April 8, 2022

One is not righteous who does much, but the one who, without work, believes much in Christ. The law says, ‘Do this,’ and it is never done. Grace says, ‘Believe in this,’ and everything is already done. ~ Martin Luther

Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. Augsburg Fortress Press: Minneapolis, MN, 2012. p.56

GREETINGS BELOVED

FAMILY OF GOD,

This Sunday we celebrate Palm/Passion Sunday with a collective reading of the passion from Luke’s Gospel during worship. As this familiar story unfolds, look for the thread of God’s grace as it weaves through this story as Jesus teaches us how to live and how to die through his gift of grace. 

It is easy to find the crookedness of human behavior.  Religious leaders trying to find a quiet way to do away with Jesus, discover Judas, a willing participant, ready to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus.  So where is the grace?  Luther points to the law that says do this and it is never done.  The religious leaders and Judas show us how we fail to fulfill the law.  We fail and God provides the way through Jesus.  This is grace.

Jesus knew he would be betrayed by Judas and warned the disciples and specifically warned Peter of his denial. Is it helpful to know the dangers ahead in our relationships?  Luther reminds us that grace says, believe in this and everything is already done.  Grace tells us that yes, we fall short, we fail, we act in fear to protect ourselves, we deny our relationship with Jesus in the face of peer pressure.  We know this about ourselves.

Jesus knows this about us.  God’s grace gives us the courage to look, really look at ourselves while also looking at Jesus and trusting Jesus more.  Trust Jesus more.  Trust God’s way of saving the world through the sacrifice of his son.  Jesus shows us the way through life and death to new, resurrected life.  Life that moves through death to life.

We don’t take kindly to dying to ourselves. 

We resist and we try not to move in these circles of life, death and life. We hear echoes of our desire for life and avoidance of death in Jesus’ garden prayer, “let this cup pass”. 

God’s grace finds us here too. As we read this together, pay attention to the grace that runs through Jesus’ passion. Experience God’s grace and think about how this grace, this trust in God shapes you and your view of other people.  And then take D.T. Niles words to heart, “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”  Use your words to share how you experience God’s grace as the passion of our Lord unfolds before us again. 

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 31, 2022

GREETINGS BELOVED

FAMILY OF GOD,

Last Sunday morning, I walked into the church and smelled the strong scent of grains and protein.  Yes, the Take Away Hunger Food Packing Event was ready to go and people whose lives have been torn apart in the wake of tornados will be fed with the meals we helped to pack and sent off with thanksgiving.  Thank you all for your help in making this event possible.

Smells of grains and proteins are a pleasant fragrance because of how it helps our neighbors who are in need.  What scents do you associate with powerful positive or negative experiences?   

When Mary floods the room with the scent of pure nard powerful positive and negative experiences come with it.  This family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus have just been through Lazarus’ sickness that led to death with the stench of 4 days dead and all the emotional energy that accompanies sickness and death.  They heard Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb and they helped to unwrap Lazarus from his grave clothes and welcomed him back to life.

Time has passed, they are 6 days out from Passover and the family gives a dinner for Jesus.  Lazarus reclines at the table with Jesus and Mary anoints Jesus’ feet propelled by the powerful experiences they have lived through.  Their lives are changed and these powerful smells link these two stories together with the next story of Jesus’ own death and resurrection ready to unfold.

A fragrance that reminds them of their intimate dance with life and death and how their lives are changed, forever transformed because of Jesus.  Now this powerful scent is linked to the future event of Jesus’ death and God’s calling him to resurrected life.

We are invited into the powerful smells and the experiences they call forth as we remember our own journeys with sickness, death and God’s call to new life for all of us.  Recline with Lazarus enjoying new life. Serve and anoint with Martha and Mary, living through all the experiences of life with Jesus.  Hold this story with the parables of lost sheep, coin and family.  Is this one of the lost and found parties?

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 24

GREETINGS BELOVED

FAMILY OF GOD,

We get to be the ambassadors, the ones that get to tell God’s good news made known to us in Jesus Christ.  We have the great challenge of translating this good news into language that makes sense in our culture today.  As any translator knows, there are always decisions to be made when translating and we turn to the Holy Spirit to help us to discern the way forward.  And Jesus gives us these great stories, parables that communicate throughout time to help us with translating the good news now.  We’ve just experienced both Iowa’s men and women’s basketball teams get beaten even though they were better seated than the teams that won.  What are the odds of that? 

This week Jesus tells us the 3rd parable in a 3-part series where the odds keep getting worse and yet there is celebration to be had in each story.  Welcome to the party and the story telling!  None of us would throw a party over one found sheep amidst a hundred sheep in the fold or one found coin in ten.  But these stories help us to tell the story of God’s crazy attempts to reach us and call us back.  Because even when we think there is no hope for redemption or reconciliation and the odds are against us, God has a different ending that includes celebrations and life where there has been dead ends and death.

Jesus teaches these stories to a group of grumbling Pharisees, Scribes, tax collectors and sinners.  What a great group of people.  Ever encounter a mixed group like this or a bunch of grumblers in general?  Do the odds that Jesus present in these stories give you any hope?  Don’t worry, it gets worse. 

Dealing with grumblers?  Welcome to the family.  And this is a messy family.  A father had two sons.  How many biblical stories can you think of with a father that has two sons and how well that worked out?

Adam has two sons, Cain and Able.

Abraham has two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.

Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob

Joseph has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim

Tamar and Judah have two sons, Zerah and Perez

David and Bathsheba have two sons, the infant dies and Solomon.

How many families do you know that are living in messy and complicated circumstances?  How might this story, incorporated in your life, guide you as you walk in difficult situations?  Families are messy business and the father and sons in this story are no different and there is still a party and celebration for the lost has been found, the one who was dead is alive.  And yet there are hard questions.  Why didn’t the father invite the older son, who learns of the party from a servant? Will the other son, the older son, join the party?  Will the father’s pleading for sympathy and comfort be enough of a welcoming invitation for the oldest son?  Will the father still be at 50% with welcoming his sons?  Repentance, looking again, reconciliation are difficult and complicated.

We are given this beautiful and complicated story that invites us in.  How do you want the story to end?  What would you like to see happen?  Who is the hardest to welcome to the party or throw a party for?  Take each of these characters and invite them to the relationships you encounter where the odds are working against you and consider what it would take to throw a party for the lost who have been found and what it would mean for the rest of the household, especially the neglected, the overlooked and the responsible ones. 

Our relationships are complex and complicated, and the odds are against us and yet we are called to be translators and ambassadors of God's good news in Jesus Christ.  A Father had two sons, Adam and Jesus.  Trust the Holy Spirit in this journey and get ready, there will be a party!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 22, 2022

GREETINGS BELOVED FRUIT BEARERS OF GOD,

God’s love is planted in us and flows through us, and we bloom in the sunshine of God’s grace.  God’s grace transforms us to be more like Jesus.  Jesus matters to us.  What he taught us.  How he lived among us.  And what he did for us on the cross matters for us.  Jesus teaches us to be human and bear the image of God in the world.  I get to see the image of God in you, and you get to see the image of God in me.  As witnesses of what and why Jesus matters, we are translators, communicators of God’s good news in Jesus Christ. 

Luke’s gospel presents us with people who are wondering about the suffering and death that Pilate caused for worshippers and Jesus throws into the mix people who died when a tower fell.  Jesus uses these incidents to redirect their focus back to God in his call for repentance, look again.  And then he tells a parable about a fruitless fig tree.  What do you want to see happen to this fig tree?

Look again at the suffering we see today that captures our attention.  How does it make you feel or compel you to act?  We could easily insert Putin for Pilate when we think about world leaders causing suffering for people.  We wonder why and Jesus invites us to look again.  Look for how Jesus is at work in the midst of this suffering. How does that make you feel or compel you to act? 

God loves this world and is already here and at work in the suffering of the world.  I am compelled to pray and listen for what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do.  I am compelled to give money to Lutheran Services in Iowa as they work with our government to resettle refugees.  What are you compelled to do as you turn to God?

Read the parable of the fig tree and ask what you want to see happen to the fig tree.  Do you want to see the fig tree cut down or bear fruit?  Do you want to see the gardener be successful even if she failed to care for the tree for 3 years?  Is tending now, after 3 years going to be enough?  Should the vineyard owner, who planted the tree done more than simply look for figs?  Whose fault, if any, is it that the tree has not yielded fruit?

What do you want to see happen?  Wrestle with these questions. Turn to God and each other and see what happens. Jesus uses stories like parables to teach us, to get us ready for the tree that he will bear fruit on, a tree of suffering and death that will produce new life in us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

JANUARY 26, 2022

Greetings Holy People of God,

Greetings Beloved People of God,

“Imagine two astronauts go to the moon, and while they’re there, there’s an accident and their ship can’t take them back to Earth. They have only enough oxygen for two days. There is no hope of someone coming from Earth in time to rescue them. They have only two days to live. If you were to ask them at that moment, “What is your deepest wish?” they would answer, “To be back home walking on our beautiful planet Earth.” That would be enough for them; they wouldn’t want anything else. They wouldn’t think of being the head of a large corporation, a famous celebrity, or the president of the United States. They wouldn’t want anything but to be back here—walking on Earth, enjoying every step, listening to the sounds of nature, or holding the hand of their beloved while contemplating the moon at night. We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from dying on the moon. We are on Earth now, and we need to enjoy walking on this precious, beautiful planet. Zen Master Linji said, “The miracle is not to walk on water or fire. The miracle is to walk on the earth.” I cherish that teaching. I enjoy just walking, even in busy places like airports and railway stations. Walking like that, with each step caressing our Mother Earth, we can inspire other people to do the same. We can enjoy every minute of our lives.”

Thich Nhat Hanh, Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm

Yes, we can enjoy every minute of our lives.  That is something to aim for.  We are on earth now and we will meet for another annual meeting in which we look back at our past year and look forward to the year ahead and give thanks for the place we are today.  We do not find ourselves in the desperate situation of the astronauts, so I am hoping that you are thinking about a president for the CTK preschool board. 

We do walk this beautiful earth at this time and this place, called to be proclaimers of the God’s good news in Christ Jesus.  That is why we exist.  It is our purpose for which the Spirit has called us together and will help us, meeting us each and everyday to walk with us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack