Pastor Message
January 2010 - God Always Comes Down
In the course of our New Member Orientation session last Sunday afternoon, we once again came across the confession that is at the heart of the Gospel. It is the confession that is most poignantly illustrated by the Christmas story. It is a confession that is contained in a story told by Kelly Fryer, author of the book we use for our orientation entitled, Reclaiming the “L” Word (the letter “L” stands for “Lutheran”). In that story from the second chapter of her book, she tells of sitting in a religion class on a beautiful day, and, together with most of the class, being bored to death.
“Suddenly the professor slapped is notebook shut and stopped talking. He said he wasn’t going to waste one more breath on us. But, before he left the room he picked up a piece of chalk and went to the board. He drew a gigantic ARROW pointing straight down, stood back and said, ‘Of you understand that, you understand everything you need to know about being a Christian. . . who also happens to be a Lutheran.’ And then he left the room.
We just sat there staring at it, this enormous, stark ARROW, pointing straight down. And then I thought the most logical thing I could think, given everything that had just happened. ‘He thinks we’re all going to hell.’
The next time we gathered for class he began by drawing that same arrow on the board. This time, as he began to speak, he had our full attention. ‘Here’s what it means’ he said. ‘God always comes down. God always comes down. There is never anything that we can ever do to turn that arrow around and make our way UP to God. God came down in Jesus. And God still comes down, in the bread and in the wine (of communion), in the water (of baptism) and in the fellowship of believers. God ALWAYS comes down.”
