A message from our Pastor
March
Welcome to March! We begin in early stages of Lent and end with the Holiest of Weeks, at Jesus’ first Eucharistic Table and at the cross. Jesus surely died for us and for our salvation. Then … first day of next month … not an April Fool ’s joke, but God ’s fully kept promise with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. What a month, eh? And I ’ve got a gift for you this month – words from my Pastor at Our Savior in Vero Beach, Mark Bernthal. They ’re mine to and for you in these paragraphs. Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, “Let each of you look not to your own interest, but to the interest of others. In your relationships with others have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had.” One old rabbinic story shares that once there was a man who had two sons. He was a successful farmer, and when he died, he left his lands to his two sons. Over the course of time, one of the sons married a young woman and raised a family of six children. The other son remained single. The two young men farmed the land together, and everything they harvested, they divided equally. The grain was placed in two barns, one for each brother. They grew older. The land was good, and the weather kind. They prospered, and both began to plan for their old age. One night, while going over his accounts, the unmarried brother began thinking to himself, “My brother has seven other mouths to feed, and I am all alone. He will need a bigger share of the crops than I need. But he will never agree to accept a bigger share of the harvest.” He thought and thought, and finally decided what to do. Late one night, long after his brother had fallen asleep, the unmarried brother got out of bed, walked to the barn, and began carrying sacks of grain to his brother’s barn. Meanwhile the married brother was planning as well. He said to himself, “My brother and I are getting older. But I have been blessed with a wife and six children to take care of me when I am old. My brother has no one. He will need more than his share to store up against old age. But he will never agree to accept a larger share of the harvest.” And so, this brother too got up in the dead of night while his brother was asleep and went out to the barn and began carrying sacks of grain to his brother’s barn. This went on for several nights, each brother removing some of his own grain to his brother’s barn. Then one night, when the moon was full, the brothers met in the field midway between the two barns. And when they saw each other and realized what the other brother had been doing, they began to weep, dropped their sacks of grain, and embraced. The rabbis tell us that just then clouds drifted across the face of the shining moon, and it began to rain. Do you know what it was? It was the tears of God, weeping for joy. The kindness and mind of Christ attitude that is seen in so many members of this congregation also bring great joy. Remember the words of invitation to the discipline of Lent from our Ash Wednesday liturgy? I invite you, therefore, to the discipline of Lent – selfexamination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love – strengthened by the gifts of word and sacrament. Let us continue our journey through these forty days to the great Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We are all brothers and sisters in need … and sisters and brothers with plenty to share.
Blessings,
Pastor Paul Lutze