Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Our deepest sympathies go out to the Hammer family. Janice Hammer passed away a week ago. Services were held at St. Johns on Friday. With her family, we will mourn her loss. She was a fixture in our Sunday school program. She taught for approximately 20 years. My memory of her will always be seeing her and her husband Bill with the 1st graders. She will be missed.
I promised that this letter will try to explain how I would like to piggy-back with the Synod emphasis this year on discipleship. It goes beyond believing in Jesus Christ. It is about trying to be like Jesus Christ. In other words, we hope to work on being a disciple or an apprentice of Jesus.
First of all, let’s make something perfectly clear. Believing in Jesus Christ is the of utmost importance. The Gospel writer John states many times in his writings that believing will lead us to salvation. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 17:3 states, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” These are just a few. There are many more that show the connection to believing and eternal life.
But discipleship goes beyond just believing. It is about being with Jesus, learning from Jesus and being like him. It is about being an apprentice of Jesus Christ which another name for this is a disciple. It really is about being transformed. The author John Mark Comer explains, “We all are being transformed in one way or another. The question is what is transforming you.”
I find it very appropriate that our Northern Illinois Synod is also focusing on discipleship this year. There are many practices or disciplines of being a disciple, such as prayer, solitude, sabbath, generosity, etc. We will hopefully explore these in the future. But first, I would like us to concentrate on what it means to be disciples.
I was introduced to the program Practicing the Way early this fall by a fellow Pastor. As I was looking over the program I immediately saw the application to not only our church but to all people who believe in Jesus Christ. It was a way to move beyond just believing (which is important) but to being like Jesus. Just like any apprentice, it is about spending time with Jesus, learning from him and eventually being like him. Think about an apprentice who is a plumber. They have to spend time with them. They learn everything they can about how to be a plumber from them. But over a period of time the apprentice will be like them and know everything being a plumber.
I hope none of you are offended by the ultimate goal of being like him. Isn’t this what we want to strive for? I know none of us are perfect. It is not about being perfect. Jesus went to the cross for each one of us. However, it is about walking in Jesus’s footsteps. I hope this is what we all are trying to do. However, it is so much more than going to church and worshipping him. Again, these are very important. But it is going so much deeper. It is about learning to be an apprentice of Jesus, to be like him.
The Practicing the Way program is set up in eight, 1-hour sessions. These can be done once a week or once every two weeks. They do stress the importance of keeping some type of rhythm. I have asked a couple of people to consider facilitating the course. Besides learning to be an apprentice, it is about learning with a community. My hope is to start this sometime in February. I have been praying that this is something we want to do as a congregation. To be believers and disciples of Jesus Christ. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
What God mostly does is love you. (excerpt from Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie)
Pastor Tom
815-223-1144
2nd Sunday after Epiphany – January 19
Isaiah 62:1-5 Psalm 36:5-10 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 John 2:1-11
Reading the Bible in a Year- Monday, January 13 to Sunday January 19
Day Judges Psalms Proverbs John
Monday Ch 16-Ch 17 60:1-4 Ch 7:45-Ch 8:11
Tuesday Ch 18-Ch 19 60:5-12 Ch 8:12-30
Wednesday Ch 20-Ch 21 61:1-8 Ch 8:31-59
Ruth
Thursday Ch 1 – Ch 2 12:8-17 Ch 9:1-34
Friday Ch 3-Ch 4 62 Ch 9:35- Ch 10:21
1 Samuel
Saturday Ch 1-Ch 2:26 63 Ch 10:22-42
Sunday Ch 2:27-Ch 4 64 11:29-12:7 Ch 11:1-44
Judges, Ruth and 1 Samuel – Wow, three books of the Bible. I found it interesting how Judges ended. It was something like, and there were no more judges and people did whatever they wanted. It doesn’t sound like a way to worship God. Ruth is an interesting story. It’s a little bit about faithfulness, practice of redeeming property and a love story. Personally, I feel one of the greatest lines written in the Bible comes from Ruth 1:16 & 17. In 1 Samuel, you get a glimpse of what it was like if the woman was not able to have children. But we get an example of God answering a prayer.
Psalms – To keep with the theme of teaching us to prayer, we learn our prayers do not have to be nice and fluffy. God is admonished to do something in these psalms. Also, the psalmist wants violence done to his adversaries.
Proverbs – More righteous and wicked comparisons. Also, we read about those who accept rebuke and those who don’t.
John – In this section of readings we have two long stories. One of them is Jesus healing a blind man and the other is him raising of Lazarus. The other thing I want to point out is back in Exodus where Moses met God in the burning bush, Moses asked God who he should say that sent him. God responded, “Tell them it is ‘I am.’”
The phrase “I am” then becomes a phrase that means God. Here, we begin reading Jesus saying, “I am …”.
We might gloss over these words, but for the Jewish people, they would know what Jesus was saying.