Holy Week and Easter
Joint Services with Immanuel; St Elias; and St. Francis.
Holy Monday April 18: Spoken Eucharist -passion according to Matthew, 7:30 pm
Holy Tuesday April 19:
Spoken Eucharist -the passion according to Luke, 7:30 pm
Holy Wednesday April 20: Spoken Eucharist -the passion according to Mark
The Three Days Maundy Thursday, April 21: Maundy Thursday service 7:30 pm Service of foot washing and Holy Communion
Good Friday, April 22: Good Friday service 7:30 Adoration of the Cross
Easter Vigil, Saturday April 23: Easter Vigil 8:30 pm* (Note: new time this year) with Batisms and Affirmation of Baptism, champagne reception
Easter Sunday April 24: Easter Sunday Service 10:30 am
Easter breakfast at 9:00 am Easter Egg hunt at 9:45 am *this is a correction from Previous announcement, which stated erroneously that the Easter Vigil would be at 7:30 p.m. |
Showing posts with label Joint Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joint Worship. Show all posts
Friday, March 18
Holy Week and Easter Services
Saturday, December 25
Christmas Day Sermon: A Dissonant Joy
This is a season of joy! It is Christmas. Yet there is unhappiness all around, this nice story some certainly think is full of holes. A child in a manger, all this supposed hullabaloo about one particular baby. And if we attempt to make this event and Jesus Christ fit all of Isaiah’s prophesies it doesn’t quite seem to add up to this, the Christ, born of obscure parents, in a feeding trough. The child come, God come as a child, it resonates, and yet it is discordant with the anticipations. So what are we to do with this dissonance, this story that strains credibility? Part of what to do is to remember as our texts this morning remind us that on this the feast of the Nativity we aren’t simply at the stable in Bethlehem, we aren’t even at one point in history. What prophets and those who write about Christ’s coming after, leave us with is irresolution. It doesn’t fit; we may even cringe a bit, but this isn’t the whole of it, we are to go on from here to something else.
Such joy is expressed in Isaiah, such overwhelming awe in Hebrews and John. Yet there is dissonance and irresolution. I want to say that Christmas Joy is found in this dissonance. That the joy of Christmas is knowing that God comes in such an unlikely way in such an unlikely place that even as God’s prophets foretell they also shrink from what comes. This is great joy but it leaves us unsettled or at least it should. God’s coming is a great joy, but God’s coming doesn’t let us alone. God’s coming, walking in our midst, and being one of us means that we are unsettled, perhaps even a bit disappointed.
Christmas as a child was like this: my anticipation of what gifts I might have. Wrapping paper hiding what was underneath. Very rarely did the gift match my anticipation of it, even if it was something I wanted. Do I remember the particular gifts of all those Christmas’ now; do I remember the particular disappointments? No, what I do remember is the love, the celebration, the family and friends and church gathered to celebrate our salvation. This is what I remember. Christmas as a child was certainly focused on the gifts, but since they were given in celebration of God’s gift of becoming one of us, the disappointments, the frustrations, the contradictions of those celebrations dissolve and what I remember is joy and love.
As with the gifts of my childhood, what we have in this gift of God as one of us, in this gift foretold by the prophets and announced to us by the apostles isn’t ever exactly what we want or expect. Yet how could it be. We have God, the one who in the beginning created the Heavens and the earth. The light before there was light, the one who shines forth in darkness and from which we who are in darkness shrink, as our eyes are unaccustomed to the light, and its brightness.
We are God’s own because we are God’s creation, God came and we failed to receive God. But God knew this; this was not a surprise to God, though we think it surprising. For we sit here and we see an infant and think how delightful, how cute. But really how blinding, how terrifying, God, comes to us helpless, vulnerable, as one of us, now joined to God’s creation, joined to matter and human flesh. Better God come as Isaiah sees it obvious without ambiguity, without complexity, just the simplicity of God’s otherness that will shake us out of our sleep and stupor.
But God comes to us joyfully in the new life of an infant, in poverty and homeless. God comes even knowing our rejection, and God calls to us through all the pain and suffering and violence of life and calls us into Joy. God asks us to receive this horror with joy, asks us to be moved from ourselves, to come shielding our eyes into the light, to come out of ourselves, to be other, to receive this one who is both one of us and not like us at all!
Do not think the joy proclaimed today is the merely comfort and harmony already achieved, a joy of already being who we are. No today’s joy is the revelation of dissonance between what is and what should be, between our desires and what will be and what comes. The joy of this season is the joy of being sent on our way. It is the joy of true ecstasy, of being taken out of ourselves. For God became other than divine, became human a creation, other than God’s self, to be with us, so we are called out of ourselves, to be other than we are so that we may be truly ourselves.
Oh what joy that reveals such dissonance, that makes us aware of a harmony we have yet to reach. In Christmas Joy we are not only waiting but propelled forward in joy, a joy we must allow to well up in us in order to face what is still ahead. For this is just the beginning. We can’t stop here. If we think this is the point, if we think the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is what brings peace on earth, and good will, we will be disappointed. But like the trinkets of Christmas in my childhood this gift of an infant and a birth aren't the point, the cross and the tomb are already here, The holy innocents are just around the corner.
Our joy is not about resolution, but that God has come and sends us on our way that we are brought beyond ourselves that the Gospel creates in us longings for things other than what is, and other we are. God comes and says if you can accept this you are more than you think you are. Come journey grow with me. Come into the light and see that you are not who you think you are. What Joy, what joy of being freed from our imaginations, and anticipations, and invited into the actuality of a God who became human, that we may be other than ourselves that we may become divine! God becomes human, like us, that we may be come like God, divine. Alleluia, Christ is born. May Christ continually be born in us, alleluia!
Tuesday, December 7
Thursday, November 4
this Friday and Sunday
Friday November 5th:
Theology on Tap at Moody's pub, 5910 N. Broadway. We are meeting at 7:30 p.m. Topic Saints and Sainthood.
Sunday November 7th:
All Saints Sunday joint service with Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Elias Christian Church, Community of St. Francis at 10:30 a.m.
There will be no service at 5 p.m. on Sunday November 7th. Our services at 5 p.m. resume on Sunday November 14 with Evening Prayer and Eucharist.
Thursday, April 1
Maundy Thursday Sermon
Preached at the Joint Service with Immanuel Lutheran Church and St Elias Christian Church.
Exodus 12:1-14 * Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 * 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 * John 13:1-17, 31b-35
[This was the text I took into the pulpit with me, but I did not really follow it after the second paragraph. I think I ended up focusing more on the connection between Jesus's washing of the feet as an example of divine love and the love commanded by Jesus.]
On this day of the command, Maundy from latin Maundatumfor command, we gather and begin the worship of the Three great days. We are here to celebrate the center of our faith. Tonight we hear two commands Do this in rememberance of me, a meal and a holy day reinterpreted, passover, and Love one another. Tonight we see love allegorically shown in the act of a servant or slave washing feet. Tonight We will have a chance to partake in this symbol of divine love in human flesh as you are invited to come forward or to the back to have your feet washed and/or to wash others feet. I and Pastor rimon begin by washing your feet, symbolizing that our ministry leadership greatness in the Kingdom of God and the Church is in service, but such act is for all not just for clergy. But before we get there I want to reflect on these three days: on Love, the Cross, and our Passover from death to Life.
This time is full of the symbolic, of the sacramental, the making present of realities central to our faith that we may be transformed renewed, born again, converted, forgiven, made new. We have journeyed trough a time of fasting and intensified discipline, of a spiritual journey through the desert. Awaiting this celebration of our deliverance from bondage. From this bondage were are called to love and the remembrance of that love shown in human being.
Love one another as I have loved you. Love as Christ has loved? Do we do this do we even know how? I’d like to believe that to some extent our three congregations joining together on these holy days of the church year means that in some sense we are doing so in some small way, overcoming the barriers that can exist, and come between us both as human beings and followers of Christ. Love as Christ loved. Do we Love as Christ loved, as God Loves? This is the command, this is what we remember tonight and these three days, this is what we come in the presence of, this astounding Love.
We are commanded to Love, but not as we naturally love. Think of this the creator of the universe of all the inumerable stars the far flung galexeys, not just earth the sun and this solar system,the one with no beginning and no end, become united with the material world and humand beings whom this one created. But it does not end there, this one doesn't only become a human person and eventually undergoe death on a cross, but lives the life of a mostly obscure poor skiled worker in a backwater town of an empire, and facing his immenent death does a job no one would do but slaves and lowly servants. I think we sometimes view this as Jesus being our waiter, no it is perhaps more like Jesus suddenly appearing at your restaurant as the bus boy to clear your dishes or replenish that glass of water. In the least. But not just that what this means what it means to wash the feet of the disciples, is that Jesus is saying that the God of the universe acts towards humanity as the those who invisibly serve the needs of others and who are ignored and invisible because of that service, and we are to emulate this act of service.
Yet We fail at all this. Even with Jesus' example we fail. I think it is important to admit this. This is why we seek to enter into these realities again and again, through ritual and sacrament. We need to come here again and again to remember the gap, and to seek to be transfigured and transformed again and again, to face the ugliness of the human condition and through passing through and over to face the overwhelming beauty of the divine world opened up to us. As we Passover it is key to remember the way in which it has been opened the way heaven and earth are rejoined, the way sin and evil are eradicated from creation. The way God chose to bridge the gap is itself the difference between the world and Heaven.
There's a great deal to hold together as we recall these saving acts. We can perhaps get stuck on one particular idea of Jesus's death that it asuaged God's wrath, through Christ becoming the sole object of that wrath. The cross can seem like the last thing that could show us Love, better to see it as an accident to move quickly past, to life and Resurrection. Or to simply see in it some way God indentifies with our suffering. Yet, the power of the Resurrection depends on the power of the Cross, what allows the us to Passover with Christ from death to life is, Jesus Christ’s death.
But it is perhaps helpful to hear the orthodox liturgy here: christ beat down death by death. sin and death are bound up togehter, and they are behind all oppression, failure, injustice. And like in many situations of oppression the oppressed can become complicit in their oppression, such that the whole system binds all to the oppresive situation, such that no one or practically no one in the system is able to resist the oppression, oppressor and oppressed.
This may not be because God’s wrath needs to be assuaged but it is here that we see God’s love, that God doesn’t simply undergo suffering, but undergoes for us as well as with us. God with us is accompanied with it being for us. God had to come and do for us what we could not do for ourselves, God becomes the slave of all.
God comes and lives and suffers under this regime of sin and death, and the oppressive systmes within it, and dies at their hands, at our hands. We see confront here both the result of our most private hatreds, and intolerances, the small resentments we cherish, as well as the large hatreds we know we should not. We also confront in these three days our liberation the liberation of all from these oppressions, through Christs death upon a cross and resurection from the dead that says our failures, the oppression, our small hidden sins, Sin and death do not have the final word but God does!
Exodus 12:1-14 * Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 * 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 * John 13:1-17, 31b-35
[This was the text I took into the pulpit with me, but I did not really follow it after the second paragraph. I think I ended up focusing more on the connection between Jesus's washing of the feet as an example of divine love and the love commanded by Jesus.]
On this day of the command, Maundy from latin Maundatumfor command, we gather and begin the worship of the Three great days. We are here to celebrate the center of our faith. Tonight we hear two commands Do this in rememberance of me, a meal and a holy day reinterpreted, passover, and Love one another. Tonight we see love allegorically shown in the act of a servant or slave washing feet. Tonight We will have a chance to partake in this symbol of divine love in human flesh as you are invited to come forward or to the back to have your feet washed and/or to wash others feet. I and Pastor rimon begin by washing your feet, symbolizing that our ministry leadership greatness in the Kingdom of God and the Church is in service, but such act is for all not just for clergy. But before we get there I want to reflect on these three days: on Love, the Cross, and our Passover from death to Life.
This time is full of the symbolic, of the sacramental, the making present of realities central to our faith that we may be transformed renewed, born again, converted, forgiven, made new. We have journeyed trough a time of fasting and intensified discipline, of a spiritual journey through the desert. Awaiting this celebration of our deliverance from bondage. From this bondage were are called to love and the remembrance of that love shown in human being.
Love one another as I have loved you. Love as Christ has loved? Do we do this do we even know how? I’d like to believe that to some extent our three congregations joining together on these holy days of the church year means that in some sense we are doing so in some small way, overcoming the barriers that can exist, and come between us both as human beings and followers of Christ. Love as Christ loved. Do we Love as Christ loved, as God Loves? This is the command, this is what we remember tonight and these three days, this is what we come in the presence of, this astounding Love.
We are commanded to Love, but not as we naturally love. Think of this the creator of the universe of all the inumerable stars the far flung galexeys, not just earth the sun and this solar system,the one with no beginning and no end, become united with the material world and humand beings whom this one created. But it does not end there, this one doesn't only become a human person and eventually undergoe death on a cross, but lives the life of a mostly obscure poor skiled worker in a backwater town of an empire, and facing his immenent death does a job no one would do but slaves and lowly servants. I think we sometimes view this as Jesus being our waiter, no it is perhaps more like Jesus suddenly appearing at your restaurant as the bus boy to clear your dishes or replenish that glass of water. In the least. But not just that what this means what it means to wash the feet of the disciples, is that Jesus is saying that the God of the universe acts towards humanity as the those who invisibly serve the needs of others and who are ignored and invisible because of that service, and we are to emulate this act of service.
Yet We fail at all this. Even with Jesus' example we fail. I think it is important to admit this. This is why we seek to enter into these realities again and again, through ritual and sacrament. We need to come here again and again to remember the gap, and to seek to be transfigured and transformed again and again, to face the ugliness of the human condition and through passing through and over to face the overwhelming beauty of the divine world opened up to us. As we Passover it is key to remember the way in which it has been opened the way heaven and earth are rejoined, the way sin and evil are eradicated from creation. The way God chose to bridge the gap is itself the difference between the world and Heaven.
There's a great deal to hold together as we recall these saving acts. We can perhaps get stuck on one particular idea of Jesus's death that it asuaged God's wrath, through Christ becoming the sole object of that wrath. The cross can seem like the last thing that could show us Love, better to see it as an accident to move quickly past, to life and Resurrection. Or to simply see in it some way God indentifies with our suffering. Yet, the power of the Resurrection depends on the power of the Cross, what allows the us to Passover with Christ from death to life is, Jesus Christ’s death.
But it is perhaps helpful to hear the orthodox liturgy here: christ beat down death by death. sin and death are bound up togehter, and they are behind all oppression, failure, injustice. And like in many situations of oppression the oppressed can become complicit in their oppression, such that the whole system binds all to the oppresive situation, such that no one or practically no one in the system is able to resist the oppression, oppressor and oppressed.
This may not be because God’s wrath needs to be assuaged but it is here that we see God’s love, that God doesn’t simply undergo suffering, but undergoes for us as well as with us. God with us is accompanied with it being for us. God had to come and do for us what we could not do for ourselves, God becomes the slave of all.
God comes and lives and suffers under this regime of sin and death, and the oppressive systmes within it, and dies at their hands, at our hands. We see confront here both the result of our most private hatreds, and intolerances, the small resentments we cherish, as well as the large hatreds we know we should not. We also confront in these three days our liberation the liberation of all from these oppressions, through Christs death upon a cross and resurection from the dead that says our failures, the oppression, our small hidden sins, Sin and death do not have the final word but God does!
Thursday, December 24
Christmas Services
Have announced this elsewhere but forgot to put it here.
We have joint services with Immanuel and St Elias.
Christmas eve Service:
5;45 p.m. Prelude music with viola, horn, trumpet, and organ.
6:00 p.m. Festive Holy Communion with candle-lighting.
Christmas Day:
10:30 a.m. Festive Holy Communion.
We have joint services with Immanuel and St Elias.
Christmas eve Service:
5;45 p.m. Prelude music with viola, horn, trumpet, and organ.
6:00 p.m. Festive Holy Communion with candle-lighting.
Christmas Day:
10:30 a.m. Festive Holy Communion.
Friday, October 23
Announcements
Larry will be out of town from October 23rd through November 1st. He will of course not be at his office hours until November 2nd.
This Sunday October 25, we will have our service at our regular time of 5pm, Rev. Monte Johnson will be preaching and presiding.
November 1 we will have a joint service with Immanuel Lutheran for the feast of All Saints, 10:30 am. We will not have a service at 5 pm in the chapel.
Also remember that Daylight Saving Time ends November 1, be sure to turn your clocks back 1 hour before going to bed on Saturday October 31.
November 8 we will return to our usual worship time at 5pm and Rev. Dave Hedges will be preaching and presiding.
This Sunday October 25, we will have our service at our regular time of 5pm, Rev. Monte Johnson will be preaching and presiding.
November 1 we will have a joint service with Immanuel Lutheran for the feast of All Saints, 10:30 am. We will not have a service at 5 pm in the chapel.
Also remember that Daylight Saving Time ends November 1, be sure to turn your clocks back 1 hour before going to bed on Saturday October 31.
November 8 we will return to our usual worship time at 5pm and Rev. Dave Hedges will be preaching and presiding.
Saturday, March 22
Easter Vigil Sermon
My sisters and brothers, this is the night that Jesus Christ passed from death into life. Tonight is the night that gives Good Friday and the Cross their meaning. Tonight we celebrate that Christ indeed is victorious over Sin Death and the Devil, through his death on the Cross and Resurrection from the dead.
Soon we will shout, “Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed!” Though first in darkness we wait like Jesus’ disciples in the upper room. Yet also unlike the disciples for we wait with anticipation, not fear. We sit and wait -- We remind ourselves of God’s great saving deeds in History. We retell the stories of old and are transformed by their wisdom. These stories feed us they are what give shape and definition to our lives. We tell them again and we sit and listen and sing and pray. We do this because the wisdom of these stories teaches us to see God’s saving acts in our own lives. Also, this telling again shows us that the death and Resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of all God’s saving works in history.
We are told stories of a God who out of love calls and woos us and all humanity back to the intended relationships we were to have with God, the creation and each other. We are reminded that God has been seeking to restore and heal humanity and the cosmos since the Fall.
So, tonight is the night that makes all reconciliation, justice and peace possible. Tonight is the night we are called beyond ourselves into the Kingdom of God. Let us hear and be transformed by this wisdom, attend!
Soon we will shout, “Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed!” Though first in darkness we wait like Jesus’ disciples in the upper room. Yet also unlike the disciples for we wait with anticipation, not fear. We sit and wait -- We remind ourselves of God’s great saving deeds in History. We retell the stories of old and are transformed by their wisdom. These stories feed us they are what give shape and definition to our lives. We tell them again and we sit and listen and sing and pray. We do this because the wisdom of these stories teaches us to see God’s saving acts in our own lives. Also, this telling again shows us that the death and Resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of all God’s saving works in history.
We are told stories of a God who out of love calls and woos us and all humanity back to the intended relationships we were to have with God, the creation and each other. We are reminded that God has been seeking to restore and heal humanity and the cosmos since the Fall.
So, tonight is the night that makes all reconciliation, justice and peace possible. Tonight is the night we are called beyond ourselves into the Kingdom of God. Let us hear and be transformed by this wisdom, attend!
Friday, March 21
Good Friday Sermon
This sermon was preached at the joint Good Friday Service of Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Elias Christian Church, and Church of Jesus Christ Reconciler, on March 21, 2008, by the Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell.
***
As we gather tonight, the mood is solemn. But though we mark this day with sadness we are not called to despair because…we know about the Resurrection. We are an Easter people, so we gather tonight in hope as well as to mourn.
We call this day Good Friday, not because it’s good that Christ suffered, but because of the joy and hope of Resurrection that have come through the cross.
As Christians, we observe this day of death as a day that paradoxically brings forth life.
Our faith contains many paradoxes, many contradictions. Christ is both victor and victim, shepherd and lamb, slave and king. The cross is a meeting place for many forces we usually think of as opposites: God/humanity, heaven/earth, sin/grace, hate/love, life/death. The cross holds all these opposites in tension, in wholeness.
Just as the cross holds together many contradictions, we ourselves are bundles of contradiction. Each of us has many sides, many aspects. We are simultaneously guilty and innocent, broken and whole, strong and weak, living and dying. We may wish we were only the positives. We may deny and push away those parts we fear or dislike. As they say, Denial is not just a river in Egypt. I know often feel I must put my best foot forward to the world, even to God.
But we can bring our whole selves to Jesus. We can come to the cross, that place where contradictions meet. There we can be fully known by God, and know ourselves more fully. The more often we recognize ourselves in our many aspects, and bring our whole selves honestly before God, the more likely it is that parts of ourselves we don’t like or are unhealthy can lose their grip on us, and begin to die. And new growth, new life can flourish within.
Since the early days of the church, Christians have seen the cross not just as a symbol of death but also as tree of life. There are many examples of Christian art where images of the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden are placed alongside the tree of death and life on Calvary. “It’s as if with the eyes of faith, when the church looks at the cross it sees not an electric chair, but a vibrant tree.”
Tonight I invite you to see the cross not just as a place of death, but also as the tree of life.
As you come to the cross tonight, is there something you want to leave behind there? Guilt, fear, pain, resentment? Is there something in you that needs to die? Excessive pride, self-centeredness, addiction, a tendency to be unkind?
As we come to the tree of life, is there something is you that needs to be born? What do you most need? What are you longing for? What in you needs to be transformed, resurrected, made new?
Christ accepts us in our totality. He accepts the parts of us that are broken, the parts of ourselves we deny and refuse. As he himself was denied and refused. The cross, once a symbol of hateful rejection, is now paradoxically a symbol of loving acceptance. We can come to the cross with our whole selves. We don’t have to be on our best behavior with Jesus. We can let it all hang out by the cross. And by hanging out with parts of ourselves we don’t fully know or like, we can gradually accept and love them into transformation.
In her book Things Seen and Unseen, journalist Nora Gallagher writes about her experiences working in a soup kitchen run by her church. There is a section about her experience at a Good Friday service in that church, in particular the moment where people were invited to the cross. Gallagher writes: “ I see the faces of the men [who eat at] the soup kitchen, those human beings made into rags, into debris. Their faces shine here at the cross in a way that no other faces do. They know what this man hanging here has suffered, as he knows their suffering. He was made into trash here on the cross…[I know] the parts of myself that are alive among those men are the parts I hide everywhere else. Crazy, inarticulate, imperfect, in need. The person humiliated by simply being born a woman. How often I apologize, desire to please. All the parts of myself that I colonize, make into trash. In the darkness, I see them, hidden in my shadows, and I understand then how it is that seeing them makes me whole.”
Tonight as we come to the cross, that meeting place of contradictions, let it be wholeness that we seek. The words wholeness, holy, and healing all come from the same root. By being present to a broken world,and being broken for us, Christ paradoxically heals and makes us whole. Let us be present tonight with Christ, just as we are and allow Christ’s saving health to take root in us. The holy and healing cross binds together our many contradictions, and makes us whole. Come to the cross, to honor Christ, to let go of what needs to die and to celebrate what can be born. Come to the cross, the tree of life… with your whole self. AMEN.
+++
Tuesday, February 5
Saturday, December 22
Worship 4 Advent 12/23/2007
Our worship Sunday December 23 will be held at 1:30 PM, in a joint worship service with St Elias and Immanuel.
We return to our regular worship time of 5PM on on Sunday December 30th
We return to our regular worship time of 5PM on on Sunday December 30th
Saturday, November 17
Reconciler Update
This Sunday, November 18th, we say goodbye to Tripp. Tripp will be missed. I have worked closely with Tripp for three and a half years, and part of me has trouble imagining what it will be like at Reconciler without him. Yet, one of the joys in our starting and pastoring this congregation has been to watch Reconciler act like a congregation and do things Tripp and I as pastors did not expect or anticipate. From very early on we attempted to foster and rejoiced in the ways Reconciler was separate from us as the founding pastors allowing ourselves to discover the congregations interpretation of the vision of Reconciler.
I mention this now to remind us that while God gave Tripp and David Gortner the vision of an ecumenical congregation, who we are now is not simply that vision. It has grown beyond any of those of us who thought through in prayer what the vision of this church start should be. We may miss Tripp and even find it difficult to know what it will be like without him but in a significant way much of the shape of Reconciler has little to do with just Tripp. All of us have been brought together by God. The desire of us pastors as we started this congregation was that it grow into a healthy viable congregation and as such that it could exist without one or both of us. Now that day came sooner for Tripp than either of us had anticipated, but I have seen this congregation grow in astounding ways. Our question as we began Reconciler was if and how God was in this, because we knew that if this congregation and its vision wasn't guided by the Spirit that it would have no chance of succeeding. And so in the end the pastor that really counts and will always count for us, and after all is the pastor of the universal church, still remains Jesus Christ our God and Shepherd. God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, has lead us this far, continues to guide us and remains our foundation, as we say goodbye to a friend, pastor, and founder.
Announcements:
Immanuel is seeking to include Reconciler more in its life as a church, two aspects of that are the altar guild and properties committee. Immanuel is inviting members of Reconciler to help the altar guild of Immanuel, and inviting anyone who might be handy to help the properties committee with maintenance of the church property. If you are interested in being apart of either of these let Laura or Larry know.
Sunday November 18th Tripp is preaching and we will have a farewell party for him after the service at the 'Nidge.
Bible Study: No meeting of the Bible study this week due to Thanksgiving. Our last session of our current series will Be Wednesday November 28th 7:30 PM at the 'Nidge.
Church Retreat: Materials for the retreat will be available on the back table in the chapel the next two Sundays, for you to look at before the retreat.
Church retreat is November 30 beginning at 7PM at the Cynacle Retreat center and all day Saturday December 1st.
The First Sunday of the Season of Advent is December 2nd, and is Reconciler's Third Anniversary. It was first Advent 2004 when we had our first official worship service.
Also on Sunday December 2 Eileen Crowley Assistant Professor at Catholic Theological Union the Artist in Residence this year at Immanuel will join us for worship and then after the service present to us her ideas of media art in worship and ways we can be involved in the creation of this media art for Easter Vigil.
4th advent December 23 we will be having a joint worship service with Immanuel and St Elias, at St Elias' worship time of 1:30 PM. We will not worship at our normal time of 5 PM. We are invited to come to a brunch at 11:30 put on by Immanuel and a Christmas dinner organized by St Elias after the service. If you would be interested in helping out the preparation and organization of either meals let us know and we will get your name to the people in charge of organizing the meals.
In Christ,
Larry
I mention this now to remind us that while God gave Tripp and David Gortner the vision of an ecumenical congregation, who we are now is not simply that vision. It has grown beyond any of those of us who thought through in prayer what the vision of this church start should be. We may miss Tripp and even find it difficult to know what it will be like without him but in a significant way much of the shape of Reconciler has little to do with just Tripp. All of us have been brought together by God. The desire of us pastors as we started this congregation was that it grow into a healthy viable congregation and as such that it could exist without one or both of us. Now that day came sooner for Tripp than either of us had anticipated, but I have seen this congregation grow in astounding ways. Our question as we began Reconciler was if and how God was in this, because we knew that if this congregation and its vision wasn't guided by the Spirit that it would have no chance of succeeding. And so in the end the pastor that really counts and will always count for us, and after all is the pastor of the universal church, still remains Jesus Christ our God and Shepherd. God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, has lead us this far, continues to guide us and remains our foundation, as we say goodbye to a friend, pastor, and founder.
Announcements:
Immanuel is seeking to include Reconciler more in its life as a church, two aspects of that are the altar guild and properties committee. Immanuel is inviting members of Reconciler to help the altar guild of Immanuel, and inviting anyone who might be handy to help the properties committee with maintenance of the church property. If you are interested in being apart of either of these let Laura or Larry know.
Sunday November 18th Tripp is preaching and we will have a farewell party for him after the service at the 'Nidge.
Bible Study: No meeting of the Bible study this week due to Thanksgiving. Our last session of our current series will Be Wednesday November 28th 7:30 PM at the 'Nidge.
Church Retreat: Materials for the retreat will be available on the back table in the chapel the next two Sundays, for you to look at before the retreat.
Church retreat is November 30 beginning at 7PM at the Cynacle Retreat center and all day Saturday December 1st.
The First Sunday of the Season of Advent is December 2nd, and is Reconciler's Third Anniversary. It was first Advent 2004 when we had our first official worship service.
Also on Sunday December 2 Eileen Crowley Assistant Professor at Catholic Theological Union the Artist in Residence this year at Immanuel will join us for worship and then after the service present to us her ideas of media art in worship and ways we can be involved in the creation of this media art for Easter Vigil.
4th advent December 23 we will be having a joint worship service with Immanuel and St Elias, at St Elias' worship time of 1:30 PM. We will not worship at our normal time of 5 PM. We are invited to come to a brunch at 11:30 put on by Immanuel and a Christmas dinner organized by St Elias after the service. If you would be interested in helping out the preparation and organization of either meals let us know and we will get your name to the people in charge of organizing the meals.
In Christ,
Larry
Sunday, October 7
Update
I would like to take the time for this weeks update to reflect some on the life of our small congregation. As a church we are not a program centered church but a church centered on our worship in the liturgy of the Word and Table every Sunday. In our three years it is out of our worship of God together that community has been formed and out of which we have acted in the world. It is my firm belief that gathering as the people of God each Sunday to praise God, hear God's word and receive Christ in bread and wine are foundational to the community we create as a congregation and the things we do in the world both individual and as a congregation.
I mention this (some of you have heard me say this before) again now because we are in transition in a number of areas:1) the most obvious is that we are in the process of saying goodbye to Tripp and will be looking for a new American Baptist pastor for our pastoral team. 2) in the past two months we have had a number of visitors some of whom are making Reconciler (or thinking about it) their church home. 3) We are working towards being hospitable to families with young children both by moving our worship time to 5PM but also by creating childcare during the service. 4) We have added to our pastoral team for a few months an Episcopal deacon. All of these are signs of our growth.
As we grow I hope we can keep our focus on why we come together and why we act in the world. Church is not simply another community, nor simply another organization to accomplish this or that. We come together to remember and to proclaim. We remember that God has acted in history to bring about the transformation of the world, ultimately through sending Jesus Christ to humanity. We proclaim that God is bringing about the transformation of the world through Jesus Christ and we share in that best by being joined with Christ.
Thus we are not focused on programs or what we do, we are focused on what God is doing both in our midst and in the world. We find that vision for what God is doing through worship that renews our minds and joins us with Christ. Community can be created anywhere around anything, organizations to help the poor or work for this or that cause can be created for multiple reasons and from a myriad of philosophical foundations. Church is about being united with what God is doing through the work of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we come to know this and are given eyes to see the kingdom through our worship.
May God continue to bind us together and strengthen us for the work set before us, in Jesus Christ and by the power of the Spirit.
Announcements:
We have an Episcopal deacon for several Months, Rev. Beth Scriven, but many of you may be unaware of all a deacon may do in the Episcopal church. A deacon is an ordained clergy, some will remain deacons others are what are called transitional deacons, on the way to being ordained a priest. Priests were first ordained deacons before being ordained priests. Beth is a transitional deacon. What is a deacon? A deacon assists the priest and in line with the Greek meaning of deacon, "servant", is there to help direct a congregation/parish's ministry to the world. Part of the ministry of a deacon is to preach as well as assist the priest in the liturgy and at table. As for what this means for Reconciler Beth is a member of the pastoral team as ordained clergy person, she assists in the liturgy and will preach on occasion (her first time preaching with us will be October 14th), she also will serve as with the Social Action committee. If you would like to know more or have any questions about deacons or what Beth's presence with us the next several months means for Reconciler feel free to talk with Beth or Tripp Laura and Larry.
Saturday October 27th, 9 AM to Noon, there is a meeting with Eileen Crowley to begin planning elements of the Holy Week and Easter services. Immanuel is asking for our involvement in the planning of these services with Eileen Crowley the artist-in-residence this year with Immanuel. If you are interested please let one of the pastoral team know ASAP so we can let Immanuel know who is interested in being involved.
Sunday November 4th is All Saints Sunday. We will be worshiping with Immanuel and St Elias. Laura will be presiding and pastor Monte of Immanuel will be preaching. The service will be at 10:30 AM and we will not be worshiping at our regular time of 5:00 PM.
Our Bible Study series on Sabbath economics and money will begin October 17th. We are beginning with reading and discussing the book The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics, by Ched Myers. If plan to take part in the Bible Study and do not already have this book talk with Jeremy John.
Our all church leadership retreat is Friday November 30th and Saturday December 1st, at the Cenacle retreat center here in Chicago.
December 23rd we will be having a joint worship service with st Elias and Immanuel, at 1:30 PM, we will not be worshiping at our usual time of 5 PM.
In Christ,
Larry Kamphausen
I mention this (some of you have heard me say this before) again now because we are in transition in a number of areas:1) the most obvious is that we are in the process of saying goodbye to Tripp and will be looking for a new American Baptist pastor for our pastoral team. 2) in the past two months we have had a number of visitors some of whom are making Reconciler (or thinking about it) their church home. 3) We are working towards being hospitable to families with young children both by moving our worship time to 5PM but also by creating childcare during the service. 4) We have added to our pastoral team for a few months an Episcopal deacon. All of these are signs of our growth.
As we grow I hope we can keep our focus on why we come together and why we act in the world. Church is not simply another community, nor simply another organization to accomplish this or that. We come together to remember and to proclaim. We remember that God has acted in history to bring about the transformation of the world, ultimately through sending Jesus Christ to humanity. We proclaim that God is bringing about the transformation of the world through Jesus Christ and we share in that best by being joined with Christ.
Thus we are not focused on programs or what we do, we are focused on what God is doing both in our midst and in the world. We find that vision for what God is doing through worship that renews our minds and joins us with Christ. Community can be created anywhere around anything, organizations to help the poor or work for this or that cause can be created for multiple reasons and from a myriad of philosophical foundations. Church is about being united with what God is doing through the work of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we come to know this and are given eyes to see the kingdom through our worship.
May God continue to bind us together and strengthen us for the work set before us, in Jesus Christ and by the power of the Spirit.
Announcements:
We have an Episcopal deacon for several Months, Rev. Beth Scriven, but many of you may be unaware of all a deacon may do in the Episcopal church. A deacon is an ordained clergy, some will remain deacons others are what are called transitional deacons, on the way to being ordained a priest. Priests were first ordained deacons before being ordained priests. Beth is a transitional deacon. What is a deacon? A deacon assists the priest and in line with the Greek meaning of deacon, "servant", is there to help direct a congregation/parish's ministry to the world. Part of the ministry of a deacon is to preach as well as assist the priest in the liturgy and at table. As for what this means for Reconciler Beth is a member of the pastoral team as ordained clergy person, she assists in the liturgy and will preach on occasion (her first time preaching with us will be October 14th), she also will serve as with the Social Action committee. If you would like to know more or have any questions about deacons or what Beth's presence with us the next several months means for Reconciler feel free to talk with Beth or Tripp Laura and Larry.
Saturday October 27th, 9 AM to Noon, there is a meeting with Eileen Crowley to begin planning elements of the Holy Week and Easter services. Immanuel is asking for our involvement in the planning of these services with Eileen Crowley the artist-in-residence this year with Immanuel. If you are interested please let one of the pastoral team know ASAP so we can let Immanuel know who is interested in being involved.
Sunday November 4th is All Saints Sunday. We will be worshiping with Immanuel and St Elias. Laura will be presiding and pastor Monte of Immanuel will be preaching. The service will be at 10:30 AM and we will not be worshiping at our regular time of 5:00 PM.
Our Bible Study series on Sabbath economics and money will begin October 17th. We are beginning with reading and discussing the book The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics, by Ched Myers. If plan to take part in the Bible Study and do not already have this book talk with Jeremy John.
Our all church leadership retreat is Friday November 30th and Saturday December 1st, at the Cenacle retreat center here in Chicago.
December 23rd we will be having a joint worship service with st Elias and Immanuel, at 1:30 PM, we will not be worshiping at our usual time of 5 PM.
In Christ,
Larry Kamphausen
Saturday, August 4
Sunday August 5th
Sunday August 5th we are not having our regular worship service at 6PM. There is a joint worship service with Immanuel Lutheran Church and St Elias Christian Church at 10:30 AM, in Immanuel Lutheran Church's Sanctuary.
We return to our regular worship time of 6 PM on August 12th. In September we will move our worship time to 5PM starting September 9th.
We return to our regular worship time of 6 PM on August 12th. In September we will move our worship time to 5PM starting September 9th.
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