 
 |
 |
Bishop's Messages
On Our Way Together
January 27, 2010
The Rev. Perucy Butiku, interim pastor of New Hope, Valley Stream, has been appointed as part-time Assistant to the Bishop for Ministries of African Descent. Pastor Butiku currently serves New Hope on a ¾ time basis; she will serve in this new position ¼ time. Pr. Butiku will - assist congregations and rostered leaders whose primary work is in and with African American and people of African descent communities;
- supervise and expand leadership training and development within all of our Lutheran ethnic communities, working especially with the Urban Leaders Institute and other administrative and programmatic opportunities in the synod;
- assist the congregations and other ministries of the synod in strengthening their own understanding of and work with various ethnic communities; and
- assist and work with the synod's newly-reactivated Multicultural Commission and its constitutional and programmatic tasks.
Pr. Butiku brings many gifts to this ministry. Our staff has already been graced with her wisdom and laughter. I look forward to continuing to serve with her. Bishop Robert Alan Rimbo
Christmas greetings December 18, 2009 As we gather again to celebrate the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, let Mary's song of praise fill us, our homes, our congregations, our cities and our world. May our souls magnify the Lord, and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior. God has looked on us with favor and all generations will call us blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for us. Holy is God’s name. Alleluia! Bishop Robert Alan Rimbo
Reflections for Difficult Days
October 19, 2009 This fall is filled with opportunities for me to be in congregations, with leaders, at celebrations and other less-than-celebratory gatherings. So I’ve been thinking a great deal about what it means to be the Church. We are living in difficult times. So much divides the church, pits Christian against Christian, in our synod, in our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in world Christianity. I’m afraid we have a tendency to focus not on what makes Christians one but on what severs us; not on what is attractive about us but what scandalizes. First Peter offers us a little room to breathe, a look at the broader, richer picture and a great place to stand. In the midst of Christians harassed by local populations, converts anxious about being aliens and strangers in a hostile world, First Peter 2:9 proclaims: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” These are four titles of honor, four titles for Israel that Peter applies to the new household of God to indicate its unique identity, four titles that spell out the Christian vocation, our vocation. First, a “chosen race,” and as with Israel, so with us: The Christian body, the community of all who claim Christ as Savior, is not a community of chance. Basic to Christian existence is divine election. The church is a called community and each of us has been called by God to share the life of that community. Second, a “royal priesthood,” an inspired declaration of a fundamental Lutheran understanding: all of us are part of the priesthood because all of us are on a mission to reconcile the world in Christ, and all of us gather to celebrate the sacraments and in that find our identity as the body of Christ. Third, a “holy nation.” That’s right, holy. Not simply or primarily pious, prayerful, “holy” means that you and I are consecrated to the Lord. Yes, we are expected to live in a holy way, but because of an even more basic holiness: because individually and as a community we are set apart for God. Even in our sinfulness we are a people consecrated to God. And, fourth, “God’s own people,” a people that is God’s possession, ransomed by the blood of Christ. God has bought us and we belong to God. Can you think of a higher calling, a more remarkable existence? A people chosen by God, purchased for God’s own possession by the blood of Jesus Christ, sinful yet always holy because always consecrated to God, a people that offers to God the sacrifice of their own lives, our own lives. Can you think of a higher calling? A more remarkable existence? I can’t. In the middle of all the chaos and challenges and struggles that seem to be so powerfully present this fall, we need to be reminded that these words from First Peter describe us. Bishop Robert Alan Rimbo _________________________________________________________________________________ Past Messages |
|
