Southwood Lutheran Church

Luther Visits Confirmation

Pastor Michael and Luther taught the confirmation class about the final 7 Commandments which relate specifically to our obligations to each other.

The Confirmation class was able to identify all of the 7 Commandments, can you?  

Senior High Ski Trip Promo Video

The High School youth group are going skiing over spring break. Check out the promotional video made by our creative youth!  

Walking on Water ... Really?

Have you heard of Liquid Mountaineering?  I hadn't until I watched this video.

At first I thought what a fun new sport these people with a lot of time and plenty of money are inventing. Then I heard them talking about "really believing they could do it" and it just made me laugh and how serious they are about conquering the water.  I guess if they really are committed to this then more power to them.  For now I'm going to stick to swimming and canoeing and leave the fancy water tricks to Jesus.

I originally had titled this post "Leave it to Jesus."  But after I typed it I realized that it  sounded like I was saying "leave it to Jesus" as in "oh look what Jesus has done now."  When what I was really thinking was - walking on water is something I'd like to leave for Jesus to do, not me.  My brother once received a glowing job performance review in which his boss proclaimed:  "Ed walks on water."  Just this week he reminded me of these words (which, incidentally are at least 10 years old) to which I responded:  "Ed, leave it to Jesus."

Here's what I find so cool about Jesus walking on water.  In Jesus' time people were absolutely scared of water, anything to do with the Ocean was equated with death and evil.  So when Jesus came and walked on water, it was as if he was conquering the thing that they were most afraid of.  It wasn't just a cool trick with water, but it was Jesus saying:  "I know your fears, and I am stronger than them."

What are you most afraid of?  Are you trying to conquer it yourself, trying to be your own liquid mountaineer?  Or, are you willing to give it to Jesus?

Pastor Sara

Easter Is Coming

Watch and Vote

Here are two great videos that Southwood members have been working on.  Watch them, vote for them, and they just might get some money out of it to support these great causes!  Don't worry about choosing between the two, they are entered in different categories so they can both win!!  Vote now!

First, Coach Bob Bauerle's program:  The Making of a Champion

Second, Southwood's AIDS Orphan/Needy student scholarship program, video made by Heidi Longe, The song used on the video is an African Hymn sung by the children of Southwood on the VBS CD!

Here's how you vote:

1. Go to Website and watch the videos Coach Bob and Faces of Hope
2. Select the “Register” tab at the top-right of the page
3. Enter your contact info with your e-mail address and select “Register”
4. Check your e-mail for your login confirmation (If it doesn’t come to your inbox, check your junk mail)
5. Follow the link in your e-mail and login in
6. Select “Watch & Rate Videos”
7. Under the tabs, in the search box type “Coach Bob” and "Faces of Hope" then select “Search”
8. Select the video Link
9. Use the stars under the video to input your rating (The rating system is on a 1-10 scale, move your mouse over the stars to select your rating).

Thank you for voting!

How do you love?

I finally saw the film Rachel Getting Married. 

My short review of the film is this:  It is difficult and beautiful.

Here's what the movie jacket says: 

When drama queen Kym (Anne Hathaway), a former model who's been in and out of rehab for 10 years, returns to her parents' home just before the wedding of her sister Rachel, long-standing family conflicts begin to resurface.

This is not really a movie you can say you "liked."  The family conflict involved in this story is deep, long-standing, and intensely painful.  After years of dealing with the problems and wounds of her sister Kym, on her wedding day Rachel is  upstaged once again.

For those who loved Anne Hathaway best as a princess, this is definitely a different role for her.  For most of the film she is not pretty, she is self-centered, and she sort of claws her way into the center of everything.  What we come to find out is that she is hurting deeply for one past sin.  She cannot forgive herself and has never felt forgiven by her family.  She is lost and in her own way is grasping for someone to love her.

The most beautiful scene is one with her sister.  Just after a car accident and just before the wedding.  Rachel bathes Kym.  Gently, sweetly, sisterly.  Kym is forgiven, not with words - but with the  actions of forgiveness.  Kym has done so much to hurt Rachel, but here she is washing her, kissing her, and standing with her in her brokenness.

All I could think about as I watched that scene was John 13.  The image of Rachel and Kym was the image of Jesus and Peter:

Jesus got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” (John 13:4-6 NLT)

It was Jesus time, it was Jesus hour, it was supposed to be about him.  But Jesus set all of that aside and served with compassion, humility, and grace.

In the same way, in this film, it was Rachel's time.  It was Rachel's hour.  It was supposed to be about Rachel.  But Rachel set all of that aside and served with compassion, humility, and grace.

When the time of the wedding finally arrives Rachel quotes her own father in her wedding vows:

The measure of a great life is not how well loved you are, but how well you love others.

This is exactly what Jesus was saying to his disciples:

After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. (John 13:12-15)

Have you seen this movie?  What was your reaction?
How do you measure your life?  Who do you love?

Pastor Sara

Making Ripples

Harold Hamilton's generosity is creating quite the ripple effect...you can see it on the comments to our original blog post and when you read the comments to Colleen Kenney's Journal Star story about him. I just took a call from the next wave in the ripple.

Karen from Byron, NE called Southwood this morning. She was inspired by Harold's story. There's a family in her community with a preemie, and Karen wants to learn about how she can help. Southwood doesn't have a connection with Newborns in Need....that's one of Harold's ministries....but we found information about the Lincoln chapter of that organization here....and now maybe Karen will start making her own ripples in Byron.

Do you know someone else who's making ripples through the ways they serve others? Tell us about it here....you can use your name or be anonymous when you comment...but share the story!

What would the world be like.....

What would the world be like if everyone made decisions like Joe Miller? Joe owns a farm just outside Denver. As he was combining his fields, he looked out at a field full of potatoes that wouldn't be harvested this year and thought, "There's gotta be a way to get these to people who need them."

Joe's idea was to open up the farm to all-comers and let them harvest their own potatoes, beets, onions, and carrots ..... for free. They expected 5,000 to come.....they got WAY more than that in a gleaning of the fields that brought to mind the Hebrew law of the harvest.

 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.' (Leviticus 23:22)

Hear Joe tell the whole story...how many people came, how much food they took away....here.

So....what would the world be like if everyone made decisions like Joe Miller?

What time is it?

I've been thinking about time a lot lately, and the wisdom of Solomon echoes in my mind.

For everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven...(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

In the verses that follow, Solomon paints a picture of opposites....a time to tear down and a time to build up....a time to grieve and a time to dance....a time to keep and a time to throw away....

A friend sent me this video that tells the story beautifully in words and images:

I always looked at those times as being either/or....you're either tearing down or building up. But as I prepare to leave my home, my friends, my church, I find that I'm living in a "both/and" kind of time.

As I disassemble parts of my life here....selling my house, arranging for going away parties for my kids, wrapping up loose ends of things I've started and can't finish...... I'm also beginning to build up parts of my life in a new place....finding a new home, registering my kids for new schools, looking at possibilities for a new church.

At the same time as I grieve the goodbyes, a part of me dances in anticipation of the adventure.

And don't even get me started on the keeping and the throwing away......

But in the middle of it all....all the extremes of emotion that get muddled together when the "either/ors" become "both/ands" ... I cling to the beautiful promise in verse 11.

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

As Pastor Sara reminded us on Sunday (hear her sermon about Psalm 95 here), God holds the whole world in his hands and he will make everything beautiful in this time....even if I can't see it from here....and no matter how mixed up things feel right now.

Kim

Finding God in Vegas (2 of 2)

You might expect to encounter a lot of things in Vegas....but God probably isn't one of them. Read about my first encounter with God in Vegas here.

One of my favorite Bible verses comes from Psalm 139 (there's a devotion on the psalm here):

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it.

How often do you think about how "wonderfully complex" your body is? Vegas is an unlikely place to reflect on that, but I did at Bodies: The Exhibition. Donated human bodies are prepared and preserved in ways that make it possible to see the skeleton, circulatory system, muscles, tendons, internal organs.....the amazing complexity and intricacy of the human body in a way that no textbook could ever depict it.

The smallest bones in the body, the hammer, anvil and stirrup, are responsible for our ability to hear. Looking at them, I thought of how quickly something that small would get lost if it somehow landed on my kitchen counter. They're not much bigger than the head of a pin, but they're perfectly shaped and work together perfectly, making it possible for us to hear.

Looking at one specimen, I marveled at the facial nerve. It's incredible to me that something no thicker than a piece of yarn is responsible for our abilities to communicate through facial expressions and speech. Facial expression and speech are so fundamental to what it means to be human....humanity seems a fragile things when you look at the facial nerve.

These are just two of many things I saw that brought me back again and again to the verses from Psalm 139. Those verses and our bodies tell of a God who cares about the most intimate, seemingly insignificant details. I marveled at how complex our bodies are and how, despite our abilities to take them apart to see how they work and even some of the things we know about how to fix them, they are a miracle we don't fully understand.

Kim