Pastor’s Corner

According to Wikipedia, Andy Warhol said in 1968 that in the future “everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Little did that artist know that his Campbell’s Soup art work would give him far more than “15 minutes of fame.” What Warhol meant was that there would be no “hierarchy” exercising control of your thoughts or actions. And little did he know that the internet would allow precisely what he predicted. So, whoever and wherever you are in our world, all you need to do is load a digital photo of something ridiculous or obnoxious and you’ve got your “15 minutes of fame.” Maybe this is what we sense when we shrug our shoulders about someone or something and say, “whatever.”

Most of our lives are fairly routine, and we don’t intentionally clamor for fame on the internet. But the TV reality shows provide fleeting fame, and, in the realm of religion, most anybody can claim to have a vision from God or a new interpretation of Scripture. So this otherwise random thought gets launched via Facebook or an e-mail. Very few bother to check the facts, and so “urban legends” travel around the world. Even Wikipedia acknowledges that it isn’t the Encyclopedia Britannica — formerly the gold standard for sources of knowledge.

October always brings to mind the fleeting, the ephemeral and the long-lasting — that which endures and remains forever. It is the “Word of God.” Sometimes we define “Word” as God incarnate in Christ, sometimes as “the Bible,” and sometimes as “the Gospel.” Each of these does indeed “remain forever.” 1 Peter 1.25 quotes Isaiah 40.8 and makes the contrast between the flowers and grass which wither and the eternal Word of God. In his expansion of this thought, Luther’s famous “A Mighty Fortress” proclaims this:

“God’s Word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes, who fear it;
For God himself fights by our side, with weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house, Goods, honor, child, or spouse.
Though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day.
The Kingdom’s ours forever!”

As a pastor, I’ve discovered that “the Word” is like “the weather.” As the wag said, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” We Lutherans love to talk about “the Word” in any of the three meanings I’ve described above. But “the Word” really only works when we listen to it instead of talk about it. As the winter darkness arrives, and as we recall the power of “the Word” which launched the Reformation on October 31, 1517, resolve to set aside time daily to listen to and reflect upon “the Word.” It’s not that hard to do! What is hard is to remain unchanged after listening to “the Word.” It conveys transforming power for me and for you!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Philip Nesvig