By: David Wickert

A few months ago I was encouraged to write a blog post about the live streaming process at Holy Cross (something I’ve been heavily involved with since the start of the pandemic). Specifically, I was encouraged to write how I had seen the Holy Spirit at work through our live stream during this pandemic. I’m telling you this both to give some context about this post and also to say I had a difficult time figuring out what to write. Plus, everybody knows a good blog post is at least 1,000 words long and now I’m almost halfway there.

“Initially, I thought I could connect live streaming to the invention of the printing press.”

It was going to be great! The printing press tore down gatekeepers in the church and revolutionized the spread of the gospel by expanding its reach to everyday people. I’m not a historian, but I think it could be argued that the printing press helped spur the Enlightenment. In a likewise manner, the live streaming of our services would help revolutionize the world towards a re-Enlightenment. That’s not what this blog is about (admittedly, that would have been pretty pompous and pretentious).

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So without further ado, “The Scorpion and the Frog.” I know what you’re thinking, “What the heck does this have to do with live streaming?” And to that I say, “It’s my blog and I can do what I want!” In all seriousness though, this is going somewhere (I think).

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the fable of “The Scorpion and the Frog,” but if not, this next part is for you. There once was a scorpion and a frog. The scorpion wanted to cross the river, but not being able to swim, it could not cross it on its own. So, the scorpion, when encountering the frog along the riverbank, asks for a ride across. The frog is hesitant because it does not want to be stung. The scorpion assures the frog it won’t sting, as a sting (when crossing the river) would cause them both to drown. So, the frog agrees to carry the scorpion across the river. Midway through their journey across the river, the scorpion stings the frog and they both drown. However, just before they drown the frog is able to ask the scorpion why it stung. The scorpion replies, “I couldn’t help it, it’s in my nature.”

I think when children are told this fable they often empathize with the frog. Maybe that’s who we want them to empathize with. After all, isn’t the scorpion the bad guy in this story? Perhaps the lesson for a child hearing this fable for the first time could be summarized like this, “When someone shows you who they are (through their actions) believe them.”

“Now that I’m older, I find myself empathizing more with the scorpion.”

The scorpion didn’t have bad intentions; all it wanted to do was to cross the river. However, it underestimated aspects of its own nature. Those which it could not transcend.

After the Last Supper (Matthew 26), Jesus heads to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He asks James and John (the two sons of Zebedee) and Peter to keep watch while he goes to pray. The late hour, bellies full, and probably slightly inebriated, the disciples have a tough time staying awake. Jesus, returning from praying and finding his disciples asleep, tells Peter (40b, 41),

“So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus then goes to pray and returns from praying two more times. Each time he returns, he finds his disciples asleep. Shortly after returning the third time, Judas arrives on the scene with the Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus.

How guilty must the disciples have felt? Had they stayed awake maybe they could have seen Judas coming and escaped? The disciples didn’t have bad intentions; they didn’t want to fall asleep. However, in their humanness, they couldn’t transcend aspects of their (of our) nature (the flesh) and fell asleep.

If you’re one of the handful of people still reading this, I hope you’re not a fact checker because I’m about to make a bold statement that I can’t necessarily factually back up. Since the advent of the Internet, it has never been easier to fall into temptation. Avenues for our sinful natures have never been broader. The Internet itself, of course, is inanimate. In our idealized machinations I think we see it as a tool for connecting people. However, in reality, I think the Internet has profoundly disconnected us.

Reality has played out something more like a scorpion’s inability to sting a frog or the disciples’ inability to fall asleep. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Whether it be…

• pornography
• social media profiles becoming shrines to our own glory
• unchecked hurtful language directed towards our neighbors

The internet is a gateway for our sinful natures. I don’t say this to cast stones because yours truly has found himself in all its entrapments. However, I do say it to question what role we (the church) have in live streaming on a medium (the Internet) I’m not entirely sure our sinful natures can handle. Not that live streaming our services is somehow condoning sinful behavior on the web, but maybe more realistically, is live streaming our services passively adding to the disconnection? It would be unintentional, but are we incentivizing people to never come back to church? I’m not sure you nor I have answers to these questions, at least not yet. And what about pride? I think it would be very easy for our production to become just that, a production. A production to measure ourselves against our peers.

In the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8), the sower sows his seed with reckless abandon. He sows along a path, the rock, thorns, and finally the good soil. Why would the sower sow seed where he knew it wouldn’t grow? The disciples don’t ask Jesus this question, but I think if Jesus were to answer he would say because there is fertile soil to be found even along the path, rocks, and thorns.

“The internet may be a rocky, thorny place, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t fertile soil out there somewhere.”

So, I’m still not quite sure how the Holy Spirit’s been at work through our live stream. Perhaps you the viewer would be better at answering that question. However, on the nature of live streaming, I do know this: the live stream must remain God’s work through the Spirit and not our own. Man, was that not a lot of words just to come to a simple conclusion? We must remember, though, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. For the moment this becomes something anything other than God’s work is the moment we’ll start to drown. It’s also my prayer for any online worshiper out there that you not only be strengthened and preserved by the live stream during these days of isolation, but that you also be spurred to join us in person again as soon as you can.

By: DCE Payton DeVencenty

Hey Holy Cross!

I am sure you are astounded, as I am, that the holiday season is here once again. Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays I am not sure I am ready for this year, but like it or not, they are coming in fast.

For many years now, Service Ministries have been most clearly represented at this time of year because of our heavy emphasis on providing food, gifts, and community to those in need as winter rolls in.

“Just think about how last year, in our 2018 Thanksgiving Baskets drive, we were able to provide 200 meals to families in need!”

There are quite a few wonderful ways to get involved around the church right now, from serving in our Thanksgiving Baskets ministry on November 23rd to providing gifts for kiddos who aren’t fortunate to have gifts this Christmas. Lyn Hente, a member at Holy Cross, has been so moved to head up the Thanksgiving Baskets Ministry for over five years, and has seen many families be cared for through the simple act of assembling baskets and handing them out on one November Saturday a year. But what about opportunities which aren’t a one-off event? What about service which is more than returning a (thankfully received) gift?

I am beyond blessed to have been called to the position of Director of Service Ministries here at Holy Cross, and it is my hope that more of us begin or continue to serve together as these holiday months approach.

“Yet, it is easy to allow a time of the year to dictate our service, considering there is a nearly 50% jump in volunteerism nationally around the holidays.”

So this year I ask you to consider jumping in with us in aiding people during the holiday season, and seek to find a place where you can join myself and others in serving year-round. Please begin to pray and work with me towards developing ministries which are more than a time of the year.

“Ministries which Jesus’ Spirit moves and works through every day as He directs us.”

By: Jeff Cluver

Last Friday I had the sincere pleasure of sitting in on the Affirmation conversations here at Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Listening to these young people talking about their faith journeys took me back to when I was a young man, and I couldn’t help but compare their statements to what I would have said when I was their age. You see, back then I was just checking off the boxes. I grew up in the LCMS. I got baptized (check), I went to Sunday school and church (check), I went to Saturday school and VBS in the summers (check), and I completed Confirmation (check). All my boxes got checked; I was done. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe; it just took me until I was in my early twenties to finally acknowledged Jesus in my heart as my Savior.

Like me at that age, some of these young people were timid and shy, never looking up from their papers and only answering questions when directly asked. Unlike me at that age, some of them were bold in their statements and confident in the love that their Savior has for them. Some were honest with us and themselves that they are still struggling with what it is that they believe exactly. But all of them confessed with their lips that Jesus is the Lord of their life and the one to whom they turn to in times of trouble.

These are some examples of statements that touched me deeply:

“When I am sad, my tears are His.”

“Being confirmed will help me thrive in my journey with God.”

“Jesus needs me and I need Him.”

“I know that my faith will blossom into something great.”

and my favorite is, “He is crazy in love with us.”

These examples clearly showed me that these Confirmands understand that they aren’t “done,” that learning about Jesus is a life-long journey and that there is more to it; that we respond to His love for us. They understand that He has plans for us to spread His love to a world that desperately needs Him. Most of all, it shows me that they understand just how much Jesus loves them, that He is crazy in love with us and holds our tears in His hands.

I invite you all to pray with me for these young people, that they continue to grow in their faith journey, that they would trust in God’s plans for their lives, and that they fearlessly spread the love of Christ to those around them all to the glory of God. Amen.