Verbs are Action Words (Newsletter)

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith… 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. James 2:14-18, 26

I just realized today that I haven’t posted a single thing to my blog since Easter. For some of you that doesn’t mean anything and for others, you’re screaming, “I know!” Though, in most weeks, I write sermons, litanies, commentaries, and (sometimes) book reviews, my blog remains a necessary outpost of ongoing thought and conversation. It is also the most frequent conversational intersection I have with people who are not active members of Lutheran Church of Hope. Among some of my friends, we have a phrase, “Writers write.”

You can’t call yourself something, if you’re not doing the thing that proves the title. There are a few exceptions to that rule, but on the whole, we have to backup our words with actions. Having faith in God, trusting that we are people on the Way of Christ, and giving thanks in and for the Holy Spirit is good and important. However, mere assertion of faith through words is not enough to demonstrate what we have received through God’s own grace.

Since we are decidedly not earning our salvation, we sometimes forget how much our actions matter and are essential to the life of faith. We are not convincing God to act or completing what Jesus has begun. Faithful actions- love for neighbors, care for creation, active pursuit of justice and peace- are part of a faithful life. Salvation is a one-time thing and not of our own doing. Sanctification, on the other hand, is an on-going work of the Holy Spirit.

That work, sanctification, is about shaping us. The Spirit puts opportunities in our way, people in our lives, situations in our sight, and concerns on our hearts, so that we might respond and learn what it means to trust Christ’s desires for the world and God’s plans for the kin-dom. None of the efforts to which we are drawn happen magically or through our mere words among ourselves. They require prayer, sweat, tears, and effort. We must dare to get it wrong, but dare more greatly to trust in the forgiveness that exists for us- so that we might try, try again.

Christians Christ. I do realize that “Christ” is not a verb. However, if “writers write”, Christians…? What is the verb that closes that sentence? It’s in your hands.

Religious Holidays in Anchorage

You may have read in the Anchorage Daily News about a new policy regarding certain religious holidays and the scheduling of school activities. If not, a link to the article is here . The new rules do not mean that school will be out on these new holiday inclusions, but that the Anchorage School District will avoid scheduling activities, like sporting events, on these days. The new list includes Passover, Rosh Hashanah , Yom Kippur , Eid al - Fitr and Eid al - Adha . They are added to a list which includes New Year's, Orthodox Christmas and Easter, Good Friday, Easter, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. The new holidays may be unfamiliar to some: Passover is a Jewish celebration, in the springtime, that commemorates the events in Egypt that led up to the Exodus. The name of the holiday comes specifically from the fact that the angel of death "passed over" the houses of the Israelites during the plague which killed the eldest sons of the Egyptians. Passover is a holiday

Latibule

I like words and I recently discovered Save the Words , a website which allows you to adopt words that have faded from the English lexicon and are endanger of being dropped from the Oxford English Dictionary. When you adopt a word, you agree to use it in conversation and writing in an attempt to re-introduce said word back into regular usage. It is exactly as geeky as it sounds. And I love it. A latibule is a hiding place. Use it in a sentence, please. After my son goes to bed, I pull out the good chocolate from my latibule and have a "mommy moment". The perfect latibule was just behind the northwest corner of the barn, where one had a clear view during "Kick the Can". She tucked the movie stub into an old chocolate box, her latibule for sentimental souvenirs. I like the sound of latibule, though I think I would spend more time defining it and defending myself than actually using it. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure how often I use the

When the Body of Christ is Fat

Bitmoji Julia enjoys tea Within a very short amount of time, two people whom I love were called "fat ass". One of these slurs occurred in the church building and the other occurred in the same building and within the context of worship. Both incidents were the result of a person with already impaired judgment lashing out at the person who was in front of them, perceiving them to be unhelpful or denying aid or service. Regardless of the "why", the reality is that the name was uncalled for, hurtful, and aimed to be a deep cut. The reality is that a person who is under the influence of legal or illegal substances and often displays impaired judgment can still tell that body shaming- comments about shape, appearance, or size- is a way to lash out at someone who is frustrating you. That means those words and that way of using them are deeply rooted in our culture. An additional truth is that when we, as a congregation, attempted to console and listen to those who h

Faith, Grace, and Hope

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