New England Synod Bishop's Bulletin, February 2025

 

The choice is clear:

Meanness or Mercy …
Cruelty or Compassion …
Conformity or Freedom …

With a flurry of Executive Orders in his first week in office, the President of the United States has made his choice clear. He is choosing meanness and cruelty and demanding conformity.

In the love of Jesus Christ, as a bishop in Christ’s church, and speaking on behalf of all those targeted by these Executive Orders, I speak against the mean and divisive actions of the President of the United States. While I respect that elections have consequences and winners can enact policies that reflect the will of the majority, the massive amount of swift Executive Orders, on all aspects of American life, reflect a vision for division that do not reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ nor do I believe, ultimately, reflect the will of a majority of Americans.

 

All January 6th insurrectionists are pardoned … governmental workers are encouraged to snitch on their coworkers as programs encouraging diversity, equity, and inclusion are banned … permits for wind energy are rescinded while those for oil and natural gas are expanded … citizens forced into gender conformity that does not align with their lived experiences … neighbors forced into fear over ICE raids, afraid that at any moment they may be caught without the paperwork proving their legal residency in the United States and instantly flown out of the country.

 

These actions are mean, they are cruel, and they demand conformity to the vision of one man imposed upon the country.  

I speak out today because when I was elected Bishop of the New England Synod in June 2024, I shared that my top three priorities would be to tell the story of Jesus, nurture relationships, and do racial justice.

At this moment in time, the story of Jesus I tell is told in Matthew 25 where Jesus tells a parable of a king separating sheep and goats for reward and judgment. Apart from the scenes of judgment which can be difficult for Lutherans, I see a beautiful incarnational promise. Jesus makes the stunning point that when we serve our neighbors in need we serve Christ himself. The sheep judged righteous are told “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). On the other hand, the goats judged unworthy are told, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matthew 25:45). To be in relationship with the stranger, the sick, the prisoner is to be in relationship with Christ himself! To fail to serve the least among us is to fail to be in relationship with Christ himself!

In an already polarized society where the United States Surgeon General has warned of an epidemic of loneliness as social connections come apart, and where one study among transgender adults in the United States found that 81% had thought about suicide and 42% had attempted suicide, the President is actively sowing division, breaking apart relationships, and ignoring the least among us. He is incurring judgment upon us as a nation in implementing policies that turn us away from one another and from caring for the least among us.

The choice is clear.

We can choose the President’s path in our silence and inaction, by yielding to despair, and by throwing up our hands in frustration if we believe the lie that there is nothing we can do.  

Or, we can retain our power and authority as baptized children of God and choose the path of Jesus Christ in our daily interactions, in our community service, and in our public advocacy.

 

The path of Jesus is mercy, compassion, and freedom … it calls us to see the image of God in all our neighbors and celebrates a diversity of lived experiences … it invites us to understand that Christ-like sacrificial service for our neighbors is the key to life.

The path of Jesus leads us into trouble for eating with the outcasts, sinners, and others society reviles … it calls us to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, care for the sick, and visit the prisoner regardless of citizenship status … it calls us into relationships with our transgender siblings and all who are bullied and targeted by the President’s actions.

The path of Jesus Christ celebrates and welcomes the Holy Spirit guiding, leading, and sustaining us in community with one another… it finds its strength and power in the Holy Spirit filling us with boldness to love, serve, build, create, and enact relationships and communities announcing the dignity and worth of all people.

 

The choice is ours. In my words and deeds as the Bishop of the New England Synod I choose the path of Jesus Christ. I choose the path of mercy, compassion, and service that leads to the life, healing, and salvation of the world.

I invite you to join me on the path of Jesus. As you do so, be encouraged and emboldened by the faith of the psalmist who sang: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” Psalm 46:1-4

May our actions and service for our neighbors in Christ’s name be the glory we give to God!

 

Bishop Pipho

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     The Rev. Nathan Pipho

     New England Synod

     Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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New England Synod Bishop's Bulletin, March 2025

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I don’t want to hear politics from the pulpit … 

The bishop is getting too political …

We believe in a separation of church and state … 

 

Maybe you’ve heard these statements recently?  

Maybe you’ve thought them yourself?

 

Let me be clear and unequivocal: the preacher’s sole responsibility is to preach Jesus Christ for the sake of faith.

 

To preach Jesus Christ is to proclaim the free gift of God’s grace announced to each of us through no merit of our own. We have done nothing to earn God’s love. Our neighbors have done nothing to earn God’s love. Preaching announces this astonishing gift for the sake of faith – that we would come to know the height, depth, breadth, and width of God’s love for ourselves and for the world proclaimed to us in the death and resurrection of Christ.  

 

As the preacher announces this breathtaking good news, the preacher might ask the question posed by my Reformation professor, the Rev. Dr. Timothy Wengert: “Now that there’s nothing we need to do to earn God’s love, what do we do?” How do we respond to this amazingly free gift of grace?

 

In his essay “On the Freedom of a Christian”, Martin Luther described how this free gift of grace makes each of us both “free Lords subject to no one, and dutiful servants subject to all.” The gospel, at the same time, both frees us from using our neighbors in a self-serving way to earn God’s love and binds us to loving and serving our neighbors as fellow recipients of God’s free gift of love.  

 

To paraphrase into today’s vernacular: having received God’s grace we are called to “pay it forward.”

 

We who have received the promise of Christ’s love in the water and word of Holy Baptism, and in the bread and cup of Holy Communion, are called to pay that unconditional grace forward as we love and serve our neighbors.

 

Paying it forward is a way that we preach the free gift of God’s love announced in Christ. Not all are called to preach with words from the pulpit, but all are called to preach Christ’s love in our daily behaviors towards our neighbors and in the public policies we advocate or oppose.

 

In preaching Jesus Christ, preachers will invite hearers into reflecting on how they can be preachers of God’s love as “dutiful servants subject to all.”

 

I’ve heard it said that preaching is a conversation between preacher and hearers. That conversation doesn’t happen in one Sunday sermon, but occurs between preacher and congregation in relationship with one another in Bible study, in pastoral care, in fellowship hour conversations, and in the joys and sorrows of life together over the years. Both preachers and hearers are formed in relationship with each other over time.

 

Here’s the freedom of the gospel: as free Lords subject to none, a Lutheran listener need not agree with everything the preacher says. You need not agree with everything I say as bishop. We need not agree with one another. Lutherans do not demand conformity. We do not have purity and loyalty tests. We live in the freedom of the gospel.

 

And yet, that freedom doesn’t leave us off the hook. Subject to all, each of us is bound in Christ to love and serve our neighbors. Each of us as disciples in our daily vocations, and in our vocations as citizens, are called to preach God’s love in our personal behaviors and in the public policies we support. Our votes, our support for candidates who enact policies, the money we donate to support candidates and policies, are all ways we actively love and serve our neighbors.

 

“As dutiful servants subject to all” we are called to act on behalf of our neighbors in need. This includes both supporting policies that reflect God’s generosity and speaking against policies that do not reflect the truth of God’s love for all people. Preaching God’s love, we must resist, reject and work to change those policies that sow division, and which harm and injure God’s people.

 

As part of that conversation between preachers and hearers, and proclaiming Christ’s love on behalf of my neighbors, I state for the record that I believe current policies seeking to erase transgender identities, prohibit DEI initiatives, allow ICE raids in houses of worship, displace Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, and roll back initiatives to combat global climate change do not reflect the love of Jesus Christ for our neighbors.  

 

Let me be clear: I do not offer this as partisan commentary. I have no public comment on other parts of the President’s program which he is entitled to advance by virtue of winning the 2024 General Election. I do believe in a two (or more) party system of government that can offer policy alternatives that can be debated in a spirit of respect and understanding.

 

Rather, I state my opposition to these policies as a recipient of the grace of Jesus Christ and as a minister of the gospel. I state my opposition on behalf of the members of the New England Synod, and members of our longtime companion church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, who are harmed by these specific policies of violence and harm. Where one is harmed – we all are harmed.

 

Regardless of your party affiliation or support for, or opposition to, the President, I expect all members of the New England Synod, in their callings as the baptized body of Christ and in their vocations as citizens, to speak out on behalf of transgender persons, immigrants, Palestinians, and any and all children of God targeted by policies that erase identities, displace people from their homelands, and impose domination of belief and identity upon others. I expect all members of the New England Synod to advocate for science and care for creation for the sake of all future generations. I believe these values are bi-partisan and non-partisan and cut across party lines. We should agree that all people bear the image of God, that all people deserve respect, honor, and safety in their homes and houses of worship, and that all people should be afforded the benefit of public policies that reflect the truth of God’s unconditional grace and mercy upon them.

 

Together as one Church, we must speak together at any time and in all times, when God’s children are harmed and injured. We must speak out regardless of which political party holds the White House, Congress, or the Courts. We who have received Christ’s love cannot sit by while others receive condemnation and hate. We who have done nothing to earn God’s love cannot sit by and do nothing while others receive violence through public policies. We must preach the love of Jesus Christ in behalf of our neighbors.

 

Policy questions are complex. In the freedom of the gospel we must deliberate, have honest conversations, and seek to understand one another more deeply. We need each other as Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to solve the complex issues before us. And at the same time, as preachers of the gospel, must advocate for love on behalf of our neighbors – especially our neighbors in need.

 

And so, together as Church, may we all be preachers of the gospel. Together as Church, may we all preach Christ’s love in our personal behaviors and in the public policies we support and oppose. Together as Church, may we all preach God’s unconditional grace and mercy announced for all peoples of the world in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

May our love and service on behalf of our neighbors be the glory we give to God!

 

Bishop Pipho

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     The Rev. Nathan Pipho

     New England Synod

     Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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New England Synod Bishop's Bulletin, April 2025

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Holy Week … 

 

I fell in love with Jesus during Holy Week.

 

Every year as a boy, my parents took me to Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday services.

 

It was during those powerful liturgies I fell in love with Jesus who entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to shouts of hosanna as people waved palm branches and exalted him as the Son of David … who then knelt before his disciples as he washed their feet and commanded them to love another just as he had loved them … who shared a last meal with his friends and even with Judas who would betray him … who prayed in the garden and was arrested … who stood trial before Pilate … who was sentenced to die while the crowds released an insurrectionist … who body was ultimately broken and crucified on the cross … all leading to the Easter morning joy of the resurrection.

 

I fell in love with Jesus during Holy Week.

 

As the Church prepares to gather once again around the central story of our faith, we will do so with a range of traditions and practices. My own approach to Holy Week has evolved from the days of my childhood parish to my second call to parish ministry.

 

As a boy, I remember the Palm Sunday we followed a donkey down the road to experience what it might have been like in the crowd as Jesus entered Jerusalem. As a teenager, I turned up the organ as loudly as I could as I played “All Glory Laud and Honor” as the congregation waved their palm branches and processed into the worship space. In my first call, I shortened the gospel reading to emphasize Palm Sunday as the entrance into the story that would unfold over the course of the rest of the week and I put out sign-up sheets, creating as many ways to participate as possible for my congregation to participate in the story during the Holy Week services. In my second call, we read or sang the full passion according to the synoptic gospel on Sunday and then read or sang John’s passion on Good Friday. I grew to appreciate reading the full passion story on both Palm Passion Sunday as presented by the synoptic gospels and then again John’s passion on Good Friday. Two presentations of the passion during Holy Week proclaiming the fact that this is the central story of our faith.  

 

In my boyhood congregation I remember the power of receiving the absolution and the forgiveness of sin on Maundy Thursday and the time when, with our sins forgiven, I intentionally went up to a woman in the congregation who had said hurtful things about me and I shared peace and forgiveness with her. In my first call, for many years we borrowed a practice from my dearly departed colleague Pastor Tim Stein where instead of washing feet we washed each other’s hands as a sign of service. The whole assembly participated. In my second call was the first time I experienced members of the congregation washing each other’s feet. In every place, I remember the haunting stripping of the altar as we left the church in silence.

 

On Good Friday, as a boy we experienced a Tenebrae liturgy as we read the passion of Jesus, interspersed with hymns, as the church gradually darkened until we read of Jesus’s death and the church was completely dark. And then, for a second night in a row and unlike services the rest of the year, we departed in silence. I repeated the Tenebrae tradition in my first call where I also experienced the “Seven Last Words from the Cross” three-hour liturgy for the first time. It was an ecumenical liturgy hosted by the United Methodist Church from Noon to 3:00 p.m. and local clergy each preached a sermon on one of the “seven last words” from the cross. The first couple years I only attended for my “word” and perhaps the word before or after, but then as a devotional practice I started staying for all three hours. In my second call, guided by scholars who suggested John’s gospel presents not a suffering servant of the synoptic gospels, but a triumphant king firmly in control and who had intentionally chosen the cross, I came to think of Good Friday not as a tearful funeral day, but as a solemn and triumphant coronation day. Certainly one where we observed the death of Jesus on the cross, but also as one where we celebrated Christ’s accomplishment of salvation. “It is finished” not the last gasps of the dying, but the exclamation point on salvation accomplished.

 

The tradition of the Easter Vigil was one I learned about in seminary and internship. I instituted the tradition in my first call and was glad to connect with a well-established tradition of the vigil in my second call. In both places, I was fond of the liturgy of readings occurring in halls where A.A. groups, English as Second Language courses, neighborhood associations, musical groups, and other community groups had gathered throughout the year. Reading stories of God’s deliverance in the place where community groups also gathered was a profound witness and connection to God who continues to work new life in the world today.

 

I fell in love with Jesus during Holy Week.

 

It’s been said that a successful marriage requires falling in love with the same person again and again. In a way, the same can be said about faith. Faith is about falling in love with Jesus over and over, knowing that as we do so Jesus is always completely in love with us.

 

Regardless of how your congregation observes Holy Week, I pray you will participate fully and fall in love again with Jesus. I pray you will fall in love with the crucified and risen Jesus who continues to proclaim that life is found in mercy; God’s love is found on the cross; and Christ’s resurrection is found in the Church, the living body of Christ today, living out the story of salvation. I pray you will fall in love with Jesus who is always in love with you.  

 

Hosanna to the highest!​

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Bishop Pipho

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     The Rev. Nathan Pipho

     New England Synod

     Evangelical Lutheran Church in America