Reverend Jeff Mikyska
E-mail: jeffmikyska@comcast.net

Weekly Devotion

Our Savior Lutheran Church

February 5, 2012

It’s been forty years since my grandfather died.  I wasn’t even three years old when we lost him.  I have far too few memories.  However, I do have some.  There was the candy dish by the kitchen, which I would have emptied every time if not for my mom.  I remember the house as well, at least as it looked from the outside.  I’ve been told that I was known for sneaking food I didn’t like off of my plate and onto his when he was talking to others at meals.  (Hard to believe considering that I eat almost anything nowadays!)  And I remember my parents leaving late on the night he died after receiving a phone call.  It’s not much, but it is something to hold on to.

I was very little when he died, and I can’t really explain what made me think of him today.  But I do know that the forty year anniversary of his death is coming up in a week or two.  I have to say as I write this that I wonder what he would think of my cousins, myself, and our kids today.  He’d love us – no doubt.  But none of us followed in his footsteps as far as our life’s work anyway.  That being said, my few memories of him and the stories I have heard do make me realize that amongst his legacies passed down to us was a sense of family and a faith in God.  Really, no two gifts could be greater.

I was raised in an atmosphere where extended family are very important and close, and in a home where God was at the center.  My mom spoke of that being true of her upbringing and wanted to pass that down to me.  It is amazing how caught up we get in our everyday lives and careers, so much so that we sometimes lose track of what is truly important.  God’s Grace is everywhere, even in the most mundane moments of our lives.  God’s calling is ever present in our lives as well.  When Jesus was asked what the two greatest commandments were, he answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.  And love your neighbor as yourself.”  In other words, keep love and God at the center of your life at all times.

Funny, but these two things, Love and Faith are what we are most remembered for anyway.  No one’s legacy is that they got their work done on time.  Instead, they are remembered for being a good co-worker who cared about their colleagues.  No parent is remembered for getting their kids to practice on time.  Instead, they are remembered for loving their kids and being there for them.  And while we may or may not remember all those stories from our grandparents about how things used to be, we do remember them for the fact that they wanted to share with us and be with us in the first place.  It occurred to me that while I was only two when my grandfather died, I do know that he loved those around him and that he was involved in the church.  Love and Faith.

What will your legacy be?  If you want to be remembered, love God and love others.  Therein lies what is truly important in life.  Anyone can replace an accountant or a pastor or a teacher or even a firefighter.  But love is immeasurable and irreplaceable.  Life is indeed about loving others and keeping God at the center.  Thanks be to God for those who teach us that when we are young.  And thanks be to God for our chance to pass it on.  Amen.

                                                                                                            Pastor Jeff Mikyska

Weekly Devotion
Our Savior Lutheran Church

January 29, 2012

 This past November I watched the Body of Christ at its best in Minot, North Dakota.  This week, I saw the Body of Christ working again.  The people of Lutheran Disaster Response are an interesting study for us.  Lutheran Disaster Response is a combined effort of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS).  Interestingly, these two Lutheran churches are not in Communion with each other and will not worship together (although they should).  But they do work together where there is need through Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR).  The LDR volunteers in Minot, working with other Presbyterian, Episcopal, Catholic, and Methodist groups, have created something called Hope Village – where volunteers from all church denominations will gather this summer to live together, share meals together, share devotions together, and work together on the rebuilding effort.  Meanwhile, all the churches of Hope Village are working with an ecumenical organization called Recovery Warehouse to gather needed supplies.  Imagine this, all these Christian denominational churches putting aside their differences and working as one for a common purpose!

 I had the honor of working with LDR and Recovery Warehouse from a distance this past week as plans are being made to gather materials for the rebuild.  Other pastors and churches from other communities throughout the United States are involved as well.  So now you have all these people from all these churches in all these places working together with a common purpose of helping those who are desperately in need.  You see, the concept is simple.  The Body of Christ obviously works with a common purpose in this world.  The Body of Christ also does good for those in need.  The Body of Christ further has its faith in Christ in common.  The missing piece, however, has always been our willingness to work and live together – in other words, we have always avoided ‘being’ together.  We have often worked side by side, without working as one body.

 We can learn a great deal from the folks in Minot.  They understand that just as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit live and work as one body – so should we.  After all, we are created in the image of God – and God lives and works in the perfect unity and harmony of the Holy Trinity.  So what can it look like if we truly become the Body of Christ working in this world?  Perhaps we can accomplish the impossible.  We (all) are the Body of Christ.

                                                                                    -Pastor Jeff Mikyska

Weekly Devotion

Our Savior Lutheran Church

January 23^rd, 2012

 Those of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I like to Cross Country Ski during the winter.  Of course, my opportunities this winter have been few – to say the least.  Nonetheless, I had an opportunity last Sunday afternoon to go out for a couple hours.  For me, it is a chance to be one with God’s Creation and just observe God at work all around me.

 As I turned one corner on the course I was skiing at, I couldn’t help but see the beauty in the silhouetted tree right in front of me.  The sun shone through its bare branches, and the tree almost looked like a negative from an old photo.  Below it was a creek that was making gentle noise as the water ran by.  On the sides of that creek, reflections of the water waved back and forth on the rocks.  All around me was a blanket of snow, and outside of the running water and an occasional duck that would swim by and say ‘hello’ in his/her native language, it was silent.  There is something powerful and spiritual about being out in God’s Creation.  It is that moment when, instead of knifing through the creation on your way here or there, you stop and become a part of it again. 

 One can say that the beauty of the creation lies in God’s artistry.  That may be true to some extent, but I think it goes much deeper than that.  I wonder if the beauty we see isn’t found in the realization that God has a ‘vision’ for it all.  Our realization, as we allow ourselves to settle back into the creation, that there is nothing random about it at all.  God created it all and calls it ‘good’.  God, as we see in the Book of Revelation, intends to have the New Jerusalem descend upon this creation.  God’s vision is for the earth as we know it to be resurrected back into the perfect creation it once was.  God’s vision includes a Transfigured creation. 

 In Romans 8, Paul speaks of the creation awaiting its freedom from decay.  In Revelation 21 and 22, John of Potmos describes the holy city of Jerusalem descending down out of heaven and coming to us on earth, with the River of Life flowing under trees that produce healing.  When I stop for a moment and become one with God’s Creation, spotting silhouetted trees standing in glory over a running creek, these verses ring loud and clear in my heart.  God’s vision is to resurrect and transfigure the creation back to its perfect state, just as God has done already with Christ and as God does with each of us.  Yes, the creation around us will be transfigured.  And every now and again, if we look close enough, we can see it clothed in bright white, shining and glistening like Christ on that mountaintop.

 As Dr. Barbara Rossing, a seminary professor of mine and an author, has said, “God sent His Son to heal the world, not to kill or destroy.”  So take time to settle back into God’s Creation.  Look around and enjoy the blanket of snow glowing in the night, creeks of water gently flowing, and trees reaching up to the heavens.  And then remind yourself that God is in the business of healing – and that God’s vision is a resurrected world (not a world torn apart, divided, or destroyed).  All of the creation awaits eagerly those moments when God’s Love and Grace comes to fruition right before our eyes.  Be alert, those moments pop up in front of us more often than we may think.  Amen.

                                                                                                            - Pastor Jeff Mikyska