Voice of Hope. Hope Lutheran Church 2882 Arlington Avenue Riverside, CA A Publication of Hope Lutheran Church. September 2015 Volume 17 Issue 8

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1 Voice of Hope A Publication of Hope Lutheran Church September 2015 Volume 17 Issue 8 A Congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Hope Lutheran Church 2882 Arlington Avenue Riverside, CA Pastor: The Rev. Jacob Burkman Office Manager: Kris Sawyer Office: (951) Fax: (951) Office Hours: Monday Friday 9 a.m. 1 p.m. Web Address: Pastor: hoperscapr@att.net Office: hoperiverside@att.net Worship Schedule: Sunday Worship Service: 9:00 a.m. Education Schedule: Classes will resume September 20 Mission Statement: At Hope Lutheran Church, Riverside, Jesus Christ leads us To welcome and respect all people, To grow in our whole being as gospel ministers, To equip children for life in the Christian heritage, To serve basic human needs in our community, And to worship God in word, in song, and in life. Now the LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). It is September, and that should mean that something new is about to happen, as something new was happening to Abram (he d later become Abraham), as he was being sent from all that he had known into a new (and unknown) place with nothing to go on other than a promise. In many ways, we are very similar; we go into an unknown future with nothing other than God s promise with us: as a community of faith, as people of faith, and as people. The future is always unknown; it is this odd mixture of exciting and scary because we don t know what will come next. We face this as a congregation: while we try to discern what God is moving us towards, we don t really know. We ve had our struggles that makes the future a little bit scary; but we also can see new life all around especially with the addition of Big Springs and the continuing nourishment of Word, Worship and fellowship that makes the future exciting. We do not know what tomorrow will bring; however, as people of faith, we trust that God is guiding tomorrow into being. Yet, on some smaller scale, we can see and say what is going to happen as we move into this fall season, and I want to highlight a few of these below. I began with a quote from the book of Genesis the covenant God made with Abram for several reasons. One reason is the already mentioned going out into the future with little other than God s promise to sustain us. Another reason is because the Adult Forum (which will begin on September 20) this fall is going to be focusing on the book of Genesis. Since I generally feel that Genesis is too long (it s 50 chapters, or nearly 70 pages in my Bible) to cover as we have typically been (Continued on next page)

2 (continued from front page) covering books of the Bible in Adult Forum, we will be using Augsburg Fortress s Book of Faith Bible study series to narrow this down to some of the key, foundational stories in this, the first book of the cannon. I have to say that I m really quite excited about this because Genesis is one of my favorite books in the Bible (and definitely favorite as far as reading in the Old Testament). Over this eight week period (that, due to other events, will likely take us into December) we will have the opportunity to explore this foundational text (there are reasons why it s at the beginning besides just when God began to create ) of our combined Judeo- Christian heritage in its narrative story, in its theology, and in its structure. I also started with the Genesis passage because there is a strong sense of change in it: Abram is being called to leave behind the world that he knew into something different. There is also a degree of this happening as we move into September. For a little over two years, we have been gathering on Thursday mornings at Coco s for a study of the upcoming Sunday s text. While those who have attended this have often spoken of its value when it comes to hearing the texts (and the sermon) on Sunday morning for it is not the first time that they have grappled with them the number of people attending this event has declined to three of us. The last Thursday morning text study will take place on Thursday, September 10. Now, I happen to like this study too much to get rid of it, and I have seen how well attended our Monday evening study has been during this summer. So, we are going to try something new: we are going to essentially keep the format of the Thursday morning study of the upcoming Sunday s texts, but we are going to move that to Wednesday evenings. This will take place off-campus at an eating establishment(s) TBA. (I m open to suggestions, and it could be possible that these would rotate.) The time will be the same as we ve been using on Monday evenings: 6:00 pm and conclude by 7:30. In the midst of this hour and half we will have time for studying the texts, eating and fellowship. This will begin on Wednesday, September 16 and run for five weeks (through October 14), and then be re-evaluated (it may stop, or continue indefinitely). Keep your eyes and ears open to announcements in church, on our website and facebook page for meeting locations. Despite how it seemed like God was sending Abram off with no connections to what he previously had, if we read a bit farther in the Genesis text, we see that this is not the case: he had Lot, Sarai, and all sorts of possessions with him. Thus it is good to keep some consistency, and the place where we will find that consistency is in the liturgy. Yes, it s that time of year when we again change liturgy. However, the liturgy to which we are changing is very familiar back to the tried and true Setting 3 (for those of you still on LBW terminology this is Setting 1) as we continue through the latter half of the Time after Pentecost. May Christ walk with us into our future. Pastor Jacob Save the Date! California Baptist University Choir Sunday, October 4 at our 9:00 a.m. Worship Service Followed by Brunch!

3 News from Our Council President Travel tidbits and a thought. Over the past year, Mickey and I have traveled to the Grand Canyon and recently to Alaska (cruise and land adventure). Alaska Trip: Ketchikan: A very small town in South East Alaska. They measure annual rainfall in feet. Someone had the idea to build a large pipeline to bring rain water from that area to California. They were laughed at. They are looking into that again. By the way, in SE Alaska the tide raises and recedes feet twice daily. Very impressive. Juneau: The capital of Alaska. So, why Juneau.well, the gold rush made the population swell and it was a very important part of Alaska thus selected as the capital. Juneau trivia: it is the only capital in the USA that you cannot drive to. No roads in and it is quite remote. Glacier Bay: WOW, so impressive. While we were in there viewing the Margerie glacier, we had the chance to see it calving (when the large chunks of ice fall from the face of the glacier). It sounded like thunder and was very beautiful to watch. The snow that falls in the mountains above the glacier compacts and then is condensed into ice and it moves through the main part of the glacier. This very slow process can take thousands of years before that ice gets to the face of the glacier. Denali National Park: Mt. McKinley or Mt. Denali (as it is called up there) is 20,320 feet. It is covered by clouds most of the time but we were very lucky to be able to view it. Mickey has a shirt to verify the sighting. The mountain was snowcapped, to be sure, and very beautiful. I had the sense in both the Grand Canyon and Alaska that God was showing us his handiwork. These places are like pieces of art that he uses to decorate his creation. Else: Another event happened while on the cruise. The ship published an event sheet that gave us an idea of what was happening aboard the ship daily. I saw a veterans gathering in one of the gathering places on the ship. Ok, it was a bar. So I went and there were six of us plus a spouse and a daughter of one of the Vets. We all introduced ourselves and shared some experiences from our military service. They were vast experiences indeed, from Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and WW II. The gent from WW II served in the Army in Europe in Bob was his name. As Bob shared his thoughts he welled up and soon there was not a dry eye amongst us all. His daughter told us that this meant so much to him, to be able to share his experiences with those of us with a common heritage in the military. That meeting with those Vets was very rewarding for me. I am sure that there were many more Vets aboard but they did not take part in this event, sad. My thought is this: God has not brought Hope Lutheran and/or His church this far just to say Ok, you are on your own now. We will continue to move onward, with God. Bill Brethauer

4 News from Social Concerns Guest Chef Hope s August chefs prepared a delicious dinner of seasoned chicken, spaghetti, salad and ice cream. We served in the neighborhood of 111 people. Sara Mills, our newest chef, went with us to the family shelter and said she enjoyed her experience. Our chefs for the month included: Pr. Jacob, Larry Dodson, Larry Kleven, Johnnie Corina, Sue Richards, Sara Mills, Shawn Lowell and myself. Christmas in July Thank you to all of you for making Christmas in July project a success. Larry Kleven took quite a bit of food to Genesis Shelter pantry every week. We really filled up the shelves. Bottle Cap Collection We are saving water bottle caps and other beverage bottle caps for Luther Glen s God s Work, Our Hands Day on September 13. There is a basket in the narthex for your caps. God s Work. Our Hands The church council has decided to do God s Work. Our Hands Day at the Hulen Place shelter. We won t work on Sept 13th as the staff doesn t working on Sunday. We will pick a day during the week to cleanup, sweep and other chores. The date will be announced for a day in September. LSS Walkathon October 3rd has been set for the Lutheran Social Services annual Walkathon. All walkers need to be at our church by 7:30 a.m. for registration. The walk begins at 8:00 a.m. Walker packets will be available by mid- September. Central City Lutheran Mission has merged with LSS Community Care. This merger will help strengthen the ministry and extend the outreach of both organizations. Submitted by, Carol Haffter June 2015 Year-to-Date Total Income: $12, $156, Total Expense: $14, $148, Difference: -$2, $8, Average Worship Attendance for June 2015: 46 July 2015 Year-to-Date Total Income: $11, $168, Total Expense: $14, $162, Difference: -$2, $6, Average Worship Attendance for July 2015: 42 Please keep our church leaders in prayer as they gather for a day of planning, study and team building on Saturday, September 12. We thank God for Hope s strong church leadership and each Council member s commitment to God and the people of Hope.

5 News from Congregational Life An Evening at the Theatre! Hope members are invited to special event planned for Wednesday, September 16. Please join us at the Riverside Community Players theatre for the production of: Don't Dress for Dinner A comedy by Marc Camoletti Adapted by Robin Hawdon Play Synopsis: Bernard is preparing to entertain his beautiful Parisian mistress for the weekend while his wife, Jacqueline, is off to visit her mother. All is arranged - his best friend Robert will provide a suitable alibi and a cordon bleu cook will be preparing the dinner. A foolproof plan until Jacqueline decides to stay home. Robert then mistakes the cook for the mistress and the mistress cannot cook. Bernard and Robert improvise at breakneck speed providing an evening of hilarious confusion. Tickets are $ The evening begins with a wine reception. There will be a sign-up sheet in the narthex. Please see Larry Stumpf for more information. News from Property Management Big Springs Educational Therapy & School began classes on Monday, August 31 on the campus of Hope. In order to bring the classrooms up to code, lights, exit signs and smoke detectors were installed. Dindy Wheelock, the lead teacher of Big Springs School told me that the children pledge allegiance to the flag every morning. But there was no flag at Hope. This moved me so much, that I purchased a flag and installed it by the mailbox next to the parking lot. A dedication ceremony is set for Tuesday, September 8. Some members of my Marine unit will help in the dedication and school director, Chris Huscher, will dedicate the flag for the school. Del Petersen BIBLE HUMOR We take Scripture seriously, of course, but God also gave us the ability to laugh. Enjoy these Bible-based riddles: Q: Who was the fastest runner in the Bible? A: Adam. He was first in the human race. Q: Where is baseball played in the Bible? A: Genesis 1:1 reads In the big inning. Then Eve stole first, and Adam stole second. Cain struck out Abel, and soon everything was rained out. Q: Who was the best financier in the Bible? A: Pharaoh s daughter. She went to the Nile bank and pulled out a little prophet. Q: What was Boaz like before he got married? A: Ruthless.

6 Hope Lutheran Church 2882 Arlington Avenue Riverside, CA Dinner Bible Study Wednesday Evenings at 6:00 p.m. Beginning September 16 Where: Location to be Announced Join Pastor Jacob for dinner, fellowship and a study of the upcoming Sunday s texts. The Book of Genesis Classes begin Sunday, Sept :30 a.m. Explore the foundational texts. Discover our Judeo-Christian heritage through story, theology & structure.