The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

From the Pastors

April 2008

 

Dear friends in Christ,

As I write this, we’re coming down the home stretch of Lent toward Holy Week and one of my favorite days of the church year, Good Friday. While you might find it strange that I’m writing about Good Friday for a newsletter article that you won’t read until after Easter, I hope you’ll bear with me for just a moment. I think we need to look more closely at Good Friday, to resist the urge to skip straight from Palm Sunday or Maundy Thursday to Easter. I think we need to pay more attention to what Good Friday has to teach us about how God is at work in the world and how God calls us to live in the world.

In Mark 15:37-39, we read,

Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was God's Son!"

This tearing of the curtain in the temple points to the real significance of Good Friday. The curtain Mark refers to is the curtain that hung across the entrance to the Holy of Holies, the room that was considered God’s dwelling place on Earth. In the crucifixion of Jesus, all of the barriers between God and humanity are shredded and torn down. On that hill outside Jerusalem, God declared once and for all that nothing was going to be allowed to stand between God and the people God loves. In that moment, God’s love and concern for all of humanity is so evident that even the commander of the soldiers who just crucified Jesus can’t miss it.

In some ways, this scene is the climax and the fulfillment of Jesus’ entire earthly ministry. As my New Testament professor in seminary put it, “in the Gospels, every time someone draws a line, Jesus is on the other side.” Jesus spent most of his life among the people most likely to be excluded. The tax collectors and the crooks. The prostitutes and shady ladies. The lost and the lonely, the leprous and the lame. Jesus spent his life tearing down the boundaries that people put up between themselves, and in his death, he destroyed the barriers we try to put up between ourselves and God. Good Friday is the exclamation point on Jesus’ message: that God is on the loose in the world, blessing and redeeming the entire universe, no boundaries, no barriers, no exceptions!

Of course, as human creatures who are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves, we have a habit of trying to rebuild those barriers, of drawing lines to differentiate one group from another: rich, middle class, poor; white, black, Latino; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu; Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. ELCA, LCMS. Republican, Democrat, Independent. Sometimes we even draw those lines within congregations: member vs. non-member; charter member vs. long-time member vs. newcomer; 8 o’clock people vs. 11 o’clock people. When we fail to take Good Friday seriously, those barriers and those lines creep back in, influencing how we look at one another and how we do ministry. This is a problem, because what is true in the Gospels is true in our world today: every time we draw a line, Jesus is on the other side.

This is why it is so important that we as a congregation shift our focus from membership to discipleship. As much as some of those lines might matter to us, they don’t matter at all to Jesus. I feel fairly confident in saying that Jesus doesn’t care who is or is not on our rolls as a member, or for how long. When Jesus encountered a grieving mother at Nain, he didn’t ask when the last time she went to church was; he just raised her son. (Luke 7:11-16) When Jesus met ten lepers, he healed them all, and it was the one most likely to be excluded, the Samaritan, who returned to give thanks. (Luke 17:12-19) When Jesus went to his cross, he didn’t go just for the Lutherans, or for the confirmed-contributing members, or for the people who attended worship at a certain time, or gave a certain amount, or volunteered the most. He gave his life for all of us. He gave his life to invite all of us, not into a membership relationship with a congregation, but into a discipleship relationship with him. Based on how Jesus did ministry in the Gospels, I’m pretty sure Jesus doesn’t care much about the categories we invest so much meaning in; maybe we shouldn’t care so much about them, either.

In this season of Easter, as we celebrate Jesus’ destruction of the final barrier, the boundary of the tomb, let us rise with him to new life. Let us take on this new life of discipleship, conforming our lives to his, breaking down the barriers and erasing the dividing lines that creep up between people. Let us live as Jesus lived, loving and serving all those in need, especially those most likely to be excluded. Let us live our life together, as disciples of the Good Shepherd, in such a way that no one can miss the point, and that all people can look at us and say, “Truly these are God’s people in Christ!”

                                                        Your servant in Christ,

                                                                            Pastor Bob

 

 

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March 2008

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

In like a lion, out like a lamb. So goes the old proverb about the month of March. This is a time of transition, as we move from the dead of winter to the first breath of spring.  As a child, I remember March coming in with bitter cold, and I can recall some of the best and biggest snowstorms at this time, as if winter would try to make one last stand before giving way to the warmth of spring.  Winter, however, cannot maintain its hold on the earth.  The winds grow warmer.  Crocuses and daffodils begin to creep up from the frozen ground.  By the end of the month we are thinking of spring and beyond, as slowly the grass greens up and the flowers multiply.

 

This March, our church life will echo this natural rhythm of the changing seasons.  Since Easter arrives so early this year (the next time our celebration of the Resurrection comes anywhere close to this early is 2035!) we see the drastic change from death to life mirrored in nature and in worship.  We begin the month deep in the season of Lent.  We continue to journey along the road towards the cross, following Jesus as we are able.  Then, right in the middle of the month comes Holy Week, the week of our Lord’s Passion.  We hear the cries of, “Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”; then, all too quickly, these shouts of joy are replaced with cries of, “Crucify him!”

 

In like a lion, out like a lamb.  This could hold true not just for the meteorological phenomenon of the month, but for Jesus as well.  He enters Jerusalem in triumph, with a joyous parade.  The people wave their palm branches before him and strew their garments on the ground before him.  He is welcomed to the holy city as a hero, a king, a savior.  Yet in just a few days, he leaves the city as a lamb.  Jesus, God’s chosen one, is led out of the gates of the city, carrying his cross, to the place of his death.  In like a lion, out like a lamb.

 

Yet this is no ordinary lamb.  Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  He is the Passover lamb that brings life from death.

 

I invite you to walk this journey through Holy Week together with your brothers and sisters at Good Shepherd.  We begin on March 16^th with Palm/Passion Sunday at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.  We will gather in the Fellowship Hall for a triumphant procession with palms into the worship space.  Then we will hear the entire passion story from Matthew’s Gospel, presented as a dramatic reading.  We will gather around our Lord’s Table and share in his body and blood, and celebrate as three of our 4^th graders receive the sacrament for the first time.

 

Our journey continues with the Great Three Days.  On Maundy Thursday, March 20^th, we gather for a meal at 6:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, then begin our worship at 7:30 p.m.  On this holy night we remember Jesus’ last meal with his closest friends, his betrayal and arrest.  Our final act of worship on Thursday evening is the stripping of the altar and recitation of Psalm 22.  This solemn observance reminds us of the humiliation Jesus endured at the hands of his captors.

 

We will have two opportunities for worship on Good Friday, March 21^st.  Beginning at 7 a.m. the church will be open for you to come and experience the Stations of the Cross.  This is a self-guided experience consisting of eight stations or stops tracing the events from Jesus being sentenced to death to his burial.  This is a powerful, personal experience and all are welcome to participate.  We will gather at 7:30 p.m. for a service of Tenebrae, where the Senior Choir will lead us through the seven last words of Christ from the cross.

 

The Great Three Days conclude with our Easter Vigil on March 22^nd at 7:30 p.m.  If you have never experienced an Easter Vigil, you are missing one of the most ancient and powerful worship experiences of the Christian church.  We gather in darkness and light a new fire, hear stories of God’s saving acts through this history of Israel, then hear the Easter Proclamation, the first announcement that life has triumphed over death.  Finally, we celebrate God’s tremendous gift of grace given to us through the sacraments of baptism and holy communion.

 

Easter morning brings our biggest celebration of the year.  We worship together at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. with holy communion at each service.  We welcome the return of the “A—eluia!” which has been buried since the beginning of Lent, as our Easter song of praise and triumph.

 

In like a lion, out like a lamb.  March is a journey.  Join us, as we move through the sacred journey of Jesus, from death to life.  May we all be blessed along the way.

 

You servant in Christ,

 

Pastor Kathy Ierien