Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
 
The Caller
Quoddy Head, Maine (Photo by Ardie Hacker)
Redeemer Lutheran Church                                                                                     January 2013


Pastor Elaine Hewes
 
What if 'passion' became part
of our vocabulary of faith?
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are in the season of Epiphany, the season in which our eyes are "rinsed clean," giving us better vision for seeing the ways in which Jesus reveals or "makes manifest" the presence and power of God. The season begins with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, as the Wise Men from the East see the presence of God in the baby Jesus. (Matthew doesn't tell us exactly how the baby reveals God's presence, only that he does, as the Wise Men bow down and pay him homage). 
 
On the Sundays in the season of Epiphany we will hear of Jesus changing water to wine, of his challenge to the religious establishment in Jerusalem, of the great catch of fish that occurs in his presence. All of these being "signs" of God's power incarnate (enfleshed) in the person of Jesus and of the kingdom inaugurated by his ministry. (As Rowan Williams puts it, "Jesus was God-saturated.") None of these signs being all there is to say however, about the ways in which Jesus reveals the essence and presence and passion of God; for that we wait until Lent, the season in which we ponder the deepest mystery of our faith.... the mystery that poses the audacious claim that we see the presence and the passion of God most fully in the suffering and death (the Passion) of Jesus.

If this is the case, as our faith suggests.... If the passion of God on behalf of the world is most fully revealed in the Passion of Jesus, then it might be interesting and helpful during the Epiphany and Lenten seasons for us to ponder how the word "passion" might enter into our own lives of faith. While it is not a word that Lutherans use all that much, being the reserved bunch we are, there is a beautiful quote by Frederick Beuchner that suggests passion's place in our witness to God's own passionate love. It goes like this, "As Christians, we are called to the place where our deepest passion meets the world's deepest need." 
 
What if the invitation extended to us during these next weeks was an invitation to discern our deepest passion? And then the related question of how to bring that passion to bear upon a particularly deep need in the world.... Might the life of faith take on a little fire? A little energy? A little joy? A little color? What might happen if the word "passion" became part of our "faith vocabulary," along with "grace" and "love" and "mercy?" 
 
What might happen? Do we dare try it and see? How would we go about it? Any ideas?

Wondering and hoping,
Pastor Elaine
Pancake breakfast, art retreat 
introduce the Season of Lent
 
Lent begins early this year....
Christmas is barely over, and already we looking ahead to Lent, which begins early this year (Ash Wednesday is on February 13, and Easter is March 31, still winter in Maine!) "Why does it all start so early?" you might ask. A very good question, with what seems a very odd answer. Because, as you may remember, the date of Easter is set in this way: It is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. And then to determine the date for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, you count back from Easter 40 days, not including Sundays (as Sundays are supposed to be "little Easters" inside the Lenten season). So Easter is almost as early as it can possibly be this year.  

And I tell you all this so we can begin now to mark our calendars with the opportunities that will be provided at Redeemer for enriching our Lenten journey, starting with an afternoon "retreat" with Judy Madson on Sunday, Feb. 3, from noon to 2 p.m. called "Praying in Color" (See additional information provided in this issue of the Caller). Then the youth of the congregation will make and serve a pancake breakfast at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 10, in the carnival style of "Shrove Tuesday." This event will provide all the joviality and calories of "Mardi Gras," an ancient custom which allows us to look at the masks we wear, the shadows we court, and the tricksters we are, but all in a spirit of fun. So come prepared to eat pancakes and sausage, as well as to raise a little ruckus with noisemakers and party favors.    

Our "Shrove-Tuesday-Sunday-Morning-Pancake-Breakfast" will be followed by two opportunities for worship on Ash Wednesday, one at 0 noon and the other at 6 o'clock in the evening. On all of the other Wednesday evenings in Lent we will have Evening Vespers at 6:30 p.m. using Holden Evening Prayer. Redeemer members will speak on the theme "A Lenten Meditation on an Ordinary Thing." (If you would be willing to be one of our speakers, please let Pastor Elaine know).  
 
More to come. But in the meantime, mark your calendars for Sunday, Feb. 3, from noon to 2 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 10, at 9:15 a.m., as we prepare our hearts and minds for the Lenten season.

-- Pastor Elaine 
churchaltar
 Silence helps to put 'pray' in 'prelude'
I am grateful to a church music colleague who posted the words below on a professional blog. The topic of the blog was "keeping prayerful quiet during the prelude." My colleague's church uses these words in the bulletin where the word "prelude" is typically seen. The words read: "The service of worship begins with the music of the prelude. Through its power and brilliance, may you feel the majesty and glory of God; in its quietness, God's peace.

Sacred music composer Ruth Elaine Schram has a series of books entitled "Prayludes for _________." The blank is filled in with words describing different seasons of the church or natural year. "Prayludes for Winter" or "Prayludes for Advent" are examples of the titles. These are compilations of pieces written for organ or piano to be used in the prelude portion of the service.

I admire Schram's play on the "pray" syllable in the word "prelude."With this change of two letters to the word "praylude," she cleverly defines the purpose of the prelude in the order of the worship service; that is, to enter into a spirit of prayer

One dictionary's definition of prelude is this:  
prelude 
n prelude [ˈpreljuːd] 
1 an event etc that goes before, and acts as an introduction to, something. 
2 a piece of music played as an introduction to the main piece.  
By both definitions, the "prelude" is appropriately included in the bulletin's order of worship. It is placed intentionally before announcement of church life, confession and opening hymn. In this placement in the liturgy, an instrumental prayer provides the worshiping community a space to move from the outer world into the time designated for God's word. It allows the worshipper a time to prepare their hearts and their minds for confession, praise, hearing God's word and sharing God's love. The prelude, or "praylude," signals a time to press the pause button and silence our hearts.  
Michelle Dokka, Director of Music 
Psalm 100
A new vision for coffee hour: come early, stay late 

If you were present at our Advent Breakfast this year, you may remember thinking how lovely it was to see some Redeemer folks you haven't seen for a while. As many of us have recognized, our two worship services on Sunday morning, while necessary, make it difficult for the 8 o'clock folks to mingle much with the 10:30 folks (unless the 8 o'clock folks stay for the coffee hour at 9:15 and the 10:30 folks come early, in which case folks from both services actually get to see one another!)  
 
So we are hoping that many at Redeemer would think of doing just that in this new year. Please come and sit at the round tables in the Morning Glory Cafe between the two services if possible. If not, there will still be coffee and a few goodies after the 10:30 service as well. Because of course, what good is a Lutheran fellowship hall without coffee and goodies? But how much more lovely if a large part of the community is together at one time!
 
On a related note, please remember that our coffee hour takes a great deal of effort Sunday to Sunday. Most all of our goodies are supplied and served by members of our Helping Hands Teams. If you can be part of one of those teams or if you can bring goodies now and then, it would be most helpful. Please let Gladys Merritt or Jane Deane know if you are willing to help with coffee hour. 
The roof is finished; ministry continues
 
Some of you may have noticed the new bulletin board outside Pastor's office and many of you may have had varying degrees of perplexity about what exactly it is supposed to mean! So, here goes.... Late last fall we replaced the church roof with money from the Coupe-Bitter Fund. As the roof was in need of replacement and required somewhat immediate attention, it was again a blessing upon blessing to find ourselves still sustained by the generous spirits of the Coupe and Bitter families.
 
Still, a number of you - along with your Council leaders - have been reflecting on how we all might be called to a deeper stewardship of our individual and collective resources in service of both building projects and our mission work. And so the Council has welcomed contributions to a "roof fund" in order to replenish some of the Coupe-Bitter funds, and with a spirit of conserving those funds to support Redeemer's extensions of mercy and grace to the larger community through its many ministries.
 
The bulletin board, then, shows our flamingo pink doors covered by a newly shingled roof. When contributions are made to the "roof fund," the regular (sturdy, new, and guaranteed!) roof shingles will be replaced with shiny, glittery shingles representing the light of love, mercy, and grace that we know positively shimmers from this place.

We'll look for contributions to the roof fund through the end of March, and until then will celebrate them by increasing the number of our shimmery shingles - in hopes that the bulletin board will increasingly reflect our ongoing commitments to the shimmery work of the gospel from underneath our beautiful new roof.
 
-- Pam Shellberg, Council President
After a lifetime, learning the full meaning of grace 

Editor's note: Church Council members have been asked this year to share reflections on "Why I Said 'Yes' to Serving on Council' 

One of my earliest memories of church is trying to make myself small enough to hide behind my mother's back as we sat in the hard pew. A towering white-haired man in stark black robes and stiff white collar pointed his finger at us and hollered about hell. I was terrified. Even after he stopped yelling and started smiling as people shook his hand on the way out of church, I hung back, afraid. My mother told me I had embarrassed her. 

My college-age son, by contrast, has heard from the pulpit since he was 3 the message that we are all beloved children of God and that God accompanies us wherever we are, even in our own personal hells. He learned, "It's all about relationship," and "All are welcome at this table, for our Lord is the host."

Even though I am a Lutheran born and bred, attended 15 years of Sunday school, three years of confirmation classes, served as one of the first two women deacons in my Lutheran college congregation, and I have been an active member of Redeemer for more than 30 years, it has not been until the last 16 years that I have learned and felt the full meaning of "grace." And so, saying "yes" to serving on Church Council is a small affirmation in response to a great gift.

For the past couple of weeks, I have helped to serve soup as part of Redeemer's weekly suppers for the community. I have seen the dedicated Redeemer members who every week cook, set the table, ladle soup, wash dishes, and clean the kitchen. People come in from the cold, some in thin clothing, to a warm, bright place with good smells, hot food, and friendly faces. Last week, one of my fellow waitresses was told, "This is the best soup kitchen I've ever been to; even the pastor serves us." The week before, a man said to me, "These soups are good. Some of them must be homemade." "They're all homemade," I told him. The look of surprise on his face gradually transformed to a beam of delight.

Last week, as I stopped for a few minutes to eat my own bowl of steaming soup, one of the regulars sat down at the piano and began to play. The music was familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. Then, just as I remembered, he began to sing the sad and haunting words of "Desperado." Listen to the song.

We are all desperados in some sense, outlaws, vagabonds, and wanderers. But there are beacons in our midst, lights on city hills, communities of faith like this one where an armory once stood but where now there is "a house of mercy, a place of grace."

--Cheryl Olson, Church Council member
Taking a break and breath for creating art 

Late last November, several people at Redeemer participated in what had been billed primarily as a "yoga retreat." Although unforeseen circumstances kept our yoga instructor away for the day, we nevertheless had no trouble finding ways to "take a breath and take a break" by means of a whole variety of experiences also designed to draw us more deeply into contemplative, creative, and spiritual frames of mind.

  

The day opened with quiet, candle-lit meditation in the sanctuary, the reading of some poems to orient our hearts to the day, practices of mindfulness, and prayer. We found our way to deep and restful breathing through guided meditations. We worked with clay, silently releasing turtles and flowers and all kinds of forms otherwise hidden in it. We listened to beautiful poetry and experienced the "felt shifts in consciousness" that poetry often occasions - catching glimpses of the reality that is always just behind and gently suffusing the reality most immediately before us. 

We continued to nurture our creative impulses (and get past a few fears of inadequacy] by soaping up our hands and turning stray wool fibers
into soft and vibrant felted works of art (you may remember seeing Pastor Elaine's 
Felted art created during the retreat  (Bobbi Horn Photo)
fiery red bird on the pulpit at the beginning of Lent!). Of course we feasted on good food, good sweets, and good coffee throughout the day.

We are especially grateful to Hella Spencer for the wonderful gift of the idea of the day, and for bringing it into being. We are grateful as well to Ellen Richards, our resident poet, and Bobbi Horn, who helped us get past our trepidations and 
express ourselves in a medium unfamiliar to most. From beginning to end it was a day in which most participants felt themselves deepened and ripened, rested and refreshed!
 
Ellen Richards, a Redeemer member who is a published poet, shared two of her poems with the workshop participants, including the following poem.
 
take away my body 
take away my mind, my spirit

still I will stay here 
forever and ever

I will be blue 
I will be green 
 
Following is a selection of poems written by participants. 

Fearful, anticipating the
outcome of workshop.
Wonderful people casting
encouraging glances
my way
and I am suddenly
CALM
 
+++
 
Formidable mountain 
graced by vapor and clouds. 
It rained the night before, but still the 
mountain wasn't clearly in sight, in view. 
They say after it rains, clarity comes, but 
it was vapor that came instead.

I was hoping for deer, moose to photograph
but none appeared that day after the rain,
only vapor swirling around a formidable
mountain.
 
+++
 
The Incoming Tide

Sitting at the Floodgates 
I see Fresh running out 
meet Tidal running in ... 
and relent.

Carried back to its source, 
and is dissolved into One.
 
+++

Under a tree, 
sitting in the cool shade, 
the way forward appeared 
and I never looked back. 
 
+++
 
We are always naked before God 
who waits for us to smile 
at our nakedness. 
Quick Links




Redeemer Lutheran Church
A House of Mercy
A Place of Grace

All are welcome here 

Services: 8 and 10:30 a.m.
Sunday school for all: 9:15 a.m.
Staff Listing
Church office: (207) 945-3166


Nancy Leibfarth, Secretary
Michelle Dokka, Director of Music

Church Council
Pam Shellberg, President  

 

Wally Jakubas, Vice President  

Cheryl Olson,  Secretary  

Ruby Herring

Pat Kelly

Roger Pelletier

Lisa Wahlstrom    

 

Harry Madson, Treasurer  

Rudy Walter, Financial Secretary  

Reconciling in Christ
Redeemer Lutheran Church is a Reconciling in Christ congregation. Reconciling in Christ (RIC) is a program of Lutherans Concerned North America (LCNA) that recognizes Lutheran congregations that adopt a statement that includes the naming of lesbian, gay, transgendered and bisexual people as welcome to full participation. Redeemer affirms its welcome to people of all ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, and economic situations. 
Upcoming Events 
Sunday, Feb. 3 - 12 Noon - 2 p.m. Praying in Color" art retreat. 
 
Sunday, Feb. 10 - 9:15 a.m. - Pancake breakfast served by Redeemer youth.
 
Wednesday, Feb. 13 - 12 Noon and 6 p.m. - Ash Wednesday worship services.
Gathering In
Each month our outreach focuses on a different group as we collect items or donations to help those in need. Items will be collected in a designated area of the church and will be distributed to the designated agency at the end of each month. In January, we will collect non-perishable staple foods for our food pantry.  A complete list of items is available in the narthex. Deb and Tom Christensen coordinate the Gathering-In ministry.
Stewardship

December Gifts
 for our Ministry    

Total Gifts:
$16,152

Building Fund: $1,038

Year to Date Total Gifts: $163,958
Year to Date Building Fund: $12,935   

Worshipers in December:  670

Food Cupboard
During December, 17 bags of groceries and three grocery store vouchers were given to those in need as part of our food cupboard ministry.
Art Workshop
Redeemer member and artist Judy Madson will lead a workshop, "Praying in Color," on Sunday, Feb. 3, from noon to 2 p.m., based on the book "Praying in Color," by Sybil MacBeth. If time permits, participants also will explore making a personal mandala or circular form for Lenten meditation. Participants are asked to bring a brown bag lunch and colored pencils or favorite markers if they have some. There is no cost, and no drawing experience is needed to participate. All materials will be supplied other than your lunch.
Prayer Shawls
Connie Mancevice would like knitters to know that a supply of yarn has been donated and is available in the fellowship hall cabinet for anyone who would like to work on a prayer shawl this winter. Prayer shawls are donated to people who are ill or in need of comfort. The name "prayer shawl" comes from the practice of praying for recipients while knitting the shawls.
Meet our Bishop
On Saturday, Feb. 23, New England Synod Bishop James Hazelwood will gather the congregations in northern New England at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newington, NH. He will speak to the question, "Where in God's name are we?" The day will offer opportunities for listening, worshiping, eating, and conversing with other Lutherans in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Pastor Elaine will be going to this event, and would love to have some company. Please let her know if you are interested in attending. 
Thank You
Hella Spencer would like to thank all of the bakers of Redeemer who contributed cookies for the  Dec. 23 cookie walk fundraiser for the Sowing Seeds Fund. The event raised more than $250 for the fund. 
Blog of the Month
This month, our featured blog is by the Rev. Dr. Martin Marty, prominent Lutheran author and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, who writes about the ELCA as it turns 25. In all its imperfection, the church still has much to offer the world.  Read the blog.
Gathering In List
Following is the list of items to be collected each month through our Gathering In ministry. 
 
January 
Redeemer food pantry
List of staples available in narthex
 
February
Ronald McDonald House
Large trash bags and light bulbs (60 or 75 watt)

March
Spruce Run shelter for battered women
Prepaid phone cards, stamps, baby supplies, personal care items, diaper wipes, diapers

 

April
Bangor Area Homeless Shelter
Hope House homeless shelter
Trial size personal care items, socks, disposable razors, toothbrushes
 
May 
"Blanket Sunday" 
Church World Service 
Donations accepted for blankets
Redeemer quilters display quilts and blankets to be donated for local babies at risk.

June
Redeemer Arts Camp
List of supplies on bulletin board

 

July
School supplies for local children
Pens, papers, markers, crayons, scissors, notebooks  
 
August
Bangor Area Homeless Shelter
Hope House homeless shelter
Trial size personal care items, socks, sunscreen, disposable razors, toothbrushes

 

September
Redeemer food pantry
List of staples available in narthex
 
October
"Harvest Sunday"
Gathering of items from our gardens, kitchens, and hobbies shared at altar, with donations going to world hunger;
Special hunger offering
 
November 
"Quarters out the Door"
Quarters collected to purchase grocery store certificates for Redeemer food pantry
 
December
"Jesse Tree"
Hats, mittens, scarves, socks for children in our community

If you have questions, please see Deb and Tom Christensen or Pastor Elaine
 
ELCA Malaria Project
For a long time, the ELCA has been supporting clinics and programs in Africa to provide health care. Now we're focusing on malaria with a new intensity. Malaria kills 655,000 people each year, most are children under five. That's a child every 60 seconds.

The ELCA, through the ELCA Malaria Campaign, is joining hands with eleven Lutheran church bodies in Africa and becoming part of an historic global movement to say, "enough is enough!" No child, no person, should die of a disease that is both preventable and treatable. Therefore the ELCA Malaria Campaign has committed to raise $15 million to help prevent, treat and educate communities in Africa about malaria and eliminate deaths from this disease-for good.

Malaria Facts
Almost 9 out to 10 of the 800,000 people who die from malaria each year live in Africa.

An African child has on average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria each year.

In countries with high rates of malaria, the disease accounts for up to 60 percent of health clinic visits and 50 percent of hospital stays.

Why the ELCA?
For many years, the ELCA has been building relationships of accompaniment and mutual respect with our companion churches in Africa. Together with our church partners, we are poised to bring about a massive grassroots movement to contain malaria and bring hope to those who suffer.

Lutheran churches in Africa aren't just places of worship. They are the center of community life. That's what makes our work-the work of the church, through churches-perfectly positioned to make a difference. (ELCA website)


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