By Megan Crosby
Pastor Sonja shared a poem with us at a worship meeting this last Tuesday and I want to share it with you. “Fortunate are the poor in spirit.” That means: Fortunate are those who are willing to let themselves be censured by the word of God, to re-examine their views. to believe they haven’t yet understood a thing, to be taken by surprise, to have their mind changed, to see their convictions, their principles, their tidy systems, and everything they took for granted swept out from under them, and to face the fact, once for all, that there’s no such thing as a matter of course and that God can ask anything. Louis Evely Last weekend I went sledding with my four-year-old, Sophia. We had gone down the hill in the same sled, and I had just stood up when my feet were taken out beneath me by another person sledding down the hill. It was a classic cartoon moment. I landed hard on my right side, hearing my back crack all the way up my spine. I felt pain in my wrist and elbow and the wind had been knocked out of me. I got up and decided I hadn’t broken any bones and that I no longer needed a trip to the chiropractor. Surprised and dazed. That’s how I felt in the sledding accident. It’s also how I’ve felt for a good chunk of the pandemic and the resurgence of Covid with the omicron variant. My work, my life, everything got upended and some things were out right taken away. However, the pandemic also gave me (and many people) time to re-examine my life and think, “Who am I now? How do I really want to live? What is really important to me? What needs to change?” These same questions are also useful for communities and congregations. Our church and the community in which we live is undergoing numerous transitions besides the most obvious pastoral transition at Christ the King. God is inviting us to ponder these questions, to be open to ideas we may not have even considered before. It’s going to be a journey, but we won’t be on the path alone. God is still there, especially when we don’t feel the ground beneath our feet.
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By Kisten Thompson
Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday is January 15 and the third Monday of January is now a Federal holiday where we commemorate his remarkable work and legacy on behalf of racial justice and commitment to change and racial equality through non-violence. To help mark this date, two members of Christ the King’s Racial Justice Working Group will be sharing their gifts with us in this morning’s worship: Nathan Lemke and two of his children are leading the Children’s Message, reading and talking about the book, The Other Side; Priscilla Berg is sharing possibilities for partnership with New Brighton during a Mission Moment. Then following worship, you all are invited to zoom fellowship where we can see each other and talk together, not only about how we’re all doing, but also reflecting together on what Priscilla and Nathan shared in worship. Even as Christ the King is in transition and needs to adjust some of how we’re doing ministry together, the work of Racial Justice continues. And Racial Justice group invites you to a zoom event this Thursday, January 20 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. for a guided conversation from Come Together for Racial Justice. From their invitation: “Next week's gathering will be grounded in a conversation between three wonderful, Black voices: Pastor Kelly "PK" Chatman, Pastor Babette Chatman, and Rev. Dr. Robin Bell. If you know these three you know that the conversation is bound to be juicy!” Pastor Kelly and Pastor Babette are both well known to Christ the King through Local Mission Partners-it’s wonderful to hear them speak! I’ve been attending these zoom meetings and have found them to be insightful, helpful and life-giving. We meet via zoom (there have been around 100-150 people from all around the country); we listen to the speakers and then go to break out rooms for small group conversation with other participants. What better way to learn and build relationships! I hope that you can join this group. Here is a link to learn more: CLNE COME TOGETHER. Peace to all! Pastor Kisten Thompson, Bridge Pastor, on behalf of Racial Justice Working Group By Amity Lantz-Trier
I want you to know all about Christ’s love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is. I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forever bring praise to God. God’s power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine. Amen. Ephesians 3:19-21 CEV We are bound. Bound by our sin, by the expectations of others, by poverty, by -isms that try to divide us, and by so much more. In a life that often feels as if it has young people in a suffocating grip, we want them to imagine the boundlessness of God: boundless love, boundless creation, boundless forgiveness, boundless invitation, boundless promise. All offered from a gracious and loving God who knows and adores them. All so abundant and endless it cannot be measured. What are the stories of God’s people, both in Scripture and modern-day, that share the awe and wonder of just how vast our God is? What does it mean, what does it look and feel like to live a life “filled with all that God is”? How can young people find themselves within the boundlessness of Christ’s love? from ELCA Youth Gathering The 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering is taking place in our hometown! This July around 30,000 ELCA high-school youth and their adult leaders will gather at the Minneapolis Convention Center for 5 spirit-filled days of learning about God’s boundless love, creation, forgiveness, invitation and promise. The youth will experience interactive learning, worship, bible study, service and fellowship as they grow in their faith surrounded by their peers. An important part of the Gathering’s ministry are the two pre-events, the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE), a faith formation and leadership development event primarily for youth of color, and the tAble, a gathering that brings together, blesses and empowers youth with disabilities. We are excited to be sending a group of our youth to both the MYLE pre-gathering event and to the gathering itself! You may be asking yourself, “How can I help?” Here are two possibilities:
We are so excited to have the ELCA youth gathering in our backyard and can’t wait to experience what God has in store for us this summer! Amity Lantz-Trier Director of Youth and Family Faith Formation by Pr. Sonja Hagander
I have come to deeply appreciate the poem “The Gates of Hope” by Victoria Safford. She’s a local poet and pastor. On this 4th Sunday of Advent in the Gospel of Luke, Mary sings. It’s commonly known as The Magnificat. Mary is a truth-teller. I like to imagine Mary, a young, unwed, teen mother, standing at the “gates of hope” speaking incredible words that shake us so we pay attention to what God want us to pay attention to: the proud falling, empty bellies filling, the rich leaving with nothing, the power structures that we know becoming topsy-turvy! Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope-- Not the prudent gates of Optimism, Which are somewhat narrower. Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness, Which creak on shrill and angry hinges (People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through) Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna’ be all right.” But a different, sometimes lonely place, The place of truth-telling, About your own soul first of all and its condition. The place of resistance and defiance, The piece of ground from which you see the world Both as it is and as it could be As it will be; The place from which you glimpse not only struggle, But the joy of the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling, Telling people what we are seeing Asking people what they see. Dear Congregation: What do you see? Who will you tell? In hope and gratitude, Pastor Sonja By Kisten Thompson
“…that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear…” Luke 1:74 This verse is from the priest Zechariah, the father of John who later became known as John the Baptist. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were both old and faithful servants of God but they had never had children. Until…one day, the angel Gabriel visited Zechariah when he was serving in the temple in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sacred space of the entire temple. And Gabriel told him, “Do not be afraid…your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will name him John.” And so it came to pass, just as the angel had said. When the child was born, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke a prophecy, recorded for us in Luke 1:67-79. This passage from Luke was the devotion reading I had for November 30. I was moved by all of the words (for they are quite familiar) but that morning, I was especially struck by verse 74, this declaration that we have been rescued from the hands of our enemies. I must confess that at times, I feel the grip of the enemy pretty tightly these days, especially now. The political news, the emerging health threat, another (!) school shooting…they all feel like they are enemies, conspiring to keep me from feeling very “rescued." But, those feelings of discouragement don’t take away from the fact that I am “rescued from my enemies”. God remembered God’s people; God sent an angel to Zechariah and Elizabeth and promised them a son who would bear witness to the Savior of the world, the great “rescuer." And because of that rescue, I can serve without fear. And that is the key-with fear removed, I can live fully, love completely, and serve faithfully. So I wrote that morning, “Today I choose to live life without fear, full of love, gratitude and joy and to look for ways to serve.” In these Advent days of waiting and watching, may you hear Zechariah’s prophecy and reminder that you have been rescued from the hands of your enemies, and really take it to heart. Life is not meant to be lived in fear. Ask the Lord to remove your fear so that you may live and serve in joy and gratitude. To begin Advent, we share a post from Cory Driver on the Living Lutheran blog. Find a brief excerpt below.
"Advent is the start of the liturgical year, but in many ways, it feels like anything but the beginning. We look forward to Christmas. At least in the States, you are between Thanksgiving on the one side, and Christmas and New Years on the other. Winter has already begun, and students are in the middle of the school year. Advent is a strange time to say, “This is the beginning.” But this sense of beginning in the middle isn’t alien to Scripture. In this week’s readings, we start right in the middle of God’s story, even as the passages point to a new beginning." People of God at CtK, "Goodbye."
After nearly eight years of ministry together, it is time to say goodbye. I can still clearly remember finding out about the wonderful ministry taking place at Christ the King as I interviewed. I have both a mental and a digital image of the sign that warmly welcomed me on my first day at CtK (as well as the sparkly paperweight that held down the helium balloons from our Sunday School kids!). After a decade in global mission and a couple of years doing interim ministry, you here at CtK allowed me to put down some roots and grow in my identity as Lead Pastor at a faithful, dynamic, complex congregation. Together, we worked hard at how to engage in worship, to nurture one another’s faith, to build real, honest community among us, and to grow in our compassion for the world around us. I have been blessed to be among you. God be with you until we meet again. People of God at CtK, "Farewell." My prayer for all of you who are part of Christ the King/Cristo Rey is that you continue to fare well in the work God is calling you to do. I am deeply grateful for the ways you have both encouraged me and challenged me as a pastoral leader, and even more appreciative of the way you’ve held me, other staff, and our entire faith community in your prayers. Please continue to encourage and challenge one another, nudging one another gently yet continually towards the future that God has in mind for you and all here at Christ the King/Cristo Rey. I truly believe that CtK’s best days of ministry are in your future, not your past. And to borrow the words of the apostle Paul to the church in Philippi, I trust that “the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” People of God at CtK, "Amen." Friends, it has been my privilege and joy to minister among you at Christ the King over these past eight years, and to share visionary leadership with you. I give thanks to God for all that has been accomplished in Christ’s name and for the sake of our neighbors over these past eight years together. I ask your forgiveness for those areas where my ministry fell short of what God may have had in mind for us, and your patience and understanding as you continue in this time of transition. You have been a great blessing to me and to my family, and I trust that God will continue to bless us in ways we don’t fully understand thanks to our time among you all here. As I move to a new calling in Lyon, France, and prepare to enter into God’s mission in that place and among the people of the United Protestant and Anglican Churches there, I do so knowing that we serve the same God, follow the same Jesus, and are united by the same Spirit no matter how many miles, oceans, or continents are between us. Indeed, I believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. May God bless you and keep you all. Pastor Peter For this week's blog, as we celebrate our mission partnerships, welcome Reverend Chatman to worship, and renew our commitment to these partners moving forward, we offer a brief word of encouragement, as well as a video highlighting the important work these partnerships support. About 50 years ago when I was a congregation pastor, a Luther College student came to visit me about his youthful concerns. Since then I have seen him twice, once when I visited his congregation and told them about Christ the King's Local Mission Partners ministry. A few weeks ago he called me and wanted to talk. He asked if I was sitting down. I asked "What's up?" He said, "I'm sending you $1000. I remember you telling about your congregation's immigrant ministries and I want to support your work." I pass this on as an encouragement to our congregation as we reach out to our community. Local Mission Partner's purpose is "To engage in God's mission with the growing diversity and ethnic/immigrant ministries in the Twin Cities." --Vern Rice Daily Work is one of our Local Mission Partners LOCAL MISSION PARTNERS TEAM
Vern Rice, Ralph Berg, Betty Funk, Karin Larson, Dick Schultz, Cheryl & Scott Schrader Sue & David Klevan from Immanuel Lutheran Church in St Paul Dale Erickson, chairperson By Pastor Peter Hanson The above meme showed up (again) on my social media feed just this past week, perfectly timed for us to consider the solar energy proposal that comes before Christ the King in a Special Congregational Meeting later this morning. The CtK Property Committee has been hard at work researching information about solar energy, seeking feedback from other churches and non-profits about how their experiences, and soliciting bids from a number of highly recommended companies who deal in the sale, installation, and upkeep of solar panels. I hope that you can be with us for this meeting, either in the sanctuary immediately following 9:30 am worship (around 10:30 or so), or via Zoom (the link can be found at the top of today’s blogpost).
All joking aside, solar energy presents us with an opportunity to accomplish many different things at once. By going solar, we can be good stewards of God’s creation, doing what we can to reduce our carbon footprint. By going solar, we can be good stewards of the financial resources available to us as a congregation, cutting our annual expenses for electricity by about 45%. By going solar, we can make an investment in the future of the ministry of Christ the King, providing a bright future (pun intended) for generations to come! The more we give up front, of course, the less we’ll need to secure with a loan. My household will be giving over and above our regular pledged offering to support this new solar initiative, and we challenge others at CtK to do the same. We plan to give at least $1,000; if 150 or so of our 400+ active CtK households were to make a similar gift (and I understand that some will need to give less while others can certainly give more) we won’t need a loan at all. Stewards of creation, stewards of the abundance that has come our way, and investors in the future of ministry beyond the here and now—that sounds like the CtK whose light has been shining brightly for the past 60 years! Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, …showing us the way, one step at a time, down the path of peace. -- Luke 1:78,79; The Message Dear friends in Christ,
Five and a half years ago you called me to be your pastor. And, for these past five and a half years, you’ve (hopefully) watched me actually become one! After all, this has been my first call to ordained ministry. As we all do in new professional roles, I was inevitably going to make mistakes, face challenges I had never faced before, and, of course, be completely surprised by the many joys, griefs, and questions of this place. For this reason – and for many others – Christ the King/Cristo Rey will forever occupy a special place in my heart. Christ the King is the place where I first raised the bread and the cup and announced Christ’s presence and forgiveness in the sacrament of Holy Communion. This is the place where I first baptized babies and young people into the family of God, washing them in the promises of God’s mercy and grace. I have grown as a preacher, especially as I have listened and learned from your stories, from your encounters and experiences of God in daily life. I’ve visited your workplaces and homes and hospitals, and, over the past year-and-a-half, I suspect I’ve shown up on many of your television sets and computer screens! I have walked with young people through the rite of confirmation, worked construction in Appalachia, summited peaks in Montana, donned many silly costumes for Vacation Bible School, traveled across the world to our partners in Tanzania, and learned the best way to get a good crust on a pizza baked in a wood-fired oven. What a strange and wondrous calling this has been. And what a strange and wondrous place Christ the King is! As I move onto a new call to campus ministry, the people of Christ the King will remain in my prayers. There is so much goodness here. God’s Spirit is breathing new life and vitality into this place (as She always has), calling Christ the King into a future that none of us can fully know or control. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for entrusting me with your stories. For inviting me into your lives and praying for me and for my family. We are the body of Christ, broken and given for the life of the world! Though our paths are now diverging, nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Even in a difficult time of transition, this fact brings me great joy, and strength for the journey to come. May God bless you and keep you, dear friends and partners in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pr. John |
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Christ the King Lutheran Church
1900 7th Street NW New Brighton, MN 55112 Phone: 651-633-4674 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: 9 am - 2 pm Mon - Thurs or by appointment Sunday Schedule Morning Worship at 9:30 am |