Last Spring, several Trinity Lutheran Church members helped bring “A Place at the Table” to Boise’s Egyptian Theater where many of us went to see it. The film inspired our Vacation Bible School program last summer and directed the implementation of our After the Harvest grant funds from the ELCA in August and September. Now we are bringing the film to the community of Nampa. Continue reading
From Trinity Lutheran Church’s “Advent, a Journey of Watching and Waiting”
“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
One of my favorite Advent traditions growing up was the annual Advent Birthday Party at my home congregation. Every December we would gather together in the fellowship hall for a traditional potluck. What made this potluck special was the seating chart. Continue reading
From Trinity Lutheran Church’s “Advent, a Journey of Watching and Waiting”
“Stir up your might, and come to save us! Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.” (Psalm 80:2b-3)
If you listen carefully during this Season of Advent you will hear a refrain in our Prayers of the Day, those prayers that lay the foundation for each worship service. Each one of them begins with this imperative, “Stir up.” Stir up your power; stir up our hearts; stir up the wills of all who look to you. For four weeks we ask God to stir up this world, including our very selves, in preparation for something new—a new kind of king, one who meets us in our weakness; a new kind of justice, one where it is no longer an eye for an eye but a turning of the other cheek; one where weapons are put down and the lion is at peace with the lamb. This sounds glorious but when we start to put it into practice, any romanticism we have quickly falls away. We can despair easily until, until, until we pray once again, “Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.” And in our praying we are reminded once again that this is not about us. We are not alone. All things are possible through Jesus Christ, whose coming we await. That is one of the most wonderful things about prayer, the way that it changes us. In the praying, things begin stirring up in me—hope, love, ideas, praise and thanksgiving. I trust that God will stir up wonderful things in you and in our world each Sunday when we pray together. – Pastor Meggan Manlove
He brought people of all different backgrounds to a common table. In his own words:
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Statement in the dock [April 20, 1964]
“I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken away from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.” Long Walk to Freedom [1994]
Last Wednesday I went to the Nampa Civic Center for a conversation about Nampa’s new High Five Community Grant to combat childhood obesity. Part of the grant proposal is a Mobile Produce Program which would expand the efforts of Trinity Community Gardens (TCG) to give people better access to fresh vegetables. By chance, I gave the invocation at the Oct. 7 City Council meeting when the announcement was made that Nampa had received this $300,000 grant. Continue reading
I recently returned from the Annual Lutheran Outdoor Ministry Conference at Zephyr Point on beautiful Lake Tahoe. This is the second time we’ve held our annual conference jointly with the Presbyterian Camps and Conference Center Association. Here are a few things I learned while sitting around tables at Zephyr Point and nearby towns: Continue reading
Last Sunday while preaching on Luke 20:27-38, in which some Sadducees try to trap Jesus with a question about resurrection, marriage, and Levirate law, I ended with the story of the way my own mind has changed regarding Holy Communion:
Each week we return to the table, the meal, the Lord’s Supper and remember that we are all, from the oldest to youngest, children of God. For me this Holy Communion has its own story of breaking the status quo. In the few 100 years before the Lutheran Reformation in the 16th Century, not everyone could eat the bread and drink the wine. Only the priests could. Eventually the people in the assembly could eat the bread but it took even more re-formation before the laity could also drink the wine. Continue reading
Yesterday the 2013 gleaning season for Trinity Community Gardens came to an end.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:22) Continue reading
Last Sunday afternoon I walked three miles in Caldwell, ID with five-year-old twins and a six-year-old from Trinity Lutheran Church. It took a long time but it was a perfect fall day and in addition to seeing the community through the eyes of these children (bus benches are a novelty, freshly mowed lawns are for everyone to play on, and people putting shingles on a roof deserve our undivided attention) I had a fun adult conversation with the girls’ mothers. Continue reading
Here it is, the latest ELCA World Hunger appeal letter, featuring Trinity Lutheran Church and Univ of Idaho Canyon County Extension: Continue reading
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A Place at the Table 