War….again
Pray for the regions in the Middle East that are at war, but remember who our friends are.
Like you, I woke up on Saturday to learn that Israel was under an attack from Hamas and Hezbollah. While there are often attacks from the Gaza Strip with rockets aimed at Israeli cities near the border. Saturday was much more severe, with Hamas seemingly taking advantage of a music festival in Israel neat the Gaza Strip. The barbarity of these attacks is disgusting, as reflected by the news networks even in their attempt to be “neutral”. How can someone be neutral when it is quite obvious that the usual players are carrying out these atrocious attacks.
There are numerous people who are much more qualified to react to these attacks from a military, cultural and social perspective. My own bandwidth is to react from the viewpoint an elderly Lutheran pastor, a veteran (Vietnam Era and Desert Storm era), a father, grandfather and soon a great-grandfather.
Of course I am concerned about war and how it is conducted. I have a passionate concern with how advances in trauma care can be used in the prehospital emergency medical services to provide better care not only from the casualties of war, but here in the USA to care for as many gun shot wounds, brutal attacks, and the psychological trauma the average Paramedic sees in an average week.
I am very concerned with the emotional care of those younger than me, while I deal with my own trauma both physically and emotionally. We are becoming a very (over?) sensitive people. I observe very different emotional responses amongst our generations. I, of all people, am accused of being “insensitive” to others where I cannot honestly see where this is happening. The definition of everything seems to be changing so much that my use of words is attacked as being uncaring.
All these are mere symptoms of a deeper problem: our relationship with God is complicated. My own tribe of Christians looks at the world as it is without shock or unbelief. It is expected as our world is fundamentally fallen because it is without God. The mere mention of God is enough to “trigger” deep emotional reactions.
As a Boomer, I witnessed my own generation leaving the church they attended weekly as children. When we had kids, most used the lame “they can decide when they are old enough” excuse. While I am sure that there is a genuine atheism out there, most of my own generation left the church when their youngest child was Confirmed. That left those young people confused. For all of those years they went to church, to Confirmation class and suddenly we are no longer attending.
As a Pastor I find this practice confusing and it often lead to jokes like this: A Catholic priest, Lutheran Pastor and Jewish Rabbi were having coffee when the Rabbi complained about a flock of birds which seemed to target their parking lot with their droppings. The Lutheran Pastor and Catholic Priest looked at each other and said “just Baptize and Confirm them and they will never return”.
I am afraid that most of those who were left to their own direction when it came to “choosing” never tried the Church of their parents except maybe on Christmas and Easter. As they grew up and started having children the possibility of going to church was never even considered. Now there are 2 generations that do not know Christ and do not receive Biblical teaching or the sacraments. They would be hard pressed to define the “Good Samaritan” as this was not part of their training or formation.
All of this being said, the Christian Church is One, she is Holy, Apostolic, and universal in scope. The church is God’s not ours. We who follow Christ Jesus know the “way, the truth and the life” and are secure in our beliefs. That being said, since her beginning the Church was evangelistic. Using that word today even causes me to recall the era of the TV “evangelist” who it was often proved was most skilled at creating a luxurious lifestyle for himself. No, that is not evangelism. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is: God! The Triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the mystery of God’s love for His creation and people. I know this in the deepest parts of my body and soul and will do my best to convey the love of God to those I am privileged to serve.
I am encouraged by the number of younger families that are attending Risen Savior on a very regular basis. I am even more encouraged because they favor the Traditional Service we offer over the Contemporary Service which we also offer with excellence (but whose worshippers I do not see because I am on the opposite side of our campus). These young parents are encouraged by the reception they are receiving from those of other generations in the congregation. While the numbers of worshippers will likely never equal those I experienced as a child, my goal is to encourage each young father and mother to continue to be with us. I stress that the children should sit with their family, close to the front of the sanctuary so that the children can interact with the Liturgy I am leading. For decades I have been waiting for these young parents who see the world around them and turn to the Prince of Peace for their own salvation and that of their children.
From war to church attendance? WOW, my ADHD really comes out in my writing too! If you are similarly afflicted you will not find this distracting, if not you will marvel that I can even carry out daily living. I’ve had 70 years to fine tune my brain but I can’t seem to locate the tuning results of my work….yeah, I know.
God bless you for reading and thanks for the encouragement from subscribers past to return to writing. Please always feel free to comment below. I do read and react to your comments. If you have topics you would like to me to consider, please share that as well.