Immanuel Lutheran Blog

A couple of weeks ago our youth were the primary worship leaders in both of our Sunday morning services. They did an amazing job leading prayers, liturgy, the children’s sermon, assisting with holy communion, and even preaching our message for the morning. The theme of this Sunday was the two mission trips they participated in this summer:
San Diego, June 19-24
Mexico, July 30 – August 6

We were all very inspired by what they shared in the services about what they had learned on their trips. These mission trips truly were experienced as an opportunity to grow in faith and serve others in Jesus’ name. I was also impressed with how virtually every one of the youth came to see life in a different light. Before the trip the kinds of problems we typically experience here in this prosperous community in the US seemed pretty big. But after what they witnessed on their trips, our problems and issues began to look pretty small. The congregation and I are proud of them and the way they so eagerly took advantage of this great opportunity to reach out to others. This was a fine example of how we can make a difference in our world by using the gifts God has given us to meet human need.

Below is the speech given by one of our youth, Justin Ford, who reported on his experiences on the San Diego trip, along with a few pictures from the trip. (Thanks for sending yours to me, Justin!) If any more reports come in, I’ll share them here on the blog.

By:  Justin Ford, age 14

This summer I had the opportunity to go on both the San Diego mission trip and the Mexico mission trip.  The San Diego mission started with the day-camp flu bug, Pastor had the same thing.  Then I spent a week at the Holy Family Church where they were very kind and welcoming.  There were about 50 participants from 5 churches including: two from Washington, one from Idaho, one from Florida, and then there was us.  For ministry work we did quite a bit.  Each day we would go to one site in the morning and one site in the afternoon.  In the morning my group went to St.Vincent’s Soup Kitchen.  We served about 1,000 people each day.  There were many jobs in St.Vincent’s, such as working in the kitchen serving food onto the trays, giving out cups, giving out silverware, and pouring the juice.  After we finished we got to eat the food, which was quite good.  For the second part of the day we worked with a lady named Ruth.  Ruth started a program called Special Delivery.  Special delivery is for people that have terminal illnesses and are too sick to feed themselves.  We made meals for the Special Delivery people to deliver to the terminally ill people.  Each meal is prepared differently, to fit the patient’s needs.  During the evening, sometimes we did fun activities.  One night we went to the beach and played ultimate Frisbee, went in the water, and had a big fire at the end.  Another day we did a prayer walk.  For the prayer walk we walked around downtown San Diego and talked with the homeless.  Some people were trimming wires for copper, some had ideas about conserving energy in the future, and others just wanted to chill and spread the Lord’s peace with us.  On one of the last nights we went to a parking lot and had a barbecue (with no utensils, that was fun) and after that we took pictures in front of a cross. From this trip I was able to open my eyes to how many people are in need of extra help.  It also allowed me to see how much help can come from strength, love, and faith in God.

A couple of posts ago I indicated that I would like to use our church community to make connections that are helpful to each another in practical ways. One area I mentioned is employment, which is of course such a huge issue in these difficult economic times. At the time I wrote that post we had not yet seen the depths of the chaos in congress and the renewed fears about the economy that have resulted. I believe that as a community of faith, we can work to be there for one another and provide helpful connections.

For that reason from time to time I will be posting profiles of people associated with Immanuel who are looking for employment. Please be attentive to employment opportunities in the following areas, and respond with job opportunities that you may by aware of, or companies and individuals worth contacting. Here is a brief description of the experience and skills of 2 people:

Profile 1: Looking for a position in one of the following areas:

Product Development and Quality Assurance Engineer with over 20 years of product quality management experience in software, hardware, pharmaceutics, and government contracts. Candidate has demonstrated success in managing the development and introduction of new products across many disparate organizations. Extensive experience in business process optimization and quality system creation and management. Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering (Tau Beta Pi honor society).

Program Manager: IT Systems- e.g. Online products and services, Information Management, Business Intelligence, Master Data Management.

Profile 2: Elementary School Teacher: As an experienced school teacher I am looking for a position teaching in an elementary school classroom. I prefer a Christian school, but would take a position at a public school also. I have also done long-term substitute teaching.

If you would like more information about these profiles or know of possible job opportunities, please call the church office at 650-967-4906, or respond to this blog. Let’s see how we can stand by each other and use the connections God has given us to bless one another’s lives.

I have had some requests recently to post some of my sermons online.  Here is one from a couple of weeks ago (July 31) based on Isaiah 55. I’ll put some others up soon.

Results of a Survey

One of the challenges inherent in the task of preaching is trying to target topics that speak to the hearers. One way, I suppose, to take care of that would be to make sermons a two-way conversation: I ask you what questions you might have, and you tell me what you’d like us talk about. It would be fun, I think, but not very practical, because we have a limited amount of time, and of course if everyone spoke, we would be here for hours.

Then again we could do it as a written survey. I could pass out little pieces of paper like these, and you could write on here questions you have about faith and life. My 1st survey question would ask: “What is it about faith that you don’t really understand? Or what is the hardest thing for you to grasp about God or life in God’s universe?” It would be interesting to see what you would write. But once again to be realistic, we don’t really have time to do that either, at least not in the context of 1 short worship service. Just collecting and reading the papers could take a long time.

So, I decided . . . to take your survey for you. What I wrote on these pieces of paper are some theological questions, God questions, questions you might ask if we had time to take this survey in church. (These, by the way, are based on questions I’ve been asked through the years.)

So here goes, Question 1: Why does God allow so much evil in the world? Ah yes, the classic question. Some say that this is the main question that lies behind all religions. And if you think about it, it certainly is at the heart of much of our Christian teaching— ideas like sin, freedom, God’s fairness, the cross of Jesus, forgiveness – all these things have to do with the question of evil, and overcoming evil.

Question 2: How could God always have existed? Here we have the question of eternity. Needless to say, our human finite minds can’t grasp eternity or forever, so it’s difficult for us to think of a being with an eternal existence. We wonder things like, what was God doing before creation started? Does God experience time like we do? Another good question. You guys are asking some good ones today.

Well, like I said, we don’t have much time, so for now I’ll read just one more question. Here it is, Question 3: Where is heaven and what does it look like? This is kind of question I often get from kids? Everyone wants to know about the afterlife. Will we be physical or will we be spirits there? Are there tears in heaven? Will everyone be there? Will my pet tarantula be in heaven? What do you do with all that time once you’re there?

Well, there they are: 3 possible questions for our survey. But as you know, there are not just 3 questions, there are hundreds more questions I could have mentioned, because all humanity has questions, loads of questions, sometimes big questions. Certainly, the longer you live, the more you become aware of how much you don’t know. It’s really quite humbling. I would guess that many of us, perhaps most of us here, have spent many years going to church. We believe in God, we’ve thought about these things, maybe we’ve heard 100s of sermons, and yet often we have a hard time answering some of these very common and oft-repeated questions about life and faith.

And may I remind you that our questions are not merely theoretical questions about God and the universe. They are often extremely personal. “Why did this bad thing happen to me? How do I understand it? Does it have a meaning? And how can I find the strength to deal with it?

So what happens next in our survey? You’re probably thinking the next step is that I’m going to answer all these questions I’ve suggested. (Explain heaven, and the problem of evil, and things like that.) But actually . . . I’m not going to do that. There are two reasons:

1. There is that time limit thing I talked about. Some of these questions I’ve mentioned could take many hours to discuss. That’s why we have Bible Studies at church, discussion groups, Sunday School. We’ll be announcing new educational opportunities for the fall soon, and these are great places to explore questions like these.

2. But the other reason I won’t be providing answers now is the fact that I have to be honest with you: I couldn’t answer all of these questions, even if I wanted to. I mean, some of the things I have a pretty good understanding of, I have studied them for many years, and I can begin to offer some good answers. I could talk, for instance, about the problem of evil, and how the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ speak to and answer that question. But in other cases I have no idea what the answer would be. For instance, I don’t know what heaven looks like. I’ve never been there. And neither have you. I see the beautiful images and descriptions in the Bible, but I don’t know if they describe literal things, or are only symbols of things that are even greater, too great for human words. I don’t know what we’ll look like in heaven, or if we’ll still eat ice cream. I really have no idea. Some people pretend to know such things, and even write articles and sermons on them, but trust me, they don’t know nearly as much as they claim.

In fact, there is a verse in the Bible that deals with these things we don’t know. It’s that passage we heard earlier in out service from Isaiah Chapter 55, which says: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
I love these verses. I always have, because they remind us that if it feels like you’ve got a lot of questions, and only a few answers, that’s OK. You’re supposed to. It’s a big and complex universe God made, and you, by comparison are really very small. So it only makes sense that there would be a lot of mystery in life, some unanswered questions, and a great need to explore, and pray, and learn, and listen for the answers. I think we should take this passage very seriously, and take great comfort in knowing that we have a God who is bigger than we are. That is why my only real intention in taking our little survey today was to emphasize how much you and I don’t know about our faith, and how much we still need to learn and grow. I want to create a hunger in us to know these things, to search, to read the scriptures, to keep asking.

The real problem in life is not what we don’t know. The real problem is when people give up, and stop looking for answers. When they say, “Oh well, I don’t understand faith, so I just won’t believe anything. I’ll just exist.”

Here at this church I intend always to be challenging us to ask big questions. Answers to questions like:

How can I know if my faith is true?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Is God in control of my world or am I?
What does Jesus’ death on the cross really mean for me?
How could God always love and forgive?
How can I forgive people who have hurt me? Should I even forgive?
Is there a purpose to my life? How can I find that purpose?

Hundreds of questions, thousands of questions.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

We have a whole lifetime ahead of us. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep looking for the answers. God has spoken. God is still speaking. Together, if we listen, God will help us journey toward the answers.

I haven’t posted to this blog in a couple of weeks. Back on the 4th of July my mother-in-law passed away. Her name was Ruth, and she was a great lady.  Carla and I traveled back to her home in northern Kentucky to gather with family for her memorial service. I just got back last week, and Carla only returned yesterday evening.

We had a very meaningful time together with everyone in Kentucky. The memorial service was quite beautiful with many people contributing in different ways. As an opening to the service a song that Carla and I wrote called “Trinity” was played. We had recorded it along with our niece, Adrianne. There is a link to the song here: Trinity

Throughout our gathering. I was struck  by the power of God’s Word and promise. We all shed tears, of course, saying goodbye to Ruth. But there was also this profound sense of joy, as we celebrated her life in the context of God’s promise: that for all who receive God’s free gift in Jesus Christ, death is not a final parting , but always only an “I’ll see you later.”

See you later, Ruth.

It has been my vision at Immanuel (and at other congregations I have served), to help the church’s members to function as a network through which we can provide opportunities, information, and needed connections for one another. These connections can fall into many different areas – obviously opportunities for spiritual and faith development in our lives – but also things like educational offerings, cultural and recreational opportunities in the area, vacation possibilities, social activities, and employment help. That last category is of special concern to me, because it so seriously impacts the life and health of our members, and remains a significant issue in America’s ongoing economic slump.

I am interested, therefore, in seeing how we can share information and connections with each other in these areas, enriching our lives and benefiting from the considerable experience of our members. In the future from time to time I’ll be posting the kind of information I mentioned above on this blog (and through other congregational communications like bulletins and newsletters). We’ll hit several categories you’d like to share, and I would enjoy hearing from you about areas of information you would enjoy sharing with each other.

To begin with I am interested once again in connecting people in the area of employment. In the past we have simply had people post any sort of random job opportunities they were aware of. This time I’d like to approach this from the opposite direction. If you are a person in need of employment (or anticipate that you may be), contact me personally and let me know your need and your area of employment experience and interest. I thought I might then post anonymous lists of skill sets and employment experience that you and other individuals have. Then our members can respond to me with job opportunities they may be aware of, or companies and individuals worth contacting in that specific employment area. In a congregation such as ours, the amount of possible connections is virtually limitless.

Look for more on this initiative as we go forward. Jesus Christ describes the members of the church as parts of a body connected to and working with one another for the benefit of all. This is one more way we can make these connections strong, and fulfill Christ’s will for our congregation.

Pastor David

One of the things that makes the Christian Church great is its emphasis on music. At our church, in addition to all the congregational singing, we hear some beautiful songs from a wide variety of groups and soloists. I wanted to see how well it works posting music on this blog, so here are a couple of recent selections from services.

The first is a song from our youth chorus, a group of Jr. High and High School singers led by Matt Peters. They always do a great job.

The second link is a version of “It Is Well with My Soul” featuring three musicians:
Carla Schick – Solo Handbells
Paul Dhuse – Trumpet
Lynda Alexander – Piano

I’ll try to find a couple of pictures of the musicians to add to this post. For now, here are the links for the music.

Youth Chorus Song

It Is Well

On May 22 we celebrated Confirmation Sunday at our church for seven of Immanuel’s young people. In our tradition Confirmation is part of a two-year long period of instruction in the Christian faith. At the end of that time those who have completed the program come forward to make a public profession of faith, and to be blessed by the congregation.

We had a great time on that day, with the kids taking a large role in the service. Among other things I emphasized how confirmation is not graduation. In many ways, every Christian, regardless of age, is a confirmation student. We gather each week to reaffirm our baptism, to take hold of our faith, to draw closer to God. We are all at the same place as those young people: standing at the threshold of tomorrow, a few basics of the faith in our hearts, lots of questions, ready to begin our journey into the future. God calls us continually to learn, to grow, to become more fully human, and become a disciple of Jesus Christ. This was a great Sunday, but only a beginning . . . for all of us

As a class project, our confirmation group studied the Lord’s Prayer and composed a new version of it to aid in our comprehension. The class led the congregation in prayer using this version on Confirmation Sunday. Many people said they really appreciated this version and would enjoy having the words. So, here they are:

Confirmation Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, loving Creator,
Your name is beautiful and extraordinary.
May your kingdom come with absolute power through love.
May your goals be fulfilled on earth as they are in heaven.
Give us love and everything we need for today.
Forgive us when we separate from God,
As we help others to reconnect with God.
Guide us along the correct path.
Shield us from everything that destroys us and God’s creation.
For the universe and the divine strength are yours for eternity.
I believe it will happen. Amen.

One of the great adventures I have experienced this year was being in Egypt as the revolution began back at the end of January. We were there visiting our son, Paul, and his wife, Stephanie. As you may know, Paul has been serving as intern pastor this year at St. Andrew’s United Church of Cairo. Stephanie teaches at the school run by St. Andrew’s Refugee Services. They were evacuated from Cairo to the U.S. a few days into the revolution.

 Many of you have inquired about what’s going on with them now. After about a month in the U.S., they returned to Egypt on March 31^st to continue their work. We talk to them, of course, on a regular basis. They are well, and working hard in their roles there.

 A few people at church mentioned that they would enjoy reading about Paul and Stephanie’s experiences in Egypt. To do that, check out their blog, “Reflections from the Desert.”  The address is:

http://schickscorner.blogspot.com/

 We appreciate your prayers for their safety, their work in Egypt, and for situation in Egypt in general.

Maybe you’ve been hearing this date talked about in the news. What’s it about? It’s not an upcoming political event or a big movie premier.

No, instead it is yet one more in an endless stream of tiresome predictions of the end of the world. The claim is that through numerological analysis of the Bible one can know with certainty that Jesus Christ is returning and the world is ending on May 21, 2011 (at 6:00 p.m. How’s that for precision!) And this time the claim originates here in our own Bay Area. (You won’t read the name or web address of the perpetrators of this prediction here. I don’t believe in giving good press to bad ideas.) Suffice it to say that a number of poor souls have left their jobs, their education, and even their families to wait for the end and to travel around and warn the rest of us about this impending day.

There is so much wrong with this prediction and its overall approach, that it’s difficult to know where to begin.
 
There is the fact, for instance, that the Bible is not a codebook full of secret numbers and messages. Instead it is a collection of stories that tells us the history of God’s salvation. It is a love letter from God to humanity, illustrating the sources of our troubles, and showing us the way out of them – following Jesus Christ in love, faith, and service. Anyone looking for secret codes and predictions in the Bible is looking in the wrong book. The Bible is telling us the story of God’s people in order to bring about faith. It makes no attempt to give an exhaustive history of the world. That is not its purpose. It focuses instead only on the higher, important moments of the narrative, and has many gaps that aren’t essential to it’s salvation story. Therefore, the whole attempt to fix dates is impossible. There is no way to know the date of creation from the Bible, for instance, so all subsequent predictions based on such dates are nonsense.

But a bigger issue is the validity of this kind of pursuit in the first place. The May 21 enthusiasts have elevated a side issue (the return of Christ) to a central place in the Christian faith. The timing of the arrival of God’s eternal kingdom is not to be an obsession that we focus on. The promise of eternal life is rather a hope that motivates and colors the rest of our life. Christian life is about faith and giving. Period. It is about growing in our relationship with a loving God, and through that relationship learning how to realize God’s love in our other relationships and in the wider world.

Do you want to be ready for Christ’s return? Live in faith, prayer, love, and service toward others today. Then do the same thing again tomorrow.

The 21st will fall on a Saturday. I hope your plans for the next day include going to church. In our congregation we’re having Confirmation Sunday!

See you on the 22nd!