Pastor's Message
[Click here to read blog posts by Pastor Linderman.]
December, 2019
There’s a great quote about worship that I happened upon accidentally. It comes from the PBS show, “Call the Midwife” (which I have yet to watch). Sister Monica Joan, the lead character who is an Anglican nun, says, “The liturgy is of comfort to the disarrayed mind. We need not choose our thoughts; the words are aligned, like a rope for us to cling to.” I couldn’t agree more. What a relief it is to Christians that at the end/beginning of a long week, we can gather together to grab onto the words used in our Christian worship, cling to them, and be pulled thereby into the Spirit’s tether. A great comfort, indeed!
As we enter the Advent season this month, I want to re-invite you to experience the comfort of worship and its expression of faith in Christ’s mercy by attending regular worship on Sunday mornings. I also want to invite you to experience three special services that are intended to help us through the frenetic schedule of our culture’s countdown to Christmas. These are:
- the Ramsey Community Advent Lessons and Carols (Dec 8, at Redeemer, 3pm) (please note - DEC 8, not the 15th!)
- our traditional Christmas pageant (Dec 15, 9:15am), and
- our community ‘Awaiting the Light’ service (Dec 22, 3pm).
This year, our Christmas pageant format is new because we are setting the pageant within the normal service of Holy Communion. This way, the work of the children in presenting the story of Christ’s birth, and its importance for our faith, is used to prepare the congregation for Holy Communion, where we believe Christ is most clearly present in our lives. The community Advent Lessons and Carols service provides us and our local Christian neighbors with a deeper appreciation of the way Christ’s birth fits into God’s Salvation history, and helps us prepare for the “advent” of our Lord, both in history and at the end of time. The ‘Awaiting the Light’ service is designed to address the power of nostalgia and grief in our lives, particularly for those who find the holidays a challenge. It wraps this longing in the promises of Christ’s coming and invites us into the “hope of Christ.”
Advent is a time, like Lent, in which to enter with new vigor into the spirituality of the tradition. Like the quote above says, the liturgy (tradition) lines up words for us to use, and like a rope we can cling to, supports us in our spiritual journey. Is your journey disrupted by the ebb and flow of everyday life? Has your faith felt dry or burdened by questions, doubts and anxiety? Are you feeling “disarrayed” in your thinking because of the chaos of our political and social lives? Then, through the worship traditions of the Church, God’s help is here for you. Grab the rope and let God’s grace to the work.
+PL
October, 2019
“You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)
A Christian congregation is like any other human organization. We have a reason for meeting, a meeting place, and a group of people who help run the organization. We have activities for the larger group, and hold special events, usually on some kind of annual schedule.
What sets a Christian congregation apart from other organizations is the reason for meeting. According to the verse from 1 Peter, quoted above, a Christian congregation is first of all a spiritual temple for God, a body of people who are held together by the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst. As we are held together by Christ, we are called to be a “royal priesthood” who offer “sacrifices” to God. Our presence, and the “sacrifice” we make in the world, witnesses to God’s grace. What form does this “sacrifice” take? It comes in the form of praise of God in worship, participating in God’s activity in the sacraments (Baptism and Holy Communion), and serving others and the world in love. There may be lots of human organizations, as well as other ways Christ works in the world, but the church is a distinct form of Christ’s activity in the world, meant to provide a specific witness to the world that God in fact loves it, and has redeemed it.
As our fall programming gets underway, and stewardship becomes our focus in October, I marvel at the amazing opportunity we have to be a witness to Christ’s work in the world. I invite you to pray during this stewardship month that our witness to Christ’s work might be generously supported, and that we might be faithful to our calling.
Yours in Christ’s love,
PL
August 15, 2019
Some of you are already aware of this, but some actions taken by the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly, which met in Milwaukee last week, made national news. These were a protest march to ICE headquarters in Milwaukee, and then the official pronouncement by the assembly announcing the ELCA as a "Sanctuary" church. The second action even made the television show, “Fox and Friends”. This caused a stir in media accounts. As of this communication, I have not been contacted by members of Redeemer about these events.
To help clarify what transpired, I've put together a resource that I hope will contextualize what this does and does not mean for us. In the first resource post, you will find links to various letters by some bishops, including our own New Jersey Synod bishop, the Rev. Tracie Bartholomew, which will help interpret these events. I suggest you start with the Bishops’ letters.
If you would rather start with an overview from the media, here is a news article about these events (that is fair and impartial).
Here is the 1st resource page post, with links to the Bishops' letters.
Here is the 2nd resource post, a guide to the background of the ELCA "sanctuary" action.
And here is the 3rd resource post, a brief explanation of the protest march on August 7.
This is a lot of information to read through, but if you have time, that is the best way to get a sense of the history of this action by the ELCA last week. I hope it is clear to those of you who have taken the time to read through the links above that this process is built on theological responses to human situations. Through this action, the ELCA is saying to the world that it believes we are called by the Gospel to respond mercifully and humanely to humans in any migrant or refugee situation. It is clear also from the Metro NY resolution that that synod, and now the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, believes that current US governmental practices are violating this mandate to treat people in these situations humanely. Support for migrants, whether they are technically refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants or opportunists, is a mandate in the Bible. (Read the Metro NY resolution to see all of the Bible verses that refer to this very human predicament of being a migrant.) The government is charged with carrying out the law, but the church is free to demand that it do so humanely.The church is also free to disagree with laws that it feels harms or takes advantage of vulnerable people. This doesn’t mean that the ELCA advocates breaking the law. The church is merely taking people "as they come"—i.e. as migrants fleeing from some type of oppressive, unhealthy or dangerous situation. The issue is first, how do we help those who are in a vulnerable position? Second, how can we change how those who violate immigration law are characterized in political discourse, and how they are treated by authorities?
Because of our local context, and unlike Lutheran congregations in major cities, or in southern border states, Redeemer finds itself at a short distance from those people most affected by migrant issues. Yet, like many other ELCA churches, we already support ministries to and for migrants through Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. In fact Redeemer has worked with LIRS twice in the past to help settle refugees, first from Vietnam and then from Bosnia. Also, Redeemer is partnered with St. Stephan’s Community Church in Newark, and we help support their ministries, which include ministry to a large immigrant community. So Redeemer has already been doing some of the work of “sanctuary” for years.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Linderman
There’s a great quote about worship that I happened upon accidentally. It comes from the PBS show, “Call the Midwife” (which I have yet to watch). Sister Monica Joan, the lead character who is an Anglican nun, says, “The liturgy is of comfort to the disarrayed mind. We need not choose our thoughts; the words are aligned, like a rope for us to cling to.” I couldn’t agree more. What a relief it is to Christians that at the end/beginning of a long week, we can gather together to grab onto the words used in our Christian worship, cling to them, and be pulled thereby into the Spirit’s tether. A great comfort, indeed!
As we enter the Advent season this month, I want to re-invite you to experience the comfort of worship and its expression of faith in Christ’s mercy by attending regular worship on Sunday mornings. I also want to invite you to experience three special services that are intended to help us through the frenetic schedule of our culture’s countdown to Christmas. These are:
- the Ramsey Community Advent Lessons and Carols (Dec 8, at Redeemer, 3pm) (please note - DEC 8, not the 15th!)
- our traditional Christmas pageant (Dec 15, 9:15am), and
- our community ‘Awaiting the Light’ service (Dec 22, 3pm).
This year, our Christmas pageant format is new because we are setting the pageant within the normal service of Holy Communion. This way, the work of the children in presenting the story of Christ’s birth, and its importance for our faith, is used to prepare the congregation for Holy Communion, where we believe Christ is most clearly present in our lives. The community Advent Lessons and Carols service provides us and our local Christian neighbors with a deeper appreciation of the way Christ’s birth fits into God’s Salvation history, and helps us prepare for the “advent” of our Lord, both in history and at the end of time. The ‘Awaiting the Light’ service is designed to address the power of nostalgia and grief in our lives, particularly for those who find the holidays a challenge. It wraps this longing in the promises of Christ’s coming and invites us into the “hope of Christ.”
Advent is a time, like Lent, in which to enter with new vigor into the spirituality of the tradition. Like the quote above says, the liturgy (tradition) lines up words for us to use, and like a rope we can cling to, supports us in our spiritual journey. Is your journey disrupted by the ebb and flow of everyday life? Has your faith felt dry or burdened by questions, doubts and anxiety? Are you feeling “disarrayed” in your thinking because of the chaos of our political and social lives? Then, through the worship traditions of the Church, God’s help is here for you. Grab the rope and let God’s grace to the work.
+PL
October, 2019
“You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)
A Christian congregation is like any other human organization. We have a reason for meeting, a meeting place, and a group of people who help run the organization. We have activities for the larger group, and hold special events, usually on some kind of annual schedule.
What sets a Christian congregation apart from other organizations is the reason for meeting. According to the verse from 1 Peter, quoted above, a Christian congregation is first of all a spiritual temple for God, a body of people who are held together by the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst. As we are held together by Christ, we are called to be a “royal priesthood” who offer “sacrifices” to God. Our presence, and the “sacrifice” we make in the world, witnesses to God’s grace. What form does this “sacrifice” take? It comes in the form of praise of God in worship, participating in God’s activity in the sacraments (Baptism and Holy Communion), and serving others and the world in love. There may be lots of human organizations, as well as other ways Christ works in the world, but the church is a distinct form of Christ’s activity in the world, meant to provide a specific witness to the world that God in fact loves it, and has redeemed it.
As our fall programming gets underway, and stewardship becomes our focus in October, I marvel at the amazing opportunity we have to be a witness to Christ’s work in the world. I invite you to pray during this stewardship month that our witness to Christ’s work might be generously supported, and that we might be faithful to our calling.
Yours in Christ’s love,
PL
August 15, 2019
Some of you are already aware of this, but some actions taken by the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly, which met in Milwaukee last week, made national news. These were a protest march to ICE headquarters in Milwaukee, and then the official pronouncement by the assembly announcing the ELCA as a "Sanctuary" church. The second action even made the television show, “Fox and Friends”. This caused a stir in media accounts. As of this communication, I have not been contacted by members of Redeemer about these events.
To help clarify what transpired, I've put together a resource that I hope will contextualize what this does and does not mean for us. In the first resource post, you will find links to various letters by some bishops, including our own New Jersey Synod bishop, the Rev. Tracie Bartholomew, which will help interpret these events. I suggest you start with the Bishops’ letters.
If you would rather start with an overview from the media, here is a news article about these events (that is fair and impartial).
Here is the 1st resource page post, with links to the Bishops' letters.
Here is the 2nd resource post, a guide to the background of the ELCA "sanctuary" action.
And here is the 3rd resource post, a brief explanation of the protest march on August 7.
This is a lot of information to read through, but if you have time, that is the best way to get a sense of the history of this action by the ELCA last week. I hope it is clear to those of you who have taken the time to read through the links above that this process is built on theological responses to human situations. Through this action, the ELCA is saying to the world that it believes we are called by the Gospel to respond mercifully and humanely to humans in any migrant or refugee situation. It is clear also from the Metro NY resolution that that synod, and now the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, believes that current US governmental practices are violating this mandate to treat people in these situations humanely. Support for migrants, whether they are technically refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants or opportunists, is a mandate in the Bible. (Read the Metro NY resolution to see all of the Bible verses that refer to this very human predicament of being a migrant.) The government is charged with carrying out the law, but the church is free to demand that it do so humanely.The church is also free to disagree with laws that it feels harms or takes advantage of vulnerable people. This doesn’t mean that the ELCA advocates breaking the law. The church is merely taking people "as they come"—i.e. as migrants fleeing from some type of oppressive, unhealthy or dangerous situation. The issue is first, how do we help those who are in a vulnerable position? Second, how can we change how those who violate immigration law are characterized in political discourse, and how they are treated by authorities?
Because of our local context, and unlike Lutheran congregations in major cities, or in southern border states, Redeemer finds itself at a short distance from those people most affected by migrant issues. Yet, like many other ELCA churches, we already support ministries to and for migrants through Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. In fact Redeemer has worked with LIRS twice in the past to help settle refugees, first from Vietnam and then from Bosnia. Also, Redeemer is partnered with St. Stephan’s Community Church in Newark, and we help support their ministries, which include ministry to a large immigrant community. So Redeemer has already been doing some of the work of “sanctuary” for years.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Linderman
