A Call to Prayer

Dear Friends,

What a joy it is to connect with one another in this very moment in our story of grace.

I have always steered clear from digging deeper into the story of Jonah. I stumble over the question "did a large fish really snarf up Jonah as he lived inside it for days?" Our lectionary, the passages from the Bible selected for us to hear this week, invites us to read from none other than the Hebrew story of Jonah. It is exactly the story we need to wrestle with today. The Book of Jonah is about looking inside ourselves and our neighbors at the definition of what it means to have a national image and/or set of values. It calls us to discern what it means to be Christians in a time such as this.

Christian theologian, Dr. David Lose (an ELCA pastor), invites us to acknowledge our national crisis as step one. Then we boldly take on the hard work to have confidence that there are solutions to every crisis but that each of us are to personally commit to and respond (not react) with compassion and kindness. I would go a step farther and connect the dots with Jonah to our moment right now. I believe God is calling us, not because we want to take on the hard work of transformation, but because the mission of God invites as well as demands each to join in a God-size message of hope. We are transformed inside so that together, we have the strength to profess to the world that all of creation is loved and forgiven, now and for all times.

During the recent inauguration of our president, I was inspired to hear what I believe is at the core of our understanding of our relationship with God and with one another. Speakers invited each of us to listen to one another’s personal stories as well share our own with a sense of humility and mutuality. It is in the listening, learning, and growing that we are transformed as individuals and transformed as a nation, just like Jonah and the people of Nineveh.

God knew Jonah’s story and God knew the story of the people of Nineveh. God encouraged and nudged Jonah to pause and acknowledge his fear and heartache in both the story of the fish and in the story of the tree. Jonah’s story is God’s story of grace for all people.

What is on your mind, in your story, or part of the here and now that makes you want to run or hide, strike back, or give up? What is stirring your heart to be closer to God and closer to others? Jonah didn’t want to be transformed inside nor did he want to share that message with others. God saw that Jonah was exactly the person who not only could be transformed but would stand up and step into God’s story of grace for all of God’s people.

It begins with the gift in the here and now that you and I confess that we have turned our back away from God. "We have sinned by thought, word, and deed by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves" (ELW Confession, page 95 ). God responds with a forever grace - you are forgiven.

What has you distracted, overwhelmed, or simply stuck and can’t move forward?

God invited Jonah to pray. God invited the people of Nineveh to pray. To spend time with God in the quiet is an opportunity to open our hearts to prayer and reflection. We listen and are still so that we can respond and be God’s hands, feet, and voice to a broken world.

This is indeed the days that the Lord has made. How will you and I live, rejoice, and do the challenge work to speak justice and compassion, to act with mercy for all people throughout the hours of each day of life?

Overwhelmed? Or are you and I, the church, our homes, our communities, or are nation on the edge of inspiration because we are ready? I invite you to begin with prayer. I invite you to step up and step into worship. I invite us to imagine, create, grow, and serve one another with God-size acts of love.

Oh, Lord, we are humbly ready for your holy nudge to engage, encourage, and grow as we love, live, and share Christ in this day and the next. Amen

Blessings to you all,

Pastor Katie

Answering the Call

What another memorable week we’ve witnessed! It began in the midst of wrestling with the continued cost of COVID-19, even while we celebrated the hopeful news that vaccines are beginning to be distributed. It continued with witnessing the sheer beauty of frost-covered trees glistening in the sunlight, while resuming a return to “school” in whatever form that may take for your children.

Wednesday brought another disturbing and “unprecedented” incident in our public life. The assault on the Capitol has since drawn the response of a host of pundits; I suspect that you are not eager to hear yet another. This seems to be the kind of event that calls for a faith response, for quietism is a very distinct response in itself. I have been guilty of that as often as anything else.

Both Jesus and Luther are explicit in voicing a need to respect the place of and need for good government. Likewise, our Church’s ethical stances have repeatedly echoed the Scriptures in the need to speak out against injustice, even as we live out a different standard – one which honors the dignity and role not only of those called to public service, but of every neighbor of every kind, and dares speak truth to power when it is abused.

I share the fatigue of colleagues who know that voicing a sharp rebuke from a perspective of faith risks it being said wrongly, heard wrongly, or used wrongly and inviting an avalanche of angry response. That is a risk I must take, for the sake of all that sustains and enables the health of our public life. There is no vaccine against apathy, vitriol, or scapegoating, let alone blatant falsehood.

I don’t know all the answers and I have plenty to still learn. As we put forth a collective effort to “restore” community life in the wake of COVID-19, I pray for a focused restoration of civic order in our public life, respectful debate, humble truth, and open dialog. It is not just a call for acceptance or tolerance of those with whom we may vehemently disagree, but real humility and a renewal of commitment to listen openly to the honest concerns and experience of all our neighbors (especially those who are most easily overlooked, as Jesus so clearly witnessed) as well as the courage to address injustice when it arises.

I conclude with a prayer shared with us by Synod Bishop Amy Current on Thursday:

Gracious God, the news of yesterday, acts of violence, racism, loss of life, idolatry of power, along with the continued and palpable divisiveness in our country, rising COVID -19 cases and deaths, and all that leaves aching, we bring to you in prayer.

We are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. In the depths of pain and anger, we gather before you, O God, our rock and our refuge. You are our only comfort. You are our only hope. Faithful God, surround us with your everlasting arms. Hear our cries of despair, heed our calls for justice, and do not let us lose hope, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we pray. Amen.

Pastor Tim

Behold! I make all things new!

Sunday's scriptures will focus on Simeon and Anna, two elders of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. Simeon had been promised he would not see death until he had seen the Messiah come. His words "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace ..." have been become one of the ancient songs of the church. In many traditions, this is the response sung after receiving communion. About a year ago, I wrote a setting of these words sung as though I were a Jewish man. Composers can do that when words move them.

Anna, we are told, was an elderly widow who devoted her life to prayer and churchwork, much like many of our older members. They model for us how to live our lives in sync with God. They proclaim as loudly as their voices are able the good news of Emanuel, God with us. Imagine being that young couple, Mary and Joseph, and you are listening to the elders of the community praising God because of your child. No wonder "Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." It is almost too much to assimilate.

God was doing something new. The prophet Isaiah told us in his message in chapter 43, "Behold, I am doing a new thing ..." Here in Luke 2, God is doing a new thing. He is living and dwelling among us. We are reminded again in Revelation 21 "Behold, I make all thing new." So whether we are in Genesis, Isaiah, Revelation, or entering A.D. 2021, God is at work making all things new. With Simeon, we can point to the "light to lighten all nations." With Anna, we can tell others that God is at work redeeming Jerusalem (a crossroad for the nations and a metaphor for the whole creation).

Our old may dream dreams and our young may see visions (paraphrasing Joel and Acts), but we all have the task of proclaiming the God with us to our brothers and sisters in and out of the faith. May 2021 be the year of the Lord's favor, a jubilee to the Lord.

Richard