God’s beloved people,

On Sunday February 19th we celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord.  This is the last Sunday in the Epiphany season and Jesus’ transfiguration is another revelation, another manifestation, another epiphany of who Jesus is.  Towards the beginning of the season of Epiphany we celebrated the Baptism of our Lord on January 8th.  At the baptism of Jesus, God’s voice said, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 1:11.  We hear very similar words from God as Jesus is transfigured before his disciples on the mountaintop.  “This is my Son, the beloved; listen to him.” Mark 9:7.  Perhaps the emphasis is on “LISTEN TO HIM.”

On the mountain, God urges the disciples to listen to Jesus when he tells them, “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Mark 8:31.  Eventually, the disciples understand that Jesus is the suffering servant who gave his life as a ransom for many.  Eventually the disciples understand that following Jesus is about humbly serving others in love and peace, but only after Jesus’ cross and resurrection.

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 22nd.  On Ash Wed. we hear these words from the prophet Joel. “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  Joel 2:13.  (We also sing these words before the reading of the gospel in Lent.)  During Lent we are encouraged to turn to God with our whole hearts and trust in his grace and mercy.  The 40 days of Lent are a more penitential season of the church year, but do not include Sundays, which are always “little Easters: little celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus.”  Why 40 days?  Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness as he withstood Satan’s temptations.  The people Israel wandered for 40 years in the wilderness as they learned to trust God and be God’s people.  Jesus died and spent about 40 hours in the tomb.  During the 40 days of Lent we Christians are encouraged to repent of our sins and continually turn to God and live.  Repentance, prayer, fasting, worship, Bible study and works of love and charity are some of the disciplines of Lent.

In the early church, Lent was also the time when new Christians were prepared for baptism.  This was the catechesis (confirmation) time before folks were baptized on Easter Eve or early on Easter morning. During the season of Lent today, we journey with our Savior Jesus to Calvary and the cross.  We think about the extreme price Jesus paid for our sins.  We give thanks that he endured the pains of crucifixion for our sake.  Then, when Easter comes, we will be able to celebrate more fully the resurrection of our Lord and the marvelous gifts of life and salvation which he freely gives to us.

Everyone is invited to begin the season of Lent with worship at 7:00 PM on Ash Wed, Feb 22nd.   The imposition of ashes will be offered and the Lord’s Supper will be celebrated.  Ashes have long been an outward sign of inner repentance.

“Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

Pastor Dennis

God’s beloved people,

Happy New Year 2012!  I’m writing this in mid-December, but January and a new calendar year will be here soon enough.  According to the ancient Mayan calendar, the world will end in 2012.  Don’t count on it.  Don’t quit your day job. It’s possible, but not very probable. In Mark 13:32, Jesus says this about heaven and earth passing away. “But about that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  So second guessing the second coming is pointless.  It’s best to keep on living in faith, hope and love in Jesus, the light of the world.

In January we enter the season of Epiphany.  Epiphany means a revelation, a manifestation, something is brought to light and understood clearly: as in “Aha! I get it!” After the 12 days of Christmas, Epiphany begins on January 6^th with the visit of the wise men to the child Jesus.  The Magi brought to light that Jesus (not Herod) is the true king and

Savior of all humankind.  Their gifts revealed that Jesus is worthy of our worship and the best we have to offer, because he is the light of the world.  Jesus is the light no darkness can overcome.

Someone has calculated that a certain day toward the end of

January is the most depressing day of the year.  The nights are still long. The weather is usually cold and snowy or icy or foggy.  The credit card bills from Christmas are coming due and it’s time to get started on last year’s taxes.  On top of that the economy is still lousy, people are still unemployed or losing jobs and homes and health insurance.

In the midst of that it’s good to remember that Jesus is indeed the light of the world.  The light no darkness can overcome.  On Sunday, January 8^th we celebrate the baptism of Jesus.  This is another epiphany moment.  As Jesus is baptized, the Spirit descends on him like a dove and God’s voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Mark1:11.  Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior.  He is the light which no darkness can overcome.

Share the good news of Jesus in 2012 with someone who is in the dark and yearns for some light.                                                              

Serving Christ together with you,

Pastor Dennis

Happy New Year!  Wait, it’s only December. (Pastor is losing it.) And yet for many Christians a new church year began on November 27^th with the First Sunday in Advent.  (OK—pastor’s brain is still somewhat intact.)  In the lectionary cycle we are in the year of Mark.  Most of our Sunday gospel readings will be from the Gospel of Mark.  The next year will be mostly Luke and the year after that mostly Matthew, with plenty of John spread throughout the 3 years.

Advent means “the coming”: the coming of God’s Messiah for us.  Actually we can talk about 3 comings of Jesus our Savior.  There is his first coming as a human being, true God and true man.  This is his soft and sweet coming as a little baby.  Then there is his second coming on the great Day of the Lord as judge of all and Lord of all. We know not when that will be. But there is also his coming among us now and constantly in Christian community and worship, in the Lord’s holy supper, in the Word and in the faces of needy people in our world.

Advent.  The secular world wants to rush right into consumer Christmas.  Apparently stores will open with sales on Thanksgiving night and not even wait until black Friday this year.  But the church thinks it’s important to prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas with four

Sundays in Advent.  Advent begins the year and urges us to keep awake in our Christian faith and to see Christ’s presence all around us. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus urges us to “Keep awake.”(Mark 13: 37)  As it says in the Sundays and Seasons book, “Keeping awake is not about

living in a state of fatigued hyper-vigilance, but instead about using the time we are given as testimony to the power of the risen Christ in our lives for the sake of the world.”

The “stir-up prayers of Advent are always meaningful to me and I hope to you. “Stir up your power, Lord Christ and come.”(week one) “Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son.”(week two)  “Stir up the wills of your faithful people, Lord God, and our ears to the words of your prophets.”(week three)  “Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.”(week four).  During Advent we pray that the Holy Spirit would continually stir up our hearts and minds and hands and voices so that we are ready to not only celebrate Christmas, but to share the good news and love of Jesus Christ with other people.

For the secular world, Christmas ends when the stores close on December 24^th and the presents are opened on the 25^th. Christians get to celebrate Christmas for a full 12 days, clear up until Epiphany on January

6^th.  Christmas: Christ-mas: Christ-mass: is the mass, the Holy Supper celebration of Christ, the Messiah, God’s Son and the Savior of the world.  Jesus, who forgives our sins and leads us into new and eternal life, is definitely worth celebrating for 12 days and 12 months of the year.

It’s the year of Mark’s Gospel.  Mark 1:1 spells it out clearly: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  Jesus, Emmanuel(“God with us”) is good news for you and for all people.                                                         

Serving Christ together with you,

Pastor Dennis

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The month of November concludes one church year and begins another.  The First Sunday in Advent (and the new church year) arrives on November 27^th.  Most of our gospel readings this year are from Matthew and most of our gospel readings in the new year will be from Mark, with some Gospel of John mixed in every year.  We begin the month with All Saint’s Sunday on November 6th.  We remember with thanksgiving those who have lived and died in the faith.  The reformer, Martin Luther, would also remind us that all Christians are at the same time saints and sinners.  We are all sinners, dependent entirely on the saving grace of Jesus Christ and not on our own merits.  At the same time we are saints who seek to live lives of faith and commitment.  We give thanks for the saints, the mentors, in our lives who have inspired us in the faith.  And we strive to be friends and mentors in the faith for others.  Christ the King Sunday on November 20^th  is the last Sunday of this church year.  Before society goes nuts with commercializing Christmas again, we pause to worship and give thanks to the one true King and Savior, Jesus Christ.

On Thursday, November 24^th, we pause as a nation to offer thanks to God for the freedoms we enjoy in our country.  Even, perhaps especially, in the midst of an economic recession, we thank God for food and clothing, home and family, and all we need from day to day.  Poorer folks are always hit hardest by economic recessions.  The number of people visiting our FISH food bank continues to rise.   Thank you to everyone who contributes food and money to our local food bank.  It’s much needed and much appreciated.  As we gather with our families and friends on Thanksgiving Day, let us remember poor and hungry people and share the basic necessities of life with them.

For Christians, every day is really a thanksgiving day to God.  Not only does God give us all the basic necessities of life.  God also gives us his own Son Jesus, crucified and risen to grant us the forgiveness of all our sins, new life every day, and everlasting life in the full kingdom of God.  Furthermore, God gives us the Holy Spirit to sustain us, lead us and empower us.  Thanksgiving leads to “thanks-living.”

During the last half of September and the first part of October, our second readings have come from Philippians.  I know it’s hard not to worry in the middle of a national, even global, financial crisis.  But the Apostle Paul has sage advice for us in his Letter to the Philippians. “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  Philippians 4:6.  Paul writes this from a Roman jail cell with an uncertain future ahead of him.  Yet he is able to take everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving, rather than worrying about things over which he has no control.  Paul is a great example for us.

Serving Jesus together with you,

Dennis Hickman, pastor

 “Confirmation and Reformation Sunday” 

Sunday October 30^th will be a great celebration day here at First Lutheran in Ellensburg.  Two special events are happening on the same day: Confirmation Sunday and Reformation Sunday.

First of all, four of our young people are ready to be confirmed in the Christian faith.  They are ready to affirm their baptisms. Four youthful

members of God’s church are ready to say “Yes” to the promises God first made to them in Holy Baptism.  Many people, perhaps you too, have been teachers and examples of Christian faith and life for them.  You may have been preschool teachers, Sunday School teachers, Vacation Bible School teachers or youth leaders for them.  Perhaps you were a Christian friend or mentor to them in past years or (I hope) will continue to be so in their high school years and beyond. These four young Christians have completed three years of study on the Bible, 10 Commandments, Apostle’s Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Lord’s Supper and Reformation history and are now ready to be confirmed in the Christian faith.  They are ready to assume greater responsibility in the life of our church and its mission in the world. These four wonderful young Christians are Alex Ponchene, Tristan Blaisdell, Ethan Johnson and Hunter Francis (a member of First Presbyterian Church). They will be presenting their statements of faith during the 10:00 AM worship service. Of course there will be a cake and reception in their honor following worship, so do come and celebrate with them.

October 30^th  is also Reformation Sunday.  On Reformation day we give thanks for the faithful witness of Martin Luther and other reformers of the church.  Luther discovered the Bible truth that our salvation is a free gift of God’s grace, which we receive through faith.  I should say Luther and others “rediscovered” the truth of salvation as God’s free gift to us, because that was always there in the Bible.  But it had gotten covered over with other things during the middle ages.    Luther emphasized the Bible truth that we do not somehow earn the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.  Rather these are freely given to us through the precious blood of Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again to save us.  Our lives are a “Thank You!” to God as we share the love and good news of Jesus with other people.  We work not to be saved.  We work because we are saved through Jesus.  Jesus says it well in John 8:32: “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” Reformation Sunday reminds us that we need to continually let ourselves and the church be reformed and reshaped into the image of God.  It’s never “once and done”, but a continual lifelong process.  We pray that God will constantly reform us into the image of Christ, so that we can help shine the light of Jesus more effectively in our world.

Affirmation of Baptism (Confirmation) and Reformation Sunday go well together.  I appreciate that the Rite of Confirmation happens here in the fall of the year as young people are beginning high school.  This helps emphasize that confirmation is a beginning, not an ending, and that we are all life long students of God’s Word and life- long disciples of Jesus.  This prayer will be said on Sunday October 30th for Tristan, Ethan, Alex and Hunter:

“We give you thanks, O God, that through water and the Holy Spirit you give us new birth, cleanse us from sin, and raise us to eternal life.  Stir up in your people the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and forever. Amen.”

Serving Christ together with you,

Dennis Hickman, pastor