Vol. 32, No. 3 SPRING May 2018

Sunday School — 9:00 a.m. www.beaverlutheranchurch.org Holy Communion — 10:15 a.m.

18207 Route 522, Beavertown, PA 17813

An Egg-cellent Day for Hunting

Beaver Lutheran Church

COMMENTARY

The Lord provided a beautiful spring afternoon

for our annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday,

March 31. It was a much-needed respite from

the cold and dreary week that proceeded it.

The church lawn was filled with brightly col-

ored eggs and the sounds of young children could be heard ex-

periencing one of Beaver Lutheran’s Easter traditions.

The eggs were hidden in areas around the church for various

age groups, from birth through 12. The Youth Group helped out

by hiding the eggs for the younger children.

Snacks were provided by the Fellowship Committee, headed by Bobbie Goss, for those who attended.

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Members of Beaver Lutheran Church and Messiah Lu-

theran Church in Troxelville gathered together during

Holy Week and Easter. Thursday evening, services were

held at Beaver with Pastor Matthew Schuster washing

the feet of our three Confirmands (Corinne Beaver, Lana Plummer

and Vaughn Phelps).

Friday evening saw folks gather at Messiah for a beautiful and mov-

ing Tenebrae service.

Sunday morning a Sunrise Service was held at Messiah for both congregations, who were then invited to

Beaver for a breakfast before celebrating the Resurrection of Our Lord. One hundred forty-two people

attended that service.

A combined choir sang Thursday and Friday evenings as well as the 9:30 service on Easter Sunday.

Holy Week and Easter Day Services

A Prayer Room was made up for use during Holy Week by the Worship and

Music Committee in the first Sunday School room in the Education Wing.

The room was set aside for those using it to be in communion with God

through prayer, meditation, confession and reflection. They were wel-

comed to light a candle, write a prayer or bring a photograph and place it

on the Prayer Wall, read a passage from the Bible or simply sit and “be

still.” We hope to make this an annual tradition.

Prayer Room

On Easter Sunday we blessed and

began using the Pew Bibles that

were purchased by members of the

congregation. If you would like to

purchase a Bible in memory of or in

honor of a loved one, or to the Glory of God, you

may still do so. We will continue to take orders

and another order will be placed. Order envelopes

are located on the table in the narthex.

Pew Bibles Are Now In Use The Church Council reviewed and

compared the PPL bills from Jan-

uary 2017 to March 2017 with Jan-

uary 2018 to March 2018 and

have found that since installing the new heating

and cooling system and new windows, there is a

33% reduction in our electric bills. The heating

costs from that time period last year was

$3,252.64. This year the cost for the same time pe-

riod was $2,178.88.

Heating Costs are Down!

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Camp Mount Luther The deadline to have your early regis-trations in to attend Camp Mount Lu-ther this summer is NOW. You can find registration forms on the camp’s web-site (www.campmountluther.org) or

see Mike Frye or Bobbie Goss.

An Open House for first-timers is planned at the

camp near Mifflinburg on April 22 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Divot’s Restaurant at Shade Mountain

Golf Club in Middleburg, donated 10

percent of their profits on Friday, April

13 to our Youth Group. The Youth

Group would like to thank the man-

agement of Divot’s for offering to do the fundrais-

er, as well as those who attended that evening.

Divot’s will donate $100 to the youth.

Thanks for Your Help!

Looking for Your Graduates Graduation time is upon us! If you

have a loved one who is graduat-

ing high school or another school

of higher learning this Spring,

please contact the office so your

loved one can be recognized.

Graduates will be featured in next month’s “Commentary”. A brief bio of your child, their school, activities and plans for the future, as well as a nice color photograph is needed. Please have this information to the Parish Secretary no later than Monday, May 21. You may email your infor-mation to: secretary.beaverlc@verizon.net or you may drop the information off at the office. Your photograph will be scanned and returned.

Desk For Sale A member of

the communi-

ty has donated

a very nice,

slightly used

computer desk

to Beaver’s

Youth Group.

It is being

offered for

sale for $125. All proceeds will go toward the ex-

penses of the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering. The

desk is located in the Education Wing hallway. If

you are interested, please see Leslie Feehrer or

Bryon Beaver.

Spaghetti Supper Raises Funds for Youth Gathering A spaghetti supper was held March 24 by the youth

of our church. A total of $720 was raised that even-

ing. Money raised will go to the Youth Gathering

expenses. The youth would like to thank all that

helped in any way.

Pictured are: (front, l-r) Lauryn Goss, Corinne Bea-

ver, Lana Plummer, Leslie Feehrer and Vaughn

Phelps; (back, l-r) Bryon Beaver, Gavin Goss, Alex

Beaver, Alex Hockenberry, and Dee Hockenberry.

Alex B., Alex H., Lauryn and Gavin will be attending

the Youth Gathering in Houston. Bryon and Leslie

are their advisors.

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In Loving Memory

Evelyn L.

Norman January 4, 1920 — March 18, 2018

We extend our sympathy to her two sons and daughter-in-law,

Gary, Jeff and Marianne; brother Paul; and her grandchildren,

great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

Rest eternal grant her, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon her.

In Loving Memory

Irene L.

Hetrick June 23, 1937 — April 1, 2018

We extend our sympathy to her nephews,

Alton, Theodore and Greg; nieces, Pamala and Adrienne;

and her “daughter of her heart” Vonnie;

and their families.

Rest eternal grant her, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon her.

With Sympathy We extend our deepest sympathy to Leon Bickhart and Albert Bickhart and families.

Leon and Albert’s sister, Barbara Haines, passed away recently. Our Heavenly Father

is no stranger to sorrow. He sees and understands your pain. May you sense his lov-

ing hand and be comforted. Please pray for the Bickhart and Haines families during

this time of sorrow.

Bir

thd

ays

& A

nn

iver

sari

es

May birthdays include: •Jenelle VanHorn, May 6 •Jill Kline and Morgan Stone, May 7 •Stacey Keefer and Skyler Sassaman, May 15 •Jeffrey Markley, May 17 •Leon Bickhart and Erman Lepley, May 20 •Chelsea Krebs, May 22 •Ty Benner and Maggie Etzler, May 23 •Thomas Rigel, May 26 •Betsy Ann Klingler, May 28 •Jean Melton, May 31

May anniversaries

include:

•Craig & Greta Wagner,

May 2

•Glenn & Jocelyn Royer,

May 23

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Come Again?? By the Rev. Matthew Schuster

This year the month of May features not one, but two major festivals of the Church, the Festival of Pentecost and the Festival of the Holy Trinity. These special celebrations are the final two major festivals of the Church year, and, like the other four major feasts, they are what are known as ‘Christological’ festivals. A Christological festival commemorates and cele-brates major events in the life of Jesus Christ. On Pentecost we of course re-call the fulfillment of the resurrected and ascended Christ’s promise to send the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. On Holy Trinity, meanwhile, we celebrate the greatest mystery of all—the revelation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—but specifically we pause to wonder at the fact that, as the Athanasian Creed puts it, ‘God has taken humanity into Himself.’ The major festivals are tied together in that they all celebrate different aspects of the world’s second greatest mystery: that of the two natures, human and divine, of Jesus Christ.

How can Jesus be both wholly God and fully man at one and the same time? Theologians have wrestled with this question for centuries, and not always with much success. Many have affirmed Christ’s humanity at the sake of sacrificing His divinity; others have strongly defended Christ’s status as God at the cost of His human reality. (There are many intertwining and very complex heresies and errors regarding this is-sue, but space prohibits us from exploring them now.) The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. codified the doc-trine of Christ’s two natures, and their resulting Creed was refined somewhat by the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. We confess said Creed throughout the seasons of Christmas, Epiphany, and Easter, and on every major and most minor festival days. But do we really understand what we’re confessing in the Sec-ond Article of the Creeds? After all, we’re saying that we believe in something that appears to be an im-possibility, or at least which utterly defies reason.

One of the greatest thinkers of the early Church was a man named Gregory of Nazianzus, who lived from 330-389. Here is one of his reflections on the great mystery of Christ’s two natures:

“As man [Jesus] was baptized, but He absolved sins as God; He needed no purifying rites Him-self—His purpose was to hallow water. As man He was put to the test, but as God he came through victo-rious—yet bids us be of good cheer, because He has conquered the world. He hungered—yet He fed thousands. He is indeed ‘living, heavenly bread.’ He thirsted—yet He exclaimed: ‘Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’ Indeed He promised that believers would become fountains. He was tired — yet He is the ‘rest’ of the weary and burdened. He was overcome by heavy sleep—yet He goes lightly over the sea, rebukes winds, and relieves the drowning Peter. He pays tax—yet He uses a fish to do it, indeed He is emperor over those who demand the tax. He is called a ‘Samaritan, demonically possessed’—but He rescues the man who came down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves. Yes, He is recognized by de-mons, drives out demons, drowns deep a legion of spirits and sees the prince of demons falling like light-ning. He is stoned, yet not hit, He prays yet He hears prayer. He weeps, yet He puts an end to weeping. He asks where Lazarus is—He was man; yet He raises Lazarus—He was God. He is sold, and cheap was the price—thirty pieces of silver, yet He buys back the world at the mighty cost of His own blood. A sheep, He is led to the slaughter—yet He shepherds Israel and now the whole world as well. A lamb, He is

Continued

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dumb—yet He is ‘word,’ proclaimed by ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ He is weakened, wounded—yet He cures every disease and every weakness. He is brought up to the tree and nailed to it—yet by the tree of life He restores us. Yes, He saves even a thief crucified with Him; He wraps all the visible world in darkness. He is given vinegar to drink, gall to eat—and who is He? Why, one who turned water into wine, who took away the taste of bitterness, who is all sweetness and desire. He surrenders His life, yet He has power to take it again. Yes, the veil is rent, for things of heaven are being revealed, rocks split, and dead men have an earlier awakening. He dies, but He vivifies, goes down to Hades, yet He leads souls up, ascends to heaven, and will come again to judge quick and dead, and to probe discussions like these. If the first set of expressions starts you going astray, the second set takes your error away.”

Does Gregory explain to us the mystery? No. He instead shows that the Gospels simply affirm that it is true.

What relevance do this obscure doctrine and these difficult-to-understand (to say the least) festi-vals have to our daily lives as Christians? Simply this. The fact that Christ Jesus is simultaneously fully di-vine and completely human means that there is no aspect of human life that has not been redeemed in Him. There is no hidden little corner of our sin-broken reality that has not been healed through the sacri-fice of the God-Man, Jesus. There is no portion of us that is beyond the reach of God’s divine cleansing power. The wonder of the Holy Trinity is that, as one of my wise old seminary professors used to say, “When you’re talking to Jesus, you’re talking to headquarters.” And the wonder of Pentecost is that the risen, ascended, two-natured Christ remains present with us in and through the power of the Holy Spirit. The incarnate Son of God is always with us, forgiving us our sins, making us slowly but steadily more ho-ly—and someday, ushering us to heaven where He lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Pax!

Our Supply List

Scheduled to fill the pulpit the month of May are:

†May 6: Rev. Robert Logan

†May 13: Amy Shuck, ALWL

†May 20 (Pentecost): Rev. Matthew Schuster

†May 27 (Holy Trinity): Rev. Dr. Thomas Martin

Church Office Closed

The Church Office will be Closed Monday,

May 28 in Observance of Memorial Day.

Please take some time to reflect on the sacri-

fices so many men and women have made to

protect our freedoms.