Stacey Jewell Stahl's Blog

Alannah wrote a story book about her stuffed animals and dolls. We are going to do a photo shoot of her with each one of them, and then I'm going to create a book with her text and my photos. Here's what she wrote, word for word:

Emily’s Story
Emily is a cute panda who loves to eat bamboo. She loves to snuggle with me at night. She doesn’t have a nose or tail anymore. She loves to go on walks and she’s very calm when we do. Emily is very soft and she likes to dance on me.
Emily was a gift from Miss Kathy and Mr. Fred LastName in 2006.

Loving’s Story
Loving is baby doll who has a ton of friends. For instance, Rachel is as old as loving. Rachel is a baby whose mother is my friend, Lily Lonergan. Loving calls her Aunt Lily. Loving goes into the bath tub with me and always jumps in with a cannonball. I laugh at that one. Grandma gave her clothes for Christmas in 2008.
Loving was a Christmas present from my parents in 2004.

Buddy’s Story
Buddy is from Build A Bear. I got him and I made him. I gave him a heart and a bark at Build A Bear. He’s a little puppy and he’s a Jack Russell Terrier. He loves to have bones and dog treats. I usually give him two if he’s a very good dog. Buddy barks a lot.
Buddy was a gift from Miss Kathy LastName in August 2009.

Lillian’s Story
Lillian is a dog who loves to have fun. She’s a Rescue Pet and helps people in need. When I go to the doctor’s hospital, Lillian always comes to cheer people up. She’s very soft and she has two voices. One which is sad and one that is happy.
I bought Lillian with my own money in 2007.

Ella’s Story
Ella is an elephant. She’s shy and sad mostly all the time. She hides behind her ears and pretends that she’s not there. Sometimes she’s happy! When she is I always go out and give her some chocolate ice cream. She loves to fun and frolic outside. She plays soccer with me and she always wins.
Ella was a Christmas present from my Godfather, Jason LastName, in 2002.

White Bear’s Story
White Bear has a beautiful white coat and a brown nose. He has a tie that’s white with brown for squares. He loves to try and catch animals, but I always say “No.” He’s okay with that once in a while. He loves me and I love him! He’s normally very quiet, he doesn’t eat that much and he doesn’t really like to walk.
White Bear was a present from Cookie Grandma on Christmas 2007.

George’s Story
George is a bunny with a purple tie. He says, “Jesus Loves Me.” George is a good little bunny who likes to have fun festive times. He’s very colorful and has brown eyes. He likes to hop around finding carrots. He’s very quiet and he’s very nice. He loves to hop on people’s heads and look around.
George was a Christmas present from Aunt Angie in December 2001 when I was only 1 month old.

Mommy Bunny’s Story
Mommy Bunny is green with a pink nose, white from the tummy to the tail and has brown eyes. She has a baby bunny, but I lost it when I was little. She loves to be a mother and she was a very good example for the children. She likes to sit on people’s heads.
Mommy Bunny was a present from Uncle Steven one Easter.

Pinky’s Story
Pinky is a Webkinz who is online. She is a pink dog with a pink nose and a pink mouth. Everything is pink about her. She has pink under her ears, a tiny bit on her face and on her legs. She likes to take walks. She’s a very good dog, like Buddy. She loves to have dog treats.
Pinky was a present from Aunt Angie for Christmas 2008.

Sparkle’s Story
Sparkle is a sparkly pink cat with silver eyes. She has a pink striped tie. She loves to go around chasing mice. She likes to wear clothes and, funny enough, she sometimes wears mine! I can live with that. Sparkle is a good example for all of the other cats. She’s the oldest cat except for another cat, Shera.
Sparkle was a present from Miss Kathy and Mr. Fred in 2006.

Shera’s Story
Shera is a puppet cat. She was from Miss Kathy and Mr. Fred. When I saw her I thought that she was real! She has tiger stripes from head to toe. She is an outdoor cat and doesn’t really care if she gets messy, but I do. She is life-size.
Shera was a present from Miss Kathy and Mr. Fred in 2006.

Michael's vicarage supervisor sends me his sermons, and I thought this one was timely, so here it is:

Hey Folks, this week out of the blue I received a book from a dear brother, the Rev. Tony Sikora. It was called "Christless Christianity". Admittedly I haven't finished it all yet but I read enough to know that it speaks to the same issue that Jesus did in this Gospel reading. We in America are extremely "spiritual". But it is a spirituality without a cross, crown of thorns, nails, or a crucified and risen Savior from sin. Spirituality in a lot of American Churches is more therapy and self-help oriented and in the end is nothing more than the things you could hear from Oprah, Dr. Phil or some other self-help guru. The point of Biblical Christ-filled Christianity is not a recycling of the old nature and an improved you. It is a crucifying and burying of the old nature in Christ and rising as a new Creation with the Resurrected Christ. OK, why preach a preliminary sermon when you have the real one right here!!! Blessings in any case, Pastor

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! Mark 7:6-9

If you look at the statistics and consider the subject of “spirituality” in America it would seem that you and I as Christians have nothing to worry about. Do you know that a recent poll says that eighty-six percent of Americans still consider themselves to be Christian? It is only a vast minority that would say they are atheistic or agnostic. Those are pretty good numbers; at least they seem to be. If the number of “God bless America ” bumper stickers or posters stuck on front lawns are any indication, we are an extremely spiritual nation that contains people who very much want the blessings of God. Despite the almost constant attacks we hear where someone is again trying to get “In God We Trust” off our coins and money, or who try to remove “one nation under God” from the pledge, or who seem to mount drives to silence religious radio and television broadcasts they are all still there, for now at least. Despite hearing sermon after sermon telling us that we are about to be swallowed up once and for all by the evils of Hollywood or Godless politicians in Washington here we are, free to worship God on a Sunday morning, suffering no real persecution in a physical way for our faith, able to read the Bible and buy a copy in any bookstore, and totally able to declare for all to see that we acknowledge God. So what’s the problem?

We are an incredibly spiritual nation. But you want to know something? So was the Israel of Jesus’ day. Everybody in Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee acknowledged the religious authorities headed by the High Priest and the Ruling Council called the “Sanhedrin”. The Roman Empire in fact was one of the most spiritually driven entities in history. The Romans had a god or goddess for everything and not a city in the empire could be found without numerous temples to every deity under the sun. In fact, the Romans only got snotty when the first century Christians dared to say that there was a God but that there was only one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

People of God, as Jesus knew it in the Gospel lesson and as He quoted the very prophet Isaiah which the Holy Spirit inspired, the issue is not “spirituality”. People back then and people today may in fact honor God with lips and they certainly worship something in life. But their hearts are far from the true God. People look religious in the world today and people more than ever acknowledge a spiritual world: Look at how much interest there exists in the paranormal and how many shows on TV are devoted to Ghost Hunting and how much excitement is caused by the supernatural – and a lot of it is cloaked in Christian language – Jesus is almost a mascot of sorts whose picture is down in the corner of the TV screen like the image that identifies the network for you with its icon. But Paul put it well when he described the last days for us in which you and I live: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 They have the appearance of Godliness. But in the end there is no power and I put it to us all that there exists no power because there is no Christ in this kind of Spirituality or even in this kind of “Christianity.” It is a Christless Christianity in many American Churches and hearts.

How many times lately have you and I seen the fall of a public figure to adultery? It almost seems to be on the nightly news a regular broadcast as the “affair of the week” as senators, congressmen, and governors admit to cheating on their spouses and flying to distant locales for wild meetings of adultery. Yet how many times do you and I see these people when they are caught parading out their Bibles, going to Church, saying how sorry they are, and claiming that they have found their forgiveness with God and hope their spouse will also forgive them. I do not want to doubt the genuineness of their repentance; I pray it is real and only God can look into the heart. But what did their faith and their Christianity mean to them or means to them now?

You see the Bible says that we are hopelessly lost in sin from which we cannot deliver ourselves. Ephesians 1 says it so plainly that the natural state of man is to be dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead people last time I looked don’t simply decide to become alive spiritually or otherwise. I know of only one man who chose to rise from death after three days in the tomb; His name is Jesus Christ. Our only hope is the fact that Jesus Christ entered our world and bore that sin and death so that the judgment of a righteous God will be averted. But in modern Christianity, if I read what is masqueraded as spirituality in the American Culture, Jesus is not a Savior from sin because most people don’t want to admit that they have sinned against an omnipotent holy God. He is not the Lamb of God sacrificed on the altar of God the Father’s justice to spare you or me the righteous wrath of God. Jesus is a therapist who can be anything from a model to a life coach to a listener to an advice columnist. The issue is not the holiness of God. The issue is the goodness of man and how I can have more out of life as I want it and can get more of what I want to make me happy in life. And in the end the stuff that comes out of a lot of Christian Churches is no different at all from what you can get listening to Oprah or Dr. Phil or the latest self-help guru. I am not saying that everything that comes out of the mouths of these folks has to be wrong and worthless; but it is not the Christian message.

If we took to heart what Jesus said, and I emphasize the word “Heart” as He did today, our lives would reflect something different than the endless American consumer mentality that even affects Churches where we shop for the best church that makes me feel good, who cares what they really teach or whether it is Biblical or not. But God according to our Savior cares especially about the heart and what is in it.

Man looks at himself the way the Old Testament peoples looked at King Saul when they decided they wanted a king to rule over them so they could be like everybody else – and many Churches today in their desire to be like everybody else would do anything to avoid giving offense or seem to be judging others for their lifestyles or their beliefs. But Saul was chosen because he was a head taller than everybody else and looked the part of a king. Later on Saul’s heart betrayed him and them and the Lord and he spiraled out of control into paranoia and godlessness. God chose another to succeed him and it was the unlikely choice. It was the youngest son of a man named Jesse who was so unworthy of man’s consideration that the prophet Samuel who was searching for the next king found David out tending the sheep – not the kind of place you find future rulers of the land. But God looked at the heart and saw something there.

Was David morally superior to Saul? If you know the life of David you know that he could just as easily succumb to some of the worst moral failings in a human being including adultery, covetousness, deceit and murder. But David had a heart that understood a merciful God and who through no worthiness of his own would actually forgive sin. David could write: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” Psalm 51. Though David was still centuries away from his own descendant Jesus he believed in that one to come who would bear our sin and innocently die for the sin of David as did die that innocent child born to him and Bathsheba from their adultery. David knew personally and prophetically of the innocent who suffer for the guilty and bear the punishment they should have had.

Crosses and nails and crowns of thorns have no place in a victorious American spirituality that honors God with lips but is far in the heart from the Lord. When you think you can work hard enough and can succeed spiritually if you just do a bit more and work a little bit more then you don’t need that beaten loving tortured man on the cross simply begging the Father in His pain that He forgive you.

To show you what I mean consider just for a moment the Ephesians passage today, that O so controversial passage that never comes from the lips of modern day spiritual people because their teeth are grinding when they read it – all because of that one little word “submit”. Dare I say it? Do I have the guts to actually read the words out loud to modern day Americans? OK, here it goes: “Wives submit to your husbands.” Let’s leave off the words that immediately precede the text shall we. They really begin this text because they say in Ephesians 5:21 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” And let’s make absolutely sure we leave off the words “as to the Lord” that complete that first sentence of the Epistle reading.

Modern day spiritual people who carry their Bibles into the courtroom when they are on trial or spiritual people who can even quote Bible verses as slogans that sound great don’t get these words because the spirit of the Lord is far from their hearts. They never understand that anytime the Bible encourages any of us to submit that the word is entirely voluntary. It is a word that follows the example of Jesus who submitted for the sake of the ones He loved namely you and me and submitted to an eternity of agony for us all on the cross. To understand that God recognizes that in every contest of wills, even that between a husband and wife much less others, someone has got to yield in order to achieve peace is lost in the endless American spiritual quest for “self” fulfillment and what I can get out of anything, even relationships. What I wonder is why nobody ever objects to what the husband has to do in this passage. It says that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. If husbands who say they are of Christ really believed in their hearts what they say with their lips then they would stick it out no matter what even on days when they don’t feel they are getting what they want out of their marriage. They would stick it out for the sake of their family and their kids if they have them and wouldn’t run out because they feel they have no freedom anymore or need their own space or whatever it is that comes in the name of “You gotta do what you gotta do for you so you can be you.” The kind of love Ephesians speaks about and the kind of submission Ephesians speaks about are absolutely contrary to human nature. They come from a new nature that Christ puts in us. But empty Christless spirituality and even Christless Christianity since we are talking about what so many Churches proclaim today is all about human nature and satisfying what human nature seeks and becoming more of what I can be until maybe I even reach some kind of higher plane of existence. But true Christianity crucifies human nature on the cross, buries it in the tomb, where it is washed away when as Paul put it a new man arises as a new creation in the resurrected Christ Jesus.

That is what you are as a true child of God. You are not the recycled and improved old you. You are something entirely new in Christ. You and I cannot pull ourselves out of the lock sin has on us. But Jesus did and He did it by announcing to us as He does now that you are forgiven entirely of your sin now and forevermore. In Christ you do not have a heart of stone but a new heart of living flesh, truly spiritual because God the Holy Spirit chooses to dwell within your heart. And our Christianity here at St. Paul ’s and in our homes is entirely alive and spiritual because it is centered on the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ. May it always be so, and my deepest prayer is that this kind of spiritual awakening and resurrection may in fact seize the hearts of preachers and pulpits and Churches all throughout America . Because only then will be truly be a “spiritual people.” Amen.