Peace: Religious Disease Center?

Physical diseases posed no problem for Jesus.  When He encountered them, He healed them with a word.  Religious diseases were another matter.  Things like legalism, judgmentalism, hypocrisy, elitism – these took a different type of cure.  The Pharisees, a highly religious group of Jesus’ day, suffered from all of them.  And they encountered Jesus’ wrath because of it. 

We have our own religious diseases.  We have contracted many of those carried by the Pharisees.  What if Peace Church was a hospital for sinners, a religious disease center?  A place where we can get information to confront the disease.   A place where we can confess and cleanse ourselves of religious disease, and ask the Great Physician to bring His healing.  Peace can be that place for you and for anyone who you may invite along.  Through Christ we can receive spiritual healing.  Sit with me at Peace as if it were at the feet of Christ.  Hear His Word, receive his forgiveness, and be well.

                                                                                Polly Wegner,

                                                                                Director of Discipleship 

                                                                                pwegner@peacelutheran.net

                                                                                303-424-4454

Friends

Friends,

Doesn’t that have a nice sound to it?  “Friends” is what Jesus calls us.  It really encourages my heart.  As we serve in His name throughout the week, I look forward to seeing you again at Peace each Sunday to be strengthened and refreshed by the One who calls us His Friend. 

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made know to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”   John 15: 15-16

Polly Wegner

Dir. of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

303-424-4454

A Goodly Share

I think often of a sainted member of Peace, Alice Wolters.  It was from her and her husband Jerry that I first heard these words spoken; but now they have become more popular.  They follow the common table prayer… “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed.  And may there be a goodly share on every table everywhere.  Amen.”   I like the extra 11 words tacked on to the old familiar prayer.  It captures a global perspective.  The words help individuals and families whose meal tables offer abundance (and whose lives are full of abundance of all kinds), increasingly become aware of what others have, or don’t have.

These added words challenge the “Me/Mine” worldview.   Today parents, families, children and individuals are bombarded with a philosophy of selfishness.   These few added words to the prayer broaden our ethical sensitivities.  It opens a discussion with children about the distribution of wealth.  Many children feel it’s unfair that they have so much while millions have so little.  They like the idea of others having enough too. 

As we speak these extra 11 words three times a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), it helps us gauge what others should have three times a day as well.  A prayer like that fits Luther’s explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed with its listing of “…clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and children.”  We understand what a “goodly share” would look like. 

Could it be that God will answer through a chain reaction of sharing, beginning with whoever has the resource at the moment?  Like Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 started with a lad’s lunch, which seemed inadequate to the needs of the moment, but ended up with enough plus 12 baskets of leftovers.

This prayer stirs us to do what we can to see a “goodly share” on all tables in our country and tables around the world. It makes me want to get involved with organizations that address the needs of others.  Opportunities abound where we can provide through relief agencies, international servant events, local service projects, etc.   We give and we serve always “in the name of Jesus” who is our Servant Leader.  As we lift our eyes off our food and to the needs of others we see the face of Jesus in our brothers and sisters near and far.

I love how Peace is always raising money for some caring cause (I get excited to color in the charts showing the progress of our offerings!), how we send students and adults on mission projects, involve the children in service, pray regularly for missions and global needs.  May God bless our efforts, large and small, to provide “a goodly share on every table everywhere.”  Amen.

Polly Wegner

Dir. of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

303-424-4454

 

KINGDOM BUSINESS - APRIL

Kingdom Business

EXTREME COUPONING

For over a decade, a Madison, Wisconsin, grocery store owner by the name of Ken Kopp, printed a coupon in his church bulletin offering a free gallon of milk for those who attended Mass on Sunday. A local newspaper reporter by the name of Patricia Simms inquired about this freebie and asked  him how he would really know if the person had truly gone to Mass and he replied, “Well, if they didn't, then they're lying, and they're going to burn in hell and we get to watch."

Ouch. Pretty harsh! Well, I am so thankful that watching others suffer is not something we will do when we go to heaven! We have God’s written promise that heaven is a place of no mores!

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

 Revelations 21:4

I’m always searching for interesting church business items that can be used here at Peace. When I came across the article about Ken Kopp, I thought it was interesting because not only am I a couponer, I thought it was pretty neat that a business owner would encourage church attendance and out of his own profits  give free milk to others who did so. Even if his statement is bad theology, I am encouraged that fellow Christians care about our relationship with Jesus, and encourage our church attendance.

As I write this article, our Pastors are in the middle of the Visions of Mystery series about the book of Revelations.  Time and time again, our Pastors have reminded us that when we go to heaven, there is no way we would watch our loved ones suffer. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain in heaven. If we watched our loved ones suffer, we would grieve over their suffering – and that’s not heaven.

Sadly, the article I read about Mr. Kopp was on the internet because of a group that threatened to sue him for discrimination.  A lady by the name of Annie Laurie Gaylor, who had regularly shopped at the store, promptly wrote the grocer a letter informing him that discriminating among patrons on the basis of creed is a violation of the Civil Rights Act. The letter added: "Your message is certainly coming out loud and clear: only Catholic customers are truly valued." Gaylor received a reply from Ken Kopp's attorney suggesting that she was free to stop at her neighborhood Catholic Church any Sunday to pick up a church bulletin in order to obtain her weekly free milk (on implicit pain of hellfire, of course). After a few months of paying for an attorney to answer and write a few letters, Mr. Kopp stopped running the coupon ad in his church bulletin.  I tried to find out more information, but this report came from a 1996 article, and Mr. Kopp’s store was closed around the year 2000.

Well, that’s just business!

April is Peace’s new Fiscal Year and we start with a newly approved Spending Plan. If you haven’t had an opportunity to review the Voters approvals – please contact me and I’ll help get you up to speed on the recent Kingdom Business at Peace.

Minding His Business

Patti Ninneman,

Business Manager

Resurrection Appearances

Here is a quick Bible study and discussion piece to do with your family or guests on Easter (or anytime).  These references attest to the physical resurrection appearances of Jesus.  It doesn’t take long to look each one up.  Just share your impressions of each encounter and move on to the next text.  This list will provide lots of opportunities for discussion in your home this Easter:

Physical Resurrection Appearances of Jesus

Event                                           Place                                       Scripture

The Empty Tomb                   Jerusalem                                Matthew 28: 1-8

To Mary Magdalene              Garden, Jerusalem                   Mark 16: 9-11

To other women                     Jerusalem                                Matthew 28: 9-10

Two people at Emmaus          Road to Emmaus                    Mark 16: 12-13

To Peter                                  Jerusalem                                Luke 24: 34

10 Disciples, Upper Room     Jerusalem                                John 20: 19-25

11 Disciples, Upper Room     Jerusalem                                Mark 16: 14

7 Disciples, fishing                Sea of Galilee                          John 21: 1-14

11 Disciples on mountain      Galilee                                     Matthew 28:  16-20

More than 500 people            Unknown                                1 Corinthians 15: 6

To James                                Unknown                                1 Corinthians 15: 7

Disciples at His Ascension    Mount of Olives                      Acts 1: 3-9

To Paul                                   Damascus                                Acts 9: 1-19

He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia!

Polly Wegner

Dir. of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

303-424-4454

“We are beggars, this is true.”

As far as we know, these are the last words written by the great reformer, Dr. Martin Luther. Two days before his death on February 18, 1546, Luther one more time made the point that all we have to offer God is our sinfulness. Yet our compassionate heavenly Father, by His unimaginable grace, gives us everything and forgives us our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.

That’s what Lent is about. It’s about us beggars being given absolutely everything because of the cross of Jesus. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These are the words we beggars hear at the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. “It is finished” is what we beggars hear from our Savior on Good Friday. During this season of Lent we remember that Christ lived and died to redeem us from sin. And He did it for the whole world. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, our beggar lives are renewed. On Easter morning we beggars call out “He is risen! I know that my Redeemer lives.”

At Peace let’s walk this Lenten journey together toward the empty tomb and raise our Alleluias to our risen Lord on Easter morning and throughout eternity.

Polly Wegner
Dir. of Discipleship
pwegner@peacelutheran.net
303-424-4454