Former Yankee catcher Yogi Berra is known for his ability to mix words in such a way as to make a new sort of sense out of nonsense. He said, "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore." He also said, "If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em" and "when you come the fork in the road, take it."

A couple of weeks ago a major league pitcher came within an out of a perfect game (that is, not one opposing player reached base). The 27^th batter hit a soft grounder that appeared to everyone watching to be the final out to make history. "Safe," shouted the umpire. Even though television showed a clear out, and even though the ump, after seeing the replays, admitted he made the wrong call, the "safe" call stood and the perfect game was lost.

As you would guess, the sports channel screamers had a field day. Even non-sports opinionators hollered in their columns and blogs about this travesty of justice. Why not overturn the ruling? Replays should be a part of baseball just like in other major sports was the comment heard around the diamond.

At least one writer with a cooler head produced a saying from Yogi. The writer made it fit into the context of the blown call, and I want to extend it to life in general. The quote is this: "If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be."

I recall a professor once suggesting that God purposely placed in the Garden of Eden the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The prof hinted that imperfection was part of the plan. In other words, for the world to be a perfect as God wanted it, the world had to be imperfect. Human life, in order to be truly human and unique, required that we have the ability to make decisions, even wrong ones. Life means working through things that are going wrong, making things better, arguing over the best way to do this or that, and dealing with discomfort and pain. Indeed, if the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.

I think of this quote and that professor whenever I start to thinking that God would like us all to behave the same way, believe the same way, think the same way, and carry out our ethics and morals the same way. I usually get like that when the schedule gets busy or some crisis looms at hand. Then I realize how uneventfully dull life would be if every human was identical. And I also lean on this understanding when bad things happen. Whether natural disaster of human created disaster, it is all part of life that finds its perfection in imperfection. Pain, disappointment, grief, and loss belong to life. Life would not be life if it were perfect.

The one thing that can unite us is love, the ability to love in such a way that we can overcome our differences. Christ is the epitome of that love, and that, I believe, is our witness. Christ has shown us the way of love that can allow us to live together in our differences.

Be a witness of Christ’s love.

Pastor B.

Even while I hope people regularly read this weekly blog, I have to admit that there are few, if any, blogs that make it into my routine. Yet, sometimes I trip into other clergy blogs for one reason or another.

Last week I read a blog from a Lutheran pastor explaining his sermon (Note: if you have to explain it on Monday you should rethink it on Saturday). He preached on the Old Testament lesson in which the prophet Nathan slams King David for the Bathsheba affair. As you may recall, the punishment will be the death of the child which resulted from the tryst.

The pastor went on about David’s honesty in the face of the truth and about David finding favor for facing up to his mistakes even though consequences had to result.

As I read that, I wondered if I had run into an 19^th century Bible commentary. Fact is, although it’s all nice and everything that Jesse’ youngest son got on well with the Creator, two innocent victims are ignored by the text and the blogging pastor.

The child, the innocent infant child, does die. This next-in-line-to-be-king child is denied life because he comes from an adulterous relationship. Not his fault. Not his sin. Yet, his death. Neither fair nor just in my book.

Bathsheba likewise is an innocent (the prophet likens her to a lamb). By today’s standards we would call the king’s indiscretion rape. In ancient monarchies, when the king demands something there is no denying allowed. All that happened to Bathsheba was beyond her control, yet she loses a first born son and a husband. (Note: I should add Uriah as the third innocent victim).

We need to be reminded from time to time that the Old Testament witnesses differently than the New Testament. As we’ve been exploring the abundant, extraordinary, revolutionary love of Jesus, we’ve seen the Lord change the emphasis away from privilege and power. Jesus over and over again turns God’s love toward the innocent victims of our world. In our Christian faith, sin does not require a sacred consequence. The innocent one, Jesus, has already paid the debt.

Pastor B

It's Vacation Bible School Week.  For those of us over 50 or 55, we can remember when Bible School was the only thing scheduled in the summer.  My home church had a two week Bible School.  It's where I learned Jesus Loves Me.  It was also a time for "housewives" to busy themselves with the work of the church for a couple of weeks.  When VBS was done, the rest of the summer was pretty much outside playing until the inevitable call to come it and get cleaned up.

Today the time pressures on our kids (and, therefore, on their parents) resembles the fast paced world of a trader on the stock exchange.  Kids have their own calendars to keep.  Camps, summer school, sports tournaments, and a myriad of offerings entice kids to activities to fill their summer's extra time.  In the church, we've seen the drop off in VBS attendance over the years.

Yet, when the church focuses the message of God's love into one week, some wonderful things happen.  We learn new music, see new faces, and find a oncentrated effort that can more deeply etch memories of God's grace onto young minds.  It is a marvelous week.  A grace filled week. A blessed week.

God looks upon our morning gatherings with a special smile.  A few kids cried this morning at the newness of it all, but they will come around eventually to bask in the glow of Jesus.  a few of the 4th graders think VBS is for kids and outwardly scorn being here.  But they learn something about God even through their tough outer layer.

I love Bible School.  I always have.  To spend a week with such intentional Christian education lightens my heart.  To see exuberant young lives sing and dance for the Lord reminds me of the seeds of faith we are planting.  When these kids get older, they will tell stories about their Bible School experience.

Pray for us all this week.  Pray for our young people to receive the seed of good news, and pray that it will grow as they lead Christ's mission in years to come.

Pastor B.

A few blogs back I took the opportunity to consider the final words of Jesus in the gospels. I started with Matthew as you would think since that is the first in the series of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So today I’ll take on Mark.

The Gospel of Mark presents some interesting challenges when it comes to finding the final words of Jesus. Remember, we are searching for these words because we are following the idea that final words as recorded by biographers often carry a unique importance. In Mark, it is not all that easy to find the final words.

Go ahead, open your Bible to Mark 16. In this first eight verses you will find the resurrection story in a form relatively the same as it is in other places. The problem arrives with a whole extra section added on to the verse in what many Bibles title "The Shorter Ending of Mark". Then there is another section of verses 9 to 20. If you read your way through the footnotes, it gets even more complicated.

Personally, I like to think that Mark ends with verse 8. To my senses, the endings just don’t seem to sound or read like the rest of Mark. So that leaves us with a very short and not very satisfying ending, doesn’t it. In fact, for the purposes of these musings, there are no final words of Jesus to contemplate. Maybe we should quit here and move on to Luke.

Or, maybe we shouldn’t. The final spoken words in the Gospel of Mark issue from the mouth of an angel. Here’s the important part for our purposes: "But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."

You might be asking yourself at this point, "So what?"

Good question to ask, and the answer lies in Galilee. No, you do not have to make a pilgrimage to Israel in order to find Jesus or hear some final words. "Galilee" in the Gospel of Mark is the place where Jesus does ministry. Galilee is the place where he heals, teaches, and performs miracles. The empty tomb outside the walls of Jerusalem are Sunday morning. Galilee is Monday through Saturday.

You may still have "So what?" plastered to you lips. If so, I completely understand. So here’s the point where I hope the "So what?" morphs to "I see."

We hear the Lord speak to us in the daily work we do for him. We hear the Lord in good works. We hear the Lord by living his way and will. We hear the Lord in our ministries. We hear the Lord speak through our walking wet from the water of Baptism.

In other words, the final words of Jesus are still being spoken. Jesus is a living Lord, and we are the hands and voice he uses in the world. Speak. Listen. The voice of the Lord is now.

Pastor B.