Alleluia!

Dear Friends,

As a child one of my favorite places to go for the summer was the family cabin. It was located in rural northern Wisconsin. The drive was over 7 hours long on back roads, the house did not have A/C, the dining room table was an old door with church pews for seats, no TV, and we shared rooms and space. Honestly, I loved all of it.

The lake itself was amazing. You could see the bottom of it no matter how deep you went. The water was ideal for hours of swimming. But when we stood along the shore, it was always still until a fish would jump up out of the water to eat a bug or a fishing bobber would go under with the pull of a catch. But when I would throw out a rock, the water would ripple with energy and excitement beginning from the center of contact when the water and rock first connected.

The image of the energy that occurred and multiplied in ripples from the center draws me to the image of Jesus in a boat looking out and telling Simon to cast out his nets into what appears, from the scriptures in Luke, to be a quiet day without a lot of productive fishing activity. "Cast out your nets," says Jesus in Luke 5:1-11. He was speaking to those who were exhausted after their disappointment in not harvesting a catch.

Are you exhausted? Maybe your particular story of COVID, relationships, hurt, sorrow, struggles, and simply the day after day trials…and you are exhausted. Day after day, you cast out your net of productivity of some kind and maybe it has all come up empty. Jesus says to you and me today, "cast out your nets" with the confidence that God has been, is, and will forever be with us. "Cast out your nets" and witness God’s abundance.

Jesus continued in his message to the people then and to us today, "Cast out your nets" and no longer fish for fish, but fish for people. This means we are to follow Jesus and share in the mission of the Good News, God’s message of hope, mercy, and grace is for all people here and now.

This weekend at the Annual Meeting, we gather to check in with one another and look at our 2021 year. As a community we will celebrate, discern, and look to the days ahead at Holy Trinity’s mission and vision (see information below for in-person and zoom). We will talk about our collective exhaustion, but more than anything else talk about God’s abundance and joy! Please, join us! (in-person or zoom link information below).

God is calling us all into God’s mission. Are we exhausted? Sure! Just like the disciples thousands of years ago, the work is hard and yet, maybe, because like Simon, we were depending upon our knowledge of possibilities. Jesus says and we hear the message today to "cast out your nets" for there is so much more yet to come and the nets will be filled with God’s gift of abundance!

We cry out in our challenges and in our joy to our God who has and will always provide us with hearts of mercy, arms of strength, and grace and joy in the casting of our nets all for the glory of the Good News.

Pastor Katie

Proclaim the Good News of God in Christ through Word and Deed

Dear Friends,

I’ve had my Bible out all day looking at this passage from the Gospel of Luke 4:14-21. It is so beautiful and full of history and vision. It has two of my favorite books of the Bible bookended together in one passage.

A quick recap: Jesus went into the synagogue in Nazareth and read the Hebrew text from the prophet Isaiah written around 700 BCE.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

All eyes were on Jesus. If we were to continue reading, we would learn that, at first, they are very proud of him. But they quickly turned on him when he spoke again saying, "in the days of Elisha, there were many people in need, and no one helped them." He implied the same was happening that very day. The crowd got so mad that the people tried to throw Jesus off of a cliff. I read that over and over again today. The people tried to throw Jesus off of a cliff, but he got away.

To hear that the Spirit of the Lord upon him feels good to us as readers today. How quickly people took sides and judgment when Jesus told the people there had been hurt, hunger, feeling outcast and forgotten for generations upon generations. Jesus ruffled their feathers and they reacted by trying to throw him Jesus off of a cliff.

How do we hear this message today? The Holy Spirit revealed then and reveals today that our God is indeed compassionate and merciful. Yet, do we respond with thanksgiving or react with distrust, fear, and anger?

Our sermon series on being baptized continues this week in worship. A great question is: "Why would you or I want to be part of Jesus’ ministry to heal, to comfort, and love another person, especially a stranger, neighbor or forgotten friend?" We are promised, not by our hand but as a gift from God, that the Holy Spirit dwells with us in our hurts, sorrows, joys and challenges of this life. How do we respond to this gift of grace from God?

We had a great night at WYN talking about refugees in our community and more to come. Thank you to Katie Splean, from the McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids. Thanks to Else Schardt, for sharing her story when she was a refugee as a child because of WWII. And huge thank you to all the youth for the gingerbread house activity and group purchase of food with Thrivent Action Dollars.

Join us on Sunday as we talk about baptism in worship, host Family Sunday School at 9:40, and take a first look at our annual reports in adult forum.

Peace to you always,

Pastor Katie

Live among God's Faithful People

Dear Partners in Ministry,

As we gather for worship this weekend, whether in-person or on-line, I want you to know that our staff continues to pray for you and for our gathered community on a regular basis. We cannot afford to take one another for granted!

In essence, that’s our primary focus this Sunday as we continue our series on “S.P.L.A.S.H.,” specifically the “L” this week, which represents the baptismal commitment to “Live among God’s faithful people.” What does that phrase represent to you? As I’ve reflected upon it this week myself, it’s intriguing to discover two realities: first, that it’s surprisingly hard to find much in the background information on how that particular commitment “came to be” in the first place, and, second, how presumptive and wide-ranging are the treatments on it published since!

Along the way, we’ll be doing a little exploring of how Jesus himself viewed the people of his home congregation in Nazareth and how their own perceptions of him swung from one extreme to another! I hope that you can join us for this step into appreciating what our baptism in His name implies for us as modern-day disciples. See you in worship!

Meanwhile, I would invite you to make a point of participating in this Sunday’s Adult Forum at 9:30, where staff and Visioning Council members will once again host a “Q & A” session about the Annual Report which is available for pickup or electronic delivery upon request. With many important issues to discuss prior to our Annual Meeting on Feb. 6th, it’s critical that we have as much opportunity as possible to recognize both the opportunities and challenges we face. In the end, it’s simply one more way in which we are asked not to take one another or our community as a whole for granted! Make a point to participate this week if you missed last week’s gathering.

Sharing the Mission,

Pastor Tim