October 2016 - Pastor Dan

 I am baptized and it has taken decades of slow growing and divine interactions which has allowed me to see how God's baptism has indeed shaped my life and the way I go about living. Even while I spent time straying as a young man, I knew the presence of the Lord in my life and in the world, but I really didn't care for the Lord's baptism to shape my day to day living. I felt I could shape my life the way I wanted to which was good enough for me. My desire to live my life the way I wanted to was secured by not being a part of a faith community and allowing for participation in a community that hold me accountable to God's baptism in my living.

 When I returned to living in a faith community, I returned to a Lutheran church. I could have chosen any flavor or brand of Christianity, as I had exposure to a variety of faith expressions, but I chose the Lutheran body because I felt that the Lutheran theology allows for a life that I felt reflected living in Holy Scripture. A Lutheran theology encourages continual reforming and allows for one to think about God's activity and God's Word. A Lutheran theology allows for doubts and questions and searching. Martin Luther constantly asks, "What does this mean?" in the small catechism. Our very nature is to question, not God's existence or power or authority, but how is God's presence, power and authority reflected, made known and shared. A Lutheran theology allows for dialog, for differing thoughts and perspectives, for a clashing of ideas and understandings. It allows for these differences to bring life and grace into the Lutheran expression within the Body of Christ.

 On October 29th and 30th, we will celebrate Reformation Sunday. It was on October 31st, 1517 that Martin Luther nailed 95 thesis on the door of the Wittenberg chapel. In his doing so, the course of Europe and humanity began to head in a new direction. In 2017, we will slowly make our way to the 500th anniversary of this historic moment. There will be a focus on Luther, the Lutheran church and Lutheran theology. Over the next year, here at Mount Zion, we'll continue to focus on Christ and what the Lord is doing at Mount Zion but we will also spend some time emphasizing our Lutheran roots and Lutheran traditions.

 My prayer and my hope is that we know enough about being a disciple of Christ living and worshiping within a Lutheran expression that if someone were to ask you next year, "What's the Lutheran church about?" that you could respond in a thoughtful manner. We are a Christ centered congregation with Lutheran roots and traditions and the Lutheran aspect of our congregation is the shape of the vehicle which helps keeps us connected and growing in Christ. The Lutheran vehicle may not be the high-end, top of the line vehicle, but it is a faithful vehicle that will continue to get us from point A to point B as it has done for nearly 500 years now.

In Christ's love and service,

Pastor Dan