Freedom Riders

Yesterday I received a call from an excited parishioner who had just seen Oprah's heralded episode featuring 178 Freedom Riders, and who wanted to know how we might share this amazing true story of courage and justice at Lutheran Church of the Savior. She suggested starting with the upcoming Freedom Riders documentary, which will air on PBS on Monday, May 16th at 9/8c.

"Doubt to faith is like the carbon that turns iron into steel"

I have previously mentioned my friend and colleague Chris in a post about Good Friday, but today I want to highlight a deeply personal and beautifully illustrative series he is writing about his process of coming out as a gay man. Today's entry, the fourth of a scheduled fifteen, is titled "Gaining My Religion," and describes a faith journey that in important ways echoes my own. In particular, the following passage about doubt expresses my own thoughts, though I could never have dreamed up such lovely words:

I've always been a doubter and a sceptic when it comes to faith.  Indeed, faith without doubt is like pig iron; it is brittle, and breaks at the least trial.  Doubt to faith is like the carbon that turns iron into steel, making it strong and pliable enough to shift without easily falling down.

I'd say you can expect that quotation to show up in a sermon sometime, if I'm paying attention. Chris has been awaiting a call as an ELCA pastor for some time now, and I pray that such a thoughtful and passionate voice might find a community to which he can bring God's word.

May 2011 Newsletter Article

Jesus the vine, we are the branches;

life in the Spirit the fruit of the tree;

heaven to earth, Christ to the people,

gift of the future now flowing to me.

Jesus is risen and we shall arise.

Give God the glory! Alleluia!

- Herbert F. Brokering, “Alleluia! Jesus is risen!” ELW 377

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The sun is out as I write this newsletter article, and it really feels like spring. Spring is the season when the earth itself demonstrates God’s preference for new life sprung from the grasp of death. Though the winter has felt long and dark, brighter days are ahead. The green of not only grass but budding bushes and trees has begun, and the first flowers in their yellows and purples have graced us with their presence surrounding the sign in front of our church building.

Indeed, such signs of new life are present in more than just flowers at Lutheran Church of the Savior. The past two Sundays were Palm Sunday / Sunday of the Passion and of course the great festival of Easter, but even so the number of people filling our pews and enlivening our worship was more than heartening. One hundred people exactly the first week were followed by 145 worshipers on Easter Sunday, the highest number we’ve gathered there in a full three years, since Easter 2008. Now, the work of the church is far more than numbers in pews, but surely the excitement of seeing visitors, returning longtime members and regular attendees all in the same room together inspires in us a hope that God’s work will continue to thrive in this community.

We come together to worship God and to care for one another, to hear God’s word and taste God’s presence and allow the Holy Spirit to send us out into the world for love and service of all in need. Elsewhere in this newsletter you can read about the surprising amount of money we’re blessed to be giving to Loaves and Fishes and Ministry with Community through our Lenten offerings, combined with a Thrivent grant and other partners. Five of us gathered on the morning of Good Friday to experience a walking worship service in downtown Kalamazoo in support of our homeless sisters and brothers here. Through financial support and physical presence we can make a statement about our values and a difference in the lives of our neighbors.

In what other ways will we of Lutheran Church of the Savior live out the new life we have in the resurrection of Christ?

I thought about concluding this article with that question, but the thing is, it’s not just rhetorical. I really want to know what you think: How will we take all the energy and excitement of our Holy Week and Easter celebrations and transform it into love and service to God and our neighbor?

The assumption underlying this question is of course that it is you, the church, who are best equipped to hear the cries of those in need and bring words and deeds of God’s healing and love. I am your pastor, and proudly so, but the inspiration and energy and work of loving and serving comes from you, God’s people. Our decisions as to how we allot our resources in love and service are not my decisions, but come from our committees, our council, and each of you who has known God’s love and can share that love with others. The tagline of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, stated on our logo and on the beautiful banner some of you created recently, says, “God’s Work. Our Hands.” Help me to identify that work in our own congregation and community.

Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Andrew

On the Death of Christ on the Cross

This deep, beautiful reflection on the death of Christ by my friend and colleague Chris is a must-read for the Three Days leading up to Easter. An excerpt:

It seems to me that Christ without a cross dies twice, as I said above: his actual death, and the death of his relevance to us as Christians and to our or any culture, time or place. Our culture is not exclusively Christian, but it is one to which we might share a word from this perspective of death and resurrection, and at that a word of hope. Jesus without death is Jesus without resurrection is Jesus without hope.

There is an odd sense in which his writing gives thoughts and words to the spiritual and emotional reality I tried to evoke last night in our Good Friday service. It was as solemn and unidirectionally pointed toward the cross as any worship I had been a part of, and I hope the assembly was able to enter into this place of loss and emptiness and yearning as I was.

Lent 19: It Gets Better V - A Sermon for Passion Week

Read this sermon for Passion Week by a student at my alma mater. It's long, but worth every word and then some.

Lent 18: Death, Green Burials, and Our Life Together

Last month at Lutheran Church of the Savior the Faith-Based Wellness Partners and I were very excited to lead a two-week Sunday Adult Forum series on end-of-life concerns. In our FBWP presentation, hospice professionals focused on medical decisions as one nears the end of life, and provided Designation of Patient Advocate Forms as well as instructions on how to complete them.

The following week, I talked about preparation for a funeral or memorial service, and participants received funeral planning documents and resource lists (coming soon to the LCS website) so that we could each express our wishes for the event of our own passing or that of a loved one. One surprising result of our discussion that day was an interest in green burial,

Lent 17: My New Favorite Lutheran Blogger

Thanks to a Seeds of the Parish article cut out and left on my desk, as well as LivingLutheran.com, I have a new favorite Lutheran blogger. Pastor Keith Anderson writes on his church life, spirituality, and on the uses of social media in the context of faith communities. His most recent article on Holy Week for his interfaith family was brilliant (and again reposted at LivingLutheran, as are many of his posts), and relevant to members of my own faith community. I have big plans for some of his suggestions about social media, but they (like sleep and other blessed dreams of comfort) will have to wait until next week.