The Joy of Summer

Well, my friends, May’s gray days are slowly moving out of the way. Hopefully! There were long stretches of days that were gray and cooler than I might enjoy in the season of Spring. With the arrival of seventy degrees, sitting outside during the workday or in the evening for dinner is as close to heaven on earth as we might find ourselves until we set foot in the Kingdom of God.

Today, on the campus of Ascension, the sun is shining. It is beautiful. The leaves move just enough to tell us a breeze is blowing. The Memorial Gardens, flowerbeds, and butterfly garden are alive with blossoms and fresh, tender green leaves. I am grateful for countless hands with dirt under their fingernails that have tended our garden beds and renewed this house of God in spectacular ways as a sign of hope within the community of Waukesha. We give thanks to God for the countless hours that many of you have offered to bless this house of worship with grounds that give glory to God.

Although our regular ministry programming slows down in the summer months, it is always a good time to enjoy the gift of God’s creation. Our 10:45am service moves to 10:00am and is outside in the Memorial Gardens behind the church on June 1st, 15th, and 29th. The Praise Band provides the music and we still do all the things – music, prayer, children’s time, reading, sermon, and communion. It is BYOC (bring your own chair) and the new sidewalk all the way through the Memorial Garden will allow those of us with mobility issues an easier opportunity to share in a community of worship.

On Sunday, June 8, we will celebrate the season of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence among us. We will also participate in the ritual of toweling for our graduating seniors. Prayers will be prayed as we wrap a towel around the shoulders of each graduating senior. The towel is a symbol of service reminding us of how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples at the last supper. John writes in chapter13, verse 14: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” It is a helpful reminder for all of God’s people that we are called to serve our neighbor.

JOLT leaves for Adventure Camp in the Wisconsin Dells area on Monday, June 16th for three days of adventure and “challenge by choice.” Your prayers are appreciated. The goal is to show up all the junior high students by still climbing to the top of the mountain cliff. I only need to do it once and then all is right with the world for another year. 

In other news, I want to take a moment to say thank you for your generosity as we have raised all the funds needed for both the Memorial Gardens sidewalk and the new six-foot grand piano to help lead worship and ministry in East Hall for both our lively Spanish language ministry and other moments of mission and fellowship to the glory of God.

Finally, let me share with you the joy of summer worship at Ascension. Life continues to happen, and I wonder how you might consider giving thanks to God for the blessings you enjoy – family, friends, lakes, pools, sprinklers, and time to refresh? How will you ask God to tend the challenges in your life that we all face at one time or another? Certainly, your prayers can be spoken on the trail, in the kayak, on the airplane, and at the cabin. Yet, I would invite you to consider finding your way to church. In the summer, worship rhythms move and shape themselves in different ways. For the summer, we plan to return to kneeling at the communion railing to receive bread and wine knowing all too well that some of us have knees that do not bend like they used to. You will be invited to kneel or stand to receive as you are comfortable. The railing offers a different invitation as we come to the table. Still, the welcome is the same: from God, for all, always.

People of God be blessed, be well, be hopeful – the promise of God is alive and well at Ascension.

See you in church.

Pastor Chris

Season of Resurrection

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Welcome to the season of resurrection joy. Unimaginable!

Around the middle of the season of Lent, someone asked what day it was and Vicki Taylor, our Director of Music Ministries said, “It is the 294th day of Lent.” There are days it feels like Lent, with its less than joyful nature and lack of energy, lasts far longer than the 40 days that collect between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day (not counting Sundays).

The words of Mark 16:6 share with us the great joy of Easter. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. Thanks be to God!

“The good news of Easter,” writes Trevor Hudson, “reminds us that God’s action in raising Jesus is the bottom line of our faith. On the third day, after his crucifixion, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of Jesus and Salome find Jesus’ tomb empty. The love that Jesus proclaims – the love he lives and the love he is – is not defeated by the powers of evil and death. This is breathtakingly good news. No faith could be more tragic, no belief more futile than Christianity without its risen Lord. It would be sad and foolish to base our lives on a dead hero. The strongest evidence for the resurrection is the transformed lives of Jesus’ disciples. How else do we explain the sudden transformation that took place in their lives? Within days those frightened and grieving disciples are transformed into bold and courageous witnesses willing to die for their faith. Something most extraordinary must have taken place for this to have happened. The One whom they follow is raised from the grave, and they encounter him in a way that convinces them he is now living beyond crucifixion.”

The resurrection means much for our lives today. Jesus is present with us as a friend who walks by our side. He can support us in our struggle with the forces of evil, sin and death. We too can experience “little Easters” in the midst of those things that makes us “die” each day – the betrayal of a friend, the failure of a dream, the death of someone we love. What is the prayer we pray every-so-often in church? Holy God, reveal your resurrection joy to us. Amen. Easter reminds us that the risen Jesus always can bring life where we see only death. We are always and ever an Easter people living in a Good Friday world. This is good news. The risen Jesus is with us. He continues to make available another kind of life to anyone and everyone. He has promised that all those who seek will find. This is the good news of our risen Lord Jesus.

Dear friends, it is Easter. Finally! Again we can shout words of praise, words of light into the blinding shadows of this world in these days. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

It is enough. It is all we need. Easter has come. The grave is empty. The victory is ours! Thanks be to God!

See you in church!

Pastor Chris

Month of Love

It is the month of love. Or at least that is what the Hallmark Card Company would like us to believe. The Bible uses the word “love” A LOT. I mean A LOT. The word “love” often gets overused and underappreciated for the moments and meaning we often want to convey to someone else. 

Bible verses like 1st Corinthians 16:14 is a helpful verse for me. Paul writes: “Let all that you do be done in love.” 1st Corinthians 13:4-7, also authored by Paul, is worth mentioning as well. Again, Paul writes: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” And finally, Colossians 3:12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” What I appreciate about these Bible verses is that the word “love” is not simply a word, but it is an action offered with specific examples about how we live out that love in the world. Patience, kindness, compassion, humility, gentleness, selflessness are all attributes – actions – that define and exemplify love as we live out our faith each day.

There is no shortage of need or opportunity to share the love of God in both our words and through our actions. I wonder what opportunities God is preparing for you in the next month. Lutheran Pastor and Author Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.” You might know that phrase a little differently. In my world Bonhoffer’s words sound more like this: “There are no interruptions, there are only invitations.” I am grateful to Bonhoffer for the reminder. For each of us, the days are full. I have heard even the “retired” among us can have days that are full. When we find ourselves busy, even overwhelmed by the events on our schedule, it is easy for us to believe that our time is too precious to be interrupted by the text message, the phone call, the request of a family member or friend let alone a stranger. Yet, God may be interrupting your day to invite you to consider how you might show the very same love God has shown you to someone else. A few minutes of conversation might bring peace to someone’s anxiety. A reply to a text message may be a word of hope someone needs to read to take one more step on their journey. A willingness to rearrange your “scheduled” life for an hour may be the greatest gift to someone who believes no one cares about them at all. 

The time you take to tend someone else might be only a moment for you, but that moment might make all the difference for another. We might believe the moment to be an interruption, God might call it an invitation. Whether interruption or invitation, we should call it love. Now, how might you share that love with the world around you?

See you in church.

Pastor Chris