Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church - ELCA - Message from your Pastor

" Lord Jesus, we ask for your blessing in our gathering, at this table." -Pastor Peter

11/24/2021

A Table Prayer for Thanksgiving

O God of Creation, in every season of our lives you bless us with new wonders. In every season of the year, you pour out upon the riches of your grace. As we gather around the table, we give thanks for each one gathered here; for gentle smiles, for laughter, and for the love that binds us together. Lord Jesus, we ask for your blessing in our gathering, at this table, and upon this meal that has been lovingly and beautifully prepared. Watch over us and all your children today, that celebrations here and everywhere will be filled with joy and peace. This we pray in the glorious name of Jesus, our Savior and Guest and Host.
Amen.

In the meantime, I want to encourage you to avail yourselves of the opportunity to either participate in our worship on YouTube, or, if you are able, to join us for one of our in person worship services on Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. or on Sunday mornings at 7:30, 9:00 a.m. or 10:30 a.m.

These months have been difficult, we’re tired of face coverings, social distancing, and not seeing our church family. Yet we can see better days are coming. I also need to share that one area where Trinity has taken a big hit is in our financial picture. Many of our expenses continue even when we cannot gather. Heat, maintenance, insurance, etc., continue along with personnel expenses. However, most importantly, a return to a normal church routine, and everything we hope to accomplish in the coming months as we come out of the Covid lockdown is somewhat dependent upon our stewardship giving, and it is down substantially. With all of the hardship people are facing, we have been somewhat reluctant to reach out, but the church’s cash reserves are running very low, we have not yet received approval for another PPP loan, and offerings are down. I hope that each of you will do what you can to help. As we come out of lockdown, we want to have the resources we need to fully open up our ministries. The door is open to bring offerings to the church, or mail in, or EGive online. Your support is welcome.

Finally, please feel free to call me with any need you may have, or if you just want to have a chat. Some folks worry about disturbing me, or that I am too busy, but I want to assure you that I would much rather have conversation with you than be busy.

Many thanks to all of you who continue to support the ministries of this congregation, and to those who have gone above and beyond in being available for the sake of others. Our Nursery school, Friends Kitchen, Trinity Pantry, our Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, worship assistants, Mission Team and administrative staff have striven mightily to keep our ministries vital.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Peter

March 02nd, 2017

3/2/2017

Bishop's Response to Attacks on Jewish Communities

3/2/2017

Bishop Rimbo's Christmas Message

12/14/2016

The Reign of Christ

11/26/2016

God delights in surprises. Mary was surprised, to say the least, when she was told she was carrying the Messiah. Moses was surprised when God spoke to him through a burning bush. Who knows what the disciples were thinking when Jesus appeared to them in the midst of a storm, walking on water? God must find some joy in surprising us.
So as we celebrated the “Reign of Christ” last weekend, we were surprised to discover that his reign looks nothing like that of the monarchs with whom we are familiar. Instead — surprise! — God’s reign is found among the homeless and the hungry. God is revealed through vulnerability and mercy, not power or pomp and circumstance. The Reign of Christ invites us to experience the surprising presence of God, right here on earth.
Yes, Jesus is a different kind of king. And those who follow him, well, our lives are to be different too . . .

"Planet Nine", Excerpted from "Easter Sermon"

3/27/2016

There is nothing I can say to you that will prove beyond a shadow of doubt what we Christians call the reality of the Resurrection. Ultimately, as you know, it is a matter of faith and of the willingness to believe and trust in something that can be experienced or theorized but not proven.
Occasionally we get an example of this even from science. This January, for instance, I was fascinated by an article in the New York Times about two scientists from the California Institute of Technology who posited the theoretical possibility of a new planet in our solar system which they refer to as “Planet Nine”. The mass of this new planet, they said, was ten times that of the Earth. It is located in the far outer regions of space, some 50 billion miles from earth and 20 times further from the sun than Neptune, the most distant planet known to us. What especially caught my attention in the article was the statement that even though the scientists had no direct evidence that the planet existed, they were sure that it did. “It must be there,” one of them said, because we’ve observed the way objects in the outer part of the solar system move, and “nothing else could exert such influence”.
Perhaps someday Planet Nine will be seen by one of our advanced telescopes and thus its existence will be proven, but for now, and this is my point, the only evidence we have of its existence is the influence it has on the objects around it.
So it is also with the Resurrection. We cannot go back in history to prove it. Nor will it ever be seen by the most advanced telescopes on earth. Yet this does not mean that the Resurrection never happened. We know of it and believe in it because of the influence it had and continues to have on those who follow Jesus.

Jeffrey Kolbo
Pastor

BISHOP EATON'S 2016 "EASTER MESSAGE"

3/25/2016

  Easter is early this year, and in many places across this church trees will still be bare and fields barren. It might even snow. But on Easter morning we will gather to greet the risen Son and give thanks to God for the new life we have in Jesus Christ.
  Two things come to mind this Easter when there is still only the hint of spring: Jesus’ words to his disciples just before his crucifixion and a hymn. Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus was talking about his death, but he was also assuring his disciples and us that death is not the end, that, though it might seem impossible and even terrifying to step into the void, God brings life out of death.

  The hymn is ELW 379.
     Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
   wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
     love lives again, that with the dead has been;
   love is come again like wheat arising green.

   The tune is actually a French Christmas carol. How perfect that, in the bleak midwinter, the promise of spring was planted. St. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” We have already fallen into the earth and died. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” We will not remain alone. We will bear fruit. The seed has been planted in all the barren places in the world and in our lives. That gives us the power and the hope – especially in the face of our brokenness – to see life where the world only sees death ... in refugee camps and hospice units, in parched earth and in floods, in oppression and denied justice we are bold to confess. Now the green blade rises. Now love lives again. Now love comes again like wheat arising green. Christ is risen.

Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

BISHOP RIMBO'S 2016 "EASTER MESSAGE"

3/22/2016

Throwing everything out of kilter
Alleluia! Christ is risen!

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," on a trip that detours into the Georgia woods, a family encounters a murderous criminal known only as "the Misfit." As he cold-heartedly and systematically shoots to death each member of the family, the Misfit keeps talking about Jesus. He tells the frightened grandmother, "If Jesushas been raised from the dead, he shouldn’t have. He done thrown everything out of kilter. He should have stayed dead."
In rising from the dead, Jesus has indeed "done thrown everything out of kilter."
A Christian is someone who believes that God raised Jesus from the dead. And it’s a belief that has always been in contention. Thomas is by no means unusual but a reminder of the patent absurdity of such a thing happening. First century people may not have been scientists, but they all knew that dead people don’t rise from the dead.
And in every age, belief in the Resurrection of Jesus must overcome a strong prior prejudice against the possibility of such a thing happening, because it runs counter to our expectation based on everyday experience. The resurrection is a jolt.
So today I want to assert before you a few core, central things. We believe, against our natural tendencies to disbelieve, in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The entire structure of the Christian faith stands or falls upon the fact of Jesus being raised by God from the dead. "Who is God? What is God up to in the world? Who are we as children of God? What are we supposed to be up to?" All these questions are answered through the resurrection: God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist. And Christians have no other God
than the one who creates new life from the dead.
Without the resurrection, we are without hope. With the resurrection, through all the difficulties of life, we can go on because we know the end of the story. The end is in the strong hands of God who raised Jesus from the dead. Without the resurrection we have nothing to say to a hurting, unsteady world.
With the Resurrection we have truly good news.
Christianity is founded on a fact, an astounding, unexpected, but nevertheless real event: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
All human history, all human destiny, is seen in the light of this event, the core, founding, irreducible event upon which our faith rests.
"He done thrown everything out of kilter."

Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Rev. Robert Rimbo
Bishop
Metropolitan New York Synod - ELCA

God's Journey to Us

12/25/2015

The theme of journeying is common in Scripture.

  In the Hebrew bible we read how Abraham and Sarah, trusting in God’s promise, left their homeland to journey to the Land of Canaan.
  We read how Moses and the people of Israel, fleeing from slavery in Egypt, journeyed for forty years in the wilderness of Sinai.
  We read how Joshua, Moses’ successor, journeyed with his people across the Jordan River and into the “Promised Land”.
  And we read how Ezra and the people of Israel, after a seventy year exile in Babylon, journeyed back to the Holy City of Jerusalem.

In the New Testament we read of similar journeys.
  Jesus journeyed from his hometown of Nazareth to Jerusalem, where he died, was buried and rose from the dead.
  Paul’s journeys (there were three of them) began in the Holy Land and ended in the Imperial City of Rome.

  The Nativity story, the story of Christmas, is an account of several journeys.
  Joseph and Mary journeyed from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and then, as Matthew tells the story, from Bethlehem to Egypt and eventually back to Nazareth again.
  Angels, we are told, journeyed from the realms of glory to a shepherd’s field outside of Bethlehem.
  The shepherds to whom the angels sang left their flocks by night to journey to the manger.
  And the long journey of the Wise Men brought them from the distant East to Judea, first to King Herod, and eventually to the stall where the Christ Child lay.

So it is, from beginning to end, that the theme of journeying is very much a part of the scriptural story. It is part of our personal stories as well.

  Individuals who consider themselves to be believers often describe their life as a journey both to and with God. The opposite is also true. Those who do not believe (especially those who used to believe but believe no longer), frequently describe their life as a journey away from God. Whichever it may be for you, I think you'll agree, it is common to speak of life as a journey!

(I am interested in your journey. If you haven’t done
   so already, I invite you to share your story with me.)

My focus here is on another journey: GOD’S JOURNEY TO US.

In his best-selling book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey compares the humility of God’s journey to earth with a visit of Queen Elizabeth to the United States. Commenting on the contents of her luggage (four thousand pounds worth) and the cost of her journey (twenty million dollars) he contrasts her journey with God’s journey to us!

God's journey began in a manger in a small, out of the way place.
There were no attendants present, perhaps not even a midwife.
Because there wasn’t a place for the newborn to be laid, they laid him in a feed trough.
The event that divided our calendars into two parts, may have been witnessed by more animals than humans.

In this humble way, the Christ Child was introduced to the world. The message is so simple that it is easy to miss: In Jesus, God has journeyed to us to become one of us. That’s the message of Christmas, a message captured in one humble phrase: “and they found him lying in the manger.”

The Brightness of the Christ Child

11/30/2015

Although scripture does not provide a description of what he looked like, Christians have long claimed that Jesus Christ is the face of God. From him, that is, by knowing about him and his ministry, we gain a glimpse of the character and personality of God.
For centuries artists have been fascinated by this notion. Painters of the late Renaissance, for instance, uniformly depicted the face of the infant Jesus aglow with brilliant light, a light which illumined the face of his mother as well.
More than that, the brightness which is the Christ Child brightened the faces of all who gazed upon him, angels, shepherds and magi alike. In these paintings, facial expressions of awe, wonder and joy reflect the radiant brilliance which is Christmas.
My prayer for you and for all who “see” the face of God in story and song this Christmas is that your face too will glow with the brightness of the Christ Child.

Pope Francis

10/1/2015

I was pleased, fascinated and moved by the Pope’s recent visit to Washington, New York City and Philadelphia. His carefully crafted messages and symbolically rich appearances brought inspiration and encouragement not only to Roman Catholics, but to the faithful of all religious traditions. Speaking with a moral authority rooted deeply in scripture, Francis challenged believers, and indeed, governmental leaders, to live and govern with the courage of biblical convictions.
Whatever one’s political predilection, those familiar with the bible know that themes of equality, dignity, mercy, compassion, servanthood and stewardship are central to the teachings of Christianity. The Pope’s criticism of consumerism, the quest for power and status, the neglect of the poor, the mistreatment of children, the warehousing of the elderly and the abuse of the environment are not evidence of the Pope’s politics, but rather of his intention to live by godly principals. In this regard, he used his U.S. visit for good purpose -- to challenge us to do the same.

ELCA Youth Gather to Serve

8/13/2015

Approximately 30,000 youth and adult leaders attended the ELCA National Youth Gathering this summer in Detroit. More than a dozen members of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church participated. The program featured an assortment of excellent speakers, musicians and media productions. But the most inspiring aspect of the Gathering was the participants themselves. Organized into servant teams, the youth, dressed in brightly colored t-shirts, were sent by the hundreds into the streets and neighborhoods of the city as ambassadors of goodwill.
1,847 mural boards were painted
600 neighborhoods were affected
319 vacant homes were boarded up
3,200 vacant lots were cleared of debris
1,425 backpacks were distributed
36 urban gardens were installed
99 picnic tables were built
26 dumpsters were filled

Other projects were conducted as well.
650 individuals donated at least 8 inches
of hair – 433 feet in total
A blood drive resulted in the collection of
78.8 gallons of blood (607 pints)
1 million diapers were collected for needy families
$402,000 was collected for the ELCA World
Hunger’s Walk for Water

The kindness and generosity extended by the young people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American surprised and delighted the residents of Detroit. “We did not go to Detroit to save the city,” said one participant, “but to experience it . . . and what an experience it was!”

ELCA Presiding Bishop - Pastoral on Racism

6/23/2015

It has been a long season of disquiet in our country. From Ferguson to Baltimore, simmering racial tensions have boiled over into violence. But this … the fatal shooting of nine African Americans in a church is a stark, raw manifestation of the sin that is racism. The church was desecrated. The people of that congregation were desecrated. The aspiration voiced in the Pledge of Allegiance that we are “one nation under God” was desecrated.
Mother Emanuel AME’s pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, was a graduate of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, as was the Rev. Daniel Simmons, associate pastor at Mother Emanuel. The suspected shooter is a member of an ELCA congregation. All of a sudden and for all of us, this is an intensely personal tragedy. One of our own is alleged to have shot and killed two who adopted us as their own.
We might say that this was an isolated act by a deeply disturbed man. But we know that is not the whole truth. It is not an isolated event. And even if the shooter was unstable, the framework upon which he built his vision of race is not. Racism is a fact in American culture. Denial and avoidance of this fact are deadly.
The Rev. Mr. Pinckney leaves a wife and children. The other eight victims leave grieving families. The family of the suspected killer and two congregations are broken. When will this end?
The nine dead in Charleston are not the first innocent victims killed by violence. Our only hope rests in the innocent One, who was violently executed on Good Friday. Emmanuel, God with us, carried our grief and sorrow – the grief and sorrow of Mother Emanuel AME church – and he was wounded for our transgressions – the deadly sin of racism.
I urge all of us to spend a day in repentance and mourning. And then we need to get to work. Each of us and all of us need to examine ourselves, our church and our communities. We need to be honest about the reality of racism within us and around us. We need to talk and we need to listen, but we also need to act. No stereotype or racial slur is justified. Speak out against inequity. Look with newly opened eyes at the many subtle and overt ways that we and our communities see people of color as being of less worth. Above all pray – for insight, for forgiveness, for courage.

Kyrie Eleison.

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Vision of Glory

2/15/2015

Blizzard conditions on Sunday, February 15 prevented the majority of our members from attending worship. Only two of our four weekend worship services were held. If you were among those who were unable to participate, here is a written version of the sermon. A recording of the 10:30 a.m. service is also available.

Mark 9:2-12

Imagine the scene for yourself. Put yourself there.

Along with Jesus and three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, you are on the top of a mountain. It has been a long and difficult climb. You feel the strain of the walk. You are tired from the journey, exhausted.

Why, you wonder, did Jesus lead you here? You’d like to know the answer, yet you are reluctant to ask. He must have a reason, you say to yourself.

Now that you’ve reached the end of the trail your hope is that you’ll have some time to talk with Jesus. You’re still upset by what he told you six days ago before the journey began.

“The Son of Man,” he said, “will suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.”

And then he said, “If you want to be my followers you must deny your self. You must take up your cross and follow me. If you want to save your life you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news you will save it.”

His words confused you. That’s why you need to talk to him. Maybe you’ve misunderstood him. He couldn’t have meant those words, could he?

And then it happens! Brightness!

You know who you are seeing, but can’t quite comprehend it . . . this vision of glory! It is brilliant and compelling and unbelievably beautiful, yet, at the same time, you are terrified, frightened to be in the presence of something so obviously holy.

You hear a voice, a voice you’ve not heard before. Yet somehow you know the voice: God’s voice. “This is my Son and I love him,” the voice says. “Listen to what he says.”

How to explain it, this vision of glory? How to explain the voice heard from heaven. Yet you yearn to share the vision, to interpret it, to understand it.

Your eyes are fixed on Jesus. You know it is Jesus you are seeing; he is unmistakable, yet different, so different – transfigured.

You see what you couldn’t see before.

    In him you see the beginning and ending of all things!

    In him you see the triumph of life over death, of hope over       despair, of joy over sorrow!

      In him you see victory!

“I’ll build a dwelling”, you say. (You can’t believe you said that out loud.) “I’ll stay here forever”.

But then, as suddenly as it came, the vision fades and, well, its Jesus again, Jesus as you know him.

With resolve he heads down the mountain. You are familiar with the look on his face. It’s a determined look, a look that says there is work to be done – down below. It’s the work of salvation. “Tell no one,” he says, “until I’m raised from the dead.”

                                        --

It is quite a vision, isn’t it, this vision of Peter, James and John. It is likely they didn’t fully understand what they saw and heard that day until much later, when they saw Jesus for themselves – the Jesus they had thought was dead!

It is likely they thought about it throughout the rest of their lives trying to make sense of it, trying to recapture it, trying to recreate in their minds this special moment of glory. There is evidence their lives were shaped and inspired by it -- this trio of apostles who gave their all, faithful unto death, each of them, for the sake of Christ and the good news.

This is, after all, what godly visions do, they shape us and inspire us. They encourage us. They strengthen our faith and embolden our mission.

But, you are thinking, I’ve never had such a vision. And I’m right with you on that, I’ve never had one either – not, at least, like that of Peter, James and John. This much we know from scripture – such visions are rare. They are rare and infrequent gifts.

Still, we do have their vision, don’t we? It is shared with us in three of the four Gospels and referenced by the Apostle Paul. And we have other biblical visions as well.

We have the vision of Moses on Mt. Sinai, where he learned the name of God. We have the vision of Elijah, who heard God speak, not in a whirlwind, but in a still, small voice. And we have the vision of Jesus, who at his baptism saw the heavens torn open and heard God speak, “you are my beloved son, with you I am pleased”.

This is the unique power of scripture. Its words are God’s words, living words, active words, life giving words, transforming words, words that become our words, our memories – words of faith that shape, inspire and encourage us.

With these words, some of which are visions, we grow in confidence and share in the vision of faith. They teach us, these words, that our destiny is with Christ, who is not only with God, but is God; they implore us to listen to him, to take up our cross and follow him. They assure us that with Christ as our destiny, living by his words, we have nothing to fear and so, so much to gain.

Consider, then, these words of yet another godly vision, that of the Revelation to John. Describing the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, he sees God’s throne and from it hears a voice.

Imagine it. Envision it. Make the vision your own.

    I heard a loud voice shout from the throne. God’s home is
    now with his people.

    He will live with them and they will be his own.

    Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe     all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death,         crying, suffering or pain. These things of the past are
    gone forever.

    Then the one sitting on the throne said, “Behold, I am
    making everything new.”

This is John’s vision, and our vision too.

How we long for that day!

Until then, come what may, shaped, inspired and encouraged by godly visions of glory, we pick up our cross to follow him and listen to him . . . he who leads the way.

Steadfastness in Ministry

1/26/2015

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God
and to the steadfastness of Christ.
Thessalonians 3:5

The word steadfast perhaps best describes the ministry of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in the calendar year 2014. We remained an active, vibrant, steadfast congregation.
Hundreds of individuals of all ages attended our worship services and participated in our ministries, programs, and special projects.
Financial support of our ministry remained strong and our capital stewardship appeal was successful. Significant additional funds were raised to support faith based ministries outside of our congregation.
Patiently and persistently we made progress towards our goal of expanding, renovating and renewing our parish hall.
Dozens of weddings, funerals, baptisms and bible study sessions were planned and conducted.
Our Sunday school curriculum was revised and a Saturday class added.
Our teenage members enjoyed an growing, spiritually centered, socially conscientious ministry.
Team Trinity conducted another successful mission trip.
Our Food Pantry and Hot Meal programs continued to provide a valuable and much appreciated community service.
Our music, worship leadership and fellowship groups provided opportunities for service and enriching friendship.
We can be proud of these accomplishments and the ministry we have conducted in 2014. We are, to be sure, a busy congregation with much to offer those who seek to be involved with a faith community. Busyness, in itself, however, is not our goal. Our goal is that through our ministries, programs and special projects the Lord will direct our hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.