Advent Lutheran Church - Mentor, OH - Health & Wellness Ministry

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

My faith is a garden, and every gardener knows what it takes to grow a garden and keep it beautiful. My faith is like a garden, and how I prepare the ground of my soul to receive the seed of God ’s love will determine how my faith will grow. My heart and mind and soul have a spiritual soil that first requires tending. I find that the pain and struggles in life can serve as a plow that breaks my fallow ground. That which tears and breaks my heart can open up space where the seed of God ’s love can penetrate and take root. We say what doesn’t kill us makes us strong, and although I do not seek out pain and suffering, it will find me, and at that moment of impact it strengthens my roots in God; roots grow deeper when faced with the storms of life.

I am vulnerable and torn up to the elements of this natural world, and if I get my hands dirty and remove the rocks and barriers, God is right beside me giving me a hand and instructing me the best way to prepare my garden of faith. My Lord is a constant gardener, and if I listen and learn, my work will be rewarded by a nourishing and beautiful garden. Watered by His grace, I am blessed by the fruit of His labor in me. I use the compost of my struggles and sin to work as fertilizer, and the winds and storms will grow my roots strong. I seek to learn the weeds from the flowers, realizing that both grow together, and I leave the weeds to the hands of Jesus, Who knew no sin.

No human life is sin-free, just like no garden is weedfree, and the way to a harvest is to focus on the fruit. With daily attention to the garden of my faith, I listen to the nature of God, the “reign” to water,the “son” to transform, and the oxygen of the Spirit to give life. I seek to produce fruit and beauty for the Master Gardener, and with the proper pruning and cultivation, I can join with other gardens, giving fragrance and nourishment for a hungering world. The gardener will never leave fruit on the vine to rot; she will always give away to those who have need for beauty and sustenance. My faith is a garden, and in my prayer and work, I discover God’s good pleasure in my desire to grow, always thankful for the gracious gift of the soil and the seeds. The gift of my garden is that I produce fruit that is always more than I need. Abundance is the blessing of God ’s garden, so I harvest at the right time, not leaving any fruit on the vine, and then I share my produce with others. The beauty of faith is that it is best when shared and not left rotting under a bushel or on the branch. The beauty of the faith garden is the diversity of flower and vegetable, tree and vine, as all give praise to the Master Gardener who gives the growth.

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9 For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)

Pastor Kovitch
(August 2006)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is said that the most powerful phrase in the human language is “I love you.”   We hunger to be recognized, to be welcomed, to be loved.  Deep down we need each other.   I recently had the experience of feeling unrecognized when I attended a church as a guest.  I walked in off the street to worship as an anonymous person seeking a community in which to worship God.

You see, as a pastor, I don ’t get out much on Sunday morning.   I was taking some vacation time and desired to experience worship as everyone else does.   On this day, I experienced feeling invisible within a faith community.  I was in the midst of these church folks for 1½ hours and not one person approached me or even recognized me as being present among them.

I worried, could this be a mirror of how I act towards strangers?   Is this how strangers experience the body of Christ at the community of faith that I call home?  Is this why the church has become seen as irrelevant by many in our world today?   For a split second in the church, I became every outcast, every stranger, every marginalized person, and I wept for them and I wept for the church called to welcome them.

Then it hit me more than ever: the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about relationship, an intimate encounter with God and others.   In the midst of my invisible moments, I cried out inside, "Hello!  See me!  Recognize me in your midst!   Ask me if I have a need, if I am hungry, if I am lost, if I am at the end of my rope with nowhere else to turn.   Ask me if I am sick, if I need healing, if I need prayer, if I am looking for a home."  In other words, "Love me, see me, and recognize me for Christ ’s sake!".

This experience put flesh on the greatest sin of the church, let alone the world: the sin of not welcoming the stranger, the outsider, the sinner.   I know we are afraid, as we are taught from a young age not to talk to strangers.  We carry over our fear of stranger-danger to the faith and see the stranger as a threat.   For Christ's sake, let us see the great commandment as a call to recognize love in every encounter, for there is a time to refrain from embracing but there is also a time to embrace.

I thought of the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life,” with Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey.   His life had become so desperate he wished he had never been born.   George found out what it felt like to be unrecognizable.   He witnessed that everyone is necessary as they affect so many lives through simple acts of love.

The scene that relates so well to my experience was at the end when George Bailey comes back to the bridge after finding out the power of relationships and how they ripple through the lives of all.   George is on the bridge praying for Clarence to take him back to his old life, then the snow falls, and Bert the police officer drives up.   George at first sees Bert as an enemy until Bert calls his name. “BERT: Hey, George!  George!   You all right?   GEORGE: Bert, do you know me?   BERT: Know you?   Are you kiddin'?   I've been looking all over town trying to find you.  I saw your car piled into that tree down there, and I thought maybe... Hey, your mouth's bleeding; Are you sure you're all right?   GEORGE: What did...(George touches his lips with his tongue, wipes his mouth with his hand, laughs happily.   His rapture knows no bounds.)  GEORGE:(joyously) My mouth's bleeding, Bert!   My mouth's bleed...(He practically embraces the astonished Bert, then runs at top speed toward town.)

Notice that Bert recognizes the physical wound on George ’s lip.  Bert sees George ’s pain and acts on his behalf.  George finds joy in the recognition and the life bound by community.

Pray for the invisible ones, those who hunger and thirst for hospitality.  Welcome Christ to your table and risk encountering the divine and even being accused of guilt by association as you embrace the stranger.

Matthew 25:37 Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?   (38)And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?   (39)And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?"   (40)And the king will answer them, "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."

Pastor Kovitch
(July 2006)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope this letter finds you well and growing in the hope of faith in Jesus Christ.   These are interesting times in which we live, aren’t they?  To be a faith community growing in the knowledge and love of God takes on deeper purpose as we encounter a world controlled by fear and worry.  As an ordained spiritual leader in the Lutheran church, I am confronted with the call to speak life in the midst of death, peace in the midst of war, hospitality in the midst of exclusion, and outward mission in the midst of the temptation to wall ourselves off from the world.   I am assailed by the questions of, "Who is Jesus Christ for us today ?" and, "How shall we transform lives and the world in the name of Jesus?"

I realize that the only way I can address these questions is to begin with me.   The only way to lead spiritually is to continue transforming my heart, mind, and soul into a deeper accountability to God.   Here is where I take my ministry with you to the next level.   Over the past five years we have gotten to know each other and have learned to grow in faith and action.  As I look ahead to where God may take us, I do so by examining my call in relation to strengths and weaknesses, current state and future vision, and how effective I am in relation to you who call Advent home.

The ministry of the church is a deadly serious thing if the gospel of Jesus Christ is taken seriously.   I take the gospel of Jesus Christ seriously.   The question of who

Jesus Christ is for us today is being answered by religious extremists, both left and right, and politicians, both left and right, at an accelerated and alarming rate. The church is becoming a battle ground for special interests and partisan politics and, quite frankly, I am tired of it all. I believe that we answer the question of who Jesus is for us today first and foremost as a community of worship who grows in relationship to God through our word and sacrament, praise and song. It is here that we find reconciliation, forgiveness, hospitality, and mission. Worship is the first act of faith that binds us to God as Lover and Beloved.

The next step in the question of who Jesus is for us today is found in a growing relationship with our neighbor. We realize that we are all ministers to one another in the name of the God in whom we worship. Small group ministries that allow us to meet and greet lead us to see Christ living in, with, and under us. This leads me to the second imperative in my ministry - leadership development and empowerment. My call is to be the worship leader in word and sacrament and to equip the saints and empower you to transform your world in love and mercy. That is, I am to cultivate and nurture a community that fosters deep and abiding relationships with God and neighbor. This is how I will serve you, by deepening further my relationship with God and with you, as you do the same in your lives and your world. Who is Jesus Christ for us today? The answer to this question lies with our partnership in the gospel and the faith to work together as we grow together and become the change that we want to see in the world.

Pastor Kovitch
(September 2006)