Portsmouth Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA)

05/30/2026

From the Oregonian, January 10, 1954

The Artistry Behind Portsmouth Trinity’s Historic Altar Paraments

09/05/2024

The Harvest Season for Our Garden has Arrived

08/04/2023

Our garden doesn’t just feed our community, it feeds our bees. It is a win-win kind of friendship. They love all the flowers. Our vegetables will soon be ready to share.

06/04/2023

Today we planted our "Garden of Eatin". Every year, with the help of our members, neighbors and friends, we plant this garden for community. The vegetables grown here are free for the taking to anyone who needs them or wants them

01/20/2023

Even in these short days and long nights of winter, there are buds and shoots all around gardens and forests. Even amid bare limbs of trees, which are in slumber, they continue to feed on the moisture caught by the wet leaves that fill our yards. On my daily walks of late, I’m glad to see such small signs of life which will soon turn to more obvious buds and blossoms. If all life is a miracle, I am thankful for such miracles.

The passage from Matthew’s Gospel this week seems to be set in two parts (Matthew 4:12-23). In the first half, we understand that Jesus makes his home in Capernaum, which is on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. If he actually had a home there, we don’t know. Matthew’s Jesus then talks about the future realm of God’s love, calling people to repent, for the realm is near, embodied in the very life of Jesus. Knowing that he could not do this mission alone, and that it would “take a village” to do it, Jesus starts to call out the twelve who would be his primary community. His first disciple is Andrew, who he calls from his work as a fisherman. And Jesus tells him, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (4:19). And Andrew “immediately” dropped his fishing nets and followed Jesus. Then he called brothers James and John, sons of Zebedee, to leave their nets and follow him, and they did the same thing that Andrew did. They "immediately" dropped their nets and followed Jesus. Here’s the question for us: When have you heard Jesus call you to do something? To be somewhere? Does Christ’s Spirit continue to do this kind of calling, in this day and age, asking us to pick up and leave what we are doing and follow Jesus to the ends of the earth? Do we do so "immediately?" Join us Sunday as we discuss this thing called “calling.”

01/15/2023

This coming Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, the focus is on the baptism of Jesus, in which we celebrate and remember this important initiation ritual in the life of the Church. In Matthew 3:13-17, the event of Jesus’ baptism happens rather quickly, filled with spiritual overtones, and the first presence of the Trinity, which would be echoed in the readings towards the end of Matthew’s Gospel. To begin, we have Jesus coming to John on the shores of the muddy Jordan River. Even though John insisted that he be baptized by Jesus, realizing who was in front of him, nevertheless John gives in to Jesus’ request to be baptized. And with that act of submission on Jesus’ part, being baptized by John, his relative, in coming out of the water, an epiphany was made about who was just baptized. First, there was the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descending and actually alighting—landing—on Jesus! Then there was the third part of the Trinity: Creator. Father. Parent. And the words spoken here from the heavens are important as they locate who Jesus is in the Trinity of faith: “This is my son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Wow. Succinct. Terse. To the point. But powerful. And since that first baptism, we’ve been baptizing people for over 2,000 years. Join us this Sunday as we discuss the power of the ritual of baptism in the life of the Church.

01/06/2023

Happy Feast of the Epiphany! This is Three Kings Day!
I began writing this newsletter on the 12th and last day of Christmas, Jan. 5, 2023. I hope you all enjoyed the season of Christmas, which included, in the midst of this holiday season, the turning over into a new year. Slowly, I took down the Christmas wreaths in the front of our home today, acknowledging that we are in a new season of the Church's life. We are no longer in Christmas but Epiphany, which ends on Feb. 22, 2023, Ash Wednesday.
The Scripture reading for Epiphany is Matthew 2:1-12. The primary verses that stand out to me as I read this passage is this: “When they (the Magi) saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh”(vv. 10-11). This is the very definition of the word “epiphany”: The “manifestation of a divine or supernatural being; a moment of sudden revelation or insight” (dictionary.com). The Magi, a group of pilgrims from the East, found the one that they had been seeking, lying in a manger, in Bethlehem. It is the very definition of an “Aha!” moment. They knew that this child, this one, was the one they were called to seek and find. When have we felt this kind of epiphanic experience in our daily lives? In other words, when were we caught surprised at the presence of the Holy in our daily routine of life? Join us Sunday as we focus on such moments of divine revelation in our lives today. And Happy Epiphany!
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Our story of sharing Advent/Christmas blessings with families from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, working with the Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship, was published in this week's Presbytery's Cascades Connection. The story is half way down the Cascades Connection. Just click on or copy and paste this hyperlink: https://mailchi.mp/cascadespresbytery/january-5-2023.... And thank you, all, for this gift of love.

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations...See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them." Isaiah 42:1, 9 With a new year b...

12/22/2022

“The reason for the season of Christmas” is almost here! After the four weeks of Advent, focusing on the movement of God in our world’s story, in which justice, peace, hope, joy, and love prevail in the world that is always teetering on the edge of rejecting these characteristics of a well-lived moral life, we remember the change agent extraordinaire who is born in a town outside of Jerusalem, in Bethlehem. The couple that welcomes the birth of Jesus are not well known. They are of the lineage of the house of King David, but besides that, not too much is known of the family. And the setting for the story is not beautiful and serene. It was an ad hoc situation at best. And right after the birth, the pilgrimage of Jesus’ life begins in earnest, to escape the horror show unleashed by Herod.

There is a refrain in the song, “O Holy Night,” with lyrics by French poet Placide Cappeau in 1843, based on the “divine midnight hour” of Christ’s birth, that speaks to us well today, as it did when it was first written, as well as about the night of Christ’s birth: “O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, it is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error, pining, until he appears and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” At the time of Christ’s birth, the world around Jesus’ birth was weary with being occupied territory of the Roman Empire. Sin and error abounded. Weirdly enough, the world feels similar today in some very real ways. We live in a weary and heavy-laden world. God’s faithfulness, in the birth of Emmanuel, God with us, shows up with wonder and surprise. It catches us off guard. There is nothing rational about this birth, or news of it. It came from left field. Off the grid. Out of the framework of our way of knowing the world, and God. And for that gift, let us give thanks. Join us as we read Luke 2:1-20, and remember, again, what God has done, is doing, and will always do in securing the realm of love in our midst today. See you Saturday night, Dec. 24, 2022, at 5 pm!

12/19/2022

Join us for Christmas Eve worship at 5 pm! December 24th!

12/18/2022

These words, written 55 years ago, are still our prayers today. Someday......
Someday at Christmas we'll see a land
With no hungry children, no empty hand
One happy morning people will share
Our world where people care
Whoa, someday at Christmas there'll be no tears
When all men are equal and no man has fears
One shinning moment one prayer away
From our world today

Musical guest Lizzo performs "Someday at Christmas (Amazon Music Original)" on Saturday Night Live. Listen to "Someday at Christmas (Amazon Music Original)" ...