Swiftly Flow the Days of Summer

Pastor’s Ponderings for August:

The summer is quickly flying by. Susan and I have been engaged in a lot of summer activities in and around Absarokee, activities such as Absarokee Days, Fishtail Fun Days, 4th of July activities and time with the many friends we have made here. But summer is ticking by and soon school will start and we will be getting into our fall routines. But until then, we can enjoy these last sunny, warm, lazy days of summer.

One item I would like to report to the congregation - the trustees of St. Olaf Lutheran Church have asked me to conduct services for them in July, August and September. With the permission of Immanuel Lutheran Church Congregational Council, I conducted my first Sunday service at St. Olaf with communion of Sunday, 27 July. There were about 22 of us in attendance with lunch fellowship in the basement afterwards. We did not have a musician on the reed organ or piano, so I selected hymns with familiar melodies. St. Olaf itself provided great accompaniment by offering great acoustics with its beautiful arched ceiling. The August service will be on the 17th at 1:00 pm., on 21 September, St. Olaf will hold their annual blue grass service at 2:00 pm.

I am honored to be asked to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ at this historic little country church. I am also excited about this opportunity to offer to the residents of the Red Lodge and Volney Creek valleys, God’s message to them and God’s love for them through the Holy Meal of Communion. Opportunities to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ are not to be dismissed or glossed over. We are all called to be a witness of Christ in our lives; we are given countless opportunities to share God’s love with each other, through our Christian vocation. We do not have to wait for an invitation to proclaim the Good News, or a venue from which to preach; we can proclaim God’s love for us by our deeds - how we care and respond to each other. Our deeds will count more than our words. Our deeds will mark us as Christians who live God’s word. Do not underestimate you ability to proclaim the Good News; through the power of relationship, we interact with our fellow members of the community and those we meet as we engage life’s activity. We can make a difference - we may never know when, or how, or upon whom, but through our actions, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can make that difference in someone’s life.

Let the Good News of Jesus Christ make a difference in someone else’s life as it has in yours. Let the expression of your Christian vocation shine forth from you - do not hide the light of Jesus Christ under a bushel, let it burn bright through you so others my see, rejoice and give glory to God.

Lutheran Revival = Oxymoron?

Pastor’s Ponderings for July:

This last weekend in June, Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. James Lutheran Church, Joliet Lutheran Church and Messiah Lutheran Church, are sponsoring and participating in a first in the Montana Synod - a Lutheran Church Revival. If this sounds like an oxymoron, it may be because this is indeed a very rare occurrence in these parts. The revival is not so rare, but a Lutheran revival is. In Baltimore, the church Susan was called to serve as a deacon - Peace Lutheran Church - did have revival services outside on their lawn. Their revival is a witness to the suburban community of the confessing and professing faith of the congregation of Peace Lutheran Church of Glen Burnie.

This is no different here for us in Carbon and Stillwater Counties of Montana. We gather together and confess our faith, renew our Lutheran heritage and spirituality, and profess to this area of south central Montana our Christian convictions as Lutherans. At this revival we will not try to become Baptist or Pentecostals - but rather we witness to our being Lutheran. On Saturday we have a baptism with a remembrance of baptism offered to all. On Sunday we offer Holy Communion with healing prayer and prayers for the world. The services will offer both Word and Sacrament; the form of the service is the fourfold structure of Gathering, the Word, the Meal, and Sending that we are all familiar. If any Lutheran were to stop in for this service they would feel right at home. The only difference is that the service will be outside along Hwy 212 just north of Red Lodge. It is a public witness of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is a public testimony of our convictions, of our faith, and of our Love of God.

I hope many are able to come and participate. It is good for us to get out and engage in expressions of our faith in different venues of worship. This cross pollination offers us a refreshing way to renew our faith, to expand upon how we offer worship at Immanuel, to engage us in a renewed sense of our call to mission and ministry. Come and see what is possible; come and see, come and experience a renewal of our Lutheran spiritual heritage, come and participate in worship and praise God, come and share the love and call of Jesus Christ to and for us.