May 30th, 2024

GREETINGS HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

You probably already know this but sometimes it is good to hear someone else affirm some of the fruit that God produces in us.  Houses of worship and other religious institutions play an essential role in promoting social connectedness, mutual aid and community building.

As Daniel A. Cox, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, reported in a 2021 paper: “Americans who are members of a place of worship are much more likely than those who are not to volunteer in the community at least a few times a year (47 percent vs. 23 percent), talk to someone in their community they do not know well (64 percent vs. 54 percent), and attend a community meeting or local event (60 percent vs. 41 percent).” They are also “more likely than others to feel connected to their neighborhood and the people who live there (58 percent vs. 46 percent).”

—E.J. Dionne, “We need a truce in our wars over religion. Here’s a glimmer of hope,” The Washington Post, September 10, 2023, www.washingtonpost.com

This summer there are many ways to be the vessel of God’s presence in our world, as we gently hold God’s love and goodness within our lives, trusting God to work through us.

At the Parade of Homes, our youth and other volunteers will not only raise funds for the July youth gathering in New Orleans, we will have the opportunity to share our story with those who are looking to build a new home.

Working with St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in their summer “Lunch Bunch” program which starts on June 10 and serves through Aug. 16 (except June 19 and July 1-5), we get the opportunity to serve our neighborhood children and work with another Christian community, our neighbors at St. Andrew.

Our Mission and Justice Committee is seeking your interest in hosting a blood drive on Tuesday, August 6.  Please sign up if this is something you can do.  If we have enough interest (30 people) then we will invite our neighbors through the Westwinds Housing Association and the Wonderful Westside Neighborhood Association.  Having a blood drive in our neighborhood may plant the seed for future blood donors when they can actually see what is being asked.  It is a beautiful extension of the National Night Out theme that promotes good relationships with our police and fire departments.

Our VBS theme this year is “Who is My Neighbor?” which will be paired with the July food drive helping us again to live in relationship with each other and our neighbors as we trust God’s presence in the midst of it all.  “Who is My Neighbor?” invites us to re-imagine what it means to be neighbors in Christ based on the Good Samaritan story that calls us out into the world to love and serve our neighbors. 

This week we hear Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 remind us that we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as slaves for Jesus’ sake and we have this treasure in clay jars to make it clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.  In Jesus, we have the best slave master.  So take a look at your summer calendar and talk with God and see where God might be nudging you to step into the many opportunities ahead of us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

May 23rd. 1024

CTK GREETING HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

A small number of Lutheran churches will use the Athanasian Creed in place of the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed on Trinity Sunday.  It is used on this Sunday because of how it confesses and proclaims the Trinity.  Rather than use it in worship, here it is for you to read and a little context in which the Athanasian Creed developed.

THE ATHANASIAN CREED

Whoever wants to be saved, should above all cling to the catholic faith.

Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith:

We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.

For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.

But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.

What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.

Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit.

The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite.

Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit:

And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal; as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited.

Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit:

And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty.

Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God:

And yet there are not three gods, but one God.

Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord:

And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord.

As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten the Son was neither made nor created, but was alone begotten of the Father; the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son.

Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.

And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons.

Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.

It is necessary for eternal salvation    that one also faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus became flesh.

For this is the true faith that we believe and confess:

That our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son,  is both God and man.

He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother— existing fully as God, and fully as man with a rational soul and a human body; equal to the Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity.

Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ.

He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity.

He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures.

For as the rational soul and body are one person so the one Christ is God and man.

He suffered death for our salvation.

He descended into hell and rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

At his coming all people shall rise bodily to give an account of their own deeds.

Those who have done good will enter eternal life, those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith.

One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.

From sundaysandseasons.com.

The following is a slightly edited article from Philip Bartelt on “The Athanasian Creed and Its Importance.”

“Athanasius didn’t actually write the creed that bears his name. In fact, the true author remains unknown. What is known is that it originated in southern Gaul (modern-day France) in the late 5th century. This places its writing a century and a half after Athanasius died and on the other side of the Mediterranean. The earliest documentation of the Athanasian Creed comes from the sermons of Caesarius of Arles who preached the basics of Christianity using the creed as a foundation.

“Over the next 300 years, the creed would experience a great deal of popularity, showing up in sermons, psalters, and the monastic morning prayer services. It held such prominence in the Church by the time of the Reformation that it was considered equal to the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as a confession of the true, catholic and apostolic faith. For this reason, the Athanasian Creed makes an appearance in the Lutheran Confessions alongside the other two to demonstrate the unity of the reformers with the historic and catholic faith.

Athanasian Creed is a reaffirmation and clarification of all the early Church councils and the Nicene Creed which fought tooth and nail to preserve the orthodox faith against heretics like Nestorius, Arius, Eutyches, Apollinaris, Sabellius, Macedonius, and Paul of Samosata. Athanasius may not have written it, but its words encapsulate everything he stood for. The two primary targets of the Athanasian Creed are the heresies promoted by Nestorius and Arius.

Arius could easily be considered the godfather of all heretics with most heresies tracing back to him. He is known for denying Christ’s divinity in order to maintain the oneness of God over and against the threeness of God. Arius claimed that Christ was a creature of God and not God Himself. While He shared in god-like qualities, the Father and the Son did not share the same “substance” to use the language of the creed. For this reason, the first half of the Athanasian Creed is devoted to expressing the oneness of God according to His “substance” and the threeness of God according to His “persons.” You have to feel a measure of sympathy for the creedal authors because they were given the monumental task of clearly expressing one of the greatest mysteries in the whole Bible! God is one, and God is three.

The last half of the Athanasian Creed is aimed squarely at Nestorius who denied that the second person of the Trinity is true God and true man united in the person of Jesus. Nestorius wanted to keep Christ’s divinity as far away from His humanity as possible because of the scandal that divinity would have anything to do with humanity. It’s widely held even today that the finite cannot contain the infinite. The Old Testament emphasis on the separation of clean and unclean, the sacred and the profane also presents a problem for Nestorius when it comes to Jesus’ divine and human natures. But as the creed says, it is not that divinity was transformed into humanity, but that God took up humanity into himself. As the Servant Song of Isaiah 53 beautifully states, He carries our humanity and our infirmity in order to redeem humanity and conquer our infirmity.”

Whether we like it or not, the Athanasian Creed is a part of our history, proclaiming and confessing the struggles of the early church as they wrestled with God and the emerging doctrine of the Trinity.  We bristle at the words, “Whoever does not guard [the catholic faith] whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally;” and “One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.” And “Those who have done good will enter eternal life, those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.  This is the catholic faith, one cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.”  As these words grate up against our doctrine of justification by grace through faith we are saved.

When the church fights, when Christ proclaimers disagree we produce a creed like the Athanasian Creed which can serve as a negative example.  It teaches the complexities ofour unity and the unity of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In our disagreements we need to remember that Jesus is in the very middle of what we trust as we try to find language that is faithful to God, who is more than our words can describe.  We continue to focus on God and what God is doing and remember God’s good news made known to us in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Have a very blessed Holy Trinity Sunday!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

May 16th, 2024

BELOVED BRANCH,

I’ve been encouraging you to think of us, the gathered faithful as the branch, Jesus the vine and God the vinedresser from the last “I Am” statement of John 15.  So where does the Holy Spirit fit in?  We dwell on the interconnected intimacy of Jesus as we welcome the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is all about helping us to recognize Jesus.  Helping us to see the mercy we receive through Jesus. Jesus ascends so that he can come closer to us through the Holy Spirit.  The incarnate and risen Jesus leaves the spatial limitations to dwell with us across the dimensions of time and space.  When Jesus tells his disciples in John 16:7, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth:  it is to your advantage that I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

It’s an interesting paradox.  Jesus leaves, ascends so that he can be made known to us across the ages.  The Holy Spirit comes across multiple bodies, multiple geographies, multiple contexts and that is something to celebrate.  A beautiful gift.  Wherever we see the Holy Spirit work, we see Jesus Christ and God’s work in the world and we get to be a part of what God is tending in our world.

Enjoy your time abiding with Jesus.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

May 10th, 2024

BELOVED BRANCH,

Thursday, May 9 is Ascension Day.  The day we celebrate or fail to celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven.  In Jerusalem, Ascension Day is not forgotten.  In fact we went to see the holy site where Jesus’ foot print was left in stone.  The last place his foot is thought to have touched the ground before returning to his Father.  And of course there is a chapel built around it and large grounds for the gathering of many Christians who come together to celebrate.

As you ponder the branch, vine and vinedresser relationship we have with God, include this portion of Rev. Dr. Char Rachuy Cox reflection on Ascension Day.

Every includes
this least celebrated,
most forgotten feast day
       (thank you for those words,

       Barbara Brown Taylor)
That always comes
40 days after
the great exit from the tomb
and 10 days before
the holy winds
and tongue-loosing fire
that made the Word that became flesh
become words once again.

This odd juxtaposition
of the Great and Holy Week
       and the lifting up
       of the raised-up One
opened up the mystery
of the Ascension
for me
in ways that have felt akin
to the tomb bursting open anew.

Here is where my Holy Week-Ascension-ponderings have led.

First,
It is the Enfleshed Word that ascends.
That may seem obvious,
but bear with me.
The Word –
enfleshed in the earthly stuff
of blood and bones,
Risen –
still wounded and scarred –
that same, yet made-new-yet-same body
is
who and what that ascends.
The stuff of earth becomes
a part of not just heaven,
but of the Divine.
It is the Ascension,
therefore,
not the Resurrection,
that completes
the Incarnation.
The Word becomes flesh
and the enfleshed-One –
takes the stuff of earth,
our own flesh,
into the unity that is the Trinity.
That has to say
something
about the goodness
of BODIES.

For me –
mind blown.

Second, and for this,

   I have the artist Albrecht Durer
   to thank.
In his depiction of the Ascension,
most eyes are looking upward
at the disappearing Christ,
yet one figure
is clearly looking
at the ground that had been under

Jesus’ feet –
where it is marked
by the footprints of Jesus.
The Enfleshed Word has left –
AND his footprints are left behind –
Footprints, it seems
that are not
simply scars in the sand
to dissipate on the winds
of that holy hilltop,
but FOOTPRINTS
that we
who are called to be witnesses,
we who are now the Body of Christ on earth -    
           not metaphorically,
           but literally –
          as in, we really are Christ’s body,
          Enfleshing Jesus  -

        Enfleshing
        Love Divine
        In the world today –
we are called to continue to make
the footprints –
         and dare I say
         hand prints
         and heart prints
of Christ on earth.
Begging the question,
of course,
what kind of footprints
        and hand prints
        and heart prints

are we leaving?
Are we –
Are you –
imprinting the world
With DIVINE LOVE?

Mind blown again.

And finally,
Luke tells us
that Jesus led them out –
Out of the city,
Out of their comfort zones
Out beyond
where they were
what they knew
what they understood
what they imagined
what they comprehended.
Out.
Ascension is,
therefore,
about movement –
not just up
– but OUT!
Out –
for those
who first lived this story
and for us.
How are we –
How are you –
Called OUT?

Mind blown one more time.

BODIES
FOOTPRINTS
OUT

There is so much good news in
all of this
that I cannot quite
comprehend
how I missed it
or ignored it
all these years,
probably assuming
that Ascension
is unnecessary,
or inconvenient
or that, like those earlier followers
gaping after the place
where Jesus used to be,
there is nothing to see here.

How wrong I was!
And how captivated
I now am –
by this least celebrated,
most forgotten feast day
that I never used to think about
and now
cannot seem to stop thinking about –
and wondering
and imagining
ways that
the Ascension
can come to life,
not only as a feast day,
but as we seek to
faithfully
be the Body of Christ –
in,
and through,
and with our own bodies –
leaving footprints of Divine Love
Out –
Out beyond where we are
what we know
what we understand
what we imagine
And what we comprehend
so that our lives
as Resurrection people
become lived out
as Ascension people.

More to add to the mix, Ascension people.  Enjoy your time abiding with Jesus.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

May 2nd, 2024

BELOVED BRANCHES,

There is an expression that has been around for a long time, perhaps you have heard it or even used the phrase.  “It’s to die for.”  Usually this is pulled out when we want to describe something of decadence, richness, and luxury.  It is to die for because deep down we know that if we have too much of whatever it is, it will lead to death as was the case for the little lion cub, Simba in The Lion King.   Simba asks his Uncle Scar whether he will like the surprise uncle is getting him. Uncle Scar replies, “It’s to die for!” 

The opposite, “It’s to live for!” does not roll off the tongue with the same enthusiasm or drive as “It’s to die for!”  It fails to carry the risk of stepping close to death yet surviving.  Could this be the reason we have so much more ritual around the season of Lent compared to the season of Easter?  In the season of Lent we take the “It’s to die for!” approach with Jesus moving toward the suffering and death on the cross and we give up things and we add more worship and offerings.  The season of Easter challenges us to move through death and trust what it is we have to live for.  But our feasting and celebratory rituals of Easter do not carry the same gusto or joy.

We’ve got our work cut out for us. I try to change up the treat tray for children’s sermons.  We will have our cantate on The Day of Pentecost, May 19 and as well as a guest preacher.  More information will come next week.  We have so much to live for how can we fail to celebrate and be full of joy? Anybody want a “Sunkist” orange soda to remind you of how we have been “sonkisted”?  I experienced such delight with our intergenerational time of learning and fellowship with our Generosity Project hosted by our Stewardship Committee. And this week we will celebrate with Mary Wanek as she retires from serving

children and looks forward to new life in retirement.  I continue to wear the white stole and chasuble from Jerusalem.  I slip it on right before Holy Communion and I feel all dressed up for the special occasion of the simple feast of bread and wine that Jesus has given to us.  What do you do to enter into this season of great joy and delight?

Our refrain to the empty tomb is what we have to live for.  Our refrain to the cross dressed in white linens is what we have to live for.  Our refrain of repentance and forgiveness is what we have to live for.  God the good gardener tends to us, and we have something very precious to live for.

In this Easter season, John’s gospel invites us into the metaphor of the last of the seven of Jesus’ “I AM” statements and the only one we are given a part in.  God is the vinedresser. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branch.  This picture is an astonishingly intertwined and intimate relationship.  This is what is to die for and to live for.  I hope you will play around with this metaphor to nurture you in this celebratory season of Easter as we bear witness to both what it is to die for and what it is to live for as Jesus paves the way forward for us.  We live for Jesus and without Jesus we can do nothing and with Jesus the potential and possibilities are endless. 

We are here today, these many centuries later because of the strength of the vine and branch and the care of the vinedresser.  We branches are connected to the true vine and as we continue into John 15, Jesus further defines the relationship between the vine and the branch.  It is not a servant relationship but a friendship with great love coursing through veins of this relationship.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack