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Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

Quinquagesima (2016)

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Quinquagesima

February 7, 2016 AD

Old Testament: Isaiah 35:3-7

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Gospel: Luke 18:31-43

Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Jesus stood still and commanded [the blind beggar] to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, that I may receive my sight.'” – St. Luke 18:40, 41

Although many of us have difficulty with our eyesight from time to time, I doubt that any of us can have any real sense of what it’s like to be blind. But we can perhaps at least imagine the desperation of the blind beggar in today’s Gospel, no doubt reduced to begging by his blindness. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” he cries out and keeps on crying out despite all the efforts of the crowd to silence him. Jesus commands the people to bring him to Him and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?. . .Lord, let me receive my sight!” And Jesus then says, “Receive your sight, your faith has made you well!” In His compassion our Lord restores his sight and he follows Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.

Now that blind beggar’s prayer; “Lord, let me receive my sight” must be your prayer and mine as well. For although we’re not literally blind, we’re blind in a far deeper sense: blind to the love and the will of our Maker. For if we really saw God clearly, our hearts would be continually overflowing with peace and joy. But since they are not, we too need to pray with that blind beggar, “Lord, let me receive my sight!”

The trouble is that, instead of clearly seeing the love and the will of God, we’re distracted: we see all kinds of other things instead. And you have to be careful about what you see!

Now I happen to have a dear friend in another part of the country who’s struggled with depression all his life. But his depression isn’t helped by what he chooses daily to see. Not content with looking at one or two news reports, he tends to keep watching the news all day long! And that, I submit, is enough to depress even the most cheerfully disposed person! And then there are those of us who are tempted to spend our time constantly following the latest scandals and tragedies in the Church and in the world— or even worse, materials not fit for human consumption, let alone for any Christian trying to follow the holy Jesus who said, “Blessed are the pure in heart…” You have to be careful about what you see!

Now we are naïve if we think this is a small matter of no consequence, if we fail to realize that Satan uses all of this to blind and confuse and alienate us from the life of God. For the more careless we are about what we choose to see, the greater the danger of being plunged ever deeper into spiritual confusion and darkness. You have to be careful about what you see!

Lent begins this Wednesday. And what is Lent for if not that time of year when, more than at any other time, we in fact gaze on Jesus? Lent in fact is all about seeing: about seeing ourselves as we are and our Maker as He is.

It’s a time for seeing ourselves as we in fact are: not as we’d like to be, nor yet as we fancy ourselves to be, but as we in painful fact are. Honest and thorough self-examination in the light of God’s Word written should quickly dispel any illusions we might have. For example, just how well do you and I measure up in the light of Saint Paul’s great hymn to love as we heard it in the Epistle for this Sunday?

“Love is patient; love is kind, and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish; not quick to take offense. Love keeps no score of wrongs, does not gloat over other people’s sins, but delights in the truth.”

Yes, in self-examination and in confession we see ourselves as we truly are.

But then in the word of pardon spoken by the pastor, whom God has put there to do just that, we see God as He truly is, who knows us better than we know ourselves yet loves us still; we see Jesus the crucified and risen Friend of sinners. And what else is the Sacrament we receive this day but the means whereby we see: see the love which brought the eternal Son of God to the shameful cross to cleanse us through His precious blood and make us His?

You have to be careful about what you see! “Lord, let me receive my sight.” In the wonderful Epistle for this Last Sunday before Lent, Saint Paul says, “Now”— in this life— “we see through a glass darkly, but then”— in heaven— “face to face.” And Saint John says of the redeemed in heaven: “His servants shall worship Him for they shall see His face.” But for now,

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
Sight, riches, healing of the mind—
Yea all I need in Thee to find,
     O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. +Amen.

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, February 2016

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February 10 – Ash Wednesday
Soup Supper, 6:30 PM
Divine Service with Imposition of Ashes, 7:30 PM

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Because Easter Day is so early this year, March 27th, we already find ourselves at the beginning of Lent. I hope that everyone who is able to do so will make the effort to be in God’s house on Ash Wednesday, the First Day of Lent. Lent has been kept by Christians since ancient times: then it was the final period of preparation of adult converts for baptism which took place at the Vigil of Easter Eve. Holy Scripture teaches that in baptism we are made one with Christ in His saving death and resurrection, are born again of water and the Spirit, receive the forgiveness of sins and are made members of Christ’s mystical body, the Church. And because we have been baptized we are called to daily repentance. As we learned in the Catechism, Baptism “signifies that the old Adam in us should through daily contrition and repentance die and be drowned with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” That is the daily life of Christians. Lent is simply a time of intensified effort to do just that through the discipline of prayer, fasting and almsgiving which the Lord Jesus assumes His followers will be engaged in as He says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6: 1-21). God does not need our Lenten discipline but we do – so that we may grow in likeness to Him. I am always glad to answer any questions you may have about the observance of Lent. My telephone number is 410.554.9994; my email address is charlesmcclean42@gmail.com.

Again this year we will have the Wednesday evening Lenten Vespers at 7:30 PM preceded by a simple soup supper at 6:30 PM. The meditations this year will focus on the Passion of Christ as seen in the Book of Psalms. When our Savior appeared to His disciples on the evening of His resurrection He said, “These are my words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that everything written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds of understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44t). All Scripture speaks of Christ. As we reverently and intently listen to God’s Word written, our sin is uncovered, we see the greatness of Christ’s forgiving love, and His mind is increasingly formed in us.

And speaking of Holy Scripture I should also mention the adult Bible Class which meets every Sunday morning at 9:45 A.M. We study the appointed readings– the Old Testament Lesson, the Epistle and the Gospel– for the day. Come and join us!

During the third week of January Vicar Trent and I attended the annual Symposium on the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fortunate we were to arrive home just before the blizzard really took over! And speaking of our Vicar, he and his wife eagerly await the arrival of their first child early in March. The Baptism is tentatively set for Saturday, March 19th, at noon. Let us keep both parents and child in our prayers. There will be a Baby Shower on Sunday, February 21st.

In reviewing the annual parish report which is sent to Synod each year I was happy to note that in 2015 four people were confirmed in our congregation and both an infant and a young person baptized. We also received two new members by letter of transfer. The Lord continues to build His Church in this place and throughout the world.

Now we begin our annual journey to Easter, the glad feast of the Lord’s Resurrection. I hope and pray that this Lent will prove to be for each one of you a time of renewal in faith and hope and love.

Alfectionately in our Lord,

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Pastor McClean

Holy Week Services:

Maundy Thursday
Divine Service, 7:30 PM

Good Friday
Liturgy of Good Friday, 7:30 PM

Easter Eve
The Easter Vigil, 7:30 PM

Works of Mercy

A word of thanks to our church family for the generous outpouring of nonperishable holiday food items and for the donation of eight frozen turkeys which we provided to designated families in our community. The turkeys were provided by individual member donations and from a Thrivent Gift. Because of the abundance of canned and packaged food donations, we were able to deliver several extra boxes to GEDCO’s community food pantry where there is always great need.

The process of assembling and labeling individual baskets went swiftly and smoothly thanks to our team of volunteers: William Hawkins, Mary Techau, David West, Judy Volkrnan, and James Smallwood. Please continue to support our food outreach to our neighbors.

– Quilla Downs

Announcements

Special Announcement: Divine Service Cancelled

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We will unfortunately not be having Divine Service tomorrow, January 24th (Septuagesima Sunday), due to the blizzard. Stay home, read the Word, sing a hymn, and look forward to next Sunday when— Lord willing— we will gather around Christ’s gifts once more!

The Scripture readings for tomorrow are as follows:

  • Old Testament: Exodus 17:1-17
  • Epistle: I Corinthians 9:24-10:5
  • Gospel: Matthew 20:1-16

The hymn of the day is “Salvation Unto Us Has Come,” which is #377 in TLH and #555 in LSB.

May God— the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— give His holy angels charge over us and keep us all safe and warm during this time of inclement weather.

 

Under the +Mercy

Vicar Demarest

 

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, January 2016

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Bartolomé_Esteban_Murillo_-_Adoration_of_the_Magi_-_Google_Art_ProjectDear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Wednesday, January 6th, is The Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. There will be a Festival Divine Service at 7:30 PM. On Epiphany we remember the coming of the wise men from the east to worship the Christ Child: in the coming of the gentile wise men the Child born of Mary is shown to be God and Savior of the whole world. Epiphany has often been called “the Christmas of the Gentiles.”

I hope that many of us will join in worship, especially in view of the fact that the other congregations of our our circuit have been invited to join us. Our Circuit Visitor, Pastor Thomas Foelber, will preach. We will sing the beloved carols that speak of the coming of the wise men: “The First Nowell”, “What Child is This”, “We Three Kings of Orient Are”— and also Epiphany hymns, notably that wonderful hymn “As With Gladness Men of Old.” I really can’t imagine Epiphany without that hymn! There will be a simple reception after Divine Service.

Vicar and Mrs. Demarest have been in Oregon visiting the Vicar’s family during the days of Christmas. They will be with us again on the Second Sunday after Christmas Day, January 3. Do look at our website oursaviourbaltimore.org. Vicar Trent has been doing a splendid job with it and has just posted two beautiful pictures for the Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus (January 1) and for Epiphany. More pictures of our church at Christmas and of parish life are on the way.

David Timothy Wiseman died suddenly on Wednesday, December 23rd, and was given Christian burial on Monday, December 28th. May the Light perpetual ever shine upon him and may the risen Lord himself comfort his bereaved parents and all who mourn.

I wish to thank everyone who helped to decorate the church for Christmas. The decorations will be taken down after Divine Service on Sunday, January 10th, the First Sunday after Epiphany when the Gospel reading shows us the twelve year old Jesus among the teachers in the temple at Jerusalem. Helen and James Gray continue their indefatigable service. It was good to have Lauren and Christopher Watson assisting on Christmas Eve together with our faithful acolytes Jamera Breshay-Hawkins and Kai Hawkins. We again were glad to hear Judy Volkman sing “O Holy Night.” Anthony Baylor’s schedule permitted him to assist. And of course we are all thankful for our organist Don Weber! I especially loved his prelude and postlude on Christmas Eve: the very expressive prelude on “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” by Brahms and “In dulci jubilo” by Bach. Wonderful music! And our sexton William Hawkins worked very hard preparing the church for the festival. Bernie Knox has also been working to put the kitchen in order and Steve Knox has continued to put the finishing touches on the new heating system. Judy Volkman and Quilla Downs have continued their fine work of distributing food to the poor in our neighborhood. David West has also lent a helping hand. And we are blessed with the leadership of our congregational president, Gabe Purviance. I hope I have not forgotten anyone! Saying “thank you” is not only good manners: it is what is required of us as Christians. I also wish to thank all of you who remembered me with cards and gifts.

I believe I must say a few words about Christmas church attendance. It is of course an unhappy fact of life today that church attendance on Christmas has (with some notable exceptions) been declining almost everywhere in recent years. But I ask you this: if even the festival of our Savior’s birth does not draw us to His house and to His altar, what can? Dear brothers and sisters, these things ought not so to be! The Church Council will again this year consider what might be the best time for worship on Christmas Eve. We had hoped that an earlier hour would make it possible for more people to come. I invite your input in this matter. Yet I must also in all candor finally say this: that no matter what hour is settled on for worship, the world, our own sinful human nature, and the devil will conspire together to keep us from coming! Please call me (410-554-9994) if you are ever in need of a ride to church and I will do all I can to make that happen. We do need volunteers to help make this happen.

Vicar Trent and I will be attending the annual Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, January 19-22. I have been invited to speak at the one day conference which Redeemer Church in Fort Wayne sponsors on the day before the Symposium begins. And so the Vicar and I will be leaving for Fort Wayne immediately after Divine Service on Sunday, January 17th.

The beginning of a new year is always a time of both hope and anxiety. This new year perhaps brings more anxiety. We do not know what the future holds, but we do know the One who holds the future in His hand— the hands which still bear the marks of the nails, the hands of Him who is the embodied Love of God. He is our Lord, He is our Emmanuel— God with us. He is our Jesus who saves us from our sin. In His name I wish you a blessed new year.

Affectionately in our Lord,

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Pastor McClean

Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

Advent 2 (2015)

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Advent 2

December 6, 2015 AD

Old Testament: Malachi 4:1-6

Epistle: Romans 15:4-13

Gospel: Luke 21:25-36
 
 
 
Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

– St. Luke 21:28

I wonder how many times you’ve found yourself asking, “Where will it all end?” That’s not the kind of question we’re likely to ask when things are going well, but I’m sure we’ve all asked that question in times of personal crisis, or when faced with family difficulties that just won’t go away, or on those days when we become so painfully aware of the violence and conflict in the world, of the deprivation and hunger, the sheer misery that mark the lives of millions. It’s then that we find ourselves asking, “Where will it all end?”

Just a few short days after those terrible events we’ve come to call “9-11”, I received a beautiful card from a very dear and considerably older friend encouraging all of us “to remain strong in faith and prayer because,” she said, “no matter what might happen in the meantime, we Christians already know how the story ends.”

And how does the story end? In the coming again in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead and to usher in His beyond-imagination glorious kingdom which in His love He prepared for us from the foundation of the world. That’s where it will all end!

To many people of course our Christian belief in Christ’s coming again has nothing to do with the urgent demands of life; it seems to deal with what to them is at best an utterly remote possibility— in fact an event that in all likelihood will never take place and therefore can be safely ignored. And if truth be told, even within the visible Church there are people who have in fact abandoned this hope in part because misguided teachers have so distorted our Lord’s teaching about this with all kinds of bizarre notions and have even attempted to predict the exact day and hour of His coming— despite the fact that our Lord Himself said: “Watch, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming,” and “the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

In the Gospel for this Sunday our Lord does in fact speak of the signs of the last days: “signs in sun and moon and stars and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. . .men fainting with fear and foreboding at what is coming on the world.” But what is so often forgotten is that, according to Holy Scripture, all days from Christ’s first coming in lowliness until His second coming in glory are in fact the last days – the days when God is at last bringing to completion His truly loving purpose for the whole creation. Saint John wrote, “Children, it is the last hour,” and Saint Paul addressed the Christians of his day as those “upon whom the end of the ages has come.”

And so when Jesus says, “When you see these things place, you know that the kingdom of God is near,” Jesus is speaking in terms not of our human time-table but in terms of God’s time-table which is another thing altogether— the Lord “with whom one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” In a word, the signs of which Jesus speaks tell us that He is coming, not when He is coming as Jesus said, “Watch for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming,” and “Watch, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Someone has said that our Lord’s coming again has to do not with a date but with an attitude. “Not a date” because the day and hour of His coming are known only to Him, “but an attitude”: an attitude which is neither cynical despair and resignation nor naive optimism but rather a deep and abiding hope which can face the very worst and still rejoice because it is hope grounded solely in Christ: the Lord who through forgiveness makes each moment of our lives a new beginning, who brings good out of evil, life out of death, and who will in the End deliver the dying creation and wonderfully transform all things by the light of His resurrection. As Saint Paul writes to the Church at Rome, “Creation itself will”— in a way we cannot now even dimly imagine— “be delivered from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

We live in a dying world and you and I are dying people; the grave awaits each and every one of us, and the world as we now know it will come to an end. The signs of which Jesus speaks in this day’s Gospel tell us that this is so: “signs in sun and moon and stars and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. . .men’s hearts fainting with fear and with foreboding at what is coming on the world.” In fact all the dismal and destructive realities of life tells us that this so. But if we remember and take seriously the words of Jesus, these signs— these grim reminders of our own mortality and of the world’s approaching end— are no cause for despair. Seen with eyes of faith, they are even reason for hope because they tell us that the Lord we love and long to see is in fact on His way; He is coming to gather His redeemed children into the kingdom which in His love He has prepared for us from the foundation of the world.

So where will it all end? Not in death and oblivion, but in the coming again of the Lord whose love we already know through His manger, cross, and open tomb. So, “When all these begin to take place, look up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.”

And so I would like to conclude this morning with some beautiful, yes, poetic words of John Henry Newman about the altar, the altar of the Sacrament, as this place where our hope is kindled and sustained. Newman says,

But while the times wax old, and the colours of the earth fade, and the voice of song is brought low, and all kindreds of the earth can but wail and lament, the sons of God “lift up their heads for their redemption draweth nigh.” Nature fails, the sun shines not, and the moon is dim, the stars fall from heaven, and the foundations of the round world shake; but the altar’s light burns ever brighter; there are sights there which the many cannot see and all above the tumults of earth the command is heard to show forth the Lord’s death and the promise that the Lord is coming. “Happy are the people that are in such a case!” who, when  wearied of the things seen can turn with good hope to the things unseen; yea “blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God.” “Come unto Me,” He says, “all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Rest is better than toil, peace satisfies, and quietness disappoints not. These are sure goods. Such is the calm of the heavenly Jerusalem , which is the mother of us all; and such is their calm worship, the foretaste of heaven, who for a season shut themselves out from the world, and seek Him in invisible-Presence, whom they shall hereafter see face to face. (J. H. Newman, Parochial & Plain Sermons VII, l58f)

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus unto life everlasting, +Amen.

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, December 2015

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DurerDear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In less than a month we will again celebrate Christmas. Here at Our Saviour the Holy Night Communion will be celebrated at 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve. After much thought and discussion, the Church Council decided to recommend and the Voters Meeting agreed that we have this Festival Divine Service somewhat earlier than in the past. There is a perception that people are less willing for various reasons to come out late at night. Be all that as it may, it goes without saying that every Christian will wish to be present in the Lord’s House on Christmas. The shepherds found the Christ Child in the manger, we find Him in the holy Sacrament of His body and blood.

The Church will be decorated for Christmas following the Divine Service on the Fourth Sunday in Advent, December 20th. “Many hands make light work.” The previous Sunday, December 13th, is the deadline for ordering poinsettias in memory or in honor of loved ones. Names and ten dollars for each plant should be given to Judy Volkman.

"Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness 1660-70," attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
“Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness”
(1660-70), attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

But before we come to Christmas we have the Advent season of preparation for the Feast. These four weeks before Christmas are not yet Christmas— despite what the world may say or do! During Advent Saint John the Baptist is after Christ Himself the one dominating figure of the season, and John is the great preacher of repentance. Although it is true that, as Dr. Luther said, “the Christian’s whole life should be one of repentance,” Advent and Lent are times for intensified focus on this theme. In order to repent we need to recognize our sins. So let me as your pastor urge you during these Advent weeks to examine your conscience in the light of God’s holy Word. There are any number of ways to do this. You might carefully read the Ten Commandments and their meanings in Luther’s Small Catechism or you might consider Christ’s Sermon on the Mount as found in chapters five through seven of Saint Matthew’s Gospel or Saint Paul’s catalogue of the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit” as found in Galatians 5:19-23. And then reflect on your own life in the light of all this. If you feel that you need help in doing this, I am always ready to be of assistance.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that, although the Lutheran Church does not require private confession before the pastor, private confession is taught both in the Augsburg Confession— the principle statement of the doctrine of the Lutheran Church— and in Luther’s Small Catechism which also provides a form for such confession and absolution. Those who use this means of grace testify to the great comfort provided when, having confessed their sins, they receive individual absolution. The pastor who hears such confessions can never under any circumstances divulge what he has heard to anyone, he may not even subsequently mention it to the penitent whose confession he has heard. And if you ask why, the answer is this: confession is made not to the pastor but to God; the pastor is simply a witness to such confession and then grants absolution and counsel. It goes without saying that I am always ready to hear confessions and answer questions about this means of grace. In any event, do use these Advent weeks to examine your conscience not least in preparation for your Christmas Communion.

In the past few weeks two long-time members of our congregation have been called out of this world to Christ’s nearer presence. On Saturday, November 21st, Earline Pride fell asleep in the Lord; the following day Elaine Albert peacefully died. On Saturday, December 12th, there will be a Memorial Service for Earline at 11 o’clock followed by a repast. On Saturday, December 19th, there will be a Memorial Service for Miss Albert at 10 o’clock. May the Light perpetual ever shine upon them and may our heavenly Father comfort all who mourn with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

On the Second Sunday in Advent, December 6th, Paul and Mary Techau will be received as members of Our Saviour. They formerly were members of Immanuel Church in Alexandria whose pastor, Christopher Esget, preached for my installation as Pastor of Our Saviour. We welcome them and ask God’s blessing on their life here at Our Saviour.

Pastor and Gabe on the parish clean-up and bulb-panting day.
Pastor and Gabe on the parish clean-up and bulb-panting day.

This newsletter always provides me with an opportunity to say thank you. So I especially want to thank Anthony Baylor who organized the clean-up and planting day on Saturday, November 14th and to all who participated. I think all of us who joined in the clean-up and planting of bulbs thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In the spring everyone will take delight in seeing the beautiful tulips in bloom.

On New Year’s Eve we will as usual have Divine Service at 7:30 PM Wednesday, January 6th, is the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord. There will be a Festival Divine Service at 7:30 PM. All the congregations of our Circuit have been invited to join us. It will be a joyous celebration in which we will sing such familiar carols as “The First Nowell,” “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” “What Child is This?” and also such beloved hymns as “As with Gladness Men of Old.” The celebration of Epiphany provides a joyous conclusion to our Christmas celebration.

God bless you in these Advent days and bring you to a happy Christmas! Affectionately in our Lord,

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Pastor McClean

A Generous Donation

This past month Our Saviour received a very generous donation from a former member. This came in the form of a Thrivent Choice designation for over $1200. Thrivent is a fraternal insurance organization and they give back to the community. The Thrivent Choice program lets eligible members recommend where one of Thrivent’s charitable funds goes by designating Choice dollars. If you have life insurance or an annuity through Thrivent you may qualify to designate funds to Our Saviour. Go to http://www.thrivent.com/thriventchoice. Several members have already designated funds through Thrivent Choice. You can join them and access funds for Our Saviour.

– Judy Volkman

Thanksgiving and Christmas Baskets

This past Thursday we provided complete Thanksgiving dinners to eleven families in our community. Because of an outpouring of generosity, our food drive was a success. Additionally, we have nearly enough fixings to supply our Christmas baskets. Thanks to Judy Volkrnan, a $250 grant from Thrivent was used to purchase ten turkeys. The 33rd Street Giant Supermarket donated a $25 gift card which was spent at the store. Looking towards Christmas, we have a pledge of five turkeys already. Additional turkey donations would be welcome. We thank our church family for gifts of food, of cash, and for the gift of time.

On Monday, November 23rd, we delivered the food boxes to Waverly Elementary/Middle School. With the help of additional hands, the packaging, the labeling, and the delivery went smoothly. A special thanks to Pastor McClean and to Eugene James who brought his grandson, to William Hawkins and Ron Lang. By the end of the school day, all of the families had picked up their baskets from the Church. We would like to provide for an equal number of families this Christmas. We believe it is possible.

Lastly, we responded to GEDCO’s requesty for a donation of food for their annual Thanksgiving Eve dinner for the residents of Harford House and Mica House. Under the umbrella of Our Saviour Lutheran Church we supplied four bags of dinner rolls and two pies.

– Quilla Downs

Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

Trinity 24 (2015)

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Trinity 24

November 15, 2015 AD

Old Testament: Isaiah 51:9-16

Epistle: Colossians 1:9-14

Gospel: Matthew 9:18-26
 
 
 
Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

“And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players and the crowd making a tumult, He said, ‘Depart, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed Him to scorn.” (St. Matthew 9:23f)

At this time of the year when earth begins to feel the cold hand of winter, the hours of darkness lengthen, and nature itself in some sense dies, we Christians begin to think about the  end: the end of life, the end of the world. But we do that in the dazzling light of Jesus’ resurrection, of which the raising of Jairus’ daughter in the Gospel just read is a sign— a sign pointing forward to Jesus’ resurrection and ours, when in the end He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. But the mourners just laugh Jesus to scorn.

christ-1522Now it’s no secret that we live in a day when the resurrection hope is dismissed as a matter of little concern which one may or may not believe, or else is trivialized as nothing more than a poetic way of saying that— well— despite everything, life still— somehow— has meaning. Now this faith weariness, this loss of Christian nerve, this death of genuine hope is of course by no means something new. You might even say that it’s as old as the human story. Job asks, “If a man die, will he live again?” And the New Testament Scriptures give plenty of evidence as to how this hope was then dismissed by both Jew and Gentile. The party of the Sadducees in Judaism knew nothing of the resurrection hope, and when Saint Paul preached the resurrection to the sophisticated audience gathered on Mars Hill in Athens, “some mocked him and others said, ‘We’ll listen to you again some other time,'” more or less dismissing him out of hand. Yes, the rejection of the resurrection hope is nothing new!

In fact members of the Church St. Paul founded in the city of Corinth kept asking— anxiously, “How are the dead raised? With is what kind of body do they come?” And St. Paul answers their anxious question by using a comparison: the picture of seed sown in the earth. Of the body buried and risen St. Paul says, “What is sown in the earth is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

And it is at this point that one so often finds confusion worse confounded because that word “spiritual” is one of the slipperiest, most easily misunderstood words there is! It can mean so many different things! And so today, just as in St. Paul’s day, when we people hear the word, “spiritual,” they jump to the conclusion, “If spiritual, then certainly not bodily.” But that conclusion contradicts everything we as Christians believe!

For us Christians spirit and body are by no means mutually exclusive, since God who is spirit in fact took on Himself from blessed Mary a body and has never put it aside— although that body born of Mary, crucified and buried, is now risen and wondrously changed in a way we can’t even begin to understand this side of our own resurrection. So when Saint Paul speaks of the resurrection body as a “spiritual body,” he doesn’t mean “not bodily at all”, but a body totally responsive to the Holy Spirit who, as we learned in our Catechism, “will on the last day raise me me and all the dead and give to me and all believers in Christ eternal life.”

The life we now know, this side of the resurrection— despite all its tragedies, sorrows, pains and absurdities, its own manifest injustices and intractable problems— is nevertheless God’s precious gift, full of joy and delight and wonderful surprise— truly a gift of love! And where there is so much love, there must be more, always more. And how do we know that? Because on the first day of the week the Lord of Love rose from the dead. And not only on Easter Day but every Lord’s Day we celebrate His glorious resurrection, receiving Him in that wonderful Sacrament which is me the sure Pledge of our own resurrection, as we hear in the dismissal from the Lord’s Table: “The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in body and soul to life everlasting.” And so here at the altar we know and truly receive our Savior’s hope-sustaining love.

Preaching to some no doubt skeptical Oxford undergraduates about fifty years ago, Austin Farrer had this to say:

They think too little of [God’s] love who call this hope in question. Belief in this infinite and invaluable gift, this partaking of God’s eternity, is the acid-test of genuine faith. Leave this out of account, and you can can equivocate forever on God’s very existence: your talk of God can always be talk about the backside of nature, dressed in emotional rhetoric. But a God who reverses nature, who undoes death, that those in whom the likeness of His glory has faintly and fitfully shone may be drawn everlastingly into the heart of light and know Him as He is: This is a God indeed, a God Almighty, a God to be trusted, loved, and adored.

Saint John put it so simply: “Beloved, we are children now. But it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.”

And now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, to life everlasting. +Amen.

 

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, November 2015

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

From ancient times the first day of November has been kept as All Saints Day, the festival when the Church here on earth remembers all those who now rest in Christ’s nearer presence. Here at Our Saviour we always especially remember those members of our congregation who have fallen asleep in the Lord since the last All Saints Day: this year Dr. Joseph Jones and Doris Goods. May the Light perpetual ever shine upon them.

God’s saving purpose is misunderstood if its goal is described as isolated individuals finally at one with Him. No, His saving purpose is that all who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus will together be with Him and with one another in that kingdom of love and joy which has no end. As we say in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe…in the communion of saints.” In last year’s November newsletter I shared with you a few words of Pastor Wilhelm Löhe (1811-1872), one of the great Fathers of the Lutheran Church in the nineteenth century. Here is the entire excerpt from his writings:

There is one eternal Church, part to be found here and part to be found in eternity. Here it becomes smaller and smaller, but there it becomes ever larger, for the yearning, struggling band is always being gathered to its people. When I was young I thirsted for an eternal fellowship. Now I know an eternal fellowship which becomes more and more close and binding— the holy Church! From it death shall not separate me, but death will for the first time bring me to complete enjoyment of love and fellowship.

Or, as we shall sing in a fine hymn of Charles Wesley (1707-1788) this coming Sunday:

The saints on earth and those above
But one communion make;
Joined to their Lord in bonds of love,
All of His grace partake.

One family, we dwell in Him,
One Church above, beneath;
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream of death.

November 26th is Thanksgiving Day. We usually have Matins at 10 o’clock in the morning, but after careful thought and discussion the Church Council has recommended that we try celebrating our national Day of Thanksgiving with worship the evening before. Although Thanksgiving is not, strictly speaking, a festival of the Church Year, it remains our country’s national day of Thanksgiving. When I was a boy the churches were filled— but that was a long time ago! I am personally of the conviction that the neglect of worship at this national festival is yet another deplorable sign of lethargy, indifference, and the growing secularism which tries to sweep all before it. I hope that Divine Service on the Eve will make it possible for more people to attend. The hymns sung on the day are wonderful hymns, not to be missed: “Now Thank We All Our God,” “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come,” etc. It has been said that “thinking people are thankful people.” When we think of God’s undeserved blessings showered on our nation— despite our many sins as individuals and as a nation!— we will wish to give thanks to the Lord “whose mercy endureth forever.”

I should also mention that the Church Council has recommended that the Festival Divine Service of Christmas Eve be held at 9:00 PM rather than at 10:30 PM. More and more churches seem to be having their Christmas Eve worship somewhat earlier in the evening. I mention this change now so that you can plan your Christmas Eve in such a way that you will not miss the celebration of the Savior’s birth for your salvation.

Looking back over the past month, we certainly had a wonderful Family Day here on October 11th. I think that the attendance was better than it has been in several years, and we were blessed with a fine sermon by our friend, Pastor Elliott Robertson, of Martini Church. I wish to thank Louise Purviance for taking charge of the delightful luncheon which followed and also everyone who helped in any way to make our Family Day such a success.

The handsome red cope worn on Reformation Day is a gift from Vicar Trent and Maritza Demarest. The cope is a vestment which has continued to be used by the Lutheran bishops in Scandinavia since the time of the Reformation, and it has been restored in many parts of the Lutheran Church. If you have not yet done so, do look at our Church’s website. Vicar Trent has done a splendid job of putting it together and he continues to keep it up to date. Although I have not asked him to do this, he places a recording of my sermons on our website every week. Some of our members who are no longer able to come to church have said how much they appreciate this.

I cannot close without also thanking Steve Knox for all his work in connection with the installation of the new boiler which is now finally in place, up, and running! Please keep me in your prayers. You are daily in mine.

 

Affectionately in our Lord,
signature

 

+Pastor McClean

Thanksgiving Baskets

As an expression of our care and concern for those in need we will be collecting non-perishable food items for Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for families in the Waverly Elementary/Middle School Community. On October 6th we delivered six boxes of food to the CARES food pantry; that delivery depleted supply. Our focus now is to collected holiday foods (boxed mashed potatoes, canned sweet potatoes, string beans, sweet corn, macaroni, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, boxed cake mix, etc). With the help of a $250 donation from Thrivent and a gift card pledge from Giant Foods, we expect to provide dinners, including turkeys, for approximately ten families, for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. Many thanks for sharing your gifts of food.

— Quilla Downs

 

Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

All Saints Day (2015)

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OSLC 5All Saints Day

November 1, 2015 AD

First Reading: Revelation 7:9-17

Epistle: 1 John 3:1-3

Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12

Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Whenever we say the Apostles’ Creed— and if we follow Dr. Luther’s instructions in the Small Catechism we say the Apostles Creed twice a day, morning and evening— whenever we say that Creed we confess our faith in the Holy Christian Church the Communion of Saints: the Holy Christian Church which is the Communion of Saints. And it is especially on this Festival of All Saints that we rejoice in this truth— or, to speak more accurately, in this blessed reality.

It was Pastor Wilhelm Löhe, one of the great Fathers of the Lutheran Church during the nineteenth century, who said:

When I was young I thirsted for an eternal fellowship. Now I know an eternal fellowship which becomes more and more close and binding— the holy Church! From it death shall not separate me, but death will for the first time bring me to complete enjoyment of love and fellowship. [For] there is one eternal Church, part to be found here, and part to be found in eternity.

I believe in the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints— here on earth and there in heaven. As we sang in William Walsham Howe’s wonderful hymn:

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine:
Yet all are one in Thee for all are Thine.

Or as we sang in the sermon hymn:

One family we dwell in Him,
One Church above, beneath:
Though now divided by the stream
The narrow stream of death.

I believe in the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints.

Long before the coming of our Lord the author of the Book of Proverbs said: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Well in the first reading from Holy Scripture we have a fragment of the vision of Saint John exiled on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. We usually call that vision The Revelation to Saint John. And at its very beginning Saint John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day”— the day when all the seven churches of Asia Minor to which he wrote would have been gathered for the weekly celebration of the Holy Communion on the day of the Lord’s resurrection. The late Austin Farrer put it this way:

One Sunday it happened that St John could not be at church with his friends, for like Elisha, like Jesus, he was taken by the armed men and held in prison. But God consoled him with a vision: he saw the Christian sacrament that morning not as we human beings see it, but as it is seen in heaven. His spirit went up; he saw the throne of glory and the four cherubim full of eyes in every part who sleep not saying Holy, Holy, Holy. And he saw the Lamb of God: a Lamb standing as though slaughtered; a Lamb alone worthy to open for mankind the blessed promises of God. He saw the Lamb, and then the angels. I saw, he says, and heard the voice of many angels round about the Throne, the number of them ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to be receive power and riches and wisdom and honor and glory and blessing…

And he saw the saints standing before the throne of God and the Lamb. And who are the saints? Those who had come out of great tribulation and had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the gentle Lamb who leads to springs of living waters and wipes away every tear from their eyes.

You and I are not yet there. We are only on the journey; they are at journey’s end— in the nearer presence of the Lord in whom is all our life and hope. As Pastor Löhe said, “There is one eternal Church, part to be found here and part to be found in eternity.” But it is one eternal Church, and both here on earth and there in heaven Christ’s people worship before the throne of God and the Lamb. In heaven the saints see Him. Here on earth we find Him hidden under the outward appearances of bread and wine. But we with the saints in heaven acclaim Him as the Lamb slain for us all, washing away our sins through His most precious Blood, feeding us with the heavenly Food for our journey— His Body given, His blood shed— and worshipping Him as do the saints and the angels in the words of the thrice holy hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth: Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest!

I believe in the Holy Christian Church: the Communion of Saints. God grant that we may rejoice not only on this All Saints Day but every day in that blest communion, fellowship divine, until we too are called to Christ’s nearer presence and join in worshipping Him before the throne of God and the Lamb.

And now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, to live everlasting. +Amen.

 

Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

The Festival of the Reformation (2015)

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OSLC front Holga-ishThe Festival of the Reformation

October 25, 2015 AD

First Reading: Revelation 14:6-7

Epistle: Romans 3:19-28

Gospel: Matthew 11:12-19
 
 
Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

The Joint Reformation Service which will take place this afternoon is an old Baltimore tradition. Way back in late October 1949 my father told me that the preacher at the Joint Reformation Service that year would be a certain Dr. Pelikan. Only a few weeks before our family had been in Florida, and for the first time in my life I had in fact seen pelicans. And so my seven-year-old mind wondered what on earth a Dr. Pelikan would look like! Well, he in fact looked much like any other pastor. I don’t remember what he said, but as the years went by I learned that this Dr. Pelikan was one of the greatest Church historians in twentieth-century America.

My reason for talking about Dr. Pelikan this morning is that he said something worth thinking about as we celebrate this Reformation Sunday. And what he said was this:

The Reformation was a tragic necessity. It was tragic because the opposing groups could not agree and so the visible unity of the Western Christian Church was destroyed and remains so to this very day. But the Reformation was also a necessity because in the late medieval Church the Gospel had been obscured, the Good News that we are saved not by anything we do, but by what has God has done and continues to do for us through His Son Jesus Christ.

Of course the Gospel had not been completely lost, because the Church cannot live without the Gospel, and Christ promised that “the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church.” And so despite all the errors of the Church before the Reformation it was still the Church— the one flock of Jesus the Good Shepherd who never fails to feed and protect all those who place their trust in Him. And so Dr. Martin Luther was not the founder of some new religion but rather the Reformer whom God raised up to restore to His Church the Gospel in its purity.

I’ve often said from this pulpit that so many people think of the Gospel as good advice. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or to put it in Biblical words: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” These words are of course true but they are not the Gospel, because the word ‘Gospel’ doesn’t mean good advice but good news. The world has all the good advice imaginable but what the world does not have apart from the Gospel is the forgiveness of the world’s chronic inability to live by the good advice it already knows, or to put that in biblical language, forgiveness for its sin.

And by sin we don’t simply think of murder and drunkenness and adultery and fornication and stealing but also of the resentment and hatred in our hearts, our indifference to the plight of those in such desperate need, our discontent and lack of gratitude for all the gracious gifts of God, our anger that our prayers have not been answered in the way we wish, our impatience with God, and lack of trust in His goodness and love. And so we are sinners in need of forgiveness of our sins.

The Gospel is the good news that our sins are forgiven by God who loves us not because we are so lovable but because He is love. As Dr. Luther sings in one his many wonderful hymns:

But God beheld my wretched state
Before the world’s foundation.
And mindful of His mercies great
He planned my soul’s salvation.
A father’s heart He turned to me
Sought redemption fervently:
He gave His dearest treasure.

He spoke to His beloved Son,
“‘Tis time to have compassion,
Then go, bright Jewel of My crown,
And bring to man salvation.
From sin and sorrow set him free,
Slay bitter death for him that he
May live with thee for ever.”

Yes, God sent His dearest Treasure to be our Saviour. And in a wonderful Christmas hymn Dr. Luther sings:

He whom the worlds cannot contain,
Doth in Mary’s lap repose.
He is become an Infant small
Who by His might upholds all.

Look to the Child of Mary, look to the crucified Savior! That is where we see God with eyes of faith, that is where we see His love. The preaching of the Gospel points you to Him. Baptism clothes you with the spotless robe of Jesus’ blood and righteousness. And now again at the altar He truly feeds you with His precious Body and Blood.

Yes, the Reformation was tragic in the which followed, but it was also necessary so that believers might again see with clarity the love of God which brought Him to the manger and the cross, the Lord who now lives and rules all things for the good of His holy Church, His Body and beloved Bride which in the end He’ll bring to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in His kingdom.

And now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

 

+INJ+