April 16th, 2026

Greeting Holy People of God,

for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:3

Every Easter season we contemplate Jesus’ resurrection.  We hear the familiar stories of how Jesus was unrecognizable to Mary Magdelene until Jesus called her by name.  We hear how two disciples walked 7 miles with Jesus and didn’t know it was him until they broke bread together.  Then they knew it was Jesus and they were filled with great joy. 

Our lives are hidden with Christ.  So how very appropriate for the Secret Sibling Reveal to happen in the Easter season.  On Sunday, April 12 the Formation Co-op Team called together the 23 youth and adults that participated as secret siblings for 6 weeks in the season of Lent.

Each week they share a bit of themselves and their faith, secretly getting to know one another.  They shared a favorite bible passage, bible story and song.  They shared something that fit in an egg and something about what they gave up or took on for Lent.  They shared their experience with God.  All these secret sharings provided an opportunity for them to get to know one another.

After we shared a wonderful potato bar with salads and desserts, the time for revealing came.  Numbers were drawn and last gifts were shared.  Each person was allowed to guess who had their name.  Some had no clue.  Some had a couple of ideas of who it might be.  It was a joy to see the secrets revealed.  It was a time of sharing stories. We learned how stealthy siblings were as they changed their handwriting or as they were careful not to share too much fearing they would reveal their identity.  Some siblings watched the table closely to see if they could catch the person delivering their gift.

As you can see here, Joel gave his last gift to his secret sibling, Aaron. It was a box of mac and cheese.  It sounded like a box of mac n’ cheese. But upon closer inspection, hidden inside was one of Aaron’s favorite candies, Mike and Ike’s.  Isn’t that how resurrection functions in our lives.  Our lives are hidden in Christ.  We continue to look, to share, to explore together and we discover Christ is with us in the most unexpected and sometimes hidden ways!

After all was revealed, we took sometime to evaluate our experiment.  Everyone was willing to participate again and recommend it to another.  Lent was a good time to do this.  Siblings got to know each other better in a safe environment.  They could be vulnerable with one another in a non-threatening way.  They had to be creative and reflect on what they wanted to share.  They asked themselves what their favorite bible verse or story was and if it was still the same as it had been when they were younger.  It was fun!  It helped them to think of the other and not just themselves.

Not surprising, communicating and sharing the information of the weekly topics and knowing who their secret sibling was sooner could be improved upon. That also holds true when we reflect on our relationship with Christ too.  As they said on the road to Emmaus, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

I hope you will have conversations about resurrection and about how your lives are hidden with Christ!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

April 9th, 2026

Greeting Holy Peopleof God,

During the season of Lent we met John’s characters – Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the healed blind man and Mary, Martha and Lazarus and thought about the risks they took and how these characters and their stories help us to believe.  They build bridges with their experiences with Jesus and the questions they ask.  Their experiences and questions help us to cross the bridge and come to Jesus at night or in the heat of the day, knowing that he will meet us there and walk with us.  Jesus helps us to see more and to unwrap the grave clothes and think again about hearing Jesus’ voice calling to us even when we are dead. 

Now in the 50 days of Easter meet the characters who help us explore Jesus’ resurrection and what that means for us today.  I’ve started with the letter to the Colossians where Paul says, for we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).  I’ve been thinking about what it means that my life is hidden with Christ.  And your life too is hidden with Christ in God.

If you read on in Colossians, setting our minds above and lives that are hidden with Christ gets further defined as living moral lives that are clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  We are to cloth ourselves in love and dwell in God’s word, doing everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God.

But I keep going back to the idea of our lives being hidden with Christ. And I just want to sit with that this Easter, these 50 days as I think about Jesus’ resurrection as deeply as I think about Jesus’ sacrifice, suffering and death on the cross.  I have many more tools for thinking about Jesus’ death than I have for thinking about Jesus’ resurrection.  So I turn to God’s word and John’s Gospel does not disappoint, for it too gives us 4 distinct stories of Jesus’ resurrection through Mary Magdalene, Thomas and Peter. These encounters can give us a foot hold as we ponder what it means for us to be hidden with Christ.

Mary Magdalene’s first response is not about Jesus’ resurrection but that the stone has been rolled away.  Exploring the hiddenness with Christ may mean for us to take notice of what is happening in our own seeking and searching. And be prepared to challenge our first assumptions.  Mary’s first assumption without looking into the tomb was that someone had stolen Jesus’ body.  Why does Mary assume a missing body? Why not say the stone has been rolled away. Mary does succeed in getting Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved to the tomb in her witness that day.

As we explore this Easter season, explore your assumptions about resurrection and new life.  Think about how what we see, or what we are willing to see, influences what we believe.  Think about how this stone is rolled away and how Jesus had to have the community roll the stone away for Lazarus.

Think about the foot race between Peter and the beloved disciple that invites us into the excitement of the day and the linens discovered but no body.  This is different from Lazarus and his coming out of the tomb.  Now Mary looks in the tomb.  What does she hope to see?  What does she expect to see?  Both the angels and Jesus ask her why she is weeping and Jesus adds and whom she is looking for.  It was not sight that brought Mary to recognize Jesus but rather hearing.  When Mary heard Jesus say her name, she knew it was her teacher, Jesus.  Just like Lazarus in death also heard Jesus call his name.  What does it mean for you that Jesus calls you by name and in that calling affirms who he is, my risen Lord and Savior.

 I hope you hear Jesus calling your name as you find yourself hidden in Christ with God.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

April 9th, 2026

Greeting Holy People of God,

During the season of Lent we met John’s characters – Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, the healed blind man and Mary, Martha and Lazarus and thought about the risks they took and how these characters and their stories help us to believe.  They build bridges with their experiences with Jesus and the questions they ask.  Their experiences and questions help us to cross the bridge and come to Jesus at night or in the heat of the day, know that he will meet us there and walk with us.  Jesus helps us to see more and to unwrapped the grave clothes and think again about hearing Jesus’ voice calling to us even when we are dead. 

When we came together on Wednesday evenings for food, fellowship and worship we got to meet our Wednesday Witnesses, people who not only serve others but also help us to make connections that we would not otherwise make.  Like a bridge, they bring us to new places – new places like walking with us as we navigate our health and the medical institutions with Faith Community Nurse, Carolyn Laxson or Mosaic’s crew who seek to meet the needs of those with learning disabilities, giving them more options and more opportunities for us to connect with worship and homes to live in.  Or our missionaries, like Stacey and Utpal Saha who connect us with Bangladesh in a part of world where Christians are not always welcomed and the name of Jesus is more difficult to proclaim.  Or Deb Dunkhase from Open Heartland who started by playing with children in trailer parks late in the afternoon and one conversation led to another and grew a totally volunteer organization to serve an immigrant population in Iowa City, mostly families with young children. And our very own, Bishop Current who is working to continue to build relationships with our brothers and sisters in Tanzania.  All of these witnesses act as a bridge to help travel further with God and each other.

These next days Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil are witnesses that also build bridges for us helping us to move further into being children of the resurrection and ascension.   These days help us to walk through the deep valley where the shadows of death and despair linger.  The witness of these days shape the living of our lives and our dying and the promise of life with Christ through everything.

These days witness to us what we are to do in the environment of betrayal, whether that is Judas’ betrayal or the Pharoah’s betrayal, God comes to us to set us free, to build a bridge for us to enter the kind of life God desires. A life that prepares us for life with God. A life where we serve one another and we let our master wash our feet so that we learn not only how to serve but also how to receive grace.

On Good Friday we come to hear and sit with Jesus as he dies and hear his words from the cross.  These words are a bridge and witness for us as we live with death and accompany those who die.  Jesus speaks words of forgiveness, promise, and  community.  Jesus also names our struggles with abandonment, desire and the dead end of death.  The goodness of this day is an opportunity to sit with Jesus as he dies and ponder what it means to be a part of God’s family.

Easter Vigil is that time where we light the candles we had placed near the Good Friday cross and sit again in the wake of Jesus’ death, telling those old stories and listening for the promise of new life and resurrection.  We recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises and welcome back the word we have fasted from and feast again on the Lord’s Supper. 

These days are bridges that lead us to Jesus and help us walk together as a community of faith.  Let’s meet at these Holy Week bridges with hope of walking with Jesus.  Because it’s all about Jesus. 

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 24th, 2026

Disciples of Jesus,

On Sunday, January 4, we celebrated Epiphany, a couple days early.  January 6 marks the day we celebrate the arrival of the magi with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for Jesus.  It is the day and the beginning of the season of Epiphany, a season that centers on the manifestation or revealing of God in Jesus Christ.  God is with and for us and this season shows us God revealed in Jesus.

The Magi, are the outsiders, the foreigners, that God chooses to draw to Jesus through the stars.  God is revealed to Mary and Joseph, to the shepherds, to the angels and now to the Magi.  What could God be trying to show, to reveal to us? It appears that God desires the arrival of His Son to be known through out the world.  God is expanding the horizon.  God continues to work through God’s chosen people, the Jews and extends the invitation to the Gentiles, the rest of us and that is good news for us.  We too have a star to guide, a word we follow for a season or a year and we wonder what God might reveal to us through this word. 

On Sunday, the Epiphany words were passed around after Clara Calhoun drew a word for our community.  Our community Epiphany word is JUSTICE.  The navy blue bag with Epiphany words will be available on the ushers table for you to draw your own word and see where it leads you.  Place the word in your purse or wallet, on your nightstand, on the frig or a place you will see it and let the word guide you.

With the gift of your word received you might ponder these questions:

·       How do you feel about your word?

·       How does the word connect to your life?

·       What is one way you could live into your word in the coming week?

·       What scripture, phrase, or song can you carry with you to help you focus on your word?

Here is a blessing for those who receive star words to guide them. (adapted from spaciousfaith.com, Worship Words: Star Words for Epiphany, 1/4/23, Joaana Harader):

As stars have guided wise ones for centuries,

May your word guide you in the year ahead.

By the radiance of your star and the power of the Holy Spirit,

May you live with deeper intention and greater attention;

May you find the holy in delightfully unexpected places;

May you worship with joy,

Give with gratitude,

And follow another way home as God guides you.

Giving thanks to God for the journey with you and wondering where our community word of JUSTICE will lead us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

November 13th, 2025

Greetings Disciples of Jesus!

At the end of September I attended the Fall Gathering of rostered leaders from across the state of Iowa.  The guest lecturer was one of the Lutheran bishops of Hungary, Bishop Dr. Tamás Fabiny.  On Reformation Sunday, I shared how the Bishop tried to teach us the Hungarian Lutheran greeting, “Erős vár a mi Istenünk!” And the other replies with the same, “Erős vár a mi Istenünk!”  

Which translates, “A mighty fortress is our God!”  This illustration made from the sermon tickled David Whitebread’s memory of a joke Pope Francis told at Ferenc Liszt Airport after visiting Budapest in September of 2021.

Why will we speak Hungarian in heaven?

Because it takes an eternity to learn it!”

Translation and communication.  It is not an easy thing and demands our attention, time and reflection. A week later I was delighted to have Katie Ode pull out her Greek New Testament during the sermon at the 11:00 service when I mentioned that Zaccheaus tells Jesus about what he is already doing – giving his possessions to the poor in the present tense but the NRSVue and NRSV puts it in future tense, which leads us to believe that he will do this because of his encounter with Jesus (Luke 19:8) not that he is already trying to support his community who has already made up their mind about him.  Translation choices change the meanings we derive from the text.  I was hoping the updated edition would correct the verb tenses.

And then last Sunday, November 9, did you catch the new Job translation of a very familiar text?  “I know that my redeemer lives” is now “I know that my vindicator lives.” (Job 19:25).  We will continue to sing the familiar hymn but now another layer of understanding comes before us.  The Hebrew, go’el, vindicator was used rather than redeemer because of the context Job was referring to.  Job was in a legal context like a court room.  The translation team wanted to focus more on this aspect and avoid imposing a later Christian theological concept of redemption on this text.

Many decisions are made when translating.  It is a complicated process, as any of you know who have experience with translating.  It’s why both Jews and Muslims insist on using original language.  It wouldn’t hurt us either.  And I would advise you in your study of the Bible to use many translation as well as the web site: Bible Hub which offers Hebrew and Greek interlinear   along with Strong’s numbers (an exhaustive concordance) to discover how the word is used in other contexts, biblical and historical.  It’s a wonderful tool and may just open wider God’s word for us today.

 Once I get beyond my whining and complaining, I can think again about God as redeemer and God as vindicator and my idea of God has grown and expanded.  I love that about God most of the time.  The mysteriousness of God can delight and discourage me, often at the same time.  But that is what it means to live in relationship with another, and I am grateful God is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack