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Trinity Lutheran

Come Into the Wilderness

You would love the way our sanctuary looks right now, during this season of Lent. Some gifted women in our congregation have transformed it into a wilderness, visually inviting us on a Lenten journey. When you first walk into the sanctuary there is a display of sage brush, desert rocks and even a skull laying in the illusionary sand. An old trunk sits in the sand holding the “Alleluia” banner in its dark interior until that joyous day. Bare branches stand tall here and…

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A Livable Faithful Life (and Lent)!

[Jesus said to the disciples:] “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)(Note: Matthew then goes on to give examples of “practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them—almsgiving, prayer and fasting” in vv. 6:2-18.)I’m often afraid that when we gather for worship on Ash Wednesday and are reminded again of the “discipline of Lent—self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting,…

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Beginnings

“Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.” (Luke 4: 14)These verses describe the beginning of the Galilean ministry, coming right after the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. At the start of this Lenten season, we witness Jesus at this beginning. The start of a new church season can be a time to reflect on…

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In the Desert

"I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the…

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From Light into Lent

Two days from now, the festive feast days of Epiphany will give way to the somber season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. We are invited to reflect on God’s great love and mercy in sending Jesus Christ to reconcile us to God and to one another, through the forgiveness of sin, giving to us the gifts of life and salvation. The appointed Psalm for Ash Wednesday, March 2, is Psalm 51:1-17. While some Psalms speak about God, this penitential Psalm is…

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What is Holy Week For You?

In the church I grew up in on the West Side of Chicago, a church that worshipped about twelve hundred people on a Sunday in the mid-summer, Palm Sunday marked the ramping up to very busy week. There were twenty-four services beginning at seven in the morning of Palm Sunday and ending at one in the afternoon on Easter with six on that day alone. In my junior high days and through high school, I worked regularly at the church but for me…

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Lenten Presence

Usually, Lent is my favorite season of the church calendar. I enjoy the weight of it. It’s a time where we embrace the sweeping grandeur of the Christian story. Lent feels like we are trying to embrace both the beginning and the end while holding space for all the messiness of the in between and you never quite know if your arms will stretch that far. It’s a time where we speak hard truths and tell long stories. We remind each other that…

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Arrival of March

When I was growing up as a member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (“Tosa” to those in the know), I found the Psalms to be exceptionally boring. There was so much repetition from Psalm to Psalm; the language and topics were archaic; there were no good stories, only a bunch of little verses that didn’t seem to fit together. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found the Book of Psalms to be among the most meaningful parts of scripture. I…

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Consider the Psalms

Lent is an appropriate time for reflection and self examination and there is no better place to ground our thinking than with the Psalms. This is a book that is actually made up of several books and inside each we can find songs that reflect many ways of describing our relationship with our God. There about nine major types of Psalms and most contain more than one manner of expression. For Lent however, I wish to focus on the Penitential, the Laments and…

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Allowing Time in Lent

The season of Lent began yesterday, did you make it to one of our local Lutheran churches who did “Ashes on the Go” for your Ash Wednesday? Or did you find a time in your home or workspace to remember the day? Or did the day move past you in the usual fashion, and perhaps now you are feeling a twinge of regret for missing it, as I mention it? I always will remember one Ash Wednesday when I was living and working…

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On Lent and Hope

I love the church year, the changing seasons and colors. Whatever else happens in the world, the church year goes forward. It is not like the chronological calendar year that starts on a number and moves to another number at the end. The cycle of the church year revolves, with hints of the next season, the next experience always ahead. The colors change, the paraments change, the fabric and shapes of the banners, the flowers or the not-flowers at the altar. Some days…

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Oboe Lessons

Nearly five years ago, I started oboe lessons. This was something I wanted to do since I was in elementary school. When the time came in fifth grade to start learning a band or orchestral instrument, I really wanted to play something with flashy, silver keys and that had a cool instrument case. Instead, I was given my father’s violin. Needless to say, with such a lack of enthusiasm, my violin playing days were limited. As I got older and looked toward retirement,…

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Marking Time

“How might our experience of time change if we could learn to receive time as a gift from God? How might this open us up to live more fully?”  Dorothy Bass, Receiving the Day One of my favorite TV shows is When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel.  It is about a schoolteacher Elizabeth  Thornton in the small town of Hope Valley in the early 1900s.  Elizabeth rings the bell to start and end the school day.  She also rings the bell to signal the end of…

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