Pastor's Message
Dear members and friends of Zion:
Last summer, I was invited to attend the 130th anniversary of the founding of Kropp Seminary in Schleswig-Holstein – a place that trained over 200 candidates for pastoral ministry in the United States and Canada from 1879 to 1930, among them our own Pastor Fritz-Otto Evers.
My task was to represent all the congregations in which Kropp alumni served. The ”Stiftung Diakoniewerk Kropp’’ (http://www.sdw-kropp.de/) is now a vast campus of diaconical homes for elderly and handicapped people; and home to a community of female and male deacons. They wanted to commemorate their historic link to the New World by planting something from over here. I did not have to think long before suggesting a dogwood tree. When I came to Zion, its blossoms greeted me in my first Spring; and a member of Zion shared its beautiful legend with me – which I had never heard before. I am grateful the tree in Zion’s front garden made it through this winter’s snow storms, although it lost almost half of its branches.
Of course, I could not bring a dogwood over from here to Germany, but they were able to get one through their local nursery. We planted it in a little ceremony, and I told the legend in German to the assembled guests, among them the Bishop of Schleswig. Their tree will soon bloom for the first time in its new home. So when I found this Easter letterhead, I was sure that this is what I wanted to send out to you, the members and friends of Zion, this year.
THE LEGEND OF THE DOGWOOD
At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood had reached the size of the mighty oak tree. So strong and firm was the wood that it was the preferred wood for crosses and thus chosen as the timber for Jesus' cross.
To be used for such a cruel purpose greatly distressed the dogwood. While nailed upon it, Jesus sensed this, and in his compassion said "Because of your pity for my suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used for a cross. Henceforth, it shall be slender, bent, and twisted, and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross – two long and two short petals.
"In the center of the outer edge of each petal will be the print of nails. In the center of the flower, stained with blood, will be a crown of thorns so that all who see it will remember."
So each time we see the dogwood blooming at Eastertide, we remember Christ’s death on the cross but also his resurrection, which brought back sun and joy and light:
’Tis the spring of souls today; Christ has burst His prison,
And from three days’ sleep in death as a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying
From His light, to Whom we give laud and praise undying. (St. John Damascene)
See you at your Zionskirche!
Bring a loved one and/or a friend to one of our special services!
Have a blessed Holy Week, Happy Easter and a joyful Eastertide!
Eine gesegnete Karwoche, ein frohes Osterfest und eine fröhliche Osterzeit wünscht Ihnen
Pastor Dr. Holger Roggelin
EASTER MESSAGES 2010 FROM OUR BISHOPS
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ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!
April 4, 2010
Sisters and Brothers All:
There was but one sentence on the front of the Easter bulletin: There are just two kinds of people here this morning: those who believe in the resurrection and those who wish to heaven that they could. No doubt some were surprised and wondering: “Which one of those am I?”
It might just depend upon the day. Sometimes, there is no doubt at all. On others...! There are many who know the angst of the father of the demon-possessed son who cried out to Jesus: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) Been there! Done that!
Ours is not simply a 21st century phenomenon. When it comes to the resurrection from the dead, be it Jesus’ or ours, belief has never come easily. Jesus’ most faithful followers, on the way to the tomb before dawn on that first Easter, were not expecting a resurrection. They were worried about rolling a stone away. As Mary Magdalene tarried in the garden, she did not recognize her risen Lord. She thought he was the gardener. Then there was the ever-famous Thomas, “Doubting Thomas.” (I think we give him that judgmental name because we project our own guilt in this matter upon him.)
Saint Paul confronts disbelief head on as he writes to the Christians at Corinth. “How can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Cor. 15:12) Perhaps the problem is that belief in the resurrection is just too good to be true. We have often been cautioned that if an offer is too good to be true, it probably is. Or as Saint Luke tells us, the disciples “disbelieved for joy.” (Luke 24:41) Yet Saint Paul would contend that believing this good news is central to the very Gospel itself. That is to say, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all most to be pitied.” (I Cor. 15:10)
Easter’s message is not one about miracles...or whether we believe in miracles...but about what we believe about God. Saint Paul speaks consistently of Christ’s resurrection in the passive voice, “Christ has been raised.” As one former parishioner liked to say it: “I believe that God created all things; the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all of space, as well as all of us. If God can do that, then he can raise someone from the dead if he wants to.”
Easter is not about believing in miracles but about believing in God. Again, we hear Saint Paul: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” (2 Cor. 5:19)
The good news then and now is bound up in this fact: God has the last word, and that word is life! The religious leaders had spoken, the crowd had spoken, and Pilate had decreed. The charges were insurrection, blasphemy, and treason. Then God speaks. The ground shakes, the sky goes dark, stones shatter and roll, graves are opened, and in the morning angels ask: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5) “He is not here. He is risen! Look for yourselves.” (Matthew 28:6)
So do it. Look for yourselves. Such good news gives us the courage to live beyond ourselves and in the light of the Good News - and even to risk dying in Christ’s name, without fear.
“Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”
The Rev. Dr. Theodore F. Schneider
Interim Bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod
From our Presiding Bishop, ELCA
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. -- 1 Corinthians 15:26
For a brief time, while the crucified Jesus lay in a borrowed tomb, it seemed as if death had triumphed once again. Threatened by a messenger of God's expansive, steadfast love, yet another human mob succumbed to death's seduction. They chose its brutal, silencing power and trusted its empty finality. Death's murderous rebellion against the Creator of life seemed unstoppable.
Until that Sunday morning dawned. Mary, Joanna, Mary and the other women arrived at Jesus' tomb prepared for a body emptied of life. Instead they discovered the grave emptied of its power and death itself buried in resurrection life. Jesus Christ, the first fruits from the dead, lives! (1 Corinthians 15:20)
Now Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God's compassionate love, is preparing your body for a resurrection life. In that life death can no longer imprison you in a grave nor hold you captive to its violent imagination and destructive power. Joined to Christ by baptism, your body is being brought into his resurrected life, into Christ's new creation, and into the ministry of reconciliation and peace. In this new day your resurrected service of God's steadfast love endures forever.
This is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. --Psalm 118:23-24
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
For more messages from and more information on Bishop Hanson and his ministry within the ELCA,
go to
http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Presiding-Bishop/
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