Gift of Grace Lutheran Church

2nd Sunday in Easter Sermon

Jami — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:16:30 +0000

Holy Week 2013 at Gift of Grace

Wendy — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:00:41 +0000

Beloved Friends in Christ,

Walking through Holy Week is a powerful and life shaping experience. It is a liturgical (ritualistic) way of participating in the death of Jesus and the Life of our God.

This coming Sunday, March 24 is Palm/Passion Sunday when we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. He is hailed has the King. Very quickly the crowds turn against him and they are calling for his crucifixion. Worship is at 10:30.

Thursday, March 28 (Maundy Thursday) at 7:00PM is the commemoration of the arrest and betrayal of Jesus Christ. There will be a service of hand and feet washing followed by the traditional stripping of the altar as we approach Good Friday.

Good Friday, March 29 we commemorate the Triumph of the Cross as the means by which God brings us into the kingdom and the kingdom into this world. Worship is at 7 PM.

Finally on Sunday, March 31 we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord beginning with a breakfast at 9:30, worship at 10:30 and brunch at 11:45ish.

I hope you will make time to attend each of these services. They go together to create a whole experience. It will be worth your effort.

GraceFeast Sabbath Rest

Wendy — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:56:13 +0000

Dear Friends in Christ,

Sabbath Rest is one of Gift of Grace’s stated values. Not just rest, Sabbath rest. Rest for the sake of listening to God’s Word. The GraceFeast team is going to take a Sabbath rest for a few weeks beginning February 17th. There will be no GraceFeast from February 17th until Easter. On Easter we intend to have our typical pre-worship breakfast and post-worship Easter Feast. We will probably begin having GraceFeast regularly then. I say, “probably”, not to be tentative or vague, but to communicate that we will remain open to God’s leading. After all, the point to our Sabbath rest is to have space to discern how God is leading us to continue GraceFeast, what the shape of it can be and how to best foster the atmosphere of community thanksgiving to God for God’s bounty to us. That’s what GraceFeast is. We cannot rush the process.

Why are we doing this now? Because GraceFeast has slowly, unintentionally, crept away from it’s purpose. The purpose is to be a celebrative feast that includes folks from the spectrum of socio-economic circumstances. It is to be a safe, orderly, joyful place that allows people to come together in a way that they would not normally do. Currently the atmosphere is more like a soup kitchen, or a free “feed”. The GraceFeast team does not have the energy to both make the administrative adjustments that will get us back to our purpose and keep making the feast happen each week. So Lent, which starts 2/13, is a good time to take a holy time-out, pray, listen and regroup.

Please offer your prayers of thanksgiving to God for the wonderful opportunity Gift of Grace has to serve our neighbors, to lift up Christ, in such a unique way as GraceFeast is. Pray, also, for clarity as we enter this time of discernment.

Season of Ephiphany

Wendy — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:39:22 +0000

Epiphany is a celebration of Jesus as the universal savior, the ultimate hope of all the world. Whatever the world truly hopes for, is & will be found in Jesus. Jesus is the universal savior for the universal yearning and need of humankind. Epiphany used to be a feast day (January 6th) as big as Christmas. In the Western church (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other liturgically oriented fellowships) it is marked by the story in Matthew 2: 1-12, of the magi, Gentile astrologers, who from the came from the East, following the star that led them to the baby. Upon seeing Jesus they laid before him their offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

It is an act of staggering proportions that, although the astrologers were not interested in the God of the Jews, they were nevertheless led to worship the Eternal One through Jesus Christ. The point to astrology and the occult is to be in tune with, and if possible, to control the powers of this world. When they offered their gifts to Jesus the magi were submitting to Eternal One’s messiah. They gave up their need to control, offering it to Jesus. In other words, they found in Jesus the answer to their longing and hope.

The season of Epiphany lasts through February 12th this year. The church gets to celebrate the joyful reality that Jesus shines forth from the church as the savior of all. Jesus shines forth not because we are splendid, compelling examples of love, mercy or justice ( we are not), nor because of our single-minded, unambiguous witness (we don’t have one). Jesus shines forth as the savior of all because in the church the world can see God calling sinners to forgiveness, the hopeless to hope, the loveless to love and the hungry to nourishment. It is our privilege to proclaim and live out the reality that God has acted in a decisive way, drawing every type of person to Jesus, the universal savior for the universal yearning and need of humankind.

Christmas Carols, Classical Music & Dance!

Wendy — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 22:40:33 +0000

The Christmas Music & Dance Concert featured live music, dancers and a sing along. Musicians from Gift and Grace & Friends in collaboration with Dance Fremont students presented classical music and dance selections for the season. Enjoy the video of Ave Maria via this link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=4920523206440

Advent and Christmas Services at Gift of Grace

Jami — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:00:00 +0000

The season of Advent is the beginning of the church year. It starts this Sunday, December 3, and runs 4 weeks leading us to the FEAST of Christmas. Advent is out of sync with our culture because while the culture celebrates Christmas until Christmas (then it is over), Advent encourages joyful anticipation and careful preparation for God’s incarnation (the feast of Christmas) by intentionally waiting in prayer and fasting. While culture is partying and bingeing for Christmas the church is fasting, praying and soberly waiting. The Advent fast time ends for us on Christmas Eve ( candlelight worship at 7:30 PM). That’s when we begin the feast of Christmas that runs for 12 days, until the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th.

Thanks for a great celebration!

Wendy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:51:17 +0000

We had a wonderful celebration on Easter. It was really lively to have all the seats full as we gave thanks to God for raising Jesus and bringing us in on his resurrected life! Many persons work each week to help this congregation worship. For Easter we take note that Kristie, Harold, Dale, Alex, Debra and others worked to make the pre-service breakfast and post service GraceFeast yummy affairs. The musicians worked hard to pull together an eclectic variety of music. Anonymous someones brought plants and flowers so the place was beautiful. (by the way, those flowers need to be thrown out and the plants planted. Could someone please do that?)

Last week we received money from a grant we wrote… a long time ago, $2000! The grant money is to help defray the cost of GraceFeast! Special thanks goes to Vivian and Laurin who primarily wrote the grant and to friends, Linda Fecher, Mary Reardon and Alex Ladaku who wrote personal testimonies to the value of GraceFeast for them.

Pastor Fecher will be “swapping pulpits” with Pastor Scott Kramer of Lakeridge Lutheran. It might sound illicite but it really isn’t. Fecher preaches at Lakeridge and Kramer preaches at GoG. The swap will happen May 6th. The purpose is to allow GoG to get to know a ministry neighbor in south Seattle and to allow Lakeridge Lutheran get to know GoG!

On May 20, Kira Elliot will preach and lead worship at GoG. Pastor Fecher will be in Berkeley for the seminary graduation of Valerie Carlson. Valerie is the 5th person to graduate from seminary, for whom GoG has been the sending congregation.

God has made us a rich congregation with a rich ministry. Let’s give heart felt thanks together that we are allowed to participate in God’s work on the corner of 40th and Meridian!

Holy Week 2012

Jami — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:14:36 +0000

The Cross veiled in White at Gift of Grace Lutheran Church symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning

The Gift of Grace community will celebrate Holy Week beginning this Sunday, April 1 with Palm/Passion Sunday. We will raise palms in praise of God as we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem a week before his murder and resurrection.

Join us at 7:00 pm, Thursday, April 5 (Maundy Thursday) for the commemoration of the arrest and betrayal of Jesus Christ. There will be a service of hand and feet washing followed by the traditional stripping of the altar as we approach Good Friday.

Good Friday services marking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ take place on Friday April 6 at 7 pm.

Holy week will lead us to the most significant celebration in the history of the church — Easter Sunday Service of Christ’s Resurrection on April 8 at 10:30 am. A special GraceFeast Easter Brunch follows.

Lent

Wendy — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:37:41 +0000

My friend recently had a near death experience that brought him face to face with
his mortality. It was, all at once, terrifying and a miracle. It changed his
life. He said it was like he was in the Matrix, (referring to the movie of
1999) and just awakened to realize it. It was a paradigm shift! When the lights
come on, they illumine what you want to see AND what you do not want to see.
That’s what it is like to genuinely face mortality, to bump up against human
limits, to realize I am in the hands of the Eternal God, that I will die and I
have nothing to say about it. It is terrifying and life-giving all at once.

Lent is a season when followers of Jesus mimic Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness
when he was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11). It is like Jesus’ own near
death experience. The devil’s temptations intend to convey Jesus’ experience of
squarely facing his own mortality’s relationship to the augustness of Eternity.
In this scary position Jesus refused to rely on his own resources and relied
instead, only on God’s word, which in the end gave him the victory.

For 40 days (not counting Sundays) we mimic Jesus. We do something different
(extra worship, certain worship themes, personal devotional acts, etc…) to
help us face our own mortality and limits, in light of being in the hands of the
Eternal One. We dedicate ourselves to letting go of foolish self-reliance,
relying instead on God’s word to us in Jesus Christ, his path, his cross. The 40
days of Lent end in a crescendo of the great three days, Good Friday, Easter
Vigil and the Resurrection of our Lord. The entire event, Lent and Easter,
point again to our circumstance in relationship to the Eternal One. It is
terrifying and life-giving all at once, for our God is mighty and merciful.

Pre-Christmas Concert – Saturday, December 3, 2011

Jami — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:44:49 +0000

Concert December 3, 2011

This pre-Christmas concert was put on by a small volunteer orchestra, of fine musicians ranging in age from 14 to septuagenarians. The purpose of the concert was to gather a wide variety of people to be in community in celebration together. The concert was followed by a dinner of homemade comfort food including fried chicken, mac and cheese, pie and other yummies. Thanks be to God for the chef, the musicians and all who made this event a delight!