Can I still say that I am a somewhat new pair of eyes? I have been amazed and grateful to observe you conduct a listening season and a Strategic Vision Planning Process with great energy and faithfulness. This vision to Connect again with one another coming out of the pandemic, to connect to our community and world through the Gospel has given us spiritual energy and holy imagination.
As I have had opportunity to visit some of the elders of St. Luke’s I’ve learned from them we have a long and rich history of creating tie-quilts for Lutheran World Relief. Among our “shut-ins” are women who remember day long quilt workshops with large crews of cutters and piecers and as many as three sewing machines running at any one time. However, these quilters had heard little first-hand witness to the on-the-ground impact our donated quilts had.
Beginning this coming Sunday at 8:45, and for the next four Sundays, we will be spending time in the Gospel of Luke. We are in Series C of the lectionary, “the year of Luke,” and most of the Gospel readings are from that gospel. I am hoping that our deep dive into the Gospel together will help enrich our hearing God’s word when we worship.
September 11 has been commodified, interpreted, and cited to support going to war, fearing and blaming immigrants, jingoistic “America First” rhetoric. It has been buried in the history which followed it. We bombed Kabul 21 years ago in the name of 9/11. And today we cringe and grieve as suicide bombs go off in Kabul, and bombs burst on civilians in Ukraine. But for me the true feelings of that day are not buried or papered over, but are as vivid and searing as ever.
Every year (at least every year pre-pandemic) Judy and I threw an Epiphany Open House in early January. It’s a
great way to extend the holiday season and bring a little light to the long, cold, dark month which is January.
Our guest list drew from the various worlds to which we are connected – co-workers, neighbors, friends,
members of our car club. There would be between thirty and forty people who attended in any given year.
Hebrews 13:2 – “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
The second reading of this Sunday comes from Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16. In verse 2, the author of the text shares a command with their readers: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Our 2020 calendar included five out-of-state road trips, all cancelled with the onset of COVID- 19. During the winter of 2021 – 2022, seeing the growing percentage of the population achieving a level of immunity due either to vaccination or infection, reading about declining rates of hospitalizations and death, and trusting that the trajectory of the disease would continue in the right direction, Judy and I planned 2022 as the year of the road trip. We have six road trips on the calendar between the beginning of June and the middle of October, everything from an “over-nighter” in southern Wisconsin to a sixteen day “southwestern tour” including Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
And thank you, saints of St. Luke’s, for your generosity to ELCA World Hunger! Thank you for setting and working toward such generous goals – and thank you for consistently outdoing yourselves and exceeding your goals! What a difference you are making here and around the world, now and for generations to come.
I hope to name an Implementation Team for our Strategic Plan by the end of this week or the beginning of next. They will plan, with the staff, for a public and joyful launch of the Strategic Plan and all its recommendations this fall. When the plan has been launched, we will live into it, with the help of the Implementation Team. When we have evaluated the first hundred days of the launch, we will evaluate and begin to think and pray about the formation of a Call Committee for the next Lead Pastor of St. Luke’s. We need all of you to make our bold recommendations for mission a reality. It’s “all hands-on deck” time. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is leading us into the next season of God’s mission among us in church and community.
We have sent out invitations to the Implementation Team, who will guide and coordinate the implementation of our Strategic Plan coming out of the Vision Process and unanimously adopted by the Church Council. This team will plan to roll out the entire plan and recommendations with a big launch this fall. The theme will center in what we heard from you in the Listening Season: Reconnecting in Christ. We have already shared a couple of Recommendations. . .