Apr 19, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
The events of Good Friday are gruesome and painful. It is not the kind of story that I would tell in detail to our Trinity Preschoolers. The savage violence has always been a regrettable part of the human story and it is sad to say that it continues to this day. The powerful in Russia, North Korea, the Middle East and much of Africa think nothing of killing for political expediency. Perhaps we should not leave the United States off that list either.
The events of Good Friday are well documented: an innocent man, false witnesses, religious and political leaders who feared losing control, a mock trial, execution, darkness, burial and grief-stricken loved ones left crying at a tomb. The events of Easter are also well documented: the stone was rolled away, the tomb empty, the followers of Jesus were bewildered, there was more fear than joy, angels proclaimed resurrection and Jesus was mistaken for the gardener.
To some extent that covers Friday and Sunday, but the events of Saturday are unwritten, unspoken, unknown; resting in silent pages of history. Between the horror of Good Friday and the surprise of Easter is Silent Saturday. We have no recollections from that day. We imagine locked doors, guilt, shame, blame, and the overwhelming sense of loss. Silent Saturday is just that, silent.
It occurs to me that most of our lives play out on Silent Saturdays. We have occasional Good Fridays and every once in a while, an Easter celebration comes our way, but most days are Silent Saturdays. Most days are not captured in the pages of our memory books or chronicled on Facebook. We just carry on. We carry on in faith or doubt, moving from one mostly silent day to the next.
That makes Silent Saturday the most overlooked and probably the most important day in the Holy Week story. Those who did not make it through Saturday never got to experience Easter. Judas never heard the words, “Do not be afraid.” Silent Saturdays might seem unimportant but that simply is not true, for that is where the bulk of our lives are lived.
Take time on this Silent Saturday to make some headlines that will never make the South Whidbey Record. Listen to some music, say a prayer for our community, say a prayer for our nation, take the time to reach out to a friend or neighbor who might be stuck on Good Friday. Take some time on this Silent Saturday to give thanks for the gift of this day.
Tomorrow we party, but today is mostly silent.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Apr 12, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau, Germany (now Poland) on the 4th day of February 1906. At age 21, in December 1927, Bonhoeffer completed his Doctor of Theology degree from Humboldt University of Berlin. He crossed the Atlantic in 1930 to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York. His experience at the Seminary was less than he had hoped, but his year in the United States and his reading of “All Quiet on the Western Front” changed his life.
When he returned to Germany, he was a vocal opponent of Christian Nationalism and the Nazi regime. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained as a Lutheran pastor on November 15, 1931, at the age of 25 at Old-Prussian United St. Matthew in Berlin-Tiergarten. He declined a call to a Lutheran Church in Berlin to protest the church’s alignment with government and took a teaching position in London, a move that was criticized by many in the Lutheran Church of Germany. He came home to Germany in 1935 and was soon denounced as a “pacifist and enemy of the state.” It was a dangerous time to be a critic of the Nazi regime. Bonhoeffer once again came to the United States with other members of the resistance movement.
In June 1939, Bonhoeffer wrote to renowned American Reformed theologian and Professor at Union Theological Seminary Reinhold Niebuhr:
“I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America this time. I must live through this difficult period in our national history along with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people … Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that a future Christian civilization may survive, or else willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilization and any true Christianity. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from a place of security.“
And so, Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned to his homeland and the German people, turning his back on the security and comfort of life in the United States. Back in Germany, Bonhoeffer joined the resistance movement and was harassed by the Nazi authorities. He was forbidden by decree to speak in public and was required to regularly report his activities to the police. The Nazi government sought to silence his voice entirely in 1941, when he was forbidden to print or to publish his writings. After taking part in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler, Bonhoeffer was arrested on April 5, 1943. Two years later as the Allies closed in on Berlin, Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging at dawn on the 9th day of April 1945 at Flossenbürg concentration camp.
On the 80th anniversary of his death, I thought it appropriate to consider the words Bonhoeffer preached in a sermon in 1934.
“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.”
2000 years ago, the power of Empire led to the arrest of a man of peace. Jesus was arrested and executed for upsetting the order, for threatening those in power. Tomorrow on Palm Sunday we will hear the story of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his betrayal and arrest. I hope that you will join us online or in person.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected]
Apr 5, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24
If the weather conditions are right, he greets me in the morning just outside my office. I knew his parents and grandparents, in fact, given the average life expectancy of 9 to 12 months, I probably have been acquainted with 25 generations of his ancestors. I say “his”, but I have not figured out how to tell the gender of a snail yet.
My little friend works his way across the sidewalk, sometimes he climbs up the door or a window, antenna up, eyes forward, breathing the air of a new day. I am not sure where he is going or what he is up to. I assume that he has a plan, but perhaps that is an overstatement. He probably assumes that the giant looking down at him has a plan for the day too, but even with a plan my days rarely play out as I imagine. He seems so tiny to me, his world seems so small, his life so short, but then, that is just my perspective. I would imagine that a giant Sequoia might look at me and think, “poor little man, so small, so inconsequential, such a short lifespan, it must be hard being human.” How very observant of the old tree; short life span, hard life, there is no cure for being human.
I look down at him as he sloths across the cement and out comes my phone as I snap a quick photo of him. He does not seem to notice or care. Poor little creature, poor little creatures, one looking for a small meal and a safe place to park his shell, and one looking for coffee and some inspiration on a Monday morning. At first glance, we have little in common with each other. But we traverse the same terra firma, and we share the same designation in God’s creation, we are “creatures.” Yes, I know, we fancy ourselves to be made in the image of God, but perhaps my snail friend is thinking the same thing. The snail and the human creature; in some mysterious Divine equation, our past and our future are interwoven, somewhat dependent upon each other. That may not be exactly true, I am guessing that the snails, bugs, fish and elephants would probably do just fine without humans, but we probably cannot survive long term without them. Creatures: my friend and I are temporary, a mist that appears for a little while and then is gone. 12 months or 85 years, in the scope of eternity there is very little difference.
Tomorrow, snail-like, we will drag ourselves out of bed, we will slowly work our way down Highway 525, we will park our cars and move our achy bodies toward the sanctuary of Trinity Lutheran Church. Sanctuary; a safe place to gather, a safe place to consider the meaning of life, the purpose of our existence, the gift of each day, our calling in God’s creation. Tomorrow we will gather, but today I wish you wonder!
Blessed to share the journey with you, and blessed to share the journey with a snail, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Mar 29, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
It was a Monday morning; I stood on the deck of the Kitsap facing the ferry terminal in Mukilteo. Having chosen a bright blue hat for visibility, I waved it high in the air until my three-year-old granddaughter Ava could see it. With the exuberance of an innocent child, Ava waited with Gigi for her Bapa to arrive. Her mother was teaching first graders in Mukilteo this day, her brothers were in school too, that set the stage for a Gigi and Bapa day. It is hard to tell who was more excited.
We were off the library, there were children’s books to read, displays to take in and coloring. Ava colored a purple and pink unicorn, Bapa colored a tiger. Ava loves to color and does so most every day, it had been at least 30 years since I had colored. Then we were off to Costco, for a little shopping for church and home, communion wine and cookies, followed by a gourmet lunch of pizza and ice cream.
Where to next Ava? An indoor playground for 40 minutes of burning off the ice cream buzz. Then the highlight of the day, 20 minutes at the make-up counter in Macy’s getting pretty with Gigi. Time for rest, back to her home, snuggling with Gigi waiting for her mommy to return.
I was tired at the end of the day, as we made the short trek back to the ferry. Being the first car to miss the boat gave me time for a quick nap. How good to see the world through the eyes of an innocent child. How good to take a break from death, writing, hospitals and the chaotic news from around the world. How good to color and play, to laugh and sing along with the Laurie Berkner band.
It was Monday with Ava, a simple pleasure not to be missed, a window that will close very quickly.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am just Bapa!
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Mar 22, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
We are living through another unique season in our lives and in the history of our country. Many of us are weary. With romantic recall, we wish to go back to simpler days when civility was the norm, public decorum was valued, and our nation aspired to be as President Reagan said, a “shining city upon a hill.” We long to return to a time when a mighty woman with a torch, the mother of exiles, welcomed our ancestors to the shores of America.
Of course, there has never been a time when life in this great country has been uneventful, a time when the citizens of this land have not faced trials and tribulations. Our history is littered with war, scandal, recessions and depressions. The more things change, the more things stay the same. As the storm clouds of division build and we find ourselves adrift in uncharted waters, as we are greeted each day by a new series of distressing headlines, I thought it might be helpful to revisit the foundational truths of our lives. The North Stars of our faith and our service to country.
We begin where we should begin, with the words of Jesus as he simplified the tenants of religious life:
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
Here we have the call and the challenge of Christian discipleship. Somehow, we must learn to love God and to love ourselves. If we can do that, and it is not a given, then we will be able to love our neighbors. And who are our neighbors? They all are. Every tax collector and leper, every Muslim and Jew, every Republican and Democrat, every immigrant and minority.
We move now to the foundational truths that ungirded the founding of the United States of America. From the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
In all honesty, our forefathers often failed in the execution of this foundational truth. Missing the mark on equality should not deter us from the goal. Long after the founding of our nation, and after a brutal Civil War had torn us apart, these aspirations were still present in the words of the Pledge of Allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Liberty and Justice for all. The question of who would be included in “all” brought our nation to the verge of Civil War as a new President was about to take the oath of office. Abraham Lincoln in his first inaugural address sought to avert war by reminding our citizens of their shared history. On March 4, 1861, Lincoln appealed to his constituents, seeking unity in the midst of division:
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Four years later, on the 4th day of March 1865, 36 days before Lee would surrender the Army of Virginia to General Grant, Lincoln would again address the country seeking charity and unity. Lincoln understood that the pathway to healing would be paved by compassion not retribution. In that speech, just 41 days before his assassination, Lincoln stood on the Capitol steps reminding the citizens of the North and South of the common foundational truths of our nation:
“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ~ that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”
“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Dear friends, in these uncertain times when many of the basic tenants of our faith and our nation are being challenged, may we be encouraged and emboldened by the teachings of Jesus and the aspirational voices from our rich national history. Let us not be paralyzed by fear, rather let us embrace the better angels of our nature for liberty and justice for all.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Mar 14, 2025 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim
On the 15th day of March 2025 there is considerable anxiety in our community. Our country and our world seem unstable, unhinged, and the nightly news offers little comfort.
Five years ago on this date, we were entering into a season of isolation, uncertainty and death. Each day we were faced with a changing landscape, images of overcrowded hospitals and a new set of pandemic medical directives.
Do you remember waiting in line at Payless, outside in the cold, the essential workers inside, keeping their distance from each other and from their customers? The CDC had determined a reasonable pandemic capacity for the grocery store. Was the number correct? Were we safe? We really did not know. But there we were, masked islanders exposed to the elements, silently waiting to enter the store, hoping that there would still be some toilet paper.
This morning, I decided to run the daily word that was published on this date five years ago. Perhaps it will offer us perspective and hope as we once again face the uncertain days ahead. Reflecting on our 35 years together, it is striking what we have been through, the storms we have weathered, social unrest, war, terrorism, cultural change and financial downturn. Every season brings challenges, both personal challenges and societal challenges.
But the seasons always change, summer always gives way to fall, and in time the worries of today will slip silently into the pages of history. Think of where we were five years ago today. My friends, we will get through this time together. As we did five years ago, we will support, love and care for each other. Together we will weather the storms that greet us, knowing that God is with us.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find toilet paper, I am your,
Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email [email protected].
Perspective from the pages of history:
March 15, 2020
Sunday Morning at TLC
Love Looks Like an Empty Church
There is not a single person here on this Sunday morning. I did not even make coffee. The church is totally quiet. Of course, it is not just churches that are empty. We ordered out from a local restaurant last night. When I picked up our dinner, the restaurant was eerily quiet. Empty restaurants on a Saturday night. Theaters, sports venues, schools all sit empty. Our lives have changed so dramatically in the past month.
How will we make it through this? What will we learn from this ordeal? “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. Love never ends. Now faith, hope and love abide these three and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13
Together, we will make it through this crisis. God is love, and we must let love be our guide as we make our way through the Corona darkness. But what will love look like in our community?
Scripture reminds us that our goal should be to work for the Common Good. The Common Good of our neighbor and our community. If we tend to the Common Good, then all can experience abundant life. Conversely, if we care only for ourselves, if we horde, if we let fear keep us from loving, then we will suffer with a community that suffers.
The Common Good is the goal. What will love look like as we seek the Common Good?
We must act with caution. The question is not, “Is it safe for me to be around others?” The question is, “Is it safe for the community to have people who may or may not be contagious moving around as if there were no virus?”
What does love look like at this time? Love looks like an EMPTY CHURCH. Love is putting aside our own needs and sacrificing for others. Love looks like an empty church. That is why we closed our campus. The loving response to this crisis is to proceed with caution out of respect for our vulnerable neighbors.
It is time to be reminded that this journey of faith and life is not all about me. Following Jesus is not about the car that I drive, the newest technology that I can afford, or the balance in my bank account. It is time to be reminded that we are called first and foremost to contribute to the Common Good. This virus affords us the opportunity to be less self-centered and more community-centered.
God is love. Love will lead us through. Love is patient. Love is kind. What does love look like? On this Sunday morning: Love looks like an empty church.
My love to you!
Pastor Jim
