Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer Celebrating the Spirit as we work for justice, healing and reconciliation on earth.

Pastor’s Page                            An Extraordinary Moment                                      December, 2006

Although the Christmas shopping season always feels way too long to me, the season of Advent is a church seasons that generally feels too short.  Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day (which only makes it three weeks long this year).  It is a season that invites us to get in touch with our deep longing for God and participate in the active waiting which is the primary spiritual practice of Advent.  We wait for God to enter into the spaces of our lives where we thought God would never dare to dwell.  We awake from the sleep induced by our brokenness to discover that Jesus Christ is already being born into those dark and sleepy places.

This is a message that I can never hear too many times and which leaves me watching for opportunities to begin Advent early while delaying Christmas celebrations until Christmas Eve.  This year, the experience of Advent began for me in San Francisco on Saturday, November 18, when Paul Sutter and Retired Bishop Stan Olson drove with me to San Francisco to participate in the Extraordinary ordination of Megan Roher.  Although Megan was denied approval by the ELCA because of her sexual orientation, hundreds of Lutherans gathered there at Ebenezer Lutheran Church to celebrate that four congregations had chosen to call her to serve as a pastor of homeless ministries.  We also gathered to embody and proclaim the growing “yes” of our church to Megan and all who have been illegitimately excluded from ministries of the church of Christ. 

In that moment God’s past and future converged on the present.  As a bishop of the past, Stan Olson functioned as the ordaining minister.  As a minister f the future, Pastor Jeff Johnson represented the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP) which has claimed the authority to authorize ELCA Lutherans to ordain lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who are otherwise qualified in every way for ministry.  Pastor Johnson was once asked by what authority the ECP candidacy committee sanctions the ordination of pastors like Megan when our ELCA candidacy committees and bishops have said no.  He replied, “We borrow our authority from the future.”  Not only are we convinced that history is on the side of full inclusion of LGBT pastors, but more importantly, we believe that the church of the future will ordain them and that the Gospel gives us, as the church of Christ, the authority to claim that future “yes” today.

Advent is a season in which the past birth of Christ, our present longing for Christ and the future of God’s homecoming in Christ converge on the light of a single star and a single moment that leads us home.  May our hearts be open to receive that gift and may we be ready to share it with boldness.

In Christ,  

Pastor Robyn

Advent/Christmas Special Giving Focus:

World Hunger Appeal and Loaves and Fishes Ministries

By Pastor Robyn

A very good question was raised at a recent council meeting: “Should we focus our giving upon issues of local hunger and poverty or should we give internationally?”  One member recalled having seen a disabled homeless woman in Sacramento who may not have had a way to get to a food bank.  At the same time, I was remembering visiting Nicaragua on a seminary cross cultural experience and being driven out to a dump where hundreds of people (including many children) were risking their lives among the toxins in the hope of finding a little bit of food to eat.  Many of the families actually live there at the dump.  Which is a more worthy cause?  According to Jesus, that is probably the wrong questions to ask. 

As we know from the Gospels, Jesus, for the most part, did not recognize borders.  He saw all people as his sisters and brothers and in need of God’s healing and forgiveness.  When we ask the question “Shouldn’t we take care of our own first?” I suppose the answer is “yes.”  But it is a “yes” only if we remember that that the disabled homeless woman begging on the streets of Sacramento is every bit as much our own sister as a biological sister who may be out of work and in need of our financial support.  It is also only a “yes” if we remember that the seven year old boy and his 60 year old grandpa who live on the dump in Nicaragua are every bit as much our own brothers as the disabled homeless woman who is begging on nearby streets.

In this interest, the council has voted that our special giving focus for the season of Advent and our celebration of Christmas will be split between a local and a global hunger ministry: the ELCA’s international world hunger appeal and our local Loaves and Fishes ministry in Sacramento. You may make checks out to “L.C.O.R.” designated for “hunger ministries.”  Please give generously!

Thank you to Wanda C. for submitting this to us to raise our awareness and help us remember to pray for an end to the killing in Darfur. Let us join other in prayer on this day.

Dear Wanda ,

You and thousands of Darfur activists like you have engaged diverse communities of faith to support efforts to protect the people of Darfur.

On the weekend of December 8, 9 and 10 we need you to call on your faith community to include a prayer for Darfur in weekly services. We'll also deliver to your house of worship a "Call to Conscience" banner for display during the Weekend of Prayer for Darfur.

December 10, 2006 is International Human Rights Day. All communities of faith are united in recognizing universal human rights. The Weekend of Prayer for Darfur is timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day.Hundreds of churches, synagogues and mosques around the country are displaying banners. Each banner helps to raise awareness and can create another activist working to protect the people of Darfur.  Please join thousands of other communities of faith on December 8, 9 and 10.

The people of Darfur need your prayers. Your efforts will also be heard here at home, where our national leaders must be reminded that the people of Darfur need them to take action today.

Thank you for being a committed Darfur activist. Your continuing efforts deliver hope and save lives.

Sincerely,

David Rubenstein, Save Darfur Coalition

                   Planning Ahead for Adult Education

By Karen Buxton

	December
As we await Christmas, relax and renew at our three advent supper gatherings.  Rejoice with seasonal music opportunities: at all our worship services, as well as Home for the Holidays, Dec 9 (sacramentochoral.com), From Heaven on High, Dec 17 (scholacantorum.com), and the Schola Cantorum at our own Christmas Eve service.

January

On Sundays after worship, Denyse Curtright, our own Biblical scholar, explores why some ancient holy writings became part of the Bible, and why others weren’t included.   The three sessions will focus on the Bible itself, the Apocrypha, and the “Lost Books of the Bible.”    January 28 and February 4 and 11

The first sessions of our Tuesday evening book club begins, reading Jim Wallace’s God’s Politics.  We’ll start with a short term approach with just a chapter or two, and see where we go from there.  Facilitator Wanda Collins is prepared with some great discussion questions.

February

March

For the past several years, LCOR members and friends have found the simple Wednesday evensong services to be very powerful during Lent.  Join us for spiritual serenity as we reflect on God’s world.

Karen Buxton will lead the discussion as we view A&E’s documentary series “Who Wrote the Bible?”  After worship on Sundays, and featuring a traditional Lutheran potluck (which means jello molds and practically anything baked with cream of mushroom soup).  Participants will be required to take at least one bite.

April

May	Surprises await after worship.  Imagine a quiz show format featuring our retired clergy…

Prayer List

Knowing that God hears prayers, please pray for the following this month.

Healing for: Lynn; Debbie’s hands; Aunt Judy; Valerie Specht; Julie; Ginger; CeCe; Rodney; Celestial EverOne; Aunt Judy; Margie; Elsie who suffered a stroke; Sue Atwill; Paulita Salas; Dori’s heart surgery.

Prayers for: Barbara with cancer throughout her body and comfort and strength for Lee, Paula and Debbie; The Rev. Margarita Martinez; Julie; The son (in Iraq) of acquaintance of Jeff and Alonso; Tangee for a job; The Children’s Receiving home; Kevin, Teri & Marie; Claudia’ brother; John’s sister; Gouldie, Karen; Carla traveling to Argentina; Bishop Stan & MaryLu; sobriety for Daniel; Paul’s friend Michael; Evelyn; Paula & Debbie’s dog; Office Jeffrey Mitchell’s family; First female, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church;

Comfort & Strength for: strength for Dorothy and family; teenagers in trouble; Marie, Richard, & Carol; Dan Peck; Lee whose daughter is dieing of cancer;

Comfort & Peace for all who grieve: Nai Saelee’s family who lost a baby; Shirley following the recent death of her husband; Melanie Willis who tragically lost her baby, mother and brother; Debbie & family; Kim Bradley.

Thanksgiving for: Amber’s new job; the birth of Liam Owen Miller; Tania’s new job; Ellie’s recover; Debbie & Paul to become grandparents; Jacks new job; Abraham Rahmey; Rick & Rose Hartwig’s recent marriage; for new relationships and old friends;

Stewardship Reflections

by Mario Giacomotto

Mario shared these thoughts with the congregation during our worship service on November 12, 2006.  We believed they would benefit many who were not able to be with us on that Sunday so we asked Mario if we could print them here, and he agreed.  Thank you to Mario and all of of those who have been offering their reflections on Stewardship during worship this fall!

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Good Morning … for those of you who do not me, my name is Mario Giacomotto.  I am fairly new to Our Redeemer.  I was a member of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Galt.

In the not so distant past, I was one of those Christians who sat back in the pew, smiled at my neighbor, after service I would go to the hospitality room and have a cookie or treat, drink some coffee and leave.  I thought I had done my Sunday duty of going to church.   Frankly, I did not know what I was missing yet I knew that there had to be more to this than just going to service on Sunday.

At the time, I failed to realize that, I was depriving myself of the pleasure and joy one receives from giving of time, talents, and treasures; elements that were given freely to me by the grace of God.

In first Chronicles chapter 29 verse 18 it is written “…everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. “

In Second Corinthians chapter 8 St.Paul writes about the Macedonian example:  Paul writes  about the generosity shown by the churches of Macedonia, … “for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.  For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means and even beyond their means.”

This, I believe is the first recorded church fundraising letter in history, Paul’s appeal to one single motive for giving:  the grace of Christ.

We as Christians do not give because we should (although we do) nor because it frees our life from idolatry of money (although it does).

As Christians, we give because we know that God gave everything , even God’s own son Jesus Christ, for our sake.    When I give of my time, talent and treasure, I feel the joy of giving.  Just as those who are forgiven much also forgive, those who have been given much are given more in return (such as peace with God, eternal life, the love of Christ, the indwelling holy spirit, and more).

The Macedonians understood the gift of giving so much that even in the midst of their own difficult circumstances they happily gave beyond their ability and then they gave some more.

I am trying to live my life by sharing of my time with this church community, and using my talents (currently it is the talent of changing the lights bulbs), and sharing of my treasure.  I thank God for the wealth that has come my way in the years (that is the time that was given to me) and that has passed, the talents that I was freely given and the treasure that continues to grow even with giving.

So I would like to leave you with a question; that is to ask yourself how are you using the gifts God has given you; the gifts of time, talent and treasure.

Two pastors of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church (ILS) murdered

SAN Salvador, Nov. 4. – With profound pain we are communicating to the national and international community the murder of Lutheran pastor Francisco Carrillo and his wife Jesús de Carrillo, also a pastor, gunned down on November 4 at 5:30 in the afternoon just after celebrating worship in “Montes de Pensbert” Lutheran Church in Colonia Independencia, located in the Municipality of Jayaque in the central department of La Libertad.

The Carrillos worked with two churches located in the same municipality, “Pan de Vida” Lutheran Church located in the town center of Jayaque where they celebrated worship services on Sunday and the aforementioned church where they worked every Saturday afternoon.

According to preliminary investigations, three youthful subjects confronted the pastors and, during the crime, shot them repeatedly; both were killed instantly by the multiple gunshot wounds that they received.

At the writing of this statement (9:00 p.m.), it had been learned that the bodies had been transferred to the Legal Medicine office in San Salvador where an autopsy will be performed. The son of the deceased, Pastor Wilber Carrillo, and their daughter, Roxana Carrillo, indicated that funeral services will be held in the installations of “Pan de Vida” Lutheran Church and the burial in the general cemetery of Jayaque.

In his notification of this tragic event to the national pastoral network of the ILS, Bishop Medardo Gómez expressed his profound pain and called for a national day of prayer in all Lutheran Churches. At the same time, he will ask the competent authorities to conduct an in-depth investigation of the case.

We ask for your solidarity and prayers for the Carrillo family and for the network of ILS pastors, men and women, who are carrying out our prophetic ministry under fire.