Glad to Be Back!

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? (vs. 9)

It’s good to be back.  While I enjoyed my three month sabbatical and being disconnected for a while, I was ready to get back in the swing of things when I returned to the office on Tuesday afternoon.  Reconnecting with Pastor Liz, our Director of Evangelical Mission, and Ida, our bookkeeper, and the other folks I’ve seen in meetings and gatherings the past few days has felt good.  I can echo Paul’s words of gratitude for my partners in ministry in Oklahoma, Arkansas, across the Church and around the globe.  

The three months went by quickly.  My wife and I (along with our dog) spent some quality time in our RV visiting family in Arizona, seeing the Grand Canyon, driving through a bird sanctuary north of Salt Lake City, exploring Yellowstone National Park (pictured) and stopping by Custer State Park in the Black Hills.  I visited my mother, and sister in Milwaukee and my daughter in Chicago.  Then, I spent four days on a silent spiritual retreat…  I didn’t say a word out loud from Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning (those who know me well will wonder at that)!  I spent time reading, praying, and walking in the woods.  Then, I came home and wrote the book on loss, grief and nostalgia in the life of the congregation I’ve been researching for the past several years (thank-you to those Facebook friends and others who shared their feedback on the need for this book – it was very helpful!)  While writing, I took care of my wife who has been recovering from ankle surgery (and doing great).   I am thankful to God for blessing this time of renewal, reflection and creativity, and to those who covered for me while I was gone – especially Pastor Liz.  

Gratitude and thanksgiving are core teachings in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.  God’s people give thanks.  They give thanks in good times and in difficult circumstances. In the Psalms, thanksgiving and lament dance around each other continually.  At the center of their dance is the confession that God’s steadfast love endures even the worst of times and that God’s faithfulness can be trusted even when we can’t feel it.  Grateful people find it easy to love, tend to be quicker to forgive, worry less about themselves and serve more. 

This Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent, is the first Sunday of a new church year.  During this season of anticipation, we look forward with hope and expectation to the coming of Jesus.  As we begin this new telling of the story of Jesus, I would encourage you to look for reasons to be grateful.  That’s not always easy.  Scripture is pretty clear about that.  But, even if it’s just gratitude for your next breath, gratitude can be found if we look for it, and are open to it finding us.  My suggestion would be to start with the manger.

As I ease back into my work as Bishop of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod, my gratitude overflows for this ministry, for this call, and for all of you.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading! Say a prayer of thanksgiving for blessings big and small!

Choose.

John 6:56-69

“…chose this day who you will serve…”  --Joshua 24:15

A long, long time ago, someone accused me of being indecisive.  At the time, I couldn’t decide whether the person was right…  or wrong.  A few years ago, I participated in a week long Conflict Transformation course presented by the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center where we learned skills for mediating conflict and using disagreement creatively within the life of the church.  It was an excellent course and I would highly recommend it!  During that course, I learned I had a gift for seeing both sides of most issues.  That gift is useful for mediation, but is also a curse that frequently leaves one balancing in precarious indecision on barbed wire fences.   Over the years, I have learned to be more decisive, but it still doesn’t come naturally.

I am grateful that my salvation does not depend on my ability to decide, but rather, on God’s willingness to decide for me.   The story of the Bible is, at it’s heart, the story of God choosing for humanity. God chose to create us.  God chose to call Abraham and Sarah and bring a blessing from their progeny.  God chose to rescue God’s people from Egypt and bring them home from Exile.  God chose to send prophets to call the people back to faithfulness time and time again.  And, when the time was right, God chose to send God’s Son, to come among us, die for us and rise again so that we might have life and have it abundantly. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus says, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”   I rejoice that, down through time, the Father has granted humanity, and me, and you that gift again, and again and again.

But, God also gives us the ability to choose.    I have a strong belief in human agency.  That too is a gift from God.   Unfortunately, down through the ages, we human beings have frequently used that agency to choose poorly.  Sin – our estrangement from God and from one another – clouds our judgment and results in pain, suffering and sorrow; injustice and oppression, tragedy and death.   God always chooses for us.   But we always have the option of choosing against God.  When we do, bad things eventually result.

The verse from Joshua quoted above begins,  “Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve…”   In other words, you have two choices:  serve God or pick something else.   But the implication is that the “something else” never measures up.  Not even close.   Peter essentially says the same thing when Jesus asked the disciples if they are going to walk away like others have,   “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life…”  (6:68) What choice is there really? Peter says.  Joshua bases his choice on all that God has done for the Hebrew slaves in the Exodus.   Peter bases his choice on all his experiences with Jesus.   We base our choice on an empty tomb.   We are free to pick something else to base our life upon… but, as people of the Resurrection, why would we?

I can still succumb to the scourge of indecision sometimes. I have learned to embrace it as a gift – especially when I am helping people work through a conflict.  But, because I know God has chosen me, it makes it possible for me to choose God…  even on those days when my faith wavers with doubt and uncertainty.  Maybe especially on those days.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading.  This will be my last “On the Way” for a while.   Starting next week, I will be taking a three month sabbatical to do a little traveling, immerse myself in writing a book, relax and recharge.  My next “On the Way” will be for the First Sunday in Advent and will post on Friday, November 30.  Really.  It’s not that far away.   In the mean time, God bless you and keep you always! 

You Are What You Eat

John 6:51-58

“…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”  

--John 6:53

About a dozen years ago, I went to the doctor for my first physical in a long time.   After doing all the usual tests, poking, prodding, and examining, the doctor sat me down and said, “do you want to live long enough to see your daughter grow up?”  

I was shocked.  “Of course!”  

“Well, if you don’t do something to get your health under control…   you won’t.”  

It was like a slap in the face.  I was overweight, had high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and cholesterol.  By pretty much every measure, I was a total wreck.   “What can I do?”  I asked.

“For starters,”  The doctor said kindly, “you need to change your diet and start exercising.”

It’s true:  “you are what you eat” and what I was eating was killing me.  Literally.

Over the next six months, I got serious about changing my diet and started exercising.  After a year, I had lost thirty pounds, and had my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol under control.   

The doctor was shocked. “What did you do?”

I smiled.  “I just did what you said.”

He laughed.  “That’s amazing!  No one ever actually listens to me!”

You are what you eat. 

But that’s not only true of our physical selves.  It is also true of our spiritual selves.   The world offers all sorts of spiritual junk food that bloats us and doesn’t last.  Too often we stuff ourselves on things that will abandon us and ultimately let us down when the reality of death slaps us in the face.  I think that is what Jesus is trying to impress upon his listeners in this week’s text.   After Jesus feeds 5000 people with five loaves and two fish (John 6:9), the people are so impressed that they follow him around the Sea of Galilee.  But, when he sees them, he says to them,  “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” (6:26)   They wanted junk food.  Jesus was offering them so much more.

Loaves, you see, don’t last. Jesus does.

Jesus says we need to eat his flesh and blood in order to live.  This vivid language echoes the words Jesus spoke to his disciples when he shared his Last Supper with them.   Words he spoke on the night before he died for a starving world.  On the night before he offered his flesh and blood for the life of the world.    

As Christians, we need a steady diet of Jesus’ love, grace and forgiveness not only to survive, but to thrive in our lives.   These things come to us as pure gift.   But we dine on them through spiritual practices that have fed Christian faith and life down through the centuries: reading, reflecting and meditating upon God’s Word, and sharing in the sacraments of baptism and holy communion; through prayer, worship and the mutual support, encouragement and guidance of a community of faith.  Without these practices of faith, we starve.  

We are what we eat.  

So, come to the banquet! Eat and drink!  Let the Lord fill you with the food that will last…  forever.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading! 

Feeding the Deep Hunger

John 6:24-35

“I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry…”

This next week, I will be in Moshi, Tanzania for a summit between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).  We have been planning this summit for almost two years and I am excited that it is almost here (though I am not at all excited about the long plane trip!)  The purpose of the summit is to talk together about how we walk with one another in mission and ministry in the years ahead.   I think we have a lot to learn from the ELCT!  The Tanzanian Lutheran church is one of the fastest growing Lutheran bodies in the world.  They now have more members than the ELCA. 

I often get asked how congregations can get their church to grow.  Frequently, those asking the question are looking for some magic formula for attracting people to their congregation.  (There is none.) The assumption is that if they just institute the right program, or offer the right kind of music, or provide some service to lure people through the doors, or create the right ad campaign, the church will grow.  If we could just pull off a “loaves and fishes” miracle or even just put on a great pot luck, maybe the crowds would flock to us like they did to Jesus.  But, Jesus says pretty clearly that the crowds and their full bellies completely missed the point. Jesus tells the people something much deeper is going on than the signs he is performing.  

So what’s the Tanzanian’s secret?

There is no secret. In my visits with our brothers and sisters in Tanzania, I have observed that they simply have a passion for Jesus that they just can’t hold in.  They understand people’s spirit-deep hunger and offer them the nourishing food of God’s healing grace, love, compassion and forgiveness.  Their passion for Jesus and his Gospel animates their lives, their vibrant worship, and their infectious faith.   They invite.  They serve. They care.  They invite some more.  They gather around Word and Sacrament in the open country under the bushes and rough built structures and stone and concrete churches.  (The gathering place is really irrelevant).  They care for their neighbors in need, no matter who they are (Lutherans or Pentecostals or Muslims or Traditionalists). Oh, and did I say that they keep inviting people to “come and see” this Jesus who has changed their lives?  

Can we get that passionate about our faith?  About our Lord?  About the love and grace we know through him?  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I think we can.  We need to.  Because there are people all around us who are hungry, starving really, with a spirit-deep hunger.  

Jesus is still the bread of life.  He invites us to come and eat.  To taste and be satisfied.  To drink and have our deepest thirsts slaked.  That doesn’t mean life will be easy or perfect (life in Tanzania can be pretty hard). But it does mean that we will never have to face those challenges alone, and that ultimately the power of God’s abundant, eternal life will win out even over death itself.  

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Please pray for safe travels for all of us who are making the trip to the summit in the next days, and for the Spirit to bless our conversations, help us discern what is good and true and guide us as we make decisions about stepping into the future God has prepared for our two church bodies.   Thanks for reading.

Ministries of Loaves and Fishes

John 6:1-21

“…But what are they among so many people?”  – John 6:9

Here in the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod we like to say that we are a “small but scrappy synod.”  It is true, we are a small synod mostly made up of small congregations.  With just 53 congregations and ministries, we are the 4^thsmallest synod in the Evangelical Church in America.  Over 60% of our congregations have less than 50 baptized members.  All totaled, there about 7800 ELCA Lutherans in our synod.   We make up less than .01% of the population of the states where we live and serve. Small.  Yes.    Many would see that as a disadvantage.  I don’t. Though it is true that being small has its challenges.  But, time and again, God has proven very handy at using that which, by the world’s standards, doesn’t look like very much.   

God is particularly good at working with small.  God takes Abraham and Sarah and through them brings a blessing to the whole world.  God takes David, a young shepherd boy, from tending the flocks and makes him a great king.  God takes Amos, a simple tender of sycamore trees and sends him to speak truth to power.   Jesus takes twelve guys and a handful of women and changes an empire.  God doesn’t enter the world in a palace or in the form of the powerful and privileged.  God comes into the world as a baby born in a barn and redeems the world by dying as a condemned man on a cross.

I spend a lot of my time working with our smallest congregations.  Together, we talk about what God might do with exactly who they are.  We pray about how God, through the Holy Spirit, can take the five loaves and two fish they offer and do miracles with them.   Sure, they might not be able to do everything the mega-church down the block can do…  but they can still live out the Gospel and proclaim the love of God in word and deed with whatever gifts they have to offer.   And, they do.  I’ve seen our small congregations ministering to kids at a bus stop, making quilts for people in need, offering their community a place to gather for funerals and other events, serving a community meal, welcoming the homeless into their building, serving at the regional food bank, advocating for immigrants, and gathering weekly to praise and thank God around Word and Sacrament.   There is a lot of ministry going on in our scrappy little synod all the time!  Through these little communities of faith, God continues to multiply God’s grace over and over again, feeding thousands upon thousands with God’s love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. 

I think the same is true of us as individuals.   We can feel very insignificant in the face of everything that is going on in the world. Powerless.  Small.  But, God has blessed each of us as God has blessed us and daily opens up opportunities to share whatever we have and whatever we are with those around us.  Andrew thought the boy who offered his lunch was pretty insignificant.  But he offered his lunch.  That’s what mattered.  And then, Jesus did wonders with it.   I believe Jesus can do the same with us today.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

As always, thanks for reading my weekly offering of words.  What loaves and fishes do you have to offer? 

Searching for the Deserted Place

Mark 6:30-34

“Come away to a deserted place…”   -Mark 6:31

I’ve had a busy month.  July started with the ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston.  30,000+ high school youth, their adult leaders and others gathered for worship, speakers, service, experiential learning and the opportunity to mix and mingle with people from across the country and around the world.  It was an amazing, uplifting experience!  I just finished a week orienting our newest bishops. Another great experience which reminded me again that God continues to lift up gifted and diverse leaders for God’s Church.  In just sixteen days, I’ll be going to Africa to participate in a three day summit between the ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).  The ELCT is one of the fastest growing Lutheran churches on the planet.  We have a lot to learn from them!  In between all this, there is the usual round of meetings, activities, events, worship services, visits, phone calls, emails and conversations that is the daily fare of my ministry as the pastor and bishop of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod. 

“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves…” --Mark 6:31

A frantically paced life is not unusual these days.  I frequently meet people who are overwhelmed, or nearly overwhelmed with everything that is going on in their worlds.  I’m not exactly sure what ever happened to the “lazy, hazy days of summer”!  On my recent trip home from Chicago, I stopped at a “Rest Area” on the interstate and wondered at the busy-ness of the place!  Hurrying toward her car, a mother called her daughter from the playground,  “Come on! We need to get going!”   Keeping up with Facebook posts and other social media, the never-ending stream of news, the swirl of world events and the constant change can feel like we’ve been tossed into a raging river.   It seems that, often, every moment of our personal lives is filled with something: work, health concerns, bills to pay, family concerns, appointments to keep, friendships to tend, shopping to get done and on and on.

“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”  --Mark 6:31

Jesus’ invitation is a beautiful thought.  Isn’t it? To go out to a quiet place and just sit?  To escape the busy-ness, even for a minute or two?  Right.  It didn’t work for Jesus and his disciples either.  

I think the promise for us in this midst of this not-so-promising text comes in the very last line.  “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them…”   Jesus doesn’t abandon us to our busy-ness.  He steps into the fray with compassion and love and life.   He walks with us, shepherding us and teaching us and healing us, even when we cannot see or feel it clearly in the blur of our lives.  It’s true, we may not always be able to find the deserted, lonely place in our lives, but we are never deserted and we are never alone. Never.  And that’s a promise we can rest in.  Even on our busiest days.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for taking a few moments out of your busy lives to read this week’s “On the Way.”  

The Barricade Maze

Mark 6:1-13

“Shake off the dust that is on your feet…”  --Mark 6:11

It was late.  I was headed across Chicago to my hotel on the west side of the city when I came to a place marked with orange cones, flashing lights and barricades.   I turned right as the detour sign suggested.  The road split.  There was no sign so I had no idea which way to go.  I picked the right path and soon ran into another set of barricades, orange cones and flashing lights.  Cursing under my breath, I turned again and worked my way through a dimly lit neighborhood, guessing which way to go.   More cones.  I turned again and wound up right back where I started!  More grumbling.  This time around I took the left path.  Same result.  After running up against more barriers I wound up back at the beginning.  I thought I had fallen into the Twilight Zone.

In the course of his ministry, Jesus regularly ran into barriers that got in the way of his mission. In this week’s Gospel it is his own hometown crowd that can’t see past the boy they remembered running around the carpenter’s shop to believe in him.   He warns the disciples that they too would run into barriers as they continued Jesus’ work of calling people back to God and healing and freeing them from the demons that possessed them.  

Ministry is not always easy work.  (That’s an understatement.)  Barriers abound.  Sometimes those barriers come from the outside, but sometimes our own human foibles block our best intentions.  Within the life of the church, our biggest barriers often seem to be of our own making.  Fear, finances,  fatigue and fondness can keep us from stepping out in faith.   A sense of scarcity can shackle us and keep us from taking risks, and trying new things. Our fondness for the way things are can keep us from making necessary changes.  Grief and sadness over a perceived loss of the past can leave us with little energy to engage the present or step into an unknown future.  In the end, we can feel like I felt that night in Chicago: going round and round and always winding up back in the same place.

In his hometown, Jesus persevered and managed to heal a few sick people in spite of the barriers.  He suggested that, when barriers arose, the disciples should knock the dust from their rejected feet and carry on.  They did and returned to report all that they accomplished.   In the Gospel of John, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will help us work over, through, around and maybe even sometimes with the barriers that get in the way of ministry.  That promise is still ours today.

I managed to escape that barricade maze in Chicago on my third try.  Not sure exactly how.  Somewhere along the line I must have made a left instead of a right or maybe it was the other way around.   But, when I finally got back to the main street,  I breathed a huge sigh of relief and continued on my way.   That is, until a few blocks later when the next set of orange cones, flashing lights and barriers got in my way.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.  May the Spirit always guide you as you seek to do God’s work in the context of your life!