Notes from Pastor Renstrom |
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On this page, you can read selected Grace Notes articles from Pastor Tim Renstrom from past months and study them in closer detail. Enjoy!
APRIL 2021
‘Tis the Season!
It is most often likely that when we hear the words “‘tis the season”, we think of Christmas—or maybe Easter—or some other “major holiday”. But April through May often ‘tis the season for—drum roll, please—confirmation.
I know. Some, and perhaps a growing number of churches which practice confirmation, are moving it to the fall. And I get it and really approve of the concept. The idea is to move confirmation away from the time of graduation, hoping that by doing so, the subconscious idea of graduating from church will disappear. However, I see no evidence that it has worked.
Now, back to ‘tis the season! Here at St. John’s and St. Stephen’s we offer the rite of confirmation to students who are prepared usually around April or May. But what is it? If it’s not graduation from church, what is it?
Our catechism (CPH 2017) answers it this way: “Confirmation is a public rite of the church preceded by a period of instruction in which baptized Christians learn about the confession, life, and mission of the Christian Church.” Our junior confirmation students may choose to answer it along the lines of: “Something my mom and dad make me go to and the pastor makes me memorize a bunch of stuff.” I often describe confirmation as an event when, after having learned about the faith one was baptized into, the baptized one says, “Yes, that faith my mom and dad had me baptized into—that’s my faith. I believe what God says.” And in doing so, the primary responsibility for faith growth and development (always it is God who is doing this but, humanly speaking) belongs to the confirmed. No longer can the baptized stand before God and use the excuse, “Well, my mom and dad didn’t teach me that.” Now God responds back to him or her, “You confirmed your faith. You took responsibility for your faith. Why didn’t you search for the “God” answer?”
The Rite of Confirmation contains a series of questions about life and faith after confirmation. Along with questions about belief in the Triune God, among them are:
· Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?
· Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?
· Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?
I wonder if we realize how deadly serious these promises are? When we promise—to God in front of witnesses—these promises: to attend church and hear the word and receive the sacraments, to live and suffer whatever may come our way because of our faith; we are saying we’d rather die than to miss church or miss receiving the sacraments. And, yet, how many of us have fallen away for a time?
Matthew 5:37 (CSB): “But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.” These are the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. And in keeping with His teaching, the confirmands are instructed to answer, if they agree with the questions, “I do, by the grace of God” (my emphasis). Only by the grace of God.
The unholy trinity, the devil, the world and my sinful flesh, is constantly trying to pull me away from my simple “yes.” But, in and by the gifts the Holy Trinity gives me, God continues to pull me and hold me to himself. ‘Tis the season the devil paints a target on confirmation kids to yank them away from faith in the true God. But, in season and out of season, God has already marked them—marked us—as his own with the sign of the cross in Baptism, and “nothing can separate them from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
As we witness our confirmands confirming their faith this year, let us rejoice with them and pray for them. We rejoice with them that God has opened them to believe Jesus is their savior. We pray for them that they can remain faithful to their promises.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
‘Tis the Season!
It is most often likely that when we hear the words “‘tis the season”, we think of Christmas—or maybe Easter—or some other “major holiday”. But April through May often ‘tis the season for—drum roll, please—confirmation.
I know. Some, and perhaps a growing number of churches which practice confirmation, are moving it to the fall. And I get it and really approve of the concept. The idea is to move confirmation away from the time of graduation, hoping that by doing so, the subconscious idea of graduating from church will disappear. However, I see no evidence that it has worked.
Now, back to ‘tis the season! Here at St. John’s and St. Stephen’s we offer the rite of confirmation to students who are prepared usually around April or May. But what is it? If it’s not graduation from church, what is it?
Our catechism (CPH 2017) answers it this way: “Confirmation is a public rite of the church preceded by a period of instruction in which baptized Christians learn about the confession, life, and mission of the Christian Church.” Our junior confirmation students may choose to answer it along the lines of: “Something my mom and dad make me go to and the pastor makes me memorize a bunch of stuff.” I often describe confirmation as an event when, after having learned about the faith one was baptized into, the baptized one says, “Yes, that faith my mom and dad had me baptized into—that’s my faith. I believe what God says.” And in doing so, the primary responsibility for faith growth and development (always it is God who is doing this but, humanly speaking) belongs to the confirmed. No longer can the baptized stand before God and use the excuse, “Well, my mom and dad didn’t teach me that.” Now God responds back to him or her, “You confirmed your faith. You took responsibility for your faith. Why didn’t you search for the “God” answer?”
The Rite of Confirmation contains a series of questions about life and faith after confirmation. Along with questions about belief in the Triune God, among them are:
· Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?
· Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?
· Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?
I wonder if we realize how deadly serious these promises are? When we promise—to God in front of witnesses—these promises: to attend church and hear the word and receive the sacraments, to live and suffer whatever may come our way because of our faith; we are saying we’d rather die than to miss church or miss receiving the sacraments. And, yet, how many of us have fallen away for a time?
Matthew 5:37 (CSB): “But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.” These are the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. And in keeping with His teaching, the confirmands are instructed to answer, if they agree with the questions, “I do, by the grace of God” (my emphasis). Only by the grace of God.
The unholy trinity, the devil, the world and my sinful flesh, is constantly trying to pull me away from my simple “yes.” But, in and by the gifts the Holy Trinity gives me, God continues to pull me and hold me to himself. ‘Tis the season the devil paints a target on confirmation kids to yank them away from faith in the true God. But, in season and out of season, God has already marked them—marked us—as his own with the sign of the cross in Baptism, and “nothing can separate them from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
As we witness our confirmands confirming their faith this year, let us rejoice with them and pray for them. We rejoice with them that God has opened them to believe Jesus is their savior. We pray for them that they can remain faithful to their promises.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
Hope in March 2021
(Those of you who have had an opportunity to attend our midweek Lenten services are aware that the theme for this year’s sermons is “Hope in a Dying World”. This article is intended to tie-in with this same theme.)
Last month celebrated a saint whose day I seldom recognize...March celebrates a saint day of a man for whom I have great respect: Patrick of Ireland. These days, much of the celebration of March 17 would likely reflect Patrick’s youthful behavior. According to George G. Hunter III in his book The Celtic Way of Evangelism (© 2000 Abingdon Press, Nashville), Patrick grew up during the late fourth or early fifth century in what is now northeast England. “His family was Christian; his grandfather was a priest. Patrick had acquired some Christian teaching, and he undoubtedly knew the catechism, but he became only a nominal Christian; he ridiculed the clergy and, in the company of other ‘alienated’ and ‘ungoverned’ youth, he lived toward the wild side.”
Sound familiar? I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to compare our culture to his. Barna Group, a Christian polling group, suggests that the fasted growing segment of American culture is the group—especially of young people—who, when asked to indicate a religious preference, indicate ‘none’.
Patrick was captured at age 16 and sold as a slave in what is now Ireland. During 6 years of slavery, the Holy Spirit awakened the latent faith in him and he became a devout Christian. Having escaped Ireland, he becomes a parish priest in England. As an old man of 48 (past the life expectancy of a man of that time) he was led by a dream to return to the land and the people who had enslaved him. He returns to Ireland in about 432 a.d. and begins the unpopular task of proclaiming the Gospel to the ‘barbarians’ who had formerly made him a slave. In doing so, the Holy Spirit, through Patrick and those with him and who followed him, brought the ‘whole’ island to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
All I can say each time I read and speak and write those words is “Wow!”
Hope.
A teenager who was rejecting the Holy Spirit brought to faith. An entire culture who did not know the saving message of salvation—by grace, through faith, because of the work of Jesus Christ—brought to saving faith in Jesus. All after a demoralizing life event that likely would have caused many of us to just ‘give up.’
But God reached out to Patrick, used him as his tool, and taught him some valuable lessons for our conversations with our marginalized family and friends. One of the most important of those lessons being, as Hunter puts it, “There is no shortcut to understanding the people. When you understand the people, you will often know what to say and do, and how. When the people know that the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe the High God understands them too.”
Because we have witnessed the love of God in Christ Jesus through his saving work in us, we, like God, desire all people to come to saving faith. And we pray, “thy kingdom come”, asking God to use us to spread his Gospel to those around us—family, friends, neighbors, and even enemies. But how? One important task is to understand the people with whom we are talking . And how do we understand people? By engaging them in conversation and listening to them with the purpose of understanding them (not just to answer them with our pre-formed answer).
It is thought that Patrick passed to the Church Triumphant sometime in the late 5th century. As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, I think that it would be a good idea to take some time to reach out to someone in Patrick’s style—by trying to get to know them, to understand them rather than trying to ‘force-feed’ them the Gospel or throwing up our hands in frustration. Then, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, we can apply the hope we have in Jesus Christ to the trials and troubles that are theirs.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
(Those of you who have had an opportunity to attend our midweek Lenten services are aware that the theme for this year’s sermons is “Hope in a Dying World”. This article is intended to tie-in with this same theme.)
Last month celebrated a saint whose day I seldom recognize...March celebrates a saint day of a man for whom I have great respect: Patrick of Ireland. These days, much of the celebration of March 17 would likely reflect Patrick’s youthful behavior. According to George G. Hunter III in his book The Celtic Way of Evangelism (© 2000 Abingdon Press, Nashville), Patrick grew up during the late fourth or early fifth century in what is now northeast England. “His family was Christian; his grandfather was a priest. Patrick had acquired some Christian teaching, and he undoubtedly knew the catechism, but he became only a nominal Christian; he ridiculed the clergy and, in the company of other ‘alienated’ and ‘ungoverned’ youth, he lived toward the wild side.”
Sound familiar? I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to compare our culture to his. Barna Group, a Christian polling group, suggests that the fasted growing segment of American culture is the group—especially of young people—who, when asked to indicate a religious preference, indicate ‘none’.
Patrick was captured at age 16 and sold as a slave in what is now Ireland. During 6 years of slavery, the Holy Spirit awakened the latent faith in him and he became a devout Christian. Having escaped Ireland, he becomes a parish priest in England. As an old man of 48 (past the life expectancy of a man of that time) he was led by a dream to return to the land and the people who had enslaved him. He returns to Ireland in about 432 a.d. and begins the unpopular task of proclaiming the Gospel to the ‘barbarians’ who had formerly made him a slave. In doing so, the Holy Spirit, through Patrick and those with him and who followed him, brought the ‘whole’ island to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
All I can say each time I read and speak and write those words is “Wow!”
Hope.
A teenager who was rejecting the Holy Spirit brought to faith. An entire culture who did not know the saving message of salvation—by grace, through faith, because of the work of Jesus Christ—brought to saving faith in Jesus. All after a demoralizing life event that likely would have caused many of us to just ‘give up.’
But God reached out to Patrick, used him as his tool, and taught him some valuable lessons for our conversations with our marginalized family and friends. One of the most important of those lessons being, as Hunter puts it, “There is no shortcut to understanding the people. When you understand the people, you will often know what to say and do, and how. When the people know that the Christians understand them, they infer that maybe the High God understands them too.”
Because we have witnessed the love of God in Christ Jesus through his saving work in us, we, like God, desire all people to come to saving faith. And we pray, “thy kingdom come”, asking God to use us to spread his Gospel to those around us—family, friends, neighbors, and even enemies. But how? One important task is to understand the people with whom we are talking . And how do we understand people? By engaging them in conversation and listening to them with the purpose of understanding them (not just to answer them with our pre-formed answer).
It is thought that Patrick passed to the Church Triumphant sometime in the late 5th century. As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, I think that it would be a good idea to take some time to reach out to someone in Patrick’s style—by trying to get to know them, to understand them rather than trying to ‘force-feed’ them the Gospel or throwing up our hands in frustration. Then, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, we can apply the hope we have in Jesus Christ to the trials and troubles that are theirs.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
February 2021
On Things Valentine…
First off, let’s be honest. I don’t have a romantic bone, muscle, sinew, organ, or anything in my body. Oh, I have tried. Several times. But it comes off pathetic and miserable. Every time. I don’t watch ‘rom-coms’, except occasionally with my wife. I think romance novels are not worthy of mention. I even skip over the obligatory romantic sections of other novels and, if I had my way, I’d likely fast forward through the ‘love interest’ sections of action movies. Having said that, it probably comes as no surprise to you that Valentine’s Day is not on my list of favorite days. It doesn’t even make my list of least-favorite days. It just doesn’t make the list at all.
However, Valentine’s Day does still make the calendar—every year in the middle of February. And, this year, WOST (Women of St Stephen’s) are planning to have a bake sale themed around it. And my secretary suggested that it would be a good topic for this article. Therefore...
Some history first: There is not a lot of accurate history surrounding the man named Valentine for whom the saint day is dedicated. He apparently was one of three (or possibly others) Christian men (named Valentine) in or around the 3rd or 4th century who were deeply appreciated for their care and love of people. Either no one thought to write down the information as it was happening, or it has gotten lost over time, but we know that the early Roman Catholic Church thought enough of the man to canonize him (declare him a saint). Since then legend and tradition and commercialism have overrun whatever basis of fact there might have been hidden in the day.
Or has it completely?
While it’s deeply hidden and misdirected, it does seem that the focus of the original Valentine was the love that God had for him—and his desire to share it with others. According to legend it was so important that he was willing to be martyred for sharing his love of God and people and his faith.
That’s what love really is. John puts it this way, “This is how we come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16 EHV). And Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 EHV). And, again, Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but has eternal life” (John 3:16).
Romance—the emotional feelings, the strong physical attraction—is fine in love. I even recommend it—even though—well, see above! But true love is broader and deeper than a box of candy, or a card, or a dinner out, or any of the gifts usually associated with Valentines Day. True love cares even when there is conflict (while we were still enemies Christ died for us). True love reaches out when there is no attraction (even when we were dead in our trespasses God made us alive with Christ). True love holds no grudges, remembers no wrongs and always desires to lift up and help anyone—especially those we hold close, our loved ones. True love is patient, kind, does not envy or brag, is not arrogant, doesn’t behave indecently, is not selfish, is not irritable, but does rejoice in the truth (1 Corinthians 13)!
True love is hard. It doesn’t sell well. But God has it for us and through him, we have it for others—those close and those far away. Perhaps, for just a moment in the middle of this month of February, we can pause and bask in and reflect the true love we have been given, and give it to others.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
On Things Valentine…
First off, let’s be honest. I don’t have a romantic bone, muscle, sinew, organ, or anything in my body. Oh, I have tried. Several times. But it comes off pathetic and miserable. Every time. I don’t watch ‘rom-coms’, except occasionally with my wife. I think romance novels are not worthy of mention. I even skip over the obligatory romantic sections of other novels and, if I had my way, I’d likely fast forward through the ‘love interest’ sections of action movies. Having said that, it probably comes as no surprise to you that Valentine’s Day is not on my list of favorite days. It doesn’t even make my list of least-favorite days. It just doesn’t make the list at all.
However, Valentine’s Day does still make the calendar—every year in the middle of February. And, this year, WOST (Women of St Stephen’s) are planning to have a bake sale themed around it. And my secretary suggested that it would be a good topic for this article. Therefore...
Some history first: There is not a lot of accurate history surrounding the man named Valentine for whom the saint day is dedicated. He apparently was one of three (or possibly others) Christian men (named Valentine) in or around the 3rd or 4th century who were deeply appreciated for their care and love of people. Either no one thought to write down the information as it was happening, or it has gotten lost over time, but we know that the early Roman Catholic Church thought enough of the man to canonize him (declare him a saint). Since then legend and tradition and commercialism have overrun whatever basis of fact there might have been hidden in the day.
Or has it completely?
While it’s deeply hidden and misdirected, it does seem that the focus of the original Valentine was the love that God had for him—and his desire to share it with others. According to legend it was so important that he was willing to be martyred for sharing his love of God and people and his faith.
That’s what love really is. John puts it this way, “This is how we come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16 EHV). And Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 EHV). And, again, Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but has eternal life” (John 3:16).
Romance—the emotional feelings, the strong physical attraction—is fine in love. I even recommend it—even though—well, see above! But true love is broader and deeper than a box of candy, or a card, or a dinner out, or any of the gifts usually associated with Valentines Day. True love cares even when there is conflict (while we were still enemies Christ died for us). True love reaches out when there is no attraction (even when we were dead in our trespasses God made us alive with Christ). True love holds no grudges, remembers no wrongs and always desires to lift up and help anyone—especially those we hold close, our loved ones. True love is patient, kind, does not envy or brag, is not arrogant, doesn’t behave indecently, is not selfish, is not irritable, but does rejoice in the truth (1 Corinthians 13)!
True love is hard. It doesn’t sell well. But God has it for us and through him, we have it for others—those close and those far away. Perhaps, for just a moment in the middle of this month of February, we can pause and bask in and reflect the true love we have been given, and give it to others.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
January 2021
In the Fullness of Time
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5 NIV)
We human beings are not very good at waiting until the ‘fullness of time’. We are, to put it in late 20th century jargon, a ‘microwave society’. We don’t usually put things in the crock-pot unless we can multi-task by doing so. We want convenience, we want efficiency, and we want it easy.
That same statement goes for our world’s condition during this time of the corona virus pandemic. We are simply amazed that it can infect us in this 21st century. We are bamboozled that science took so long to come up with a response. We blame everyone and everything that we can for our troubles. And now we wonder why it takes so long to vaccinate some nearly 8 billion people world wide.
We want done with this.
God knows. But he also knows the right timing, the best timing. He is working in all things to the good of those who love him, just as he did for the 4,000-some years before sending Jesus into the world to be our savior. As it says in the verses immediately before the ones quoted above, there is always a time of learning: we were children, subject to guardians and trustees; “when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.” Children have some learning to do. “Sons”, as it is used in this context, means all who are eligible to inherit (male or female)...which also implies, since we are now declared heirs, that we learned to behave responsibly.
Paul, under God’s inspiration, has declared that we are “sons”. How good have you been at behaving responsibly during this difficult time? I confess that I have not always acted thus. More times than I care to admit I have acted like a two-year old throwing a tantrum!
In that tantrum we have sinned. We have rebelled against the timing of God. We have rebelled against the discipline of God. We have shown little faith in the promise of God.
It is right and proper to complain to God in prayer and supplication. It is right and proper to ask him for relief. But how encouraging have we been to our neighbor when they are struggling? Or do we just join in with the complaining session?
We all need to be lifted up with encouragement and hope. And encouragement and hope come only from the one who came in the fullness of time: Jesus. He knows what we are going through. He knows our sinful nature. He provides his Holy Spirit to show us our sin, bring us to repentance and shore up our faith, so that we can live in the forgiveness that is ours as heirs of the promise. We are forgiven! And he will see us through this different time.
When the fullness of time comes, this virus, too, will be rendered less lethal. Then we will thank the medical community and the scientific community for their hard and quick work. When that time comes, let us not forget to give thanks to God for his cure and, also, his time of discipline so that we could learn to be more mature heirs of the Father.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom
In the Fullness of Time
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5 NIV)
We human beings are not very good at waiting until the ‘fullness of time’. We are, to put it in late 20th century jargon, a ‘microwave society’. We don’t usually put things in the crock-pot unless we can multi-task by doing so. We want convenience, we want efficiency, and we want it easy.
That same statement goes for our world’s condition during this time of the corona virus pandemic. We are simply amazed that it can infect us in this 21st century. We are bamboozled that science took so long to come up with a response. We blame everyone and everything that we can for our troubles. And now we wonder why it takes so long to vaccinate some nearly 8 billion people world wide.
We want done with this.
God knows. But he also knows the right timing, the best timing. He is working in all things to the good of those who love him, just as he did for the 4,000-some years before sending Jesus into the world to be our savior. As it says in the verses immediately before the ones quoted above, there is always a time of learning: we were children, subject to guardians and trustees; “when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.” Children have some learning to do. “Sons”, as it is used in this context, means all who are eligible to inherit (male or female)...which also implies, since we are now declared heirs, that we learned to behave responsibly.
Paul, under God’s inspiration, has declared that we are “sons”. How good have you been at behaving responsibly during this difficult time? I confess that I have not always acted thus. More times than I care to admit I have acted like a two-year old throwing a tantrum!
In that tantrum we have sinned. We have rebelled against the timing of God. We have rebelled against the discipline of God. We have shown little faith in the promise of God.
It is right and proper to complain to God in prayer and supplication. It is right and proper to ask him for relief. But how encouraging have we been to our neighbor when they are struggling? Or do we just join in with the complaining session?
We all need to be lifted up with encouragement and hope. And encouragement and hope come only from the one who came in the fullness of time: Jesus. He knows what we are going through. He knows our sinful nature. He provides his Holy Spirit to show us our sin, bring us to repentance and shore up our faith, so that we can live in the forgiveness that is ours as heirs of the promise. We are forgiven! And he will see us through this different time.
When the fullness of time comes, this virus, too, will be rendered less lethal. Then we will thank the medical community and the scientific community for their hard and quick work. When that time comes, let us not forget to give thanks to God for his cure and, also, his time of discipline so that we could learn to be more mature heirs of the Father.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Tim J. Renstrom