An Update, A Meeting, and The Story

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Hello Winnetka Covenant Friends!

An Update.

Mirela Hukic has served faithfully as our Coordinator of Church Finances for the last few years, and now is making an exciting transition into a new small business. Bread Cult Is her Sourdough Bread baking company. The staff has already experienced Mirela’s delectable offerings, and her bread is already in great demand. We will celebrate and thank Mirela on Sunday, May 25 during the worship service, and enjoy a bread feast afterwards! Also, for those (count me in!) who are interested in supporting Mirela’s venture going forward, Friday afternoons will bring deliveries to the church just in time for your weekend. Watch for further details. THANK YOU MIRELA! GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU.

A Meeting. The culmination of our Palm Sunday celebration this coming Sunday will be a brief congregational meeting to vote into membership 17 sisters and brothers. What a great joy! We will offically welcome them during our Easter Sunday worship. Welcome them!

Anthony Broad-Crawford (Phoenix, Ivy), Lindsay Broad-Crawford, Aubrey Davis (Evangeline, Junia) Matthew Davis, Nancy Forbes, Jim Forbes, Michelle Gad (David, Noah, Mira), Emily Mathews (Hannah, Asher), John Mathews, Christina Tassone (Bella, Gabi, Mateo), Ken Tassone, Isabella Tassone, Courtney Thomas (Adeline, Callum), Ali Voss (Elsa, Sofia, Anders, Vera), Jon Voss, Arnie Werling, Jane Werling.

Also, we will receive an update on our gym floor process from Steve Kanda, our trustee chair. Plan to stay for just a few moments for this important work.

The Story.

As we come now to Palm Sunday and holy week commences, you will be receiving readings appointed for each day of holy week. Here is the list:

Monday: Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 36:5-11, Hebrews 9:11-15, John 12:1-11

Tuesday: Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 71:1-14, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, John 12:20-36

Wednesday: Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 70, Hebrews 12:1-3, John 13:21-32

Thursday: Exodus 12:1-14, Pslam 116:1-2,12-19, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Friday: Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Psalm 22, Hebrews 10:16-25, John 18:1-19:42

Saturday: Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-24, Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16, 1 Peter 4:1-8, John 19:38-42

Read and reflect on them as they came to you in narrative form. God bless us one and all.

Peter Hawkinson

Followers of Jesus

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As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea– for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Mark 1:16-17)

Grappling with the call of Jesus takes a lifetime. It’s a constant process of letting go and setting out, of leaving behind and adventuring forward. In terms of what Jesus seems to mean when he uses the word, it’s both the purpose and deepest meaning our human journey can know and also necessitates a servant-hearted, other-first approach that ends to get the world around angry.

The Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard says it like this: “It is well know that Christ consistently used the expression ‘follower.’ He never asks for admirers, worshippers, or adherents. No, he calls disciples. It is not adherents of a teaching but followers of a life Christ is looking for.” (Provocations: spiritual writings of Kierkegaard, ed. Charles Moore, Orbis books, 2003).

He goes on to draw distinctions… a Follower is or strives to be what they admire. An Admirer, however, keeps themself personally detached, and fails to strive to be what they admire. They always play it safe. Though in a word an admirer is inexhaustible about how highly they prize Christ, they will not reconstruct their life.

I’m convicted by this! “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the One I love” as Fanny Crosby has us singing. For me it is not a once for all decision, but a daily tug of war. So often I want to claim the grace and mercy Christ brings, I want to admire it, but on my own terms, with my own plans still intact, still holding onto my own nets.

This tug of war is a biblical idea…just listen to St. Paul: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…for I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members… (Romans 7). And certainly we know that though Peter and Andrew dropped their nets and followed Jesus that day, they still would dabble in the comforts of admiration on many days yet to come.

So it goes for all of us.

This leaves me feeling so grateful for the grace, for the patience, for the steadfast love of God for his people!

Love From Here!

Peter Hawkinson

Singing and Learning the Wondrous Story

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Today’s blog post is written by Pastor Jen.

It has been a great month in Adult Sunday School.

It’s also hard to believe how much we have accomplished!

This year, March was one of those rare months where the calendar aligns perfectly to have five Sundays, so even with the cancellation of Sunday School one week (in light of local schools’ spring break), we had ample opportunities to learn and grow together.

The first two weeks of March were devoted to the conclusion of our series “Building Stories,” one of several new curricula created by seminary friends of mine through their grant-funded project: “OptIN: the Trade School for Christian Formation.” (I encourage you to check our their website and learn more here.)

Over the course of March 2 and 9, we heard from both new and long-time members of our community as they shared one story of God’s activity in their lives. We laughed, we cried, we were surprised, and we learned so much about each other. (And my hope is that we all learned that it doesn’t have to be so scary, and can indeed be very powerful and important, to share just a glimpse of God’s activity in our lives.)

Then, on March 16 we welcomed Mark Safstrom, of both Augustana College and North Park University, to lead us through “Reading with the Mission Friends,” a look at scripture and other important texts in our Covenant history, and how they have shaped our ethos as Covenanters throughout the years. Yesterday, Mark came back for part two of his series, “Singing with the Mission Friends,” and he and Royce Eckhardt led us through a wonderful hour of learning about our Covenant hymnody and its themes of the immigrant experience and pilgrimage.

And we’re not nearly done yet! This coming Sunday, Royce will come back to lead us in the first of two sessions through April and May, taking a closer look at our worship. In his own words, “We’re examining our motivations for attending worship. What is ‘contemporary’ worship? Or ‘traditional’ worship? And why the conflict in so many churches? Understanding the rhythms of worship, the progression of the service, the dialogical character of worship. We’ll explore biblical perspectives on the centrality of worship in the Christian life and experience, and how much music and worship are inextricably linked in scripture and contemporary practice.”

Come join us for “Why We Worship” on April 6, and mark your calendars for “How We Worship” on May 11.

Then, we will gather on April 13 for our tradition of a Palm Sunday Intergenerational Class in the Upper Room. There will be music, food, lots of coffee, an activity and game, and all of the beautiful chaos of Palm Sunday together.
We will take a break on Easter Sunday, as we will all be busy during the Sunday School hour eating pancakes at our annual breakfast!


Then, Hauna Ondrey of North Park will join us for two sessions starting on April 27, featuring a closer look at some of our Covenant affirmations and the debate surrounding them throughout the 20th century.

Much to learn and much to celebrate in the coming weeks! I hope you’ll come and bring a friend.

yours,

Pastor Jen

Becoming

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This Sunday to come, the fourth of lent, we might call our central reading the “Gospel motherlode”….or “fatherlode”. It’s Luke 15 and the parable of what we normally call the “prodigal son” who “came to himself” and went back home. Some have called it the parable of the “waiting father” who looks out on the horizon, sees him, and runs to kiss and embrace him. And of course we can’t leave out that “resistant brother” who is angry and refuses to come inside and join the homecoming party.

The invitation it seems is to find yourself in the story. I hope you will read and reflect on the story each day as we come to Sunday.

Henri Nouwen’s seminal work “The Return of the Prodigal Son” came after spending hours, indeed weeks sitting in front of Rembrant’s massive painting of. the same name which led him to write his book. While Henri was fixed on understanding how he could claim the journey and attitude of both the younger and the older brother, a friend sitting with him one day said, “Whether you see yourself as the younger son or the elder son, you have to realize that you are called to become the father.” and this becomes Henri’s central reflection, that “The spiritual journey isn’t just about returning to a divine father figure, but about developing the qualities of that father within oneself….to become like the Father whose only authority os compassion, I have to shed countless tears and so prepare my heart to receive anyone, whatever their journey has been, and forgive them from that heart.”

And this process of becoming more like the father in the parable seems to be more difficult for that older brother, whose spirit is growing in a different direction. It’s important to remember that we only have this wonderful story because “all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.'” The irony I am wrestling with is that those scribes and pharisees are like that older son whom the father speaks to: “You have always been with me. All that is mine is yours. We have to celebrate because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found!”

This process of becoming invites me, invites us to grow more into the arms wide open posture of that father as we grow through life. But in order to move in this direction, we must come to the end of ourselves, as both of his sons had to do, each in their own way.

So much to reflect on. Looking forward to worshipping with you on Sunday!

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

SO IF……

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So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden in Christ with God. (Colossians 3:1-3)

This is the season of repentance. It means to turn away from one direction and move in another. Theologically, it seems that we locate this repentance as a decisive act of our will…”I’m going to change…I’m starting anew with following Jesus.” This comes largely from the oft used greeting Jesus uses to begin his ministry and teaches his disciples to use when they witness in the world…..”The Kingdom of God has come near to you. Repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15). It seems as though repentance is our primary act of response to this Good News.

The question that rumbles around in my spirit this morning is, “Then why do we view repentance as more of a negative than a positive thing?” Maybe its because it’s John the Baptist’s favorite word, and he seems to like to shout it, we imagine with anger. Maybe the word has been taken hostage by angry preachers and evangelists, who point fingers at us while they threaten hell’s eternal fire. Maybe this creates this sense that repentance means that I/we have been caught, we’re busted, and we’re in trouble. The call to repentance comes to feel like a “just wait until your father gets home” moment. Maybe we tend to identify the call to repent as a sign that God is most angry and fundamentally against us.

But we need to consider the word and practice of repentance as Jesus gives it to us: The Kingdom of God has come near to you…”what if repentance is really one of God’s great merciful invitations? An opportunity to live into the love and grace we have come to know? What if we could view this constant process of turning away from our sins, and our selfishness, and moving toward Jesus and the new life he gives us? Repentance is deeply connected to the nearness of good news is what Jesus says, an act of opening up and letting all the good of God fill us up — peace and joy, mercy and grace, and a love like no other.

For me, at least, it seems that the opportunity to repent comes alive when it is primarily an act of response to what God has already done, rather than a feeble attempt to appease God and avoid punishment. We repent because of what God has already done, not to try to get God to accept us. God has already in Christ Jesus fully accepted us as sinful, broken people and repentance is the invitation to accept that acceptance, that grace, that good news, and let go of the sins and sorrows that burden us. Repentance is an act of trusting in the love of Jesus. This can’t help but set our spirits free to love and serve in a new way.

“SO IF you have been raised with Christ” Paul says to the early church, “seek the things that are above!” Essentially, this is repentance. Leave behind your old way of life in this old world, and why…? because “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

These things are true, this good news is real, because God has in love chosen to give us new life in Christ. That’s the truth whether or not we will ever choose to respond. And repentance is the opportunity for us to respond to what God has done, to the good news that comes near to us.

That’s it! You have died and been raised with Christ to new life. What say you today, and tomorrow? Will you repent and believe in this good, glad news?

What an opportunity and privilege!

Peter Hawkinson

Growing Through Life

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But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

I recently re-connected with, or I might say really connected for the first time with my older cousin David, on the Larson side, who lives in New England. We find ourselves on face time now and then wndering how we can grow more healthy and whole in an increasingly angry and anxious world. I suggested we might read a book together: he led me to David Brooks, whose recent work How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen has captivated my spirit, at least thus far over the first five chapters. Brooks reflects on this idea of how our relationships with others can grow more healthy. Here’s a few of my underlines:

“Being open-hearted is a prerequisite for being a full, kind, and wise human being.”

“There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen– to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood. Seeing someone well is a powerfully creative act.”

“The roots of resilience” the psychologist Diana Fosha writes, “are to be found in the sense of being understood by and existing in the mind and heart of a loving, attuned, and self-possessed other.” In how you see me, I will learn to see myself.

“In every crowd there are Diminishers and there are Illuminators. Diminishers make people feel small and unsees. Illuminators, on the other hand, have a persistent curiosity about other people.”

“To be able to understand people and be present for them in their experience– that”s the most important thing in the world.”

“Accompaniment Is an other-centered way of moving through life. When you’re accompanying someone, you’re in a state of relaxed awareness — attentive and sensitive and unhurried.”

“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” (Anais Nin)

“The greatest thing a person does is to take the lessons of life, the hard knocks of life, the surprises of life, and the mundane realities of life and refine their own consciousness so that they can gradually come to see the world with more understanding, more wisdom, more humanity, and more grace.”

I’ve been chewing on this idea for awhile, and find myself praying with hope that I can grow to be more gracious, generous, and welcoming as I grow older. Challenges abound as life and culture change around me.

Richard Rohr, in his seminal work Falling Upward, talks about a second half of life as a spiritual journey where we become more playful, open, and willing to surrender control — very much like a child. Jesus talks about this idea of receiving the Kingdom of God like a child. A Child approaches the world with wonder and trust, not certainty.

Wondering about all of this, Bonnie and I often reflect our hope together that we can grow old while we grow more generous, inclusive, and in touch with grace. The alternative is to find life’s ending chapters to grow in bitterness, regret, and disdain.

What do you think? How do you reflect on your life’s trajectory?

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

Learning Our Story

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Today’s blog post is written by Pastor Jen.

For years now, I have been hearing a repeated request from adults in our church: we want an adult confirmation class.

Not the part, mind you, where they have to write faith statements or undertake a project, speak before the congregation, dress up for pictures, but the kind where they get to learn about who we are and what we believe. As Christians, and also as members of the Covenant Church.

This desire has been voiced to me multiple times, from multiple people, over multiple years. And I haven’t exactly known where to start. An entire year devoted to studying scripture seems…daunting. (And flies in the face of most of my accumulated knowledge about what works well, which is short units of different topics.) A deep theological dive would appeal to some, and surely not to others.

But over the last six weeks, our Sunday School class has been working on identifying and telling our own individual stories of faith, and it inspired me with this approach to beginning our adult confirmation class: to reach out to some local friends and experts who can help us with our collective story of faith.

So I invite you to join us over the next couple of months in Adult Sunday School as we start to learn some of our story as a faith community. To embark, if you will, on our adult confirmation class.

We will begin on Sunday with a visit from North Park University’s Mark Safstrom, who will lead us in “Reading with the Mission Friends,” a session on using scripture and other traditional texts to understand how Covenant ethos has been and continues to be shaped.

Mark will return on March 30 with another session, “Singing with the Mission Friends,” where he and Royce Eckhardt will lead us in a time of talking and singing our way through selections from the Covenant Hymnal that, in Mark’s words, “celebrate the immigrant experience as pilgrimage.” (All ages are welcome to this class; other age-specific classes will not meet that day in light of spring break.)

I’ll be back at the end of the month with more about our other coming speakers, Royce and also Hauna Ondrey of NPU. I hope you’ll come, maybe bring a friend, and I am certain that you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of our Covenant roots and identity.

yours,

Pastor Jen

Dates to save on your calendar and come to Adult Sunday School:

March 16 – Mark Safstrom, “Reading with the Mission Friends”

March 23 – NO SUNDAY SCHOOL (in light of local schools’ spring break)

March 30 – Mark Safstrom, “Singing with the Mission Friends” (All ages welcome.)

Encounter

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Our Guest Blogger Today is Rev. Denise Johnson, chaplain at Presbyterian Homes in Evanston.

During Lent this year, I’m using a devotional by Catholic priest and author Richard Rohr. In his introduction he challenges his readers to experience the Lenten season as an encounter with the divine. To remain open to receive new revelations. This seems a healthy and positive alternative to counter the increased vile and vicious discourse and retribution surrounding us lately.

These days we see a rather bleak landscape when we look outside, both physical and relational. However, this outer surface does not tell the whole story and covers what we know lies beneath.

We know there is a larger story to be told about who we are as individuals, as a community and as a nation. The superficial sheen of perceived greatness that is being touted does not speak to the sacrifice, determination and generosity of the human spirit present but often unseen and unheralded.

During this liturgical season, I would challenge us all to be open to an encounter with the divine, however you experience that. What lies beneath your surface? What can you uncover that tells a larger story of your life and your experiences. And how can you find ways to share that with others.

Ever-present Hope

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“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” (Romans 15:4) 

I wake up a lot of mornings with hymn tune humming in my spirit. This morning it was How Can I Keep From Singing? (Covenant Hymnal 469). It’s first verse is beautifully, this:

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation. I hear the real, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to the rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

The text first appeared in print in the New York Observer, 1868, titled “Always Rejoicing”, and attributed to “Pauline T”. A Baptist pastor, Robert Lowry, adapted an old American folk tune rooted in the Quaker tradition. The hymn juxtaposes the burdens of human life with the hope and joy that faith gives:

Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing; it sounds and echoes in my soul. How can I keep from singing? No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

There is no illusion here, no glossing over life’s sorrows, but rather an ability to embrace them in the larger context of God’s presence and promises. The image of being unable to keep from singing praise to God whatever else may be at play is powerful:

When tyrants trembles sick with fear, and hear their death knells ringing; when friends rejoice both far and near, how can I keep from singing? No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

That powerful refrain in it’s repetitiveness invites my spirit into first listening, and hearing a spiritual song off in the distance, a hymn about everything being made new, and this becomes the drumbeat of hope for me that causes my own spirit to sing. It’s a deeply personal and soothing hope:

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing. All things are mine since I am his. How can I keep from singing? No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock I’m clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

Listen today, take a moment and stop and turn your face toward the warm sun, and listen for the real and far-off hymn. They sing endlessly, “Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, Christ is Lord of heaven and earth!” Can you hear the endless song, riding on the wind? And having listened and heard, now Sing! Sing! And find a real and lasting hope, right where you are, that holds you through all life’s sorrows.

Thanks be to our God, who loves us and is with us now and forever. Amen.

Peter Hawkinson

Interfaith — Vigorously, and Neighborly!

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Gathered from various faiths, we give thanks for our common dream: homes and schools where children thrive, neighborhoods that are safe and clean, societies rich in colors and cultures, a beloved community where no one is expendable.

As we leave this place, we pledge: to realize this dream in our daily living, turning our thoughts toward charity, our hearts toward justice, and our hands toward the work of peace.

Shanti, Shalom, Salaam, Amen. (Interfaith Benediction, Gary Kowalski)

This common prayer above was our closing benediction at the New Trier Multi-Faith Alliance Interfaith thanksgiving service. the most moving moment of the whole gathering, it has remained with me — figuratively, and literally — as I made a bookmark out of it for one of my bibles. It seems more than anything else being tossed around these days to summarize well our American cultural religious idea that the founders had in mind. Though the new nation would be made up of predominantly Christians, the idea was to create a society of religious freedom nurturing diversity of belief and freedom of expression, and that this diverse population would live together as neighbors in peace.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is how the first amendment to the constitution says it. The 14th Amendment requires states to uphold the First Amendment’s separation of church and state, which prohibits the government from establishing a national religion. In other words, a predominantly Christian nation will recognize, honor and protect the freedom of others who hold another religious faith. This was and is a courageous and inclusive posture adopted by the majority to honor and protect the minority. It’s important for us to reflect on this idea and re-commit ourselves to it anew in these days.

But there’s more! And maybe the most courageous idea is that we might and can choose to live together in peace, not siphoned off from each other, but together. It’s quite a rich and wonderful reality that I live on Lockerbie Lane with Jewish, Muslim, and Bahai friends.

This interfaith idea is not milquetoast in nature. That is, we are all invited in the American experiment to be vigorously who we are religiously, and to dialogue and even witness to our faith in the cultural marketplace. This has been wonderfully modeled by the New Trier Multi-faith Alliance in our own community. In their gatherings over the last twenty-five years never once have I felt the need to compromise my own tradition, beliefs, or witness. One leader after another has always said, “Let’s each be vigorously who we are”, and “Let’s respect and learn from one another” and “Let’s recognize many of the same dreams values we share.” Peace. Chances for our kids to thrive. Friendship as human beings who are neighbors.

This posture and practice in our community is needed now more than ever! And while the fundamental and fanatical fringes of every faith tradition works against this way of life, the vast majority of us must renew our commitment to love and respect each other. And for us who remain the large majority religiously in our country, our task yet remains to protect, defend, and honor the freedom of others to worship God in their own way.

Some years ago now when Muslim fanatics came to find and kill Christians praying in Tahrir square in Cairo, Egypt, It was Muslim worshippers who came out of their mosque to circle around the Christians, holding hands to make a barrier and protect them. The fanatics watched as then, the Christians switched places and circled a protection around their Muslim sisters and brothers. And you might say it was all to no avail, as together those Muslims and Christians were slaughtered. But the neighbor love sparkled there, as these God-fearers all layed down their lives for one another.

“No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” said Jesus. (John 15:13) And Jesus had many friends of other faiths, and friends with no faith at all. So should we. And while we don’t live in a culture where we as Christians face such hatred and violence, we must realize and grieve that so many of our Jewish and Muslim neighbors do. Let’s honor their religious freedom, love them by breaking bread together, and protect them from hatred, even some of which comes from our own Christian community.

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson