For A Time Such as This

   Esther 4:14

      “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

   This past week I spoke at our LHS chapel.  I love speaking at a chapel service for a Lutheran HS or for a Lutheran grade school.  I get a little nervous….I worry about how I’ll be received…..I pray that the message helps someone.  I know deep down that the message is really quite a bit about where I’m at in my life and faith life at the time..but I want to apply my feelings to the gathered community.  

   Usually at LHS our Applied Christianity group leads chapel.  This week however, Mr. Rudzinski’s Christian Living class got to plan, orchestrate and direct our worship.  As a teacher, I always worried at how it would come together and this group did very, very well.  Mr. Rudzinski can be pleased at their leadership skills this past Tuesday considering they do not lead chapel on a weekly basis.

    I’m not sure how they came up with the theme verse for the week’s chapel.  But I was led to ask the community to think about this question:  “Why are you here?”  After some silly discussion on the possibilities of why we’re here and my description of the need for dishwashing in our own house that three sons were there for, the depth of the question remains.  If you remember the story of Esther, she was a Jewish young woman who was elevated to the position of queen in Persia during the Dispersion of the Jews.  She found herself in place to be able to save the Jews from genocide and came to the realization that she was there, at that time, to do so.  As I told the chapel gathering, she became a picture of our Lord Jesus who was sent to save her people.

   The application for the students was to consider how they may be able to help those in their family, school, church or greater community.  I’m sure you’ve seen it many times in your life.  The Lord raises up a leader to cast a new vision or step in to help out in a time of need or be the voice of reason.  It is my prayer that parents and teachers, pastors and teachers in the Kansas City Lutheran High School community at large, can model that kind of leadership…that kind of sacrifice…that kind of love as we all experience those Esther moments at a time such as this!

Opening the Door to Reformation

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  Romans 12:2

    It must have been a little chilly that day when Pastor Martin Luther attached his questions about certain aspects of the church to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31^st, 1517.  His 95 Theses were not meant to ignite one of the biggest theological changes in world history.  And yet, the Lord used Luther’s wondering about the use of indulgences as a means of helping the people of the church to make the transformations that helped to bring His bride back to Him.

    I’ve often wondered what Martin Luther would think if he were to visit our 21^st century world.  Not his thoughts about cell phones or airplanes or the miracle of video games.  I can’t help but think that he would be confused by the many denominations that call upon the name of Christ (and sometimes think theirs is the one true way).  Would he be saddened that there seems to be such disunity in the Christian church?  He loved his church and did not want the divisions to happen as they did.

   I do believe Luther would be pleased that each and every Reformation Day we are reminded of the most important and complete transformation that individually affects each and every one of us…the change that took us through the door of Reformation to our Lord’s good, pleasing, perfect will for us.