107 Concord Road, Wayland Massachusetts 01778

Calumet 2014

The first time that a bunch of us joined the Vogts and the Cannings at Calumet on the shores of Lake Ossipee, Larissa Ho was only 2 years old. To help give a better sense of how long ago that was, the 8 and 9 year-olds that just had their first communion a few weeks ago were still wearing diapers in camp. 

While preparing to describe our Calumet experience this year, I took a look back at old photos – showing the passage of time not just in our children, but in the subtle ways our Peace Lutheran group has grown and evolved.  In spite of all the joy and excitement we felt about being together at camp in 2009, we were nervously stepping on new ground. We were tentative about how much we could (or would) let our hair down amongst the folks we (sometimes) get dressed up to see on Sundays. We fretted silently about whether our kids would be as well-behaved as our peers’ children; we worried our kids would keep the neighbors awake at night as they worried about the darkness in the tent; we even worried we’d not be ‘churchy’ enough for the leaders at Calumet or for each other.  Looking back at those pictures now, I realize how new our relationships were – it was just the beginning of our kids’ growing up and our growing “old” together.

When I look back, I think of that first Calumet trip like the early days of courtship, when we had a gleeful secret that something wonderful was beginning and that it just might last a while. But I think for me, the best part of that weekend was how freeing it was to be together. On a practical level it was great to share the parenting responsibilities with each other – it’s true that many hands do make light work. But we also found a new level of trusting each other with our thoughts, our feelings and our own quirky family dynamics. We found out that we all had imperfect kids and imperfect parenting skills, and that we could let our hair down – pretty much completely.  Those of you who have been inside a Calumet bathroom first thing in the morning know just how willing we are to let down more than just our hair.  We found freedom in our shared experiences.

Which leads me to this year.  After years of perfect weather, last year’s freezing cold and soaking wet days AND nights made us all a bit skittish when we saw last weekend’s forecast. The predictions got worse and worse the closer we got to Friday – and in fact, heading up in driving rain and bumper-to-bumper traffic, I started contemplating a warm hotel room instead of setting up camp in a downpour after dark. Some of the families made last minute decisions not to come at all.  But there were still 9 families who decided it was bound to be too good to miss, rain or no rain.

And indeed, it was too good to miss. We had a few passing showers on Saturday, rain each night, and glorious sunshine all day on Sunday. And, after six years of Calumet together, we have our own Peace Lutheran Calumet traditions. In addition to all the continuity offered by the yearly events planned by the staff there, we also have stargazing with Alan’s super-strong telescope; lining up the Adirondack chairs so our toes are in the water while the kids swim and kayak; evening fires together at our campsites; and a full-out Kid-Fest Free-for-All of romping on the beach at sunset after ice cream with all the toppings.

I think the two words that kept running through my head all weekend were freedom and tradition.  We have parents who went to Calumet as kids –either for the overnight camp, or with their own families, and even as counselors.  And while some things have changed, for sure, the buildings, the Lutheran themes, the magical warmth and welcome are the same year after year.  It is immensely reassuring to me that I can give my children a taste of what growing up in an extended church family was like for me as a kid. We here at Peace are providing that for each other all year long, but Calumet is the cherry on top – the intense sweetness we savor and hold on to from one Memorial Weekend to the next. Calumet has become another TRADITION for all of us.

In closing, I’ll mention what one of our friends said to me when trying to decide whether or not to go this year. She said, “One of the hardest things to give up if we don’t go is the freedom. The boys just don’t get that kind of freedom anywhere else.”  That one sentence played over and over in my head as a watched the entire camp come alive with kids after dark – these little people would emerge out of nowhere and start a massive game of one sort or another in the dark. I sat and watched bobbing headlamps and glow sticks dodging about for more than an hour, thinking about the freedom we have through Christ — the freedom that comes from forgiveness, and acceptance, and a promise of something more.  Calumet reminds me of our Lutheran traditions that bind us together, and our Christian freedoms that help us grow in our love for one another.

This note is typical of the kind of communication our teachers and parents receive weekly from our Sunday school coordinator Kim Canning.

This week in Sunday school, our preschool through 2^nd grade students, taught by Kathrin Midgley and Carrie Munford, will read from John 14:15–21.  This is a hard text for children to follow.   Verse 20 , as spoken by Jesus, is likely a key verse for them:  “I am in my Father, you are in me and I am in you.”  Greek language students point out that “in us” can also be translated “among us.”  And verse 21:  “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  Following is a comment about the lesson from our curriculum:  As they hear Jesus’ promise of the Spirit, children will sense how God loves them and think of ways to extend that love to others.

Our 3^rd and 4^th grade students, taught by Mary Ann Borkowski, will review material they covered during the past year.

These three classes will meet with Kathryn Welter for the first 10 minutes of class-time in order to prepare for singing during the worship service on Sunday, June 8.  Attached are lyrics to the two songs they are learning so that you can practice with them at home during the week.

Our 5^th through 8^th grade students will meet in the sanctuary where they will receive acolyte training or review from Milly.  Our current acolytes will assist with the training of our new recruits.  I encourage the parents of our new and current acolytes to attend the session, as well, so that you can support your student when it is their turn to serve.

Information about our Year-End Sunday School Celebration and Family Picnic on June 8.Peace has been invited to participate in the Wayland 375 Celebration Parade on Saturday, June 14 at 9:30 AM.  The three-mile parade will start at the Cochituate Ball Field and end at Wayland Town Building.  The last group in the parade is expected to finish at noon.

On Sunday, June 8, our Sunday school students and families will create a banner to be carried along the parade route.  The children will have an opportunity to decorate their bikes if they would like to ride them during the parade.  Following the decoration of the banner and bikes, we will have a family picnic on the grounds of Peace.  The weather will be beautiful, of course!

What I would like to know from you:

Is your family planning to participate in the Year-end Sunday school celebration and family picnic at Peace on June 8?

Would your family like to walk or ride bikes with Peace during the parade on Saturday morning, June 14?

Are you or your children involved in the parade through another Wayland group or organization?

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about preparations for the parade or about the parade itself or anything concerning our Sunday school program.

Thank you for bringing your children to Peace!  They add life, spirit, hope, and love to our faith-full congregation.

“The Christian education program at Peace, where your child can experience God’s love through worship, learning, and fellowship.”

With blessings,

Kim

Sunday school coordinator Kim Canning sent this image and these words to us as we look forward to Good Shepherd Sunday. Our friend the Rev. Rick Kremer at Grace Lutheran Church in Hartford will use the musical setting in his service on Sunday, thanks to Kim.

Dupre, Julien, 1851-1910.

To connect the Good Shepherd to Mother’s Day and stretch everyone’s thinking about God a bit, display a great art painting of a shepherd who is female.

or play Bobby McFerrin’s version of Psalm 23 which uses all female pronouns for the shepherd.  (BTW he dedicated this recording to his mother.)

The 23rd Psalm (as sung by Bobby McFerrin)

The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need, She makes me lie down in green meadows, Beside the still waters, She will lead.
She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs,  She leads me in a path of good things, And fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk, through a dark and dreary land, There is nothing that can shake me, She has said She won’t forsake me, I’m in her hand.
She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes, She anoints my head with oil,  And my cup overflows.
Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me, All the days of my life, And I will live in her house, Forever, forever and ever.
Glory be to our Mother, and Daughter, And to the Holy of Holies, As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, World, without end. Amen

Let the Whole World Sing Amen

May 4, 2014

“O Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth …Let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar…Let the fields exult…Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.”

– Psalm 96

As a student, this time of year is filled with a lot of looking forward, and reflecting back. It’s a time to see where I have been, and where the currents of my life may be leading me. As I am now near the end of my field education placement here at Peace, I’ve been spending time reflecting on the things that we have done together over the past nine month. We’ve gone on walks, blessed the gardens, read books, raked leaves, talked about caring for creation, planted seeds, and I hope that together we have expanded our understandings of what relationships with creation may look like.

As I’ve been thinking back on all of these things, I’ve come to realize what a truly unique congregation you all are here at Peace. You are adventurous, creative, generous, and supportive. I’ve been grateful for all of the warmth and the welcome you have offered me. The uncommon hospitality of your community was reaffirmed to me this past week as I read the beautiful article about “Dirty Confirmation Kids” in this month’s Lutheran Magazine. I love the subtitle to the article: “In Wayland, Massachusetts, the way the do confirmation has to do with the land.” But here’s the thing: it’s not just the way you do confirmation. Clearly, there is much more attention given to the land – indeed, given to the whole earth – in this congregation than there is in many other congregation across the country. If what you all are doing in this congregation – like installing solar panels, planting vegetable and flower gardens, going outside to recognize the changing of the seasons, reading Scripture and the catechism as the confirmands weed – if all of that were normal, if all of that was typical in a Lutheran congregation, that article wouldn’t have been written. You are doing something new, you are forging new ways in the wilderness, you are sowing new seeds for a new kind of Christian dialogue and model of Church. You are singing to the Lord a new song.

While thinking about what I wanted to preach this morning, I kept hearing Psalm 96 ringing in my head. “O Sing to the Lord a new song,” the Psalm sings.

…Sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. (Psalm 96:1-4a)

In this Psalm we hear that we are to lift up a new song – any not just any new song, but a song that the whole earth can join along in singing. The Psalm continues:

…Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

Let the field exult, and everything in it.

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord… (Psalm 96:11-12)

I believe there is a new song arising, one witnessed to here in your congregation. I believe there is a new song arising that recognizes that there is a multiplicity of voices in God’s cosmos that ought to be heard, and not just human voices, but sea voices and field voices and forest voices and mountain voices. And sometimes, when we’re listening with intention, we can really hear those voices. We can hear what song the earth is singing. We can hear the sounds of rising tides as glaciers melt, we can hear the sounds of fires crackling in the drought stricken fields and forests of the West coast, we can hear the crumbling of mountains as the coal that lies beneath their tops is forcefully extracted.

The earth is indeed singing as well, but it sounds much less like a new song, and much more like the words of today’s Psalm 116:

The snares of death encompassed me;

   the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

   I suffered distress and anguish.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:

   “O Lord, I pray, save my life!” (Psalm 116: 3-4)

This is the song we are currently signing. Against the background of crying earth voices, we sing something to the tune of “O Lord, please bless us, because we did it! We subdued the land, it is firmly under our control! Bless us, O Lord, because we are dominant.” This is the old song. We are called to sing to the Lord – along with all of the earth – a new one.

When I took my first class on Church Leadership, I was taught that no matter what I prayed or sermon on, everything I offered ought to be said in such a way that everyone who hears the words of my mouth should feel like they can say “Amen.”

Amen is almost second nature to us in the Christian tradition, but it has deep roots. It’s a Hebrew word that has been passed down completed untranslated through Greek and Latin to us into English. It’s a word that nearly every Christian – no matter what their language – knows and can speak together in unison. And it’s not just Christians who use this word. All three of the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have a history of using it. Amen is a declaration of hearty affirmation or agreement – its English translation can mean “verily” or “truly.” The original Hebrew translation is “so be it” – a kind of “may it be so.”

So when we gather together and offer prayers, sing songs, listen to the words of Holy Scripture, and as we work together to listen to God’s call in those words, we should always be asking ourselves if we can all say amen. And not just us – because remember, the whole earth is called to sing to the Lord a new song. So, can the whole earth offer hearty agreement and a “so be it” along with us in our Christian living and worship? Every time we proclaim amen, we ought to be making sure that all of creation can say amen, too.

As Christians, with the words we offer in worship and the lives we lead in Christian witness, can the whole earth say Amen to what we’re preaching and doing? Can the whole earth sing with us to the Lord? Because until the answer is yes, there will be no new song. The new song – the song we sing in praise to the Lord with all of the earth – is a song where the earth rejoices, the sea roars, the field exults, and the trees of the forest sing for joy.

My sister and brother, we are still writing the words to our new song. Your congregation, though, has restored hope in me that our new song is in formation. Just as today’s reading from Acts tells us of Peter’s conversion of 3,000 people gathered in Jerusalem, today we need to – indeed we must – be working for a religious and moral conversion to the earth. I have hope that your efforts are leading us, and I have hope that a conversion to our new song is on the horizon.

Dear friends, my prayer for your congregation, as well as for me, as we look back on the paths that we have forged – especially as you look back on this congregation’s 50^th anniversary this year – and as we look forward to the new places we are being called, is that we remember our call to sing together with the seas and the fields and the forest a new song to the Lord. A new song that lives within the testament of our lives, which recognize the earth as a comprehensive community. A song that allows us to sing prophetically about God’s incarnation and redeeming of our sin-filled world as much as Peter did to the crowd he gather and converted in Jerusalem. A song where, as Wendell Berry says, we humans see our place and role in the universe as completely dependent on the habitats of the Earth, all of which have intrinsic value independent of human needs or want. Friends, I pray that there be an ever-resounding chorus of amens throughout our communities and throughout all of creation. May we continue to worship and work, study and sing, pray and play together in an effort to let the whole world sing together — amen.

Stephanie Smoot planned the affirmation garden and helped the students plant potatoes and onions.