Weekly STAR Reflection 6-21-2020

Reflection from Pastor Amy:

On June 17, 2015, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson were gathered for Bible study at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. As they studied scripture, these nine welcomed a stranger to their circle and before their study was over, all were dead and three more were wounded. The killer left no doubt about his actions. He overtly and explicitly sought out a gathering of black people because of their race and their commitment to civil rights. The man who killed the Emanuel Nine is rightly imprisoned today.

I was in Egypt on June 17, 2015 when the news of this horrendous event reached me. When I learned that the murderer had grown up in an ELCA church, I was cut to the heart (language we heard in response to Peter’s preaching this past week). I experienced shame at the crime of a person I didn’t know and had never met. It was staggering to realize that someone could hear the same proclamation of Jesus’ unconditional love and grace that I heard, and yet bear such different and destructive fruit. The shame I felt in that moment was born from the realization that formation in the ELCA was not enough to teach him to recognize the image of God in the people who would become his victims. I wondered: where had my faith formation also fallen short? If hymns, scripture, and theology could still allow hate and racism to take root in this baptismal brother, that meant it also could have taken root in me. I began to ask myself: as a pastor in this church, as a believer who has loved and been deeply shaped by the institutions of this church, what corners of my heart and life had also received racist and hate-filled messages and not yet been touched by Jesus’ grace-filled, healing power?

This Sunday’s passage from Acts contains a story of Peter and John healing a man lame from birth. One function this story serves is to remind us that the healing power of the risen Christ wasn’t just at work in Jesus, but is also at work in those who call on his name. And not just first century apostles like Peter and John, but people like you and me who look at the shame we experience in our own lives, or the shame we feel from the world around us, and seek Christ’s power and presence to heal us.

An African American spiritual sings:

     There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;

     There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.

     Don’t ever feel discouraged, for Jesus is your friend;

     And if you lack for knowledge he’ll never refuse to lend.

Jesus is a balm that heals. He never grows tired of lending his healing power to those in need. Sometimes that healing begins with repentance as we seek forgiveness for what we have done and what we have left undone, for what we know and what we remain ignorant of, for our sins of thought, word, deed, and for the sins of our sisters and brothers, our neighbors, our ancestors.

In the humility of repentance, I make room for the balm of Christ’s forgiveness to fill me and continue the work of healing. This healing power is present for all who believe!

May Christ’s peace fill you today and in the days ahead.

Weekly STAR Reflection 6-14-2020

Reflection from Pastor Hoffman:

For many of us – or at least for me – these days of physical distancing feel like a holding pattern. We know that we can’t return to life as it was before March 15. And we don’t yet know what life will look like when the pandemic is behind us – and we surely don’t know when that will be. We’re in the middle of the story and it is still being written.

As businesses reopen and we start connecting with others in three dimensions, we know that we need to establish ways of interacting and being together that keep us as safe as possible. Wearing masks, keeping our distance, limiting the size of our gatherings, keeping hand sanitizer readily available, refraining from hugs and handshakes and sharing food and singing…these practices will ensure our health and safety and we hope, that of the most vulnerable among us, but they also mean that our patterns of daily life will look vastly different. And that means our way of being church will look vastly different, too.

The state has issued very, very detailed guidance about how and when we gather physically. But we turn to God’s Word for guidance about how to be faithful – how to follow Jesus – in this time and place.

So, our worship for the summer will not be based on the lectionary. For the next four weeks, we are diving into the book of Acts, which recounts the story of the early church – its formation and struggles as the earliest disciples sought to faithfully follow the risen Christ. Pastor Amy and I trust that Scripture will ground us in who we are and how we are called to live as we write the story of what the future looks like–for God’s people, for God’s church and for the world God so loves. Grounded in Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the story of God’s love, grace, mercy and justice will be told in the next chapter of our life together.

Weekly STAR Reflection 6-7-2020

Reflection from Pastor Hoffman:

Relationship. It’s all about relationship.

This Sunday, we celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity. It’s a tricky festival, because it’s not a celebration of an event. It’s a celebration of a mystery – the mystery of God-in-three-persons.

We worship a God of relationship. God does not exist apart from relationship. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. Three-in-one and one-in-three. Made in the image of God, we do not exist apart from relationship either. We are connected in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine, as many have discovered during this pandemic and begun to see the far-reaching consequences of our actions and interactions. We are interdependent, but we don’t live as though it is so. We are divided by race, privilege, power, politics…the list goes on. These divisions threaten our relationship – our unity – with God and one another.

We will hear the final words from the gospel of Matthew: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19) Jesus’ mission on earth was to draw all people into relationship – with God and each other, and that’s the work Jesus entrusted to us to continue.

As we gather for worship, we celebrate our God of relationship by giving thanks for the relationships we share beyond our local congregation. We will hear God’s Word proclaimed by our Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, as will most other churches across our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We will hear greetings from our brothers and sisters in our twinned parish in Shurugwi, Zimbabwe, as we celebrate the relationship we share in Christ as part of Companion Synod Sunday. (The Upstate NY Synod of which we are part is a Companion Synod to the Lutheran Church in Zambia and the Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe.) Through worship in these ways, we celebrate that we are not an island, but in relationship with Lutheran Christians across the country and around the world, loving God and serving God’s people together.

May our worship give shape to living our lives in relationship with God and restoring us to relationship with one another.

Weekly STAR Reflection 5-31-2020

Reflection from Pastor Amy

“I can’t breathe.” George Floyd’s words spoken in the moments before his death ring in my ears in these days leading up to Pentecost Sunday, the festival when we mark the gift of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s church. In scripture, the Holy Spirit is often experienced as breath, wind, or air, reminding us the Spirit of Christ is as near as our breath. When we can’t breathe or when our neighbors can’t breathe, it is God’s own Spirit which is being silenced and stilled.

The news has reminded us again what sorrow, grief, and anger is born when breath is purposely withheld – whether by force or disease. Over the last two months, we have learned again what power and potential danger our breath carries. Filled with this knowledge, out of care and concern for ourselves, and extending love for the most vulnerable among us, we have suspended our usual activities and adopted new practices. We wear masks and physically distance ourselves from others, all in order to minimize the shared air we breathe. Like the disciples in Sunday’s gospel, we find ourselves these days gathered behind closed doors, in enclosed spaces, only mingling with the most intimate gatherings of family.

So much in our lives right now reminds us that the air we breathe matters. But the very same air that can carry deadly disease is also capable of carrying God’s Holy Spirit! And that Spirit-filled breath, given to us in our baptism into Christ, is not limited by the walls that surround us, by the masks that protect our neighbors, or by the practices we adopt in order to extend our love. The stories of Pentecost from both Acts and John remind us that God’s Spirit of truth and life will penetrate all barriers we place in its way in order to enter and fill us!

This Pentecost, I place my hope in the good news that God’s Spirit will not be bound: not by closed doors, not by confined spaces, not by attempts to stop its flow. No! The breath of God comes even now teaching us that the air we breathe is spirit-filled! Teaching us that the freedom to breathe clean, fresh, unobstructed air is just! Teaching us that preserving and sustaining the breath of our neighbors is righteous! Teaching us to proclaim God’s deeds of power on our breath and in our actions as we embody God’s abundant life and love!

~ Pastor Amy

A note about Sunday: The color for the work of the Spirit in Christ’s church is always red! Consider gathering red flowers or red balloons in your worship space at home, wear your favorite red t-shirt, or bring the attached coloring sheet with you as we gather on Sunday to give thanks and praise for the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives! As is the practice at Bethlehem, we will celebrate Confirmation this Pentecost Sunday. This is not the way any of us prefer to celebrate on Sunday – all in our own spaces and separated – but in upholding Olivia, Elizabeth, Katy, Sam and Paige as they (and us) affirm their faith on Sunday, we witness to the God’s deeds of power alive in these young people and active in our world! Be sure to read their biographies in this week’s Star, hold them in your prayers in the coming days, and if you’re able, reach out to them with a card or note to extend your blessing to them! In doing this we nurture the seeds of hope growing in this community of faith

Weekly STAR Reflection 5-24-2020

Reflection from Pastor Hoffman

“You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth!”  That’s what Jesus tells his disciples before his ascension – before the resurrected Jesus returns to sit at the right hand of God in heaven – in this Sunday’s reading from Acts (1:6-14). You will be the ones to carry on my ministry – you will be the ones who teach the world about all that I’ve said and done. You will share God’s love in word and deed by loving this broken and beautiful world – and all the people who are part of it.

Being Jesus’ witnesses – carrying on his ministry – to the ends of the earth? That sounds like a tall order under any circumstances, but it feels especially impossible when the world I inhabit feels increasingly smaller.  Day after day, I see the same five faces as we share the same four walls. As grateful as I am to be sharing my days with these particular faces, the world beyond my household feels increasingly distant.

God did not create us to live in isolation.  Jesus’ whole ministry was about reaching out to others, bridging divides, joining people together.  And it can feel impossible to share in that ministry – to bear witness to all that Jesus taught and did – when we feel so disconnected.

Thankfully, Jesus did not leave us with our marching orders and disappear entirely. This Sunday, we get to listen in as Jesus prays for us: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:1-11).  Jesus longs for us to experience the connection of being joined to God and to one another.  He prays for us…then he sends the Holy Spirit to make it so.

We may feel far apart. We may feel disconnected. But we are not alone. We are – as we claim every Sunday when we begin the Lord’s Prayer – “gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.”

This week – and always – I am praying for you and with you that, despite physical distance, we might feel the presence of one another and experience the unity we share in Christ.  Together, by the power of the Spirit, we are witnesses who share the good news of God’s love to the ends of the earth.

~ Pastor H.

P.S. It seems to me that one of the ways we serve as witnesses is to pray for one another as Jesus prayed for us – and to tell each other we are doing so! Pastor Amy and I have started this practice by sending a postcard to the five households that we pray for each week in worship. I invite you to adopt a practice of your own. Consider sending a note to someone for whom you’ve prayed or participate in the Seeds of Hope Appeal by sending notes to “spread HOPE” (see the full announcement in the Care Section!!). We might not be able to travel to the ends of the earth, but the message of God’s love certainly can!!

Weekly STAR Reflection 5-17-2020

Weekly STAR Reflection 5-10-2020

Reflection from Pastor Hoffman

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says in Sunday’s gospel.

If only. There is much that is indeed troubling our hearts these days. If only it were as simple as not letting it be so.  But Jesus surely intends his words to be comforting, even reassuring. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  These words begin a passage from the Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John – or the chapters where Jesus prepares his disciples for his death, resurrection and ascension.  As he anticipates the physical separation to come, Jesus says: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

Jesus knew that the road ahead would be difficult for the disciples. He knew that they would struggle to make sense of all that was about to happen. He knew that they would feel scared, anxious and alone. He knew that they would struggle to keep the faith.

When I feel scared, when the way forward is full of unsettling predictions, when the world as I know it is being turned upside down, telling me to keep my heart trouble free and my belief strong is…less than helpful.  But the promise that follows is more than reassuring: I go to prepare a place for you.

I learned from Karoline Lewis (a Professor of preaching at Luther Seminary and scholar of the gospel of John), the place Jesus prepares for us is not a room in a ritzy heavenly mansion.  The place Jesus prepares for us is being in the intimate presence of God…even at the bosom of the Father. Put another way, it’s not a place so much as it is a relationship.

When we feel scared, anxious, and alone…when we feel uncertain about the future…when we struggle to keep the faith…Jesus brings us not just into God’s presence, but into a warm embrace, drawing us in to the love that never ends.

May that promise bring peace to our troubled hearts today and everyday.

 

~ Pastor H.

Weekly STAR Reflection 5-3-2020

Reflection from Pastor Amy

For the last seven weeks, poetry has been my reading of choice. I hear of people reading the great novels of literature in these days. I don’t have capacity for much more than a few short, concentrated lines. I’m grateful our ancestors in faith saved their poetry, hymns, and prayers for us in the Psalms, especially at times like this.

In the Book of Psalms, we hear the questions we don’t know how to answer: “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13). We hear trust in God’s presence expressed: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46). We hear people call on God in times of need: “Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalm 70). In the Psalms we are reminded that there is no thought, no feeling, no expression of our innermost self that is beyond God’s desire to know and hear. This week in worship we will hear Psalm 23 – the poem of a sheep who rests in the care of a shepherd.

God is my shepherd, he gives me all I need.

He gives me wonderful places to rest and sleep.

He lets me splash and play in cool, clear waters.

He helps me do what is right.

I am not afraid even in the darkest nights

Because you are with me, God, and

Your protection comforts me.

When danger comes, you give me strength.

My life is filled with your love, and all I want is to be

With you my whole life long. (Translation, Spark Story Bible)

What do these words call to mind for you?

In these words, I hear the person I wish to be, more than the person I am today. I am sometimes fearful about having enough. I can be afraid and restless when I wake at night or when I hear the news of each new day. I am not always aware of or grateful for all that I have been given.

Psalm 23 reminds us that it doesn’t matter who we are today. Our God is a shepherd who provides for us, helps us, comforts us, strengthens us, protects us, and loves us, no matter what kind of critter we are! Our God is a shepherd who walks with us along every pathway! May you know the presence of the Good Shepherd walking near you in the week ahead.

 

~ Pastor Amy

Weekly STAR Reflection 4-26-2020

Reflection from Pastor Hoffman

Six weeks ago, we began our journey into this alternate reality known as “physical distancing due to COVID-19.”  Six weeks ago, we threw our calendars out the window, and with them all that we thought we knew about what the future might hold. For six weeks we have kept our distance, sequestering ourselves at home, donning face masks to protect ourselves and those around us. But even six weeks is not long enough to adapt to life in this alternate reality, and it’s just the beginning of trying to process the shock and grief of it all.

Because we are human. We figure out how the world works, who and what we can trust, and how to live in it.  When our world is turned upside down, it takes time to figure those things out in our new reality.

In our gospel this week, we meet two disciples who also had their world turned upside down, not by a global pandemic, but by the resurrection of Jesus.  Suddenly, they now live in a world where the dead don’t stay dead.  And they don’t immediately know what to believe, who to trust, or what it all means.

I am so grateful that our Holy Scriptures include stories like last week (the story of so-called Doubting Thomas) and this week (the disciples on the road to Emmaus). These post-resurrection accounts affirm what I have experienced to be true: that coming to believe in the resurrection of Jesus is not one-size-fits-all. It’s a journey.

But this week’s gospel reminds us that it is not a journey we take alone.  Jesus meets us on the road.  Sometimes, he shows up as a traveling companion.  Someone who listens to our grief and pain.  Someone who hears our questions and doubts, who walks with us in our confusion and uncertainty.  Someone who shares wisdom and insight, who helps us connect the dots and make sense of what we’re experiencing.  Jesus shows up, whether we recognize him or not.

In the midst of the confusion, uncertainty and questions that fill our days, the good news of Easter is that the risen Christ meets us on our life’s journey. By the grace of God, may our eyes be opened to recognize him!

~ Pastor H.

Weekly STAR Reflection 4-19-2020

Reflection from Pastor Hoffman

Peace be with you.

Those are the words that stand out to me this time in the familiar story that we always hear the week after Easter – the story of so-called Doubting Thomas. The disciples are locked away in the room where they had last shared a meal with Jesus before his death. Their world has been turned upside down. They don’t know who or what to believe. They don’t know what’s coming next. And Jesus appears to them saying, “Peace be with you.”

We don’t know where Thomas is or why he’s not with him, but we do know his famous line in the sand: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25) And the next time the disciples are gathered there in the upper room – this time with Thomas – Jesus appears again, with the same greeting: Peace be with you.

I’ve never given much thought to that greeting before. It’s far more interesting to focus on Thomas, his need for proof, his belief or lack thereof. But reading the gospel this time, in a world that is filled with fear, turned upside down, where it is hard to know who or what to believe, Jesus’ greeting sounds like a word of blessing: Peace be with you. With these words, Jesus reassures the scared, anxious disciples. Peace is with you, because I am with you.

The risen Christ is still finding us in our locked rooms with fearful hearts. Jesus comes to us – again and again – as many times as it takes – so that we too might receive the peace that comes only from God.

May the peace of the risen Christ be with you.

~ Pastor H.