Pastor Craig's ConSpiritu Blog

It was the middle of the Thirty Years War and the people in the German province of Saxony had felt the brunt of invasions, quartering soldiers in their homes, having their lands and crops and animals seized. Martin Rinkart was a pastor serving the church in Eilenb urg at the time, and carried his church through the whole war. In the midst of the war, a severe plague broke out in Northern Europe in 1637, and hit Eilenburg especially hard. 8000 persons died in this year alone, and Rinkart buried some 4500 that year, including his own wife.  There was something about Rinkart's deep faith that carried him through this time. Other clergymen fled the town for safer locations, and some succumbed to the plague. But in it all, Rinkart carried on, and persevered to write one of the most beloved of hymns in the German language, "Nun danket alle Gott." It is translated in English as "Now thank we all our God." I used to think this hymn was another one of those insipid h...

This Sunday is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Therefore it is an appropriate time to reflect upon the act of giving thanks, of expressing our gratitude. This year for Thanksgiving I will gather with my family at my parent's home. Most of my brothers will be there with their families. One of my brothers will be there without someone very dear to him: his wife who died two years ago. Whenever we have gathered, we always took for granted that everyone would be there. The kids would be a little older, and there would always be the latest exploits of our children to share. But the death of my sister-in-law came way too soon, at way-too-young an age. So when I look around the family, I don't take it quite for granted anymore. The blessings that are there are not necessarily a given.  How many things in our life do we take for granted? How many things do we fail to give thanks for? How many times do we receive a gift and forget to express our gratitude? I know that I have do...

This next Sunday at our church is what we call Consecration Sunday. It is sort of like what New Year's Day is all about: Looking back and looking ahead. It's like the old Greek god Janus , who had a face that looked forward and a face that looked backwards. An appropriate god to provide the name for the month of January. But this isn't specifically about a new year, although in a sense it is. In agricultural communities, the harvest is pretty much past, crops are in storage or have been sold. There is a time of settling accounts and seeing how things turned out. Then comes the time of planning for next year. What should be planted? What plans should we make? The same is true of churches, as well as our personal lives. On Consecration Sunday, we look both forward and backward. We look backward and recall all that God has blessed us with. We give thanks for these blessings and then reflect upon how we might pass those blessings on to others. A blessing hoarded is a bles...