It is an uncomfortable truth, dear reader, but Advent was not primarily meant to be a season for cookies, heart-warming devotions, and the merely joyous anticipation of Christmas.
Well-tried tradition has it, rather, that Advent is a time of penance and confession, a time of serious preparation for the coming of Christ. This uncomfortable truth may be one of the reasons why the notation of Advent has disappeared from most of the secular calendar books available at common office supply stores.
Penance and confession – what does that mean? Certainly, I do not employ these terms just because my office commits me to a certain amount of religious jargon. Penance and confession – do these words still have meaning in our time?
We do not need to theorize much at this point. Look, for example, at our weekly worship attendance. As a congregation, we are in a growing mode, having received ten new members this year, and nine in 2008.
However, all too often our Sunday morning attendance does not reflect this development. I am concerned about this. There are too many empty spaces in our pews.
Of course, we all live very busy lives. In addition, we have travel plans, chores at home, or the problems of advancing age. It also remains true that the grace of God is unconditional, and that salvation does not presuppose a perfect score-card, as far as worship attendance is concerned.
Yet, it is also true that none of the missing is replaceable on a Sunday morning, really none. It is that easy. Every one of us was created in a unique and special way. None of us shares the same background, the same experiences and feelings. If your pew is empty, someone else cannot fill it the same way. Consequently, our worship gathering remains incomplete that morning.
Enough of this, lest I sound like a stern Calvinist of another time! Yet, if you have not come to church in a while, please draw some of the conclusions yourself. Your church family needs you. Perhaps, Advent this year can become a special time of renewed attendance, a time of celebrating the new stage of completion our new members have given us. May you have a blessed season!
Pastor Hartmut
Dear Friends:
The nautical experience portrayed in the New Testament is ambiguous. On one hand, it reflects moments of fear and anxiety, as the stilling of the storm in Mark 5:35-41 for example. On the other hand, the New Testament also reflects very successful fishing experiences, as in Luke 5:1-11 or John 21:4-6. In short, the New Testament views the nautical world not differently than the rest of the world. It is a place where good and bad can happen simultaneously.
On Sep 13th Susan and I spent the late afternoon on Manhattan’s South Side and on Governor’s Island. We enjoyed the festivities of HUDSON 400, the anniversary of Henry Hudson’s famous arrival in Manhattan. Our nautical experience that day was unambiguously positive. Using a ferry from Liberty State Park in New Jersey to Manhattan, we saw the beautiful tall ships cruising from Upper New York Bay into the Hudson River. The largest was the Brazilian built barquentine Peacemaker. Yet the most unusual were a fleet of flat bottom boats from The Netherlands. These boats with single mast had traveled the Atlantic with folded rigging in the hull of large Dutch freighters.
Now, ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy accompanied the spectacle, proudly displaying the national flag of the Netherlands. When you look at the accompanying pictures of a few of the Dutch flat bottom boats, you can see their traditionally curved form. Instead of a keel, these boats feature two retractable boards on either side for stability against the pressure of the wind. This enables maneuvering in very shallow waters. For more information use the Dutch website www.spts.nl and click on Language: English.
I can just imagine what the TV images of these boats with their Dutch flags must have meant to viewers in the Netherlands. Live coverage was, of course, substantial. At the same time, I wondered what this might mean for us, our church with its Dutch roots and its members that come from many ethnic backgrounds.
My response is simple: Old and moderate is well tried and beautiful. There is a lot of serenity in watching a flat bottom boat of the old design spreading its sails before the sun. Does this not hold true for a church like ours? Of course, as there are many different ships in New York Harbor, church buildings can be avant-garde or modern, suburban or warehouse style, or sacramental looking, or cathedral-like. They can be smaller or bigger than ours is, and convene many more or many less people for regular worship.
But just as the nautical world would be incomplete without the flat bottom vessels of the Dutch, so would the world of New Jersey churches be incomplete without a church like ours. Indeed, as manyvolunteers gather to keep a tall ship running, many of us volunteer on workdays and beyond to keep our steeple in the skyline of New Brunswick. When the tall ship then begins to travel, it fulfills its mission beyond the display of wood and canvas. Tall ships train naval officers, provide intercultural exchange, and serve as ambassadors of their country. Similarly, our church fulfills its mission first when we look beyond brick and mortar: We worship God, provide education and cultural exchange; we feed the hungry and shelter the homeless. We also sit with those who mourn and visit the sick.
In the light of this, I think it makes sense when we view the images of the Dutch flat bottom boats as images of the church itself. This is, at least, what I wish for us during this fall season: Water under the keel and fresh wind in our sails, so that we may display our colors for the greater glory of God. Come, and sail with us!
Pastor Hartmut
God is always doing something new as it is declared in the Psalms and elsewhere in our scriptures. We only need to have eyes to see it and hearts to embrace the new things.
With this in mind, on Rally Sunday we will get a chance to start up the new Fall season and the return of regular programming of our church. With the start, we will celebrate newly painted pews, new upholstery on the chancel furniture, and even a new Communion set on the Communion Table. That’s a lot of new-ness! And to add to our celebration and new things list, over the summer we were informed by letter from the Acting Commissioner, Charles A. Richman that Governor Corzine signed into legislation funding for NJ Historic Trust, which includes our state grant for the historic preservation project.
This may sound a bit surprising and scary in these economic times, especially since the grant is a matching one. However, may we continue to remind ourselves of several things: First, that we have four years for this project and the fund-raising; second; we are free to limit our 2010 preservation efforts to a very conservative scope. With that said, it is clear that, at this time, we want and need to address the steeple and the church roof, the beam in the church attic, as well as the soffit of the education building.
As you can imagine, there are still many things on our buildings that will need to be worked on. Let me just mention the worst problem, which is the structural situation beneath our sanctuary floor. These must do building issues seem overwhelming, though. Inevitably, when we look at the big picture, they appear to be impossible. And so we loose hope. But, as my grandmother used to say, “To eat a whole cake, you have to take one bite at a time.” I think that it is the same for our building needs.
How can I respond so hopeful? Well, let me just remind our doubtful minds of how our pew painting project went this summer. At first, it was awful. We started out sanding lightly, then washing it down, then spot-painting it with primer. And, wow, after two weeks it appeared to be done. Then, we noticed that the paint was pealing. OH NO!!! So we had to start all over again, only this time we did it more thoroughly.
Several of us thought that we were doomed, and it would never be finished. “Impossible!” they claimed. Yet, YOU ALL responded to the call for help. In total, there were 13 church members who helped Julius Fekete accomplish the impossible, not counting the numerous helping hands that brought lunches and other support. Yes, we did it together. One day, it was two other volunteers. Another day it was a whole family. A little bit at a time. And now, it is finished.
It is our calling to remain hope filled even in the midst of uncertainty. Likewise, with the grant monies and our fund-raising efforts for our buildings: we have to do it one step at a time – together.
Hopefully yours,
Pastor Susan
Tagged as:
hope,
NJ Historic Trust,
restoration,
volunteers
by Rev. Dr. Hartmut Kramer-Mills on July 12, 2009
in Pastor's Desk
Recently I read an article about Midlife Transition and Embracing Your “Second Adulthood.” In it, author Holly Schut claimed that my generation has postponed its midlife crisis from age 40 to age 50. A generation ago, when it happened at 40, the crisis was about recognizing that “you only had so many years left to achieve what you had set out to accomplish in your career, family, ministry, and so forth.” Today, however, the crisis seems to be linked with events rather than realizations. Schut lists “the empty nest, the aging parents, onset of menopause, adjustments in health, etc.” However, whether it happens with 40 or 50, midlife is not an easy thing to go through. Despite Schut’s euphemisms (“midlife transition,” “adjustments in health”), most of us will perceive as negative the phenomena she describes.
But was it intended that way? Did God add midlife into the mix of his creating modern people, so that they would have something else to grapple with? Or is our negative perception of midlife the result of our doing?
Let’s scale back here a bit and look at midlife, not in terms of human biography, but the midlife of just one year, the year 2009, and let’s focus on the life of our church in 2009 in particular. During the first half of this year, we returned from a wonderful church retreat to Turkey, continued to integrate nine new church members, and were awarded a preservation grant of $487,797. We have also enjoyed the work of Ben Berman, our energetic new organist and choir director (Buxtehude cantata!). And we celebrated the first anniversary of House of Manna, the family feeding program we designed in conjunction with Elijah’s Promise.
At the same time, the markets have depleted our funds significantly. This summer, we find ourselves in the middle of a discussion regarding the feasibility of our personnel situation, as well as our preservation project. At times, this feels like midlife hitting reality.
Obviously, we cannot ignore the changes in our fiscal situation. It is, however, imperative that we respond to these changes with Christian faith and not only with the tools the rest of our culture offers. How anxiety-driven will our response be, and will it reflect our trust in God’s guiding hand? To what degree do we elevate money into the rank of our motifs and will we allow other motifs as well? Will the new concerns throw us into a mode of focusing primarily on us, and our well being, or will we be able to solve our problems without losing focus on the world, which we are called to serve?
It seems to me that this summer of 2009 provides us with a challenging opportunity of appropriating the joy of the new life in Jesus Christ, of which many of our liturgies speak so eloquently. We may as well start this process by harvesting inwardly the wealth of produce yielded during the first six months of 2009. It’s a good way of softening the onslaught of midlife that we experience these days.
With warm wishes for a good summer,
Your pastor, Hartmut
Tagged as:
Midlife
by Rev. Dr. Hartmut Kramer-Mills on July 12, 2009
in Pastor's Desk
As many people no longer perceive the church as occupying an important place on the market square, we Christians are learning to adjust to the new situation. It’s similar to Copernicus and Galileo removing Earth from the center of the universe and placing her on the fringes. We simply cannot expect people to walk automatically through our doors, but need to meet them where they are.
One such opportunity offered itself on June 13th when Joan, Susan and I spent a Saturday morning on the street behind Elijah’s Promise, managing one of the tables of Elijah’s Promise’s Health Fair, the table of First Reformed Church.
We met so many people this way! Each received a sandwich bag filled with information on our church. We explained House of Manna and the benefits of the Hall Fund, pointed people in the direction of our steeple, and assured them that everyone would be welcome there.
Will it bring fruit? At the very least, it contributed to our Kingdom work. This is how church growers label work that grows the kingdom and not primarily the church. Why was this Kingdom work? Because we spoke with many high school students who then translated to their Spanish speaking mothers that the Hall Fund provides college scholarships, while the House of Manna brings food on the table for a growing number of families.
Something must be moving us, I do say, especially when I read our Organist and Choir Director’s article in this newsletter (pg. 6). And knowing that many of us are working on what our ministry and mission should look like for the next five years, it seems to me to be creating a fruitful field for us to really do something new.
We are truly looking to be moved by the Spirit into doing new things inside this church and out in the world. We are like those disciples and followers of Christ who were waiting for the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) to come. So it really wasn’t a coincidence that on Pentecost Sunday the Invitation and Outreach Committee held another Getting to Know You Coffee Hour which, judging by the volume of conversation in Fellowship Hall, was quite animated. The questions provided for discussion were asking about risk taking. What was the riskiest thing you ever did? (Many folks answered “getting married”!). But we also asked “what was the riskiest thing you did because of your faith?” That drew a variety of answers, from throwing a Bible onto the table of a business meeting to handing out flyers for the church, or going on a mission trip.
Then we asked folks to imagine our church in five years and asked them to consider what risky things we could possibly be doing then in various areas: outreach, programming and with our buildings. There were many responses to all of these areas. And the Invitation and Outreach Committee has collated these responses and will be presenting the results to the various committees: Worship and Christian Education, Finance and Fund-raising, Building Vision Team, and even the Invitation and Outreach Committee itself. Each committee will receive the results for their area so that they can be inspired by some of the thoughts recorded.
The Spirit is moving us; we just need to learn how to listen better. This is one way of doing just that. Nevertheless, let us not just end these ponderings in a committee. May they influence our further thinking and discussions in all that we do: worship prayers, dinners, social interactions.
For it was the Holy Spirit which broke into the hearts of the people. Mostly, it is imperative for all of us to hold up before ourselves some of the same questions that our cheery choir director, Ben Berman, asks in his article: how are we expressing the love of God to one another — choir with congregation, congregation with community? Where do our passions lay — ones that assist us in considering taking risks, stepping out into unexpected territory?
In all of this, though, let us remember these words of Jesus, our Lord: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Mt. 28:20b)
Fondly,
Pastor Susan
Our time could not be more ambiguous. Spring flowers surround us, trees develop new foliage, and the shelves for barbeque items are filled in our hardware stores. Yet my dental hygienist tells me that there are more people than ever coming to his practice with teeth grinding problems. Apparently, there are some links between the current economic crisis and dentistry.
And, indeed, the times are grim. There is hardly a family not affected by “changes in account value”, by loss of a job, or intensifying working conditions. And all of it is surrounded by the beauty and color of the reawakening nature of our Garden State.
But we Christians have more than the dichotomy between nature and economy! In this sense, we are wealthier than those who go about their days without awareness of the divine presence. Paul brought this to a point when he wrote in Romans 1:17, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” This profound statement does not mean that we should all become spiritual ascetics now, ignorant of our worldly needs and focusing on some spiritual realm alone.
Our Reformed branch of Protestantism was never good at splitting heaven and earth like this. We rather tend to apply our faith in the world. To live by faith in the current economic landscape provides us with the means of coping with our anxieties. First, we have trust that God will see us through. Second, we are well used to counting our blessings and to reevaluating our needs accordingly. Gratitude is an indispensable trait of true religion.
Thus, our faith can provide us with the willpower of cutting through our culture’s ideology that unlimited growth is necessary for our lives to be happy and successful. The righteous live by faith, not by economic expansion. Finally, our faith will always point us towards those who need our compassionate responses. Serving others is a good remedy for anxiety and depression.
This being said, I invite you to the following pages of our newsletter. They provide eloquent witness that our faith is neither dead, nor in retreat, but active within the various communities we serve. First Reformed Church – it’s a good place to be in these ambiguous times!
Your Pastor,
Hartmut
Tagged as:
economic times,
faith,
protestantism
