March 20th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

Prayer is my Epiphany word and also the focus of our Wednesday midweek worship this week.  BoxBob wants to grow closer to Jesus by doing more prayer.  He copies names out of the church directory and his list is endless and will easily take the 40 days of Lent to complete and more.  Is it true that if we want to get better at something we should do more of it? Will doing more prayer draw us closer to Jesus?   

BoxSue suggests that instead of doing more prayer, BoxBob should try learning how to pray, like swimmers learn more than one stroke, we too can learn more than one way to pray with the goal of growing closer to Jesus.

When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray like John taught his disciples, Jesus teaches them how to pray with what we know today as the Lord’s Prayer. Running through our catechism is a great way to pray again and anew with the Lord’s prayer.  Discovering God’s kingdom and God’s will again and asking God for help in aligning ourselves with God’s kingdom and God’s will.  There is a lot of good soil in the Lord’s Prayer and the catechism that could be a good jumping off point with growing in a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus.  The Lord’s Prayer is one of those community prayers that we can pray together.  And I can’t count the times of being at one’s bedside and how often I am joined in this familiar prayer. This prayer pulls us together in wonderful ways.

BoxBob knows the Lord’s Prayer and thinks of ways he can get better at it – maybe singing it or shouting it.  I long for a singable Lord’s Prayer.  On the Bible Project they invited people to share their songs of the Lord’s Prayer.  It’s fun to listen to the tunes put to this beloved prayer. BoxBob tried to sing it to the tune of the Star Wars theme song.  Martin Luther has a hymn in our prayer section of the Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 746 & 747 that you might want to sing or read.  I’ve also tried shouting the Lord’s Prayer.  We did that at camp and sometimes in Confirmation class.  It’s fun to start with a whisper and then really be shouting it out when it comes to “do not lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil” and then to shout out God’s praise in the conclusion, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”  I found it interesting that the whisper and bowed head moved to a raised head and uplifted hands when the shouting came.  You should try it sometime.  Maybe it’s been a while since you shouted at God in prayer.  Shouting should not only be reserved for cheering on our athletes. 

As BoxBob recounts what he prays for everyday – he prayers before meals and at bedtime.  He feels at fault if he forgets to pray for someone and something bad happens to them.  And then he tries to pray for everyone, the whole world.  He thinks prayer is confusing and it can be.  It can also be rote as we forget who we are talking with.

BoxSue suggests that he could get better at prayer by trying another kind of prayer. Like praying the Lord’s Prayer during the day sometime or saying prayers of thanks during the day.

During the season of Lent, we are asked to pray.  It is one of the disciplines of Lent designed to help us walk with Jesus and prepare for his passion, his suffering, death and resurrection.  Do you think adding another way or kind of prayer might help you get better at praying or help you to grow closer to Jesus?  How is the Holy Spirit asking you to use this tool of prayer?

For me, I’m being called back to centering prayer, a way of praying that listens attentively to God and talking with God throughout the day.

If you need a prayer from scripture, Paul in his letter to the Ephesians has two wonderful prayers that are worth committing to memory – Ephesians 1:15-23 and 3:14-21 and of course you can’t go wrong with the tried and true of Psalm 23 for scripture to pray with.  It gives us such beautiful imagery to explore as we talk with Jesus. 

I pray for God to richly bless you in our discipline of prayer this season of Lent.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 13th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

As our congregational epiphany word is grace, my eye is more tuned to see this word which is the beauty of following a word for a time.  On Wednesday, our gathering song for worship was, “How Small Our Span of Life” ELW 636 (Kingsford tune).  The second verse compares the expanse of the universe and our tick of time with being held in God’s grace.

And yet our speck of life is spanned by your infinity;

Our tick of time on earth is caught in your eternity.

While suns and stars spin endlessly through depths of cosmic space, while aeons roll and ages pass, you hold us in your grace.

Take a moment to imagine yourself being held in God’s grace. 

We are held in God’s grace with all creation swirling around us and God meets us in Jesus in a way that we can understand a bit of the mystery of God.  The season of Lent gives us a great opportunity to see God’s sacrifice of his son as the way we are held in God’s grace. 

I am grateful for Jesus and how Jesus shows us the way to endure evil, temptations, trials and testing by turning to God and focusing on what we already know about God.  Jesus fasted from food with an intense focus on God’s word.  So we practice little fasts from food or patterns of behavior that need a break so we can look anew with God and God’s hold on us.

This week we will hear of how Jesus faces the call of suffering and death with longing for us to be gathered under the protection of his wings like a mother hen and realizing that we will have none of it.  We would rather know the world on our own and avoid suffering, sacrifice and death, for it does not look like a doorway that leads to anything good, let alone God.  Yet this does not dissuade Jesus from following God’s call.

What a path Jesus is plodding for us, showing us the way forward, the way of God, may not be supported and cheered and more often than not be a very lonely path without much support.  Go back to your imagination of being held in God’s grace.  Remember the encouragement Jesus received at his baptism and on the Mt. of Transfiguration.  Hear the Holy Spirit whisper those words of encouragement; “you are mine”, “beloved”.  Claim your identity, children of God.  Don’t let the identity thieves take it away.  You are held in God’s grace and sometimes even caught in this grace.

This is what I am feeling in this season of Lent.  A sense of gratefulness for all that Jesus does to meet us and invite us along on a treacherous and difficult journey with God that will well be worth all the struggles, all the sufferings, all the sacrifices of our lives as resurrection and the promise of new life emerges like the tender sprout comes out of the rich soil in the spring.

I pray for the Holy Spirit to shape and form in us a powerful image of us being held in God’s grace.  I pray for us to cling to our identity like Jesus clings to his identity as his call shapes the way for us.  Thank you, God, for holding us in your grace.  Amen.

Bold Inquisitive Belief

Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 7th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

In Deuteronomy 26:1-11, we read about first fruits giving to help the people remember that God had given them food from the land and Moses creates a liturgy: “When the priest takes the basket from your hand, and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, you shall make this response before the LORD your God” (vv. 4-5). What follows are reminders of their former condition:

· “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor,” v. 5; (They were homeless.)

· “lived there as an alien,” v. 5; (They were immigrants.)

· “few in number…became a great nation, mighty and populous. v. 5 (They grew prosperous)

· “treated us harshly and afflicted us,” v. 6; (Their suffering in Egypt.)

· “we cried to the LORD … he brought us into this place and gave us this land,” vv. 7-9. (They held out their hands for salvation.)

It is a template for what it means to be the people of God. The act of giving, or making an offering, is at its core a communal act, involving not just the individual, but also the priest and the entire assembly. Recalling their story connects their offering to the larger context of God and human relationship.

God calls us out to ventures where we do not know where they will take us but asks us to trust God.  God tends to call us out of our comfort zone, asking us to be the minority or outsider as we live in God’s promises and influence the land we live in.  The Hebrew immigrants grow into a large and prosperous people that ultimately become a threat to the Pharaoh. Think about what happens to us when we are the majority.  How complacency and assumptions set into our behaviors. Think about the role of fear when we are the majority or the minority.  How we forget the other.

This template is a powerful tool for shaping us to be God’s people in the simple but yet difficult first fruits offering.  But that is what offering does.  It opens us up to let go and to receive.  It’s a good exercise for us.  The offering concludes with communal rejoicing, emphasizing the importance of shared worship and gratitude. 

God knows exactly how to shape us.  I pray that we can be pliable in God’s hands.  May God richly bless your offerings and the offerings we collectively bring before God in worship.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 27th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

On February 16 our adult forum discussed the planning for the 250th Birthday for the United States of America using the Wired Word Curriculum.  A couple of questions I’m curious to hear your thoughts on.

The first, “What ideals from our nation’s founding should be highlighted during a celebration of our 250th birthday?  How would a renewal of these ideals help our country in a time of division?  In our discussion, it was easy to name the divisions and more difficult to brainstorm for what could unite us. 

The other was, “What four persons would you carve into a biblical Mount Rushmore?  And why?”  Would Moses and Elijah be in the running?  Would Peter, Paul, Mary or Elizabeth be on your short list?  Who is it that you want to look up to chiseled in stone? What saints encourage you along the way and why?

On Sunday we celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord and find Jesus in his glory with Moses and Elijah in their glory and Peter, James and John terrified in the cloud and something magnificent and out of the disciple’s element is about to begin.  God is up to something and Jesus is the chosen one and God asks us to listen to Jesus.

There are many times in our lives when we experience being “out of our element” when things are happening that are just beyond our grasp, and we try to navigate as best we can with what we know and in whom we trust.  We gather together and talk with each other, knowing that we are better together rather than isolated on our own.

As Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed and he became dazzling white.  As we pray may our appearance change as we align ourselves with God’s will.

We closed our adult study with this prayer: 

God of the nations, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to live as Christians in the United States of America.  Remind us of our obligations to keep covenant with you, and give us opportunities to join you in liberating work, as we attempt to create a more perfect Union.  May we live by the values of your kingdom as we worship, work, learn, serve and celebrate together. In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

February 21st, 2025

Greetings Children of God,

"Doing something you're bad at can make you better at what you're good at, as well as potentially making you good at something new."   Arthur C. Brooks

Brooks has the practice of giving talks in languages he learned as an adult to stretch him and force him to sharpen his linguistic skills.  He discovers that this practice also improves his ability to communicate in his first language.

This idea is baked into following Jesus.  As we come to the close of our season of Epiphany where we focus on God being revealed namely through Jesus.  For 2 weeks we explored the Sermon on the Plain in Luke with blessings, woes and the challenge to love our enemies, all things that Jesus lived through. Jesus’ discipleship training stretches our communal living skills and as we do God is revealed and made known to us. The season of Epiphany culminates with the celebration of the Transfiguration of our Lord and we feast on praising God with our alleluias and halleluiahs.

Then the cycle begins again with the season of Lent starting on Ash Wednesday, March 5 and we are asked to do difficult things like repent, pray, fast and works of love.  I don’t know if you consider yourselves bad at these things, but these activities are exercises that stretch our humanity and help us discover our home in God as children of God, created in God’s image, and followers of our best human, Jesus.

I pray for God to be made known in your life as you stretch and grow in your discipleship through the exercises Jesus gave us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack