faith

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Holy Week Is Here!

Welcome to Spring in the U.P.! 50 degrees and sunshine one day, snow the next, then comes freezing rain and sleet, and then the wind that tears the heavy-laden branches off the trees. The last few weeks have been “interesting,” haven’t they?

I’ve begun to hear the term “whiplash weather” used more frequently. Those sudden changes and dramatic differences wreak havoc on arthritic joints and sensitive sinuses. We ache for real spring to arrive with singing birds and budding trees, and fewer physical aches and pains.

For those who have journeyed through the Season of Lent, we are also entering into a time of whiplash weather among the faithful. Sunday is Palm Sunday – when we celebrate with great joy and sing hosannas while we wave our palm fronds and greet “the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” We move from this sense of triumph with “peace in heaven and glory in the highest” directly to the Temple, where Jesus grabs a bullwhip and turns over the tables and chases out those who have made it “a den of thieves.”

From the ferociousness of the Temple cleansing, we move into a private upper room where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, showing them how a true leader is a servant; and we hear that his body will be broken and his blood will be shed for the forgiveness of the people’s sins. From the intimacy of this final meal, we head to the garden where sleepy disciples fail to heed Jesus’ call for prayer and where one disciple foreshadows the betrayal and abandonment of all the disciples.

From the sadness of the garden, we watch with horror as Jesus walks alone to his trial and carries his cross to the hill where he dies in agony. With broken hearts and anxious minds, we follow those who bear the burden of his body to the cave-like tomb.

With fear and trembling, with more questions and praises, we gather behind locked doors with the disciples on Holy Saturday – and mark the Sabbath Day. Can we say that we celebrate this Sabbath – this most holy Sabbath of the Passover and the reminders of how God led the people out of bondage in Egypt? Instead, we wonder what will come of us now that Jesus … the one who would be King … is dead.

With first light, with heavy hearts, we accompany the women back to the tomb. Fear and anger leap from the cliff as we see that the tomb has been desecrated! The body of our Lord has been stolen! Startled, we see that Jesus is standing beside us. Confused, happy, stunned – there truly are no words to describe the whirlwind of emotions that roar through our hearts and minds. Rejoice!? Can this really be true?

Joy. Anger. Love. Humility. Sadness. Terror. Grief. Anxiety. Happiness. This is the whiplash weather of Holy Week’s emotions. And we have the advantage of knowing how the story ends. I cannot imagine what it was like for those who lived through it – who experienced it firsthand.

We love because God first loved us. As we look around our world and see the distress and suffering of so many, as we see the anger and frustration and sadness displayed in graphic terms, we walk with the disciples through the whiplash weather of Holy Week.

And we love our neighbor to the best of our ability. We bind up the broken-hearted. We feed the hungry. We offer hope and healing to the suffering. We follow in the footsteps of the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

We love because God first loved us.

We serve because our Lord knelt and washed our feet and then died for our sins.

Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. When we do not love, we do not fully know God, for God is love. Beloved, let us love one another.

Shalom,
Pastor Kay

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Time

As I write this article, the time will be changing tonight. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00am on Sunday, March 9. Daylight Saving Time, Standard Time, Eastern Time, Central Time – we sure have a lot of “time” categories and time zones! It can be confusing at times. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.)

I live in the Eastern Time Zone; my sister lives in the Central Time Zone; my brother lives in the Mountain Time Zone; and a close friend used to live in Arizona – which doesn’t do the Standard/Daylight Saving flip-flop, so part of the year she lived on Mountain Time and part of the year she lived in sync with Pacific Time. With the wonky way that the time lines are drawn, my sister lives a solid 100 miles further east than I do – but she’s in the Central Zone and I’m in the Eastern Zone. And then I have a colleague who lives in Australia where there is a time zone that is 30 minutes different from the zone beside it. (And I thought it was hard to keep the hour change straight!)

Some time references can be absolute – a doctor appointment at 10:00am Central Standard Time. Some time references can be relative – “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

Time.

As we read the Bible, the Greek original uses two different words to refer to time. The Greek word chronos is what we might describe as absolute time. It measures days and months and years, as well as hours within the day. The Greek word kairos is a special sort of time. It is the opportune time, the fulfilled time – that moment when things come together in the perfect way for some unique action to be completed.

As we live our lives in ordinary chronos time, we will encounter many unique kairos moments. The moment when the baby cried out its first breath – sure it might have been at 3:26pm EDT on June 8, 1984, as chronos time measured it. But for that moment, kairos time stood still. Even for parents who will mark the chronos birthdate with parties for their child, this is a kairos moment. Months of waiting and preparing have come to this moment – this fulfillment – this completion. The moment of a person’s last breath is just such a kairos moment, also. Yes, it can be marked in chronos time – 4:32am CDT on August 26, 2022 – but kairos time stops – pauses – seems to last for eternity.

Looking back through your life, can you mark the chronos time of kairos events? They may be traumatic events or breathtakingly beautiful moments – the Twin Towers fell, the Challenger exploded, the house fire alarm went off, the car accident happened, the child was born, the Eagle landed on the moon, the Northern Lights appeared over Lake Superior, the sun rose on the solstice at Stone Henge. Some moments are deeply personal, some are felt by families, some are experienced by whole communities or across the country or around the globe.

As we consider the power of God’s love, there are some kairos moments that come to mind, too – the call of Abraham and Sarah, the rescue of the Israelites from slavery, the covenant cut at Mt. Sinai, the birth of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the flash of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost … and each of the moments in our own lives when God’s love was powerfully present.

As you think about those kairos moments in your life – do you remember who was there with you? Do you remember who shared God’s love with you? As we live our daily lives in chronos time, we may be completely oblivious to the ways in which God is working in and through us creating kairos moments for someone else. God’s love is present wherever we are present, and God can make any chronos moment into a kairos moment with the power of God’s love.

We love because God first loved us. May we live God’s love fully in our ordinary chronos days, so that God’s love creates kairos time in the lives of those around us.

Shalom,
Pastor Kay

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I’m Tired – Article #1

I began my column in the Wakefield News/Bessemer Pick & Axe on April 1, 2019 – no fooling! This is the article that I shared back then; it seems just as appropriate now.

I’m tired. I’m tired of opening my email news feed to stories with blurred pictures, blurred because graphic images have been blocked. I’m tired of staying up late on Saturday night or getting up early on Sunday morning to rewrite prayers for worship. I’m tired of saying, yet again, that the white supremacist agenda is not a Christian agenda. I’m tired of saying over and over that it is wrong when anyone picks up a gun and kills people because they: worship God by a different name, love someone differently, have different color skin, speak a different language, come from a different country, or whatever. This is wrong! I’m tired of the simple fact that I have to respond to these sorts of things at all!

It’s time to act, instead. It’s time to share stories of people working together. It’s time to share images of various faith communities cooperating with one another. It’s time to share how people care for one another. It’s time to tell a new story, such as: the story about the community that helped the farmer whose barn collapsed under the weight of the snow or the story about the people who are helping ranchers in Nebraska whose cattle are drowning in their fields. It’s time to share all of the stories about people who live out the love of God – by whatever name they call God. It’s time to live lives of caring and helping. It’s time to change our world.

You might think, “We’re from little bitty Ewen, Trout Creek, Bruce Crossing, Bergland, Kenton … What can we do?” We can do MANY things. We can let the TV stations know that we want to see these stories of love and cooperation. We can share these stories on FB, Twitter (now called X), etc. We can send articles to local newspapers. We can call or send postcards to our state and national representatives and senators, and even our president. We can show what Christian faith really looks like!

We have a God who loves everyone so much that he was willing to die for them. Luke 13:31-35 tells us that some people said to Jesus, “Get away from here. Herod is trying to kill you.” And Jesus responded, “Tell that fox that nothing is going to change God’s agenda. I’ll be working. I’ll be healing. I’ll be teaching. I’ll be feeding the hungry. I’ll be headed to Jerusalem – knowing full well that I will die when I get there. Herod can’t change that.” Then Jesus compares himself to a Mother Hen who desires to gather her chicks under her wings to give them shelter.

In the battle between a fox and a mother hen, the fox wins. Right? Not according to Jesus. In God’s agenda, the Mother Hen wins. She protects her chicks. She covers them with her wings. She camouflages them. She hides them from the predator. SHE may die in the process, but she saves the chicks.

In the battle between Herod the Fox and Jesus the Mother Hen, Jesus the Mother Hen wins. He protects all people. He covers them with his mother-hen wings. He wipes away their sins. He hides them from Satan’s claim upon them. He dies! But he saves the people. And his victory is even more complete when he defeats death itself – rising from the tomb three days after his death.

This is the God who needs to make the news! This is the Lord whose ways we imitate. This is the teacher whose love we learn and live. We need to stop reacting and start acting. We need to get the word out there. We who believe in a God of love need to stand up to hatred and violence with love and peace.

Only love can conquer hate. Only light can defeat darkness.

It is time that we show God’s love and shine God’s light into our dark and broken world.

Shalom, Pastor Kay