WELCOME

Hello! I am Pastor Pat Harris of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Claremont NH. I welcome you to join with me in musings about the church year season, daily texts or meditations. I will share my thoughts and invite you to share yours with me as well. I look forward to sharing internet time with you, and if you are ever in the Claremont NH area, please feel free to drop in and visit in person. Our regular worship service times are Sundays at 9:30 AM

You can also visit us on the web at http://www.poplutheranchurchnh.org
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Prince of Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Be PATIENT !!#&#

Advent Day 5

First Thursday in Advent

December 1, 2011

Reading: James 5:7–8 (NRSV)

7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Theme: Be Patient!

Reflection:

In our rush, hurry and get it done now culture, the words “Be Patient!” are likely to put many in people into a slow—no make that fast—burn. In the 21st century patience is a highly underutilized talent. Baby boomers grew up with instant cereal, instant coffee and instant pudding, along with fast food, but we still depended on letters as a primary form of communication. Remember when a long distance phone call was a rarity; it was usually announced with “they’re calling LONG DISTANCE”! Our children’s children know a world of instant communications of both words and images, web-streamed movies, on-line purchasing, and electronic banking. Patience means having to wait because a company’s website is responding slowly with an overload of Black Friday purchasing.

In Advent we are called to be patient as we watch and wait for the coming of Christ. This patient watching and waiting can be interpreted on many levels. For children, the watching and waiting is the interminable December time until Christmas. We can hope that our children are watching and waiting for Jesus to be born, but undoubtedly there is at least a bit of waiting for Santa! We also watch and wait for signs of Jesus’ presence in our own lives. This requires patience and attentive watching, as we never know when we will get a glimpse of God’s Kingdom in our own lives.

As adults, we also know that we are watching and waiting for Jesus to return. This requires extremely patient, faithful waiting, as people have been waiting for two millennia for Jesus to return. When James wrote these words to the Jewish Christians during the first century, people expected Jesus to return within their lifetimes. We however, have 2000 years of perspective in realizing that Jesus may not return in our lifetimes, but then again, we can’t know the time or the place. We know Jesus will return because God has promised it, but we don’t know the when, where or how. This waiting requires much more patience than that possessed by those of us who live in this time of instant gratification.

Prayer: Patient and loving God, grant me the faith to believe and the patience to wait for the coming of your son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen


Wiping Away Tears

Advent Day 4

First Wednesday in Advent

November 30, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 25:7-8 (NRSV)

7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Theme: Wiping away tears.

Reflection:

For many people Advent is a bittersweet season. Advent calls for time to meditate and reflect on God’s promises. God’s promise in this text from Isaiah is to “swallow up death” and “wipe away tears from all faces.” In the Advent season, losses of loved ones are often particularly felt. Amid the hope, joy and anticipation of Advent, there is often an undercurrent of pain. This promise to swallow up death and wipe away tears is a powerful antidote to any sense of loss in this season.

I have read these words at many funerals in my time as a pastor. I felt, more than heard these words, as my brother-in-law read them at my mother’s funeral this past fall. In the promise of these words, I could feel my tears being dried, and I could feel God’s promise that death would be no more.

In this Advent season of watching and waiting for Jesus’ return, we have the assurance that God has made good on the promise and has indeed swallowed up death in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Advent is a season of HOPE. Because of Jesus, we have the sure and certain HOPE that our tears will indeed be wiped away.

Prayer: Good and gracious God, in this Advent season we pray for all people who feel the pain of loss. May you wipe away tears of all of us and comfort us with the promise that death will indeed be swallowed up. Amen


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Stumps and Shoots

Advent Day 3

First Tuesday in Advent

November 29, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 11:1 (NRSV)

1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

Theme: Stumps and shoots

Reflection:

I never cease to be amazed at how resilient plant life is. I have several junk trees that have grown at various places in my flower beds. If I were a better gardener, I might have pulled them out when they had weak spindly roots; however, by the time they attracted my attention, they were full fledged saplings. I have sawed at them, and my husband has hacked at the roots. But it seems that no matter what we do, there are shoots coming out of the sawed off stumps. I’ll think to myself—this time I’ve knocked that tree off. Yet the next time I look at the stump, lo and behold there is yet another green shoot emerging from the stump.

From this these words of the prophet Isaiah, it appears that God is promising that Jesse’s family line will have a resilience that resembles the junk trees in my garden. Despite the calamities that will happen to God’s people in Israel, as they are invaded by their Assyrian and Babylonian neighbors, a new leader will emerge, who will restore God’s people. Jesse’s descendents have already included the great King David (son of Jesse). Another great leader from this lineage is anticipated. This passage from Isaiah is viewed as a prophecy of a great Messiah (God’s anointed one). The Gospel writers, particularly Luke and Matthew, go to great lengths to show that Jesus is in David’s lineage, revealing that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah. From a Christian perspective, this Old Testament passage is viewed as pointing to Jesus Christ.

As I sit in this Advent time and hear these words from a prophet living 800 years before the birth of Jesus, I reflect on how much God’s people had hoped for a Messiah. They watched for the resilient shoot to emerge from the stump of God’s chosen people. We are blessed to live at a time when we know that God had made good on the promise of that shoot—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Each Advent season, we watch and wait both for Jesus’ birth and the sense of Christ’s presence in our own lives.

Prayer:

God of the promises, help me to watch and wait for your shoot to emerge in my own life. Amen

Monday, November 28, 2011

First Monday in Advent: "Here is your God"!

Advent Day 2

First Monday in Advent

Monday November 28, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 40:9 (NRSV)

9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

Theme: “Here is your God.”

Reflection:

Lift up your voice with strength and say “Here is your God.” In our US culture today, with its emphasis on separation of church and state, it is hard to say anything about God, in a public place, with strength. Very few of us have the courage to speak about our faith, or what God means to us, or how God has acted in our lives.

Yet here is the prophet Isaiah commanding the people—meaning us—to go to the top of a mountain and shout to everyone in hearing distance that God is out and about and acting in the world. In Advent, we are watching and waiting for signs of God’s presence among us. “Here is your God”—see what God is doing in your life.

During this season of Advent, as we watch and wait for God’s coming, we ask ourselves questions like: What is God doing in my life? What Good News does God daily bring into my life. How is God challenging is me?

Lift up your voice. Do not fear. Tell others how God has acted in your life. “Here is your God,” who daily makes God’s presence known to you.

Prayer: Challenging God, give me the courage to publically give witness to the good things that you have done for me. Help me to recognize that my God is in the here and now with me.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Keep Awake

Advent Day 1

Sunday November 27

First Sunday in Advent

Reading: Mark 13:35–37 (NRSV)

35 Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Theme: Keep Awake

Reflection:

What does it mean to “Keep Awake”?

Coming off the Thanksgiving holiday, the time of national overeating, and tryptophan-induced sleep from the turkey overload, we are launched into the beginning of Advent and the beginning of a new Church Year. We may be feeling a bit sluggish from Thanksgiving, but the new Church Year brings with it a sense of freshness and excitement. I know that I always look forward to the lighting the Advent wreath for the first time.

We begin Advent with a sense of energy, but how do we use this energy to “Keep Awake”? Advent is a time of preparation, preparation for the coming of our Lord. Advent means coming! The preparation requires alertness, as we watch and wait for Christ to come. We watch not just for the coming of the baby Jesus, but also for Christ’s daily appearance in our lives as baptized Christians, and even for his coming at the end of time.

One aspect of “Keeping Awake” is being purposely watchful for signs of God’s action in the world: signs that Kingdom of God is near. Another part of “Keeping Awake” is a kind of self-monitoring that looks at the ways in which we live our lives. Are we being good stewards of what God has given us—our lives, our families, our homes, our assets, our health? Are we living life, aware of the interdependence of all of God’s creatures. Yet another facet of “Keeping Awake” is our role in bringing God’s Kingdom to earth—lifting up the poor and filling the hungry with good things.

“Keep Awake” for the Kingdom of God is at hand, coming—soon but not yet!

Prayer: Good and gracious God, help me to “Keep Awake”, watching for your coming into our world and my life. Help me to see the signs that your presence is at hand. Help me to live my life under your guidance. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen