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Harvey First Lutheran Church
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Karen Olson 

Karen's Korner Reflections

Janaury 8, 2021
Matthew 2:1-2
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
 

Did you see it?  Did you at least hear about it?  There was a star….a STAR….not in the east….more in the southwest.  Well… it wasn’t actually a star…it was the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn….which actually happens every 20 years…but THIS one was the closest observable one since 1226….yah, like 800 years ago close.
 
This phenomenon captured the media attention….and our attentions.  I think we were looking for a little hope…and a little mystery… and maybe looking for some ‘proof’ of the Christmas star and the God who flung the universe into creation with the flick of His finger.  Proof that He still cares for each of us…enough to line up the planets to once again give us a sense of wonder….a time to ponder His splendor. 
 
We live close to the desert, so off we went down Hunt Highway to get away from the city lights to see this marvel in the sky.  There was a string of cars ahead and behind us doing the very same thing….we pulled over onto a side road, turned off our lights, and gazed at the brightness in the sky.  We sat for a while, cars coming and going, and pondered the excellent timing of this ‘star’ to appear….when we are worn down from Covid, worn down from political unrest,  just plain  worn down….and trying to celebrate the birth of the God-child come to save us from ourselves.  To see that sparkle in the sky was enough for me to remember that wise men, and women, and children still seek to follow His star……..
December 16, 2020
Matthew 25:35b
….I was a stranger and you invited me in….
  
“I saw what you did.”
 
Creepy line from a horror movie?  Santa checking his naughty and nice list?  Judgmental folks deciding who is in or out of the Pearly Gates? 
 
Or maybe, just maybe….it is a few lost souls surfing the internet looking for a church home….a few weary Covid travelers looking for words of hope….a few folks with health issues who cannot leave their homes looking for words of comfort.
 
We know that we, at FLC, have quite a few followers; some who comment on our church services….and many more who watch and listen but don’t comment or click the ‘follow’ button.   Since the pandemic started we have reached a lot of folks who never would have knocked on our doors….physical distance or spiritual distance or emotional distance.  During this pandemic, we have dropped our streamed service ‘rock’ into a pond….and we have no idea how far those ripples have traveled.   Funny thing about causing ripples; you cannot undo them.  Those ripples may bounce up on something or someone and bounce back to us…then what?  Do we have a responsibility to those we have touched?  To those who have seen us and wonder what we are about?  To those who wonder what is that hope we have in us?  Absolutely!  We are called to let that line shine!
 
I hope and pray that when the doors and windows of First Lutheran can be safely flung open, that we will embrace whoever comes looking and whoever wants to still see “what we did/are doing.”  That ripple may come back to us, all of us, who are involved in Evangelism….and Martin Luther did charge us all  to be ‘a priesthood of all believers’…. to reach out to any and all of our fellow travelers on this amazing faith journey.
 
Matthew 25:35-36
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
November 28. 2020
​Welcome Advent
 
Luke 1:38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
 
Members of the FLC Evangelism Committee focus on being welcoming in this church and in this place.  That has been challenging in these Covid days….church services with limitations….mask wearing…social distancing.   We have these measures in place now so that we may regain some of our former practices sooner and without causing harm along the way.
 
And Advent approaches….with wonderful memories of Wednesday night services with sharing of coffee and goodies….Sunday worship services filled with members and full of hymn singing.  Christmas Eve with lit candles in the darkness, awaiting the signal to be blown out, in more or less unison.  Can Christmas still happen if we don’t have these ‘things’? Of course, it can!  Christmas will always happen, with or without the trappings we have attached to that Holy gift.    Christmas story pageants may not be able to be re-in-acted…but memories can recall those programs…. the visitation of the Angel Gabriel and how Mary was the very first person to welcome the news that she would conceive, via the Holy Spirit, the Christ child.  After his own visit by Gabriel, Joseph followed suit.  Christmas happened.   Mary and Joseph’s lives were radically changed.  The World was given Hope.
 
We can still be welcoming of Christmas and that soon to be born Christ child….that infant who  wasn’t welcomed at the Inn….but was very welcomed at  the stable….angels singing overhead….tattered shepherds gathering in awe…. royally dressed wise men journeying to see this new ‘King’.  We have a treasury of how we have celebrated this wondrous event in the past.  And, we are blessed to have streamed services, zoomed Bible studies, Facebook sermons, old fashioned snail mail greeting cards.  All ways of welcoming in this new church year….all asking us to have hope!
 
This year….this 2020 year….may not have the same Norman Rockwell painting celebration of the Christ child’s birth.  But it will happen….we can welcome that arrival regardless of our circumstances.  We can cling to that hope in His birth.  
November 12, 2020
The Lord Knows
 
Leaving Bismarck, I noticed what looked like a black swirling cloud off to the left of the highway.  It appeared that the forces of the cosmos were churning and turning.  As we got closer, the ‘cloud’ was actually a mass of birds.  They dipped lower to the ground and then soared up again, dove close together and then separated, in some kind of bird conversation.  I imagined they were saying things like:  ‘I want to take a different route this year; I hope, you know who, asked for directions; Has the flight plan been filed?  Who is up front in the lead, who is the wing man?  If those stragglers don’t show up by sunset, we are leaving without them!’  
 
I wondered out loud why the birds were swarming like that.  To which my spouse muttered, ‘Lord knows’; a common enough Midwest colloquialism right up there with ‘you betcha’ and ‘UfDah’. 
 
The Lord knows….the Lord knows and understands what looks like bird confusion to us.  The Lord knows our own chaos….He allowed us to experience the chaos we contribute to with His gift of free will.  Sometimes we make wise choices, sometimes we don’t.  God did not promise to spare us from our poor choices, rough anxiety times, but He did promise to walk beside us.  Just like He will accompany that cloud of birds on yet another countless migratory journey.
 
Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?
October 21, 2020
​Galatians 5:22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
All are welcome…..aren’t they?
Our congregation, especially since 2009, has rallied around the song, All Are Welcome, by Marty Haugen.    Let us build a house where love can dwell, and all can safely live; a place where saints and children tell, how hearts learn to forgive.  Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace.  Here the love of Christ shall end divisions.   All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.
Pastor Lenny Duncan, in his book, Dear Church, questions who really is welcome in that anthem.  He writes, “All are Welcome, if you don’t challenge us; if you don’t question the way we do things; if you sing, act, pray, and worship just like us; if you don’t make me feel anything that isn’t positive for this hour and a half; if you don’t make me question anything I have built my life around.”  All I can say to that is ‘ouch’!   And perhaps some of that painful ‘ouch!’ is because of the ring of truth in it.  I could add a few of my own bullets to Duncan’s list; all are welcome if your political views match mine; all are welcome if you respect pandemic guidelines the same way that I do; and more.  I am convicted.
Saint and sinner, all of us….from youngest to oldest….from most liberal to most conservative, from our newest member to those who helped construct this building, we gather together to worship the same God.  We strive to develop the same fruits of the spirit in ourselves:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; all pieces of tolerance.  We try to see those fruits in our neighbors.   The opportunities to display and learn these gifts are boundless; unfortunately, we are not.  Our humanness gets in our way.  We must cling to the promise of grace to cover our shortcomings: the speck in my neighbor’s eye, the log in my own.
Who are we?  Who are we becoming?   We, as in our congregation, will always be ‘becoming’ as we continue our life journey…. our faith journey.  That ‘becoming’ has challenged us  in the last six months.   We have done without some things….and that has hopefully led us to really appreciate the things that are our core beliefs of our ELCA Lutheranism.  Christ crucified and resurrected for all of us.  Grace for me.  GRACE for others.  GRACE , the gift from God who has welcomed us ALL.
October 5, 2020
Ephesians 3:4 ….a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
 
The Prairie is dancing.  I can see the song of fall outside my window as I drive along.  I see the different costumes….sometimes red….sometimes green….even yellow;  IH, John Deere, Minneapolis-Moline.
 
There is a graceful ballet of a combine or two line-dancing with a truck or grain cart.  They artfully transverse the ripe field with steps they have practiced for years.  Sometimes the equipment is doing more of a square dance pattern….backing up into tight spots with hungry augers waiting to be fed, making unbelievably sharp corners with monstrous equipment.  Sometimes the ‘dancers’ change from the field dancefloor to the highways.  Workers and equipment scurrying to get paved roads fixed before they are covered in ice and snow.  They come slowly down the highway, tearing up the old crumbled road, making way for the new bed and a new foundation.  What looks to be a field of unproductive land is alive with belly-dump trucks, and massive scoops and cranes, gracefully filling them.   The stone grinding equipment is turning huge rocks into usable chippings. The land reminds me of an active ant pile.  I love to watch this fall activity.  I have a secret desire to drive some of that equipment….feel all that power at the control of my fingertips.
 
This fall scramble, this dance of the harvest, this stomp of road construction, signals the end of one season and the beginning of another.  Plants are going dormant, ready for the big sleep of winter.  They are not dead…they are waiting to be resurrected….in due time they will grow again….maybe produce an even better harvest.  We are getting ready too.  Not just for the change of seasons….some of us are longing for the former seasons and ways of doing things to come back….maybe they will….maybe they won’t.  Some of us are anxious to see what new thing will be born.   God is watching us scurry and worry and fuss.  He is hoping that we can remember that He has power at his fingertips too, just like those equipment drivers.  He is yearning for us to remember to trust in Him, to be mindful each other, to take care of our neighbors as he commanded…to have faith.    As our new Bishop likes to remind us “God has got this!”  I cling to that….in these tumultuous times, I try to remember that indeed, God has still got this!
 
Matthew 6:28 And why do you worry about anything?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.
​
September 21, 2020
The Birds
 
It’s like an Alfred Hitchcock movie out there;  The Birds.  I saw them, hundreds of them, blackbirds perched on the tops of the trees across the street.  Kind of spooky.  Then I went for a walk; one of my favorite haunts down to the beach.  I rounded the curve on the walking path, and there was an audible swoosh of bird wings arising out of the brown-gold reeds along the river shoreline. More spooky, more Quote the Raven, Never More, Edgar Allen Poe style kind of stuff.
 
I guess my imagination was getting the better of me.  After all, it was broad daylight, and a sunny day at that; not a dead moonless night.  The birds are flocking, gathering together, because they know a change is coming.  They, and we, know that the days are getting shorter and cooler.  The warm, leisurely days of being a twosome or alone and plucking worms out of the dirt at will are soon gone. The birds are flocking up to join forces for the seasonal journey south…they know there is safety and comfort in traveling in numbers.
 
We have experienced our own  aloneness the past six months….socially distanced….smaller groups…and are yearning to start our own ‘flocking up’.  We have resumed Wednesday and Sunday services; trying to be careful of others who may have underlying health issues.  We will hopefully continue to tip-toe toward more gatherings in our congregation.   We are anticipating resuming some of our usual fall programs:  Trunk or Treat, LYO, and Sunday School with the guidance of our own task force and council.  And following the guidelines of our Western Synod and ND Department of Health to help to insure the well-being of all of our members.  If we are not comfortable with starting to carefully ‘flock-up’, we have the blessing of streamed and televised services to draw strength from. 
 
As we ‘flock up’, let us continue to be careful and mindful to help insure that the number of cases of corona virus and other flue and cold diseases continue to be low in our county.  Let us “have equal concern for each other”.
 
1 Corinthians 12:25-26
There should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
September 8, 2020
​Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
 
Proverbs 3:29 Do not plot harm against your neighbor, who lives trustfully near you.
 
It is a crispy morning here in NorDakota….the first hard frost of the season and it is still early September.  Sister Summer and Brother Fall weave their hands together as we begin to move from one time of the year to the next; the seasons merge together and are then tossed apart again before the first official day of fall is declared….at least on the calendar.  
 
The Bible verses quoted above are dancing together in my mind, just like summer and fall are outside.
 
Do No Harm….Love your neighbor as yourself.
 
We want to honor those biblical commands; but there are hurdles of differing opinions out there.  The winds of controversy are blowing us about even more than the prairie gusts!  We are blasted with:
 
Political divide….do no harm
Covid controversies….love your neighbor
Racial injustice….do no harm, love your neighbor   
 
My thoughts whirl about just like the leaves that are beginning to swirl to the ground.  There are so many things to ponder….and no easy answers.  We need to hang onto those verses as we could all use a little of loving our neighbors….. and loving ourselves…. and remembering to first, do no harm.
August 21, 2020
Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit herself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
 
Have you had one of those days….one of those weeks…one of those months?  Life and the air around it seem oppressive….it is dark in your heart even though the sun is brightly shining.  Our world has been rocked with a pandemic that we thought was pending and now has become persistent.  There have been job losses and economic hard times for lots of God’s people.  How do we pray at times like these?  Times when we don’t even know where to begin?  Times when we are not confident with our sources of information from experts? Times when we have no words?
 
Then, when we are too overwhelmed to form words, we sigh.  We exhale.  And the God who breathed life into us….catches those breaths….cradles them in His comforting hands….cares for those prayers that are wordlessly expressed….and leans closer to us….if we let Him.   Know when there are no words that we can say….that God still knows our concerns and will always be there….a sigh away…..and always listening to us.
 
And so we sing from the Lutheran Book of Worship, #180
 
The spirit, intercedes for us, with sighs too deep, for words to express, oh….oh
The spirit, intercedes for us, with signs too deep, for words to express, oh…oh
August 2, 2020
Matthew 22:39 Love your neighbor as yourself.

Life is in chaos these days.  There is anger, mistrust, worry, confusion….and many more emotions reeling from our exposure to and thought processes on corona virus.  And throw in grief too…for the loss of the way things used to be.

I recently came across this short article comparing the stages of grief to stages we may be experiencing with the Corona Virus pandemic.  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced this model of grieving in her book On Death and Dying.  She identified the five stages of grief as denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and then acceptance.  Grief does not always follow these stages in a tidy orderly manner, and any of these steps can be repeated or the person experiencing grief can be stuck in any one of them.  Kubler-Ross states:
“There’s denial, which we saw a lot of early on:  This virus won’t affect us.
  There’s anger:  You’re making me stay home and taking away my activities.
  There’s bargaining:  OK, if I social distance for two weeks everything will be better, right?
  There’s sadness:  I don’t’ know when this will end.
  And finally there’s acceptance:  This is happening; I have to figure out how to proceed.
Acceptance, as you might imagine, is where the power lies.  We find control in acceptance.  I can wash my hands.  I can keep a safe distance.  I can learn how to work virtually.”

Maybe thinking of our own grief, our own losses during this time can help us to better understand our neighbors and where they may be in this process.  The neighbors we have been commanded to love….commanded to love no matter what they think of the pandemic.

Like Reinhold Niebuhr, we pray the serenity prayer that he wrote:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. 
Matthew 22:39 Love your neighbor as yourself.
 
Life is in chaos these days.  There is anger, mistrust, worry, confusion….and many more emotions reeling from our exposure to and thought processes on corona virus.  And throw in grief too…for the loss of the way things used to be.
 
I recently came across this short article comparing the stages of grief to stages we may be experiencing with the Corona Virus pandemic.  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced this model of grieving in her book On Death and Dying.  She identified the five stages of grief as denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and then acceptance.  Grief does not always follow these stages in a tidy orderly manner, and any of these steps can be repeated or the person experiencing grief can be stuck in any one of them.  Kubler-Ross states:
               “There’s denial, which we saw a lot of early on:  This virus won’t affect us.
                 There’s anger:  You’re making me stay home and taking away my activities.
                 There’s bargaining:  OK, if I social distance for two weeks everything will be better, right?
                 There’s sadness:  I don’t’ know when this will end.
                 And finally there’s acceptance:  This is happening; I have to figure out how to proceed.
Acceptance, as you might imagine, is where the power lies.  We find control in acceptance.  I can wash my hands.  I can keep a safe distance.  I can learn how to work virtually.”
 
Maybe thinking of our own grief, our own losses during this time can help us to better understand our neighbors and where they may be in this process.  The neighbors we have been commanded to love….commanded to love no matter what they think of the pandemic.
 
Like Reinhold Niebuhr, we pray the serenity prayer that he wrote:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.  
​
July 9, 2020
​Genesis 11:9b
From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
The people were scattered…..
We are scattered during this pandemic season too.  Some of us continue to worship on-line with our computers and I-pads.  Some of us worship in person and outdoors on Wednesday evenings.  Some of us gather to worship in the sanctuary….some with masks, some without.  And some of us worship with the televised service on Wednesdays in our living rooms.  We grow weary…..
We are scattered in our thought processes of what ‘pandemic’ means.  Some are fearful, especially those of us over ages 65 (yikes) or if we have underlying health conditions.  Some of us are fearful that we may unwittingly pass on an undetected disease to a loved one who has delicate health.  Some of us feel threatened if we DO or DON’T wear a mask in public.  It may feel like a black plague out there….it may feel like a media hyped illness that isn’t so bad.  We grow weary….
We all miss each other.  We all miss the ease we had of gathering together.  We all long to go back to the good old days before March 12th.  We long to be in agreement with each other.    We grow weary….
God’s people are not always patient.  We do not always do what is good.  We want our leaders and health care professionals to unequivocally tell us what to do to avoid this disease and the havoc it has created!  And we want it now!  No mistakes!  Unfortunately life just doesn’t work out that way.  We grow weary….But there is help for us when we grow weary.  Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give your rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
When we are weary, we can partner our yoke with Jesus Christ….we can lean in together….to pull this weary load.
June 16, 2020
​The June Gather magazine Bible study by Christa Compton and Gladys Moore focused on love and justice and conflict and crying out to God in times of chaos.  At the close of the study, we were encouraged to write our own Psalm of Lament to ask for God’s attention to a situation in need of love.
What follows is my attempt to do just that.
 
               God of Healing,
               Help the world you created
               To better understand each other.
               You loved us into life
               And formed us in a rainbow of colors
               That delighted you!
 
               We are flung far from the Garden of Eden.
               We look at our divisions and differences;
               Racial, political and economic,
               And find it hard to remember that
               You love ALL of your children.
 
               Give our leaders wisdom.
               Guide ALL of us in seeking justice and equity.
               Deliver your people, ALL of your people, into your care.
               And let us worship and rejoice knowing that
               Your promises are always kept.
June 3, 2020
​Lament….a passionate expression of grief or sorrow
 
Our country is lamenting….and weary.  We have been dealing with an invisible virus….we have been overwhelmed with endless visual images of racial divide….peaceful protestors….and those whose agendas are far from peace.  We are under socialized….and yet over stimulated by media.  It is fear inducing. 
 
Throughout the ages, God’s people have experienced mourning, stress, anxiety and much more.  The book of Psalms is sprinkled with communal and individual prayers for help in times of crisis.  These laments are written as prayers, liturgies, poems and songs.  A familiar more recent song of lament that is often sung at funerals is Precious Lord, Take My Hand.  African-American composer and lyricist, Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music, wrote this song in 1931 after the death of his wife during child birth.  His infant son died one day later.  Dorsey expresses his grief in this modern-day Psalm, but also his assurance that God is walking right beside him on this journey.  His plea follows:
 
Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand.  I am weak, I am weary, I am worn.  Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light.  Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home. 
When my way grows dreary, precious Lord, lead me near, when my life is almost gone. At the river I will stand, guide my feet, hold my hand, take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home.
 
For more pleas of lament, help and consolation, check out Psalms 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 85 and 90 and more.
May 16, 2020
​You don’t have to have the television on too long before you hear the following quote from our own North Dakota Governor, “There is no limit to the amount of kindness we can provide to other people.”  That is a statement that transcends political parties and religious theologies. 
 
Eight weeks ago, being kind, was one of the rallying cries as the Pandemic came to national attention.    ‘Be kind, We are in this together, Help your neighbor, Look for ways to be helpful, Be positive, Sew masks and other PPE, Recognize and appreciate the daily heroes we encounter.’  We put the verse, “Love your neighbor as yourself” into action.  Which is what Christ commanded us to do…’Church’ was never meant to be a noun, it is a verb…..it  is a word calling us to action.  I have missed not being together in our beautiful  building on Sunday mornings, but church and worship were never meant to be one hour on a Sunday.  It is a way of life.
 
One of my favorite social media posts of this Pandemic  is “The church is not closed.  The church has been deployed.”  Our First Lutheran sanctuary may not be in full use, but our people are. 
Corona Virus is contagious…but so is hope, so is kindness, so is goodness, so is tolerance, so is patience, so is God’s love.  Be ‘church’ for your neighbors, for your family, for the young people in your life.  Be the example of you want them to be.
April 27, 2020
Breath
 
John 20:22
And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

 
I am a Yoga kind of person….not much on muscle, more on flexibility.  Learn the pose, hold the pose, breathe through the pose…..focus on the breath….not the million things that normally dart in out of my brain at any given moment.  Yoga is a much needed mindfulness practice for me in these CoronaVirus, too much media, too much information, and yet too much isolation days…..and it is much needed physical exercise!
 
I think a lot of us are mindful of breath these days….maybe behind a mask….maybe not….maybe as we try to practice social distancing….probably if anyone happens to sneeze or cough near us.  ‘ Yikes, why didn’t I wear a mask.   I can feel their breath on me!’
 
I would assume from John 20:22 that Jesus was quite close when he ‘breathed the Holy Spirit’ on them, those 11 remaining disciples who were ‘sheltering in place’ in a room behind a locked door in fear of what the Jewish leaders might do to them.  Jesus came to them, fresh from death by persecution, and gave them the needed help to continue on.  He breathed on them, was as close as a breath to them.
 
We are fearful too.  Of what is out there….of what we cannot see…of the  future.  And Jesus is with us too….maybe not to banish the disease  from our doorstep, but to walk with us through whatever lays ahead of us the next weeks and months.  The following is typically a Christmas song, but I find comfort in it.  I hope that you do too.  Remember….rest in God’s breath.
 
Breath of Heaven, Amy Grant
…I am waiting in silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now
 
Breath of Heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me
Breath of Heaven
 
Breath of Heaven,
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of Heaven
April 17, 2020
​Exodus: a mass departure of people.
 
The mental image that comes to my mind first is the Israelites fleeing Egypt; after the Egyptians have been visited by ten plagues.  The Israelites wandered around for a while….roughly 40 years, but they did make it to the ‘land flowing with milk and honey’.
 
There has been an Exodus from my Arizona ‘compound’ too.  And during a plague.  Some residents left with the first warnings of the Coved19 bug.  Those who had underlying health issues and health insurance not with a United Sates company were the first to flee.  More folks added to the pilgrimage as rental terms were completed.  More left  as one by one all scheduled leisure activities were cancelled and the lure to be ‘home’  grew stronger.
 
As fears escalated, rational decisions went out the window.  Soon  grocery stores  had vacant shelves.  First toilet paper, bottled water and hand sanitizer; then soup, canned fruit and vegetables, pizza, pasta, convenience foods, batteries…the last one I heard was a shortage of flour.  But the fresh produce section of the stores is unaffected…..I think that says something about us as consumers…and customers buying and  stockpiling more than we need says something about our culture. 
 
But equally significant have been  the many acts of generosity and kindness that have been exhibited.  Neighbors helping neighbors, offering to share their own ‘scarcity’ products; donations to food banks and blood banks; skills being shared as thousands and thousands of face masks have been stitched.
 
I will start my own ‘exodus’ tomorrow.  Springtime on the prairie is beckoning and I will say goodbye to Arizona.  I want to get ‘home’ and complete my mandatory two week quarantine.   I hope we will ALL be able to make an ‘exodus’ from these days of fear and social distancing.  I hope we can go back to what was ‘normal’.  If we cannot return, then I pray we make this ‘new normal’ the best one it can be.  That we cherish the times we can be with friends and family and worship together; that we rejoice that we can purchase what we ‘need’ from merchants; that we are kind and sharing and grateful for all that we do have.
April 1, 2020
​Get Ready for Church!
 
My, how that statement has changed over the last 40 years!  Back when we had babies, it was “grab the diaper bag and the burp cloths,” get ready for church!  A few years later it was “get your activity bag, crayons and a story book” get ready for church!  And then, “get ready for church….we’ll be late for Sunday School….and I am the teacher!”  Still later, “get ready for church and remember there is LYO right after.”  More years later and it was a phone call to college students, “did you get to church today?”  
 
My, how ‘Get Ready for Church’ has changed in the last few weeks.  Today, it was “church is starting.”  I shuffled to the couch in slippered feet and jammies, coffee cup in hand, revved up the computer and tuned in to Facebook.  And there was faithful church waiting for me.  Coronavirus had not stopped First Lutheran from broadcasting and still being church! 
 
It has really hit home to us, being far away, and having worship services cancelled, that church is so much more than people in a building.  We are separated by miles….and many of you are separated from each other as you practice social distancing; but we still gathered together through technology this morning….we are still church.  We are still “people of God” as Pastor Phil reminds us. We still try to ‘walk the walk’.  And when this virus passes and we are able to once again gather together, we will continue to be church….to wake up and ‘get ready for church’….and as our day unfolds we are ready to ‘BE’ church….because we ARE church.
 
I love this timely phrase that has popped up on the internet... “The church is not empty.  The church has been deployed.”  #bethechurch
 
 Amen.
March 23, 2020
Somebody wake me up!  I am having a nightmare!  Of Twilight Zone proportions!  I’m in a supermarket; aisle after aisle stripped of canned soups, cereals, paper towels, bread, and even toilet paper?  What kind of a dream is this?
It is reality, unfortunately.  Fear has gripped people and IF they stock their pantry shelves excessively, they might feel some control in the chaos they find themselves in.  There is a silent sneaky invisible virus out there that was supposed to stay far away in China….or at least Europe…we shouldn’t have to experience the havoc it is creating, should we? We are entitled…aren’t we?  We have modern medicine, endless hot water, and soap and hand sanitizers (or did have hand sensitizers)! Who could have imagined a mere few weeks ago that we would now be experiencing a global pandemic?  But that is where we find ourselves.
 
And in addition to finding store shelves rift of necessities, we are being told to stay out of them as much as possible.  No recreational shopping.  No milling about at malls….crowded restaurants….or even our favorite coffee shops.  We are to practice ‘social’ distancing….which is really physical distancing.  In Arizona, public gatherings are pretty much nil….restaurants are for pick-up and take-out only.  Movie theaters, bowling alleys, exercise gyms, schools, places of worship and much more all closed until March 30.  And probably longer.  People who used to go to work, no long can.
 
We are being called to be good stewards of our neighbors health….stay home, stay six feet away, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, don’t shake hands, don’t share the peace, don’t share the wine and the bread.   Heaven help you if you sneeze in public! Talk about looks that could kill!  These are hardships….it hits some of us harder than others.  It puts our health care and service workers at risk as they continue to do their jobs and fulfill their vocations.  These are scary times.
 
And where is God in the midst of this Crisis?  Right where he is has always been.  Feeling our pain….isolation…sorrow….hearing our prayers….walking beside us.  As the Prayer of St. Patrick declares, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”
Amen.
​
March 9, 2020
​We entered the liturgical season of Lent on Ash Wednesday.  Black ashes from last year’s burned palm branches were rubbed onto our foreheads in the shape of a cross;  a symbol of repentance, reflection, and possibly denying ourselves of some pleasure.  During this season, we commemorate the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert.
 
Lent marks a tumultuous time.  Jesus ministry and mystery: preaching, healing, praying, beseeching, turning over the tables of the established religious hierarchy, angering the political leaders, His destiny and our salvation set in motion.  Lent evokes this melancholy and haunting events….and also the hope we have in the resurrection.  These thoughts and feelings are expressed in this poem by Jan Richardson, from her book, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons.
 
Will You Meet Us
Will you meet us in the ashes,
Will you meet us in the ache
And show your face within our sorrow
And offer us your word of grace:
That you are life within the dying,
That you abide within the dust,
That you are what survives the burning,
That you arise to make us new.
And in our aching, you are breathing;
And in our weeping, you are here
Within the hands that bear your blessing,
Enfolding us, within your love.
 
Lent is not just Jesus journey.  It is our journey too.  It is our longings affirmed….and His promises kept.
February 18, 2020
​Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
 
Things that go bump in the night
 
Fear and the power of suggestion….that is what happened to me on a camping trip when our kids were young,  5 and 8 or so.  We had spent the day camping in the mountains and had trekked through the campground to watch an old fashioned movie on an outdoor screen after dark.   We had camped in a spot that was noted to have some bear traffic so I was a tad nervous wandering back to our campsite after the show.   Even more so as the other adult in the group made growling noises all the way back.  But, the rest of the campers were brave….we were in a pop up camper, one step above a tent!  Something any self-respecting bear could swat through without much effort, I thought.
 
During the night, I woke to hear something rummaging around…..and not far from us.  I waited for the noises to stop, but they got louder and closer.  I tried to convince myself that it was a raccoon nosing around for a free meal.  Then I heard the trash can clanging and I was sure it was a bear looking for a tasty meal of human!  Yikes.  I held my breath as I rolled over to peak through the flimsy screened window and …..there it was!  Not a bear, but…..the campground cleaning crew….tidying up the bathroom and shower building.  After waiting for my heart to stop pounding in my chest, I did get back to sleep.  And shared the story with the family in the morning….which has been hard to live down….but is now funny.
 
Now I can’t say that reciting Isaiah 41:10 will vanish all of my fears, those imagined and those quite real.  But there is a promise in that verse….not that God will suspend us from all fearful trials, but that he will strengthen us….and he will hold us with his right hand.  Amen.
January 20, 2020
 
I love going for nice long walks out in the country.  I love the solitariness of it.  I love the peace and quiet.  I need time alone to think my little thoughts, to ponder things, and to appreciate all that God has created in nature….walking is a form of worship for me.
 
I also love being with others to worship.  It is comforting to be surrounded by other believers.  They strengthen me when we recite the same prayerful words in unison.  We sing together as we gather for worship; we hear the scriptures together;  in our corporate confession we share all the ways that we have turned from  God; we state our beliefs in the Creed; we pray the Lord’s Prayer; we share in Communion, the Lord’s meal , which makes us one; we are sent out to share the Gospel and what God has done for us.
 
At times we are a single strong beacon of the light of Christ that is within us.  And there are times when we area soft glow with our neighbors in our pew.  No one light is outshining the others; we are united into a powerful beam of many lights.  We hear not only our own voice in communal worship; we also listen to the people sitting next to us.  There is strength and connectedness when we are joined together.  Just as we are told that there would be.
 
Matthew18:20  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
​
January 3, 2020
We live in a diverse society and culture….and one polarized by political opinions…one filled with the haves….and have nots.  I see this daily in my retirement community….those who receive service….and those who give it.   This has been laying heavy on my mind.  The following Confession and Forgiveness from last Sunday’s worship service really hit home with me.
 
“Blessed be the holy Trinity, one God, Love from the beginning, Word made flesh, Breath of Heaven.  Amen.”
 
“Let us confess our sinfulness before God and one another, trusting in God’s endless mercy and love.
Merciful God, we confess that we are not perfect.  We have said and done things we regret.  We have tried to earn your redeeming grace, while denying it to others.  We have resisted you call to be your voice in the world.  Forgive us, loving God.  Give us your righteousness, and strength to put aside our failures, and the courage to try again.  Amen.”
 
“Dear people of God, hear the good news:  Christ the Savior is born!  You are loved and forgiven in the name of Jesus, who has come among us.  You are freed from proving that you deserve to be loved, because God’s love is given to you as the most precious gift of all.  Rejoice in this love and share it with the world.  Amen.”
 
John 1:16
From his fullness, we have ALL received, grace upon grace.
​
December 18, 2019
Nametags!
 
“…I have called you each by name, Come and follow Me, I will bring you home, I love you and you are mine….”  So go the lyrics to the beautiful song by David Haas.  My heart sings right along with it.  I have been called by name…I have a nametag at my southern church home in Arizona!  And a mailbox with my name on it!  Simple, small, silly things to some folks.  But to me it is a physical reminder that I belong….I have been claimed, and named, and recognized, and welcomed…..and now it is my turn to extend those graces to the new faces around me.
 
That is exactly what happened the very first Sunday I wore my new nametag to worship.  A lovely woman with Minnesota roots joined me in my pew (actually a row of nicely padded chairs).  She began to ask me questions about ‘my’ church.  It felt good to welcome her, to give her information for contacts, and to introduce her to the senior pastor after services.  It warmed my heart and I am pretty sure it warmed hers too.
 
Sometimes we are blessed to receive.  And sometimes we are blessed to give.  We are celebrating the official season of gifting, receiving, giving…we have the rest of the year to continue to do so…not necessarily with physical objects…but with gifts of caring, sharing, and giving of ourselves….welcoming the new, the lost, the lonely, the ‘other’.  We can be the place where ‘everyone knows my name.’
​
December 5, 2019
​Mother God to Her children
 
I gave birth to you, I loved you first, I love you still, I always have, and I always will…..your Momma.
 
 I saw this lovely ode to a Mother’s love for her child on the ‘net’.    It seems fitting to me in this season of Advent…this season of waiting….and this season pregnant with hopeful expectation,  to hear the voice of God in Her never ending, ferocious and tender, Mother-love for us. 
                                                                                                                                      
In the beginning, Mother God drew breath from the dust of the earth…and there was Adam…and there was Eve… and there was love and eternal life for ALL of Her children.  But sadly, man and woman broke the covenant and trust that God offered, and they had to wander out of the garden.  But God was steadfast …and offered a new covenant….and offered more to her children….more of Herself in Her Child, who showed us the way….again. 
 
Does a female image of God seem less believable to you?  Does it challenge you to take God out of the box of masculinity our culture has created?  The day will come when we will all be neither male nor female….we will be whole…we will be healed….we will be spirit and love and joined forever with God who is Mother and Father,  God who is Child, and God who is Holy Spirit. 
​November 12, 2019
Love Letters
 
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is frequently used at weddings.  1 Corinthians13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.  Those in the know believe this letter was written about 55 C.E.
 
The following quote, circa 2019, floating around Facebook from Liam Neeson reminds me of Paul’s verses: “Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true.  Loneliness hurts.  Rejections hurts.  Losing someone hurts.  Envy hurts.  Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all the pain and makes someone feel wonderful again.  Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt.” 
 
Liam Neeson, the six foot, four inch, action/adventure star, Irish tough guy.  Paul, presumably short in stature, living action for the Gospel.  Both had suffered losses and grief…Neeson, the unexpected tragic death of his wife….Paul, the continued thorn in his side that tormented him.  Two men, living some 1900 plus years apart, both clinging to the balm and goodness of love.
 
John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
​
October 23, 2019
Psalm 51:2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
 
Sparkles in the distance. That is what I saw on a recent drive.  The light (by North Dakota standards) breeze was making the water dance along the south shoreline of a slough.  The light glinted off the water in waves of diamonds. 
 
As I passed by this glittering pool, I glanced in my rear view mirror for one more visual feast and pouf, it was gone!  The sunshine was now coming from a different angle, and reflecting dully off the north shoreline.  The water looked like what it was…a dirty, slush choked, grey-green slough.  Underneath those once sparkling waves, was dirt and muck.  Just like me sometimes…sparkly on the outside but murky on the inside.  Any why not?  I was created from dust….dust that does swirl about from time to time.  When I feel like life has tossed me around a bit too much, my murkiness rises up and does not reflect the sun.
 
When I am especially murky, I try to remember that all that crud has been washed off me by the waters of Baptism.  God’s blessing has trickled over me, cleansed me, and He has claimed me as his own, dirt and all.  As the baptismal service in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship book reminds us, “At the river your Son was baptized by John and anointed with the Holy Spirit.  By the baptism of Jesus’ death and resurrection you set us free from the power of sin and death and raise us up to live in you.”
​
October 13, 2019
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
 
Crushed in spirit.   We have had a lot of crushing in the last 72 hours.  Crops crushed underneath 24-30 inches of snow.  Livestock trying to crush threw drifts to feed and water.  Trees struggling to bear up their snow laden, and wind driven branches.   Farmers and ranchers crushed in spirit with yet another abnormal event in this season of harvest. 
 
The starkness of our sudden wintery scenes blend into the sullen, cloud-covered skies.    Our season and spirits are darkening.  Our nights will soon be longer than our days.  Where do we find comfort?  Where do we find hope?  Where do we find peace?
 
We are not the first people to struggle with disaster and grief.  The Book of Psalms is filled with the cries of the people of Israel for release, redemption, and the resurrection of God’s chosen people.  Their cry becomes our cry in these difficult days.  How long will this go on? 
 
And yet there is hope here too.  The People cry out to God, because they know He is there.  They believe that someday they will be restored and reunited with Him.  That belief gives them the strength to carry on when they do not have answers to their questions.  If that strength seems too impossible for us to hang on to….then perhaps…we can have faith…. that one day….it will seem possible.  We can hope to one day, have hope.
 
 Psalm 6:3 My soul is in deep anguish.  How long, Lord, how long?
​
September 30, 2019
There is something about fall that heightens my senses.  The coolness of the mornings….the dew scented beginnings of imminent decay….even in this water-drenched fall of more green than usual, the hints of fall are everywhere.  And then the splash of the first golden tree! And the occasional red bush!   A feast for the eyes made all the more splendid with the contrast of green surrounding them.  Fall changes are on their way!
 
Sometimes we long for things to stay the same…..imagine that fellow Scandinavian Lutherans!  Perhaps, our emigrating ancestors had faced enough change and needed to cling and long for things that are changeless and constant.  That has passed down to us and has become part of our heritage.  Change?  Why?  No!
 
But changes, the ones we struggle through, the ones we long for, the ones that unexpectedly and uninvitedly plop into our laps are a given.  Hopefully those changes make us much more appreciative of those golden moments we do encounter.    We treasure them all the more because we know they are fleeting.   But there is one constant in our lives that is never changing.  The creator of the earth and all its spinning changes is always there for us to lean on and learn from.  He sent His only Son to us to make this promise known to us.
 
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
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September 12, 2019
Fall
 
Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you.  1 Peter 5:7
 
My favorite season is nearly upon us…..FALL….I love the swirly, twirling, colored leaves coming down in red, yellow, gold, and even brown….the delicious sound of crunching leaves under my shoes as I go about my walks.  Hmmm….well so far those crunchy leaves are pretty soggy….and pretty green….and it has been a very wet fall.  Global warming?  Climate change?  There are lots of worries for our farmers of getting ripe and overripe crops harvested and to market or stored dry and safe in bins.  That worry adds melancholy to the already shortened days and the changing of the seasons. 
 
I sat listening to the dripping water coming off my roof and splattering on the sidewalk.  It can be  peaceful….it IS one of the sounds on my noise machine that is supposed to lull me into more restful sleep.  Drops of water….reminds me of Baptism.  Life giving Baptismal water dripping down from
God’s fingers to touch the dusty mankind he created and wash them in new life.
 
Changes….there is always something in our lives that is changing.  But remember: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
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August 18, 2019
​Luke 12:33  Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
Ahhhh....purses....a woman’s carrying case of essentials!  At least prior to marriage and children!  Then it becomes the ‘family’ purse as my married daughters say.  ‘Why is your purse so heavy?’ my spouse asks....because it has YOUR billfold, sunglasses, meds, keys, snacks, and anything else you don’t want in YOUR pockets!
It did not surprise me that the word ‘purse’ is what jumped out at me from the Gospel lesson for August 11....Oh, my aching shoulders from all the stuff I carry.   Yes, I would love a purse that never wears out....and even better if it is filled with treasures that a thief can NEVER take away from me!  Perfect!  Goodbye cheapo bags from Target that self-destruct!  Goodbye stuff that is only used occasionally.  Only unfailing treasures in this bag!   And those TREASURES would be......those UNFAILING TREASURES would be?  Anything earthly that would not return to dust would be?   Hmmmn.   I guess there is really nothing that I can squeeze into that purse that does not wear out. ‘But the Father, your Father, has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.’  WE are the treasures in the purse that will not wear out!  It is not our doing; it is what God has done for us!  No thief can ever steal his love for us or take away the redemption his son has provided.  The burdens we carried in those heavy over-stuffed purses have been forgiven.  Amen.
August 6, 2019
Quilting
 
I have been cleaning out a few things.  My ‘minimalist’ personality doesn’t like a lot of ‘stuff’ just lying around.  So…..I opened up my file draw of fabric…..Oh My!  There was a lot more than I thought….and the best give-away solution seemed to be quilt tops for our lovely First Lutheran Quilters to tie and add to the shipment to Lutheran World Relief.  I am now eight quilt tops later and the fabric stash is considerably lower…though not completely gone.
 
With that background in mind, it shouldn’t surprise you that on a recent drive, I saw more quilts!  Not the fabric kind….but the field kind.  It was beautiful.  The  blue flax was blooming,  butting  up against yellow waving fields of canola…..add some ripening fields of small grains and a few green fields of soybeans ….it was a moving, growing, beautiful quilt.  Well…..at least it was beautiful from my point of view.  A closer look would reveal some piles of rocks, hardy and determined clumps of weeds, and a rank slough or two.  The view from beneath would be worse….. dark, wormy, rooty, and buggy.
 
Sometimes, we flawed human beings, can only see the underneath….the jagged edges, imperfect seams, problems and difficulties that pull us down.  But God is constantly working on ‘our’ quilt.  He sees the beautiful side, the growing, ever-moving side.  We do not and cannot have all the answers or whys to the mysteries of life….but God does.  And he is ever there just waiting for us….to wrap us up in that warm quilt and peace of his presence. 
 
1 Corinthians 13:12  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
July 25, 2019
Son Screen
 
Even though it is July and I am nicely tanned, I still slather on the sunscreen when I know I will be outside, in the sun, for several hours.  There is only so much abuse I want my skin to take.  And being somewhat vain, I want to fight the aging brown spots that continue to pop out from my over indulgence back in the 1970’s.  Ugh!  I actually am fighting emerging white spots in contradiction to brown spots….apparently my pigmentation is tired of being tan and just wants to be retired….and here come the white polka dots!  Sigh.
 
Slathering on the sunscreen….protection from those hurtful rays, a balm for my drying, browning, skin.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could slather on something for when our feelings get hurt?  Sometimes it is intentional, sometimes it is our over active imaginations and hyper sensitivity…..but it still hurts. 
 
Grace can be like that sunscreen…..slathering on of protection when we are feeling abused and wronged.  Slathered on our accuser who just might be right…..grace enough for all…..grace for our imperfections….and for the imperfections of others.
 
Ephesians 2:8-9  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast.

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July 6, 2019
2 Corinthians 12:5 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
 
Three Strikes and You’re…….?  In!
 
I have been on a losing streak….three times I have lost something….and three times the lost things have been found for me.  Not by me, but for me.
 
The first time, I lost a watch on the golf course.  Not an expensive one, but I liked it….a snap-on bracelet type that fit my bony wrist.  It went flying off on one of my mighty golf shots, (ha-ha) and I didn’t notice it was gone, until the 19th hole.  Well trying to find that would be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.  But I called out to the clubhouse the next day, and low and behold, someone had found it and turned it in to Lost and Found.  Uncanny…..what are the odds?  I was happy to snap it back on!
 
Fast forward several weeks, being slow to learn from my mistakes, I again neglected to take off the bracelet watch, and poof; it was gone when I was done with golf for the day.  Oh man, not two times….this is embarrassing.  But I humbled myself, checked again at the club house, and it had been found again!  Amazing!
 
And we’re off to the races for a third time.  This time not a cheapo bracelet watch, which I finally had the good sense to leave at home…but my little Golf Buddy.  No not a friend, but a little 2 inch by 2 inch range finder that I had used all of three times.  And I was so sure that not accurately judging the distance to the golf pin was the only thing holding me back on improving my golf game!  But my little Golf Buddy is not as sparkly as my bracelet watch, so it was even less likely to be found.  And it was not cheap!   And I felt really bad about losing things, things slipping through my clutched fingers, forgetting things, not paying attention…..aging is painful. Ugh….off to the clubhouse I go, humbled again.  Nothing in Lost and Found this time.  But…..a golf course worker had come in for a break, just off the # 9 tee, and heard my inquiry.   He pulled my little Buddy out of his pocket and asked, “Is this what you are looking for?  I almost ran over it with the machine.”  And I was found one more time. 
 
Crazy stuff.  Author Brian Doyle would have said “it is the huge in the tiny.”  The little bumps in the night that cause us to pause and consider the mysteries of life.  Grace filled life for me. Despite my best efforts, I will still mess up and lose things.  And they will not always be found.  But the “Finder of All Things”, will not stop looking for me.
 
2 Corinthians 12:5 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
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June 13, 2019
Pilot Car
 
It’s one of two seasons in North Dakota…..winter…..and road construction.  Or de-construction as the case may be.  We state natives patiently wait our turn to proceed with caution…yah, right.  Sometimes, we have a pilot car to guide us, a dirty beacon that leads us safely through the road construction hazards.
 
A pilot car…..a navigator.  Sounds like a good analogy for our life travels.  We do have a navigator for that too.  Jesus Christ is our beacon to travel the roadway of life.  That doesn’t mean that we will get through life without hitting a pothole or two…or three… or sometimes a whole plethora of them.  It does mean that we will not travel that route alone.  He goes with us.  There is no interruption, or discomfort, or delay, or sorrow, that He has not experienced Himself.  He shares our hurts because they are His own hurts.    When our path is muddy and treacherous we can lean on Him to steady us and to plunder along with us until we are finally in safety with Him.
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2     He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters
3     he restores my soul
He leads me in right path
    for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley
    I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff--
    they comfort me

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy   shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long

​
May 26, 2019
Quilting Ministry—Telling Our Story
First Lutheran Church recently completed a Synod Ministry Review.  As part of that review, we were challenged to tell ‘Our Stories’, our church’s stories, our ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’ stories, to our congregation and to our community.  One of our ‘stories’ is the mission of our quilts. Since our fall collection, our faithful team of quilters has completed 100 quilts.   Those quilts were boxed for distribution through Lutheran World Relief.  Our quilts join countless others across the country to reach out to people in need around the world.  When we give the gift of a quilt, we give a tangible symbol of God’s love to people in their hour of greatest need.  A quilt may become a shelter from the elements, a tent, a room divider, a warm bed, a comfort blanket,  or even a swaddling blanket.  Yesterday a quilt covered a sleeping child in South Sudan; tomorrow it may comfort an aging grandmother in Serbia.  In 2015, our FLC quilts were given to those folks who lost their residences in the apartment fire in our own downtown Harvey.
 
Lutheran World Relief works with people based on need, regardless of race, religion or nationality.   It is one of the first organizations on the ground helping to meet people’s immediate needs and one of the quilts that was prayerfully pieced together at First Lutheran Church is there with them.
 
Thank you to our FLC quilters for your faithful time given to this ministry.  And thank you, members of our congregation…for your donations of thread, fabric, and sheets, and for your financial support that heats and lights this building, and provides the electricity to power the sewing machines for our quilters.  First Lutheran Church is “God’s work, our hands” around the world.
May 14, 2019
Host and Guest
 
These words caught my attention, as they were used to describe the presence of Christ during communion by my Pastor in Arizona.   Host and guest….sounds like a party….a celebration…a relationship.    For a relationship, both are needed…. host and guest. 
 
A host is a person who receives other people or guests.  Christ, as host made sense to me….growing up Catholic, the consecrated bread used at communion was called a ‘host’; Christ present.   Host as in serving Himself to us; the meal prepared.  Bread becomes more than bread….and wine becomes more than wine.  Here is bread for the nourishment of your soul….here is my blood to quench your thirst from the well that won’t run dry.  Our Lutheran heritage declares that Jesus Christ is present in, within, and under the bread and the wine and we are invited to be with Him, our host, and our accepted guest, and we partake of what he has to offer.   The mystery of wine, bread, flesh, and blood……faith.   And my favorite verse:
 
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
May 4, 2019
Miracle of Technology?
 
We recently attended Easter services at Shepherd of the Mountain Church in Park City, Utah.  It was a beautiful drive up the mountain to the church nestled in a wooded area of the city.  It reminded me our own Camp Metigoshe.
 
We entered the sanctuary and found seats.  The Pastor greeted us from the aisle and during our chat, a member of the praise band came up to tell him that the computer had crashed.  It’s the contemporary service where there are no bulletins….it is all projected onto two screens at the front of the church.  The ‘seasoned’ Pastor assured us that worship would go on, computers or not.  He did seem a tad ruffled, so I simply looked at him (I hoped reassuringly) and said “Peace”.   There were rustlings around us from the balcony and from the band area.
 
A few minutes later he came back down the aisle and leaned in to tell me “We’re back on….the computer decided to work!”  A technological miracle on Easter Sunday?…..maybe…..or maybe not ….or maybe a wink of God’s eye to help us focus on what was really important about that day.  Christ has risen….150 or so people are gathered to celebrate that event from long ago….and to continue to proclaim that ‘Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!’
 
Matthew 24:5b Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
​
April 17, 2019
​We believe….
 
1 Corinthians 7:5
Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again
 
I am re-reading Love Big…Be Well, by Eugene Peterson.   It is a collection of letters written by fictional Pastor Jonas McAnn to his congregation.   In one chapter, Jonas writes a letter to his congregation on “The Creeds”.  He reminds his parishioners that ’we just don’t say the creeds, we pray them; they are a story of God rescuing us; they are prayers meant to be said in community’.  His comments resonated with me; especially the aspect of community.
 
Our traditional Lutheran version of the Apostles’ Creed begins with ‘I believe’.   Some denominations use ‘we’ instead of  ‘I’.   It becomes, ‘We believe in God, the Father Almighty…..We believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord…..We believe in the Holy Spirit.’  In using ‘we’, it is claimed for ALL of us, together.  When we pray this prayer, we do so in worship and we join a faith community that supports one another.   When our own faith may be weak or faltering we lean on the faith of those gathered around us uttering the same words.
 
I was thinking these thoughts of mine on shared worship, on Palm Sunday.  To my delight, it was sweetly displayed for me when the Sunday School children were called up to the front of the church to ‘lead’ us in prayer.  These little folks, third grade and younger, joined hands, and with some coaching from their teacher, led us in the Apostles’ Creed.  There they were, some of the youngest members of the community of faith, reaching out to all of us, and reminding us of what we believe.
March 31, 2019
 
2 Corinthians 3:2
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all;
 
You Are Mine
 
Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine
 
This song by David Haas has really resonated with me of late.
 
I recently was given a box of contribution envelopes at my ‘snowbird’ church.  It made me smile!  What a privilege!  Last fall we had completed an ‘Estimate of Giving’ card and had dutifully been making our contributions to our winter ‘home’ church.  And then a few weeks ago I received a thank you note for our financial contributions and my very own box of envelopes!  Some folks might not be as happy about that as I am….but when you are out of your norm for six months of the year, and you grow a little tedious of introducing and re-introducing yourself to folks and briefly telling your history; it is much appreciated when someone knows you and recognizes you and acknowledges your presence!  So, along those lines, I present a ‘Jeff Foxworthy’  list of:  You know you belong when:
1.      You get your very own box of offering envelopes, #254
2.      Your choir music folder has your name on it
3.      You are on the service list for reading scripture and distributing communion
4.      You are greeted at the door by NAME, by the Pastor and the Usher
5.      Hands reach out to touch and greet you during the offering of Peace
6.      You are asked where to find things in the church building
7.      You miss a Sunday and you are told that it is nice to have you back
8.      You are asked to join a Bible study group
9.      You are asked to bring food for the potluck supper
10.   You feel joy and companionship at the church service
I challenge you friends, to reach out and make someone ‘known’ wherever you may be!
 
John 17:10
All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
​
March 9, 2019
Transfiguration…..a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.
 
We observed  the Transfiguration of our Lord Sunday on March 3rd.    The Gospel of Luke tells us that after praying, Jesus appeared to three of his disciples with his face changed (transfigured) and his clothes bright as lightning.   Our Desert Cross children’s sermon that Sunday was on the same topic.  And I wondered what those little people might be making of ‘faces transfigured’ as they looked out at the sea of parents and grandparents beaming back at them.  Those adults were transfigured with shining, smiling faces….and lines and wrinkles….and more than a few gray hairs.  Did noticing the changes from themselves to their elders help those children to understand what transfiguration might mean?
 
We also had a baptism that Sunday.  A tiny, nearly brand new infant was welcomed into the membership of God’s kingdom.  That little fellow in his sparkling white Baptismal outfit was transfigured….from dry, sleeping face to a wet, crying one….and his little face was transfigured when Pastor Andrea dipped her finger into the water and traced a cross onto his little, annoyed brow.
 
We were again transfigured on Ash Wednesday.  This time a dark, and gritty cross was marked on our foreheads….’from dust you were formed (transfigured) and to dust you shall return’.  That water based cross of Baptism united us with the life of Christ, and the murky cross of Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are united with him in his death and resurrection.  
 
Glowing, grit, dark, light, water, crosses….the words of Lent.    May we experience more transfigurations, more beautiful spiritual states, as we continue on our Lenten journey.
February 23, 2019
Lost and Found
 
“OK, Ma’am, you’re all checked out with your rental car….any questions?”
 
No, I thought.  It should be just like what I am used to driving.  So I head off in the dark to find my rental car.  Hop in and warm it up and I am ready to find my way around Madison and get to my hotel.  Right?
Almost right…..there is no GPS.  Hmnnn….well this shouldn’t be too bad….Madison isn’t that big of a town and I had glanced at the printout on MapQuest just in case.   After two unsuccessful trips around the airport just trying to get out, I was losing some of my self-confidence…..nevertheless, I persisted (popular t-shirt slogan right now).
 
After 10 minutes driving around dark roads and trying to decipher dimly lit signs, I decided to ‘look for the helpers, (thank you Mr. Rogers for that message.)  So at the first well-lit gas station, I asked for help…..”Uh, I’m not sure where that is but if you head north of here you should hit interstate”.  OK, and off I go.  More wandering and I decided to seek ‘help’ again.  I hit the jackpot this time.  The smiling young (younger than me anyway) Hispanic man patiently gave me a maze of direction that I was hastily writing down on the back of expired lottery tickets on the counter.  He saw the look on my bewildered face and said, “Hey, you have a phone don’t you?”  I did, but I hadn’t been able to get it to sync with the car system.  He smiled and reassured me that he had done this for his Mom all the time until she passed away.  He then took my phone and got me all set up and wished me good luck.  I told him that surely his Momma had raised him right and she was smiling down on him.  He gave me a misty smile in return.
 
I ventured off for the third time that night.  My little beacon cell phone map  guiding me through all the twisting turns in the dark and I eventually wound up at my hotel; an hour after my flight had landed instead of the 15 minutes I thought it would take.
 
Now there are lots of little messages here about following the light, or seeking help, praying for answers, listening to that inner nudge of the spirit,  or being doubly or triply prepared especially if you are a woman traveling alone.  But my thoughts linger on the kindness of a stranger; of trusting someone from another ethnicity; and of paying it forward when I happen on to someone who is just a little lost.
Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
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February 4, 2019
2 Timothy 3:17….so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
 
Equipper
 
“Hi.  Welcome to the Desert Cross Women’s retreat.   I am here as an equipper today.”  I was greeted warmly by this male greeter as I entered the fellowship building.  OK…… I thought, a little puzzled by the terminology ‘equipper’, as he handed me my packet of materials for the women’s retreat.  Good old Merriam-Webster defines equipper as “a person or organization that equips.” And to equip is to “supply with the necessary items for a particular purpose.”
 
Did you notice that it was a man that was the equipper?  And he was at a women’s retreat?   Hmnn…. these folks must be southern ELCA Lutherans! 
 
He wasn’t a token male.  There were several assisting us here and there as needed…it was lovely and allowed more women to be part of the listeners, to be  the Mary’s, while the men became the Martha’s.   We women were given the gift of being served…the men equipping us with the leisure and luxury of being receivers.
 
I thought of our Gospel readings of late…of Jesus Baptism…of Jesus becoming ‘equipped’ for his ministry through the gifts and strengths of the Holy Spirit.   We were equipped and blessed during our own Baptisms.  God has equipped us too, to serve and fulfill the missions he has planned for us.   We were given the gifts of the Spirit for a lifetime.                                                    
John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
​
January 19, 2019

​Unexpected Grace
 
It had been a reflective week.  My oldest brother had passed away.  He had been in poor health for several years so it was expected and yet unexpected in the way that deaths of family and friends go.
 
I found a little bit of comfort and grace, unexpectedly, on the golf course.
 
My spouse and I had decided to go to the course a few blocks from our Arizona house.  I always have a little apprehension when playing a new course and with people I haven’t met before.  I don’t like to be the one that slows down someone else’s play.  Sometimes, I try to anticipate their playing skills by what they are wearing.  Like their shoes….spikes definitely means they are more likely to be ‘long hitters.’  But one of our playing partners was wearing tennis shoes!  Yes!
 
We exchanged introductions;  and in their lovely, lilting, almost Scottish, Canadian accents we found out that one was named Bill and the other David….just a little coincidence that the second guy and my recently deceased brother had the same name?  And they were from the most polite country on the planet!
 
Under gallery pressure, (three men watching) I messed up my drive on the very first tee.  David just smiled and said, “There is grace for that”!  What?  “My wife and I play with a lot of grace”, he said.   I responded, “You must be Lutheran.”  He had a quizzical look on his face as we set off down the fairway.  Oh-oh, I thought….
 
At the next tee box, I thought I should explain myself.    I told him I was Lutheran and our byword is Grace and that I hoped he hadn’t been off put by my statement.  He proceeded to tell me that he belonged to  a different denomination, but in the winter spending time in the  ‘States’ they do, indeed, attend a Lutheran church.   He shared with me of his work with a Christian foundation and their r efforts with youth faith development.   It was a ‘divine’ golfing experience to chat with him as we played 18 holes.
 
Now some will say this little event is of no significance.  Not so much me….I needed those moments to refresh my soul; ‘the huge in the tiny’ as author Brian Doyle would say.  It was a reminder to me that peace and comfort and God moments are happening all the time and I need to keep my eyes and heart open to embrace them.
Peace.
January 5, 2019
​Matthew 2:13
 Now after they (the three Wisemen) had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you;

 
I thought of my own fleeing when I read these verses.  My own modern day caravan was huddled down at the airport waiting for our plane to arrive and take us not to Egypt, but to warmer climates.
In a dream, Joseph is told to pack up his little family and flee.  They had traveled so far and for so long….and now they must go further?  For how long?  How far?  How will Joseph provide for his family? These were questions that must have been on their hearts, but God had provided an Angel of guidance before, and they trusted despite their fears. “ Flee!  Now!  Before Herod and his minions can find and destroy you! “ Herod was also fearful.   He knew what the peoples’ faith in the promised Messiah could do to his reign.  He wanted to stop this mystical event!  He was the original Grinch that was trying to steal Christmas. 
We have our own reasons for modern day flight; escaping those things that press in around us like Herod’s underlings….not just the cold temperatures….but maybe a chill around our hearts.  The frenzied, rapid fire, free-for-all of our chaotic live can threaten to freeze our souls.  We can be immobilized and stop in our frozen steps and wonder if there is any hope for our futures.
But maybe, just maybe, we can pause and think of that fleeing adventure of that little family over 2000 years ago.  And how they listened to the voice in a dream.  And followed that beckoning…and trusted….that in God’s timing….they would find their way home once again.  They were fleeing, but they were hopeful in God’s promises to them.
December 23, 2018
​Arizona is so different from North Dakota that it can feel like a foreign country.  I find it challenging to get into the Christmas festivities without a little sparkle of snow on the round.  I grew up as a ‘seasonal’ person, so I am not sure how long it will take to fully embrace a brown Christmas!
 
This year as I sat doing my Christmas cards, I had loud Christmas music playing to help motivate me and remind me of  ‘home’…but when I looked out my window, I saw blue sky, palm trees, cactus, and desert sand around me.   And then it hit me.  Jesus wasn’t born in Oslo, Norway or Odessa, Russia.  His view of the world was closer to what I was seeing than what I was used to back home.  His parents did not have blue eyes and blonde hair.  They would have had dark hair, dark eyes, and skin in beautiful shades from olive to bronze, and He would have spoken in a language unknown to me.
 
But He speaks to all of us in the universal language of the yearning heart and soul.  He didn’t look like us….but He came for ALL of us… regardless of the package we came in.  Just like all of those lovely packages under our tree…..each one a different color, size, and shape...but each purchased through the birth and death of Christ.
December 6, 2018
Luke 3:4 The voice of one crying out in the wilderness
 
The verses prior to this one tell of the political and powerful leaders of the time:  Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod tetrarch, Philip tetrarch, Lysanias tetrarch, high priests Annas, Caiaphas….and then in stark contrast ‘the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah.’  It didn’t come to the rich and powerful in their palaces….it came to one living off the land, eating honey and locusts, and on his back were the only clothes he owned.  God chose to send His word to this outcast wearing rags and eating bugs who would listen, rather than to the self-important leaders who would not.  And the people listened as he preached from the prophet Isaiah: Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.  In our modern day language he is saying, ‘Get you act together people, the time has come’.
 
We hear the voices of the political and powerful all of the time….it is hard to escape them with the constant flood from all of the media sources we are exposed to.  Are we listening to all of the self-important of our day? What is the cost of that impact on our lives?  Or can we find the quiet voices around us that speak of more worthy things?  Can we look to those who have lived lives of service and humility and grace….lives that point us to a better way.  Can we, with God’s help live lives so that “all people will see God’s salvation.”  Amen.
 
Luke 3:4-6
As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:  A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.  And all people will see God’s salvation.
November 29, 2018
Ebenezer?
 
Come Thou font of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace……Here I raise my Ebenezer….
 
Ahhh….what?  Here I raise my Ebenezer?  We are approaching the season of Advent and Christmas, so….is this Ebenezer in reference to Ebenezer Scrooge?  Scrooge in a church hymnal?  That doesn’t seem likely…so off to cyberspace for a little research.
 
Ebenezer is mentioned in the Bible in 1 Samuel 7:12 Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the town of Mizpah and Jeshanah.  He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of the helper”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!    You could say the Israelites found themselves between a rock and a hard place (pun intended).  Samuel was a priest and prophet of the 12 tribes of Israel as they struggled to come together as a nation.  The Israelites cried out to Samuel to beseech the Lord on their behalf to save them from the conquering Philistines.  And God answered their prayer.
 
Samuel not only set the stone as a marker and a reminder, but he named it!  I am reminded of our youth asking us to place our names on a stone….our ‘named’ stone to be picked up by another parishioner and for them to remember to keep us in prayer.  I have those traded stones by my kitchen sink….two rocks with two parishioners’’ names on them; alongside it is a rock from a retreat imprinted with the word ‘trust’.  They go hand in hand for me. 
 
I lean on the last part of verse 12: up to this point the Lord has helped us.  The Israelites have been bailed out and they are grateful….but those last few words admit their weakness….they intend to remain strong and rely on God, but that little piece of doubt still exists….up to this point.  Nevertheless, God will continue to be with his faltering people.
 
Rocks….something concrete for us to hang onto; the Ebenezer that God continues to build his church upon. 
November 12, 2018
All of us are in God’s breadline 
I came across this journal entry I had written down while doing some cleaning and sorting.  I don’t remember any longer who the source was.  Breadline….it brings several images to mind. 
Breadlines began in the 1930’s….charitable groups made sandwiches and offered them to folks who had nothing.  The poor formed long lines to wait for the distribution of a sandwich.  Worn, tattered, and hungry, they trudged to this ‘altar’ and were fed….barely enough to sustain them until the next day, when they would once again, get in the ‘breadline’.  
Each Sunday, we at First Lutheran, form our own ‘breadline’.  We wait in line to receive the spirit and soul saving bread of Christ.  We come to communion, in our own weary, tattered hungriness; our spiritual needs as great as those with physical needs in the 30’s.  We open ourselves to receive the sacramental gift and grace of God’s love and care for us.  This bread…this Christ-present bread…’broken for us’….divine words of institution…nourish and feed us and hold us and sustain us.   
Gracious God, in this month of Thanksgiving, may we be truly grateful, for the ‘breadline’ you have provided for us.
October 11, 2018
Gossip and Gospel
 
James 1:26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
 
I’m not quite sure why those two words have been rattling around my brain.  Maybe it is all the Scrabble I have been playing on the computer in an effort to save a few brain cells?  Let’s see…..there is a G, O, and S on the board and if I can fit in three letters, I can get triple word points……hmnnnnn.
 
So I did a little checking on Wikipedia, and……Gossip and Gospel…..two intersecting words whose definitions are analogous but whose intent is very different.  Both are defined as news….news that is shared.
 
Then we find the differences. Gossip is casual on unconstrained conversation about other people, typically involving details that are NOT confirmed as true.  The word gossip comes from old English for godparent.  A woman giving birth had female friends and relatives with her and they engaged in conversation to pass the time and encourage her as she labored.  I can see where fanciful stories would be entertaining and were meant to distract the mother from her physical pain.  I think that since then, women have been given a bad rap as being the source of ‘gossip’;  but if you drop into any of the local ‘tables of knowledge’ you might find both genders engaged in some ‘casual’ conversation about other people!
 
Then there is the definition of Gospel:  the teaching or revelation of Christ; a thing that is absolutely true; a set of principles or beliefs.   Scandinavians are pretty certain that these conversations should only happen for one hour on a Sunday morning and we wouldn’t want it to be ‘unconstrained’ and surely not shared as gleefully as gossip!  But the very definition of Gospel is that it is intended to be shared; shouted from the rooftops!  No secrets whispered behind closed doors!  We are challenged to go bold and spread some Gospel! 
 
Gossip and Gospel
Sinner and Saint
 
Mark 16:15  And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
​
September 19, 2018
​Genesis 3:8-9
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden.  So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “where are you?”
 
These verses call to mind playing hide and seek with my grandchildren.  They were little and our game wasn’t too sophisticated.  Any spot would do for a hiding place for them.  I would call for them and pretend I couldn’t find them.  When they couldn’t stand the suspense any longer, they would giggle and call out ‘I’m in the …….’. 
 
Not so much Adam and Eve.  They didn’t want to be found.  They didn’t want their sins to be found.  It wasn’t their nakedness that caused them shame.  It was the utter vulnerability of being caught disobeying the one who loved them; the one who created them and called to them out of the dust of the earth to be his.  One thing he commanded….and that thing they could not refrain from doing.  But God still loved them….still called to them.  He knew what had happened….knew what would happen before He had formed them.  And still there was love and longing for relationship.  Can our mere meager brains and spirits comprehend a love that is that great?  Not yet.
 
God will continue to look for us and try to find us where we are hiding, as long as we’re looking and listening for Him.
August 28, 2018
Church Steeples
 
It has been my pleasure to visit four rural churches this summer and lead them in worship as a lay minister.  I have had to step outside my ‘comfort zone’ but what I have received back has been ten-fold.
 
When I have driven into these small towns, the first thing I look for is the church steeple.  In most small communities, you don’t have to ask for directions to where the church is.  That steeple is a beacon before you enter the official ‘city’ limits.  I am guessing that those forefathers had that in mind when they sacrificed to build those beautiful structures.  From far away on that that flat, unpopulated, monotonous prairie, travelers would know there was a place of worship ahead.  That steeple, guided them to it.   And that uplifting steeple, pointed upward to God; just as we should.
 
Not all of our small, early churches are still in operation.  We see the abandoned buildings when we drive across our flat state.  The paint may be peeling, the steps sagging, and the roof tilting, but sometimes that aging steeple is still there; still pointing and reminding us of God.  Those buildings have seen hard times and neglect just like we have.  They are hanging together as best they can, just like we are.  If I drive by slowly…..thoughtfully…listening….I can hear those whispered prayers in the sighing winds that sweep around those structures.  These church sites may no longer be filled with people….but I think their hopes and dreams and prayers and songs of adoration are still lingering is what remains of their structures.  And we can add our own prayers and a sliver of renewed life as we pass them.
 
2 Timothy 1:3-4  I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.   Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
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August 8, 2018
Luke 22:19 “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
 
Change!
 
That most fearful word for Lutherans!  I had to smile on Sunday as we were exiting the church…thinking back a few years ago when we used to be ushered out of church, in a nice, orderly, silent and stoic Scandinavian kind of way.  Then we discontinued our reserved and choreographed exit from the Sanctuary.  Some folks, at first, thought we were stomping out like a herd of cattle!!!  Where is the sacredness in that?!?  Spring forward to our current practices….we receive the Benediction Blessing, sing our Sending Song, and are dismissed with “Go in peace.  Share the good news.”  “Thanks be to God.”
 
And the ‘cattle’ do not stomp out.  They ease into the center aisle, smiling, and greeting, chatting, and waiting for the folks ahead of them to more toward the exit.  I wondered if anyone recalls the good old days of being ushered out of the church?  Changes!
 
We have been experimenting with changes in our Communion practices of late.  Not the theology of Communion, but the tradition of its celebration; first and third only, every Sunday, at the altar, in the aisle, by intinction, using Communion ware, two receiving stations, one station with two assistants.  It may be a bit mind boggling to some….but I think we may be paying a bit more attention too; and taking a moment to ponder what Communion is and why do we celebrate it at all.  The why is more important than the how or the where.     Luke 22:19 “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”   And the disciples did their remembering…not in a beautiful sanctuary like ours.  Very probably they were in someone’s home, or on a riverbank, or wherever two or three were gathered in His name.
 
Changes….there will always be changes of some sort….they are not always easy or welcome.  We may not always embrace them, but we can willingly try them.  It is OK to be pushed a bit and to be uncomfortable a bit and to ponder a bit what God’s people are up to.  
July 13, 2018
​Exodus 14:11-12  The Israelites said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?  What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?  Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’?  For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians that to die in the wilderness.”
 
I attended a writing workshop recently.  One of our tasks was to place members of our church family in the roles of characters of the Bible.  Who is our present day John the Baptizer?  Who is our present day Martha, always bustling about in the kitchen?  Who is our Ruth, the loyal and faithful follower?  And who is our entire congregation?  That one was a tad harder.  I think a few years ago we saw ourselves as David in a culture of Goliaths.  But who are we now?
 
Are we the wandering and wondering people of desert Israel?   This desert that is full of fears and concerns of enough and fears of change.   Not certain any longer of what the next day will bring or what our future will be.  Is there a place in this desert for the ‘church’ as we know it?   Is it needed or wanted?  The winds of change are blowing and the sand may feel like it is being swept away from under our feet and we long for that Oasis of the way things used to be.
 
We, like the newly freed Israelites, may be wishing to be back to Egypt as slaves…because we knew what our role was then…we knew that each day we would be making more bricks.  Nothing much would change from day to day.  We made bricks, we were fed, and we slept.   But God has called us out of our Egypt years too.  He has called us to be seekers.  To think ‘outside the box’.   To change.  To dare to try to be something new…and maybe even something better.  And yes, it is a fearful journey to leave behind our former identities.  But God is with us.  He will keep his promises.  We abide with him on this journey until, we reach his Oasis.
June 16, 2017
​Mark 4:30-34   He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?  It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
 
Mustard seeds….they have very humble beginnings….just like we do.  We arrived in this world as very tiny, needy beings.  We needed care…or we would not grow…..just like the mustard seed.  If it is not watered and nourished, nothing will come of it.   It will provide nothing.
 
The mustard seed in the Gospel today becomes a large shrub…large enough to have branches, and to provide shade.  Most of us are familiar with wild mustard, a nuisance weed.  Or maybe we have seen golden cultivated fields of intentionally planted mustard fields….but not so much with a mustard shrub…..maybe that’s how it grew in the Middle East in Jesus day.
 
The mustard seed in the parable was nurtured.  Just as we need to be nurtured….physically, with food, clothing, and shelter, love, and exercise and activities.  We need to be nurtured spiritually ….. by hearing God’s word and sometimes by speaking God’s words to others.  We are nurtured by reading the Bible or having someone read it to us…..or by reading it to someone.  Sometimes we are blessed to serve…. And sometimes we are blessed and nurtured to receive.  
 
We are nurtured and encouraged to grow when we pray.  It is our conversation time with God.  We offer our concerns and thanksgivings…sometimes we speak, sometimes when we just sigh, sometimes when we sing, and sometimes when we are silent.  And the other half of our prayers….is listening.   In the still quietness of our days…we can be listening and dwelling in the presence of God and let his mystery and love enfold us in His gentle embrace.  
 June 4, 2018
​

“We do, and we ask God to help and guide us!”
 
Did we know what we were getting into when we made this pledge with our confirmands on April 29th?  What were we vowing to do?  Our recent Confirmation service caused me to really think about these things.  Our congregation was asked, “People of God, do you promise to support these sisters and brothers and pray for them in their life in Christ?”  That question doesn’t apply to just the day we publicly acknowledged these young people in their Affirmation of Baptism….that commitment response applies to all of the confirmands days… and ours.  The power and promise of prayer and support for each other knits us together as church, as family, as community. 
 
In these days of advancing technology based communication, prayer and support, the human connection with each other, is ever important.  God knows that we need union with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Our service on April 29th reminded us of that.  In turn, our confirmands join us in ‘renewed participation in the life and work of the Church of Christ’ (see the small print in the ELW, Evangelical Lutheran Worship book).  Ahhh….Confirmation is a beginning, not an ending or a completion.  Each group of the confirmed joins us in supporting and praying for the next generation and the circle is completed and expanded each year.  We hold the spiritual hands of each other as we journey on.
May 17, 2018
​Matthew 14:27-32
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
 
I think most of us are familiar with the story of doubting Thomas.  He was not with the other 10 Apostles when Jesus appeared to them.  And he said that unless he saw the wounds and touched the pierced side of Jesus he would not believe.  Be he did recant his doubts and professed his faith.  What isn’t as well known, is that despite his legacy of doubting, he did rise to his calling as a disciple and did spread the good news as far as present day India before his death.
 
We are familiar with Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church”!  But did you know that Peter could have been known as doubting Peter.  Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it. But, Peter also had his doubts.  Peter also had his fears and did deny knowing Jesus Christ three times.  And, he was, indeed, a rock of the church.
 
So, what is in a name?  Maybe the name isn’t as important as who does the naming?  That as our circumstances and experience change us, we have room for growth?  Callings may come and go, but who does the calling and where the calling points us is what is really important.
 
Isaiah 43:1b “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine
.”
May 3, 2018
 1 Peter 2:7
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner.”
 
Have you seen picture of old stone fences?  I was privileged to get up close and personal with those ancient stone fences on a trip to Ireland several years ago.  Those fences divided up the green property in a creative orderliness as of a fine quilt.  They were not perfectly straight but zigged and zagged around the landscape as they had need to.  They have stood the test of time.
 
It was interesting to hear our guide talk of those fences.  They were carefully crafted and fit together….and not seamlessly.  There were intended holes and gaps for the winds of Ireland to be able to blow through them, and not tear them down.  There were bigger stronger ones on the bottom, triangular pieces wedged in here and there, their rough edges pressed in and clinging to the next rock.
 
I thought of my own rocky times.  Times when I let disappointments or bitterness or sadness or negativity become tightly jammed in my own fence; not leaving any room for winds of change or light to get through to me.  And I fell down…and sometimes it took a while to let the master builder put me back together. I hope to remember that the next time my fence is walling me in side and out of reach of where I need to be.
 
1 Peter 2:7
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner.”​

April 13, 2018
A Story of Faith
 
Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
 
Have you ever had one of those moments where you look into someone’s eyes and you know there is a connection?  That happened to me one Sunday when serving Communion at Desert Cross Church in Arizona.  I love to look into people eyes as I tell them, “this is the body of Christ given for you” or down here we sometimes say, “broken” for you.  I think my deep appreciation of assisting with serving Communion may be heightened from spending my growing up years in another religion; a religion where  into the 1960’s, absolutely no one was allowed to touch the ‘host’ but the ordained male clergy!  And here I am, more than a few years later, and a woman, to have the privilege of serving the sacrament.
 
But back to my ‘connection’.   It was with an elderly, lovely, little lady who I had not seen at Desert Cross before.  She had sparkling blue eyes that looked deeply into mine when I offered her the wine and bread….goose bumpy stuff.  As I was leaving services, I heard this little voice, “Miss, oh Miss!”  And there she was at my elbow.  She was pleased with the worship she had participated in and wanted to know more about this congregation.  And she was asking me!   I answered her questions and we had a nice little chat standing in the warm Arizona sunshine.   And lo and behold she had grown up in Portland, ND!  And her name was Faith.  Of course, it had to be Faith.  You can’t make this stuff up.  Apparently North Dakota connections run ‘deep into deep’.  I don’t think I let too much of my NorDakota accent come through as I offered the bread and wine to her?!  So was this beyond a geographical connection?......and into a spiritual connection?
 
I have mentioned in other reflections that coincidence is ‘God being anonymous’.  He was certainly at work that morning.  I was contemplatively alone in a crowd of people as I was exiting the church; and  this fellow worshiper reached out to me, pulling me away from my internal dialogue (I have been accused of thinking too much).   In doing that she got the information she craved and I was able to do a little street Evangelism.   Her questions and interest and responses and enthusiasm warmed my heart and soul.  It was exactly what I needed at that moment and I hope I was able to fill a need that she had.   And if I hadn’t been concerned about tripping and doing a nice face-plant in the parking lot, I think I would have skipped all the way to my car!
​
 John 16:24  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
March 29, 2018
​Genesis 3:19 …..you are dust and to dust you shall return.
 
We started the Lenten season with that reminder….and we were smeared with ashes as a visual reminder of our beginning and ending and our hope of what is to come. 
 
We are still covered with soot and dust. With each footstep of our journey, that sinful soil of self sifts to the ground. 
 
All that dust and dirt brings up an image of that character from the Peanuts comic strip; Pig-Pen.  I love a line from ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Story’.  Charlie Brown is the only one of the ‘Peanuts’ who is accepting of Pig-Pen and sticks up for him by telling the rest of the gang: “Don’t think of it as just dust.  Just think of it as the dirt and dust of far-off lands blowing over here and settling on Pig-Pen.  It staggers the imagination!  He may be carrying the soil that was trod upon by Solomon, or Nebuchadnezzar or Genghis Khan!” Cute and thoughtful.  One layer is a children’s Christmas cartoon and another is a theological layer of Grace in action.
 
It’s a not so cute cartoon image when we are in a dirty mess and we are the one choking on dirt and ashes and the air is so thick with smoke that we can hardly breathe.  But we too wear that smear of ashes just as our ancestors did in that long lineage of God’s creation.  There is humanness and all that it entails.  And there is promise.  The promise that all earthly things are not permanent.  And the promise that the one who created us and loved us out of that dust will be waiting for us to reclaim us to the eternity of his Kingdom.
​​February 27, 2018
The following is an original poem read at Desert Cross Lutheran Church for Ash Wednesday services by Artist in Remote Residence, Heatherlyn.  I hope that the words wash over you as they did me as we journey through this Lenten season of Soil and Soot.  For more inspiration in music, song, poetry, and reflection visit HeatherlynMysic.com

Soil & Soot - an Ash Wednesday inspired Poem from Heatherlyn Soil and Soot

Life is lent to me and to you
All and only Grace is the interest rate, because it's not just a loan
It's a trust, an inheritance - even a partnership
in artistry, a dance of divinity, fearlessly engaging
this wild, reckless human story.
Soil and soot
 skin and bones meet spirit and soul
with Breath, an infinite regeneration of the finite
a temporary reanimation of innumerable specks of ground
all with capacity to feel flames of glory and 
searing burns - heights of passion and plummets of pain
So, wish upon the falling light - to earth 
 returns stardust
Soil and Soot, Spirit-breathed Stardust
become Sunfire, Soulfire wrapped up in muscle, skin, and bones
to witness and heal, to embody love
to all the suffering, crumbly, messy, earthy, and stained
From the Soil, a vital nourishment flourishes up from fertile dirt.
Within the Soot, desolation bears quiet screams from beneath the barren scorched surface.
Soil and Soot - all that rises and all that dies, all that comes and all that goes
What may go now? What may yet come?
What may burgeon from the dust - the soil and the soot?
February 9, 2018
Permanent Marker 
 
Ever have days when you question your value or worth?
Why didn’t I get the raise I deserved?  Why did I get a raise?  Am I really worth that much to my company?  Why wasn’t I recognized for my contributions?  Maybe I didn’t do as good of a job as I thought? 
 
We are humans….and forgetful doubting ones at that.  It is easy to lose sight of who’s we are and in whose sight we have value and worth.  We don’t pause to remember that we are “signed and sealed with the sign of the cross”.
 
I would say nearly all of us have had those words recited over us as infants at our Baptisms or reaffirmed at our Confirmations.  These sacramental rites are visible remembrances that God has claimed us as His own.  We will always have value and merit in God’s eyes.  As fallible human beings, tossed about by life’s storms, it is easy for us to lose sight of that.  Would it be helpful to have that written upon our foreheads in permanent marker?….so we can see it every time we glance in a mirror.  “You are claimed, named, redeemed…and you are Mine.” 
 
Martin Luther saw Baptism as an ongoing lesson; that we should remember and recreate it each day.  That would be easier if that cross of Baptism was visibly there, right?  But we can make that cross on our own forehead as part of our morning ritual….Karen, you have been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  You have been claimed with the sign of the cross, to show that it is to the crucified Christ that you belong.  And while your at it, hum a little tune, like You Are Mine, by David Haas:

Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine
​
January 21, 2018
​We are sacraments?
 
Worship Matters: An introduction to Worship, defines a sacrament in this way:
“For Lutherans, a sacrament:
#1 is something Jesus commanded us to do;
#2 uses a physical element—something we can see, touch and sometimes taste; and
#3 is connected with God’s promise, the word of God, which gives faith.”
 
Lutherans recognize two sacraments:  Baptism and Holy Communion.
 
So my ears perked up when our AZ pastor suggested there may be a third sacrament.
He suggested that we are the third sacrament.  Our service to each other and love for each other is sacramental.   We are commanded (#1) to do just that in 1 Peter 4:10  Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has.
We are the physical element of the sacrament. (#2)
 
And the connection to Gods promises?(#3)  1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another.
The way we serve:  human beings plus God equals the third sacrament.  Rob Bell in Jesus Wants to Save Christians echoes these same thoughts, “The Church is a living Eucharist, because followers of Christ are living Eucharists.  A Christian is a living Eucharist, allowing her body to be broken and her blood to be poured out for the healing of the world.”
 
We sing these beliefs each Sunday in our Offering Song,
“We lift our voices
We lift our hands
We lift our lives up to You
We are an offering
Lord use our voices
Lord use our hands
Lord use our lives they are Yours
We are an offering”

 
Thought provoking, isn’t it?  I don’t have any intention of launching a petition to the ECLA to change our doctrine…..but….to me…..it elevates my thinking and I hope, my actions, to be more of a sacramental way of living out each day…..and I repeat my Baptismal and reaffirmation of Baptism response ’and I ask God to help and guide me’.  Amen
January 7, 2018
Winter Days
 
….”the winter days of our personal lives” so started a recent devotional I read.  The prayer drew analogies between grief and depression to the season of winter.
 
Growing up in North Dakota gives us a distinct perspective of those winter days…bleakness, lack of color, endless winds howling outside our homes…and at times, inside our hearts.  Snowstorm after snowstorm.  The futility of shoveling out.   Layer upon layer of snow….piling higher and higher.  Days of light that become shorter and shorter and the darkness of night growing longer and longer.
 
During these dark times, inside and out, it is difficult to remember that days will lengthen again.  Difficult to remember that the daylight of the sun will once again burn longer than the night time stars.  It will happen but in the ‘winter of our personal lives’ it is hard to imagine.  Time stands still.  And it cannot be rushed.  In our hurry-up culture, we sometimes need to remember that is OK if it takes us awhile to come out of our personal winter.  The seasons unfold, one following another; nature assuring us, that this too, will pass.  Life will never stay just as it is.  And there is comfort in that.  Comfort in knowing that there will be new hellos….but not until we are ready to say goodbye to something old. 
 
Psalm 57:1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by.
​
December 15, 2017
“Without a witness….they will just disappear.”
 
So says an aging Korean Conflict veteran to movie hero, Kevin Bacon, in the film Taking Chance.  Bacon is career military and did not volunteer to serve in Afghanistan; instead requesting office tours to be near his wife and young children.  He is feeling guilty and part of his daily routine is to check casualty lists for servicemen he may know.  He does find a 19 year old casualty, Chance Phelps, from his hometown and volunteers to escort the body home in an effort to ease his own guilt and the feeling he has that he should have been there to lead and assist the young soldier in combat.  Bacon carefully observes all protocol in transportation, when ‘Taking Chance’ home for burial.  As he nears his destination, he laments his emotional pain and is chastised by the Korean Conflict veteran to not belittle his service; that without an escort and witness, Chance would just disappear.   Without his escort, none of the individuals Bacon encounters on his cross country journey would have had the opportunity to extend their expressions of appreciation, sorrow, or words of comfort t to the family of PFC Chance Phelps’ family on their behalf.  Bacon is not only the physical escort of the body, but is also the vehicle of blessing and remembrance to his family.
 
That line, ‘without a witness, they will just disappear’ really caught my attention.  And I had to ponder the definitions of ‘witness’:  a person who sees an event; someone asked to be present at a particular event; to give proof that things have been done correctly.
 
This was not only a gripping movie, but one that also has a message for us.    What are we a witness to?  What are we a witness of?  When we die, what will our funeral attest to of our lifetime of witness?  Who did we escort on our earthly journey?  What do we want to not ‘just disappear’? 
 
John 8:18
I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.
 
Acts 2:32
God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
 
Acts 22:15
You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.
​
December 1, 2017
Proverbs 18:12
Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.
 
Ouch!  And not just physically.
 
I recently went on a search for a new bike….well, new to me.  Being Scandinavian frugal, (cheap) I thought I would scout out the Arizona rummage sales and pick up a second hand bike.  After all, how much is a 60 something Granny going to actually ride that bike?  A few stops into my rummaging day, there was a bike that looked to be in pretty good shape.  I decided to hop on and give it a whirl.  And that is when I re-learned about gravity.  And how it is a good idea to see if the seat of a bicycle is properly adjusted for one’s height.  But I didn’t.  And I came coasting to a stop and couldn’t get both feet on the ground, nor could I swing my leg fast enough over the bar to gracefully halt my forward motion.  And did I mention that the owner’s last words were ‘try it at your own risk’.  Lucky for me, my fall seemed to be in slow motion…and I first landed on my most padded part….and then my not so padded knees…and then my really fragile ego and pride.  Double ouch.  I left that bike and some skin there on the pavement. 
 
But I pushed on to more rummage sales…a little more cautious and painfully aware of my shortcomings (did I mention being stubborn?).  And I did find one more bicycle…more my size….and speed…six gears that mostly work.  And I have ridden it a few times.  And it is blissful to feel the warm sunshine and the gentle breeze I create as I glide around our retirement compound riding paths.  It was worth the skinned knees.  And what is the moral of the story?  Look before your leap?  Keep looking for what you seek?  Seize the day?  Possibly all of the above; or maybe just find some tiny, quotidian splendor in the God-given days that I have.
 
Philippians 3:13-15
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.
November 12, 2017
We fall into fall 
My favorite season…at least the gold and red and orange parts when splashed against any remaining greens.  Those contrasting colors, those last vestiges of vivid, vibrant life too soon replaced with browns. 
 
The view of the rolling hills and their shades of coffee and tan and taupe, are nearly sand dune and desert-like.  The shifting winds bend the dull grasses up the sides of the valleys; almost like a blanket tucking around them as a warm shield against the colder temperatures that will follow.  The green grasses of the ditches have been muted, cut, dried, and rolled tightly into giant sleeping bags scattered along the roadway.
 
Hushed, silenced, waiting hovers over the landscape.  It can be felt…palpably.  Fall is anticipating that next season with melancholy; mournful and somnolent.  All nature has one eye open, and the other growing tired and weary and waiting for that restful and dormant and dying season of winter.
 
Perhaps that sense of ending, that autumn in all of us, that knowing of our impermanence, is what  makes the finale of this season sad and yearning….yearning for continuance, yearning for security, yearning for a reunion….Author, Joyce Rupp, in Praying Our Goodbyes, says we are ‘like a flock of homesick cranes.’  Cranes…those great white birds that group and float and fly above in blue cloudless skies…in stark contrast to the dull bronze below them. Rupp further states, “The homesick crane in us is the pilgrim who never arrives, who is always going home, sometimes not having any idea of which way to turn but knowing deep within that there is a goal awaiting and that it is well worth the journey with all its ups and downs, with all its hellos and goodbyes.”
 
As the winds whip those last stubborn leaves to the ground, maybe they are not giving up to the onslaught of winter…maybe as they are tossed around, they are saying ‘remember me’.  Remember that I will come back…that I will once again be green and full of life.  The gray grasses sighing in the breeze are uttering ‘don’t forget’….have faith that I will return refreshed and overflowing with life.
 
Ecclesiastes 3: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven
November 5, 2017 
​Doyle-esque Proem-page 7 “A poem says This is what I see and feel and sing”
Six years ago, the First Lutheran Church marque could have posted:
Tattered, remnant congregation seeks ‘a repairer of the breach’…apply if you dare
And the beleaguered congregation wondered who would dare and who would care
And the Holy Spirit whispered into the Bishop’s ear----‘send Pastor Leer’
And so the somewhat life-battered pastor entered the sanctuary of the shattered congregation
And where some may have heard the ragged sigh of the last gasping breath of life
The pastor heard the cries of a newborn that needed him as much as he needed them
The congregation and the pastor, together, started their ‘temporary’ journey
Being careful on the outside and deeply aching on the inside
And bit by gentle bit they dared to reach out and trust each other
And share their hurts---and share their tender dreams and hopes of healing
And they discovered that wounds can heal---slowly---scabbing over,
Sometimes rebruised with fresh drops of blood seeping through the delicately knit-together skin
And gentle healing needed to begin again, but the tears not quite so ragged as before
And the congregation was grateful for the pastor who had his own scars
Who could understand their wounds and welts and worries and sometimes anger
And they slowly healed, together
Not seamlessly---but in an amazing jigsaw puzzle
A few pieces chipped with rough gray cardboard edges showing
But still clinging together to form a new Holy picture
September 26, 2017
​Mathew 20:16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
 
It’s just not fair!  That whole parable about the landowner paying all the laborers the same pay, whether they worked ten hours or one!  It’s just not fair!
 
I think that is pretty common response to that parable.  Somehow, most of us identify with the laborer….of course, the one with the good Scandinavian work ethic, who not only worked the whole day, but who was no doubt there at least 15 minutes early.
 
I have had a few different thoughts on that passage over the last few years.  Maybe we….those of us clinging to the faith and hope of the cross in 2017 are the laborers who showed up during the last hour of the shift.  Maybe the first workers to arrive were the twelve disciples…or the early Christians who suffered persecution….or those who dared to follow a rebellious monk in 1717…or those who fled harsh state imposed religions of foreign countries….or those who rallied behind the ordination of women 40 years ago!  Maybe our unborn grandchildren will be the workers with only 15 minutes of the day left to ‘work’.  Surely we would want justice and mercy for them…wouldn’t we?
 
Justice and mercy.  It is about God’s justice and mercy.  Neither the first workers nor the last could make themselves worthy of the payment that God was offering.  It is not up to us.  We would all fall short…and do fall short.  Thank goodness for a God who offers us justice and mercy…who tips the scales of our worthiness in our favor.  Amen.
September 6, 2017
Everything
 
2nd Chronicles 5:13  It was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and  the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever’.
 
“Get out!  You’re the last person I would expect to be going to an Alanis Morissette concert!”  So said a ‘younger’ woman about my travel plans with my two daughters.   (I like surprising people.)  I am an Alanis fan—I have observed her growth from the 19 year old who sang with biting, edgy angst in Jagged Little Pill to the 43 year old, the mellower, but yet fierce, mother-love singer of Guardian.  She is a self-proclaimed ‘God Girl’.  Her music has remained honest and very close to her heart and that resonates with her audiences and listeners.
 
The concert was everything I expected---a beautifully warm evening in Iowa—great seats---great view of the stage with an enthusiastic energizing entertainer in the company of two of my most favorite people.   Alanis performed one of my favorite songs, Everything.  It spoke differently to me that night; not a song to a significant other, soul-mate, but from God to us, to me from my spiritual soul connection.
 
You see everything, you see every part,
You see all my light, and you love my dark….
There’s not anything, to which you can’t relate
And your still here.
 
Her lyrics have some great theology.  God does see everything and every part of us.  He placed the light in us and still loves us when that light is covered up by our own darkness and doubt.  God does relate to everything we experience.  He sent his Son who was fully divine and yet fully human; he has experienced all of our hurts.  And He is still here. Still here.  Always here.
 
Psalm 33:2-3 Praise the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.  Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
August 21, 2017 
Plunk…..uh oh….that teensy-eensy earing back slipped out of my fingers and onto the floor.  Oh bother.  Down on the hands and knees…nothing.  Move the end table slightly…nothing.  Look under the couch…nothing…well something, if you count a dust bunny or two and an ancient bug.  I am NOT moving this couch over one lousy earing back…I will let the vacuum crunch it up and spit it out or it can stay in the dark collection bag of eternity!
 
So much for the parable of the woman searching for the lost coin until she finds it!  But congratulations and pat on the back to me on being able to let my type A personality let go of something.  Perhaps that article in the Gather magazine has had an impact on me.  The one written by Kristen Glass Perez, False Idols. “I am also worshipping a false idol if I believe I can organize everything all by myself, never eat any carbs and be absolutely perfect…..In other words, it is theoretically impossible to have a perfectly clean house!”
 
I trot off to find a replacement back and return to the scene of the crime to attach my earing….and low and behold, there is the back, not on the floor where I had been searching, but glittering in the sunlight, on the window sill.  Really, it even had to be lit up and I did not see it.  Now this is almost silly to think about. 
                If you are seeking your treasures here on earth (the floor) you won’t find them
                Consider the sparrows, they do not worry over food (earing backs)
                God’s ways are not our ways (when does the ‘lost’ appear)
All of the above…or, take the time to see God and all of his wonderful creations that are right in front of your face…take the time to appreciate the smallness of life….take time to see the big picture.  Slow down and observe and remember who is in control.  Or as Barbara Brown Taylor tells us in An Altar in the World “My life depends on engaging the most physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them.”
 
Isaiah 55:8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways’, declares the Lord.
​
August 3, 2017
“Slow down when you get to the edges!”
That’s what my grandson told me when he first began to color.  His chubby hands were gripped around the large round color crayon, a look of concentration on his face….I complimented him on his skills and his sage advice was, “Grandma, it’s easier if you slow down when you get to the edges.”  Pretty profound advice for a little guy.
Have you been close to one of your edges lately?  Did it get any better the faster you went?  Would a little time in the slow lane have given you some insights that you missed as you went speeding forward, careening, closer, and closer to an ‘edge’?  The following saying comes to mind: “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” 
Our lives are packed with things we have to do and things we want to do.  And that is good.  But it can also land us in a spot where we feel pressured to do everything….and we aren’t enjoying anything.  It is good to slow down….to reconnect with our creator….to review our to-do lists and prioritize what gives us joy.  Micah 6:8 tells us “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
We are half-way through summer.  I challenge you to take a few minutes each day and dwell in the beauty that God has created. 
 Psalm 46:10…Be still and know that I am God.
​
July 19, 2017
I had the privilege of listening to Bishop Elizabeth Eaton at the opening worship of the 10th Triennial Gathering of WELCA.   Her message was inspiring!  One line that has been uppermost in my mind is ‘We don’t always know we are hungry until we smell the baking bread.’   True, isn’t it?  We can be so busy in our day that we can lose track of time and ignore our body signaling us to stop…and take time to eat.  And then we smell someone cooking….and ah, yes!   I am hungry!
 
My thoughts have paralleled this message with our summer ‘experiment’ at First Lutheran. The hope is that by making that heavenly bread available every Sunday, we will be feeding those who may not know they are hungry.  Those of us steeped in the tradition of receiving the Sacrament of Communion on first and third Sundays are being asked to stretch a bit theologically and spiritually and to embrace weekly Communion.   And Communion by intinction!
 
So far it has gone relatively smoothly…a little rearrangement and change of direction for our faithful altar guild team and our serving assistants; and, of course, our members.  And perhaps a little rearrangement in our thoughts on communion; questions of why for some and questions of why not from others.  Questions are good.  Questions promote discussion.  Questions cause us to pause and really discern what this Sacrament means to us and what it means as Lutherans.  I went to Luther’s Small Catechism to review my understanding of the sacrament and why we partake in it:
 
“The Benefit of the Sacrament of the Altar
What benefit do we receive from such eating and drinking?
The benefit which we receive from such eating and drinking is shown us by these words: “Given and shed for you for the remission of sins,” namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.”
 
Neither the Bible nor the Catechism tell us how often to break the bread or to consume the wine; but to do it.  ‘Do it in remembrance of me’. This journey of discerning how often we receive the sacrament may be challenging; but it will surely be enriching.
 
1 Corinthians 11:25
“This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
​
June 23, 2017
​
The Parable of the Gardener
 
After the long winter, a Gardener went out to the yard in the spring of the year.  And  She scattered her flower seeds.  And the rains came.  And the Son shown.  And there was much germination in the yard….of weeds.   Weeds came up in the landscaped areas.  They came where Preen had been scattered to keep the weeds from sprouting.  They came in areas where heavy plastic had been laid to keep them from developing.  But the elements had worn the plastic thin and brittle and there were holes here and there.  And the relentless weeds popped up wherever they suspected a weak spot in the black plastic.  There were dandelions blooming in the sidewalk cracks despite the application of fall chemicals intended to kill them to their very roots.
 
With patience and careful removal of the weeds, tender plant life began to grow.  They were in beds with flowers of various kinds…and they supported each other’s growth.   Some thrived in the direct Son-light; some thrived in the shade cast by the hardier flowers.  During times of drought, the Gardener brought them enough water to sustain them.  Not all of the plants were native to the North Dakota climate, but they were nurtured with hope and faith and trust and tolerance and promises made and promises kept.  And it was enough.  And at the time of the Harvest, the Gardener was pleased with the beauty and abundance and variety of Her garden.
 
What does this mean?
 
The Gardener is, of course, God.  After creating the earth, She placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  All was well with nature and with God until the Weeds (temptations) abounded.  They were everywhere…despite and sometimes in spite of religions.  When the descendants of Adam and Eve were stressed and worried, there seemed to more temptations and weaknesses.   God had left his children with what they needed, but their wild desires persisted.
 
But God tenderly planted his Son in the Garden.  And he taught the beauty of the Kingdom to come.  And despite droughts and hard times, the children of the Son believed in the Kingdom; where all were equal and appreciated for their differences and none were hungry or in need.  And the Gardener was greatly pleased. 
June 4, 2017
Lamentations 2:19b Pour out your heart like water in prayer to the Lord.
 
Did you hear it?  That ticking sound as I clicked off another item on my ‘bucket list’ (that list of things to do while one is still able)!  With my son-in-law and daughter’s company and support, I spent a morning white water rafting on the Salt River in Arizona.  It was fabulous!  Better than I had imagined!  The temperature was perfect…no wind…bright and sunny and the water absolutely sparkled as our guide directed us to row forward or backward to navigate around and through the gurgling waters.  The feeling of the power of the water as our oars plunged into it was amazing!
 
Later that day, my daughter asked if I had read the daily devotional from the book she had given me.  I had early that morning, but I had to admit I was pre-occupied with other things on my mind and hadn’t paid as much attention as I should have.  Here are some phrases that I missed: “on some days your will and Mine flow smoothly together, on other days you feel as if you are swimming upstream against the current of My purposes, Let My Spirit guide you through treacherous waters, As you move through the turbulent stream with Me.”
 
Well, all those references to water should have caught my attention with the day we had planned.  I think I was so busy looking at the forest I couldn’t see the trees.
 
We were definitely splashed with the waters from the turbulent stream as we rafted with the flowing river…all of that flowing, treacherous liquid; powerful, noisy, energy that fully engaged all of our senses.  We experienced the forces of the water.  We experienced the authority of the one who created it.  And it reminded me of Jesus calming the stormy waters that surrounded the disciples in their boat. A simple command and those raging waters would have turned calm for us also.  And he can calm the raging waters of our souls if we reach out and ask him to do so.  He is there right beside us in all of our stormy times.
 
Luke 8: 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”
​
May 12, 2016
Track
Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
 
Both of my daughters participated in track…I’m pretty sure they enjoyed the practice/work-outs more than the meets!  The exercise was good, the program was wonderful, and so we encouraged them to continue.  We bought the right kind of running shoes, and leg warmers, and warm hats and jackets….it is, after all, spring time in North Dakota and not that unusual to be at meets in the freezing cold.  I can still see that huddle of purple and gold athletes hunkered down in their ‘camps’ trying to stay warm, muscles stretched, approved snacks to munch on, and of course, various colors of Power AidJ   Go Hornets!
 
I sent them power-aid J of another kind.  I found various Bible verses related to track or competition or encouragement.  I would tuck these verses into their lunch bags.  I didn’t do it so they could get God on their side and beat their competitors.  I did it to send them comfort and peace and love from me ….and from God.  I know they read them and appreciated them; they told me so.  They looked for more of them in the lunch packed for the next meet. I like to think they shared them with their fellow ‘campers’.  A little ripple of Bible verses…you never know when you drop a pebble in a pond, how far the ripples may go.  And it doesn’t matter if we ever find out who got ‘rippled’ or what the result was.  Our commission is to just do it.  Just like Nike!
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it

​
April 22, 2017
The Gospel According to Bocce Ball
 
He was a gracious opponent…well not really even opponent as I was not even close to his skill level in Bocce Ball (kind of like curling but with balls thrown on artificial turf).  After a few of my wayward throws, Peter kindly started giving me a few tips…and always using my name.  “Karen, you might notice that on this court the ball tends to curve to the left.”  Thank you Peter for the tip and thank you for remembering my name.  I can’t tell you how many times I get called Carol or Kathy or…..nothing.
 
“Now, Gene is my playing partner” he said.  “Gene is a great guy but he has memory and muscle issues so sometimes we have to remind him when it’s his turn or if he picks up the wrong ball.”  OK…that is fine by me.  I have my own lack of focus moments and we are out here just to have fun and meet a few folks.   Peter continued in his kind way to help me and to encourage his challenged partner in their play.  And the two of them together were awesome!  Gene’s blue sparkled when he rolled his Bocce ball exactly where it needed to be to score points!
 
I assumed that Peter was an old friend of Gene’s and that explained his endless patience.   “Oh, no” he said, “We both just wanted to play.  I met Gene in December.”  Wow, so here is the Gospel walking and talking and practicing human kindness and compassion to the strangers he is playing against and with.  It reminded me of the saying “your actions may be the only Bible that some people will read”. 
 
Peter and Gene beat us by a large margin.  Peter’s parting remarks to Gene were “See you Sunday.  I will call your wife to remind you when to play.”  It didn’t matter what the score was in this game.  It was truly how Peter played the game of Bocce and the game of life.  Carry on Peter.  You gave a heck of a sermon today.
 
Matthew 25:40 Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
​
April 1, 2017
Matthew 10:40 Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
 
Have you ever felt all alone is a busy place…hustle and bustle all around you…chatter and laughter surround you, but you are not a part of it.  It’s kind of like a snow globe in your hand….give it a shake and look at the action inside, but it doesn’t touch you.
 
I was feeling a bit of those feelings during a recent shopping excursion in Arizona.  I was enjoying a little time to myself…but sill wanting a hint of the familiar. (I can see a few men rolling their eyes and muttering, “women—go figure”) Back to shopping.  I made my purchases and was ready to leave when a somewhat ‘memorable’ face came by.  She stopped.  She looked me in the eye and offered a shy smile and approached me.  “I know I should know your name.  You’ve been coming to Desert Cross in Gilbert.  I just haven’t taken the time to introduce myself.  I’m ____   ______.”   And so we chatted a bit and, of course, there was a North Dakota connection we shared.  You have to love mid-westernersJ  And what a difference that short conversation made in my day… so nice to be recognized…so nice for someone to notice I am here….and nice to know I may be missed when I am gone.    A small act of kindness on her part had a big impact on me.  In his poem, The Slight Light, author Brian Doyle, would call this kind of encounter “Just the slight light of a small good thing, a quiet pleasure, a tiny thing that isn’t….so many miniscule mountainous things.” 
 
I smiled my way out of the store that day and all the way ‘home’.  I felt blessed to be on the receiving end of this welcome; this tiny mountainous message of Mathew to extend welcome to the un-known around us.   I feel doubly blessed in retelling this story.  And I will make a point to look for ways to ‘welcome’ the new and not-so-new faces that I encounter.
March 4, 2017
Flight Time
 
I typically don’t like to ‘chat it up’ on flights anywhere.  I would rather keep my nose in a good book and sip my glass of over-priced wine (location, location, location) and zone out and transition to where I will be when I land.   My seat-mate, who was traveling with her son, seemed to be of the same mind.  Until we were air born.  And the first 15 minutes were rocky and bumpy…bumpy enough that neither one of us could focus on our reading material.
 
So we chatted as she gripped the armrest with one hand and her son’s hand with the other.  He was such a sweet, good kid, all of ten years old and trying to take care of his Mom.
 
My fellow traveler and I became acquainted and shared information.  We couldn’t have been more different.  She was a stay-at-home Mom, home-schooling six children, a card-carrying Republican, believed women were meant to be spouses and not have leadership rolls and that the world was only 6,000 years old!  And me…a feminist, who had had a career outside the home, who accepts evolution and creation, undeclared in political affiliation, and who thinks the best thing to happen in the last 500 years was Martin Luther! 
 
Now, I don’t think it is possible to change anyone’s mind in two hours at 35,000 feet so…..I didn’t attempt it.  And what was cool was that neither one us had any intent to do so! We nodded and discussed tolerance for viewpoints other than our own.  No fist fights.  No marches.  No vandalism.  No name-calling or belittling or temper tantrums. 
 
We didn’t come up with solutions for any of the world’s problems.  But maybe her son will.  Maybe listening to two very dissimilar women calmly discussing their difference will impact that little guy and something new and wonderful will come out of him.
 
It was a neat time of sharing for me;  who I was and what I believed to a total stranger who I in all likelihood I will never see again.  And we both left the plane with a good feeling and a smile for each other.  
 
Romans 14:3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.
​
February 19, 2017
Quilting
 
I have been working on a quilt for my daughter; one made up on high school memories.  All of those tee shirts with special events stamped on them that were purchased every fall, winter, and spring, depending on the activity.  Some she was an active participant in; others an enthusiastic fan.  The fronts of the tee shirts have been trimmed, more or less neatly, into squares of the same size.  They have been lovingly stitched together.  The side that is visible looks pretty neat and tidy; but the underside that will be hidden between a layer of batting and a warm, fuzzy, backing has its lumps and bumps and varying seam allowances and all kinds of imperfections. 
 
This project has taken me awhile; that’s OK, it took my daughter nearly 16 years to decide she was ready to have those memories cut up and put back together by her Mother.  I have had moments of tedium, and joy, and melancholy, and pain (sharp needles poking into my skin!)  There is a pattern of sorts to this quilt—colors laid out in what I think is a pleasing manner.  Squares of disappointment tempered with squares of triumph.  Sweet memories of youth next to painful and trying ones of the growing pains of adolescence; and the growing pains of learning to parent a maturing child.  But there is always love.
 
Memories of lack of patience and understanding; but there is always love.
Memories of lack of wisdom and self-control; but there is always love.
Memories of rebellion and contrition; but there is always love.
Memories of mistakes made and lessons learned; but there is always love.  And I write of my experiences, not my daughter’s.  And I think of my heavenly Father, and his love, as he has watched me work through the ‘quilt’ of my life and how I have tried to piece things together; but there is always love.
 
There is a beauty in the imperfections of this quilt.  The message to me is clear and it is, “Karen Olson, child of God, sealed with the cross with all of your imperfections and the pieces of your life, you are always loved.”
 
2 Corinthians 12:9… but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 
​
January 21, 2017
​Genesis:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…..God called the dry ground ‘land’….and God said ’Let there be lights in the vault of the sky’…and he created the stars also.
 
Star Dust
 
There is nothing in the clear air in the room I am sitting in.  Pretty sure of it…..until…..a shaft of sunlight comes through the window at just the right angle…and there…suspended….dancing and gliding…are tiny particles of… something….?
 
 I remember as a child, thinking that it was pretty amazing to see those particles….a source of wonderment (OK this was before color television and special effects).  The source of all knowledge, my Mom, said it was just dust.   JUST DUST!  But this was sparkling stuff!   These shimmering, shining bits had movement and life!  They couldn’t be just dust!  Not the debris that made my dust cloth gray!  How could that be? How could bits of gleam, and glow, and glisten settle onto furniture and floors and be dust? Something to be wiped up and gotten rid of!
 
There are several tidy ways to wrap this little memory up.  But I read somewhere that a story’s ending  does not necessarily have to be dictated …it’s OK to leave the ending up to the reader to figure out for themselves what little lesson could be lurking or lingering there.  Here are a few suggestions to wet your own imagination:
                Do you view life as a pessimist or optimist----is it dust or bits of glitter?
                There is beauty in everything if you let the Light shine through it?
                The stardust of God is descending to earth?
                The dust of the earth is floating heavenward to its home in a miniature fireworks celebration?
                Dust, in the right light, is a pre-lit path of ascension that our own souls will someday take?
                Is the dust lingering mid-air a reminder that a flick of God’s fingernail sent the universe spinning
                into space?
The possibilities and insights are endless.  Some things in life take a little pondering to appreciate…from dust to stardust.
January 10, 2017
​The Christmas season is over and we are into Epiphany…but I want to linger on that lovely Christmas feeling for one more reflection.
 
The Accidental Christmas Program
 
Well not quite ‘accidental’…..and not quite un-rehearsed
   Well maybe un-rehearsed to those who had not taken part in the scheduled rehearsals
But like any good Church Christmas play---things go accidental and awry
And sometimes it is the ‘awryness’ that causes the lump in our throat
   and the chuckle in our heart
In remembrance of our own grandchildren, or children or of the child in ourselves
   that never entirely grows up
And we learn again that it is not the perfectly remembered lines or performance that makes its home in
   our memories
 
It’s the three year old little girl who is so shy she keeps pulling the ruffles of her sparkling new
   dress over the top of her head
It’s the rambunctious four year old boy hanging on to the edge of the stage by the shiny tips of his
  brand new shoes
And the choir of Grandmas sitting in the front row swaying forward to catch him if he falls
It’s the unknown two year old from somewhere in the back of the church that breaks loose
   and rushes the stage before his Mother can stop him
It’s the one loud voice in the chorus of cherubs screeching out the words in the tone of “FIRE!”
Followed by a waving hand and a “can you see me Mom?”
 
It’s the wise men gone missing…waiting…waiting…finally cued by the director’s hiss ‘Wisemen!’
And they bumble their way to the crèche, tripping over their too long, borrowed bathrobes
It’s the scribe whose unread scroll unwinds across the stage
It’s the angels with tilted wings and slipping halos and the tender innkeeper who says ‘yes, I have room’
It’s the doll-baby Jesus un-swaddling as a nervous Mary loses her grip and he meets
   the stage floor squeaking out a shrill “mama-mama”
 
And we, the audience, the assembled ‘congregation’, grin and sigh in recollection
And in contentment of our own imperfections and un-rehearsed, unintended moments
And though we are witnessing the accidental un-production with a few unacquainted faces
We are glad for this fine gathering of ‘family’ and tradition and liturgy and the realness of Christmas.
December 24
The Gift
 
It’s the season…it is THE season…a crazy, gift giving, can’t get enough season.  Gimme, gimme from right before Trunk or Treat until the stores close as late as possible for those last minute Christmas Eve gifts.  And God bless ‘Holiday’ specials, but after 90 days they stop becoming “special”. 
 
‘Holiday’---the sacred gone secular.  Is it the gifts? Or THE gift?  The ultimate Gift of His Son…HIS Son.  God tells us “THIS IS MY SON”.  THIS is my Son—this God, come-down in human form.  This baby, this teenager, this man, this rebel, this rule changer, this prophet, this healer, this proclaimer, this innocent criminal, this prosecuted, persecuted….THIS savior, our savior, my savior.
 
This IS my Son.  IS….not was, not will be, but IS…..an on-going journey….a continued relationship…a present tense verb that calls our attention to the now.
 
This is MY Son; flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, spirit of my spirit.  MY child who will call out to me “Abba”!  MY child as loved as your child….and more.  This part of God that is God…sent down to us; a part of the triune mystery that we claim and hope to have faith to grasp.  MY Son with skin and feelings who has experienced everything  and who will walk beside us with his dirty feet and dusty sandals…and heavy cross.
 
This is my SON.…and his name shall be called Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins”.  And we are named and claimed as his own and presented with his gift.  Naming bestowed on us through no effort of our own.  
 
THIS IS MY SON… this is my gift to you.  For you.  For mankind.  For all.  For once.  Forever.
Do we wait for this gift in patience?  In expectancy?  In suffering?  In unity?  In fellowship?  In worship?  A birth of a child?  A re-birth for God’s people?  A new creation?  A re-created, salvaged, humanity?  A hope that a God-baby can be a re-birth for each and every one of us?  Will you recognize your gift?  Will you have time and room in this busy merchandising season to accept one more gift? 
 
God made you to love you.  He loves you now and every tomorrow.  His love isn’t based on what you do—his love is based on who he is.  In this gift giving season we are blessed to receive His gift; gratefully and tenderly unwrap it and receive it.  Dwell on it and in it.  Amen.
 
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above.
December 14, 2016
Isaiah 30:15
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,

 
Ways of Service
 
A recent devotional I read really caught my attention.  It was addressing limitations we will likely have to deal with as we age; this or that part not working or not working to what our expectation are.    The reflection reminded us that great works have been accomplished from prison cells (Paul) and sick beds (Jairus’ daughter).  It also even dared to suggest that we should not resent our weakening bodies!!!  What!  In America where we worship youth and avoid aging at all costs!!  And we can do it if we just buy the right products, and eat the right foods, and join the right clubs to get the exercise we need!   The advertisers try to convince us that our bodies don’t recycle…dust to dust can be delayed and avoided!
 
Instead, this devotional suggested that quietness and trusting are ways of serving; that in our times of limitations we can draw closer to God; be more dependent on him; be in more conversation.  And that would be enough?  And that is enough.
 
We have a busy church…many things that need to be done and thankfully, many folks who step up to do them.  But we must also remember, that when we are unable to be a part of those busy things, the service of quietness and trust is still available to us.
 
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it (Paul’s thorn in his flesh) away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
​
December 2, 2016
“You Do Not Have a Good Connection
You Do Not Have a Good Connection
You Do Not Have a Good Connection”
 
My cell phone sputtered and stuttered to me when I tried to use my ‘smart’ phone to get some information I thought I needed.  Yes, I know we are in a valley, but really, this close to Bismarck and “you do not have a good connection”.   
 
Both sides of the ditches in this brown depression bisected by the highway were littered with giant spools of thread in shades of green to brown to gray—some were shrink-wrapped in plastic?  Giant spools of thread cast about haphazardly?  By some giant hand?  Well, not quite—my imagination was getting the best of me when I viewed the stark landscape. The spools of thread were actually large, round, hay bales…most of which were sitting on the higher parts of the ditches, what was hoped to be dry ground until those bales could be moved to become winter livestock feed.  The ranchers were trying to keep those bales safe and accessible until they could retrieve them. 
 
We continued our drive and crept up the winding road until, just like the hay bales, we were on higher ground too.  And wonder of wonders, my ‘connection’ was restored.  We were now accessible too.
 
Connectivity. The connection to my smart phone was diminished….but only from my point of reception.  The tower did not stop emitting a signal…I was only in a place where my acceptance was limited.
 
We all have times when we fail to feel the closeness of God.  But God has not stopped emitting his signal.  We may not be in a place to fully receive it.  We don’t know how long we will be in that place, but we do drive out of it.  There is a tower beacon out there ahead.
 
Hebrews 13:5  “I will never fail you nor forsake you.”
​
November 15, 2016
Uff-dah and Amen
 
Uff-dah—it’s not in the dictionary…at least not in my English one.  Even though it defies definition, most of us in the Midwest can use it rather expertly.
 
 Amen…so be it; truly. It is a word of declaration from the Arabic language. When used as a verb (action) it is to exclaim in amazement, joy, or surprise! Does this sound similar to uff-dah to anyone else but me?  Would it be sacrilegious to think that if Bethlehem was in Norway, we would be ending our prayers with Uff-dah?
 
Some of our verbal expressions defy meaning outside of their context.  Think of ‘auuuucccckkkk’ coming from the pulpit on Sunday mornings.  And I think of the Gospel affirmation that we sing “The Spirit intercedes for us, with sighs, too deep, for words to express, oh, oh, ohhhh…..
 
No matter our culture, whether middle eastern or Scandinavian, when we are too tired, or weak, or overburdened to organize our thoughts into meaningful prayer, we can be assured that our humble utterance is heard and help is on the way.  Whether Amen is a proclamation, or a sigh of wonder, or a cry for help, when it leaves our lips it is on its way to God’s ears.  When ‘uff-dah’ struggles to escape our mouth as we are overburdened with grief and sadness, it is on its way to the hearer of all things.   God listen to our spirits crying out to him.  And that tiny little spot in our inner being can slowly begin to respond and to warm…not because our every prayer will be answered, but because He is listening, and He sorrows and rejoices and wonders and despairs right along with us.  We are never alone.
 
Ahhhhhmen…….
Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

October 30, 2016
Human Doings
 
Luke 12:1  Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
 
It’s been a busy summer and fall….once again.  My Mother used to tell me that the older you get, the faster time flies by.  That didn’t make sense to me, how a senior citizen without much of a to-do list, could have time pass so quickly.  Uh….now I am starting to get it.  Either time is flying by, or I am really slowing downJ
 
A speaker I once listened to had us close our eyes and try to keep them closed until we thought a minute had passed by (no fair ticking off the seconds in your mind).  We were to just float in lovely, timeless, space and gently open our eyes when we thought enough time had passed.  I failed….miserably…lasted about 20 seconds.  So, she gave us a second (no pun intended) chance to try.   Wow…I made it a whole 38 seconds!  It was an interesting assignment…especially in our jam packed day of workshops and rushing to get from one assigned room to another.  What….sit down…slow down….and close our eyes!  And I paid for this!!!!!  Just sit there and breathe!!!
 
‘Breath is Prayer’…I’m not quite sure what author said it….I have been having an obsession with reading of late (rushing through my leisure activity? Cramming my little brain with as much as I can in as little time as possible-something is wrong with that picture)….maybe it is aging, (maturing….ripening….) but I am also starting to wonder if we are human beings….or human doings?  Do we have value and worth just because we are…or do we have to continually justify and prove ourselves by keeping busy, not sitting still, not resting and abiding?  Don’t just sit there!  Do something!  Or is it OK to Just Sit There!  Do Nothing!  It doesn’t seem like the American way….but….maybe it is part of The WayJ
 
And so the next, quiet (no TV blaring), Sunday afternoon…when I am nestled in the recliner…with several good books tucked under my wings, just begging for me to crack them open…maybe I will pause before I dive in…and just Be.
 
Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
October 13, 2016
The Last Walk of Fall
 
Another blessed day of fall…my favorite season.  I love the crunch of leaves, that earthy, musty smell intertwined with faint smoke of distant fires burning.  The skies always look bluer in the fall to me…the contrast of gray/brown tree branches provides a stark contrast to the burst of color surrounding them.  Today is windless…small miracle in North Dakota.  As I round the corner on my usual walking route, I catch a glimpse of the water of the Sheyenne River …not even a ripple on it.  And the sight from the opposite shore is beautifully reflected on the water.  Amazingly mirror like.  The light is captured in that scene and wonderfully replicated on the still water.
 
Ephesians 5:13  But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
 
Reflecting the light.  That is what we are called to do.  We cannot do it as magically as the view on my walk was captured.  But we can let some of it show…enough to know that we are claimed, redeemed, and share a resurrection with that light…a little glint in our eye, a spring in our step, a touch of serenity and peace on our faces.  
October 2, 2016
​Blessed to be a Blessing
 
Sometimes when you think you are giving a blessing, you wind up being blessed….and in the unlikeliest places.  Like a Comfort Inn Lobby???
 
Three of us ‘gal-pals’ were traveling together for an out of town wedding.  At the end of a long day, we decided to take advantage of the hotel’s coupon for a discounted glass of wine.   The waiter was a young man, early twenties. He was so courteous and engaging that I commented that if he would give me his Momma’s address I would write and tell her what a fine young man she had raised.  He locked his brown eyes on mine and very seriously said, “My parents are very important to me and I so appreciate the way they raised me.  As a matter of fact, I have a tattoo on my side.  It’s Proverbs 6:20…you might not know it but it is ‘My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching’.
 
Whoa….that kind of knocked this church lady’s socks off!  And my two companions.   It’s not every day conversation for two strangers to have a connection like that to feel comfortable to share Bible passages.  We chatted for a few minutes and then I told him he just might wind up on my church website Reflection and I asked him again for the chapter and verse.
 
We finished our wine, and I approached the waiter and thanked him for sharing.  I commented that coincidence is God being anonymous.  He smiled and again looked me in the eye and said simply “Amen”.
 
Exactly!
September 12, 2016
Why are the lights on?
 
We have a budget to balance!  The lights should only be on for an hour on Sunday morning.  Right!  Right? Why are the lights on?
 
The lights are on, on Sunday morning.  But not just for worship services from 9:30-10:30…OK, sometimes it is closer to 11:00 if Pastor Phil just happens to have a few extra words of wisdom for usJ
The lights are on a lot earlier than that as Choir gathers to practice the Word in music, as Sunday School children arrive for education, FLCW meets to take care of upcoming women’s projects, as Adult Forum participants arrive to discuss the Wired Word concerning items in the news, as the coffee pots of Welcome are plugged in for early arrivals who want to connect socially in the Narthex, the very first place of Welcome that we see. The lights are on in the balcony as our very own technician is making sure that a quality taping of our service is available for broadcast on Wednesdays.   The lights are on Sunday evening as LYO gathers to share prayer and fun.  All those lights and that’s just Sunday. 
 
The lights are on Monday-Saturday morning at 10 as our local Table of Knowledge gathers for morning coffee and to solve the world’s problemsJ  And to visit….”wherever two or more of you are gathered in my name...”  The lights are on as our dedicated women continue to make quilts for Lutheran World Relief—keeping back a few for local needs. Another group of women is working on banners for our liturgical seasons. The lights are on Monday evening as the Centennial Singers gather for fellowship and music that benefits our whole community when they join in concert.
 
The lights are on Tuesday if Pastor Phil is hosting the weekly Pastor’s Text Study. The lights are on in the afternoon and evening as a work group gathers to prepare for a funeral meal and they stay on until after cleanup is completed. The lights may be on Tuesday evening as a grief support group meets.
 
A lot of lights are on Wednesday.  Breakfast with the Boys meets early to prepare breakfast for each other and get a preview of the lessons for the upcoming Sunday.  A Circle may be using the lounge in the morning or afternoon for their monthly Bible study.  During Lent, the kitchen is bustling as soup suppers are prepared before worship services.  Confirmation students are meeting in the youth room in the late afternoon and early evening.  Faith and Fitness is meeting in the Fellowship Hall.  Council meets the first Wednesday of the month…the five committees of Council also meet.
 
The lights are on for special occasions too….October 31st they are on as community groups join us in Trunk or Treat so that our little ones can have a safe Halloween.  The lights are blazing the week of Thanksgiving as we, and members of other churches, prepare for the free Community Thanksgiving Meal.  The lights are softer as we celebrate Christmas Eve with our candle light service.  And once again, they are on in early morning at Easter while LYO prepares their annual breakfast celebration.
 
The light is on and the door is open in the Pastor’s office.  That light moves out to meet the needs of our parishioners and the community. The lights are on in the Secretary’s office all week as she prepares our bulletins, financial documents, newsletter and answers parishioners’ questions and directs members and non-members to programs we support and to Pastor Phil.
 
The lights are on Saturday as Altar Guild members care for our church and prepare for Communion services.  Oil candles are refilled, the Baptismal candle is checked, paraments are changed, flowers are watered and fresh arrangements are tended.
 
The lights are on because we believe in our Mission Statement—“We are a welcoming family where all can experience and grow through God’s grace.”
 
The lights are on in welcome where ALL are welcome as our painful discernment has led us to believe…ALL ARE WELCOME to this family of believers.   The lights are on for the education opportunities that we offer to all ages so that all can grow.  The lights are on as we extend God’s grace to those who are grieving, and hurting, and seeking.  The lights are on because “We are a welcoming family where all can experience and grow through God’s grace.”
 
The lights are on….and I hope with your continued contributions that they stay on….and I thank all of you who see that the lights need to be on and that you have contributed to support the payment of our lights and our ‘light’ programs.
 
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your stewardship and glorify your Father in heaven. 
​
September 1, 2016
​Philippians 3:13-14
I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me.
 
It can’t be my imagination!  Someone must have made those walking hills around the church and river steeper!  It’s not that I am noticing changes in my endurance as I am in my sixth decade?  Is it?
 
It’s pretty easy to keep track of my heart rate as it starts to pound a little harder and faster!  Taa-tunk,  taa- tunk, ta-tunk, ta-tnk, t-tnk, t-nk……whew….and it’s hot out here!  Even in the morning!  But it is astonishingly beautiful, even in the heat.  There isn’t even a ripple on the river.  And I think of the heartbeat of God with each step I take... coming along right beside me, with this creature he chose to create.  Whether I am trudging up and down the hills that I love to walk on…or whether I am  skipping (OK, so it’s a slow skip) my heart gladdened with some good news.  Or if I am casually strolling along, content with the day and just happy to be able to move.  Or if the barometer that is starting to live in some of my joints, is telling me that the weather is going to change….the changer of the weather is right beside me. 

 

Psalm 23:4  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
August 15, 2016
Stewardship
“We don’t know where to start with stewardship.”---Boy, did my ears perk up at that comment at the Synod Assembly during one of our roundtable discussions!  It was from a young (30 something) participant.  She also added, “My age group wants to help—but we need someone to show us how”…emphasis on the show us, not tell us.  Whether it’s in the kitchen serving or cleaning up after a potluck or in our giving practices, we are teaching those around us.
Those words have tumbled around in my brain—probably more so with our current financial needs and also serving on the Stewardship Committee.  I thought back to my own ‘younger’ days a few decades ago.  We were a typical young family with the same questions and financial struggles.
Our decision at that time was to ‘count our blessings’ each Sunday…years of marriage to start; a small start but that began the habit of ‘giving back’ each and every Sunday and the habit of increasing our giving each year.  Our ‘blessings’ giving continued as we added children to our family.  Now, some days they maybe didn’t feel like a blessing….but we didn’t have to look too far to see all the things that gave us joy.  As jobs, a home, health, grandchildren, etc.  were added to our ‘blessings’ list, our giving increases reflected that.
Maybe the answer to the question of where to start at my Assembly table was…just start.  Whether we are 30 something or twice 30 something!  Reflect EACH week on what you are thankful for….and respond EACH week.
August 4, 2016 
Messy Edges
 
“I am sorry about the messy edges”…so said our leader for the annual women’s retreat as she handed out note pages for our morning session.  The pages were ‘supposed’ to tear neatly along the perforated lines of the workbook she had brought.  Of course, none of the women gathered minded a few frayed edges…we knew the good stuff that would be coming from our leader and we were appreciative that she had been thoughtful enough to provide us with a sheet of decorative paper  to write down our thoughts as we proceeded though our ‘lesson’.
 
Now, I’m not sure why that phrase stuck in my head.  I’m hardly ever sure of why something chooses to stick in my head, when so many things I thought were permanently put there continue to slip away….like, where di d I put that????  But the phrase, ‘messy edges’, stayed there and percolated for the 48 lovely hours we spent at Lake Metigoshe.   It struck me that maybe God would like to tell us the same thing….at times when we are struggling and wrestling with the ‘why’ of certain events happening…when life is unfair…when we are sitting there in our own Job-like state.  Maybe he would like to whisper in our ear, “I’m sorry that life is so messy…that the edges aren’t clear-cut and clean….that you can’t see your life from my perspective.”  God does not cause those edges to be ‘messy’.  There is a certain amount of chaos in the world…and sometimes we collide with that chaos no matter how careful we try to be…no matter how many good deeds we perform….no matter how hard we pray.  It may not be possible to hear that “I’m sorry” or to feel the love that comes with it.  It is good to be reminded that it IS there…in the whisper of the wind, in the constancy of the sunrise, in wise and empathetic words from a friend.
John 16:33
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
 
Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
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JULY 22, 2016
Our soul waits for the Lord.  Psalm 33:20
 
Tick-Tock
 
Time passing…it can have many emotions attached to it. 
 
We used to have a grandfather wall clock that tick-tocked the day away and chimed on the hour and half hour.  We got used to that sound and even found it soothing, especially for those afternoon naps we liked to sneak in on the weekend; wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket on the recliner, the tick-tocking lulling us into slumber.  The chiming in the middle of the night was comforting too; half-awake we would hear the chime and sigh, and roll over, knowing it was only 3 or 5 in the morning and we had more time to rest.  The clock got older, lost track of its own time (ha-ha) and could not be repaired; and I missed it for a long time.
 
Time passing…to slowly when we are anxiously awaiting for something to happen:  waiting for doctor’s reports; waiting for the births of our children and grandchildren; waiting for family to come for a visit; waiting for that great vacation we planned to finally happen;  waiting for spring; waiting for what we do not have. 
 
Time passing…too quickly when we are wanting to cherish the moment:  how did my grandchildren get so grown up…they were just babies yesterday.  All the work and preparations for my daughter’s wedding days….and in a blink the day is over and we are cleaning up, and hauling decorations and gifts away before the crack of dawn.  Too quickly when I look at the number of birthdays I have had!!  How did I get to be just like my own Mom so fast!!
 
Time passing…we spend so much time looking forward and looking backward; but all the time we ever have is just this moment.  Take a deep breath…pause…and enjoy the now.  Try to let God set your pace.
 
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
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JULY 7, 2016
​Gathering Journeys
 
The 10th Triennial Gathering is coming in 2017!  What images does that bring to mind? I think back to my first gathering in Charlotte in 2014.  Lots of miles traveled (from North Dakota to North Carolina) with three fellow church women who have become dear friends, sharing experiences and laughter and stories and faith…and all that before we ever got to the GatheringJ   And it got even better!  Wonderful, inspiring speakers and projects and artwork and break-out sessions and group singing and worship sessions and documentaries and meeting the Bishop and so much more!  And my favorite “Bless your hearts” in the lovely accent that I encountered in my southern sisters!
 
It was a journey of a people and a journey of women, a journey of faith, and an inner journey for myself.  It was arriving to a new community…a community comprised of individual women.  Collectively we were the 9th Triennial Gathering…individually we were 2,500 different women creating our own unique memories and experiences.  It was public…and it was private.  The travel was external…and internal.  We were physically in a different place than before…and for myself, a new place spiritually.  And that journey continues.  Not in a straight line, but with peaks and valleys and curves…stop signs and sections with no speed limit.
 
As I think back to two years ago, I have an image of a funnel.  At its wide mouth are women from hundreds and thousands of miles away…a diverse group united in their Lutheranism.  We swirled together and intermingled and learned from each other as we spiraled through that funnel in a kaleidoscope of colors, sizes, shapes and ages.  As we neared the narrow opening and the conclusion of our days together, we drew those new experiences into ourselves.  And I asked myself these questions:  How does this Gathering impact me?  How does this Gathering change me?  What will pour out from me and others?  What will I carry home with me to continue this flow and energy?
 
The answer to that is different for each participant.  It may have been an experience that moved mountains or gently jiggled us to new thoughts.  It was an experience that moved my personal mountain.  My heart and soul have opened a little wider and I listen a little harder to hear that spirit of God calling me to the plan and actions he sets before me.  And that is the excitement of a Gathering.  That is the longing to reconnect and rejuvenate and reawaken and to renew.  All anew!  
June 12, 2016
​We Have Assembled!  Living in God’s Abundance!
 
The Western ND Synod Assembly met June 9-10 with 285 voting delegates and 59 guests.  Necessary business was conducted, of course, but the theme, ‘Living in God’s Abundance’, was captivating and cleverly woven throughout all of our time together. ‘Living in’ not that we are just to ‘get’ but that we are to ‘give’ in God’s Abundance!  We do not possess abundance---God provides it for us to pass on!  Our lives don’t just belong to us.
 
We met in large group worship and Bible study, in song with a live band, and there was even some dancing!  We met in smaller group break-out sessions.  We had even smaller group table discussions.
We drank coffee, we gathered for meals, and THE meal in communion.
 
We were asked to consider what our individual gifts and talents may be.  What has God blessed us with for His use?  We were reminded that to state that we do not have gifts or talents is to rob God of his power to gift us.  That to claim a gift is not to boast about ourselves…but to proclaim who the Giver is.  Having been presented with these ideas, we were then asked: what will we do?  How will our gifts change our relationship with our family, our church, and our community?  Do the gifts that we claim address the NEEDS of our family, church, and community?  Next we took it one step wider…what are the gifts and talents of our congregation?  Do those gifts meet the needs of our community?  Have we discerned what the needs of our community are?  Mind boggleing….at least to this mind.
 
The Assembly was challenging and reassuring.  We are Lutheran.  We are congregation, we are Synod, we are ELCA, we walk together.  We are local…we are worldwide. It was affirming that this is the greater part of what Harvey First Lutheran Church belongs to.  It was reaffirming that this is where I am supposed to be.  I was reminded of a several quotes of our own Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaten, ‘We are not a social service agency with sacraments.  We are church to the world.  If it is the will of God that the church continues…then nothing in the world can stop it”.
 
I would encourage members of our congregation to participate in the next Assembly and to experience for themselves, the balance of business and spirit that the Synod provides.  Details of the Assembly can be found at Western ND website.
May 24, 2016 
Romans 7:18-20

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
 
I brake for squirrels.
I have to…they dart out in front of my car, with their fluffy long tails streaming behind them.  They scamper and skip across the street, oblivious to the danger charging at them.  Sometimes they stop and look right at me…right in the eye.  And I am saying, ‘run, run…move out of the way, quickly, please…don’t hesitate right in front of my wheel!’ 
 
Someone had the nerve to tell me that squirrels are just rats with nicer tails.  Really!?   Well the dictionary does say that ‘squirrels are nimble, bushy-tailed rodents…found all over the world except Australia’.  Ouch!  Rodents!  Those sweet looking, delicate little creatures with the big imploring eyes are cousins to disgusting, disease-carrying, rats!  They might even have rat-like qualities under that innocent demure demeanor?
 
Hmnn….perhaps those squirrels appeal to me because I have more in common with them than I think.  Maybe I recognize my own rat-like qualities when I see these creatures.  Try as they might to look like something they aren’t, they are still rats?  Try as I might to be something I’m not….I still have my own ‘rats’ to deal with.  And I thought it was just coincidence that when those verses from Romans are to be read in church…it seems to always be my turn.  And yes, I have said that ‘coincidence’ is just God trying to be anonymous.
 
So, OK little fuzzy squirrels.  I get the message.  If I can still love you knowing you are a rat at heart, maybe there is room for forgiveness and acceptance of my own rat-ness.  Maybe God sees something lovely and redeemable in me, even when I act more like a rodent than a creature formed in God’s image.  Amen.
May 10, 2016
Peace Be With You
 
Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
 
Have you ever had those moments when you should be stressed out…and you’re not?  Or when you have a project that should over whelm you, and it doesn’t?  It excites you.  You check your caffeine levels for the day….and that can’t be it. 
 
I’m not a Perpetual Pollyanna but neither am I a Debbie Downer.  So where does this occasional
irrational feeling of peace and comfort come from?  Can the God that has wired us to feel stress and pressure also wire us to allow his peace and comfort to enfold us like a warm fuzzy blanket on a cold dreary day?  Despite the obvious obstacles that surround us, we feel like the eye of the hurricane instead of the wind whipped outer circles of the storm.
 
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding…all understanding….which, is still our limited human understanding.  But maybe we don’t need to understand it to possess it.  Maybe it is time to stop analyzing and just experience whatever comfort comes our way.
 
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
 
Not as the world gives…undeserved, unearned, no strings attached.  Don’t expect to understand it yet…we are still ‘of the world’.
 
Gloomy day….Peace be with you
Gloomy heart…Peace be with you
Sunny day….Peace be with you
Cheerful heart…Peace be with you
 
Peace…be…with…you.
April 19, 2016

Job 2:11 When Job’s three friends, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.  When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.  Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.  No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
 
And so…Job…come and sit with me awhile….
 
Have you ever felt like Job…had a particular string of ‘bad luck’.  When whatever can go wrong has most certainly done so... Ugh!  I think we have all gone through those trying times.  It Is hard to trust that God can work some good out of whatever trouble I seem to find  (or as my precocious Grand-daughter says “Grandma, trouble seems to follow me”). It’s not easy when you find yourself living in a Job-like time and place.
 
When Job’s life took a sorry turn and his troubles multiplied, his friends came and sat with him….just sat with him.  At least the first seven days!  Then they proceeded to ‘fix’ his situation and ‘fix’ him.  Not much comfort in that….but I get the comfort in the ‘sitting’.  I appreciated that recently.  A friend from my earlier years, in another lifetime, met me for coffee.  We shared similar experiences with family   health issues over the last three years.  She got it!  She sat with me!  She shared with me!  We didn’t need to explain our feelings and frustrations and fears…we were in sync!  And how amazingly comforting that was!  My Job was a woman who had been there!  She would not have had to utter a word…it was the being…the sitting…the NOT fixing, and the NOT trying to explain and justify, the NOT trivializing, that helped me the most! 
 
I’m not out of the land of Job…yet.  But how good to be reminded that I am not alone.  God sent a skin-covered ‘angel’ from my past to ‘cross’ my path at a time when I needed it the most.

April 5, 2016

1 Corinthians 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

 

Cross Your Fingers
 
Have you ever felt a little silly, (foolish) for saying “keep your fingers crossed”?  Have you ever wondered how that phrase came about?  And what do we mean by that?  I have…especially of late we (spouse and I) have been crossing our fingers a lot.  Out of impulse… or habit…or to symbolize our wish for good luck and healing for Allen after his fall and breaking of several bones.  And, of course, the ‘cross’ has been on our minds since his accident happened during Lent.  
 
The expression, ‘cross your fingers’ has several meanings, courtesy of Wikipedia: “ it is used as a hand gesture to wish for luck; it is used as a gesture to excuse a white lie; it can mean to invalidate a promise that is being made; it is an attempt to implore God for protection.”  Now the first three seem a little childish and immature.  The last one smacks me upside the head…huh?  Crossing your fingers to implore God?  The first thing that pops up from my brain is Jesus feeling forsaken on the cross…crying out in desperation, feeling alone and forsaken, not receiving an answer.  At least not in those last anguished moments of his life...not that we know of, and we humans do have a need to think we know everything!  John’s Gospels tells us that Jesus last words were, ‘it is finished’, implying that although physically alone, Jesus acknowledges that his body and spirit have completed their earthly mission; he submits all that he is to his Father.  The chapter after Jesus death will unfold…is still unfolding…in us…still under that power of the cross.  We relive those scenes and messages during Lent. 
 
And so, I keep my fingers crossed…not for luck, but for comfort.  Those crossed fingers are the out-stretched limbs of Christ, spread out for me….and now, wrapped around me.  And hanging beside me during whatever ‘crosses’ are sent my way.
Dry Bones
 
Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
 
You have got to be kidding…dry bones….the author is talking about dry bones in my devotional for today?  We have had enough bone talk at our house….my spouse battled gravity and cement and lost…two broken ribs, two breaks in his ulna, and one in his radius and bruises in every color of the rainbow. 
 
I have written previously, that coincidence is God being anonymous…and I have also said that God has a sense of humor…but I’m not finding this funny, even in a dark humor kind of way.  But my curiosity was piqued and I don’t know much about ‘dry bones’ other than the song, “Ezekiel cried ‘Those dry bones, oh, hear the word of the Lord.”  “The wrist bone’s connected to the…elbow bone….argh!” (For a modern take, try out Gungor on You-tube)   So off I go to Wikipedia and Bible Gateway, the sources of all knowledge.
 
In a nutshell, God’s people had been scattered across Babylon.  Ezekiel, a Prophet, was brought to the Valley of Dry Bones, a site of a lost battle, where the dead soldier’s bodies had been left, unburied, unclean, unclaimed, bleaching in the sun.  This valley was 1,300 feet below sea level, a ‘Death Valley’…you have to appreciate the imagery of this barren place, nearer to hell than the level land, not just figuratively, but literally.  It may even have been the place of the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah…pretty bleak.  God asks the Prophet, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  to which Ezekiel replies, “Lord, you alone know.”
 
OK, lots of stuff going on here.  A Prophet, looking at loss and destruction, but still calmly telling God, that anything can happen.  If God wants to make dry bones come back to life, he can.  If God can form man from dust, he can make dry bones rise up.  If God wants to re-unite Israel, he can.  No matter how defeated and ‘dried up’ the chosen people feel, God can restore them.  Instead of a cache’ of dry bones, God sees a field of possibilities.  
 
 God can re-focus my scattered thoughts during this stressful time if I can open my heart to that prospect.  All the time? No way; I am too human for that…but maybe now and again, just enough to keep me going…..maybe not a whole day at a time, or a whole hour at a time, but minute by minute.
 
Ezekiel 37:3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live? I said, Lord, you alone know.”
​
March 15, 2016
​The Tower of Babble is Re-building?
 
Genesis 11:8-9
 
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.  That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.  From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
We recently spent some time in a large hospital in Chandler, AZ.  Not the best place to spend time when you are supposed to be in the sun and on vacation.  The hours wore on as we waited for this report and that report from various doctors and other professionals.  All of the staff we encountered had several things in common:  they were extremely polite (we have never been called ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ so often); they were all very kind and accommodating; they were all very patient with our frustrations; and they all genuinely displayed their care and concern.
What did they not have in common?  Culture, ethnicity, religious practices, and native language.  Sometimes we felt like we were at the United Nations Building!  We forgot just how ‘white’ we were coming from small town North Dakota.  We were definitely in the minority.  Maybe that is why the different ‘colors’ I saw had an impact on me.  And they were all working together and had respect for each other!  Considering the racial stress we have had in our country, to see this displayed for several days was truly remarkable.  Oh my!  It is possible!  What has been torn apart can be reconciled and rebuilt!  Maybe this world is not such a crazy place after all!
Not to say that we mere mortals will once again try to build a tower that will reach ‘up to the heavens’ in another Babylonian empire because we are possessed with our own self-importance… but maybe a little piece (peace) of the ‘next kingdom’ can be built, like Jesus told us it should  be….could be…would be.
February 28, 2016
​Gift
 
I love a recent gift I got from my daughter.  She knows I enjoy journaling and have found a creative outlet in writing down my thoughts and shaping them into reflections that I can share.  The journal she gave me not only has space for writing, but includes a Bible verse on the bottom of each page.  And even more special, each verse is personalized with my name!    So I not only get the wisdom of the verse, but it literally is spoken to ME.  1 Peter 4:10 You should use whatever gift you have received from the Lord to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms becomes…. Karen, you should use whatever gift you have received….that is empowering!
 
The gift is precious to me because I know it was picked with care by someone who loves me.  Whatever gift I have received from The Giver of All Things is also precious to me.  Because that gift too was selected for me by the Creator who loves me.  Loves me!  Isaiah 43:1  Karen, I have summoned you by name; you are mine!  And because he claims us, calls us, names us, loves us…he has given us the very best gift, the most costly gift, the only gift we need…his Son, Jesus Christ…John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever (you, me, us, even them, those people we don’t like very much) believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
 
Try reading a few Bible verses this way…inserting your own name into the verse.   Let the words settle around you and find some comfort and peace in their embrace.
February 15, 2016
Ribbons
 
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on you own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
 
We were traveling across the state recently on somewhat icy roads.  The two paved lanes of highway looked like dark ribbons…the dark of the road and the white of the icy strips wiggled and meandered to the east and got narrower and smaller as they faded into the landscape in the distance.  Gusts of wind blew familiar white flakes across our path…sometimes, enough to slow us down.  The landscape took on a blue cast as the sun began to set.   The view was stark...the only color small, dark, green, numbered signs stuck in the ditch with snow up to their eyebrows—mile markers.  We knew where we were going; we had traveled this way before, but it was still nice to see those numbered signs as the miles ticked by and we got closer to our destination.  
 
How nice it would be if we could count on those signs as we take our life journey; to know for certain that we were on the right path, that the turns we take are indeed the ones that God intended for us.  But the road ahead of us is hardly ever straight…there are lots of curves we don’t anticipate, road construction, dead-ends, pot-holes, cliché upon cliché …blah blah blah.  And we wonder and doubt if this is where we are supposed to be or did we make a wrong turn somewhere? It is easier to look behind to where we have been, then to look ahead and be sure where we are going or how long it will take us to get there.  At least in the short run…and our life here on earth is a short-run.  Maybe I am wondering about that a little more than usual these days as I have made the decision to wind down my career.  At least what has occupied my time for eight work hours each day for a lot of years.   Maybe it’s time to decide what I want to be when I grow up?! …and that is a luxury.  A luxury that I will have to trust to unfold as to what the next phase of my life should include.  I will try to spend more time listening for what directions I should take…not easy for a type A personality.  Trusting and listening, trusting and listening……
 
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have made for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
​
January 30, 2016
Philippians 2:4, “Look out for one another’s interest, not just your own”
The Amazing Race—its back!
This is one of my favorite ‘reality ‘shows!  For those of you who may not be familiar with the show, 12 two person teams compete for one million dollars, racing against each other to far flung destinations around the world.  Along the way they are given tasks to complete in order to get the clue for the next destination.  It is not for the weak of heart or those with a couch potato lifestyle.  It is mentally and physically demanding and you don’t walk it, you race it!
 
One of the reasons I am attracted to The Amazing Race, is the places the show visits. All those exotic locations!  …places I will probably never venture to.  And I can do it from my living room!  And I get control of the remote!...you know that little, rectangular, black thing that is usually in the hands of the dominate male of the household.
 
The best and the worst comes out in those racing teams in times of triumph and defeat.  Couples are broken and made.  They bring out each other’s strengths, or they will probably face elimination.  One thing I have noticed—when the couples are close to a finish line, and they are giving it their all, running as hard as they can—they usually are alone.  One team member is far ahead of the other.  Rarely do I see them clasp each other’s hands and physically and symbolically support each other and pull the weaker partner along with them.  This doesn’t make sense to me, since both teammates have to hop onto the ‘finish rug’ together.  They accomplish nothing by leaving their partner unaided while the stronger partner forges on ahead, and alone; they have to wait for their racing partner to cross the finish line anyway.
 
We aren’t meant to walk (race) alone.  We were designed for fellowship.  We are herd animals.  We need each other and we need communion with each other.  We are all on this journey, this race, this walk, this marathon of a life, together.  It’s safer out there in numbers.  There is support out there when two or more are gathered in His name.  You learn from others when you ‘walk’ together.  Someone might be able to point out that you are going in the wrong direction. It is good to reach out to a hand beside you that might need a little help and to be willing to reach out when you need help…reach out across and look up.
 
Ecclesiastes 4:12“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken”
January 11, 2016

Ephesians 1:9-10 
9 God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ. 10 This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

I have long thought of the Big Bang Theory as one flick of God’s fingernail that sent the planets and everything under and above heaven spinning in his orbit.  My web-dictionary, and it couldn’t be wrong, states that the Big Bang theory is: “In astronomy, a theory according to which the universe began billions of years ago in a single event, similar to an explosion.”   Makes sense.
 
I have no problem with creation and evolution as all being part of his divine plan.  That God continues to create….those first creatures (dinosaurs) were really just too clumsy to get around and they took up so much room!  And the things they ate! 
 
It is hard not to look up in the night sky with all those stars and the occasional display of Northern Lights and not wonder about all that He created...to connect the dots of the Big and Little Dippers… the bright glow of Venus…..And it all doesn’t revolve around us!  It is movement outward and away...or is it?
 
Lately, I have entertained the thought, that maybe, instead of moving away, we are moving toward.  That, maybe as God flicked that fingernail, and set us in motion, he also brought his hands together, and is waiting there, ready to catch us.  And we continue our circular dance and just like a boomerang we will wind up right where we started…with our savior and creator.
 
Now to add to the playfulness, here is how my web dictionary concluded its definition of Big Bang: “Scientists have recently found that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up. This effect is attributed to the presence of dark energy.”  Interesting stuff.  Creation.  Light.   Energy.  Darkness.  I wonder if the scientists realize they could be theologians. That as we speed up and feel the presence of darkness pushing, prodding, and pulling us….that we become even more aware of the need to be ‘caught’…the need for our safe place to fall.  He is waiting for us.

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