[Jesus said] “No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.” 
                                                                                                                          - Matthew 6:24
    As we saw last time, the idols that have infiltrated our faith are falling left and right under the stress and changes wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic.  We looked at the falicy of thinking “it can’t happen to me” or “that only happens to ___ people”.  With that we tore down the idol of modern medicine and the belief that there’s a pill for whatever ails you.  We also looked at the changes in family dynamics as children did school from home and the family was “cooped up” for months on end and the grandparents and other extended family couldn’t be visited.  This time we’ll look at a couple more idols removed from their thrones by a microscopic virus.
   When Covid-19 first landed on our shores in a few nursing homes in the Seattle area, very few thought it would spread with such rapidity throughout the country.  By the middle of March, stay at home orders were issued with fines and penalties for non-compliance.  Restaurants, clothing stores, malls, parks, and all manner of places for doing business were shut down overnight.  Back then we were told it would only be for 14 days to “flatten the curve”, but that two weeks turned into two months and now it looks like there will be business restrictions for a year or more. Do you remember the last movie you saw in a cinema?  The last live show / concert?  
    Suddenly those who build their lives around their work found their most important measure of self (and self worth) were floundering.  It’s not just the economic impact of closed businesses that show them to be an idol, it’s how they affect our attitudes and identities.  If I thought of myself first and foremost as a __(insert vocation here)___, and then that business was shuttered by the government, my sense of self is shaken and needs to be reexamined.  Who am I if I’m not working in a particular field?  Am I really not an essential worker?
    Of course there is the financial side of it too.  The government stepped in with
stimulus checks, loan forbearance, increased unemployment benefits and the like, but all that doesn’t tackle the spiritual dimension of setting one’s vocation as one’s god. When I “fear, love, and trust in” my ability to earn an income that takes care of all my needs - what do I need God for?  Maybe when I die and want to get to heaven, but He’s pretty irrelevant in my day to day life - until the idol falls.  This idol of money and I must obey my master (making more $) is very pervasive in our land.  Greed and discontent and jealousy over the fortunes of others (why do they get an extra $600 week while I have to work at minimum wage?) were suddenly revealed for the idols they are. When this idol was overthrown by Covid-19 it led to many other disruptions.
    Yet we have known the dangers of putting money before God since Moses carried the two tablets of the Law down from Mt. Sinai.  Jesus warns against the Canaanite god “Mammon” in the reading cited above.  Paul instructs Timothy to be on guard as “the love of money is a root of all forms of evil” (I Tim. 6:10).  Greed even made it to the list of 7 deadly sins in the middle ages.  Yet this god shows no signs of going away anytime soon in our consumer driven, capitalistic society.  Perhaps it’s a good thing to have runs on toilet paper and canned goods, to have one’s paycheck reduced to 60% of what one previously earned, and other means of “involuntary simplicity”.  By doing this we see what is most important in life - and it’s not the pursuit of wealth.  We come to see how we are reliant on God, not just for salvation and eternal life, but also for “our daily bread.”  We have learned, reluctantly at first, that the really important things in life are things that money cannot buy.  Maybe an economic downturn was just we as a society needed.
    Related to this is a personal idol, and idol I did not realize existed until it was pointed out at the Doxology retreat I attended in October.  This idol remained firmly enthroned throughout the early days of the pandemic and demanded my offerings of love and devotion.  The idol was myself.  What hit me like a cannonball as worship was forbidden (or fined heavily if you gathered with more than 10 people) was the fact that Church and all it does to help people in times of crisis was deemed “Non-Essential” - yet liquor stores, racetracks, and strip clubs could remain operational.  If the Church is not essential, then those who work in the church are deemed non essential employees.  In short - I don’t matter to this culture.  This sense of being non-essential was compounded by the fact that I was still working, but not getting paid (no offerings = no salary).  We made sure every member of the congregation got a phone call every week or 10 days to see how they were weathering the Covid storm, but Michelle and I got zero phone calls to see how we were doing, even though she was a front line worker and I was a high risk candidate.
    The demon of self-pity and self-loathing was firmly enthroned.  I don’t know how many weeks or months I was stuck in this “funk” of “nothing you do matters to anyone.”  When I received word that Pastor Merz was taking a call to Montana and Pastor Serina was leaving the same week for CTCR in St. Louis, I went back to my Lutheran Confessions and Walther and began to read again what the church is and what church work is all about.  Then it hit me; It’s not about me, it never has been, it never shall be (world without end. Amen.?)  All that matters is that the good news of new life in Christ Jesus is being boldly proclaimed - by Zoom or Facebook live if need be.  How governor Murphy feels about this being essential or not is really quite irrelevant.  How the culture, both within and outside of the church, receives this message is not my responsibility.  My worth is not tied to how well received this Gospel is by others.  All that matters is that I am, and ever shall be, a blood-bought child of God, saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  Salaries, recognition, numbers online, all that stuff is just icing on the cupcake - they don’t really matter.
    Perhaps a healthy dose of humility was called for, even if it is bitter medicine.  When we turn inwards as individuals or as a congregation and forget the real task of which we get to take part, then maybe God steps in and uses these events like Covid-19 to get us to look outside of ourselves and to the salvation and well being of others.  For all the damage; emotional, spiritual, economic, relational, physical, etc. that this pandemic caused, maybe God can still use it to make some good come of it. God truly works in mysterious ways if this is the case.
    Now, the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects are not the only things that have happened in the last 7-8 months.  There are a few other idols which have not been shown for what they are by this crisis, but are certainly toppling now.  We’ll take a look at the idols of nature / eco-warriorism, social fabrics and race relations, and how God overthrows these idols as well in the next blog.

         [Jesus said] “No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.” -                                                                                                                                                            Matthew 6:24
 
   As we saw last time, the idols that have infiltrated our faith are falling left and right under the stress and changes wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic.  We looked at the fallacy of thinking “it can’t happen to me” or “that only happens to ___ people”.  With that we tore down the idol of modern medicine and the belief that there’s a pill for whatever ails you.  We also looked at the changes in family dynamics as children did school from home and the family was “cooped up” for months on end and the grandparents and other extended family couldn’t be visited.  This time we’ll look at a couple more idols removed from their thrones by a microscopic virus.
   When Covid-19 first landed on our shores in a few nursing homes in the Seattle area, very few thought it would spread with such rapidity throughout the country.  By the middle of March, stay at home orders were issued with fines and penalties for non-compliance.  Restaurants, clothing stores, malls, parks, and all manner of places for doing business were shut down overnight.  Back then we were told it would only be for 14 days to “flatten the curve”, but that two weeks turned into two months and now it looks like there will be business restrictions for a year or more. Do you remember the last movie you saw in a cinema?  The last live show / concert?  
    Suddenly those who build their lives around their work found their most important measure of self (and self worth) were floundering.  It’s not just the economic impact of closed businesses that show them to be an idol, it’s how they affect our attitudes and identities.  If I thought of myself first and foremost as a __(insert vocation here)___, and then that business was shuttered by the government, my sense of self is shaken and needs to be reexamined.  Who am I if I’m not working in a particular field?  Am I really not an essential worker?
    Of course there is the financial side of it too.  The government stepped in with
stimulus checks, loan forbearance, increased unemployment benefits and the like, but all that doesn’t tackle the spiritual dimension of setting one’s vocation as one’s god. When I “fear, love, and trust in” my ability to earn an income that takes care of all my needs - what do I need God for?  Maybe when I die and want to get to heaven, but He’s pretty irrelevant in my day to day life - until the idol falls.  This idol of money and I must obey my master (making more $) is very pervasive in our land.  Greed and discontent and jealousy over the fortunes of others (why do they get an extra $600 week while I have to work at minimum wage?) were suddenly revealed for the idols they are. When this idol was overthrown by Covid-19 it led to many other disruptions.
    Yet we have known the dangers of putting money before God since Moses carried the two tablets of the Law down from Mt. Sinai.  Jesus warns against the Canaanite god “Mammon” in the reading cited above.  Paul instructs Timothy to be on guard as “the love of money is a root of all forms of evil” (I Tim. 6:10).  Greed even made it to the list of 7 deadly sins in the middle ages.  Yet this god shows no signs of going away anytime soon in our consumer driven, capitalistic society.  Perhaps it’s a good thing to have runs on toilet paper and canned goods, to have one’s paycheck reduced to 60% of what one previously earned, and other means of “involuntary simplicity”.  By doing this we see what is most important in life - and it’s not the pursuit of wealth.  We come to see how we are reliant on God, not just for salvation and eternal life, but also for “our daily bread.”  We have learned, reluctantly at first, that the really important things in life are things that money cannot buy.  Maybe an economic downturn was just we as a society needed.
    Related to this is a personal idol, and idol I did not realize existed until it was pointed out at the Doxology retreat I attended in October.  This idol remained firmly enthroned throughout the early days of the pandemic and demanded my offerings of love and devotion.  The idol was myself.  What hit me like a cannonball as worship was forbidden (or fined heavily if you gathered with more than 10 people) was the fact that Church and all it does to help people in times of crisis was deemed “Non-Essential” - yet liquor stores, racetracks, and strip clubs could remain operational.  If the Church is not essential, then those who work in the church are deemed non essential employees.  In short - I don’t matter to this culture.  This sense of being non-essential was compounded by the fact that I was still working, but not getting paid (no offerings = no salary).  We made sure every member of the congregation got a phone call every week or 10 days to see how they were weathering the Covid storm, but Michelle and I got zero phone calls to see how we were doing, even though she was a front line worker and I was a high risk candidate.
    The demon of self-pity and self-loathing was firmly enthroned.  I don’t know how many weeks or months I was stuck in this “funk” of “nothing you do matters to anyone.”  When I received word that Pastor Merz was taking a call to Montana and Pastor Serina was leaving the same week for CTCR in St. Louis, I went back to my Lutheran Confessions and Walther and began to read again what the church is and what church work is all about.  Then it hit me; It’s not about me, it never has been, it never shall be (world without end. Amen.?)  All that matters is that the good news of new life in Christ Jesus is being boldly proclaimed - by Zoom or Facebook live if need be.  How governor Murphy feels about this being essential or not is really quite irrelevant.  How the culture, both within and outside of the church, receives this message is not my responsibility.  My worth is not tied to how well received this Gospel is by others.  All that matters is that I am, and ever shall be, a blood-bought child of God, saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  Salaries, recognition, numbers online, all that stuff is just icing on the cupcake - they don’t really matter.
    Perhaps a healthy dose of humility was called for, even if it is bitter medicine.  When we turn inwards as individuals or as a congregation and forget the real task of which we get to take part, then maybe God steps in and uses these events like Covid-19 to get us to look outside of ourselves and to the salvation and well being of others.  For all the damage; emotional, spiritual, economic, relational, physical, etc. that this pandemic caused, maybe God can still use it to make some good come of it. God truly works in mysterious ways if this is the case.
    Now, the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects are not the only things that have happened in the last 7-8 months.  There are a few other idols which have not been shown for what they are by this crisis, but are certainly toppling now.  We’ll take a look at the idols of nature / eco-warriorism, social fabrics and race relations, and how God overthrows these idols as well in the next blog.

​                                                                                            -Pastor Brian
 

                                             Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.  
                                                                                                                             -I John 5:21
 
     Keep yourselves from idols.  Sounds pretty easy right?  I mean when was the last time you saw an idol in the shape of a man, woman, beast or bird?  Come across any Asherah poles lately?  Idols are just an Old Testament thing - or so we’d like to think.  In the explanation to the first Commandment, Luther reminds us that an idol is anything we fear, love, or trust in more than the Triune God.  There are still a great many idols out there - most of which don’t have temples or statues.
     As we enter the 6th month of this pandemic, we see the world getting angrier and more divided.  BLM, QAnon, Antifa, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Atheist, we all have our titles and tribes and these tribes seem to be increasingly violent towards each other.  Civil unrest is not surprising during an election year, but 2020 seems different; almost as if the angst is caused by something else.  Of course we have Covid-19 and all the changes that wrought, and maybe that’s the root cause.  Perhaps Covid-19 and the response to it have exposed our idols for what they are.
   One of our modern idols, one that affects young people in particular, is the idol youthful indestructibility. At the outset the younger members of society felt as if Covid could not affect them, or if it did it would be no worse than the flu - something they’d get over without too much discomfort.  They even coined a new term for their god of perpetual health by calling this virus, “Boomer remover” as it seemed to be especially deadly for those over 60.  Then Spring Break happened. The bars and beaches were packed.  Social distancing was unknown.  Suddenly hundreds and then thousands of people in their prime  got sick and many even died.  The god of “It won’t happen to me” was toppled as well as their worship of youth and mindset of immortality.  Suddenly they realized they are just as mortal in the face of this virus as an 80 year old.  The virus doesn’t discriminate, it will kill young and old alike.  This isn’t just a god of the young.  We have become accustomed to the wonders of modern medicine which would seem like a miracle to those only a century before us.  If we get sick, or have an accident, or catch a “bug” all we need to do is take the right pill or have the right surgery or procedure and then we can resume our lives as usual with no disruption to our daily patterns. But there is no “cure” for Covid.  All we can do is treat the symptoms with various levels of success and hope that our bodies can fight off the virus.  There is no pill that is 100% effective at stopping it, no procedure that can correct the damage it causes, not even a vaccine that works without catastrophic side effects (at least not yet, though trials continue).  All we can do is change our lifestyles to stay 6 ft (or more) apart, wear masks everywhere we go, and wash our hands often or use copious amounts of alcohol based sanitizer - and even that isn’t a certainty of protection.  
    The idol of invulnerability has been cast down.  Whenever an idol falls, those who feared, loved, and trusted in it understandably become anxious, fearful, and angry. Much of the violence and vitriol we see in our world today has nothing to do with the cause(s) for which the perpetrators claim.  You don’t hold a police department accountable by defunding it and burning down its stations.  You don’t show that Black Lives Matter by demolishing the businesses of black business owners.  When your “god” fails to save you and that / those which you love, it’s natural to look for a savior (or a devil) elsewhere.  So when idols fall, where do you turn?
     Christians are well aware of this idol and refuse to worship it.  We know we are mortal and that we have all sinned in some way, shape, or form, both in what we have done (commission) and in what we have left undone (omission).  We know the penalty or wages of sin is death and that death will eventually come to all of us.  But our God is not a god of the dead but of the living.  He raised the body of His crucified, dehydrated, shock-ridden, spear punctured, Son to life again on the third which has been perfected just as Christ’s body is.  This is our hope when we say “I believe…in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.”  We know the earthly god of immortality and invulnerability to be just another idol.
    Another of the idols Covid-19 has cast down is one that many of us, even regular church-goers, bow down to.  That is the idol of family.  If you have ever skipped out on church or refused to serve God n some way to see your grandchild’s soccer game or go to a family reunion, or just have some “family time” during the worship hour; then you have offered your pinch of incense to this idol.  Now there’s nothing wrong with loving your family or spending time with them, in fact we are commanded to honor our fathers and mothers and to love our children and raise them in the fear and knowledge of the Lord (proverbs1:7 and others).  Jesus makes it plain that family can become an idol when He says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;” (Mt. 10:37).  The key phrase in Jesus’ teaching is “more than me”; if family comes before God, we’ve got things in the wrong order.
    Covid has certainly changed family dynamics.  At the outset of the lockdowns and other mitigation strategies, we were expecting a baby boom by year’s end.  But just the opposite has come to pass.  Recent surveys show that marital intimacy has precipitously declined in this pandemic, down as much as 60% according to some results (too much of a good thing?).  Divorces, especially online divorces, have increased 140% compared to last August (last month data was available).  Domestic and child abuse are on the rise and parents having to suddenly become teachers and full time care givers has caused cracks in the family unit to open to full blown fissures.  For many months, children could not see their grandparents, cousins, and, in the case of blended families, their step or half siblings. School and community sports were put on hold as were graduations, weddings, reunions, and other gatherings.  Even funerals were restricted and many families never got a chance to say good-bye or find closure during the Covid-19 months.  All it took was a virus one-billionth our size affecting less than 10% of the population to cast this idol from its throne.
    While some families are seeing the fallacy of this idol, others have been strengthened by having to spend more time together.  Parents and children who often passed each other by as one went to school or sports and the other went to work are now getting to know one another.  When God is at the center of the family and their trust is in Him, then the inconveniences of the Covid-19 era are not earth shattering.  As we resume worship, more families are seeking baptism, weddings, confirmations, and Christian education to strengthen their families and the understanding of the God who makes spouses, “no longer two but one.” (Mt. 19:6).  Turning from an idol back to the Living God will always yield better results than what the idol promises.
    Of course there are a great many more idols that have been knocked off their pedestals these last few months, but just take a few moments and consider what it is that you “fear, love, and trust in…above all other things.”.  In the next installment we’ll continue looking at some of these idols in their post-Covid state as well as an idol of my own making that I just recently realized had become an idol in my life.    
    Until that time, I’ll leave you with John’s words, “Children, keep yourselves from idols.”  
​                                                                                                             -Amen.

     Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.  He sends you abundant showers, as before, both autumn and spring rains.  The threshing floor will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
​                                                                                                                            - Joel 2:23-24
 
   According to my outdoor thermometer, it dropped down to 47 degrees last night, and my tomatoes were not happy.  When I let the dogs out at 7 AM, I could see my breath.  I expect this to happen in September sometime, just not as early as it happened this year.  My walnut tree is already turning yellow and losing leaves and for the first time since April, I had to grab a jacket when I left the house.  This can mean only one thing; Fall has fallen upon us.
    It’s definitely a time for the changing of the seasons, even if Covid-19 is still present and active and the official start of Fall (autumnal equinox) is still a week away on Sept. 22.  Monday night Football has begun (as have Sunday and Thursday games - go Patriots!).  Baseball is winding down and getting into playoff mode, even though the season was delayed due to Covid.  School has started again, though in hybrid, online, and / or in person modes.  Beach-going is over for the year and summer vacations are done.  While we may miss summer and all its activities and joys, we rejoice in the coming of the autumn season.
    Back in Joel’s day there was a rejoicing at the coming of autumn as well.  After a long and dry summer, the rainy season would begin.  Crops would swell and the grapes ripen for pressing into wine.  Last year’s spring calves and lambs would now be at “market weight” and provide fats and proteins for the coming long dark and cold of winter.  It was a time when wheat sown in the spring would be harvested and ground into flour to give us our daily bread.  There is an abundance to autumn that just doesn’t happen in any other season of the year.  In our time and place, we may look forward to “pumpkin spice” ____ (well, everything seems to be pumpkin spice now) as well as apple picking, pumpkin picking, fall mums and other late blooming flowers, hayrides, bonfires, and the distinctively fall smell to the air.
    It is a change of season for the Church as well.  We entered Pentecost just before the start of summer and will remain in the season until November 29 when a new Church year begins.  So while we may not change the altar paraments to a new color, the texts and themes of our weekly readings have undergone a change of focus.  For the next several weeks, we have a prelude of the coming end times as many of the parables and miracle accounts speak of “…so it will be when the Son of Man comes in His glory….”  As we enter into October the theme shifts to one of harvests and reaping a harvest of souls for Christ or bearing fruit of the Kingdom of heaven.  In November, as we count down the last few weeks of the Church year, we get to the specifics of Christ’s second coming in glory to judge both the quick and the dead.  Liturgically it’s still Pentecost, but there is a definite change of seasons as well.
    It is a time of transition in our organizational life as well.  Until Reformation Day (Oct. 25) and probably for some time after that, we will be sharing our pastor with Our Savior, Stanhope.  Soon it will be time to look to 2021 and start setting our ministry goals and what resources we’ll need to meet those goals (aka budget).  After many seasons of warnings about declining worship attendance, participation in the “nuts & bolts” of running the church as an institution (officers, programs, etc), reduced giving, and other reductions, it is certain that we cannot enter 2021 with the same mindset and organization we did for 2018.  What 2021 will look like, we don’t know yet.  It will certainly be different than 2011 as we are no longer the congregation we were ten years ago.  Fall is when this transition begins to take place
    But even though much may change, there are some things that will remain the same or at least very similar. The sun may rise later and set earlier each day throughout autumn, but it still rises in the east and sets in the west each day.  The days may be mild (instead of brutally hot) and the nights get chilly - but this happens every autumn and is not unexpected.  Our service time may have changed from 10:00 to 10:45 to allow pastor to preach at Stanhope at 9:00, but we still hear God’s Word in its fullness, truth, and purity each week and get to receive the Sacrament administered according to Christ's institution each week.  Add to this all the Covid-19 protocols and we see many things changing, yet remaining familiar.
    C. S. Lewis calls this “the Law of Undulation”.  In both Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, he highlights this fundamental law of how God works with us.  Every season is different, yet always the same.  Fall may or may not start on the equinox, but it always has certain things that typify Fall.  In November we’ll have new (maybe) political leaders, but we’ll still have our three branches of government.  Worship changes every week - different hymns, readings, sermons, prayers - but it is always the same - Invocation, God’s Word, our response, the Lord’s Supper, blessing.  This Law of Undulation is universal throughout our world, sacred and secular.  Thus one may say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  We’ll look more at this Law of Undulation in our weekly Table Talk on September 23 on Zoom - I hope you’ll join us for it.
    In the meantime, pull out your sweaters and pack away your shorts, rake leaves, go for a drive through the beautiful Fall scenery as the leaves show God’s creative wonders.  Some things may change, but God’s love for us endures forever.  Amen.

                                                                                      Pastor Brian

    Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may honor Your name.   - Psalm 86:11 

    When did your education come to an end?  High school?  College?  On the job training?  When did you stop learning?  This can be very difficult to answer as our world is always changing and we’re always learning new things.  Formal, institutional instruction may end with a degree, but that doesn’t mean the learning has stopped.  I consider it a wasted day if I haven’t picked up at least one piece of information I didn’t know before.  Granted, some may say that I’m a walking compendium of useless information (like how many stomachs a sheep has and the names of all 4 of them), but our learning is never supposed to come to an end.
    The last couple of weeks we looked at the upcoming school year and colleges reopening in the midst of Covid-19.  Last week we looked at how our preschool provides more than just a basic education to the children and families we serve. Today I’d like to explore why we still need to keep learning even as adults.  We see the need for this in the worldly realm as more than 1/3 of students in colleges and universities now (especially online) are adults in their 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s training for a new career.  No longer do we go to school for x years, get a job in ___ field, and then stay with that employer throughout our lives.  It is now expected that a member of generation z (the one that comes after the Millennials) will change careers at least 4 times throughout life.  This isn’t just changing jobs or companies, this is changing one’s career field; like going from an accountant to a mechanical engineer.  Each of these vocations requires a certain skill set and training to be proficient.
    But what about faith learning.  Certainly we learned all we need to know in Sunday School and Confirmation class.  As can be seen from Redeemer and other Sunday schools, less than 1/10th of the children “on the books” are partaking of Christian education weekly. Pew Research Co. has that number down to 1 out of 20 children overall.  It doesn’t get much better when they hit their teens and it’s time for Confirmation - 75% of children baptized never confirm their baptism.  And this carries through to adulthood.  Only about 1 in 10 Christians worshiping on a Sunday morning will attend a Bible class sometime during that week.  So it should come as no surprise that those who claim to be Christians really don’t know much about what the Bible says about the faith they hold.  This is also why those being trained in preaching (homiletics) are being taught to make their sermons “didactic” or “teachable”.  It’s the only time 90% of the people will receive any Bible instruction.
    Yet this is the polar opposite of what we find in both the Old and New testaments.  Moses commanded God’s people to “talk about these things when….” (Dt. 6) and saw all of life as an opportunity to learn more about God and His workings in our lives.  Jesus called His followers “disciples”, which is another name for students.  We are not just to follow Jesus or to believe in Him, we are meant to learn from Him and emulate His actions.  His disciples ranged in age from their late teens (John) to the late 30’s / early 40’s (Peter).  Even the great teacher, St. Paul, spent 12 years learning more about Jesus before beginning his missionary work. 
    In the early Church, one of the first things that was done was to set up Christian education centers, called monasteries, for the instruction of both young and old.  In the Celtic Christian tradition this education was offered regardless of gender - yes, those silly Celts even taught women to read and write; scandalous in the 400’s!  Luther would promote and encourage learning at all ages and even developed text books to aid in learning (Small Catechism for kids, Large Catechism for adults).  The point is, our learning about God and how to live as Christians never ends.
    But how do we do this in a post Covid-19 world?  We can’t all gather around a table shoulder to shoulder sharing Bibles and other resources.  Wiki, YouTube, and Google have their limitations.  Zoom could be an effective way of getting together while staying socially distanced - but there’s always background noise, technical glitches, and the like.  Facebook live and webinars (non interactive Zoom meetings) can work well so long as there aren’t too many questions.  So how are we to continue learning when in person instruction is out and technological teaching has its shortcomings?  
    The best way is the way it’s always been done - one on one with a mentor and a mentee. Most of the instruction we are told to do takes place in this one to one environment, usually a parent or grandparent passing down what they have learned to their offspring.  Yet those who experienced the homeschooling experiment of March to June realize that the parents need to be informed first to be able to teach.  Even if its not perfect, professor-level learning, the faith can be taught by letting the faith be caught.  Our lifestyle and example will teach far more than our words will.
    So will you walk the path the Lord has set, to walk in His ways as the Psalmists so often encourage?  Will you teach and share what you know, while still learning and growing in your faith yourself?  As we as a nation prepare to go “back to school” don’t let the new ways of learning make you a truant and leave you “simple”.  Join with us Sunday mornings for worship (online if that’s the safest option for you), on our Wednesday night Zoom devotions, or other ways of coming together to learn from Lord Jesus.  There’s plenty left to learn, let’s learn it together.  Amen.

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    Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.  She is more precious than rubies: nothing you desire can compare with her.
                                                                                                                                      - Proverbs 3:13-15
 
    “Education in a Christian atmosphere.”  That is the motto and mission of our Redeemer Preschool.  It guides not only what we do but how we do it.  It sums up how we see “the preschool” as an integral part of our ministry here at Redeemer - we could no more divorce ourselves from the preschool than we could from preaching or the Sacrament.  It is part of who we are as Christ’s body in this time and place.  While providing an education in a Christian atmosphere is not the only ministry of Redeemer, it is our chief ministry.  We impact more lives through the preschool than we do in any other ministry, including Sunday morning worship.
    Last week we looked at education in general and the challenges facing teaching our young in a Covid-19 era.  Now let’s turn our attention to the efforts of our preschool ministry and how they are carrying out the command to “help your neighbor in his every need;” for there is certainly a need for early childhood education.  Let’s use the preschool’s motto / mission statement as our guide.
    The first part is providing an education.  What is to be taught is determined by the State.  There are academic standards which say that by the end of the first preschool year a child should be able to recognize shapes, sort by size differences, have developed fine and gross motor skills, etc.  .  By the end of the second year, in preparation for kindergarten, a child should be able to count to 10, know shapes and colors, be able to recite the alphabet and know the sounds for each letter, know the days of the week and months of the year, and things like that.  This is true for public, private, and parochial schools - but that’s where the similarities end.  
    The state may say what is to be taught, but they give great license on how it is taught.  At Redeemer Preschool, these “facts and figures” are taught in a number of ways.  We learn about shapes by not only looking at pictures of squares and circles, but by holding a parachute as we try to get the ball through the hole in the middle (what shape is the parachute, what colors do you see, etc.).  As children learn tumbling they find that their bodies can become triangles or two of them may form a square, or they may have 4,6,8, or 10 come together and make a rectangle.  In stories and songs they learn about the letter “B” and all the “buh” sounds of words with b’s in them (the the butterfly on the bubble).  They learn to count while assembling crafts or doing drawings that will soon hang on refrigerator doors.  There are so many ways of passing on this information and our teachers and aides are some of the best at using multiple ways for the children to learn and retain this information.
    It is not surprising then that the kindergarten teachers of Newton, Sparta, Andover (both township and borough) and other school districts know when they have a child who came through Redeemer preschool.  When our students leave here, they are among the best prepared for the next step of their academic endeavors.  Over the last 40+ years, Redeemer has built a reputation for excellence and not a few of our students are 2nd or third generation Redeemer preschoolers.  This is a testament to our teaching staff and also proof positive that we are fulfilling our Christian duty to help our neighbor in this way.
    But learning ABC’s and 123’s is a very small part of providing an education and not what makes Redeemer Preschool unique among the number of early childhood education options in our community.  The second part of the mission statement is also critically important - “in a Christian atmosphere.”  What does this mean?  Well let’s break it down a bit.
   When you hear the word “atmosphere” what comes to mind?  As a nerd, my mind goes to the mixture of gases (67% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 3 % carbon dioxide, and other trace gases and water vapor) that are gravitationally bound to the planet and exert a pressure of 14.1 pounds per square inch on everything at sea level.  The more basic answer is “air”.  The atmosphere is the air we breathe.  It surrounds us and makes life possible.
    A Christian atmosphere would then be Christ surrounding us, giving us life, and being in every breath we take.  Christ is in everything we do as a preschool.  He is in the numbers (count the loaves and the fishes).  He is in the seasons and the days (Sunday is the Lord’s Day because He rose from the dead on a Sunday).  He is in the songs we sing, the words we speak and read, the games we play, the food we share.  He “is our all in all" as one of our songs so simply puts it.  You don’t have to go very far to find Jesus at our preschool - He is everywhere and in everything.  
    This is far different from Kinder Care or other preschools.  This makes Redeemer unique among early childhood education opportunities in our area. This is also what makes the preschool part and parcel of the Church and her ministry.  Just because you don’t have a child or grandchild in our preschool this year does not mean that you have nothing to do with the preschool.  This is our congregation’s primary way of carrying out Jesus’ commission to “make disciples of all nations”.   This is not just the preschool staff’s ministry, this is your ministry.  This is the way that we meet and serve our neighbor and share the Good news of salvation through Christ alone with them.  
    So how will you support this wonderful opportunity we have to serve our neighbors with their need to “raise up a child in the way he should go, so when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Prov.22:6)?  Will you help our staff provide this vital ministry to the children of our community with your time, talents, and treasures?
Will you pray for our preschool families and those who are weighing the risks of sending their children to school as Covid-19 is still making headlines?  Will you pray for and support our teachers and aides as they perform this ministry on the congregation’s behalf?  
    As we prepare for the beginning of another school year, please stay tuned for updates as to how you can help Redeemer Preschool serve the needs of our neighbors. As we go through this pandemic school year, I’m sure the plans we have in mid-August will be modified by mid-September and change yet again by the end of October.  It’s going to be a wild (but worthy) ride, so please keep your arms and legs inside the carriage until the ride comes to a complete stop.  
 
                                                                                                                             - Pastor Brian

   Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.  At the feet of Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.”                                                                                                                          - Acts 22:3
 
   As we come to the end of August, the news is full of plans for “back to school”.  How do we go back to the classroom while we are still unable to eat at a restaurant indoors.  Sitting in an enclosed room for an hour to eat will cause a “spike” in corona virus infections, but sitting for 6 hours in a room with kids who have trouble keeping a mask on for more than 10 minutes is OK?  Even if (and this is a big if) children have a lesser rate of infection and symptoms, what about the teachers, bus drivers, custodians, office staff, and cafeteria workers?  How do we keep them safe?
    I’ve seen a lot of different reports of what various school districts are doing around the country and a few things have become clear.  This will not be school as we knew it back in September of 2019.  Perhaps the biggest difference will be in the social aspect of school.  Most schools will not have cafeteria service and students will eat at their desks maintaining the requisite 6 ft. distancing from each other.  No more sitting with friends around the lunch table.  For the younger kids, recess is canceled as are sports and clubs for the older crowd.  For many students this is the main reason to go to school, to see and socialize with friends - also the cause of much school aged anxieties.  Is it still school without the social aspects?
    Back in March there was a rapid transition to online learning with the end result of many parents saying there is too much “screen time” and not all children are visual learners.  It doesn’t look like this will change much come autumn.  We can’t use books as there’s no way to sanitize paper without destroying it.  Teachers can’t pass out or collect homework sheets due to concerns about disease transmission, and with the greater distances between students and students and teachers, some kids will have even more trouble seeing or hearing the teacher.  So what’s left?  Having the kids pull out their Chromebooks (or other tablet) at their desk and submit all homework in electronic fashion.  This isn’t very different from what was happening at home.
    The other thing most educators and officials agree on, though not often told to parents, is that the likelihood of another shut-down / closure is very high.  Georgia is the first state to reopen their schools and EVERY district has had to shut down again to do contact tracing, testing, “deep cleaning”, and in some cases quarantining of students.  These are usually only 2-3 day shut-downs, but they happen frequently.  Will this happen in NJ where we have a lower transmission rate?  Only time will tell.
    There are also concerns about teacher shortages and qualifications.  If the math teacher gets sick, or is exposed and so has to quarantine at home for two weeks, who will teach.  Do we want the English teacher guiding the class through trigonometry?
Will the physical education teacher be able to lead students through Romeo and Juliet?  There are also many teachers who due to health conditions or age are at high risk for complications or death from Covid-19 and so may opt for early retirement.  Despite government comments to the contrary, teachers never signed up to be “front line workers” in the fight against this virus.  Don’t even get me started on their abysmal pay or the lack of respect for teachers in schools today!
     So what do we do?  How are we to teach our children what they need to know to function and prosper in today’s world?  It is worth remembering that basic education for all is a relatively new concept in human history.  We’ve only been doing mandatory, guaranteed, public, education for about 175 years (mid 1800’s were first public schools).  When I served in Nebraska in the 1990’s, many of the older farmers spoke with pride of having gotten up to 6th grade - as that was all that was required in rural areas in the 1930’s.  When we look at global education, we find that 40% of the earth’s population cannot read or write or do simple arithmetic. Yet the world continued to revolve around the sun and spin on its axis.  
    Prior to the 1840’s, basic education was done at home.  There would be the learning of letters and numbers, how to write (as there was no texting or email), as well as some vocational training.  Sons would often learn their father’s trade (much like Jesus learned the trade of Joseph), and daughters would learn how to manage a household and make sure everyone was fed, clothed, medicated, etc.  Today we call this sexist (misogynistic I think is the term in vogue) and old fashioned, but it worked for thousands of years of human civilization.
    Another aspect to this at home, unstructured, learning, was the moral component.  From Socrates teaching at the symposium in Athens, to Luther’s Small Catechism, to “student handbooks” of today, an understanding of morals and ethics was part of the educational experience.  Paul too would be taught the law of God by the great Pharisee Gamaliel.  This was not theoretical metaphysics, this was day to day, real world, practical actions and thought patterns.  The third generation Socrator (disciple of Socrates), Aristotle, spent most of his instructional time with the young Prince of Macedon (Alexander the Great) teaching him ethics.  How to live a virtuous life, pleasing to the gods, was far more important than calculating the parabolic arc of a catapult shot.  Education in the Christian era also focused first and foremost on knowing God and His expectations for us, what we now call “character development”. Even in public schools, the Bible was a source for learning how to read (long before the Dick and Jane series or Magic School bus).  That all changed in the 1960’s and we’re reaping the results of that as a society now.  But teaching at home one can incorporate the Biblical world view into all other realms of learning.  
    So what will schools look like when they reopen here in another 3 weeks or so?  That’s the great unknown.  We have no more idea of what October will look like at this point than we knew about April back in January.  Amid all the changes of this school year, one thing remains the same.  Children learn more from their parents (and other primary caregivers) than from anyone else.  Okay, maybe you aren’t teaching them the Pythagorean theorem, but you are imparting life lessons by your example and how you live your life.  You are teaching your children or grandchildren what is important in life with every interaction you have with them.  
    In closing then, I would turn you to a more modern paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6, that of Crosby, Stills, and Nash where we are encouraged to “Teach, your children well…”  Whatever may happen with the public schools this year, we have the opportunity (and duty) to be teachers to the children in our care.  May God bless you in this endeavor.  Next week we will take a look at our Redeemer Preschool and why this is such a vital ministry not just for the preschoolers, but for us as a congregation as well. 
​                                                             Until then, may God’s peace be upon you.