While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"

Ouch. That's against everything I've learned about making "notifications." Did you know that there are instructions available for how to break bad news? The police officers who show up at your door to tell you, "There's been an accident..." have received training in making notifications. The military officers and chaplains who come to break bad news have gotten the same training.

They all learned that you never just plop the news out there. First you tell the story. You let it out a bit at a time. It may only take 2 or 3 or 4 sentences, but you never, never, ever give the bad news in the first sentence.

How-Not-To-Do-It example #1... "Your daughter is dead."

So what does Jesus do? He breaks the rules too!...

And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

Our district, the Michigan District of the LCMS, is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign. Commemorating the 125th anniversary of the district, we're trying to raise $13 Million together. But one feature of those campaigns that I've always been uncomfortable with is the whole process of hyping the gifts.

You know what I mean. Every week or two a newsletter comes out telling us what this congregation or that congregation has done. These people raised this much. And this church gave that much.

I grew up with a natural reluctance to talk about my giving publicly. Although my parents were generous givers, who supported many charities in addition to the 10% to their church, I didn't learn about their giving until I was an adult. So naturally I'm reticent. And yet, the Apostle Paul was not...

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed...

Jeremiah has been called "The Weeping Prophet." How would you like that for a nickname? But he had a lot to weep about. He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem twice - once in prophecy and once in person. He saw the terrible consequences of rebellion against God when the city of Jerusalem was beseiged, the people starved and reduced to cannibalism, the nation overthrown, the king blinded and taken away along with most of the population in chains.

The book is called, in our English translations, "Lamentations." Outcries. Weeping. In the Hebrew it is called 'ekah, "How..." A poignant beginning that expresses the yearning for an understanding of these tragedies.

And yet the Gospel is here too. It begins at last, after pages of pain, in chapter 3 verse 21. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope..."

What do you "call to mind" when you are in despair?...

On what were [the earth's] footings set, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

First of all, I'm glad to be back after 3 days of an intense workshop on funding Lutheran schools. I apologize that my ancient laptop was unable to connect to the wi-fi. It would have been refreshing to use some of that time to write to all of you. (...both of you?)

Have you ever looked around in church to see if anyone else was singing? Last Sunday, at one of the less-attended services, I noticed a sudden drop in the volume of the hymn as I was distributing Communion. I looked up and noticed that 2 rows of people who had been singing with gusto had gotten up to approach the altar rail. The loss of just those 8 or 10 people had cut the volume of the church in half!

What's up with that?...

Now we know tha if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling...

Jon and I went backpacking last week in the Smoky Mountains. We drove down there on Sunday afternoon, arriving too late to rent a campsite or get a camping permit. I thought of this Bible passage as we slept in the car. (Those seats are not made for sleeping.) And I thought of it again as we lay on our sleeping pads in our tent after a long day of climbing. My left elbow touched the tent wall. My right elbow touched Jon's left elbow...

I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it...

In commencement addresses given at this time of the year I have often heard speakers say that the students before them have been given "roots and wings" with which to move into the future. (It's a rather funny mental picture actually, to imagine someone with roots trying to fly.)

Their intention is to say that the students have roots in the past, but have wings to fly toward a grand future. But God uses these metaphors differently...

"Men of Israel, listen to this..."

You've got to know that a pastor's mood has got to, at least a little bit, affect his preaching and teaching. That's a real challenge, because I don't always get up on Sunday mornings feeling particularly ready to be "up" and enthusiastic and encouraging. And your mood affects how you listen, and what you hear in God's Word.

Today, for instance, as I read these verses the part that stands out are the very first words. "Men of Israel, listen to this!" Of course, Peter was blessed with a large audience that did listen to his message. But over the years that plea would become increasingly anxious.

"Men of Rome, listen to this!" People of Persia, listen to this! Citizens of France, listen to this! People of Great Britain, of America, of New York, Chicago, Ann Arbor, LISTEN to this!!! And yet...

"Woe is me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

My son and I were standing on top of a mountain where we had stopped to take our lunch break, when 3 more backpackers came up the trail. We got into a conversation about equipment (a favorite topic of backpackers), "What are you doing for water?"

Jon and I were using a good quality ceramic water filter that removes bacteria, especially giardia lamblia. Before we bought it we studied up quite a bit about what would keep us healthy and this filter would work for every single danger except one - viruses. (Mainly a problem if you're hiking in Africa or a country with serious ground water problems.) That's why these other 3 hikers used chlorine and iodine tablets instead.

However, chlorine is...

In the weekly SPOTS devotion sheet our fourth devo is based on the hymn "Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest." And I mention there that every single hymn in our Pentecost section refers to the Holy Spirit's comfort and relief from sadness. Of course, that's because Jesus says, in John 15 (yesterday's verse) that he will send us a "counselor" (in the NIV), or a "comforter" (in the KJV), or a "helper" (in the NASB), or a "friend" (The Message).

Well? Which is it? What does this comforter/counselor/friend really mean?

Oddly, I couldn't find an English translation that got it right...

...[the Holy Spirit] will testify about me. And you also must testify...

Do you know someone who incessantly harps on just one topic? Boy, I sure do. Certain people, as you see them coming toward you, you know what they're going to say. We used to make a game of it with some college professors. How long did it take in each class before he or she used a certain word?

We think that such people are dull, but that's not necessarily so. What if the one thing that they keep harping on is the ONE THING that we all need?...

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Task number one, remind yourself that this is not a parlor trick. It's not intended to be entertaining. It wasn't a "prayer language" or anything the benefited the recipient directly. In fact, the real recipient of the "gift of tongues" that day was NOT the disciples... it was the crowd.

The gift of tongues is a gift for the listeners.

That's worth remembering, in view of all the arguing over the gift today. Stop for half a minute and think....

Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live...

It's a bad habit that some people have, to spiritualize Bible verses. That is, sometimes people take a miraculous promise and remove the physical miracle in order to make it seem more plausible. But in this case, that's exactly what we need to do with these verses - and we do it in order to understand a greater miracle that God promises, not in order to have a lesser miracle.

Yes, there is a physical resurrection from the dead, and that's taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. But in this case God is promising a different kind of resurrection. The vision that Ezekiel has of an army being raised from the dead is intended to teach him that God can raise the nation of Israel - not from a literal physical death, but from their spiritual death.

Does this apply to people today in any way?...

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.

In our printed devotions I focused on the first sentence above (verse 15). I was struck by the idea that we were deliberately "left behind" by Jesus. He left us here in the world, and did not even pray that the Father would take us from it, but only that we would be protected from the evil one (Satan).

There are lots of things to think about from those startling words. They suggest a lot about the purpose for our lives here. But this morning when I read these verses again my mind moved on to verse 16. "They are not of the world..." Here Jesus doesn't just suggest why we're left here, but he suggests how we should live here...

Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son...

Wow! Who would have the chuztpah to accuse God of being a liar? That was my first thought when I read this. Then I got to thinking... I've been here before. This is a familiar situation.

The boss says, "At our last meeting we decided to do such-and-such." And you're thinking, "That's not what we decided." What do you do? If you disagree with the boss, he could say, "Are you calling me a liar?" Then what?

My own co-workers know what to say when this happens to us...

"Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry..."

Tonight (May 19)  there's a congregation meeting that will include election of officers. It's funny. In a way we'll be doing the very same thing that these disciples were doing - choosing people to assume places of leadership in the church. And yet there will be one big difference that doesn't show up in the New Testament.

It seems that they easily chose 2 people to put forward who were capable, strong, faithful, met the qualifications for preparation, and were willing to risk their lives. We'll have a hard time nominating even ONE person for each office...

"...test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God..."

We've talked about this warning against false prophets several times recently. But now John gives us a test to use in order to tell who's a false prophet and who is not. But doesn't it seem like an odd one?

"Every spirit that acknowledges the Jesus Christ has come in the flesh..." What in the world? Doesn't nearly everyone acknowledge that Jesus Christ came "in the flesh"? All but the most radical theologians would say that Jesus was at least a flesh and blood person. So are they all OK?...