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+

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, October 2015

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Luther in surplice
Luther administers communion with Melanchthon assisting.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On the last Sunday in October we will again celebrate the Festival of the Reformation which includes remembrance, thanksgiving, and repentance. We remember Dr. Martin Luther and his co-workers, we give thanks for the restoration to the Church of Christ’s saving Gospel in its purity and the right use of the holy Sacraments, and we repent of our sins: our taking for granted all these blessings, our negligence in the use of the means of grace and in making known to the world the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The picture here seen is an old copper plate portraying the distribution of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Dr. Luther is about to administer our Lord’s body to a kneeling communicant; his co- worker, Dr. Philipp Melanchthon, holds the chalice of Christ’s blood. The picture reminds us of the blessed truth of the Real Presence of Christ’s true body and blood in the Holy Sacrament. When we come to the Divine Service on the Lord’s Day we do not find an absent Lord, for the risen Lord Himself in fact comes to us with His body and blood in the hallowed bread and cup. Because Christ Himself has taught us that the bread and wine of the Sacrament are His body and blood, we cannot invite members of churches which teach their people that the bread and wine of the Sacrament only represent the Savior’s body and blood to receive Communion at our altar. To do so would be to say that the doctrine of the Real Presence is a matter of indifference, and that we cannot do! It would in fact suggest a unity which does not exist and for which we must pray. I fear that many people— alas, even members of the Lutheran Church!— do not understand that the faithful Lutheran Church rejects not only what we believe to be the errors of the Roman Church but also the errors of the Reformed Protestant churches. We must therefore pray that these errors will one day be overcome and the unity of the faith restored. It also goes without saying that we must at all times view all our fellow Christians with kindness and compassion.

But before we get to Reformation Sunday we have our Family Day this coming Sunday, October 11th. Do plan on being present and invite your family and friends to attend. As always there will be good food and drink following the Divine Service. Our good friend, Pastor Elliott Robertson of Martini Church in south Baltimore, will preach the sermon. Do come and welcome him to Our Saviour!

And speaking of Martini Church, do plan on attending the Joint Reformation Service of our Missouri Synod Lutheran churches there at 4:00 PM on Reformation Sunday, October 25th. The Rev. Dr. Roland Ziegler of Concordia Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, will preach. Following the service there will a reception with good fellowship and plenty to eat and drink.

In the Calendar of the Church Year, Sunday October 18th is the day of Saint Luke the Evangelist: on that day the Church gives thanks for the life and work of Saint Luke who gave us both the wonderful Gospel which bears his name and also the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is Saint Luke who records the story of our Savior’s birth and the visit of the shepherds to the Christ Child. He also records the Song of Mary (the Magnificat – Luke 1:46-55), the Song of Zechariah (the Benedictus – Luke 1:68-79) and the Song of Simeon (the Nunc dimittis – Luke 2:29-32) which from ancient times have found a place in the Church’s worship. In fact at every Divine Service we sing Simeon’s Song, the Nunc dimittis, after we have received the Holy Sacrament.

Following the Divine Service on Saint Luke’s Day there will be a Voters Meeting. One item for consideration will be the time for the Festival Divine Service on Christmas Eve. For some years now it has been held at 10:30 PM, but there is now some feeling that an earlier hour might be better. The hope of the Church Council is that we can reach a consensus on this matter, and so I ask you to give the matter prayerful thought, and let us talk among ourselves about this. My own experience tells me that it is far better to come to a common mind about this sort of thing rather than to vote on it. And it is perhaps not too soon to remind you that on Thanksgiving Day there will as usual be sung Matins at 10:00 AM. This was once a very well attended service of worship, but it seems that people’s priorities today are— regrettably!— very different than they were when in days gone by the services of God’s house were central in people’s lives.

Do be sure to look at our Church’s website. Vicar Demarest has been doing a splendid job working on the website. It is by no means a finished project, but we are well on our way to having a very fine website as a tool of outreach for our parish. In last month’s newsletter I mentioned that we also have a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

And what about the boiler? On Tuesday, October 6th I spoke with the men who are working on this. They expressed the hope that the new boiler will be in operation by this coming Sunday. This has been a lengthy project but we are now seeing the light at the end of the turmel!

Several of our fellow members have been to the hospital in recent weeks: Frank Ford, Doris Goods, Helen Gray, Don Weber, and David West. As of this writing (Wednesday, October 7th) Doris and Helen are still hospitalized at Northwest Hospital. Do remember Doris and Helen in your prayers and pray for continued healing for Frank and Don and David.

The chancel at Zion Church in Detroit.
The chancel at Zion Church in Detroit.

Vicar Trent and I had an enjoyable time at the annual Saint Michael’s Conference at our Zion Church in Detroit. It is called “Saint Michael’s” because it is always held close to Saint Michael’s Day, September 29th. This conference is now in its eighteenth year. It focuses on the sacramental, liturgical, musical, catechetical life of the Church. This year’s speaker was my dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Charles Evanson, who until this year had for a number of years been teaching at the seminary of the Lithuanian Lutheran Church in the city of Klaipeda. He has also lectured for the Lutheran churches in Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia. It was a real treat to hear him and catch up on all his news. As I mentioned to the Church Council some months ago, we are hoping to have a “Saint Mark’s Conference” this April here at Our Saviour. A number of east coast Missouri Synod clergy are interested in making this happen. We’re calling it “Saint Mark’s Conference” because our plan is to hold it on or very near to Saint Mark’s Day, April 25th.

Let me remind you that we do have an adult Bible class every Sunday at 9:45 AM and the Vicar has a class for our young people. Christian education is a lifelong task— and privilege!

Let me also remind you once again that the Divine Service on the Lord’s Day— the weekly remembrance of the Lord’s resurrection— is the beating heart of the Church’s life. Here Christ the Saviour comes with His gift of pardon and peace in Gospel and Sacrament and we offer our prayer and praise to God who has saved us. By our presence we also encourage our fellow Christians. And so “The Lord’s People are in the Lord’s House every Lord’s Day.”

I must finally thank Gabe and Louise Purviance for so graciously hosting the Church Council’s Strategic Planning day at their home on September 19th. There was a very positive feeling as we reviewed the strengths and the challenges which we face as a congregation. You will be hearing more of this in the days ahead. What is vital is that we proceed with prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we daily pray for one another as members of the family that is Our Saviour congregation.

 

Affectionately in our Lord,
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Pastor McClean

Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, September 2015

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our life as Christians is a life of thankfulness. One of the names for that Holy Sacrament which is the very center of the Church’s life is “The Holy Eucharist”: “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.“ And it seems that one of the purposes of these newsletters is to provide me with an opportunity to thank people.

I want to begin by thanking Vicar Trent Demarest who has been with us this summer. You perhaps have heard that he has decided to take a year out of his seminary studies, and so he will be with us for the coming year. I think that this is good news for us all! His wife Maritza will be teaching kindergarten at Emmanuel Lutheran School in Catonsville; she and Trent are expecting their first child around the end of March. I am especially grateful for the fine work Vicar Trent has done on our parish website. He has also set up a Facebook page for us. Being of a certain age and “technologically challenged,” Facebook is beyond my ken! But the Vicar assures me that he can keep up with it. It is apparently necessary for outreach especially to young people today.

I must thank Christine Watson for taking the lead in our Vacation Bible School in July. I think that the children who came and all of us who stayed for the picnic had a thoroughly enjoyable time. I must also thank Helen Gray for organizing the luncheon after the Divine Service on July 12th in which Jake Mokris and Maritza Demarest were confirmed and also after the Divine Service on August 9”’ in which Dymond Hawkins and Ayden Rogers received the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

A counter-weight for the sanctuary lamp hanging before the altar was dedicated on August 16th. George and Judy Volkman have given this in loving memory of their son Kenneth David Volkman. The sanctuary lamp itself has also been refurbished. This counterweight solves the long-standing problem of someone having to go up on a tall ladder every time the candle needed to be changed!

Albert Bell and Juanita Sherman were united in Holy Matrimony here at church on the afternoon of August 29th. We pray that Christ the Heavenly Bridegroom of His Bride the Church will richly bless them in their life together.

Our dear brother in Christ, Dr. Joseph Jones, fell asleep in the Lord on August 22th and was given Christian burial following the funeral service here at church on August 29th. We also extend our Christian sympathy to Ethlyn Gosnell whose husband Robert died in June. May our heavenly Father comfort all who mourn with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ!

It is so easy to take people for granted, so I also want to thank our secretary Cricket Hatton and William Hawkins our faithful sexton. We are blessed with these two faithful Christians who so cheerfully serve this church. And how can I forget to mention James Gray who has served so faithfully for so many years and continues to do so! And then there is Don Weber who has served as organist here for over fifty years!

Our final Free Flea Market (until next spring) will be held this coming Saturday, September 12th, from 9:00-12:00 Noon. Judy Volkman has taken the lead in making this happen.

At noon on that same day there will be a brief service of remembrance and prayer in observance of the National Day for the Remembrance of Aborted Children. A psalm and a Scripture lesson will be read and then we shall pray the Litany, the Church’s great prayer of supplication in every need. The President of Synod, Pastor Matthew Harrison, has asked all our congregations to observe this day as a witness against the wanton destruction of innocent human beings and as a day of prayer for our country which is caught up in this evil. There are of course those tragic circumstances when a choice must be made between the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child but, apart from such circumstances, abortion is morally indefensible and a very grave sin. It is not an unforgivable sin because “the blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7), also those who repent of the sin of abortion. Our Synod has consistently spoken out against this evil. More than forty years ago Dr. Hermann Sasse, probably the greatest Lutheran theologian of the last century, had this to say: “We do not live any longer in a Christian society, if ever such a society has existed, We are in the same position in which the ancient church found itself. But by giving their witness with intrepid hearts, the early Christians made an inestimable contribution to the future of mankind.” A society which willingly disposes of “inconvenient” unborn children will in due course also dispose of “inconvenient” elderly people. In fact we are already seeing a movement toward “assisted suicide.” Can anyone fail to see that in today’s world life has become very cheap indeed?

The Church Council will be meeting at Gabe Purviance’s home on Saturday, September 19, to consider strategic planning for our work here at Our Saviour. Pray that the Holy Spirit guide our conversation.

Do mark your calendar now for Family Day, Sunday, October 11th. This is always an enjoyable occasion for everyone. Our guest preacher will be our good friend Pastor Elliott Robertson, the Pastor of Martini Church in south Baltimore. Come and bring your family and friends.

The following is a note regarding works of mercy from Quilla Downs:

We continue to collect food items for our hungry neighbors. We thank our congregation for consistently sharing their bounty with those who are in need. We continue to remember the recovering residents of Helping Up Mission. Our gifts of personal care and grooming items in personal sizes (tooth paste, deodorant, shaving cream, towels, foot powder, etc.) are an integral part of the recovery of the residents at the Mission.

And it seems as if— at long last!— the boiler will be replaced during the next few weeks. And here I must thank Steve Knox for his cheerfully given leadership in this whole project!

God Himself has brought us together in this congregation. May He continue to guide and direct us that we may be faithful witnesses to His redeeming love!

Affectionately in Our Lord,

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+Pastor McClean