April 21st, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

These 50 Days of Easter we get to explore and be surprised with the hidden and the unseen blooming forth and the beauty of new growth that pops into view and then gets blown furiously about by the winds all around.

The 50 days of this season give us the opportunity to live in the dawning of something new and all that means for us.  It is a time of awakening, recognizing and naming what is already present but has been unseen.  The light of Easter seasons needs to remember and honor the work that has happened in the darkness of Lent, bringing together the various experiences.  The buried alleluias, the extra worship and offering opportunities, the giving up or taking on of a spiritual discipline.  All to awaken us to this time.

We, like Moses, pay attention to the task before us and have seen the burning bush not consumed.  We have seen the empty tomb and recognize that God is up to something.  So we are on the lookout, called to become what we have received; the body of Christ, broken, poured out for the sake of the world God created and loves deeply.

We are the ones who have the honor and responsibility, the duty and delight, of being the body of Christ that takes shape, the shape of the cross and resurrection with the Holy Spirit propelling us to do God’s Work with our hands.  Watch in this Easter season for the Holy Spirit to emerge, bringing power to transform our lives while God’s kingdom takes root and grows.

Pay attention to how Peter and the early church of Acts grow as they wrestle with Jesus’ death and resurrection and Peter’s letter that encourages them to look for God in the midst of their suffering in their small  communities of faith in Turkey.

Light helps us to see more than we can with our own eyes.  We look closely at the empty tomb, we look closely at what those first witnesses did as they tried to see more and make sense of the empty tomb and Jesus’ appearances.  And then we look around for what God is up to now and how God is appearing to us today and we help each other to see more than we can see on our own because we are the light shining people of God.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

 Pastor Connie Spitzack

April 14th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

3 I thank my God for every remembrance of you, 4 always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy 5 for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.                       Philippians 1:3-6

In step with Paul’s words of thanksgiving, as I reflect back on Holy Week, I give God thanks for you with joy for our partnership in living with God’s good news revealed in Jesus. 

It was a beautiful Holy Week and couldn’t have been accomplished without all your helping hands and voices. 

I give thanks to God for a wonderful staff that lays the foundation for us. Thank you to Colleen Jacobson, Kevin Edens, Stephen & Dennis Peterson for their faithful service to the CTK community as well as our council and all committee members, choir & bells.

I am grateful for all the volunteers that stepped forward to help and please forgive me when I have forgotten names that should have also been uplifted.

Thanks to:

Palm Sunday

New processional cross that mirrors the cross in the sanctuary:  William, Ella & Ethan Johnson.

Maundy Thursday

Foot Washers:  Amy Calhoun & Jon Bengtson

Communion Assistants:  Carolyn Laxson, Spencer Howard and Sarah Bengtson.

And your faithful witness of following Jesus’ command to love through your service.

Good Friday

Passion Readers: Noah Tiegs, Kevin Edens, & Richard Tiegs

Cross processor – Richard Tiegs

And your witness of devotion to Jesus and his cross.

Easter Vigil

Story Tellers:  Elizabeth Calhoun, Susan Stanley and Richard Tiegs

And your listening to the stories, your witness of making a joyful noise and  recommitting to your baptism promises.

All who helped to transition the fellowship hall into a worship space and then into a dinning hall and back to fellowship area.

Easter Egg Hunt & Easter Breakfast

To all who provide donations, candy, food and their time to encourage a seeking heart for God in this community and opportunities for fellowship.

We are so richly blessed and the risen life of our Savior, Jesus shines through you and all the work you do to create a warm and loving environment at Christ the King.

On Monday, the church still dressed in its Easter glow, welcomed Norm Kennel and his family and friends as they entrusted Tillie (Mathilde) Kennel into God’s good hands at her funeral service.  Tillie, a Ukrainian refugee from many years ago was also a teacher, school volunteer and flower gardener was dressed in her baptismal clothing (the funeral pall) and surrounded by an environment that resembled a classroom filled with “ALLELUIAS” and a garden with beautiful music reminding us all that God is with us in life and in death and resurrected life with God. 

Tillie taught her family and us to always be grateful.  I am grateful for you and how Jesus’ resurrection light shines through you.  Christ is risen!  Alleluia!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

April 5th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

The images of our lessons in Lent come to life as we trust the Holy Spirit to teach us in these nights of worship giving our attention to what God is doing.

Nicodemus comes at night and Jesus gives him lessons just beyond his reach, encouraging him to see more.  On these holy evenings we are encouraged to see more.  To see more in our serving. To see more in calling Jesus Lord and watching him die on a cross.  To see more as we gaze upon the cross as a portal to more.  To see more as we look into the empty tomb again.  To see more as we hear the familiar stories and claim them anew and again as they claim new meaning in our lives today.

Jesus invites us into God’s holiness by asking us for something to drink and we give what we can as we trust the Holy Spirit to work with what we offer like the Samaritan woman at the well did and her whole village welcomed Jesus.  We have our feet or hands washed and anointed to give ourselves to the servanthood that Jesus commands because in our offerings we can see and experience more.

Jesus spits and healing mud is created and a blind man can see and the faith community is thrown into confusion as they try to make sense of this new seeing man in their community.  This is what Jesus does.  He steps into the mess of our lives and creates a new mess for us to make sense of and come to terms with in community.  I wonder what God is up to with us at Christ the King?

Now Jesus not only calls Lazarus out of death but enters the tomb the same way we all enter the tomb.  He enters our death to show us there is more than death.  When we look upon the death of our loved ones, we trust that there is more than death.  There is life, resurrected life with Jesus and we are eternal beings.  Let that sink in.

And we tell these ancient stories of creation and redemption, and we see how God faithfully reaches out to us and are fed at Jesus’ table and we see more and our lives are shaped into sometime more.  Give your attention and your time to these Holy Days. This one week out of the year.  Let these Holy Days shape you again and anew.  God is up to something with us now as God has been throughout the ages.  Align yourselves with God, the creator of the universe.  God has something to show us that shapes us for our lives together now and we can see more. 

Christ is risen and now with Christ, nothing is impossible!  Christ has restored the possible.  God saves us. Jesus bears witness to God’s salvation and the Holy Spirit helps us to see anew and again and more.  Look into the empty tomb and look for the risen Christ in our community now.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 30th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

This past week, on Tuesday and Wednesday 5 planets lined up in the western sky and could be seen shortly after sunset if the sky was clear.  A waxing moon with Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars lined up.  I missed it as I was preparing for a different kind of alignment as Lent is coming to a close and Holy Week is on the horizon.

I often wonder what God is up to but not when it comes to Holy Week starting this Sunday with Palm Sunday.  The “planets” are aligned with these Holy Days that mark God’s actions and God’s humility coming to us as one of us and giving his life for us.  God shows us the way to live our lives through servanthood that we participate in on Maundy Thursday, with the command to love like Jesus loved.  You may have your feet or hands washed and anointed to commit yourself to loving servanthood.

Good Friday we hear the Passion, the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, suffering and death from Matthew’s gospel and we spend more time in prayer and we focus our attention on the cross and pay homage by lighting a candle at the foot of the roughhewn cross as we give thanks to Jesus and the cross on which he gave his life.  It is clear what God is up to as the bridges between us are built upon the cross and through Jesus’ witness.

All through Lent during our mid-week Holden Evening Prayer we have been focused on the lesser known and often omitted vigil readings which tended to be more poetry from our prophets.  Now on Holy Saturday, our Easter Vigil will give us the familiar stories of creation, flood, exodus, Jonah, and the 3 men in the fiery furnace that help us to sit in this time between Jesus’ death and his resurrection.  Along with these familiar stories we renew ourselves in our baptism and celebrate Holy Communion as we look into the empty tomb and begin again to wonder what God is up to now.

On Easter Sunday and for the next 50 days we celebrate in full force and power of the resurrection and look for signs of Jesus’ new life on the lose in our own lives.  This is our story.  This is our God who comes to us and shows us how to live and die and live again.  We start on Palm Sunday, shouting, HOSANNA – SAVE US and God does just that in a way we can truly understand and fully celebrate on the Resurrection of our Lord.  It is such good news! Let’s jump right in to tell God’s great story of love for us as we align ourselves with these Holy Days.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 18th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE LIGHT SHINING PEOPLE OF CHRIST THE KING,

I wonder what God is up.  People who love Jesus want to help others see Jesus, meet Jesus and experience Jesus’ love and hope for the world.  I wonder what God is up to as I watch the free video series, “The Chosen” and stumble across the Asbury Spiritual Awaking. And listen to “He Gets Us” commercials.  And now the movie, Jesus Revolution.  I am a pastor; how can I not be curious about Jesus in the public sphere.

Jesus Revolution is a movie of gentle broad-brush strokes of a movement that began in southern California and culminated in 1972 tracing the rise of Calvary Chapel,  the leaders, Hippie Lonny Frisbee and Pastor Chuck Smith and the relationship of Greg Lowery and Cathe Martin, the founders of Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, CA.

I wonder what God is up to.  I watched the movie with curiosity.  As I studied John 9, the healing of the blind man within the faith community, scenes from the movie flashed back.  I shared with the staff my experience.

Living in a faith community is difficult when God keeps creating new things and stirs us, who are comfortable out of our complacency and wets our appetite to desire the same things that God desires.  Jesus spits on the ground and places this spit infused mud on the eyes of the blind man and there is a new creation and the community struggles to figure out what God is up to. 

Last Sunday, in my sermon, I asked for your help to join me in conversation to think about what we need from our neighbors.  Maybe it is as simple as we just want to get to know you, neighbor. Let’s keep talking and praying with good listening ears and clumsy conversation.

When Jesus visited the Samaritan Village, he entered an environment of a long stoked  religious history where Jews and Samaritans do not share things in common and go to great lengths to avoid one another.  This history was shattered by a simple need, a request for water and conversation flowed. Not an easy conversation but a necessary conversation that could not be contained and had to be shared.  A woman who avoided her community just had to go to that same community and share this amazing conversation with those she felt outcast from.  And Jesus got to know his neighbors and was welcomed into their community.

At the end of the movie, the Time magazine reporter, Josiah admits to Greg Laurie that he was reluctant to cover the assignment as he usually covered war and protest but admits that there is something here that is bringing people together when so many other things are tearing people apart.  I wonder what God is up to. 

Will you keep wondering with me and share with me what you think God is up to with us, this community of faith at the cross roads of Melrose and Mormon Trek.  What happens when our European faith background birthed of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation meets the American Evangelical Revolution?  What cup of cold water can we share and what conversations can flow from us.  I wonder what God is up to.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack