Dear Trinity Family,

If it’s Friday, it must be time for another update from Pastor. I pray that this finds all of you well and that we all continue to “hold things together” during these days.

In addition to our prayers for peace and patience and healing in our nation and world brought on by the Pandemic; we also find ourselves asking for the same gifts from God because of the unrest following the police involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  We mourn the loss; we cry for justice; and we pray for peace.  May God hear and answer our prayers.

I was able to talk with Reb today to get an update on Paul who is still on campus in Minneapolis. He is safe and the campus, although nearby, is not in an area where the violence is happening. We pray God’s safety and protection on him and for all those in the city during this time.

As to local news, we know that the County Executive will begin a “Modified Phase One Reopening” of Prince George’s County beginning on Monday. And we have heard her announcement that churches must continue to limit their gatherings to 10 people or less and continue online services. While it is frustrating that these limits keep us from reopening the building for worship in a meaningful way for our Trinity Family, it does seem that our only course of action is to continue as we have for the last ten Sundays, and hope that sometime in the not so distant future we will be able to gather together again.

Because of the continued “lockdown” on our gathering for worship, even though we have moved into our “summer schedule”, I have decided that for at least the month of June, I will continue to offer a “Midweek Devotion” on Wednesdays. I feel that this is appropriate as the times we find ourselves in ask us to have opportunities for more prayer and not less.

More information on the above, upcoming Zoom fellowship, available Bible Study material, and other “notes and news” can be found in this Sunday’s Bulletin available here.

As for a devotional thought to close with, I think I’ll try to save most of my “material” for Sunday’s Sermon, so do “tune in” then. But as sort of a “teaser”…

The “90 Days plus” that make up the “Time of Easter” in our Christian Church Year are the way that I would usually be “marking time” at this time of year. But this year, marking the Sundays in Lent and of the Easter Season have given way to counting how many Sundays that we have been away from worshiping the Lord together in our dear church home. Holy Week and Easter have come and gone. And this Sunday, we will have “lost” the whole of Eastertide.

Or have we? This Sunday, the Day of Pentecost, brings the 50 days of Easter to their close. And with this day, although it will be different for us, it will bring us the same reminder–that the Holy Spirit sent to us from the Father and the Son is with us and will remain with us forever. He is our Comforter, our Counselor, and our Guide. He is the One who, even while apart from each other, continues to “call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth” and keeps us united as one. Because of the Spirit, we are truly not apart but one. Praise God for that!

As we prepare to “be gathered” this Pentecost, I will share with you a video that Skip Hall passed along to me this week. It is a “virtual choir and orchestra” video put together by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and the National Lutheran Choir singing the Danish Lutheran Pentecost Hymn, “O Day Full of Grace” (LSB # 503). May it be our prayer as we ask the Spirit’s continued presence in our midst, bringing us His comfort and joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJETTBbnf6w&feature=youtu.be

Lord willing, we will “see” you at worship on Sunday Morning. God’s blessings on you and yours this weekend.

And as always, “May the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent one from another.”

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear Trinity Family,

First, a devotional thought (such as it is):

As we think on what our lives and living have become in this time of stay at home orders, we are reminded that what is being done is in a sense being done for our good and for the good of others. We do well to protect ourselves and others from those things that can hurt or harm us, like the spread of this virus.

That being said, we must also remember that while we look to have safety and do things to promote it, does that mean that we are ever free from danger? Safety is not the absence of danger, it is only the things that we can do to mitigate and protect ourselves as best we can. As Trinity and other churches look towards the day when we can worship together again, we want to do things that promote safety even while we know that there is no such thing as 100% safe, especially as we deal with this contagion.

Theologically, (as I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV), this is just one more manifestation of the hold that the “unholy trinity” of sin, death, and devil still hold on this world and on each one of us. Ever since that dreadful, fateful day in Eden, “danger” has been a part of our life as human beings. Work stopped being safe: “You will toil by the sweat of your brow and the earth will grow thorns and thistles for you”. Relationships stopped being safe: “And Cain rose up and killed his brother Abel”. Even God’s ways of saving us weren’t safe: a flood, plagues, destruction and exile, and ultimately the death of His only-begotten Son.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, “Our God is good, but He is not a tame God.” So many times, such as the one we find ourselves in, we may well wonder, “What in the world is God doing?” For us to try to ascertain the mind of the Lord is certainly “above our pay grade.” Only the Lord Himself knows His reason for what He does, or for what He allows. But even though it may not be apparent to us, or even understandable to us, what we can know is that our God is and will always remain Love, and in that love, He remains in control, seeking our good, especially everything that will draw us to “fear, love, and trust in Him above all things”.

Perhaps we need to learn again that God does not promise us safety in the way we think that safety ought to be–the absence of danger. Instead what we must hold onto is that God promises to be our Safety in the midst of danger–that He promises to be with us, to hold us as His own in His love, and keep us close to Himself so that we do not fear but trust ever and only and always in Him.

Perhaps even better than my own words are those of the Danish Lutheran Pastor, Bishop, and Hymnwriter, Hans Adolf Brorson (1694-1764). Perhaps more well-known to us is his hymn, “Behold, a Host Arrayed in White” (LSB 676). But there is another hymn of his which I remember singing during my seminary days, “I Walk in Danger All the Way” (LSB 716). These words are quite appropriate to this moment we are in, and may we pray them as we entrust ourselves to our God, who alone is our Help, our Hope, our Health, and our Salvation.

I walk in danger all the way.
The thought shall never leave me
That Satan, who has marked his prey,
Is plotting to deceive me.
This foe with hidden snares
May seize me unawares
If I should fail to watch and pray.
I walk in danger all the way.

I pass through trials all the way,
With sin and ills contending;
In patience I must bear each day
The cross of God’s own sending.
When in adversity
I know not where to flee,
When storms of woe my soul dismay,
I pass through trials all the way.

And death pursues me all the way,
Nowhere I rest securely;
He comes by night, he comes by day,
He takes his prey most surely.
A failing breath, and I
In death’s strong grasp may lie
To face eternity today
As death pursues me all the way.

I walk with angels all the way,
They shield me and befriend me;
All Satan’s pow’r is held at bay
When heav’nly hosts attend me;
They are my sure defense,
All fear and sorrow, hence!
Unharmed by foes, do what they may,
I walk with angels all the way.

I walk with Jesus all the way,
His guidance never fails me;
Within His wounds I find a stay
When Satan’s pow’r assails me;
And by His footsteps led,
My path I safely tread.
No evil leads my soul astray;
I walk with Jesus all the way.

My walk is heav’nward all the way;
Await, my soul, the morrow,
When God’s good healing shall allay
All suff’ring, sin, and sorrow.
Then, worldly pomp, begone!
To heav’n I now press on.
For all the world I would not stay;
My walk is heav’nward all the way.

(Tune available for listening at http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/w/a/l/iwalkdaw.htm)

And now…the news

The bulletin for Sunday is available here, along with the notes and news for this week.

We are scheduled for having a Zoom Fellowship this Sunday at 4 PM. We hope that you can join us for this opportunity for “face time” with each other. Connection information will be going out in a separate email. (If you did not receive it, please contact Pastor by email at trinity-elc-pastor@verizon.net, and he will forward a copy to you.)

We are hoping and praying that we may be getting closer to seeing the County moving towards the Phase One reopening outlined by the Governor which will bring us closer towards our reopening of Trinity for public worship following these long two months plus of being apart from one another. As we make plans towards this end, we invite you to contact Pastor or any of the MPG members with any input or questions you may have.

We will continue to monitor the announcements from the County Executive and let you know of our plans for our return to worship together. One thing that can be announced is that we do plan to continue livestreaming our worship services, even when we return, for those who may not yet feel comfortable in coming back to worship just yet, as well as for those whom we have been able to reach out to through this video ministry.

I hope and pray that everyone has a wonderful and restful weekend, and Lord willing, we’ll “see” you at worship on Sunday.

May the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent one from another. God bless!

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear Trinity Family,

As I write these words to you, I am sitting at my desk in my study here at church. In some ways, I am used to a quiet church building during the weekdays. However, until our current crisis began, there was the knowledge that the building would not always be quiet, because it would be filled with you and your voices each Lord’s Day and other times we would gather. So for the past two months, a quiet has settled in, which I know, that I for one, would like to see filled once more with the joyous sound of a congregation gathered again.

I do wish to express my thanks to our Parish Musician, Skip Hall, for his help and collaboration in leading us all in our virtual worship. Also to Paul Ritter for his assistance in “manning the camera”, and to the members of our “live studio audience” of less than 10, who have made preaching to an empty church less empty. Also, my thanks to all of you who have been watching online and have commented on how much you have appreciated these services.

And now, the news…

First, because of County Executive Alsobrooks’ extension of the Governor’s stay-at-home order within Prince George’s County until June 1st, we will continue to abide by the government’s requests and remain closed for in-person worship through the rest of May. We will certainly be continuing to monitor the situation and will be keeping you informed as the conditions change.

With the extension of our closing, our Trinity leadership is discussing how best we can responsibly work towards the reopening of Trinity, especially for public worship. As we make decisions, if there are questions or concerns which you would like to raise or have addressed, please contact Pastor or one of our MPG members so that we can hear your input. Once we have our plan laid out, we will share it with you.

Other notes and news can be found in this Sunday’s Bulletin which can be found on the church website:
The bulletin for Sunday is available here

Of note from the bulletin:

We will be having a virtual Offering of Letters this year as another way to show our care, concern, and support for the needs of hungry people. A message and instructions on this from Art Simon are in the bulletin.

We plan another Zoom Fellowship to be held on Sunday, May 24. We hope you can join us.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding during this time. It has not been easy, but I do believe that the Lord has certainly continued to lead and guide us, as well as providing us with the means to continue to be connected with each other in worship and study. God’s Word has not been bound, and it has gone out in new and different ways for our joy and edification and comfort, and for reaching out to those who still have need to hear of God and His love for them.

Keep on taking care of yourselves and those you love. Keep on looking after your fellow Trinity family members and your neighbors. And know that, even though we do not know when or how this all will come to its conclusion, our God is still God, He is still in charge, He is still looking after us and our good, and He has each of us and the whole world in His hands. And that is and always will be the best place for all of us to be.

Hope to “see” you in worship on Sunday, and, “May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from another.”

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear Trinity Family,

A blessed Friday to one and all!  We made it through another week.  While it seems that we are still a ways off from getting the green light to allow us to open the doors of our church home again so that we can once more worship together in person, it does seem that we may be a little closer than we were as the toll of this virus slows its pace, and God willing, allows the whole world a time to recover and find a way to bring this illness to its knees as it has already done to our world.

As our governor begins looking at beginning his plan to reopen the state, it does seem like it may be some time yet before we can look at opening for public worship. We will continue to look at the governor’s recommendations and see how they will work for us. With “Phase One” allowing only “small outdoor religious gatherings”, it may well be that we may only be able to work towards opening again for worship when “Phase Two” begins.  We will continue to wait and monitor the situation and keep you informed on plans and preparations we are making, many of which still wait for further instructions and advice from the state.

Until then, please continue to be in prayer for the world and for our congregation family that the Lord will continue to bless us, keep us safe, keep us strong in faith, and bring us through this moment so we may praise Him for His goodness and mercy.

As to other news…

This Sunday’s bulletin is available on the church website. Feel free to look over the announcements that are there.

A few items of note:

1. Art Simon has some wonderful news about our participation in this year’s Virtual CROP Walk.

2. We have scheduled another Zoom Fellowship call for this Sunday afternoon at 4:00 PM. We hope you can join us, and connection information went out to members in an email. (If you would like to join us, please send an email to Pastor at trinity-elc-pastor@verizon.net so he can get that information to you.)

3. A blessed Mother’s Day to all of the mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures in our midst!

I pray that everyone has a blessed weekend and look forward to “seeing” you all at worship and perhaps at our Zoom fellowship.

As I sign off with this message, I thought that I’d share this as a devotional message today.

Recently, I was invited by my alma mater, Concordia College in Bronxville, NY, to be a part of a “virtual choir” project which they were creating. You may have seen similar videos online, and I thought that it might be fun to participate, and I’m glad to be able to share it with you all.

The college asked for Tour Choir Alumni to send in a video of each of us singing the individual parts of what is a “signature piece” that has been sung by the choir over many years: “Nun Ruhen alle Waelder”.  That piece is two stanzas of an evening hymn authored by the German Lutheran Pastor and Hymnwriter, Paul Gerhardt (1607-76), with the music composed by Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450-1517), in an arrangement by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The hymn is still found in many hymnals, especially Lutheran ones, and is in our Lutheran Service Book as Hymn 880, “Now Rest beneath Night’s Shadow”.

The choir sings the first stanza of the hymn in its original German. A close translation of the words would be something like:

Now rest all the woods,
Cattle, people, towns, and fields,
The whole world is asleep.
But you, my soul,
Up, up, you now will begin,
What is well-pleasing to your Creator.

The second stanza sung in English is the fourth stanza in our hymnal:

Lord Jesus, who dost love me,
O spread Thy wings above me
And shield me from alarm.
Though Satan would devour me,
Let angel guards sing o’er me:
“This child of God shall meet no harm,”

What made this a choir signature piece was that this hymn concluded every concert sung by the Tour Choir. Each evening, the choir would make its way into the nave of the church we sang in, usually able to surround the congregation, and we would hold hands singing with one another, looking towards the altar and its cross, offering this as our evening and closing prayer.

Singing this piece was always a special moment for us as choir members. For many of us, the times spent on tour were among the most memorable of our college days because of the friendships which developed, grew, and flourished between us while not only singing together, but also living on a bus for two weeks and all of the other things which made up “tour life”. Each night as we prayed this hymn together, it prepared us for what was another “tour ritual”. Following each concert, we would usually be hosted overnight in the homes of the congregation members; sometimes in our selected “tour partner” pairs, sometimes needing to be separated because of the space limitations which our host families had. In any case, we as a choir were needing to be apart from one another, if only for a night, and so this prayer was one which we were asking God’s blessings on one another while we were away from each other, praying that we would be able to see one another the next day and continue on our journey together.

I have to admit that hearing us sing this hymn “together” brought tears to my eyes because of the memories that washed over me from those wonderful three years I was privileged to sing in this choir, and under the direction of “Doc” Schultz. But it was also because of my remembering the meaning behind this piece which also made me think of the current times we find ourselves in as Pastor and People. This is the same prayer which I offer for all of us as we remain apart from one another in these days: that the Lord Jesus who loves all of us, remains with us, keeping us safe in His care and protection, under the watchful guardianship of His holy angels, who constantly warn the evil one and his hosts: “This child of God shall meet no harm!”

And so we pray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK-QL_gu6q4&feature=youtu.be

May the Lord bless us, defend us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen!

And may the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent one from another.

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor

Dear Trinity Family

It’s hard to believe that we are about to have our seventh Sunday apart from each other and not yet able to gather together for worship. I pray that all of you continue to be and stay well and safe and that we may be inching closer to the ending of this time of quarantine.

The bulletin for Sunday is available and all the announcements are there for you. Just wanted to lift up a couple of items though…

VIRTUAL CROP WALK:
Thanks to all those who have participated in this effort we have raised $520.00 to help the hungry in our community. Donations can still be made online, or if you just want to go “old school” and write a check, you can make your check out to CWS Crop Walk and mail your check to Art Simon who will forward it on to the folks at the CROP Walk. Full details can be found in the bulletin announcements.

ZOOM FELLOWSHIP:
It’s been great to “see” the Trinity family on Zoom. Our next time for some “face time” with each other will be next Sunday, May 10th, at 4:00 PM. We realize that this is also Mother’s Day, but we hope that you can still join us. Connection information will be sent out in a separate email by next Friday, May 8th.

Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend and look forward to being with you at worship on Facebook Live this Sunday morning. And as always, “May the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent one from another.”

Peace and blessings,
+Pastor