Blind Trust

I draft this post as a new chapter of life is due to unfold. My son and his wife, Evan and Beth, are now at the 40-week mark in their pregnancy; that means this old man is about to become… a grandpa! Thankfully, I don’t find that label to be the least bit threatening to my vanity. I am certainly looking very forward to welcoming a new generation within our family, even if they are a half a continent away. We plan to visit them before the end of the year, God willing.

This blessed news had me reminiscing about Evan as a boy and marveling at how he has evolved through the years. Along with our gospel text for Sunday, it had me recalling his most frequent companion through much of his childhood, a teal green blanket that eventually had so many holes in it that it’s a miracle that it held together at all! Its shape became completely unrecognizable, even if its identity was sure. I don’t know in which drawer or closet it resides today, but I do know that, until not so many years ago, you couldn’t pry it out of his hands if you tried to. For him, that blanket was every bit the sign of security that you might imagine!

We begin our new sermon series and Fall Stewardship Emphasis with this week’s story of “Blind Bartimaeus” from Mark 10. While scholars often categorize it as either a “miracle story” or a “call story,” I might risk defining it as a “courage story” instead. I do so because the last thing that the still-blind Bartimaeus does before leaping to his feet is cast off his “cloak,” or the beloved blankie that he has spread out on the path before him daily to receive alms or offerings from passersby. It is his only source of income or security. Yet his trust in Jesus and in Jesus’ ability to restore his sight is so great that he seems not to think twice about leaving it behind.

Oh, that you and I would be so bold to turn our stories into “courage stories” in this season. As of this week, we begin a new journey under the banner of “Stories to Tell, Gifts to Share,” utilizing “ID tags” to represent an acronym that helps us highlight “Intentional Discipleship: Talents, Abilities, Gifts. Whether we recognize it or not, our mission and ministry are wholly dependent upon the courage with which we are willing to share these assets - which, I understand, are no less precious than Evan’s blanket was to him. Perhaps for many, they represent something akin to Bartimaeus’ cloak.

As we hear the stories which those within our ranks will be sharing on coming Sundays, let’s together ask what we might need to “cast off” in order to trust that Jesus will invite us into a new and fruitful, even if challenging, chapter of life together? Join us in worship and in serving as we discover that together!

Pastor Tim

P.S. Keep in prayer the fifteen youth who will be affirming their baptisms at a special afternoon service this Confirmation Sunday!

Signs of the Resurrection around Us

One of the quite common refrains that I’m hearing from members, colleagues, citizens, and the media in general is just how much pressure individuals are feeling these days. From the ramped up demands of a new school year to the disciplines of a COVID-19 era to the financial barriers many are experiencing and, simply, the frequent need for so many to choose between vital necessities when they can’t afford both, one can certainly appreciate that we find ourselves in a trying time.

I’ve certainly felt some of that stress myself. Still, I can hardly say that my own nerves have quite the cause to be so rattled as those around me, working and serving in public places much more than I currently do. Nor have I had to juggle the growing responsibilities that many of you face daily.

So it’s amid that backdrop that I’ve been mindful of the responsibility we have to walk beside one another, listen carefully, and take the time to invest in and feel one another’s reality. At the same time, I’ve been relieved and thankful for the perspective gleaned from stories of courage and hope that have also filtered into my newsfeed or consciousness.

I am hopeful this morning, for instance, for the news that Pfizer is now ready to submit its COVID vaccine for approval for use in younger children and that another (though admittedly difficult) vaccine has now been developed to combat the scourge of malaria that impacts millions of lives each year. I’m encouraged by the examples of teachers exhibiting deep care for their students long past the hours they have left their classrooms, even though their burden is already heavy. I’m moved by the stories of families who have prioritized time to serve their community together with no less commitment than they have made to their child’s sports team and by that of Saleema Rehman, a 29-year-old Afghan refugee gynecologist serving displaced Afghan women in Pakistan and the first woman from her community to become a physician, despite the significant obstacles for displaced women to do so.

There are ample signs of resurrection around us when we take the opportunity to notice. As with so many things “Lutheran,” our calling seems to be another incidence of “and” (as in “saint and sinner," "law and gospel" e.g.). We are moved once again both to feel the weight of our neighbors’ reality and to point to the hope that lies beyond.

Let’s commit ourselves to both aspects as we seek to live out “God Work/Our Hands” this week.

Sharing the call,

Pastor Tim

A Few Notes about Children

Dear Friends,

Ah, for the first time in over 35 years, this week we did not have any children to come home to, wait up for, or pray with before eating dinner and sitting down at the table. Now, I ask you to avoid the temptation to do the math (I was a young mother!). Although we still have one more child to graduate from college, basically everyone has moved out or onward. We have lived in eleven different homes and for years that home was a foundation for joy, challenges, fresh starts, re-launches, and leaving the nest once or twice. This week, our house was quiet except for what I perceived was the super neediness of our dogs!

I love a noisy and full house. I also know that, in this next season, there will be more times I will go to our adult children than they will come home. It’s a season I have been readying and steadying myself for as well as celebrating.

In our scripture this week, we will dig deeper into the disciples’ objection to the families who were bringing children to Jesus. “People were bringing little children to him (Jesus) in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them.” (Mark 10:13)

We may speculate all sorts of reasons as to why the disciples acted this way. Maybe they simply didn’t want to or weren’t ready to share Jesus. Maybe they didn’t like children or the pushing of children at Jesus. Maybe it was that when they were little they were taught to be ‘seen but not heard’ in public spaces. Or maybe, they simply didn’t get what Jesus was saying when he preached that the Good News, the love and mercy of our God, was for all people of all ages in all seasons of life on earth and forevermore.

In this season of our life here and now at Holy Trinity, our children are all over the place sharing their many gifts of time, abilities, and energies. Just this week, the house was jumping at Family Sunday School and at Wednesday Youth Night (WYN). But our children were also in parades, contests, performances, and studies. Our children of ALL AGES, were in small groups, sharing coffee, worshipping, laughing, serving, praying, and doing life together!

Being a child of God is a statement of being claimed by God now and always, not a statistical number beginning with newborn and so on. I wonder how different this passage from Mark would go if we read it more like this…

PK’s wonderings - People were bringing children of all ages to Jesus so that he would touch them, because they had been taught that Jesus healed the broken and hurting. The disciples of the church told them to go away. Meanwhile, Jesus opened his arms and said, "Bring to me ______ (fill your name in), for the kingdom of God belongs to _______ (fill in your name)." And he took _________ (fill in your name) into his arms, blessed, and laid his hands on ______(fill in the word "me"). Now, read it again out loud to yourself. And if you have children or grandchildren at home (blessings on you), read it aloud to each of them putting their names in the blanks.

Blessings to you and your household in whatever season of life you find yourself in!

See you soon!

Pastor Katie

P.S. PLEASE, please bring in food items to be donated to the Food Pantry! Feed all God’s children.