Ryan Hall Ordained at Holy Spirit

What a joy it was for us to join our Bishop, Joe Burnett, to ordain our fourth intern, Ryan Hall, to the transitional diaconate on Monday, june 11th. He was presented to the bishop by the rectors of Holy Spirit in Bellevue and St Mark's on Campus in Lincoln as well as by members of Holy Trinity in Lincoln. His summer internship supervisor from the Rosebud Lakota Reservation in South Dakota, friends from seminary, and friends from all over Nebraska attended and greeted The Rev. Ryan Hall. He was presented with a beautiful signed Bible by the bishop.A reception in the undercroft included a green and white cake congratulating Ryan. The congregation later presented him with a generous check to start his discretionary fund.
I preached a sermon emphasizing what a joy it is to present and ordain such a bright committed young adult who desires to serve Christ in his church. Such moments make us realize that the body of Christ is very much alive and growing.
Alleluia!

Father's Day for God the Father

Is God the Father for you or against you?

I pray this blog post finds you embraced in the love of the Lord. He is for you! At our Wednesday Evening bible study group we unpacked the meaning of God's grace. God's grace is the free unmerited gift of his unconditional love. How often we Christians forget that God is for us! He is the source of our being loved and whole in the life. He is not distant judging and condemning us! As Paul says so eloquently, "If God is for us who can be against us!" Our advocate and best friend, Jesus Christ, has won for us a new and powerful relationship with God the Father. We,this Father's Day, get the privilege of calling God Almighty, ABBA, DADDY. God through Jesus Christ is as close as our hearts! Enjoy this free unmerited giving of being loved by God. God is for you, not against you!

We are so proud of our fourth intern, Ryan Hall. Here he is graduating on June 1st with his Master of Divinity Degree. Wow! Time flies. It is such a joy to have a part in the formation of these outstanding young adults who are seeking out ministries in our church. As Bishop Joe, Tenth Bishop of Nebraska, said at confirmations at our church May 30th, with these outstanding adults standing forward and attesting to their calls to serve our Lord, who can say the Body of Christ is dead or dying? Alleluia

Nebraska wildlife

Last week I enjoyed taking a couple of friends from church and my daughter through the Henry Doorley Wildlife Safari. Free ranging animal species surrounded our car at times. God really made the prarie an ecosystem not unlike the African Plains. Instead of wildebeast we have buffalo. In stead of African lions we had panthers, wolves and bears. I marvel at the beauty and majesty of some of God's creatures. enjoy these pictures.

Pentecost - The Wonderful Gift of the Holy Spirit

The believers had gathered and waited as Jesus had told them to as he ascended into heaven. Waiting for God to act and not knowing what one is waiting for is not easy. They in faith waited. Their faith and patience was rewarded! Waiting is hard for us modern believers.
A mighty rushing wind filled the room. Tongues of fire rested on each believer's head. Though they were from different parts of the known world and they would normally not be able to talk and understand one another, they suddenly could. They spoke each in his own tongue, but they heard and understood one another. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak the language of God's love to one another. Confused and individual believers became the united Body of Christ in that room on Pentecost. The church was born.
I pray for the Body of Christ throughout the world today. May we each wait with open hearts and minds for the Holy Spirit to rush into our lives and communities. There are so many voices and different agendas and languages bombarding our senses throughout the world these days. What a great gift to God and the entire world it would be if we believers opened our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit this Pentecost season. We just might all talk and understand one another. The language of God's love might unite us.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to be unleashed in our time. Believe and wait for Jesus to fulfill his promise.

Fruits of the Resurrection are real.

Easter VI Sunday we again hear scriptures that lift our vision to the power and grace available to us who believe in the risen Jesus Christ. In the first reading from the Book of Revelation we will here of the names of those who are written in the Lamb's Book --That is you! Not by our own merits, but by the gift given us in Jesus Christ! You are known and recorded as one of God's own! The reading from Acts shows us the great healings and deeds that Paul, a disciple twenty years after the resurrection, was powerfully able to do by faith. Wow! He healed a man sitting in Lystra who could not use his feet in fact he had never walked. When Paul told him, Stand upright on your feet. He did. Belief in Jesus Christ heals people! Still does! In our gospel lesson from JOHN we will hear Jesus" strong reassuring words, Peace I leave with you; my peace I leave with you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

Oh, do we need the peace of the lord in our lives! Pray. Talk with your love and life, Jesus, throughout each day. Even in the challenges and turmoil of each day, he wants to give you the love and peace of heaven so that you can act with grace and his love in all things. Wow! What a gift to us by his resurrection

Reflections on faith in the face of tragedy

The slaughter of thirty students and two professors on the lovely historic Virginia Tech Campus is horrific. Pray for the souls of the departed and their families and friends. God grant them his powerful loving abiding presence now and into eternal rest. Amen!

Such sudden tragic senseless loss as the slaughter at Virginia Tech is particularly sharp, painful, deep and shocking. Our very natural reaction, as God made us human, is anger, grief and wanting to blame and lash back at something or someone. Why did this happen? Who should have done something to prevent this? Why did God let this happen? Our heart felt questions spew out of our mouths, but will the answers ,if we are able to find them, really address the pain and loss? Not really. Eventually after investigations we will know more answers to these and other questions. Details will be provided. But, the stark reality of tragic, cruel senseless slaughter and loss will not change. The bottom line is that we modern men and women and youth and children are still vulnerable to the ravages of disease, death and destruction, as has been every human being since creation. Ultimately, none of us will get out of this life on earth alive!

Faith makes the difference for us that believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God loves us so much that he gives us humans free will. Made in his image we each can make choices. We can see in life and death the marks and way of Christ Jesus, or we can see in life and death a purely human struggle to control and understand it all. We may, by grace, get glimpses of understanding along the way. And, God does entrust us with stewardship and control of many parts of life and his creation. The big picture, however, is that we walk by faith. Our lives are a gift. We are blessed to belong to His Living Body which gives us the love and power to be God's people. When bad things happen, as they will in each of our lives, we have the healing power and free gift of God's Love in Christ Jesus to guide us. Eventually we time and again see that Jesus enables us to bring good even out of the bad that happens in our lives. It is the resurrection happening again and again in our midst.

Pray for the lives destroyed and trampled by the savage act of shootings at Virginia Teach. Pray for the Resurrection of lives that we know does happen through faith in Jesus Christ. As we learn more of the details and blame is passed around, continue to pray for the grace to see in our own lives where we can be agents of the New Life. Jesus has already won the victory over sin and death. We are called to live our lives in His New Life. Our lives are vulnerable in this world, but we of faith are part of the unshakable Kingdom of God. Jesus makes a huge difference! Alleluia! He is Risen Indeed!