Pastor's Page November 2013 Newsletter

Pastor’s Page

November 2013

This has been one of the prettiest falls in recent memory.  We’ve had several still crisp days with nothing but clear blue skies. There have been actual leaf colors for an extended period of time.  The reds are redder and the yellows yellower.  I’ve even witnessed several  trees whose leaves just fell straight down like a leaf shadow on the ground.

Having grown up in Nebraska, I don’t expect much from fall.  Lots of years, it lasted around three days.  You could go from 90 degrees to a snow storm in 12 hours time.  And a lot of those snow storms knocked all the leaves down in one fail swoop.  Other years, the rain and wind took fall and blew it to South Dakota before we really got a chance to get a good look at it.

This year we’ve been given a long slow soak of fall.  We’ve eased into a gradual transition toward winter.  It almost makes you think that if fall is this good, then maybe winter can’t be that bad!  Almost!

But we high plains weather survivors never forget bad weather.  It sticks with us.  When some transplanted southerner comes in from an October blizzard and says, “Have you ever seen it like this in October?”  We say, “Oh, yea, I’ve seen worse!”

So it’s this good weather that un-nerves us.  We’re afraid that if we smile with deep sighs; soaking in the deep angle of the sun too much, we’ll be punished for that later.  

But this year I invite you to join me and go against those weather survivor instincts.  Sneak in some true appreciation and gratitude for these days framed by geese in the sky and a carpet of deep colored leaves on the ground.  Take an extra second to burn the memory of that flaming red tree into your brain.  After all, you and I both know that it could be years before we ever get to see that sight again.

Grace & Peace,

Rev. Kelly

Journeys 10-27-13 The least if these

Journeys
10-27-13
Today is the fourth in a series of sermons using the book, "The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers," by Amy Hollingsworth.  The focus today is, "The Least of These.”

"Out of his deep hurt came a longing to soothe the pain of others, and out of the callous disregard of schoolyard bullies came a determination to only lift up- and never demean- his neighbor…At last I had it: Fred's intense devotion to the disenfranchised, to the least of these, arose from the realization that he was one of them." - Amy Hollingsworth, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers, 2005

As Amy says, Fred Rogers' ability to see and minister to the least of these happened because he saw himself as one of those, "least people."  I can relate to that.

I was 12 when my family moved from Albion, NE to Overland Park, KS so my Dad could go to seminary.  My new middle school had more kids than the entire population of Albion, NE.  My seventh grade year was hell.  I was always getting my books knocked out of my hands in the hallways.  Then when you got down to pick them up you got kicked and shoved by the masses.  Eventually, I made friends through band, choir and football.  And thankfully, I grew a foot between seventh and ninth grade. So, by ninth grade, I was one of the big kids in that school.

So that ninth grade year, I remember seeing an eighth grader knock the books out of the arms of some scrawny seventh grader right in the middle of a major bottle-neck between hallways.  So I proceeded to throw that eighth grader up against the lockers and made him get down and pick up all those books and give them back to the shivering "sevey."   Cause that shivering scrawny kid was me just two years ago.

So don't let me ever see you dump somebodies else’s books around church, or you'll answer to me!  I've been there, done that.

Grace & Peace,

Rev. Kelly

Father's Day Journeys 2013

Journeys

6-16-13

Today is Father’s Day.  It is my first Father’s Day spent without my Dad.  For years on Father’s Day we Karges sons would migrate home for a meal (usually dinner out at Misty’s in Lincoln). We’d give him the golf club or golf accessary we’d gone together to buy and he and Mom would wallow in the joy of having as many kids and grandkids around as possible.  

This year, we’re all getting used to the new normal of not having Dad around anymore.  As with all families after a loss, this first year of firsts without them is hard.  So I find myself out of sorts this Father’s Day.  I miss him.  And Father’s Day has dredged up all these questions that I never got to ask him, like: “What was it about all those Norman Vincent Peale “Power of Positive Thinking” books that he had in his bathroom library that took him from the dairy to seminary?”  or, “Why did he wait ‘til his Dad died before he did anything about his call to the ministry?”

This year, Father’s Day is processing me way to much to put much more reflection down on paper, so I leave you with bits and pieces of James Emery White’s list of what a good father is.

“...a good father is…

 ...one who knows that children have only one love language – time;…one who daughters want to marry, and sons want to emulate;…one you know will protect you and defend you;…one who provides everything you need (but not necessarily everything you want);…one who is brave when you are scared;…one who teaches you how to treat a woman, and what you should expect from a man;…one who cherished your mother;…one who is stronger, and taller, than you (at least, at first);…one who taught you how to swim, how to ride a bike, how to throw a ball, how to open a door for a woman, how to…you get it;…one who taught you how to drive;…one who set curfews;…one who didn’t make a big deal of the things you thought he would, but did of the things that you know, now, mattered;…one who took you out “trick or treating”;…one who drove you to your first day at school, your first day at college, and your first day at…;…one who paid the ticket;…one who introduced you to God;…one who, most of all, loved you so much he would have laid down his life for yours in a heartbeat.  And still would. Happy Father’s Day. From all of us Dads.  You’ll never know how much we love you. Or maybe, now, you will.”

Grace & Peace,

Rev. Kelly