March 3rd, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

Eric Vigil is our Maple Syrup Man as he has tapped into the two maple trees in King Park and invited me and the Sunday School students he teaches on an adventure they won’t forget and will love to talk about.  God provides another picture of my Epiphany word, KEFI, Greek for “the spirit of joy”. 

It has been a delight to see empty milk jugs turned into sap collectors and hear and see the process of collecting, boiling down, filtering and of course tasting.  Our kids got to see the process from start to finish and take a jar home as well as baking pannekoeken to sample their syrup on.  The spirit of joy (KEFI) for our kids to see this process and connect it to their faith and how God works in community.  The process of making maple syrup is best done in community, with others.  Exploring and discovering our faith is best done in community where the power of God’s spirit flows among and through us.

I too was gifted with a jar of maple syrup.  The spirit of joy (KEFI) that brought back sweet childhood memories of traipsing through my grandfather’s woods early in the Spring collecting the syrup in pails and pouring into the old milk containers.  Riding on the back of the little wagon with my brothers while grandpa drove the tractor. Stoking the fire, stirring the huge pan of steaming sap, sampling along the way. It was magical.  My grandfather would not use a thermometer but judge by pouring the sap out of the ladle to judge it’s thickness.  It was a three-generation event for us and we enjoyed the syrup through the year.  God’s presence was so interwoven, planting deep seeds of memory and community that bear fruit in the lives of our families and beyond.

You too may have received this spirit of joy in the sweetness of the maple syrup in our communion bread.  Eric is also our communion bread baker and has used CTK maple syrup in our communion bread.  So if you taste hints of maple syrup, you are tasting Jesus, the fruit of King Park maple trees, and the labor of Eric and our Sunday School student’s.  Many hands and much labor gives us a glimpse of God’s handiwork in creation and in and through us.  We have a magnificent God who weaves our lives together in marvelous and mysterious ways.  I am grateful to be on this journey with you, seeing the spirit of joy flow sweetly in our midst.  I’ve had a glimpse of seeing the coming of the glory of the Lord.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 23rd, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

My Epiphany word is KEFI, Greek for “the spirit of joy” and our congregation's Epiphany word is LIGHT.  These words pair well for me.  KEFI has led me back to the discipline of a gratitude journal where I simply find three things to give thanks to God for each day.  This nurtures a spirit of joy within me.

This word journey has also led me to look for the glory of the coming of the Lord, the bits of God’s glimmering light in our midst.  So when I heard about the Asbury Revival, I was curious to learn more.  Asbury University is a Christian private university in Wilmore, Kentucky.  It is a non-denominational school aligned with Wesleyan-Holiness movement.

A chapel service that began on the morning of February 8 didn’t end with a benediction and the gospel choir’s song but started a prayer and singing service that has continued 24/7, for 12 days, ending on Feb. 19 and news of the event spread through social media.

Thomas H. McCall, Asbury theology professor wrote in Christianity Today, “They were praising and praying earnestly for themselves and their neighbors and our world – expressing repentance and contrition for sin and interceding for healing, wholeness, peace, and justice.  McCall attended the Feb. 8 chapel service.

When you search for more information, you will find loads and there is much to sift through.  You have probably heard your favorite news people or podcasters report on it.  We live in an age where we do not have to listen to someone’s report on an event.  So go and listen.  Listen to the first chapel service that started it.  They were studying Romans.  Listen to them sing and pray.  Form your own analysis of this event that happened among Christians.

I found a Youtube stream and listened for a short time.  I listened to a bit of the chapel sermon/teaching that started it all.  And I saw KEFI, I saw the spirit of joy in that chapel.  I was filled with joy and hope to see a chapel filled with college students singing and praying.  The Wednesday chapel services that I attended both in college and seminary rarely had a packed out attendance.  So for a pastor who has served for 31 years in a long period of decline for Lutherans and Christianity in general, this is hopeful and brings me a spirit of joy and a glimmer of the coming of the glory of the Lord. God is faithful and we get to be a part of what God is up to in this world.

I know enough about the Bible to know that God often shows up in the little places, the outback areas, like a little private college in Wilmore, Kentucky. God is faithful and shows up here too on our little corner of Melrose and Mormon Trek and we get to be a part of it.  Be on the lookout for the coming of the glory of the Lord shining in our midst.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 18th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

Reflections on Matthew 17.   

Peter, James and John are called to fish for people and Jesus invites them to the mountain to learn more about this fishing expedition that is moving further away from the place of fish and people to a higher place, a place closer to God.

Up, the highest heavens, symbolically and historically is the place we imagine God residing.   God says yes and God comes to us and hopes that we will see God not only as up, and far removed but also with and along side and through all of life, suffering and death and return to God.  Yes, to up and mountain top experiences and yes to the everyday ordinary places. Yes to suffering and death.  God is here and there.  God is with us and comes to us in ways we can understand.  Easy to see when we hold a newborn baby or when we hold the hand of a loved one as they pass from life to death.  God is with us in our comings and goings.  And God is with us in all the complicated dimensions of our lives.

We might very well need the big, in your face kind of experiences, to wake us up and make us attentive to the smaller, finer, quiet reveals of God’s presence with us. For when we can experience God in the special places, the mountain top places then we may also be able to experience and trust that God is with us in the ordinary everyday places and we will start looking and expecting God there as well and we will fish for people.

The hyperbole of the Sermon on the Mount definitely caught the people’s attention. The one who healed them and welcomed them, also taught them.  These teachings did not drive them away but they recognized the authority of Jesus.  These teachings helped them to draw the connection that Jesus was intimately connected to God and God’s ways.  They recognized God in Jesus on this mount, this higher place.

The Sermon on the Mount teaches us about fishing for people by having stellar relationships with each other and doing the hard work of communicating truthfully.   Where we know ourselves so well and are so honest with ourselves that we get caught up in God’s net, drawing us in and seeing the beautiful body of Christ that we are.  Seeing each of us as a temple of God, where God resides. 

Wide reaching blessings that include those struggling with life, the poor in spirit, mourners, meek, and the ones longing for justice and mercy.  Relationships with a high bar to strive for, a bar so high that we look to God for help to reach these kinds of relationships and where forgiveness is part of our everyday vocabulary with one another so that when we fail, we can name our brokenness and try again with God’s help to repair and restore, creating new and clean hearts. 

This is the strong foundation God wants us to build upon.  The foundation of our relationships that seem like sand, shifting and hard to hold but are the real solid rock foundation of who we are and what we will become as well as what we have been.  This is our God who is beyond us and yet with us.

Peter, James and John meet Moses and Elijah and hear the voice of God and it is magnificent to behold and hang on to this moment building a place here.  And God tells them to listen to Jesus.  They can do that and so can we.  We listen to Jesus.  We listen to what Jesus has said and we develop an ear to hear him still speaking to us today, on the magnificent mountain top and in the deep dark recesses and in the everyday ordinary places.  That is the rock foundation we build upon each and every day and we are transformed.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 9th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

On Jan. 22, Deacon Sally Azar became the first woman ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. "With my ordination," she says, "I hope that not only young women are inspired to pursue theology but that women of all ages who may have wanted to study theology but didn't think it was possible will be encouraged to do so." Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and our synod’s Bishop Amy Current participated in the ordination service, along with 17 of the ELCA's synod bishops and leaders.

Pastor Sally Azar studied at the Near East School of Theology and is a master graduate of intercultural theology in Gottingen, Germany.  She will serve the English-speaking congregation at the Church of the Redeemer.  She will work to build bridges with the Arabic speaking congregation while working with the youth.  She is a council member of the Lutheran World Federation.

Christians are a minority in the Palestinian territories with 47,000 Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2017 according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (al-monitor.com, 1/22/23).  Most Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox and Latin Catholic Churches which do not ordain women. In the Holy Land, Protestant churches have small local congregations and run schools and hospitals. 

Her father, Bishop Sani Azar preached at her ordination. He remembered the times standing together in this church and then recounted her baptism, confirmation and the disruptions she used to cause during service with the people saying, “let her play” with Jesus’ words of welcome for the little children.  He has seen her organize the hymn books, light the candles, teach Sunday School, participate in youth work and represent the church in local and international theological meetings.

He concludes with these words, “The bible verse you have selected asks you to Trust in the LORD with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5-6). What does that mean to you? Dear Sally, You’re now the first female pastor in our church. Serving as a female pastor in the church is not different than the service of any other male pastor. You all work for Jesus and not for oneself. You must look after the sons and daughters of the congregation as Jesus looked after the lost sheep. Do not wait for that sheep to come to you. In your service with the congregation, you will have so many doors. Don’t despair if you knock on those doors and they don’t open. Don’t despair if you pray and your prayer is not heard immediately. You have the responsibility of caring for the children, youth, adults, and elderly. The pastor of these people must both accept them as they are and look after them.

When I started my service in this church, I thought I can change many things immediately. In time, I learned that the ways of God are different than our ways. God’s timing is different than our timing. We have an Arabic proverb that says, “People make plans but God is the one who makes things happen”. Pray before you take any act and let God’s will prevail, not your own.”

Bishop Azar proclaimed a message for us all.  I give thanks to God for this new door that is open to our brothers and sisters in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and for Pastor Azar.  I give thanks to God for all my sisters and brothers that paved the path for my own ordination to Word and Sacrament Ministry.  I am thankful for the sacrifices they made so that I can serve in the capacity of ordained ministry.  Reflecting on Micah 6, I see the interweaving of justice and sacrifice coming together in Pastor Azar’s call and my own and I am grateful.  God makes things happen!  And we get to be a part of what God is up to in our world.  Thanks be to God!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 2nd, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

We want to get to know our neighbors and we want to be good neighbors. It’s why we host National Night Out in August.  It’s why we have a community garden and ensure that King Park is a welcoming and inviting place. It’s why we have a preschool. It’s why we host trunk or treat and invite our neighbors to VBS.  It’s why we have a Little Library. Slow but sure we make small efforts to get to know our neighbors and shine forth God’s good news revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  Another opportunity is on the rise and I wonder what God will call forth in us as we partner with our neighbors.

The new executive director at Johnson County Neighborhood Center, Rachel Rockwell and Ayman Sharif, Outreach & Engagement Specialist, Iowa City introduced and moved plans forward for a neighborhood association for the Pheasant Ridge/WestWind areas which includes us.  Christ the King is the northern boundary.  Western boundary is Westwinds Drive and Eastern boundary is Mormon Trek Blvd.  The Southern boundary is The Walden Plaza Square (Fairway, Java House, Hartig Drug).

I am thrilled to announce the formation of the “Wonderful Westside Neighborhood”. And the vision statement:

The Wonderful Westside Neighborhood will be a safe, peaceful, and desirable place to live, work, and play. We will work together to empower inherent leadership, improve economic and social well-being, strengthen sense of belonging, and make connections with internal and external resources as we listen to, elevate, celebrate, and integrate the diverse cultures and voices of our residents. 

My hope is that we can partner with our neighbors and keep working to further develop the relationships we have already nurtured.  I ask for your prayers.  Be in conversation with God about our “Wonderful Westside Neighborhood” and listen carefully to what God is calling us to be and do as we serve God and our neighbor living into the greatest commands of loving God and loving our neighbors.  We will figure out how to shine and add God’s beautiful and delightful flavorings to our neighborhood.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack