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First Sunday of Advent (December 3, 2006) by Carol Schersten LaHurd,
Global Mission
Novels and movies about the end of the world, online prophecy clubs,
coffee mugs depicting the rapture: these are ways some American Christians
respond to biblical predictions and global conflicts.
But our Lutheran companions around the world take a different approach.
On a sunny December morning in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, 20 young people were
being confirmed. Their pastor urged them to begin now to plan how they
would help build a better world. He concluded by quoting Martin Luther:
“If I knew that tomorrow the world would end, I would plant an apple tree
today.”
The next summer in a Lutheran church in the West Bank, a Palestinian
pastor echoed these words of Luther. He talked about planting not apple
seeds, but seeds of understanding among Israeli Jews and Palestinian
Muslims and Christians.
Our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers live with danger and fear,
as do many Israelis, but they also live under extreme economic hardships
and constant restrictions on their movement, restrictions that divide them
from work and school, medical care, church services, and even family
members.
Yet Palestinian Christians — these “living stones” of the Holy Land — live
as witnesses for democracy, provide schools and clinics for all
Palestinians, and model positive interfaith relations. They look forward
not to a violent Armageddon, but to the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words,
“In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.”
(Inspired by Jeremiah 33:14–16, Luke 21:25–26)
Second Sunday of Advent
(December 10, 2006)
by Rosemary Dyson,
Multicultural Ministries
An ELCA congregation council member asks, “Why doesn’t the racial and
cultural makeup of my church resemble my workplace or my children’s
schools?” ELCA congregations, synods, and churchwide units and sections
are asking the same question: Why is Sunday still the most segregated time
of the week in ELCA congregations?
In many ways the staff of Multicultural Ministries, a program unit of the
ELCA churchwide organization, can identify with John the Baptist. We truly
are “the voice in the wilderness” as we engage in the ministry of justice,
equal partnership, and reconciliation in a church that is struggling to
welcome all of God’s people.
The ELCA lifts up strategies for five ethnic-specific ministries: Arab and
Middle Eastern; Latino; American Indian and Alaska Native; African
descent; and Asian and Pacific Islander. These strategies give the whole
church an opportunity to become more diverse and multicultural.
The resource Troubling the Water for the Healing of the Church: A Journey
for White Christians from Privilege to Partnership is designed for and by
White people to provide tools to break the cycle of socialization that
feeds into a racially exclusive church.
One Body, Many Members: A Journey for Congregations Reaching Across
Cultures, Race and Class is a Web-based resource that helps ELCA members
welcome people in the community whose race, culture, or class is
different.
We’re preparing the way for the ELCA to be a church that lives out Jesus’
Great Commission. Will you join us?
(Inspired by Mark 7:24–37)
Third Sunday of Advent
(December 17, 2006)
by Celene Welch,
Campus Ministry
My first year as a campus pastor I served at a church-related school in
Texas. The University Ministries office sent a packet to incoming
students, including letters from denominational ministries. My letter went
to all self-identified Lutheran students.
Among the students who were active from the first gathering of Lutheran
campus ministry, one of them came to me and told me her story. Her mother
immigrated from Germany and her family had been Lutheran for generations.
Everyone had been baptized in the Lutheran church, but none had been
confirmed in decades. She decided that she wanted to be confirmed.
During her high school years she had felt disconnected from God, but had
visited different churches with her friends. When she received my letter
she thought, “Maybe this would be a good time to explore my Lutheran
heritage and find out if it’s really right for me.”
The next semester this young woman was confirmed. That summer she worked
in Lutheran outdoor ministry, including confirmation camp. She volunteered
with the youth at a local Lutheran congregation and she was one of two
Lutheran students who led an ecumenical Bible study for two years — “the
best experience I’ve had in all of college.”
She graduated with honors and was commissioned in the Air Force. The next
year she began medical school. God used a single letter — and Lutheran
campus ministry — to bring this young woman to her spiritual home, which
prepared her for a lifetime of witness to the grace of God.
(Inspired by Zephaniah 3:14–20)
Fourth Sunday of Advent
(December 24, 2006)
by John Stumme,
Church in Society
In the original planning for an ELCA social statement on education, not
much attention was given to Christian education in the home and
congregation. After all, this was a social statement that deals with
issues in society.
The members of the ELCA Task Force on Education had a different idea. When
they met for the first time, they insisted that Christian education should
be a vital part of the social statement. How can we address education in
society, they asked, if we do not address education in the faith in our
homes and congregations? If we do not nurture children in the faith from
an early age, what will happen to the church in the future?
How we welcome children into life and into the community of faith has a
lasting impact on their life and faith. It also says a great deal about
who we are.
The excitement and joy of Elizabeth and Mary in awaiting the birth of
Jesus, the Messiah and Savior, are an example for us and our welcoming of
children. Delight in their presence is the beginning point for teaching
and learning from our children. That delight grows out of humble and
grateful faith.
The task force is right, and so the proposed social statement on education
reminds us both of our responsibility for educating all in our society in
the skills for living and for educating the baptized in the faith.
(Inspired by Luke 1:39–45 [46–55])
Nativity of Our Lord
(December 25, 2006)
by Russell Siler,
Global Mission
The majesty of a Christmas Eve service in Bethlehem, just yards from the
spot where tradition tells us Jesus was born, has melted into morning
light for our congregation in Jerusalem. At St. John’s Chapel in the
complex of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, people gather just yards
from the spot where Jesus died and where he rose to new life!
Every day in the life of the English-speaking congregation brings new
faces to the community. Christmas Day magnifies that pattern as pilgrims,
tourists, and visitors to Jerusalem seek something of the family
celebration they have left thousands of miles behind. Students and
humanitarian workers join voices with teachers and travelers. Not one
person leaves the Eucharist without others making certain that all are
welcome to continue the sharing in some way with their loved ones.
The joy is real; the face of Christ is an ordinary Jerusalem dweller. Yet
a shadow hovers over the warmth and elation. The Palestinian Christians we
see throughout our work week will not be joining their extended families
for quiet holiday celebrations because the human-fabricated barriers
between the town where Christ was born and the city where he died are
often closed to local people without the proper permits. So the
intercessions on this blessed day, as on all others, include heartfelt
petitions that God’s grace and love will overwhelm the walls that divide
God’s people: that we will see in the midst of pain the Word that “became
flesh and lived among us.”
(Inspired by John 1:1–14)
First Sunday of Christmas
(December 31, 2006)
by Kathryn Sime,
ELCA World Hunger
Joyce proudly met us at the entrance to her home in Lyonatide, Uganda.
Over 80 years old, Joyce cares for her daughter’s three sons. The
children’s parents both died of AIDS years ago. At first the family lived
in a poorly constructed house. “During the rainy season, I gathered the
children in a corner and held them so it wouldn’t rain on them!” With few
resources of her own, Joyce did her best to take care of her young
grandsons.
Joyce found help, thanks to your gifts to ELCA World Hunger Appeal and
Stand With Africa. Through our partners Lutheran World Relief and the
Lutheran World Federation, Joyce received help to rebuild her house,
necessary household items, and a water tank and rain water catchment
system. By conserving water more efficiently, the family can manage the
challenges of seasonal drought more effectively.
Grandson Alex is grateful for the support from ELCA World Hunger partners.
“We don’t have parents, but as we are in this comfortable house, we have
hope for the future,” he told us. “We are very grateful because life has
improved.”
Joyce protected her grandsons by holding them in her arms, keeping them
safe in the storms. When Jesus disappeared from his home, Mary’s fears and
anxieties about her son’s safety were very real. God’s love shared in
abundance promises hope for all children of God. Like Joyce’s embrace, our
God-given gifts offer a safe haven from the storms of hunger and poverty.
(Inspired by Luke 2:41–52)
Epiphany of Our Lord
(January 6, 2007)
by Kevin Anderson,
Worship and Liturgical Resources
My congregation, like many others, recently began using Evangelical
Lutheran Worship. We are just starting to explore this new book of worship
and discovering it is a gift to today’s church. It is a treasure chest,
storing gems from the past, bearing gifts from many cultures, containing
creative new offerings, all paying homage to the Christ child. This
treasure we have in worship has a purpose — it points to something more
precious. Like a star it leads us to the one we worship and adore, bearing
witness to Christ in our midst.
In our worship we experience God’s presence among us in bread and wine,
water and Word, confession and forgiveness, community and song. But to
really live in this mysterious presence of Christ we must go about the
messy business of breaking bread, tasting wine, touching water, hearing
the Word, serving the poor, humbling our hearts, loving our enemies. This
is the heart of worship. Worship sends us out to be Christ’s presence for
one another. Our lives are the treasure we offer in praise to God and
service to others.
On this Epiphany day and in the weeks to come, let us pray that worship
leads us to become Christ’s light of justice and peace shining in the dark
places of our world. Next time you leave worship, think about what it
means to go in peace, serve the Lord, share the good news, remember the
poor. And never forget — Christ is with you. Thanks be to God!(Inspired today’s readings)
The Baptism of Our Lord
(January 7, 2007)
by Joy McDonald Coltvet,
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
We began at the top of the hill where the open-air church building stands
and processed down the dusty road in powerful heat. People carried
umbrellas as protection from the intense sunlight and we sang hymns and
songs along the way. We walked through the harvested cane field and went
to the community’s river, gathering next to those doing laundry. A few men
of the community posted themselves as sentinels around the group to keep
watch. In the midst of worship, three pastors gathered up some of that
gushing water and poured it over the heads of 13 young people in the
community, one at a time, saying “I baptize you en el nombre del Padre, y
del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo.” Salt was put on their tongues. “You are
the salt of the earth.” A baptismal candle was shared with each one, “The
light of the world has called you to be light.” Smiling faces, wet heads,
and shining eyes — that’s what I witnessed with Heroes of the Faith, a
Lutheran congregation in El Salvador.
Because we are a global church, we gather as church with a community that
is much broader than our particular congregational, vocational or
educational context.
Wherever we gather with the assembly to witness baptism, to remember our
baptism, to wade in the waters, we gather with sons from far away and
daughters from the end of the earth. We gather as one body because of God
who promises, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
(Inspired by Luke 3:15–17, 21–22)
Second Sunday after the Epiphany
(January 14, 2007)
by Wendy Blanck,
Communication Services
It was a wonderful concept. An interfaith group of churches would provide
emergency shelter, food, and hospitality for homeless guests. Each church
would serve as host one night a week.
Several ELCA congregations in the Chicago suburbs participated in the PADS
(Public Action to Deliver Shelter) program, which began with much
enthusiasm. Bedding and supplies for serving meals were purchased.
Volunteers were enlisted, 20 a night for each site and another dozen or
more to provide dinner, breakfast, and a sack lunch. Men, women, and
children who otherwise might have spent the cold winter months on the
streets now had a warm and welcoming place to sleep.
But after a few years a variety of problems threatened to shut down the
program. The organization was deeply in debt. In an effort to save this
important ministry for the homeless, lay leaders from the participating
congregations gathered on a Sunday afternoon in a chapel basement while a
worship service took place in the room above.
For a short time there was disagreement about how to proceed but soon one
person after another offered their gifts of service. Some would raise
funds, some would work on hiring a new case worker, some would look for
new office space, some would make key contacts in the community, and all
would pray.
As the discussion took place music from the worship service flowed into
the room — “for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory” — and
the people of God from many different churches with many different gifts
came together to do the work of Christ.
(Inspired by 1 Corinthians 12:1–11)
Third Sunday after the Epiphany
(January 21, 2007)
by Rebecca Sorenson,
Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations
I am fortunate to be both a seminary student and an intern at the ELCA
churchwide office. But juggling homework, a job, church, friends, and
family is a daily challenge. It’s easy to think that I’m alone in this
endeavor, or that my actions will not result in the desired outcome.
But I am not alone. I am part of the bigger body of Christ. What more
reassuring words can I ask for?
As an intern for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations, I see (and help
facilitate) how the ELCA fosters relationships with our brothers and
sisters of other denominations and faiths. One exciting example is our
work on an online resource, Windows for Understanding:
Jewish-Muslim-Lutheran Relations. This resource challenges readers to
explore faith in a new way, learn what others believe, overcome confusion,
and build relationships among Jews, Muslims, and Lutherans.
We also connect ELCA members with brothers and sisters of other faiths and
denominational backgrounds through educational events. College students
have just returned from two weeks of studying the effects of globalization
on ecumenism at the Ecumenical Institute in Geneva. At the end of January
ecumenical partners from across the country will meet in Washington, D.C.
at the National Workshop on Christian Unity to share ideas, create
networks, and celebrate unity.
As we take part in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this week, let
us remember in our prayers our ecumenical and interreligious partners. May
we all be cultivators of hope and unity in a world that needs both.
(Inspired by 1 Corinthians 12:12–31)
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
(January 28, 2007)
by Mark Holman,
Lutheran Services in America
Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and author, wrote: “The place
God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s
deep hunger meet” (Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC).
Andrew Okworo, certified nursing assistant, finds this place of
integration, this place of ministry, as he provides care and compassion
for residents of the dementia unit at Martin Luther Manor, a skilled
nursing facility in Bloomington, Minn. Andrew speaks of his joy in serving
others: “When they have lost their sight, I am their eyes. Now I am an
extension of their feet, their eyes, their hearing and their hands. We are
here to lift up one another.”
While these words from St. Paul may be most frequently used in the context
of weddings, they also apply to those who exercise their vocation with
vulnerable adults. “Love is patient; love is kind. … It bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never
ends.”
This very moment, as you hear those familiar words, there are thousands of
committed workers serving through ELCA-affiliated nursing homes and homes
for people with developmental disabilities. In such ministry contexts —
operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin
Islands — people exercise their faith at the intersection of their deep
gladness and the world’s deep hunger.
As you settle down for sleep tonight, be mindful of Andrew and so many
others like him who remain alert through the darkness that others may rest
safely and securely.
(Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:4–8)
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
(February 4, 2007)
by Beth Lewis,
Augsburg Fortress Publishers
I was sure that I was the only one on the sixth floor of Augsburg Fortress
Publishers office at a few minutes past 9 p.m. Then I heard laughter
coming from a cubicle not far away.
I walked toward the sound to find out who else was working so late. Two
members of our Akaloo.org Web design team were sitting totally engrossed
in front of a computer monitor.
“Listen to this,” Chris said as soon as I entered. He had a brightly
colored, cartoon-like picture on his computer screen. The perspective was
from inside a car driving through a town. As he moved the onscreen pointer
over a church at the side of the road, the bells chimed. As he moved the
mouse pointer over the windshield, we heard rain and the slap of
windshield wipers.
“Show her the rearview mirror!” laughed Linda. Moving the mouse over the
mirror showed and let me hear a crying baby firmly buckled into a car
seat.
What were Chris and Linda from the Augsburg Fortress media ministry team
doing?
They were fishing for people for Jesus.
Their ministry is to build dynamic faith formation resources that invite
adults, teens, and children to have fun while learning how to be disciples
in the twenty-first century. Some of that work includes creating Web sites
for use in congregations and at home. These Web sites help people of all
ages learn about the Bible, God, the church, and living our faith in
service to the world.
(Inspired by Luke 5:1–11)
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 11, 2007)
by Miriam Schmidt,
Global Mission
Guyana, “the land of many waters,” is also a land of tropical heat. The
sun beats down on the heads of the Guyanese along with fear of crime,
discontent with the country’s economy, and the seeming inevitability of
migration. Many born in Guyana will not remain here.
I feel truly blessed as an ELCA Horizon international intern in Guyana to
be meeting so many who have planted themselves in this rich soil and are
“here to stay.” The people of Transfiguration Parish in East Canje,
Berbice, exhibit a powerful trust in God and an ability to hold each other
up. The people daily drink in the life-giving waters of baptism and the
promise of abundant life in the most unexpected places. These faithful
ones do not fear when the heat comes as it does every day in Guyana. Their
leaves remain green.
Recently, the women’s fellowship group met to plant trees in the
churchyard. Together, we uprooted old plants, pruned overgrown branches,
and planted baby pine trees. Hands covered in mud, we shared joys and
sorrows, frustrations and laughter. As darkness fell and the work was not
yet done, the group leader called out confidently, “Let’s come back
tomorrow, ladies, and finish the job.” Sure enough, everyone returned the
next day to be stewards of their property while caring for one another.
No doubt Transfiguration Parish will not cease to bear fruit. As their
intern, I count myself rich to be fed and watered in this particular
garden.
(Inspired by Jeremiah 17:5–10 and Psalm 1)
Transfiguration of Our Lord
(February 18, 2007)
by Shenandoah Gale
Office of the Presiding Bishop The ministry of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C. is grounded in God’s call to hospitality, justice, and community. For example, N Street Village offers hospitability to women moving from homelessness to self-sufficiency. Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) offers a year of simple urban living in community while working for justice in community-based organizations.
In 1996 the people of these three organizations asked themselves: “What does it mean that while we profess hospitality, justice, and community, our ministry staff and volunteers are primarily white and those who receive ministry services are primarily people of color? In our organizational policies, practices and procedures how do we unintentionally perpetuate systemic racism rather than God’s invitation to community?”
To address their questions, Whites in the group learned about White identity and the history of United States race-based systems of oppression. People of color in the group addressed internalized racial oppression. Together the Luther Place community creates equitable hospitality.
Similarly, ELCA congregations, synods, partners and the churchwide
organization continue to engage in conversations about identity,
accountability, and racism. The ELCA Anti-racism program, located in the
Office of the Presiding Bishop, exists to accompany the church through
trainings, gatherings, and resource sharing. As a 98 percent White
church in an increasingly multicultural world, how shall we live into
God’s promise of an anti-racist, multicultural community of faith?
(Inspired by today’s readings)
These stories are examples of churchwide ministries suggested by the
pericopes for the First Sunday in Advent through the Transfiguration of
Our Lord (Cycle C).
Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version
Bible, Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the
National council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and used by
permission.
© 2004 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Produced by the ELCA
Department for Communication, 8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631;
800.638-3522.
Permission is granted to reproduce this material for one-time local
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