LUTHERAN RESPONSES TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

I don’t have enough finger on my hands to count the supposedly “Christian responses to last week’s Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.  From Catholic bishops, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the president of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, to name just a few, have (predictably) publicly registered their strong opposition to the Supreme Court decision to affirm the right of all Americans to enjoy the rights and benefits of civil marriage.

Our own denomination has joined the public debate as well.  In lieu of a longer article, I am simply putting into your hands three very different responses:

1.       ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton’s Statement (June 30, 2015) 
2.       A Response from ReconcilingWorks (formerly Lutherans Concerned)
         to Bishop Eaton’s Statement (July 1, 2015)
3.      A Statement by the Missouri Synod President Matthew Harrison.

I invite you to judge for yourself whether the SCOTUS decision constitutes a threat to the free exercise of religion or not.  Knowing that we at Bethel are somewhat divided over the matter at hand, I wish to remind you that our unity does not come from agreeing with one another, but from standing together by the foot of the cross of Jesus, united by our need for forgiveness and grace.

Yours in Christ,
Pr. Gabi

LOVE GOD. LOVE PEOPLE. SHARE JESUS.

If you believe that God’s love extends to everyone, proclaim your faith and experience walking in the 2015 SF Pride Parade together with other people of faith. 

This is an opportunity to show God’s love to those who sadly associate Christians with hatred and prejudice. How? Hop on the Bethel Bus on Sunday, June 28 (time TBA). We then will take BART between the Daly City and Embarcadero BART stations (bring $ for train fare with you). 

The day will include Scripture lesson, reflection, communion, coffee, and pastries on the bus. We will join other Lutheran congregations as part of the “Reconciling Works” (formerly “Lutherans Concerned) contingent at Beale Street. The Bethel Bus will pick us up around in the afternoon and take us back to Bethel.

WINDOWS TO GOD MIRRORS FOR THE SOUL.

A Purchase in Berkeley

A few weeks ago, on my way to the synod assembly in Sacramento, I pulled out on Highway 80 to stop at my favorite building salvage store, Urban Ore.  An hour later, and after some texting back and forth with Pr. Ben, I walked out happily with a prairie-style window and an old mirror (trust me, you don’t want to know how I ended up fitting both into my little 2-door convertible).

Why? Because of the visual theme of our worship services for the next two months: “Windows to God Mirrors for the Soul.”

In some of the lessons during the season we meet people who are looking on to what is happening around them, as if they were looking through a window at events taking place. As we listen some of these lessons, it is like we have a “window” to God, a way of helping us to see something more, and to learn something different about God.

At other times as we explore the passages in this season, it is as though the passages reflect back to us aspects of what it is to be human, positive and negative: the lessons act like “mirrors” for the soul.

Some Sundays we will learn more about God, other Sundays we will focus more on looking at ourselves and how we can reflect more of God through our lives.

A Bit of a Parable

To help us stay on track with our visual focus, I now had a window and a mirror leaning against the shelves in my office.  Some time has passed since and the two are now on display in the narthex.  A few things happened in the meantime.

As you can imagine, a window which spent weeks, if not months outside on a salvage lot was not exactly clean.  In fact, it was dusty, grimy, and covered with cobwebs, with price stickers stuck to it. 

The process of getting it ready reminds me a bit of some of what we do to see God.  While God comes to us, reveals himself to us, and shatters our reality with his good news into our lives, it helps that we clear our vision so that we can see what God does in the world.  Thus far, I have the window a good scrub with water, detergent, and a sponge.  Unfortunately, the glass still is streaked and could benefit from another cleaning session.  Similarly, we need to clear our vision not just once, but repeatedly, over and over again.

Next Steps

So what’s next? Right now, the mirror may need some TLC and a few tacks to hold it together, but overall, it will serve its purpose in reflecting any potential users’ image back to them.  The window, on the other hand, still needs some work, if it were to serve its purpose for our worship summer season.  Thus far, all one can see when looking through it is what’s right behind it – in this case the stone wall against which it is leaning.  But a window into God? Hmmm.

Here’s what I hope to do with you over the next couple of weeks.  I hope that you will share with me (either via the note paper inserted into your bulletin or by emailing me) where you see God active in the world and how you have learnt something more, something different about God that you didn’t know before. 

Together with Liz Barton (who oversees our sanctuary décor) I plan to create collages from our collective responses that then will fill the individual panes of the window as testimony to the collective faith of the Bethel community.

LWR QUILT DISTRIBUTION IN NEPAL

The following photos feature some of the 9,240 quilts that LWR sent to Nepal just days after the first earthquake struck. The photos were taken at a Quilt distribution in Lamjung district, where 75 percent of homes are reported to have been destroyed. LWR is focusing its response in Lamjung District as well as the remote, mountainous Ghorka district. LWR Quilts provide warmth, especially as the monsoon season approaches, and reminds the people of Nepal that they are not forgotten.

CHARITY -- JUSTICE -- SERVICE

OUR NEXT iSERVE SUNDAY (May 31) is just around the corner.  In the name of Jesus, many among us will worship God with their hands outside of the Bethel sanctuary.  I want to use this occasion and briefly reflect on three important concepts – charity, justice, and service – and their importance to our faith. 

LET’S BEGIN WITH CHARITY.  The meaning of the word charity is pretty straight-forward and uncontested.  The primary meaning of the word “charity” (from the Latin caritas) is “love” – love of God above all things and the love of our neighbor as ourselves.  On top of that, the word “charity” also stands for concrete acts of generous assistance toward those in need (as in “charitable donations”).

THE TERM “JUSTICE,” on the other hand, is the source of much confusion. It is not unusual to hear commentators argue that Christians have no business talking about justice in the social realm, except for legal justice in the courts. We are even told that terms such as “social justice” or “economic justice” are merely pleasant-sounding euphemisms for socialism. 

The most notable recent challenge to Christian social justice came in March 2010 when radio host Glenn Beck begged his listeners to look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on their church’s Web site. If they found it, they ought to run as fast as they could. “Social justice and economic justice, they are code words,” Beck insisted, “the one common rallying cry of both Nazis and Communists because they both want totalitarian government.”

Beck’s comments caused outcries among many Christians, not only among liberals, but among prominent conservative church leaders as well.  All of them insisted that social justice is a core Christian concept.  Social justice, they said, is about shalom, humanity’s peace with God, one another, and creation. Social justice stands in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets and the teachings of Jesus.

One BIG difference between acts of charity and acts of justice is that when people engage in ACTS OF CHARITY, it primarily means that people who have access to resources share some of their resources with others who lack them.  The “haves” do something FOR the “have nots” – to put it crudely.  It is a lopsided relationship in which one party has access to all the resources and appears to know what the other party needs and the other party is simply on the receiving end of such goodness.

ACTS OF JUSTICE are different.  Rather than doing things FOR the poor of this world, people who seek to further justice do things WITH them, in service, in community, in negotiation, in partnership.  In such a relationship, the poor know what they need.  We just have to ask and listen. 

“Charity” maintains a distance; “justice” smells the stench, suffers the heat, cries over each death, and cheers each small success.

SERVICE. The curious thing is that in Lutheran circles we rarely seem to talk about justice.  Rather, it is far more common for Lutherans to encourage one another to engage in “service” to others (as is “God’s work. Our hands” or “service worship”).  I have wondered, for a long time, why that is the case and whether it is necessarily a bad thing. 

The underlying spirit of our iSERVE Sundays is one of service.  We trust that in serving others in Jesus’ name, we serve God and worship God.  We also trust that by serving others, we offer ourselves to God, so that God may shape us through God’s Holy Spirit.  By being “Christ to others” (Luther’s term) we each have the chance to grow in Christ.  The first and foremost transformation that we hope will result from our service is our own transformation, our own growth in hope, faith and love.

May this iSERVE Sunday be a strong witness to our shared faith in God and may the people whose lives we touch experience God’s love through us.

TO BE OF USE

A little over two weeks from now, our Mission Outreach ministry will sponsor Bethel's latest iServe Sunday.  The format of this ministry has evolved over the past four years, and so have the projects that are being offered. 

The one thing that has not changed since we began offering iServe Sundays in early 2011 is the firm belief that our worship is incomplete, if we offer it with our lips only.

Mark my words – our hymns, sacraments, prayers, and proclamation are and will always remain at the heart of what we do together. The time that we spend lifting up our voices together in praise and thanksgiving is important, for that time uplifts and equips us for the rest of our week. 

But would you not agree with me that, if we were to confess with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord, but were to do the opposite with our hearts and hands, that very worship would remain lip service only?

A major purpose of what Christians do when they get together as a community is that they build one another up and equip one another to live Christ-centered lives.  Praying together, singing together, gathering around Christ’s altar together, studying Scripture and together, reading relevant spiritual books together, listening to sermons together – these all are supposed to equip us as we go back into our regular lives and practice our love for God and God’s people. 

Our 3-4 annual iServe Sundays are important reminders that – first and foremost – we are called to be servants to others in Christ’s name.  We are to be more than listeners of God’s word.  We are to be doers of God’s word!

A few weeks ago I mention author Bob Goff’s book Love Does.  In the spirit of that book, let us imagine which other gifts that we receive from God can be used to “do."

Grace does.  Forgiveness does.  Mercy does.  Hope does.  Healing does.  Wisdom does.  Knowledge does.  Peace does.  And finally: worship does. 

I recently came across a wonderful poem by NY Times bestselling author and poet Marge Piercy.  In this poem, Piercy describes the kind of people whom she likes best: people who jump into work head first, people who work as hard as water buffalos and move things forward, people who submerge themselves in tasks working in harmony with others. 

I pray that God’s Holy Spirit would mold us into such people who give themselves away for the sake of the life of the world, for the sake of their neighbors near and far.  May we offer ourselves willingly as tools to God, tools through which God may accomplish his works in he world!

TO BE OF USE

The people I love the best

jump into work head first

without dallying in the shallows

and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,

the black sleek heads of seals

bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,

who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,

who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,

who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest

and work in a row and pass the bags along,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters

but move in a common rhythm

when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry 

and a person for work that is real.

Source: Marge Piercy, "To be of use.”  Circles on the Water: Selected Poems of Marge Piercy (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)

MOTHER'S DAY RESOURCES

Prayer for Mothers on Mother’s Day

This day, our God, as we gather,
we pray for mothers.

We give thanks for mothers
who love and care for their children
and are loved and cared for right back.

But we also pray for women
who have longed for children
and don't and can't have them.

And we pray for women
who had children who shouldn't have—
for children who grew up
without the love and care they deserved and needed.

We pray for grandmothers—
for those for whom that turned out to be what they dreamed it would be
and for those for whom it didn't.

We pray for mothers with sick children
and children with sick mothers.

We pray for mothers with lost children and dead children—
children with lost mothers and dead mothers—
for those who grieve what they had
and those who grieve what they never had.

We pray for women who are afraid.

We pray for all the dilemmas and doubts
and fears, frustrations and heartaches
and richness and wonder
and sleeplessness
of parenting.

We pray for mothers who parent by themselves.
We pray for women who carefully negotiate life with step children,
and for women trying to adopt,
and women hoping fertility treatments will renew disappointed hope.

We pray for mothers whose children have grown up and moved out
and those whose children have grown up and not moved out.

We pray for women who mother the children of others,
and we pray for women who give birth
in every conceivable way—
to ideas and art and possibility
and wonder and joy—
to new life in job contexts and in relational ones.

This complicated day, our God,
we're reminded again
of just how much will not fit on a Hallmark card.
but does fit into Your full awareness of all that is—
that does fit into Your investment in love and grace
in and through all circumstances.

We pray for mothers
in all the fullness of what all it can mean—
informed by what we know
of all those we know—
gratefully trusting You to know so much more than we do or can—
gratefully trusting You with the hearts of those we love—
gratefully trusting You with all the deep pain and joy of this day,

in Jesus' name,

amen.

~ written by John Ballenger, pastor of Woodbrook Baptist Church (www.woodbrook.org ) in Baltimore, MD.  Posted on a preacher musing.http://preachermusings.wordpress.com/

Another Prayer

To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you

To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you

To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you

To those who experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you

To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.

To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms – we need you

To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you

To those who have disappointment, heart ache, and distance with your children – we sit with you

To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you

To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience

To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst

To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children – we mourn that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be

To those who step-parent – we walk with you on these complex paths

To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren -yet that dream is not to be, we grieve with you

To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you

To those who placed children up for adoption — we commend you for your selflessness and remember how you hold that child in your heart

And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you

This Mother’s Day, we walk with you. Mothering is not for the faint of heart and we have real warriors in our midst. We remember you.

An Open Letter to Pastors on Mother's Day

http://timewarpwife.com/open-letter-pastors-non-mom-speaks-mothers-day/