January 19th, 2024

GREETINGS TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD,

Our community Epiphany word is INSIGHT not incite. In the Bible insight is found 15 times. Once in Job 34:35 where Job’s words are without insight. Daniel is found to have insight (Daniel 1:4 & 17) and twice in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians (1:8) and the Philippians (1:9).  But the majority of times insight is found in Proverbs as follows:

For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, Proverbs 1:2

if you indeed cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, Proverbs 2:3

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. Proverbs 3:5

Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, Proverbs 4:1

Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Proverbs 4:5

The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight. Proverbs 4:7

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, Proverbs 7:4

I have good advice and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. Proverbs 8:14

Lay aside immaturity and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Proverbs 9:6

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Proverbs 9:10

Insight will be a good word to lead our community this year.  We will pray for insight as we prepare for our annual meeting on January 27.  Pick up your copy of our annual report.  Our committee chairs have been very faithful and busy this year.  Please read through the reports and see what insights you gain and share those insights with our leadership.

Our business items include the usual election of leaders and adoption of the budget.  In addition to those items we hope to have estimates for flooring for the sanctuary, fellowship, vestibule, offices, library, cry room, and alcove areas.  The Long Range Planning Committee is seeking approval to update the lighting fixture in the vestibule to match the fellowship area with one ring and our newly formed Endowment Committee is seeking adoption of the Gift Acceptance Policy.  Paper copies of policy will be next to the annual report on the usher’s table or follow this link:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YkYPxi43IGLcgEgYW6BHwmrVdO5byVfV/view?usp=sharing

If you would like an electronic version of the Annual Report, follow this link or request a copy from Colleen Jacobson.  On Sunday, January 27 our Adult Forum will be dedicated to the presentation of all of our business items.  Please join us to gain more insight.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

P.S.  Epiphany words are still available in an white bowl on the usher’s table.

January 12th, 2024

CTK GREETINGS CHILDREN OF GOD,

This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord.  I wonder what a beautiful question about Jesus’ baptism would sound like?  I immediately go to the tangible and concrete.  Baptism is a sacrament for us demonstrating God’s grace in a tangible way.  Baptism is holy and set apart.   These are foundational and fundamental responses.  An internet search reveals mostly common and doctrinal questions about baptism like why was Jesus baptized? When should someone be baptized?

But what is a beautiful question about baptism?

Where did John the Baptist get the idea of water baptism?

Was Jesus’ baptism an apocalyptic event as the heavens were torn open and God is revealing and making known to us something of God that is hidden from us?

Is Jesus’ baptism a beautiful portrayal of the loving union of the Trinity?

Is Baptism a beautiful picture of our sinful lives dying with Jesus and our new life beginning when we are “raised” from the water?

Does Jesus’ baptism bear witness to us and God?

To celebrate Jesus’ baptism find the beauty of it and maybe some beautiful questions.  Search for those who can speak beautifully about baptism whether it be Jesus’ baptism or baptism in general.  You have your favorites.  Pay them a visit.

In seeking beauty, I was drawn to Walter Wangerin’s children’s book, Water Come Down where Wangerin invites the members of creation into the story of baptism.  Then The Jesus Storybook Bible popped into my head, and I had to read what Sally Lloyd-Jones had to say and how she told the story of Jesus’ baptism.  Then on to music to find beauty in Jesus’ baptism, All Creation Sings give us Susan Briel’s hymn, To Christ Belong, In Christ Behold (958) and Sylvia Dunstan’s Down Galilee’s Slow Roadways (916).  So spend some time thumbing through the hymnal or searching your playlist.

What a wonderful journey.  I think I’m ready to celebrate Jesus’ baptism.  What preparations do you need to make to be ready to celebrate Jesus’ baptism?  What beautiful questions do you need to seek in Jesus’ baptism or your own?  God richly bless you on your journey.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

January 4th, 2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We may have stopped celebrating Christmas and greeting one another with Christmas wishes but Christians around the world are not and for many Christmas culminates the 12th night, January 5th and the feast of Epiphany, January 6th.  The feast of Epiphany has been celebrated longer than Christmas.  Epiphany from the Greek word, epiphania means manifestation or revelation.  God is with us and revealed in Jesus.  It is a day and season celebrating the incarnation of Jesus, human and divine dwelling together.  Coming into the world for the Jews, the chosen and promised people and for all people.

The arrival of the Magi, the watchers of the stars mark the Feast of Epiphany for us. Following the star, they made their way to Bethlehem to worship and open their treasure before Jesus giving him gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Their searching, worship and gift giving inspire us to keep searching, humbling ourselves before God and living in gratitude for all that God has given us.

In many parts of Europe the family home is blessed with a procession bringing the magi traveling around the home with a star bearer leading the way and all singing, We Three Kings of Orient Are.  The magi find the child in the manger which now has taken on the nature of a throne room with candles and a bit of velvet and a small crown.  Jesus is king for all the world to see and our homes are blessed.

This blessing is from To Dance with God, Gertrude Mueller Nelson.

Leader: Peace be to this house.

All:  And to all who live here.

Leader:  Three magi came to Bethlehem to honor the Lord, and opening their treasure offered precious gifts:  gold to the great king, incense to the true God and myrrh for Christ’s body which would suffer and die like our own.

Let us pray.  O God, you used the light of a star to show all nations and peoples your only-begotten Son.  Allow us also, who know you by faith, to recognize you in the epiphanies of our life experiences.

Be enlightened and shine forth, O Jerusalem, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ born of Mary shines upon you.

All:  All nations will walk in your light and kings in the brilliance of your splendor.

Leader:  And the glory of the Lord is risen on you.

Bless, O Lord, this household and family and allow all of us who live here to find in it a shelter of peace and health.  Inspire each of us in this family to develop our individual talents and to contribute wisdom and good works for the benefit of the whole.  Make our house a haven for us all and a place of warmth and caring for all our friends who come to visit us.  Enlighten us with the brilliance of your Epiphany star so that, as we leave house and family to go out into the world, we might clearly see our way to you and discover you in our work and play.

This we ask to your glory and in the power of your kingship –

All:  For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever, Amen.

Over the doorway with chalk 20 C+M+B+24 are written representing the legendary names of the magi – Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar or a more recent suggestion for the CMB, Christe, Mansionem Benedica which means Christ, bless this house.

 After the house blessing there is a special meal that ends with the traditional “King’s Cake”.  Hidden in the cake is a dried lima bean and the one who finds it becomes king with a royal paper crown that is given with great fanfare.  The king rules for the next 24 hours, choosing the menu and creating new rules for the household, effective for 24 hours.  The king must also prepare a small talk for the family on the lessons they can learn from the story of the three holy kings and the dangerous journey reminding them to keep looking up with eyes on the light of lights, Jesus Christ.

On Sunday we will celebrate Epiphany and on January 14 we will celebrate the Baptism of our Lord.  Consider adding a new 12th Night or Epiphany tradition to your home as we welcome the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus.  Or imagine what rules you would make if you were king of your home for 24 hours or what you would say to those in your household about searching, seeking, finding, and offering your gifts.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

December 22nd, 2023

MERRY CHRISTMAS

PEOPLE OF GOD,

May Christ be born in you as we move on Sunday morning from the keeping awake of our Advent season to the Eve of Christ birth in the evening hours.  This year’s quick movement from one season to another reminds us that when God takes action all things fall into place.  Ready or not, Christ comes to us. Our season of Advent has prepared us by keeping awake as we have lighted the advent candles, welcoming hope, peace, joy, and love.  We have heard beautiful music of our choir and bell choir as well as CentralTime with Charlie Rod and Matt Hibbard.  We sang our Advent hymns, caroled in our community and came together midweek for Holden Evening Prayer to pause and prepare. Our children have proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ in the telling of the old, old story we love so much. We have made our preparations, and we are soon to celebrate Christ coming to us. 

It is a joyful season. I am so grateful for all God has done and continues to do working through us and Christ continues to come to us.  When I was in the Holy Land, our director, JP kept encouraging us to savor our time as we were trying to pack in as much as we could with the time we had.  It was wise advice that I now pass on to you.  Savor this time as these two seasons meet and greet with one another.

As you read this, stop, take a deep breath, and savor the moment.  Invite and welcome the Holy Spirit to sit with you.  God is here.  Savor the time together being alert to what God is whispering in your ear.  Open your eyes a bit wider because God is here.  Smell the familiar scents of this time.  God is here.  This is a holy time.  Relish it. Savor this holy time.  Jesus is born for you and for me.  Look at a baby and remember that is how God came to us and we delight in his coming as one of us, small, fragile, vulnerable, and wonderfully made.  We can’t help but smile and be filled with joy.  God loves us so much and we get to hold this love like a newborn baby.  That is something awesome to savor. 

Blessed Christmas.  May Christ be born in you.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

December 15th, 2023

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

When a man undertakes to repent toward his fellowmen,

it is repenting straight up a precipice;

when he repents toward law,

it is repenting into the crocodile's jaws;

when he repents toward public sentiment,

it is throwing himself into

a thicket of brambles and thorns;

but when he repents toward God,

he repents toward all love and delicacy.

God receives the soul as

the sea the bather,

to return it again,

purer and whiter than he took it.

Henry Ward Beecher

The season of Advent invites us to repent.  John the Baptizer invites us to repent.  Henry Ward Beecher fine tunes repentance and redirects our repentance toward God.  Repentance is a turning again toward God, even changing our mind about God.

As we are immersed in our culture we are tempted to look to the culture and the community for the hope, peace, joy and love we seek and desire.  But we will not find what we are looking for in our relationships or the law or public sentiment. Beecher’s poetic imagery of the unscalable precipice, the crocodile jaws and the thorny brambles help us to see the dead-end of where these repentances lead us.   We want our society, our culture and our relationship to be good, lifegiving, and trustworthy and how we get there is by turning to God, changing our mind about God, looking again at how God is at work in us and all the world, the world God created and deeply loves.

So, we follow the boney pointing finger of John the Baptist, who so faithfully helps us to turn to God and see Jesus and inhale the power of the Holy Spirit.  God is with us.  Wake up!  Repent!  Christ is coming.

God’s peace,

Pastor Connie Spitzack