Dear members and friends of Zion,
Dear members and dear friends of ZION,
Recently, someone shared their summer experience with me: This person had gone somewhere south to see family, and had been looking forward to some nice cookouts and barbecues that always had been part of their family tradition. But you know what, he said, the younger folks just wouldn’t care. They would just get some stuff from one of the many fast food outlets, and that was it. There was quite some sadness in his voice.
Something very profound goes missing when we do that. Whoever has been to a family reunion or similar event where all the generations would come together and each one bring something to the table, has had this profoundly gratifying experience: the ordinary tasks of preparing and cooking would be transformed, not just ideally, but typically and regularly, into acts of bonding and fellowship – some memorable bizarre incidents notwithstanding. They are probably part of every family’s folklore and the stuff movies like Home for the Holidays (my cinematic introduction to Baltimore, mind you!) are made of.
It’s no different in your church family. After all, one of our sacraments or means of grace involves the setting of the table, taking, giving thanks and sharing bread and wine that become the most intimate and powerful presence of Christ in our midst.
And then there are the events involving food - actually: are there any without? I am still happy to be Pastor in the Lutheran church, where - as one well known Lutheran Radio personality reminds us - covered-dish dinners are effective channels of real grace.
Fall has always been the time to do these things – both at home and at church. Once again, our Sour beef event is coming up in October. For generations, we have been able to do this feast, because faithful Zion people have been coming together sharing and giving freely of their time, talent and energy. As was pointed out in a Baltimore SUN article last year, we at Zion are almost the lone survivor of the community Sour Beef tradition in Baltimore. I am thrilled that we have been able to attract younger people into both the kitchen and the serving teams, and that we have been able to both keep the tradition and expand it through the Beer Hall in the Adlersaal.
All of this would not be right without first giving thanks to God who has blessed us so richly and then also remembering the poor. As you can read in this issue, our door ministry is reorganizing in September, but we continue with it and our other ways of giving thanks and giving back. Actually we have been surprised how strongly and generously people have come forward in supporting the door ministry outreach.
God’s work – our hands – the “tagline” of our church body, the ELCA, says it quite well, or in the words of the old Erntedank classic: “Es geht durch unsere Hände, kommt aber her von Gott” (“it passes through our hands, but truly comes from God” – a portion of “We plough the fields” apparently not translated in SBH 364…). God is asking us, inviting us to use our hands and do our part – in taking on, giving thanks, distributing and sharing. And within the ordinary, we will experience the extraordinary: that God will be with us, filling us with gratitude, feeding us with what we need for body, mind and spirit, and giving us the gift of fellowship, sisters and brothers that gather with us at the table.
This fall we once again open up a cornucopia of events, as it were, among them:
- Wine Tasting, Saturday, September 19, 7-9:30 pm;
- Book launch with Dr Eric Gritscch, Saturday, September 26, 6-8 pm
- Michaelmas Ecumenical Vespers, Sunday, October 4, 5 pm. Preacher: Dekan Klaus Schmid, Rüdesheim, Germany - we will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall
- Sour Beef Event: the cclassic, with Beer Hall, Wednesday and Thursday, October 28 and 29
- Lutherfest: &ldqquo;Luther: Life and Afterlife”, Sunday, November 8, 7-9 pm
- Christkindlmarkt, Satuurday/Sunday, November 28/29
Alle gute Gabe kommt her von Gott dem Herrn -
d’rum dankt ihm, dankt; d’rum dankt ihm, dankt, und hofft auf ihn.
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love.
(Matthias Claudius, tr. Jane Montgomery Campbell)
Please join us and discover a place where your hands and God’s work come together in a unique way – your church!
Ihnen allen eine gute Herbstzeit und ein gesegnetes Erntedankfest
Have a blessed time of Fall and Thanksgiving!
Your Pastor Dr Holger Roggelin
––––––——————
This issue of the newsletter is a three-month-issue, covering the months of September, October, and November 2009. The next issue will be published in connection with Christkindlmarkt
and the first Sunday in Advent at the end of November, 2009
Pastor Dr. Holger Roggelin
|
