Welcome from Pastor Patrick Curley

"Real Christmas"      

                So it's Christmas.  Are you sure?  There isn't any snow to clue us in like in some parts of the world.  Christmas decorations have been up at malls and on city streets for some time now.  Maybe Christmas has passed and nobody's taken things down yet or maybe they're getting a really big jump on next year? Could be.  They do have the limited edition Oreo's covered in the white fudge only available around Christmas so there is that to help hone our yuletide senses.  Then, of course, is the calendar but the number "25" probably is lost in all the scribbling of busy activities planned throughout your December.

                I remember taking the tour at Universal Studios some time ago and they were demonstrating how Hollywood made fake snow.  It could be anything from confetti and soap flakes to certain kinds of polymers blown through special machines to create really convincing white stuff.  They could film a Christmas scene in the middle of an August heat wave if they wanted.  This was purely artificial snow, not the kind they make on ski runs by blowing real water when the temperatures drop enough to freeze water.  With such technologies, how can anyone trust what time of the year it is?  Don't despair, though.  There is another way to know that it's Christmas, real Christmas, snow or not.  It's by paying attention to the Church's calendar.

                Long ago the Church knew that Christians would have to keep their own time or have the precious events of our faith lost in the frenzy of secular and civic activities.  Days and seasons of the Church's own that reflected the events of our Lord's life would have to be selected or risk being lost or blurred by other things going on in the world.  One such event that is, without saying, very important is our Savior's birth set aside on the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year.  To mark it's coming, the Church counts down for four weeks with two blue candles, a pink one, then another blue until the center white Christ candle is lit.  Merry Christmas!  Can't miss it and it's very specifically timed to exactly celebrate Jesus' birth, the Incarnation of God to save sinful mankind (that and baby Jesus shows up in the nativity scene but it's hard to see that from the back pew).

                Why is it important?  Why don't we just observe Christmas, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost all at once and just get them out of the way or schedule them when they are more convenient to what's written on our iPhones? Precisely because they are not events to just get out of the way or rush through.  The calendar of the Church's worship life is meant to keep us steadfast in faith and growing in devotion throughout the year.  They give believers an opportunity to understand and draw near to Christ through the Gospel.  They are too important to rely on the weather or the secular calendar to inform us of their coming.  We'll do that ourselves, thank you.

                I'm for keeping Christmas real.  Hope you'll join me when it really comes or worship baby Jesus where you're headed.  Watch the candles if you get lost.  I believe this will help us keep the Gospel real, too, by putting our Lord's schedule ahead of our own.  So Happy Advent and Merry Christmas everyone! 

Fixing America and the Universe

                Penn Jillette, of the Penn and Teller magic and comedy duo, recently wrote an editorial about the unhealthy merger of politics and Evangelical Christianity since the 70's (Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion was the starting point of this Christian usurping of the American political scene, he says).  He's an atheist.  He thinks many politicians pander to the Christian right just to get elected but don't have any true personal convictions on doctrinal or even moral truths.  The point's been made by others.  This supposed hypocrisy isn't just being called unchristian, an interesting indictment from an atheist, but as un-American, too.  Like I said, all said before.  But who knows the true heart of man but God alone?

                What I really want to talk about, though, is how many in the atheistic community (grown from 2% to 8% nationally in recent years according to Jillette) equate their denial of God's existence with the behavior of God's people.  Having completed a Bible study on a Christian response to atheism this summer, we learned that many of atheists' objections to Christianity are due to the shenanigans of those who say they follow Christ. That's unfortunately true sometimes and a cheap shot other times.  Then, too, is the ever popular "how can a good God allow suffering" protest that presumes definitions of justice and fairness as well as having a shallow understanding of love and how great our God really is who can bring ultimate good from our suffering.  Don't forget freewill and human choice in that question either.  In the end, a lot of Jillette and others' protests about God and His Church really comes down to the question why isn't God fixing things faster if He's God?  Why is the world that God is supposed to have made in such a mess?  Fair question.  The Bible asks it, too. And God's answer is given.

                The Bible's answer to the problem of sin is much bigger than if we allow prayer back in American schools or keep "in God we trust" on our money.  God's not interested in putting a new coat of paint on a faulty substructure.  The only way to really and truly fix this universe gone bad is to start over with a new one.  But we aren't just talking about rocks, trees, oceans and asteroids, are we? We're talking about people created in God's image that God suffered and died to redeem for eternity.  Because of us, God just can't wipe the slate clean.  He's a loving God as well as an all-powerful one.  So God is waiting to destroy this world and usher in the glorious new heavens and earth.  He's stalling the Judgment Day so that mankind will decide they want to be with Him in His new universe.  He won't drag them there kicking and screaming.  They'll have to want to go and this, in turn, is based upon faith in the means that God has appointed to bring them.  Jesus' cross.  Forgiveness. Grace. 

                God will end suffering on earth one day.  He will right what is wrong.  Paradise awaits those who believe.  He's just waiting so that there will be more believers than not.  Faith can take time for some.  Thankfully for them, God is patient.  As we recognize the return of Christ and the Judgment Day in our worship this month, bear this grace in mind and be thankful for it!  Come soon, Lord Jesus!

"The Power of Punctuation"                                                                         

                "Conjunction junction, what's my function?"  Remember that one.  Grammar rock... what a gift to modern learning.  Well, not so modern any more but those tunes stuck with me.  If nothing else, those little Saturday morning cartoons about the English language impressed me with the truth that grammar and words have life.  And they can have power, too.  Look at what an exclamation mark can do.  It makes a sentence explode!

                But it isn't all titillation.  Sometimes grammar is necessary just for clarifying meaning.  Take punctuation marks for example.  Where would we be without the comma, period, semicolon or question mark?  It'd be chaos.  We wouldn't know where one thought ended and another began.  Ideas would be lost in the haze of melding letters.  Numbers wouldn't fare any better.  911 would just be a big number; 89 less than a thousand.  316, too.  Even putting "John" in front of it wouldn't necessarily help us understand. 

                911 with a dash between the first two digits, though, means something almost sacred to Americans.  9-11.  It then means September 11th, the infamous day of the terrorist attack on America that set off two Gulf Wars and a campaign in Afghanistan not to mention one of the biggest manhunts in human history (a successfully concluded one I might add).  And 316 with a colon between the first two digits and that word "John", it can offer the greatest comfort that ever could be to all people everywhere.  It then means that God sent His only Son to be the world's Savior from sin and death.  A colon makes that clear.

                They say that the devil's in the details but I think God is too.  Certain ones anyway.  "I tell you, Today you will be with me in Paradise" is different than "I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise."  Oh what a comma can do!  It clarifies when we are in Paradise.  The why, however, is because of that 3:16.  God came in Christ to die for the sins of the world.  Oh... sorry...!!!  That's great news demanding an exclamation mark or three!

                In this fast paced world of ours, punctuation marks are even being used to abbreviate certain words or even phrases.  There is the ever popular :) that means you smile at a thought and pleasantly agree.  Or the opposite :( is out there, too.  In time these could evolve into a new script for a new language.  Maybe a silent one where no one talks but just texts?  I hope not.  I'd miss the beauty of words and of a well constructed sentence that is made clearer by proper punctuation.  Indeed, because of 3:16, 9-11 needn't be so sad. Thank you Jesus! :)

"Staking Mission Claims"                             

                In a few days fifty of us, or so, will again head off to Pt. Mugu on PCH to camp out at Sycamore Canyon Campgrounds.  We have a section strategically set between two bathrooms and close to the beach that we like and so for three or four days in August will become the Lutheran Section.  We plant our flag, of sorts, to make it official.  It's a fact that if enough people gather in one place and put out something that says "we're here" it becomes theirs.  Dogs and lions mark their territory with their own intimate brand of enthusiasm but that won't work among civilized Christians.  We just hang a banner that says "St. John".  The effect is still the same and we don't risk jail time in the process. 

                Minors stake a claim on a gold mine by hanging their hat on a shovel.  The moon belongs to the U.S.A. because we placed our flag there.  Covina belongs to St. John because we have a plaque in our parking lot that says so.  We marked our "X" on Covina soil, Ground Zero, during a service on July 4th, 2004.  Too bad nobody else thought of it first.  Now the city is ours!  So what else can we write our name on and claim for the glory of God?  Isn't that what mission work is all about?

                It's too bad but I think that all the real estate is already spoken for.  I mean, just look at the graffiti everywhere let alone the flags that are waving all around the world.  We'd have to stow away on the next rocket ship to Mars to have a shot at something new.  But don't start hording your Tang just yet.  We don't have to go to outer space to mark new territory for Jesus.  It's all already His.  Every star and planet, every mountain, river and rock.  But more to the point, mission work isn't about planting a flag for Jesus; it's about planting the Church.  We don't have to "go" to make disciples.  We can "stay" and make disciples, too.  That's good for us Lutherans whose motto is "Here I Stand". 

                Our pretty parking lot plaque notwithstanding, we've already claimed Covina for Jesus because 100 years and two months ago St. John Lutheran Church was started here.  From the Mauer House to 3rd and Dexter St. to 302 E. Covina Blvd, St. John has been Christ's voice to speak the Good News of Jesus' love to Covina.  And in fairness, that's a work we share with others albeit in our own unique way.  Rather than planting a flag saying "we were here first" we'd rather lift high a cross, Jesus' cross.    Mission can't be about gaining credit or territory but about reaching others with the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It's an invitation for all to join the family that is Jesus' Church.

                St. John's mission arm will stretch in August to just south of Oxnard at Pt. Mugu.  Who knows where it will stretch in this coming year also?  Hopefully, just across the street to your neighbor, too.  Just don't write your name or St. John's on their door.  Your love and friendship working with God's promises will be enough to claim them for Christ.