From the Desk of
Interim Senior Pastor

As I write this the sun is shining but an hour ago it was raining, a few hours ago the sun had been shining and before that it had been raining. Alternating periods of rain and sunshine rarely happen this close together plants need both rain and sunshine to grow. If there is only sunshine, or only rain, the crops will not do well. We understand that life depends on a back and forth, like breathing in and breathing out, but religions, since the beginning of time, have been reluctant to consider the legitimacy of more than one point of view.

All religions have typically insisted on one right answer and have been hostile to the notion that an opposing belief might also be true. The Christian Church has tended to insist that there is only one right way despite our belief that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, that there is one God in three Persons, and that there is both Law and Gospel.

We teach that God created the heavens and the earth and that the first thing created was light. We also understand that when God created light, darkness was not destroyed. Rather light and darkness alternate to form a day and that God said it was good. The truth that a day is not just light, but both light and darkness, is seldom appreciated. Christians, like Moslems, have tried to force one view on the world and the result has too often been conflict.

God created the world to be a place with both light and darkness, rain and sunshine, cold and warmth, without these and many other contrasts life would not be possible. As the world needs contrary elements to be alive we need to understand that the church also needs differences to be healthy and alive. We tend to want everything one way but that would be as deadly as refusing to breathe. We need the people who do not agree with us as plants need rain and sunshine.

For many years Decorah Lutheran has accommodated many viewpoints in an atmosphere of peace and goodwill. We are seeing the cost of insisting on one right way and we need to learn again from the flowers and the crops to welcome the back and forth of God’s creation.

In Christ,
Wayne Hagen, Interim Senior Pastor