A number of years ago, I was at a leadership conference and the keynote speaker started with this question, “Are you a giver?” As the crowd took a collective sigh of exhaustion, the speaker again asked, “Are you a giver? I mean, a joyful giver?” He then began to unpack the statement.
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 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.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen !
Last week we gathered for a triumphal celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. This week we hear more about the hours following Mary’s discovery of the empty tomb. Jesus comes to the disciples who are still hiding offering Christ’s peace as he breathed upon them. I wonder what that tomb breath may have smelled like but the scriptures do tell us what it felt like – the ultimate sense of peace.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed, Alleluia!
We are Easter people who with each day die and rise again in the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. On this day of Christ’s resurrection, we rejoice with all who have gone before us and all who are yet to come in the great communion of saints. We give thanks and praise knowing that we are forgiven and called beloved just as we are. The resurrection proves that no matter the circumstances, we can start over and rise again, and again, and again in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord who on this day has risen from the grave.
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.
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, 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:
This week while I was preparing for the sermon and spending time in the gospel of Luke, a friend pointed me to this poem and reflection titled, “God of Yes.” In order to create healthy boundaries in our world that constantly asks us to do more and be more, we are encouraged to not be afraid of the word, “No.” No creates space to learn and grow. No creates opportunities to nourish ourselves and prioritize our time. No allows for a chance to rest and renew. But what about Yes?
This week we journey with Jesus to Mount Olive as he approaches Jerusalem. At the sight of Jerusalem Jesus has an emotional moment: “Oh, Jerusalem!” he says. Matthew tells us that at the sight of the city and its history and present experience of suffering that “Jesus wept.” Luke tells us that Jesus looked upon the city with a mother’s heart: “How I would gather you like a mother hen gathers her chicks.” Our sermon will center on the compassion of Jesus, who today looks on the city of Kyiv and Park Ridge (where each of us bear our burdens as well as joys) and sees the suffering and enters it.