107 Concord Road, Wayland Massachusetts 01778

Kathryn Welter receives thanks and appreciation from the congregation for 15 years of service as music director

In appreciation of your musical talent, your historically informed understanding of Christian traditions, your dedication to the faith of your childhood and to the present ministries of Peace Lutheran Church, the members of the congregation honor you today.

June 23, 2013

Calumet lingers long after we return home – like the smell of smoke on our clothing (my kids always want me NOT to wash one thing, so they can still smell the campfire for weeks after we’re settled in to our Wayland routines).

And along with memories of Calumet, a weird phrase kept running through my head all week, and I realized that it is actually quite relevant.  It’s from one of my favorite children’s books, called A Very Special House.  It’s really about a place of mayhem—the not-scary kind that kids like—which is also a lot like the crazy survivalist experience of Calumet this year: everything got wet, and muddy and we got to play in the rain and stay up late and eat ice cream after dark….

So here’s the excerpt:

I know a house—it’s not a squirrel house; it’s not a donkey house—just like I said—

and it’s not up on a mountain, and it’s not down in a valley and it’s not down in a hole and it’s not down in our alley and it’s not up in a tree or underneath the bed—oh, it’s right in the middle—oh it’s ret in the meedle—oh it’s root in the moodle of my head head head. 

And I realized… this is about church.  Church is not a building or a place, but where people are gathered together. And sometimes church is not about the readings and the prayers and the singing – although that is important and there certainly was that at Calumet as well.  But sometimes, after just muddling through the challenges of sleeping in tents in 35 degrees, or waking up to find the tarp ripped right off the tree, you look back and realize you spent 3 days in church.  And despite the miserable weather, you still can’t wait to go back.

There were three new families this year – some whom had actually never been camping before – talk about trial by fire – and after we got home, they emailed to say thank you for inviting them, and that they are looking forward to next year!  They came this year because they remembered (and commented on) seeing what I looked like when I got back last year – they said I glowed; I looked peaceful and relaxed – something most parents of young kids rarely feel after a vacation!  I wish they would join our church – they are such great people, but I don’t think they will, but they did get to experience a little of what it’s like for us, and as my friend Pam wrote in her email “I can see why you love your friends so much – they are so easy to be around and so interesting.”

I think we draw out the best of each other and I think that is partly our shared faith at work. We trust each other, and help each other, and that makes it easy to help others and invite them in.  One example of this—the sermon on Sunday was a parable about the loaves and the fishes, and we sort of experienced something like that first hand. It was so cold and many of us had trouble keeping warm at night.  So, Jonathan drove over an hour round trip to North Conway to find a hardware store that sold insulation to put over our mattresses to trap our body heat; Alan drove a long way in the other direction to buy blankets at the Ocean State Job Lot.  And one of the families in a cabin donated a down comforter.  So finally, on the third night, we had more than enough blankets and we weren’t freezing in our sleep.

My last anecdote is thanks to Teddy Vogt.  He and Keira were rediscovering each other over the weekend – playing A LOT together, something that just rarely happens in an hour or two at church. And at one point, Teddy said to Keira, who is very quiet and shy: “Keira would you say something? I don’t remember what your voice sounds like. I want to hear your voice.”  That, to me, is Calumet… in so many ways!

-Corinne Fryhle

 I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; I will guide you with my eye.  Psalm 32:8

God is great; God is good. So begins a children’s table prayer. Teaching our children to pray is central to our work in the church. When we allow one another (children of all ages) time and a space to pray, we offer one another a “place” of peace and renewal. Prayer is the central and essential Christian practice. Our churches should be houses of prayer above all else. Our lives are better and richer when they include regular times of private prayer. I so often wish we could think of ways to gather during the week, here at church, for prayer.

There is much more to say about prayer. However, it was study and meditation on themes of being “great” and “good” that led me into thinking about prayer this week. The lessons for Sunday suggest reflection on greatness and goodness. The psalmist writes about the greatness of the Lord. The Roman soldier is a great and powerful man but, according to Luke, he is a good man as well. Do you think most people you know desire greatness or goodness. Both? Neither one? The two are notoriously hard to hold together. They are held together in the highest measures imaginable in God. God is great; God is good. Therefore, in freedom (because of God’s greatness) and in trust (because of God’s goodness) we pray and worship. We’ll meditate along these lines on Sunday.

Sunday will be a very big day!

We will hear a brief report on the Calumet weekend.

We will recognize our graduates and make a presentation to Pat Canning as he ends his high school career and looks forward to college at the University of Michigan. I bought a blue fleece blanket for him, the color blue, for Peace and for Michigan. If you would like to contribute a few dollars for the gift, contact me.

At the end of the service we will recess to the new garden, east of the church. The plot has been prepared by several of our adults. Joanna Flies of Two Fields Farms started sunflowers which we will plant in the garden on Sunday. Confirmation students and willing adults should wear planting clothes and bring planting tools.

Greetings from Calumet!!  Over the past 2 days we’ve discovered that we are a
hearty group of campers. Hats off to the tent campers who stuck it out through
two nights of cold and rainy weather.   Ingenuity and planning kept everyone
warm and dry at night. Who knew that Jonathan was so good with tarps!

After a second night of pounding rain we woke up to dry air and blue sky today
which has produced smiles all around. It’s a bit chilly but not cold enough to
deter any activities.

The three new families who braved the weekend have pledged to return next year.
We missed the families who (smartly) decided to sit this year out.

We will be making the best of the next 24 hours.

Off to the Lakeside Dining Hall to sign up for the pontoon boat rides this
afternoon.

See you next Sunday!

Boom Chick Boom!

Debbie

The Sunday of the Holy Trinity symbolizes the overall shape of the Christian doctrine of God. If you want to enter into the mystery of God, the front door is the Christian teaching of the Holy Trinity. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is one. God is love. These odd biblical and theological assertions and others like them show the mysterious shape of our faith and, as we ponder them through prayer, singing, worship, study and meditation, our souls are shaped by them.

Dim-witted, flat-footed atheists and others have charged that the doctrine of the Trinity is an idea made up by ancient Christian officials. No, the teaching of the Trinity stands as a welcome into full and thankful life. The Trinity means that God is not locked into church offices, not controlled by the liturgies or moralities of the church, and certainly not limited by elementary sneerings of secularists.

God is in all life. Life is God. The origins, communities and activities of life are pointed to in the doctrine of the Trinity. If you are alive, and are capable of simple and ordinary reflection on life, you may begin to understand the central Christian teaching of the Holy Trinity. Even if you are a professor or a pope you will never master the meaning of it. Life is holy. God is near us and far off. The world in which we live is beautiful and tragic.

The Sunday of the Trinity calls us into the mystery of life and there, in that mystery, to worship God, which means to give thanks together with other people. We should at all times and in all places give thanks…. That is the essential message of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

The PLC camping trip to Camp Calumet in Freedom, NH is just 6 days away and check out the Memorial Day forecast in Freedom, NH!!

The weather is looking GREAT and so is the crowd! We have more than 60 PLC members and friends who will be spending 4 fulfilled days in the sun and

3 cool NH nights by the campfire. We ALWAYS have room for more – with the conference center, cabins and campground there is a level of accommodations that will meet everyone’s preferences.

So bring your sun block and your love for the outdoors and we’ll see everyone up at Calumet on Friday!

–Deb Vogt