United Church of Two Harbors

On this day in 1943 four Army chaplains - Rev. George L. Fox (Methodist), Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (Jewish), Fr. John P. Washington (Roman Catholic), and Rev. Clark V. Poling (Dutch Reformed) - gave their lives to save the crew of the USAT Dorchester which had been torpedoed by a German U-Boat.

"As I swam away from the ship , I looked back. The flares had lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplins were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again. They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets."

- Engineer Grady Clark

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

- John 15:12-13

Luke 6:17-26

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

In Jesus' blessings and woes as recorded in Luke we are thrown into spiritual vertigo. Jesus tells us over and over that seeming blessings are actually woes and seeming woes are actually blessings. It is a list designed to drive us mad. What can we depend on if health and riches do not bring lasting joy?

Jesus is reminding us of the transitory nature of existence. States of being are always in flux. One thing is always becoming another. The truth of life is that, like the Lincoln quote above, "this, too, shall pass."

Attachment to the things of this world only bring hardship, pain, misery, and, even worse, spiritual death. What can we depend on?

At the risk of sounding sappy on the weekend before Valentine's Day, I would posit there is only one thing that lasts - love. God's steadfast love for us and our reflection of this primeval love for others is the only thing that has any lasting value. It cannot be kept or boxed or stuffed into an envelope and given to your sweetie. It is intangible and yet perhaps the most real thing we know.

This was the first church building in Two Harbors, Minnesota and was built in 1888. This structure stood until 1898 when it was replaced by a new building. It was 24 feet by 45 feet and was built at the cost of $1200.

If you would like to share any information on this period of the church please leave a comment.

This second building for the First Presbyterian Church of Two Harbors, Minnesota was built in 1898, remodeled in 1900, and torn down when the new stone building was made in 1906.

If you have information about this building or this time period please leave a comment.

The third and present building was finished in 1906 and was built from red sandstone from quarries across Lake Superior to Two Harbors, Minnesota from Port Wing, Wisconsin. The approximate cost of the building was $15,000.

In 1969 the local congregations of the First Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church merged to form the United Church of Two Harbors and have continued to worship in this building until this day.

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

"You can't handle the truth!" Jack Nicholson famously rants at the climax of A Few Good Men, saying that we live in a world of walls.

In contrast, Christ says, "The truth shall set you free."

In many ways our life walk teeters between these views of the truth... we want the truth, but we are at the same time afraid the truth might be too awful for us to bear. We veil ourselves from the truth and these veils serve both to shield ourselves from the truth outside us and to keep people from seeing the truth within us. We are doubly afraid. Afraid the external truth might be too much to bear and that the truth of ourselves may be too terrible for others to bear.

On this Transfiguration Sunday let us remember that when Jesus was revealed to his friends there was reverence and awe, but there was also rejoicing. The truth may be convicting, but it is also liberating.

There is much discussion in our society about how much truth we are entitled to or how much we can bear. There is fear that if we knew the truth it may destroy us.

On this score I side with the gospel, the truth sets us free. It may make us miserable first, however. I fully accept that, but that discomfort is probably on the whole a good thing. It brings our lives back in line with the truth of our situation. And there is so much realignment to be done.

Bear witness, then, to the truth! Both truth within and truth without. Remove the veil that shields you from the truth and walk free. This is our hope and our duty.

"What are you giving up for Lent?" is a very popular question this time of year.

I've never liked that question, honestly, because it focuses on a negative. It's passive rather than active. I'd much rather the question be -

"What are you wrestling with for Lent?"

Now we're talking! Who doesn't like a good wrestling match? It's energetic and colorful. My Great-Grandmother Petry, a very pious woman who looked down on things like card-playing and dancing, loved to watch wrestling. "Watch" is a misnomer, really. She yelled and screamed as if she were there in the crowd. Wrestling has no passive participants or spectators.

And there is good Biblical precedent for this. Jacob wrestles with God (or an angel, depending on how you read it) in Genesis 32. He is struggling inwardly at that time with his deceit and his identity. This becomes an outward struggle when encounters this holy presence.

Fasting should be an active and holy struggle. I encourage you to pick a fast that will challenge you.

Here are some possibilities for fasts that I have heard people doing. Note that not all of them are about giving up something. Some of them are about taking on a discipline.

• Give up or limit watching television.
• Give up eating meat.
• Give up sleeping on a bed. - Two of our youngsters in our church have done this recently as a discipline in solidarity with children who don't have such comforts.
• Read a chapter (or more) of scripture daily.
• Give up computer or video games. - I did this one Lent. It nearly killed me.
• Eat at least one piece of fresh fruit a day.
• Fast one meal a week and give money to charity instead.
• Walk a mile a day.
• Give up caffeine. - This was always my family fast when I was growing up.
• Give up eating out.
• Limit how much gasoline you use in a week.
• Limit your internet time to an hour a day.

I'd encourage you to consider a fast that would be challenging to you. Obviously fasts are not one size fits all. While giving up computer games may have been difficult for me, for people who never play them it would not be a burden at all. Likewise, I almost never watch television in the first place so giving it up would be nothing for me.

I'd be interested in hearing about your own challenges in fasting, past or present, and your suggestions for fasts. Please comment!

Because of the weather we have cancelled Worship and Sunday School today.

Our Annual Meeting has been rescheduled to Sunday, March 11 following Worship.