Author Archive: Leesa Bell

Communion to the homebound

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Training for Communion Ministers to the Homebound

Are you warm, inviting, and able to meet and visit with others in a variety of circumstances? Are you flexible and adaptable? Do you love the sacrament of Holy Communion and our congregation’s weekly sharing in this meal? God may be calling you to the ministry of carrying the gifts of word and sacrament to our congregation’s homebound members.

While this ministry will always be a regular and expected part of the pastoral call, it does not belong exclusively to clergy. In the same way that members of our congregation are trained to serve as readers, intercessors, acolytes, and communion ministers within the assembly’s worship, members can be trained to take part in this ministry of sharing holy communion beyond the assembly’s worship.

In fact, lay ministers participating in and leading this ministry meet a pastoral need in a way that our pastor/s cannot. Those who are homebound or absent from the daily and weekly life of the congregation often say what they miss about “going to church” is being included within the community of other church members. The various people who make up the life of the congregation are missed just as much as, perhaps even more than, the pastor is missed.

If you have gifts of hospitality, listening, companionship, and personal comfort in intimate settings, prayerfully consider learning more about this ministry at a training on Sunday, April 10th, following the 11:00 am worship service.  We will gather in the alcove in the gathering area from 12:15 to 1:15 pm.

Christ is Risen! (And so are we!)

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In Holy Baptism  

our gracious heavenly Father frees us from sin and death by joining us

to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.   

 

We are born children of a fallen humanity;  

by water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God  

and made members of the church, the body of Christ.   

 

Living with Christ and in the communion of saints,  

we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God. 

Evangelical Lutheran Worship p. 27. 

 

“Christ is risen!” proclaims the pastor on Easter morning.

“He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!” responds the congregation.

But…what does this mean?  What does Jesus’ resurrection mean for us?  Equally important, what does resurrection mean for this congregation?

The church’s teaching on baptism points to an answer.  When Jesus was born in Bethlehem as the truly human and truly divine One, God identified with humanity.  In Jesus, God joined God’s very self to our brokenness, our sinfulness, and our death.  Christ’s identification with suffering humanity led to Good Friday and the cross.  When Jesus died—he died our death.

When Jesus rose on Easter morning, he lived our resurrection.  Baptism is the sign of this resurrection.  Through baptism God joins us to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  God frees us from sin and death.

We don’t have to wait until our physical deaths, however, to know resurrection.  With the future assured, this means our resurrected life begins now.

A resurrected life can acknowledge the pain of its past—including its sins, its failure to love God and the neighbor—yet not get stuck in guilt and shame, but move forward in hope.

A resurrected life is confidently rooted in the love of God, trusting that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

A resurrected life is free.  Free to love.  Free to take risks.  Free to fail.  Free to experiment.  Free to learn.  Free to grow.  Free to ask for help.  Free to ask for forgiveness.  Free to claim a fresh start every day.

As human beings we will never get things right 100 percent of the time.  Resurrection assures us that life is not about perfection but growth.

I trust that this is reassuring for us as individuals.  I also trust that this is reassuring to us as a community of faith.  For baptism also applies to the church.  Baptism creates the church.  Baptism makes us Christ’s body in the world, living his resurrected life in the communion of saints.

The church’s resurrected life is one that can acknowledge its past, including its brokenness and its conflicts, its failures to love God and its neighbors, yet not get stuck in this past, but move forward in hope.

The church’s resurrected life is confidently rooted in God’s love, giving it the ability to share this love with the world.

The church’s resurrected life is one of freedom for the sake of the gospel.  It is a community that knows the freedom of taking risks, of failing, of asking for help, and of asking for forgiveness.  The church is free to reinvent itself for the sake of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ for each new generation.

The church is a human community.  It will never get things right 100 percent of the time.  But as it lives Christ’s life in the world, it will discover that resurrection is not about perfection but growth in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.

My prayer for Holy Trinity, as it calls a new pastor, is that it will live more deeply into the promise of its resurrected life.

“Christ is risen!” proclaims the pastor on Easter morning.

And the congregation responds, “He is risen indeed!  And so are we!  Alleluia!”

 

Blessings, 

Pastor Margrethe 

Transitions Ahead

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Dear friends, the synod has promised to send Holy Trinity’s call committee a list of names by the end of this month. Soon you will be interviewing candidates and calling a pastor! Given that the process is moving forward, the synod has asked me to consider other congregations in need of transition pastors. While nothing is definite yet, it is likely that I will be moving on in the near future.

The question I am sure is on everyone’s mind is “What will happen if Pastor Kleiber leaves and we don’t have a new pastor?” There are two possibilities as I see it.
1.  You will be close to calling a pastor but still some months away from that pastor’s arrival. Your council works with the synod to find an interim pastor who will lead worship and provide pastoral care during the time between my departure and the arrival of your new pastor.
2.  You will be very close to calling a pastor who may arrive within just a few weeks. Your council works with the synod to find supply pastors to preach. Pastors from nearby churches offer to help in case of pastoral care emergencies.

While, I do not yet have a covenant with a new congregation I want to let you know that the process of moving on has started. When a new assignment has been confirmed I will let you know.

Let me also say that I continue to delight in our ministry together at Holy Trinity. While this congregation faces enormous challenges you also have enormous potential. You have some of the finest staff I have ever known and a dynamic, forward thinking council. I plan to enjoy the remaining time I have with you. I will not be absent until I am actually gone!

Blessings to you all!

Pastor Kleiber

Financial Education Month

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MARCH IS FINANCIAL EDUCATION MONTH AT HOLY TRINITY!

March 6 and 13 – Family Finance & Budgeting Workshop

Karla McGovern will present a class on helping you and your family build healthy money habits. This class will be based on Nathan Dugan’s book Money Sanity Solutions: Linking Money & Meaning. This class is intended to help you be more intentional about how you share, save, and spend money. It is applicable to anyone but would be especially helpful for young adults and parents with children at home.

March 20 – Faithful Planning; Faithful Lives

How will you be remembered? What values will you leave behind with your final planning?

On Sunday, March 20, at 9:45am, Alice Benson, ELCA Regional Gift Planner for Metro DC Synod, will be here at HTLC to share inspiring stories of ways other faithful Lutherans have planned for the financial care of their loved ones – their families, church, and other Lutheran ministries they love. Planning ahead can go a long way in changing the world for the sake of the Gospel – perhaps by including a charitable bequest in your will or adding a beneficiary designation for a 401(k) or IRA retirement account. Alice doesn’t sell anything other than the concept of leaving a legacy for ministry.

If you have already done something in your planning and would like to share your story, please contact Alice ahead of time at alice.benson@elca.org or 301-963-6570. If you will be out of town and will miss this presentation, you can contact her to learn of ways you can leave a legacy for ministry.

All of these classes will be held during the Sunday School hour (9:45 – 10:45) in the Gathering Space area.

Pizza with Pastor

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ARE YOU INTERESTED in becoming a part of Holy Trinity’s community of faith? Then join us for PIZZA WITH PASTOR on Sunday March 6th. We will meet in the Fellowship Hall for pizza and conversation after the 11:00 am worship service.

Communion Instruction & Recognition

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Instruction: Sunday, March 26, 2017, 11:00 AM – 1:15 PM

Communion Recognition Sunday: April 2, 2017

Communion instruction teaches our youth more about the Lord’s Supper to prepare them to join us at the Table.  It is designed for students in grade 2 and above, but we welcome any child who is ready to receive this sacrament. Parents should plan to join their child for this one-time class. Registration materials will be mailed to all second-grade children registered for HTLC Sunday School.  

During our time together students and parents are involved in a variety of activities including baking of bread for Holy Communion.

The students will then receive Communion the following Sunday, with a reception to follow.

If you would like more information about this year’s Communion Instruction, please contact Mary Samios at childrensministry@holytrinityleesburg.org.

Sin is Behovely…

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Sin is behovely, but all shall be well,

and all shall be well,  and all manner of things shall be well.

Julian of Norwich

1342-1416 Christian Mystic

When a friend quoted Julian of Norwich to me, I wanted to slug her.  My life was in total meltdown.  I felt victimized, sinned against, and I was angry.  How dare she say everything shall be well!

And whatever did it mean to say, “Sin is behovely?”  Behovely?  What kind of medieval nonsense is that? 

Behovely…it means that sin serves a purpose.  Yes, sin is ugly.  Yes, sin causes suffering.  Yes, we want to avoid the tragedy of sin at all costs.   At the same time, what Julian is getting at is the immensity and power of God’s love.  God works in spite of our sin, and even through our sin, to bring about a greater good.        

In Romans, chapter 8, St. Paul makes the audacious claim: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

All things?  Really?  Even suffering?  Even sin?  Both Paul and Julian would say yes.  Paul concludes Romans chapter 8 with the ringing declaration that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sin is behovely.  It took me years and many hours of prayer to wrap my brain around the meaning of these words.  Today I am convinced that it is only when we hit bottom, that is, when we fully accept the tragedy of sin and our part in it that we can begin to grasp the immense measure of God’s love. 

By the grace of God I have survived my life’s various meltdowns.  More important, God used each crisis to teach me some painful truths about myself.  They have proven to be opportunities to grow in ways I’d never imagined.  And while I would never wish those experiences on my worst enemy, I treasure everything I learned from them. 

Sin is behovely.  If we are honest about our faults and open to God’s power, God will use all things, even sin, as an opportunity for transformation.  Saints, they say, are merely sinners who have been driven into the arms of God.

What might change for us, during this penitential season of Lent, if we started to see sin as behovely?  What if repentance was less about shame and guilt—and more about learning and growing from the painful experience of sin?  What if we began to trust that all shall be well? 

As we move towards the great mysteries of Holy Week and Easter, trust in the immensity and power of God’s love.  Surrender all aspects of your life to God, even or perhaps especially, the suffering and sin you have known.  Then wait for the new life that awaits you.

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
like the wideness of the sea;
there’s a kindness in God’s justice
which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
are more felt than up in heav’n.
There is no place where earth’s failings
have such kindly judgment giv’n.

‘Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
it is something more than all:
greater good because of evil,
larger mercy through the fall.
Make our love, O God, more faithful;
let us take you at your word,
and our lives will be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.

Text: Frederick W. Faber, 1814-1863, alt.

Blessings,

Pastor Margrethe

Snow Sabbath

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SNOW SABBATH

Praise the Lord from the earth,

you sea monsters and all deeps,

Fire and hail, snow and frost,

stormy wind fulfilling his command.

Psalm 148:7-8

 

We are having a snow Sabbath this weekend.

As I write this, Snowzilla, (as the Capital Weather Gang has christened this winter storm) has blanketed the Metro D.C. area with more than a foot of snow and more is on the way.

I imagine most of you will be digging out Sunday morning and for many of you, the roads will be impassible.  While I hate to do this, the staff, the council and I have made the decision to cancel Sunday worship.

For me, Sunday worship is a blessing that disrupts the weekly routine, the daily grind of work.  It reminds me that life is about more than drudgery.  Life is God’s power at work in us, calling us to be fully human, to fulfill our destiny as the baptized people of God.  Sunday worship also reminds me that I am not the center of the universe, that there is One greater than I, ordering and caring for creation.

Snowzilla has disrupted our weekly routine—and perhaps that is the point.  God has called a snow Sabbath, a disruption to our busy, self-absorbed Washington D.C. way of life.  Snowzilla puts us in our place.  Snowzilla reminds us that we are not in control of the universe.

Yet, while Snowzilla reminds us of our limitations, it does not diminish in any way our call to be the baptized people of God.  Snowzilla may even provide opportunities for us to be the people of God, to care for our neighbors, to care for those in distress and for those less fortunate.

Finally, while Sunday worship may be cancelled, Snowzilla does not cancel the Sabbath day.  Exodus reminds us that the God who created heaven and earth, the God who created hail, snow and frost, and stormy winds, is the One who consecrates the day.

So wherever you are this Sunday, and I hope you are home, safe and warm, surrounded by loved ones, take some time to remember the Sabbath day.  Take time to pause and praise the Lord, the One who created the heaven and the earth.  Give thanks for your life.  Pray for God’s protection on first responders and others who serve in these treacherous conditions.  Then, make it your intention to carry God’s gracious love out into the world this week.

Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy…For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.  

Exodus 20:8 & 11

Blessings,

Pastor Margrethe