November 4th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE SAINTS IN THE MAKING,

 

All Saints Sunday is our time to remember those who have died and gone before us.  Different from Ash Wednesday where we remember our own mortality, with the words, “remember you are dust and to dust you will return”, this is a time to reflect on death as a community experience as we live in the wake of those who have gone before us.  As we age, we gradually come to know more and more that have joined the Communion of Saints and cheer us on while we remember and grieve and live with God who is with us. 

 

For us who live now, in time, this mystery of death and resurrection stretches before us.    It is a mystery what happens to us in death and resurrection.  We know the mechanics of what happens to our physical bodies, but Jesus’ resurrection points us beyond the physical to life with God.

 

We know that Jesus is with us but not much more than that.  We want to know more of this mystery, this promise.  Living with “Jesus with us now” helps us to trust how God is with us also in our deaths and resurrected lives. 

 

In our Adult Forum this past Sunday, we read of God’s call to Moses from the burning bush to go to Egypt and deliver God’s people out of slavery.  Moses is very reluctant.  He says, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?  God said, “I will be with you.” and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain. (Exodus 3:10-12).  Moses is not convinced, and the conversation continues and a journey of deliverance from slavery begins as does a trusting relationship between God and Moses.

 

God wants us to be so at home, so aware of his presence with us and has gone to great lengths to show us. God says, “I am with you.”  And the sign that God is with us is our worship together.  Worship helps us to remember that God is indeed with us.  Moses was not convinced at first but the conversation continued and God faithfully showed Moses over and over again, “I am with you”.  When you leave worship, I hope the conversation with God continues.  I hope you will wonder and explore God’s presence within the lives of your loved ones who have died that we remember in community and in worship and in your life, and in your death to come.  We do this together and that is God’s sign. The “I am with you” sign is made known to us in worship. 

 

With us in water and bread and wine as our sacraments invite us to experience God with us. In worship, we experience God with us.  In remembering those who have died; Dwain Jordt, Gerald Vraspier, Carl Lund, Ray Hegtvedt, Carole Hegtvedt, Linda Liedtke, Larry Perkins and Connie Baines. In remembering the newly baptized; Ingrid Lind, Liara Buns and Zelda Rod.  In celebration with those affirming their baptism; Cooper Gray, Jena Frank and Daniella Buchholtz.  God is with us in our baptism, confirmation, in our lives and in our deaths and in our resurrected lives.  God is with us.

 

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

 

Pastor Connie Spitzack

October 27th, 2022

GREETINGS REFORMING LUTHERANS,

 

Over the centuries, we Lutherans have kept a special day to thank God for the freedom that the word of God grants to believers and to pray that with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will be continually reformed and renewed for the ongoing health of the church. During the sixteenth century, some German Lutheran churches celebrated an annual day of thanksgiving for the Reformation, and in 1667 the festival was set for October 31 or the Sunday prior, since on this date in 1517 Martin Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses on the Wittenberg church door.

 

Along with thanksgiving we celebrate with hope and possibility what God has done and will continue to do through us, the church as Christ’s body. Think about how God shapes us as individuals and as a community of faith to be a witness to God’s activity in all creation.

 

As Martin Luther was shaped through the community of faith in his day, he was crushed by his sin, his failure to live up to God’s standards and expectations of holiness.  Repetitive confession and study of God’s word in community reformed and shaped him as he grew to discover God’s good news of grace made known to him in Jesus Christ.  God’s acting through Jesus, his life, his death, his rising and returning shaped Martin Luther by a grace that changed and shaped not only his life but the journey of the church.  A journey that ripped the church apart giving birth to the Lutheran Church and Protestant Churches and a journey where we find today, Catholics and Lutherans working together on all of the things we hold in common which are much more than our differences.

 

 God had not stopped shaping and forming us through the scripture,

 through God’s gift of grace pulling us toward God and God’s hope for humanity to live and thrive and grow into the people we have been created to be.  When difficulties arise, we can lose sight of God’s grace and the shape of God’s ideal for us.  In the midst of difficulties, it is all the more pressing for us to look and keep looking for God to shape and form us.  Luther’s journey reminds us to keep turning to God in community, with God’s word, dipping our fingers in the waters of our baptism and tasting the bread and wine of Jesus with us, trusting God to shape, form and reform us. 

 

Give thanks to God, the potter that shapes us, adding gracious life-giving water to make us into a new creation, a vessel that bears the image of God in this place with one another to the world.  Happy Reformation Lutherans!  God's not finished with us yet.  Thanks be to God!

 

BIBLE – Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

 

Pastor Connie Spitzack

October 20th, 2022

 
 

HUMILITY

 

The following is an adaptation of the synod’s Fall Stewardship offerings based on the upcoming Sunday lessons from Luke 18:9-14 and 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18.  Enjoy this gift from our Synod.

 

Unfortunately, most of the world looks at Christians and sees the Pharisee - self-righteous people who gather together and judge others. This view has been confirmed in several Pew and Barna studies, with the most damning of these studying whether people who called themselves Christians really acted that way. In this study, https://www.barna.com/research/christians-more-like-jesus-or-pharisees/

researchers polled people on actions and attitudes, with the following break-down:

 

The 10 research statements used to examine Christ-likeness include the following:

 

Actions like Jesus:

· I listen to others to learn their story before telling them about my faith.

· In recent years, I have influenced multiple people to consider following Christ.

· I regularly choose to have meals with people with very different faith or morals from me.

· I try to discover the needs of non-Christians rather than waiting for them to come to me.

· I am personally spending time with non-believers to help them follow Jesus.

 

Attitudes like Jesus:

· I see God-given value in every person, regardless of their past or present condition.

· I believe God is for everyone.

 · I see God working in people's lives, even when they are not following him.

· It is more important to help people know God is for them than to make sure they know they are sinners.

· I feel compassion for people who are not following God and doing immoral things.

 

The 10 statements used to assess self-righteousness (like the Pharisees), included the following research items:

 

Self-Righteous Actions:

· I tell others the most important thing in my life is following God's rules.

· I don't talk about my sins or struggles. That's between me and God.

· I try to avoid spending time with people who are openly gay or lesbian.

· I like to point out those who do not have the right theology or doctrine.

· I prefer to serve people who attend my church rather than those outside the church.

 

Self-Righteous Attitudes:

· I find it hard to be friends with people who seem to constantly do the wrong things.

· It's not my responsibility to help people who won't help themselves.

· I feel grateful to be a Christian when I see other people's failures and flaws.

· I believe we should stand against those who are opposed to Christian values.

· People who follow God's rules are better than those who do not.

 

Approximately 51% of the Christians polled exhibited Pharisaical tendencies, meaning they affiliated with self-righteous actions and attitudes. With these findings, it is unsurprising why Christianity continues to decline and people's belief in God is waning. But the good news of this study is that there is clearly mission for the church today, and that as disciples become better at stewarding the gifts God has given us with humility, we may reach even more people with the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ. Now - acting and believing as Jesus did seems a tall order, but we have just spent the last three weeks exploring how stewarding faith, gratitude, and persistence can lead to believing and acting Christ-like. When you think about the opposite of these characteristics: fear, ingratitude, complacency, and arrogance, it becomes even more clear as to just how living in discipleship can point to the goodness of God's love.

 

 When we steward with humility, we are ultimately surrendering to the belief that God is God and we are not. It is a posture that does not take claim on God's grace as a prize for good behavior, but rather as a gift given simply because God desires for us to have abundant life. The tax collector knew there was nothing he could do that would merit God's grace, and again taking the posture similar to the Samaritan from the gospel two weeks ago, asked for God's mercy and went home justified.

 

From a posture of humility, the gifts and lives that disciples steward become for the world an invitation to God's abundant life. Adopting this posture of humility means that life is less about being right and more about being in right relationship. Living in humility means that we give not out of a sense of checking a box but out of a belief that God might use the gift to make the world a better place. Humble lives that steward gifts become lives that invite others into abundance and faith, lights that shine in the darkness and a balm in the wounded world.

 

It is a gift for a disciple to arrive at the end of this God-given life and be able to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race." Living with humility acknowledges that we do what we can while we are able and leave the rest to God - not taking undue credit nor squandering the gifts bestowed upon us in baptism. Out of living waters, graced with mercy and forgiveness, disciples are sent into the world to live freely and joyfully, not because they are better than others but because, in humility, their lives give glory to the God who created the world and sent Jesus Christ to reconcile all things.

 

Knowing this, in humility, it becomes joyful to give - of time, of self, of possessions - because each of these gifts becomes an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move in the world, to change hearts, and to breathe God's promises to life. May it be that for us as individuals and communities our stewarded lives are good news for the world.

October 14th. 2022

PERSISTENCE

 

The following is an adaptation of the synod’s Fall Stewardship offerings based on the upcoming Sunday lessons from Luke 17:11-19 and 2 Timothy 2:8-15.  Enjoy this gift from our Synod.

 

Persistence is an interesting component to a life of stewardship. Parents may find the persistence of their children to be terribly annoying, and some may find how our own persistence lands us in trouble on more than one occasion. Yet in the lessons for this week, Luke 18:1-8 and 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, persistence is one of the many ways a disciple acts out their faith (or faiths, to use the verb). The widow, who has been harmed unjustly, continually goes to the judge who finally rules in her favor, not because he feared God or respected the widow, but simply because he tired of her persistent requests. Similarly in the 2nd letter to Timothy Paul urges Timothy to persistently proclaim the message, whether the time is favorable or unfavorable, relying on scripture as a God-inspired writings that instruct us on salvation.

 

When Jesus began his public ministry in Luke's gospel, he started by reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah,

 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release

to the captives and recovery of sight

to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

 

Before these words, Mary had already sung of how God's presence on earth through the birth of her son, Jesus Christ, would topple unjust systems, feed the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty. The birth of Jesus Christ would signify a turning in the world, one that means justice, peace, forgiveness, and wholeness. And for the duration of Jesus' ministry, his disciples and the crowds who followed him saw these things take place. All throughout Luke's gospel to this point Jesus had healed the sick, fed the hungry, advocated for the poor and the widow, included the outcast and cast down the powerful. People and communities found forgiveness of sin and freedom, and lived in God's grace and love, otherwise, they lived in salvation.

 

Sometimes reading the accounts of Jesus' ministry in scripture can feel like reading a fairy tale. A 'once upon a time' story in a fantastical land where people were miraculously healed, where everyone had enough to eat, and the dead lived again. They seem so fantastical because when we look at the world today, we continue to see hunger and poverty, hate and war, needs for healing and reconciliation. It is easy to lose hope, to believe that our prayers for peace go unanswered.  We can grow complacent, and that our persistence can wane.

 

It is here we can lean on and learn from our siblings of color, who though they have suffered oppression and injustice persist in their calls for God's mercy and miracles. Black theologian Rev. Otis Moss III says it this way, "The very nature of the faith is carved in the splintered wood of an unfinished democracy. This is the faith where miracles are not anomalies, redemption is not a fairy tale, and deliverance is not a descriptive adjective but an active verb, permeating the soul of every believer. This is a faith where [Harriet] Tubman learned her freedom, [Sojourner Truth] discovered abolition, [W.E.B.] Du Bois discovered intellect, Zora [Neale Hurston] found her literary power, Langston [Hughes] crafted poems, and Ida B. Wells discovered her journalistic integrity." (https://www.childrendefense.org/child-watch-columns/health/2015/thepower-of-prophetic-grief/)

 

This is the faith of the woman never giving up in going day after day to the unjust judge. This is the faith of the early disciples living in a time of great persecution. This is the faith of us today - living in a time when, as 2 Timothy says, "people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths." Now is not the time to give up and grow complacent but is all the more reason to persist in our faith - in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and persisting in the work of being disciples of Christ.

 

Persist in praying, in giving, in hoping, in waiting on God's kingdom to become embodied in the church. This is how disciples steward with persistence: to believe that God's promises are for all creation, that God's grace is for all people, that stewarding with persistence we give - of ourselves, our time, and our possessions - so that in faith the miracles we hope for become a reality.

 

With persistence the congregations of Southeastern Iowa work to proclaim the gospel with nearly $500,000 given last year to start new congregations across the US - that's hundreds of new communities who are reaching out with the good news of Jesus Christ and welcoming them to God's table. With persistence Lutherans across the US gave to make sure all have bread, with over $20.7M given to alleviate hunger. With persistence individuals and congregations show up - at schools and blood banks and nursing homes and homeless shelters and untold number of other places to give of their gifts so that others may know of God's justice and love. Like the widow and like Timothy and like so many before us, let us steward these lives of faith with persistence, never giving up on our hope in the fulfillment of God's promises.

 

How have you endured in faith in the midst of difficulties? How have you continued to hope when it seemed hopeless? How have you used your gifts (either skills and talents or finances) to join in God's work of justice and love? In what ways have you been persistent in your life?

 

How have you seen persistence in others? Thinking particularly about in people living on the margins or who are oppressed by society, what can we learn from their resilience and persistence? In what ways are you tempted to give up on God's promises, and how might you think about persistence in faith differently?

 

God of justice and mercy,

You hear the cries of your children and you persist in coming to earth. Give us persistence in our hope that your promises will be fulfilled. So help us steward our gifts that the oppressed and marginalized find justice, and that our work may be for the world good news in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus. Amen.

October 6th, 2022

GRATITUDE:

 

The following is an adaptation of the synod’s Fall Stewardship offerings based on the upcoming Sunday lessons from Luke 17:11-19 and 2 Timothy 2:8-15.  Enjoy this gift from our Synod.

 

This story of healing in Luke's gospel is a familiar one with the 10 lepers doing as Jesus commanded and going to show themselves to the priest. We know the twist of the Samaritan, finding himself healed, going back to thank Jesus. We know how much stewardship and gratitude are intimately connected, giving thanks for what God has abundantly given us and then giving back.

 

Diana Butler Bass says this of gratitude, in her book Grateful, "Gratefulness grounds our lives in the world and with others, always locating the gifts and grace that accompany our way. Gratitude is an emotion. Gratitude is an ethical way of life. It is a disposition, an awareness, a set of habits. But ultimately, gratitude is a place - perhaps the place - where we find our truest and best selves." (p. 194) This idea of gratitude as a place opens up this healing story in a new way.  The Samaritan prostrating himself at Jesus' feet and thanking him is a position that is likely quite unfamiliar to those of us living in 2022. The practice of kneeling, genuflecting, and prostrating, is rarely seen in our Lutheran congregations anymore. We see kneeling at the communion rail, or perhaps for a healing service, maybe even for a marriage blessing. But laying, face down, hands out with head touching the ground? In a world where many of us take pride in being self-sufficient, prostrating seems like a foreign concept. Yet perhaps it is just this sense of pride that prevents many disciples from experiencing the freedom of gratitude, the stewarding of faith and thanksgiving that makes it possible to truly live in the abundance of God's eternal life, here and now. And, it is no small thing that all ten were 'made clean' and when this one turned back the text tells us that he was healed. We have seen it time and again that one can have all the abundance of earthly treasures and still be unwell, seeking to fill an insatiable hunger for abundant life in everything but the source of life itself, the Triune God.

 

It is only in God that one can truly find this life and be situated in an attitude of gratitude that lives on despite (and even in resistance of) sin, death, and the devil. Certainly, there are things and situations in life for which one does not give thanks. "Gratitude never calls us to give thanks for anything that is evil or unjust, never for violence, lying, oppression, or suffering. Do not be grateful for these things. The Greek word is en, which means 'in, with, within, throughout.' It locates us here and now, in the past, and in the future; in happiness, in despair; in all things, in all times, in all situations." (p. 193-194) Stewarding gratitude does not become then a Little Orphan Annie, "gray skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face," approach to life, but a deeper, rooted from the ground up, way of living in this world. It is a defiant knowing that faith in the risen Lord Jesus brings healing and wholeness despite all the ways this world pulls us toward ingratitude and believing that we have no need of God.

 

In 2nd Timothy, this way of living is evident and becomes a way of life, even when proclaiming this gospel results in imprisonment. Living in gratitude includes daily dying and rising in our baptismal promises. Gratitude takes endurance, practice, and choosing to live out faith in this way. And, again as the text from 2 Timothy reminds us, even when we get it wrong Christ never does. We can turn again and again to prostrate ourselves at the foot of the cross where the world is healed and the only thing left is God's abundant grace.

 

It is from here, then, that disciples are sent to faith (using faith again as a verb here). To live in such a posture as to see the abundance of God's gifts and then to give thanks - which takes on many forms. From beginning and ending each day by listing three things for which you are grateful; taking time to write thank-you notes; giving back - with talents, time, and money. Through these actions and in this way of living, disciples begin to both proclaim and show the good news of Jesus Christ, being for the world signs of God's gracious gifts.

 

Try the postures of kneeling, genuflecting and prostrating yourself during prayer.

 

In the gospel text the Samaritan was made clean but was healed when he turned back to give thanks. Have you ever experienced a change in attitude that truly transformed you?

 

How does giving out of gratitude feel different from giving out of duty?