​​​​​JULY 2025​

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Q. When do you recommend a child should have first communion training?

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Many of our older folks had their first communion when they were confirmed. Others, like me, in the eighth grade. If you were, or still are, Roman Catholic you had your first communion in the second grade.  No matter a person’s age, adult or child, the first lessons we want a baptized person to understand about Holy Communion are that God loves us and welcomes us to his table, and that Jesus is truly present among us.    

 

God loves us. How do we communicate with a small child that we love them? A hug is one way to say we love our children. When should we give a child their first hug? Do we wait until we believe they understand the full meaning of a hug?  For me, Holy Communion is like getting a hug from Jesus!  Remember, and this is important to our understanding about what we Lutheran-Christians believe about Holy Communion. We believe in the Real Presence of the resurrected Jesus Christ in and under the bread and wine we eat and drink. 

 

There is something else about a hug that we ought to consider. I embraced and kissed my daughter within seconds of her birth. She didn’t understand. But she didn’t have to because it was my outpouring of love to her and to her mother. All true relationships are a two-way street. Well, so is Holy Communion. Jesus gives us his body and blood in the bread and wine as an act of his loving presence. We receive Jesus’ loving presence. To withhold communion instruction from a baptized child is to stand in the way of Christ’s expression of love toward that child at the communion table.  Remember, God reaches down to love us. This isn’t just about us receiving. It’s also about God’s love and grace poured out upon us given and received!      

 

How much do we have to understand about communion to receive communion? I grew up in the church, yet even after all those years until now I’m still mining the depths of understanding and applying the meaning and application of communion to my life. My greatest learning about Holy Communion is that it is Jesus’ way of giving us his Real Presence and assuring us of his love and forgiveness. It is a way the resurrected Jesus connects with us, likewise we connect with him, and so too we connect with each other as a community of faith who gather at the table. Among many other things, Holy Communion strengthens our faith and assures us of forgiveness.  There is so much to learn about Holy Communion, and so very much more for us to learn throughout our lifetime.  But the first and greatest lesson for us is that Jesus loves us and welcomes us to his table!

 

I recommend a child receive first communion instruction when they start showing interest, and they demonstrate the ability to receive the elements with a minimal degree of decorum. When a child reaches out their hand with the expectation to be welcomed at the Lord’s Table, just as their parents and their older siblings are welcomed, then it is time for parents to start the conversation with the pastor about first communion instruction. 

 

It’s up to parents to decide when their child receives first communion instruction. What I am suggesting isn’t about age.  Our faith is based on grace.  When a small child receives baptism, it is a picture of God’s grace, not about a child’s understanding. We believe faith itself is a gift from God. It is enough to teach a small child that Jesus’ loves them and invites them to his table, and to teach them that to receive the bread and wine is like getting a hug from Jesus! Holy Communion instruction and a child’s first communion are important steps along the path of a child’s continued faith development. ​​​

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JUNE 2025​​

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Q. How might we grow in faith during the summer months when we’re away from our church family? 

 

In-person worship numbers go down during the summer months. Summer is a time when the kids are out of school, and families go on vacation. And like some families among us here, when I was a kid, we had a summer cabin.  But our spiritual lives need not suffer during the summer months. If we can’t make it to in-person worship on some Sundays, we can still attend via Zoom. Dr. Joe Arendt is our Zoom technician. He does a great job providing us with a quality alternative to in-person worship. That way we can still worship with our church family and do it in a park at a picnic table, or on a log in the woods, as long as you have Internet access. Plus, if we cannot make it to Sunday worship, we have an option to attend worship at 5:30 PM on Wednesdays. On nice Wednesday evenings we’ll worship outside in the Rose Garden!

 

Here are a few things we can do to exercise our spiritual muscles over the summer months. The Parma Lutheran Church website is up and running thanks to the great work of Stephanie Antal. You can explore the website and read up on all the current scheduled activities. If you missed worship on Sunday and want to catch up on the past week’s gospel reading and sermon you can watch it on YouTube. In fact, Dr. Joe Arendt posted about a year’s worth or more of gospel readings and sermons on YouTube. Check them out! 

 

Summer is a great time to do devotional reading by the lake or by the pool. Next time you’re in church pick up the latest Christ in Our Home devotional.  It follows our Sunday and daily Bible reading lectionary. Granted there are lots of good devotionals available. But Christ in Our Home is the daily devotional I recommend because the readings and themes coincide with our worship schedule readings and themes. Stay in God’s Word over the summer. Go online and find a Bible reading plan. You can find short term Bible reading plans of various lengths that will take you through various topics of scripture. I have an app on my phone with a Life of Jesus in 47 readings; 30 Days on Matthew; 30 Days Through the Four Gospels; 30 Days with Jesus, etc. I found a through the entire Bible in 31 days app, and a through the entire Bible in 120 days. I downloaded the Lutheran Study Bible on my phone. Now I can read the Bible and do Bible study anywhere! You can too! Most of the Bible and devotional apps are free. The ones you have to pay for are inexpensive. 

 

Pray this summer! Be a prayer partner with me, and the rest of the people, and friends of Parma Lutheran Church. Kim Cummings and I update the prayer list and send it out via email to our prayer partners as often as prayer requests come to us. We currently have about 125 prayer partners who receive the prayer list.  No matter how old or young we are we can all pray! Prayer is a powerful ministry! Print off the prayer list when you receive it, put it in your pocket, and pray for the health and well-being of our church family, relatives, and friends. Do it daily! Do it often!   

 

These are a few ideas to help us exercise our faith to spiritually grow this summer. Stay in God’s Word & pray wherever you are.

 

Amen.​

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​​​MAY 2025​​

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Q. Why do we need more worship leaders, like assisting ministers, readers, ushers, greeters, choir members, musicians, etc., as well as people to volunteer to help around the church building and office?  If I volunteer, won’t I step on someone’s toes, and am I or any of us holy enough to serve as worship leaders and volunteers?

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By our own efforts and self-proclaimed righteousness, the answer to the question, am I or any of us holy enough to serve as a worship leader or volunteer? The answer is NO!!  It is only by God’s grace through our faith in Christ that we are made righteous!  Now we may answer the question, are we holy enough to serve, with a resounding YES, by God’s grace, not by our own efforts!

 

Each of us as baptized believers in Christ have been given spiritual gifts that benefit the whole community with the purpose of growing the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 12:27).  We are not all given the same gifts.  The apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…” (Romans 12:6 emphasis mine) Some have the gift and call to work in the Hunger Center, or clean inside the church building, or do chores and repairs on or in the building. The Holy Spirit has bestowed gifts among us as worship leaders. For some the Holy Spirit calls and bestows the gift and talent to serve as elected, and appointed church leaders.  Some are called to read God’s Word during worship.  Others may be called to serve as assisting minister, or as a communion assistant, usher, greeter, or as a Christian education teacher and Bible study facilitator. The list of ways God calls us is as varied as the number of people among us. 

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Now that the Holy Spirit has given each of us the call and talent to serve, we must encourage each other to exercise their God-given talents among us. To be faithful to God’s call to serve among us does NOT step on anyone’s toes. For us not to provide an opportunity for someone to use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given someone among us would be to step on the toes of the Holy Spirit.  At least in part that may be what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote, “to not quench the Holy Spirit”! (1 Thessalonians 4:19-21).  The word Paul is using that we translate quench means to put out a fire or flame!  As fellow Christians we must encourage and provide everyone an opportunity to let their flame or fire burn bright among us as the Holy Spirit has called and equipped each of us!  

 

Consider too that we are each on a spiritual journey.  As our faith grows from what may have felt like a small seed that grew to flower into a sense that guided us to gather with other Christians in worship. As the writer to the Hebrews writes, “And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25, NLT).  We may have started coming to worship irregularly. As we grew in faith, we may have felt a sense of desire to worship more regularly. As time passed, we continued to grow in faith, and we discovered worship became a priority in our lives.  As we grow in faith, we find we want to learn more about the Bible and apply its truths to our lives. As we grow in faith and worship, fellowship with fellow believers becomes more and more important as we live our lives of faith.  Through all that growth, as time passes, we discover God calls us to some sort of leadership or volunteer work in Christ’s church. By serving we faithfully respond to God’s call to serve and put to work the gifts, and the talents God has so graciously given and cultivated within us. 

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One more reason why we ought to allow more people to exercise their gifts among us is because to respond faithfully to our sense of call brings us joy and fulfillment in the Lord. We as a community then become the recipients of blessings as we each exercise our God-given call among us!  (By the way, the assisting minister does NOT have to sing. Readers do not have to come up to the lectern. We can move a lectern and mic down to floor level for easier access or bring the mic to your seat.) Parma Lutheran is a place where you can serve. Let us each exercise our God-given gifts among us.  In doing so we will receive great blessings from one another through the power of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit may be calling and equipping you for leadership and some volunteer work within the church!  Here is a place where we can all faithfully serve.   

 

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APRIL 2025​​

 

Q. Lutheran-Christians Want to Know… What’s Holy Week all about? 

 

Holy Week begins the Sunday before Easter with Palm/Passion Sunday.  We begin worship on Palm/Passion Sunday by commemorating our Lord’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem when the crowd welcomed Jesus as king, shouted hosannas, and waved palm branches in his honor. We’ll begin Palm/Passion Sunday in the brick lobby. We’ll receive palm branches, pray, read the Palm Sunday gospel, and then process into the nave waving palm fronds, shouting hosannas (an exclamation of praise and adoration deriving from the Hebrew word meaning ‘save, we pray’) unto the Lord, and lifting our voices in song.  Palm Sunday worship then progresses into our commemoration of Christ’s passion when we, like the people of Jesus’ day, go from singing Jesus’ praise and shouting hosannas to shouting, “Crucify him, Crucify him!” 

 

Our next gathering will be at 7pm on Maundy (Latin: “command”) Thursday to commemorate the institution of the Lord’s Supper and Jesus’ command to serve each other as he served us. After Communion we’ll strip the altar.  All ornamentation in the chancel will be solemnly stripped away in preparation for Good Friday as Psalm 22 and/or Psalm 88 is solemnly read. Then the ministers and congregation depart in silence. The chancel and altar will then remain bare until the Vigil of Easter on Saturday evening. 

 

Our worship together will then resume at 7 p.m. Good Friday when we worshipfully commemorate and reflect upon Jesus Christ’s sacrificial crucifixion, death, and burial when he took the punishment for our sins upon himself.  Considering Good Friday’s austere tone, the organ or any instrumentation will only be used to accompany our singing, and the chancel and altar will remain bear with no ornamentation.

 

Then comes the Vigil of Easter on Easter Eve!  At 5:30, we’ll gather in the Rose Garden for the brief Service of Light that begins with the lighting of the new fire, and from that fire we’ll light the Pashal Candle that symbolizes the Risen Christ’s presence among us.  Like on Christmas Eve we’ll each have a candle that we’ll light, and then we’ll carry the lighted Pashal Candle and our lighted candles into the brick lobby where we will enjoy a meal in celebration of Christ’s victory over death, which is our victory granting us salvation and eternal life. While we’re eating, we’ll read a series of Bible readings that will take us through the biblical story of God’s promise of redemption and ultimately fulfilled in Christ Jesus! After we eat, we’ll then enter the sanctuary and then turn the lights up to reveal the flowers ornamenting the chancel that bring glory to our resurrected Savior!  I’m hoping we’ll celebrate a baptism that evening, but if not we’ll thank God for our own baptism, and renew our baptismal vows.  For the sake of brevity, we’ll then conclude with prayer and look forward to gathering together on Easter morning with a nice breakfast and then gather to worship our Risen Lord, hear God’s Word, and come to our Lord’s Table where together we meet Christ in, under and through the bread and wine of Holy Communion we eat and drink.  

These three days begin at sundown on Maundy Thursday to sundown on Easter Sunday. It’s considered the most solemn period of the entire church year. We call these three-days the Triduum, (TRIH-doo-um), Latin: “three days”.  My own spiritual path has led me to place where I use these three-days, in addition to Palm/Passion Sunday, to spiritually journey with Christ through his betrayal, suffering, death, and resurrection.  

 

 

​MARCH 2025​​

 

 

Q. Can you explain more about PLC's Congregation meetings?

 

• Why does Parma Lutheran Church have two congregation meetings per year?
  According to our congregation’s bylaws (C10.01.01), “Semi-annual meetings of this congregation will be held in the first and fourth quarter of the year.  The first quarter meeting is defined as the annual meeting.  The fourth quarter meeting is defined as the meeting for the presentation of the budget, for election of officers and Congregation Council positions, and other business”.  At the annual meeting held during the first quarter, we receive reports from the pastor and council members.   

 

• Who may attend and who may speak and vote at a congregation meeting?
  There are no restrictions as to who may attend a congregation meeting, or any of our council or committee meetings.  However, according to our constitution, only members of the congregation have (C10.10) “full rights of voice and vote.”    

 

• Who may be considered a voting member of the congregation with voice and vote? 
  According to our constitution (C8.02.C.) “Voting members are confirmed members.  Such confirmed members, during the current or preceding calendar year, shall have communed in this congregation and shall have made a contribution of record to this congregation. Members of this congregation who have satisfied these basic standards shall have the privilege of voice and vote at every regular and special meetings of this congregation as well as the other rights and privileges ascribed to voting members by the provisions of this constitution and its bylaws.  They shall not have voted as a seasonal member of another congregation of this church in the precious two calendar months.”   

 

• Will we vote on anything at the upcoming annual meeting?  
  The only scheduled vote on the agenda of which I, Pastor Jay, am aware will be a vote to accept the minutes of the semi-annual meeting that was held in November of last year.  However, during the course of the meeting something from old or new business might come up for discussion and possibly a vote. 
  
  Please keep in mind, we as members of this congregation are this congregation’s stewards.  As members we are responsible for this congregation’s faithfulness to the proclamation of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments; teaching Christian doctrine to our youth and adults; planning and engaging in fellowship events; conducting outreach ministries, such as the hunger center, community garden, rummage sale, etc.; being good stewards of this congregation’s administration, such as paying our bills, answering the phones; and the upkeep of our church building. It’s up to each of us as members to provide effort in planning our future and working to make that future possible.  
   

• How can I get more involved in the business and ministries of this congregation?
  Scripture declares that God has graciously bestowed gifts upon each of us to use for God’s purpose. (See 1 Peter 4:10) Talk to the pastor who can help you discern and then apply your gifts for ministry here at Parma Lutheran Church. ​​