July 7th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

Independence Day, the 4th of July commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.  The national holiday is over but I’m still thinking about it and hearing about it in the news.  I am thankful that the reason that Coralville’s parade was canceled was because of rain, thunder, and lighting.  Not because of protests at a city hall and the police station as Akron, Ohio experienced.  Our parade disbanded due to a storm, not because of the thunder and striking of bullets from a rooftop on parade attendees as Highland Park, IL experienced.

David L. Waldstreicher in his article in Britannica.com writes that the celebration was modeled on that of a king’s birthday which had been marked by bell ringing, bonfires, solemn procession and persuasive public speaking.  But in many towns the first days of independence during the summer of 1776 took the form of a mock funeral for the king, whose “death” symbolized the end of monarchy and tyranny and the rebirth of liberty. Later as political parties developed so did separate celebrations and political proclamations seizing the day to declare independence of a different sort like abolitionists, women’s rights advocates and temperance movement.  This day remains a potent symbol of national power and American freedom.

In the aftermath of this 4th of July, there has been much political and persuasive speech and there will be real funerals.  What will our witness be?  What will we do with the freedom we have?  How will we live faithfully in this time of change?  What is God up to and how are we working with God?  I hope you are thinking about this as well and talking with God and each other.

I think our presence is needed at these celebrations. A pie and root beer float stand, or popcorn stand with proceeds going to help someone in need or some organization.  I wish we could have a presence in the parade just like National Night Out.  On Tuesday, August 2 we will host the event that is meant to bring the public servants (police & fire departments) together with the neighborhood in a non-emergency environment.  This is the event we are hosting for our neighbors and our public servants. 

I’ve been asking you to pray, to listen for the Holy Spirit’s whisperings in our midst to come up with a short message that we want to send to our neighbors.  Here are the offerings:

· You are precious in God’s sight and ours.  Christ the King Members

· You are welcome to pop in any time,

dear neighbor.

· God bless our neighbors.

· Come and worship with us.

· JOY = Jesus, Others, You.

· Pop in and worship with us!

· Come & Share God’s Love.

· Here to Help.

· “Good Exercise for the Heart:  Reach out and help your neighbor.” Mark Twain

· Welcome Neighbor – loving our neighbors asks us to know our neighbor.

How are we going to show up and be a neighbor on this corner of the community? 

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 30th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

 How many different kinds of fatigue can you list?

Physical fatigue,

social fatigue,

compassion fatigue,

caution fatigue,

decision fatigue,

post-viral fatigue

There are so many ways to be tired!

But read our lesson from Galatians 6:1-16 for Sunday, July 3.  Paul encourages us, "let us not grow weary in doing what is right" (Galatians 6:9), as he encouraged the recipients of this letter. Fatigue is not a new concept and is a part of being human.  When we are fatigued, we share it in community and help each other carry the load.  We test our own work and each carry our load sharing with each other as we journey together telling God’s good news through Jesus.  We work toward the good of all and we eagerly wait for the harvest that will come.  Because we work with God and God is faithful and will produce more than we can imagine, in more ways than we can imagine.

In your fatigue, rest, share in community and trust God’s faithfulness to walk with us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 23rd, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

This Sunday we welcome Pastor John Meyer who will preach and lead our worship service.  Please extend a warm CTK welcome as I take a week off with my extended family in northern Minnesota at William’s Narrows on Little Cut Foot Sioux Lake.  If you see a visitor, please be sure to give them a CTK coffee mug with a brochure highlighting our ministries and a little bag of M&Ms. Mugs can be found on the usher’s table.  Let’s all do our part to welcome our visitors.

I always look forward to this week of vacation time with my family.  This year on Sunday, we will celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of my sister and brother-in-law.  My other sister, the oldest, the social organizer of our bunch has asked us to share some memories of their wedding day and what we admire about their marriage.  Isn’t that a good idea?  I like the idea and know that when I put some thought into it and write something down, we will all be blessed with what we share. It will be good for the whole family. We know how important it is to hear the words and listen to other’s reflections.  It is rare that I tell this couple how important their witness is to me and how thankful I am for them but now I have the opportunity.

When I passed the email onto my children, the first response was “I wasn’t there at their wedding” which is true as I encouraged them to answer the second question.  I learned from my children that this attitude is often true of my own behavior.  I often need to explore the negative, the can’t, before I can get to the positive, the I can.  Maybe that is why I am not getting a boat load of ideas from you as to what you would like to share with our neighbors in the popcorn holder for National Night Out on August 2nd or you don’t know how to share them, or you are waiting on the Holy Spirit.

To stir your creative ideas, I’m going to put out some wipe boards and make an idea station for you to leave your ideas of what we might put on a popcorn holder to give to our neighbor.  What message do you want to share with them?  What good news of God made known to us in Jesus Christ do we want to communicate? 

Many of us have sour or negative attitudes about evangelism, about sharing God’s good news.  We know what we don’t want to sound like and sometimes we have to go there before we can get to what we do want to share.  Images of fire and brimstone or believe this or go to H-E-double toothpicks dance in our heads.  We don’t want to offend or cause discomfort.  We want to point to Jesus and God’s amazing love for us with simple and welcoming words.  So, let’s get to it and move beyond our awkwardness and shine the light of God’s love with our neighbors.  Remember we are a church on a hill, meant to be seen and to shine.

Last Sunday, I attended St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Cape Cod in Harwich, MA.  Most of the Lutheran Churches that we saw were named St. Peter in the New England area because they are near the ocean and Peter was a fisherman by trade.  People of Christ the King, our name reflects on us.  St. Peter’s adds a worship service in the summer to welcome vacationers.  We were given a little gift when we were introduced at the end of the worship service.  A magnet with a picture of their stained-glass window, the Bible verse from Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.” The name of their church and website.  This was their message to their visitors and guests.

What will our message be?  What message of good news do you want to share with our neighbors?  Let’s get popping, August 2 and National Night Out is coming right up!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 16th, 2022

GREETINGS PENTECOST PEOPLE, THANKS

 Are you praying?  Are you listening to the Holy Spirit?  At the Southeast Iowa Synod Assembly, we were given a green megaphone to boldly proclaim God’s good news in Jesus Christ.  We put words to the love that God has poured out upon us and made known to us in Jesus.  The megaphone can also be a popcorn holder where we can create our own megaphone/popcorn holder to hand out to our neighbors for National Night Out on the first Tuesday in August.  Let’s spend some time in prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit and let’s put some words on a megaphone.  What do we want to tell our neighbors as we invite them to join us for National Night Out?  Listen well, talk to each other and let’s see what gift we have to offer the community.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 6th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

This Sunday we celebrate Holy Trinity and welcome Pastor Dirk Stadtlander who will preach and lead our worship service.  Please extend a warm CTK welcome. 

Our doctrine and belief in the Holy Trinity is difficult to explain and we have some different tools to help us like the Apostles' Creed.  It is a teaching tool for what Christians believe about God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The creed also serves as a prayer and a way for the community to carry one another in faith. In worship we both confess and proclaim the Apostles’ Creed.

Each article of the creed functions as a job description of one of the three persons of the united Godhead. It is particularly important to note that the third article describes the Spirit's ongoing work of bringing creation out of chaos. What would the church, the community, forgiveness, or resurrection be without the Spirit?  Impossible, right?  We need the power of the Holy Spirit blowing through us to live in relationships that embody community, forgiveness, and resurrection.

Another tool to help us live with the complexity of the Trinity is music.  The hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!" (ELW 413), when sung to the traditional tune Nicaea, is considered metrically irregular. This means the syllable breakdown for the song cannot be swapped easily (if at all) with other tunes. It also makes it difficult to pair Nicaea with other texts. Perhaps there is something to say about this very familiar hymn tune and the holy Trinity—there are no substitutes for either.

Holy Trinity is a good day to explore the many and various ways God is at work in the world, from the beginning of time through to the present.  Look for and share your way of explaining or thinking about the Holy Trinity as we practice communicating with each other so that we can share with our community and the world.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack