Today’s post is from Julie B. Sevig, an ELCA deacon, communications specialist at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chicago, IL.

Sunday, November 26, is soon here. In some congregations it is hailed as Christ the King Sunday, in others it has become known as the Sunday we focus on the Reign of Christ.

Some will sing “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!” (ELW 634) or “Crown Him with Many Crowns” (ELW 855) with gusto. Others will choose “Soli Deo Gloria” (ELW 878) or “Evening and Morning” (ELW 761), more gentle and subtle in both music and message. In my own congregation, the focus will be the end of the church year: Last Sunday of the Year.

Having a king doesn’t always turn out well for everyone, after all. Back in 1996, Gail Ramshaw, a scholar of liturgical language, wrote this when suggesting we call this “Last Sunday of the Year”: “I find the myth of the crown, like the crowns themselves, more greed and glitter than divine design.”

Throughout history, crown and throne have been associated with power that was misused and evil. And we’re sensitive to abuse of power and evil more than ever these days. It’s as palpable as the morning news.

So I look forward to November 26 as an opportunity to bid the year farewell, collectively and individually. Much like December 31, we have the chance to take stock of how we’re doing.

Don’t wait until New Year’s to make resolutions, theologian Karoline Lewis says: “Make this New Year’s Resolution Sunday.” On this Sunday (whatever we call it), we look back and look forward, and imagine God’s future and our role in it.

No, we won’t be singing “Auld Lang Syne” that week. But before shifting to Advent and all the anticipation it brings, my faith community will sing “Christ Is Alive! Let Christians Sing” (ELW 389):

“In ev’ry insult, rift, and war,

Where color, scorn, or wealth divide,

Christ suffers still, yet loves the more,

And lives, where even hope has died.” (v. 3)

 

Perhaps Dawn Chesser, preaching director for Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church, says it best in her liturgical reflection for The Last Sunday of the Year: “Affirm the victories and name the demons, but then let it all go and move on. Hope is coming. New life is just around the corner. God’s grace is the hope of the world.”

——-

Sources referenced:

“Transfiguring Monarchy” by Gail Ramshaw in “Liturgy Christ Reigns” Journal of The Liturgical Conference, Volume 13, Number 2.

Karoline Lewis, “Throne Mentality” from Working Preacher, Luther Seminary, November 16, 2014.

Dawn Chesser, Preaching Notes for Christ the King Sunday, Year B (November 22, 2015).

Today’s post is from Deb Stein, pastor at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Syracuse, NY.

Greetings from Syracuse, NY!

Last Sunday for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, St. Stephen in Syracuse, NY worshipped with two other congregations; those who also worship in our building.  Both are immigrant Christian congregations, not connected to the ELCA, except through us.   The small Burundi church understands English and didn’t want anything translated.  They were happy to be in among the assembly.  However, the Evangelical Living Church (ELC), a Burmese Chin congregation, doesn’t understand English as well, so we used an outline (with some explanations) of our joint worship up on their screen with a PowerPoint in Chin.  Detailed explanations were printed of what we’re doing and why in our English worship bulletin.  We worked closely with the ELC, over three weeks, to pull our Reformation worship together in both languages.  The Gospel was read in English by me and in Chin by Pastor Elisha Thwang.  Pastor Elisha also offered a prayer in Chin after the Thanksgiving for the Word.  In addition, the ELC choir, most of whom attend high school in the city, joined our own choir for the event.  Our worship was filled with the grace-filled readings, prayers, and joyful music in English and Chin.  We used the ELC’s version of an “Alleluia” for our Gospel Acclamation (to the tune of Amazing Grace: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Amen… Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Amen), and the ELC Choir, along with Pastor Elisha offered an Anthem in Chin, the title, of which translated: Standing on the Promises.

It was such an exciting day for us all – beyond my imagination for sure!  We had been talking about having a joint worship for some time, and Reformation Sunday just seemed to be the perfect day to do it.  It was a day to celebrate a church that is constantly reforming and always being made new.  In doing so, we embraced our differences, while lifting up all the things we have in common.  Last Sunday, nearly 500 years after Martin Luther offered up his 95 theses, St. Stephen sang A Mighty Fortress, together with folks from around the world, immigrants who came to the U.S. looking for a fortress of safety within our boundaries, sharing with us God’s own Mighty Fortress of grace and love for us all.  We used a modified Service of the Word, and I inserted hymns where ever we could fit them.  During the service, four of our youth affirmed their baptism in Confirmation, supported by every Christian present.  It was truly a joy-filled and uplifting celebration for everyone.

Our day wasn’t over!  We’d been partnering with another group, who meets in our building, The Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA), which I think of as a cross between civil war reenactors and a renaissance fair.  The SCA worked with us to provide a 3-act play hosted by St. Stephen at 4:00 PM that afternoon, open to the public.  The third act was Martin and Katharina’s wedding, which was followed by a wedding reception in our fellowship hall.  The SCA created period decorations and costumes, as well as provided period food, music, and dance – all of it done as close to correct for Martin Luther’s time as possible!  The guests had the opportunity to take a turn at period dancing, so even I got in on the act!

We are grateful to have such wonderful connections, not only in the community but also in our own building, which has become a bit of a community itself.  We were blessed to have so many wonderful people taking part in our Reformation celebrations, even while many other Lutheran churches in our area were celebrating in different ways. Syracuse has been well represented in this 500^th year of the Reformation!

Today’s post is from Benjamin Stewart, Gordon A. Braatz Associate Professor of Worship and Director of Advanced Studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Death is currently enjoying a season of fashionability.

I don’t mean our mini-liturgical-season of November, with All Saints Day and end-of-the-world lectionary texts. I mean something that is changing in the wider culture.

From the #DeathPositive movement, to the pop mortician Caitlan Doughty channelling Morticia Addams, to gimmicks like pressing your loved one’s cremated remains into vinyl for your turntable, there are signs that the cool kids have noticed that death practices are due for some rethinking.

Some things are on the way out. The SUV-style casket, the antiseptic funeral home, and the astroturfed grave are in decline. Even the dead body itself is disappearing from American death rituals. Theologian Thomas Long wryly observes that the dead are increasingly “banned from their own funeral.”

Where are we headed in death practices?

There’s a lot of noise in the cultural system now, but it may be that we are — in the old words of our tradition — returning to the earth. Increasing numbers of people are looking for death rituals that speak honestly about both earthly life and earthly death, and honor the body and its return to the earth in God.

This four minute video, The Coffinmaker, shows that even a simple wood coffin can lead us into the heart of theology and spirituality. (It would be easy to have 30 minutes of discussion on this video sometime during this little season of November, perhaps as part of a larger session or series.)

If you’re looking for inspiring help in navigating — and even shaping — this new era of death practices, I highly recommend this new book: In Sure and Certain Hope: a funeral sourcebook.

Worth the price alone:

• articles on how to work with funeral homes (or to forgo them)
• specific diversity and cultural considerations
• planning resources — including helps for especially difficult deaths like suicide, the death of a child, or a funeral that occurs in a public spotlight
• how to offer a natural burial ministry
• a four-week course you can offer on spirituality and planning for death and funerals
• up-to-date theological and historical overviews of funeral and death practices
• three pages of film recommendations
• e-versions of many of the resources are included

I’ve only highlighted a few things from this significant (280 page) book that offers a welcome mix of seasoned experts and emerging voices among its authors.

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. But there’s at least a fog bank of goofiness out there too. This new resource helps us do some sorting, discerning what we might welcome for this era, what we might let go, and what continues to promise abundant life even in the face of death as we return to the earth.

One of the questions churches ask is: what does the church need to know so as not to have problems with copyright? It is an important question and it is a complicated one, too. Churches often print or display content for education, to inform the congregation of events, and as an aid in worship. When they do, if any of that information is under copyright, the church may be liable for copyright infringement. While this might not seem like a big issue, and while it may be very unlikely that a church will ever get caught and punished for that infringement, the fines are huge, and the consequences are real.

For churches with questions about how to comply with copyright law, Augsburg Fortress has an archived webinar on copyright: Churches and Copyright: How to be a weekend publisher without going to prison. The webinar, presented by Augsburg Fortress’ Copyright Specialist Michael Moore (pictured), takes about an hour, and deals with copyrights, licenses, and the rights and responsibilities of churches when it comes to how to license content the church would like to use, but which is under copyright.

The webinar is available on demand at www.afwebinars.org under the heading “Youth and Adult On Demand” or directly here. Select “register now” and enter your information then select “view” to take you to the webinar. Happy viewing!

Today’s post is from Krehl Stringer, pastor at New Salem Lutheran in Turtle River, MN. This is the second in a series on why and how to initiate celebrating a Season of Creation in worship.

A good place to begin planning a Season of Creation is with a 4-, 5-, or 6-week series of lectionary readings—there are a variety of 3-year lectionaries to choose from.  The period from September 1 (the beginning of “Creation Time” in the Eastern Orthodox tradition) to October 4 (the Feast of St. Francis in the Roman Catholic (western) tradition) has become the ecumenical standard for introducing a Season of Creation into the church year. Local conditions, however, may indicate a better timeframe, or a congregation might select individual Sundays throughout the year. Themes on Sundays during creation time draw worshipers’ attention to various domains or aspects of creation (e.g., planet earth, wilderness, humanity, river, and world communion). At New Salem we have also added in an “Advocacy Sunday” each year to amplify particular callings for eco-justice (e.g., Fire/Energy Stewardship, Food/Water Security, and Sustainability).

There are many places online to access free worship resources for planning a Season of Creation.  To start, check out Lutherans Restoring Creation, Let All Creation Praise , and Season of Creation. Calls to worship, hymns, blessings, lectionaries, preaching commentaries, prayers, artwork, videos, and much more will ignite that spark of creativity in pastors and other worship planners to invite all of creation into worship and praise of God the Creator, Healer, and Sustainer of life.

Interspersed throughout this blogpost are several pictures from churches where we have celebrated a Season of Creation.  The idea is that a congregation would get to know the environment in which they have been planted, then develop a multi-faceted Season of Creation that reflects the local character of that context.  For example, in northern Minnesota in the fall, the tamarack trees burst into a bright golden yellow. So our church adopted tamarack yellow as the color for our Season of Creation; paraments, stoles, and banners were beautifully crafted. The night sky of rural northern Minnesota is spectacular, so during the week of Cosmos Sunday, we hosted a couple star parties open to the public.  The Saturday before Fauna Sunday, we held an annual Blessing of the Animals ceremony. One year, we invited parishioners to contribute to a progressive Season of Creation Art Gallery that by the end of the season had photos, paintings, sculpture, fiber arts, and mixed-media on display.  Special guests were often invited to preach or give a presentation after worship on various themes; opportunities were promoted for learning more about community supported agriculture, local recycling programs, political lobbying efforts, bird watching, prayer hikes, and so much more.

For any congregation, engaging a Season of Creation can be a profoundly revitalizing (and exciting!) experience for all generations in discovering how, “in Christ, there is a new creation [to explore and celebrate]: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2Cor. 5:17)

It would be a great joy for me to hear from you your stories of celebrating a Season of Creation in your place of worship.  You can reach me by email at lightstringer2@gmail.com.

Today’s post is from Krehl Stringer, pastor at New Salem Lutheran in Turtle River, MN. It is the first in a two part series on why and how to celebrate a Season of Creation in congregational worship.

In a little drawer atop my dresser, there’s a post-it note on which I had written (some time ago I can’t remember when) two Hebrew words:  abad and shamar.  These two little words contain the essence of humanity’s purpose according to Genesis 2:15—“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”  At least that’s how most all of our English translations render this passage, but the words abad and shamar have a much richer, deeper meaning than what “till” and “keep” convey. Better is “serve” and “preserve,” which translation places humanity in extreme subservience to all that God has made, not in the more dignified dominion-bearing role we might prefer for creatures esteemed to be created “in God’s image” (Genesis 1:27), and “a little lower than God” (Psalm 8:5). Were we to allow subservience to capture the essence of what it means for us to be created in God’s image, how might this better conform us to Christ who was “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many?” (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45) Celebrating a Season of Creation can be an inspirational season of creativity when people learn to write abad and shamar in their own hand, allowing these words of Christ day by day to dwell in them richly (Colossians 3:16), and so remember their baptisms when they were clothed in Christ (Galatians 3:27), and born anew in the image of their creator (Colossians 3:10).

So how might a congregation begin to embrace and reflect the image of a church fully engaged in Christ’s mission: reconciling all things to God?  (Colossians 1:20) A congregation might proceed with its perceived strengths in ministry (focusing, for example, on adopting earth-friendly practices in the work of Stewardship, Pastoral Care, Social Justice, Education, Fellowship, or Property).  But my recommendation would be for a congregation to start with Worship, recognizing that for Lutherans, “worship stands at the center of our life of faith. Through God’s word, water, bread and prayer we are nurtured in faith and sent out into the world.” (www.ELCA.org/worship)  Imagine how a congregation’s core identity might be shaped and its gospel mission expanded by liturgical choices that honored the diversity of ecological relationships in which the triune God has placed human beings as created co-creators, co-healers, and co-sustainers with God.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post which will offer concrete ideas for celebrating a Season of Creation in your congregational setting.