Thoughts From the Congregation – June 2019

Todays article is written by Ben Pechek

The Didache is an early Christian document believed to have been written by the apostles. Though it didn’t make it to the cannon, it’s still a worthworth while read. In particular, I found the first paragraph interesting.

There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there for loving those who love you? Do not the Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts. If someone strikes your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect. If someone impresses you for one mile, go with him two. If someone takes your cloak, give him also your coat. If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give to every one who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all should be given of our own blessings (free gifts). Happy is he who gives according to the commandment, for he is guiltless. Woe to him who receives; for if one receives who has need, he is guiltless; but he who receives not having need shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what. And coming into confinement, he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and he shall not escape from there until he pays back the last penny. And also concerning this, it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give.

You can see this is based on scripture.

Pro 8:36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death.

Pro 12:28 – In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death.

2 Co 7:10 – For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

1 Jo 3:14 – We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.

But for me at least the Didache provided a different way of thinking about it. Instead of looking at these verses in the context of looking inward, at what we personally love, it provides a way of looking at all of society. It divides society in two. You have people who are on the death tract, and people on the life tract. And the people on team death, have totally different rules and ways of keeping score than the people on team life.

For team death the goal is all focused inward. It’s about making things as great for yourself as possible. It’s about getting money, fame, power, admiration, and being the envy of those around you. If you play for team death, and you play well, you will receive these rewards. At least for a time.

Team life on the other hand keeps score in a very different way. You don’t put yourself at the center. You put God, and others at the center. We don’t look at the desirable things death has to offer as antithetical to our way of life. All things being equal, it’s better to be rich than poor, admired than hated, powerful than powerless. But these things don’t measure our success. Because we value others, our success is measured in service. Are we serving God, are we serving our neighbor? And we don’t serve because we get something back. We serve because we love. And our reward isn’t money or power or fame. It’s peace, joy, and contentment. And as we see from the testimony of the martyrs, this can’t be taken from us, not even by violent death.

Thinking about it this way was useful for me, because while I knew better than to try and use the rules of death over the rules of life, I realized that I still on occasion used deaths scoreboard. To be completely open about some of my insecurities, I tend to view myself as taller, smarter, and braver than most people around me. And yet if I look at my peers from high school and college, in terms of money at least many of them have surpassed me. I’d tell myself I’d had different priorities. I’m a contrarian. I didn’t want to work for big corporations. I wanted freedom! But at the end of the day it’d all sound like rationalizations, as it’s hard to match the freedom of a big fat savings account.

But meditating on the the opening paragraph of the Didache has healed that (mostly…). Envy and insecurity are only things that can happen in the rules and score board for team death. It’s only by focusing on yourself and putting yourself at the center where those things can happen. Put God at the center, and those things won’t even make sense.

 

If you have a prayer request, praise report, wish to write an article, or have anything else you’d like put into the church newsletter, send it to me so I can put it in.

Thanks

Ben Pechek

bpechek@yahoo.com

Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

Normally I write an article for the newsletter, but somehow it did not seem appropriate for today. My strengths in writing lie in reflection and criticism, but Easter is not the time for that. Christ is risen! Today we celebrate. So today I’m drawing from history, this sermon was first preached in 400 AD, and today is repeated as tradition in Eastern Orthodox churches. The following is the Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom.
-Ben Pechek

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Is there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!
Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He commends.
Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!
You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!
Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hades when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he said, “You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below.”
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?
Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

The History and Meaning of Lent

Lent is a period set apart as a preparation for Easter. The word comes from the ancient Saxon term, Leneten, meaning “spring,” and originally represented the time of the year when the daylight increases in length. Leneten was a name identified with March: the month manifesting a drawing out of the days. The number of days in this preparatory period varied during the first few centuries of the church, but finally became established as forty days, symbolizing the period during which Jesus was tempted in the wilderness just before beginning His public ministry. Since Sundays were always feast days of the resurrection, they were not included in the forty days of penitence. Thus the actual time of Lent is forty six days.

Early in church history, the Lenten era became related with penance for sins, abstinence, and self discipline.  “A lenten-faced fellow” meant one with a mournful and hungry look. The idea of giving up meat, or flesh, for forty days, before Easter developed in the middle ages when most people in Europe belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. As each day came and people felt hungry, they would murmur and complain “Why can’t I have what I want to eat?” They were then taught to remember all Jesus had forfeited as He suffered and prepared to die for them.

But when Roman Catholicism instituted a forty day fast before Easter to prepare the people for Good Friday, the feeling was, “WeII, if we have to give up eating flesh and meat, and make our bodies suffer for six weeks, Iet us gorge ourselves before we begin, and really let ourselves go.” And they did! On a day before the fast began they had a holiday, eating and drinking to the full, and called it “The Day of the Carnival” (and in more modern times it became known as “Mardi Gras” and “Fat Tuesday”)–the day of farewell to the flesh. But even in the middle of Lent there were those who took a day off from their fasting and had a good feast to help them through the weeks of discipline. When the fast period was over the attitude was, “O flesh, welcome!” and the people over-indulged.

In early centuries Lent was a time of preparation for baptism. Those who desired to become Christians were involved in an educational preparation in the meaning of the Christian faith. Baptism itself took place on Easter Eve. Those already Christians shared in this preparation by deepening their awareness of the meaning of faith and by actions that would make them more ready to take part in the events of Holy week and Easter.

Lent became a time for thinking of their sinfulness, of seeking a deeper level of repentance of trying with God’s help to reach a new intensity of Christian living. They came to Holy week with an awareness of the necessity for God’s action in order that man could be redeemed. Aware of sin, they were also able to rejoice deeply in the deliverance from sin made sure in the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord.

Sometimes the deeper meaning of Lent has become lost today in petty things such as the “giving up” of habits that some people fully intend to resume after Easter. Such attempts to prove that one can go without certain things can be both temporary and negative. Lent, however, should not be a season of giving up something, but rather a taking on of something, or Someone. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). Spiritual discipline and devotion form the most effective preparation for Easter, and not the surrender of material things. Sacrificial service, daily death to selfishness, the yearning for a deeper spiritual experience should be our aim not only during Lent but at all times. Is this not what Jesus meant when He spoke about a corn of wheat falling in the ground and dying (John 12:24)? This mystic word on self-crucifixion occurs in His last public discourse before His death, and was directed against the Greeks for their pride in self gratification, self preservation and self culture. So when Jesus stood and called for self renunciation to substitute for self culture, to self sacrifice supplant self gratification, He reversed the whole outlook, thought and conduct of the Greeks and urged them to accept a concept of life and living diametrically opposed to the thought of centuries.

The burden of our Lord’s message to His own was that the only way both He and they could bring blessing to others was by the way of the grave in which selfish interests were buried. Voices cry “’Feast,” “Enjoy,” “Each for self,” but Christ calls us to renounce self and find true joy in sacrifice; that by dying we live, giving we get, losing our life we find it; that gain comes from loss, victory through suffering, life out of death; that self preservation results in isolation from the needs of the world; that only from buried seed can there come a harvest.

Often a mother faces near death that a child might be born. Parents are willing to die to many legitimate possessions and pleasures in order to give children opportunities of education and advancement in the world. How majestic is the cross with its exhibition of the self sacrificing of love! Lifted up in agony and shame, Christ now draws all men unto Himself. Is it not also true that the measure of our drawing power in a world of sin corresponds to the measure of our self emptiness? When with Paul we can say, “I Live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:2O), then possessed by and for Him we experience what it is to function as fruitful branches of the Vine. Is this not the blessed truth George Matheson has taught us to sing in the following lines?

O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust lifers glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms

Red

Life that shall endless be.

This, then is the true spiritual significance of lent – the decision to die to self that we might be a blessing to others.

SOURCE: All the Holy Days and Holidays by Dr. Herbert Lockyer; Copyright 1968 by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan; pp: 51, 52, 56

An Introduction  Theological Wordbook by Iris V. and. Kendig Brubaker Cully; Copyright 1962 by The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107; pp. 111, 112.

May you all have a most blessed Holy Week and Easter to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!

    In His Love,

    Gary Lee Luoma

Christian Garmin

I make no claims whatsoever to be tech savy. In fact some would call me ignorant .The other day Joan and I had an experience with our new electronic Atlas. Trying to find the VA Hospital in Minneapolis MN.

After several failed attempts to secure the correct address I tossed the device in the back seat and we went trusting  on our memory. As the traffic got heavier and the speed faster I grabbed the little menace and once more tired  to get it to work. By the grace of God the map popped up on the little screen and off we went praising God for His Favor!

How often do we , in our walk with God act the same way it’s easy to become frustrated trying to find somewhere or something or someone you don’t know very well. After several failures the temptation is always to give up, give in, go it on our own, in Psalm 80 KJV “to turn us O God” is repeated 3 times. Repent = to turn in the opposite direction. How often we are heading in the wrong direction of God’s will! Let’s make Psalm 80 Our personal prayer for February asking God to direct our thinking +our living ask Him to show us where we are heading in the wrong direction.It should give us great hope the <Lord God> or creator / sustainer / King of the Universe is in the drivers seat of our lives! We just watch with wonder and praise when we arrive at the destination He has Chosen for His Children .

 

Selah < stop and think about it >

 

Pastor Dan

Who we are

As a congregation of the AFLC, we accept and believe in the Holy Bible as the complete written Word of God, preserved for us by the Holy Spirit for our salvation and instruction.
We bear witness that the Bible is our only authentic and infallible source of God’s revelation to us and all men, and that it is the only inerrant and completely adequate source and norm of Christian doctrine and life. We hold that the Bible, as a whole and in all its parts, is the Word of God under all circumstances regardless of man’s attitude.

Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. — 2 Timothy 4:2