As some of you know, Ellen and I have welcomed a new dog into our home, a 1-year 2-month-old hound of some sort we adopted from HAWS. We have renamed her "Leilani," Hawaiian for "heavenly flower." I must admit that as much as I was looking forward to having a new dog, house accidents, shredded dog beds and crate cushions, trying to keep her away from "snack time" in the cats' litterbox, and trying to train her to stop counter surfing have already made me think to myself, "What was I thinking? I am way too old and too busy for this."

Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to go through what He did? Why didn’t God the Father come up with a plan for our salvation that didn’t involve suffering and death? Why couldn’t we just have the joy of Easter all the time? The simple yet profound answer is given to us in 1 John 4:9–10: “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

This Sunday begins Holy Week as we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey amidst shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” By Friday, the shouts of “Crucify!” were louder. It’s not that everyone who was waving a palm branch on Sunday suddenly began waving an angry fist on Friday. It is to say that there were competing voices in the public square, and the anti-Jesus voice seemed to win out. The same might be said of our day.

That phrase “go green” is commonly used to refer to taking care of the environment, but for those of us who follow the Church Year calendar with different colors for the different seasons, green in the color of life, specifically the life we have in Jesus.

Today is Leap Year Day. Imagine if time worked so that you could add an extra day when needed. What would you spend the time – catching up on work, catching up on sleep, catching up on…? Which is perhaps why, regardless of if it is a Leap Year of not, one thing people spend time doing is catching up on cleaning – Spring Cleaning we call it, perhaps because we’ve let things pile up from summer, fall, and winter to the point that something must be done.

Several years ago, Southwest Airlines began running a series of ads with the tagline, “Wanna get away?” The commercials would show someone in an embarrassing situation that drew attention to him or her – one of those times when you squirm and wish you could disappear. We’ve all been there. In the scheme of things, those things are usually no big deal, even though we wish we could just run away from them, never to see them again. But memories linger, don’t they? And, truth be told, there are some things that we wish to run away from because we know they are sins. In fact, we may even feel like running away from God because we’re so ashamed.

I began a recent 7th and 8th grade religion class with these words on the board: "Event driven or lifestyle?" I then had my students list important events for Christianity, such as Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, etc. Out of that list, obviously Christmas and Easter are the most highly attended worship services. One student even noted that the word "Chreaster" is sometimes used to describe those who come to worship only on those two days of the year. An "Events Driven Christian" lives for important events.

This weekend's Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 9 includes verses that were very instrumental in me starting down the path that eventually led to me becoming a pastor. As a part of a religion project during my junior year at Milwaukee Lutheran High School, my teacher assigned each of us a section of 1 Corinthians to thoroughly study and then present to the entire class, followed by feedback from our classmates. I found myself enjoying digging into the Scriptures and presenting what I had learned, and the feedback I received was that it seemed very natural to me and easy to understand. And so I began thinking more seriously about being a pastor, wondering if I had the gifts and abilities for that and if that's what God really wanted me to do.

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? I hope your immediate answer to that question is, "Who cares?" That's a question which some say theologians and philosophers who lived in the Middle Ages used to debate. Whether or not such debates actually took place is, in and of itself, a matter of debate.

You remember the start of the story, how when Jonah heard the LORD'S call he ran the opposite direction, boarding a ship headed for Tarshish. But you can't run away from God…

All of us who are followers of Jesus have a particular calling (vocation) from Him to serve Him and others with the various gifts and abilities with which we’ve been blessed in the circles of influence in which He’s placed us.

When things happen in our daily lives that leave us perplexed, we may find ourselves praying, “Lord, would You fill in the details? What exactly are You doing here and why?”

Have you ever taken the message of Christmas for granted? Each year, we hear the wondrous account of how the Virgin gave birth to a Son and laid Him in a manger, of angels sharing the good news with shepherds who came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby lying in a manger, and of magi who followed a star which led them to where the Child was. But imagine what the world would be like if those events never happened. How would your life be different?

This weekend, our theme for worship could be "Think Pink!" The Third Sunday in Advent is when the pink candle on the Advent wreath (or, in our case, the candle with the pink ribbon under it) is lit, symbolizing rejoicing. Our reading from Luke 1 will include a wonderful song of praise by Mary the Mother of our Lord, which is called The Magnificat. But it's not only Mary who rejoices. When she comes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Elizabeth rejoices at her arrival, and the baby within her leaps for joy as well.

One of the things I truly love about our congregation is the amazing spirit of genuine love and care for others expressed in so many ways. In fact, I have had anonymous letters asking that the enclosed money be distributed in various ways with the simple message: “Jesus loves you.”

This weekend, we enter a new church year with the season of Advent and begin the yearly cycle of going through the promise of our Lord’s coming, His birth, perfect life, sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, ascension, outpouring of His Spirit, and promise to come again. During our school chapel service on November 29, I shared a slide which simply said, “Happiness is re-reading a favorite book.” For us who are followers of Jesus, the Bible is our favorite book. We never grow tired of the same family stories. What is more, the Holy Spirit has a wondrous way of helping us to appreciate something new each time we hear them.