For all the saints

Soon to be new Habitat homeowners

Tabitha and family at site dedication in Commerce City, January 28, 2012.

That's YOU!

Volunteer appreciation dinner tomorrow night, Jan 28, at 5:00 p.m.

USA honors Raoul Wallenberg

Statement by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State, Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister of Sweden, The New York Times, January 16, 2012

Raoul Wallenberg was born 100 years ago into a family of great wealth and influence. He could have remained safely in neutral Sweden during World War II. Instead, as first secretary at the Swedish Legation in Budapest in the summer of 1944, Wallenberg acted. Without concern for his own safety, he worked tirelessly to save thousands from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.By the summer of 1944, more than 400,000 Jewish Hungarians had been put in trains and sent away, most to their deaths. Wallenberg began issuing Swedish “protective passports” to the remaining population of Jewish Hungarians. His inventiveness and determination to provide protection to as many Jews as possible are credited with saving the lives of some 100,000 people.

Of course, Wallenberg was not alone in taking such action. Others chose to risk their careers, and their lives, to defy official protocols and repressive laws to rescue Jews. Many were censured, punished or killed for their acts of courage.

As a result, at Israel’s Holocaust memorial site, Yad Vashem, you will find today planted along the Avenue of the Righteous not only Raoul Wallenberg’s tree, but also the trees of 2,000 others, as well as 18,000 names engraved in the walls in remembrance of those who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust.

Why did they do it? All of these heroes seemed to have shared the sentiment of the martyred Lutheran pastor and Nazi resister Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. … Not to act is to act.”

Raoul Wallenberg’s mission was an example of American-Swedish cooperation for the common good. His work in Budapest was partly financed by the United States.

In 1981, to honor that work, the United States awarded Wallenberg honorary American citizenship. Wallenberg fought for values cherished in both Sweden and the United States. Together, we have long cooperated to protect and promote human rights at home and abroad.

Perhaps the most important part of Wallenberg’s legacy lies in its lessons for the generations to come. It is incumbent on us to pass on his story to those who come after us not as part of a distant heroic myth, but as an example of the values that should inform the way we live our lives.

In January, 2000, Stockholm acted as host to an International Forum on the Holocaust. The final sentence of the declaration of that forum stated: “Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for moral understanding and justice.”

Today, as we remember Raoul Wallenberg’s life and work, we reaffirm our common aspiration for moral understanding and justice.

Epiphany 3: Mark 1: 14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;^* repent, and believe in the good news.' 16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Translation:  But with the delivering over of John, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, "The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.  Turn and 'faith' in the good news." 

And moving alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, "Come after me and I will make you to be fishers of people."  And immediately, letting go the nets, they followed him.  And stepping a little forward, he saw James son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat restoring the nets.  Immediately, he called them and, letting go their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired hands, they went after him.

Luther College Nordic Choir in concert in Colorado

7:00 p.m. Sunday, January 29 at First Congregational Church, located at 2101 16th Street in Greeley.  (Co-hosted by Our Savior's Lutheran Church) Tickets are $15 Adults; $8 Students You may purchase tickets online or by calling 800-4-LUTHER   7:00 p.m. Monday, January 30 at Augustana Lutheran Church, located at 5000 East Alameda Avenue in Denver (80246).  Tickets: $20 adults; $15 Seniors; $10 Students You may purchase tickets online or by calling 800-4-LUTHER 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 31at Bethany Lutheran Church, located at 4500 East Hampden Avenue, Cherry Hills Village (80113).  Tickets: $20 adults; $15 Seniors; $10 Students You may purchase tickets online or by calling 800-4-LUTHER The program will feature selections chosen from: Holy Radiant Light, Alexander Gretchaninov; Love Is the Key, Zebulon Highben (recent winner of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians' 2011 Raabe Prize); other choral works by Sch?tz, Bach, P?rt, Lauridsen, and Nelhybel, as well as hymn-arrangements and spirituals. Allen Hightower is the conductor.

 

Something called "kinetic art"

 

The Lady Gaga of her day?

MSNBC:  Egyptian and Swiss archaeologists have unearthed a roughly 2,900-year-old tomb of a female singer in the Valley of the Kings, an antiquities official said Sunday.

It is the only tomb of a woman not related to the ancient Egyptian royal families ever found in the Valley of the Kings, said Mansour Boraiq, the top government official for the Antiquities' Ministry in the city of Luxor.

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is a major tourist attraction. In 1922, archaeologists there unearthed the gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun and other stunning items in the tomb of the king who ruled more than 3,000 years ago.

Boraiq told The Associated Press that the coffin of the female singer is remarkably intact.

He said that when the coffin is opened this week, archaeologists will likely find a mummy and a cartonnage mask molded to her face and made from layers of linen and plaster.

The singer's name, Nehmes Bastet, means she was believed to be protected by the feline deity Bastet.

 

How Martin Luther King got his name

Forbes:  As an adult, Martin Luther King Sr., whose given name was Michael King, chose the name Martin Luther for himself and for his young son after visiting the region of eastern Germany where Martin Luther, the Father of the Reformation, was born, lived and worked, according to LutherCountry, an umbrella title for two neighboring German states, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia...

Back in the 1934, Martin Luther King Sr. was one of 10 Baptist ministers who traveled first to the Holy Land and then to Germany. It was on this trip that the senior King “discovered” Martin Luther, and upon returning, gradually changed both his name and his then five-year old son’s, the group said.

 

Epiphany 2: John 1: 43-51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’⁵⁰Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’⁵¹And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

Translation:  The next day, Jesus willed to go into Galilee and he found Philip and Jesus said to him, "Imitate me."  But Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found of whom Moses wrote in the law and the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, out of Nazareth."  Nathanael said to him, "Out of Nazareth can anything good come to be?"  Philip said to him, "Come and see."  Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and he said about him, "Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no treachery!"  Nathanael said to him, "Where did you know me?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw your true nature under the fig tree."  Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are ruler of Israel."  Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I say to you that I saw you underneath the fig tree, you believe?  You will be seeing greater things than these."  And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to all of you, you will be seeing the heavens having been opened and the angels of God going up and coming down upon the son of man."