Peace Lutheran Church

Worship: Sundays at 10 AM
Address: 3201 Camino Tassajara, Danville, CA 94506
Menu
DONATE

Pastor’s Weekly Message: 04.06.17

by ·

Grace Waves

Friends:
Preparation for Holy Week:  “I never intend to become adjusted to bigotry.  I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism or to the self-defeating effects of physical violence.  In other words, I am convinced now that there is need for a new organization in our world:  The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.”  Martin Luther King
Palm Sunday initiates Holy Week this Sunday when we share the Passion Narrative.
Forum on Sanctuary on April 9:  Our church council and justice advocacy group both recently discussed the idea of Peace as a Sanctuary Church and both groups agreed that we should further explore becoming part of the Sanctuary movement.  As part of this on-going exploration Ron Elsdon and I will facilitate the April 9 Forum on this subject.  All are welcome and encouraged to participate.
Passover Seder/Maundy Thursday – April 13, 6:30 pm:  The Seder Celebrates the core of justice and liberation work in the Judeo-Christian tradition.  It is also the context in which Jesus initiated Communion.  You will experience and enjoy our faith in a profound and delightful way — which you will never forget.
Did you know:  The Exodus (the end of slavery in Egypt) is the first recorded Liberation Event in history!  And the midwives who refused to kill the male babies committed the first recorded act of nonviolent disobedience.
An utterly profound evening with a meal, great symbolic traditions, insights and hilarity.  Taste and See!
Please Sign Up Sunday or email: [email protected].
Good Friday – Contemplative Service, April 14, 7:00 pm:  Come pray, meditate, chant and reflect on this healing mystery into Christ’s transformation of death into new life.
Easter Day – April 16 at 10 am:  Celebrate the joy and the vision of Christ’s Resurrecting Love!  Invite friends.
First Friday Films:  April 7, 6:30 pm – The Brand New Testament — Join us in the Gathering Hall for a screening of this international hit from Belgium on our new smart TV. Written and directed by Jaco Van Doramael, it is a playful, dark satire in the style of Gilbert & Sullivan meets Monty Python. The film takes us on a farcical romp straight through current religious thought to something completely different. The film stars Benoît Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau and Pili Groyne. It was shortlisted for Best Foreign Film at the 2016 Academy Awards and has been nominated for and/or won over 45 U.S. and international awards. Stephen Holden of The New York Times calls it, “Wickedly amusing! A surreal comedy whose endless visual imagination matches its conceptual wit.”  (Parents are cautioned – some material may be inappropriate for those under 13.)
Spring Cleaning at Peace – Saturday, April 22:  Pancakes at 9:30, Clean up from 10 – Noon.  No experience necessary!
April 23
Earth Day Worship – pray for the renewal and resurrecting of Creation!
Interfaith Shoah Service at Beth Chaim from 3 – 4:30 pm:  A Remembrance of Holocaust Victims and Today’s Victims (Muslims, Refugees, African Americans, LGBTQ)
Four Seasons – And More…A Concert with the Sycamore Chamber Orchestra at 7:00 pm.  Enjoy music by Bach, Bruch, Brahms, Gupta, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn and more!   The Orchestra consists of 15 young and gifted musicians under the direction of Goran Berg.  The performance is filled with youthful, bold sound; powerful expression and captivating energy!
Pr. Lucy Kolin will serve as the Interim Pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Oakland for the next 3 – 4 months.  She will continue to support/encourage the ministries she’s engaged in at Peace but we won’t see her for this period of time.  Blessings on your work at St. Paul’s!
On April 4, 1967 Dr. King preached at Riverside Church in New York.  In this speech, Dr. King not only spoke out against the war in Vietnam – a risky and polarizing move at the time – but he spoke out against everything that the war represented, a “far deeper malady within the American spirit” that would never be healed unless we moved past Vietnam and toward a “true revolution of values”.  Virtually no one among the Civil Rights leadership supported him in his decision to speak out.  But this speech has become incredibly prophetic for our time.  I invite you to read it both as preparation for Holy Week and as a Reformation Reflection.  Dr. King was assassinated exactly one year later on this same day in 1968.
Gratitude to Bruce Silverman and the drummers from Beth Chaim for his/their leadership in our Drumming Service last Sunday.  Those present experienced how grounding and transformative this ancient practice can be in our worship.  The Hebrew Scriptures called drums ‘timbrels’ and they were used endlessly from Miriam, to David, in the Psalms and the Temple for meditation and the uniting of Earth and Heaven. Bruce is teaching a Drumming Class at Beth Chaim and invites members of Peace to join them.  Speak to me if you are interested or contact him at:  [email protected].  Wouldn’t it be marvelous to stir up a Percussion Crew at Peace!
 
“I do not like the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West and yet are against refugees and other religions.  The sickness Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy.  You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) or Matthew 25 which calls us to ‘feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger’.  To claim I am a Christian and not do these things makes me a hypocrite.  The greatest reformers of the church are the saints who practice God’s Word, he told the group of young Lutherans and Catholics from Germany.  Our traditions have already moved from ‘conflict to communion’.  Now in putting ourselves at the service of the neediest we will experience that we are already united; it is God’s mercy that unites us.”  Pope Francis
Holy Week Blessings,
Pr. Steve

Pastor's Weekly Message: 04.06.17

by · Published · Updated

Grace Waves

Friends:
Preparation for Holy Week:  “I never intend to become adjusted to bigotry.  I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism or to the self-defeating effects of physical violence.  In other words, I am convinced now that there is need for a new organization in our world:  The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.”  Martin Luther King
Palm Sunday initiates Holy Week this Sunday when we share the Passion Narrative.
Forum on Sanctuary on April 9:  Our church council and justice advocacy group both recently discussed the idea of Peace as a Sanctuary Church and both groups agreed that we should further explore becoming part of the Sanctuary movement.  As part of this on-going exploration Ron Elsdon and I will facilitate the April 9 Forum on this subject.  All are welcome and encouraged to participate.
Passover Seder/Maundy Thursday – April 13, 6:30 pm:  The Seder Celebrates the core of justice and liberation work in the Judeo-Christian tradition.  It is also the context in which Jesus initiated Communion.  You will experience and enjoy our faith in a profound and delightful way — which you will never forget.
Did you know:  The Exodus (the end of slavery in Egypt) is the first recorded Liberation Event in history!  And the midwives who refused to kill the male babies committed the first recorded act of nonviolent disobedience.
An utterly profound evening with a meal, great symbolic traditions, insights and hilarity.  Taste and See!
Please Sign Up Sunday or email: [email protected].
Good Friday – Contemplative Service, April 14, 7:00 pm:  Come pray, meditate, chant and reflect on this healing mystery into Christ’s transformation of death into new life.
Easter Day – April 16 at 10 am:  Celebrate the joy and the vision of Christ’s Resurrecting Love!  Invite friends.
First Friday Films:  April 7, 6:30 pm – The Brand New Testament — Join us in the Gathering Hall for a screening of this international hit from Belgium on our new smart TV. Written and directed by Jaco Van Doramael, it is a playful, dark satire in the style of Gilbert & Sullivan meets Monty Python. The film takes us on a farcical romp straight through current religious thought to something completely different. The film stars Benoît Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau and Pili Groyne. It was shortlisted for Best Foreign Film at the 2016 Academy Awards and has been nominated for and/or won over 45 U.S. and international awards. Stephen Holden of The New York Times calls it, “Wickedly amusing! A surreal comedy whose endless visual imagination matches its conceptual wit.”  (Parents are cautioned – some material may be inappropriate for those under 13.)
Spring Cleaning at Peace – Saturday, April 22:  Pancakes at 9:30, Clean up from 10 – Noon.  No experience necessary!
April 23
Earth Day Worship – pray for the renewal and resurrecting of Creation!
Interfaith Shoah Service at Beth Chaim from 3 – 4:30 pm:  A Remembrance of Holocaust Victims and Today’s Victims (Muslims, Refugees, African Americans, LGBTQ)
Four Seasons – And More…A Concert with the Sycamore Chamber Orchestra at 7:00 pm.  Enjoy music by Bach, Bruch, Brahms, Gupta, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn and more!   The Orchestra consists of 15 young and gifted musicians under the direction of Goran Berg.  The performance is filled with youthful, bold sound; powerful expression and captivating energy!
Pr. Lucy Kolin will serve as the Interim Pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Oakland for the next 3 – 4 months.  She will continue to support/encourage the ministries she’s engaged in at Peace but we won’t see her for this period of time.  Blessings on your work at St. Paul’s!
On April 4, 1967 Dr. King preached at Riverside Church in New York.  In this speech, Dr. King not only spoke out against the war in Vietnam – a risky and polarizing move at the time – but he spoke out against everything that the war represented, a “far deeper malady within the American spirit” that would never be healed unless we moved past Vietnam and toward a “true revolution of values”.  Virtually no one among the Civil Rights leadership supported him in his decision to speak out.  But this speech has become incredibly prophetic for our time.  I invite you to read it both as preparation for Holy Week and as a Reformation Reflection.  Dr. King was assassinated exactly one year later on this same day in 1968.
Gratitude to Bruce Silverman and the drummers from Beth Chaim for his/their leadership in our Drumming Service last Sunday.  Those present experienced how grounding and transformative this ancient practice can be in our worship.  The Hebrew Scriptures called drums ‘timbrels’ and they were used endlessly from Miriam, to David, in the Psalms and the Temple for meditation and the uniting of Earth and Heaven. Bruce is teaching a Drumming Class at Beth Chaim and invites members of Peace to join them.  Speak to me if you are interested or contact him at:  [email protected].  Wouldn’t it be marvelous to stir up a Percussion Crew at Peace!
 
“I do not like the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West and yet are against refugees and other religions.  The sickness Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy.  You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) or Matthew 25 which calls us to ‘feed the hungry, clothe the naked and welcome the stranger’.  To claim I am a Christian and not do these things makes me a hypocrite.  The greatest reformers of the church are the saints who practice God’s Word, he told the group of young Lutherans and Catholics from Germany.  Our traditions have already moved from ‘conflict to communion’.  Now in putting ourselves at the service of the neediest we will experience that we are already united; it is God’s mercy that unites us.”  Pope Francis
Holy Week Blessings,
Pr. Steve

You may also like...