MMC: Gearing up for Fall

Good Morning Bethlehem!

I hope you all enjoyed our gorgeous weather this weekend, I know that I and 10 of our youth and adults did at Hammonasset. And I've heard that Sunday's worship was quite nice and it was nice to have Pastor Ned back. 

Some Announcements

It is a busy week coming up at Bethlehem as we kick off our fall

• Senior Lunch is this Wednesday at noon.  We will be meeting at Chuck's in Danbury. 
• Our conference is meeting on Saturday at 10am at Salem in Bridgeport.  Please let me know if you would like to join me in hearing what other Lutheran churches are doing in Fairfield County
• Rally Day is Sunday with our kick off to Grow 2 Gather, our new inter-generational educational program.  All are invited to come at 9am for a time of bible study and this week we will be making health kits for Lutheran World Relief
• On Sunday we will also be blessing backpacks and other work/school related items during worship.  So bring your backpacks, briefcases, lunch bags, phones, laptops or other items that represents your work. 
• After worship we will be taking our annual congregational photo, so please plan on sticking around a few minutes and enjoy a snack or cup of coffee/tea/juice during coffee hour.
• Council is meeting after worship on Sunday.  
• Mark your calendar to join us for our Family Fun Night on Friday Sept 23. For those able to go apple picking, we are meeting at the church at 4pm.  However the true fun begins at 6:30 as we will make apple related goodies, play Apples to Apples and bob for apples. All forms of family are invited as we are all part of the Bethlehem Family. 
• All men are invited to a cookout and planning session on Sunday Sept 25 at 6pm.  Enjoy some time of fellowship and brainstorm ways that you as men of Bethlehem can gather, volunteer, serve Bethlehem or just get to know each other better. 

Book of Faith Puzzle

The last weeks question was: In Sunday’s gospel Jesus tells you how to confront someone who sins against you.  But how many times are you suppose to forgive someone who sins against you? A) 7 B) 70 C) 7 times 7 D) 70 times70, E) 700

Well this is a question when I should double check the answer and not type so fast.  Depending on the translation, Jesus says in Matthew 18:22 that we are to forgive either “77 times” or “until 70 times 7”.  Congratulations to Paul B for not just knowing all these options were incorrect but also knowing the actual answer.


This week’s question:  The first lesson starts after Joseph’s father had died.  Who was Joseph’s (from the Genesis) father?  A) Noah B) Isaac C) Jacob D) Joshua If you know the answer, or even if you had to look it up, send me your answer by noon on Wednesday to be entered into this week's drawing.  

Serving this Sunday

The following people have signed up to serve in worship this coming Sunday

Worship Assist: Ellen G

Reader: Nancy B

Communion Assistant:_____

Usher: _____ & ______

Bread baker/bringer: _________

Communion set up/clean up:______

Coffee Hour: Heloisa R & Mark H

Please let me know if you are willing to volunteer in any of the blank spots. 

Sunday's Text

The first reading is Jonah 3:10-4:11.  The book of Jonah is very brief and this comes at the end.  Jonah is sent to go to Ninevah to tell them to repent their sins and turn back to God; Jonah runs and goes the other way; he ends up being swallowed by a big fish; he then decided to go to Ninevah and gets "spewed" out of the fish; the people of Ninevah listen to Jonah and turn back towards God and God forgive them.  However Jonah is not happy about this and gets upset that God forgave them.  When have you been upset that someone was forgiven?  Were you upset that they were forgiven, that the other was able to forgive, or that it wasn't done to you? 

The second lesson is Philippians 1:21-30.  Paul writes about his commitment to Christ and his ministry.  He encourages the people of Philipi to live lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.  How have you lived a live worthy of the gospel?  How have you failed? (and don't worry we have all failed)  How are you still struggling to live a life that is "firm in one spirit", striving for the faith of the gospel and "in no way intimidated by your opponents"? 

The gospel is Matthew 20:1-16, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.  The laborers hired at the end of the day get the same pay as those hired at the beginning - a usual daily wage.  Those hired first are upset that they did not get more even though they agreed to their pay at the beginning of their work. Have you ever been in a similar situation, when you thought you would get more than you did based on what others received? How did you react?  Were you envious about what the other received or about the giver's generosity?

Hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll see you Sunday, if not before

Blessings

~Pastor Becca 

MMC: Forgiveness in September

Good Morning Bethlehem

I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend and are enjoying this first rainy day of school.  

A lot is happening at Bethlehem in the next few weeks so please read 

A Few Announcements

• Forgot your toiletry items?  I will be bringing them to Americares tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.  Please bring them by the parsonage if you forgot, you can leave them on the porch if no one is home. 
• RALLY DAY is Sept 18.  Starting at 9am we will have a time of hearing bible stories together for all ages followed by making health kits for Lutheran World Relief.   We still need some people to volunteer to bring towels, nail clippers and combs.  If you are willing to provide those items, please let me know.  
• During worship on Sept 18 bring your backpack, lunch bag, briefcase, or whatever else you use in your vocation so that they can be blessed.  
• After worship on Sept 18 we will have our annual congregational photo so please plan to stick around for a few minutes.
• Senior Lunch is Wed Sept 14 at noon at Chucks in Danbury. All are invited to join us for lunch and conversation.
• Our conference is meeting Saturday Sept 17 at 10 at Salem Lutheran in Bridgeport.  All are invited to attend and find out what is going on at other Lutheran churches in our area.  Please let me know if you are interested in attending.

Book of Faith Puzzler

The last puzzler from 2 weeks ago was: In our 2^nd reading from Romans 12, Paul talks about the body of Christ having many members but we are of one body.  Where else does Paul compare the church to a human body? A) Genesis 40, B) 1 Corinthians 12, C) Matthew 8 D) Galatians 7 Out of those options Paul only wrote the books of 1 Corinthians and Galatians, but Galatians only has 6 chapters.  Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians has a wonderful analogy of the church as a body and how we need all parts of the body. 

This week's puzzler is: In today’s gospel Jesus tells you how to confront someone who sins against you.  But how many times are you suppose to forgive someone who sins against you? A) 7 B) 70 C) 7 times 7 D) 70 times70, E) 700 F) 70 time 7.  If you know the answer you have until Thursday at noon this week to submit your answer to me.  

Sunday's Sermon

Were you traveling this weekend and missed it?  You can read the sermon here.  What do you love and hate about community?  Have you ever politely confronted someone?  How did it go?  What concerns you and frees you about Jesus' advice?

Serving this Sunday

Are you willing to be a reader, usher, counter, worship assistant or communion assistant this Sunday or in the future?  Let me know

Sunday's Text

The first reading is Genesis 50:15-21. Joseph's brothers come to him begging for forgiveness and asking to be his slaves as a result of their actions.  Joseph not only forgives their sins against him but says good actually came out of it.  When have you begged for forgiveness and been forgiven more than expected?  How can this text help us as a nation as many do not forgive the terrorist and those who masterminded September 11, 2001 or even hold those few men's actions against people who are of the same nationality or religious?  

The second reading is Romans 14:1-12.  Paul writes to a community that is struggling with diversity (Christians of Jewish heritage and Christians from various other religious heritages) and says that they should not despise or judge those who are different from them for we will all stand before God in judgement.  We as a nation have struggled many times with religious diversity.  How have you despised or judge those who are or different religious heritages that yourself?  It is hard to stop despising and judging others; how can we be less judgmental? 

The gospel is Matthew 18:21-35.  Jesus tells his disciples how much to forgive and then tells the parable of a slaves whose debt was forgiven by the king but then went out and acted cruelly to someone who owed him.  God forgives us many times and yet we have a hard time forgiving others.  When have you had a  hard time forgiving someone?  When have you received forgiveness from someone?  Who are you not able to forgive?

Hope you have a wonderful week

~Pastor Becca

I Love Community, but....

Sunday's sermon was based on Matthew 18:15-20, where Jesus points out how to go about addressing a member of the church sinning against another member of the church.  Well after a week when most of the member of Bethlehem, and most of the residents of Connecticut were without power for multiple days, we have been on a high about talking about how good community is.  In fact many of the ways people talked about how they saw God was in people coping with the aftermath of Irene as a community.  But as anyone knows there are some dangers to living in a community.


Enjoy!

It has been an interesting week.  As most of us were without power for a few days, we all harnessed our inner pioneer to find ways to cook, bathe, and spend hours in the dark with electricity.  But I have heard one big positive about this week, a phrase I have heard over and over “The community has come together.”  Neighbors have let people plug into their generators, those with electricity have open their homes to those without to shower or just hang out in the evening, and even just the general fact that we couldn’t stay in front of our personal laptops and tvs, people have gotten out of their homes and met and gotten to know their neighbors a little better.  The community has come together.

But we actually are each part of many different communities.  What communities do you consider yourself to be a part of?

And as I have mentioned earlier there are some great benefits of being part of a community, what are other things that you love about being part of a community? Kindness, Camaraderie, friendship

But there are also downsides of being within a community.  We all have moments when we want to avoid others for various reasons, but let’s name some of them now. Gossip, group think, xenophobia

Jesus knew that community is a wonderful gift, but in all communities, and in the church especially, a community that is suppose to be based in God’s grace and love, these things, these negative things can get in the way of forming and maintaining a community.  So Jesus put out some basic points.

First he gives the obvious, people sin and communities, the church included, are made up of sinning people.  But Jesus says that when someone in your community, in your church, sins against you, to do something about it by going to them directly and calling them on this.  And if they don’t listen to you, you go and get a few more people involved.  Now these other people are not to gather witnesses or to get people on your side, but as a way of involving the larger community that is also affected.  And if the person still does not listen then get the whole community involved, but be worried at this point you are at risk of the community being in turmoil.

Oh this is scary almost to think about.  It is difficult, especially when you have a relationship with someone but you aren’t extremely close to them, to tell them that you are upset with their behavior.  When a stranger cuts you off in traffic, it is easy to yell at them and to get upset.  Or when your spouse or parent or sibling says something to you that offends you, you can normally tell them so, though it might be a few minutes or days later and after either a good talk or a yelling match, all is good again and you are still in a relationship with them.  But when it is a friend or a fellow worshipper or your pastor, it can be difficult.  How can you tell them that you were hurt or offended by something that they did or didn’t do without either sounding accusatory or like you are such a sensitive person that you quake at any minor offense.  Often it is the unknown, the unknown of how that person will react that scares us the most about confrontation.  When we don’t know how they will react, when we confront someone even with grace and love, we worry if they will over react or take it out on us or won’t take us seriously.

So instead of confronting people in a loving and grace-filled manner, we either ignore the behavior or become passive aggressive and both are equally as dangerous to hurting the community, the good things that happen that we listed earlier.  I know of many congregations that have that one person who behaves terribly and yet everyone lets them because “oh that is just ____.”  And statements like “God loves her, but I have my moments” or prayers like “Lord give me patience in dealing with him” are uttered and yet the person continues to snap at fellow congregants, stop worship because there are crumbs from communion bread in the altar area, put off visitors and would be new members, or try to make the entire congregation focus solely on them and not God.  And because no one ever politely calls the person on their behavior, the behavior often gets worst.

And if we don’t ignore someone who sins, we then act passive aggressive about it and do things like talk about them behind their back, or call a bunch of other people to complain about them.  Or we sent them a nasty email and while we are at it CC the pastor and the bishop.  Or we avoid them and de-friend them on facebook, and refuse to be on any committees with them.  And if we can’t avoid them, well we’ll just leave the congregation entirely. 

But that is not what Jesus is telling us to do.  He is telling us with love and grace to talk to the person.  Maybe they didn’t realize you were offended by something they did.  Maybe they are actually having a lot of trouble in their personal lives and just took it out on you.  And if that doesn’t work, get a few others involved.  But when you do this in love and grace, be warned, you might find out you are the one at fault that your demands to have only prayers said in iambic pentameter or your reverence of the candlesticks might not be what the community, what the congregation wants. 

However when we do this, when talk to people in grace and love about not just what is good, but also what we disagree on, community is formed.  And community is important.

The congregational council just adopted our new mission statement: Bethlehem Lutheran Church strives to serve God while providing spiritual guidance to its members and the community through worship, fellowship, education and service while expanding the congregation and growing within the community.

Here the word community means surrounding area, but there is also an idea about building strong relationships both between those who come here to worship and those who live in the surrounding area.  And the council wrote and adopted this mission statement not because it sounded good but because community is a wonderful thing, especially when we can talk to each other with grace and love, through both good times and bad.  And when we do that, Jesus is with us.  Jesus is with us whenever we are in community with others, whether that is sharing a generator, offering a hot shower or telling someone politely that we disagree with their behavior.