Your Weekly E-Newsletter -- Thursday, May 18, 2023

“They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  "Men of Galilee", they said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 

Acts 1:9-11

In the Gospel of Luke, there are several events of importance, so the church dedicates a special day to their observance.  The first is the birth of our Lord - Christmas - which was told with such vivid detail by Luke alone.  Then comes the Baptism of Jesus, observed on the Sunday after Epiphany.  Next is the Transfiguration of Jesus, observed on the Sunday before Lent.  The most important is the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, but there is one more observation that is important enough to be mentioned in the Apostle’s Creed - the Ascension of Jesus. 

We tend to overlook it because in Acts, Luke says it took place 40 days after Jesus’ Resurrection - likely a figure of speech, but 40 days from Easter Sunday is always a Thursday. The Ascension is important enough to have merited a visit from the same men in white who announced the Resurrection, a subtle detail and easy to miss. They are assumed to be angels, but Luke just says, “two men in white robes.”  

In the story of the Resurrection, these white-robed men relay to the women at the tomb whose faces are bowed to the ground that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee and there they will see him. In the story of the Ascension, the men tell the 11 remaining apostles that Jesus will return. The not-so-subtle message in both events is that Jesus, who everyone thinks has gone away – hasn’t – and never will. But his presence with them is dramatically different than it had been.  

The late Eugene Peterson, author of the popular version of the Bible known as “The Message”, translated Job 9:11 (the anguish of Job during his suffering) this way: “Job didn’t question whether God existed. He only wondered why he couldn’t find him. ‘Somehow, though he moves right in front of me, I don’t see him; quietly but surely he’s active, and I miss it.'’” Job suffered many evils, but there is no shortage of situations in life that can veil the presence of God to us. The eyes of our heart that look in faith toward God suffer blurred vision.  And yet, Peterson writes, “Most of the things that are true, you can’t see – the whole invisible world of grace, love, and justice.”  

The Ascension appears to be a story of God’s departure.  Earth and its people, so the saying goes, was for God a nice place to visit but he wouldn’t want to live there.  But that would be a mistake.  The Ascension is a vital piece of the story of how God works in the world.  No one who witnessed Jesus being “taken from them” on the cross ever expected they’d see him again.

Peterson writes, regarding Job’s (and the apostles') dilemma, “We underestimate God when we overestimate evil.  We don’t see what God is doing and so conclude that he is doing nothing. We do see everything evil is doing and think it’s in control of everyone.”  Seeing the resurrected Jesus challenged that thinking!   

God was very much “doing something” on the cross, defeating the sin and evil that put him there for one thing.  Even in such a distressing way, being “taken away from them”, Jesus was with his followers.  They rejoiced in seeing the resurrected Lord; then they see Jesus “taken away” from them again.  Implied in the question of the disciples in Acts 1:6 (“the time” when Israel is restored) was the belief that Jesus, who was clearly Messiah to them, was going to see to it that evil and suffering would get its "you-know-what" kicked!  

But it didn’t. Both are still quite alive and kicking. Such is the ever-present reality of being in the world and seeing with the eyes of faith.  It takes a great deal of effort. And by that I mean faith to steer our eyes away from what’s wrong with the world or painful in our lives and toward promises. These are promises like Easter’s “He is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him,” or the Ascension’s “the same Jesus you see taken up from you will come again, in the same (sudden) way you saw him leave.”  But that’s the faith of the church. The faith we confess when we are baptized.  In the meantime, we look about and pay attention to anyone on whom suffering and evil seems to have particularly set its sights.  

That’s our call. That is how we spend “the meantime” until our faith shall be our sight.  A song by Christian artist Brandon Heath says; “Give me your eyes for just one second, give me your eyes so I can see. Everything that I keep missing, give me your love for humanity. Give me your arms for the broken-hearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones forgotten. Give me your eyes so I can see.” 

Available to us are dozens of ways you can show that you see the things Jesus saw.  But that means we need to look for the things Jesus looked for, and listen for what he listened for.  Hunger, loneliness, shame, pain, sorrow. It controls a lot of people’s lives. So does the invisible kingdom of grace, love and compassion, which because of Jesus, control you. 

The Ascension of our Lord and its commission calls upon us all, until our last breath, to give every measure of devotion we can summon to carry on the unfinished work of Jesus Christ. He did not die in vain, when we who live can show that his incomparably great power lives in us, who choose to carry on the cause for which Jesus gave his life.  

AMEN,   

Pastor Ken Nelson

Join us on THIS SUNDAY, May 21 at 9 a.m. for a lively worship service. The Dudzik Polka Band will lead our worship for a unique and invigorating experience. A staple of traditional Wisconsin culture, this music will have everyone’s toes tapping. Come and enjoy this summer-fresh alternative musical style. 

Join us and bring a friend!



The Saturday 5pm service will be a traditional worship.

We will be cleaning up our church property by raking, trimming bushes/shrubs, weeding, cutting down a tree and hauling the refuse to the Recycling Center. There's something for everyone. Bring your rakes, trimming tools and gloves. Refreshments and a free-T-shirt will be provided.

Questions? Please reach out to Ernie Kretschmann.

A sign up sheet will be posted on the Opportunities kiosk in the Narthex.

Four of our youth will publicly make their Affirmation of Baptism on Sunday, June 4 at the 9 a.m. worship service.

William Dudzik

Kyle Gall

Addison Meyer

Ellie Sayas

Pastor Ken's and Marcella's Retirement Send-Off

Saturday, June 10

6 p.m.

Fellowship Hall

You can RSVP here or sign up sheets are on the glass doors in the Narthex.

Celebrate Megan Schatz's high school graduation on Sunday, June 11 at the 9 a.m. service and learn about her future plans.

Seventh Sunday

of Easter

May 20-21, 2023



May Mission of the Month

Compassion International

Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults. This is done in a variety of ways. For the Calvary congregation, we are most familiar with their Water of Life and Child Sponsorship programs.

In prior years, our focus has been on the Water of Life program to purchase water filtration systems. Thankfully, this program has been so successful that there is a limit of how many new systems they need each year. The Water of Life program is part of the larger “WaSH” program which stands for Water Sanitation and Hygiene. Donations directed to WaSH might be used for Water of Life but if all the units have already been acquired for the year, the funds would be used for wells, filtration systems, water storage or sanitation facilities.

The focus of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene initiative (WaSH) is to ensure that no Compassion-assisted child has to drink contaminated water or use unsafe sanitation facilities. Compassion provides the resources and infrastructure that help protect each child's health as they make their journey out of extreme poverty.

Safe-water Infrastructure

Children who have access to safe water are protected from waterborne diseases and are

more likely to succeed in school. A nearby safe water source also helps to ensure girls get

an education instead of spending hours each day collecting water for their family.

Proper Sanitation

Providing adequate toilets or latrines prevents open defecation, which leads to the rapid

spread of disease through communities and puts children in physical danger. Combined

with hand-washing facilities, latrines not only protect children’s health but foster dignity

and self-respect.

Hygiene Education

Compassion provides personal hygiene kits and hygiene education so children can form

good habits that will safeguard their health for a lifetime. From basic hand-washing to

dental hygiene, Compassion-assisted children learn to care for themselves and lead by

example.

Every $1 invested in Water and Sanitation Priority Initiative creates a $4 return because whole communities spend less on healthcare and more on education and in the local economy.

The Most Popular Interventions include:

• Drilling wells
• Facilitating waste collection and management
• Providing water filtration systems
• Installing rainwater harvesting systems
• Building water storage and pumping systems
• Providing hygiene education
• Building septic systems
• Training community members on equipment maintenance
• Constructing toilets and washrooms

In fiscal years 2015-18, Compassion’s clean water initiatives impacted more than 170,000 Compassion children and their families through the:

•  Installation of 8,449 toilets, 874 new water-access points near children’s homes and more than 276 hand-washing stations at Compassion church partners.
• Provision of safe water through more than 159 new borehole wells, large water-storage tanks or large-scale water purification systems;
• Distribution of more than 20,400 in-home water filtration systems in 17 countries where Compassion works

To support this important Mission for the Month, you may include it in your weekly offering envelope or designate the donation for Mission of the Month in your online giving.

Just a reminder that contributions to the NALC's 20/20 Vision Campaign need to be designated as "NALC" either on your giving envelope or on your check. If you have any questions, please contact Cindy Rooks at finance@calvarylc.com.

We invite you to provide

Hospitality Treats on Sunday

We invite you to stay after worship on Sunday mornings and enjoy fellowship time and a treat/cup of coffee in Fellowship Hall.

If you'd like to provide treats (donuts, bagels, etc.) for Sunday hospitality time, there is a sheet on the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall.  You may bring the treats (six dozen) and drop them off in the kitchen, or simply add a “P” behind your name, pay $30 to the church office and the treats will be purchased for you. 

The sign up sheet for 2023 has been posted on the bulletin board.  Thank you for your support!

If you watch our services via the Live Stream, please take a minute to let us know. There is now a link called "Online Worship Attendance" on the page where you access each week's service.

We appreciate you taking the time to complete this each week. It helps us know that our Live Stream is being viewed and by whom. 

Thank you!

CALVARY LUTHERAN CHURCH www.calvarylc.com

Regular office hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - noon 262.786.4010

Questions or comments? Email Sue Rowe at communications@calvarylc.com