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 <><

SLOW DOWN!!! (In the Waiting...)

So I find myself today thinking that people (including myself) just really need to slow down. We have had a run of accidents (auto-related) in our church recently, and came very close to losing a couple of members. One accident happened when someone ran a stop sign, and another happened because of slippary roads.

But I couldn't help but think that both of the accidents (one of which was fatal) could have been avoided if people had just slowed down. We are going too fast in our society, and we don't even realize that by going so fast we are missing life entirely.

As we approach the Advent season, and are celebrating Thanksgiving...life all around us is already at Christmas. It is this hurry up and get through mentality that has a lot of folks depressed and despondent.

I was reading the Isaiah text for Sunday (Isaiah 64:1-9), and thinking about how we feel like Isaiah felt...that if God would tear open the heavens and come down that life would be better.

I spent a bit of this morning journalling for this first time since becoming a pastor. I just haven't been taking the time to do it. And I realize that I need to slow down too. I am adament in our church that we won't have Christmas before Christmas...the lights are not going to be turned on the tree until Christmas Eve, as a symbol that Christmas doesn't come during Advent. We need to slow down and recognize that in the waiting God is working. In the waiting we can see others and help others. In the waiting we can hear God speaking...

So my friends...I wish you peace in the waiting. Take some time this week, and in the coming weeks to appreciate Advent for what it really is...a time to wait...a time to prepare our hearts, and a time to slow down and appreciate all that God is doing-in the waiting time.

Grace and peace,
Amy <><