Go transFigure

Dear Friends,

If I start out saying "This message is all about love," what comes to your mind, especially this weekend when the stores and online sites are abundantly filled with flowers and chocolates as gifts of affection?

I love a great mystery story; but honestly, I am more likely to watch or read a story about a relationship – a love story. I want to see the puppy saved from the cavern in the mountains. I like to see the people get together and save their downtown, parks, or schools.

There are other kinds of stories of love that are unlike mine. These stories stir my heart. I can watch movies of prejudice or personal triumph. I can watch historical movies that provide a life-changing view of the world. February is the month of Black History, an opportunity to embrace one another with openness for one another.

When it comes to a love story, I want to hold in my heart the promise that our God does not merely show up in glory and then remain on the top of the mountain. No, the Son, Jesus Christ, comes down the mountain and walks along side of us in our everyday breathing in and out. This is God’s love story of grace to you and me. It is our story of grace with one another.

In our passage from the Gospel of Mark 9, we listen to God speak. God reveals that Jesus is the beloved Son of God, who is fully human and fully God. How can this be? We do not understand. This is when faith in a God who loves us transcends (rises above) the need for perfect understanding or explanation. We have FAITH Jesus is the fulfilment of the promise of God to God’s people that we are to be loved and forgiven forever. This weekend we will talk about transfiguration(changes in outward form). Jesus is fully human and fully God. It calls to us to be transformed (changes in thoughts and actions inwardly) so that our witness and our actions are different, merciful, and compassionate.

This is our last week to dig deeper into what it means to be called into a deeper relationship with God and a more fulfilling relationship with one another. This work never stops, even when the building may be closed. The work of the church in 2020 was vibrant, meaningful, and engaging. We are working to post a special thank you created by Laurel Hibbard on the church website.

Beginning next week with our special visit with Bishop Amy Current, we will dig into a conversation on growing in our relationship with the “other.” You are welcome to check out the ELCA’s statements of social justice. You are encouraged to join in one or more opportunities listed below. However your heart is stirred, begin with prayer for one another as Jesus taught us to pray…

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen

Blessings to you always,

Pastor Katie

Thanksgiving Revisited

Our winter wonderland continues! Now if I could just find a place to put all that snow in the driveway… Perhaps your appreciation for the white blanket over our community has continued to blossom. Maybe you’ve found yourself feeling a bit grumpy about a forecast of yet another 5” coming tomorrow; but personally, I have to recognize and give thanks for the ability to work largely from home in this season, such that on mornings like this, I can pick away at that fresh dumping on my driveway as I have opportunity. In other words, I didn’t have to be among those neighbors out working after midnight last night nor counted among the “blower community” that was actively working at 5:30 a.m.

This week’s sermon text reminds me that plenty of others don’t have that luxury. We’re exploring the brief story of Jesus healing the mother-in-law of Simon Peter, a woman who quickly rebounds from her illness to serve them without so much as missing a beat. While I won’t go into the potential offense one might feel when reading this, I do want once again to commend the many “service workers” upon whom you and I depend. They often don’t have the choice of whether or not they will wander out into the 40 mph winds to do the essential work that keeps our community humming. It’s not just the snow plow drivers, of course, but every grocery employee, food deliverer, nurse, store manager, and technician whose wage depends on the hours they spend outside of their abode. Let’s each make a point to thank them for their work as they have been doing so amid a COVID environment for a year now!

I hope that you will also pause to give thanks for Kim Behr and Bryce Henson who are stepping away from their respective roles on our Visioning Council. They have each been gifts to our community during this challenging year in ways you likely can’t begin to appreciate! I hope that you will be praying for those who have answered the call to serve in coming months – Ben Meyer, who will assume the president’s role, Marcy Duncan, serving at-large, and those who have been re-elected, including Jack Fratzke, Steve Roe, and Gretchen Warkentin. Their willingness to step up at this time inspires me. I hope that it encourages you to ask where you are being called to serve.

I am humbled by the bold step to approve our $358,000 proposed budget this year, which will greatly help us to sustain ministries and further them in ways that we have yet to discover and imagine! Many, many thanks for your generosity and willingness to invest anew in the causes of Christ.

Hope that you can be present with us this weekend and to give thanks in whatever way you can!

Pastor Tim

Awakening to Call: Hearing from God

Dear Friends,

Here's a simple question: “Who has the authority in your life?”

I want you to imagine that I have a bull horn or a huge megaphone in my hands. It is the kind used to encourage a football crowd. Now imagine we are at a place like a school, a library, or a church and you hold up a book to read. But every time you say a word, I scream and shout in the bull horn. What is your reaction?

In our scripture from the Gospel of Mark, just as Jesus speaks, he is interrupted again and again by a man who is yelling. The man eventually asks, “…who are you? Are you here to destroy us?” Then this man says, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

How does Jesus respond? He tells the man, “Be silent.”

I have a quick activity for your household to try! I invite you to have everyone pause at the same time and be silent. Turn off the TV, put down phones, devices, food, or whatever you are doing at that moment that keeps you from experiencing the fullness of the gift of silence. Maybe it is attitude, fear, anger, disappointment, or another feeling that you just need to put on pause for a moment to listen. The challenge is to quiet your household down and one person counts to 10. Then ask everyone "How did that feel?" Try it a second time. Ask the same question. Or another question could be: "How many things did you have to turn off or quiet down so that you could listen for all of 10 seconds together with each other and with God? How much noise do we have going on around us?"

I was in a meeting somewhere and an individual said, “Our decisions, how we live in our lives today, is creating a story of history for generations to come.” I wish I could remember who said that, but I’m adding that I wonder what generations yet to come will say about our willingness to create, to listen, to be merciful, to be kind, and to be graceful. Our history of grace could say that we were willing to proclaim that God has authority in our lives and we shout out, “We love all our neighbors.”

While I was preparing this message, I was looking at the tree stumps in my back yard and the orange plastic snow fence that holds up my deck on the backside of my house ever since the August 2020 storm. What I see is loss, absence, and disappointment. When I pause and listen to God, when I join God’s mission of healing and welcome joy in what could be, I hear the message, "Katie, plant some new trees." Planting a tree is not meant to re-create, reopen, nor will it reclaim the land AS IT WAS. The land has forever been changed. We listen and pause while giving thanks for the gift of land as it once was. We plant trees together as we respond to the gift of grace now for generations to come. We are part of a God-sized story of hope that will grow and grow.

Honestly, I want to work for Jesus. I want to be part of the solution in the here and now. Here are some challenges that everyone in your household can try today!

1. SMILE, especially behind your mask! Your eyes can’t smile unless your whole face smiles.

2. STOP if you cannot say something on social media that is God-honoring, trustworthy, or merciful. Reconsider how you respond to things that raise your dander!

3. PRAY and be silent so that we can listen to the call to be compassionate and merciful.

4. SURROUND yourself with people who are willing to be real, who are willing to create, build, and grow, and who dare to change in order that more people will experience the love of God.

5. SHARE the message of a God-sized hope that God has, is, and will forever love us, God’s people.

Peace,

Pastor Katie