Pastor Dean's Blog
Fifth Week of June 2011
Devotion is not a thing that passes, that comes and goes, as it were, but it
is something habitual, fixed, permanent that extends over every instant of
life and regulates all our conduct. Douglas V. Steere
We are always glad to see people come to church or return to church for whatever reason. Over the years life change or encounters with God have at various times stimulated people to get involved for the first time or return to fellowship with other believers.
But Steere’s statement set my mind to thinking about people we have known who have been faithful and involved with the church through their entire lives. It is a natural thing that at various seasons of life people will be more attracted to the church. We all know of the common phenomenon of young folks drifting away from the church after high school and during college and then finding their way back when they get married or start a family. But why is it that some folks remain connected and involved through their entire lives?
Various thoughts and theories have been suggested over the years. Some have asserted that it is family ties that keep people connected to the church. Others have pointed to fellowship and long standing relationships with other Christians. Still others speculate that meaning, purpose, and a sense of being part of something larger than oneself is what keeps people connected to the church. Probably all these answers are correct and often they work in combination to support connection with the body of Christ.
But Steere seems to be pointing to something different, to things within the individual rather than outside the individual. He speaks of devotion and perhaps we could also use the word passion to describe a basic faith orientation.
For some of us the nature of our encounter with God was and remains so compelling that we cannot imagine existence outside the body of Christ. It is almost as if our DNA has been impacted and changed in a way that speaks to our very identity. Paul alludes to this kind of new identity in Galatians 6:15 where he describes Christ followers as “new creatures” or “new creations”.
This was what Paul himself experienced.
What is it that keeps you connected to the Church?
Fourth Week of June 2011
Senator John McCain tells a story from the time he was a prisoner in North Vietnam. One of his cell mates was a Navy officer, Lt. Commander Mike Christian. The Vietnamese had started to allow packages to be sent to the prisoners from the US. Mike had gathered bits and pieces of red and white cloth from various packages. Using a piece of bamboo he fashioned a needle and sewed an American flag on the inside of the blue pajama tops all the prisoners wore. Every night Mike would put his shirt up on the wall and all the prisoners would say the pledge of allegiance. It became a very important part of their day. One evening the guards came in during the pledge of allegiance. They tore down the flag and dragged Mike out. He was bitten for several hours and then thrown back into the cell as an example. Later that night McCain glanced over to the concrete slab on which Mike lay. Under a solitary bulb, still bloody and his face swollen beyond recognition, Mike was gathering little pieces of cloth together. He was serving as an example. He was sewing a new American flag.
We all are deeply moved by this kind of courage and devotion to country and duty. What if as Christians we lived with that same kind of courage, commitment, and devotion to duty? What if each of us was determined to stay focused on Jesus Christ and his call to mission and ministry. Let’s face it we all get beat up by the world and even by fellow parishioners at times. But what if instead of focusing on our wounds, our hurts, and the wrong we feel has been done to us we just looked past all those things toward the central calling we have all been given. I do not want to diminish or dismiss the hurts any of us have experienced, but what we so admire about a person like Mike Christian is his determination not to let those things distract him from his true devotion and allegiance. It wasn’t that he did not hurt, but rather that he did not let the hurt keep him from doing his duty. Isn’t that what Jesus did? The beatings, the humiliation, and cruelty of the cross hurt, but they did not stop him from doing what the Father had called him to do.
If we seek to be Christ-like then we will also want to act not out of pain, but out of calling. Then like Mike Christian they might try to make an example of us, but we will show them a real example.Third Week of June 2011
When George Schultz was Secretary of State under the Reagan Administration he kept a large globe in his office. When newly appointed ambassadors meet with him before their assignment, or when existing ambassadors returned home he put them through a little test. He would spin the globe and ask them to point to their country. They unerringly pointed to the countries to which they had been sent. When former Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield was appointed ambassador to Japan Schultz even put him through the test. This time, however when he spun the globe Mansfield pointed to the United States. “That’s my country,” he declared. Schultz repeated that story often noting that Mansfield was the first one to get it right. To all the ambassadors going out Schultz would say, “Never forget you’re over there in that country, but your country is the United States. You’re there to represent us. Take care of our interests and never forget it, and you’re representing the best country in the world.”
Paul got it right from the beginning too, he wrote to the Christians in Corinth, “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”(2 Corinthians 5:19-20). No matter where he was, surrounded by fellow Christians or chained in the inner dungeon of a prison, Paul never forgot that Jesus is Lord. We may live in this world, relate to its inhabitants, seek to understand how it operates, and try to communicate effectively, but the kingdom to which we belong is not of this world. It is easy to get things backward and try to accommodate our faith and the church to this world, instead of trying to convert this world to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The world we live in is right in front of our eyes and it plays a very dominant role in our day to day living. But the values of this world are not the ones that should drive and direct our lives. As Paul wrote to the Church at Rome, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”(Romans 12:2)
When your life goes into a spin and you start losing your orientation and sense of perspective---remember Jesus is your Lord.
Second Week of June 2011
I had a somewhat haunting experience quite by accident this week. An older couple stopped by the church from out of town. The man’s grandfather had been a pastor in Clear Lake in the 1880’s (that right 1880’s) and he was wondering if perhaps his grandfather had served here at Zion. He had the name of his grandfather, but not the name of the congregation he served. So we looked up the history of Zion that is recorded in our 125th anniversary directory. We did not find a reference to this man’s grandfather, but we did find mention of Rev. Schonhovd the first pastor that actually chose to live in Clear Lake in 1881 and made it possible to conduct more regular services. (From its start in 1872 up until this time Zion was one preaching point of a large parish that covered much of north Iowa and only had services once every two months.) What caught my eye was a reference to Rev. Schonhovd’s daughter Hannah the first daughter of the congregation to serve as a foreign missionary. The account reported that she served in Kurdistan, which is where I spent my sabbatical in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq (that the Kurds refer to as Kurdistan.)
The reference immediately took me back to my experiences in Iraq, but also led me to imagine what kind of experience Hannah Schonhovd must have had a hundred and 130 years earlier. At the time she was there the territory was still under the Ottoman Empire as it had been since 1533. It was not until after World War One in 1918 that the British were given a mandate over the old Ottoman Empire, divided it up, and formed modern day Iraq. The area had been a place of tribal conflict and warfare under the Ottomans so she may have experienced it as a war zone as I did. At that time there would not have been the influence of radical Islamic groups like in present day Iraq, but the culture of the area would have been thoroughly Islamic. Surely the conditions she experienced must have been much more primitive than those I encountered, which is to say Hannah must have been a pretty hardy person.
It all set my mind to thinking about the tough and determined people who have brought the gospel to so many places around the world. These are people who sacrificed greatly. Sometimes they sacrificed their own lives to bring the light and truth to people who lived in darkness. It is good in our times of trial to remember their tenacity and devotion. Many of us owe our faith to their efforts. May God bless and care for them until that day we can express our own personal thanks in the heavenly kingdom. I know I want to meet and thank Hannah---Zion’s first missionary.
First Week of June 2011[Thanks to Dick and Arlene Lashier, for providing this fascinating article from the Internet.]
We all realize that Jesus instituted Communion at the "Last Supper" in Jerusalem. Now over 2000 years later it is celebrated in every part of every continent. But did you know that 42 years ago...July 20, 1969, Communion was celebrated on the moon? That was when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin changed history by walking on the surface of the moon, and actually celebrated Communion together.
Later Aldrin wrote about the experience. He was an Elder in his church in Texas and realizing that he would be doing something unprecedented in human history wanted to mark the occasion in a special way. He thought about how special it would be to celebrate Communion on the moon. His pastor helped by consecrating Communion wafers and a small vial of wine which he took with him out of the earth's orbit and onto the moon.
After public statements back to earth the two of them privately paused on the silent surface of the moon...250,000 miles from home. Aldrin read from the Gospel of John. In his own words, he said "I took the wafer, and proceeded to pour the wine into the chalice. In the 1/6 gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled, and gracefully came up the side of the cup. I read from Scripture...’I am the vine, you are the branches...whoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit...apart from me, you can do nothing’. I had never fully realized before how true that is!
I ate the wafer and swallowed the wine, and gave ardent thanks for the spirit and intelligence that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility".
Next time you glance up at the moon on a warm summer night remember that Communion has been observed there, just as it has in Clear Lake, Iowa!
Fourth Week of May 2011
The Clear Lake Fire Department has been granted a piece of steel from the Twin Towers by the New York Port Authority. This piece of steel will be brought back to Clear Lake this week and incorporated into a Firefighter Memorial in front of the new Fire Station. More firefighters lost their lives on 9/11 than any other day in history.
Recently I heard a recording on the radio made by a woman whose husband (not a firefighter) was lost on 9/11. It was heart wrenching to hear her trembling voice as she related her last conversation with her husband. He had called her from the 105th floor and told her that he had tried to get down the stair, but that the smoke and heat was too intense. She was watching the scene on television as she talked to her husband. He was going to try again to escape, but did not know if that would be possible. They tried to say the kind of loving things to each other that you would if you knew it was your last chance. Both expressed their love and appreciation for their time together. They talked about the things for which they were grateful and what they treasured the most. The tears came to your eyes as you listened to her poignant recounting of their last conversation. Suddenly as they spoke a loud sound came across the telephone and then it went dead. She glanced up at the TV to see the tower fall. It was a painful and powerful story.
The announcer then said that this woman would not be there for the tenth anniversary of the tragedy this fall, because she herself had been killed in a plane crash. A knot formed in my throat and I thought, I hope these people were Christians. Oh, God I hope they were able to be reunited in the heavenly kingdom.
Life is filled with tragedies and terrible things. But for those of us who are Christians there is the knowledge that the worst things in life are never the last things. That despite the worst life can throw at us there will be a time of restoration and rejoicing. This does not reduce our pain or grief, but it does make a difference---a critical difference that can get us through the worst life has to offer. It undergirds us with hope.
Third Week of May 2011
Recently I was exchanging emails with a friend and team mate from my time in Iraq. It made me think about the times we took our students into the mountains. Many of them had never been in the mountains and certainly had never done any climbing or rappelling. He told the story of one young woman learning how to rappel for the first time. Most everyone finds the first time a bit daunting because you have to lean out backward over the cliff and that is just against most of your instincts. As you approach the edge you get nervous and uneasy. It feels dangerous and insecure, but you have to get over that edge if you are going to rappel. Once you try it. Rappelling is one of the most fun and exhilarating things.
He was telling the story of a Muslim student he had been introducing to Christianity. He was teaching her to rappel. She was getting ready to hang herself off a cliff 80 ft from the ground. She looked at the rope and the safety lines and leaned back in her harness; "You know," she said, "this is like faith, looking at the rope and trusting it. The more I try to keep myself safe, the more nervous I am, but when I put my weight on the rope and relax, I realize it's easy." That was her emerging understanding immature and yet untaught with Christian faith too. She was taking little steps forward toward the edge of that cliff and toward trusting God.
Her insight was right on. The two experiences are amazingly parallel. Trusting God feels just like leaning backwards over the edge of an 80 foot cliff. The more you try to follow your own instincts the scarier it gets, but as soon as you learn to lean on God you find it an exhilarating and exciting experience. Bouncing off the face of a cliff as you go down is just a lot of fun. The higher the cliff the more fun it is. It’s like you are floating. Instead of feeling insecure you have a sense of mastery and confidence.
When you learn to trust God you have a similar sense of elation and confidence. So many people fear that trusting God will lead to a sense of insecurity, but just the opposite is true.
Second Week of May 2011
The resurrection has been the central claim of the Christian faith and the focus of denial by those skeptical about bodily resurrection. It is obvious that we will not just have reanimated versions of our current bodies. We will have new bodies, and yet at the same time ones that are recognizable like was Jesus’ resurrected body.
Paul explains it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:35-53; “But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
45The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”£ But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like£ the heavenly man.
50What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.”
This new transformed and yet bodily existence is the promise of Easter.
First Week of May 2011
“One thief on the cross was saved, that none should despair, and only one, that none should presume.”
J.C. Ryle
Standing as we do this week in the shadow of the cross, but with the empty tomb in front of us the truth of what J. C. Ryle says is both prominent and apparent. The thief who repented received the same assurance as any of us who have been in the church for many years. As we recall during our Good Friday service, he did not have a chance to live even one day as a Christian, to sing a hymn, teach a child, or give an offering. Yet he received the same promise, the same forgiveness, and the same gift of grace as any of the rest of us. Some might think like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son that those of us who have served long in the church got cheated. But honestly just the reverse is true. The poor thief never had the chance to experience the blessing and benefits of living the Christian life. He never had the thrill of feeling the work of the Holy Spirit surge through him, nor the joy of seeing God work through is life and in the lives of others. He never had the chance to partner with God in His great mission and ministry. But many of us have been able to have all those experiences and more over much of our lifetime. What a privilege and blessing.
My wife Murielle’s mother Alta Jacobson was a courageous woman who served in the mission field in Africa for over 40 years. She went to Africa as a young woman all by herself, a daring thing 80 years ago when communication and transportation was much more primitive than it is today. Christianity was spread all over the world by dedicated missionaries who were willing to take risks and make sacrifices.
One of the most powerful stories is about Dr. Eleanor Chestnut. Ruth Tucker in her book, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya writes about her. She went to China as a Presbyterian missionary in 1893. She built a hospital using her own money to buy bricks and mortar. While the hospital was being built she performed surgery in her bathroom. One operation involved the amputation of a common laborer’s leg. Complications set in and skin grafts were needed to close the wound. A few days later, another doctor asked Chestnut why she was limping. “Oh, it’s nothing,” was she off hand reply. A nurse later revealed that the skin graft for the coolie’s leg came from Dr. Chestnut’s own leg, taken with only local anesthetic. During the Boxer Rebellion of 1905, Dr. Chestnut and four other missionaries were killed by a mob that stormed the hospital.
Murielle’s father also died while serving in Africa as did many missionaries. They poured out their lives for the people they served, because Jesus poured his life out for them---and all of us! During holy week we focus more acutely on the sacrifice of Christ, what it means for each of us, and how we will respond to his sacrifice. Not all are called to foreign mission service, but all of us can pour our lives out in serving others. When we ponder what Jesus did for us on the cross, how can we help but want to show our thanksgiving in lives that are also given for others?Third Week of April 2011
I miss the old westerns. I grew up watching them and remember many fondly. The family would pile into the car and go to a drive in movie. Some of you probably remember the last drive in in Mason City where Lyon is now. Of course you can’t be a fan of the old westerns and not be a fan of John Wayne, especially since he is one of our own from Iowa. Marion Mitchell Morrison was born in Winterset May 26, 1907. He died June 11, 1979. Wayne's family moved to California in 1911, where his father worked as a pharmacist. A local fireman at the station on his route to school in Glendale started calling him "Little Duke" because he never went anywhere without his huge dog, Duke. He preferred "Duke" to "Marion," and the name stuck for the rest of his life. Wayne began working at the local film studios. Silent western star Tom mix had gotten him a summer job in the prop department in exchange for football tickets. Wayne soon moved on to bit parts, and established a longtime friendship with the director who helped make him a star, John Ford
All this comes to mind because of one of my favorite quotes from John Wayne, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” Some people mistakenly take courage for fearlessness. But if you are not afraid it doesn’t take much courage to do anything. It is precisely when you are scared to death that you need courage---the will power to overcome fear and do what has to be done.
As we approach Holy Week I think of the courage of Jesus. He did not go into the week ignorant of how it would all end. He knew full well what was in store for him and yet he went ahead. He went ahead for me and for you. Even on that Palm Sunday morning when the sun was shining and the crowds were cheering he knew the cross was in front of him. He knew that if he rode that donkey down the Mount of Olives and into Jerusalem he would not get out of the city alive. Nevertheless, he saddled up anyway.
Second Week of April 2011
Back in February of 1996 Promise Keepers sponsored a conference for clergy in Atlanta. Some forty thousand pastors gathered. It was at the time and still remains the largest gathering of Christian clergy in history. I rode in a bus to Atlanta with a group of other clergy from north central Iowa. The gathering was memorable for many reasons. There was great music and great messages by some of the best known Christian leaders of the time.
I remember one talk in particular given by Joseph Garlington he was referencing Jesus’ statement in Mathews 18:28 “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” He was lamenting the fact that Christians too often fought or conflicted with each other instead of agreeing. Garlington paraphrased the verse this way, “If two or three of you will get together on anything. I’ll show up to see it myself.” This was a bit of a tongue in cheek reference to divisions in the church, but also hinted at Jesus dissatisfaction with those differences.
Why are there divisions and disagreements in the church? One reason is that we all tend to bring our own point of view or perspective to various questions. It is not surprising that we should do this because we are taught to take that approach almost everywhere in our culture. In the political realm there are differences of opinion based on economics, ethnicity, and personal preference. In other areas of our social lives the same is true, because there is no shared common standard or set of values.
But in the Christian community we do have a common shared set of values. The Bible is the basis of our faith and our life in every sense of that word. If we will focus upon and look first to the Bible it can form the basis of our like minded agreement across a whole spectrum of issues. The Bible is really the only way that we can transcend ourselves and our own personal perspective. The Bible can take us beyond and above our own limited perspective and insight to something larger and greater than ourselves. As Christians we believe the Bible came from God and was inspired by the Holy Spirit. As a result we can trust its insights above our own and have confidence that if we base our decisions on the Bible we will be reflecting the will of God.
Honestly the will and way of God as expressed in His word is the one thing that can bring us together. We can rally around His word, and we can agree to do His will. We come from different backgrounds and experiences, but the word of God can transcend those differences. It can be the basis for our unity in purpose and action.
First Week if April 2011
Recently I ran into some people from the Denver, Colorado area. Their immediate comment was how do you people find your way around? They were referring to our flat land existence. My parents lived in the Denver area for several years so I know what our visitors were talking about. While the eastern part of Colorado is as flat as Iowa , the front range of mountains which runs just west of Denver is a sharp demarker that runs from north to south through the state. If you live anywhere in the Denver area (or anywhere along the Front Range) you learn to navigate by the mountains. If they are on your left you are headed north, if they are on your right you are headed south, if they are behind….well you get the picture. The mountains stand out and stand high as a fixed reference for orienting yourself. If you have lived there a little while the mountains become so familiar you can even get a better sense of your location by orienting on particular mountains. This all works great except in very dense fog, but everybody has problems in dense fog anyway.
The basis of all navigation is really a fixed point like a mountain. Then you use direction or orientation, speed, and distance to calculate where you are, and how to get to where you want to be. That is equally true when it comes to spiritual direction. You need a fixed point from which you can orient yourself. This is why relativism just does not work if you are trying to find your way in a complex world. If everything is equal then there is no fixed point of reference. It is like my new friends were observing about our landscape---there was no point of reference above or any different from anything else.
If everyone is spiritually equal to everyone else there is no real way to measure spiritual progress or even know whether you need to grow. If all paths are equally valid then how can you possibly take a path with any confidence it will lead anywhere, much less to anywhere you want to go?
This is why the Bible is such an essential tool for spiritual life and growth. The Bible can be our one fixed point of reference in a morally ambiguous world. The teachings of the Bible have not and do not change. As we orient ourselves in relation to the Bible we discover where we are spiritually and morally and can then ask ourselves if that is where we want to be.
When we recognize the Bible as our sure and authoritative source of truth we can find our way, set our direction, and get to where we should be. Actually the Bible is an even better standard for spiritual growth then are the mountains of Colorado for regular orientation, because the Bible cuts right through the fog of moral relativism.