Author Archives: John Keller

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About John Keller

I am a retired Lutheran pastor whose intention is to consent to God's gracious presence and actions within.

The Journey to Transformation – Return

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Minivan Delight

I returned safely from my quick trip to Bloomington, Indiana.  Quick is the key word.  I picked up the rental van at 7:30 am Tuesday, arrived in Bloomington at 7:30 pm, left at 11:00 am the next morning and was home by 10:30 Wednesday evening with my daughter Suzanne and her possessions.  I drove 1400 miles in less than 40 hours which for many Americans is not that extraordinary.  It was an efficient trip, but not transformative.

The strongest memory of this trip will probably be the walk and meal I had with my daughter and her roommate.  As we walked, Suzanne detailed some of her adventures and I realized that I had missed her over the past months. Parenting is filled with best guesses.  Though I had my reservations about her post-college move, I knew she had to try it.  Suzanne moved to live with a former college roommate.   Her part-time job as a tele-marketing interviewer was frustrating as she really wanted to be a baker.  After eight months in Bloomington she was ready to try something new.  The trip became more about her journey than my own.  Fortunately God weaves various people into our life journeys to help guide the way.

Bacon Ice Cream Delight

The other strong memory from this trip will be the desert Suzanne and I shared at the Upland Brewing Restaurant: BACON ICE CREAM.  I had never heard of it but Suzanne assured me it was for real.  Suzanne has always loved bacon and seeing it on the menu I knew she would order it.   I asked for two spoons so I could simply taste it.   After I tasted it, I wished that I had ordered my own dish.  Suzanne waxed eloquently about the combination of sweet cream and salty bacon.  I just kept eating.  Transformative it wasn’t, but still a delight.  And I remain thankful for the delight of seeing my daughter and enjoying bacon ice cream.

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11

What has provided you delight or joy in recent days?  How have you celebrated that joy?

Lord Jesus, thank you for the joy that joy bring to life for you are the source of all real joy.

The Rock

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Raise Your Ebenezer

Our house has a large granite rock in our backyard. Over two feet high, it is not something easily moved. It may have been there since the house was constructed or perhaps since the glaciers covered Minnesota. The rock is a pain to mow around, but it is a marker in our yard.

Several years after we moved into our house, I looked out the window one day and saw a young boy sitting on the rock. At first I did not recognize him as one of the neighborhood children, but when his mother walked over and called him, I knew who he was. He was the son of the former owner of our house. The son had come back to see, touch, and sit upon the rock that had long been his.  I sensed that he received some strength and comfort in that visit to the rock.

In Israel, large rocks were very common and became part of their faith language. In I Samuel 7, the prophet Samuel invokes God’s help to lead the Israelites in victory over the Philistines. He marks the victory by raising a stone marker.

Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it “Ebenezer” (Rock of Help), saying, “This marks the place where God helped us.” I Samuel 7:12

In Psalm 18:2 rock is used a symbol of strength and security, where we can find safety.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge.

Jesus uses the image of a rock to describe his teachings and how we are to rely on his teachings as a firm foundation:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” (Matt 7:24)

Paul, using the story from Exodus when Moses provided water to the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness, described Jesus as the Rock from which comes spiritual water:

For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. (I Cor 10:4).

How is a rock a helpful image of God for you? Would you use a different image today?

Lord Jesus, be my rock and fortress today.

The Journey Towards Transformation

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The Turning Point in My Journey

Tomorrow I am driving to Bloomington, Indiana, to pick up my daughter Suzanne and her things and together we will drive home.  It will be short trip, but I am looking
forward to it.  I am not looking for any drama, but I am open to an adventure and change during the journey.

Journeys are a frequent theme in the Scriptures. A couple of weeks ago in worship, we read about the two disciples who walked seven miles to Emmaus and during the walk encountered Jesus.  Their simple walk became a spiritual journey of transformation. (I posted on this story here).

There are many other such journeys in the Bible.   The Israelites journeyed/wandered in the wilderness for forty years after their exodus from slavery in Egypt and prior to their
arrival in the Promised Land. Elijah the prophet made the journey from Northern
Israel to Mt. Horeb in Sinai to encounter God (I Kings 19).  Jonah made a side trip to the sea and a whale before making the trip to Nineveh. Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days to pray and fast before starting his ministry (Matthew 4) and later set his face towards Jerusalem for his passion (Matthew 16:21).   The book of Acts is filled with journeys, especially Paul’s missionary sojourns.

Contemporary literature also uses the metaphor of journey for spiritual transformation.  J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader both use the journey motif as means to describe the main characters movement from self-centered, complacent beings to courageous, self-sacrificing heroes.   Their stories carry the Biblical image into our current worldview.

I don’t expect any major transformation during my drive to and from Indiana.  After all it is only three days.  But I think any journey has the potential to open us up to new perspectives and insights, especially if we invite God to be a part of the journey.  I’ll let you know when I return.

Jesus said, I am the way. (John 14:7)

Do you remember a trip or journey where the Spirit renewed or redirected your life?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, guide me this day on the path to life.

Turning the Faucet On

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The New Faucet

Yesterday (Friday) was my day off. Days off are meant to be relaxing, non-stressful, and harmonious, so naturally yesterday was filled with drama and tension. (Warning: this post is longer than most and slightly sanitized).

Several months ago I had purchased a new faucet for the downstairs bathroom. I had procrastinated with installation, because the upstairs bathroom had been a pain. Our house, built in the early ‘70s, does not have shut-off valves under the sink and the pipes are old. The only scheduled event yesterday was to take my mom to the dentist in the early afternoon. So, at my wife’s suggestion, I got started on the faucet replacement hoping to be finished by noon. After all, the instructions with the faucet said it could be installed easily without hand tools!

The instructions said nothing about removing an old faucet in the tiny, cramped space of small bathroom, especially when the locknuts are rusted and frozen. My wife, trying to be helpful, asked how she could help. In as few words as possible, I strongly recommended that she stay far away. With frustration building in my throat, I grunted, groaned and called out for mercy, as I twisted, turned and grappled with a ten-cent nut. I tried first one tool, then another; I sprayed WD40 around every nut, bolt, faucet, pipe and joint within a six-mile radius. I was not finding harmony.

Finally I removed the old faucet and started installation of the new. It actually progressed smoothly. The instructions were helpful and accurate. I thought, “I could be a plumber,” until I tried to attach the waste water trap and the waste pipe snapped off behind the wall. Reality crashed in upon me.

“I am not a plumber!” I shouted at the world, or more specifically my wife.

On the phone she quickly found a plumber who could come that afternoon. She took my mom to the dentist, while I waited for the expert. Jerry arrived, courteous and knowledgeable. He got to work, without any groans, shouts or comments. He had all the right parts and tools in his truck. Within an hour he had the faucet, two new shut-off valves, and a new waste pipe and trap installed and working properly. I paid for his service, grateful for his expertise.

This morning I read an e-mail that one reason the Christian faith is at risk, is that we have turned it into a religion run by experts. People feel uncomfortable studying the Bible because they don’t feel like they have the proper tools or expertise to understand it. Many feel like they will only make a bigger mess if they read the Bible on their own, like me trying to replace a faucet.

I admit that there is a time and place for experts, even in Bible study. Yet most of us take time each week or month to mow the lawn, plant a garden, change the light bulbs, and clean the kitchen without using an expert. To simply read the stories of Scripture and to ask for God’s guidance does not require an expert. You can do it today. God delights in teaching us the story of his people.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)

What fears keep you from reading the Bible? What joys have you discovered in God’s Word?

Lord Jesus, teach me to read your Word with joy and hope.

Screwtape Letters II

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Temptation by artist Sabzi

In C. S. Lewis’ book Screwtape Letter, Senior demon, Screwtape, instructs junior tempter, Wormwood, to take full advantage of the trough or dry periods in his patient’s spiritual life:

In the first place, I have always found that the Trough periods of the human undulation provide excellent opportunity for all sensual temptations, particularly of sex. . . . The attack has a much better chance of success when the man’s whole inner world is drab and cold and empty. . . It is often true with other desires of the flesh. You are more likely to make your man a sound drunkard by pressing drink on him as an anodyne (pain reliever) when he is dull and weary. . .

Never forget that when we are dealing with pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. (Letter IX)

Lewis was a strong advocate of God as the real source of pleasure, joy and happiness; someone who is a party-giver, not a party kill-joy. Remember the Father in the prodigal son story in Luke 15, who starts a celebration when his wayward son returns home. Our Father in heaven enjoys a good party, where all his children are welcomed and loved.

Satan is the one who perverts pleasure into unhealthy or destructive habits and sins. When we turn a pleasure like sex, which is made for a committed married relationship, into lust and perversion, the pleasure itself dissipates and dries up. It is like the alcoholic who needs more and more alcohol to derive whatever pain-relief he seeks. Seeking pleasure away from its true source leads into spiritual bondage. Satan delights in such bondage. God, however, calls us back to his ways through forgiveness and healing.

My own temptation is to compare myself with others, especially other pastors. There is pleasure in doing a job well; in heaven God will greet his faithful servants with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21). But to waste time comparing myself to other preachers or leaders is to neglect the gifts and strengths God has given to me. My focus needs to be on God’s call, not other pastors’ accomplishments.

What are your temptations? How do you find strength from God for deliverance?

Lord Jesus, save us from the time of trial.

Screwtape Letters I

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The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters is my current read (more accurately, my commuting audio-book). This book launched Lewis as a popular Christian author in 1942 and is a series of letters written by a senior devil, named Screwtape, to his nephew and junior tempter, Wormwood, instructing him on how to lead a young British man (call the patient) towards damnation and hell. These clever letters give the reader a humorous, yet wise perspective on the temptations to pride, lust, greed, gluttony, and self-righteousness.

Lewis’ insights still speak truth today. For example in letter eight, Screwtape writes regarding the natural ebbs and flows, (the undulation) of human emotions, even for Christians.

Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. . . As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirits can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.

If you had watched your patient carefully you would have noticed this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth, periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship.

Lewis goes on to write that the trough of spiritual dryness and dull heart can be the true place of spiritual growth, because in these valleys we learn to walk with God out of obedience and trust, and not simply because we feel some good pleasure in it. As a moody Scandinavian I often wrestle with my darker emotions. The tempter wants me to see the dark valley as God’s abandonment; God wants me to see the valley as a training ground for deeper faith and commitment.   As Lewis writes,

Hence prayers offered in the state of dryness are those that please Him (God) best.

How do you understand your emotional, spiritual, and physical ebb and flow?

Lord Jesus, teach me to be faithful, especially at my low points.

Bicycling Together

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At times I look as stiff as this sculpture

This week it seems as if someone has hit a button and Minnesota has shifted from winter to summer.  Thunderstorms, hail and tornado warnings have replace snow and windchill as topics of conversation.   With this shift in weather, I have been able to use my new bicycle, but I still need to check the radar before changing to bike shorts.

Bicycling is a new sport for me.  I still do not know all the nuts and bolts of my bike.  Someone recently asked what shoes and clipless pedals I had.  I had no idea.  I still awkward each time I start out for a ride.  I am thankful for my friend, Tim Torgerson,  who mentors me in the fine art of a group ride.

It reminds me when I first started serious running twelve years ago, training for my first marathon.  Being a newbie is awkward.   I remember the first time I went on a ten-mile run with the group in the spring.  I wore a cotton t-shirt and paid the price when the sweat-soaked shirt chaffed my skin.   By the end of that run I had blood streaks on the shirt from chaffed nipples.  Not a pretty sight.

Yet even after that embarrassment, I came back to run with the group, because they gave me so many rewarding training runs.  I remember especially some of the long training runs around White Bear Lake or out through Stillwater and back along the Gateway Trail.   The camaraderie of a good training group gave me confidence to set high goals and to work hard to achieve them. 

The spiritual life of a Christian can have similar moments of awkward beginnings.  We may not know where to find a book in the Bible or how to pray out loud with others.  We’re not sure what words are correct or how to express our feelings.  Yet to maximize the vibrant life with Christ, we need to be in fellowship/training with other Christians.  We need other followers of Christ to help us grow in the study of God’s Word, in the art of caring for one another, and in the discipline of prayer.   Hopefully we will remember our own awkward beginnings and with patience mentor each other to grow more Christ-like.

Who has been a mentor to you in your Christian life? How have you mentored others?

Lord Jesus, show me the path to true Christian community.

Acts 2:42 part 2

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Lord's Supper by Sadao Watanabe

The second chapter of Acts is a pivotal chapter in the history of God’s people.  The chapter begins with the explosion of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Jesus’ disciples, continues with Peter’s first sermon which results in 3000 baptisms, and concludes with a summary statement on the life of the earliest disciples.  The 3000 new believers did not simple wander off into their old patterns of behavior. Rather they became devoted followers of Jesus.

They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42)

The breaking of bread was mostly likely the earliest version of the sacrament of Holy Communion.  The meal was one concrete way to stay connected to Jesus Christ.  Through the Lord’s Supper they remembered him (I Cor. 11:24).  The meal also meant that Jesus communed with the believers because it was his own body and blood that he gave with the bread and wine.  Jesus was truly present.  Also it proclaimed the Lord’s death until Jesus returned (I Cor 11:26).

Holy Communion continues to be a central part of our Christian faith and worship. We remember the past events of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We commune with him in the present moment as we share the meal of his body and blood. And we look forward to our future hope of Christ’s return in glory.

 The early disciples also devoted themselves to the prayers.  Prayer was not new to the church. The Jews had been praying for centuries.  Jesus had taught the disciples to pray using the words of the Lord’s Prayer.    With the coming of the Holy Spirit, their prayers became supercharged.  So can ours.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. (Romans 8:27)  

The same Holy Spirit that powered the early church in its mission is the same Holy Spirit that works through our prayers.  Let us ask God to create within us a similar devotion to the Apostle’s teachings, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer.

To which practice is God calling you to be devoted?

Lord, create in me a heart of devotion.

Acts 2:42 part 1

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Studying the Apostle's Teachings

Life in the early church may sound strange to our contemporary ears. The description of miracles and healings, the passionate letters of Paul, and the missionary zeal of the apostles can appear to be other-worldly.  Our lifestyle, political systems, technologies and economic complexities can seem distant from the stories of the Bible. Perhaps that is why I value Acts 2:42 so much.

Acts 2:42 describes the life of the early church in Jerusalem, shortly after Peter preached his first sermon and several thousand people placed their trust in Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. (Acts 2:42)

Their four signs of devotion are still practiced by followers of Jesus today:
1. Apostle’s Teachings
2. Fellowship
3. Breaking of Bread
4. Prayers

Followers of Jesus continue to study the “apostle’s teaching:” Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Book of Acts, the Epistles of Paul, John and Peter.   The apostle’s teachings became our New Testament. We study them to understand who Jesus is and what his life, death and resurrection mean for us.

As we study together we continue to create fellowship, because we discover how the teachings impact our shared lives.  We listen to each other’s joys and sorrows.  We care for one other during times of illness, stress or hardship.  Fellowship is more than a shared cup of coffee after worship; fellowship is the shared cup of blessing and generosity through all of life.

One of my deepest tastes of apostle’s teaching and fellowship came in college when I participated in the Haverford-Bryn Mawr Christian Fellowship.  Every Friday evening twenty to forty college students would gather to study God’s Word and to reflect together how it impacted our lives.  It created a missionary zeal in many of us.  We did not want to simply survive college with our faith intact. We felt a calling to bear witness to Jesus Christ in an often academically hostile environment.   The study and fellowship gave us the courage and compassion to speak.  The ancient devotions brought us life.

How has the study of the apostle’s teaching affected your fellowship?

Tomorrow, reflections on the breaking of bread and prayers.

 Prayer: Lord Jesus, teach me to be devoted to your ways.

Mother’s Day

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Sylvelin Keller with her brother Jerry

Tomorrow will be only the second time in the last thirty years that I will actually be with my mom on Mother’s Day.  Last July she moved back to Minnesota after living in Washington state for over fifty years.  Her dementia had progressed to the point where she could not live alone in her house in Bremerton.   She now lives in a memory care unit in Woodbury, near Resurrection Lutheran.

It is easy for me to focus on the losses her dementia present.  Every time I take her out of her apartment for even a few hours, she becomes anxious, wondering when she will go back to her house in Bremerton.  She will frequently comment that she is so confused, unable to remember the lunch she ate fifteen minutes ago. “I am a hopeless case.”

But joy still breaks through. She smiles whenever she sees a photography of her grandchildren, especially her newest (and only) great-grandchild. She proudly exclaims, “You know what his name is?  Troy VINCENT!”  (Vincent was the name of my father, who died in 1995.)   She also remembers that I am at a new church, Resurrection Lutheran, and that my son’s fiancé is named Maggie.   Deeper emotions seem to make for deeper, more lasting memories.

Her dementia has cause some moments of humor. I had to take her out to sign some papers a month ago.  At the lawyer’s office, she had to sign and date several documents.  Each time she dated the document, April 7, she turned to me and with a big smile said, “That’s your birthday, isn’t it?  Happy Birthday!”   She must have dated six document that morning and each time she wished me Happy Birthday, as if it were the first time. The lawyer got rather tired of it, but I beamed each time she said it.  I flashed back to all the special birthday cakes and parties she gave me as a child.

I don’t know how many birthdays or Mother’s Days I will share with my mom.  Each will be a gift from God.  May your Mother’s Day be filled with joy, hope and loving memories.

Hear, my child, your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 1:8