Let it Snow, Jesus is Still Coming!

So I am sitting in my office, should be working on my Christmas Eve sermon, but I am distracted by watching this storm track across the midwest, headed our way. I keep getting interrupted by people calling and asking if we are still going to have worship tomorrow (Christmas Eve), and whether or not things are going to change.

And I can't help but think...first of all, I live like 150 feet from the church. If I can't get there, we must have gotten 6 feet of snow (which we are predicted to get closer to 8 inches!!). Secondly, we will have worship, with whoever can make it.

Why? Because Jesus came. Jesus came to a world that wasn't really ready for him...but had been waiting forever. Jesus came, not in the perfect hospital room, but in a manger full of hay, and in a cave that smelled like animals. Jesus came, and the Word was proclaimed to the shepherds first, the lowest of the low.

Ready or not, here he was, in all his messy glory. And it is for that reason that we gather on Christmas Eve. It isn't because we have always done it...it isn't because we are supposed to do it...we gather because we will never understand the mystery of a God who loved the world so much that Jesus had to be born. We gather because we need to be reminded that in the midst of whatever crazy things are going on in our lives, Jesus comes into the heart of them.

So wherever you are this Christmas, whether you are with your family and friends, or snowed into your house with nothing to do, take the time to celebrate. Because Jesus came for you!

Appreciating my flock...

So as I sit on my last day of vacation, in Bellingham, Washington, I can't help but think that there really should be a congregation appreciation day. I have been reminded this past week of just how amazing the people at my little church on the Iron Range are, and how very blessed I am to be their pastor.

I get to do ministry alongside people who have knowledge of hard times and tough love, beside people who understand what it is to love the land and celebrate their heritage.

I am blessed to be able to have a congregation who lets me try, fail, and try again, and I am constantly amazed at the amount of love that pours through the people that walk in that door.

So I can't help but wish there was a creative way to appreciate them. To let them know how much I admire their tenacity during hard times, their compassion for each other, and their love for the Lord and the land they live on.

Any ideas on how I might make that happen all you out their in the blogosphere?!?!

Let me know!

Peace,
Pastor Amy <><

Pastor's Taking Time to Grieve...

I have another funeral this weekend. So today, I sat down to write down to write the sermon for her funeral and was almost instantly stuck. What was my problem? I decided to go out to the cemetary and walk by her headstone (her husband was buried several years ago). It was there as I started to cry that I realized that I will miss this woman deeply. She was one of the first people to recognize me as pastor...one of those shut-ins whom everytime you visit you would learn something, and one of those women who you cannot help but admire.

So today, because of Myrtle, I started a new practice. I put a blanket down on the ground, at the cemetary, pulled out my laptop. I wrote a letter to her...not that she will be able to read it, but as a way of focusing myself, allowing myself a chance to say good-bye, and giving myself some focus to my thoughts that had been all over the place.

It was a time of grieving, cleansing, and just being with God. I consider it a holy moment, and am thankful to God for giving me the idea.

So here's the question for the day...what are some of the ways you grieve? For those of you who are pastors...do you take time to grieve the folks in your congregation before the funeral? After?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Amy <><

Waiting on God...and Pondering his Plan

Well my friends, I write to you this morning, thankful for the beauty that surrounds me (it is a glorious day up here in "God's Country"), but also admittidly stressed out about what is going on in the world of my life and my congregation.

We received word yesterday that another 280 people were layed off at one of the local mines, and members of my congregation were yet again in the mix. Then, as I was driving home last night, my car started having issues again.

And it just made me think...how much I need to wait on God and see what his plan is for this time and place I am in. How much I need to trust that all things work for good through him. And just how hard that can really be.

My dad had surgery yesterday, my "fake" grandma had surgery the day before...and now this stuff. It just makes one wonder what God has in store. It doesn't make me question if God is working...because I KNOW that God is working. I just wonder what he has planned, ya know?

Anyway, dear friends of mine...what do you do when you are waiting on the Lord? Do you have favorite verses you read to remind you of God's promises? Music you listen to? People you talk to?

I pray that you are each able to see all the ways God is blessing you today.

Grace and peace,
Amy <><

A thought before bed...

We have been struggling with the issues of same-gender marriage...as well as the question of whether or not we can ordain folks in same gender monogomus relationships...it was a heated discussion, and made me wonder about the future of our church, and where we are going...I pray that we can find a way to truly be a church that is open to all people, no matter who they are. Afterall, what makes me any better as a pastor just because I am heterosexual? Sheesh.

But I had to share this quote with you, it was said tonight by an amazing woman of God who is in a same gender relationship (and has been for years). She said to the assembly "If Christ mets your family on the road, surely he meets mine too."

And I found myself thinking, how true it is...doesn't God come and meet us where we are, love us for who we are, and ask us to love one another?

That's my thought for the night...what do you think??

Peace,
Amy <><

The joy of networking...

Networking takes on a whole new level this weekend...I am writing to you all from the synod assembly. It is a joy to be able to worship (having a break from leading!), and spend time in conversation with close friends and new colleagues in ministry. It fills my cup to be able to come to this place, bounce ideas off each other, and just in general be able to check in with other Pastors, AiMs, etc.

As we prepare for our next plenary session, I pray for our synod...I pray that we can follow the guidance of the spirit...be open to listening to each other, and that we can do our best to follow the will of God.

Here's some highlights/quotes from the assembly so far:

*When you are reading scripture, consider "how would I tell this story to a stranger"?
*"We do God's work not because God needs us to, but because our neighbor does."

*What "faith signs" are you leaving for your children?
-Accompaniment
(How are we a God-pointer to the children we encounter?)
-Faith Formation and Leadership Development
(Best youth ministry is a congregation full of adults that are growing in their faith)
-Investment
(How/what do we depost in our youth's faith checkbook?)
*Who posted "Faith Signs" in your faith development?


*The good news (gospel) doesn't end in our hearing...it ends in our telling it to others.

*"Word, Table, and Mission"-this is the call of the church

*"Do you want to believe in God?" "Yes" "For now that is enough."

*What would your congregation look like if we dreamed in scripture?

*"I don't believe the Bible is the Word of God if it is not opened."

*The Bible is the manger in which Christ lies.

Food for thought (to my blog readers)
-What is your favorite scripture?
-Why??

This is the first of multiple posts my friends...stay tuned for more synod info!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Amy <><

Thank God for Easter...

As I sit here, writing my 7th sermon over the last two weeks, and re-read my last post, I realize just how awesome God truly is. He has seen this congregation that I am so blessed to serve through a really rough few days, and gives us the gift of Easter at the end of it.

It is finally sunny here on the range, and the Easter Flowers are coming in the door, and it is just a lovely time to realize the beauty of God, and the awesomeness of his timing.

I am so thankful for each of you...for the support you have been the past few weeks, for your prayers, your encouragement, your phone calls! You truly renew my spirit!

I pray that each of you can too find renewal in this Easter season! Alleluia! Christ has risen!
Christ has risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace and peace,
Amy <><

Preaching the gospel when you need it yourself...

This week has proved to be a challenging one. I am preparing for 2 memorial services, with a possible third coming next week. I just got back from Urban Plunge (25 youth to the cities for a service project), and am trying to get ready for a very full Holy Week.

Meanwhile I am really struggling with a friendship/relationship in my personal life...

It is just a lot on the plate of this new pastor, and I just wish I could go and sit and soak up the gospel somewhere...go back to a place of the mountaintop where everyone loves everyone and the presence of God is palpable.

It feels right now hard to preach the gospel when I feel like I need to hear it myself.

I don't know if it is the winter or all the deaths, or what, but I know that I am finding myself deeply missing my friends, and the joy that I had when I first started this job.

Hopefully this is just a funk that can be overcome. It was suggested by a friend of mine to just keep going...and one of the quotes that hangs on my bulletin board in my office says this: "Practice is to Judaism what belief is to Christianity. Your faith may come and go but your practice ought not to waiver." (The quote is from my favorite author, Lauren F. Winner)

So, I am doing my best to keep going, hoping that God will put the encouragement, hope and joy back into my life that I am lacking so much right now.

What about you?? What do you do when you go through tough stretches of time? Do you have any suggestions?

Until the next post...grace and peace to you my friends!
Amy <><

Keeping Sabbath...

This Sunday we have the opportunity to preach on the 10 Commandments. I was looking at the list this week and was thinking that the one we break most often is the commandment about Sabbath. So we, at Saint Mark's are going to be talking about Sabbath, and hopefully coming up with some ideas that would help us be more intentional about keeping Sabbath.

I wanted to share with you a poem by Wendell Berry that I came across this week. Wendell Berry is one of my favorite authors...he is known for taking a walk every Sunday morning and then going home and writing a Sabbath poem...here's one he wrote a few years ago.

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

May you each find time this week to spend in Sabbath. Turn off the phone, don't go online...just spend time with the one who created you!

Grace and peace,
Amy <><

A God of Promises...

I am working on this week's sermon...and am struck by the number of promises that God gives in this week's texts. From the rainbow that holds the promise for Noah (and for us) to 1 Peter where we are given the promise of baptism...and then onto the gospel text where Jesus is sent into the wilderness and the angels wait on him.

Up where I am a pastor things are becoming more and more difficult economically...the word came this past week of 590 layoffs at our local mine. People are nervous and worried about where the future will take them.

What a gift we have been given that we get these texts. God promises never to leave us...never to destroy us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says ..."God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with your testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it."

It is my hope that whatever you have to endure in the coming days that you can remember the promise that God has made to you in your baptism. My congregation will each be taking a colored stone out of the water-filled baptismal font as a reminder of these promises. I encourage you to find yourself a reminder of these promises...that you can look at on the really tough days...and so that you can always remember that God, your God is with you wherever you go.

Grace and peace,

Amy <><

From Epiphany to Lent..

I am sitting at Big Timber Coffee Company as I write this latest blog entry, contemplating the transition from Epiphany to Lent. It is interesting that Transfiguration Sunday is the transition...with the suggestion made to build dwellings on the mountain top and stay there. Part of me wants to stay in Epiphany too...to just enjoy getting to know Jesus through the eyes of others...to not have to transition to the place where Jesus goes through such trials and hangs on a cross for me (and for you).

But in my growing in my faith, and the older I get, the more I am starting to like Lent. It is a time for me to reflect on my own life, and my own relationship with Jesus. It adds another worship service to the week, which I actually love. I have been doing some experimenting with praying the "hours" (as some monastaries do, etc), and truly love spending more time focusing in on my time with God, and where God is calling me/who God is calling me to be.

I know that feeling of wanting to stay up on the mountain top....but without the valleys (the challenging times of our lives, the questioning in our faith, etc), we wouldn't be nearly as able to celebrate the true joy that is found in the resurrection.

It is my hope as you enter this Lenten season that you too can have time to spend with Jesus...and that you can know in a deeper way just how much God loves you!

Peace,
Pastor Amy <><

Wishing all were welcome...

Not this past week, but the week before, I became again aware of just how guarded a community I am living in. I would like to believe that in the world we live in that it is safe for people of all backgrounds and beliefs to walk into our sanctuaries and worship with us. But I was reminded yet again how small this fishbowl of pastoral life can be, and how much people can make comments about others and not even realize that they are making them.

I was sitting at "coffee an'" (the third Lutheran sacrament?!?), and chatting with folks, and within a half an hour heard 3 comments about homosexuals that made me cringe. The people at my church and in my community do not know that I have many friends that are homosexual, and perhaps they would never guess that...but I couldn't help but wonder what my friends would have thought, had they been sitting beside me.

There have to be people in this congregation that have relatives and friends who are homosexuals as well, and it hurt my heart to know that I am working in a place where people might not feel welcomed and loved just for being a child of God.

Sometimes I think we need the reminder of the woman caught in adultery...let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone...I mean honestly, we all have different beliefs, ways of living, ways of thinking, ways of coping with this challenging life, and what makes any one person's beliefs better than the other?

I just want to be pastor of a place that is truly welcoming...I guess today I find myself wondering how do I help my congregation and surrounding community to open our eyes to see the beauty that is to be found in those different than us. I don't want to live in a world where everyone is the same as me. I want to be challenged, and I want to see all the amazing aspects of God in the world and the people around me.

So my question for you oh blog followers of mine...have you run into this open stereotyping in your own congregations? What (if anything) have you done about it?

Until the next post my friends, may God bless and keep you well!
Amy <><

DIfferences that are found in death...

I am sitting in my office this evening, trying to come up with the texts and a sermon for a funeral that I have this week...but I must admit this one really has me thinking.

The last funeral I had was for a man in his mid 50s who had died of cancer. It was a hard funeral, complete with military honors, and the church was packed.

The funeral this week will be for another amazing woman of God, who lived a simple life, and loved it, but ended up dying from complications of dementia. She was only in her 60s.

As I spoke with people at the visitation, many of them commented about how this death wasn't a sad death...that it was a mixed blessing because of her struggle with dementia for the past ten years.

And so here I sit, just thinking...these deaths are so different and yet so the same. The people are still grieving the loss of their loved one, but they also see the blessing that she is now with her Savior, and has been given a new life...she is a new creation.

I am glad to be able to be the pastor to these people, given the chance to get a glimpse into who their loved ones are, and who they are. I know I am blessed, so very blessed to be able to be a part of this place. I just hope that whenever my time comes to die, that people can find the joy that is found in this funeral this week...knowing that I too am in a better place...knowing that I too have become a new creation!

May it be the same for all of you.

And may you find ways this week, to count your blessings, because whether or not you realize them, they are abundant!

Grace and peace,
Amy <><

My first Christmas...

So I looked at my blog today, and realized that it had been FOREVER since I have written last! Crazy how that happens! December was a busy month at church, but it was wonderful as well. We had the Sunday School Christmas program on Dec. 21 which was a ton of fun, as we used puppets for some of the characters. (My favorite moments was when the 3rd Wisemen, who was a puppet was carried to the front of the church by the scruff of his neck!!)

Christmas Eve brought quite a few folks to our two different worship services. After talking to other pastors in the area, it sounds like our numbers were pretty good. so that is great. The 4:00 service was a children's service, where we talked through the story using a nativity scene. The 10:00 was more contemplative with communion. Both were a LOT of fun.

It was about -18 on Christmas Eve, so lighting the 100 luminaries was chilly, but we got it done, and it was beautiful!

Now we are getting ready for our annual meeting, and things are busy, busy, busy. I must say I am excited to go down to convocation at Luther and reconnect with old friends.

I hope you are all doing well in your ministry. If you get a chance, share your favorite part of Christmas this year!

Grace and peace to y'all!
Amy <><