As I’ve been sick this week, Greta took care of me as only a good dog can. We had hours of snoozes together. And as I write this, just as I was starting to feel much more like myself — just then — she threw up on the bedroom carpet. In our little domestic drama of 11 Mercer Street, we stumbled upon one of the most important doctrinal debates of the Reformation: how good Christian people (and good dogs) still metaphorically throw up on the carpets of our lives. We are saved in Christ, and yet how often do our lives look relatively unchanged? (Quite often.) This is the question of Christian identity as what Luther called simul iustus et peccator — being both a sinner and a saint.

Our friends at Mockingbird Ministries have a nice explainer of the topic:

The Reformers believed that people who believe in Jesus live by faith in him…This does not mean that the Christian life is unconcerned with doing good, only that it is important the good that might be done not cause us to forget the fundamental neediness of the person doing it. In other words, the Christian is someone who needs to be given a fish every day. Luther described this state as being ‘simultaneously justified and sinful at the same time,’ or simul iustus et peccator in the Latin.

So Christians are two things at the same time, both enduringly sinful and completely forgiven and justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ. Their identity is dual. This is not a half-and-half relationship; it is 100% and 100%. Paradoxically, we are fully saved and made righteous in Christ, and at the same time we are still the same old sinner we used to be. A Christian is seen by God as “hidden in Christ” (Colossians 3:2). As the Apostle Paul puts it, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Luther was a man of tremendously troubled conscience who spent many days as a young monk worrying if he was holy enough to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he realized that our righteousness in God isn’t based on making it 75 percent towards Christlikeness, or what have you. It isn’t about keeping up a passing average. We rely on what God has done that we can’t do for ourselves, and we forge ahead knowing that every day we need Jesus just as much as we did the day before.

Underneath our beautiful Stockton lawn is a large geothermal field which provides air conditioning for the sanctuary, as well as heating down to a fairly low outdoor temperature.  The system consists of 20 deep wells with 9 heat pumps which circulate fluid through the wells and the heat exchangers in the undercroft.  When it was installed in 2010, it was the first thermal heat pump system in a commercial or institutional building in Princeton. 

Every year, this system provides us with carbon-free energy and saves thousands of dollars in utility expenses.   Our Grounds committee makes sure that no trees are planted over the geothermal field, which avoids any interference with its operation.  Otherwise, it’s easy to forget that it’s there under the lawn!

If you would like to bring treats for Coffee Hour please email Miranda Bailey-Russomano at mbailey.russomano@gmail.com or text them at (203) 606-9723 to sign up. Miranda will also be at Coffee Hour with a physical sign up this Sunday.

On Sunday, June 4, we will recognize all of our congregation’s graduates. If you want your graduating child or grandchild, whether high school or college seniors, graduate or post-graduate students, to be in the booklet, please email Adam Bond a picture, their full name, the high school or college from which they are graduating, their degree if applicable, and a short summary of future plans. All information must be in by Sunday, May 28 to be included.

On behalf of the Memorial Garden Committee, it is our honor to invite you to attend our annual Day of Remembrance at Trinity Church in the Memorial Garden following the 10:30am service on Sunday, May 7 for a time of prayer, remembering, and thanksgiving.

June 26–29, 5:30–8pm
at Trinity Church
(33 Mercer St, Princeton)

Compassion Camp is a program where kids and families explore what it means to have compassion for others, ourselves, and the world. When we bring compassion into our relationships and into the world, we partner with God in bring God's love and justice into the world.

A Special Evening Service for Healing and Gospel Justice and in Recognition for Bishop Stokes’ Strong Support For Racial Justice Ministries

Sunday, May 7, 2023, 4pm
at Trinity Cathedral
(801 W State St, Trenton, NJ)

Saturday, May 13, 2023 at 4pm
at Trinity Church