What Do We Expect?

We recently moved to a new house in a new city. The previous owners left a note that the newspaper subscription ended in about a week and we should enjoy the paper during this time. When the newspaper continued to be delivered past the end date, I decided I should call and stop the old subscription and inquire about one of our own.

When I called, I was greeted with the usual automatic voice menu but none of the choices seemed to fit my situation. I could select “accounts” but the newspaper I was receiving was not my account but the previous owners. I was expecting a choice for “New Customer” but I couldn’t find one. We often hear about how people are no longer wanting a printed newspaper or magazine as they would rather access their news and general interest articles digitally on their phone, tablet or computer. Was it just an oversight to not have an option for new customers or has the decline put the newspaper industry into maintenance mode?

I couldn’t help but make a similar analogy to the church. There are numerous articles that tell us church attendance has and is continuing to decline. I had to go no farther than today’s Opinion page to see yet another article, this time titled, “Atheism is rising in Iowa.” It has me wondering if the church has gone into maintenance mode. Are we no longer in awe or amazement at the mystery of the empty tomb? Where is the joy that Jesus Christ is risen?

The gospel reading that my congregation and many others will hear on Easter morning is Matthew’s version of the empty tomb which includes a great earthquake, the stone rolled away and an angel sitting on the stone. The angel told the women “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” Matthew 28:5-6. Jesus told them he would be raised but yet when it happened, they were surprised, it wasn’t what they expected to find at the tomb.

Have we become so accustomed to our Lenten, Holy Week and Easter traditions that we no longer expect anything new? The mystery of the empty tomb is gift of grace just as is the gift of Jesus’ birth. Sometimes we try to explain this mystery or search for ways to prove to our atheist friends and family that God truly did raise Jesus from the dead.

The mystery of faith is just that, a mystery. I don’t know why some people believe in Jesus Christ and claim him as their Lord and Savior and others do not. What I hope to do as we approach Maundy Thursday and Good Friday worship is to be present in the moment, to experience in community the magnitude of this incredible story. Then come Easter morning when we proclaim “Christ is Risen!”, maybe I will once again be in awe and amazement at this incredible gift of life out of death. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16

Peace,
Pastor Kristine Dohrmann
St. Matthew Lutheran Church
Davenport, IA

Creation Awesomeness

I've spent most of the day monitoring the weather as we've gone from a thunderstorm complete with lightening, thunder and hail to sleet and now I'm watching huge snowflakes fall while waiting for the 50 mph winds that are expected to arrive soon. We're at the point of winter when most of us are ready to see the green grass and warmer days of spring. But there is something about a snow storm that I really like. I don't know if it's the beauty and quietness of the freshly fallen snow or the fact that it makes us stop our crazy fast-paced lives for a short time. On days like this I find myself thinking about the awesomeness of God's creation.

I would have to say that I really like the four seasons. About this time of the year, I get tired of looking at the bare trees and dirty snow and before I know it, the grass is green and the trees begin to open their buds. Then it’s nice to have long warm summer days to enjoy sitting on the front porch with a glass of iced tea. By August, I find myself complaining a lot about the heat and so the cooler days of September are always welcomed. Then the beauty of the fall colors take my breath away but before you know it, the trees are once again bare and so I enjoy the first blanket of snow. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1

For some reason the last few winters I’ve noticed a lot of hawks sitting in the trees and on the road signs. Every time I see one, I’m reminded of God’s amazing creation. Just yesterday on my drive I was treated to a red-tailed hawk and a bald eagle just a mile apart. Isn't God’s creation amazing and beautiful?

The variety of God’s creation became very real to me when I taught for a couple of years in an Environmental Education program at a Lutheran church camp in North Carolina. A lot of our field trip groups were 8^th graders wanting to do the pond and stream activity to go along with their water quality unit. We would hike with groups of kids to the pond or stream and with our highly sophisticated gathering equipment (Cool Whip bowls) we would collect critters from the water, look at them, record what we found and then return them to their habitat. Some days we would find nymphs of dragonfly, stonefly, mayfly, damselfly and dobsonfly and the larva of caddisfly and cranefly. It was always fun to find a strider or two on the pond water and the whirligig beetle. And even though the kids were 8^th graders, they would still laugh when they learned that the diving beetle came to the top of the water to breath air in through what looked like their butt.

Seeing the variety of God’s creation found in the stream in just 15 minutes always left me with a moment of wonder and awe at all that God has made. And it is good, very good! I often wonder about those that don’t believe in God. How do they explain the variety, the intricate details of every living thing?

“And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. “ Genesis 1:20-23