April 10th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ friends,

Many thanks to Jon Bengtson who played the role of BoxBob and Amy Calhoun who played the role of BoxSue in our skits for our Wednesday worship services.  Thanks also goes to Susan Stanley for her behind the scenes work in directing and prepping for each week’s skit.  Thanks to all who shared their reflections after each skit. I enjoyed hearing your perspectives and what caught your attention.  BoxBob and BoxSue brought us through the season of Lent hoping to draw us closer to Jesus.  We focused on the disciplines of Lent – prayer, fasting and good works and finished with our focus on Good Friday.

BoxBob had a no good, horrible, worst day ever and he thinks he is an awful person. But BoxSue gives him a different frame of reference when she suggests that he wouldn’t feel so bad about what he did if he were really an awful person.  Being hard on ourselves is one of the ways we navigate no good, horrible, worst day ever times.  This helped BoxBob and maybe us too when we are down on ourselves for something we have done or failed to do.   Feeling bad helps us to move forward.

BoxSue invited us to think about our own no good horrible worst day and hold it up against Good Friday and Jesus’ suffering and death by crucifixion.  That is another frame of reference for comparison. Perhaps the comparison will help us to see the goodness of Good Friday and its holiness as we see God’s Friday, God’s no good horrible worst day ever as God experiences the death of his beloved and only son. God through his Son, Jesus entered the fullness of humanity, living like us and dying like us, to show us the way through our days, even our most no good, horrible, worst day ever.

God shows us the way through our lives especially in the season of Lent culminating in the pinnacle events of Holy Week.  We have the 40-day season of Lent because Jesus fasted and was tempted and tested for 40 days as he began his ministry.  So, we set aside 40 days every year.  Sunday we will celebrate Palm Sunday welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem and the Three Days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil.  These are high holy days calling us to worship and sacrifice. Worship – valuing, giving worth and in our case – it is valuing God, finding worth in God.

For the Jews, the Exodus is a pinnacle event marked with seder celebrations, meals to remember.  God hears his people’s cries and frees them for worship of God.  God through Moses wants the Pharoah to let the Hebrew people go out into the wilderness, to Mt. Sinai – a three-day journey to worship God and make sacrifice.  And you know the rest of the story. 

The highest holy days of Christianity are before us in Holy Week.  This is our time to spend three days in worship focusing our attention on this magnificent event of what God has done.  We do a great job of welcoming Jesus at Christmas and celebrating Jesus’ victory over death on Easter. 

But the three days – Maudy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil are hit and miss for Christians, and I would say mostly miss.  I can only guess what runs through people’s minds for which worship service they choose to attend or not attend.  Three in a row, all beginning at 7:00 pm seems a lot.  So a consumer mentality might sink in.  And people have busy schedules especially if you have kids.  It could be your tradition as to which services you attend.  And possibly your schedule just doesn’t allow it.  But if you can, will you try to make this 3-day worship journey together?

God wants our attention, our undivided attention.  God thought it was an important task for the Hebrew people to walk for 3 days in the wilderness to worship him.  There is something about the journey, about taking three days to get to our destination that is of value and worth for us.  God knows that about us.  God knows how wrapped up we get in our slavery, our culture, our traditions. 

It takes some time to unwind from the pulls of the world, from the traps and distractions that pull our attention away or off God and what God is up to in this world and in our lives.  I’m not asking you to walk three days in the wilderness.  I am asking you to come three nights in a row at 7:00 pm to give your undivided attention to God. 

Look again at what God demonstrates to us in Jesus as he washes his disciple’s feet and gives us a meal to remember him by and strengthen our own witness of serving like Jesus did.  Whose metaphorical feet might Jesus be putting before you to wash or in what way is God calling you to humble service?

Look again at his dying on the cross in community with others around the world.  Sit for an hour and hear the story of his passion and pray at the foot of the cross.

Look again at a time of waiting in the midst of death, hear the old stories, recommit yourself to your baptismal promises and celebrate Jesus’ supper at Easter Vigil.  Wait with God.  Then we are ready to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday.  We are ready to worship.

It only happens once a year, a three-day journey in worship.  It’s the difference of hiking a mountain trail or taking a tram to the top.  The hike is more challenging, but the views and experiences are much more in-depth, feeling the journey with our bodies.  Everyone is rewarded with the view on top, but the journey to how we got there, strengthens us and helps us to grow in love and appreciation of God.  Sacrifice your time, three of your evenings.

Some of you will find other ways to worship, sacrifice and enter the holiness of these days but if you are able, please join the faith community.  We need each other and worship is better when we are together.  God is busy in our world telling his tales and working with us through these themes of servanthood, sacrifice and waiting.  I’m looking forward to our time together this Holy Week!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

April 3rd, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

I am enjoying our community Lenten discipline of gathering on Wednesdays for fellowship, sharing a meal and worship. I enjoy the insights people share from all ages. This past Wednesday, as we explored good works with BoxBob and BoxSue I was delighted to hear in the reflection time someone share how our good works are a response of gratitude for what God has already done.  Well done disciples! 

Here is another rendition from Crazy Talk: A Not so Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms- ed. Rolf Jacobson, (p.181).

Good Works:  What you do because you don’t have to do anything.

Your friend invites you to dinner. 

You ask, “What can I bring”

Your friend answers, “Nothing; there is nothing you can bring.

I’ve got it all covered.”

Out of gratitude, you bring something anyway.

Now read this article again. But…
For “friend” substitute “Lord.”

For “invites you to dinner” substitute “saves you from your sins.”

For “bring” substitute “do.”

See also: Justification; Sanctification.

Luther focused on good works not becoming the goal but a tool that helps us to trust God working in our lives.  God’s grace comes first to us, not by anything we do and God’s grace transforms us and this transformation can be seen in our good works.   We are grateful to God and our gratitude moves us to do good works.  God’s grace flows through us like our life blood and our lives bear the fruit of good works in our families and communities.  God changes us, changes our hearts and minds and we continue growing in our trust and love of God all the more.

BoxBob and BoxSue helped us to see our temptation to be clever with our good works as BoxBob tried to do good works that had the word LENT in them, like making terrible tasting LENTil soup, LENT money, gave a vaLENTine and tried to be siLENT while his mom watched a show.  All of these did not really help the neighbor and frustrated BoxBob too.  Sometimes we try to be more clever than we need to be rather than trusting God’s knowledge of us and our taLENTs and wanting to work with us as BoxSue pointed out. 

We trust God to work through us having faith that God shows up in our lives and works with us to produce good works or fruit. God bears witness to this through his Son, Jesus and these good works prepare us for Holy Week where we will see God’s good works as Jesus washes his disciple’s feet and commands them to do likewise, shares a meal with them to help them remember and does the ultimate good work on Good Friday or God’s Friday.

Praying and hoping that your good works are welcoming the hand of God and getting the soil of your heart ready for the work God is doing in us and through us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 27th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

Richard J. Foster in his book, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, said that from 1861 to 1954, almost 100 years, there were almost no books published on fasting.  Apparently fasting got a bad reputation due to the popularity of ascetic practices of the Middle Ages.  Recently fasting has come into the limelight again as a good health and fitness practice. But for us, during Lent we are always encouraged to practice fasting as a spiritual discipline to draw us closer to Jesus.

 On Wednesday we explored the spiritual discipline of fasting with BoxBob and BoxSue.  I got a kick out of BoxBob thinking he was fasting because he was trying to do everything fast for a day.  We have a tendency to speed through the things that introduce us to pain and suffering.  As laughter opens us up so we can think again about fasting and how this practice helps us to draw near to Jesus. 

 Although the Bible never commands fasting, the practice seems so commonplace that the most we hear about it is how not to fast as in Isaiah 58:1-8 and Matthew 6:16-18 demonstrate.  Otherwise, many biblical characters fasted along with prayer in a variety of circumstances.

Moses fasted when he wrote the 10 Commandments.  David and Elijah were known to fast.  Daniel had a partial fast with a restricted diet.  For 3 weeks no delicacies, no meat or wine (Dan. 10:3) The widow Anna fasted and prayed at Temple before she saw the infant Jesus.  Paul went into a 3 day fast (Acts 9:9) following his encounter with Jesus. 

 Most often fasting is an individual discipline but occasionally the Jews would have corporate fasts like on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27).  Fasting was a way of showing sorrow for their sins and gradually other fast days were added until there were over 20.  Fasting for the Jews also came at times of national emergencies.  When Judah was invaded, King Jehoshaphat called the nation to fast (2 Chronicles 20:1-4) and the whole city of Nineveh including animals fasted with sack cloth and ashes when Jonah came to town with God’s message to repent.  Ezra had the exiles fast and prayed for safety on the bandit-infested road in Ezra 8:21-23.

 Jesus gave us guidance on fasting as a discipline to center our attention on God’s relationship with us and not for show in community.  Jesus fasted 40 days and was tempted by Satan and reminded us that bread is not the only thing to nurture and sustain our lives.  Fasting, especially from food has a way of reminding us of the power of God’s word to sustain and nurture our lives.

Fasting gives us the opportunity to struggle and to walk with Jesus in times of discomfort to grow in our compassion and empathy for the suffering Jesus endured for us.  This may help us to draw near to Jesus. 

 I’ll leave you with this poem about fasting by Justin Farley.

 Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

Fasting in the Desert

Strip yourself naked, unclothed of selfish desire. For it requires fuel to burn just as a raging fire.

If all thoughts revolve around me and mine, how am I to hear the voice of God, how am I to feel the presence of the Divine?

It's by starving addictions that we discover the depth of their roots.

Sometimes we must endure pain and misery to prepare our hearts for grander pursuits.

Contentment begins when we step into Silence's abode.

Here we find all we need and her blessings are bestowed.

For comfort comes not from out there but from within and fasting in the desert is where the search for God begins.

 Justin Farley

https://alongthebarrenroad.com/2021/02/18/fasting-desert-godly-poem-about-contemplation-selfishness/

 ctk

March 20th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

Prayer is my Epiphany word and also the focus of our Wednesday midweek worship this week.  BoxBob wants to grow closer to Jesus by doing more prayer.  He copies names out of the church directory and his list is endless and will easily take the 40 days of Lent to complete and more.  Is it true that if we want to get better at something we should do more of it? Will doing more prayer draw us closer to Jesus?   

BoxSue suggests that instead of doing more prayer, BoxBob should try learning how to pray, like swimmers learn more than one stroke, we too can learn more than one way to pray with the goal of growing closer to Jesus.

When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray like John taught his disciples, Jesus teaches them how to pray with what we know today as the Lord’s Prayer. Running through our catechism is a great way to pray again and anew with the Lord’s prayer.  Discovering God’s kingdom and God’s will again and asking God for help in aligning ourselves with God’s kingdom and God’s will.  There is a lot of good soil in the Lord’s Prayer and the catechism that could be a good jumping off point with growing in a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus.  The Lord’s Prayer is one of those community prayers that we can pray together.  And I can’t count the times of being at one’s bedside and how often I am joined in this familiar prayer. This prayer pulls us together in wonderful ways.

BoxBob knows the Lord’s Prayer and thinks of ways he can get better at it – maybe singing it or shouting it.  I long for a singable Lord’s Prayer.  On the Bible Project they invited people to share their songs of the Lord’s Prayer.  It’s fun to listen to the tunes put to this beloved prayer. BoxBob tried to sing it to the tune of the Star Wars theme song.  Martin Luther has a hymn in our prayer section of the Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 746 & 747 that you might want to sing or read.  I’ve also tried shouting the Lord’s Prayer.  We did that at camp and sometimes in Confirmation class.  It’s fun to start with a whisper and then really be shouting it out when it comes to “do not lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil” and then to shout out God’s praise in the conclusion, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”  I found it interesting that the whisper and bowed head moved to a raised head and uplifted hands when the shouting came.  You should try it sometime.  Maybe it’s been a while since you shouted at God in prayer.  Shouting should not only be reserved for cheering on our athletes. 

As BoxBob recounts what he prays for everyday – he prayers before meals and at bedtime.  He feels at fault if he forgets to pray for someone and something bad happens to them.  And then he tries to pray for everyone, the whole world.  He thinks prayer is confusing and it can be.  It can also be rote as we forget who we are talking with.

BoxSue suggests that he could get better at prayer by trying another kind of prayer. Like praying the Lord’s Prayer during the day sometime or saying prayers of thanks during the day.

During the season of Lent, we are asked to pray.  It is one of the disciplines of Lent designed to help us walk with Jesus and prepare for his passion, his suffering, death and resurrection.  Do you think adding another way or kind of prayer might help you get better at praying or help you to grow closer to Jesus?  How is the Holy Spirit asking you to use this tool of prayer?

For me, I’m being called back to centering prayer, a way of praying that listens attentively to God and talking with God throughout the day.

If you need a prayer from scripture, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians has two wonderful prayers that are worth committing to memory – Ephesians 1:15-23 and 3:14-21 and of course you can’t go wrong with the tried and true of Psalm 23 for scripture to pray with.  It gives us such beautiful imagery to explore as we talk with Jesus. 

I pray for God to richly bless you in our discipline of prayer this season of Lent.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 13th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

As our congregational epiphany word is grace, my eye is more tuned to see this word which is the beauty of following a word for a time.  On Wednesday, our gathering song for worship was, “How Small Our Span of Life” ELW 636 (Kingsford tune).  The second verse compares the expanse of the universe and our tick of time with being held in God’s grace.

And yet our speck of life is spanned by your infinity;

Our tick of time on earth is caught in your eternity.

While suns and stars spin endlessly through depths of cosmic space, while aeons roll and ages pass, you hold us in your grace.

Take a moment to imagine yourself being held in God’s grace. 

We are held in God’s grace with all creation swirling around us and God meets us in Jesus in a way that we can understand a bit of the mystery of God.  The season of Lent gives us a great opportunity to see God’s sacrifice of his son as the way we are held in God’s grace. 

I am grateful for Jesus and how Jesus shows us the way to endure evil, temptations, trials and testing by turning to God and focusing on what we already know about God.  Jesus fasted from food with an intense focus on God’s word.  So we practice little fasts from food or patterns of behavior that need a break so we can look anew with God and God’s hold on us.

This week we will hear of how Jesus faces the call of suffering and death with longing for us to be gathered under the protection of his wings like a mother hen and realizing that we will have none of it.  We would rather know the world on our own and avoid suffering, sacrifice and death, for it does not look like a doorway that leads to anything good, let alone God.  Yet this does not dissuade Jesus from following God’s call.

What a path Jesus is plodding for us, showing us the way forward, the way of God, may not be supported and cheered and more often than not be a very lonely path without much support.  Go back to your imagination of being held in God’s grace.  Remember the encouragement Jesus received at his baptism and on the Mt. of Transfiguration.  Hear the Holy Spirit whisper those words of encouragement; “you are mine”, “beloved”.  Claim your identity, children of God.  Don’t let the identity thieves take it away.  You are held in God’s grace and sometimes even caught in this grace.

This is what I am feeling in this season of Lent.  A sense of gratefulness for all that Jesus does to meet us and invite us along on a treacherous and difficult journey with God that will well be worth all the struggles, all the sufferings, all the sacrifices of our lives as resurrection and the promise of new life emerges like the tender sprout comes out of the rich soil in the spring.

I pray for the Holy Spirit to shape and form in us a powerful image of us being held in God’s grace.  I pray for us to cling to our identity like Jesus clings to his identity as his call shapes the way for us.  Thank you, God, for holding us in your grace.  Amen.

Bold Inquisitive Belief

Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack