From the Pastor- Nov. 2023

   Let’s talk about confession. It’s that thing we do at the very beginning of our service. The way that we Lutherans engage it is most often done in group settings. Sometimes, it even comes with beautifully poetic language. It comes with some time of silence where we lay our soul bare collectively yet individually to God. In other traditions, they approach it differently. Some don’t engage in confession at all. Others, like the catholic church, have a practice of individual confession between you and a priest.

      Every single approach has its benefits. Every single approach has its deficits. Confession, at its best, allows us insight into our inner lives. Those pieces of us that lurk in the shadows have a habit of cropping up and making themselves known in that time. We may even end up doing the very thing that we hate. Or perhaps it shows up for you as self-loathing or shame when you encounter those pieces of yourself, you’d rather keep in the dark.

     I’m curious if the ways we have approached confession don’t leave room for it to do the work it intends to do in us. Even if we actively engage in this practice, it can be simple enough to view confession as a surgical procedure. Isolate the sin, acknowledge it, and let the good doctor remove it. Voila! Back to holy. But holy smokes, if that’s how you’ve approached confession, I’m so sorry. That is a total disservice to you. If that’s how it goes, you will never satisfy the confessional. All righteousness will never be fulfilled.

     We need to introduce some new vocabulary into our practice. Perhaps it should be confession and integration or confession and healing. Because the real work of confession is not to isolate and remove. The real work of confession is to see ourselves clearly and engage in active healing. Some even equate sin with this idea of the false self. Our false self is how we define ourselves outside of love, relationship, or divine union with God. After we have spent many years diligently building this separate self, with all of its labels and preoccupations, we are very attached to it. And why wouldn’t we be? It’s what we know and all we may know. To move beyond it can feel like losing or dying. But it can also feel like freedom and unconditional love.

    I know it is easy to gloss over our first initial prayers on a Sunday morning. It can be easy to slip into them momentarily and right out without giving them a second thought. But you just might be missing an opportunity. An opportunity to see yourself as God sees you. All of you. All of the gnarled messed up

creations that we are. An opportunity to rest in ourselves so that we may rest in God. A God who is beyond tribal religious affiliations where some are ‘chosen’ and therefore ‘saved’ and others are ‘unchosen’ and therefore ‘damned.’ A God who is way beyond the ability of my little brain to comprehend and yet so intimately within me that this God lives between the subatomic particles of

stardust that make up my body; a God who passionately loves all of creation and infuses that creation with life and light; a God whose fiery love has consumed me before I could even comprehend loving myself; a God who is more me than me. I believe in a God who loves us in that way – a God beyond the rules.

Christmas Tea

14th Annual Christmas Tea

Thursday, Dec. 7th
 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Our 14th annual Christmas Tea will once again be on the calendar. We invite you to spend a delightful afternoon at our Holy Spirit Christmas Tea. Held in Fellowship Hall, a festive holiday atmosphere will surround you. A selection of delicious things to eat, several varieties of tea, seasonal music, and entertainment are planned. And, there are always a few surprises!  Come and share the fun and fellowship. 

There is a poster in the narthex for you to sign up. Invite friends and join us for tea. 

We hope to see you there!

(Anyone who wishes to attend and has a transportation issue,

please notify the church office (717-394-6771) and we will make every
effort to make arrangements for you.)

From the Pastor- Sept. 2023

I find it curious. Curious that forgiveness is found at the heart of our Christian message and yet we have such a tenuous relationship with it. The concept that God forgives us our sins seems to roll off the tongue – even if we sometimes have a hard time processing that reality. But when it comes to forgiveness within our own families or community we tend to hold onto the wrong – to hold onto the pain – and at the very least broadcast the wrong. Maybe as a means of shaming the wrongdoer or maybe it’s a reflection of how disconnected we have become from each other.

The word “Forgive” appears 42 times in the Old Testament and 33 times in the New Testament. The word “Forgiven” appears 17 times in the Old Testament and 28 times in the New Testament. And the word “Forgiving” appears 6 times in the Old Testament and 1 time in the New. The number of times that it is mentioned indicates how much of a deal this is. So why do we have such a hard time with it? Can you feel the pull of it on your soul when there is something left unforgiven? Can you feel the pull of it on your soul when your own transgression is left unforgiven or hidden from sight? I think that one probably feels like guilt.

You’ve probably heard it said before that if you don’t transform your pain you will transmit it. Right? Hurt people hurt people. I have certainly seen this enough times in my life to know that it is true. We all know people who could never get over, get past, or forgive a major transgression that had happened to them or their family. The longer that they dwell in anger and hold onto the hurt the more likely they are to not thrive in life. Holding onto that anger in the soul causes real-life consequences that show up in the form of depression and all sorts of other illnesses.

Now I’ve had people who come to me and have said – But what that person did to me was so vile there is no way that I would give them the satisfaction of forgiving them. Yeah, I hear you. And Jesus knows that there are people that we are going to have to disassociate from because they do not produce fruit that is worthy. That means that there are people out there who are not interested in being anything other than vile and predatory. But if you don’t forgive someone because you think you are holding some sort of power over them then I think that you don’t really understand how forgiveness works.

Forgiveness is a selfish and healing process. Let me explain what I mean by that. Forgiveness is first and foremost about the individual reclaiming their power and beginning the healing process. Case in point, there was a young woman who had been physically assaulted and just could not bring herself to forgive her assailant. She would relive the attack time and time again, she would put up defenses, and she would dwell within this narrative of being the victim of this assault. She lived in fear of everything. Every place she went she would fear that she would run into her attacker, every choice that she made about clothing reflected the shame that others put on her about attracting the wrong kind of attention. Her life was stalled at the moment of the attack. Though she never even toyed with the idea of reconciliation, the first time she had any sliver of hope was when she began to take the idea of forgiveness seriously. The act of forgiveness recognizes that the actions of the past need not have control of your present reality. It is a calling back of the pieces of yourself that have been consumed in the trauma of that moment. It is recognizing that events of the past no longer have control of the present moment.

People and events from the past no longer get to live rent-free in your head and they don’t get to call the shots. It is letting go of the power that someone else held over you and claiming it back. It is the work of making yourself whole again. And it is holy work that God is calling us to do. Sure, sometimes forgiveness leads to renewed relationships and deeper connections.  Where that is safe reconciliation is wonderful.  But forgiveness can happen even when reconciliation cannot.

May you find deep forgiveness and healing in your life.