Message from Pastor Jennifer Thomas

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace and peace to you this Easter season. Now the green blade rises. Love lives again! This favorite hymn, ELW 379, will be the hymn of the day on the Third Sunday of Easter, May 8. Our choir director, Linda Martin has brought this anthem to our worship planning, and it will be glorious, with the Joy Choir, Immanuel Choir, Immanuel Brass, organ, and congregation singing God’s praises and announcing the resurrection hope that we’ve been harboring.

While outdoors, the grass is rising new and the leaves on the trees are unfurling, reminding us of resurrection from death and darkness to new life and light. The longer daylight hours serve as a reminder of God’s light shining in our lives. And what about that wind: it is another image for the Holy Spirit moving in our lives.

Ministry is blooming at Immanuel. We enter the season of Easter. We move out from introspection and reflection on the psalms during the season of Lent to service and singing, “Jesus is risen, Alleluia!”

The season of Easter will take us to Pentecost on June 12 when four young people will affirm their baptism in the rite of confirmation: Nam Ahrens, Stella Atzenweiler, Parker Winkler and Simon Hogan.

Hope abounds between these festivals of Jesus’ resurrection and the Holy Spirit’s coming. There are many opportunities for newness.

It’s been a year since we began our discernment process around where God is calling us as a congregation, and the draft of the plan is finished, thanks to the dedication and hard work of the Vision for Ministry Task Force. The final task of this team is to host opportunities for the congregation to hear more about this plan before it is voted on at a special congregation meeting in June.

Another thing to look forward to in 2011 is the return of the intern (formerly vicar) program. A generous gift by the estate of Arla Baird has provided the opportunity to train future pastors at Immanuel through the intern program for two years beginning in the fall of 2011. As mentioned elsewhere, our intern is Micah Sievenpiper from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

More newness and light is reflected in the Oromo ministry development at Immanuel. Melaku Tizazu received a scholarship from the Leaders for Mission Fund of the ELCA in 2010. The ministry is growing with worship on Sunday mornings and evenings as well as Bible studies throughout the week. Melaku’s online ministry continues to flourish, and he is progressing nicely in his TEEM studies. He will be at Luther Seminary at the beginning of June for another class.

Conversations with others this month continue the ground work for being a more welcoming congregation. A meeting about the Reconciled in Christ movement is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12, at church. With churchwide policy changing to welcome lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered persons, Immanuel is continuing to increase our own hospitality, pastoral care and rituals. We are situated in a diverse neighborhood and community, and we are called to invite our neighbors to worship with us. You can sign up individually to be an RIC Lutheran. Brochures will be available in the church following the May 12 meeting or you can go online to lcna.org to sign up.

A key piece of hospitality at Immanuel is the greeting you receive when you call or walk through the doors. The personnel committee is working to hire a part-time secretary to share the position with Vivian Gilbreth. Until then, Tom Gear is serving as an interim secretary. Having two part-time secretaries will provide additional hospitality to those who touch Immanuel throughout the business week. Descriptions of the position are available at church or on www.npconnect.org.

In my own professional development and opportunities, I have been named by Communities Creating Opportunity (CCO) to PICO’s Clergy Leadership Council which will provide a training for clergy in New Orleans in November.

This month we bid farewell to Tim Hager as our outreach coordinator. Tim has lived in the parsonage this year while working at Kaw Prairie Church and with us. We appreciate his willingness to help with community service, building upkeep and security and overall humble service. We wish him well as he moves to Lenexa and to work full time at Kaw Prairie Church as their full time youth director. Immanuel has been a strong partner in his formation for this ministry.

May Jesus’ Easter Resurrection be a reality in your life. Daily we experience little deaths and little births, endings and new beginnings. May this season be filled with more hope than despair, with more joy than sorrow, and with the peace, love, and understanding that comes from God alone. Now the green blade rises. Christ will come again! Alleluia!

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Jennifer Thomas

Message from Pastor Thomas: New things all around us

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:18-19

New things, new wine, new wineskins, new year’s resolutions, new, new, new.

All around us are new things – new cars, new technology, new glasses, new haircuts, new hearing aids. Change is never easy, but often, it’s what’s necessary. Time doesn’t stand still.

You might think to yourself, “I haven’t changed a bit. I’m the same person I’ve always been.” But you’re not. Today you have the experiences of yesterday and today that you didn’t have at the beginning of the week. You have new knowledge and new insight. You may have a new wrinkle, a stronger muscle, less hair or more.

But look at us, we’re not getting any newer, or are we? And yet, daily we are renewed in our baptisms. Daily we are renewed in our hearts, minds, and souls.

Our buildings aren’t getting any newer, but are getting better with age like a fine wine – worn and mellowed. I was sitting in the sanctuary and noticed the fine cracks in the paint at the corners where the woodwork meets the plaster and thought about how the building is a lot like us. So much has changed since Immanuel first came to this site. And throughout the ages God has been preparing us for this moment in ministry.

What is the holy work that God is doing in you? What is the new thing? Do you perceive it?

The new things in my life this week included preparing a family for baptism and sponsoring a new seminary candidate.

When I met Zoe’s family for preparation for baptism, I held the newborn Zoe, just 15 days old.. Adorable, sweet, peacefully sleeping, but she’s human, and the gases created from her digestion were escaping – not so peacefully – from her body. (Peder would say, ‘Mo-om, that’s bathroom talk!’)

And yet, she’s a perfect human. Whether cradled comfortably by her adoring mom, rocked by her dad, or dangled by her older sister, she is a creation of God, soon to be welcomed by the church on her baptism day – June 27.

Immanuel recently approved sponsoring a new candidate for ministry, too. 30 years old, preparing for seminary, Scott is smart, educated, worldly, but human too. Whether embraced by his wife, teased by his sister, or adored by his parents, he, too, is a creation of God, who will enter one of the ELCA seminaries, Trinity in Columbus, Ohio, this fall.

Some remember his baptism day, his confirmation, and the days he wasn’t perfect either.

Baptizing and raising up leaders for the church is the missional work we share. Through us God is doing new things!

Jesus commissions us to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And he commissions us to train and equip church leaders for the sake of the world. Jesus commissions us to share the good news of God’s powerful word with those we meet.

I started writing about new things like new jobs, new friends, new homes, new cities, new schools, and so many changes, and yet, at the same time, nothing changes, the steadfast rock of our redemption is our Lord – our rock in ages past, our hope in years to come! This rock of our redemption brings newness and redemption!