dieciséis

San Francisco beckons. Driving behind a zig zagging highway patrol car, broken honda on the embankment. Turning heads, passing the disaster, resuming speed limit. Flintstone house burnt orange. Wishing to see the inside and meet the owners. Onward, Father Serra points us.

The Park. Full of heady sights, sounds, and smells. Foxglove, mock orange, pink toddlers twirling in a field of white flowers, grass, rain, umbrellas, taxis, rhododendrons, people, vistas, planking, elevators, trees, sailboats, golden gate bridge, whitecaps, frisbees, picnic, raspberries, de Young, sphinx, bagels, laughter, smiles, bing cherries. Planking for three hundred photographs. Yes planking.

Japanese Tea Garden. Green tea with brown rice, warm. Ah, relief from drizzle and drain. Sunrays spotted. Friendly waiter. Mochi melts. Ducks on the water. Blossomless cherry trees. Year of the Rabbit. In more ways than one, year of the rabbit.

Talent Show of Harbor High. 7:30 curtain. Avoiding the rain, waiting for doors to open. Mother and daughter huddle, small umbrella. Larry in Idaho. Awaiting his return patiently, praying for safety and peace. Good talent. One singular student guitaring while singing of Jesus. Impressed with bravery.

Sunday church and sleep. Choir. Recovering. Rest. Rabbit. Michante.

Monday is it! Pirates, pancakes, popcorn. Laughing, smiling, listening to stories of planking. BJ's. Good-bye quince. Unbelievable to me.

Exposed

"These people are not real" are words spoken to self-protect. I am real. Not merely words passing via a mysterious computer language. I am real. Reality lives beyond the electronic screen with words and sounds.

Fear of loss stems from one-sided requirements of a friendship. My hurts and angers cause forsakeness. Trying to keep them to myself, I cannot. They explode in my head, and then appear on the screen. Too late to backspace. They lay naked, exposed. Expect rejection.

Exclusion, non-communication, used as a bit to try to rein. The pony winces and neighs but it cries where none can hear. Rejection worked the first time. This time anger results. Hurt responds. One sided friendships are not friendships, are they?

Tears dried by ocean breezes while walking past school children playing. Tears hidden behind sunglasses, screens. They are real tears. I have real feelings. I am real. Stomach churns. Loyalty can be a weapon used against me. Grief stricken.

My friend, my friend, what does thou require of me? Whatever it is, it is law and unreachable.

"What is wrong, sis?" A friend listens to my anger, in spite of struggles. "Your sins are forgiven in Jesus."

Tears flow.

Rivers

"Mom, why are you and Daddy able to forgive me and not only me, but my friends, when their own parents don't?"

Wow. What a question for a parent to hear from their teenager! Aren't car rides wonderful things? A place for people to not make eye contact, but have the most heartfelt of conversations. This was a door flung wide open with horses out in the yard in bright daylight. In that one question I could see into our daughter's thoughtfulness, her friends' lives, and an opportunity for a much bigger conversation.

Christians understand forgiveness because we know that we are forgiven. Our friends who do not know Jesus, do not understand true forgiveness. The forgiveness that Jesus provides is free flowing, like a mountain river after the winters' snow melts, it is overwhelming. Our friends that have not heard about Jesus' and all He has done for us do not know that free flowing forgiveness that has no requirements attached to it.

When friends see that forgiveness flowing from us, they may ask about it, and it turns into a wonderful opportunity to tell them about the forgiveness they have in Jesus. He has placed no requirements at all on that forgiveness, it is already there for them and for us. It takes us, or another person, to tell them this happy news so that they are able to see the forgiveness.

May the peace of the Lord be with you!

Seeds of the Atonement of Jesus

And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." Mark 4

In this tiny parable, Jesus tells us that the Good News of salvation is to be spread without a care as to who hears it. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that produces the faith in us. We hear the good news of forgiveness of sin, and we believe.

We cannot explain how it happens as we are not told how. In fact, in this little parable it says the man that scatters seed does not know how it happens, and that the earth produces by itself. It is the Holy Spirit using the Gospel that does the work.

And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12

In this parable, Jesus speaks of his own death, burial, and resurrection. It is He that bears fruit, it is He that brings us life. We are the fruit that Jesus has borne. It is because of Father's great love for us that Jesus fell into the earth and died. After three days in the earth, He rose to life. We have heard the gospel, it has killed our old man, and raised up the creature of faith.

Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

http://fivepintlutheran.blogspot.com/2011/04/jesus-our-mercy-seat.html
http://luthermatic.blogspot.com/2011/04/cross-and-idolatry_22.html

Forgiveness

The gospel is the good news that your sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus. There is nothing to add on to that good news. Not even a "if you repent". Our forgiveness does not depend on our reaction to it. It already is. We are forgiven.

Training Soldiers

One's view of the sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, shows itself in how one reads scripture. For instance, when one views baptism as merely an entrance into the covenant, all kinds of equivocation takes place surrounded verses that talk about the efficacy of baptism.

Abraham Kuyper is a name easily recognized among Calvinists. He is highly regarded and well-respected as a reformed theologian. Recently, I heard this quote from Abraham Kuyper, "The children of believers are to be considered as recipients of efficacious grace in whom the work of efficacious grace has already begun. And that when dying before having attained to years of discretion they can only be regarded as saved. Of course, Calvinists never declared that these things were necessarily so as they never permitted themselves to pronounce official judgment on the inward state of an adult but left the judgment to God. So they have never ususrped the right to pronounce on the presence or absence of spiritual life of infants."

Compare that quote against what scripture says about baptism, that it confers salvation, new life, makes disciples,forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise of resurrection, to name the promises.

I also found this catechism for Calvinists regarding infant baptism. It is full of equivocations. The very first question is about whether an infant is part of the covenant of grace.

Question 1. Are Infants of believers included in the Covenant of GraceAnswer: Yes, children are included in the Covenant of Grace, and the visible church."

What is the covenant of grace they are talking about? The catechism is stating that is it for entrance into the visible church. Did Jesus institute a covenant for entrance into the visible church?

This is the covenant Jesus instituted.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.

~Luke 22:19-21

Today in Sunday School we asked young children how one knows that Jesus loves them. One little boy said, "When the pastor puts water on our foreheads, we know we belong to Jesus."

Out of the mouths of babes comes the straightforward answer. There was no hedging the bet, there was no equivocation by adding "baptized into the covenant of the visible church". This little boy's yes was yes!

And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.

~Matthew 5:36-37

The Reality

Types and shadows are in the Old Testament. They point to the promised Messiah. Then Jesus arrives on the scene. He brings the real deal. The shadows are brought into the light, no longer hidden.

Jesus would not institute a type or a shadow. He brings with him grace and truth. Jesus brings us gifts. The gift of salvation, the gift of baptism, the gift of new life, the gift of remission of sins, the gift of The Lord's Supper, and many more that I have not named. Dear reader, please remind me of the other gifts Jesus gives us in your comments!

These gifts are all grace. Jesus brings to us good things that we don't deserve. This is the reality. It is not a type or a shadow. Types and shadows are done away with because Jesus, our reality, is here.

I am baptized! Thank you Jesus for your grace and truth.