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February 25-March 4, 2009 – Teenage solo sailors on record-seeking circumnavigation trips meet each other in Cape Town, South Africa

Contributed by Pastor Julie A. Kanarr
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
Port Angeles, WA

Warm-up Question: What is the hardest thing you have ever done? 

American sailor Zac Sunderland, who turned 17 in November, and British sailor Mike Perham, who will turn 17 in March, are both in the middle of sailing alone around the world, in attempts to become the youngest person to do so. By coincidence, they recently met up with each other in Cape Town, South Africa. They toured one another’s boats, shared a meal, and spoke with admiration and respect for the each other’s journey and accomplishments.

Zac is sailing a 33 foot cruising sailboat named Intrepid that he purchased with his own savings. After months of preparing the boat with the help of his shipwright father and the financial support of several sponsors, he set off from Marina Del Ray in southern California on June 14, 2008. Zac’s boat is equipped with a satellite phone, radios, and a laptop computer, enabling him to stay in touch with his family and friends during his journey. In addition, there are hundreds of people who are following his journey through his blog at www.zacsunderland.com .

Zac sailed west across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with stops in Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and in ports along the coast of South Africa as he rounded the Cape of Good Hope en route to Cape Town. Along the way he battled storms, mechanical problems, and skirted areas known to be frequented by pirates. His route will now take him across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Panama Canal, and up the coast of Mexico back to his home port in California.

Upon finishing his trip, Zac will become the youngest person to sail alone around the world, a record that will stand until Mike Perham, who is a few months younger than Zac, finishes his trip.

Mike Perham departed from Portsmouth, England, November 15, 2008. He is sailing a chartered 50 foot racing sailboat named totallymoney.com in honor of one of his primary sponsors. Like Zac, Mike’s boat is equipped with an assortment of electronic gear that enables him to stay in touch through the Internet and satellite phone during his journey. Mike, who already holds the record for the youngest person to sail alone across the Atlantic Ocean (at age 14) had originally hoped to become the youngest person to sail non-stop, unassisted around the world, but a mechanical issues required him to stop for repairs in Portugal and in the Canary Islands along the way, so now he is hoping to become the youngest person to complete a solo circumnavigation. He sailed the Atlantic Ocean down to the southern tip of Africa, where he landed in Cape Town for additional repair work.

After departing Cape Town, Mike will continue sailing east, rounding the southern tip of Africa, Australia, and South America on his way back to his starting point in England. You can follow his journey through his blog at www.totallymoney.com/sailmike .

Both Mike and Zac have been tested by the challenges that are part of long-distance solo ocean sailing. Sleep often consists of taking short naps between periods of needing to tend sails, respond to changes in the wind, and keep watch for large ships, and other potentially dangerous situations. Each has navigated his boat through difficult conditions, and faced mechanical issues. These challenges have honed their skills and given them greater confidence as they move toward achieving their goals. Both have also received encouragement and support from their parents, friends, and well-wishers along the way.

Discussion Questions

  • If you were to meet Zac and/or Mike, what would you ask them about their experience?
  • Imagine that you are heading out on an extended journey by yourself. What kind of journey would you undertake? What do you think you would you find difficult? What do you think you would enjoy most? In what ways would you hope to grow from the experience?
  • Tell about a time when you undertook a new challenge. How did it turn out? In what ways did you succeed or fail at what you tried to do? What did you gain from that experience? What did you learn about yourself in the process?
  • Where do you look for strength, encouragement, or inspiration in facing challenges or in working to meet your goals?
  • In what ways can challenging situations serve as a positive experience? In what ways can challenges be a negative experience? Overall, do you view challenges (and tests!) as good things or as bad things? Why?Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, March 1, 2009.
    (Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings.)

    For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

    Gospel Reflection

    After his baptism, the Spirit “drives” Jesus into the wilderness, where he spends forty days. Unlike Matthew and Luke’s version of this story, Mark’s gospel offers few details. Jesus is tempted. He is with the wild beasts. The angels wait on him (Mark 1:12-13). (For comparison, see Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, which, by contrast, have an extended verbal sparring match between Jesus and Satan.)

    Mark’s sparse telling of the story invites readers to reach into their memory banks to “connect the dots” with other biblical stories. The forty days Jesus spends in the wilderness is reminiscent of the forty years that the Israelites spent in the wilderness after their rescue from Egypt. After passing through the waters of the Red Sea, where they were saved and the Egyptian army drowned, Israel spent those forty years wandering in the wilderness, facing tests and challenges. During that time, they learned about trusting in God, and discovered the consequences of failing to trust or obey. (For example, see Exodus 17:1-7).

    Being with the wild beasts may be suggestive of the kinds of dangers that accompany challenging situations, or it may suggest a fulfillment of the yearning for harmony among all creatures that was expressed through Isaiah’s poetry in speaking of the coming of the Messiah (see Isaiah 11:6-9).

    The mention of angels ministering to Jesus in the wilderness echoes the story of Elijah, who retreated to the wilderness to rest, and received food from an angel to strengthen him for a forty-day journey to Mt. Horeb (Sinai) and to the renewal of his calling to serve as God’s prophet (see 1 Kings 19:4-9). These biblical stories help us grasp the significance of wilderness as a place of encountering God, and point us toward a deeper understanding of Jesus as Messiah and prophet of God.

    Although we often think of Jesus’ time in the wilderness as a time of “temptation,” the word that Mark’s gospel uses also means “to test.” Jesus is tested — he is challenged. Testing has an important function. It is part of Jesus’ preparation for the mission that lies ahead. Testing is a process of probing for weaknesses, so that they can be eliminated before they lead to catastrophic failure. Testing is a process of determining what is genuine and trustworthy. Testing is process of distinguishing truth from falsehood. Advance testing determines reliability during actual crisis situations. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus is tested. As he faces those unnamed challenges in the wilderness, he is strengthened for what lies ahead, so that he will be able to withstand the tests that he will face during his ministry, including the opposition that ultimately leads him to the cross.

    Mark’s sparse telling of the story also leaves room for all who read this text to find themselves within it. By not being specific about the kind of testing or temptation that Jesus faces, each of us can recognize that Jesus shares in our own experiences of being tested and tempted, and we can draw strength, comfort, encouragement, and inspiration from him as we face our own times of trial and challenge.

    Discussion Questions

    • Share your thoughts about Jesus’ experience of being tested/tempted. Do you think it would have been easy or difficult for him? Why? What do you think would have been the most challenging part of that experience?
    • Do you think that testing/temptation was a necessary part of Jesus’ life experience? Why or why not?
    • Do you think that testing/temptation is an important or necessary part of your life? Why or why not? What do you think your life and faith would be like if you never had to face a test, challenge, or temptation?
    • In the traditional version of the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “lead us not into temptation.” In the modern version, we pray “save us from the time of trial.” What does the difference in language between these two versions mean for you? Which one do you prefer as an expression of your needs in prayer? Why?
    • Spend a few moments reflecting on the kinds of tests, challenges, and temptations that you experience in your faith and life. (If you feel comfortable doing so, you may wish to share with your group). In what ways can you draw strength, encouragement, or inspiration from Jesus as you face your own experiences of testing, challenge, and/or temptation?

    Activity Suggestion

    Make plans and arrangements to go to a challenge ropes course at a nearby outdoor ministry, college, or other place that offers supervised and facilitated challenge course activities. Process the experience with attention to:

    • How do we face and deal with challenges and tests? As an individual? As a group or community?
    • What are the advantages of being part of a community? (large or small)
    • How do we help each other face and move through texts and temptations?
    • What strengths, qualities, assets, or skills do you bring to a group? What are your weak areas?Closing Prayer

      (Pray the Lord’s Prayer or the following prayer.)

      Lord God, you have called us, your servants, to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths that have not yet been traveled through challenges unknown. Give us faith to move through each day of life with courage, often not knowing where we go, but only that your Spirit is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

February 18-25, 2009 – Mom’s singing wins career makeover contest

Contributed by Steven Alloway
Granada Hills, CA

Warm-up Question: Have you ever made any major changes to your appearance, or your lifestyle? What changes did you make? Why did you do it? How did the people around you react?
 
 After losing her job in 2007, Nicole Nagy decided to go back to school and become a nurse. But times are tough and her family was behind on their mortgage, so finding the money to pay for tuition seemed unlikely. But Nicole found the solution in an odd place — a contest called Careereoki. The contest invites people to make a video singing about their intended careers, in order to win a “career makeover” that includes a scholarship, résumé help, and a $100 gas card. Nagi appears in the video with her husband and three children, wearing a nurse’s uniform and singing, “A Bad Case of Nursing Blues.”

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day

 
Gospel Reflection

 

This was an important event in Jesus ministry. He had been known as a teacher, healer, and prophet, but now he reveals himself as something more. There he is, sitting with two of the greatest prophets in history, his face shining with the glory of heaven. Surely, this is the Son of God.
But why did he do it? Most of Jesus’ other signs and miracles were to help others: feeding them, healing them, things like that. But now, he takes just three disciples with him to a secluded place, shows them all of his heavenly glory, and then warns them not to tell anyone. Why would Jesus do that?

First, we must keep in mind that Jesus did not perform signs and miracles for himself or fame. He was twice tempted by the devil to do so, by turning stones into bread and by jumping off the temple roof, and he adamantly refused. And his miracles were not just for the physical benefit of the people he healed. They were for the spiritual benefit of the people who witnessed the miracles, and ultimately, of us, as believers.

So Jesus was transfigured (changed in form and appearance) physically, so that Peter, James, and John could be transfigured spiritually. They saw Jesus in all of his glory so that they themselves could be filled with the Spirit, and ultimately be encouraged and energized as witnesses in the world. But then again, if that’s true, then why did he tell them not to say anything yet? Because it wasn’t time. The world wasn’t yet ready to know of Christ in all of his glory. Even the disciples weren’t quite ready.

When Peter saw Jesus, talking with Moses and Elijah, he wanted to set up booths or tents for them, places for them to stay, for a night, for a week, or for as long as they could. Peter wanted to camp out and remain in this one glorious moment. Perhaps he wanted to stay there and learn from these prophets of ages past. Perhaps he wanted to bring the other disciples to see Jesus in all his glory. But whatever he wanted, it wasn’t what God had in mind. The purpose of the transfiguration wasn’t so they could remain on the mountain, but so that they could go out into the world, filled with the Spirit through what they had seen.

If Peter, one of Jesus’ closest companions, had this reaction to Jesus’ transfiguration, how would the other disciples and the rest of the world react when they heard about it? They’d all want to see it for themselves, and maybe even keep it to themselves. They’d crowd around and yell for Jesus to bring Moses and Elijah in for a panel discussion. They’d try to make him their ruler, and beg him to set up a kingdom here on Earth, as they often did.

But it wasn’t time for Jesus’ full glory to be displayed to the world. First he had to be humbled, to suffer and die on a cross for our sins, and then his full glory would be revealed through his resurrection and ascension. Then he charged his disciples with spreading the news of his glory to all the nations of the world. With this new responsibility and job, Peter, James, and John were equipped with an amazing story of their experience with Jesus on the mountain, in all of his heavenly glory for the sake of the world. For what purpose? So that we all might be transfigured and changed by God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.

Discussion Questions

 

  • Which of Jesus’ signs and miracles would you say you’ve been most changed by?
    Which one speaks to you the most, personally and spiritually? Why?
  • If someone showed you something incredible, then warned you not to tell anyone about it, do you think you could keep your mouth shut? Or would you spread the news to everyone? Who would you tell, email, call, or text first?
  • Why do you think Jesus chose three specific disciples — Peter, James, and John — out of all the others to witness his transfiguration? How do you think they were transformed or given a “makeover” by witnessing it?
  • How is Nicole Nagy’s “Career Makeover” for her vocation of nursing like our transformation as children of God for our vocation of spreading the gospel to those around us? How are they different? 

Activity Suggestion

  •  Find some of the other places in the gospels wherein Jesus charges people not to tell anyone about the miracle he’s just performed. Do they tell? Why does Jesus warn them not to in each instance?
  • Make your own video or skit about Jesus’ Transfiguration, and the reactions of the disciples, both at the time, and after Jesus’ resurrection. Include a song or two if you want.

Closing Prayer

 Lord Jesus Christ, transform me. Fill me with your Spirit and guide me, so that I can do the things you ask of me: to serve you and all people, and to spread your word of love, forgiveness, hope, and new life. Amen.

The top five finalists were chosen by a panel of judges who based their decision on originality, creativity, and humor. Then the winner was selected by the listeners of a local radio station, who voted for their favorite video on the station’s website.

“It was a way to connect to job seekers,” said Kimberly Cornett, Vice President of Workforce Central Florida, who helped sponsor the event. “And also for job seekers to take a little break from the stress of unemployment.”

Discussion Questions

  • Would you videotape yourself singing and dancing in order to get into the career you wanted or get a promotion? What would you sing?
  • Do you think the contest is a good idea? How do you think it will help more people find jobs? What are the downsides?
  • If you had the means, how would you help people who have lost their jobs and are looking for a new career? What would you do for them? What would you ask them to do?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, March 1, 2009.
(Text links are to oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings.)