Dear Brothers and Sister Gathered by the Cross (Jesus):
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
There have been many disruptive headlines to contend with this past December and January. Our December Christmas merriment was halted when a crazed young man blasted his way into an elementary school in Newtown with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 20 children ages 6 and 7, and 6 adults, before killing himself. In the same week, in the midst of our collective national grief, it was reported that in one community, Camden, New Jersey, over 59 people had been killed thus far in 2012. No flags flew at half staff for Camden. Among those killed, 34 were below the age of 30; 11 were teenagers; one was two years old; another was six years old. Of the two youngest, one was decapitated, the other stabbed to death while sleeping. Even still, in the same week, in my boys’ local hockey league, four tragic deaths occurred: a father shot his wife in front of their 4 children; another father was found dead by his own hand, and a mother and daughter tragically died after loosing control of the car and rolling it several times.
In our own community of faith, the wounds have not been less personal. The last several months have brought many of our families to grief at the loss of their soul-mates, children, parents and loved ones. The old adage, “when it rains it pours,” is a reality for many of our brothers and sisters at St. Peter these past months.
Then there are the national headlines of the fiscal cliff, debt ceilings and spending reforms. Each wave of headlines seems to bring more and more division. As if sensing that the country needs a national diversion from all the uncertainty and “impending doom,” in rides the headlines of Lance Armstrong’s doping confession followed by Manti Te’o’s relationship hoax. Who could make up this stuff?
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
There have been many disruptive headlines to contend with this past December and January. Our December Christmas merriment was halted when a crazed young man blasted his way into an elementary school in Newtown with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 20 children ages 6 and 7, and 6 adults, before killing himself. In the same week, in the midst of our collective national grief, it was reported that in one community, Camden, New Jersey, over 59 people had been killed thus far in 2012. No flags flew at half staff for Camden. Among those killed, 34 were below the age of 30; 11 were teenagers; one was two years old; another was six years old. Of the two youngest, one was decapitated, the other stabbed to death while sleeping. Even still, in the same week, in my boys’ local hockey league, four tragic deaths occurred: a father shot his wife in front of their 4 children; another father was found dead by his own hand, and a mother and daughter tragically died after loosing control of the car and rolling it several times.
In our own community of faith, the wounds have not been less personal. The last several months have brought many of our families to grief at the loss of their soul-mates, children, parents and loved ones. The old adage, “when it rains it pours,” is a reality for many of our brothers and sisters at St. Peter these past months.
Then there are the national headlines of the fiscal cliff, debt ceilings and spending reforms. Each wave of headlines seems to bring more and more division. As if sensing that the country needs a national diversion from all the uncertainty and “impending doom,” in rides the headlines of Lance Armstrong’s doping confession followed by Manti Te’o’s relationship hoax. Who could make up this stuff?
There are also the personal unread headlines as well. These headlines are the stories and events that are unfolding in our homes and workplaces everyday. These stories might be fodder for the local and national media if only we were a public figure such as an athlete, celebrity, or politician. Nonetheless, what happens in our lives is still a headline even if we are the only ones reading it or seemingly aware of it.
What are we to do with all these headlines? This past fall I lead our Sunday morning Bible Study on the elements of a Biblical blessing and the need for such a blessing in all our lives. During one of the classes I talked about how the place I am most comfortable in my own skin is in the church. It is not a comfort that is born out of being a pastor. Quite the opposite, it is born out of my childhood in the church. Perhaps, it is because in the church I am free to be who I am –– a sinner in need of redeeming. I don’t simply mean “sinner” in the sense of the wrongs that I have committed. Rest assured, there is plenty of that manure to throw around. I mean “sinner” in the sense that these headlines in our lives and our world are the tragic result of living in a broken world. In some of that brokenness I am a bystander, in other parts of it I am a bystander who didn’t step-up, and in yet other parts of it I actively chose to be a part of it by my fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault. So it is because I am a “sinner” that I am most comfortable in my own skin in the church. The church is the one place in this world where we are truly free to be honest about the headlines. The church is not the building. Rather, the church is the people who gather together by the cross (Jesus) and are fed and nourished in Word (Jesus) and Sacrament (Jesus). I placed “Jesus” in parentheses because Jesus is “ the who” and “the what” that the Word and Sacraments give us. The Gospel is Jesus.
This was driven home to me a few years ago. When we returned home to Mishawaka from Winnipeg in the summer of 2011 after the very near death of my mother, we had made it to Wisconsin on our first day of travel. It was a Saturday evening and we were looking for a place to stay overnight. For ten days we had been on an emotional roller coaster as we watched my mother, our kids’ grandmother, ebb and flow between life and death. As we drove, I recall my wife asking me if we were planning to go to church somewhere tomorrow or just get up and get home. I asked her why? She said she wanted to go to church. I think I responded saying, “I need to go to church.” In fact, we all needed to go to church even if it was a church building we had never set foot in before. And so we went to a church and were among people we had never met. There was a baptism that day in the church. A new child in Christ had joined my family and I in the headlines of our summer storm, and we joined them in their life as well.
A few years ago, on a Sunday, I was in Salzburg, Austria with my brother-in-law and we went to Mozart’s church. There was no Lutheran church to be found. The service was in German, which is foreign to me, but I knew the liturgy: the Kyrie, the Gospel Acclamations, the Creed, the Sanctus, the Lord’s Prayer, the Agnus Dei, and the Benediction. I even knew the readings for the day because we had prepared and planned the same service for St. Peter using the Revised Common Lectionary which is used around the world. In the ten days I was in Germany and Austria, it was there in that church service, in Mozart’s church, sitting up front with the locals (tourists sat in the back of the church), that I felt at home and most comfortable.
On Christmas Eve in 1986, I was in a small village on the island on Siassi Island in Papua New Guinea. We had walked two hours through the jungle to get to this preaching station. I was in the middle of nowhere in a remote country and admittedly I was feeling a little homesick, this being my first Christmas away from my family. Yet, as the worship service unfolded that sense of homesickness and loneliness dissipated. Why? Because I was gathered by the cross (Jesus) with brothers and sisters in Jesus being enfolded into the familiar story of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. Luke 2, John 1, and Matthew 2 are easily understood in any language when it is told by the church. Most of those villagers had never been outside their village yet we celebrated the birth of Christ together -- a birth that enfolds all the headlines of our lives and makes us one with each other.
It is now the season of Epiphany. In Epiphany, Christ reveals His glory to us - the glory that breathed life into humanity at the creation of the world, the glory that shone upon Moses on Mount Sinai, the glory from the Ark of the Covenant that emboldened King David to dance as it was brought into Jerusalem, the glory that was located in the Holy of Holies. The glory is Jesus and He comes into our headlines and gives us a new life. The narratives of the Epiphany season reveal that the glory of God now resides in Jesus. Soon it will be Lent and we will follow that Glory-Jesus from the Mount of Transfiguration to Jerusalem as He faces the cross for you, me and all this “headline” driven world. From the manger, to the shining star, to the cross and to the empty tomb, Jesus is where we are most at home.
Last Sunday, Pastor Mangelsdorf talked about how St. Peter came to build the church building that St. Peter uses today. It struck me that when Pastor described all the services the church offers to the community – quilts, Braille, food pantry, youth ministry, etc. – that the central service we offer is the Divine Service, that is the worship service. The design of this building seeks to communicate that as a central point of who we are at St. Peter. Gathered by the cross (Jesus) is central to who we are and what we do in this world. Maybe that is why I am most comfortable with who I am in church. Because in the church, together with our brothers and sisters, Jesus gathers us home and, once refreshed in His gifts, sends us out to be His gifts to a homesick world filled with headlines.
Welcome home in Jesus,
Pastor Bryan Borger
What are we to do with all these headlines? This past fall I lead our Sunday morning Bible Study on the elements of a Biblical blessing and the need for such a blessing in all our lives. During one of the classes I talked about how the place I am most comfortable in my own skin is in the church. It is not a comfort that is born out of being a pastor. Quite the opposite, it is born out of my childhood in the church. Perhaps, it is because in the church I am free to be who I am –– a sinner in need of redeeming. I don’t simply mean “sinner” in the sense of the wrongs that I have committed. Rest assured, there is plenty of that manure to throw around. I mean “sinner” in the sense that these headlines in our lives and our world are the tragic result of living in a broken world. In some of that brokenness I am a bystander, in other parts of it I am a bystander who didn’t step-up, and in yet other parts of it I actively chose to be a part of it by my fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault. So it is because I am a “sinner” that I am most comfortable in my own skin in the church. The church is the one place in this world where we are truly free to be honest about the headlines. The church is not the building. Rather, the church is the people who gather together by the cross (Jesus) and are fed and nourished in Word (Jesus) and Sacrament (Jesus). I placed “Jesus” in parentheses because Jesus is “ the who” and “the what” that the Word and Sacraments give us. The Gospel is Jesus.
This was driven home to me a few years ago. When we returned home to Mishawaka from Winnipeg in the summer of 2011 after the very near death of my mother, we had made it to Wisconsin on our first day of travel. It was a Saturday evening and we were looking for a place to stay overnight. For ten days we had been on an emotional roller coaster as we watched my mother, our kids’ grandmother, ebb and flow between life and death. As we drove, I recall my wife asking me if we were planning to go to church somewhere tomorrow or just get up and get home. I asked her why? She said she wanted to go to church. I think I responded saying, “I need to go to church.” In fact, we all needed to go to church even if it was a church building we had never set foot in before. And so we went to a church and were among people we had never met. There was a baptism that day in the church. A new child in Christ had joined my family and I in the headlines of our summer storm, and we joined them in their life as well.
A few years ago, on a Sunday, I was in Salzburg, Austria with my brother-in-law and we went to Mozart’s church. There was no Lutheran church to be found. The service was in German, which is foreign to me, but I knew the liturgy: the Kyrie, the Gospel Acclamations, the Creed, the Sanctus, the Lord’s Prayer, the Agnus Dei, and the Benediction. I even knew the readings for the day because we had prepared and planned the same service for St. Peter using the Revised Common Lectionary which is used around the world. In the ten days I was in Germany and Austria, it was there in that church service, in Mozart’s church, sitting up front with the locals (tourists sat in the back of the church), that I felt at home and most comfortable.
On Christmas Eve in 1986, I was in a small village on the island on Siassi Island in Papua New Guinea. We had walked two hours through the jungle to get to this preaching station. I was in the middle of nowhere in a remote country and admittedly I was feeling a little homesick, this being my first Christmas away from my family. Yet, as the worship service unfolded that sense of homesickness and loneliness dissipated. Why? Because I was gathered by the cross (Jesus) with brothers and sisters in Jesus being enfolded into the familiar story of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. Luke 2, John 1, and Matthew 2 are easily understood in any language when it is told by the church. Most of those villagers had never been outside their village yet we celebrated the birth of Christ together -- a birth that enfolds all the headlines of our lives and makes us one with each other.
It is now the season of Epiphany. In Epiphany, Christ reveals His glory to us - the glory that breathed life into humanity at the creation of the world, the glory that shone upon Moses on Mount Sinai, the glory from the Ark of the Covenant that emboldened King David to dance as it was brought into Jerusalem, the glory that was located in the Holy of Holies. The glory is Jesus and He comes into our headlines and gives us a new life. The narratives of the Epiphany season reveal that the glory of God now resides in Jesus. Soon it will be Lent and we will follow that Glory-Jesus from the Mount of Transfiguration to Jerusalem as He faces the cross for you, me and all this “headline” driven world. From the manger, to the shining star, to the cross and to the empty tomb, Jesus is where we are most at home.
Last Sunday, Pastor Mangelsdorf talked about how St. Peter came to build the church building that St. Peter uses today. It struck me that when Pastor described all the services the church offers to the community – quilts, Braille, food pantry, youth ministry, etc. – that the central service we offer is the Divine Service, that is the worship service. The design of this building seeks to communicate that as a central point of who we are at St. Peter. Gathered by the cross (Jesus) is central to who we are and what we do in this world. Maybe that is why I am most comfortable with who I am in church. Because in the church, together with our brothers and sisters, Jesus gathers us home and, once refreshed in His gifts, sends us out to be His gifts to a homesick world filled with headlines.
Welcome home in Jesus,
Pastor Bryan Borger
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