Aug 10, 2024 | Pastor Jim's Blog, Uncategorized
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
What is the connection between the money in the offering plate and abundant life? There are many answers to that question.
Your offerings to the church have a positive effect upon neighbors far and near. Their quality of their life is enhanced. They experience a more abundant life because you cared enough to give.
In the Middle East, Palestinians receive much needed medical care at the Augusta Victoria Hospital. You are there!
On Whidbey Island, your neighbors receive food and assistance from Good Cheer and Gifts from the Heart. You are there!
When natural disasters, wildfires, and famines strike anywhere in the world we are able to reach those in need, thanks to our partnership with Compassion International, ELCA Disaster Relief and Lutheran World Relief. You are there!
We are partners with the Bethany Nursing Homes in Everett and the Josephine Caring Community in Stanwood. Both provide non-profit Senior Care in the Lutheran tradition of caring for our neighbors. You are there!
You are in downtown Seattle supporting the work of the Lutheran Compass Center, Lutheran Community Services and our own ministry called His Hands Extended.
Young people in our community are cared for by Young Life, Ryan’s House and Readiness to Learn. With your offerings to TLC, you are there.
When your Whidbey neighbors need assistance, you are there. Our gifts support Friends of Friends, Helping Hand, Whidbey Island Nourishes and the Tiny House community in Langley.
This fall Trinty will support more than 40 students as they pursue their higher education goals at universities, colleges and trade schools. 21 of those students are TLC members. You are there as our future leaders go off to school.
In Guatemala, Trinity is a primary supporter of a program that repatriates young Guatemalans who were sent back from the Southern border of the United States. You are there, helping them to build a life in their own communities.
From college campuses to disaster sites around the world, thanks to your offerings to TLC, you are there.
What is the connection between money in the plate and abundant life?
We are blessed to be a blessing. God has blessed us beyond measure and God expects us to share from our abundance. We are blessed as we open our hearts, minds and checkbooks to God’s work in the world. Generous people lead abundant lives.
So, thank you for being there. Thank you for supporting TLC and the many benevolent causes that we support together. We can’t solve all the problems of the world, but we are making a difference!
Blessed to be a Blessing!
Pastor Jim
If you would like to email Pastor Jim direct please send a note to: [email protected]
Dec 22, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog, Uncategorized
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
There is no shortage of sad stories, two Kleenex boxes have permanent residence in my office, urns and cremains surround me waiting silently for their slow procession to the columbarium. Every human journey is marked by illness and accident, death in season and out, love lost and bitter betrayal. There is no escape, our ability to elude the human condition is nothing more than an illusion, an illusion which ultimately gives way to reality, as the frail nature of our bodies, our minds and our relationships begin to decay. I have made peace with it, mostly, there is a time to be born and a time to die. The diminishing sands of the hourglass are humbling but they hold no particular horror for me.
But I am overtaken by a profound sadness when our loss or loneliness is a by-product of our egos, unforced errors, a brokenness unrelated to our shared fragility. In January 1974, guitarist Don Felder was asked to join a country rock band called the Eagles. The Eagles would become superstars with classic hits like “Hotel California,” “I Can’t Tell You Why,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “Take it Easy,” and many more. Don Felder was a rock star, the Eagles sold millions of records and each member of the band made millions of dollars. For 27 years Don Felder would be associated with the Eagles, touring the world, and recording and then in 2001 it all fell apart. Felder and Eagles founders Glenn Frey and Don Henley would spend several years in court arguing about money. The case would be settled out of court, but soon new lawsuits were filed. There would be no more harmony for the men whose beautiful harmonies helped define the music of the 1970’s.
In January 2016, Glenn Frey would die of natural causes at the age of 68. The day after Frey’s death, Felder told the Associated Press that he felt an “unbelievable sorrow. I had always hoped somewhere along the line, he and I would have dinner together, talking about old times and letting it go with a handshake and a hug.” Perhaps, a phone call or a letter or an olive branch of any kind would have made that dinner, that handshake and that hug a reality, if either man had swallowed their pride, perhaps they could have let it go. But once that final breath is taken, it is too late.
The words of one of the Eagles hits came to mind:
“Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you (Let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you before it’s too late.”
There is no shortage of sad stories, many of them are an unavoidable part of living. But I find these words to be hauntingly tragic, “I had always hoped somewhere along the line, he and I would have dinner together, talking about old times and letting it go with a handshake and a hug.”
Maybe we can learn from the sad words of an aging rock star, just maybe these words can help us to change our story, to carry less burdens, to let go of bitterness and to die without the regrets of missed reconciliation.
That is enough for this Saturday.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
Apr 2, 2023 | Uncategorized
Lord, listen to your children praying….
As we seek your will, we ask how to better serve you.
How can/should we better take care of your precious creation? Creation’s brokenness is heavy on our hearts today.
Brokenness surrounds us not only in the human areas of Creation, but also in the broader Creation that was created to raise its voice to you in praise.
According to Romans 8:22, “…the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time”. It is waiting, as on tip toe, “…in hope that [it] will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” Romans 8:21.
Can we today be part of that liberation?
Can you and I serve our Lord by also serving His bountiful and beautiful creation that today continues to groan?
Those of us at TLC know that God’s Creation matters and that we, as God’s “image bearers” have a special role and responsibility in “keeping” Creation.
This new bi-monthly communication from TLC comes at the invitation of Pastor Jim as we consider diverse topics related to Creation care.
It is our prayer that both our voices and actions will contribute to Creation’s healing and fruitfulness.
Stay tuned as we continue to share with you in subsequent weeks how you might become more effective in your service to God’s gift to us that carries a heavy burden.
Thanks for reading.
— Joe Sheldon
P.S. Direct comments to [email protected]
Mar 24, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog, Uncategorized
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
She was 18 years old, about to graduate from high school, looking forward to attending Western Washington University next fall. She worked at the Flower Café in Bayview. She was young and alive, her future was bright, and on March 22 on the West Seattle bridge she was killed by an impaired driver.
Life is not fair.
We have been meeting a lot of interesting characters on Sunday morning recently. We met a man who was born blind. We met a man named Lazarus, who died unexpectedly at the age of 30. We were introduced to a woman drawing water from a well; a well that was outside the city, she came in the heat of the day when it was unlikely that she would be subjected to judgment and shame. We later find out that this woman had been married five times and was living with a man who was not her husband. Had five husbands died? Was she five times discarded in divorce, or was it some combination of the two? She had known unspeakable heartache.
Looking out from my preaching post on Sunday morning I see you. I know that many are waiting nervously for test results, and others can’t sleep at night worried about their children. I see you: you look like your life is all tidy, put together, you seem self-assured. I see you, we have talked about your depression, your loneliness, the fact that your landlord is raising your rent and you have no where to go. I see you, as you spend your grandchildren’s college funds on their drug rehab program for the third time.
Life is not fair. The quicker we come to that realization, the better off we will be. Life is not fair, and it never has been fair. Life is not fair, and God never promised us that life would be easy or fair. Jesus gave the blind man back his sight. Jesus saw him, had compassion for him, and his vision was restored. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. His death out of season gave way to new life, he was given a reprieve for a few years, or perhaps decades. Jesus lifted up the woman at the well. He gave her the time of day when no one would. He honored her with his words, restoring her to her community, raising her from her corpse-like existence.
Life is not fair. It is not fair that we were born in a land of milk and honey when so many in the world suffer from poverty, hunger, or oppression. It is not fair that we have had more hot showers, more good food, more entertainment and travel opportunities than 99% of the people in the history of the world.
Let just say it: Life is not fair. Life in a broken world where humans are free to make good and bad choices will never be fair. The Biblical narrative is clear; not everyone has the same opportunity, not everyone has the same chance or luck. God’s only desire for every woman, man, and child is that they would have a healthy and abundant life. And every time Jesus healed a leper, forgave an adulterer, touched the untouchable, or fed the hungry, he was proclaiming loud and clear that God only desires good for us. Suffering may have many causes, suffering may be a result of our choices, random accident or chance, but suffering is never God’s will for us.
Life is not fair. Everyone is carrying burdens that you know nothing about, everyone is afraid and insecure, one heartbeat from heaven. Maybe it is time that we treat each other with compassion, empathy, and patience.
I am one beggar telling another where to find bread.
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
Feb 10, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog, Uncategorized
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
In just a few days we will celebrate a “red rose” event. A day of romance or romantic recall. A day to celebrate love by exchanging cards or flowers or phone calls or hugs.
Sweet words and loving wishes are exchanged each year on the 14th day of February, Valentine’s Day.
Since the dawn of human creation poets, songwriters, novelists, historians, and research scientists have written about love.
Love: no topic has garnered more attention or captured the imagination of our race. And yet this thing called love has remained mostly a mystery and has been largely misunderstood.
Where does love come from? Where is it stored? Is there an endless supply of love? Is there a power in the universe that is more powerful than love? Can true love be destroyed? Or is love more akin to matter? The Law of Conservation of Mass tells us that matter can change form, but matter cannot be created or destroyed.
What is this thing called love? The Bible tells us that we love because God first loved us. The Bible tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing means nothing. Sin, addiction, unbelief, loneliness, even death cannot separate us from love. God’s love, unlike human love, is not dependent upon behavior, attraction, shared bloodlines, or a return of affection. God’s love, like matter, is constant. In fact, the Bible defines the Master of Creation in this way: “God is Love.”
The human story cannot be told without some mention of this mysterious power we call love. Love has, does, and will always change the course of human stories and human history. What is very clear to me is the connection between love and loss, between love and grief, between love and tears.
Jesus loved and Jesus wept. I have sat with hundreds of people mired in the most painful grief imaginable. Women or men who have experienced a broken marriage, seeing the dreams and good intentions of promises made now shattered like the glass shards of a beautiful vase that will never hold the flowers of Valentine’s Day again. Children who have lost their parents, parents who must bury their children, and families left broken by suicide.
This love, this amazing mysterious power, leaves us most vulnerable. We are laid bare by love; we are defenseless, like Jesus, unable to escape our humanity and the perils of loving deeply. Like Jesus, we find ourselves shedding the exuberant tears of human intimacy and weeping at the graveside of lost dreams. The connection between love and tears is undebatable. The loss that is to come is inevitable. It is not a question of “if” but “when.”
God is love. We love because God loved us and created us in love. We cannot lose or escape God’s love; it cannot be destroyed or defeated.
And so, Valentine’s Day approaches once again, and we are reminded that love is patient and kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant, love is hopeful, and love never ends.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Rest secure knowing that you are loved always by God.
My love to you,
Pastor Jim
[email protected]
Feb 3, 2023 | Pastor Jim's Blog, Uncategorized
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“The grass withers and the flower fades.” Isaiah 40:8
When I was a teenager, it seemed that I was always hungry. I could eat most anytime, and when ordering food at a restaurant, or gathering around the family dinner table, I always wondered if there would be enough food to satisfy my hunger. Now let me be clear, I never wanted for food, shelter, clothing, or comfort. We rarely ate out as a family, but a couple of times a year we would join my grandparents or cousins at the “House of Plenty” restaurant. As the name implies it was an “all you can eat buffet.” This event was a much-anticipated special occasion; a real treat, especially for growing boys.
The buffet line not only had endless options, but it also provided an endless supply of food. My father, a child of the depression, would say, “Take as much as you want, but eat what you take.” I would tell you that I savored every bite, but that was not the case. When the supply is endless, savoring takes a back seat to overconsumption. The occasions of “savoring every bite,” took place when the portions were limited or scarce. That last piece of pizza, the last few bites of hamburger, the final helping of lutefisk, those bites were savored. (Just kidding, I did not eat the piece of cod which passes all understanding.)
There was a time when the animals, the oceans, clean air, majestic forests, and oil seemed to be inexhaustible resources. They were viewed as food in the buffet line, consumed, over consumed, not savored. The reality is clear, “the grass withers and the flower fades.” Nothing lasts forever. Resources are finite, the years grow shorter, most of us are much closer to the finish line of life.
My question for these opening days of 2023 is quite simple, “If it’s limited, how will you use it, savor it, spend it, experience it?” Our time is a precious resource. How would you like to use the time you have left? Our energy is a precious commodity. How would you like to use the energy that you have left?
If your next conversation with a loved one or friend was to be your last, what would you want to say? If this Sunday were the last Sunday in your life, would you want to be in church to hear Karl sing, or perhaps one more boring sermon would make departing this world easier. If your time and energy is limited, how can you best savor it? Do you really want to spend that precious time watching Fox News or MSNBC?
Jesus repeatedly tells us not to be afraid, not to worry, not to fret, borrowing trouble in a world of trouble. My prayer for you and me in 2023 is that we might live with intention. Don’t float along with the current like a leaf in a stream. Live with intention. Recognize the fleeting nature of life and the precious resources that have been entrusted to you. Make intentional decisions about how you will use your time, your energy, your money, and your focus.
If it’s limited, how will you use it?
See you in church tomorrow, the church where everybody’s welcome!
Pastor Jim
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
