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From Pastor Sarah

April 24, 2025 by BayshoreLutheran Leave a Comment

Hello, Bay Shore!

What an absolutely glorious Holy Week here at Bay Shore. If you missed ANY of it, I strongly suggest you watch our videos online. The Hallelujah Chorus at the end of Easter is worth rewatching, too. Simply Glorious!

It’s Spring now, finally, and we have quite a bit still on the calendar. This week is Earth Sunday, if you will, with working outside our own building after worship AND a discussion led by Dave Petering on climate change. Yes, you can do both! Or, one or the other. Either way, we have something for everyone this Sunday.

You may have noticed the communication changes for Bay Shore. We are a work in progress, but we are getting there, too. The emails are shorter, more streamlined. Most images will send you to a link. We have updated our online giving page, too, to make it easier to designate your offerings. Facebook has at least one post a day–please like them all! And Instagram is also live–though, we have few followers and even fewer likes… Again, it’s a work in progress.

I am pleased to share that we did have visitors during Holy Week and I will be connecting with them all. Let’s keep up that momentum. Continue to invite people, continue to graciously welcome them when you see new faces in the pews, and let’s all continue to pray for Bay Shore and our ministries.

With spring comes new birth. Let’s see what God has in store for us this season!

May God bless you and your loved ones,

Pastor Sarah

From Pastor Sarah

March 27, 2025 by BayshoreLutheran Leave a Comment

Hello, Bay Shore!

Are you thinking about your Easter plans yet?

Of course, as a pastor, I know where I will be. But I still have to carve time out for the added details that make up the Easter holiday—family coming in, brunch reservations, dry cleaning some clothes, you know what I mean.

But Easter is not just a “holy day.” Easter really is a full week, a holy week. It begins on Sunday, April 13, with Palm Sunday (9:30 am), continues on Maundy Thursday (6:30 pm), Good Friday with its passion story (noon), and then a glorious Easter Morning (9:30 am).

This year, we are truly journeying with Jesus through Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, we will focus on Jesus entering Jerusalem and the events that led to the morning of the Last Supper. On Maundy Thursday, we will delve deeply into the Last Supper (and why we have communion because of it), and on Good Friday (honestly the least attended worship service we have, but truly one of the most important….), we will hear the entire passion story from John’s perspective and leave the church just as Jesus’ followers left his tomb.

My friends, you can’t have Easter without the events of Holy Week. Well, I guess you could—but you’re missing a lot.

I strongly encourage you all to carve time out in your schedules for our Holy Week services this year. Journey with Jesus. Learn or re-remember what led to that tomb being occupied by God’s Son. Re-live how it felt having YOUR first communion. Pause and sit on a day that is “Good.”

And parents, Holy Week is good for children, too. There is more movement and music in these special services, we have recently added a prayground in the back of the sanctuary for those littles who need to move, and I encourage the creation of “church bags”—special bags filled with books and quiet activities, only available to your children during church.

I know we all love Christmas—I know.

But, we are Christians because of Easter. And we have Easter because of what Jesus said and did during “holy week.”

May God bless you and your loved ones,

Pastor Sarah

From Pastor Sarah

February 25, 2025 by BayshoreLutheran Leave a Comment

Hello, Bay Shore!

This week has had sun and melting snow. It is almost time for Spring!

And this Sunday, well–it’s another sign that Spring is coming. This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday, but it is more understood as the “The Day When Jesus Glowed.”

Oh, our music will say a lot of “shine!” and that is true, too. But we will delve deep into what the word “transfigured” means, and also why it was so important THAT day for Jesus to show, shall we say?, his true face to the three disciples.

And we shall also wonder about our own true faces. What face do we prefer to show and what face do we hide?

And, when Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, and we turn our face to God–suddenly this phrase–turn your face to God–will make more sense, too.

Speaking of Lent–

Our Lenten Theme begins on Ash Wednesday, and we have a devotion printed up and available to you on the tables outside the Church Office. I really have enjoyed my initial reads of this devotion–I think you will, too.

And also about Lent–Do you have to give something up? Or, do you have to take something on?

I’ll explore these questions with a short, PowerPoint presentation at our Shrove Tuesday event on March 4, where at 6:30 pm, we will have a true dessert, chocolate feast. Bring your favorite dessert to share. Kids can come in pajamas–we will have milk and juice on hand, too.

Am I excited about Lent this year? I am. I am looking forward to studying God’s word and the theme, Our Needs. I am excited to sit with you all on Sundays, pray and praise, and prepare for Easter. I am excited about Bay Shore, I hope you are, too. Share the good news of Bay Shore with others–they need a community like we have, where we show our true faces and we love the faces of our neighbors, too.

Bless you and your loved ones,

Pastor Sarah

From Pastor Sarah

November 26, 2024 by BayshoreLutheran Leave a Comment

Hello, my friends!

What a month November has been. This Sunday’s Advent word is HOPE, and I certainly am turning my face to hope in December. I hope, yes that’s a bad pun, that you are enjoying the Advent series, and have been using the Devotions. Today, as I write this, I am pondering the word JUSTICE, and what that truly means. A just person in the Bible was a person who gave love and assistance. I have bene thinking about that a lot.

Some questions that have come my way this week:

Will you go see the film about Bonhoeffer? As Lutherans know, we remember the death and ministry of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on April 9. His story is deep, theological, and well shared among his own writings and his contemporaries and family. There is a new movie out, and I have been asked if I will go. The short answer is no. My understanding from reading several reputable scholars’ reviews is that Bonhoeffer’s story has been changed in ways that actually go against what Bonhoeffer stood for and historical facts. I also understand that his own family have spoken against the film as well. I have a longer explanation, but another shorter answer is to direct you to a periodical that I actually read and subscribe to, here’s an article that they have published.

When are you putting up your Christmas Trees? As my ABC students have known, I put up (with Pete’s help of course!) 7-9 trees a year. Last year was pitiful. I only had one up, due to my fall down the stairs–I just couldn’t do anything. This year, Pete and I are putting up my Church Office tree again and a few more at home. I’m not sure that I believe the fanciful story of Martin Luther starting the Christmas tree tradition ON HIS OWN, but I will thank him for encouraging it. See, you never knew that being a Lutheran was so cool! Each tree has a theme of some sort, and ornaments a plenty that have memories attached. If you are putting up a tree, be sure to share a picture!

Are you skipping Thanksgiving this year? Absolutely not. By the time you read this, my family will be suffering from turkey overload and hopefully celebrating a Lions win. Of course, we all will be celebrating a Packers win, too.

But Thanksgiving is definitely more than football and turkey. It’s about taking time and expressing gratitude to our Creator and God. It’s about giving thanks for the blessings and gifts we have received and pondering how we can share such gifts with others. Our liturgy has a prayer that I would like to share with you. It is below. But before you get to that, I wish to give thanks for you, Bay Shore, and your loving hearts. It is a pleasure to serve with you. Bay Shore is a special place, and we have much to be thankful for.

God’s blessings and peace on you and your loved ones,

See you on Sunday,

Pastor Sarah

Almighty God our Creator, your generous goodness comes to us new every day. By the work of your Spirit, lead us to acknowledge your goodness, give thanks for your benefits, and serve you in willing obedience, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

From Pastor Sarah

November 7, 2024 by BayshoreLutheran Leave a Comment

Advent begins this week.

For those new to Bay Shore Lutheran, we adopted a 7 week Advent season last year. The expanded season is more reflective of the church’s original Advent season, and allows us to fully embrace and wait for the coming of our Lord.

We dress in blue, we begin our Advent Wreath lighting, but we hold off on festooning with our more traditional Advent features like our beautiful trees, garlands, and more. In November, we begin the journey, focusing on the Word and Sacraments.

This year’s Advent theme is More Than Words. Our theme will have several special elements.

We have a printed Advent Devotion. It is available now to our community, and it features prayers, readings and more.
We will have a special Word of the Week. This word will help us focus on the season, and how we can live out Advent promises in our daily lives.
We will have a special Children’s Time in Advent, where we will encourage our families to create a “toolkit” at home with the tools of faith, using the words of the week.

We invite you to join us this Advent Season as much as you can. We pray that you take time during all the busyness of the holiday season to pause and reflect on the great Love that God gives to us all. We encourage you to invite others to k=join you during this special season. It is a good time to worship God.
See you this Sunday,

Pastor Sarah

From Pastor Sarah

October 22, 2024 by BayshoreLutheran Leave a Comment

Do you, or don’t you? Oh, it’s that Sunday again!

Do you preach Reformation, and remember the history of the Lutheran Church? Or do you preach Reformation for a future and perhaps call the church to action? Or, do you not preach Reformation at all and hopefully have some confirmation students and preach about that instead?

I have done them all. Some Sundays it’s been a solid historical reminder of Luther and our traditions, and other times it has been a strong (I felt it was strong) call to continue to reform the church NOW since we were/still are at a pivotal time.

And, yes, I have skipped it all and preached to just to the classes of confirmands, too.

I do love Confirmation Sundays. Each one is special, I carry stories of the students in my head as I lay hands and offer a blessing over them. Over the years, I have confirmed over 200 students. I am friends with most of them, still, on Facebook. As time goes on, I see them graduate from High School, then often secondary school of some kind, and I see them move into their first place, first home, see their first pet, perhaps a wedding and sometimes even a baby or two. I have relearned new names, I have shared birthday greetings, and I have sadly even mourned the loss of a few, too–way too soon.

For these reasons alone, I love Facebook because it keeps me connected. I keep track of the one who couldn’t spell Genesis. I watch and pray over the one who lost a parent in middle school. I follow the pictures of their lives as they live them out loud online, and I smile. I remember.

Teachers and pastors are alike in many ways. But most teachers have a student or two for one year, maybe 2, and then the students move on. Pastors, if we are blessed, we see a child from baptism through confirmation, perhaps even a wedding, and if we can, we comfort the grown-up child when a parent or grandparent dies.

More than any other time, truly, Confirmation Sunday reminds us that a church IS a community. It’s a third space, as the younger generations call it. But church is UNIQUE! It’s a place where people of all ages come, know one another, watch each other grow, and share in each other’s milestones like confirmation.

Clubs and other places are not the same in this. Here in a church community, we offer a place for babies and the oldest to be cherished. The familiar rites create memories we didn’t know we needed, until they aren’t there. I am always surprised when people share with me memories of long ago church events, that meant so much, but that they have not personally continued wherever they are.

And if they don’t continue them, then the newly baptized children will not have them at all.

Yes, I said that.

You see, if we do not continue to teach and be church together, then who will?

Heavy thoughts, I know. Perhaps you have struggled with them, too.

I don’t have any quick answers, but I do have faith and hope. And I do believe that communities like Bay Shore Lutheran Church are too important to leave to others to hopefully continue. It’s our job, wherever we are, to keep community going and cherish these milestones and keep the memories alive.

I pray that this year, as you see the three students be confirmed, you will remember your own confirmations, and perhaps the people who helped you reach that day, who may no longer even be alive. But guess what—they did what they did, for YOU, and you now can do what you can do for others who will follow YOU, TOO.

Because churches have always been about community. And communities, they require people.

See you on Sunday,

Pastor Sarah