Welcome to St. Stephen Lutheran Church!

A Note from Pastor Ellen . . . . . . .

WORDS   A friend from North Dakota recently forwarded an article to me from the Washington Post called “Good Words.” Readers were invited to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter and supplying a new definition.  Here are a couple of examples:   Giraffiti: spray-painted vandalism, just placed very, very high.   Inoculatte: to take coffee intravenously when you are running late.   Karmageddon: it’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.   “Good Words” makes me think as well about the good word we hear all the time as we conclude worship:  “Benediction” = a blessing, but literally a “good” (bene) “word(s)” diction.  One blessing you know very well:   The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord’s face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and grant you peace.   Receive the good word, people of God!  Know that you are, have been, and will be blessed; that God’s goodness and mercy will pursue you all the days of your life.   As you worship, work, play, serve, love, and live:  hear the good word, absorb it deeply in your being, and pass it on!        THE RAPTURE   The Apostle Paul had an idea or two about the Second Coming of Jesus, which early on in his career, he believed would happen very soon.  Paul, however, had to revise his stance a bit when that did not happen. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest book we have in our modern day New Testament, a book written quite early in Paul’s career.  You can read about the missionary journey that brought Paul to Thessalonica in Acts 16 and 17. But it is in this letter of Paul that we find the one and only reference to “rapture” in the Bible. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 reads: For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. And more importantly, verse 18 reads: Therefore encourage one another with these words. The whole issue is based on verse 13 where Paul does not want the young church at Thessalonica to “grieve as those do who have no hope (i.e., those who do not believe in resurrection from the dead.)”  The issue, my friends, is HOPE.  Loved ones, and friends who have already died, will NOT be abandoned or left behind, AND one does NOT have to be dead already to be included. Paul gives advice in this letter on other practical ways to live as a Christian in that time and place:  marriage, human relationships, civic life.  He knows what it is like to try to live differently as a follower of Jesus in a Roman city, surrounded by Greco-Roman culture, values, and teachings. This hope is re-enforced in the imagery of the day – that of a powerful state ruler coming for a visit.  A cry of command, a herald’s call and a trumpet announce the ruler’s arrival so that everyone might welcome the Lord.  There is no mention of time or place by Paul but a word of encouragement and hope is given so that believers can be vigilant and “keep awake” Since things will likely happen quickly and unexpectedly (see I Thessalonians. 5:1-11). Even in that strange end-times book, the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, when persecuted, suffering believers long for escape from their torment in this world and some amount of revenge and punishment for those who have caused all this, the end result is not their being lifted up (raptured) from this earth, but instead the arrival of the New Jerusalem (read Revelation 21) and God’s home being re-established among us, on this earth, the WORLD that God has loved, loves now, and will love forever.   Shalom / Salaam,   Pastor Ellen LENT .. NICODEMUS The appointed lectionary cycle for this year (Cycle A) is the year of Matthew.  But for the 2nd through the 5th Sundays in Lent, the Gospel according to John is featured.   John has never been my favorite Gospel writer, but we do get four fascinating stories this Lenten season.  We’ll take a look at the first two, for the 2nd and 3rd Sundays in Lent, first. On Sunday, March 20, we read the story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of the Jews. Here is a man, steeped in the law of Moses and the traditions of the Hebrew people, who comes to visit Jesus at night.  In the darkness, Jesus and Nicodemus have a conversation about being “born again/born anew” and/or “born from above.”  The Greek word used here can be translated either way, but there sure is a different sense depending on which one you use.  Nicodemus takes it to mean being born again – literally entering the mother’s womb for a second time, etc.  Some Christians mean this as the baptism of the Spirit, an event which must be clearly recognized and the date recorded. Or, perhaps, it’s a total and radical change caused by God – once or repeatedly – but a change that brings a totally new reality, just like our physical birth.  Whatever that word means for sure, it certainly makes for a comical give-and-take in the spirit of the “who’s on first, what’s on second” routine by Abbot and Costello of years past.  The last words that John has coming from Nicodemus (in this story anyway) is “How can these things be?”  Nicodemus can be found again in John, at the end of Chapter 7, as he asks a question to those who would arrest Jesus, and asks again later in Chapter 19 as he brings spices to anoint Jesus’ body.  He seems to be at least sympathetic to Jesus, but the question always remains: does Nicodemus understand?  Does he move out of the darkness and into the light? On Sunday, March 27, we read the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well in Chapter 4 of John.  “It was about noon.”  It appears only one woman has come to draw water, and in bright sunlight.  Now, noon would be an unusual time to go after water because it is hot and the sun is high in the sky.  The other women from the village probably got their water much earlier in the day when it was cooler and they could linger to visit and gossip; but this woman did not. Why? Was she a social outcast?  The story never says that directly, though the reference to five husbands and living with a man who was not her husband may infer that.  (There are other explanations for the 5 husbands: five nations in the anti-Samaritan account in 2 Kings 17, or to say this is not the man-meets-woman-at-the- well type story of Genesis 24, 29, or Exodus 2).  As with Nicodemus, Jesus discusses important things with this foreigner as they play word games with drinking water – living water. Both of these characters, Nicodemus and the woman at the well, can be seen to represent the world and its varying responses to Jesus.  In darkness, important and learned people of the world do not see the Light.  Jesus’ own people do not accept him (John 1:11).  Yet, a marginal person (in ethnicity and gender) proclaims the name of Jesus in broad daylight to a village of Samaritans (read: NOT Jews) who hear and comprehend. Who IS this Jesus?    (In a couple of weeks, we’ll meet the man born blind, and Lazarus raised from the dead.)  Who IS this guy, and what is he up to? ...   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTEMPLATION FOR HOLY W EEK ..   Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929) INDIFFERENCE               1 When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree,               2 They drave great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;               3 They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,               4 For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.               5 When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed Him by,               6 They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;               7 For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,               8 They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.               9 Still Jesus cried, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do,"             10 And still it rained the wintry rain that drenched Him through and through;             11 The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,             12 And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary.     Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (Department of English) and the University of Toronto. Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.