Grace Notes, August 24, 2011

Today is the 6 month anniversary of my shoulder surgery. I remember
writing in Lenten grace notes that I had made peace with the night and
began to find the awake time useful for prayer. While that did indeed
become a gift, I am thankful that I have now enjoyed full nights of sleep
for several months! There are just times in life we think we'll never
endure.

What have you struggled in your life to endure? I can think of dozens of
possibilities, everything from pregnancy, broken relationships, physical
disabilities, death of a loved one, mental illness, your job or lack of
one – the list goes on and on. When my father was in Oakcrest Care
Center, I thought his suffering would never end. I couldn't imagine his
body becoming any weaker, until the wee hours of a Mother's Day morning
when it was finally over and his soul was set free. I had clung to the
promise that God is always about life in the face of death, and I searched
for what good could come from his time of suffering. Little by little God
has revealed to me some of the blessing of that time. Our relationship
changed as Dad lost more and more control. It was my turn to be his
advocate and help in his care, and in so doing I was able to find a
tenderness for him and forgiveness that hadn't always been easy. You see,
he was a wonderful man in so many ways, but he had a terrible temper and
fierce need to control that colored our home life. My sister and Mom and
I would often say "if only he would control his temper!"

My physical therapist tells me I'm doing great but will soon reach the
ceiling of what movement I can attain due to the extent of the rotator
cuff injury I had. I've got good range of motion but not very much
strength to keep the arm above my waist for very long – that's the main
thing I'm working on in physical therapy. The surgeon said it would be a
6-9 month recovery period and my arm would never be what it once was, but
I would have no pain and could still use the arm for many things. So now
I am learning to adapt. When I can't get my arm high enough to write on
the board, I put it up there with my other arm and it will stay for
awhile. I don't try to grab a gallon of milk unless it is right in front
of me. I protect that arm from being jerked or strained. It doesn't seem
so much a part of me as it used to when I didn't question what it could
do. Now it's more like something attached to my body that I have to take
care of. I'll bet many of you can relate, and more of you will as your
body ages or you work through the injuries of an accident.

Here are a couple of helpful Bible passages to focus on when you think you
can't endure what you're going through. The first one is from James 1:
2-4, and I'm using The Message version by Eugene Peterson since it is
such plain language:
 2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at
you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is
forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of
anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and
well-developed, not deficient in any way.

The second passage is from I Corinthians 10: 13 -  
13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what
others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never
let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always
be there to help you come through it.

This time of transition at Salem might seem like a time to endure, but
there will be gifts in it as well. Maybe we'll find our relationships
changing some as we are called to greater or different responsibilities.
Maybe we'll seek the Lord more in prayer. Maybe we'll find ways to adapt.
Maybe we'll discover things about ourselves we never knew or things about
the Lord as we hear God's Word through a new vessel.
Let's open ourselves to what God will work in us the next few months and
years as we learn from new leaders and look at our strengths and
weaknesses as a congregation. We'll never be what we were – God is always
doing a new thing and bringing life from death. Hallelujah. We're in
good hands, for the very hands that created the heavens from nothing longs
to hold our hand and heart.
God be with you. God is with you.

Carla Vanatta, Associate in Ministry
Salem Lutheran Church, Sycamore, IL
Salem Opportunities:
· Share your bread – bring a gift for Salem's food pantry ministry
· Pray for the sick, lonely, discouraged, exhausted as well as family,
friends, church, government
· Worship at 5,8,10:30 this weekend as Diaconal Minister Judy Bergeson
brings the Word
· Make time in your schedule to serve – check the bulletin announcements
and say "yes".

Addendum to Grace Notes, August 18, 2011

p.s. Sorry! I forgot to sign my name to Grace Notes from last week,
August 18:
Judy Bergeson, Diaconal Minister, Salem Lutheran

THIS WEEKEND August 20 & 21st:
All who attend services this weekend are invited to take the Panda Express
coupon from the announcements and eat there on Sunday between 11 and 9 PM!
20% of your tab will go to Salem's Food Pantry, which is in need of
donations be they food or checks. From August 1st till August 18th, we
have served 90 people! That means a lot of hungry children, so thank God
and thank you for keeping those shelves stocked!

Salem's Grief Support Group meets again Sunday, August 28 from 3 till 4:30
PM. All are welcome.

Diakonia is a two-year program of lay spiritual formation taught by area
pastors & church leaders for anyone interested in deepening their
knowledge of church history, theology, and faith practices. Further
information is in the Welcome Center.

Rally Day is coming September 11!!! It will be great to start a new year
together!!! AND to remember together 10 years ago where we were when the
Twin Towers, part of the Pentagon, and Flight 93 were destroyed and
changed our world.

Church Photos coming up! Please sign up to have you and your family's
picture in the Church Directory, which is needed! September 22 - 24, and
September 26 - 28 are the dates photographers will be here.

Grace Notes August 18, 2011

On a summer morning
I sat down
On a hillside
To think about God - - -

A worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
A single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

It will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.

Mary Oliver, the contemporary poet who wrote this marvelous reassuring
poem, titled it "Song of the Builders". Do you know how you strain to
find the right word or phrase sometimes? How something is so beautiful or
so moving or so enraging that we say, "words fail me"? I think poets and
pastors, if they are really good, find those words for us and that's what
make them loved. They seem to be talking to our very souls. Their words,
their stories hold our attention from beginning to end and as we silently
listen, we say, yes, yes, that's how it is. We say, how did you know? We
say laughingly, have you been following me around? You captured my
thoughts, my confused, jumbled, mixed-up thoughts and put them in order
and gave them their meaning. I am so grateful, we say to ourselves. I
have to read this again or I have to listen to this pastor again. The
poets' words and the pastors' words can be so compelling that we learn
what it is to focus, focus on the writer or speaker solely. No
multi-tasking, no folding laundry, no quiet list-making, just stillness as
we absorb these words of ours, our very own, if we but had the skill to
put them together. Our ears quiver in attention. Our hands fold and stay
there. We are graciously, blessedly intent.

It is so hard to lose a beloved pastor. The mind says I understand, and
we do. The heart says but no, not yet please. We need more of you and
your words. And this grief of loss is heavy and dark. The mind says
please let me go to bed and curl up and be wordless for a while. The
heart says no, no, honor her wishes, honor our Lord's wishes, to continue,
to embrace "different", to change. We can do this. We are well-schooled,
we know we are God's children, God's disciples, God's people. We know
that God is everlasting, God is present forever, God expects us, as Ms.
Oliver says, to go on in our inexplicable ways building the universe.

May it be so for each of us.
Amen.

Grace Notes, August 11, 2011

"I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers."
Ephesians 1:16

I wasn't going to walk this morning. I have too much to do: boxes left to
pack, a computer left to clean off, too, too much on my mind. I wasn't
going to walk and yet I know that not only is it my best
praying/thinking/"writing" time, it's just plain good for me. So at a
little after 6 I set out --- marveling as I stepped out the door at the
brisk air, reminding me that autumn is just around the corner. I headed
down Meadow Lane, but took a left instead of heading towards the bike
path, letting my feet just carry me where they would. I walked some
streets I had driven before ----- remembering then how much more I notice
on foot than when I'm thinking ahead to whatever errand has called me.
And I found myself surprised as I walked a sidewalk I know I had been on
dozens of times before and noticed something that has to have been there
for a long time. I looked down to see little squiggle marks embedded in
the cement. It looked like dozens of worms had crawled there when the
cement was still wet…. Leaving their marks for all of time: or at least
until someone sees fit to break it up and replace it.

And I wondered then about the marks we leave behind ---- for good and bad,
to be sure. And I wondered especially at that which seems to be embedded
deep within the human soul: that yearning, when all else is said and done,
to have made a difference. There are lives, to be sure, where the
'difference' is obvious. For those who build highways or buildings, for
those who write books or scholarly articles, for those who farm and feed
the world, for those who heal the human body the difference if obvious.
For those of us --- we teachers and parents and social workers and pastors
and others who work with people? The difference can be a little harder to
measure. At least I know I find myself wondering sometimes --- hoping it
has mattered. Perhaps you wonder sometimes, too.

As I wrap up my time as pastor of Salem, I want you to know that you have
made a difference, that you have made a mark. Every time you welcomed me
into your home, your life, your heart, it made a difference as you shared
your hopes, your hurts, your fears, your joys. Every birth, every death,
every illness, every struggle, every joy, every prayer you whispered in my
behalf or in behalf of the ministry we shared: all of this has shaped me
in ways that will make themselves known far into the future God has given
me. Hard to measure? Surely, it is. But it has worked to build my soul,
my spirit, my heart in ways that will live forever as I seek to pass on
the gifts that you have given me.

Over the next several weeks I will be writing thank you notes for your
kind expressions of gratitude for what we have shared. Consider this the
first of them. You have made a mark on me ---- more lasting even than
squiggly worms in cement. I have indeed known the profound goodness of
God in all that we have shared.

Peace to you and many blessings.

Pastor Janet

Coming Up at Salem:
The People of God gather for worship at 5 p.m. Saturday and at 8 and 10:30
on Sunday for worship. Home Bound Communion Ministers will be blessed and
sent at all three services.

It's not too late to think ahead to Rally Day on September 11th. Lots of
good things will be happening including hosting a Dixieland Band, a 9/11
Remembrance, and registration for Sunday School. If you've been thinking
about teaching or helping with Sunday School, call the church office
(815-895-9171)for more information on how to volunteer.

Grace Notes, August 8, 2011

As usual I struggled with my GraceNotes. This time I had a hard time
fitting them in until after the weekly deadlines for the bulletins and
announcements, letters, and the plans for Pastor's last weekend at Salem
were finished. And, yet again, a struggle with what to write about. As
it's Pastor Janet's last week here, I thought I would write a little about
her and our staff meetings.

It was originally Pastor Janet's idea to begin weekly devotions written by
the staff. I remember thinking, when she suggested it during a staff
meeting, that it would be a great idea to have staff members write
something each week -- my idea of "staff" being Pastor, Carla, and Judy.
Then, to my surprise, Pastor stated, well … you know Ron and you are also
"staff" members. I remember my immediate feeling of panic that I would
have to write something and write it as well as Pastor, Carla, and Judy
write. Then I thought maybe it would get easier for me the more times I
wrote. It never has. It was just one of the ways that Pastor has helped
us all to grow and stretch and better ourselves and communicate with each
other. I have never been a great one for journaling my feelings or
thoughts, but GraceNotes has, over time, come to be a great way to express
my feelings and thoughts and I now truly appreciate the opportunity to do
so.

Some of Pastor's "words of wisdom" from our staff meetings are:
"Push back" – Pastor sometimes makes a suggestion or expresses an idea and
then she asks us to "push back" at her with our thoughts. Sometimes we
agree with her, sometimes we don't. But the communication – the giving
and receiving of opinions is very important to how the staff works
together and it shows that all opinions and thoughts are valued. I think
that this shows good leadership.

"I'm making this up as I go" – Some of Pastor's greatest ideas and plans
for the future are first heard when she says this phrase. She has great
vision and an energy that makes people want to work hard to see the idea
come to fruition. This saying can be seen when she is doing her
children's sermons. Vision and energy are also marks of good leadership.
"What If?" – This is my favorite of all Pastor's sayings! It is as if she
is seeing what is to come. That phrase asks for your opinion, your
thoughts, yet lets you see what she is visioning for the future. It can
also be used to look at new ways of doing old things. What if we did it
this way? The visioning, the wondering, the asking are also signs of good
leadership.

Now, Pastor would not rate herself as a good leader, that that wouldn't be
one of her strongest assets. But I disagree, she is a great leader and we
will all miss her as our Pastor, our "boss," our friend. And we will need
to use all the gifts and the "words of wisdom" she has given us to see
that Salem remains a strong, vibrant community of faith where we all are
"Living Christ's Love."

With a Farewell and Godspeed to Pastor Janet --
and with a Grateful Heart,
Sue McMillan

Upcoming at Salem …

Worship Services on Saturday @ 5pm and Sundays @ 8am and 10:30 am.
Hospitality Hour - Sunday at 9:15 a.m.