Someone Else

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards

of God’s grace in its various forms”

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

I have a poem to read to you.  I have no idea who wrote it.  The poem is called - “Everybody, Anybody, Somebody, Nobody and Someone Else.”    Let me tell you the story of four church members by the name of Tom, Dick, Harry and Joe. Their full names in fact were as such; Tom Somebody, Dick Everybody, Harry Anybody, and Joe Nobody. Together they were the best of friends, But I must confess

when it came to a task that needed to be done at Church they weren't very good.  You see whenever they were given a job, they all began to fight. Because this is how it always went; Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it, and Anybody could have done it but in the end Nobody always ended up with the task.  When Nobody did it, Somebody was angry because it was Everybody's job. But Everybody thought that Somebody would do it instead. Now Nobody realized that Nobody would do it.  So consequently, Everybody blamed Somebody When Nobody did what Anybody could have done

in the first place. 

Now don't start arguing yet because I have another story of these friends to tell; Now as you may have guessed these four were fun, active, busy people.  But what they accomplished was a shame and Everybody knew it.  You see Everybody had a good idea, but Everybody thought Somebody would follow it through, however Somebody thought Anybody would work on it. And Anybody thought Everybody should do it. So, Nobody ended up working on it...AGAIN!  Now one day a contest was announced, all the boys were sent to enter. Now Everybody thought Anybody could win the prize.

Anybody thought Somebody would win. And Somebody thought Everybody would get a prize.

Nobody was the smartest of the four. And Nobody was very faithful. Nobody worked very hard.

Thus, Nobody won the prize!

No I have one more tale to tell you of another friend of the four.  This is a sad, sad tale of the death of

a man called Someone Else;  You see all the boys belonged to the same church and there was another member named Someone Else.  Now the four were greatly saddened to learn of the death of one of the most valuable members - Someone Else.  Someone's passing created a vacancy that will be difficult to fill.  He had been around for years and for every one of those years, Someone Else did far more than a normal person's share of work. Whenever Anybody mentioned leadership, Somebody always looked to this wonderful person for inspiration and results; "Someone Else can do that job!"  When there was a job to do, a need to be filled or a place of leadership, one name was always given.... Someone Else. Everyone knew Someone Else was the largest giver of time and money.  Whenever there was a financial need, Everybody, Anybody and Somebody always assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.  Now Someone Else is gone.  and the boys all wonder what they will do, no longer can they utter the words; "Let Someone Else do it."  If it is going to be done, one of them will have to do it.... And I guess most of the time it will be Nobody.”

The truth is that in the church we really do put our trust in someone else. Someone else has lived the life we fail to live.  Someone else has paid the price for our sins by dying on a cross.  Someone else rose again to conquer death.  Someone else saved us.  That someone else is Jesus our Savior.  And He has called you by name not somebody.  He has given you gifts to use in love and service to others.  He has not chosen just anybody. He has chosen you and me to go and show His love to others.  You and I can not leave this up to Somebody, Anybody or Nobody.  No St. Peter tells us, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

When Good Days Become Tough Days

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (ESV)

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

My mind is on my sister Lois today.  Her husband Tim died a couple of months ago.  The reason I am thinking about this is that Facebook reminded me this morning that today would have been Tim’s birthday.  You know for most of us birthdays are days of celebration, a time to give gifts, to eat cake, and go out for dinner with the birthday boy.  But when that person dies, all that changes.  Good days - like birth days, anniversaries, holidays and the like – suddenly become tough days.  This is especially true during that first year after a loved one’s death.  After someone close dies you, of course, miss them every day.  But on the special days like a birthday or Christmas, your grief comes quite easily to the surface.  The pain of his or her death becomes even sharper.  This continues to some extent even after the first year.  Every year after my dad’s death, the month of February (the month of his death), became a really hard month for my mom.  Someone, who lost her mother, asked if you ever stopped hurting, stopped missing your loved one.  I replied, “No.  You just get used to it.”

So, what do you do when those tough days come?  Well if you are having a tough day, have a tough day.  Its no use denying your grief or putting on a brave face.  There is also no need to feel guilty if its not a tough day for you.  Don’t let anyone tell you how you should or shouldn’t feel.  There is nothing wrong with grieving.  St. Paul doesn’t tell us not to grieve.  He simply wants to be sure that we know that in our grief we have the hope won for us by Jesus dying and rising again.  So, go ahead and grieve.

For me, I would find a way to remember that person.  Look at pictures.  Call someone else who is also missing that other person – and share some memories.   I know one mom who lost a child shortly after birth.  Every year since, she still celebrates that child’s birthday. 

Folks, if you know someone is grieving, facing one of these tough days.  Don’t be afraid to reach out.  Share that you miss them too.  Use the name of the person that died.  Don’t be afraid of the other person’s tears.  It means a lot that you want to talk about him or her, that you remember, that you are willing to listen.   That’s what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians – “so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

This may sound strange – but one thing that I have found helps me and has helped others is to talk or write to the person you have lost.  As long as they don’t answer back, you aren’t crazy.  I like to do this when I go to my mom and dad’s grave alone.  I tell them about our kids, and grand kids, about all the things that have been happening in our lives.  I know they aren’t there.   You can’t send them any letter you might write.  But its okay to say out loud or write down all the things you would love to tell them if there were still alive.

Give yourself permission to feel whatever it is you feel.  If you cry, you cry.   If you laugh, you laugh.  Its been 23 years since my dad died and I am writing this blog with tears in my eyes.

Finally look forward.  Remember the heart of our comfort – that because of Jesus, His death for our sins and His resurrection victory over death – there is a grand reunion coming.  One day Jesus will come again to raise up me and all the dead and to give to all believers in Christ eternal life.  I can’t wait on that day to see my sister Roberta, my mom and dad and Tim, and so many others – as we stand rejoicing before God’s throne – singing His eternal praise.  On the tough days, remind yourself that God’s best day is still to come. 

Who Completes You?

Colossians 2:10a (NASB95)

“and in Him you have been made complete…”

There is a phrase that couples often say about each other that makes me cringe every time I hear it.

One spouse says about the other – “He or She completes me.”  Now you might think, “That’s such a nice thing to say.  Why does it make you cringe?”  Let me explain.

Its true that we are all incomplete in and of ourselves.  For one thing God said, “It is not good for man to be alone…”  God created us to live in community… to have relationships… to be a part of a family.  Yes, husbands and wives often complement each other – with their different skills, different personalities and so forth.  But think about this.  If you need a spouse to be complete – what about the single person?  Can’t they ever be complete.  No, the heart of our incompleteness, has to do with our relationship with God.  We are sinners.  We fall short of God’s glory.  Remember what happened as soon as Adam and Eve sinned.  For the first time ever, they hid from the Lord.  That’s the true source of incompleteness in every one of us.  Without God, we are incomplete.

So, what are we doing to our spouse when we say, “He or she completes me?”  We are setting them up to fail and disappoint us.  We are asking them to be what they cannot be, are not meant to be in our lives.  After all they can be a wonderful loving spouse, but they can never be God in our lives.  Indeed, that’s what we are doing to anyone or anything, other than the true God, in our lives. When we say, “If only I made more money… if only I could buy a new house… if only I had a different job, then everything would be wonderful – we are giving those things the place of God in our lives.  There is nothing wrong with making more money, buying a new house, or getting a new job, unless we start thinking that such things are the solution to all our problems.  Then those things are sure to disappoint us… sure to fail us. 

There is only One who can complete you or me.  There is only One who can bring you and me into a right relationship with God.  That one is Jesus.  In Him the gap between God and man is bridged. He is both.  He lived the perfect, God pleasing life we fail to live.  He offered that life in our place, as payment for our sin.  He rose again that we might live.  He came to you and me in baptism that we might be adopted into God’s family.  He comes daily to forgive our sins, to daily restore us to God.  That’s why Paul wrote of Jesus, “and in Him you have been made complete…”

Are you looking for completeness – look to Jesus.   He is the author and perfector of  your faith…” 

The Apostle John wrote in his first letter, God is light.  In Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.   But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.   When you are walking in Him… when you live by faith in Jesus… when God is your God… then all those other things and people – money, home, employment, husband, wife, family – are free to be what God intends them to be – blessings from God that enable you to live for Him and love those around you.

Who completes you?  Jesus.

Living For Life in a Culture of Death

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10b

Senseless!  Terrible!  Evil! Terrifying!  I could think of more such words to describe what happened last week in El Paso and Dayton, and the week before that at the food festival in California… or in a far too many other places across our country.  Now I do not intend to get into the politics of all of this.  But there are a number of questions on my mind today – Why does this keep happening?  How do we stop it?  What’s the solution?  What can I do?

Other than the person actually committing these horrific acts, it doesn’t seem helpful to me to be pointing fingers and blaming this person or that person.  But is there blame?  Yes.  I believe that during my lifetime, something fundamental has changed at the very roots of our culture.  We have gone from being a culture that values life to what some might call a “culture of death.”  The signs are all around us.  The clearest to me is abortion -  the killing of the most defenseless among us – unborn babies. There is the rise of physician assisted suicide and Euthanasia.  The rise of suicide… Then add terrorism and war.  Mother Teresa’s words to the1994 national prayer breakfast ring far too true – “If we accept that the mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” 

Of course, the roots of this culture of death goes way back… all the way back to the garden. When in Adam and Eve, we all chose to take the forbidden fruit and eat it – we all together chose life estranged from God.  We all together chose death – for life without God is death. So really this culture of death is not new to my lifetime or yours.  “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”  

As horrible as these mass shootings are, the problem runs much deeper.  The problem has its roots in your heart and mine, in our own sinfulness.  That’s a problem government can’t solve.  Don’t get me wrong – it is the governments job to make laws, and enforce them in order to protect us. That’s not a political opinion – that’s Scripture.  This is how the Lord Himself defines the role of government in Romans 13:3–4: “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” Government’s God-given role is to hold man’s evil in check… to help protect us from ourselves.  That’s its power.  What government can’t do, is change our hearts.  It can’t solve the problem of sin.

For that, God gave us Jesus!  Jesus said it in the words from John 10 that I chose for this blog.  “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”  Think about that – the author and creator of life, came to live in the midst of this world that keeps choosing death.   He came to live for life – healing the sick, casting out demons, feeding the hungry, befriending the friendless, embracing little children, forgiving sinners.  Jesus came and allowed this world of death to kill Him… to kill Him on behalf of everyone… to kill Him in our place.  Why?  “By His death He destroyed Him who holds the power of death, that is the devil and set free all who were held in slavery by their fear of death.”  He came to rise again so that all who believe in Him might have life.  By His death and resurrection Jesus conquered the culture of death that life might reign again.  Then He came to you in Baptism… raised you up to live a new life… to be apart of this new culture – or as St. Paul calls it – this “new creation.”

So what can you or I do?  How can we make a difference in the midst of all this senseless killing?  By following Jesus… living as He did – living for life in a culture of death.  What does that mean?  It means so many things – valuing human life in every form.  Speaking out to protect the unborn… loving and speaking forgiveness and grace to those burdened by guilt… befriending and caring for the ones the rest of the world rejects… praying so many different prayers… sharing the good news of Jesus with any and all – that others may know the joy of really living.  The list goes on and on.  But what I am really saying is this – don’t waste time pointing at others… waiting for others to solve this.  Let the change begin with me… and with you – with repentance for our own embrace of death… then loving others the way Jesus loves you.  This is how God changes things – one person at a time starting with you and me. 

What Can I Do for the Unity of the Church?

Ephesians 4:3 (NIV)

^“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

The month of July was quite a month for me.  I had the privilege of attending two important events of the church body to which I belong (The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod). Between  July 10 and 16 I attended the LCMS National Youth Gathering in Minneapolis.  I was there with 28 youth and adults from our congregation and with 21000 youth and adults from across the country.  For me the youth gathering really highlighted the unity of the Church.   Part of that was simply worshiping with 21000 young people singing their hearts out to the Lord.  Another aspect of that was all the friends from across the country and world that I got to meet up with at the Youth Gathering.  It was a great reminder that although we are separated by great distances, we are still all one family – one body in Christ.  But most of all, it was watching the youth from our congregation – caring for one another, making sure everyone was included, talking through difficult social issues, working out differences in more.  That week with our students from Fishers was a great one. 

The other event was our Church’s National Convention in Tampa Bay Florida from July 20-25.  Now you might be expecting me to tell you that this meeting highlighted for me the divisions in the church.  That however would not be entirely true.  For me the convention highlighted both unity and division.  There is some obvious division going on in the LCMS.  It was very obvious that there are two different ideas about what the direction, of our church should be and how we should practice the faith we believe and confess.  There is disagreement and hurt going on.  It came out… poured out in a debate over the closing of one of our church’s Colleges.  Yet at the same time, we are a very united church.  Most of the resolutions that came before the convention passed with a 70-90% favorable vote.  One debate really brought this out for me.  In a resolution on our church’s stance on creationism, we argued over whether to say God created the world in six days or six “natural” days.  The curious thing is that almost everyone on both sides of that debate firmly believe that God created everything just the way Moses describes in Genesis 1.

As I have been reflecting on these two events, I have been asking myself a question that I want to put before you.  “What can you or I do for the unity of the Church?”  The first and most important answer to that question is that I can’t create that unity.  Neither can you.  Thank God, we don’t have to.   In Ephesians 4 Paul writes that we should “Make every effort to KEEP the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  He does not ask us to create it.  This unity already exists… it’s a unity of the Spirit.  This is the unity, given by God’s working, which binds together all who in their heart believe in Jesus Christ.  For now, hidden by all the outward divisions in the Christian church, this unity is an article of faith, not sight.  We confess this faith every time we say the Nicene Creed – “I believe in one, holy Christian and Apostolic Church…” This unity is very real.

So, heeding Paul’s admonition, what can you or I do to “keep” the unity of the church?  Paul already gave us the answer in the previous verse – Ephesians 4:2.  “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”  Please notice that God is not calling us as individuals here to start discussions with other church bodies over the things that divide and unite us.  Those tasks are important, but others have that calling.  He doesn’t say we should ignore the differences that divide us and pretend they don’t exist.  No his words speak to our individual relationships, how we treat one another in our congregations and in the larger Christian community. First, “be completely humble.”  Rejoice in the fact that God is God and you are not.  Give up the arrogance and self-righteousness that insists that you have all the answers… that refuses to listen.  The next word is “gentle.”  When sharing your viewpoint don’t be a bull in a china shop.  Listen.  Seek to understand others.  Help them to understand what you believe… your point of view.  And with that be “patient.”  Be patient with others and with yourself.  It may take a while for others and for you to really understand the viewpoints expressed.  Also be patient with God – give Him to work on your heart and the hearts of others.  Finally, “bearing with one another in love.”  One of the hardest things to do is to disagree without being disagreeable.  That takes love… the love of God that He has given you in Christ…  In our relationship with each other – our first aim should not be to get people to see things our way.  Our first aim should be to love each other as we have been loved. 

These are the keys to keeping the unity of the Spirit.  They are also impossible for you or me on own.  Our sinful nature is proud, arrogant, self-righteous, impatient and unloving.  That means there is only one hope.  You and I both have to die.  We have to die daily to sin, to arrogance and pride and rise to newness of life.  We have to live out our baptisms every day for baptisms signifies that “the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, along with all sin and evil desires, so that daily a new man might come forth and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”  What happened to Paul needs to happen daily to you and me.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   How can you and I help keep the unity of the church?  By dying… dying every day to sin, so that Christ might live in us and through us.