Donald Trump has gotten a lot of media attention recently for questioning the war hero credentials of Sen. John McCain. McCain spent five-and-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Regarding McCain’s imprisonment Trump said, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

An uncle of mine who I was close to when I was a kid served in the U.S. Army in World War 2. He survived the Bataan Death March and three years of suffering as a prisoner of war. Yes, he was captured. He was captured while defending our country. In my view he is a war hero.

Last fall a member of our congregation, Ed Leonard, died. Like Sen. McCain, Ed was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He was captured while rescuing other soldiers. Because he was the ranking officer during much of his five years as a prisoner, Ed faced more severe punishment than those who were below him in rank. He did so willingly, in the hope that the suffering of the others would be lessened. He was a war hero.

Last summer I read the book Unbroken, the story of Louis Zamperini. It is a great book and a well written story of an amazing life. Zamperini was captured by the Japanese in World War 2, certainly not through some fault of his own. He was tortured severely but endured. After the war he came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He too was a war hero.

Trump liking people “who weren’t captured” sounds like someone who doesn’t like those who get defeated and suffer loss. That kind of mindset has led some to dismiss the cross of Christ as an impossibility. Some think it is inconceivable that God would allow His Son to be captured by sinful people, suffer incredibly cruel torture and then die a humiliating death by crucifixion. But He did.

Jesus told His disciples: “We are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise” (Mark 10:33-34). The disciples just couldn’t believe what Jesus was telling them. They didn’t like at all the idea of their Teacher being captured.

Our human nature esteems the winner. We have a difficult time figuring out the One who was willing, in a way, to look like a loser. The Bible says Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:7-8). Jesus willingly took on the appearance of a humble, unsuccessful servant.

In Isaiah 53:7 it describes Jesus as being “led like a lamb to the slaughter.” He let Himself be captured and taken to the cross. He could have called legions of angels to fight it, but He didn’t. A price needed to be paid for our sins, and He was willing to pay it. Jesus “was despised, and we esteemed him not. … But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3, 5).

I love the One who was willing to be captured so that we can be set free from our sins.

In some church bodies their policy is that when a pastor retires he is suppose to no longer attend the church he had served before retiring. I’m very thankful that is not the policy in our church body: the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. Because if it was I wouldn’t be in the same congregation as the man who has been my pastor for 40 years and who turned 90 years old today: Pastor Alvin Grothe.

I can understand a little bit the reasoning behind saying retired pastors need to go to a different church than the one where they used to serve as pastor. Some guys have a hard time making the transition from being the leader upfront to being a church member in the pew. Some retired pastors have been a real pain in the neck to the pastors who have followed them.

Instead of being a pain it is possible for a retired pastor to be a great source of encouragement and support. Pastor Grothe has demonstrated that. It requires, though, humility and the grace of God.

Soon after stepping down after serving the congregation for 15 years as pastor, Pastor Grothe and his wife, Loretta, started serving as the janitors of the congregation. I’m afraid some retired pastors wouldn’t consider doing that. He may not have been teaching from the pulpit regularly, but as he vacuumed floors and cleaned toilets, he taught a lot about being a humble servant: not needing to be recognized, not needing to be in control, not needing to have things go your way, just willing to serve God’s church in whatever way you can.

I was uniquely blessed to have him as my pastor from the time I was 13 years old until after I became a pastor. I am uniquely blessed today to have such an encouraging and supportive retired pastor in the congregation I serve. He is doing pretty well for being 90, but he can’t do all the things he used to do. But he can still do what is most important. He still prays for me daily and is a constant source of encouragement. I am thankful for the 90 years God has given him and the special gift God has given me and so many others in him. Happy Birthday!

This year, like every year, I filled out a bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament. I make the mistake of thinking about my picks. I look at stats. I read what some of the so-called experts think. And I often end up doing worse than those who make picks based on which team mascot seems tougher or which team’s color they like best.

This year my bracket looked good until the second game of the tournament. I knew Iowa State was going to do well and go far. And they lost their first game.

Our predictions look great on paper, in the tournament and sometimes in life. But then upsets happen. The unexpected comes along. Our family gets hit with a sickness we never saw coming. Financial troubles come out of nowhere. We never predict accidents, but they come anyway.

Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” We predict not only basketball games but our lives. Our predictions often don’t work out. My life hasn’t gone the way I predicted, for which I am very thankful. The Lord’s purpose prevails and His purpose is always best. He knows what is going to happen and He knows what to do. Nothing happens in “the game of life” that surprises the Lord. Even though we fail miserably at predicting life, it’s okay. We can trust that God is in control.

Now if my prediction of an Oregon win just comes true tomorrow …

Christmas 2014/New Years 2015

I’ll post a copy of my Christmas/New Years letter here on the blog.

I heard a guy recently who was looking forward to the start of a new year, but not because he was optimistic. It was more the case that he hadn’t enjoyed 2014 and he was glad for it to be over. He figured 2015 couldn’t be any worse.

It is sad if somebody looks back at a year and all they remember are trials and troubles. We all have those, but when we look back with God’s grace in mind, we can see all kinds of good things that God has done and ways that He has blessed.

God has done a lot of good things in our congregation here in Astoria this past year. We have had new people join us. They have been great additions and have fit in well and good friendships have begun.

We have seen trials in the lives of people in the congregation, but in the midst of those trials it has been good to see people, who have gone through similar tough times in their lives, support and come alongside those who are hurting.

I enjoyed spending a few days in California this past summer, visiting relatives, going to a Dodgers game and spending a day at Disney’s California Adventure. The picture is of my niece Kiely and my nephew Griffin at Disney. 

In August I went first to New York City for a couple of days and then from there I went to Cooperstown, New York, to see Griffin play in a youth baseball tournament. The tournament was at this amazing youth baseball complex there. I also visited the baseball Hall of Fame there in Cooperstown. It was a great experience.

From New York I flew first to London for a day and then on to Norway. I visited three different groups of relatives while there, starting on the east side of the country and continuing on to a suburb of Oslo and then to the beautiful fjords and eventually my return flight out of Bergen. I’m very blessed with relatives who are so friendly and show me such great hospitality. It was fun to see them again and some beautiful scenery as well. The above picture is of the area where my grandfather Johnson came from and below is me in Vangsnes, Norway on the Sognefjord.

I hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year.

Craig Johnson, 575 34^th St.. Astoria, OR 97103, craigj@teleport.com

During my vacation in August I spent a couple of days in New York City. While I was there I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a huge place with all kinds of interesting things to see. They have rooms dedicated to art from different parts of the world and different periods of history. I especially enjoyed the room with European paintings from the 1600s and 1700s. Many of them were inspired by different Bible stories.

One painting that grabbed my attention was a painting of Christ carrying the cross. He has a look of pain but also hopefulness as He looks upward. He is looking to the Father for strength and looking ahead to when the agony of the cross will be finished.
While I was looking at the painting and thinking about what Jesus endured at the cross for us, a lady went and stood next to the painting and had a friend take her picture. There isn’t anything technically wrong with what she did and maybe her motives were great. It did feel to me, though, as if she was photobombing Jesus. It seemed like she was sticking herself in a picture where it should have been Jesus alone filling the frame. In a similar way, there are a lot of times in life when the glory and honor belongs to Jesus alone, but we try to stick ourselves in the picture.

Previous to my visit to the museum, at other tourist sights I was at in New York, people seemed to be constantly sticking themselves in the picture. It was like they couldn’t take a picture of something unless they were in the shot. “I only want a photo of the Statue of Liberty if I’m in it.” Selfies seem to be the only kind of picture some people want to take.
What kind of photos people take is their business, of course. The bigger question, however, is: does our thought life take nothing but selfies? Is the viewfinder of our mind always focused on us?

Another picture that grabbed my attention at the museum shows a family gathered around a table, with Jesus in the middle of them. The information about the painting said the artist was inspired by the Lutheran teaching on the real presence of Christ. He tried to convey the sense that Jesus is present in all that we do in our day-to-day lives. The Lord is graciously willing to be present in our homes, at our dinner table, in the car while we drive, at work, at the game and wherever we might be. Jesus promised, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). He is present with His love and grace, His direction and protection.

We should not be trying to push our way into Jesus’ picture. He deserves all the focus, attention and praise. We rejoice, though, that Jesus is willing to enter our picture. Our picture is far from perfect. Sometimes it isn’t very pretty. But Jesus is willing to enter in and bring a beauty to the picture that can’t be found anywhere else.

Whatever happened to happy endings? Some endings can seem a little too happy. It is pretty unrealistic when a TV sit-com family has a major crisis, but they get it resolved in less than 30 minutes and all relationships are peaceful and good. I think I like that better, though, than some stories that end with every character miserable and all relationships are a mess.

(Spoiler alert: I’m going to talk about the ending of this season’s 24 TV show. I won’t give specifics, but talk about the ending in general.)

One of my favorite TV shows is 24. It’s full of action as the hero of the show – Jack Bauer – tries to stop wars from happening and prevent destruction from raining down on the world. This season’s show ended like previous years: Jack saved the world from a major calamity, but he himself isn’t in a good place at the end.

Jack never lives “happily ever after.” The women he cares about either get killed or separated from him. Even though Jack makes all kinds of sacrifices to save lives, each season seems to end with him either going into hiding to avoid being captured, or him captured and being taken away to what you know is going to be terrible torture. Just once could a season end with Jack getting the girl and going home to a nice place on a quiet cul-de-sac?

Dystopian stories seem to be popular in modern-day novels and movies. Dystopia is the opposite of utopia. The setting of a dystopian story is usually a society full of oppression and injustice with little hope or joy.

Has our society given up on hope? Do people think we just have to accept that we’re heading to a dystopia? Do we think a joyful hero is an unrealistic dream?

Happy endings aren’t just for fairy tales. You don’t find utopias only in fantasy literature. The greatest story ever is true, and it has the most wonderful ending anyone has ever written. The greatest story is of how “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The story is full of drama and excitement. It has the most amazing Hero ever: Jesus, who came to earth, conquered sin and death, and gave His life in order to rescue us.

God has told us how the story ends: Jesus reigns as King forever and those who have faith in Him enjoy life in His kingdom “happily ever after.” The suspense part of the story is: who will accept His gift of salvation and enjoy a happy ending to their own personal story? God wants the story of your life to have a great ending, and it will when your faith is in Jesus.

Like Jack, your story will probably have trials, although I hope they won’t be as severe and intense as Jack’s. The ending of your story, however, doesn’t have to be sad and lonely like Jack’s. In Jeremiah 29:11 God talks about having plans for each of us and wanting to give us hope and a future. When we let God write the story of our life we can enjoy a story full of love and peace with an incredible ending.

My dad wasn’t a man who “wore his emotions on his sleeve.” He was steady, solid, dependable. That made him a good captain on a fishing boat. He wouldn’t, however, have been a good person to be interviewed on one of those TV shows where they like it if people show emotion and cry.

There was only one time I saw him cry.

In 7^th grade English we had been given the assignment of writing an essay about our best friend. I wrote about my dad. I wrote about why he was my best friend and how I respected and admired him and enjoyed spending time with him.

At the breakfast table one morning, before I headed to school to hand in the essay, I showed it to my dad. He read it and then turned his face toward the window. And he cried.

The moment didn’t last long. He handed the paper back to me. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but the words weren’t important. Those couple of tears said it all.

I’ve written a lot of things over the years, but that 7^th grade English assignment might have been some of the most important writing I’ve ever done. It could have been easy to assume my dad knew how I felt about him. We often make those kinds of assumptions and hesitate to let somebody know they matter to us. I’ve done plenty of incorrect assuming and have often failed to express my feelings over the years. Unfortunately, later we find they didn’t know what we thought they knew.

Proverbs 27:5 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.” It doesn’t mean it is a good thing to openly rebuke people. Rather it is saying hidden love is a tragic thing and even worse than open rebuke.

Parents assume children know they are thankful they had them and pleased with how they’ve turned out. Employers assume employees know they are valued. We assume friends and family know we appreciate them and their friendship. But they may assume we don’t, if we keep it hidden.

Some people may assume they are loved, but many others assume they are not unless they are told. That is particularly true when it comes to the love of God. We need to be reminded again and again: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I John 3:1). Our old nature isn’t going to assume God loves us with such a lavish love – but He does. God doesn’t keep it hidden. He expresses it clearly in His Word and most clearly in the cross of Christ. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (I John 3:16). We can know what love is. We can know we are loved, because Jesus has made it known.

It is the opening day of a new baseball season. It is a day when “hope springs eternal.” Everybody’s team is undefeated, tied for first place and dreaming of a good year.

This season I won’t be able to talk baseball with my good friend, who was a big baseball fan, John Mundfrom. John died suddenly two days ago. In some ways it could be said John’s season came to a close on Saturday. But, because of the good news of Jesus that John trusted in, I believe it is more accurate to say Saturday was the opening of a whole new season for John.

The season that opened for John is one when hope truly does spring eternal. It isn’t hope based on wishful thinking. A lot of the hope of baseball teams is based on “ifs”: If our pitchers throw strikes, if our shortstop stays healthy, if our centerfielder figures out how to hit a curve ball ….

The hope Jesus gives isn’t based on an if but on the truth of what Jesus did. Christ died for our sins and was raised to life again on the third day. “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade” (I Peter 1:4). Our hope isn’t based on if we are good enough or if we do enough. We have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

One of the unique things about baseball that I enjoy is that there is no clock. Some think there should be and, yes, there can be time needlessly wasted between innings and sometimes the pitcher stands on the mound holding the ball and you’re thinking, “Would you just throw the thing already.” But in our world where we live so often under the tyranny of time, it’s nice having something without a clock telling you when it’s over.

Eternity with Jesus has no clock. Relationships don’t end. The joy doesn’t stop.

It was John’s opening day, with an eternity to look forward to of exploring and enjoying God’s amazing grace. The past season had trials and challenges, but that season was completed for John. God promises in the new season “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

I give thanks for John’s friendship and the good example he set of faith in Christ. I’m sad about the end of one season, but I rejoice in the hope the Lord gives that a new season has begun for John. And I give thanks that, by God’s grace, we too can look forward to opening day.

The TV show MASH was set in an Army hospital in Korea during the war. The doctors and nurses were there to treat U.S. soldiers, but on some episodes Koreans who had been injured would be brought to the hospital. Some of the wounded were North Koreans – the enemy.

One character – Frank Burns – was always suspicious of the Koreans. He thought they might be there to spy on them. He wasn’t interested in helping these potentially dangerous foreigners.

Another doctor – Hawkeye Pierce – didn’t see potential spy when a hurting, bleeding Korean was brought to him. He saw a wounded person in need of help.

As we look at people around us – people who may have different beliefs and practices than we do – it can be tempting to follow the example of Frank. We see dangerous enemies we need to guard against. We view some people as foes we need to defeat.

They may hold to false beliefs that are dangerous. Their behavior might be destructive. The people themselves, though, are not to be looked at so much as enemies we fear, but as wounded souls we long to see healed. Sin and evil has captured them. Falsehood has deceived them. If they are apart from Christ their souls are sick, whether they realize it or not. They are not so much a danger to the one who is safe in Christ, but they are in grave danger if they have not taken refuge in Jesus.

God’s church is like a MASH unit. We are put on the battlefield to help hurting people find healing. At times, though, it seems we would rather be in the infantry, firing away at those who differ from us. We do stand on guard against our enemy the devil. We attack false teaching that threatens to deceive. But as we do so we keep our eyes open, looking for hurting souls we can serve.

Only the good news of Jesus can heal our deepest wounds. “… by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The wounds Jesus suffered and the blood He shed on the cross can heal our broken relationship with God. His wounds can heal the pain of guilt and bring health and wholeness to our soul.

On the TV show, the MASH doctors got frustrated at times because they couldn’t heal many of those who were brought to them. Jesus can heal all those who come to Him in repentance of sin and faith in what He has done. That doesn’t mean physical healing always happens in this life. It doesn’t mean all hurts instantly go away. But in God’s perfect time and way, the best kind of healing comes.

We are surrounded by hurting people, but we don’t despair. We have what they need: the healing power of the good news of Jesus.

Last month a member of our congregation, John Didion, had a sudden and massive heart attack. For two days the doctors and nurses in the hospital gave it their best effort, but there was nothing they could do. John’s time on this earth came to an end.

John and his wife had been part of our congregation for only a couple of years, but he was a guy I felt I “clicked with” and liked right away. He had a sharp mind, a fun sense of humor and a big heart. I looked forward to a growing friendship.

As I stood by John’s bedside as his earthly life was coming to a close, I was encouraged by the thought that my friendship with John wasn’t coming to an end. For the next few years I’ll miss John. I’ll miss not watching the Super Bowl with him. I’ll miss not finding out how he was planning to get back at me for finding his old football card and putting it on display. When Oregon beats Oregon State I’ll miss not being able to see him shake his head. And if the day happens to come when the Beavers beat the Ducks, I’ll even miss not having John around to give me a bad time.

Because John and I share a faith in the crucified and risen Jesus I have a confident hope that we will resume our friendship one day soon. Our friendship then will be even closer.  

John made some great contributions to our Bible study group and our adult Sunday school class. He was a thinker. He gave serious thought to what the Bible passage we were studying said and considered what it meant and what were the implications and applications we ought to make.

John wasn’t afraid to ask questions. They were good questions. They were the kind of questions others wanted to ask, but were maybe hesitant to ask or they didn’t know for sure how to word the question. John didn’t seem to worry much about whether the answer might seem obvious or the question might sound silly. He wanted to learn more about God’s Word so he asked questions. I enjoyed the questions. Often they brought up good points that I hadn’t thought about.

In the past John had been in some congregations where he didn’t feel a freedom to ask questions. It sounds like some pastors and teachers were maybe intimidated by John and his questions. They missed out. Their loss was our gain. It’s too bad when teachers just want to present but they’re not open to being asked questions that may challenge them. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” John sharpened me and others. He also encouraged me a lot with more praise for my teaching, preaching and pastoring than I deserved.

I give thanks for my friend, and even more so, I give thanks for the hope Jesus gives. Because of Christ, this life isn’t all there is. We can look forward to joy and friendship for all eternity.