Dec 12, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom…
There is a gentleman I play golf with who is what I might generously refer to as “methodical.” Others refer to him as agonizingly slow, as in, “Hit the flipping ball, let’s go!”. If someone dares mutter such a comment that’s the kiss of death because then he has to start all over again… take his stance, two practice swings, readdress the ball, four looks, two waggles, one more look at the target and then a swing. Which often results in a less than satisfying outcome, which is simply a nice way of saying he is awful. Meanwhile, another gentleman has already hit the ball three times moving in a generally forward direction.
“Does it bother you to be so bad?” mutters another in the group.
So goes the playful banter. No one is safe, not even retired clergy. “Hey, that’s not fair, you can’t accept outside help!” cries out one of my mates. My errant drive had headed deep into the woods to which I had shouted, “I could use some help here!” only to have my ball carom back into the center of the fairway. Full of pastoral concern I respond, “You know, you guys could take advantage of the same help.” It would be un-pastoral of me to record their specific retorts. Suffice to say there is typically not a lot of “Jesus” in their responses. I smile.
I like to regularly let them know that every thing I spend playing golf with them is a tax write-off because they are nothing but a mission project. They don’t argue. Our group is anywhere from 5-16 players on a given day. It is all about laughter and the periodic golf shot worthy of a back slap. Our relative skill level ranges from pretty good to embarrassing. But, as one of the stalwarts is prone to say, “We are a pretty accommodating group.” Golf is just the excuse we have to gather together. Weather be damned.
I like liturgy. Each golfer has a ritual they go through before each shot. It is never completely surprising if an individual’s effort concludes with a thrown club (never me). We all have liturgies we ritually live out in life. Probably most of them simply reflect repetitive behaviors that provide security, meaning and joy to our life (though others may ascribe a less positive attitude).
I love liturgy in worship. My religious practice in life has led me to all sorts of churches, synagogues, Friends Meetings, Temples, and places of devotion. From high church to low church every gathering has their own liturgies. Even those assemblies that pride themselves in being “Spirit led” there exists a predictability in their order of worship.
Covid changed much of our liturgical practices. From how we shop to how we worship. Liturgies have changed. There used to be a specific liturgy for bringing our gifts, our offerings. Offering plates would be passed down the rows where gifts would be placed. Many of us used offering envelopes. As parents we used the offering plate as an important opportunity to teach our children about gladly bringing our financial gifts to be used for God’s work. In many churches the plates would then be brought forward where the presiding minister would lift them up in an expression of gratitude while the congregation would sing, “We Give Thee but Thine Own.” Things change, church practices change.
You are part of a very generous congregation. Be thankful. Out of fear of germs we quit passing offering plates. Out of gratitude you continue to generously bless the ministry of Trinity. We no longer practice a corporate experience, a liturgy if you will, of bringing our gifts forward during worship. Now we practice the individual discipline of placing gifts in the Narthex Offering Box, sending financial gifts electronically or putting a check in the mail. Our support has remained strong as you have taken to heart the mantra of “Blessed to be a blessing.”
Liturgical practices change. Might I suggest one more small liturgical change. However you leave your gifts for Christ’s ministry at Trinity, leave it with a small prayer.
“Thank you Lord for your generous blessings. And thank you
for creating within me a joy in sharing. Use these gifts to
your glory. Amen.”
Pastor Tom
[email protected]
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Dec 9, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
The Lord God created them male and female in God’s image.
It is our earliest shared human story, our genesis from the book of Genesis, our beginning in the heart of a creative and loving God. Creation is not some accident of an unfeeling universe; it is and was intentional. Intentional too was the fact that all humans were created by God and in the image of God.
247 years ago, a new nation was taking shape, in the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson wrote, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” This was the foundation of our democracy, and yet from the beginning of that democracy exceptions were made to those self-evident truths. Even as our founders pursued a more perfect union, the voting and legal rights of women were far from equal, and the evil of slavery would sow the seeds of racism, seeds that would tear our nation apart.
The Lord God created them male and female in God’s image. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
Two foundational statements; one of the Judeo-Christian traditions, and one that captures the aspirational vision of the United States of America. They come together this morning and demand more of us than an intellectual assent, at some point we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves a critical question. The answer to the question will not change reality but it might change the way that we look at God’s world, our neighbors, and those of other lands, races, and religions.
The question quite simply is this: do you believe those statements? Are all people deserving of basic human rights and freedom; is every race created in God’s image? Or is it possible that in your heart you believe that God has favored nations or favored races? Does God hold a special affinity for “Christian nations” or Christian people?
As Christians we believe that Jesus Christ is the most complete revelation of God, but it would be arrogant of us to believe that we have cornered the market on truth. We do not hold that Jesus was the only revelation of God. Restricting God’s mysterious movement to our own experience would be foolish. There is deep spirituality, wisdom, and truth to be found in other religious movements. Christians believe that God has called us to do good work and to share good news. Does it follow that this calling offers us special status with God? Do we assume that God somehow favors Christians above Jews, Muslims, or atheists? Are we so self-centered that we believe that our children and grandchildren are loved more by God, that their lives are of more value than Muslim children? Does God favor the United States? Is our wealth and power a sign of God’s favor?
The Lord God created them, male and female in God’s image. That is either true or its not. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. If we believe the foundational statements of our faith and country, then we should live and act accordingly. How will we view the stranger at our door, the refugee at our border, the homeless in our midst, Palestinian families, and our Jewish neighbors?
Enjoy your coffee this morning, coffee sipped leisurely in a cocoon of freedom and security. And then, take a moment to ask Jesus the question that has puzzled humanity since the dawn of creation; “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer was quite clear; every child of the earth is a child of God, created in the image of God, intended to be equal. The answer articulated by Jefferson was intellectually “self-evident,” living it with integrity has proven to be more difficult.
Living with integrity, guided by truth, may we one day experience the abundant life that God desires for us.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
Dec 7, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children.” Proverbs 13:22
Ruby Knudson lived a simple life, dedicated to her family, her church, and her community. She was a teacher and the mother of two boys, Lydell and Ronnie. One day Lydell walked into my office and told me that it was his desire to honor his mother. He wanted to do so anonymously; the idea was not to draw attention to himself. Lydell and Jill Knudson worked with me to set up the Ruby Endowment Fund to benefit TLC students going on to higher education.
In the past decade a dozen TLC students have been awarded the Ruby Scholarship. This award provides our students $10,000 a year for four consecutive years. This scholarship allows students to focus on their studies and to graduate from college with little or no debt.
When the sun rose on November 6th, 2023, for the first time in 87 years Lydell was not there to greet it. Lydell died peacefully at home in his sleep. His physical body would no longer cast a shadow, but his vision and generosity will continue to cast a shadow for decades to come. Even though Lydell and Ruby are gone, they will continue to live on as each year four or more students attend institutions of higher learning on Ruby scholarships. Lydell and Jill understood that they had been greatly blessed in life. Thanks to their hard work and the opportunities afforded to them by their families and the citizens of this country, they prospered. They were blessed, but in God’s economy we are never blessed in isolation. We are blessed that we may be a blessing to others.
All told, the Trinity Lutheran Church Endowment gave away $232,000 in 2022. This money supported local charities, national and international causes, and provided needed scholarships to dozens of college students.
Make your final statement in life consistent with the values that guided your days on earth. Remember the Trinity Endowment in your will. The total overhead cost to run the Trinity Endowment is .85%. That means that 99.15% of your money is used to touch the future, not just this year but for decades to come.
I would invite you to be inspired by the vision of Lydell and Jill Knudson. I would invite you to join a visionary movement that will touch the future.
This Sunday the TLC Endowment will be giving away $25,000. The Church Council approved grants of $5000 each to local charities: Good Cheer Foodbank, Gifts from the Heart Foodbank, Whidbey Island Nourishes, Helping Hand, and the Whidbey Homeless Coalition. This is your endowment in action, this is our endowment, this is our opportunity to make a difference today and to touch the future!
Blessed to be a Blessing!
Pastor Jim
Contact Pastor Jim if you have questions at [email protected]
Dec 2, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“Since we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, we are justified by God’s grace as a gift.” – The Apostle Paul.
“Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more… And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less… Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.” – Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?
Martin Luther spent much of his life trying to earn God’s favor. The problem with trying to earn God’s favor is that we can never really be sure that we have done enough; to earn God’s favor or to overcome our own missteps. There is little peace to be found in this uncertainty. We cannot rest because there is no sense of security, and we feel the constant pressure to do more. This is the opposite of living in freedom, this is living in fear, motivated by fear, trying to escape punishment, always unsure of one’s fate. Is God a cruel judge, keeping score, waiting for us to fall, ready at the first miscue to condemn us to hell? The Bible tells us that “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Jesus never met a sinner that he didn’t like, he was the Master of new beginnings, proclaiming good news and calling people to live differently. The call to live differently was not a test to earn one’s salvation or God’s favor, rather it was an invitation to abundant life in the here and now. If we live as Jesus taught us, our life will be better and the lives of those we live with will be better also.
So here’s the deal: nothing you do matters, when it comes to your salvation. Jesus died for you. God loves you. God’s love is not for sale, money or good works cannot purchase God’s favor. Everything is a gift. You arrived on this planet with no forethought or planning. Everything you have is a gift from God. Nothing you do matters, when it comes to your salvation.
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 And everything you do matters! The decisions you make each day will affect your quality of life, the health of your family and the fabric of our community. Make choices that are healthy, generous, courteous, graceful, kind, and charitable to your neighbor. Jesus will love you no matter what, but that is not necessarily true for the rest of humanity. What you do matters. How you choose to live your life and how you choose to treat others matters.
God calls us to good works because God cares about people. God calls us to care for the environment because God cares for the trees, oceans, and wildlife. God calls us to patience and kindness because God knows what your neighbor is going through. This is not about heaven, this is not about the next life, this is about the here and now. What kind of a person do you want to be? How do you want to live, and how do you want to be remembered?
In Jesus Christ we have been set free, to live our lives as a response to what God has already done for us. May we respond to God’s love by loving others. May we respond to God’s forgiveness by forgiving others. Remember, nothing we do matters and everything we do matters.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, I am
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
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Nov 25, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
Felicia and I were sitting in a hot tub soothing our tired muscles after hiking ten miles through Zion National Park. The Sun was getting lower in the sky as we talked about the beauty of God’s creation while planning to visit Snow Canyon State Park the next day. It was then that a bee decided to light on Felicia’s neck. She reacted vocally and instinctively as the bee was flicked off her neck, silently splashing into the swirling waters of the hot tub. The bee meant no harm, and bees are critical to the overall health of the environment, so I moved quickly, quickly for me is a relative term. With my hands cupped, I picked up the tiny yellow and black creature and placed him safely on the deck. He shook his wings to dry them as he walked slowly away.
But my act of compassion did not go unnoticed. There was a tree on the edge of the decking and on that tree was a creature who was looking for a snack. Felicia and I watched as evolutionary instincts played out. The lizard gracefully moved down the trunk of the tree, across the deck toward his prey and then in a single bite the bee was gone, a tasty chlorine-soaked bit of protein. Out of the frying pan into the fire. Mother Nature was on display, the survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten.
My intentions were good, but in the end my good intentions did not save the bee. I have mused upon that moment in time ever since. As I review my life, I recall so many times when my good intentions resulted in unintended consequences. I had a friend once who needed money, it was not exactly clear why he needed money, but I had known him for years and he was in a bind. What would stop me from giving him some money? Was I afraid of losing the money, did I love money more than my friend? Felicia wrote the check, our intentions were good, but unknown to us our friend was caught in a cycle of addiction. Our good intentions gave him the opportunity to descend even further into the abyss. He ended up in jail and years later after he had cleaned up his life, he told me, “Giving me that money was the worst thing that you could have done.” We had good intentions; we were left with unintended consequences.
I would imagine that we all have stories of good intentions gone wrong. We try to help our children or grandchildren, sometimes we help them too much. If we over function we run the risk of stunting their growth, of keeping them from experiencing the consequence of their own actions, of carrying our toddlers instead of letting them stumble as they learn to walk on their own. We all want to help our children, our neighbors, the less fortunate in our society, or our co-workers, but knowing how to do that is quite complicated, it is a risky roll of the dice. Allowing them to become dependent on us is not helpful, it probably has more to do with our own ego needs than what is actually good for them. “If you give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour. If you teach him to catch a fish, you do him a good turn.”
On occasion I talk with people about their estate planning. They wonder about our endowment fund, and they are unsure how to remember their loved ones in their will. I usually end up saying, “there are three kinds of children: those who will need your money, those who will have no need for your money and those that should never be trusted with money.” You can draw your own conclusions on that. Very few things in life fit nicely into boxes of black and white, we live in a world with a thousand shades of gray. Our good intentions will not always produce good results. Sometimes no matter what we do or how much we try to help, there is still a lizard waiting to devour our hopes and dreams.
I have no real answers for you today, the older I get the less I know for sure, so I will muddle on with good intentions and low expectations, I will do my best, living in a mostly gray world and trusting God for the rest.
After all, I am just one beggar telling another where to find a fishing pole.
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
Nov 18, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
I have been reading my Bible and watching the news and I am most certainly convinced that we are living in the end times. The war in Ukraine, the war in Israel/Palestine, natural disasters, Congressional leaders, UFO sightings, and the lasting carnage of Covid 19 have led me to believe that we are living in the end times. Now you may think me a nut, and I may be a nut, but in the final days of his life Jesus spoke about the end times:
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” Matthew 24
In the 2000 years since those words were spoken the world has not ended, but it was the end of the line for Jesus. He was only five days away from betrayal, arrest, the cross, and death.
The Bible is clear about what we should expect. There will always be wars and rumors of wars. Natural disasters, and unfortunate accidents are a part of the human experience. When it comes to our existence on this earth the Bible says this:
“The days of our life are seventy years
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10
I can’t help but notice that some of you are over the limit already. When I look at the beautiful but weathered faces of Trinity Lutheran Church and as I approach a 65th birthday, I must conclude that most of us are living in our end times.
I was listening to a Podcast a few weeks ago. An up-and-coming author was being interviewed. The trajectory of the interview suddenly changed when the podcaster expressed sympathy at the recent death of the author’s mother. The conversation went something like this as the author took over the interview,
“Thank you for your kindness but let me ask you, are your parents alive?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Do they live close?”
“They live four hours away just outside of DC.”
“And how often do you see them?”
“A couple of times a year.”
“How old are they?”
“81.”
“So, you figure that you have another five years with them?”
“No one knows, but let’s say yes.”
“You are wrong. You don’t have 5 more years with them. From what you told me you have 10 more visits with them.”
“Well, when you put it that way, I guess that is true.”
“Does that information change the way you think?”
There was a pause.
“You only have 10 more visits with your parents, 10 more times, if you are lucky, to hug them, to hear their stories and to share a meal with them. 10, that’s best case.”
Jesus had five days to live, he was living in his end times. It is later than we think. The world is not coming to an end, but what about your world? If you had 5 days to live—what would you do? I am guessing that you would not go to Payless to buy green bananas. There would be little need to put money away for a rainy day or to keep funding your 401K.
If you had five days to live how would live? What would you do? How would you spend those precious last days? Would you taste the last drops of that vintage wine that you have been saving? More importantly, if you had five days to live, what words would you speak? And to whom? I would probably not want to spend a lot of time waiting on hold to talk to my local Verizon customer service agent located somewhere in India.
Jesus was in the final days of his life, the world would continue to spin on its axis as he hung on the cross, but his world was about to end.
How would you spend your time? What would you say and do, if you knew that you only had five days to live? Though it is very possible, it is unlikely that any of us have only five days to live. But consider this as we move now through the Fall toward Thanksgiving. You might take a moment to consider how many of these you have left. Do you have five more Thanksgivings or five more Christmas’ to celebrate? Perhaps you would anticipate more, but how many more? The scarcity of days makes each hour, each holiday more precious. The scarcity of days should give us pause to ask ourselves: How is it that I want to live? How will I choose to spend my time? What tender words do I need to say? From whom should I seek forgiveness and to whom should I speak words of forgiveness?
Jesus had but a few days to live, and he knew it. So, he gathered with his disciples; it would be his last Passover celebration, his last supper with his friends.
Soon he would be gone. Would it be the end of the world? No! The tides would continue their march back and forth, the sun and moon would dance across the sky to the horizon. Babies would be born, and wars would be fought. The seasons would change; Springtime to Summer, Summer to Fall, Fall to Winter. We are living in the end times my friends, take nothing for granted.
One beggar telling another where to find bread, I am your
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
