As you and I journey through life we find ourselves living in particular places or locations. I’m thinking not only of physical or geographic locations, like a hometown or a college dormitory. I’m thinking also of emotional locations, like grief or contentment or restlessness – and of stage-of-life locations, like adolescence or parenthood or retirement. In the course of a lifetime we live in a variety of “locations.” Where are you living right now? What place or location do you find yourself in?

During our mid-week Lenten services this year we will be visiting some of the locations where Jesus lived. Using the Gospel of Mark as our guide, we will travel with Jesus from the Jordan River where he was baptized, all the way to the tomb outsideJerusalemwhere he was raised from the dead.

On our Lenten journey we’ll stop off in Capernaum where some people brought their lame friend to Jesus so that he could be healed. We’ll find ourselves caught in a storm with Jesus and the disciples out on the sea. We will visit a cemetery where Jesus encountered a man who was being tormented by demons. We’ll travel to King Herod’s palace for the gruesome beheading of John the Baptist. And we’ll enter the temple in Jerusalem where Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers. During Holy Week we will join Jesus and the disciples in a large upstairs room as they share the Passover meal, and we will stand at the foot of the cross atGolgothaas Jesus is cruelly put to death.

Part of what I think we’ll discover on our Lenten journey is that the places where Jesus spent time in his life are not all that different from the places where we spend time in our lives. Jesus’ locations and our locations often intersect – places of challenge, places of opportunity, places of surprise. There is no place you and I can go, in fact – there is no location in which we might find ourselves – in which Jesus is not already there. Part of the good news of Lent is that Jesus meets us in all the different locations of our lives.

Our journey begins with a 7:00 p.m. service on Ash Wednesday, February 22, and it continues up until Easter Sunday. Will you plan on joining us on our journey? I hope that you will, because even though it might not be an easy journey (traveling with Jesus is seldom easy!), it’s a journey in which I know each of us will be blessed.

See you in worship,

Pastor Selbo

Dr. Oswald Hoffman tells the story of a woman who brought a picture at a rummage sale for $3.  She was attracted to it because she thought it was pretty.  It showed Mary and the baby Jesus with two saints.  Nobody at the sale wanted that painting.  It did not seem to have much value.  It looked just like other discarded items that people frequently bring to rummage sales.

The woman took the painting home, hung it on a wall, and didn’t think much more about it.  Later on, an Italian art expert recognized it as the original work of Luca Longhi, a 16th century master.  Suddenly, the appraised value of the painting rose from $3 to $25,000.  Collectors clamored to buy it.  Finally, someone had recognized it for what it really was.

You and I live in a world that does not recognize the value of the most priceless masterpiece of all – the Savior born as a baby in a stable. Jesus’ birth is often seen by the world as unimportant – incidental to what Christmas is really about, namely Santa and Rudolph, parties and decorations, giving and receiving presents.  The world tries to direct our attention away from the center of Christmas to those things that are peripheral.

We don’t have to follow the dictates of the world, however.  We can recognize the value of God’s masterpiece, even if the rest of the world doesn’t.  Through personal and family devotions, through participation in worship and Sunday school, through momentary times of quiet reflection in the midst of the day’s activities – in all of these ways we can be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas and of the priceless gift God has given us.

Don’t let the world blind you to the value of the Christ-child.  Don’t be seduced by the world’s insistence that the baby in the manger is not important.  As Christians, we know that the baby in the manger is at the center of history.  His life, death and resurrection are at the heart of God’s plan to restore all of creation to himself.  Let your celebration of Christmas reflect the priceless quality of Gods’ most precious gift.  Be like the Italian art expert who recognized the true value of the masterpiece.

Christmas blessings to all of you!

Pastor Selbo

It is with a spirit of deep gratitude that I return from my sabbatical and enter once again into the daily life and ministry of St. Andrew.  The three-month leave granted by the congregation for rest, study and renewal has been a wonderful gift.  In September I’ll be sharing with the church council a report of how my sabbatical was spent, but for now I can simply say that it was everything I had hoped it would be.

I’m especially grateful to Pastor Bob Hereth for preaching and helping to lead worship on the Sundays when I was gone, and to Anita Pahlman for handling all of the church office responsibilities and so much more.  Knowing that the two of them were on top of things made it much easier for me to step away!

I’m also grateful to the many members of the congregation who played an active role in the congregation’s ministry during the time of my leave.  It was a joy to know that Vacation Bible School, our annual work camp trip, and many other ministries were continuing stronger than ever.  It confirms what I’ve known for a long time, namely that St. Andrew is a healthy congregation whose ministries are the result of its many faithful and dedicated members.

On a more personal note, I also need to express my thanks for the cards, gifts and prayer support my family and I received following the death of my father.  Your thoughtfulness and caring have been a real source of comfort and strength during our grief.

As we look ahead to the fall schedule and the programs and activities of the coming year, I am, more than anything, grateful to God.  God is the one who has brought us together as a community of faith.  God is the one who has given us the mission of sharing Christ.  And God is the one who empowers us so that we can give that mission our best.  May God bless us, as pastor and congregation, so that our life together would faithfully bear witness to him.

Thank you for my time away.  And thank you for your continued partnership in ministry.

Pastor Selbo

Editors Note: While Pastor Selbo is on sabbatical a selection of his previous ‘Pastor’s Pens’ will be published.  This reprint is from 2005.

In early July, within a five-day period, I had the privilege of presiding at a wedding, baptizing three babies, and conducting the funeral of an elderly faithful member of the congregation.  That’s one of the joys of being a pastor  being invited to share in significant events at different stages in people’s lives.  It’s a privilege for which I am continually and deeply grateful.

Participating in those kinds of milestones on people’s journeys through life reminds me of both a Bible verse and a hymn, each of which speaks of God’s promise to accompany us through every stage of our lives.

The verse (actually two verses) is Isaiah 46:3-4.  God says to us in those verses:  “[You] have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you.  I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

What a wonderful promise!  The God who created us and was there at our birth will carry us even to old age.  The God who was with us at the beginning of life will be with us at the end, and at every moment in-between.  Actually, those wouldn’t be a bad couple of verses to memorize!

And then the hymn (perhaps you’ve guessed) is John Ylvisaker’s Borning Cry:

I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old.

I rejoiced the day you were baptized to see your life unfold.

I was there when you were but a child, with a faith to suit you well;

In a blaze of light you wandered off to find where demons dwell.

When you heard the wonder of the Word

I was there to cheer you on;

You were raised to praise the living Lord,

to whom you now belong.

If you find someone to share your time and you join your hearts as one,

I’ll be there to make your verses rhyme from dusk till rising sun.

In the middle ages of your life, not too old, no longer young,

I’ll be there to guide you through the night, complete what I’ve begun.

When the evening gently closes in and you shut your weary eyes,

I’ll be there as I have always been with just one more surprise.

I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old.

I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.

(#770 With One Voice)

No matter what stage we are at on our journey through life, we can know that God is with us, guiding, strengthening, carrying.  That’s a promise we can count on.  It’s a promise we can cling to always.

See you in worship.

Pastor Selbo

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“My country, ‘tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing:

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims pride,

From ev’ry mountainside, Let freedom ring.”

On July 4th, our nation will once again celebrate the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.  It’s good that we do so.  Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom from tyranny – these, and all of the other freedoms we have been given, are precious beyond imagining.  To live without these freedoms, as so many people in our world are forced to do, would make our lives immeasurably poorer.

As we celebrate and give thanks for our American freedom, however, it’s important to remember that as Christians we have received an even more valuable freedom.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ we have been set free from sin and death.  We have been set free from everything that would keep us from an eternal, life-giving relationship with God.  This is the greatest freedom of all!

As both Christians and Americans, we also do well to remember that with our freedom comes responsibility.

The Apostle Peter tells us, “As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.” (1 Peter 2:16)

And St. Paul, writing to the Galatians, puts it like this:  “You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become servants to one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

We have not only been set free from something.  We have also been set free for something.  We have been set free to serve God and our neighbor.  We have been set free to live as responsible citizens.  We have been set free to use our talents and energy in the work of God’s kingdom.

As Americans and as Christians we have been richly blessed.  Our national freedom and our spiritual freedom are precious gifts – not something to be taken for granted, and not something to be used irresponsibly.  As we celebrate Independence Day, may we ask God for the wisdom to use our freedoms wisely and well.

Happy 4th of July!

Pastor Selbo

Editors Note: While Pastor Selbo is on sabatical a selection of his previous ‘Pastor’s Pens’ will be published.

This reprint is from June 2004.

Sometimes people make New Year’s resolutions as a way of trying to bring about a positive change in their lives.  New Year’s resolutions can be good, but it’s usually not very far into the year before most of them are broken.

Instead of a New Year’s resolution, how about trying something a little more modest?  How about making a summertime resolution?  A summertime resolution could be anything you will commit yourself to doing during the months of June, July and August.

Need some ideas?  How about one of these?

“During the summertime I will . . .”

… write a letter to a friend I haven’t been in touch with during the past twelve months.”

… take time each day to thank God for blessings he has given me.”

… read the Gospel of John.”

… spend more time than usual with my children or grandchildren.”

… be in worship each Sunday, even when I’m out of town or on vacation.”

… read a biography of a person I’ve long admired.”

… set aside time each week to pray for the needs of others.”

… visit or make a phone call to someone who is homebound or hospitalized.”

… memorize the 23^rd psalm.”

… exercise daily.”

… keep my financial pledge to the church up-to-date.”

… contact my congressional representative about an issue that’s important to me.”

… read a psalm a day.”

… say ‘I love you’ to someone I’ve never said that to before.”

… relax.”

Each moment of our lives is a gift from God.  God wants us to use our moments in ways that are pleasing to him and beneficial to ourselves and others.  If these summertime resolutions help you do that, please use them  or be creative and come up with some of your own.

No matter how you spend your summer, I hope that it’s a healthy and refreshing one.  May you sense God’s presence in everything you do.

Pastor Selbo

As most of you are aware, I will soon be beginning a three-month ministerial sabbatical.  From May 9^th through August 14^th I will be on a sabbatical leave from my responsibilities as pastor of St. Andrew.  This will include my annual vacation time, but will also be a time for rest, study and continuing education.

The purpose of a sabbatical is to enhance the ministry of the congregation by giving the pastor an opportunity for personal and spiritual renewal and growth.  According to the St. Andrew sabbatical policy, “A ministerial sabbatical is time for a pastor to shift gears and seek activities to refresh and renew body, mind and spirit.  It is not a vacation from church responsibilities.  It is a time to deepen one’s relationship with God, self and family.”

I am grateful to the congregation and the church council for granting me this time away, and I look forward to the ways in which all of us, pastor and congregation, will benefit from this new experience in our life together.

There are four main ways in which I will be spending my sabbatical.  First, I will be doing a fair amount of reading, particularly in the areas of theology, preaching, and pastoral leadership.  Second, I will be putting together a Bible overview course that I will offer at St. Andrew, probably beginning sometime next year.  Third, I will be attending a leadership training program offered by the Industrial Areas Foundation at the ECLA offices in Chicago during the week of June 13-17.  And finally, Mary Beth and I are tentatively planning a road trip to the west coast, probably sometime in July.  I am looking forward to all of these opportunities for growth and renewal.

While I am on my sabbatical the congregation’s pastoral needs will be met in a number of ways.  Pastor Bob Hereth and other guest preachers will preach and help lead worship on Sunday mornings.  Members of St. Andrew’s Caring in Action team, which includes Carol Closer, Lyn Hayes and Myrna Wells, will visit people who are hospitalized, homebound, or living in nursing homes.  And pastors from neighboring congregations will be available for funerals or other pastoral emergencies.  If you are in need of pastoral assistance while I am gone, you can contact our parish administrator, Anita Pahlman, in the church office (847-566-8081) or on her cell phone (847-445-7582).  Anita will know how to handle your request.

The members of the St. Andrew sabbatical team, Bruce Dir, Tom Girmscheid, Lois Laedtke and Stan Sanderson, did a great job in putting together our congregation’s sabbatical policy, and they have provided valuable guidance as I have prepared for my upcoming leave.  I say thank you to each of them.

Even though I won’t be “on site” during my sabbatical, be assured that I will keep St. Andrew’s members and ministries in my prayers.  I am truly blessed to be in partnership with such a supportive and faithful congregation.  I pray that all of us, during these coming months, will have opportunities to be renewed in both body and spirit.

Pastor Selbo

Holy Week is a week of contrasts.  The cheers of “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday are contrasted with the cries of “Crucify!” on Good Friday.  The agony of the cross is contrasted with the joy of the empty tomb.  The hatred shown by Jesus’ enemies is contrasted with the love and forgiveness shown by Jesus.  The complacency of the sleeping disciples in Gethsemane is contrasted with the intensity of Jesus sweating drops of blood.  It is a week of darkness and light, evil and goodness, defeat and victory, death and life.  It is a week in which the powers of hell collide head-on with the power of God.

As I think about Holy Week and what it means for us, I am aware that our lives are also filled with contrasts.  We, too, experience sorrow and joy, victory and defeat, life and death.  We know what it is to have our faith shaken by doubts.  As Martin Luther says, we are saints and sinners at the same time.  We are capable of being used as God’s instruments, and we are capable of succumbing to the temptations of the evil one.  The contrasts of Holy Week are present in each of us.

As we prepare for Holy Week with all of its highs and lows, we can be encouraged by knowing that God, in Christ, has also experienced the contrasts of being human.  Part of what Holy Week means is that God has gone through the highs and lows that each of us goes through.  God has known joy and sorrow, faith and doubt, victory and defeat.  He has experienced life and death, and therefore he can guide us and support us as we confront life and death.  As the writer to the Hebrews says, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” (Hebrews 2:18)

But Holy Week means more than that God can identify with our human ups and downs.  It also means that we will one day share eternally in the life and joy and victory of the resurrection.  It means that the contrasts and struggles we experience in the world will not continue forever.  Just as the events of Holy Week gave way to the dawn of Easter, so our earthly lives will one day give way to the brightness of life everlasting.  The Apostle Paul, agonizing over the struggle of wanting to do right and yet continuing to do wrong, cried out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  Paul’s answer?  “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)

As we prepare to enter Holy Week later this month – moving from the praises of Palm Sunday to the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, from the cross of Good Friday to the resurrection of Easter – we can know that God has gone through all of the highs and lows, all of the joys and sorrows, of being human.  And we can know, too, that through Jesus’ death and resurrection God has opened for us a glorious future, a future to be lived with him forever.  We can join Paul in triumphantly proclaiming, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

See you in worship,

Pastor Selbo

Thirty years ago Richard Dreyfuss starred in the movie “Whose Life Is it Anyway?”  A sculptor who is paralyzed from the neck down in an automobile accident, Dreyfuss’s character does not want to go on living and sues for the right to be allowed to die.  It’s a powerful and thought-provoking film that forces us to wrestle with the question raised by the movie’s title.

Almost 2000 years ago the Apostle Paul gave an answer to that same question, though it was probably not the answer that the main character in the movie would have given.  Writing to the church in Corinth, Paul said, “Do you not know that you are not your own?  For you were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).  Paul was referring to the price Jesus paid when he gave his life for us on the cross.  Because Jesus bought us, “not with silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death” (Luther’s Small Catechism), we now belong to him.

“You Are Not Your Own” will be the theme of this year’s mid-week Lenten services.   To help us reflect on this theme, we will be using a book entitled “Our Lives Are Not Our Own – Saying ‘Yes’ to God.”  Written by an ELCA clergy couple, Rochelle Melander and Harold Eppley, the book invites us to think about what it means to live as people whose lives belong to God.

The book’s chapters will serve as the basis for the message at each of our services:

March 9 (Ash Wednesday): “Introduction:  Staying on Task”

March 16: “Our Lives Are Not Our Own”

March 23: “Our Abilities Are Not Our Own”

March 30: “Our Time Is Not Our Own”

April 6: “Our Possessions Are Not Our Own”

April 13: “This World Is Not Our Own”

April 21 (Maundy Thursday): “Our Legacy Is Not Our Own”

For those who would like to be reading along, copies of the book are available in the church narthex.  (The suggested donation is $10.)

As we journey together during this Lenten season, I pray that we will grow in our understanding of what it means that we belong to Christ, and even more that our relationship with Christ will be deepened.  May we find joy in knowing that Christ’s love for us took him all the way to the cross, and that we now have the opportunity to respond to his love by living for him.

Blessings on your Lenten journey,

Pastor Selbo

We are currently in the season of the church year known as Epiphany.  The focus for Epiphany could perhaps best be described as “Making Jesus Known.”  Through the star in the east, God made Jesus known to the wise men.  Through the voice at his baptism, Jesus was made known to John the Baptist and the others who were there.  Through his teachings and miracles, Jesus was made known to his disciples and the crowds.  The season of Epiphany is a time when we focus on God’s intention to make Jesus known to all the people of the world.

As people who are part of the Christian church, you and I are privileged to have had Jesus made known to us through the witness of others.  Our parents, our pastors, our Sunday school teachers, our friends – there have probably been many people who have played a role in making Jesus known to us.  These people, in a very real sense, are the “stars” who have led us to Jesus.  Without their caring enough about both us and the gospel, we might never have come to know the love of our Savior.  During Epiphany it is most appropriate to offer thanks for the witness of these individuals.

And it’s also appropriate that we take seriously our calling to now be “stars” to others.  As parents and grandparents, what are we doing to introduce our children and grandchildren to Jesus?  Through our interaction with the people around us – in our communities, at our jobs, in our schools – what are we doing to make Jesus known?  Are we looking for opportunities to invite friends to worship, or to invite neighborhood children to Sunday school?  Do we say to people whom we know are going through struggles, “I’m praying for you,” both as a way of supporting them, but also as a way giving witness to our faith?  Are we letting our light shine, not just with our words, but also with our actions?

One of the reasons God has brought us together as a congregation is so that we can support one another in our calling to make Jesus known.  As we worship together, as we pray and study together, as we work together and play together, we are able to build each other up.  We are able to encourage and strengthen each other.  Coming together with sisters and brothers in Christ helps us to be stars who shine just a little bit brighter.

The season of Epiphany is a great reminder of our mission, both as individuals and as congregation, to be making Jesus known.  We give thanks for those individuals who have made Jesus known to us.  And we give thanks for fellow believers who support and encourage us as we seek to make Jesus known to others.

See you in worship during this season of Epiphany!

Pastor Selbo