Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.            Matthew 5:16

Each Confirmand in Scott Lehman’s Small Group was asked these questions: At each baptism, parents and sponsors make promises to raise their children up to follow Jesus, and this Bible verse is spoken.  How have your parents kept those promises and encouraged you to follow Jesus?  How have you lived out your baptism and your faith, “letting your light shine before others?”

Ryan McCordick – My parents have kept their promise, by always making me pray, and saying that I have to go to church and Confirmation every week, unless it is an emergency and I can’t go.  I let my light shine once with a friend.  He didn’t know what to write on a question.  He didn’t understand, so I explained it to him.  But, I didn’t give him the answer; I just explained what it was asking.

Rebecca McBrayer – My parents have had long, educated discussions about exactly what we believe with my sister and me.  These talks have helped me solidify just what I believe about Jesus.  A story is when I was in fifth grade; the choir director at my church (who just happened to be my mom) gave me part of a solo/duet type of song with another kid at church.  It was a song we sang at the Maundy Thursday service.  I was extremely nervous, and didn’t want to do it.  But, I did it and afterwards I was so happy that I did it, and I believe that God helped me do it.

Hannah Moran – My mom has really set an example in terms of helping out at church and staying devoted to God.  I also admire my Dad for sitting through at least two church services every year even though he’s an atheist.  I try and “let my light shine before others” every day through little things: holding doors open, giving someone notes in class, things like that.  My mom, however, told me that when I was a little kid, I gave my boots to a homeless girl at Christmas time.

Molly Travis – My parents have kept those promises by encouraging me to go to church to build a strong relationship with God.  They have acted as role models to me and have made sure that God is a part of my life.  I try to act and let my light shine before others by respecting others and doing what is right.  A time I did that was when I went to Jeremiah’s Inn and cooked and served food to the men there.

Dear God, thank you for the people in our lives who help our faith grow.  Make the light of your love shine through us so that others may see you at work in their own lives.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Confirmands

Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.           Joel 1:3

It is wonderful to be entrusted with the gift of children.  Along with every gift comes “responsibility” – the ability to respond to the giver of the gift.  We all have (or had) parents who shared with us their life lessons – things done well with their results and things done poorly with their results.  My parents lived through the “great depression”.  They shared with us by word and by deed, the things they learned from that experience.

With each generation the responsability grows, because there are more generations of experience to pass on.  God meant it to be a blending of experiences and lessons learned that will pass to our children and then to their children and then to theirs.  In  this passage from Joel the message is that experiences and results from them MUST be shared.  Only then can each generation learn from past mistakes to progress toward a time when all know God and respect Him for His love and grace.  Then perhaps we can all live together in peace, loving God, our maker and redeemer, above all else; and loving our sisters and brothers as ourselves.

Dear Lord, help us as we pass on from generation to generation your love and grace, so that this world might eventually be a kingdom where your will is done.  Amen.

Darlene Zuehl

Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.     Proverbs 22:6

It seems that when we church-going humans hit the magical age of eighteen, the majority of us disappear from the fold of the church.  I know I did.  When I went off to college, I became one of those twice-a-year Lutherans who materializes on Easter and Christmas.  The birth of my first child, however, also proved a magical age because presto, I reappeared at church on a more regular basis and today, my week is incomplete when I don’t attend a Sunday service.  Like Solomon, who penned the proverb, my parents were wise.  They trained me to choose the right path.

It’s different today though, isn’t it?  Just how different slapped me in the face several times when as a high school teacher, I realized that biblical allusions so prevalent in our literature were lost to a majority of my students.  These teen-agers had never seen the inside of a church, never mind heard the Bible stories being referenced in the literature.

Perhaps, today’s parents are too disgruntled or too disillusioned; too busy or too tired, but too many of them have not reappeared at church.  They have not trained their children, and now their children are wandering aimlessly, wondering which path to take. They don’t know God; they don’t know the love of Jesus. They are lost.

We need to listen for their cries and bring them home.

Ever gracious and loving Lord, open our hearts and our ears to the cries of the lost that with Your love and guidance, we can help them find their way to You.  Amen.

Paula Mathieu

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.      Matthew 28:19-20

There will come a time during your life when things go sideways.  At that point, you will start to question many things.  Despair and feelings of hopelessness will be like headlights staring you down.  It is at times like this that faith will carry you through the crisis.

It is truly a wonderful blessing knowing that God will be with you always, through the end of any crisis. My faith in God means I never have to go it alone – there is nothing more comforting or reassuring than knowing God is always there for you.  My wife constantly reminds our children of the importance of keeping faith front and center in their life so that when life goes sideways, they will have their faith to get them through.  Friends and family may not always be there for the tough times but you can always count on God being there for you.

If I had one gift that I could give, it would be the gift of “unwavering faith.”  The belief and understanding of God is with you through thick and thin.

Dear God:  please help all the people in the world who have no faith or lost their faith to rediscover the true meaning of what their faith is.  Amen.

George Herz

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.        Galatians 3:28

By heritage half Jew, half Gentile, I am the son of a Jewish mother and Catholic father.  While Christian by faith, I have always felt deeply connected to my Jewish roots, particularly within our strong tradition of Passover:  God’s faithful liberation of a people from bondage and His providence over a people chosen to preserve His seed of Truth in this world for all time.

At moments in my life of wavering faith, I have been suddenly overwhelmed by the Spirit with a conviction that we are preserved for that purpose.  I look back upon a truly uncanny history of continual persecution, with repeated attempts to destroy this people or their beliefs, and I see the altogether more uncanny survival of this tiny race through 5772 years of faithful monotheism, incredibly unaltered in its core beliefs.

Its influence on western culture is long and profound.  It is the root that by God’s hand is never allowed to die, its branches now spread to all corners of the earth, and I am moved to tears.

This is God’s great Tree of Life, Judaism the root, Christ the trunk, and Christians the branches that spread throughout the world God’s process of redemption for all.  The tree grows by the movement of the Holy Spirit in each one of us to reach out to everyone around us without prejudice:  with love, compassion, messages of the Spirit, and service to all as we become one body in Christ.

God, open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, help us to reach out more broadly, and grow Your tree of Life anew this Lenten season.  אָמֵן (Amein) and Amen.

Steve Lanser