Dear friends:  Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures.  The term “siren song” refers to an appeal that is hard to resist.  The sirens lured sailors with their enchanting music so that they shipwrecked on the rocky coast of the siren’s island.

In Argonautica, Jason was warned that he needed to take Orpheus along on his journey because Orpheus could play his music more beautifully than the music of the Sirens, thus saving their crew from certain death.  The one sailor on this journey who had particularly good hearing, heard the Sirens, jumped into the sea, and had to be rescued by those with less acute hearing.

Odysseus was curious about the song of the Sirens and so instructed his crew to tie him securely to the mast while they-all plugged their ears with beeswax.  Once he heard that siren song, he begged to be untied, but the crew tied him even tighter.  Only after they passed out of earshot and Odysseus was seen frowning could he be safely released from his bonds.

It is a change from tempting the ears to tempting the eyes, but this is exactly the issue that concerns the Apostle Paul in this morning’s Second Lesson.  It is the reality of “siren songs,” of temptations that exasperates Paul when he refers to “the god of this world” who is blinding the minds of unbelievers.

Every generation believes that it lives in a time that is the worst ever in the history of the faith.  It isn’t really.  It’s just that “the god of this world” keeps adapting in new and creative ways to cover over the good news of all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

I’m not convinced that the distractions of Paul’s time were all that different from those in our time.  Athletics were a huge part of Greek culture. Entertainment was very important. The Greeks prided themselves on the knowledge of their great philosophers.  Paul dealt with public bathhouses, with temple prostitution, and with a pantheon of gods designed to cover any situation in human life.

Paul preached a superior message in that culture.  He proclaimed much the same message that you hear from this pulpit on a weekly basis:  that Jesus Christ is God’s answer to the broken relationship between heaven and humanity.  For a people who can never quite get it right, there is Jesus — who did it right for us.  For a people who get anxious about the chasm between heaven and hell, there is Jesus through whom God keeps God’s promise of salvation in his name.

Your question and my question and Paul’s question, then, is why aren’t the folks flocking to that message?  What is it about the good news of the Gospel that isn’t penetrating into every person’s life?  How is it that anyone can resist such good news?  How is is that anyone can resist worshipping such a gracious and generous God?

Paul blamed “the god of this world” who has “blinded the minds of the unbelievers, and keeps them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

In his commentary on 2 Corinthians, Ernest Best argues that these are verses where “Paul seems to answer some who have picked on the failure of his gospel to win everyone and, therefore, criticized him.”  I guess that if everyone in Corinth is not flocking to the church, it must be the preacher’s fault.  Paul preached his heart out in Corinth and, still, people ventured to the bathhouse.  He explained in detail the sacrifice of Christ and, still, they bent their knees in worship of Zeus.

There are as many reasons for non-participation in our time as there were for the great apostle.  Some are repelled that we don’t practice what we preach, that we don’t act very loving.  Some view Sunday morning as a respite from a stressful week.  Some are caught up in an economy that treats Sunday like every other day.  Some are choosing to engage in athletic activities or in the activities of other community organizations because those other groups have discovered that times for worship are negotiable times.  And some — they just have not figured out any reason why God should be relevant in their lives.  We preach a good news that doesn’t resonate with real life, yet.

Peter, James, and John had an advantage that we don’t enjoy.  If you spend any time in Mark’s gospel, the struggle of the disciples becomes very evident — all the way to the end of the narrative.  Mark’s story is very much a story of the disciples’ attempt to figure out who this Jesus is.  They think they might know.  They hope that they know.  But even when Peter gets the words right, his mistaken belief about what the words mean lead Jesus to ask him to just keep quiet about it.

But, as we do every year at this time, today we commemorate that moment in salvation history when Peter and James, and John get a glimpse of the glory of God.  They get a glimpse of the divinity of Jesus.  For them, the veil is lifted in a very tangible way.  Maybe it was the Transfiguration that Martin Luther King had in mind when he preached, “I’ve been to the mountain-top.”  Life can’t get any better for these three chosen ones than it was on that day atop the Mount of Transfiguration.

It has only been six verses (and six days), in Mark’s story, since Jesus termed Peter as satanic.  Obviously, for one to be called satanic must, by definition, mean that one has been blinded by the “god of this world.”  But there is a cure for Peter’s blindness.  In just those six days, he has the opportunity to see for himself the dazzling whiteness of the one who is our Lord.  He had the opportunity to hear for himself the voice from heaven repeat again, “This is my Son, the beloved . . . .”

It is an advantage that we have not been given.  How much easier would it be for us to be able to see with our own eyes?  How much easier would have been for Paul to convince all of the Corinthians if he were to show them the transfigured Jesus?  How much easier would it be for our children to share our faith if they could visit the mountaintop?  How much easier for our friends and neighbors to believe as we believe if they could just hear the words from heaven?  How much easier would it be to conduct this ministry if we could just see, if we could only hear?

It is an advantage that we have not been given.  Among the choices that God made in the creation of humanity was to provide us with the freedom to believe or not, to provide us with the freedom to attend worship or to attend this weekend’s basketball tournament, to provide us with the freedom to follow Jesus or to follow “the god of this world.”  God has given that freedom.  It should not surprise us when some — even many — choose to follow a different path.

The Transfiguration was for the purpose of a witness.  Not everyone needs to climb that mountain.  Not everyone needs to see the glorified Christ.  Everyone doesn’t need to hear the words from heaven.  Just these three who saw and heard in order to give testimony, in order to be a witness.

The good news for this morning is how their witness has come through the centuries into our lives.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, it is a witness that has convinced us that, in this Jesus, God acted in human history to ensure our presence — with him — in the heavenly kingdom.

I find the witness to be so convincing that, like the Apostle Paul, I have a hard time understanding why everyone doesn’t believe, why everyone doesn’t find this time of worship to be as important as it is for me.  I want to reach them all.  I want my preaching to be convincing.  I want our worship experience to be meaningful.  I want our kids to learn everything that I want to teach.

But the temptations are real.  “The gods of this world” are usually more attractive than a promise of salvation that seems to be in a far distant future.  It is exactly in the midst of those temptations that we continue to proclaim the God of the mountaintop.

It is not for us to manage the impact of the message.  We still believe that the working of faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  We give thanks today for all of the ways that the Spirit is constantly at work to convince us of the truth of that mountaintop.

Whether or not this is a time of darkness in the lives of those who we love, we continue to pray that all people might be convinced through the work of the Holy Spirit.  “For it is the God who said, ’Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  Amen.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved

A Worker Justice Reader

by Interfaith Worker Justice

Maryknoll, New York:  Orbis Books (2010)

A Worker Justice Reader is intended to be a seminary textbook to provide a historical and theological foundation for the relationship between organized labor and the larger religious community.

As is probably the case with many edited works, the quality of work within the volume varies widely.

The economics of the volume is outdated.  In the current environment, any economic analysis that is written prior to 2009 is not helpful.  By waiting, if necessary, to get the most current information from the Economic Policy Institute (the summary in this volume is from 2006), it seems that Interfaith Worker Justice could have presented an even stronger argument about the crisis currently faced by U.S. workers.

Before seminary I spent ten years as a laborer in a company whose employees were members of the United Rubber Workers (URCLPWA).  I served the union as a member my local’s Committee on Political Education (COPE).  I also served as a shop steward and as the chair of my department.  I continue to maintain an interest in the history and current state of the labor movement.  I recently purchased a history of my former union which, after my ordination, was absorbed into the United Steelworkers.

The history of the church’s concern for justice made it a natural fit with the emerging labor movement.  I didn’t realize, before reading this volume, the religious roots of Labor Temple.  Given the name, it was a “dah” moment for me.  It began in 1910 when the facilities of the Second Presbyterian Church in New York City was transformed by Pastor Charles Stelzle into a “working-man’s church” which “was to be run by workingmen, the men who actually lived in the community.” (page 75)

Once unions became institutionalized, the church’s social justice advocacy was no longer necessary. “Unions turned their attention to technical matters:  negotiating and drawing up contracts and building their institutions.  The tasks were somewhat removed from the basic principle of the right to organize, which provided the religious community’s natural point of entry into the labor debate.” (page 53)  Advocacy turned to the plight of the farm workers.  Even to the issues of sexism and racism within the labor movement itself.

The church’s concern for justice is essentially a history of the Roman Catholic Church.  Three encyclicals form the basis of Catholic social teaching on worker justice:  Rerum Novarum — Leo XIII’s “response to industrialization and the rise of socialism in 1891;” Quadragesimo Anno — Pius XI’s “response to Communism in 1931;” and Laborem Exercens — John Paul II’s 1981 “affirmation of Solidarity in Poland.” (page 200)  All of the teaching revolves around the dignity of work and dignity of the worker.  John Paul observed that “the conflict (between labor and capital) originated in the fact that the workers put their power at the disposal of the entrepreneurs, and these, following the principle of maximum profit, tried to establish the lowest possible wages for the work done by the employees.” (page 202).  Its affirmation of human dignity and its support of families requires the church to enter that conflict on the side of a living, sustainable wage.

Kim Bobo, the Founding and Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice sets out a vision for the organization’s future that calls for a rekindling of the historic relationship between workers (both organized and those unable to organize) and the church.  The task is about organizing — around the country on a congressional district level — and about a worker-friendly legislative agenda.  Obviously, the task is immense.  But it is a strategy that takes a long view.  The education of young religious leaders is the portion of that task to which this book is addressed.

The book concludes with some vignettes of the successes of Interfaith Worker Justice during the first decade of the 21st century.  The presence of the religious changes the power balance when negotiating with corporations and institutions who are adamant in preventing their workers from organizing.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved.

The Social Animal

The Hidden Sources of love, Character, and Achievement

by David Brooks

New York:  Random House (2011)

David Brooks has written 2/3 of a great book.

Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times.  This is not the type of book that I would expect from him.  With experiences at The Weekly Standard, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, and other public-affairs focused institutions, I expect Brooks to write about current affairs.  The place where this book goes bad is when he forces his characters into a presidential campaign and a stint in the White House.  It is like Brooks couldn’t help himself.  The segue seems forced and doesn’t fit well with the rest of the narrative.

The Social Animal uses the characters Erica and Harold to talk about what we have learned about human behavior and the brain.  Brooks has created a very readable way to talk about science.  The book takes its reader from conception to death.

Brooks contrasts the French Enlightenment with thinking in Great Britain.  Where the French emphasized the rational self (or the conscious activities of the brain), the British talked more about the emotional self (the unconscious activities of the brain).  Brooks quotes David Hume’s argument that “reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions.”  This is Brooks’ rationale:  “lack of emotion leads to self-destructive and dangerous behavior.  People who lack emotion don’t lead well-planned logical lives in the manner of coolly rational Mr. Spocks.  They lead foolish lives.  In extreme cases, they become sociopaths, untroubled by barbarism and unable to feel other people’s pain.”

When Erica and Harold meet, it is the emotional self that evaluates the other.  All through the human life cycle, Brooks uses Erica and Harold to describe real life situations and then describes the brain science that lay behind his characters’ behavior.

Brooks describes how people bond, how people learn, who attracts us, and the importance in human life of genetics, history, culture, and institutions.  Our unconscious selves are shaped by all those factors.  Over time we incorporate the messages of those influences into our world view to become the person who we each are.  “Harold,” Brooks argues, “found himself living in an under-institutionalized world.  . . . .  He didn’t belong to any religious congregation (young people today are much less likely to attend church than young people were in the 1970s).  He didn’t have any clear ethnic identity.  His view of the world wasn’t shaped by any local newspaper or single opinion leader (he surfed the Web).  His worldview wasn’t molded by any world historical event such as the Depression or World War II.  He wasn’t even bound down by acute financial pressures.”

The book ends with Harold’s death.  It leaves me wanting more.  I want to walk with Erica through her grief.  It is the only time in the narrative that either character confronts the death of one they love.  If there is a great omission from the book, it is the failure to discuss grief.  Brooks could have dumped the campaign, White House, and the partying with millionaires portion of the book and finished with a discussion of the impact of our griefs.

This is a valuable book for all of us — negotiating the seasons of our lives.  It offers grace to parents, a sense of urgency about education, a realistic appraisal of married life (Erica succumbs to the temptation of a extra-marital encounter), and the vital necessity of life-giving relationships throughout all of the seasons of our lives.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved.

by Will D. Campbell

edited by Richard C. Goode

Eugene, Oregon:  Cascade Books (2010)

It is hard to be prophetic as a parish pastor.  There are too many forces that bend us toward maintenance of the institution.  Prophecy has a cost.  Congregations are resistant to paying the price.

Enter Will Campbell.  Ordained into the Southern Baptist Convention as a 17-year-old, Campbell served only two years (1952-1954) in congregational ministry.  Frankly, he doesn’t have much regard for the institutional church.  Don’t look for him at Sunday morning worship.  It is one of his targets for resistance.

To invite Campbell into your institution is to ask for his critique.  When invited to speak at Emery University’s Candler School of Theology, he addressed the “scandal” of their acceptance of a $100 million gift from Coca Cola. But it wasn’t necessarily the “negotiation” for the gift that scandalized Campbell, it was his assumption that it would just be used for institutional maintenance.

Now these are good people that we’re negotiating with, and we say, “Now you understand that we are from a tithing tradition, so [with] this money we are going to take 10 percent of this $100 million and get people off the streets,  We are going to give people shelter and food, so that men, women, old, young and now increasingly little children, babies, don’t freeze to death on the streets.”  (page 223)

   His critique of the institutional church (which he terms “steeples”) is similarly harsh.  At one point he speaks of institutions, in general:

  Institutions, by their very definition, are evil.  For their raison d’être is always and inevitably self-survival.  They, all of them, when they are threatened will go to any length, tell any lie, engage in any program to protect themselves.  And justify it as being in defense of Almighty God.  That is what Paul was taking about when he spoke of powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places.  (page 156)

   At another, he speaks of the institutional church, in particular.  After noting how the 1960’s had torn down notions of the sacredness of property rights and of neighborhood schools, he observes the immunity of churches from any similar notions:

Only the churches continue to contend that their structures are sacred.  As long as they are sacred, they will be stagnant and sterile.  For a sacred tool is one not to be used but to be fondled and polished.  Howard Moody says the church is an instrument of God literally to be used up in  his service, a service to those not even within it.  There is little evidence at this point in God’s economy that the church is about to go out of business through such usefulness.  (page 110)

   Campbell is wrapped in the cross.  Salvation is a present reality for him.  He rooted his life and work in the idea of reconciliation the Paul discussed in 2 Corinthians 5.  He doesn’t understand any concept of “cheap grace.”  At one point he asks, “what’s a pound of grace worth?  If there’s a price on it — it isn’t grace — it’s a commodity, and we ought to go back to selling it.”  Grace cannot be cheap, Campbell argues, because “it is the price of a lowly Galilean, hanging on a cross . . . .”  (page 83)

I am convicted by Campbell’s prophetic message.  But Richard Goode’s selection of excerpts is laced with repetition.  At one point Campbell says “No one has but one sermon” (page 217).  The context leads me to believe that he intends to say “Everyone has but one sermon.”  It certainly seems to be the case with Campbell.  He has a repeated opening quasi-joke.  There are at least three renditions of a story about a retreat that included a covenant of silence with an “unnamed” denomination (because some in his audience might be Episcopalian).  Surely, the wealth of material that Campbell has produced over 60 years should have enabled Goode to edit out the repetitions.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved

by Pastor Froseth

 Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

   We are still removing Christmas decorations at our house.  Today I need to prepare you for Lent.

Each year I am faced with the question of how to mark this season.  As a time to prepare for the arrival of Easter, Lent is often a time for repentance and renewal.  It is a time for adding depth to one’s spirituality.  We worship more.  We consume less.  We intentionally turn our attention to God.

During my ministry at St. Stephen, we have used this season to study the New Testament books of 1 John and 1 Peter.  Last year we read Real Faith for Real Life:  Living the Six Marks of Discipleship together by Pastor Mike Foss.

This year I would like to draw your attention to some of the lessons from the Easter Vigil.  Lutherans tend to be negligent in our observance of Easter Vigil.  It is a long Easter Eve service — moving the congregation from darkness to light, focusing our attention on the salvation that comes to us on Easter morning.

I am calling the series, Stories of Hope and Salvation.  We will take a new look at the stories of creation, the flood, Sodom/Gomorrah, the exodus, and the dry bones.  We will examine how God is working with humankind in all of those situations to see the many ways that God is at work to bring us to salvation.  We will find the hope — sometimes, in situations of deep despair.

Again this year we will worship on Wednesdays at 12:10 and 6:30.  Shirley Kasten and Phyllis Ament will take charge of soup preparation for our noon service.  I am sure that they will welcome your help.  Don’t be afraid to call.  Harold and Betty Lou Peterson are stepping aside from soup preparations after nearly ten years of service.  If we ask nicely, though, Harold may still be willing to share some of his unique jokes with us.

The Council has already assigned various groups in the congregation with the task of a fellowship meal for Wednesday evening.  Menus are still being developed.  Our time of eating together each Wednesday will extend from 4:45 until the time of the service.

First Communion instruction will also be a part of our Lenten program.  We invite parents of third grade children to consider this opportunity for their family.  St. Stephen teaches that parents should to decide when children are at an appropriate age to receive First Communion — whether that be older or younger than third grade.  Instruction will be on three Tuesday evenings (6:00 – 7:30):  March 20, March 27, and April 3.  Call the church office (715-845-7858) if you are interested.

These are the themes and texts for this Lenten season:

• February 22 — Ash Wednesday — Holy Communion/Imposition of Ashes at 12:10 and 6:30
• February 29 – God Works for Life — Genesis 1:1 — 2:4a
• March 7 — God Preserves Life — Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13
• March 14 — Does God Ask Too Much? — Genesis 22:1-18
• March 21 — See the Deliverance — Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21
• March 28 — You Shall Live — Ezekiel 37:1-14
• April 1 — Palm Sunday — Worship at 9:00
• April 5 — Maundy Thursday — Holy Communion at 12:10 at 6:30
• April 6 — Good Friday — Solemn Worship at 12:10; Tenebrae Service at 7:30
• April 8 — Easter — Holy Communion at 7:00 and 9:00; Breakfast at 8:00

I pray that Lent might be the kind of blessing for you that it is intended to be — a time for renewal, a time to reorient your life,  a time to be more attentive to God and faith.  Let me know if there are specific ways that I can assist in your spiritual journey.

Blessings to you all!

Pastor Gary Froseth

Dear friends:  Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Jonah is one of my favorite books in the Bible, one of my favorite stories.  Not because of the great fish which, really, makes only a cameo appearance, but because of the relationships that are presented between Jonah and God, between Jonah and the Ninevites; between the Ninevites and God.

In the capital of the great Assyrian empire, the Ninevites were probably a people who worshipped many gods.  Like gamblers covering the odds, the people of this pagan city probably believed that the warning of one god was as serious as that of the next.  The very moment they heard Jonah’s word of warning, the king of Nineveh  proclaimed a fast and all the people joined in the ceremony of repentance.

It was exactly what Jonah had feared.  It was the reason for the appearance of the great fish.  It is exactly what he feared.  The story leads one to wonder whether Jonah knew God better than God knew Godself.

Jonah didn’t want the Ninevites to respond to his prophecy.  He didn’t want them to turn away from their evil ways and repent of their sin.  Jonah didn’t want God to have to re-evaluate his decision to destroy the city.

“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  It appears that Jonah proclaimed his message for only one day.  Given God’s change of mind, Jonah was just 39 days away from losing his credibility.  He was sort of like the modern preachers who predict an end-of-the-world date that doesn’t happen.  By definition, Jonah was 39 days away from being a false prophet — for his prophecy would not come true.

Lest you mistake my talk about Jonah as being a signal that the text for today’s message is the Old Testament lesson, let me reassure you that I find it to be a remarkable illustration for Jesus’ first words of proclamation as they are recorded by Mark.  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.”

It’s not such a different word than Jonah’s.  Jonah was just more precise about the penalty for continuing to ignore his God.

Just like last week in John’s gospel, this morning’s gospel text picks up Mark’s story of Jesus immediately following his baptism by John in the Jordan River near Jericho.  Jesus then “came to Galilee,” Mark tells us — maybe 60 miles upriver — continuing to proclaim that simple message, “repent, and believe.”

The connection with Jonah’s walk is my own.  The Bible does not make the same connection.  Mark never alludes to Jonah’s walk.  But it occurs to me that 60 miles could be a three day journey.  I note Jonah’s need of three days to bring his message across the whole city of Nineveh.

Now, in Jonah’s case it is clearly a message just for Nineveh.  But Jesus’ message is much more universal.  Isn’t the message to “repent and believe” extended also to us.

As I think about the nature of such a message, I am also reminded of the conversation between God and Abraham, standing upon the hills of the Judean wilderness, looking down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The story is recorded in Genesis 18.  God tells of his intention to destroy the cities because of their great wickedness.

Abraham questions God’s judgment.  “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city, will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it.”  God finds it to be a persuasive argument.  “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”  And as Abraham continues to negotiate with God, there is a promise of forgiveness even for the sake of ten.

And still the Word of God is proclaimed:  “repent and believe.”  What if we are only nine when God is searching for ten?  Am I able to remain content in my confidence about my own righteousness, my own salvation — or does the sin of the whole community also have an impact on me?

“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  Is it my faith only that is accounted by God or does my life also depend on the judgment rendered upon the whole community in which I live?  If judgment comes to whole communities, then the faith of my brother, my mother, my neighbor are my vital concern.

If there is a single problem with the manner in which the Christian faith has been taught by the media preachers during the past half-century, it is in the individualization of our faith.  It is not biblical.

Jonah did not say to the Ninevites:  those of you who choose to repent and go to worship this week will be saved.  He preached to the whole city and “everyone, great and small” joined in their community-wide act of repentance.

Abraham never attempted to negotiate God’s mercy down to a single individual.  If I am the only person in town who is righteous, it is just too bad for me!  Even Abraham understood that there needs to be a community of the righteous.  Salvation doesn’t come to a single guy sittin’ in the woods.  The whole biblical story — if that matters to us — is about the salvation of people who work and worship in communities.

Forty days more and Wausau shall be overthrown.

• If judgment comes to whole communities, then the faith of my brother, my mother, and my neighbor are my vital concern.
• If judgment comes to whole communities, then we dare not ignore the absence of any who are not at worship this morning.
• If judgment comes to whole communities, then we dare not put the whole community at risk by dropping out, or by sleeping in, or by trying to convince ourselves that our presence in this community doesn’t matter.  For the community is less than God intends it to be when any one is missing.

Discipleship is acting on that concern.  Jesus did not say, “Follow me and ensure your own salvation.”  But instead, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”  “Follow me and I will give you a special responsibility — to lift your fellow human being out of the sea of unbelief and into the boat of the faith we share.”

“Follow me, be an additional voice on the walk through Nineveh, the walk toward Galilee, the walk across Marathon County, tell them that the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.”

As men and women called into discipleship — that is our message and that is our responsibility.  On the one hand we proclaim that message because we rejoice in the salvation that God has already given to us.  But, on the other hand, we take the responsibility seriously because we may only be nine and God is searching for ten.

So, what shall we do?  Jesus has already given us our instructions.  It is time to announce throughout this neighborhood and around this community that we are goin’ fishin’.

We will use the whole multitude of lures that God has placed in our tackle box — the people and ministries of St. Stephen Lutheran Church.  We will open our nets to receive the catch that God is preparing for us.

For nothing is more clear in all of the gospels that the Church is create to be a boat for Jesus — a fishin’ boat.

This congregation needs to become repetitious — reciting over and over and over again Jesus’ persistent invitation to discipleship:  “Follow me.”  We need to create more deck hands.

How about you?  Are you ready to answer his call to discipleship?  Have you filled your tackle box with just the right bait to reel in another soul for Christ?  Then, climb into this boat of the gospel.  Join Peter and Andrew, James and John in the great adventure that Jesus has planned for us.

You might even find some old, grubby hat to wear because, we’re goin’ fishin’.  Amen.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved.

Dear friends:  Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

I am high on St. Stephen.  Have you noticed the commercials that Lexus has run for the last several Christmas seasons:  a car in the driveway with a big bow around it?  I think the Property Committee should place a big red bow over St. Stephen — Bruce Weinke will get on top of the cupola to tie it off.  We are the gift that too many in this community haven’t opened yet.

This is the week that Jesus begins his ministry.  You know the sequence:  baptism by John, then the calling of the disciples.  Philip chairs the first Christian Evangelism Committee.  You have to admire his enthusiasm.  “We have found him!” he tells Nathaniel.  He gives Nathaniel the whole spiel.  Philip believes that everything in his Bible points to Jesus’ entrance into his life and the life of their nation at this particular time in history.  He believes that Nathaniel must want to share this time with him.  “We have found him!”

Nathaniel’s response is exactly why so many of you shudder at the prospect of serving on the Evangelism Committee.  He is a grump about the whole thing.  “Nazareth.  Ya right.  As if.”  The first thing that Philip, the Evangelism Chair of the Church of the Newly Forming Disciples, hears is the first thing that most of us hear when we invite folks into everything that we value and believe — “ah, thanks.  But, ah, no.”

Philip must have been tempted to move on to somebody else.  Who needs a grumpy disciple?  Who needs a grumpy church member?  Nathaniel is obviously prejudiced against Nazarenes.  Maybe its better to keep him away from Jesus.  What if he creates a scene?

So, like all of us when someone shrugs off our invitations, Philip has to decide what to do next.  He could just forget about it.  Later on in Jesus’ ministry the disciples will be told to shake the dust off their feet when their invitation is rejected and move on to someone who is receptive.

But Philip knows that he is on to something special.  Even though Nathaniel has responded negatively to this invitation, it is just because he doesn’t have enough information.  He needs to experience it for himself.  In what might be the greatest invitation of the Bible, certainly the highlight of this text are Philip’s gracious words:  “Come and See.”

That is also our invitation.  Imagine all of the people who don’t understand the extent of the gift that is St. Stephen Lutheran Church.  You know it.  That’s why the people who come here — stay forever.  If the Property Committee will just place that big bow around this whole building, maybe the secret that is St. Stephen will be revealed to more of this community.  We’ll stencil a message on the bow:  “Come and See.”

What will they see?  St. Stephen is a generous people.  We craft budgets very carefully around here and when I see, like I have this week, that we have (essentially) met the budget, I get so excited that I can barely contain myself.

As God is generous both during and after our lives on this earth, so are St. Stephen people.  Somebody, sometime taught you-all the importance of remembering this congregation in your will.  Our ministry is enriched because of all the people who continue their generosity beyond the limits of this life.  You will see the benefits of their generosity in Trust Fund contributions as well as in the many ways our ministry is extended through the annual budget.  We continue to remember St. Stephen saints with gratitude for such continuing generosity.

But our generosity extends way beyond money and budgets.  People invest themselves in this place.  There is a group of women who each spend some 200 hours/year in this place creating scores of quilts to warm people all over the world.  People give of their time to assembly bulletins and mail newsletters, to study the Bible and to teach our kids.  Folks give generously of themselves to provide you with a meaningful worship service:  they sing and they play bells and they read and they lead the liturgy and they serve communion and they usher and they operate cameras and they shovel snow and they work the microphones.  St. Stephen people are generous with their time and they are generous in sharing their God-given talents.

“Come and See” is our message to this community.  Folks around here need to know something about the community of St. Stephen Lutheran Church.  You have responded more positively than anybody could have imagined to the effort to increase our level of hospitality.  Most of you have come to understand the importance of wearing nametags.  We are growing in our willingness to greet those who might be strangers to our worship service.  There is more energy in the worship service:  we sing robustly, we laugh easily with each other, once in a while you even seek out a different place to sit — just to confuse me.  The change in our fellowship time is astounding!  On most Sundays there is still a line to the goodies even after I have finished greeting folks.  We are enjoying the opportunity to be engaged socially with one another.

“Come and See.”  Everything that happens here is rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We come into this room to baptize new Christian, to hear the Word of salvation as it is read and preached.  We come into this room to sing of our love of the Lord and to feast on the body and blood that our Lord sacrificed for our sakes. This is not the Rotary Club.  Our mission is one of hope and healing — all done in the name of the one who entered into our world so that we are assured of life in his presence — forever.

Excitement is contagious.  Philip was not going to let Nathanael’s grumpiness put a damper on everything that was important for him.  “Come and See” is a sort of antidote to cynicism and grumpiness.  It is as if to say, “don’t take my word for it, the place speaks for itself.”  It needs to be experienced.

That is not to say that excitement points to perfection.  We are, after-all a human institution.  We have our share of failures.  We don’t and don’t expect to meet every expectation on every occasion.  The Church of the Newly Forming Disciples experienced a fair share of disappointments.  The whole suffering, death, crucifixion thing was probably not what Philip thought he signed-up for.  That is why, in the wisdom of almighty God, it is in the coming together of the community that we are able to deal with our times of disappointment without losing the blessing that is this congregation.

Notice that Philip isn’t responsible for Nathaniel’s discipleship.  He just offers an invitation.  Jesus takes over once the grumpy Nathaniel begins moving in his direction.

We only seek to get prospective disciples moving in the direction of the Lord.  We want them to be awed by this worship space, to experience the welcoming arms of Jesus, to see the majesty of the windows.  “Come and See.”  We want folks to move in the direction of the Lord:  to feel the warmth of this community of disciples, to watch all of the ways that we are in mission for the sake of the world, to catch the spirit of our generosity.

We are not responsible for the discipleship.  In his explanation to the third article, Martin Luther taught us how it is the Holy Spirit who “has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one, true faith . . . .”

Ours are the words of invitation:  “Come and See.”  We have a gift to offer to this community.  It is the gift of St. Stephen Lutheran Church.  Let’s decorate it with a huge bow.  Let’s talk about how important it is for our own lives.

I believe that most of us who have gathered here worship this morning have done so because we have responded in the manner of Philip.  We have met Jesus along the way of the journey of our lives.

• “Come and See” we say to family, friends and neighbors.  See what Jesus is doing in at St. Stephen Lutheran Church.
• “Come and See” we say to those throughout Marathon County.  See our contribution to this community and to the world.
• “Come and See” we say to all who seek a warm and welcoming community.  See what this place means for all of us.  Maybe, it can also make a positive impact on your life.
• “Come and See.”  Join in the mission and ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  As Nathaniel responded to Philip, may all those who are touched by our ministry also respond as the disciples that all are call to be.

Amen.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved.

Dear friends:  Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Have you ever gotten the silent treatment?  Worse, have you ever given the silent treatment?  Why do you suppose it is that the silent treatment is a tool in the closest of our relationships.  It happens between husbands and wives or between parents and children.  Sometimes, it is the fracture between best friends.

It’s not fun — the silent treatment.  For one on the receiving end of its effects, it is a very lonely experience.  It is as if you have been placed in solitary confinement.  It as if the other has deserted you, has rejected you, has abandoned you.

It is employed as a means of punishment.  It is as if to say, “I am withdrawing from our relationship” or “you can’t make me share myself with you.”  It is isolating.  It is a rejection of intimacy.

Believe it or not, there was a time in the history of the world when it was commonly assumed that God had only silence to share with God’s human creation.  Not that silence was God’s primary way of dealing with humanity.  There had been centuries of intense prophetic activity when Amos and Hosea; Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel; Micah, Nahum and Haggai; and many others all took their places before the people with the words, “Thus says the Lord . . .” and shared the intimate thoughts that God held for God’s people.

Yet, we know from our study of the Bible that there were those times when God remained silent.  Prior to the call of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3:1 we read, “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.”

In the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees which recounts a time 150 years before the birth of Christ, we read about the efforts of Judas Maccabeus and his followers to cleanse the temple of the desecration of Antiochus Epiphanes.  “They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned,” the passage recounts.  “And they thought it best to tear it down, lest it bring reproach upon them, for the Gentiles had defiled it.  So they tore down the altar, and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them.”

God had fallen silent.  There was no communication, no words between creator and creature.  God’s people didn’t even know what they should do with the stones of the altar for there was no word to guide them.

They wondered what they had done wrong.  They tried all sorts of different things to restore themselves into God’s good graces.  It must have been a very lonely experience . . . to wait upon the Word of the Lord.  They must have felt deserted, rejected, abandoned.

That’s why today’s Gospel lesson is so important.  For when the heaven’s are torn apart and the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, Mark allows us to overhear the return of God’s Word to the world.  Because of the simple statement that was spoken privately to Jesus, we are assured that the days when God withheld God’s Word (the days when God withheld God’s Spirit) from the people — those days have ended.

The Bible also tells us about instances of intense communication between God and humanity.  We call those times of salvation.  Through the use of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, God went into the wilderness to lead the Old Testament people of God to salvation.

At the spot in the Jordan River where tradition claims that this baptism took place, one can literally turn around and look past the oasis of Jericho and look into the Judean wilderness.  The symbolism is dramatic.  For now, in the descent of a dove, God has come again to the wilderness to lead this New Testament people of God to salvation.  Jesus of Nazareth has come up out of the waters of his baptism.  Now, he is our Savior!  Now, he in our Christ!  Finally, God’s Word is spoken!

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that God’s Word is heard, does it?  Communication breaks down for lots of different reasons.  Yes, there is that horrible silent treatment.  But there is also an inability to hear.  There is also an unwillingness to hear.

I know that some of you can empathize with the experience of my grandfather who, sometimes, just grew weary of asking people to repeat themselves so that he could hear them.  As I watched him one day when his nieces and nephews came to him with their greetings, he gave each of them, in turn, his stock reply.  “I’m fine,” he answered over and over again.  It didn’t matter if they asked him the state of his health or the score of the Packer game.  He couldn’t hear, so he gave his best-odds answer.

There are others of us who don’t want to hear.  The most notable biblical story of a refusal to hear is that of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.  Moses did everything possible to bring the saving Word of God to reality in Pharaoh’s life.  Time after time after time the Word was repeated to him,  “Let my people go.”  But when God’s Word conflicts with our own, human self-interest it becomes a hard word to hear.  It becomes an easy word to ignore.

As is especially evident in the story of Pharaoh, God would not be ignored.  Plague upon plague came upon Pharaoh and his country.  Time after time, Pharaoh refused to listen.  The Bible says that he suffered from a hardness of heart.  But the day came when the plague hit too close to home to be ignored.  Sometimes, when we wonder why God is not speaking in our time it is because the Word is just not something that we choose to hear.

On this day, though (the day of the Baptism of Our Lord), we celebrate a totally different experience.  When Jesus walked into the water, he was indicating a total openness to the Word of God for his life.  Theologically, there was nothing about John’s baptism that could apply to Jesus.  Remember:  John’s was a baptism of repentence and change of life.  Jesus’ entry into those waters was not a sign of his sinfulness.  It was not a sign of his decision to change the direction of his life.  It was, instead, a sign of Jesus’ commitment to enter fully into our experience.  It was a sign of Jesus’ total commitment to the will and Word of God.

At the baptism of Jesus, God has done everything to bring the Word of God to all the world.  The Word has become flesh.

• ¨ spoken loud enough to be heard through the centuries;
• ¨ spoken clear enough to be understood by all but the hardest of hearts.

Today that word comes also to you.  Hear the Word of the Lord . . .

• ¨ the Word that condemns your sin and calls you to behave in a way that shows love to your neighbor;
• ¨ the Word that topples the false gods of your life and calls you to worship the one, true God;
• ¨ the Word that assures you of God’s never-ending love for you — personally,  It is a love that brings God to death so that you might have life.
• ¨ the Word that has adopted you — through your baptism — into the family of God for all time.

As Jesus consented to the baptism of John and brought the Word of God back into our lives, so open your hearts that this Word might speak to you on this day and enrich your life with the glorious words of God’s promise of hope, of joy, and of life.  Amen.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved.

It is said that the human creature has an inborn disposition to prevent starvation.  I’m told that it is this disposition that works against dieting.  The body detects fewer calories entering into the system and protects fat molecules from being used up too rapidly.

It seems to me that this fear of starvation also affects our lives together in community.  There is always a certain resistance to sharing.  Christians, even, rationalize our resistance by blaming the poor for their plight.  If only they . . . , then we wouldn’t need to share our own precious resources.  And especially in the midst of a national recession, we act as if sharing might cause us all to descend into the abyss.  It doesn’t matter that tax rates are at their lowest point in 50 years, we won’t even pitch in an extra ten bucks/year to provide transportation for “the least of these.”

It is the same in congregations.  Especially in a time when the pews are less-full than we remember, we have a tendency to behave as if there is a limited number of potential worshippers for us to attract.  If Zion gains, then we must lose.  If we attend worship at St. John, then we have shown some sort of disloyalty to our own congregation.  If Presbyterians are true to the gospel, then there must be something deficient about our, Lutheran witness.

None of that is true to the gospel.  It is, in fact, false teaching.  It is behavior that denies God as one who provides for us in abundance.  The Apostle Paul reveled in God’s abundance in his Corinthian correspondence:

God has the power to provide you with more than enough of every kind of grace.  That way, you will have everything you need always and in everything to provide more than enough of every kind of good work.  As it is written, He scattered everywhere; he gave to the needy; his righteousness remains forever.

2 Corinthians 9: 8– 9

   As we end 2011 and move forward into 2012 (the 132nd year of St. Stephen Lutheran Church), I rejoice in the abundance that marks this ministry.  God continues to scatter seed in this place which we are blessed to harvest from year-to-year in Jesus’ name.

We are financially strong.  If we didn’t meet the budget in 2011, we came very close.  The people of St. Stephen — during 2011 and throughout our history — are exceedingly generous.  I know that some feel we spend too much on maintaining the building and too little on ministry.  Continue to voice your concern.  Obviously a 100-year-old building will continue to require substantial maintenance costs.  But we need to keep that in balance with the ministry needs of the community where God has placed us to serve.  I encourage you to remember the congregation in your will as so many have throughout the years.  Those “beyond-living” contributions are a part of the abundance that allows us to harvest the seeds that God continues to plant around this ministry.

There is a strong attraction to our ministry — even among those who don’t participate here on a regular basis.  Folks who have been away for 10 years and more still think of St. Stephen as their congregation.  They call on us when a Word of God is needed in their lives.  Obviously, we long for their participation on a regular basis.  Our worship attendance slipped for the second year in a row.  Interestingly, most of the slippage was in the first half of the year.  Except for Reformation Sunday (the 100th anniversary celebration of the building last year), our change to one service had almost no impact on worship attendance.  While it is a difficult time for some, I think that most of us are energized by the larger attendance.

We are a part of a strong ecumenical community.  If we are to be a leader in a new way of thinking in this community, it is imperative than we stress cooperation rather than competition.  I am richly blessed by the ecumenical relationships that have been created by our participation in NAOMI.  That blessing is also available to the members of our congregations.  I am blessed by my participation with local ELCA pastors at our weekly, Tuesday breakfast together.  There is a blessing waiting for us in a closer relationship with our Episcopal brothers and sisters at St. John Church.  Our national church leaders recently reaffirmed the relationship between the two, national church bodies.  But real cooperation happens locally.  I encourage all St. Stephen people to engage yourselves cooperatively during the coming year.

We have a strong corps of congregational leaders and a strong and able church staff.  As it has been since my arrival here nearly 4 years ago, St. Stephen is blessed with great leadership.  They care about this place and are diligent in their decision-making.  My thanks to the Executive Committee especially — Jim, Joe, Cathy, and Crystal.  Our church staff at St Stephen works better together than at anyplace I have ever served. My thanks to Bill, Phil, Nancy, Mark, Jim, Beth, Todd, Dave, and Merrie for their fine work on our behalf.

Finally, St. Stephen is blessed with a strong sense of shared ministry.  Too much happens here for one pastor to pretend to be in charge:  Among the ministries (but certainly not inclusive of all that happens) include:  Assisting Ministers, Acolytes, Readers, Ushers, Communion Assistants, Greeters, Quilters, Bible Studiers, Office Volunteers, Home Communion providers, Committee members, Hospitality providers, Choir members, Sunday School teachers, Confirmation mentors, Kitchen helpers, Video tapers, and all those who regularly pray for the faithfulness of this congregation and her leaders.  Thanks be to God for the ministry of all of you.

Each year in this report I ask that you continue to pray for me as I attempt, as best as I am able, to be faithful in meeting the pastoral needs of this congregation.  I renew that request again this year.  It is inevitable that I will fail to meet all of your expectations.  I ask forgiveness and understanding for those times when I fall short.  If there is any time when my words or actions or my failures cause hurt, I ask that you speak with me directly.  I promise to listen attentively and try, as best as I am able, to understand your point of view.  Those are the times when misunderstandings are healed and relationships grow.  I will become a better pastor and a better person as a result of your willingness to be direct with me.

I am happy to report that I continue to be energized by our ministry together.  Your kind words of encouragement feed my energy.  Your openness to innovation for the sake of reaching a new generation is empowering.  God never tires of giving, of sowing seed, of providing us with our every need.  I celebrate in the abundance of all God’s gifts.  May we continue to be energetic in our task of harvesting.

Blessings to you all!

Pastor Gary L. Froseth

 Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All Rights Reserved

Dear friends:  Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

It is an amazing thing — this Epiphany story.

It starts with the rising of a new star — noticed first in some eastern land.  We think it was in ancient Persia, the place we now know as Iran.

Maybe it was a widely noticed star — it seems that it should have been widely noticed.  Maybe there were lots of folks who saw it in the sky and wondered about it before going about their business.

But curiosity about the star only moved three men to investigate, moved only three men to take some sort of action.

We know almost nothing about these three men.  The Bible doesn’t even tell us their names.  That will become a detail that is filled in by later, church tradition.

Somehow, in the course of their travels, out of Iran, within the fertile crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, past the ancestral home of Abraham and Sarah in modern Syria, down along the Mediterranean coast and then up to Jerusalem, somehow they had learned of a prophecy that a Messiah would come to save the Jewish people and became convinced that the star they followed was the announcement of that Messiah’s birth.

Does it strike you as strange how this star — illuminating the heavens to be seen by all people — has no meaning for those of God’s own people who long for a savior?  Does it strike you as strange how this star draws people to the manger whose practice of magic is condemned by the Bible?  Does it strike you as strange how this star — by which God might have drawn anyone to Christ — instead draws those who do not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but instead worship the false god, Marduk?  Does any of that strike you as strange?

It is an amazing thing — this Epiphany story.

In the Acts of the Apostles we are told how Simon the Magician began following Peter and Paul in search of some “good magic.”  Simon was convinced that it was only by some sort of “good magic” that Peter and Paul were able to heal those who came to them hungering for salvation.

Maybe, for the Magi, this star brought with it the promise of “good magic” such as they had never before experienced.  Whatever they expected to find in Bethlehem, their arrival at his side left them only with the desire to honor him as a king and to present him with the gifts due a royal child.

There are no astrologers here.  Despite taking an astronomy course in college, there isn’t much in the night sky that I can identify.  But there is a bright light which draws us to the king.  It is the bright light of the Gospel.

Except for its illumination, you wouldn’t be here when there are so many other things you might be doing at home.  After all of the songs and commotion of his birth night, we come to celebrate this moment — drawn by the light if God’s promise, drawn by the light of the gospel.

Sometimes we hope that our way along this lighted path will bring some “good magic” into our lives.  But our encounter with him reveals so much more:

• we who were strangers are welcomed as a part of his family;
• we who are hungry are fed at his table;
• we who expect punishment because of our rebellion are met, instead, with an unfailing love;
• we who fear death are comforted with the promise of life.

Yes, it is an amazing thing — this Epiphany story.

It is amazing who God chooses to bring into the presence of the Savior:  beginning with three Persian Pagans and extending even to you and to me.  Amen.

Copyright © 2012 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth.  All rights reserved.