Christmas 2015: A Reflection



 

Last night, when I made my last blog post, I honestly had no clue what I was going to write for this annual post on Christmas. All I had to do was wait. It landed in my head in small pieces throughout the day.

I started today, December 24th, on a bad note. I just wanted to stay in bed. Kids were all off school. My oldest daughter is in town from her last year of Veterinary Medicine at OSU. And... quite frankly... I'm a bit sick of EMS at the moment.

With an ongoing paramedic and EMT shortage, my usual five day work week has turned into seven most weeks and has not slowed down since August. This shortage, coupled with the surges in drug abuse cases... K2 and heroin are running rampant... along with EMS becoming the catch net for more and more uninsured (which the ACA was supposed to fix), is wearing on my ability to get things done and my nerves. So when it came to dragging myself out of bed this morning, it was less than easy. I was kind of wishing that Christmas Eve was actually one more day away...

So I got in the car, and before even leaving the house, I posted to Facebook:

"The FDA has issued a black box warning regarding contact with me today. I am to be considered toxic unless significantly diluted with proper amounts of caffeine. In the absence of caffeine, eggnog may be considered as an alternative diluent but may not be as effective as observed in clinical trials. Limit contact until dilution is assured... effects may be negated by significant amount of snowfall or limiting the use of three letters of the alphabet starting with the letter E."

Needless to say, I got through 1/3 of a cup of coffee before I was out on a rig. If you work on an ambulance you will most likely encounter someone suffering from depression on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. When I encounter these folks, not to downplay their very real issues, but I sometimes think there should be a sign on the ambulance that reads... WARNING: If you are suffering from depression, chances are that the crew on this emergency vehicle are exponentially more depressed than you.

Sorry if that comes off harsh, but everything EMS does is in a hurry and racing the clock. Sometimes that is time dependent care, sometimes it is customer dependent time frames, sometimes its just getting available for the next run. There is a lot of dissatisfaction to be weathered on an ambulance... we cannot fix everything. Some pain cannot be relieved. All procedures are not successful. Sometimes traffic does not move out of the way. Sometimes there is not time to call the hospital... we take the brunt of it all. It is not all bad, but some days are worse than others.

So several hours of needles, medications, listening, reacting, monitoring, treating and transporting marked December 24th, 2015.

So what does this have to do with Christmas?

I was supposed to leave my desk job at Noon. That stretched out till almost three as the run volume stopped long enough for me to actually get some office work done. Then it was off to get the kids and head to the 4:00pm Christmas Eve service. I was a little cranky with the kids as two of the four that were home were not ready to go when I got there... I needed to get there.

Some of the stress came off when I walked through the door. It finally started feeling like Christmas. The hymns... the familiar liturgy... it all started falling into place. It was not entertaining... far from it. It was worship. It was what was needed. Pastor Eckels hit on four or five of the things that were my current stressors in the first two minutes of the sermon. Then he hit the nail on the head when he was talking about Christmas being far from silent. He said the word... "cacophony." What a perfect word to describe Christmas in America... Everything from sales, to traffic, to kids, to noise... well... cacophony.

What is the cure for cacophony? Get away from it. Retreat from it. Or even better, as Pastor Eckels was saying... Silence. My cure for it started when I walked in the doors of the church and saw the Altar. My silence is the church. It allows me to focus and come back to where I can focus. It isn't me coming to God. It's God coming to me through His means of grace, His scripture, His plan...

So, I am brought back to what matters. This is Christmas... This is about that time... remember that time? When God became man for the purpose of saving His creation? As it was foretold by the scriptures through His prophets long before a mild virgin gave birth in a stable... Nothing tells it better than scripture. These passages are from the readings from today with a couple of extra I selected to illustrate...

Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV):
For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

 and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

  there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

 with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

 The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

 

Isaiah 7:14 (ESV):

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

 

Micah 5:2 (ESV):

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose coming forth is from of old,

from ancient days.

 

And then it came to pass... they were expecting a warrior king... but instead, God entered the world as a man and His will would be done...

 

Luke 1:26-38 (ESV):

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.  And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 2:1-20 (ESV):
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all went to be registered, each to his own town.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.  And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”  And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.  And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.  And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.  But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Of course there is more... both on the prophecy and on the fulfillment side of this coin. But that is the simplicity of the Gospel... it shines through any cacophony of secular noise and confusion. It shines through stress and depression. It seeks you out and finds you and makes you reel in wonder of what our Lord has done. It is His doing and none of ours. His grace. His faith that He instills in us...

The story does not end here. It appears to end on a cross

with nails and blood... but it does not. It ends with an empty tomb. Christ crucified, died and risen again. That's how the story ends... but again, it does not. He ascends. He is coming again for His bride the Church triumphant.

I could post more from the Gospels on the crucifixion, but instead, I will go back to Isaiah who foretold not only the birth, but the crucifixion of our Lord.

Isaiah 53 (ESV):
Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

 and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

 smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

 and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

 and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

 yet he opened not his mouth;

 like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

 and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

 the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

 make many to be accounted righteous,

 and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

 and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

 

This is Christmas. When God came to redeem His fallen creation.

 

All of the noise and strangeness of a sin scarred world matter not in comparison. Depression is cast away by the means of grace. We are forgiven through nothing of ourselves and everything through his body and His blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sin.

 

This is Christmas.

 

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

 

This day is almost at an end. I am preparing to go to the 11pm candlelight service with my beloved wife who God has given me. He has also given her the patience to put up with me... a poor miserable sinner.

 

When that is done and we have sang Silent Night in near darkness... after the late night Sacrament of the Altar, I will leave refreshed... I will add some pictures to this particular blog entry... maybe even some of the Altar at St. Paul's and then publish this post.

 

Wishing you the grace of our Lord. Peace on Earth. Good will toward men. Good job Pastor Eckels... as always. Message delivered to one sitting in the pew.

Postlude: It is now after 1:00am on Christmas Day. The 11:00pm service was as expected: firmly rooted in the Word and Sacrament. Pastor Schilling made a statement in the sermon that resonated with my earlier day: The world is ill-prepared to receive its Messiah...

This is as evident today as it was two thousand years ago.

Merry Christmas!

 

A Blogging Redirect: My Favorite Lutheran Blogs and Bloggers

Nope... this is not my Christmas 2015 blog entry... that will probably come sometime in the next 36 hours if I survive being a paramedic through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...

This one is on the blogs I read and enjoy. Actually, it is more than that... I learn a lot from all of the ones I follow, search out, or come across in Facebook feeds. 

I read some things and just have to sit back and contemplate the accuracy of the other writer's feelings in matching to how I feel, my views, my need for learning or some other epiphany of the moment. Sometimes it is just about how they further explain scripture.

Almost every blog I read is Lutheran in origin.

Sure, there is the occasional EMS or Scouting blog, but none of those are my regular reads.

So I thought I would share some of my favorite blogs. I love to read, but with busy schedules and little time to sit in one place, I have taken to trying to read more blogs and spend short vignettes of time in the areas I like the most. Blogs work well for that...

My all time favorite single blog entry is one by Chad Bird. I will let you see why.. it reflects how I view the Divine Service. All of Chad Bird's writings are excellent, but this one is my all time favorite and I want to share it far and wide:

https://birdchadlouis.wordpress.com/?s=how+a+small

The hub for all of his excellent writings can be found here: http://www.chadbird.com/

This next one is written by someone named Tanya... I do not know Tanya, but the blog entry she wrote recently (link below) really resonated with me. I had struggled with Americanized evangelical Christianity for many years before I went to my first liturgical service at a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation on Maundy Thursday 1996. My feelings mirror hers but I could never write this as eloquently... well worth the read!

http://sellersofpurple.blogspot.com/2015/11/why-i-joined-dead-religion.html

Some of the bloggers I follow write almost every day. Oh that I could be so prolific! The next contrast a bit even though they are both Lutheran pastors. The first is Pastor Mark Surburg. His offerings cover many commemoration days, scriptural explanations and liturgical history descriptions. I find his blog to be a daily learning experience. I love the intellectual depth and historical nature of this blog and it helps me grow as a Missouri Synod Lutheran. He even posts his sermons as well. I have included a link to one of his entries below:

http://surburg.blogspot.com/2015/12/o-antiphons-dec-20-o-key-of-david.html

The next blog belongs to Pastor Peters. He presents a diverse offering (as the word "random" indicates in the subtitle of "Pastoral Meanderings") of entries that range from a pastoral view of current events to thoughtful things that just need to be said. His are quick reads filled with content. As Advent changes to Christmas, her is a good example of his work:

http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com/2015/12/when-day-of-our-homecoming-puts-and-end.html

I would be remiss if I did not include the work of Scott Diekmann. He is probably hands down one of the best Christian layman writers from my perspective. He stopped writing his blog some time ago, but the whole of his blog is still available to read. It is quite the learning experience as well and well worth reading from start to finish:

http://stand-firm.blogspot.com/

There are far more than these... and the list could go on for ever. I highly suggest all past and future blog writings by LCMS President Matthew Harrison. Being the president of the Synod, his writings are varied, insightful and timely. These can usually be located via http://www.lcms.org/

I would also suggest following any of the regular contributors at http://steadfastlutherans.org/

Now to go slightly off topic... I would be entirely remiss if I did not mention all of the video and other work being performed by Worldview Everlasting. Pastor Fisk and Peter Slayton (and all of the other contributors have put together an all encompassing hub for Lutheran learning through many video presentations, links and discussions. This site is beyond priceless... http://www.worldvieweverlasting.com/

Again, from a video perspective, but with a touch of humorous satire, I have to recommend the work of Pastor Hans Fiene at Lutheran Satire. Learn while laughing... My all time favorite is the one on St. Patrick describing the Holy Trinity... Check them out at http://lutheransatire.org

The St. Patrick's Bad Analogies can be found here: http://lutheransatire.org/media/st-patricks-bad-analogies/

On one last note... read this one the other day from a Lutheran pastor in Indiana, Rev. Jeff Alexander. He is in Greenwood as a matter of fact. I go to Greenwood on occasion for work and need to stop in and meet him sometime. It says quite a bit with the backdrop of a new Star Wars movie in the theaters... https://www.cph.org/b-258-the-faith-awakens.aspx?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Faith+Awakens&utm_campaign=Facebook

I hope this particular blog entry gets some additional read/views for those listed. They have all been great pieces of learning for me and I continue to go back for more.

Give these authors and video producers a few minutes of your time each day and be rewarded by the insights they provide.

Till next time... be safe and spread the Word.

Contemplative Thoughts of a Scout Leader

As I stood outside tonight in the dark, watching the scouts of our Boy Scout Troop do physical
activity, my mind started to wander. Our troop, Evansville Lutheran Troop 310, is entering its sixth year of existence. Spawned from a Cub Scout Pack that is now roughly a decade old. Like most starting endeavors, it has struggled financially, but the boys that have been here from the start know what it was like to do a first campout without having tents. It has been an interesting journey.

Some of the boys that started with the troop have turned 18 and "aged out." Others have gotten their Eagle Scout award. Others, at least five of them, are very close to earning that achievement as well. We have watched them try, learn, fail and succeed at leadership and becoming a "youth led unit."

Although we have a few members who are not Lutheran, we have maintained Lutheran devotionals and a focus on not conflicting with the youth teachings within the church. We have always focused on the twelfth point of the Scout law. A scout is Reverent. We have assured that we maintain our religious beliefs and practices in our unit.

My thoughts settled on a single question as I watched them all play games in the dark tonight outside the school.

What good have we accomplished in the past five years?

For the last few hours... long after the meeting closed with Scout Vespers and prayer... the answers have flooded my mind.

- We have had four scouts awarded with the Eagle Scout rank.
- We have had only two age out without Eagle, and they were both Life Scouts.
- We have at least five now who are within a few months of doing their Eagle projects.
- The Troop has performed around 4,000 man hours of community service for multiple organizations in the community.

- We have honored veterans secluded inside of hospitals on Veteran's Day.
- We have helped them learn how to cook... and understand this... they can cook.
- We have watched as the youth have written a devotional service with a strong liturgical consistency and use of litany.

- We have had two scouts engage in life saving activities with one of these receiving the BSA National Medal of Merit.
- With only a four person patrol, our unit received the number one patrol award at a summer camp.
- We have had scouts attend the National Jamboree and NOAC.
- We have a large percentage of scouts in the Order of the Arrow, scouting's honor camping association.

- The Troop has literally sold tons of popcorn, supporting the activities of scouts and teaching salesmanship.
- We have watched them make do with very little equipment as we grew and succeed doing it.
- We have rode out many a rain storm in tents.
- We have stood on top of mountains, backpacked and hiked.

- We have had our scouts attend National Youth Leadership Training and several have went back the next year to be on staff.
- We have had three of our youth act as staff at summer camps.

- We have introduced some to travel, having never been outside of their own city before.
- We have mixed boys of various backgrounds and interests and watched teams developed.

- We have opened baseball games by providing flag ceremonies.
- We have taught and practiced numerous flag retirements.
- We have performed numerous honor guard activities.

- Our boys earned the Gold Journey to Excellence Award for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and already have the points to do it for 2015.
- We have seen them learn, practice and depend on land navigation and map reading.

- We have seen the phases of team building occur before our eyes... forming, storming, norming and lastly performing.

- We have watched them plan and execute a 70 mile hike at Philmont in New Mexico.
- We have sang songs under the stars and talked about God, life and dreams around a campfire.

There is much more that can be placed on this list, but my day is ending and I grow tired.

We have some great young men in our troop. They will do wonderfully in being part of the community and taking care of their future families.

We hope we have instilled in them the importance of being Reverent.

So... what does the future hold for these young men in our troop.

I don't know...

I just don't know...

Whatever it is, they are better prepared for having been here in this place and in this time.