Perspective

Last Sunday morning, as I was preparing to lead the worship services, I followed my normal custom of checking the internet news feeds to see "what in the world" was going on. Generally there isn't much, but on that morning I started seeing news feeds about the massive 9.0 (sometimes reported as 8.9) earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, with over 3,500 confirmed dead. The number quickly went up: 5,000, 7,500, 9,000... Today, as I write this, the number dead approaches 77,000, with millions homeless and a major outbreak of respiratory and water-borne illness immanent. In many villages, three entire generations or families were wiped out.

So, how was your Christmas holiday?

Isn't that juxtaposition jarring? Suffering and devastation on that level are almost incomprehensible, yet many don't get it. I was watching the news that evening and the smiling, well-coiffed anchor person said, "Our top story tonight: larger crowds at shopping malls!" What??? No, no, the world needs to stop and look at this. Many just don't want to know. We need to respond. For more on just how to respond, we've been asked to publish this contact information: ELCA International Disaster Response, PO Box 71764 Chicago, IL 60694-1764, 1-800-638-3522, or at http://www.elca.org/scriptlib/dcm/giving/idisaster.asp on the Internet. Trinity also will be glad to forward any offerings or gifts directly as well.

An earthquake/tsunami of another sort is scheduled to hit the church of January 13th, the ELCA Studies on Sexuality is set to be made public. I DO NOT mean to minimize the sufferings of those in Indonesia, but this is serious as well, and will likely have significant long-term effects on the national church.

In short, it's going to be a mess as conservative Lutherans begin to respond to the wholesale co-opting of the Lutheran Church by the gay rights special interest groups. While it's true that out-and out homophobia is an ugly and unchristian thing (this is the accusation that is usually used to cower conservative Lutherans into confused silence), we have no business in allowing our clergy to directly violate scripture by engaging in sanctioned homosexual relationships - of any sort! A helpful article can be found at http://www.luthercomment.org/ "Turning up the hear-- Lutheran Frog in Hot Water".

By all accounts, 2005 is going to be an amazing year!

Wishing you peace, joy, hope and love as you respond to God's grace in love.

Pastor Larry