October 31, 2024: "We are sisters and brothers in Christ first and foremost, before we are Americans."

With the election just days away, many of us are feeling acute anxiety. No matter who prevails next Tuesday, it seems unlikely that our next President and Congress will be able to unify our deeply fractured nation and lead us forward into a brighter future. Our distrust of one another has become so profound that we can’t even agree on how to count votes or ensure a fair and just election process, things which we used to take for granted. I hope and pray that these worries of mine are misplaced, but the divisions within the American soul seem quite intractable these days.

We Americans also have developed an unfortunate tendency to be preoccupied with ourselves. I have some clergy friends who live and serve in other countries around the world, and they often comment to me how incredibly self-absorbed the American media has become, as if the only social, political, and economic matters worth reporting are about this country and especially our upcoming U.S. Presidential election. Yet, however important next Tuesday’s vote may be, we should not forget that there are over 8 billion people on this planet living in 195 different nation states, the vast majority of whom are struggling just to survive from day to day.

As Christians, these realities should trouble us deeply. The gospel of Jesus Christ quite clearly knows no political, racial, ethnic, or economic boundaries. Ours is a global faith. We are sisters and brothers in Christ first and foremost, before we are Americans, and certainly before we are Democrats or Republicans. We are called to be agents of God’s transforming love, healing and unifying this broken world, not dividing, plundering, and corrupting it. We are called to share, not hoard; reconcile, not bear grudges; make peace, not exact vengeance; serve, not tend only to our own needs; listen humbly to others’ concerns, not arrogantly assume that we always know best. Have we forgotten these gospel values?

My prayer for us all in the coming weeks and months is that, no matter the electoral outcome, we stay centered in the living Christ, trusting in His ways of love, rather than giving in to despair or cynicism. Stay engaged, pursue justice, speak the truth, pray for guidance. Let us “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2. Indeed, if you are looking for a Scriptural text to keep you grounded in these challenging times, I invite you to read and pray on the entire twelfth chapter of St. Paul’s magisterial Letter to the Romans, for it offers timeless advice on how Christians should carry themselves in times of crisis.

And, by all means, take solace in this truth too: God’s plan for saving this beautiful Creation of His does not depend on the outcome of this or any other election. God will make our crooked ways straight. Keep the faith.

September 26, 2024: A prayer for our nation over the coming weeks

It is no secret that we are in the midst of a contentious and divisive election season. People of faith—both within our church and across the country—hold different convictions about the candidates running for office this year, as well as about various social issues and policies. These opinions are often very strongly held and “real” conversation sometimes seems impossible. How are we to navigate this treacherous terrain as people who seek to be grounded above all else in the life of Christ?

Our new bishop, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Pipho, in his September bishop’s newsletter (his first), recently directed our attention to an ELCA draft Social Statement of Civic Life and Faith which seeks to offer theological guidance on this complex subject. I commend it to you. You can find it here. Please keep in mind that this is a draft and comments are still being received from the public.

Perhaps even more importantly, I encourage you to begin an intentional practice of prayer for our nation over the coming weeks, now that early voting has commenced in some states. I am attaching here some prayers authored by the Rev. Kimberly Deckel that I find helpful.

Let me conclude with one of my favorite prayers from the Book of Common Prayer:

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

September 11, 2024: Holy Cross Day

I am so delighted to be back in your midst and Pat and I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday! It promises to be a delightfully busy fall, with many opportunities for fun, formation and fellowship.

This coming Sunday we will be celebrating "Holy Cross Day." What is that exactly, you ask? Its historical roots date back to Helena, the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine, who claimed to have discovered the empty tomb and true cross of Christ during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. According to tradition, the discovery was made on September 14th, 330 A.D., and then, after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built on the site, it was dedicated on September 13th or 14th, 335 A.D. From as early as the seventh century, the Church commemorated September 14th each year with a Feast of the Holy Cross. It is now recognized as a festival day (with differing emphasis, to be sure) by Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Episcopalians alike.

At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther was not keen on the idea of venerating relics, even something as profoundly important as the wooden cross upon which Christ may have been crucified. Even so, Luther believed that Holy Cross Day was worth observing if we focus less on the relic and more on what Christ accomplished on the cross.

One of the traditions of this day is to sing the great hymn "Lift High the Cross" as our Hymn of the Day. The hymn was written by George Kitchin in 1887, while he was the Church of England Dean of Winchester for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It has been suggested that the hymn was inspired by the story of Constantine the Great’s conversion to Christianity after seeing a cross with “In hoc signo vinces” on it. It was first sung in Winchester Cathedral and more recently has been adopted in our Lutheran hymnals.

We will also sing as our Sending Hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross." Although not in the Lutheran hymnal, it is an immensely popular hymn across American Protestant denominations.

I look forward to reconnecting with you all on Sunday!

July 11, 2024: "Find time to play"

Yesterday evening about forty or so of us gathered at church for a lovely barbeque and simple Eucharist service. The food was delicious and it was a great opportunity to connect with one another in a relaxed setting. As a bonus, we also had the children and parents from Vacation Bible School with us, which included families from both Holy Trinity and Imanuel Indonesian Churches. Thank you to all who helped make it a delightful time!

During the Eucharist service, it was also a joy to partner with Pastor Esther at the altar as we shared the bread and the wine together with those gathered. We are so glad she and her family are finally with us and I know the Imanuel community is too!

During my short homily, I reflected on that scene in Mark's gospel where, to the great irritation of his disciples, Jesus' pauses his ministry to play with children, to put them on his knee, and to bless them. He reminds his followers that, far from being a distraction to the work of ministry, children are precious gifts from God and that it is to "such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." Mark 10:14.

Summertime is in fact an apt season to attend to our own "inner child" and give him or her some space to play, just as Jesus did. In my humble opinion, our culture desperately needs to recover the holiness of "doing nothing," the sacred dimensions of sheer play that is part of what sabbath means. Far from being a mere distraction from “real” work and “real” life, play is in fact the basis of life: it is a life-giving impulse as integral to our health and well-being as sleep and nutrition.

Play is a wonderfully purposeless activity, voluntarily done for its own sake, that is inherently attractive, that frees us from a sense of time, diminishes our self-consciousness, is full of potential for improvisation, and begs for more. We play because play is fun and makes us feel alive and connected to the world around us.

More deeply, play is an expression of our creative freedom. Play frees us from all those things that bind us: the need to be practical, to follow established rules, to please others, to make good use of time. Play is its own reward, its own reason for being. It is filled with wonder, surprise, expectation, pleasure, insight, beauty, and power. When we play, we are open to new possibilities and sparks of new insight and thought. Play provides the glue for our relationships and fuels our creativity.

The pure freedom and ecstasy of play is, I am convinced, exactly what Jesus had in mind when he told the disciples that day to stop what they were doing and to spend time with some children. We should do the same. So, go out this summer and have some fun; whether it is with your children, grandchildren, or your own inner child, find time to play!

June 9, 2024: Upcoming Synod Assembly

Dear friends in Christ,

Please pray for all of the people of the New England Synod today through Saturday as pastors and lay representatives gather in Worcester, MA, for our annual Assembly, which this year includes the election of a new bishop. I will be there in attendance along with your delegates, Cristina Dolcino and Mike Gass.

Among other things, we give thanks for Bishop Hazelwood's service these past many years, as well as for all those persons who courageously agreed to have their names put forward as candidates during this year's election. We trust that, from these many gifted women and men, the Holy Spirit will guide us to elect that person best suited to lead the Synod in these challenging times.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a bishop for our Synod, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Cristina and/or Mike have agreed to share with you the results of the election and the other business of the Assembly at this Sunday's service. I suspect Pastor Larsen will be happy to share his own perspective as well.

In Christ's peace,

Pastor Luther

May 30, 2024: Welcome Back, Pastor Don

I will certainly miss you on Sundays this summer as I now return to my seasonal chapel (Emmanuel Church) in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, for our summer calendar of worship (June 2 through Sept. 1). However, I will still be coming up to Holy Trinity on most Wednesdays during the summer and hope to see you then, especially during one of our three afternoon BBQ events (see below). If you would like to make an appointment, or otherwise reach me, please contact Mark in the office.

In my absence, we are blessed indeed to have our old friend, Pastor Don Larsen, join us on Sundays to lead worship, beginning this Sunday through Labor Day weekend. Pastor Don was here last summer and is known to most of you. He and I first got to know each other as fellow chaplains at Harvard and have been friends ever since. I am so grateful that he is able to be with you these coming months, even though he is technically “retired.”

From Chicago, Pastor Don earned his undergraduate degree in church music from Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, IL, and prepared for ordination at Christ Seminary-Seminex in St. Louis, and at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He was ordained in 1983. Pastor Don pursued further theological study at a number of other schools, including Union Theological Seminary of New York and Yale Divinity School.

Pastor Don has served congregations in the Slovak Zion Synod-ELCA and the New England Synod in Danbury and Brookfield, CT, Riverside, IL, and Hartford, CT. During his ten-year ministry at Grace Lutheran in Hartford he also taught biblical Greek at Hartford Seminary.

More recently, Pastor Don led University Lutheran Church in Cambridge, MA, where he was also Lutheran Chaplain to Harvard University and an instructor in Lutheran studies at Harvard Divinity School. Most recently, Pastor Don was pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudbury, MA, from which he retired in 2020.

I hope you will give Pastor Don a warm welcome-back!

May 22, 2024: A Tribute to Judy Evans

It has been a hard week for all of us as we continue to grieve the sudden and unexpected loss of our dear friend, Judy Evans. Judy served this church wisely and faithfully in so many ways—as President, Council member, parish nurse, church musician and choir member, active participant in our Tanzania ministry, and most recently, a trusted advisor to me as part of our Mutual Ministry Review Team. Her delightful presence and spirit will be missed in so many ways.

This past week I have been meeting and coordinating with her family and friends to plan her memorial service, which will take place in our church on Friday, May 31, at 11 a.m. I just received from her family the final text of her obituary, which I share below. She was such a private person that I think many of us had no idea what an accomplished and rich life she led. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

A Tribute to Judy Evans

Judith Ann Evans of Portsmouth passed away on May 16, 2024, at age 79 following a brief illness. Judy went peacefully, having led a full and accomplished life.

Judy was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Syosset on Long Island, where she graduated from Syosset High School. She attended the University of Rochester, where she received her Bachelors of Sciences in Nursing. Following graduation, Judy worked as a nurse in New York City for over a decade, before becoming the Director of Medical Nursing at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield in 1979.

After three years in Springfield, Judy took a role with the National Institutes of Health. While in the DC area, she received her Masters in Nursing from Catholic University of America before working as an Associate Director at Bellevue Hospital in New York and Director of Critical Care at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Judy moved into the field of nursing education in the late 1980s, serving as an instructor, adjunct professor, and assistant professor at Widener University, Rutgers University, and received her Doctorate in Nursing Education from Teachers’ College, Columbia University in 1996. After spending nearly all her life in the Mid-Atlantic, Judy began a new chapter in New England when she moved to New Hampshire in 1992 and began teaching at the University of New Hampshire. Following a three-year stint as the Director of Education and Clinical Guidelines at the Lahey Clinic, Judy was named Assistant Director of Nursing Education for the New Hampshire Board of Nursing, while also returning to teach at UNH. In 2007 she was named Founding Director of the Nursing Education Programs at Franklin Pierce University. Judy received the 2008 Award for Excellence in Nursing Leadership from the New Hampshire Organization of Nurses. She retired from Franklin Pierce in 2010.

Judy filled her life with family and friends. She did annual summer vacations to Cape Cod with her brother, Rich, and his family, and her desserts were a highlight at family gatherings for birthdays and holidays. She traveled the globe with friends and church groups, including trips to Tanzania, where she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Galapagos Islands.

A lover of flowers and gardening, Judy also enjoyed the outdoors. She was an avid kayaker for years and relished her time at the beach. Her church community at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Newington was hugely important to Judy, and she served in leadership roles within the church.

Judy also had a fondness for reading and the arts. She played piano and sang, including with several choruses in the Seacoast area. She appreciated music in many forms, including classical music and frequently attended concerts. She also took up quilting and fabric art, becoming accomplished in the medium in her final years.

Judy will be missed greatly by her family, friends, and church community for her keen mind, her generosity of spirit, her love of life, and her amazing laugh.

Judy was preceded in death by her parents Leonard and Agnes Evans, and her brother, Richard Evans. She is survived by her brother, Paul Evans and his wife Ann, of Lafayette, California, her sister-in-law Marcia Evans of Southbury, Connecticut, her nephew Jon Evans of Walnut Creek, California, her nieces Catherine Evans of Somerville, Massachusetts, Leslie Evans of La Crescenta, California, and Jessica Summerfield of Santa Barbara, California, and her beloved cat, Korben.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Judy’s memory can be made to Friends of the Portsmouth Public Library.

May 15, 2024: NE Synod Bishop Election.

This is an important year for the New England Synod as we elect a new bishop in early June at our annual gathering of clergy and lay leaders we call Assembly. This year’s Assembly will be held June 6-8 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I will be attending along with our elected representatives, Cristina Dolcino and Mike Gass.

For the past twelve years, Bishop James Hazelwood has served as the Synod’s leader, but he is now retiring, requiring an election of a new bishop. Accordingly, this is an occasion both to celebrate and give thanks for Bishop Hazelwood’s episcopate and prayerfully discern who may be a good choice for our next bishop. Under ELCA rules, bishops are elected to six-year terms.

There are nearly a dozen candidates who have been nominated and you can learn more about them here. There is also a website that provides detailed information about the election process and even more information about the candidates. You can find it here. We will also be posting information about the candidates in the Gathering Area for the next few Sundays.

Cristina, Mike and I very much want to hear from all of you about what Holy Trinity is looking for in a new bishop. We are your representatives in this electoral process and invite your views! You can reach me at pastorluther@htelc.com or Cristina and Mike at foggdrive@yahoo.com.

Almighty God, you have given your Holy Spirit to the church to lead us into all truth. Bless with the Spirit's grace and presence the people of this synod as we prepare to elect a bishop. Keep us steadfast in faith and united in love, that we may manifest your glory and prepare for the way of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

April 25, 2024: Celebrating Earth Day

This Sunday we will be celebrating Earth Day. Not only will our Creation Care Task Force be sponsoring an adult forum on the topic of Creation Care after the service, but our liturgy itself this week reflects a focus on a theology of environmental stewardship.

I invite you to listen for and appreciate all of these connections in our worship this week. For example:

• We open our service with a Confession of Sin highlighting our recklessness in caring for God’s good creation, yet even so we find hope in God’s promise to forgive us and inspire us to do better.
• We harken back to the Garden of Eden in our Gathering Hymn, Morning Has Broken, and then in lieu of a Kyrie, we sing a Song of Praise in celebration of Earth and All Stars.
• Our gospel text from John, in which Jesus identifies as the “true vine,” invites us into an organic and intimate connection with God, each other, and with Creation.
• Our Hymn of the Day, All Creatures Worship God Most High, written by Francis of Assisi, reinforces the message by developing these creation themes further, as does our Sending Hymn, Joyful, Joyful.
• Finally, our Eucharistic Prayer, drawn from the Lutheran liturgical resource, All Creation Sings!, places our sharing of the bread and wine within a broader understanding of God’s care for, and desire to restore, the entire created order.

May we all be inspired by our worship to be God’s agents of renewal, hope, and re-creation!

April 17, 2024: Our Partnership with Isimani

On Tuesday of this week, a small group gathered at church at the invitation of our President, Erlinde Beliveau, to discuss the history, status and future of our partnership with the good people of the Isimani Lutheran congregation in Central Tanzania. Present at the meeting (in addition to Erlinde and myself) were several veterans of this ministry, including Margareta Claesson, Judy Evans, Russ Hilliard, Dot Kasik, Ed Mallon and Jo Whiting.

The meeting was a real education for me. For those of you who also may be new to this ministry, I learned that the partnership began almost thirty years ago when a new UNH professor, Joe Lugalla, arrived at Holy Trinity and asked if we’d be interested in a relationship with his father’s Lutheran church in Isimani, Tanzania. Our then-Pastor, Linn Opderbecke, took Joe’s request to the Church Council, which enthusiastically embraced the idea. Pastor Opderbecke then travelled with Joe to Isimani to meet the congregation and, a year later, a dozen Holy Trinity members followed on the first congregational trip in 2006. And so, a relationship was born.

Importantly, even though our connection with the people of Isimani initially came through Joe Lugalla’s introduction and very personal history, the ministry is part of a broader network of relationships between individual churches within the St. Paul Synod of the ELCA and churches within the Lutheran Diocese of Iringa. An umbrella organization, Bega Kwa Bega (which means “Shoulder to Shoulder”), manages this network of relationships and provides guidance and support to congregations like ours.

Since that first congregational visit in 2006, there have been many subsequent trips of Holy Trinity members to Isimani. Just as importantly, there has been an ongoing relationship of prayer and a broad range of projects between the sister congregations. Holy Trinity has, for example, provided scholarship monies for secondary school and college education for Isimani youth, our members have taught courses at the nearby Iringa Lutheran University, we’ve supported the local library and sewing school in the community, and we’ve helped purchase food, livestock and other essentials. Everyone at our Tuesday meeting also testified that we at Holy Trinity have likewise benefitted enormously from our relationship with these Tanzanian brothers and sisters in Christ.

Because of COVID and Holy Trinity’s own transition in pastors, our relationship with Isimani has been somewhat dormant these past few years (although, to be sure, several of our members have quietly continued to work in support of the ministry in both big and small ways). Sadly, this past year Joe Lugalla also died, and the long-time pastor of Isimani (Livingston Msungu) left to pursue further theological education. We just learned this week that the congregation has called a new pastor, the Rev. Samson Laiser, whom we have yet to meet.

In the wake of these developments, the purpose of our Tuesday meeting was to see how we as a congregation might go about re-starting this ministry now that the pandemic has lifted and both Isimani and Holy Trinity have new pastors in place. We agreed that an initial first step is to convene an adult forum at which veterans of this relationship could share their personal experiences and discuss both the history of the ministry and its future possibilities. We may also be able to enjoy a short “zoom visit” with some of our Isimani friends and their new pastor. We have scheduled this adult forum for Sunday, June 16th, right after church. It will be a wonderful opportunity to learn more about this incredible partnership and together discern its future. Please mark the date on your calendars!

April 10, 2024: Historical Context

One of the shifts that we make during Eastertide is that our readings during this season increasingly focus on John’s gospel, the Johannine epistles and the Book of Acts. These texts have been chosen by the lectionary editorial committee because they give eloquent testimony to the Resurrection of Christ as a historical and theological reality and show how the early church emerged from its Jewish roots in the first few centuries of the Common Era.

As powerful as these readings are in their witness to Christ, there is a danger lurking here too: for these texts often use language that seems to depict “the Jews” as the enemies of this new religious movement. John’s gospel, in particular, is replete with such references. This last Sunday for example, in our reading from John 20, we heard that the disciples had locked themselves behind closed doors “for fear of the Jews.” Likewise, in John’s account of the Passion, which we heard on Good Friday, similar language was used to describe the “the Jews” as primarily responsible for Christ’s crucifixion.

And John’s gospel is not the only text which presents this interpretative issue. This coming Sunday, for example, our reading from Acts includes a sermon by Peter to “the Israelites” in which he accuses them of, among other things, “having killed the Author of life.”

In all these contexts, it is critical to remember that Jesus, the disciples, and the vast majority of Jesus’ earliest followers were all Jews. These texts were primarily written by Jewish Christian authors in a time and place when they were creating a new group identity, over against their fellow Jews who chose to adhere to traditional forms of Judaism. As is often the case when a religious group fractures, there was often animosity between the two groups that led to sometimes harsh name-calling. Within that historical context, it is understandable why the authors of John and Acts chose the language they did.

Unfortunately, however, throughout the centuries this language has fueled a long history of vicious anti-Semitism by subsequent generations of Gentile Christians that continues to this day. And sadly, Martin Luther, late in his life, made some particularly heinous contributions to this hateful legacy.

Such anti-Semitic hate has no place in our church. Let us once and for all put to rest the lie that “the Jews” killed Jesus. This is a pernicious myth perpetrated by the church over the centuries to make itself—to make ourselves—feel better about the Crucifixion by pinning the blame on somebody else. In truth, we all killed Jesus. Rome killed Jesus by ordering his execution. The mob killed Jesus by picking Barabbas over the Son of God. Peter killed Jesus by denying him three times. The other disciples killed Jesus by abandoning him at his time of greatest need. The religious authorities killed Jesus by turning him over to Rome in the first place. Judas killed Jesus by betraying him. And we continue to kill Jesus every time we turn to violence, or power, or other false idols, rather than loving God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

So, please, when you hear these readings during Eastertide, understand their historical context, and let us not distort the words we sometimes find there in service to misdirected scapegoating and anti-Semitic hate.

March 28, 2024: From Gethsemane to Golgotha to Glory

We are in the throes of the holiest week of our year. These next three days -- what our tradition calls the Paschal Triduum -- encompass the foundational stories and practices of our faith. Jesus gathers us around his table one last time to share bread and wine, drawing us into the mysteries of his own sacrificial love. He gently washes our feet, embodying for us the humility and service of the Christian life, and tells us to love one another as he has loved us. But then, as the powers and principalities of the world rear their ugly head, unable or unwilling to comprehend his way of love and peace, we panic and abandon our Lord. Yielding to weakness and frailty, we give him up to the authorities of the world, to be condemned and crucified. The agony of the Cross exposes and convicts us. All seems lost. His body is carried away, prepared for burial, and secured in a tomb. What now? Then, the unimaginable happens. God refuses to allow the world's hate to have the last word. He is risen! Life overcomes death in the glory of Easter morning.

My hope and prayer is that you are able to live deeply and fully into these sacred stories over these next few days, and most importantly, that on Easter morning you celebrate with utter abandon the joy that is new life in the risen Christ. Please join us for some or all of the many worship opportunities listed here as we live out the great and wonderful drama of our faith.

Holy Week blessings, Pastor Luther

March 21, 2024: Palm Sunday

One of the most difficult liturgical decisions pastors have to make on Palm Sunday is whether the focus of our liturgy should remain just on the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with all of its palm-waving and Hosanna-shouting drama. Or, whether we should then add and conclude the liturgy with a reading of the Passion Story, which this year would be from the Gospel of Mark.

Many decades ago, Protestant churches in America made a decision in favor of the latter option, combining the two stories into one Palm Sunday/Passion liturgy. The principal reason this decision was made was because fewer and fewer congregants were attending Good Friday services--where the passion story is front and center--and it was felt that this was just too important a story to be missed by the average Sunday churchgoer. That is a perfectly sensible decision.

However, the price that is paid in making this choice is that the Palm Sunday liturgy becomes an emotional rollercoaster, moving abruptly from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the horrors of the passion story, in a very compressed and head-spinning timeframe. This approach essentially condenses the entire drama of Holy Week into one service, which can be somewhat confusing.

My preference has been, and is again this year, to separate the liturgy of the palms from the Passion story, so that Palm Sunday remains focused on the triumphal entry narrative, with all of its suspense and expectation. I believe this is more liturgically coherent. In doing this, however, my fervent hope is that all of you will come on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, to watch how the rest of the narrative unfolds during the course of the whole week. These two Holy Week services are among the most powerful in all of Christian liturgy.

I realize, of course, that for some people it may be impossible or difficult to attend Holy Week services. If you fall into that category, I have another option to suggest: please consider taking fifteen minutes out of your day some time next week to read on your own Mark's account of the passion story. It may be found at Mark 14:1--15:47. Or, to make things even easier, you could watch a dramatic reading of the story on video like this one, which has the benefit of offering some visual detail to the story. Finally, I also will be leaving some pamphlets in the Narthex on Sunday with copies of Mark's Passion story in them for those who want to pick one up.

The crucial point is that, in addition to coming to our Palm Sunday service this weekend, I strongly encourage everyone to experience the Passion narrative for him- or herself, either by coming to church during Holy Week or reading or watching story on your own. Remember, we can only get to Easter by going through (not around) Good Friday.

March 14, 2024: What “service” looks like at Holy Trinity

This coming Sunday we will conclude our three-part series of adult forums on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together with a discussion of his chapter on “service.” My hope is that this session will lead us into a deeper conversation about what “service” looks like at Holy Trinity. And by “service” in this context, I mean all the concentric circles of serving one another—service in our individual relationships, service to our church, service to our community, and service to the wider world.

In having this conversation, I hope we can model what Bonhoeffer names as “the first service” Christians owe one another—and that is the service of listening. I find what Bonhoeffer says about the ministry of listening to be both profound and underappreciated. I invite you to take a listen:

“The first service that one owes to others in community consists in listening. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them. It is God’s love for us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear.

So it is His work that we do for our brother or sister when we learn to listen to him or her. Christians, especially ministers, so often think they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother or sister will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too.

This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words. One who cannot listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the point and be never really speaking to others, albeit he or she may not be conscious of it. Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his neighbor, but only for himself and for his own follies.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, chapter 4).

I hope to see you on Sunday!

February 29, 2024: Happy Leap Day!

Happy Leap Day! Yes, it is February 29 today, which only happens every four years. Why do we do this? Here is what the History Channel website teaches:

Nearly every four years, we add an extra day to the calendar in the form of February 29, also known as Leap Day. Put simply, these additional 24 hours are built into the calendar to ensure that it stays in line with the Earth’s movement around the Sun. While the modern calendar contains 365 days, the actual time it takes for Earth to orbit its star is slightly longer—roughly 365.2421 days. The difference might seem negligible, but over decades and centuries that missing quarter of a day per year can add up. To ensure consistency with the true astronomical year, it is necessary to periodically add in an extra day to make up the lost time and get the calendar back in sync with the heavens.

I love that last phrase: to get us “back in sync with the heavens.”

You are probably growing weary of hearing me talk about “the seasons,” but this small example of “Leap Day” and its rationale is just another reminder of how our lives are not within our control, much as we wish they were, but are shaped by the rhythms of the created order and God’s seasons. And, whether we like it or not, it is good for us to stay “in sync with the heavens,” rather than letting our own distorted sense of time, urgency, and what is important, derail us from where God wants us to be.

One of the ways God tries to keep us in sync with the heavens is through the commandment to keep the sabbath. “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. . . .For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” Exodus 20:8-11.

On this third Sunday in Lent, we will hear as our first lesson the giving of the Ten Commandments, including this crucial exhortation to set aside a holy day of rest and worship. At our bible study this week, many of us reflected on why sabbath is so important and why reclaiming it in our lives should be a priority.

This is how the great Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel once explained it: “The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”

As you hear and reflect on this text this Sunday, I invite you to focus in particular on God’s desire for you to keep the sabbath holy. Think of this commandment not as a prohibition on what you cannot do, so much as an invitation just to be quietly with God, in the company of those you love and in the presence of this beautiful world. You might be surprised by what you discover!

February 22, 2023: Search for Director of Music is Underway

As we discussed at the Annual Meeting, the church is looking for a part-time Director of Music to help coordinate the musical elements of our worship and work with our talented array of current musicians and singers. Last week, the Council approved a Job Description which may be found here. If you know someone who may be a good fit, please share this PDF with them.

February 15, 2024: "I Cannot Do It Alone"

As I announced last Sunday, during this season of Lent we will be reading together Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, a classic book on the nature of Christian community. Bonhoeffer also penned many prayers, some of which are collected in his Letters and Papers from Prison, an anthology of writings drawn from his two-year imprisonment by the Nazis before his execution on April 9, 1945.

This prayer, entitled “I Cannot Do It Alone,” is an especially apt one for Lent:

God, I call to you early in the morning,

help me pray and collect my thoughts,

I cannot do so alone.

In me it is dark, but with you there is light.

I am lonely, but you do not abandon me.

I am faint-hearted, but from you comes my help.

I am restless, but with you is peace.

In me is bitterness, but with you is patience.

I do not understand your ways, but you know the right way for me.

May Bonhoeffer’s prayer be ours also.

February 8 , 2024: The Season of Lent begins

The season of Lent begins with our observance of Ash Wednesday next week. Call me weird, but I love Lent. I’ve always been given to introspection and quiet reflection, and Lent just seems to give me permission to do what I already love to do.

Lent is a time of honest self-examination, an occasion to clear out the debris that is standing in the way of a deeper relationship with God. During Lent, we confess our foibles, ask ourselves what really matters in our lives, pray for God’s guidance, connect more deeply with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and try to live more intentionally and faithfully.

At our Adult Forum this Sunday, I will offer some reflections on how we can all “live into Lent” more fully. In addition to some practical suggestions, I will also invite you to read with me over the coming weeks one of the great Lutheran spiritual classics, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. It is a short book (less than 100 pages), yet it is rich in theological insight and practical wisdom. In a nutshell, it is all about “Christian community,” and what it means to share a “life together” in Christ. It is a perfect lens through which we can think about and discuss the nature of our own community here at Holy Trinity.

Written in 1938 just before the outbreak of World War II, the book describes the small, underground seminary community that Bonhoeffer led in Finkenwalde. The book reads like one of St. Paul's letters, giving advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and small groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words.

My suggestion is that we use our reading of Bonhoeffer’s book to frame a series of three adult forums we will hold over the coming weeks in Lent on the topics of: (1) community life, (2) worship, and (3) service. In these forums, I hope we will spend 10-15 minutes summarizing Bonhoeffer’s insights on these subjects, and then devote the remainder of our discussion to reflecting on how our Holy Trinity family lives into the values and practices he describes.

My hope is that these discussions will lead us to suggest new and creative ways in which we can further enhance our community connections, worshipping experience, and opportunities to serve each other and the community.

I hope you can join me in this journey. The schedule of sessions is listed below.

In Christ’s peace, Pastor Luther

February 11 – “Living in Lent: An Overview”

February 18 – Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, Session 1: “Community Life”

February 25 – Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, Session 2: “Worshipping Together”

March 3 – Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, Session 3: “Service”

February 1, 2024: Candlemas

Tomorrow, February 2nd, is Candlemas, one of the “Lesser Festivals” on the Lutheran liturgical calendar. It commemorates the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, a story reported by Luke in chapter 2, at verses 25-40.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, Jewish tradition dictated that on the fortieth day after giving birth the parents would go to the temple to present their child to the Lord. Forty days from Christmas day brings us to February 2nd, which is why we celebrate Candlemas then.

What Luke reports is that when Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the temple that day, the wise old man Simeon, moved by the Spirit, took the child into his arms, proclaiming: "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

These words of Simeon's, of course, quickly became known as the nunc dimittis, the beloved canticle of “Christ’s light,” that to this day is a cornerstone of evening prayer and compline. In some churches, special services are held on Candlemas in which this story of Luke is re-told and the church’s candles for the year are blessed in a ceremony featuring the eternal light of Christ.

We don’t bless our candles at Holy Trinity, but we certainly do try to live each day guided by the Light of Christ. I hope the light of our Savior burns brightly in your home and heart during these grey days of winter. And if it is not, or has been dimming of late, I invite you to go back and re-read the story of Simeon and Anna, and allow yourself to be drawn in by its luminous simplicity.

In Christ's radiance,

Pastor Luther

January 25, 2023: Our Upcoming Annual Meeting

As an Episcopal priest who has spent most of my ordained life serving Episcopal communities, one of the things I notice and appreciate about Lutheran congregations is how faithfully they live into the theology of “the priesthood of all believers.” At the time of the Reformation, Luther rebelled against a medieval church that had vested too much power in clergy. He rightly insisted that the Church belongs to all the baptized and that each one of us, ordained or not, is an essential part of the Body of Christ, called to do God’s work in accordance with the gifts we have been given.

From everything that I have experienced during my time with you, this conviction that the church belongs to its people is an important part of the Holy Trinity culture. This is perhaps nowhere more clearly expressed than in our Annual Meeting, when all members of the congregation gather to elect leaders to guide the church in the coming year, discuss our plans for the future, and approve a budget that allocates our collective resources to do God’s work.

This year’s Annual Meeting will take place this Sunday, after worship. This year, in particular, we have so much to be thankful for, both in terms of the extraordinary people who have led our church during this past year of transition and those who are offering their time and talent to serve us in the coming one. In my Pastor’s Report, which is attached as part of the materials for our meeting, I seek to convey the many reasons I believe our future is bright, even in the midst of these challenging times. I hope you will read it, as well as the other reports. But more importantly, I hope to see you on Sunday to share in the joy of our shared ministry.