New Year’s Resolution: Trust God

 

Prior to 1582, the New Year began in March. When Pope Gregory XIII developed the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Eve became a religious feast and a chance to celebrate the old and the new, the close of a year, and the beginning of a new one. It is around now that I like to take some time and think about all that has happened in the past year. What were some of the highlights, the more significant events that occurred? What were some of the harder moments? What joyous times did I celebrate? Who are some people I met? I remember the lives of significant people I lost. What have I learned? What blessings have I experienced? It is good to reflect on life, where we have been, what we’ve done, and to give thanks to God for all things.

However, the event of New Year’s Eve is not just a time to honor the past; it is an opportunity to look toward s the future, the coming year, and all it holds. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” There is a saying, “I don’t know what the future holds but I know who holds the future.” What a blessing it is to know that Christ is present guiding us and wanting the best for us! If only we would trust in God more fully, for God offers us great assurance in life, especially when we encounter the unknown and another year with all its ups and downs that we will face.

As you make your New Year’s resolutions, set your goals, as I do, and work at keeping them, I encourage you to add the simple phrase, “Trust God.” I pray that you would come to rest in God’s promises, to live joyfully, and to trust God, for through Jesus Christ, God gives you a future with hope. For this we can be grateful and celebrate each and every day.

Happy New Year!

Pastor Percy

Christmas

 

Some years ago in a book called Future Shock, Alvin Toffler tried to offer a view of human history in terms of how many “lifetimes” we can estimate human beings have been on earth. He proposed a “lifetime” to be sixty years. It was all approximate, of course, but by his calculations, if human beings as we know them have lived on earth for say, fifty thousand years, then we could say that we are living in the 853rd “lifetime.” If that were the way we viewed how remote or how recent big events in history happened, he gave us to imagine we could have a better grasp of our place in it if we used “lifetimes” as our unit of measure rather than years and centuries.

That could be a new way to describe Christmas, only some thirty-three lifetimes ago. “…And when the time came for her (Mary) to be delivered, she gave birth to her firstborn son… And she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger …And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night …And an angel of the lord stood by them, and they were sore afraid …And suddenly a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.”

 

 

 

In terms of the long history of humankind, the first Christmas was actually not so very, very, long ago–not as if it were some virtually pre-historic event. In terms of the tenancy on earth of humankind, Christmas was hardly a handful of lifetimes ago, compared to the hundreds of lifetimes that went before. Think of how recently, within the last two lifetimes, humankind learned to fly, produce and make available automobiles and build roads for them, shaped sciences that have transformed life and health, made the world truly into a global village (however quarrelsome) through computers, instant communications, cell phones, reliable transportation, and so on, in only the last two lifetimes. The printing press came only seven lifetimes ago, television within one lifetime, the establishment of our own nation only four lifetimes ago. Columbus arrived in the “New World” only eight lifetimes ago, the Magna Carta barely sixteen lifetimes, and we could go on to countless “modern” comforts and conveniences we take for granted and can’t imagine being without.

We who have been insiders as many of these recent developments emerged could, of course, offer detailed descriptions of cause and effects. However, it is far more than coincidence that once the Gospel of Jesus Christ became part of the human equation the gift of the freedom of the spirit opened a whole new trajectory for the history of humankind. His birth was a Christmas gift for all of history. And while the 833 lifetimes of our tenancy continues to weigh us down with a tragic legacy of selfishness and sin, the bright light of God’s love and salvation in Christ, the Lord of Life, shines more than ever in its transforming power. We sing, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come.” Indeed!

Have a Blessed Christmas!

Pastor Jansen  

Christmas Once Again

 

Christmas decorations have been up long before Thanksgiving. Stores, malls, and some radio stations play nonstop Christmas carols. People spend money they can’t afford on presents that neither are needed nor wanted. Children get all excited about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is coming to Town. Stores sell make-believe crèches and the Hallmark Virgin. Yet, for all our efforts, we’ve never managed to ruin it. That in itself is part of the miracle.

Growing up on the farm, Christmas Eve was just like any other day since the animals still needed to be cared for, cows needed to be milked and chicken eggs needed to be gathered. As one went about cleaning the places where they were sheltered from the cold, the animals eagerly waited for their food. Hay had been gathered during the summer and now was brought to the manager for the cows to eat. In the midst of the puffs of the animal’s breath as they chewed the hay, I could only imagine what that first Christmas was like for Mary and Joseph. In the winter darkness, among the smell of the hay and the sound of the animals eating, they laid Him in the manager. Christmas itself is by grace. It could never have happened otherwise. Perhaps it is the very wildness and strangeness of grace that has led us to try to tame it. We have tried to make it habitable. We have reduced it to an occasion we feel at home with, at best a touching and beautiful occasion.

The Word became flesh. The Ultimate Mystery born as a babe in the manger. In a word it was called the “Incarnation.” Agonized laboring led to it, vast upheavals of intergalactic space was visible to shepherds and Wise Men, and time was split apart. We can only be awed by the thought that this was, “God of God, Light of Light, and very God of very God–who for us and for our salvation,”as the Nicene Creed puts it, “came down from heaven.” Came down: It is the Resurrection and the Life Mary holds in her arms, and because of that our lives are forever changed. This is that Good News that we never grow tired of hearing, “For to you a Savior is born!”

With Christmas Joy,

Pastor Qualley   

Peace Be with You

 

In the midst of the busy seasons of Advent and Christmas, where do we find peace? I would offer that there is more peace in the world than history or headlines lead us to believe. The life-giving energy that causes plants to grow, rain to fall, rivers to run, and makes life possible comes to us quietly every day. God’s peace that “passes all human understanding” is offered to each of us. In magnitude it dwarfs the destructive powers of the occasional violence in the world. We should not belittle the sufferings and causalities caused by war, storms, eruptions, and earthquakes; still we need to put these in perspective with the number of peaceful, quiet, productive days that most people are engaged in day by day.

Historian Will Duran summarized human history this way: “Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shooting, and doing the things historians usually record. While on the banks unnoticed, people build homes, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, and even whittle statues. The story of civilizations is what happens on the banks. Historians ignore the banks for the river.”

 

Even in the midst of violence and suffering, of strife and struggle, we can find peace, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you will have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) This peace is an inner calm that goes below and beyond the effects of our environment. It is the peace we wish for. The more we understand God’s love for us, the more we put our lives in line with His will, the more peace we will have in our lives.

May you be especially blessed this season with the gift of His peace!

Pastor Qualley

 

Are We There Yet?

 

 

“Are we there yet?” It’s not just children of a certain age who ask that question, although they certainly do. I’ve been on a number of trips with delayed flights, missed connections, and lost luggage, where I’ve been the one asking the question. Leading up to Christmas, the question becomes one of time rather than distance: “Is it here yet?” The author to the Hebrews writes with an interesting antithesis–run with patience. Just exactly how do you do that? It uses a figure of speech from the races of the first century world; this verse says that life is like a long distance marathon, calling for good conditioning, proper strategy, and great endurance.

When it comes to trials and tribulations we speak of the patience of Job. Job went through a period of testing: his cattle were stolen, his sons killed, his wife deserted him, and he became victim of a terrible illness. He kept his balance because he held to the conviction that God had a purpose in all this experience for him. He kept running his course with patience. It is said that patience is a wise teacher. Only as one searches and struggles, blindly at times, waiting, wondering, seeking, questioning, patiently moving step by step, does one find that which is hidden for only the enduring eye to see. Sometimes we might even have to wait until we see it from heaven’s side. Patience is the homework of life: preparation for every experience. It is the creative waiting, the sound assurance that “this too shall pass,” and on the other side of the mist the sun still shines and God still cares.

In this Advent/Christmas season we learn to practice patience. Whether children or adults, the question “Are we there yet?” still bubbles up from within. May we rest assured in the unshakable faith in the providence of God. Old doors may close, but new doors have a strange way of swinging silently open. Accepting the gift of the days still to come, “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Go with God,

Pastor Qualley  

God is Down to Earth

“And the Word became flesh

 and lived among us.” John 1:14
 

In the beginning it was this directing, controlling Word which put order in the universe and mind in women and men. John states an incredible, startling fact unheard of in his first century world: the Word, the power, the dynamic, the reason that orders and controls the world “has become flesh and dwells among us.” John goes on to say that “we have seen with our eyes… and touched with our hands… the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1-2) John’s message is that this Word has come to the earth in human form. God, who was so distant, is now near. Now that Word has been uttered by a human being, who lived among us like other human beings, now a human being shows us the splendor of divine nature in terms of a personal character and social action, and finds us where we live. In other words, in Jesus Christ, God is down to earth.

The world’s memorable people are not only talented, but down-to-earth and approachable. Abraham Lincoln was known for his leadership in uniting a divided nation. What people loved about Lincoln, was his down-to-earth nature. Desmond Tutu had a willingness to be a down-to-earth bishop who stood with blacks in Soweto until apartheid was finally overcome. Albert Schweitzer was appreciated, not for his intellectual capacity, but for being down-to-earth in his servant hood to the people of Africa. In Christ, God is approachable. It was by the incarnation that God came to the earth, becoming accessible to all. Jesus knew life as we know it. Therefore, in the midst of our anguish, pain, and disappointment, we can cry out and say “Lord, you know how it is!” God does, for God had a son who lived among us full of grace and truth.

This Advent/Christmas season, may you ponder anew the Good News of the season, “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given.” God has come down to earth to whisper His love in our ears, comfort us with embracing arms, and lead us with compassion and wisdom. What better gift could we receive this Christmas?

Go with God,

Pastor Qualley  

The Promise of the Manger

It isn’t easy, but I can’t bring myself to join in the annual lament against the commercialism of the Christmas season. Of course it is too much, and too loud, and too repetitious, and too expensive. But in all the hoopla something may be going on that is exactly what Christians hope will be happening. Jesus can still touch the human spirit through a flawed and garish vehicle. What if the mystery of God’s infinite love can be delivered without the pristine forms and careful cadences of good taste? What if the vastness of God’s power and glory can be connected to the human heart in pedestrian ways that do not threaten the frail wires of human consciousness? What if that which is beyond comprehension can still be compressed and squeezed into a simple and understandable holiday experience? Isn’t that exactly what the Christian experience in human history is all about? God is with us. Christ in me, plain as I am. I am an incarnation of the glory of God, an earthen vessel, to be sure, flawed and sometimes garish. But what is in me because of Jesus is nothing less than the glory of the gift of the Son of God.

Christmas brings to the world in which we live an annual glimpse into the merriment and festivity of the presence of a cosmic love that transforms life for keeps. Even if the holiday lasts only for a few days, or weeks or hours, it is something that can evoke “the better angels of our nature.” However, little the world may know of Jesus, though there is no escaping the noises of this holiday, the world looks forward to it and frequently has occasion to ask the question of how this season came to be. The warmth that the world is so stingy with, the loved ones that were so hard to reach, the soft words spoken with forgiving voices that are so seldom heard, are now bold and near. It can be as if celebrating the presence of the birth of Jesus has the power to pry open the human soul, at least for a while.

And so it becomes for Christians to convert this season into a celebration of God’s love for us, his willingness to allow us to be ourselves before him, to be found in our midst totally dependent on the care of two young Jewish travelers, into a situation of great anxiety, violence, and need. Let the straw of the manger, the raw, unsophisticated circumstances of Bethlehem, the rough and cruel times, all speak to us of a savior who risked it all for us. Let us see in that humble and unpromising beginning, the great cosmic gift of eternal life so easily seen only briefly and incompletely at Christmas, but authentic. It is not the manger, but the promise of the manger that we celebrate, when the glory of Christ can shine through the festival, the soul of humankind passes from enjoying the season to the resurrecting excitement of sharing the age of the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Jansen

A Christmas Message

A little group of us were sitting on narrow benches in a crowded little chapel at six in the morning. We were visiting the hospital of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Namibia at Onipa, a few miles south of the Angolan border. The hospital staff, as many as could take the time, were crowded together for the daily devotional. Outside, the heat of the Kalahari Desert was beginning to be felt. Across the road lay the ruins of the church’s bombed-out printing press, which had been their great pride and hope. In the distance could be heard the engines of the dreaded South African army “hippos,” huge armored trucks that roamed everywhere, looking for anything “suspicious.”

A single doctor was in charge of the medical care of the hospital’s patient population of over 400. The relatives and friends of the patients, who had sometimes carried them long distances across the sand and wastelands, were camped in improvised huts and tents all around the hospital grounds. Everyone was in a state of exhaustion. Medicine was scarce. Little sicknesses and infections became big troubles. Food was in short supply. Help was willing, but untrained. Terror and death were at one’s elbow at every turn… and there was not relief in sight.

The doctor rose for a word of greeting. I don’t remember all of what he said because his first words were so surprising, “I love this place!” The majesty of his words moves me to this day. It was a Christmas statement, a statement of identity, of live, of attachment, a statement that was exactly appropriate. With those words, he freed those who depended on him from any obligation except that they might welcome his love. It was love that kept him at Onipa and Ondonguea, and all the impoverished children of God. He did not see his work as an arduous duty, but as something that satisfied hi heart. We didn’t need to laud his sense of duty; we could simply celebrate and wonder at his love.

Jesus looked at our sorry world and said in effect, “I love this place… I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with you always.” Christmas has many things to say. Few are as rich and clear and unmistakable as what brought Jesus to the manger that midnight clear, his matchless love for this place and all of us in it. When you know that you are loved like that, there can be comfort and joy even in the hardest and most uncertain of times.

Go with God,

Pastor Jansen