Harvest, Hail, Hope. Tonight’s Reflections on Psalm 147:12-20
September 10, 2015
It’s almost harvest time.
Almost.
The time when those who farm look to the fields, to the crops drying down, awaiting baler or combine. We look to the skies as well, not to mention the weather radar, and each other, as we wait and remind ourselves of the all-too obvious:
“It’s not in the bin (or barn or stack) yet.”
Another “h” word hangs in our thoughts, unbidden, unwelcomed, a word we’d rather not even think of, let alone utter.
That “h” word crashed loud around us this afternoon: The size of shooter, marbles, ping-pong balls, even some that fill the palm of a good-sized, hard-working hand. Windows, siding, vehicles, and, yes, crops in the field, all testify, silently, to what the US National Weather Service Hastings Nebraska will soon summarize in its daily report, what insurance adjusters will evaluate, what some saw when they emerged from shelter of basement, house, barn or vehicle. What won’t be fullly seen until morning, but what we can smell, the telltale scent of shredded corn, beans and hay.
Yet … another “h” word dares whisper to our hearts and minds, dares to reflect light from the post-storm sky. Multihued, a double-arch in some cases, breaking through stark grey clouds that so recently rained destruction. It is the word that caused us to plant in the first place, to till, to tend, and, yes, even to re-plant when earlier clouds rained, in double-digit amounts, on newly-seeded fields last spring. A word that cannot be shattered or washed away or silenced.
Seasons and cycles.
Sudden shock, then silence.
Then, the still, small voice.
Harvest. Hail. Hope.
–Pastor Cathi’s reflections on Psalm 147:12-20, on a stormy night in her interim parish, mid- September 2015, Deshler (Thayer County) Nebraska
First, Last, and In-The-Meantime
April 16, 2014
Journal: April 16, A.D. 2014. Wednesday of Holy Week.
Today is the 46th anniversary of my baptism, in the name of Father, +Son and Holy Spirit, into the one holy, catholic and apostolic church. If on that day anyone would have told me where walking wet in my baptism would lead, I would have just laughed.
Now, 46 years later, I can only say, “Thanks be to God!” — and chuckle when I look back. Whoever it was who described Holy Baptism as “a onetime event that takes a lifetime to complete” wasn’t kidding.
It’s Holy Week in the Church, Holy Wednesday to be more precise, the end of a three-year season of public ministry for Jesus Christ: Son of God and Son of Man, Savior, and a host of other life-changing titles. It was a week of “Lasts” and “Firsts” and “In-the-Meantimes,” you could say.
Jesus knew where he was headed that week. He had been telling his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die and to rise again. His last and final, once-and for all victory over sin, death, and the devil was about to unfold, and it would not be pretty. He had told them to be prepared, and he would continue in the Easter season to point them in the direction of eternity – to teach them what they were to be and do in the meantime, until He would return again for His church.
Slow learners, those disciples were, and yet they followed.
Wednesday of Holy Week is called “Spy Wednesday,” recalling Judas Iscariot’s offer to betray Jesus, for a price, to the Chief Priests of Israel who were already out to get Him. The price was paid – thirty pieces of silver — and the plot played out the following evening when, shortly after sharing that Maundy Thursday night’s Last Supper with Jesus and the rest of the Twelve, Judas betrayed his master with a kiss. You can read all about it in Matthew 26:1-56.
As Jesus had predicted, this Holy Week was not pretty. In fact, it would get uglier and uglier, up to the moment of his death as a common criminal and his hasty placement in a donated tomb. But it was what it was, and God’s will would be done. All the sin, the brokenness, the ugliness that humanity could throw at Jesus – that’s what He willingly bore to the cross for us and for our redemption. And, look where it led – to Easter morning, to the first day of the week, to the new life that, for all who believe Jesus, has no end.
Holy Week, in all its ugliness, all its cruelty, all its sublime, awesome hope-beyond-hope, is exactly what you and I were ushered into when we were baptized.
This Holy Week A.D. 2014, this 46th anniversary of my baptism, falls smack in the middle of a change of life-seasons, a time of my own “Lasts” and “Firsts” and “In-the-Meantimes.”
I’m at the end of my season in interim ministry, both in this place and in general. The season has been cut short by the life-changing words of my cardiologist: No more of this full-time interim work. Wrap it up and go home. And so I shall. Not everything is done here, nor will it be by April 30th when I drive away and head into the next season of my life. Someone else will follow Jesus’ call to pick up where my season of service here has ended, and so it shall be, again and again, until Jesus returns.
Please don’t get me wrong. None of my “Lasts” and “Firsts” and “In-the-Meantimes” are anywhere near monumental. In fact, they are even less than trivial when compared to the person and work of our Christ. If anything, my own stumbling “Lasts” and “Firsts” and “In-the-Meantimes” are imperfect at best and marred by the very brokenness that Christ bore on the Cross. And friends, so too are yours. Yet I do what I do for one reason and one reason alone: Because I am called – first in Holy Baptism and later, in ordination to the Holy Ministry of Word and Sacrament. For if not for Christ, why would anyone dare to be the Church and to do what we do when we answer his call in the first place?
Glory to the Father, and to the +Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.
Of Wake-up Calls and Selah-Seasons
March 24, 2014
Of Wake-up Calls and Selah-Seasons
March 24, 2014
I had a health-related wake-up call this past week. Now that it’s been shared with my interim congregation at worship on Sunday and by e-blast to folks who weren’t able to be in worship, I can share it with you here.
Last week, my cardiologist advised that I cut back — specifically, that I curtail the interim ministry that’s had me on the road for going on three years. So, I’ll be wrapping up my service as interim senior pastor here in Michigan between now and end of April, with my final Sunday on April 27, and returning to the family ranch in Nebraska.
What does this mean?
For the congregation: The search for a new senior pastor continues well — the call committee currently has three prospective pastors’ profiles in hand and a fourth profile is expected soon. The congregational council is arranging for a temporary senior pastor to serve from after I leave until a new senior pastor is called and installed. Our retired, part-time staff pastor will continue to provide visitation ministry and occasional pulpit supply. And God’s people of Peace will carry on the good work– particularly the ministry growth goals the congregation adopted in February — that the Lord has laid on their hearts.
For me and my house:
- First, this wake-up call means much, much more welcomed home time with Red, my husband of going on 48 years, at the ranch. Our daughter Sara will be coming to Michigan to help me with the move and drive home come end of April.
- Second, I’ll transfer medical care back home to a local cardiologist, and get on with the work of healing. I’ve been blessed with excellent medical care here in Michigan – and at all stops along the interim ministry trail. We have excellent medical care back in Nebraska, in nearby hospitals and communities as well as in our larger cities.
- Meantime, my cardiologist says I can do easy stuff — light work around the house and ranch, occasional writing, teaching, consulting, etc. — if and when I feel up to it. Just no more full-time interim ministry for the foreseeable future.
Face it. Getting the doctor’s wake-up call and coming to grips with aging, declining health and the like is no fun. I’ve walked through plenty of this on the pastor’s side of this picture. Being on the patient’s side, the parishioner’s side is no easier. My pastor friends, congregational leaders and parishioners have been so prayerful and supportive, that I can only say thanks be to God and to them.
In all of this, God is good, our “refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps 46:1) He’s given me many friends in prayer the last 90 days of health issues. He has given me season after good season in life and ministry. Now, with that hope, I’m going into Selah-season. (Selah is an instruction included in many psalms. In Hebrew, the word means “Pause, and think deeply about this.”) Now, ‘tis the season to “be still and know that [God is] God; the Lord is with us, and the God of Jacob is our fortress. (vv 10-11) — In Christ, my prayer is to continue being what He has in mind for me, even as I can no longer what I love as much or as often as I’d like or could do before.
Selah.
Spring(ing) forward
March 14, 2014
Spring(ing) forward
March 14, 2014
Snow is melting, sun is shining, and words are starting to trickle and flow. It’s as though a Holy Spirit-driven chinook wind is thawing my soul. Watch for more, and more frequent postings here in the weeks and months ahead.
http://www.clcumary.com/
November 30, 2013
Rev. Dr. Cathi Braasch STS, AKA Soulshepherd occasionally posts here
Pray(ing) without ceasing ….
July 27, 2012
The Psalmist and the Apostle Paul are singing a duet this morning. Its refrain goes like this:
This is the day the Lord has made, a day for praying without ceasing; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
I’m relishing the interplay of their voices, voices that knew what it meant to rely on the Divine alone, as I get ready for the keynote Bible study at “Pray Without Ceasing,” the annual meeting of Women of the North American Lutheran Church (Wednesday, August 15, during NALC Convocation week in Golden Valley MN).
The lyrics of this Psamist-Pauline duet come from Psalm 118 (v. 24) and 1 Thessalonians 5:17. And, like any rich musical work, their spirited musical theme draws beauty and richness from the fullness of the surrounding Psalm and the entire epistle.
As the day of the meeting approaches, would you please do this with me:
*Prayerfully read both Psalm 118 and 1 Thessalonians as part of your regular Bible study and devotional life.
*Follow these postings and reflect with me on the questions I’ll post from time to time.
*Pray for the upcoming Women of the NALC convocation, that the Sisters in Christ who gather will seek and find God’s direction for this exciting new ministry.
*Register if you can possibly attend the convocation .
Come, Holy Spirit, to fill our hearts and voices with prayer unceasing. Mingle our songs of prayer with those of the Psalmist, Paul and all your saints of this and every time, that Your Name may be glorified and Your will would be always our will. In the name of Jesus our Christ. Amen
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch …
July 27, 2012
… It’s back to the ranch in Nebraska for a time of tending my own soul and being with dear husband Red before the next interim assignment begins. Lots of ranch work with 4-legged sheep, unpacking of the boxes that have (duh!) not unpacked themselves, and preparation for some volunteer assignments this month with the North American Lutheran Church, meeting the week of August 13-17 in Minneapolis!
My latest interim assignment ended on my final Sunday, July 15, followed by the much-anticipated arrival of the new pastor and family on July 17. Best blessings to Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookfield WI, your new senior pastor, The Rev. Dennis Roser, and your lovely family, as together, you walk faithfully into the future our Lord is preparing for this vibrant suburban congregation of the North American Lutheran Church!
soulshepherd 