After over a century in the family, the family farm is no longer owned by a Simons.  That’s a pretty big deal.  After all, my great-grandfather William, my grandfather Emerson, my dad Cliff, I , my daughters, and my grandsons all walked those fields. As I thought about that the other day I got a bit of a lump in my throat.  For some reason, I have always had a sense of place that connected me to that farm, though I only worked it in the years I was growing up at home.  For my Dad, that farm is the only land he has ever owned and connection to the land was especially strong.  I think for me, however, it’s a bit different than for my dad.  God led me in a different path than farming, so I’ve had a life and a body of work off the farm that spans all of my adult working years.  Dad was born on that farm.  He worked that farm.  It could not have been an easy decision to sell that farm.  The pull of heritage and family history must have been enormous.  The thought of living in a different house must have been strange – even alien.  But he did it.

I’ve never really asked him why, but I think I have a pretty good sense.   Mom & Dad are up in years and the old farmhouse is not particularly elder-friendly.  Keeping up with an aging house and a big yard would be more than Dad wanted Mom to have to deal with, so I kind of think he wanted to be sure she was in a good, manageable situation when the Lord calls him home.  And then, of course, there is the reality that none of us kids were drawn to farming.  Better to put that farm in the hands of someone who would keep it tasked for what that land has been very good at for over a hundred years.  I can’t prove all of that was part of Dad’s calculation, but it’s what I think because that’s the kind of man Dad is.  Practical.  Good decision maker.  Quietly doing what’s in his family’s best interest.  Respecter of the land.

So while it seems like a big deal that the family home is no longer in the family after more than a century, in another respect it’s really no big deal at all.  Compared to the eternal home in heaven that Jesus purchased with this life, death and resurrection and then ascended to prepare for us, a century is nothing.  It’s a tick of the clock.  We are very blessed to have a Father who loved (and loves) us enough to have made the extraordinary choice to spend his own Son to purchase that eternal home in heaven that will always be ours.  How blessed to have a Savior who willingly labored all his life carrying the burden of perfect obedience so that we would be qualified to be granted entrance into that home of the righteous.  How blessed to have a Savior who died on the cross to wash away all that would have disqualified us for that home.  None of that was easy.  Listening in on his prayer in Gethsemane and watching at the foot of the cross makes that clear.  And yet he did it.  Willingly and gladly and for us all, he did it.  And he did all of that to leave us in a really good place for eternity.  Our eternal home is still ours: “...our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ...”  (Philippians 3:20)

I know I am stating the obvious here, but let me say it anyway:  inreach and outreach is all about the Word and personal relationships.  I guess I’ve always known that, but being back in a mission congregation again for the past two years has shuffled that awareness to the top of the deck again.  God’s Word does all the work as it touches human hearts and the Holy Spirit works his will.  It often works so quietly and in such an “unflashy” way that it might seem that nothing is happening at all.  But it is.  God promised it would.  The conduits through which that Word usually flows from person to person are the personal relationships we have with people:  the neighbor I chat with or have over for something on the grill, the family whose children play with my grandson, the homebound and shut-in whom I visit, the troubled member of the church family who is struggling with some problem and needs some time with the pastor, the relationship that develops over the course of a Bible Information Class, the warm welcome extended to a member who hasn’t been in worship for a long time, a card dropped in the mail on some happy occasion or at the time some encouragement is needed – the examples are myriad.  Every one of those personal relationships becomes a way in which the Word can flow to those who need to hear it, both inside and outside the church.  And it isn’t just my relationship with those folks that matters – it is also (especially?) the relationships like this that develop between members of the congregation and between them and the folks in their circle of acquaintances and in their families who just don’t know Jesus or who don’t know him very well.  Paul had lots to say about this kind of thing.  I am reminded constantly why.  It is extremely important – in his day and in mine, in his ministry and in mine.

And beyond that, there are the needs and challenges of the church as it interacts with the secular world in doing its work.  Those relationships are important, too – with the men and women who serve in local government with whom I must interface to get things done, with local law enforcement, with the teller at my bank, with the check-out people at the grocery store, over lunch with the realtor who represented the seller in our purchase of a church, with that nice person in the township clerk’s office who helped me navigate some township paperwork, etc..  The more I get to know them and they me, the more connected I am to the community I serve and the more they view me and the church I serve as part of the community. 

I remind myself every time I walk out the door that developing those personal relationships is still as important as when my Boss cultivated them with a woman at a well, with a synagogue ruler, with a tax collector, with a local military/law enforcement officer, with a woman who’d lost her son, with a woman with a critically ill child .... well. you get the idea.  And far from being some “utilitarian” task I must accomplish for my “job,” cultivating these kinds of relationships brings people into my life who are a joy and blessing to me.  And who knows, but that even those relationships can become a viaduct for the Water of Life to flow to a parched and thirsting soul?  Yes, ministry – especially in a mission congregation – is all about the Word at work.  But it’s also about relationships.  And at least for this preacher, that makes this work all the more fun to do and amazing to watch as God works through his Word.

"Somewhere between the mid-1960’s and the mid-1990’s they stopped putting on/off switches on motorcycle headlights.  Not that I consider myself a shaper of such policy, but I think I might have had something to do with that particular change.  Or maybe it was just other people who did foolish things like the one I did one warm summer night.  I was in high school – that age where I imagined myself smarter than I really was...and indestructible.  I was out for a motorcycle ride with my best friend and fellow rider, Jerry.  It was a beautiful summer night for a ride – warm, calm, and a big full moon hung in the sky.  It lit up the countryside almost like day.  And that’s when the foolish idea came to me.  Why not switch off my headlight and ride by moonlight?  So that’s what I did.  It was magical!  Humming down a country road by the silver light of that moon was pretty cool.  And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement at the side of the road.  Something was approaching the road from a field.  It was big and fast and it didn’t look like it was slowing down.  Instinctively I jumped on both the front and rear brakes hard.  And then a deer bounded out of the ditch right in front of me.  As I braced for impact I’m sure I saw that deer tuck his fanny in at the last second.  We barely missed each other.  The deer gets all the credit for that.  When I came to a stop, I shut the bike down and stood at the side of the road, still astride my motorcycle, shaking.  Eventually Jerry realized I wasn’t behind him and circled back to check.  As he pulled up next to me, he asked, “What happened to you?”  “Nothing!” I mumbled.  I was right, nothing happened.  But it sure could have.  It was absolute lunacy to ride by the light of the moon (pardon the pun) on a deer-infested country road.  They put headlights on motorcycles for a reason.  That I foolishly chose not to use mine put me in serious danger.  Needless to say, I never did that stupid thing again.

It occurs to me that this is a pretty good illustration for what the apostle Paul was talking about in 2 Peter 1:19 -  “…we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”  God gave us his Word – and went through a lot of effort in doing so.  He made sure we got it from the pens of the human penmen he chose by flawlessly and fully breathing into them what he wanted written so that all the truths and ideas the Bible contains are expressed in the very words he wanted them to use.  He managed to preserve it through the ages so that he could place it into our hands and homes and hearts.  His purpose?  God has in mind to safely lead us through life until we’ve finally come home to park safely in his garage and join him in his house.  The journey we are on is also filled with God’s blessings to enjoy.   Keep your eyes open and you’ll spot them.  Keep the headlight on and you’ll see more than you ever thought could be there.  It’s the Word and only the Word that enlightens us about God’s saving, redeeming, forgiving love in Christ.  It’s the Word and only the Word that reveals God’s gracious and tender and patient heart.  We would never see such things if God did not let his light shine in our hearts. 

But we need to remember that there’s a lot of stuff hiding in the ditches and roaming the fields of life that God doesn’t want us smacking into:  false teachings about God and our relationship with him, Satan’s lies and temptations, and even the world’s enticement that it’s “more fun” to ride with your headlight off.  The sinful nature is a really foolish and unskilled rider.  The sinful nature is reckless and self-indulgent and prefers not to think about the consequences of his/her actions.  The devil knows that, and he will never tire of trying to catch us riding with the headlight off.  We might survive a collision or two – God knows we do every day.  But to intentionally ride through life without God’s Word constantly leading and lighting the way is just asking for serious trouble…perhaps spiritually fatal trouble.  And if the church you go to has gotten wishy-washy about the light of the Word, it’s time to look for a new route home.

Open your Bible.  Get into the Word and stay there.  Leave your headlight on and just forget there is an on/off switch.  That little switch is nothing but trouble and nothing good ever comes from clicking it to the “off” position.  God wants you to get home safely, and so do I."

My daughter and her husband who live in another state became foster parents to two boys (brothers) nearly two years ago.  About a year ago they adopted  them.  I remember the first time we were going to meet the boys.   When they announced they were coming for a visit, we were eager to meet our two brand new grandsons for the first time.  We were eager – but we had lots of questions swirling through our minds:    What would they be like?  Since they come from a different culture, would they be able to relate to us and we to them?  Would they be aloof and unsure?  Would we seem that way to them?  With the visit scheduled to last only 5 days, could we realistically expect to do any real bonding in so short a time?  How would they click with our young grandson (about their same age) who lived with us then full time?

It did not take long for our questions to have answers.  The three grandsons were introduced and promptly ran off to play.  They became inseparable over the next few days.  By the time they left, our live-in grandson said he missed them before they were even at the end of the street.  What a joy to see little boys from such different cultures and experience become so close and have so much in common!

And what a joy to experience their smiles and their love, so freely given so quickly!  From the first night they were at our home I had the joy of having three wonderful grandsons all crowded onto my lap as I read them bedtime stories.  We treated them to their first real birthday party, and went as a family to their first outing to a movie theater.  There were constant hugs and smiles and “carry me”s over those glorious days.  By the time they left they had become family as surely as if they were blood.  As they drove away our hearts were full –  we had three grandsons now!  Our hearts were a bit sad – it would be a while before we would be able to return the visit and see them again. 

This must be how God thinks of us.  He moved John to say so in the very first chapter of his gospel:    12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”  (John 1:13-14)  We were not born into this world being part of God’s family.  Sin and unbelief had us more widely separated from him than any mere cultural differences have ever separated us from others.  We belonged to the kingdom of darkness and would have remained so, but for the saving love of God in Christ.  He redeemed us through the blood of his Son, sacrificing his own Son in order to make us his sons and daughters.  He washed away with the blood of his Son all that barred us from adoption into his family.  He called us to faith in that Son through Holy Baptism and clothed us all alike in his Son.  In that saving grace all outward distinctions of gender and race and language and socio-economics fell away as he claimed us all alike as his children.  That’s exactly what he tells us through the apostle Paul:  26 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  (Galatians 3:26-29)

For me, one of the most profoundly reassuring passages that talk about God’s adoption of us is found in John’s first letter (3:1):   “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”  John can hardly believe it and yet excitedly states that it is true:  God calls us his children!  He really does!  We don’t claim that title; he confers it on us in love because of what he has done for us through his Son. 

And there it is.  By all rights, foster children.  But from God’s point of view, dearly loved and chosen and true children who belong to his family for time and eternity!  We are children who can crawl up in his lap in prayer, pour our hearts out, and know that he cares.  We are children who still sin, and yet he forgives and forgets because of that other Son he sent to the cross in our place.  We are children whom he never tires of gathering in his arms and reading to us again the story of his love and our future home with him in heaven.  Not bad for people who were born orphans, eh?

They say there are two kinds of motorcycle riders:  those who have taken a spill on a motorcycle and those who will.  It does seem to bear out.  One only hopes that one is alone and going slow when it happens.  Mine happened about 20 years ago.  It was most certainly a case of “pilot error” – I downshifted too far as I was slowing and when I let the clutch out the rear wheel immediately lost traction.  It went into what is rather accurately called a “tank slapper,.  The bike inevitably went down and I went “high-side” over the handlebars.  On the plus side of things, I was not seriously injured.  On the negative, I “skipped” off the road leaving a fair amount of the skin of my arms from armpit to wrist on the road.  The bike was still drivable, so I made it home unassisted.

But where does one find bandages of sufficient size to bind two arms full of road rash?  At the risk of sounding indelicate, the “unmentionable female supplies” of my wife and three teenage daughters seemed perfectly suited for the task.  So after carefully cleaning my rash, and applying a treatment of first-aid ointment, I found those “female supplies” just the thing to protect my dress shirts from the wounds as they healed.   I literally found healing for my wounds from something that is just not mentioned in polite company.

I was thinking about that incident as I read Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1:  27 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. “  Virtually everything about God’s plan of salvation involved things the world of Paul’s day and our own would find unworthy of mention:  a lowly son of a Jewish carpenter who was betrayed by one of his closest followers and who died half-naked on a cross based on trumped up charges.  Who would want to bind one’s wounds with that?  Would anyone really expect the world to be turned to God by the proclamation of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection?  In our day of special effects and professionally produced “worship experiences” staged in fully-equipped worship centers, the simple message of the gospel doesn’t appear to our world to have enough “pop” to grab people for his kingdom.

And yet, Jesus and his cross and the announcement that through them God has healed our terminal sinfulness is precisely what God chose to save sinners.  Because – and only because – the Holy Spirit has brought us to faith in Jesus and his finished work, we see the cross of Christ and the gospel’s proclamation about it to be wisdom and power and something to brag on God about.  We are whole and righteous and healed in God’s sight by the very thing our world would prefer not to talk about.  When the whole world went down, God decided to send his own Son into the world, cloaked in humility and suffering and service to – how did he put it in Isaiah? – “ preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, (61:1-3)