​Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. 
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Luther spent a chunk of his life fearing his father. He spent agonizing days fearing himself. Flogging himself in remorse, he spent months fearing God. A mentor of Luther's feared for Luther's life and sent him away to little town, small university and the study of scriptures. God chased Luther and loved the fear out him. Grace does that. Grace turns fear into a puny enemy who still has weapons but that is all. All fear has is the ability to suck the life out of us and leave us exposed and empty, useless and ugly. Then the Grace of God shows us what it can do. 
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In the cross of Christ, we see the power of love. Amen.

​John 8: 31
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
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The critics of Jesus were as delusional then about what freedom is as we often are today. We value freedom but we have never known it. Not anywhere, at any time, in any country. We may clutch dreams of it in a song or feel a breeze of it stroking our face but nothing more. We are born captive. What Christ offers to us is the freedom to choose to be captive to the unconditional love of God and to let it shape our existence, our purpose, our lives. Love gives us the power and the will to freely choose captivity. Only those who have received the love that they did not and could not ever earn completely understand that. If you do not, I beg you to get to know Christ. Don't waste any time. Today is a good day for the truth. Today is a good day for love.
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May your love run with mad abandon in our hearts and minds, O Lord. Amen.

​Psalm 96:1-4
O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
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Yesterday the sky was unblemished blue. It was note-worthy. It captured my attention with a shout of color as I stepped out from the inside of my car cluttered with crumpled thoughts. When I emerged from the construction dusty air of the church buildings, my eye stung and yet forgot the stinging at the sight of a brand new shade of blue on display for us all to see and sing praise. It is good for a human being to turn oneself inside out and take the first blink of awareness that there is something, someone bigger than us doing some really amazing things. It is that first blink of awareness and that hushed sense of wonder that makes us better. God does not need our praise for inventing new shades of blue. We need to praise to poke a hole in our dark, cluttered, dusty souls to see better. 
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Nice work, O God. Show me again. Amen.

​I Thessalonians 1:2-5
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
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As the 500th anniversary of the Reformation draws near, I am more convinced than ever that we are standing on the fault line of the next great shift in the Christian movement. Luther pounded out 95 statements that called for dramatic overhaul in the way in which the Christian Church was impacting the world. It is time for another overhaul due to our own loss of focus on what it means to be a follower of Christ. I love the quote I read this morning by Dr. Martha Stortz who said, “To a pickpocket, the entire world is a pocket; to a Lutheran, the entire world is a neighbor.” Let this be the time when we stop the senseless and selfish pursuits of picking the pockets of the world for our own purposes and see the world as God sees it as neighbor, as brother and sister beloved by God. Period.
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Renew us, Lord. Amen.

​Psalm 23:1-3
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
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Maslow's hierarchy of human needs is a psychological theory of human motivation driven by needs that are visualized in a pyramid chart with levels. The higher levels can't really exist well without the solidity of the ones below. The most basic level is physiological: food, water, rest. Then there is safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualization. A crisis drives us to our more basic level and when that is secure we rebuild again. It can feel like a child playing with building blocks, building a structure, having the dog or a sibling walk by and knock it down and starting over again. Today my heart aches for the people of Puerto Rico who are in need of the most basic things -food, water, rest- that even the most basic of shepherds should understand about a flock. 
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Lord God, send your shepherding love and power to the people of Puerto Rico. Amen.

​Philippians 4:4-9
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
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Yesterday I watched a giant steel claw snatch, crush and dump in a truck the moldy, flood-damaged pulpit that I have filled for the last 10 years. Every metaphor, thought, emotion was depressing. And then it was time to get back to the vocation - though a dramatically changed one - to which I am called. Words fail me a lot these days, so I will lean on my brother Paul's word. These words to the Philippians help us in such a time as this when leaders are fools, fires are burning, people are shooting, and homes are flooding. God is bigger than even all of this. 
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Holy God, protect your people and give them the peace they need for the living of these days. Amen.

​Matthew 22:1-3
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.
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Jesus tells a story in which a host has difficulty finding people willing to attend a wedding banquet. Free food, a joyous occasion, no obligation just come. The people refused. That is where the story should make everyone's head itch. More goes on in the story but why wouldn't the people come? We hear the age-old excuse of "they had something more important to do." So the urgency is ramped up for getting guests to the banquet, just bodies to fill up the space will do. But that is where we in the church have made the same mistake. We still think it doesn't matter the message as long as we get bodies in the pews. It is time to consider the host again and our relationship. It is time to learn about this wedding of a Son who choosing us as a partner in life and declares that a cause for celebration. It is time to stop looking at the church as an institution to sustain but a relationship of love that invites everyone to the feast. 
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Holy God, renew your church into a celebration of unconditional welcome and love. Amen.

​Psalm 80:7-9
Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
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In this little storm-devastated town in which I live and work, we see and hear the prefix "Re-" over and over again. At first, for many, "Re-" was not a prefix at all but letters clinging to "Rescuers." Their stories include phrases like "we were in the attic" or "a man with a jet ski pulled up to my living room." Then it was about "removal" of storm-damaged debris. Then "rebuild" and "restore" and "recover." Some are choosing to "replant" in another city. Many are recalling with sorrow their lives before the flood waters came. The psalmist finds himself in an unknown disaster in which more is needed than can be done by the work of human hands. The scriptures are, among other things, a history of a relationship in which God is well-experienced in restoration work. In fact, God re-stories our story of sadness with resurrection. 
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Holy God, restore us. Amen.