It’s Friday

It’s Fiday

So t-shirts and shorts, and NO! Not my sandals!

Well… we will wait a bit for those…

But they get put away and long sleeves, sweaters and jackets are put in their places. And hats… can’t forget about hats, now that the dome shines more every year….

Changes… ch-ch-ch-ch changes…

Turn and face…

There’s gonna have to be a different man…

And yet…

It is quite well known that Lutherans do NOT like change.

I mean the old joke of asking how many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb…

Well, it has been working since 1941, and it still seems to have a faint glow….

Do we have any new old-stock from then?

There is that old Eastern Orthodox saying that has merit: if it’s new, it most likely is heresy!

But then there is the ad for the public radio classical music broadcast that states that even classical music was new once… or something like that.

The Bible says that there is nothing new under the sun.

Which means that there is an upper limit to what can be imagined. There is only so many things that can be made with the materials we have been given in this created universe.

To Tolkien the world no longer extends outward toward heaven, but had been curved in on itself…

(His little flat earther joke!)

You see, one could sail to heaven in those days before the fall of Númenor. But because of its evil, it was sunk and the way closed. The world was made round. No way out, but death.

So, change as we might, all things remain the same.

Until “chance came”! Ha. Another of Tolkien’s little jokes. As the old wizard said, in his “experience there is no such thing as luck!”

We were meant to be led on the only path out of corrupted creation.

Our usual response is, “I wish it need not have happened….” to me… to you… to them….

And the answer?

We could be personal about it or want to wave the hand over all the earth…

But it has to be said that, “…and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given.”

And so change we must. But thank God that it happens mostly to us. It is not as much of a decision as it is a letting go.

And I am not talking about Pentecostal or mystic nonsense.

I mean with the knowledge that God does not play games with us or with our lives. What is put in front of us is what we are to do. He lets us decide about a lot of things.

Our choices, if there is no reason to suspect any evil or sinfulness in it, are fine. God is not waiting for us to figure out the best. He is not waiting for us to find the “slipstream” of spiritual-ness to tap into so that we can buy the right car, marry the right person, accept the best job, or whatever else!

If we buy a red car rather than the other choice, the blue one, and that red car is riddled with problems, that is not because you chose poorly.

God sends us trials and tribulations. It is training in righteousness that He is implementing.

But… now… I remember that there was a man once who swears (yeah, that too many a time) that his cross, that God has sent him, is that he always has car trouble. Any car he touches never works right. Never has…and seemingly, ever will. I imagine that in heaven, he will have a lot full of the most well (angel grease monkeys!) maintained cars! Just kidding… well… but you never know….

But anyway, the devil is telling us that those problems are because we have chosen badly! There are issues from our bad job of listening. Somehow, we were supposed to know… if we are good Christians, that is… and tough luck if we are not!

NOT TRUE! God only speaks to us through His WORD! There are other special occasions, but in those cases, there will be no doubt that something very supernatural is happening.

But then you have figure out if it is God or a mean trick of the devil. God rarely does the big showy stuff. That is because for us humans, it makes things all the more complicated and mixed up. We focus on the show rather than the reason why the message was given, or the content of the message.

So, its about letting go and trusting God. Letting go and agreeing with God. Letting go and just doing that which is in front of us (as long as it is good and right and not sinful). Letting go and putting the best construction on the situation. Letting go and looking to heaven rather than this earth.

Letting go and being who you now are. A child of God rather than a worldling.

More time spent with your own kind helps us be better at it among those wanna-be’s out there. That we were once.

But now that we have been changed by Him…

We come into His courts to learn His ways, eat His food, drink His drink… hear His language…

Look at pictures of our new homeland…

Practice His etiquette. Learn His songs.

As yes, even though this is Friday, it will soon be Sunday… where will once more join in this great court assembled… the whole church here on earth, and in heaven…

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Sunday, November 1, 2026  – The Feast of all Saints
First Lesson – Revelation 7:2-17
Epistle Lesson – 1 John 3:1-3
Gospel – Matthew 5:1-12
Sermon Theme – WHAT IS A SAINT?
Based on the Epistle reading – 1 John 3:103

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Prayers: For a lasting peace that would be established and would remain between the people of Israel and Gaza as well as for the People of Russia and the Ukraine. Between the US and Iran. For our congregation that it would please our Lord that we would increase in numbers and there remain in this place a congregation that calls upon Him rightly, practicing the faith according to the Scriptures. For those who are being persecuted and murdered because they call upon the name of Jesus—especially in Africa. For the end of violence in our cites and that our schools and congregations would be protected from those who wish them harm. For our families that parents would courageously discipline their children and raise them in the fear of the Lord, teaching them about salvation in Jesus alone.