Go into the World: Salvation

Dear Friends,

We are sharing news and reflections this week. Please read through the entire e-news today. Together we pray and reflect on the happenings in our community and in the lives of those who are hurting from war and fleeing to safety around the world.

Peace to you always,

Pastor Katie and Pastor Tim

A Litany for Lent

by Franciscan Mission Service

We fast from judging others, but feast on patience. We fast from apparent differences, but feast on unity of all life. We fast from the words that pollute, but feast on words that affirm. We fast from complaining, but feast on appreciation. We fast from bitterness and anger, but feast on forgiveness and mercy. We fast from discouragement, but feast on hope. We fast from suspicion, but feast on trust. We fast from idle gossip, but feast on purposeful silence. We fast from problems that overwhelm, but feast on prayer that strengthens. Pastor Katie used this prayer with her sermon on Ash Wednesday. It is presented here as you contemplate your Lenten discipline and how you might respond to the salvation God has prepared for us.

Hear the Word of God and Share the Lord's Supper

Dear Friends,

In our passage this week, we are going to hear a lot of advice. It is solid advice. It’s hard-to-hear kind of advice. But it is the direction and focus for which we have been longing and it comes directly from Jesus to you and to me. From the translation, The Message, we hear it like this from Luke 6:27-30:

“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, response with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.”

You may respond to this passage of truth like I have, "Uff dah! What do I do with all of this grumbling and anger that stirs up in me when I am feeling short-changed, hurt, wounded, unjustly treated or simply exhausted?" Jesus responds again, in Luke 6:31-36,

“Here is the simple rule of thumb for behavior; Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them … I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give them without expecting a return. You’ll never – I promise – regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind, you be kind.”

I wonder if we can find time in the busyness of our day, in fact, in the beginning of our day, to pause for a moment, to look around, and to see the beauty of the day that is unfolding in front of us. We intentionally hear that God is at work making all things new. We find hope from Jesus saying, "Let me be the influence on and in your life; let my love be your love for all people." God invites us to see that it is through Jesus we are reconciled to God and one another, especially the work that seems impossible.

I’m thinking about responding to what typically brings out a reaction in me (and maybe you as well) whenever we feel wronged. How about a first step and then a next step?

• Step One. Take notice of God first and not the flaws of others.

• Step Two. Ask for forgiveness when you mess up and fail time and time again at Step One.

• Step Three: Welcome the gift that goes beyond your imagination, but is freely given. See and hear Jesus say we are being made new in the gift of God’s grace at the font and at the table.

Oh, thank you, Jesus, for loving us first, loving us always, and inspiring and, yes, commanding us to love one another.

Let’s be imperfect together while we watch and take notice of God’s gift of beauty of a sunrise and sunset day after day after day. With a big "ah ha," let’s gather together for worship in-person or online! Sign up and invite your friends to attend the 5th Annual Women’s Gathering on March 4 with online registration at holytrinityNL.org go to EVENTS or call the church office!

Peace to you always,

Pastor Katie

Strive for Justice and Peace

Dear Partners in Ministry,

Thank you to all who made the time to attend our Annual Congregational Meeting last Sunday to learn firsthand about some of the specific challenges and opportunities we are encountering as we look to a new year of ministry ahead. There is much to consider; our staff and Visioning Council are working intentionally to ask how we might move ahead most faithfully. We appreciate your continued investment in our ministry as we do so! I am grateful for the willingness of both Lori Berry and Avery Riehl to serve as new leaders and am proud that we have such capable individuals willing to step forward!

This Sunday, I look forward to sharing a new webinar in our Adult Forum recorded this week by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. It details how individuals and congregations can help assist with the resettlement of new neighbors in our midst. Hope that you can join us at 9:30 in Room 1!

Meanwhile, we continue our “S.P.L.A.S.H.” sermon series on - specifically the second “S” this week, which represents the baptismal commitment to “Strive for justice and peace in all the earth.” I don’t know about you, but, if the previous elements might have seemed challenging in their own respect, this one sounds particularly daunting to my ears!

Yet, as one wise mentor once put it, “For a neighbor you may never meet, working for justice on their behalf may be the only way you ever get to love them.” To be sure, when I am brave enough to reach beyond my indifference and put myself in another’s shoes, I risk a host of diverse emotions - guilt, fear, powerlessness, or outrage. Yet, as Susan George once put it, “Our task is to refine the raw ore of emotion and transmute it into the pure metal of competent, systematic - and successful - action. Moral or religious indignation, however necessary, is not enough. Emotion by itself never made anything… yet without our untidy welter of love, generosity, anger, outrage, we would never be motivated to change anything; we would be prisoners of the status quo.*”

Thus, whether daunting or not, it seems that engaging the “powers and principalities (Eph. 6:12) of our age is no longer an option for Christians who seek to love their neighbors. The only questions are which issues will we address, what will we say, and then what will we do?*” Chances are that we may not all come to the same conclusions. It is my prayer, however, that we can learn much from one another and be encouraged by one another along the way. Hope to see you Sunday!

Sharing the Mission,

Pastor Tim

*Beyond Guilt and Powerless, Augsburg Fortress, 1989.