July 28th, 2022

A prayer for us for National Night Out, August 2nd.

Holy God, be with the community of Christ the King as we host National Night Out for our neighborhood and our police and fire departments.  Holy Spirit move through all those who participate in this event that we may experience a bit of your kingdom here.  Help us to be your vessels in making the world a better place, a place that reflects the intentions of your creation.  Give us courage and curiosity to engage in building relationships with our neighbors so that we may know them, they know us and you.   Amen.

Thank you to all who have been planning for National Night Out.  Thank you to all who are planning to show up and provide hospitality for our neighbors.  Thank you to all who have been tending to King Park, the shelter, and the outside of Christ the King to welcome our neighbors and provide a beautiful place to meet.

As a staff, we are reading and discussing together the book recommended at our synod assembly, “Growing Young: 6 Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love your Church” by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder and Brad Griffin.  In honor and celebration of National Night Out and our ongoing desire to be God’s presence in this time and place, we read the chapter on neighbors, “Be the Best Neighbors:  Loving and Shaping Your World Well.

The chapter begins with a quote from 20 y.o. Isaiah, “Christianity is about the restoration of how it is all supposed to be.  We have been given hope, we have been redeemed, and we have been empowered by the authority of God to go out and change this world.”

We are encouraged even more by Andy Crouch who envisions a positive strategy when he says, “The only way to change culture is to create more of it…something that will persuade our neighbors to set aside some existing set of cultural goods for our new proposal.”

The story of God coming to us in Jesus Christ, the story of his life, death, resurrection, and return to God give shape and context to our biggest questions and dreams. His story shapes our story and how we navigate our world.  We know that God’s got this world and loves this world.  When we are overwhelmed with all that is before us and struggle to discern our way through, we know that God is with us, and God is faithful.  Like our “On the Case Connections” Board for VBS demonstrated through simple but powerful strings of yarn, we are connected to Jesus, and we are connected to each other.  As we move through the Gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches us about the fine points of discipleship with hospitality and listening to Jesus as we live in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection and return to God.  Because Jesus lives and returns to God, we live life with a hope and freedom found in Jesus that shapes and forms our lives and our world. 

We are called to make the world a better place – through the kingdom of God – the household – where we meet Jesus and walk toward death, resurrection, and return.  God help us to translate this good news in a way that our neighbors, police, and fire fighters can hear and understand.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

July 21st, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

 Evangelism and Fellowship Committees met this last week to finalize plans for National Night Out.  After a very fruitful discussion regarding the popcorn holder and message we want to send to our neighbors, we decided against the popcorn holder and committed to handwriting some of the shorter messages that have been curated from your creativity.  Thank you.  I have appreciated your input, creativity and the process of delving into evangelism in a concrete way that gets us thinking about what we want to say to our neighbors.  The Holy Spirit prepares us in many ways like these exercises so that when we are more ready, the Holy Spirit will put us in the right place at the right time.

For those of you able to attend, I want to encourage you to step out and introduce yourself to our neighbors.  Pick a number like 5 or 10 people, pray to God, trust the Holy Spirit and then when NNO comes, step out in faith, and talk to 5 or 10 neighbors.  Go with the spirit of curiosity to learn from them and who knows what God might produce in the conversation. 

I would like for Christ the King to partner with our neighbors.  I’m not sure what that might look like, but I do know that our attention to King Park and the Community Garden has welcomed our neighbors.  We have shingled and repaired the shelter and it is being used by our neighbors.  Ask Eric Vigil about his experiences with the Sudanese Neighborhood Association who shared their food with him as he welcomed them one evening after his Stewardship Committee meeting.

Be curious about what our neighbors might like to do in King Park.  I’d still like to host some music and/or comedians to brighten all our spirits.  I would like to welcome our neighbors in the planning of NNO.  It would be good for us to get our neighbor’s input and perspective as we know we can get set in our ways.  What do you think God would like us to do?  What would make God smile as he sees our outreach?

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

July 14th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

National Night Out, the first Tuesday in August is fast approaching.  I wonder how God will work through us as we host this event and I hope that you will attend. I would like our neighbors to meet you, the people of Christ the King Lutheran Church who have claimed this corner on Melrose and Mormon Trek.  You are beautiful children of God created in the image of God and shine a radiant light in this world.  I give thanks to God for the gift of this community. 

We continue to work toward a message for our neighbors to be placed on a popcorn holder/megaphone.  Thank you for your responses and concentrated effort infused with prayer.  It is a good exercise for us to do as we think about what we want to accomplish in hosting this event and God working with us in these efforts.  I continue to pray and wonder if the megaphone/popcorn holder is a good idea.  It may be that hosting the event is enough.  This is a community exercise of faith.  Will God show up and what will God teach us through our neighbors? 

God knows how to work with raw material – curbing and directing our proclamation.

In your responses I see your desire to reach out with God’s good news in Jesus Christ. Messaging in simple words is difficult because we have so much to tell and it is a complicated message with many assumptions especially for those of us who know it well. 

We are more than a social service agency.  Called by Christ, we want to help our neighbor but many times we do not know how to help our neighbor in a meaningful way that ultimately helps them to meet Jesus. We turn to the Holy Spirit to breathe the message into us for this time and space.  Here is the raw material that we are working with in this creative process.

· We’d like to get to know you! Is there anything we can help you with? 

· Here to Help

· A Safe Place

· You are welcome to pop in any time, dear neighbor.

This probably says more than what we are willing to do.  The psalmist reminds us that our help comes from the Lord, and we know that God’s help comes through Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection and not necessarily a quick fix of “help” as our culture understands help.  God took a great deal of time and effort to cultivate a relationship with a people that eventually opened to all people.  We know that living in family relationships and the community of faith does not guarantee safety.  Many wonderful relationships are formed and beautiful fruit is produced and we still miss the mark, sinning against God and one another.  Our relationships are not free of sin, even within the church.

· Pop…pop… pop… pop on into worship!

· We R like popcorn, we need you to season us.

· We will not pass you by.

· We like popcorn need you to season us

· Come & Share God’s love.

· Come and worship with us.

· JOY = Jesus, Others, You.

· Pop in and worship with us!

· Come & Share God’s Love.

· Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?

These are very invitational with the assumption that the neighbor knows Jesus and wants to worship God.  These ideas express our desire to gain something of value from our neighbor.  Our neighbors have something to teach us.

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

· God bless our neighbors.

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

· Loving our neighbors asks us to know our neighbor.

· People of Christ the King – Partnering with Police, Firefighters and you, our neighbors.

 · We are dedicated to serving Jesus Christ and introducing you to him.

· Join us in the Journey

A few years ago, when we visited our neighbors, like the businesses, schools, and assisted living residences the word that opened our conversations was, partner.  Our neighbors were suspicious of us, curious of our intentions and what we wanted and why we were visiting.  When we clearly said that we wanted to partner with them and not necessarily do something for them there was an exchange, an energy of peace.  We wanted to get to know our neighbor. 

Evangelism, sharing the good news of God in Christ Jesus is that paradox of simple and complicated. It takes time and we believe that God shows up and works through us.  God is faithful.  Thank you for your creative efforts in getting the ball rolling.  Like our VBS theme, On the Case!, we too will keep searching, investigating and discovering. So keep praying, keep listening and talk to each other.  What simple unified message would we like to share with our neighbor?

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

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