We Exist for Each Other

Sunday was special. I arrived early and saw the care and love and work that went into providing a beautiful outdoor worship experience for St. Luke’s. The altar guild moved the flowers and elements to set up the altar at the front steps of the church for communion. The musicians practiced, working with the organ and a keyboard to produce the sound of God’s praise for the outside congregation. People carried chairs, set up the parking to leave space for children to roam, set up the welcome table in front of the office door. The sound system was checked out. The table for ice cream floats was prepared. People new to our congregation were welcomed. The intergenerational worshippers formed clusters of conversation and welcome. So many hands making this liturgy truly “the work of the people of God.”

Death is Too Much With Us

Death is too much with us. War in Ukraine and Ethiopia and elsewhere on the globe. Mass shootings almost every day. Death invading our personal circle of friends, acquaintances, loved ones. Our own reminders that we are mortal, with death waiting for all of us. I am sharing a remembrance from long ago which may help us put death in the perspective of our faith.

Never Alone

This past weekend I was in Cleveland with my family at the memorial for my nephew Peter. He struggled with bi-polar illness and took his life. His parents were courageous in sharing those details and were a huge comfort to many who struggle with mental health issues and their loved ones. In today’s video I will share words of comfort and hope for all who are touched by this illness. What Chuck and Helene (my sister) said to so many is this: we see you. God sees you. Jesus has you.

My Peace I Leave With You

Beloved in Christ. We all have moments which are beyond words, especially when tragedy happens, when loved ones die. Our extended family is experiencing such a moment as we heard of the death of my nephew Peter this morning.

Listening to You

It should come as no surprise our listening season revealed a very diverse congregation with a multiplicity of viewpoints, needs, hopes, fears, and dreams. How our church will emerge from the pandemic was a repeated context in our conversations, spoken with both hope and fear. We were able to discern seven major themes, each of the themes holding a continuum of responses in what we believe is a dynamic tension.

Old Man and Scorpion

When I am conversation with friends and family and many of you at St Luke’s I hear from you a weariness and a kind of spiritual tiredness as we, in fits and starts, come out of this pandemic. But it is about more that the pandemic. We are tired of this graceless public square in which we live, where there are so many lies paraded as vehement truth, such hostile daily encounters, such divisive politics, and so many echo chambers as we get our news and opinions. It is soul crushing and we are tired of it.

The Endless Alleluia!

The Vision Team, our consultant and I, are in the midst of listening to over one hundred members of our congregation, community and neighboring Lutheran congregations, in a series of individual and group meetings. This past Sunday twelve of you participated in virtual and in-person group meetings. Several of our cabinets have engaged this listening process. If you would like to speak into this process with an individual meeting with a member of the listening team, please let Sylvia know in the office. I will be meeting in person with the Vision Team this coming Sunday as we continue to listen and gather insights and identify emerging themes and issues. In this blog entry I want to say a few words about the Easter contlext for this process.

Holy Week

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday and we enter into Holy Week and the Passion of Jesus Christ. I want to share with you a devotion I wrote on Palm Sunday for Lenten devotional published jointly by Lutheran and Methodist Campus Ministry in 1991. The background for the devotion is that with a Roman Catholic priest and Jewish Rabbi I led an interfaith pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In the Holy Land we met Marian, a journalist who covered and wrote about the pilgrimage. The devotion begins with a reflection by Marian.

Interfaith Conversation

For fifteen years I have participated in Abrahamic Conferences between interfaith delegations from the United States and religious, political, academic and business leaders from Iran, convened under the auspices of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). The conferences have brought together religious leaders, scholars and public servants from the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity) from the two countries. A shared monotheism, with common roots in the patriarch Abraham, is the spiritual foundation of these proceedings.

Lent is a Journey

Lent is a journey, not a destination. And our Lenten discipline, especially around care for God’s creation is also a journey. We can’t solve the massive issues and threats facing our environment. But each thing we can do to preserve and protect God’s good creation is a step in the journey, a link in a global continuum of care and adoration of the Creator. I think this prayer nicely expresses the journey: