Malaria in Senegal

Annē (Hoblitt) Linn and her husband, Patrick, are serving as Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal. We pray for them every week during the prayers of intercession.
Annē has a great blog going, and this post from mid-April, "Every Child Deserves a Fifth Birthday" is all about malaria in Senegal and the work, and challenges, of international health agencies there.
If you want to read her latest post, or subscribe, check out the main page of her blog, Line over the E.

During worship yesterday, a bell was tolled every 45 seconds, to remind us that every 45 seconds a child in Africa dies from malaria (many thanks to Kristin H. for bell-duty!). I know it was a little distracting, but I think that's not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps we should be more distracted than we are by deaths from malaria, human trafficking and the poverty that rages across so much of the world. One of the most powerful prayers I've heard in a long time: May my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.

Malaria Sunday

Tomorrow CtK will join other ELCA congregations in commemorating Malaria Sunday. Here's a video to introduce the campaign:

Sunday School students from preschool through middle school will learn more about the campaign and efforts to fight malaria around the world, especially in Africa. The goal of this week's offering, churchwide, is to collect at least $200,000 to begin the campaign's work in Liberia.

Below is a letter from the coordinator of the ELCA Malaria Campaign:

April 25, 2012
Dear member of the ELCA,
“Where is the ELCA in our fight against malaria?”
This is the question a Liberian health official asked my colleague during his recent trip to West Africa. “We have heard about the ELCA Malaria Campaign. We need your help, and we need it now.”
Malaria is a leading cause of death in Africa, claiming the life of a child every 45 seconds. In Liberia, malaria accounts for 30 percent of all deaths in hospitals.
Since the launch of the ELCA Malaria Campaign last year, Lutheran churches in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have ramped up their efforts to control this disease – distributing mosquito nets and medicine as well as educating communities on prevention. However, we don’t yet have the funds to begin this work in Liberia. Will you help?
Our sisters and brothers in Liberia are ready. They have active congregations that can be mobilized to help prevent malaria in their communities. They have two well-respected Lutheran hospitals, community-based health care programs and development and education ministries that serve tens of thousands of people. They know what it takes to prevent and treat malaria. But they need your partnership. The time is now.
Today is World Malaria Day, and we as the ELCA can join the global community in doing our part. We can bring hope to our sisters and brothers in Liberia.
During this week (April 25-May 1), we need to raise $200,000 – enough to expand our anti-malaria work to Liberia this year. Will you help with your gift today?
Let’s make this dream a reality. There are three ways to give.

1. Donate online by visiting http://www.elca.org/MalariaDay anytime before the 11:59 p.m. CST deadline on Tuesday, May 1.
2. Donate over the phone by calling 800-638-3522 during business hours now through Tuesday, May 1, at 5:00 p.m. CST. Operators are standing by.
3. Donate through the mail by sending a check to the ELCA Malaria Campaign, P.O. Box 71764, Chicago, Illinois, 60694-1764. Please mail your checks by May 4, 2012, and be sure to write "World Malaria Day" in the memo line of your check. (Congregational offerings on Sunday, April 29, are encouraged and welcomed! Please visit our website for service ideas and resources.)

We are a church that believes God is calling us into the world – together. Thank you for your prayers, your partnership and your generous gifts to help our neighbors in need.

In Christ's service, Jessica Nipp Coordinator, ELCA Malaria Campaign

Rummage Sale

CtK's annual Rummage Sale is TOMORROW, April 28th, 8am-noon. Members and friends of the congregation have donated TONS of great stuff, and all proceeds will support the Family & Youth Ministry of the congregation. Come get some bargains - and help spread the word!

I wanted to say more on Sunday during the sermon...

Friends in Christ,

I wanted to say more last Sunday during the sermon, but I ran out of time.

I have posted here a quote from Father Robert Capon, an Episcopal priest who has written a number of excellent commentaries on the Four Gospels. I have read many of his books and use his commentaries (where appropiate) when I prepare to preach.

I was directed to this quote from Capon by Rev. Brian Stoffregen, who has written many fine commentaries on the Four Gospels as well. You can find Stoffregen's commentaries at www.crossmarks.com.

I love the quote from Capon. He is rock solid as a theologian, and he doesn't mind telling the church to stay on message, that is, preach the Good News of God in Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins.

In Easter joy, Pastor Grant


Here is a quote from Robert Capon (Hunting the Divine Fox: An Introduction to the Language of Theology, [pp. 132-3] republished in The Romance of the Word: One Man's Love Affair with Theology [p. 345])to help us understand the nature of forgiveness and being the church.
... The church is not in the morals business. The world is in the morals business, quite rightfully; and it has done a fine job of it, all things considered. The history of the world's moral codes is a monument to the labors of many philosophers, and it is a monument of striking unity and beauty. As C.S. Lewis said, anyone who thinks the moral codes of mankind are all different should be locked up in a library and be made to read three days' worth of them. He would be bored silly by the sheer sameness.
What the world cannot get right, however, is the forgiveness business – and that, of course, is the church's real job. She is in the world to deal with the Sin which the world can't turn off or escape from. She is not in the business of telling the world what's right and wrong so that it can do good and avoid evil. She is in the business of offering, to a world which knows all about that tiresome subject, forgiveness for its chronic unwillingness to take its own advice. But the minute she even hints that morals, and not forgiveness, is the name of her game, she instantly corrupts the Gospel and runs headlong into blatant nonsense.
The church becomes, not Ms. Forgiven Sinner, but Ms. Right. Christianity becomes the good guys in here versus the bad guys out there. Which, of course, is pure tripe. The church is nothing but the world under the sign of baptism. ...

We Easter people have been sent to forgive sins.

Thursday Thought

A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.

~ Martin Luther

Easter Greeting from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Christ is risen! Imagine the power in those words of promise.

When the disciples first heard Jesus speak of his death and resurrection, "they kept the matter to themselves" (Mark 9:10). But the news is too good to keep to ourselves. The life of Jesus Christ has been unleashed into the world.

Because Christ is risen, you can embrace life's complexities and uncertainties with a living, daring confidence in God's grace. The risen Christ goes ahead of you, meeting you in the most surprising faces and unexpected places. Christ's resurrection puts us right where God wants us to be -- in the thick of life.

Because Christ is risen, you have a word of hope. To those weary from mourning loss and fearing death, the assurance is given that nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The life of Jesus, God's own life, has burst into the world, restoring community. At the barriers we erect to divide us, the risen Christ meets us, turning those walls into tables of reconciliation. To those who live in fear and feel unworthy, the promise is given. "You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).

Every morning you awaken with the mark of Jesus' death on your forehead and the promise of Christ's resurrection on your lips.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

In God's grace,

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

What's your favorite?

What is your favorite thing about Easter morning?

Is it worship - resurrection proclaimed, breaking out the alleluias, inspiring music?

Is it Easter eggs and other tasty treats? (do you eat the ears of a chocolate bunny first or save them for last?)

Is it the end of your Lenten fast - finally drinking coffee, eating sweets, or partaking again in something else you "gave up" for Lent?
Is it Easter bonnets - your own or someone else's?

Leave a comment below and share YOUR favorite thing about Easter morning.

Good Friday

Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the Cross

He who is King of the angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns.

He who wraps the heaven in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.

He who in Jordan set Adam free receives blows upon his face.

The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails.

The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a spear.

We venerate thy Passion, O Christ.

Show us also thy glorious Resurrection.

Hymn for Good Friday, Orthodox

Maundy Thursday Thought

It's always easier to follow Jesus in our heads than it is to follow him with our feet on the Via Dolorosa (way of suffering).
- Rev. Robert H. Herhold

Holy Week & Easter Services