Pastor's Messages from Prints of Peace
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There are 68 Messages in 9 pages and your are on page number 9

Summer
Looking Forward to Summer?

I have a confession to make: I am looking forward to summer. Not my holiday, that too, but just to having fewer evening engagements.

Way back when I first became a pastor and was new at everything and was spinning my wheels as fast as I could yet wasn’t always sure I was making any progress, I was looking forward to summer too. I thought that summer would be a time when things would slow down. When there would be a little more time to spend with the family, since being a pastor is not a nine to five job. It turned out I was wrong, somehow my time was taken up just the same. Something else filled the time I had otherwise spent in meetings, confirmation classes and other activities.
You know that for pastors it is no different than for the rest of us: we have to make sure we don’t think of ourselves as indispensable. To think I was indispensable would be some sort of idolatry (although I do hope that I am useful).

But it is precisely therein that lies my joy. Summer may not be as quiet as I once thought. And this is not just because of certain activities, of preparations for the fall, etc, or because of anything I do, it is because life goes on and faith does not cease. The ministry of our church continues, God does not take a summer break but continues to speak to us, to move us, to challenge us, to forgive us, heal us. Church is not a ten months activity just like our faith is not a Sunday affair.
Am I looking forward to summer? Yes, I am. The greatest joy is to see how God lets not only our gardens grow but our faith as well.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 22:12

Opinions
I know people who have very strong opinions. The way they say it is, is how it is. It makes for interesting conversation because you can really only agree or disagree. And the agreement or disagreement is usually reduced to a “yes”, or “no” - because the other person feels so strongly that this is how it is that they have little time to listen to your reasons why it may or may not be that way.

Sometimes people with such strong opinions are quite aware of this and without apologizing for it still manage to have a good sense of humour about it. Then, there are people who have strong opinions and want to convert the whole world (not to Jesus! - just to their own beliefs).

You may know that I was raised vegetarian. My mother has very strong opinions on nutrition. I remember my home pastor frequently mentioning in his sermons that healthy nutrition was no path to salvation. Every time he said this, my mother both at the church door and at lunch time would say that, of course, it wasn’t a path to salvation, but that our pastor didn’t really understand healthy nutrition anyway. She took the bait every time. Which may be why our pastor kept on saying it.

For some people realizing that others have different opinions on issues they feel strongly about is an experience that rocks their universe. To this day there are issues that I feel so strongly about that at times it gives me great difficulty seeing others not embrace my view. Why may I feel that way? Because I am passionate about life and about the Gospel, and because I want to keep others from harm. I also may feel that way because all of us use our judgement to establish certain parameters around our life that give us structure and a sense of security. Those parameters we feel questioned when we see disagreement.

Jesus wants us to be clear and decisive in our commitment to him (So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. - Revelation 3:16) But he wants us to receive all our direction, and all our sense of security from him alone. So if Jesus is our only guide, then we do not need to judge others to maintain our sense of security. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37) This may just be the hardest command to live by, because it surrenders so completely to God. Because, not judging is not about indifference (and never should be!), it is about surrendering ourselves to God.

Yours,
Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 22:10

More than history
Nikos Katzanzakis in his book on St. Francis of Assisi has St. Francis give this answer to a novice who wants a book:

"Listen, my child," he said, "each year at Easter I used to watch Christ's resurrection. All the faithful would gather around his tomb and weep, weep inconsolably, beating on the ground to make it open. And behold! In the midst of our lamentations the tombstone crumbled to pieces and Christ sprang from the earth and ascended to heaven, smiling at us and waving a white banner. There was only one year I did not see him resurrected. That year a theologian of consequence, a graduate of the University of Bologna, came to us. He mounted the pulpit in church and began to elucidate the Resurrection for hours on end. He explained and explained until our heads began to swim; and that year the tombstone did not crumble, and, I swear to you, no one saw the Resurrection."

Through the words of 'his' St. Francis character Katzanakis makes an important observation: Easter is much more than a historic event. It can, of course, be analyzed and theologized, and it probably should be. Also, there is nothig wrong with books. But Easter is about much more than knowing everything about Jesus or about the resurrection. Easter is about knowing Jesus. Because the one the grave could not contain is alive and longs to share his divine life. Jesus resurrection is to be seen, witnessed, tasted. Because, if Jesus has truly risen he is to be met. 'Proof' of the resurrection is Jesus' presence in our lives. That evidence is much much weightier than scientific proof could ever be.

St. Paul says that 'if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!' (2. Corinthians 5:17)
May God ever continue to make us new, to restore in us the likeness of God.
We give thanks to God that we share the divine life of Christ. We give thanks to God that Christ is risen. We give thanks to God that Christ lives in and among us. Alleluia. Chris is risen!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 22:08

"Father, forgive them ..."
“Father, forgive them;
for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

This verse is one of Jesus’ seven last words. It makes us speechless how an innocent man in agony of death can forgive his captors and executioners. Jesus’ forgiveness draws us in, it makes us stand at the foot of the cross not just in horror but in awe.

Traditionally we look at this word of Jesus with the eyes of those who need to be forgiven. We include ourselves with the ones Jesus prays for. Our faith tells us that we are the one whose sin is responsible for Christ’s death and suffering. Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee! ‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee; I crucified thee.’
That is a perspective that leads us to deep humility and contrition.

In a book offering meditations on Jesus’ seven last words Stanley Hauerwas asks if such view can be self-centered not because it is wrong but because instead of looking to Jesus I look at myself. And, Hauerwas continues, this would be a fatal turn, because as soon as we begin to think this is all about us, about our need for forgiveness, pathos drapes the cross, hiding from us the reality that here (on the cross) we first and formost see God.
I think what Hauerwas is trying to say is two-fold:

First, it is God’s glory that is revealed to us on the cross in the paradox of the suffering of His Son.
Second, Jesus’ pleading for forgiveness is not only a pleading for his executioners and for us. Rather, it is also a challenge to us. Imagine, if we exercised such forgiveness daily. We could do so only if God’s Spirit and forgiveness dwelt within us. But if we did, our life would not only be forgiven, but also transformed, - made new!

Give this some thought and take time this lent to read and to pray the passion of our Lord as it is told us in the Gospels.

Yours,

Pastor Christoph
Posted by Christoph Reiners on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 22:03

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