Happy New Year!  And the Lord bless you through and beyond the Holiday Season!

HYMN SING  Before Advent service, beginning on November 30^th,  at 6:45 pm, Susan Keeler will be doing a ‘HYMN Sing” for the prelude. People from the congregation can choose hymns they would like to sing (from the hymnal) and we will sing a verse or two as time allows.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1, NIV)

In most parts of our nation and much of the world, seasons change.  In history, one era closes and another opens.  In the life of a person, or a group, one chapter closes and another opens.  But not everyone likes that. 

The old joke can strike us new if it’s been long enough since we’ve heard it:  “How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?  None:  Lutherans don’t do change.”

I can see some folks not wanting Fall to give way to winter, not even when January and Februry come.  And in Oklahoma, it  might happen and it might not; but normally it does.  Not wanting it does not prevent it. 

Any time God opens a new chapter in your life, and you find yourself hankering for the last one, remember that He is your help in every setting, every chapter, every stage, every event in your life.  And keep in mind that it’s not safe to live too much of your life in the rear view mirror.  Cherish memories; and look forward to the blessings, fresh new discoveries, and continued love and providence that God has in store for you thanks to the amazing and saving work of Christ our Savior.

The Lord bless you abundantly with His favor, and with His unique peace!

For some it seems like it’s been more than ten years since our dubious sense of security was shattered.  For others, like a teenager interviewed on TV this week who lost her dad on 9/11, it “…seems like yesterday.”  The event got my daughter’s picture in The Platteville Journal.  A group of students joined the principal and the superintendent in saluting the American flag, as it flew at half mast outside Westview Elementary, on a chilly Fall day in Wisconsin.  It wasn’t just rural Pennsylvania, D.C., and New York that were struck that day:  it was an entire nation.

My mother recalls being a teenager during the Second World War.  In the little town of Evansville, Wisconsin, far from any coastline, all homes and offices had to put black sheets or curtains over their windows at night.  Volunteers (including my grandmother, now 99) took turns standing on the highest building in town, watching for enemy aircraft.  The closest any ever got to the heartland during all of World War II was half way across the Pacific, in a territory called Hawaii, where America was plunged into the war.

But on September 11, 2001, our own domestic airliners were commandeered by enemy pilots and used as missiles to slaughter civilians.  We were shocked, panic stricken, angry, and confused.  Bad people doing bad things:  that wasn’t new.  Spouses losing spouses, children losing parents, friends losing friends:  not new either.  But so many at once; and our sturdy nation bloodied in her centers of government and finance:  that was new. 

Some claimed it was punishment for the toleration of immorality, or for indifference about God.  I don’t think we should blame God for the sins of warped individuals.  Others claimed it was due to our consistent support of Israel while some Arab lands were supposedly snubbed.  But there’s a wide gulf between disliking a nation’s choices of friends on the one hand, and the murder of unarmed civilians on the other.  

As Christians remembering America’s national, regional, and individual sufferings, we bring our faith along with our citizenship.  We understand how fresh the wounds can feel, even now, to those who were robbed of loved ones on 9/11.  We appreciate the need to stay vigilant, because evil lurks in all times, until history is over and we arrive at Paradise restored.  We honor the memory of the victims, including the heroes who steered a plane into the ground to reduce death and destruction; and many who entered structures that later collapsed on them, as they worked feverishly to get others to safety. 

Come what may, as we hope and pray for good times and peace in the world, we know where our help comes from:  who is our refuge and strength.  And we know that because we have the forgiveness of sins, our eternal future is secure in God’s hands.  Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we can live with vigilant awareness, but without undue worry. 

Even in times of panic, evil, and loss, we have an ever-present help; we know God is near us.  That’s the theme of today’s selection from Isaiah.  Growing up, I loved a church song that really captures the sense of the last part of today’s selection from Isaiah:

“I will never forget you, My people.  I have carved you on the palm of My hand.  I will never forsake you.  I will not leave you orphaned.  I will never forget My own.  Could a mother forget her baby, or a woman the child within her womb?  Yet even if these forget, yes even if these forget, I will never forget My own.”   (From a song by the St. Louis Jesuits)

In Jesus’ name, who saved us from our sins and gives us the joy of inviting others to know such grace, Amen. 

– Pastor Kinast

We convey our concerns to God in prayer, knowing He is still our help and our refuge.  He will never abandon us:  we know that because He once abandoned His dearly beloved Son, who hung on that cross and suffered alienation from the Father in our place, so we would never have to suffer that–not now, and not in eternity.  Our Savior endured the wages of our sin so we could be granted forgiveness and life forever.

May the Holy Spirit bring about in us, daily, repentance from all our sin and a renewal of the joy of God’s gift of salvation in Jesus.  And may He remind us, daily, of what He said through His servant Paul:

“…I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39, ESV).

– Pastor Frank Kinast, Zion LCMS, Stillwater, OK

“I tumble out of bed, stumble to the kitchen; pour myself a cup of ambition; yawn and stretch, and try to come to life.”

Some days we need a boost, to be perked, a spark to get our engine going.  And at some points in our walk with Christ, we need reinvigoration.  We may get swamped with tasks and obligations; or maybe we’re heaped high with stressful situations, problems that need solving, an issue to resolve that seems to consume all the fuel in our tank; perhaps we are dealing with grief, conflict, or uncertainty.  Whatever the details, and however varied they be, when we feel depleted, when our compassion/fatigue index gets out of balance, some predictable things may follow.  For one, we may become short-fused, critical of people and things around us:  in a word, grouchy.  Also, we may seek relief from stress in less-than-healthy ways:  we try to self-medicate without a license to practice.  Often our spiritual life suffers; we become disconnected from our lifeline:  partially or fully, we unwittingly “shelve” Christ, who is our life—-our source of forgiveness, purpose, and joy.  And we know that a “cup of ambition” will not be able to do the job of restoration and repair. 

We need the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, to inspire us anew, to recharge us again:  to remind us that we were baptized into Christ, and that nothing in all creation can sever us from His loving care (Romans 8:38 and following).  We need the Lord to remind us that when we ask Him to wash us clean and make us new, to empower us to serve Him with gladness again, He’s ready to put the ring on our finger and the sandals on our feet and to rejoice with us as He re-equips us to be His reborn ambassadors.   As we pray in many collects, “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, and make ready the way of your only-begotten Son”–because we want Him to dwell, by faith, in our hearts.  We need Him to heal us when we have been wounded.  “Blest be the Lord, the God of mercy, the God who saves”–by converting us to faith, restoring us after a time of spiritual fatigue, and welcoming us every time we come back to His house (i.e., go to Church!)  The Lord bless you and keep you!