Animals

“Working”

/ The Pastor

This picture was taken while I was “working” 🙂

I went to visit a parishioner living in one of our local nursing homes the other day.  Directly outside his window was this scene.
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When I arrived in his room we greeted one another and he said to me that he was watching “God’s little creatures“.  I sat down and started watching as well.  We spent time watching these little birds dance around the feeders.  Red finches showed up, a couple sparrows and some other birds that I couldn’t identify.  They seemed to be playing and fighting for room.  It was quite a scene.  Birds would get chased away but would quickly return to “play”.

Between bird feeder observations, Dave and I chatted about the “important” things of life.  But really…it was hard to focus on those “important” things while watching the play unfold outside the window.  At that moment “God’s little creatures”  were the “important” things.

And that was fine with Dave and me 🙂

At first these little creatures were shy when I tried to snap their picture. As soon as I would move the little theater outside the window would clear out, but eventually they warmed up to me…hence the picture.  Maybe they perceived me as a fellow creature of God (at least that is what I am going to go with).  Whatever the case…more and more birds showed up…all feeling comfortable being on stage.

Eventually it was time to leave.  Dave and I shook hands, I took one more glance at the scene outside the window and I said good bye; thanking them for their performance.

And this, my friends, is what I call “work”…enjoying God’s creatures big and small 🙂

Praise be to God!

edh-|—

Church “visitor”

/ The Pastor

I was running a little behind yesterday morning.

During the summer I only have a 1/2 hour from when Belmont finishes worship and when Salem begins.  With the two congregations are 8 miles apart I have about a 10 minute drive back to town.

Yesterday, worship at Belmont concluded at 9:05am and managed to get out by 9:10am (I guess I got a little long winded) which didn’t give me much time to get to Salem and transition to another worship service.  I arrived at Salem at 9:20am and made a quick transition in my office.  Upon leaving my office to head to the sanctuary I noticed my wife in the hallway.

Suddenly she screamed…”THERE’S A BIRD IN HERE!”

I looked and sure enough…something was flying in the hallway, but it wasn’t a bird.  That’s right…it was a bat.

“I don’t have time for this” I thought.

I eventually chased the flying creature into a Sunday school room where I shut the door and stuffed towel under the door.  “We’ll deal with it later“.  I just didn’t know it would be so soon.

Right before my scripture reader came up front to read during worship he noticed a shadow move quickly across his papers.  He turned around fearing what he would find and sure enough that bat found it’s way out of it’s so-called prison and tried to join us for worship.  Immediately, the fast-thinking Dan flung the glass sanctuary doors shut and kept the bat out in the narthex.  Some guys, then, proceeded to chase the bat outside.

And I didn’t notice a thing.  Worship never missed a beat. A bat in the sanctuary during worship probably wouldn’t have put an end to worship very quickly.

As a pastor, I can’t help but wonder…
How would I have handled a bat in the sanctuary during worship?
How much commotion would that “rat with wings” have caused?
Would worship been salvageable at all?

I am glad I didn’t have to find out yesterday.  But something tells me that I need to be ready 🙂

-edh-

Life through the cross

/ The Pastor / 13 Comments

Life through the cross

This is the wind break wall on the ramp leading to the sanctuary at Salem Lutheran Church.  You will notice that a robin has built a nest on right cross arm.  When my wife noticed this she said to me, “There’s got to be a sermon illustration in there somewhere.”  I think she may be right.  My first thought was “Life through the cross“. Corny…maybe…but leave it to a pastor to do theology with a picture like this.  I guess one could say that I am a theologian of the cross 🙂

So…

What would you call this picture?

What scripture comes to mind when you see this?

-edh-

Loon cam 2009

/ The Pastor

It’s back…the Loon Cam from the Minnesota Bound website.

The concept is quite simple.  On a lake in northern Minnesota there is a floating platform with a nest and a hidden camera.  You can go to this website: MN Bound and follow the link to the Loon Cam (there is also a blog where updates are given about the loon’s activities).  Here you can watch as mama loon lays her eggs and sits on them.  Eventually you could even watch the new baby loons hatch (last year I got to see the cute baby loons).  This might sound as exciting as watching paint dry but it’s an amazing opportunity to watch something in nature that we would not normally get to watch.

So here you go…Loon Cam 2009.

Enjoy!

-edh-

That time of the year

/ The Pastor

About this time of the year I start feeling a bit overwhelmed.  Holy Week is bearing down on us; there are classes to prepare for; Sunday worship to prepare for; I have a funeral this week and that is all among anything else I usually do doing the week.  I expressed this feeling to my wife this past Saturday.  And…when I started feeling overwhelmed one would think I would turn to God for help, but often times I try to work harder to make sure I handle everything alright, but this week God has had a sense of humor and thus has humbled me.

Later in the day on Saturday (after I expressed my feeling of being overwhelmed) my wife and I discovered we had an unwelcome visitor in our basement.  My suspicion was a chipmunk or squirrel.  On Sunday after worship we went downstairs to check things out.  And there it was…a squirrel.  I chased it around for a while and was getting close to chasing it out the door, but it decided it wanted to stay.  The next few days entailed me searching the basement high and low for the pesky thing. I would see evidence of it once in a while and actually saw it once, but it quickly ran and hid.  I set a rat trap, but it just sprung the trap and took the bait.  Smart little creature.  Eventually, on Thursday, the squirrel let down it’s guard and got caught in the trap.  No more squirrel.  As frustrating as it was, when I look back on the last few days, it was kind of funny.

Now…today…I went over to the church to get the mail.   I dropped off the church mail in the office and brought mine to my office.  As I was walking back to the parsonage I realized my pocket felt a little lighter.  Yup…I locked my keys in my office for the very first time.

“Yes God…I get it.  You are in control.”

Today is my day off and I am enjoying my weird little circumstances from the past week and I am smiling.  And you know something…I am not feeling too overwhelmed right.  God is indeed in control…

…and praise be to God!

But please God…no more squirrels.

-edh-

Getting peed on

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

I went to text study this morning at Shalom Hill Farm, as I do most Tuesdays (O.K…some Tuesdays) and I experienced a first…

…I got out of my car and was greeted by the dog they have out there.  Nice little dog.  Wags its tail, but doesn’t get overly excited and jump on you.  Since I have a allergy to dogs I don’t pet the little guy.  Maybe it took offense to this finally because when I turned around (I am not sure why) I saw the little creep (notice my tone changing) lift its leg…and…pee on the bumper of my car.   Not the tire, but the bumper.  By the time I got over there to shoo it away,he had finished his business…and I a swear…I saw a little smirk on his face as he walked away.

I went inside (with my bumped dripping) and saw a couple colleagues.  I told them the story (which they got a kick out of) and soon I began to laugh along.  Of course…immediately…we went into “pastor mode” wondering if there is a sermon illustration in there some place.

<More laughing ensued>

I suggested a baptismal illustration; of God peeing on us and claiming us as his own.

<More laughing ensued>

Then I suggested, “I think I might have to flush that one out some more.”

<And more laughing ensued>

Moral of the story…well…maybe there isn’t one…except that if you pee on my bumper, I will talk about you on my blog.

<I needed a good laugh today>

God bless!

-edh-

Coffee shop ponderings — The “Rocco’s” of this world

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Welcome to this weeks edition of coffee shop ponderings.  Today I start off with an unusual spectator across the street…a raccoon.  Along main street Jackson there are a series of trees growing along the sidewalk as if a remnant of the forest survived humankind’s invasion.  Directly across from Coffee Choices is one such tree, but this one contains a scared little raccoon.  My guess is that he came out when all was quite…exploring an otherwise scary world, but before he had a chance to retreat to his own safe haven, our scary world closed in around him, forcing him to find refuge in a tree.  My bet is that he will be there all day…or until the “coast is clear”.

 

But I can’t help to wonder what Rocco (that’s what I am calling the raccoon…kind of dorky, I know) is thinking as he looks down on our world.  It’s a world where he is not accepted or welcome, even though we are the ones invading his habitat.  Rocco is not free to walk among us.  He is not free to partake in our freedoms.  We have pushed him and “his kind” to the fringes.  And as I think of Rocco, I cannot help but to think of the way things are in the Church.  There are people in our churches who hide who they are for fear of rejection.  There are people who conceal their shortcomings for fear of being condemned.  There are people who keep their distance as others point and gawk.  And as long as there is this mistrust and haughtiness in the world, the Rocco’s of this world will remain in the trees of life.

 

But things will not always be this way…

 

…we are told in Isaiah 11, “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.”  That is a vision of the kingdom.  That is a world where Rocco has no need of trees.  That is a world where people will not be afraid to be who they are…children of God.  And it is in the promise of this kingdom I will wait expectantly and rejoice in. 

And so…as we wait and rejoice…let’s join together and welcome the Rocco’s of this world.  Let’s make this a “safe” place for all those on the fridges of the Church and of this world.  Because with Jesus…there are no need for “trees” to hide in.

 

-edh-

Loon Cam

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

Check out this website my mom just told me about.  It's the Minnesota Bound (www.mnbound.com) site.  When you get there click on "Live Loon Cam" link and enjoy.  For some reason I have been fascinated with watching this mother loon sit on a nest (of course I am doing some work in the mean time).  But I wonder, though, if my fascination comes from my discombobulation.  Or…maybe…I am just feeling a little loony right now.  In any case…enjoy.

-edh-

Bird man of Jackson

/ The Pastor / 5 Comments

Believe me…I don't embrace this title, but I can't help but chuckle after our little visitor this afternoon…

Connie and I were in the kitchen getting ready do some grilling for supper when I heard a strange noise by our main door (from the kitchen there is a door that leads to three steps that takes you down to a landing.  A left turn takes you outside and a right turn leads you down into the basement).  When I opened the kitchen door to investigate the strange noise…low and behold…there was a bird trying to get out.  Of course my first response was to slam the door to prevent the bird from coming into the main part of the house.  That reaction caused my wife to get a little excited; thinking someone was trying to break into our house to kill us.  But after I assured her that the bird was not going to peck us to death, I entered the landing area to open the outside door.  That, of course, freaked the bird out and it headed downstairs to the basement.  What happened next can only be described as a wild chase trying to convince my feathered visitor that I meant it no harm.  I can't believe it would not trust me.  Eventually I chased it up stairs where Connie had the outside door open and our flying friend found its way to freedom.

[Later that evening]

Connie and I were sitting on the couch watching the news when we started recalling our wild bird adventure.  She then said, "I suppose you have a blog post for tomorrow".  I hadn't really thought about it but now I did.  Later in the evening Connie said, "I think I have an anology for you about the bird.  The bird is like us trying to find our way to freedom and God is trying to guide us to freedom.  Just like the bird who didn't trust you, we often don't trust that God has our best interests at heart.  But all God wants is for us to enjoy freedom…just like what you wanted for that bird." 

Wow…I think my wife is on to something here.  I think she should have a blog as well. 

-edh-

And he gave me a chicken

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Chicks_2

Last night Connie and I received one of the most unique and memorable gifts we have received in a long time.  And by the above picture you can guess what we got.  One of our 6 year old Sunday school students, W, gave us a flock of chicks.  We don’t actually have them but he bought them through Heifer International on our behalf.  Some hungry family is going to benefit from this wonderful gift.  Something that will provide them with food and income for years to come.  Often we receive and give gifts that end up collecting dust, end up in the garbage or wear out over time.  This gift will possibly save lives and last a long time.

I know that many of you have probably finished your shopping by now (LOL…yeah right). Well…here’s an idea for you.  Buy a flock of chicks or some other animal for someone and give them a gift that could save someone(s) life.  I am willing to bet that all those involved will be very thankful.

Thank you, W…Connie and I will remember this gift for a long time.

Merry Christmas and God bless!

-edh-