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I Read It . . .
Oct. 2014 – Commemoration, James of
Jer., martyr
Dear Friends of Jesus our Risen Christ,
“The
worship service is ended … and now the worship and the service begin.”
Last week another of our membership lived past a 100th
birthday: Kathatrina Klein has joined Franz Weiding in that
extremely exclusive group of people in our Congregation. The
number of people in that group in our nation and in our world is
larger … and the rate is progressively lower in our
nation and world; it is even more rare statistically! Few get
to celebrate that 100th birthday.
Clearly, it is rare
because most of us die before we reach that 100th
birthday. That death is a grief to us who live … and yet we
know that we all die – until the day of Jesus our Christ.
And if we live that long,
it means that we have lived through things which others have not
survived, have lived through troubles and uncertainties as well
as joys and happiness's. Living that long costs us, costs us a
lot, in a variety of ways. Living costs us in
various ways.
Living costs us time and in the
case of 100-year-olds, it cost them a LOT of time, obviously.
It takes the time of the individual, time of the family, even
time of the friends, quite often.
Living costs us energy
and focus. The traffic a 20-year-old would shrug about can
overwhelm some senior drivers. The quick walk from car to store
I take for granted can be dangerous and grueling. What we did
so easily when we were younger costs us more as we age.
Living costs us money,
and as we get older living costs us progressively more for
health.
Living costs us time,
energy, money … and eventually our lives! Getting older, is not
easy, is not for the weak or cowardly, like much of life.
We find out that finally we live only by faith, as our bodies,
memories, and minds slow, give us
difficulties, may give-out;
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as
friends and family members of our age become fewer, as our families
“spread-out,” and as the world becomes more different, more difficult,
more strange.
We
find we live in faith, don’t we, find we have been
living by faith and sometimes not realized it. Living by a faith we
may take for granted at a lot of times in our lives … and faith which
we realize to be something we rely on more and more as we age. Faith,
which we sometimes are more willing to share as we get older.
I
recall about 5 years ago as I waited at a pharmacy to fill a
prescription, waited with a large group of people, all of whom had
either
bald
heads or gray hair heads … or both. I looked around and said loudly,
“Golden years?” Whew! That sparked IMMEDIATE and STRONG reactions
from all … and we had a good time talking, including about the
problems of age, the joys of age, and the faith of age.
Have
you provoked some of those discussions? Have you contributed to
discussions? Have you mentioned what is important to you to the
people around you?
31
October is not just Halloween (the Eve of All Hallows) – it’s
Reformation Day. 31 October 2017 is “special”: the 500th
anniversary of Luther’s nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the
Wittenberg castle church, the Quin-centenniel of the Reformation.
Anniversaries
– of birth or of Reformation – are good times for talking of faith,
for thanking God, and for praying for yet more strength
and grace as we ALL get older, some of our older seniors have told me,
and from what they’ve told me, I know both Frau Klein and Herr Weiding
agree.
μαραναθά
=
אתא
ןרמ=
“Maranatha” (1
Cor 16:22)
= Come Lord Jesus
(Rev.22:20).
Come among us with your Easter life
and help us be your love
to the world.
I pray that we give God
the glory, God alone!
Please let me know what
your decisions are.
Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Gies
St. Peter Lutheran Church
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