Blog Archives - St. John's Lutheran Church of Elma

Pastor Jamie's November 2024 Article

10/30/2024

The Spaghetti dinner is on the horizon. In one week we will gather together in fellowship, break bread and share a meal. It’s the first time since 2019 that we have opened the social hall for dine in spaghetti. Since 2020 it has been take out only the food was there but the community fellowship wasn’t. In many ways this has reflected a trend in our society, more and more things are remote, community has moved from in person to online and social interactions often happen electronically. This has had great benefits for society but it also makes me wonder what we have lost. Perhaps the date the Spaghetti dinner is held on, election day, can help us to see what we’ve lost.

From what I can tell the dinner began after WWII and has always been on election day. Which means it would have been beginning during the 1948 election, Harry Truman v Thomas Dewey. Truman was expected to lose so he went on a nationwide tour holding rallies at train stops where he railed against the opposing party as “do-nothing, good-for-nothing “ and the crowd replied “Give em’ hell Harry”. This was a very aggressive campaign approach and a very aggressive message. Dewey tried to stay neutral on most things in an attempt to avoid alienating anyone. The election was contentious and despite faulty reporting claiming Dewey won Truman came out ahead and won what was in effect his second term. What I notice in all of that though is despite the strong, oftentimes harsh message Americans remained united no matter who they were voting for. It simply does not seem the same today. Today more than ever we tend to vilify those who support the “other side”. I wonder if this is because instead of interacting with other people like we did in 1948 we are interacting with the media, our screens and our online “communities”. Each of these modern day forms of communication are facilitated through a corporation whose goal is to make money off of our attention and there is no better way to hold attention than to make people angry, fearful or upset. Perhaps like our spaghetti dinner we need to return to gathering in person engaging with people who see things differently than we do. We need to talk with those who see things differently and recognize that they aren’t bad or evil, they are children of God just like us. As Paul writes

Romans 8:38-39 I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, not who we vote for or how we see the direction of our country or the world. Furthermore nothing can separate others from that love either. So when we get angry at another we are getting angry with someone that God loves. So this next Tuesday vote your conscience, then gather with others who did the same for some tasty spaghetti and know that no matter who we cast our vote for we are loved by God and called to be the body of Christ in community together.

Peace, Jamie

November 2024 Worship Assistants

10/30/2024

Sunday, November 3
Greeter: Walt Dryden
Reader: Vic Ball
Communion Assistant: Debbie S. & Sharann R.
Counters: Needed

Sunday, November 10
Greeter: Patty & Keith Grover
Reader: Patty Grover
Communion Assistant: Heidi C. & Carol J.
Counters: Needed

Sunday, November 17
Greeter: Tarynn Booker
Reader: Sharann Ratka
Communion Assistant: Debbie S. & Sharann R.
Counters: Needed

Sunday, November 24
Greeter: EJ & Erin Gonser
Reader: Kathy Delamater
Communion Assistant: Heidi C. & Carol J.
Counters: Needed

Pastor Jamie's October Article

10/4/2024

It’s fun as a Dad watching the hobbies and interests that Drake develops. Most come and go with time, like his stuffed animal collection. Some start as a passing interest and then grow, that’s how his football fandom progressed, from a mild interest to a major one. It’s the hobbies that start as a major interest and continue to hold his interest for a stretch of time that make me wonder if this will be a life long piece of who he is. He’s only ever had two interests that fit into that category, the first has been making videos for YouTube and the second began last year and hasn’t slowed down since, hot wheels hunting.

You are probably familiar with hot wheels, the little toy cars that have been around since the 60’s, but hot wheels hunting is different than just collecting the cars. Hunting is about seeking out valuable cars and preserving and displaying them. There are cars that have a little added value because of their make and model being popular, then there are treasure hunts, cars that have a limited production run and are worth 5-10 times more than a regular car, finally there are super treasure hunts which are special paintjobs that are very limited and fetch 70-100 times the value of a regular car. He’s got all the makes and models, paint schemes and production runs memorized, can sort through hundreds of cars in minutes and pull out the ones that have some value. Then he’ll go home put them in protective covers and display them, he has even convinced store managers to give him the displays the cars are on in the store so he can use those displays in his room. It really has been interesting watching him develop the interest, knowledge, skill and confidence to pursue this hobby, not to mention the discipline to save his allowance to pursue it.

We all have those things that we pursue in that same way, with knowledge, discipline, skill and confidence. Perhaps for you it is a hobby, your garden, your car, Disney or any other number of things. But what I hope for all of us is that we pursue our relationship with God in that same way. The Bible encourages us to do so over and over

Chronicles 16:11 11 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

Acts 17:27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

Jeramiah 29:14 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Psalms 34:10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

I could go on with many more verses. God calls us to seek him out, to grow in our relationship with God. We all have a desire within us to seek out things, knowledge, our interests, love and more. At the heart of this seeking is God the source of love, knowledge and all creation. May we seek out God with the same energy we seek these other things, with discipline, passion and confidence. May we grow in prayer, discernment and understanding and in doing so better know the love and the peace of God.