April 12th, 2024

BELOVED PEOPLE OF GOD,

It was my husband’s birthday on Monday, April 8 and so about a month ago, I wondered if he wanted to go on a road trip to see the total eclipse of the sun for his birthday and soon plans were underway.  We left Sunday afternoon, stayed just south of St. Louis and drove on Monday to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

The earth, the moon, and the sun all in alignment for a brief moment in time and what was familiar, and routine changed dramatically.  Watching with special glasses allowed us to see what we couldn’t see on our own, as the moon moved between us and the sun.  We would swap back and forth between gazing up and looking around as the earth, moon and sun moved and light changed to that weird kind of translucent green before a storm.

But when the moon was right in front of the sun, we could look at the sun and see the corona.  We saw the sun in a new and very different way and it changed our familiar surroundings and our bearings; the temperature dropped, the sounds of crickets replaced the chirping birds, the blues of the horizon all the same no matter what direction we looked, dawn and dusk appearing simultaneously and two planets made their appearance as well. 

There was that moment of awe at the power and magnificence of our sun and moon and planet united in this way and spilling over into our  environment. God’s creativity in motion on a huge scale. And I got to see it but more than just see, I got to experience it. It was amazing and weird and strange. It was a holy moment.

Of course I am at a loss for words and pictures don’t do it justice but trying to capture what cannot be captured is a worthwhile endeavor no matter how clumsily I do it.  It is what we, people of faith, try to do all the time when we share our faith in what God is up to among us.  We keep at it struggling to find the words, the metaphors, the pictures to give shape to God’s mysterious presence and activity.

Experiencing the eclipse helps me understand Peter’s address to the people in Acts 3 when he says, “why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” And Jesus’ consistent words of peace to his disciples as he shows himself risen from the dead.  “Have you anything here to eat?”  Jesus asks.  Calling them into something they recognize like eating so that they can see and experience more of Jesus as they wrestle with their disbelief and belief, trying to trust the joy of the moment and the presence of Jesus. 

They are our witnesses that have spoken to us over the years.  They are like the special eyewear that protects our eyes while allowing us to see what we can’t see on our own.  And we are witnesses to each other as we move with each other, and God’s word and the Holy Spirit works with and among us to help us see Jesus.  We are witnesses of these things – God’s creativity in motion among us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

April 4th, 2024

BELOVED PEOPLE OF GOD,

 Happy Easter. Blessed Pascha*.  We enter the season of great thanksgiving.  Jesus Christ is risen! Alleluia!  Seven weeks of feasting on the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. This is no 7 weeks mini-series of the gruesome walking dead or Frankenstein kind of life.  No, Jesus shows us this life after death as he carries the marks of his death with him meeting his disciples in the garden, through their locked doors or on the roadway.  Jesus speaks words of peace, gifts his disciples with the promised Holy Spirit, teaches them and eats with them. 

The resurrection of Jesus changes our lives and our deaths.  We are a people filled with promise and hope especially when we enter times of loneliness, suffering, and injustice.  In confirmation class with our 7th and 8th graders we talk about this as the paradoxical effect.  We encounter the crisis of crucifixion and greet the new life that emerges as Jesus greets his disciples.  This paradoxical effect is mirrored in the book of Acts.  The Jerusalem leaders become enraged and stone Stephen, which begins the persecution of Jesus’ followers, driving them out and into the lands of Judea and Samaria.  The tragedy of Stephen’s death and the persecution that followed made way for the good news of Jesus Christ to spread beyond Jerusalem.

This is the season, this is our time to search and seek for signs of Jesus' resurrection and new life.  We take what we have received and tell each other and our witness shines forth.  Theologian N.T. Wright says, “Modern Christians use the word ‘witness’ to mean, ‘tell someone else about your faith.’  The way [Scripture] seems to be using it is, ‘tell someone else that Jesus is the world’s true Lord.” (Simply Jesus, London: HarperCollins, 2011, Kindle ed. p. 214)

We get to be witnesses that Jesus is our true Lord.  We say it in our very name, Christ the King Lutheran Church.  Jesus is our #1, our captain, our shepherd, our leader.  He rules and reigns over life and death.  He rules and reigns in our lives and in our deaths.

As I shared with our children on Easter Sunday, by taking the things I love and shaping them into the hope of Easter where a cross becomes delicious chocolate and the place of death, the tomb becomes half a donut, half an Oreo and half a gram cracker, celebrating an empty tomb that does not hold Jesus.  The things I love get transformed to celebrate Jesus and how he goes absolutely everywhere.  The best thing about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is the empty tomb!  Jesus is risen.  Find what you love and Jesus finds you there.

 Nothing is more practical than

finding God, that is, than.

Falling in Love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read, whom you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

-Fr. Pedro Arrupe

Looking forward to our 50 days of Pascha*, of Easter.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 28th, 2024

BELOVED PEOPLE OF GOD,

This little treasure greeted me after our Palm/Passion worship and was gifted to me by Abby Rothfuss and Laina Nelson.  They have shared with me some of the fruits of their Sunday School time.  Thank you. 

I’m so looking forward to celebrating this Holy Week with you and we are off to a wonderful beginning with Palm/Passion Sunday paving the way for Jesus to fulfill God’s promise and pave the way for us, always ahead of us, even in suffering and death.  Jesus knows the way.

We lean on each other as we remind one another and remember God’s promises.  We need each other to speak these promises to each other.  It is our story to tell and we love to tell God’s story.  For those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to tell God’s story and our need for God to save us.  It is a beautiful story full of hope and promise. 

I am so grateful for those of you who have walked in our immediate neighborhood and prayed for our neighbors.  I am grateful for the responses shared.  I know personally that walking and praying gave me an awareness that was not of me.  I think God drew my attention to our neighbors and invited me to participate more in the business and engage in conversation with the neighbors I came into direct contact with.  I think God is up to something and I wonder how it will unfold and I will keep praying and walking in our neighborhood, remembering Jesus goes ahead of us.

That is the shape of the cross that brings together God’s realm with ours.  Abby and Laina colored the base of the cross green which reminds me of a growing garden.  I am reminded through the shape of the cross that when I remember who God is and who I am, I am in a better place to reach out to my neighbors as I remember the horizontal cross beam.  The cross becomes that mysterious symbol that draws us to Jesus and to each other. 

My hope for you and all of us as a community of faith is that we would see Jesus and his cross becoming that life-giving tree through his suffering, death and resurrection as we grow to find ways to express how we see Jesus gift us with abundant life.  We who have experienced God’s mercy and grace and we get to tell the amazing story of God’s deep desire to be with us and make a way for us. This is our time to tell the story, God’s amazing story. Resurrection abounds all round us.  Open your eyes and look at what God is up to among us.

I am grateful for our speakers from the various agencies and how they are our neighbors who work with more of our neighbors.  They work with those who have been incarcerated, those who have mental disabilities and those needing access to medical care.  These are people who meet people at their greatest need.  They show us a bit of Jesus, who met people in their need.  These are good neighbors to know and I hope that if you can, you will volunteer your time to work with these neighbors. 

We have so much to grow into because Jesus Christ is risen.  Jesus goes ahead of us through life, death and new life.  Happy Easter.  Blessed Pascha.  Jesus Christ is risen!  Alleluia.  He has risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 7th, 2024

GREETINGS TO GOD’S

IMAGE BEARERS,

In this season of Lent, we are getting to know our neighbors a bit better as we invite local social service agencies to share with us what they are doing and how they are engaging with our neighbors who are struggling with life. 

Although it is a very small organization, Sarah Ross from Compeer helps to bring people with mental health challenges together with others to form friendships to combat loneliness which I’ve heard is on the rise across the nation.  Jennie Schmidt from Free Medical and Dental Clinic told us about how helpful it was to have a dentist on staff with immigrants coming who have never had dental care and I am grateful we have neighbors like free clinic to be that first place, that entry point for our newest neighbors to get help and access to care for their bodies.

Ally Tippe, Volunteer Coordinator and In-Kind Donations Manager spoke of how Domestic Violence Intervention Program helps our neighbors who live in the most intimate relationships suffering abuse to have a way out.  She said on average it takes 7 times of contact with DVIP before our neighbor can break the cycle of violence and abuse to move toward more life sustaining relationships.  They also offer foster care for animals because so often a person will not leave their pet in danger.  DVIP is also seeing an increase in neighbors who have experienced human trafficking. 

Getting to know our neighbors this season of Lent expands our idea, our definition of neighbor.  Jesus does that too when he tell the story of the Good Samaritan where we are reminded to help anyone, any neighbor in need.  You have done that as we have listened to our neighbors and a variety of needs.  You have given of your time, attention, and money to help our neighbors. Thank you.  Thank you to our Thrivent Action teams supporting Compeer, DVIP and Inside Out Reentry Program. 

Some of you have been praying in our neighborhood which I am very grateful for.  I wonder what God will do through us as we continue to talk and listen to God as we broaden our ideas about our neighbors as we get to know them in a variety of ways.

I think about the neighbors of the bible. In John’s gospel, the writer introduces us to neighbors like Nicodemus and the Woman at the well, using very contrasting people to teach us about God’s abiding presence with us and how God pitches a tent among us through Jesus.  I think about the Moabite neighbor, Ruth clinging to Naomi.  I think about Jonah and his great reluctance to go to his Ninevite neighbors and his shipmate neighbors and I smile as I wonder what God will do with us, through us, as we think about our neighbors and what it means to be a neighbor.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

P.S. Remember to Walk & Pray in our neighborhood.

February 29th, 2024

GREETINGS TO GOD’S IMAGE BEARERS,

Right after Ash Wednesday, I drove to Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, Wisconsin for a couple of days of personal retreat, “Deep Breath”, a self-guided retreat for pastors. My spirit was filled as I entered into religious community life with centering prayer and worship three times a day besides reading and resting. It was a wonderful way to begin the season of Lent. This prayer from Thomas Keating was the pray that I began my retreat with:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I welcome everything that comes to me today, because I know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions.

I let go of my desire for power and control.

I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure.

I let go of my desire for survival

and security.

I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within.  Amen.

And God’s good timing placed me there at the same time of the Retreat on Two Feet which focused on walking meditation.  In this time of retreat and renewal, I felt that God was affirming our community discipline to walk and pray in our neighborhood.  For me it was a God coincidence.

Walking and praying in our neighborhood is something that I have wanted to do for a long time.  Inviting you to participate as a Lenten discipline is a bonus.  I’m trying to walk and pray once a week in the Wonderful Westside.  The first time I greeted a couple of people as they walked or waited for the bus.  I saw all the apartments and condos.  There are many people who live close together.  I remembered my own days of apartment living and I prayed for all the people who live close together and for good relationships among neighbors.  I saw lots of vehicles and prayed for them to run well as they provide transportation.

The next time I walked, I saw cats sunning themselves in the window and heard a barking dog and I gave thanks to God for the gift of good company and companionship of pets. 

When it came time to purchase in-kind offering for the Free Medical & Dental Clinic, I shopped at Hartig Drug in our neighborhood and discovered some treats for myself.  This helped me to see God’s abundance through the time of walking and what I was moved to do.  Had I not been walking and praying in the neighborhood, I think I would have shopped at my usual places.  It was good to shop there and talk with a clerk who was very friendly and inviting.

I hope these reflections will encourage you to walk and pray in our neighborhood.  Give me a call if you want a walking partner.  If walking isn’t for you, drive, park and pray or slowly run your finger over the map, praying for our neighbors.  Listen for God’s whisperings and share your reflections on the paper hanging in the alcove near the kitchen.  There you will also find some walking practices and prompts for contemplative walking practices that were given to me on the retreat on 2 feet.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack