The term “sabbatical” comes from the Hebrew word, “Sabbath”, which means a day or period of rest. In Mosaic law, the “Sabbatical Year” became the “seventh year” a “fallow” year for all of the land, vineyards and fields. This was a stewardship issue for the Israelites, in which they acknowledged the need for “resting” the land which gave them life. As an additional sign of God’s love and mercy, the “sabbatical year” was a time to release all debtors from their debts. Today a “sabbatical leave” is a time for rest, reflection and concentrated study. For pastors it is a time to deepen their faith practices, to rest, to have a break from the daily routine and to strengthen their ministry skills. At the end of the sabbatical the pastor continues in his/her position for an extended period with a sense of renewal and renewed energy for ministry.    

A sabbatical not only provides an opportunity for me to have some much needed time for rest, spiritual growth, and reflection, but this is also an occasion for FLC to reflect upon  mission and to consider ways to strengthen and improve our ministry together.  A sabbatical period can be a first step in a strategic planning process that can take our partnership together in the Gospel to a new level. 

Sometimes there is a certain amount of fear connected with “letting go” of a pastor for a period of several weeks. It is believed, however, that sabbaticals are ultimately about not just rest but also trust–trust that the Lord truly will provide when we let go. 

Please pray along with me as I begin inviting others from FLC to join me in the planning process. The purpose for my sabbatical will be that of refining and updating professional skills and refreshing my spiritual life. FLC will benefit as a congregation as you are led to reflect upon what God is calling the church to do in relation to sharing the Gospel with others more fully.

Jeremiah’s message will revolve around the pride which seems to afflict every age: The idea that of us choosing which message to hear and obey, as if God’s Word was some great multiple choice test. Such an approach to the Word renders us the decision maker and effectively puts us into the divine driver’s seat.

The writer to the Hebrews catalogues the saints of old reminding us that they were harassed and beaten, martyred and stomped on. Yet the world was not worthy of them. This is our example, not one of winning in the eyes of the world but of being a pitiable loser – our hero is, on this side of the grave, a carpenter nailed to a cross and buried in a borrowed tomb.

The gospel will be found in the fact that we have good company when it comes to humiliation and losing. Jesus mastered that on a cross when he underwent its torture and scorn, for the joy, and we are the beneficiaries of that cross. The rub here is that as beneficiaries we cannot say that we are above it. In fact, our lives will be conformed to it. The Christian way is not one of easy chairs and comfort, but one in which we participate in the suffering of the world, sometimes to a frightening degree. The good thing is that when lying flat on one’s back, the view is always up.

Congratulations to the Jackson Team!  They took 3rd place this season, but most importantly, they had a lot of fun doing it.  A special thanks to their coach, Matt Seidel!

Pastor Judith, Vicar Wayne, Simone and Matt Weber, and Jeff Hagelstein were instrumental in providing transportation, refreshments, and yes, even the laundering of their uniforms.

This has been a great ministry for First Lutheran Church and we are grateful for the chance to show the love of Christ to our Latino neighbors!

Vicar Wayne was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical by the Theater Arts Guild (TAG).  On Sunday, August 15, Vicar Wayne and Pastor Judith attended the TAG awards ceremony.  Vicar Wayne was competing against five extremely talented actors but walked away the victor.

He received this honor for his portrayal of Tom Collins in Jonathan Larson’s musical, RENT.  Vicar Wayne has also recently been seen on the stage in the role of Caiaphas in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s  musical, Jesus Christ Superstar.  Currently, Vicar Wayne is working alongside Keith Hart music directing Jerry Herman’s musical, Mame.

Congratulations Vicar Wayne!

This is a time for exciting worship, spirit-filled music, and a time to share a meal with each other and with members of our community.

There will only be one worship service on this Sunday and it will begin at 10:00 am.

Please invite your family and friends and join us!

If your last name begins with letters A—M, you are asked to bring a side dish.  If your last name begins with N—Z, you are asked to bring a dessert.

Today we again come to one of those basic truths that Christians confess. Jesus is the answer to the problems that often trouble us the most, the real problems we have with other people and they have with us. Jesus forgives sins. Last week we saw him looking compassionately on the plight of the poor widows. This week, the focus is on the broken relationships which afflict every life.

This is where we explore the very nature of forgiveness. Forgiveness is much misunderstood and yet strangely fascinating for the larger culture. When someone wrongs us, we have a number of non-forgiving options before us. Responses generally fall under a handful of broad categories.

            1. Revenge – I can get even

            2. Rise above it – I can be tough

            3. Sit on it - I can bear a grudge

            4. Delay action – I can gunny sack it

            5. Put myself in their shoes – I can understand it

It appears that understanding it the best option of all of these. But there are times when understanding fails us. So there must be another way.

When we forgive according to the love of Jesus Christ, we are saying no to options 1-5. I don’t need to understand it, I won’t try to get even, I won’t bear a grudge, I am not tough, and I am not going to carry this around for a while.

We are saying that there was a wrong committed but that does not give anyone a right to get even, etc.. Forgiveness is not weak, nor is it a milquetoast response. Until the other is ready to admit that the deed was actually wrong, then our forgiveness cannot really be received. This is pretty important. Sometimes the offending party can not or will not repent.

But we can forgive, be forgiven and live in resurrection faith. We can say that this sin, this wrong, this hurt, was dealt with on a cross by Jesus’ death nearly two millennia ago. When confronted by the hurt, we can say Jesus died for that.

Then we can promise to always see that hurt red with his blood. Please know that God never commands us to forgive and forget. That phrase is actually native to Shakespeare, not the Bible. We learn to forgive and try not to repeat the wrong. What is really important is that Jesus forgives and in the forgiveness empowers our own forgiveness as the body of Christ.

This Festival of Holy Trinity is unique in the Church year in that it really celebrates a doctrine, a doctrine that was subscribed to at what can be thought of as the mother of all voters meetings, the councils of Nicea and Constantinople in the years 325 and 381 respectively. Since this is a while ago, perhaps a bit of review is in order.

The Bible had referenced all three members of the Trinity in a number of places, but the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had never really been explicitly stated in Scripture, at least not in a way that everyone could agree to. We know that this was an issue for some in the first centuries of the Church because as early as Tertullian in the late second century and Origen in the 3^rd Century, there are statements about the Trinity. This simmered along for some time. It was not that the Church did not care about such things, but it was making the transition from movement to institution and for several decades in here it was facing brutal persecution by the Roman Empire. Other matters seem to have occupied them, naturally.

But by the time Constantine ascended to the throne, he needed to deal with this. In some large cities the Trinitarian debate was spilling out of the Church into the streets, with various proponents of one or another teaching about Christ’s relationship to the Father nearly rioting. It was because he wanted to solve this problem, giving him a united Church behind him as he stood in the gap against the barbarians, that he called the first council in Nicea.

Everyone was concerned that they maintain continuity with  the Old Testament where it was clearly stated that there was only one God (Deut 6:4, Is 40-43, etc) But how did one then account for the Son and the Father? Two Gods was out, but what were they if not a singular One?         

The debate continued and building on the word of John some would suggest that Jesus was a human body with a divine soul. Through centuries of debate, the Western church professes One God with Three Persons. All revolves around the cross and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which gives the gift of salvation which we celebrate. On the Feast of the Holy Trinity we say the words of the Nicene Creed because we believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our Lutheran Church is a creedal church which means we regularly join together in professing our faith by using the Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed which helps us to strengthen our faith in the Triune God.

Without the celebrations of the grand feasts, festivals, and holidays like Christmas and Easter, this can seem like a drab time…an ordinary time; but let me offer to you that it does not have to be ordinary. 

Can you reflect back to when you were a child and you lie in bed on December 24 waiting for December 25 so that you could break the mystery of what you may have been receiving?  Can you remember a time in which you were waiting anxiously for a special trip/vacation or a special visit from a family member of friend?  Can you remember the anticipation you felt as the last day of school approached, and sometimes that same anticipation when the first day of school approached?  This is the mindset that we should approach Ordinary Time with….the anticipation of what God has planned for us.

I am reminded of one of my favorite scriptures found in 1 Corinthians 2 (The Message version):

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—What God has arranged for those who love God. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by the Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.  The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the deep things of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that God not only knows what God’s thinking, but God lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that God is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way. The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what God is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.

We can’t imagine what God has in store for us, but I believe that whatever it is, it is GOOD! 

In this Ordinary Time, I challenge you to nurture your relationship with Christ, and become intimately acquainted with God’s Spirit so that you may be able to access the secret things of God……there is nothing ordinary about our God, there is nothing ordinary about you, but through Christ, we are assured of an extraordinary life!

Project Embrace is a 3-week, Monday thru Friday program (July 12 – July 30) that is a place for youth in the community to gather, learn about God through Bible stories, music, art, written lessons, reading, drama, writing, community service, fellowship, games and much more!

FLC also provides opportunities to go on field trips…zoo, swimming, museums etc…

In essence, it is a summer day camp here at FLC providing low cost, opportunities for kids to do things in the community with a connection to the church, and an element of faith running through all activities.

Sign up now by calling the church office!

This is a beneficial thing for Christians to do. The Holy Spirit is a gentle member of the Trinity, always pointing us toward Jesus. As a seminary professor once, said, “The Holy Spirit is shy.” The Holy Spirit prefers to stand behind something or someone.  Rarely does the Spirit show up front, lest the Holy Spirit detracts or distract from Jesus.

But the Holy Spirit is so necessary. I like to compare the presence of the Holy Spirit to an extension cord. Without that bit of wire and insulation, my light, my radio, my tools don’t really work. They are functioning just fine, but not empowered. But the Spirit does not make the forgiveness or the life which I need. He brings it to me. It is Jesus who died on the cross, not the Spirit. But without the Spirit, the cross is but a historical event, a truth which happened long ago, in a distant place, for people other than myself. It takes the Spirit to make me into one of the people for whom Jesus died, to connect me to Calvary and the Word which gives life. It is the Spirit who makes my heart sing in praise of Jesus, who plants and tends the relationship we label faith.

This Sunday is about imagining what it might be like without that Spirit, so that next week when we proclaim the feast of Pentecost and read the account of that first outpouring, and the beginning of this thing we call the Church, we are ready to hear it. But we don’t focus on the absence of the Spirit; we grow in the Church which has been empowered by that Spirit. We imagine what it must be like, because we cannot actually go there. The Spirit is poured out, our hearts and minds are enlivened and resurrected by that Spirit in the waters of our Baptism and in the Word and Sacrament which impact our senses. In those moments as Jesus prays, we are made one with God, united with him far more intimately than if Jesus were standing right before us. Indeed, he has come “in us.”

We await these uncomfortable ten days between the fortieth and fiftieth day, when the house was shaken and tongues of flame blazed on the heads of the disciples. But while we imagine the discomfort of those days, we don’t really know them, for the Spirit is given us, fully, beautifully, and completely. We really are citizens of heaven!