Men, you want your fishing or deer hunting stories to be worthy of retelling. Women, you want your projects to be Pinterest worthy. Parents, you want your children to be accolades worthy.

We put bumper stickers on our cars boasting our children are on the honor roll. We post our personal successes on social media for validation. We want to be remembered for our greatness after we’re gone.

Last fall, Professor Mark Zarling, who was serving as the President of Martin Luther College – where we train our pastors and teachers – announced his retirement from the ministry. I jokingly told some Synod officials that they could put my name on the call list. If I was President of MLC, they could save money on business cards, brochures and nameplates. They could just print, “M. Zarling.”

I’ve also facetiously said that if I ever wanted to move something along faster in the Synod, I signed my email as “Pastor M. Zarling,” instead of “Pastor Michael Zarling.” If people thought it was coming from “Mark Zarling,” that carries a little more weight than “Mike Zarling.”

I grew up watching and loving the Looney Tunes. So, I was excited when I learned that the new streaming service, HBO Max, will be airing the old Looney Tunes cartoons.

But I wasn’t so excited to learn that HBO Max is making new Looney Tunes cartoons. The new cartoons may be funny, but they have already given in to our current cancel culture. Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam will no longer carry guns to go after Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck.

I watched “Braveheart” earlier this week. At the end of the movie, William Wallace is being tortured for leading the Scots in battle against the King of England. While he is being brought to the platform for his public execution, the crowd boos while throwing rotten food at him.

First, William Wallace is strung up. The crowd cheers at Wallace’s pain. Then Wallace is put on the rack as his limbs are being pulled out of their joints. The crowd winces.

Little Red Riding Hood is one of world’s best-known fairy tales. Like most European folk tales, it has been told and retold so many times with so many adaptations, that its origin has been lost to time.

The modern versions we’re familiar with have a “happy ending.” Where Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are heroically saved by a woodsman. However, older versions were much scarier. In those versions, the wolf gobbles up Grandmamma in haste, “with mustard or bread.” The last scene grimly depicts the wolf doing the same thing to Little Red Riding Hood.

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” These are really weird verses. The eleven disciples see the risen Jesus standing in front of them. They talk to him, eat with him and worship him. OK. That’s not weird. They should be doing all that. Then we hear these words, “but some of them doubted.”

Right smack in the middle of seeing the biggest miracle that has ever happened – the Son of God dying and rising from the dead – some doubted. That’s just bizarre, don’t you think?

An entire vocabulary has arisen for this new time: Covid-19, social distancing, new normal, and more. Who of us really knew what a Zoom meeting was until a few months ago? A new reality has taken over where we become more expressive with our eyes, since our mouths are covered with masks; where we stand on X’s 6 feet apart in the store; and where we are constantly washing our hands with sanitizer and wiping surfaces with wipes. It is a new way of doing things where we worship online from home or celebrate birthdays, graduations, and funerals by driving by the house.

Who knew our reality and vocabulary could shift in such a short time?

The soldier answered his nation’s call. He left behind his family, friends and fortunes – personal treasures that so many take for granted. He is the warrior who was called upon to fight our nation’s enemies. He fought in distant lands to keep the battle far from our homes. He fought against tyranny. He fought to keep the darkness and evil away. He fought in exhausting heat and bitter cold. He fought in desserts, mountains and bombed-out streets.

Charlie’s mom became extremely ill and bedridden right after his sixth birthday. It didn’t take very long for her to succumb to her illness. Charlie and his father grieved. But Charlie’s dad suffered an emotional breakdown. He became severely depressed and began drinking heavily. … By Charlie’s eight birthday, his dad had died, too.

Charlie became an orphan.

It is Thursday evening. The disciples are relaxing during the meal. It has been quite a week for them – the adoration showered on Jesus during his Sunday entrance into Jerusalem; the shock of watching Jesus overturn the money changers’ tables in the temple courtyard; the vitriol from the religious leaders as they tried to trap Jesus with their questions.

But those events are behind them. Now it is time to recline and relax at a quiet Passover meal with Jesus.