Dear Trinity Lutheran Church Members and Friends:
The Church Office will be closed on Monday, May 29, in honor of Memorial Day.
The Discussion Group will meet on Wednesday at 2 pm. Please note the new time.
A Minister’s Memorial Day Musings: I am about to do something dangerous in New York Yankee fan country; I am going to say something nice about a Boston Red Sox’s player: Ted Williams may have been the best all-around hitter in Major League Baseball history. The last man to hit .400 in a season, he had a lifetime average of .344 and hit 521 homeruns. What makes that even more amazing is that he missed five years when he was in the prime of his career. He did not miss those seasons because of injury – he missed them because he volunteered to serve three years in the military during World War II and then another two years in the Korean Conflict. The “Splendid Splinter” was in harm’s way in those wars. “Teddy Ballgame” was a highly decorated fighter pilot. If he had typical years for him (which would be fantastic years for others) in those five seasons he missed, he would have easily topped 3,000 hits and probably 700 homers, even getting dangerously close to the home run record of that Baltimore-born “Bambino” who played in “The House that Ruth Built.” But that was the sacrifice Williams made.
Of course, Ted William’s sacrifice is nothing at all compared to those who gave their lives for their country. Many young people, from the Revolutionary War to our military actions in Afghanistan, have put their limbs and their lives on the line so that we might have liberty. Who knows what magnificent accomplishments – what diseases cured, what technologies invented, what injustices righted – might have been made by those who valued our freedom more than their safety, even more than their very lives. What a tremendous debt of gratitude we owe to them on this Memorial Day. I knew an Honor Guard chaplain used to say at the gravesides services of foreign war veterans, “Our brother/sister knew the horrors of war. May God heal the hurts of his/her body, heart, and mind. And until that day the earth and sea give up their dead, rest in peace comrade, rest in peace. Amen.
The Hymns We Sing #905: Although it is found in the “Beginning of Services” section of our Lutheran Service Book hymnal, Come. Thou Almighty King will be the recessional hymn, send us off to our mission beyond the church walls, on Trinity Sunday, June 4. The hymn addresses each person of the Trinity in turn in stanzas 1-3, and then the entire Trinity in stanza 4. It appears that Come, Thou Almighty King is modeled after the British national anthem, God Save the King. Of course, our God is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. If we thought King Charles’ coronation was something, wait until we see worship in Heaven. The author of Come, Thou Almighty King is unknown. It was probably written and then modified by several different people before being published in 1757.