Christmas Eve

In the Seder meal, which is the heart of the Jewish Passover, the question is asked, “ Why is this night different from all other nights?” And then through a meal unfolds the story of God freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and leading them to the Promised Land. Tonight that question fits for us. Why is this night different from all other nights? And thus begins the story that we follow throughout the rest of the Christian year of God’s saving grace for humanity. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But this year that question has another layer of meaning for us. It isn’t only Christmas Eve, the birth of our Messiah. It is Christmas Eve in a pandemic. Where illness and death have been surrounding and engulfing us. Where we are living in probably the most isolating and lonely time in our lifetime. Even in centuries. Even with the vaccine we are only starting to creep out of our holes because it is not safe yet.

So why is this night different? We have past years of exciting, magical, and awe inspiring traditions that no matter what is happening, we have felt better and lifted. But this year we can’t practice the full tradition. We can’t gather. We can’t see. We can’t hear the way we’ve always done it before.

Christmas, though, is more about hope and the future than the past and tradition. It is the first breath of God fulfilling a promise. A promise of peace, love and joy. A promise of life everlasting. For ever and ever. In time and beyond time.

So this year, for me, this question is more revealing and has more meaning in the midst of this god-awful pandemic. I am less clear and more uncertain of the future. However, God’s gift is more real, richer, fatter, more fulfilling. This year we are entering Christmas Eve more stark and empty, yet with more hope and promise. It is simply Emmanuel. God is with us! We need nothing more. It is what we have sought.

David Loar

In the midst of a pandemic

Loar’s Log
I’m confused, tired, and anxious. I want to have some great insight to pass on for times like this. I look at this screen and nothing arrives in my mind. Other than I’m confused, tired, and anxious. Maybe right now what I need (maybe you too?) is just to be honest with myself and caring of others. I feel impotent. I don’t like feeling impotent. I like to have answers and to be able to brainstorm and come up with solutions. Right now I am very limited in that. I know that I think and pray for all of you daily if not multiple times a day. Grace and peace, David

Ultimate

LOAR’S LOG

Some folks say religion and politics shouldn’t be mixed. Yet, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) especially in the prophets (e.g. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos and so on) God confronts those in power who use their power unwisely and unjustly. God challenges those in power who give a verbal tip of the hat to God, but in practice act as though God has no power over them. Jesus sought to have people give their ultimate allegiance to the Father. He preached and healed and acted as though we are all servants of God including those in power. That’s what got him in trouble and he was ultimately given the form of Roman capital punishment for political crimes…crucifixion. The Apostle Paul encouraged the early churches to pray for those in power that they would behave and act wisely. He also encouraged the church folk to give deference to those in government so that there would no chaos, but a good social order SO THAT HE AND THEY AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST COULD REVEAL WHO THE ULTIMATE POWER WAS…GOD! Notice this was not just blind faith and deference to government, but to enable the avenues for people to know the true ruler.

Every Sunday after I do the Commission from the Apostle Paul, I share this benediction, “May the peace of God, which is beyond our understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, WHO IS LORD OF ALL.”

Ultimately I don’t root for Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Independents, Socialists, etc. Ultimately I don’t root for the United State of America. Ultimately I DO root for what was claimed in my baptism and confirmed in my confirmation. GOD. In confirmation I learned the Evangelical Catechism. Later on in seminary I came to appreciate its forerunner, The Heidelberg Catechism. The first question and answer of this catechism are as follows (and is thus my statement of ultimacy, especially in times such as these): Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death? A: That I belong, both body and soul and in life and in death, not to myself, but to my faithful savior Jesus Christ, who has totally paid for all my sins with his precious blood and completely liberated me from the power of the devil, and who takes care of me so well that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, everything must work together for my salvation. Besides this, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready to live for him from now on.

Yes, religion and politics are mixed. Because they are both under the rule of God.

Sent from my iPad

9/11…2019

Today is the remembering day of those whose lives were lost in the attacks on 9/11 and many others who have died due to the residual effect of carcinogens especially among the safety forces. We remember not with hate or revenge, but with love and healing.

I have sadly had many Muslim friends who have been harassed and threatened since 9/11. I remember them as well as victims of the attack. The attackers were not Muslims. They were hate mongers who tried to cloak themselves in a mantle of a religion. There are many who use Christianity for their hate as well. As followers of Jesus we are not conformed to this world as the Apostle Paul writes, but we are transformed by the Word of God. That Word as the Gospel of John says in the beginning is the word become flesh in Jesus Christ. Thus, we are ambassadors of love, healing, reconciliation, hope and resurrection. We are not overcome by hate or vengeance. We are transformed by Jesus Christ to stand for love. Love becomes the avenue to see the outskirts of heaven which is all around us.

Are you ready – music by Pacific Gas & Electric band

Are you ready. LOL

Getting ready

My notes today on the Gospel Reading of Luke 12:32-40

Want to get to heaven.

Are you prepared for the journey to wherever it might be?

Simplify and re-center your life.

God is trying to get us to refocus our life here on earth through the teachings and the life of Jesus so that we will find the transition of life and death and ultimately to life everlasting to be far easier.

We are a culture stuck on death. We are afraid of death. We spend and posses to avoid any feeling that life has lifeless. We elect officials and use our time too often to give us the good life while God has been trying to give us the good life our whole life long. Not just our whole life long but throughout the history of humanity.

Where we are is nothing new. It’s what Jesus was dealing with when he was here on earth and what he faces as the Holy Spirit among us now. We are easily seduced by false gods that promise facades and thin veneers of the semblance of life. You can’t blame us. What they are selling and how they package it really looks good.

Unfortunately when we don’t get the high life or the life everlasting joy we seek in those products, lifestyle, politicians or whatever, we blame them. What Jesus is saying is that we are looking for the right thing in the wrong places. It’s us who keeps looking in the wrong places. So no sense in blaming ultimately any politician or any product for not living up to our expectations. God has had that experience with us for our lifetime. We haven’t lived up to God’s expectations. Which is fortunate that God is a forgiving, compassionate being. We are continually given the tools and the path to simplify and re-center. To focus and prepare on the reality of God’s realm rather than trying to gussy up the trappings of our own created realm.

Sent from my iPad

The humility of being a Christian

Beauty and wonder

Seeing this natural beauty and wonder here in Denali and hearing about the climate, species, natural history and human history, I am more charged up to see it, care for it and restore it in my own setting. We all have this wonder where we live. We have changed it though for the commodity of money and materialism rather than the gift of natural beauty and God made balanced systems. I am more committed than ever on the mission of converting my yard to habitat and food for the critters. As well as food for my family and others. I live in the city. I am doing it already including with the bees. I believe also as I am already seeing that it may not be the beauty and wonder of Denali, it is still beauteous and wonderful.

Thus ends the sermon. 😁

Not all sides are equal

“Good people on both sides.” To quote a very well known political figure. San Diego. Pittsburgh. Christchurch. Charlotte… We are beyond any point of “political compromise.” The rhetoric of false equivalency has allowed these folks to become public and spew hate…and to kill in the name of white supremacy. There are far more acts of white supremacist terrorism in the last few years in the US than of any other type. Those who justify gains for their political view while ignoring that the one they give praise for implementing their views is also enabling and encouraging these white supremacist acts, have lost the ability to reason not simply with their minds, but especially with their hearts.

Notre Dame and worship

I have heard commentators reflect on the destruction of Notre Dame in respect to it being Catholic and also in light of the struggles within Catholicism. I have never been to Notre Dame, but am aware of its historic nature and also its cultural nature. I have visited the National Cathedral in Washington numerous times, St. Patrick’s in NYC and St. John the Divine in NYC. All three magnificent structures, but for me profound settings of the worship of God.

I am often cynical about the fortune spent on church buildings and artifacts. And I will continue to be. But these settings such as Notre Dame are places of deep worship and spiritual centering. They may be seen and used more often today as scenic tourist settings, but that does not deter from the role they have played in the lives of so many in reaching out and connecting with God.

Of all the sanctuaries of church’s I have served, the one that sticks with me the most is a somewhat simplistic, beautiful sanctuary of Community United Church of Christ in St. Germain, WI which was build by its members. It fit in wonderfully with the state forest which surrounded us. It became a holy place for me.

I resist now to talk about Notre Dame in light of Catholicism. It is a sanctuary of God no matter what boundaried categories we humans have tried to use to dissect the body of Christ. Whether it is rebuilt or greatly modified or simply left as it now is, it will continue to be a place of holy sacredness for all who seek to know God as they visit that site.