Thy Will Be Done: A Series of Services for the Season of Lent

Posted on February 4, 2018 by RushRiverLutheran

Each night in our Wednesday night worship series centers on a different aspect of God’s will at work among us.

“Not as I will, but as you will,”

Jesus prayed to his Father the night before he went to the cross for our salvation. And that is our prayer as well this Lent as we seek to do God’s will in our lives, as we draw near to the observance of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection during Holy Week. Each service in the series focuses on a different aspect of God’s will at work among us. Biblical characters are used as insightful reference points each week to guide us in following our Lord more nearly day by day.

Ash Wednesday
God’s Will and God’s Promise • Abraham and Isaac
By faith, Abraham trusted the will of God when he promised that a son would be born to him. God’s will was done when that son, Isaac, was born, and God’s will was done when his Son, Jesus came into the world to redeem his people.

Week 1
God’s Will and My Inadequacy • Moses
At first, Moses did not think he could free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But God gave him confidence to set his people free. In Lent we remember that God sent his Son to do his will and set all people free from the slavery of sin.

Week 2
God’s Will and My Dreams • David
Anointed by God to rule in Judah, King David follow God’s will to shepherd his people, but often failed to live up to God’s dream for him. We welcome the Good Shepherd into our lives who fulfill God’s dream perfectly to gather his wandering sheep into the sheepfold of heaven.

Week 3
God’s Will and My Identity • Mary
In humility, Mary dutifully accepted the role God had given her to become the mother of our Savior. That Son would later accept his role, faithfully following the path his Father had in mind for him to save us all.

Continue reading →

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Veterans Day

Posted on November 18, 2017 by RushRiverLutheran

In honor of Veterans Day, we are happy to share these images. A very sincere thank you to Zeb Hayes for making this presentation for us!

Click on the link below to view:

Veterans Day photos

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The Rest of Summer

Posted on August 2, 2017 by RushRiverLutheran

Read any good books lately?

Summer is still with us for a month or so. The water has warmed up, the grass is green and the fervor of spring and big holiday gatherings has passed. Now is the time to settle into the lazy, hazy days of summer and enjoy a good book or three! Here’s a short list to start you off:

Anne Lamott: (especially) Traveling Mercies, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Small Victories and her latest book, Hallelujah Anyway

Lamott has described why she writes:

“I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.”

Lamott is cited as a writer who captures well the style of narrative nonfiction called particularism, coined by Howard Freeman.

The Liturgical Mysteries Series by Mark Schweizer

The Liturgical Mysteries series is a series of cozy mystery novels by American novelist Mark Schweizer. The protagonist is Hayden Konig, a small-town police chief in St. Germaine, North Carolina. On the side, he is also the choir director and organist at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, and looking to write the next great hard-boiled mystery novel.

Mark Schweizer began his Liturgical Mysteries series in 2002 with his debut novel The Alto Wore Tweed. The series is currently ongoing.

‘Fierce: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Violence, Mercy, Bravery, Wisdom, Sex, and Salvation,’ by Alice Connor (February 2017)

A perfect book for groups and individuals exploring women of the Bible!

Women in the Bible aren’t shy or retiring; they’re fierce and funny and demanding and relevant to 21st-century people. Wo m e n in the Bible—some of their names we know, others we’ve only heard and others are tragically unnamed or forgotten.

In “Fierce,” pastor and provocateur Alice Connor introduces these women and invites us to see them not as players in a man’s story—as victims or tempters—nor as morality archetypes, teaching us to be better wives and mothers, but as fierce foremothers of the faith. These women’s stories are messy, challenging and beautiful. When we read their stories, we can see not only their particular, fearsome lives but also our own.

“Hip, funny, and substantive, “Fierce” demands that we take a second—and a third and a fourth—look at some of the Bible’s strongest women. I loved this book.”— Jana Riess, author of “Flunking Sainthood” and “The Twible”

Christian-themed historical romance novels by author Julie Klassen

Julie Klassen is an American author of Christian-themed historical romance novels. Julie loves all things Jane – Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois and worked in publishing for sixteen years before becoming a published author. Three of her novels – The Silent Governess, The Girl in the Gatehouse, and The Maid of Fairbourne Hall – have won the Christy Award for Historical Romance. She has also won the Midwest Book Award and Christian Retailing’s BEST Award. Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Julie Klassen made her debut as a novelist in 2008 with Lady of Milkweed Manor.

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The Courage of The Seed

Posted on April 21, 2016 by RushRiverLutheran

All the buried seeds

crack open in the dark

the instant they surrender

to a process they can’t see.

What a powerful lesson is the beginning of spring. All around us, everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see. And this innate surrender allows everything edible and fragrant to break ground into a life of light that we call spring.

In nature, we are quietly given countless models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless, but which ultimately is an awakening that is that is beyond all imagining. This moving through the dark into blossom is the threshold to God.

As a seed buried in the earth cannot imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt imagine itself loved or at peace. The courage of the seed is that once cracking it cracks all the way.

This is a walking meditation:

Find and watch some buds barely breaking ground.
Meditate on their unseen beginnings underground.
Breathe slowly and let your breath draw whatever is budding in you to the surface of your life.

From “The Book of Awakening” by Mark Nepo

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It is Christmas, still.

Posted on December 28, 2015 by RushRiverLutheran

When one speaks the word Christmas, most people inevitably imagine a single day of robust celebration. When one speaks the word Epiphany, at least in circles of people connected with the church, many people imagine a season stretching from Christmas until Lent begins.

Interestingly, by Evangelical Lutheran Worship and by the calendars of most Western Christians, Christmas is a season and Epiphany a day, and not the other way around. Christmas is twelve full days, if you will, a day for each month of the year, and the feast of Epiphany brings the Christmas season to a festal close.

Certainly, in the Time after Epiphany we are experiencing epiphanies; that is, God in Christ is revealed to us in the flesh and personhood of Jesus. And, it must be said, observing the Epiphany of Our Lord as a major day does help bridge the church in the West with the church in the East. Understanding the calendar in this way will help make sense of our current lectionary and its wisdom.

For now, it is Christmas, still. Even though much of our culture has finished its festival of consumerism and consumption, towns offer Christmas tree recycling now, and we pack up “Christmas” before the New Year begins.

Please consider yourselves encouraged to keep your homes awash with the light of your Christmas trees, your walkways and doorways illumined, and your tables brightened with candles through Epiphany on January 6th. Keeping the same celebration timeline at home and at church helps us all remember that Christmas is a season, not a day.

Excerpts and inspiration from “Sundays and Seasons”

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The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Priceless Pearl

Posted on February 27, 2015 by RushRiverLutheran

Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s best-known painting gives us the haunting image of a turbaned girl looking over her shoulder, deep in thought and gazing into the eyes of the viewer. Completed in 1665, the painting was originally titled “The Girl with the Turban”. By the 20th century, however, the reflective pearl earring hanging from the girl’s ear had become such a focal point of the painting that it became known as “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”. With only two strokes of his brush, Vermeer gave us a pearl which defines his painting.

Like that pearl, Jesus Christ has become the focal point of our lives. The light of His presence against the dark canvas of our soul has caught our attention. He has redefined our values. More than any priceless painting, this pearl of great price, this priceless treasure, is worth everything to us. If He asks us to forsake all and follow Him, we will. If following Him costs us dearly, so be it. If He expects us to sell all, consider us sold out. He is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. No wonder we call Him precious!

Prayer: Help us, Lord, to make You the focal point of our lives and make Your cross our pearl of great price. Amen.

From “The Parables of Lent – Daily Devotions on the Stories of Jesus for Lent” by Dean Nadasdy

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Reformation Sunday

Posted on October 23, 2014 by RushRiverLutheran

Reformation Day is considered a lesser festival in the Lutheran tradition. Until the 1900s, most Lutheran churches celebrated Reformation Day on October 31. Today, most Lutheran churches transfer the festival so that it falls on the Sunday on or before October 31 and the Feast of All Saints to the Sunday on or after November 1.

The liturgical color for Reformation Day is red, which represents the Holy Spirit and the Martyrs of the Christian Church. For All Saints’ Sunday, it is white, which represents purity and holiness.

Reformation Day commemorates the date that Martin Luther posted his list of grievances against the Roman Catholic Church on the town church doors in 1517. It coincides with Halloween, previously known as All Hallows’ Eve, and is the night before All Saints’ Day. All Saints’ Day was a “holy day of obligation”, a day that you were required to go to church, and so posting his concerns, the 95 Theses (sentences) on the church door was a way for Martin Luther to have everyone see them as they arrived for worship the next day. It was especially appropriate, because All Saints’ Day was a day to remember those who had died and to pray for their immortal souls.

One of Martin Luther’s chief complaints against the church was the selling of indulgences, certificates that were paid for and then said to reduce the debt owed for sin by people at their death. Before long, Martin Luther was considered a threat to the church. He was ruled an outlaw and a heretic.

Until the Reformation movement, called that because Martin Luther and his followers had not intended to split off from the church, but to bring reform to it, the Roman Catholic Church was the only Christian church in Germany and the rest of western Europe.

Eventually, several new Protestant faith groups were formed, all classified together by the term Protestant because they were a result of their protests against the Roman Catholic Church of the day. Among these are the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Lutherans.

We use a Hymn Mass on Reformation Sunday because one of the other major reforms Martin Luther brought about was worship in the language of the people. Until that point, worship was a spectator experience, with the attendees standing throughout most of the service, while the priest chanted and spoke and even read scripture in Latin, even though none of the congregation understood it. The mass, worship, was offered on behalf of the people by the priest and they had no actual part in it.

Martin Luther translated the Bible into German so that everyday folks could read it. He also changed the style and format of worship so that the service included participation by the congregation members in their own language. One of the ways he accomplished this was by using familiar hymns as parts of the liturgy. Another was by writing music that was easy for people to learn and setting words to it to tell the stories of the Bible or get across lessons in theology or express either praise or petitions to God.

The Hymn Mass that Rush River Lutheran Church will use is based on many of the hymns that Martin Luther wrote.

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Lefse? You Betcha!

Posted on September 23, 2014 by RushRiverLutheran

Doris Knutson’s Lefse Recipe

5 CUPS RICED POTATOES

½ C CREAM (1/2 & ½ OR WHIPPING CREAM, OR SOME OF EACH)

¼ CUP BUTTER

1 TSP SALT

1 ½ CUPS FLOUR

DAY 1:

Boil No. 1 (good quality, unblemished) white russet potatoes just until done. Pour water off immediately and set back on burner (burner turned off). With cover off, shake every few minutes to get as much moisture off as possible.
Put hot potatoes through a ricer (Foley food mill or cone) as quickly as possible.
Measure 5 cups riced potatoes in a bowl.
In a small sauce pan, heat cream and butter together until butter is melted, add that to riced potatoes and 1 tsp salt. Mix with mixer and put back in bowl. Leave bowl set out on cupboard to cool for a while, then cover and cool in refrigerator overnight.
Prepare rolling board by covering with a heavy dish towel, pinned tight so it doesn’t move around. Also put a sock type cover on the rolling pin. Take another heavy dish towel, fold over and on top half of the inside, pin two sheets of wax paper. You’ll need two of these dish towel/wax paper creations – one you’ll use to put lefse on as it comes off the grill, and the other you’ll transfer the lefse to for cooling. For cooling you’ll put your dish towel/wax paper inside a bath towel.

DAY 2:

Take potato mixture out of refrigerator to warm up; let sit out about 1 ½ hours.
Add 1 ½ cups of flour to potato mixture, working it in well with your hands.
Divide into 12, 14 or 16 balls (whatever is easy to handle)
Roll ball in hands to warm and evenly round.
Work some flour into the cloth covered board, and roll the rolling pin in some flour. If using a grooved rolling pin, you won’t need as much flour.
Roll ball out until thin and round
Roll up on a lefse stick and un-roll onto lefse grill. Grill should be almost 500 degrees, so lefse fries quickly. If too slow, it dries out.
Fry on first side until lightly brown speckled, then turn over and do same on other side.
Take off and leave second side (or top side) up, on towel, brush only that side with a soft brush to get rid of excess flour.
Cover lefse with waxed papered side of towel. This helps to keep moisture in and softens the lefse. Keep putting the lefse on top of each other and brushing excess flour off each one.
Transfer batch to your second heavy dish towel/wax paper, and set inside a bath towel.
Tuck towel in all around and let set that way until it is cold. When completely cooled, separate each piece of lefse and cut for putting in bags. Can put about ten on top of each other for freezing.
When taking out to defrost, don’t open bag, just leave on cupboard until thawed out.

NOTES:

10 lbs. of potatoes makes three of these five cup batches. Each batch makes 12 lefse when rolled as big as lefse grill or more smaller lefse if making balls smaller.
Wash all towels and pin covers with unscented detergent and do not use scented fabric softener! Vinegar in rinse is good.

Doris Knutson’s Lefse Recipe in printable format

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Sunday School News!

Posted on September 11, 2014 by RushRiverLutheran

Vacation Bible School

In short, it was a blast! There were 25 children registered with about 20 children attending VBS on any given evening. Thank you to all of the many people who helped with VBS this year! Over $300 was raised to assemble five “Welcome Home” baskets that were donated to people who are moving out of Our Neighbor’s Place into permanent housing. Our “Sunday School 2^nd Sunday” on September 14 will have a recap of VBS during worship!

Rally Sunday

We had a picture perfect day as we kicked off “Rally Sunday”, last Sunday! The Sunday School kids welcomed the congregation with sidewalk art at the front door and spent time getting reacquainted with outdoor fun and games. The three years olds and third graders were presented with age appropriate bibles, and backpacks were blessed for all students during worship.

Sunday School is from 9:15-10:15; all children from age three through sixth grade are warmly welcome!

There are some exciting things happening as we look forward to learning about God’s love and grace at Rush River Lutheran!

Sunday School Second Sundays

During Sunday School on 2^nd Sundays we will have our Sunday of Service (S.O.S.) as we listen to God’s call to be His hands and feet. Each month, all students, with their families, will join together to complete a mission project and discover ways to love and serve our neighbors.

Worship on Second Sundays will also be family centered, with children reading, greeting and acting out skits. The Children’s Choir will sing during worship and a “Joyful Noise” special offering will be taken.

2^nd Sundays will also be a service of Holy Communion, giving families the added opportunity to commune together.

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Pray for Peace

Posted on July 18, 2014 by RushRiverLutheran

Bishop Eaton Expresses Concern About Violence in the Holy Land

The ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians has once again erupted into violence. ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton has written a letter to Munib Younan, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land expressing her concern. Please read her letter and pray for peace in the Middle East and for all whose lives are affected by this conflict.

View Bishop Eaton’s letter.