BUTTERFLY GARDEN DAY!
Come out Saturday, June 1st at 9AM to Trinity Lutheran as we provide some late spring refreshing to the butterfly garden. Wear comfortable clothes that can get dirty and bring water with you. Learn about what plants make the best butterfly gardens in South Florida. Learn to identify local butterflies and what plants attract them for nectar and to lay their eggs. Maybe we'll see some caterpillars, too! We'll have some garden tools and mulch - don't forget garden gloves, sunscreen and a hat.

If you're looking for the most effective means of helping those affected by the disaster in Oklahoma, the ELCA's Disaster Relief Fund is one of the most respected programs in the country. 100 PERCENT of your donation will go to direct aid...the overhead for the operation is funded by the regular support of the congregations and synods, so you can know that every dollar you give will go directly to those in need.
see this link:
https://community.elca.org/page.aspx?pid=521

Pastor Keith's Pentecost-Confirmation Sermon is up at http://youtu.be/4KvQmTDOGnA

SERMON for Confirmation 2013:

Years ago someone once told me: “Pastor everything in my life is changing and the church is the one place that I can come where I know what to expect. Don’t let things change. I have enough change in my life. Please, not the church.”

 I think that they left us disappointed.

 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.   Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…

 Do you think things were about to change in the lives of the disciples? Yes, they did and then they continue to change and not in small ways, but in amazingly huge, life-altering completely re-defining ways – the one constant always being Jesus.  

 Just as they have changed at the church I grew up in – just as they have changed here and continue to change here. The Book of Acts from which we read today and from which we will be reading and preaching all summer long shows us a church in a constant state of change. Not change for changes sake, but a church that responded to the leading of a Spirit that refused to let the church just be. It wasn’t enough for the church to stay in Jerusalem – it moved within decades in all directions, across the Mediterranean and into Rome and Spain and eastwards and to the south and north. It wasn’t enough for the church to only welcome Jewish Christians and the Spirit led the mission to welcome those who grew up worshipping pagan gods and so the church became a church of Jews and gentiles. And these changes did not come easily or without conflict. 

 

Any church in which the Holy Spirit is an active participant better get ready for change. And not just any change – we’re not talking about eliminating the age for first communion or killing Sunday school or changing out wafers for bread or swapping out hymnals for bulletins – or singing hymns written by people who are still alive rather than living in the 16^th century, though all of those things and more stirred up some trouble in their day, here and elsewhere. Such things hardly count as a warm up for the Holy Spirit. Really. Listen: When the Holy Spirit is involved we better buckle our seat belts because the Holy Spirit flat-out does not respect a congregation’s self-declared speed limits or traffic signals – heck, the holy Spirit would likely challenge the definition of “road” that most congregations set for themselves and make its own way – a road in the wilderness – a way for the Lord and not for our comfort, our familiarity. It drives wherever, whenever, and however it wants and it invites the congregation in faith to follow.

 How do we know if something we are doing is the work of the Holy Spirit? Because God blesses it: Lives are changed. Lives are transformed.  The Gospel is proclaimed and lives and breathes and is embodied in ways that follow in the footsteps of Jesus and his teachings. How do we know if something we are doing is of the Spirit? Because when you look back on it, you realize upon reflection that every life for which we embodied the love of Jesus, we now see Jesus looking back at us. 

And following the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness quite frankly should excite the bejeezus out of us because whatever the Spirit is doing is about God and God’s Kingdom: Kingdom work – holy and righteous and true. Look, who seriously doesn’t want to be a part of that? Coming to worship is a part of that – but as compared to all the Holy Spirit is about in and through the lives of Christians like you and me  -  being church is about the whole of our lives – it is a way of being and living in the world. What happens is falling prey to the temptation of living in the past where the Holy Spirit was at some point in history, but the Spirit has moved on and keeps calling out, calling people forward.

Folks, listen again to a bit of today’s reading: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.   Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit…

Those disciples did not witness the Holy Spirit as spectators - they received the Holy Spirit and their lives were never the same again. How could they be? The Holy Spirit changes things – relentlessly refuses to let them be as they were. The Holy Spirit is like the ultimate Extreme Makeover for us and for our lives. Takes us as we are and goes about the deep and faithful work of re-making us into the image of Christ so we can embody Christ in the world.

Luke, Alexis, and Le-Ann – we are not asking you and your generation to keep the church as it was or to preserve it as it is is – but to help us as the Holy Spirit gives you ability to become the church that we need to be as faithful followers of Jesus.

Look, the Holy Spirit does not toy with the children of God, it relentlessly refuses to let us be. When we find within ourselves the tension of what we want and what we need, of what the church was and what it must become that’s when we know that the Spirit is truly at work in us and we are taking that work seriously.  

Let me say that again:

When we find within ourselves the tension of what we want and what we need, of what the church was and what it must become that’s when we know that the Spirit is truly at work in us and we are taking that work seriously.  

Amen!

 

first published at www.livinglutheran.com

The Holy Spirit

Older now,

more cognizant of breath,

and steps, and achy knees and all their kin,

Of death.

Yes, of death.

And in the mirror I see from time to time,

dimly, a stranger’s eyes

and squinting, turning from side to side,

through the haze of eye drops melting away

into longing,

longing for flames dancing,

an unexpected wind, the rustle of wings,

a day unfolding into something more:

deeper roots,

trunk and branches full-leafed

 stretching into  skies ablaze with 

all the colors of creation,

casting out the grey

that proudly hides the lines,

a soft man’s scars, earned for little cost,

the labor of years, well and good.

Older now and seeking,

burdened by the tension of belief and unbelief,

the years undoing every thread,

it seems;

a journey for companions,

who speak of words

gathered into stories

carried in sacred procession,

all glory, all hope therein,

and there the stories  dwell waiting,

waiting, for the full weight of each syllable

given life,

until its echo at last refuses to fade

to then reveal the impossible richness of their meaning;

O Holy Spirit, enter in!

We tread here

as one at the border

of the thing itself, transfixed:

One seeking

but a moment within the deeper mystery:

 eager lips that kiss The Blood of Christ,

to recall the breath of life that birthed us,

humility the ground of our being,

everything, all knowledge, carried away,

we weeping for the Spirit

to recall to us the One who calls to us,

weeping that it might

lift our eyes beyond the limits of our own reflection,

O Holy Spirit, enter in! 

[From Pastor Keith's The Living Gospel BLOG at http://thelivinggospel.blogspot.com]


Long Key Nature Area, Davie, Florida, May 9, 2013

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
Matthew 18:20

Our faith is a faith that lives and breathes in community. 
When we emphasize a private faith and our personal relationship with God, we run the continual risk of diminishing Christianity's call to experience our faith among and with others.
Keeping rather than resolving the tension between a personal and communal faith is the reality in which we should live in order to encounter the full wonder that is the body of Christ of which we are all an equal part. 

God among and with us,
You gather us together as a shepherd gathers the sheep.
Let us never grow weary of being a community that lives for you
by living with and for one another .
In Jesus Name. Amen.

Kristin Berkey-Abbott and Pastor Keith have new postings up at www.livinglutheran.com

Kristin
http://www.livinglutheran.com/blog/2013/04/resolve-to-retreat.html

Pastor Keith
http://www.livinglutheran.com/blog/2013/05/the-holy-spirit.html

INTERNATIONAL POTLUCK
Just a friendly reminder that our International Potluck is ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY. If you'd like to contribute a dish representing your COUNTRY OR STATE please leave a comment or send a message to vdvega@bellsouth.net by WED. MAY 15 !!! THANK YOU SO MUCH 

Remember:
May 23rd Budget Presentation 7PM
June 2nd Semi-Annual Congregational meeting during worship to vote on the 2013-2014 Budget

Baccalaureate Service
Have you submitted the name, school, and degree (if applicable) for your high school or college grad for Trinity's upcoming Baccalaureate Service June 9th at 11AM? Have you invited them to join us for special prayers and blessings during the service?

Pastor Keith will be leading the monthly Bible Study at Crispers (University and Stirling road in the Target shopping center) this Friday May 17th at 7PM - please join us!

So Rich Melheim's awesome little new book "Holding Your Family Together" launches tomorrow. We had the blessing and joy of having Rich with us just a week ago both in our home and at Trintiy Lutheran and it was an amazing time. For the past... year our congregation has been using much of Rich's livelong creative work as the cornerstone of our audacious "Worship Together" Cross+generational worship service. Trsut me - it rocks! Please consider doing one of the following

1. SHARE the link below on to your Facebook/Twitter page with a nice word about it "Here's a fun and practical Mother's Day Gift/Father's Day Gift/Gift for a new family/gift for a family seeking to more strongly bind themselves in love and faith from this amazing guy and friend Rich Melheim...take a look!"

2. BLOG a line or two about it on your blog.

3. POST a review of the book on Amazon by Friday. (This week is the week that matters to get this awesome book moving and on people's radar screens.)

4. CONSIDER purchasing the book for yourself and a friend! $11 and change on Amazon for a copy - a great investment for a stronger family faith!

The reality of a book release is like the reality of a movie release. Everything hinges on how the book does the first week. Enjoy it and Blessings!

http://www.amazon.com/Holding-Your-Family-Together-Simple/dp/0830766316

PASTOR KEITH'S PHOTO 
AND BIBLE VERSES
Pastor Keith is archiving past photo/Bible verses and adding new ones at his new BLOG designed just for them. Folks have been asking for a one-stop place to see them all. Give him some time - about half a dozen there now and counting. You can put in your email address at the end of the BLOG and the Google-owned Feedburner will mail you daily updates.
http://thelivinggospel.blogspot.com

AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH SERVICE
Sunday we take time to enter into Autism Awareness Month through our text "Let the Little Children come to me and do not hinder them...." and at 11AM in music through a solo written by Susan Werner and sung by Tina Hines with Piper on Bass and Barbara on piano "My Different Son." And we will have special prayers and hear a reflection about a parent's experience in raising an autistic child. pease join us and invite your friends!

 THE ROAD TO EMMAUS: SEEING JESUS

WE ASKED THE "WORSHIP TOGETHER" FOLKS TO VENTURE AROUND THE HALL AND GARDENS TO FIND THINGS THAT REMINDED THEM OF JESUS. THESE PHOTOS ARE THE RESULTS OF ONE LITTLE GIRL'S EXPERIENCE OF FINDING JESUS. THANKS NATALIA!

Pastor Keith's most recent reflection is up at on the ELCA's Living Lutheran site www.livinglutheran.com.

We are blessed to have two people chosen for publication there. Kristin-Berkey-Abbott's wonderful spiritual reflectons reguarly may be found there as well as in The Lutheran Magazine and Seeds for the Parsish, a resourse newsletter that is mailed out to thousands of church leaders. Way to go Kristin!

GEARING DOWN FROM EASTER

For ashes, dust and earth,
for Sunday after Sunday,
draped in purple and thorn,
faces set toward Jerusalem,
for Three Great Days, and the Greatest of Days,
we poured out.
We poured out
as if without care, caring,
we as water
from mountainsides flowing, endless,
the very best of who we are,
the passion that fires our imaginations,
hours sacrificed, our Lenten disciplines and all that
and more.
And more than dirty feet, one last meal,
the cross barren, pancakes and lilies,
and pretty music abounding
across seas of fragrant hyacinths and
hardy daffodils,
and children eager,
baskets full of colored eggs,
we poured ourselves out.
Listen, does our mind hear still
the bells ring and chime
and all those alleluias,
dormant no more, shaking dust from rafters
seeking egress to dance in festive splendor:
He is risen! He is risen!
All now memory,
a yesterday, boxed and put away,
near the white lights and tinsel,
a headline, a short paragraph of thanks, a photo or two.
Strip the bulletin boards, change the paraments,
the altar, a spare lily or two limping for another Sunday sitting there, sad.
We are ready to sit a spell ourselves, put up our feet,
simplicity the rule of the day, catch our breath,
just breathe. We did our part.
And yet,
have we sacrificed in vain,
the good show, the happy faces,
the counters happy counting, money, bodies, sausage sold
with pancake platters?
To what end have we told the story,
our story,
we, knit within its hope
in our own baptismal waters?
Do we dare leave Easter, unchanged,
without the discomfort that comfort brings, hope embodying hope,
drawing us out into a world expectant and we expected
to embody what we heard, what we know, what we believe,
who we are?
Do we dare?

 RICH MELHEIM VISIT 
AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE FOR ALL!

Rich made it to Boston on Monday - and is fine. He checked in with us later in the day. 

He shared the following about his experience with Trinity with a number of pastors online on Monday:

I'm learning a little every day. Sunday [at Trinity Lutheran, Pembroke Pines]

  

 I learned that 5 year olds can teach their own parents about God in beautiful and articulate ways if you put them in the same space and set a system in place where you ask THEM to relate common things to God. 

I'm also learning that worship and Sunday school can be blended into one cross+generational experience that parents, children and surrogate adopted adults and elders can enjoy together.

I'm also learning in more and more profound ways that churches who try to do television-era worship ("I put on a good show and hope you sit and watch/listen) in an internet-era world will be playing an increasingly frustrating game.

If you have 3 worship services right now, might you consider tithing one of them to the generation that is, not the generation that was?

If you have 2 worship services and a competing Sunday school, might you consider canceling the Sunday school and blending elements of cross+gen worship into one of the two time frames?

And whether you can get away with killing Sunday school before it kills the church or not, might you consider preaching on the same story you are teaching, and calling parents and kids together to engage in nightly faith encounters?

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TURNED OUT FOR THE AFTERNOON WORKSHOP AND EVENING "COMEDY HOUR" and THANK YOU TO THE "WORSHIP TOGETHER" PARENTS, CHILDREN, YOUTH, SINGLES, COUPLES, AND GRANDPARENTS AT TRINITY WHO HAVE TAKEN AN IDEA AND USED IT TO TRANSFORM THE WAY THAT FAITH IS SHARED AND ENCOURAGED! 

I REMAIN IN AWE AND HUMBLED AS YOUR PASTOR AT WHAT GOD IS DOING IN OUR MIDST! 

Ever in Christ
Pastor Keith 

EASTER MORNING 2013
TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH, 
PEMBROKE PINES!

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
VOLUNTEERS MEETING
SUNDAY APRIL 7th 12:15 PM
CHARTER HALL