Bulletin 04182021 (pdf)

SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE IN-PERSON & FACEBOOK LIVE 9:30 am

Worship Service with Communion in person in the church sanctuary

(social distancing and masks required)

Worship Service LIVE on the Haven Facebook page

Starting around 2 p.m. on Fridays, you can pick up a bulletin, hymnal and communion sets on the parsonage back porch.  For extra precaution, use hand sanitizer before opening cartons/boxes. Keep the hymnal at your home for future use. The baggie of communion elements are enough for one person so please take one for each person watching at your home. (Haven Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366 or you can get to the page by clicking the ‘F’ icon in the upper right corner (center of page if on a mobile device) of the Haven website www.havenlc.org The live service will remain on the page for viewing later too.  If you are not familiar with Facebook please scroll down past the ads, map and photos until you see Haven Lutheran Church with a small circle of the church photo in a post. It will say ‘Haven Lutheran Church is live’ Sunday at 9:30am. This will be the first post Haven will have that day. If you have issues please email the church office or call and leave a message and I will try to get back with you so I can walk you through how to find it.)

April15, 2021 Message from Pastor Alessandri (pdf)

April 15, 2021

HAVEN IN THE NEWS
The Herald Mail included an article and picture of our steeple removal. The story ran on page A3 of our April 6 edition. I sent the article and pictures in but missed it since I was away. Here’s a link if you missed it, too.
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/life/community/haven-lutheran-church-getting-improvements-including-refurbished-steeple/article_90f61834-449f-59a0-893c- 7a6a7e1b3a2.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

(Picture copy of the Herald Mail page below, graciously provided by Mr. David Rhodes of the Herald Mail.)

ROOF REPLACEMENT HAS BEGUN! So far the crew has been hardworking, conscientious and very careful about protecting our beautiful sanctuary. It is amazing to see them safely working on this slanted roof. It’s worth a stop by to marvel on a sunny day.

WORSHIP DURING CONSTRUCTION WORK We plan to continue to have in-person worship in the sanctuary and live streaming of worship on Sundays. The construction crew plans on moving equipment so we can have access to both entrances into the narthex and sanctuary. In order to protect the pipes and console of our organ, they will remain covered with plastic during the roof work. Thank goodness we are blessed that our organist who is also a very gifted pianist.

FAITH BUILDING TOGETHER GIVING BLESSING PUSHED FROM APRIL 18 TO 25^th
We hope you got the mailing about our Faith Building Together efforts to pay for the roof, steeple and Air conditioning renovations. We had asked for Giving Cards to be returned by April 18^th so we could lift them up to our Lord at worship and ask God’s blessing. BUT, since we did not have in-person worship at church on April 11^th, we thought it best to move that occasion to Sunday, April 25^th.
Please prayerfully consider how you can financially support this effort to maintain God’s church at Haven. If each of us could give $3.35 extra a week or $13.40 extra each month over the next five years, we could retire our $100,000 loan early. Every donation, no matter the size, is a witness of trust in our Lord and of commitment to God’s work through Haven. Write your intended contribution on the Giving Card you received. Mail or bring it to church by April 25^th. Then let’s offer thanksgiving for the givers and our most generous Lord.

GRATITUDE AND GODSIGHTINGS

My big God Sighting this week was my grandsons and nephew holding their own bible and reading the word of God and hearing different versions of the story of the women at the tomb.

We then watched a music video of the song “Rattle” (lyrics and link below) and they had to spot lyrics that related to the story of the empty tomb.  Here are some of those lyrics (for those who may not know the song).  I also asked the boys to guess who they think wrote the song based on how they saw the singers singing the words.  (there is great emotion in the song; how could there not be when you are singing about a dead man walking out of a grave– God’s greatest miracle and Jesus’s greatest love to us)               Jamie Cannon

Rattle (by Elevation Worship or Zach Williams) I get cold chills every time I hear this song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNFLM4VX3Q

Saturday was silent
Surely it was through
But since when has impossible
Ever stopped You
Friday’s disappointment
Is Sunday’s empty tomb
Since when has impossible
Ever stopped You

This is the sound of dry bones rattling
This is the praise make a dead man walk again
Open the grave, I’m coming out
I’m gonna live, gonna live again
This is the sound of dry bones rattling

Pentecostal fire stirring something new
You’re not gonna run out of miracles anytime soon
Yeah, resurrection power runs in my veins too
I believe there’s another miracle here in this room

GRATITUDE FOR GOOD NEWS  (April 12, 2021) I was very glad to hear this from Mary:
Good afternoon,
I apologize I didn’t send this sooner.  I want to thank everyone for the messages, calls and prayers for a success surgery and recovery.  My surgery was a success and I was home Thursday by noon.  The first few days were very rough but every day I feel better than the day before.  Thank you for the continued prayers.  Blessings, Mary Grabill
P.S. Mary had the stent removed this morning. She is a trooper for whom we are grateful.

GRATEFUL FOR GOOD MUSIC! Pam O’Connor sent the link to this Easter treat, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” prepared by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians with 1784 instrumental and vocal participants.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b3stlugM04

BECAUSE WE NEED TO LAUGH

TOMORROW, APRIL 11 WORSHIP AT 10am WILL BE ON-LINE ONLY

Haven will NOT have its own in-person or livestream worship service ON April 11. Instead, we ask you to join a synod-wide online worship service at 10:00 am on Sunday, April 11. The preacher will be the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, President and Professor of Reformation Studies at United Lutheran Seminary. This service will be scheduled as a video premiere on our synod’s Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/DelawareMarylandSynod 

and You tube channel at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7Ybv7zZqMFsYe3Vt5t0Lg

on April 11 at 10 am (or later.) Please join this DE-MD wide worship service and give thanks for the work of our music director and pastor during this Lenten and Covid season.

All bulletins & blessed communion elements available on parsonage back porch.

Bulletin 04012021 Maundy Thursday (pdf)

TODAY Thursday, April 1~ MAUNDY THURSDAY WORSHIP 7:00 p.m. (FACEBOOK LIVE ONLY)
(https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366)

Bulletin 04022021 Good Friday Tenebrae (pdf)

TOMORROW Friday, April 2 ~ GOOD FRIDAY 7:00 pm ~ Tenebrae Service (FACEBOOK LIVE ONLY) https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366)

Bulletin 04042021 Easter Sunday (pdf)

EASTER SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE IN-PERSON & FACEBOOK LIVE 9:30 am

Worship Service with Communion in person in the church sanctuary

(social distancing and masks required)

Worship Service LIVE on the Haven Facebook page

Starting around 2 p.m. on Fridays, you can pick up a bulletin, hymnal and communion sets on the parsonage back porch.  For extra precaution, use hand sanitizer before opening cartons/boxes. Keep the hymnal at your home for future use. The baggie of communion elements are enough for one person so please take one for each person watching at your home. (Haven Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366 or you can get to the page by clicking the ‘F’ icon in the upper right corner (center of page if on a mobile device) of the Haven website www.havenlc.org The live service will remain on the page for viewing later too.  If you are not familiar with Facebook please scroll down past the ads, map and photos until you see Haven Lutheran Church with a small circle of the church photo in a post. It will say ‘Haven Lutheran Church is live’ Sunday at 9:30am. This will be the first post Haven will have that day. If you have issues please email the church office or call and leave a message and I will try to get back with you so I can walk you through how to find it.)

SUNDAY AFTER EASTER (APRIL 11) WORSHIP WILL BE ON-LINE ONLY To give our pastor, music director and worship leaders a respite, Haven will NOT have its own in-person or livestream worship service ON April 11. Instead, we ask you to join a synod-wide online worship service at 10:00 am on Sunday, April 11. The preacher will be the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, President and Professor of Reformation Studies at United Lutheran Seminary. This service will be scheduled as a video premiere on our synod’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DelawareMarylandSynod  and You tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7Ybv7zZqMFsYe3Vt5t0Lg  on April 11 at 10 am (or later.) Please join this DE-MD wide worship service and give thanks for the work of our music director and pastor during this Lenten and Covid season.

March 30, 2021 Message from Pastor Alessandri (pdf)

March 30, 2021

STEEPLE REMOVAL UPDATE — NOW  SET FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 The companies involved are hoping to have equipment here at 8 am but we are not sure when the actual removal will occur. IF I get a firmer time, I will post it in our church office phone message system. IF there is significant wind (like predicted for Wednesday night and Thursday,) the removal might be delayed. I would post that, too. Call the church 301-733-5056 and press the (*) button as soon as the main office message begins to get those updates.
Right now the weather looks like rain on Wednesday, so we may be in our cars watching. It would be great if someone who was here could video it on their phone and send it to the church office (havenoffice@havenlc.org) We could then post it on our website and Facebook page. And so it begins.

MICAH’S BACKPACKS ARE BACK!
We are now supplying Micah’s Backpacks of weekend food for 10 Fountaindale children. So we once again need our volunteers to pack the food into the backpacks and volunteers to deliver them to Fountaindale.

PACKING  Packing is a one or two-person job.  Food will be on the table in the Micah’s Backpack room by Sunday and needs to be packed by Wednesday evening.  It really only takes one person- it is just more fun for 2.  If you would like to help, contact Linda Clark at her new phone number 301-491-4027.

DELIVERY If can help take the bags to Fountaindale, they can be picked up on Thursday and delivered the same day.  Call Kathy Wright – 301-791-2749 – to volunteer for delivery. Thank you for helping.

PLEASE PRAY for the families receiving food baskets from Haven.  At this moment, it is 5 families with ties to Fountaindale School.  Distribution will be April 1 from noon until 2. We pray they are nourished in body and spirit. We pray they will know the power and peace of God’s grace and resurrection.

HOLY WEEK WORSHIP

Wednesday, March 31 PRAYER VIGIL 7 am – 7 pm
How will this work?  YOU choose an hour of the day. Contact the church office (havenoffice@havenlc.org) or  Pastor Alessandri (l.alessandri1035@gmail.com ) to let us know when you will be praying. We’d like to share with the congregation the number of hours in which prayer was being offered.
Where will you pray? YOU choose a place for your hour of prayer. (It could be a place in your house or yard, a favorite park or trail, a place you can sit or a place, walk or do both.)
What will you do during that time?  One suggestion is to take out the church directory, your own address book or maybe that stack of Christmas cards you still haven’t discarded. If you are walking, you may think of family members, friends, church members or neighbors. Read or say aloud a name and pause to bring him/her/them to mind. Then pray to the Lord on their behalf, for needs you know they have and those needs for which you are not aware. You are free to use the hour in any way that gives you meaningful time in God’s presence.

Thursday, April 1~ MAUNDY THURSDAY

7:00 p.m. Worship with Holy Communion
  Live Stream on Haven’s Facebook page
 https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366 )

Bulletins and blessed communion elements are still available on the parsonage back porch

Maundy (“Command”) Thursday commemorates the Last Supper at which Jesus gave us the gift of Holy Communion and gave his disciples (including us) the command to love one another as he has loved us. The service concludes with the reading of Psalm 22 as the altar and sanctuary is stripped all adornments, except a rugged cross that is brought in to the bare chancel. There is no benediction or dismissal as participants leave in silence.

Friday, April 2 ~ GOOD FRIDAY

7:00 pm ~ Tenebrae Service
7:00 PM Live Stream on Haven’s Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366
Bulletins are still available on the parsonage back porch

The Tenebrae Service is a traditional Good Friday service of Light and Word commemorating the Passion and Death of our Lord. As we move through the events leading to the crucifixion, we extinguish candles, letting the darkness of the betrayal, abuse and abandonment Jesus experienced surround us. Be ready to be moved. Be ready to leave marveling at the depth of the Lord’s love for us. Be ready to walk into Easter with deeper appreciation.

SUNDAY, APRIL 4 ~ Easter Sunday

9:30 am ~ Worship with Holy Communion

10:45 am ~ Resurrection Easter Egg Hunt

PASTOR AWAY APRIL 5– APRIL 12
I will leave for a visit with family in Atlanta after our Easter celebration on April 4^th. So a few reminders.

STAY WELL! But if you would want the presence or care of a pastor while I am away, please call Pastor Allen Reed 301-331-6368. He is kind, gentle and pastoral.

THIS WILL BE THE LAST E-MESSAGE FOR A WHILE since I  need to shift my focus to our Holy Week and Easter worship services. And, after Easter, I will be away. I am asking you to stay connected to one another with calls and notes. I will keep you in heart and prayer.

BUT DON’T FORGET THESE UPCOMING MILESTONES

COMMUNITY NOTES

Spring Bargain Sale featuring household goods, gently used clothing, collectibles; lunch to go also for sale. All proceeds go to supporting the Women’s Club mission to provide low income housing for women in transition.

Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10, 9 am – 1 pm
Women’s Club of Hagerstown (31 South Prospect Street)

BECAUSE WE NEED TO LAUGH

DEVOTIONAL READING
I know I said I would no longer include a devotion in the E-Message, but Richard Rohr just blew me away with his Monday morning posting. It has given me something powerful to ponder on this Holy Week, especially the events of Good Friday. I hope you will find it meaningful, too.

Scapegoating and the Cross

A Temporary Solution

The word “scapegoating” originated from an ingenious ritual described in Leviticus 16. According to Jewish law, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest laid hands on an “escaping” goat, placing all the sins of the Jewish people from the previous year onto the animal. Then the goat was beaten with reeds and thorns, driven out into the desert, and the people went home rejoicing. Violence towards the innocent victim was apparently quite effective at temporarily relieving the group’s guilt and shame. The same scapegoating dynamic was at play when European Christians burned supposed heretics at the stake, and when white Americans lynched Black Americans. In fact, the pattern is identical and totally non-rational.

Whenever the “sinner” is excluded, our collective ego is delighted and feels relieved and safe. It works, but only for a while, because it is merely an illusion. Repeatedly believing the lie, that this time we have the true culprit, we become more catatonic, habitually ignorant, and culpable—because, of course, scapegoating never really eliminates evil in the first place. As Russian philosopher Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” [1] As long as the evil is “over there,” we can change or expel someone else as the contaminating element. We then feel purified and at peace. But it is not the peace of Christ, which “the world cannot give” (see John 14:27).

Jesus became the scapegoat to reveal the universal lie of scapegoating. He became the sinned-against one to reveal the hidden nature of scapegoating, so that we would see how wrong even educated and well-meaning people can be. This is perfectly represented by Pilate and Caiaphas (state and religion), who both find their artificial reasons to condemn him (see John 16:8–11 and Romans 8:3).

In worshiping Jesus as the scapegoat, Christians should have learned to stop scapegoating, but we didn’t. We are still utterly wrong whenever we create arbitrary victims to avoid our own complicity in evil. It seems it is the most effective diversionary tactic possible. History has shown us that authority itself is not a good guide. Yet for many people, authority soothes their anxiety and relieves their own responsibility to form a mature conscience. We love to follow someone else and let them take the responsibility. It is a universal story line in history and all cultures.

With the mistaken view of God as a Punisher-in-Chief that most Christians seem to hold, we think our own violence is necessary and even good. But there is no such thing as redemptive violence. Violence doesn’t save; it only destroys all parties in both the short and long term. Jesus replaced the myth of redemptive violence with the truth of redemptive suffering. He showed us on the cross how to hold the pain and let it transform us.

[1] Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, I–II, trans. Thomas P. Whitney (Harper & Row: 1974), 168.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, CONSPIRE 2016: Everything Belongs, sessions 2 and 3 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016)

Image credit: Dorothea Lange, Village dwelling. Escalante, Utah (detail), 1936, photograph, public domain.

Image inspiration: Closed and shuttered, this house offers no welcome to a passerby. The sharp shadows of an unseen tree evoke the shadow of our often unacknowledged biases about who is “in” and who is “out.”

Written by Richard Rohr for his Center for Action and Contemplation  <Meditations@cac.org

Bulletin 03282021 Palm Sunday (pdf)

Bulletin 04012021 Maundy Thursday (pdf)

Bulletin 04022021 Good Friday Tenebrae (pdf)

Please keep this handy as it includes information and bulletins for this Sunday (Palm Sunday), Maundy Thursday and Good Friday!

 WORSHIP SERVICE IN-PERSON & FACEBOOK LIVE

Sunday mornings at 9:30 am

Worship Service with Communion in person in the church sanctuary

(social distancing and masks required)

Worship Service LIVE on the Haven Facebook page

Starting around 2 p.m. on Fridays, you can pick up a bulletin, hymnal and communion sets on the parsonage back porch.  For extra precaution, use hand sanitizer before opening cartons/boxes. Keep the hymnal at your home for future use. The baggie of communion elements are enough for one person so please take one for each person watching at your home. (Haven Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366 or you can get to the page by clicking the ‘F’ icon in the upper right corner (center of page if on a mobile device) of the Haven website www.havenlc.org The live service will remain on the page for viewing later too.  If you are not familiar with Facebook please scroll down past the ads, map and photos until you see Haven Lutheran Church with a small circle of the church photo in a post. It will say ‘Haven Lutheran Church is live’ Sunday at 9:30am. This will be the first post Haven will have that day. If you have issues please email the church office or call and leave a message and I will try to get back with you so I can walk you through how to find it.)

HOLY WEEK
(Plan how you will participate in Christ’s walk to the cross this week?)

Wednesday, March 31 PRAYER VIGIL 7 am – 7 pm
How will this work?  YOU choose an hour of the day. Contact the church office (havenoffice@havenlc.org) or  Pastor Alessandri (l.alessandri1035@gmail.com ) to let us know when you will be praying. We’d like to share with the congregation the number of hours in which prayer was being offered. Where will you pray? YOU choose a place for your hour of prayer. (It could be a place in your house or yard, a favorite park or trail, a place you can sit or a place, walk or do both.)  What will you do during that time?  One suggestion is to take out the church directory, your own address book or maybe that stack of Christmas cards you still haven’t discarded. If you are walking, you may think of family members, friends, church members or neighbors. Read or say aloud a name and pause to bring him/her/them to mind. Then pray to the Lord on their behalf, for needs you know they have and those needs for which you are not aware. You are free to use the hour in any way that gives you meaningful time in God’s presence.

Thursday, April 1~ MAUNDY THURSDAY

7:00 p.m. Worship with Holy Communion
Live Stream on Haven’s Facebook page
                (https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366)

Bulletins and blessed communion elements are available on the parsonage back porch.

Maundy (“Command”) Thursday commemorates the Last Supper at which Jesus gave us the gift of Holy Communion and gave his disciples (including us) the command to love one another as he has loved us. The service concludes with the reading of Psalm 22 as the altar and sanctuary are stripped of all adornments, except a rugged cross that is brought in to the bare chancel. There is no benediction or dismissal as participants leave in silence.

Friday, April 2 ~ GOOD FRIDAY

7:00 pm ~ Tenebrae Service
7:00 PM Live Stream on Haven’s Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/Haven-Lutheran-Church-134647913268366)

Bulletins are available on the parsonage back porch.

The Tenebrae Service is a traditional Good Friday service of Light and Word commemorating the Passion and Death of our Lord. As we move through the events leading to the crucifixion, we extinguish candles, letting the darkness of the betrayal, abuse and abandonment Jesus experienced surround us. Be ready to be moved. Be ready to leave marveling at the depth of the Lord’s love for us. Be ready to walk into Easter with deeper appreciation.

SUNDAY, APRIL 4 ~ Easter Sunday

9:30 am ~ Worship with Holy Communion

If you plan to attend the in-person worship service Sunday morning at 9:30 am in the sanctuary, please remember to bring your mask and continue to social distance. Please follow the directions of the ushers and diagrams in the narthex.  We need to be very conscientious of following advised and good practices to protect ourselves and others from COVID. We will gather together cautiously and carefully, seeking to be fed and upheld by time with our Lord and a community of believers in worship. Thank you.

SUNDAY AFTER EASTER WORSHIP WILL BE ON-LINE ONLY To give our pastor, music director and worship leaders a respite, Haven will NOT have its own in-person or livestream worship service ON April 11. Instead, we ask you to join a synod-wide online worship service at 10:00 am on Sunday, April 11. The preacher will be the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin, President and Professor of Reformation Studies at United Lutheran Seminary. This service will be scheduled as a video premiere on our synod’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DelawareMarylandSynod  and You tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7Ybv7zZqMFsYe3Vt5t0Lg  on April 11 at 10 am (or later.) Please join this DE-MD wide worship service and give thanks for the work of our music director and pastor during this Lenten and Covid season.

March 26, 2021 Message from Pastor Alessandri (pdf)

March 26, 2021

Dolores Carson fell last week and has a break in her upper arm. She is building up strength and getting physical therapy at the Nursing and Rehab Center at Homewood.
PLEASE offer your encouragement to Dolores by sending a card or giving her a call.
Dolores Carson
16505 Virginia Avenue Homewood Health Care Center #202 Williamsport, MD  21795  301-582-6553

Nancy Newkirk and Dave Resh are both home after their surgeries. Jean Carbaugh’s husband, Fritz, is still at the VA Hospital in Martinsburg. Cards and prayers are appreciated.

PALM SUNDAY, Palms AND Palm Sunday bulletins will be available at church and on the parsonage back porch.
MAUNDY THURSDAY
AND GOOD FRIDAY
There will be no in-person worship on these two days of Holy Week in order to honor safety protocols and be ready for a wonderful Easter Sunday worship. We hope you will participate in our livestream services. The links for those services are in this Sunday’s bulletin.

BULLETINS for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday will be available at church this Sunday and on the parsonage back porch. You should have blessed communion elements for Maundy Thursday in your Lenten travel bag. If not, there will be additional blessed elements available at church and on the parsonage back porch.
                            Let us worship together as we walk with our Lord during Holy Week.

Washington County Interfaith Coalition
Interfaith Prayers for Our Times

March 23, 2021

Native American (Navaho prayer)

With your feet I walk

I carry forth your body

For me your mind thinks

Your voice speaks for me

Beauty is before me

And beauty is behind me

Above and below me hovers the beautiful

I am surrounded by it

I am immersed in it

In my youth I am aware of it

and in old age I shall walk quietly

the beautiful trail.

Judeo-Christian (Psalm 17:8)

Keep me as the

apple of Thy eye.

Hide me under the shadow

of thy wings.

That which is beyond my understanding and lives in shadows, Speak for me. Give me rest beneath your winged Presence.  Guide me on the beautiful trail.

I know not what Thou art…only that Your Presence surrounds me with promise…and Hope.  Amen

Reverend Valerie Wills, Coordinator
Washington County Interfaith Coalition

BECAUSE WE NEED TO LAUGH

DAILY DEVOTIONS

Spend time in God’s Word and listening to what the Lord has to say to you today.
Each of the recommendations below are brief but they will give you and your faith nourishment and an entry to prayer. God IS with you!

2021 Lenten Devotional

The Word in Season (available at Haven)

On-line, go to https://www.luthersem.edu/godpause/  You could check it each day or sign up to have it sent to your e-mail box each day.