Category Archives: A Message from the Pastor

Message from our Pastor

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CREATED TO BE…

Psalm 139:14 – I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

In November our theme is Created to be…Free. We are created to be free, to be transformed by the gospel.

Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In the United States we talk a lot about freedom. We talk a lot about the freedoms we experience because we live in this country. On November 5, registered voters in our country experience and express our freedom to cast a ballot for the next President of the United States along with many other people and issues on the ballot.

What does it mean to be free as citizens of the United States? What does it mean that we are created by God to be free? What does that freedom look like? Free to do whatever we want? Free to make mistakes? Free to love one another? Free to love God? What does it mean to be free?

We are created to be free. We are given free will. We are given the ability to make decisions about how we live our lives. God is not a puppeteer controlling our every move. We have received the amazing grace and love of God. How will you choose to live? What will you do with this freedom?

God’s Peace,

Pastor Kristin Hoyer

Contact information:

pastorkhoyer@gmail.com

410-299-4853
(I will be taking Mondays as my day off.)

 

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The Gospel according to Mark 7:24-37

24[Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

31Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Yes, a day at the beach! Jesus liked the beach, or at least he went there. Who knows exactly where Jesus stayed, but Tyre was a vacation spot for centuries and has the Roman ruins to prove it.
Tyre is about 50-60 miles away from Capernaum so that would be week or so journey by foot. Tyre is in Phoenicia, a long-time nemesis of Israel. Chances are that the Roman occupation of both nations put their grievances on hold, so that an Israelite could safely travel to Tyre to enjoy the beaches. So, Jesus and his disciples took a break and headed that way.
Now imagine you go on vacation to, let’s say, Hawaii. You had a long flight and you are ready to relax on Coco Beach. Ah, what a life. Your second day there, you get a call form the front desk, your boss is calling you.  You get on the phone with him and he wants you to work on a project for a new customer—a customer who has been a loyal supporter of your competition. He needs two hours work right away. How many times would you remind your boss that you are on vacation?
Jesus faces the same situation. A Syrophoenician woman wants her child healed. Jesus’ reaction is a little curt. Not to mention that this person’s feeling towards Israel is about the same as a native Lebanese person today. At the start, there is not much love here as this woman barges into Jesus’s vacation begging him to cast out her daughter’s demon.
The cool thing about this story is that Jesus changed. Because of her faith (the measure of connection with God) Jesus changes his mind and helps her. This story shows that Jesus has a pecking order of priority. It was to Israel first. But now we see it shift to faith first, no matter who you are or where you are from. That is Jesus changing from human to divine.

Pastor Gerry

Bread

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The Gospel according to John 6:24-35
24When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were [beside the sea,] they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
 25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
 35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

If you go on a diet, one of the first things dietitians say is eliminate or moderate eating bread. The dietitians will tell you, bread is full of carbs. And if you don’t burn it off, it will stick with you as body fat. So, I hear in one ear: “Don’t eat bread!” and I hear in the other ear: “I am the bread of life!” Truly, I get a little confused.
If you are confused too, here is what make sense to me: Bread is full of carbs. In fact, it is a good amount of carb energy. So, if you ate bread and you worked the fields or some other type of labor, you would need the high level of carbs. You would burn them off during the day. Bread is not a bad food, in fact it is the best food loaded with energy producing carbs that will sustain physical activity all day long. To say it another way, if you could eat one thing and you wanted to get the best energy possible from what you ate, you would be alright if you chose bread.
When Jesus says he is the bread of life. He is saying he is the best food to give you the most energy or “spiritual understanding” that you are going to get.  Jesus is the bread that sustains us and helps us grow. Jesus is the spiritual root of who we are. When we listen to him, we are the best we can be as a human person. We are more compassionate and emphatic. We are humbler and more gracious. We are more selfless and generous. We are more Christlike.
God sent Jesus to us to show us a new way to connect with him. Jesus announces the forgiveness of God; he announces that God loves us and wants a relationship with us. These messages from Jesus sustain us, give us energy, and help our faith to grow. Just like bread does for our bodies, Jesus does for our minds and hearts.
So today, know how fundamentally important it is to have Jesus in our life. He gives us the energy to live a life in Jesus’ name.
Pastor Gerry

What do you like to eat?

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Would this meal make you smile? Or would salmon, or pork, or even a crab cake be your culinary delight?  We all may have different taste and mealtime desires, but one thing is for certain, there are things that we like to eat and when we do, they bring a smile to our face (and maybe an ache to our belly).
When we talk about being fed, we usually talk about food. Are there other ways that we are fed? Can we be fed emotionally, professionally, or even spiritually? An extrovert is fed by being around people. He or she gets energy from that. On the other hand, an introvert gets fed being by themselves. He or she gets energy from that. If our boss gives us a compliment in front of others, especially our peers or our employees, we are fed by that.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus feeds a multitude with five barley loves and two fish. Jesus performs a miracle and stretched that small amount of food to feed the whole multitude of people. But maybe the real miracle is that Jesus’ message was so powerful that they didn’t want to leave him. Maybe the miracle was that Jesus fed them in another way—a spiritual way.
What do you need to hear this morning? What will feed you, nurture you, make you stronger, more hopeful, more caring, or simply more alive? What could possibly be said that you would want more? That you would feel like you have been given a special gift. That you have been lifted up. Let us hope and pray that message is what you hear this morning.

Amen!

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Children are a special gift from God. They have come to be with us every day this week, bringing their smile and good nature and willingness to do whatever we have prepared for them. They really don’t care if it is to eat a graham cracker with blue icing or thread a necklace. They know that whatever we do, we do for them. They know that everyone of our staff cares for them. As a staff, that trust makes it super fun because it opens doors and allows everyone to sing or dance or try new things or learn new stories. It is that care and concern that opens doors.
We want to mirror the care and concern that God has for us. We don’t get weighed down in dogmas or judgments. We just welcome every child like God has welcomed us. We tell them Bible stories and stories of Jesus love for us. We share some fun and enjoy the gifts the children bring to us and share the gifts we have for them.
But we need to trust too. We need to trust that the seeds of God’s love that we planted will grow. That somewhere somehow, God’s love will make a difference for this child as he/she grows up. We pray for that.
As this week ends, we at Holy Trinity have had a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School. We have been blessed with the children. We have been blessed with the energy that our talented staff brings and the willingness of so many people to be a part of this. We have been blessed with the good-natured fun and trusting relationships. This will be a summer to remember for a long time. No doubt; because of him we can say, Amen: Amen!

The Obvious

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Sometimes we need to say things that are obvious.

 

As a church, children are a blessing to us. When they are baptized, we promise, with their parents, to live among them with God’s faithful people, to bring them to the word and the holy supper, teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the creeds, and the Ten Commandments, and place in their hands the holy scriptures. We nurture them in faith. It sounds like a daunting task.

 

But while we do these things, children in our church community bless us with an opportunity to share our faith. They provide life and joy from their participation with us. They make special occasions like Christmas (Advent) and Easter (Lent) so special and meaningful for us. Their honesty and candidness at children’s sermons liven up our worship. Their special musical presentations are so pure and holy and help us remember our own childhood memories of church. The children are a blessing and help us re-enforce our faith.

 

Today, the children have been practicing for months to provide a worshipful presentation with their spunk and character which is enjoyable and cute (you’ll see). But in the process, they have learned something special. They have learned that Jesus wants us to love above all else. The children remind us of that all the time. That loud child in the pew behind us (and the embarrassed mom); the dis-engaged teenager who required the strength of Jehovah to get them here; or the enthusiastic child that is antsy for the children’s sermon, all are a blessing to us because they are part of the family of God that we see. We can love with a Hi, with a smile, sharing kindnesses, or a conversation. That is what church friends do. That restless child behind you is our child. That confirmand is our child. The singers this morning are our children.

 

Today we are blessed with their musical, Judge Julie Truly, as it parallels the gospel story of the Jesus healing the Paralytic that was lowered from the roof by four loyal friends. The children are excited to share the story with us. As they do, think of our relationship with them. We may not know their name, but we know who they are. We may have taught them in Sunday school or VBS. We may have shared a pastry or fruit with them after worship. They are our kids. We learn how to love by them just being with us. Enjoy the children and the message.

Holy Trinity Sunday

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The classic line about the Trinity is don’t try to understand it, our minds just can’t make sense of it; but God who is infinitely wiser knows how he can be one God in three persons. I don’t like to dismiss our seeking some understanding of the essence of God so quickly. The easiest explanation is that they all three have specific jobs or functions. That is known as modalism taught by Sabellius in Rome in the 3rd century. This belief was determined to be heresy in the early church.
So how do we theologize about the Trinity? First, it is important to have some idea of the essence of God. Moses’ first question to God was “What is your name?” or what is your essence? I think it is normal to want to know more about the essence of God (how God exists). That is why I like this picture. We know the three persons from the Bible, but there is a great deal hidden by the light. They all radiate with light together and separately.  They share a joint concern (love) for their creation. But they maintain a mysterious aura. They reveal some things but not all. The reason for that is their secret. So perhaps, God does not want his total essence to be known. Except to say that there are three persons in one God.
Throughout Church history, holy people referred to as saints, sought a closer relationship with God. In their quest and in their writings was the consistent proclamation of the three persons in one God. So, we can just thank God for his creation, for his redeeming, and for his perpetual guidance.  We receive joy in the ways that God shares his love in our world. We look with joy for the constant presents of God in our lives.
Pastor Gerry

Love takes many forms

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Love takes many forms. Can you imagine this grandpa the head of a multi-billion-dollar corporation?  Or maybe he is a four-star general at the Pentagon? No, of course not! If he held either of those positions, he would have more self-respect and he wouldn’t put on that silly hat.  Love takes many forms.
My Grandfather was a serious man, yet I have a picture of him with a silly birthday hat on.  Some of us who are grandparents know that we would do anything for our grandchildren, the silly hat and not taking ourselves seriously doesn’t come close to the limit of lack of discretion. We would do anything for our grandchildren. True love is like that. We will do anything for the ones we love. We would even die for them. Whether it is our parents, our spouse, our children, or our grandchildren, or a friend, when we love, truly love, there are no limits to what we will do.
Jesus is making that point as he says, “I am the Good Shepherd.” I am the one who will lay down my life to make sure the little sheep are safe. I am not a hired hand, I am invested. If something happens to the sheep, it happens to me.
As we are Post-Easter people, we understand that Jesus laid down his life for us, but people in Jesus day had no idea what was going to happen. They were unfamiliar or didn’t know the breath of God’s love. Other cultures of the time worshiped gods that explained creation of humans as entertainment or slave labor. But the true God and his son Jesus love all of their creation — especially the people.
Jesus doesn’t mince words. Jesus died for us and he would die again out of sheer love for us—to have us know the love of God and to have us feel safe and experience true safety even in a world that being safe is never a sure thing.

Jesus, Is that You?

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In Luke 24:41, Jesus, in his post-Easter appearances to the apostles, looks like a ghost, so naturally the Apostles are afraid.  They thought Jesus was a ghost once before when he walked on water, so the Apostles are confused and scared. Jesus tells them who he is and not to be afraid. Then Jesus does something interesting: he asks if there is anything to eat. It is not that Jesus likes boiled fish or is hungry after a rough couple of days without eating. It is that Jesus wants to prove to them that he is human and that he is present in the flesh.
It was important that Jesus prove that he is back to his human state so that they could understand that he was raised after being dead, instead of being a person trapped between life and afterlife as a ghost. This was a moment of proof. Jesus ate the fish, and the Apostles concluded that ghosts don’t eat, so this must be Jesus in the flesh.
It is interesting that while Jesus was alive with them, he was trying to have them see his divine nature; that after his death, Jesus wants to reveal his human nature. Through that fish, their eyes were opened to who Jesus was and what happened to him. They even saw how Jesus predicted it, and how it was prophesized in Scripture. It was also revealed that repentance and forgiveness are to be proclaimed.
As time went on, a fish became the symbol for faith in Jesus Christ: Ichthus (IXOYC), or Greek for fish. Christians used this symbol as a way to connect with each other and share their faith. While Jesus taught in parables, the physical example he used to hook people to his message was the fish — from “Come be fishers of people” to eating fish to convince the Apostles of his resurrection. So today, think of the fish as a simple item that becomes sacramental as it opens our eyes in faith.
Pastor Gerry
The Gospel according to Luke 24:36b-48
 36bJesus himself stood among [the disciples] and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate in their presence.
44Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things.”

He is Risen

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Wheeeeeeere is Jesus? “He is not here, he has been raised. Go tell his disciples and Peter to meet him in Galilee, there you will see him.”  They fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them. Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome were stunned! I think I would be stunned too in their emotional roller coaster ride of life, death, and life. As the story unfolds, they did tell the disciples and Peter, and they did meet Jesus in Galilee.
What I like about the story is that Jesus is not boastful. He is not walking around appearing and disappearing to those he knew. Even with all the gospel accounts, there are very few post-resurrection appearances. We all know history would have done a better job of recording the resurrection if Jesus had more witnesses. What if Jesus would have appeared to Pilate or Herod? Or maybe, just think of what kind of in-your-face message Jesus could have presented to good old Caiaphas, “So much for your ‘permanent solution’ to your problem….” I could think of a hundred great appearances Jesus could have made which would have projected the new church into the next millennium.
But Jesus did not do that. He met with his disciples and a few others and flew off to heaven without too much fan-fare.
Jesus was humble in life and his character did not change even after the resurrection. He had done what he had come to do. He had been such an influence that he made a difference. He left it up to the apostles and Peter (with the Holy Spirit) to carry the message forward. Today, 2,000 or so years later, we celebrate the victory won by Jesus. We celebrate that Jesus gives us hope that just like him, this earthly life doesn’t hold us, we will rise also.
Today, this resurrection seals Jesus’ credibility. It seals his gift to us in dying on the cross and opening a new relationship with God. Today, we celebrate this new day in Christ Jesus where we all are given hope in new life in him. Alleluia! Jesus has risen!
Pastor Gerry