Working Together So That All Experience Gracious Invitation Into Life-giving Christian Community |
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Welcome to the Gethsemane Lutheran Church Newsletter. As 2022 unfolds, and we continue to bring you information virtually, we welcome all who are members of Gethsemane, as well as those who are discovering us for the first time, to join us in our mission journey. We hope to keep you up-to-date in these times of amazing change for our church community. Feel free to forward the newsletter to others and give us the emails of those you think my wish to connect with us and see what great things God is doing with our church each week! |
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To contact staff: Please click email links on names to the right!
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Who's Who At Gethsemane
Minister of Music: Beverly Timpton-Hammond
Food Shelf Volunteer Coordinator: Jean Bailey
Children's Ministry: Brittany Schiebe
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Weekly Update: Share Your Story With Sam! |
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Do you have a story you want to share with our community that you think will be inspiring for others? Well I’m here to help you share it! With your story, we will be able to spread the goodness of our community members in our church by highlighting it on our social media pages and weekly newsletter so that anyone and everyone can see!
If you would like to be interviewed by me, I can be reached by...
Phone (609-431-1369)
Consider contributing today!
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The Camden Shop is now open! After a short prayer of blessing, we opened the doors and shoppers found clothing and housewares that they needed. We are so excited about how this place will help our friends in the Camden neighborhood! Spread the word, and come say hello!
We are open every Saturday of the month at Gethsemane from 12-3pm
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Gospel Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 |
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4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
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Writer's Corner: Reflection on Mother's Day
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1 Corinthians 13:13: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Happy (very) belated Mother’s Day to all the mom’s and mom figures out there. Our family got knocked down a bit from Covid and viral syndromes out of the blue. We had to “punt” the past couple weeks to stay afloat. So unfortunately, this year was a very odd Mother’s Day for me. We zoomed as a family: me on quarantine in bed, my son on quarantine in his apartment, my dad in his room, and my husband and daughter in the dining room. It felt like the beginning of the pandemic, when Easter and Thanksgiving was shared over small squares on a screen. Still I’m grateful to receive flowers and cards and my favorite salmon Sunday meal, so everything else was status quo. I was just bundled up and shivering. It is amazing how traditions can be even more important when the rest of life gets shaken up a bit. The traditions of showing appreciation for those in our lives especially when they include the sentiment of love.
This verse in Corinthians has always reminded me of my mom, who I miss dearly, and my own experience of being a mom. The importance of love, the unconditional love that God gives us and that moms can give us. I remember the first time I ever knew I wanted to be a mom, lining up all my dolls on the sofa, giving them names, carrying my favorite doll, Heidi, around the block on walks when I was five. Then, mimicking my own mom taking care of my younger sister. I’d rock my dolls, feed them, change them, make sure they got to bed on time. And from the moments I first held my daughter and then my son in my arms, I knew that being a mom was actually a calling for me. Yes, it has sometimes been the hardest (all the worry and exhaustion) but truly the most rewarding calling in my life.
Sometimes it can feel like Mother’s Day is too commercialized, too much focus on giving mom the best jewelry or the photo books, Mother’s Day brunches, but it is still a wonderful day to celebrate. I miss giving my mom her orchid and card. A favorite one for me was about 10 years ago, when my son and daughter made me breakfast in bed, gave me a homemade card, and did an impromptu hip hop dance for me as entertainment. How lucky am I?
I decided this year to do a bit of searching. I didn’t know this before but Mom’s Day has an interesting and varied history, a part of which began in the church. Our current Mother’s Day on May 8th, was originally created by Anna Reeves Jarvis in 1908, becoming an official holiday in 1914. Interestingly enough, Jarvis was never married and never had her own children, but she was passionate about the role of moms in the world. In the 19th century, moms groups were organized around teaching mothers how to better take care of their children. Then others came into being as friendship clubs that helped work for reconciliation and peace among Civil War soldiers. Going back further, celebrating mothers was seen in early Roman and Greek traditions honoring “mother goddesses.” But the clearest early connection with our current special day set aside for moms came from a Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.”
Online history.com says that “once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service.” What a wonderful way to yearly collect God’s flock back together in neighborhood home churches. The church the ultimate symbol of motherhood, nurturing, guiding, serving, and showing God’s love through Jesus. Now there are moms’ prayer groups in many Christian schools and so many moms’ groups that do advocacy even now in our community. Moms, when gathered, can do amazing things in this world. And God knows this.
Of course there are moms that we know that hold the role without being literal parents, themselves. They live their lives to nurture, to protect, to guide, to love. These are a special group of moms that God called specifically for these purposes in our lives: faith, hope, and love. And thank God for all the mothering figures we know, who have blessed us all. So even though I will missed my mom again this year, I thought of all those moms in my life who continue to bless and guide me through their unconditional love. That walk my faith walk with me, continue to encourage me with hope in dark times; and who even though I may not see them as often as I wish, I know that their love is still with me. And to my mom in heaven, I can still feel your love, too. I thank you for being my role model and teaching me how to be a mother. Thank you God for our moms. Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the moms in our lives!
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The Camden Promise: Weekly Food shelf Schedule |
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Food Giveaway Schedule into 2022:
The Camden Promise Food Shelf feeds boxes of food to community families 6 days a week at noon: Monday through Saturday.
All are welcome!
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Gospel Reading: Psalm 111:1-5 |
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Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.
Great are the works of the Lord;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.
Glorious and majestic are his deeds,
and his righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and compassionate.
He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
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The voice of the one crying out in the wilderness will call out and make your path straight.....
Many of you have seen my small, cute, little wooden dog before, and this week he is making another appearance. For those who do not know, he can turn around if you put him on the ground. He can also turn the other way and get out of trouble. This dog's name is Repent. The name of the dog is Repent because Repent knows how to turn around when you make a mistake. When things go bad, Repent can stop doing bad things and start doing good things. If any of us are confused or troubled to live as people of repentance, it is super simple; just turn around and stop digging a hole for yourself; be like Repent the dog and turn around.
In the book of Luke, there was a man named John who was teaching that same lesson with regards to the forgiveness of sins. In this book, John preaches about how you can say you messed up and say you are sorry and want to turn around. That is how forgiveness works. Most of the time, the most meaningful forgiveness is when you have made the change in yourself and how you affect other people. You would think that would be enough for the message today, but what is radical for this message is where you have to go to hear it. The author of Luke talks about where he had to go to usher in the reign of Christ’s love. It was not with the government or anyone in the main line of church, but it was with John in the wilderness.
The word of God that changes our lives and exposes us for the sins we live with comes not from our government or church, but from out of the blue and comes from the word of a prophet. It comes from the face of someone you would least expect.
Some people look to places bigger or outside of themselves for answers, like big leaders in order to move as God's people and help prepare the way of ushering the love of Jesus into our world. It will come to you from someone who seems to know what you need to hear, and in hearing that, you will turn your life around and seek forgiveness for the mistakes you have made, and will walk with all of God’s people into the world of Christs love
Do not look for what you need from people who cannot give you that, look for the word of God and the faces of those who God will bring you as they will call out to you and make your path straight.
Amen
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A Prayer of Thanks for the Change in Weather |
God, thank you for Spring, Summer, and the hope of warmer, longer, brighter days. Thank you for the coming of growth and life and birth. Thank you that things are coming awake in the world. This is what our calendar says, and we do see some signs that it is real.
Amen
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Please join us every Sunday for our Virtual Zoom Worship Service. Online "fellowship starts at 10:00 am and Worship Service Starts at 10:30 am. |
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Gethsemane Lutheran
Building Hope Together
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4656 Colfax Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55412
612-521-3575
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