On 9-11 God will not be silenced

Today is September 11, 2011.  The 10^th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America.

It also happens to be Holy Cross Sunday in the Lutheran Church.

I have been listening to various radio shows, television broadcasts, and reading various news productions and blogs in recent weeks, with an ear for where God is being fit into this anniversary remembrance.   It seems many people in the news production arena have forgotten to where many people, including the news media, turned for comfort, inner calm, and hope in the days following the attacks.

What did you hear on 9/11/01?  Please pray for…. God bless America… Our thoughts and prayers go out to… Thank God for first responders….  Pray for the safety of….

To whom were people being asked to pray?  Who was being asked to bless our nation?  God.

God.  The one God who is the Father of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

And yet, this anniversary celebration was to be put together with a secular bent?  Mayor Bloomberg has deemed no prayers will be offered at the 9-11 Memorial in NYC.

Shame on those who would claim God has no place in remembrance… our sorrows, our hopes, our forgiveness, our anger, our prayers. 

We could call on him then… but not now?

Good sense prevailed in some places.   President Obama read from Psalms.  Other mentions of prayer and God and faith are spilling into the news feeds I am finding for today.   God will not be silenced.    

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the week before His crucifixion, the crowd of people shouted:  (Luke 19:38-40)

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” But Jesus answered,

“I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

God will not be silenced.  The actions of the faithful speak louder than the rhetoric of politicians.

St. Andrew is participating in the Parsippany Library 9/11Tribute Exhibit.  We picked up our twin towers plywood cutout and decorated it with crosses, Jewish stars, and a crescent moon and star.  It is mostly filled with crosses.  The only statistics I could find regarding the breakdown of the faiths of those who perished on 9/11/01 indicated that although no religious denomination records have been kept (I find this incredulous), it appears that about 500 were Jewish and about 2 dozen were Muslim.  I’m guessing the rest were Christians (and/or atheists). 

So on this Holy Cross Sunday, when Lutherans celebrate the faith, hope and love of Jesus, may we all remember and honor those who died on Sept. 11, 2001. 

And, may we be not afraid to speak of that faith, hope and love… for God will not be silenced.  

Not by terrorists, …

and not by a media machine or government leadership more concerned with being politically correct than morally straight.

Come join us for worship.

Sundays @ 8:30 and 10:45 am.
St. Andrew Lutheran Church
335 Reynolds Ave.
Parsippany, NJ  07054
(973) 887-6713
www.elcaAndy.org

Ellis Island - Faith and Adversity

My husband and I recently visited Ellis Island.  I’ve been wanting to go ever since they renovated and re-opened it in 1990.  My children have visited this National Park Service landmark with their respective schools, but as it sometimes goes, we get too busy to enjoy the gems in our own backyard.

This will be the first of several blog posts that stem from this visit.  It is an incredibly inspiring place and the faith and determination of the people who traveled through its doors are amazing.

We purchased the audio tour because I’ve found that there is usually so much wonderful information on these soundtracks, often including the testimony of actual people.  On this audio tour there was the voice of a Russian immigrant who (in the course of the discussion of the inspection of immigrants) said, “if they refused me, there was no way I was going back to Russia.  I’d rather throw myself over the side [of the returning ship] and die in the deep of the ocean than return to Russia.”

This man’s comment really got me to thinking about how much faith these people must have had, who attempted this journey, and how very deplorable their homeland situation must have been.  They trusted God that America held a promise of a brighter future, and that He would see them safely across the Atlantic to begin a new life.

 A National Park Service Ranger who introduced a 45-minute documentary that we watched, helped us to understand how much had to be left behind and what was likely brought forward to the new homeland of these immigrants.  Picture everything of importance that you could carry in one suitcase, one basket, one bedroll, and maybe the equivalent of a backpack.  Now walk from Ellis Island at Liberty State Park to Philadelphia.  You’ll quickly determine what REALLY is the most important stuff.   Grandma’s candlesticks? Gone, left on the NJ Turnpike.  The family Bible?  Yeah…they probably managed to carry that.

That would have been the most likely type of experience of many immigrants.  People walked and carried their most prized possessions for many, many miles from villages and towns all across Europe and Russia to ports with passenger lines to America.  They had to have the fee for their passage and $25 per person to enter America.  It took years to save up that kind of money, so most didn’t have the extra money necessary to get transportation to their port of departure.  The Ranger told us that some people were so poor they carried empty suitcases so their neighbors wouldn’t know how little they had when they left and the steamer company wouldn’t turn them away for the chance of being turned back at Ellis Island for being so poor as to be “a potential burden on society.”

Think about the millions of people who came to this country through Ellis Island.  What a challenge it was!  Think how bad it must have been at home to brave this experience!  The adversity they faced in their flight to a new life!  The scariness of the unknown!  Think of the faith they put in God to get them here safely and to connect with someone who could help them get their feet on the ground and make a future here.

I don’t think most people could have survived this trip and the challenges they faced upon arrival without a deep faith in God.

I was awed, inspired, and more appreciative of my own country where I can worship as I please.  If you haven’t been to Ellis Island, take a vacation day and go.  You’ll need about three hours to tour the Main Building and do it justice.  The other buildings are not currently open to the public.   We’ve got a national treasure in our own back yard (actually lots of them).  It will stir your soul and deepen your faith.

Then come to worship and thank God for all that you have.

Summer Worship at St. Andrew, 9:30 am on Sundays

www.elcaAndy.org

Do you have a relative who came to America through Ellis Island?  What story do they tell you of the adversity they faced in this experience?

Oviraptor & Jesus

Friday was the fifth and last day of this year’s VacationBible School program, “The Great Bibleland Dig”, recycled.  The kids had a great time digging in our archaeological dig site on the “road to Emmaus” to find clues to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

So what did they find?

They found a leather sandal, a walking stick and piece of pottery.

What Bible story do you think we were exploring on Friday?

In its day, the road to Emmaus was well traveled but full of rocks.  It was common for people to walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  Many foot weary travelers could have blown out a flip-flop on the trek.  It was on this road that two disciples of Jesus were talking about Jesus and the events of Holy Week including His death on the cross.  While walking they met a ‘stranger’ with whom they discussed their hopes and confusion about the things that had happened.  This ‘stranger’ revealed himself to them in the blessing, breaking and sharing of the bread at that night’s dinner, just as Jesus had done during His Last Supper and Passover meal with the disciples.  In that act, the disciples understood who was with them and they ran to tell the others.  We are also challenged to recognize that Jesus is our SAVIOR, that He is with us always and we are to share that Good News with others.

At craft time, our junior archaeologists made a beaded cross necklace, a tissue paper mosaic cross which the words “Jesus is our Savior” and a footprint with the “Footprints in the Sand” poem decorated with stickers.   During snack time, they ate pretzel rods tied together in the shape of a cross with licorice strings, and chocolate chip cookies decorated with a chocolate frosting road and mini-chip rocks.  A cross was added to our archaeology dig journal to remind us that Jesus is our SAVIOR.

They dug for treasure in our archaeological dig site and found crosses and miniature dinosaurs to take home to remember the day’s lessons. 

During our Activity Center time, we learned about different kinds of bread and talked about what we would put in a time capsule to leave for future archaeologists who want to learn about Jesus.

In the afternoon, each junior archaeologist was given a wooden dinosaur puzzle to remind them of the fun they had this week in VBS.

They learned about Oviraptor.   When archaeologists first discovered Oviraptor fossil remains, they named it Oviraptor or “egg thief” because they thought it was stealing eggs, as many were found over a nest of eggs.  Later excavations have shown evidence that Oviraptors were not stealing other dinosaur eggs; they were protecting their own.  Oviraptor fossils show parents with wings spread wide to protect their eggs from the falling volcanic ash or mudslides that were rushing down to cover their nests.  In doing so, they were sacrificing themselves in an effort to save their eggs.

Oviraptor and Jesus.  Sacrificing themselves for others.     

Oh how much God loves us… He sent Jesus to us as a GIFT; He gives us Jesus as our FRIEND;  He gives us Jesus as our TEACHER; He gives us Jesus as our HELPER; and because we still don’t get it, He gives us Jesus as our SAVIOR.

It was a week of fun and learning, digging and growing, and singing and crafting.  It was a week of stretching the archaeological facts to bridge dinosaurs and Jesus and the Bible and a whole bunch of fun.  And hopefully, it was a week of memories that will last a lifetime. 

Amen.

I remember some of the stories, crafts and songs from when I was a child in Vacation Bible School.  Do you?

(And now I thank God because it’s over…whew!  I’ve been doing this for a long time.  Anyone want to take it on?  Send me a note…)

Come and join us for worship on Sundays at 9:30 am through Labor Day.www.elcaAndy.org

Maiasaura & Jesus

Thursday was the fourth day of this year’s Vacation BibleSchool program, “The Great Bibleland Dig”, recycled.  The kids had a great time digging in our archaeological dig site outside the city of “Jericho” to find clues to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”

So what did they find?

They found more pieces of clay pottery, a small clay bowl, and several “gold” coins.

What Bible story do you think we were exploring on Thursday?

In its day, Jericho was a bustling city of commerce and trade.  It was a frequent place for beggars to perch near the city gates to ask for the help of strangers.  In this day’s Bible story, we learned about the blind beggar, Bartimaeus, whom Jesus healed.  Bartimaeus would have sat with a bowl to collect the gifts of coin from passersby.  When Jesus HELPed Bartimaeus, he no longer needed to beg and he leapt up saying, “Thank you, thank you” to  Jesus.

At craft time, our junior archaeologists made a banner with a cross and helping hands encircling the cross which proclaimed “Jesus is our HELPER”.  They also made a “silver” embossed frames with textured items glued beneath the foil.  During snack time, they ate hand shaped gelatin jigglers and made cracker “hands” by smoothing peanut butter between Ritz crackers and sticking 5 pretzel sticks in the peanut butter.    A hand was added to our archaeology dig journal to remind us that Jesus is our HELPER.

They dug for treasure in our archaeological dig site and found “gold” coins and dinosaur finger puppets to take home to remember today’s lessons. 

During our Activity Center time, we learned about how the images on coins told people who the money belonged to (religious symbols for temple money, Ceasar for Roman coins, U.S. presidents for American coin) and how people used seals to mark their ownership of their belongings.  We used rubber stamps shaped like hands to practice stamping, and created our own “seal” with half a potato and some paint.

In the afternoon, each junior archaeologist was given the opportunity to excavate a dinosaur skeleton with a miniature dinosaur archeology kit.

They learned about Maiasaura.   Archaeologists are continually finding new evidence to suggest that though their brains may have been small and the social skills of dinosaurs very simple, it appears some dinosaurs did indeed rely on others for help.  Maiasaura seem to have taken extra care with their young dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs of others.  Maiasaura was a North American plant-eating duckbilled dinosaur that made its nest within about 30 feet of other Maiasaura nests.  It appears that the young dinosaurs stayed in the nests a long time while their parents went out and brought back vegetation for them to eat.  Archaeologists wonder if groups of Maiasaura helped take care of each other’s nests to keep away predators. 

Maiasaura and Jesus.  Helping others.  

This world can be a very tough place to survive, whether you are dinosaur or human.  Jesus showed us how we should be a HELPER to others.  In doing so, we can all flourish and grow.  Helping others brings us joy in knowing that someone else’s life is a little better because we took some time for them.

Amen.

Come and join us for worship on Sundays during the Summer at 9:30 am.

www.elcaAndy.org