Advent Conspiracy

I grew up reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Being from South Dakota, they were almost required reading since much of the Ingalls story took place just down the road from us! I remember the wistful and sentimental Christmas times for this simple family on the farm in the early history of the Americas. As a child I remember thinking how wonderful their genuine homemade gifts of wonder and surprises of joy were. Now, I just think, “My, how things have changed.” 
 
What if we took back Christmas? What if we stopped all the hype and the commercialism? What if we truly expected  Jesus to be present in every ritual, prayer and sentiment of the season? What if we celebrated Jesus first coming into the world so fully that all the gifting, indebtedness and business were forgotten?
 
What if we led this? 
 
Advent – from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.”
 
Conspiracy – a plot by a group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.
 
I remember a conversation with one of my adopted Ethiopian nephews just after he had experienced his first American Christmas. He asked us why Santa had never come to bring him gifts in Ethiopia (the poorest country in the world)? My sister, quick to try to save the experience, asked “Well, did you write him a letter telling him what you wanted? Because you have to write Santa to make sure he knows.” After silence, Sam, just eight years old, asked if he could have some paper and envelopes. He said he was going to “write every one he could think of in Ethiopia to tell them to write Santa, because they really needed things and this was really, really good news.”
 
In this season of waiting we at Abiding Love are joining the Advent Conspiracy, to worship fully, spend less, give more and love all. Won’t you join us?
 

http://www.abidinglove.org/advent/index.html

 

With abiding love,

Pastor Lynnae

 

Creating Space for Grace!

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times – having all that you need – you will abound in every good work.” -- 2 Corinthians 9:8

 

Creating Space for Grace!

 

I’ve heard of churches where visitors never get talked to.

I’ve heard of churches that say exactly who can and can’t participate.
I’ve heard of churches that don’t visit the sick, the shut- in or the stumbling.
I’ve heard of churches that hush children and never clap, and don’t like tattoos and never, never-ever say “it’s going to be alright”.

Instead, I am privileged to be in a community that seeks God’s Grace in our church, in our world and in our own lives. What an honor it is to be trusted by God with the pastoral leadership of this congregation. I am humbled by the integrity and grace that the members of Abiding Love share. I am encouraged by the bold steps that this Church’s leadership bounds toward. 

Space is not only about buildings and hallways. Space is also about emotions and attitudes.
Creating Space for Grace is the theme for our Capital Appeal and it says more about God and God’s work than it does about us. God, who gives us everything we need is radically loose in our world, encouraging us to make Space for Grace.

Martin Luther said; “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace.” 

I pray that you will live into that daring confidence of God’s grace as you walk with us in this Appeal. It’s not only about renovating the original buildings, it is also about taking the next step as a community church, reaching into the depths of God’s Grace. 

I belong to a church where visitors are embraced with Grace!
I belong to a church where ALL are welcome!
I belong to a church whose members – not only pastors – visit the sick, the shut-in, and reach out to catch the stumbling.
I belong to a church that celebrates children, that joyfully worships with hands and voice, that is marked by crosses and that knows that with God – it will be alright.

I belong to Abiding Love Lutheran Church!   

 

About Forgiveness...

Through the centuries, Christians have trod through days with the weight of ‘true repentance and confession’ being some impossible prerequisite for forgiveness. Thankfully, God’s grace and forgiveness is available for all because of God’s love, not because of our sincerity in being ‘truly   sorry’. We could never be ‘sorry’ enough, however, the act of confession is a rite that opens up our heart and mind to honesty and truthfulness before our loving God. By letting God know how our hearts are changed or our minds are convicted by the awareness of our need for God’s purifying and transformative forgiveness, we learn more and more about God and about ourselves.

The Lutheran church believes and practices both public or corporate confession (like we have in worship) and private confession. While we do not practice private confession as an obligation, we do recognize the need that some may have to sit down with another in the faith to have a witness to their lament and to have a word of absolution or grace proclaimed aloud. Private confession is always available, but will most especially be available in this time of the  series ‘Amazing Grace: Lessons on Transformative Forgiveness’. If you should desire to participate in Private  Confession with one of the pastors, please call either Pastor Lynnae or Pastor Brad or the church office to set up an appointment – 892-4040.

With abiding love,
Pastor Lynnae

Bishop Hanson

This past weekend we elected a Bishop! Ray Tiemann was elected for a third term as the Bishop of the Southwestern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. What was most notable at this meeting was the worship and leadership of our church-wide (national) Bishop, Mark Hanson. Bishop Hanson was inspiring and affirming. I want to share just a bit from his report to the assembly.

Bishop Hanson began by reminding us that as Lutherans in the ELCA we are members of a ‘richly diverse, pluralistic church’! But just as soon as he made us feel good with this announcement, he warned us of an epidemic sweeping the nation. He said that the latest disease of the ELCA is – NASTALGIA. You know that unhealthy desire to return to the ‘old ways’ and to desire that so much – that you no longer live in a mission context. Now, he warned, ‘nostalgia’ is not the same as a ‘memory’.  A memory is that which lifts up and reminds a person of their roots, but, what is most important about our roots as Lutherans is that we are “deeply rooted in always being made new”! Bishop Hanson reminded us that in Luther’s introduction to the Letter to the Romans, he wrote:

“ Faith is a living, daring confidence on God's grace, so sure and certain that a man would stake his life on it a thousand times. This confidence in God's grace and knowledge of it makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all His creatures; and this is the work of the Holy Ghost in faith. Hence a man is ready and glad, without compulsion, to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, in love and praise to God, who has shown him this grace; and thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire. Beware, therefore, of your own false notions and of the idle talkers, who would be wise enough to make decisions about faith and good works, and yet are the greatest fools. Pray God to work faith in you; else you will remain forever without faith, whatever you think or do.”

May we always live with a daring confidence in God’s grace!

With Abiding Love,
Pastor Lynnae

The Journey of Lent

I found it easier to wait through the journey of Lent when I was a child!
Often our Lenten services at Trinity Lutheran in Yankton, SD were dramas or plays that introduced me to the people that Jesus knew in his last days on earth. As a child, I felt that I was actually meeting them and I felt like I understood what their acceptance or rejection of Jesus was all about. Now, even though I’ve studied and dramatized the characters myself, I feel as though I’m far from understanding their plight. When I was a child, it made perfect sense that rabbits and chicks and butterflies represented Easter! Now, I find myself struggling to explain their role for the season.

I found it easier to wait through the journey of Lent in the chosen-frozen land!
Lent was the coldest and darkest time of the year in South Dakota. Winter coats, boots, hats and mittens were second skin in February and March. The days that were so short seemed to drag as we awaited the tiniest sign that spring may actually arrive. Daffodils and tulips would sometimes push up through the snow and we would celebrate! The discipline of surviving another winter fit Lent as the discipline of worship, study and prayer marked each Wednesday evening. This year, I actually never wore my winter coat and certainly not my parka. I seem to make the difference between ‘winter’ and ‘spring’ by whether I need to wear socks or be barefoot in my shoes! It is difficult to ‘feel’ that old Lenten winter calendar while here in the south.

I found it easier to wait through the journey of Lent.

Lent really isn’t about waiting for spring and it isn’t about being able to truly understand the characters. Lent is a time to pause and recall the teachings of Jesus – the teachings that led him to the cross. Being able to journey through Lent with a community of believers - makes it truly about God’s history and story of Jesus life, death and resurrection. Most of the time, getting there, is half the journey.  This Lent we have experienced the parables of Jesus as a way of understanding the way in which Jesus wanted us to walk. I offer many thanks to the Parable Players who so faithfully ‘acted’ out the stories. 

May you know the mystery, the symbolism and the child like joy of Holy Week and Easter.

Blessings

Genesis 12: 2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” 

Blessings are almost a lost art. When we sneeze, one will say ‘bless you’ and we say ‘thanks’. But, for the most part we don’t often bless one another. Blessings are gifts. They are precious and they are echoes of love. John O’Donohue wrote a book of Blessings called: To Bless the Space Between Us. 

How much we think about the space between us is interesting. Mostly, we think we are supposed to protect our space, or create space. I’m intrigued by the idea of ‘blessing the space’ that is between you and me. That would be safe, and warm, and maybe even holy. As Pastor Brad and I are preaching through the season of Epiphany, we are trying to shine light upon the ways in which God comes close to us and I know that the clearest way is through our friendships. 

Now, it is one thing to bless the space between those whose names that I know for that is comfortable and almost gracious. It is another thing entirely to bless the space between ourselves and those that we do not know, don’t recognize and maybe even can’t imagine. I see the volunteers at the Food Pantry do this all the time! To give a hand, offer a smile, and silently say a prayer for them – that is to bless them. 

God first promised to bless Abraham and then challenged him with the charge to bless others. This too is our promise and charge. May you be blessed to be a blessing. 

Pastor Lynnae