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Visit our Sunday worship services at 8 or 10:30 am. Sunday school and adult Bible class at 9:15. We are "Making Christ Known" by faith, worship and witness to get the message of Jesus Christ to all people.

February 2018

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“Return to the LORD, your God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
Joel 2:13

 

Dear Redeemer Family:
Interestingly, the national Church this year is calling the Season of Lent, “A Season of Restrained Celebration.” That is not by any stretch of the imagination what most of us think of when we think of Lent. What does come to mind for people when they think of Lent? It might be repentance or giving things up or a focus on the cross. For some it brings to mind a heavy-handed season of inward focus that feels dark. For others it has been experienced as a time for excessive guilt. It is not uncommon for Lent to be a six-week meditation on the crucifixion, as if Holy Week and especially Good Friday weren’t enough for the Church’s deep contemplation on Jesus’ death. Not everyone loves Lent because of how it has been observed in some times and places. Our practice should change such negative attitudes so that Lent can be a high point of the Church Year for the faithful.

 

In spite of all the baggage that some people still bring to the season, Lent can become a time of celebration. That may sound strange and unexpected, but hear me out. The key is that the celebration is restrained, is expressed in subdued and anticipatory ways, and is geared toward preparing to celebrate with exuberant joy the Divine paschal mystery at Easter. Lent is a season of fasting, and fasting is about a discipline of restraint so that one can celebrate more deeply and extravagantly something wonderful later. But even in that time of preparation, the joy that is to come is known now! This is Lent! Since Sundays in Lent are feast days and not fast days (Properly speaking Sundays are not part of the Season of Lent. You hear that when I announce the Gospel lesson. I don’t say, “The Holy Gospel for the 2nd Sunday of Lent.” Rather I say, “The Holy Gospel for the 2nd Sunday in Lent.” Every Sunday is a mini-celebration of Easter. So, they are all feast days.), and the celebration of Holy Communion is always appropriate, they are the perfect time to express a sense of restrained celebration and anticipatory joy.

 

Consider the origins of Lent: a time of intense preparation for baptism at Easter. What could be more joyful than to prepare for one’ life to be transformed into a new life in Christ? Yet, Lent was for preparation and expectation, not the full expression of celebration and joy. The disciplines and rituals of preparation all say to the baptismal candidate: get ready, God is about to do something wonderful in you through the death and resurrection of Christ at baptism!

 

This year, the Wednesday night Lenten Services will all indicate this in some way: God deliverance of us by some wonderful act; leading to a time to celebrate. I hope to see you all there.

 

In Christ, Pastor Rose

January 2018

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” Mark 1:9-11

 

Dear Redeemer Family:

When most of you receive this, we will be well into the middle of the Season of Christmas. You know the carol? The Twelve Days of Christmas? It is a short season, and its purpose really is to prepare us for what is coming next, Epiphany, God’s light breaking into the world. Epiphany begins, in the lessons, with the arrival of the three magi. It takes place on January 6th, thirteen days after Christmas. It is then, that I like to tell people, that they may open their Christmas presents. Remember, it is the magi who bring the gifts. For some reason, children don’t usually like that waiting for the magi to arrive. What is really important about the Day of Epiphany is that illuminated in the gospel lesson of the day, God’s promise shines bright in the night as magi follow a star to honor a new king. Strangers from a faraway land, they welcome the long-awaited Messiah of Israel.

 

The time after Epiphany is really an extended invitation of Baptism. And it is kind of filled with ironies. Mark’s gospel reports the story of Jesus’ baptism with some irony: the one on whom the Spirit descends is himself the one who will baptize others with the Holy Spirit. Think about it! John the Baptist doesn’t want to baptize Jesus. Rather he thinks that Jesus should be baptizing him! Again, think about it. The words that we hear coming from heaven at Jesus’ baptism are repeated again, at His Transfiguration at the end of the Season of Epiphany. Again, something to think about!

 

This theme of an invitation runs really through the whole time of Epiphany. In the Gospel lessons of this time, Jesus goes out and calls His disciples with the words, “Follow me,” an invitation. Philip will invite Nathanael to meet Jesus with, “come and see,” an invitation.

 

The themes of Epiphany encourages all disciples, that includes us, to go fishing for people, to have intentional conversations with others inside and outside of the Church about their faith, and to invite those who have not yet been baptized to “come and see” what these waters are all about. The waters of baptism tell the truth, that we live in a world of competing values and conflicting loyalties. To follow Jesus is to turn away from other ways of living and being in the world. This is highlighted in the Baptismal Rite itself in the structure of the renunciations and the profession of faith. “Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God? Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God? Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?” And then, we proclaim our faith in the Baptismal Creed, the Apostles’. “We believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.” This too is an invitation for all now to “Come and see.”

 

In Christ,

Pastor Rose