Pastor Jim’s Blog
Surely, God is Weeping
Today’s Word from Karl Olsen... Surely, God is weeping. God’s desire for all to experience abundant life sometimes seems to fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it’s the explosions—or the tears of grief. Until recently, this spring had been a time of religious celebration in...
Be Brave! Show Your Smile!
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... “Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” I Corinthians 13:12 We gather in a sanctuary. What is a sanctuary? It is a safe place. A bird sanctuary is a safe place for birds. A wildlife sanctuary...
Mail Call
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus,” 1 Corinthians 1:4. In Sunday School this weekend, we’re going to be learning about Paul’s letters. That got me thinking about...
The Tyranny of Numbers
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... On one of my better days, the girls and I will go down to the beach for sunrise prayers. But to be quite honest, often my prayer life sucks. I’m supposed to be a professional pray-er and there are days that go by and it dawns on me...
May God Be With Us
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... “Bear one another’s burdens and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 His wife has recently died. He was alone now, for the first time since college. We spent the afternoon together, sharing grief and recalling...
Why Me, Lord?
Today’s Word from Trinity Keyboardist Sheila Weidendorf... Ah, such times in which we live! Political tension, racial injustice, misogyny still apparent in all directions, nations pit against each other, poverty and hunger still rampant the world over. How many of us...
Perspective
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... As you may have guessed from my previous writings, I was a horse-crazy kid. I had posters of horses on my walls, horse figurines on my shelves, and a plethora of horse toys of various types and sizes. I can remember getting angry when I...
Trust
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom... Every year, as a part of our confirmation program, I would take those students preparing for their Affirmation of Baptism to a high ropes course. Safety is the critical word for this experience. Every participant is double-linked to a...
Assurances from the Crabapple Tree
Today’s Word from Susan Shira, Trinity Member... The first thing I set to do when we moved into our house 23 years ago was upgrade the meager landscaping, and I knew just where to start…the flower bed in front of the French doors facing the street. I took inspiration...
If It Be Your Will
Today’s Word from Sheila Weidendorf, Trinity Keyboardist... Luke 22:42: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." We all know the stories of Jesus, how he anguished as he approached his death. He asked God to remove the...
Unusual Kindness
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... The Apostle Paul, and other prisoners of Rome, were adrift at sea in a violent storm. The morning light revealed an unrecognizable land. The ship was suddenly caught on a reef and began to break up. All those aboard were left to sink or...
A Little Boost
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy. Psalm 126:2 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Psalm 98:4 I have decided to share a rather personal...
Holy Litter
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom... “Hey you #%#*!! jerk!” was what I yelled in my fantasized response to his littering my personal park. “Pick up your #%#!! trash!” Actually, the above photograph is not my personal park. Lovely picture though, don’t you think? This is...
Sometimes I Just Get Tired
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... “I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come?” Psalm 121 Sometimes, I just get tired. I get tired of the suffering and loss. Tired of the tears cried with our TLC families as they battle with addiction, disease, mental...
Touch the Earth Lightly
Today’s Word from Karl Olsen... In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the...
A Visit from Santa
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... He came to me in a dream last night as clear as could be. Bill Read was with me asking, as he always did, if I was taking care of myself and when the choir would be starting up again. In my sleeping mind I knew that he should be dead;...
A Season of Optimism
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... I love spring! I always tell people that spring is my favorite season. The days get longer, temperatures start to rise, everything is blooming, and new life abounds. Spring is full of joy – and hope! There is light and growth all around...
Standing in Line
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... It’s not an experience that most people find worthy of our time. It’s a nuisance, it’s troublesome, and we will generally go to significant lengths to avoid it. Who wants to stand in line? Finished shopping? Look for the shortest...
O Wanderer, O Seeker…
Today’s Word from Trinity Keyboardist Sheila Weidendorf... This past Sunday I led the Adult Education class here at Trinity, and included cross-cultural elements in my presentation, including texts by Kabir, a 15th century mystic and saint from India, whose texts are...
This Week at Trinity
Sunday, April 25 Worship 8:00 & 10:30 a.m. in person Also available online by 6:00 a.m. Adult Education Adult Ed meets on Zoom at 9:15 every Sunday morning. This week, Pastor Wayne Bacus begins a two-week series titled, "The Ten Most Important Things You Need to...
Homecoming! What You Need to Know
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... A much-anticipated HOMECOMING happens tomorrow! I am so excited to welcome you all home for in-person worship this Sunday, April 18th at 8:00 & 10:30. Our entire Church Staff is so excited to be reopening our doors and seeing your...
What’s in a Name?
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... My oldest daughter, Ava, has a new baby goat – well, she doesn’t have him just yet as he needs to spend a few more weeks with his mom, but he is all hers. She is, of course, head-over-heels for this little guy, but she’s struggling to...
Country, Rap, and Jesus
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... So, what do you get if you play country and western music backwards? He gets his dog back, he gets his truck back, he gets his girl back. Okay, not really so funny but the point to be made is pretty simple… music as a medium often...
Homecoming This Sunday, April 18
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, and there we wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps.” Psalm 137:1-2 The people of Israel were taken into captivity. They longed to return home. They dreamed of...
The Risen Christ
Today’s Word from Minister of Music Karl Olsen... …we weave notes together to form the fabric of our community’s praise and lament; each of us offering a unique and invaluable thread. Anonymous Smart is good. Smart and hardworking is really good. Smart, hardworking...
God Given Gifts
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... After Easter Sunday, I took the week off. My family and I contemplated going somewhere for a few days, but we decided to stay on the island, get a few things done around the farm, and enjoy our time together. My parents came up to visit...
Saying Goodbye to Pete
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim...We were just a few weeks into the pandemic when Pete Teel died on the 11th day of April 2020. Funeral gatherings were not allowed in the State of Washington. We were just learning the proper protocols, and the extent of the...
A Little Inspiration
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... As I sat staring at a blank page, trying to decide what to write about today, my daughter walked out of her bedroom and put a 3-day-old chick in my hands. He is remarkable. This perfectly developed, fluffy little chick hatched out of an...
Easter Disappointment?
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... “Woo hoo! We won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes!” Again. Seems like every couple of months I get that tantalizing little email notifying me I have only to hit the magic “click” button, and a zillion dollars a month,...
No Time for Heaven!
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... A vision of heaven: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready like a bride dressed to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: ‘Now God’s home with mankind!...
Like Clouds in the Sky
Today’s Word from Trinity Keyboardist Sheila Weidendorf... It is Eastertide here, and Spring, with its little resurrections everywhere. Places in the world where the calendar follows the lunar cycles it is just about New Year. Any way you slice it, rebirth abounds. It...
Easter 2021
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... Yesterday we had a joyful Easter celebration online and in the parking lot at Trinity Lutheran Church. Easter is a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and to claim our promised resurrection. It was 53 years ago yesterday that...
Silent Saturday
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... The events of Good Friday are gruesome and painful. It is not the kind of story that I would tell in detail to our Trinity Preschoolers. Savage violence has always been a regrettable part of the human story, and it is sad to say that...
What’s So Good About Good Friday?
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... On Good Friday, we remember Jesus’ death on the cross. We remember his trial, his suffering, and his crucifixion. We remember the saddest day in our Christian history. So, if it’s all about remembering such a terrible day, why do we...
Maundy Thursday
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... Empathy is good, narcissism is bad. Pretty sure you’re with me on this one. Empathy is good, narcissism is bad. Empathy is the gift of being able to feel one another’s feelings, allowing one to be fully present with another....
Putting us in Our Place
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... Christianity is about putting us in our place and slapping us down with grace. Putting Us in Our Place We are the children of God, created in the image of God, blessed and chosen. Children do not understand most of what happens around...
Prophet, Healer, Abbess, Composer, Mystic: The Music of Hildegard von Bingen
Today’s Word from Trinity Keyboardist Sheila Weidendorf... Hildegard of Bingen (von Bingen) was born in 1098 in a village on a tributary of the Rhine River (called Beckelheim or Bermersheim—sources disagree). She was the youngest of ten children born to noble parents,...
Dare to Create
Today’s Word from Karl Olsen, Minister of Music... “Talent copies, genius steals.” Pablo Picasso “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton A few years ago, I wrote a song. That, in itself, is no great surprise. I have written...
The Movement of God
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... Tomorrow we descend the Mount of Olives in a parade of palms, as Jesus enters the Holy City of Jerusalem for the last time. There were thousands along the pilgrim path that day, peasants from small villages and religious zealots with an...
R.I.P. Rhonda
Today’s Word from Deacon Amy... I don’t talk about it much, but I went through a pretty difficult divorce several years ago. After all of the paperwork was filed, and things were finally settled, I went out and bought myself a new truck (well, new to me). I know most...
Grow Up!
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom... How important is it to attend worship services? How critical is it to listen to a contemplative missive or to read a daily devotional? Why would it matter if you or I never opened our Bibles again? Who would know? Really, what does all...
Fragile Habitat
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion (benevolent caretaker) over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air…” Genesis 1:26. Felicia and I went out for a hike last...
Day by Day
Today's Word from Minister of Music Karl Olsen... It is a common trait for people to look ahead, to wonder what’s next for me, or what might be just around the corner. As we are now dealing with a pandemic roaming the world (gratefully on decline here) we can easily...
A Close Call
Today's Word from Deacon Amy... When I came home from the office on Friday evening, I parked my car where I usually do, grabbed my bags, and started walking toward the back door. That’s when I noticed the smoke drifting out from the area beside our house. Remembering...
Trinity’s Reopening Plan
“Without a vision the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18 2020 rolled over us and now we have rolled into a more optimistic 2021. We have had lots of plans over the past year, most of which have been significantly altered or canceled altogether. As winter loosens its grip,...
The Sounds of Silence
Today's Word from Deacon Amy... I love sitting outside at nighttime and listening to the sounds. It’s amazing how much you can hear in the silence. A couple of nights ago, I sat outside the barn and just listened to the dark. Mostly, I heard the sounds of the goats...
My Mythology
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... “I am an excellent golfer.” …. Uhh, I have had moments. Long ago moments. “I am the best putter on the golf course.” … I am not the worst if Pastor Jim is playing. “I have never preached a bad sermon.” … OMG, did you catch that dog...
If All Else Fails, Just Stick with Jesus
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... Trends in American Christianity are very clear. The Christian Church is in decline; it has been for nearly 60 years. Trinity has been able to buck that trend for decades, but the pandemic has accelerated change. The pandemic has...
True Confessions of a Classical Pianist
Today’s Word from Trinity Keyboardist Sheila Weidendorf... My true north in the world of performing arts is classical chamber music – it’s what I predominantly perform in my professional pianist life and what lives in the center of my musical heart. Having said that,...
The Greatest Commandment
Today’s Word from Pastor Jim... Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Nothing really complicated about this -- the greatest commandment. Nothing complicated, and yet we have a really hard time living it. The greatest commandment was condensed from...