April 3rd, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

I am enjoying our community Lenten discipline of gathering on Wednesdays for fellowship, sharing a meal and worship. I enjoy the insights people share from all ages. This past Wednesday, as we explored good works with BoxBob and BoxSue I was delighted to hear in the reflection time someone share how our good works are a response of gratitude for what God has already done.  Well done disciples! 

Here is another rendition from Crazy Talk: A Not so Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms- ed. Rolf Jacobson, (p.181).

Good Works:  What you do because you don’t have to do anything.

Your friend invites you to dinner. 

You ask, “What can I bring”

Your friend answers, “Nothing; there is nothing you can bring.

I’ve got it all covered.”

Out of gratitude, you bring something anyway.

Now read this article again. But…
For “friend” substitute “Lord.”

For “invites you to dinner” substitute “saves you from your sins.”

For “bring” substitute “do.”

See also: Justification; Sanctification.

Luther focused on good works not becoming the goal but a tool that helps us to trust God working in our lives.  God’s grace comes first to us, not by anything we do and God’s grace transforms us and this transformation can be seen in our good works.   We are grateful to God and our gratitude moves us to do good works.  God’s grace flows through us like our life blood and our lives bear the fruit of good works in our families and communities.  God changes us, changes our hearts and minds and we continue growing in our trust and love of God all the more.

BoxBob and BoxSue helped us to see our temptation to be clever with our good works as BoxBob tried to do good works that had the word LENT in them, like making terrible tasting LENTil soup, LENT money, gave a vaLENTine and tried to be siLENT while his mom watched a show.  All of these did not really help the neighbor and frustrated BoxBob too.  Sometimes we try to be more clever than we need to be rather than trusting God’s knowledge of us and our taLENTs and wanting to work with us as BoxSue pointed out. 

We trust God to work through us having faith that God shows up in our lives and works with us to produce good works or fruit. God bears witness to this through his Son, Jesus and these good works prepare us for Holy Week where we will see God’s good works as Jesus washes his disciple’s feet and commands them to do likewise, shares a meal with them to help them remember and does the ultimate good work on Good Friday or God’s Friday.

Praying and hoping that your good works are welcoming the hand of God and getting the soil of your heart ready for the work God is doing in us and through us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

March 27th, 2025

Greetings to Jesus’ Disciples,

Richard J. Foster in his book, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, said that from 1861 to 1954, almost 100 years, there were almost no books published on fasting.  Apparently fasting got a bad reputation due to the popularity of ascetic practices of the Middle Ages.  Recently fasting has come into the limelight again as a good health and fitness practice. But for us, during Lent we are always encouraged to practice fasting as a spiritual discipline to draw us closer to Jesus.

 On Wednesday we explored the spiritual discipline of fasting with BoxBob and BoxSue.  I got a kick out of BoxBob thinking he was fasting because he was trying to do everything fast for a day.  We have a tendency to speed through the things that introduce us to pain and suffering.  As laughter opens us up so we can think again about fasting and how this practice helps us to draw near to Jesus. 

 Although the Bible never commands fasting, the practice seems so commonplace that the most we hear about it is how not to fast as in Isaiah 58:1-8 and Matthew 6:16-18 demonstrate.  Otherwise, many biblical characters fasted along with prayer in a variety of circumstances.

Moses fasted when he wrote the 10 Commandments.  David and Elijah were known to fast.  Daniel had a partial fast with a restricted diet.  For 3 weeks no delicacies, no meat or wine (Dan. 10:3) The widow Anna fasted and prayed at Temple before she saw the infant Jesus.  Paul went into a 3 day fast (Acts 9:9) following his encounter with Jesus. 

 Most often fasting is an individual discipline but occasionally the Jews would have corporate fasts like on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27).  Fasting was a way of showing sorrow for their sins and gradually other fast days were added until there were over 20.  Fasting for the Jews also came at times of national emergencies.  When Judah was invaded, King Jehoshaphat called the nation to fast (2 Chronicles 20:1-4) and the whole city of Nineveh including animals fasted with sack cloth and ashes when Jonah came to town with God’s message to repent.  Ezra had the exiles fast and prayed for safety on the bandit-infested road in Ezra 8:21-23.

 Jesus gave us guidance on fasting as a discipline to center our attention on God’s relationship with us and not for show in community.  Jesus fasted 40 days and was tempted by Satan and reminded us that bread is not the only thing to nurture and sustain our lives.  Fasting, especially from food has a way of reminding us of the power of God’s word to sustain and nurture our lives.

Fasting gives us the opportunity to struggle and to walk with Jesus in times of discomfort to grow in our compassion and empathy for the suffering Jesus endured for us.  This may help us to draw near to Jesus. 

 I’ll leave you with this poem about fasting by Justin Farley.

 Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

Fasting in the Desert

Strip yourself naked, unclothed of selfish desire. For it requires fuel to burn just as a raging fire.

If all thoughts revolve around me and mine, how am I to hear the voice of God, how am I to feel the presence of the Divine?

It's by starving addictions that we discover the depth of their roots.

Sometimes we must endure pain and misery to prepare our hearts for grander pursuits.

Contentment begins when we step into Silence's abode.

Here we find all we need and her blessings are bestowed.

For comfort comes not from out there but from within and fasting in the desert is where the search for God begins.

 Justin Farley

https://alongthebarrenroad.com/2021/02/18/fasting-desert-godly-poem-about-contemplation-selfishness/

 ctk

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