Well here it is … the Pastor’s Blog.  I have to admit that I have never done this before, but I suspect that many of you have never done much blog reading before so I guess we are in the same boat then.  What this will become I hope is a place for us to share our thoughts and where I can share my reflections about where we are and where I hope we are going together as a church.  I will put something new up here at least every other week.  Now that I have said it I suppose I am bound to it.  Of course if I miss a week it will most likely be because we have gotten REAL busy at the church, but you will be aware of that anyway.

But I did want to begin by sharing a few thoughts about our lives together.  Some of this will be a restatement of what I put in my ‘thoughts on ministry’ but I don’t think these are things that we can hear enough. 

The first thing that I want to remind everyone of, the center of our life together, is that we are loved by God and Christ Jesus more than we can ever know.  God holds us in a love that is beyond our capacity to reach or to understand.  God’s love is so great that it simply is.  God loves us and that is the truth – end of story. 

Now sometimes we sort of shake our heads at that and wonder, “Really?”  Because with natural human logic it is hard to put our heads around the idea that God who is all things and all power and all might – could actually be concerned with what we assume to be, “little old us.”  In the world the powerful tend to worry about the powerful and the normal everyday folk – like us – tend to worry about our selves.  So to proclaim the one that is all power and might and glory – is concerned with you and me sometimes exceeds our ability to understand and to accept.

But God does care and loves and cherished each and every one of us.  If it helps to think about it we might do well to remember that we are not talking about a worldly Lord or King but we are talking about the one true God, creator of All who is able to do whatever it is God or Jesus set their mind to.  There are no limits on God.  God can love us, and does, even when we might not understand just how that can be.  In the end we may simply need to say to that little voice that tries to tell us that we are not worthy or we can’t possibly be loved by God that “God Loves Us – Get Used to It!”

The second thing I want to remind us of is that God has proved his love for us.  Just in case you still have doubt.  And the proof of God’s love for us, and for all of creation is named Jesus.  Jesus is God’s love, is God incarnate among us.  I hope you will remember me saying that Jesus is the proof of just how far God will go to love and save us.  Remember that in Christ we see God coming to live with us, to share our life, to take on all that human life can throw at him and in the end Jesus Christ is murdered.  And what is Jesus response to all of this.  He forgives us, and loves us, and rises from the dead so that we might live eternally with him. 

Let me say that again, God came to this world as Christ Jesus.  The world murdered him on a cross.  And in response Jesus rose from the dead and said I love you come and live my life.  Seems to me to be a portrait of a good and loving God who seeks out his lost sheep, who calls us always back to him, and who justly is called throughout the Bible the one who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

Thirdly we get to love this world BECAUSE Jesus first loved us.  You see in living this life Christ not only saved us, but showed us how to live this life.  How might we characterize the life Jesus led?  We would say that it was a life which was focused primarily on giving rather than taking.  Of loving rather than hating, and one in which Christ showed us that the secret is to first love God and then love our neighbor.  Martin Luther said that “once you have Jesus the rest of your life is a surplus to be given away.”  That is right.  No matter what our eternal life is with Christ.  Why then do we need to horde and take when there is so much to love and give.   We get to love this world to serve and to help take care of those who sometimes can’t take care of themselves BECAUSE this is what our Lord Jesus did. We get to follow him.

Lastly let me say that we are all in this together.  I am the Pastor here but you are all Ministers of this Church.  You are a lot more out in the world than I am.  If only because there are over 100 of you and only one of me.  We all get to carry Christ’s light out into this world.  We all get to be Jesus’ people wherever we find ourselves.  We all get to love and give and serve.  And I promise you, opportunity for loving, serving, and ministering abound.  There are always those who need YOU.  Because this whole world is in desperate need of our Lord Jesus.  You may very well be the people to take that message, or share his love, to someone who greatly needs it.

Well I feel like I just threw a bunch of stuff out there. But as you know there will be a lot more of the same.  Stay tuned.  If you don’t catch it here, then you will surely hear it on Sunday.  God Bless and I’ll see you all soon.  If you have questions about any of this post a comment and/or send me an email.

God Bless

Pr. Mike