Last week, I was at the church council meeting for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Community Lutheran Church is a congregation of the ELCA. In 2023, I was nominated to serve on the church council of the ELCA.

The national (ELCA) church council operates a lot like our own church council here at CLC. We make decisions on behalf of the entire ELCA in the times between church wide assemblies.

During our last meeting we received reports and acted on some action items.

Here are a few highlights:

Bishop Eaton gave her report and reminded the church council that the ELCA is not an NGO (non-governmental organization) or a social service. We are the Church! Although we are servants, our main purpose is to share the good news of Jesus love (the Word) and share the presence of Jesus (the Sacraments) with the faithful. We need to hold to our calling and not default to being or becoming a service organization.

We heard an update from the “God’s Love Made Real Initiative” that is seeking to organize the ELCA around three guiding principles:

• We are a Welcoming Church
• We are a Thriving Church
• We are a Connected, Sustainable Church

Their work continues and will bring recommendations to the ELCA church council soon.

We also heard an update from the “Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church” that is examining the very purposes of the ELCA that are articulated in chapter 4 the church wide constitution. There are 17 purposes in that chapter of the constitution. They are being evaluated and potentially updated.

“The Budget Prioritization Committee” also reported that they are working on guidance on where financial resources should be allocated based on current and future needs of the ELCA. We expect to hear more at our next meeting.

We celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the World Hunger program and applauded their excellent work.

We reviewed the “Draft of a Social Statement on Civic Faith and Life” as well as adopted “Gun Related Violence and Trauma” as a social statement of the ELCA.

We did many other things as well, but those are the highlights. Our church (the ELCA) is working hard to be a relevant church in 2024 and beyond. I am honored to be a member of this church council and serve our larger church body.

God bless you,
Pastor Ben

Hi everyone, I am in my hotel room in Chicago, Illinois just hours away from my second church council meeting at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Just like last time (and possibly every time) the agenda is packed with lots of items. All of it important as we try to live out our faith in the world.

When I get back, I will update you on the things discussed and examined.

Last weekend, a member asked me if I ever wanted to be bishop (knowing that I was headed to this meeting). I answered that immediately with a resounding “NO!”

Every one of us has a calling or to use a fancy word: vocation. God created each of us in a certain way to pursue a career, a ministry, a hobby that brings fulfillment to our lives. Some people discover their purpose early in their adulthood and others struggle to find it their entire lives.

I am blessed to have found my vocation, my purpose, and my calling. I love being a pastor. More specifically, I love that I am serving at Community Lutheran Church. I can’t imagine a better, more fulfilling calling than that.

I am thankful that God led me to take the plunge and go to seminary back in 1994. I am thankful God orchestrated my visiting Community Lutheran Church as a student in 1996. From that moment on, my life changed. I give thanks that I got to know and then work with our founding pastor, Pastor Ray.

This idea of calling or having a purpose isn’t just for pastors. All of us have been called by God to something. I hope you know what your calling is. As I wrote before, for some it is their career but not always. It can be a ministry a hobby or a relationship! God has called some of you to be the best mentor, parent, aunt/uncle, grandparent, or friend you can be!

Remember this: And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus… Colossians 3:17a

God is leading you to something or you have already found it. Dedicate it to him!

I look forward to the meetings over the next several days. I look forward to seeing my dad after that and then coming home to you.

As I was thinking of you and contemplating being gone this weekend, these words came to mind…

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1Peter 4:8-11

God bless and see you soon,
Pastor Ben

Last Sunday we heard the story of Jesus coming to Jerusalem.

Jesus didn’t live in Jerusalem, but he spent the final week of his life in the capital city of Israel.

It was customary to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover during the time of Jesus. Passover is the primary covenant between God and his chosen people. The Passover covenant originated in Egypt when the Israelites were slaves and God set them free.

Every year since the time of Moses the people of Israel celebrate the Passover and remember God’s faithful promise to free the children of Israel from bondage.

Jesus appears to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, but he knows something else is going to happen. He even says so… multiple times.

1. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:21
   
   
2. When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief. Matthew 17:22
   
   
3. Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” Matthew 20:17-19

Jesus knew why he was going to Jerusalem and it wasn’t only to celebrate the Passover. He came to die.

In the celebration of the first Passover in Egypt (found in Exodus 12), God commanded the people to sacrifice a lamb to eat and smear the blood of the lamb on the doorposts as a sacrifice to God. Those who carried out that command were released from slavery and eventually made their way home to the Promised Land.

Jesus symbolically became the new Passover lamb. On the night of Passover, Jesus instituted Holy Communion that establishes a new covenant rooted in the blood that he will shed on the cross.

The covenant of Jesus frees us from the bondage of sin.

When Jesus died on Good Friday, his atoning sacrifice was complete and those who trust in him are forgiven and set free to be the people of God. As forgiven children of God, we can eventually make our way home to heaven where Jesus awaits our arrival.

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. Romans 3:25

At the very beginning of Jesus’ public life, John the Baptist already knew that Jesus would become a Passover lamb for those who trusted him.

The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

We are free because Jesus took on the burdens that weigh us down.

God bless you,
Pr. Ben

Long before Jesus, the nation of Israel was more of a loose confederation of tribes. There was no national government, only the 12 tribes that descended from Jacob’s sons and grandsons.

The Israelites endured slavery in Egypt until God rescued them and gave them the ten commandments and the law.

But they still struggled, like we do.

Before the time of the kings, Israel lost a battle to their coastal neighbors called the Philistines. And this is what happened…

After the Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!

They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained.  1Samuel 5:1-5

Dagon was the (false god) of the Philistines. When the ark of the covenant arrived in the temple of Dagon, something interesting happened.

The statue of Dagon tipped over during the night as if it were bowing to the God of Israel (our God).

This happened a second time and it broke the poor statues head and hands off.

Eventually the ark of the covenant was returned to Israel because the Philistines saw it as “bad luck.”

But here’s the thing, just as the Philistines added the ark of the covenant to the temple of Dagon as a spoil of war, don’t we treat God the same way at times?

That somehow, we collect God and add Jesus to all the other things going on in our lives but never make him Lord over all of our joys and all of our messes.

Casual Christianity treats Jesus like “one more thing” in an already busy schedule. There is a belief in Jesus but there is little faith about his power in their life. That being a Christian is just an identity or a label.

This story is a metaphor of how to honor God. The reminder is this: surrender all the other stuff in our lives to Jesus. All of the “Dagons” in our life should bow to the King of  kings and Lord of lords. We may not have idols made of stone and wood, but anything we put above God is an idol. This includes our egos and anything else we withhold from God.

Let me leave you with this word from God…

What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’
Isaiah 45:9

We were formed by God to be known by God and to be loved by God. Relinquish your control and let Jesus lead you and mold you into his likeness.

God bless,
Pr. Ben