wife Megan. I am not saying that these are not blessings from God (they most certainly are!!). What I am saying is that I in no way DESERVE these blessings more than any other human being in the world. Everyone in this world deserves to be blessed and loved by God and the world. This is why it is so important that Christians and all people should help our neighbors in need. This is why we should seek to rectify the wrong done to the truly good people who find themselves hurting and speak out against the wickedness we see in our daily lives. Further ahead in this passage from Ecclesiastes the author writes, “Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.” (Ecc. 7:20) So what do we deserve from God? Nothing, because our mere existence is a gift. Yet, Jesus took God’s love further and claimed victory over death so that we can enjoy the gift of life for more than just the average lifespan of a human being. We are promised this gift of life will last forever. Not as something we deserve, but something we receive in spite of not deserving it in the first place (Romans 5:8). God’s love is not given to those who ‘deserve’ it, but rather it is given to everyone. I think it is important we think about that as we interact with every person we see day to day. Perhaps even the person you cannot stand is right there waiting to receive God’s love from you. Points to Ponder:
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AuthorPastor Reed is a first call pastor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois. Archives
July 2019
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