Lift up your eyes and ask yourself who made these stars….calling each by name?  Because God is so great in strength, so mighty in power, not a single one is missing.  How can you say… “my destiny is hidden from YHWH, my rights are ignored by my God?”  Do you not know? Have you not heard?  YHWH is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  This God does not faint or grown weary; with a depth of understanding that is unsearchable.

Isaiah 40:26-28

Dear Waiters and Watchers,

I always look for them, casting my eyes upward as I wheel the garbage to the street on winter nights; searching the sky for a break in the clouds and a window to the heavens.  And in those moments when I do catch a glimpse of the stars, something in me expands and I feel transported from this lowly life to a place that is greater.  Do you know what I mean?

The dimensions of our galaxy, the Milky Way, are mind-boggling—up to 400 billion stars—and perhaps at least as many planets—arranged in a giant spiral disk of stars, dust, and gas measuring 100,000 light-years in diameter.  Astronomers tell us that our own solar system, arrayed around a single one of those stars, is located in the “outer suburbs” of our galaxy, 27,000 light years from the galaxy center.  To put it in more accessible terms, if our solar system was the size of a quarter, our galaxy would be 1,200 miles in diameter.  And here’s the clincher: the Milky Way is but one of perhaps 500 billion galaxies!

So many sources of light and so much energy and mass given to producing it.  And yet, within this vast universe, it’s the nonluminous material—the DARK MATTER and DARK ENERGY—that constitute together 95% of the total mass of the universe.  To say it another way, 95% of the universe is cloaked in mystery.  Does dark reveal anything to us about God?

It’s December and the season of Advent is upon us.  Coming to us in the northern hemisphere as daylight wanes and nights grow long, ADVENT is often awash with metaphors of LIGHT and DARKNESS.  So often in these scenarios LIGHT is associated with all that is good and right and true, while DARKNESS is associated with all that is bad and false and wrong.  Yet from the beginning, as the first chapter of Genesis illustrates, darkness and light have com­plementary roles to play within God’s magnificently unfolding universe.  When God creates the light, the darkness is not extinguished or cursed, but is integrated into the rhythm of the daily round.  Light and darkness each have purpose in the created order.

Imagine, if you can, a world that lacked Daytime or lacked Nighttime.  Imagine Scripture’s saving story told without NIGHT, without DREAMING.

• No starlit sky to which Abram gazes while God affirms the promise.
• No midnight vision for Jacob while fleeing his brother, no Jacob’s ladder.
• No divine – human wrestling match at the ford of the Jabbok.
• No prison-borne dreaming that leads Joseph to ascendancy under Pharoah.
• No pillar of fire by night guiding and protecting Moses and the Hebrew children as they move out of slavery, through the Red Sea, and onto their wilderness journey to the Promised Land.
• And two millennia later, no Messenger in the dark whispering to another Joseph: FEAR NOT TO TAKE MARY AS YOUR WIFE, FOR THE CHILD SHE CARRIES IN HER DARK WOMB IS HOLY.

Every life form on this planet home has evolved under the influence of night and day, darkness and light, and life as we know it could not exist without their DANCE.  Our Advent invitation this year is to stay alert to ways of imagining darkness and shadow NOT as attributes to be shunned, but rather as attributes to be hallowed.

In the shadow of your wings I will praise your name, O God!

During Wednesday evening gatherings this season we will explore this theme.  And on both Sundays and Wednes­days Scripture readings, hymns, and songs will build upon the theme that God’s presence is made manifest in light and dark and shadow.  Consider joining us.

“Hope begins in the dark,” writes Elizabeth Hunter.  “In deep, dark, winter soil little seeds nested underground are kept safe and nurtured.  When skies are dark, stars can be seen more clearly. In darkness, the natural sleep cycles of nocturnal animals and migratory patterns of birds are undisturbed.  Darkness has many benefits.”[1]

In the short story NIGHTFALL, Isaac Asimov tells the tale of the fictional planet Lagash, whose six suns keep it perpetually in light.  Residents of this fictional world experi­ence a star-filled nighttime sky only when astronomical factors perfectly align once every 2050 years.  For a brief period during this rare interlude all six suns fall away from view, exposing the inhabitants to the dark, starry sky.  The affect, however, is not awe and wonder but rather pandemonium.   Nyctophobia—irrational fear and foreboding  of the night—grip the populace of Lagash, unleashing internal forces so intense that the result is the complete destruction of the planet’s civilization. Survivors are left to build their lives—and their civilization—over from scratch.  Asimov’s tale is a fascinating take on the notion of perpetual light as a fiendishly potent enemy.  Might it also serve as a warning to a society which has elevated “whiteness” onto the pedestal superiority and consigned “blackness” to the dungeon of inferiority?

From the beginning darkness and light, day and night have been necessary components of the unfolding story God is telling.  Parts of a single whole, both are declared GOOD.  And both are seedbeds for our social and spiritual lives.  Absent one, the other suffers immeasurably.  Fourth century Cappadocian monk Gregory of Nyssa flipped the West’s social/spiritual paradigm on its head when he wrote: “Moses’s vision began with light.  Afterwards God spoke to him in a cloud.  But when Moses rose higher and became more perfect, he saw God in the darkness.”[2] What rich, new insights become available to us when we’re willing to explore the precincts of the night!

I leave you with one verse of a hymn by Brian Wren that we’ll be singing this month:

Joyful is the dark, holy, hidden God, rolling cloud of night beyond all naming:

majesty in darkness, energy of love, Word-in-flesh, the mystery proclaiming!

Blessed Advent(ure)!

Pastor Erik

[1] Elizabeth Hunter quoting Anne Lamott, Hope Begins in the Dark, in her article in Gather Magazine, November/December 2021 Issue, page 1.

[2] Quoted by Barbara Brown Taylor in Learning to Walk in the Dark, p. 48

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:8-9

Beloved of God,

Astronomically speaking, November is a liminal month.  Each year we turn our clocks back, pull warmer coats and hats out of the closet, and prepare for the “long dark” as we watch daylight diminish and see the sun’s arc move lower in the sky.  November is also a liminal time within the Church Year.  It begins with the Feast of All Saints: remembering the faithful people of all times and places whose lives were captured by the gravity of grace, along with those individ­uals dear to us who, though no longer living, continue to impact our lives.  It ends with the Feast of Christ the King and the promise that in the end, evil will be vanquished and the Lamb who was slain will reign over a renewed heaven and earth. Finally, November is a liminal time within our common life: election time.  After all the speeches have been given, all the arguments made, all the ads posted and polls taken, it is, at last, decision time.  The texts and themes we’ll hear during November speak of End Times and counsel us not to become so swept up in the perils and predictions of the moment that we allow them to infect us with anxiety.  In the words of the great civil rights folk song, we are to “keep our eyes on the prize and hold on.”

St. Paul, writing from prison (quote above), invited the Christians of Philippi to put the circumstances they faced into a larger frame by focusing each day on “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.” “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,” says Paul, “and the God of peace will be with you.”

As we countdown to one of the more contentious and consequential presidential elections in American history, we do well to take Paul’s dose of wisdom and make it our own.  Whatever the world may look like in the days and weeks after November 3rd, God will still be there with his promises, and our mission as a congregation will still be be­fore us: TO CULTIVATE FAITH AND TRUST IN OUR LIFE TOGETHER, TO DISCERN GOD’S CHALLENGE INTO UNFAMILIAR PLACES, AND TO VENTURE BEYOND OURSELVES SO ALL PEOPLE WILL EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE. [PLC Mission state­ment]  “Remember who you are and what it means to be a community in Christ,” says Paul, and that is indeed what you and I, together, are to be about.

The COMMUNITY PRAYER VIGIL we will host at Peace the evening of November 3^rd, All Saints Sunday, is one way we’ll walk that talk.  Against all the hyperbolic, offensive, and controversial language of this campaign season, we will offer a counterpoint: space for contemplation and prayer; for lighting candles and keeping hope burning, “come what may.”

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

“We know that the whole of creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”  – Romans 8:22-23

Beloved of God,

Autumn is here and with it the return of Sunday morning faith formation classes and opportunities galore for putting our faith into practice. Where will your energies be focused?  Read more about the options in this edition of Peace Notes.

Each October begins with the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (observed this year on Sunday, October 6).  While we at Peace mark our Season of Creation in June each year, in many ecumenical circles the Season of Creation begins September 1st and ends October 4^th.  This year we’re marking the end of the ecumenical season by uniting with Christian communions around the theme, “To hope and act with Creation,” inspired by Romans 8:19-25.  It’s a practice we’ll continue going forward.

When Francis heard the Lord speak to him, saying “Francis, rebuild my church,” he took up that call in earnest.  Divesting himself from his family wealth, Francis embarked on a new path.  While he could easily have become the respected leader of a successful monastic community, removed from the distractions of society, he chose instead to immerse himself in the messy human condition, where he was often reviled as an embarrassment to the high society from which he came. Rather than accept a traditional endowment, Francis and his followers begged in the streets for bread, bricks, and firewood. He tended the sick and cared for orphans. He stood up against oppression wherever he encountered it, but he did so in such a loving way that he posed no obvious threat to the authorities and so managed to convert them to his cause.[1]

“The early Franciscan friars and the Poor Clares (women who followed Clare of Assisi) wanted to be gospel practitioners instead of merely “inspectors” or “museum curators,” writes Franciscan Father Richard Rohr.  “Both Francis and Clare offered their Rules as a forma vitae, or “form of life.” They saw orthopraxy (correct practice) as a necessary parallel, and maybe even precedent, to mere verbal orthodoxy (correct teaching) and not an optional add-on or a possible implication.

“Creation itself—not ritual or spaces constructed by human hands—was Francis’ primary cathedral.

His love for creation drove him back into the needs of the city, a pattern very similar to Jesus’ own movement

between desert solitude (contemplation) and small-town healing ministry (action).” – Richard Rohr

Not only was Francis aware of the groaning and suffering of his fellow human beings, he was tuned to the groaning of all creation. The more he found God within himself, the more he saw God outside himself where every detail of nature spoke to him of God.[2]  Prayer led Francis into the truth of his own reality and into the truth of the world. Nothing was outside the embrace of God’s love.  In his famous encounter with the wolf who had been terrorizing the village of Gubbio, Francis addresses the wolf as a brother, and the wolf, who’d charged toward Francis ready to attack, “closed his mouth and stopped running, and came meekly as a lamb and threw himself at the feet of St. Francis.”[3]  Whether the story is factually true in every detail is beside the point, which is that when Francis opened his eyes to the vulnerable ones of the two-legged variety, his eyes were also opened to the vulnerable ones of the four-legged variety—and sensing his address as genuine, they responded.

The theme “To Act and Hope with Creation” reminds us that our actions, and our trust in the God who empowers such actions, enable us to glimpse the future with hope.  This fall there are a number of initiatives before us.  Initiative 2117 in particular, if passed, would have deep and devastating impacts on our efforts in Washington to slow climate breakdown.  We’re being encouraged by our partners at Earth Ministry and Faith Action Network, as well as our Creation Care Team, to vote NO.  (To learn more about what’s at stake, seek out a member of the Creation Care team.)  However we choose to fill out our ballots, let’s do so as informed voters, digging beyond the 30 second radio and TV sound bites before making our choices.

Hope is a precious commodity these days.  It’s so easy to be disappointed with outcomes – especially ones in which we’ve invested so much energy.  But to be followers of Jesus is to live with the conviction that hope is real even when there are no obvious signs pointing in that direction.  Building our connections to others in a nurturing community helps to move us beyond the isolation that can be so despairing.  Each week we have the chance to take that step by coming together around Word and Table—places where Christ promises to meet us without fail.

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] Mirabai Starr, Saint Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation (Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2007, 2013), 22–23, 27–28.

[2] Ilia Delio, preface to Franciscan Prayer: Awakening to Oneness with God (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2024), vii–viii, ix–x.

[3] You can find an account of this event in The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, a 14th-century collection of stories about Francis and his companions.

Image credit and inspiration: Dimitri Kadiev, Be Praised—mural of Francis and Clare on the side of the CAC (detail), photo of paint on adobe wall. This mural art on the outside of the CAC represents Francis’ love and acceptance of life in its varied and diverse manifestations.

Beloved of God,

After a week in August that saw some of the lowest temperatures in decades and the wettest August days of record, we’ve rebounded for a warm and beautiful weekend of summer—and I for one am relishing it!  Wherever this weekend finds you, I hope you can revel in God’s good creation while enjoying things you love!

As usual, our life in community at Peace is ramping up this month, with special events and opportunities awaiting your presence and participation.  Among them are the HABITAT INTERFAITH BUILD September 6/7 and 13/14 and our RALLY SUNDAY CELEBRATION on September 22^nd with special guests Pastor Kevin Beebe and Ashleigh Ellsworth-Keller of Camp Lutherwood.  Please mark your calendars!  You can read more about these and other congregational events in the pages that follow.

In addition to our fall programming and the start of the school year, this autumn is being indelibly stamped by another occasion which will dominate our lives over the next two months—the most consequential election season of our lifetimes.  In recent years I’ve become alarmed by the rhetoric of the so-called Christian right as they wrap themselves in the flag, assume the title “patriot,” and claim divine sanction for their candidate of choice.  The language being used, and the actions they support, are downright idolatrous.  Blueprints are being formulated (such as Project 2025) that openly promote the end of democracy as we’ve known it—and do so in the name of God.  This cannot stand.

While you and I may not always agree on the best course of action when it comes to candidates for office and propositions that come before us, as Lutherans we recognize our duty to participate in the democratic process as informed citizens, and to encourage others to do the same.  Our baptismal covenant includes: “serving all people and creation, following the example of Jesus,” and “striving for justice and peace in all the earth.”  Love for God and neighbor compels us to engage in conversations about public policy and other topics where the good of the community is at stake, with an eye toward maintaining justice and caring for the needs of the most vulnerable.

A group of Peace folk met recently to ask how we, as a community of faith, might respond to the rise of Christian nationalism and the claims that are being made in the name of “Christians.”  Let me know if you’d like to be involved in future meetings.  More bombastic voices is not the answer.  We need to do something more than add more fuel to the fire.  One option under consideration is partnering with the organization Paths of Understanding to host a Potluck for Democracy—which would bring together neighbors and members of other faith communities—Christian and non-Christion—for the purpose of genuine human encounter and bridge building.  One tenant of Christian nationalism is that people who are “different” from us (i.e. us white people) cannot be trusted.  Face to face engagement over a shared meal is one simple way of challenging that falsehood.  Jesus made that kind of meal fellowship a core part of his ministry and his teaching.  And he left his disciples the template for a Meal that they (that is, WE) have been carrying out in his name ever since.

The rhetoric of those who want to subvert our democracy and replace it with a system that privileges certain individuals who meet their criteria as “deserving Chrisitan Americans” must be challenged.  Those of us of voting age will have our chance at the ballot box on November 5^th, but before we reach November we have the opportunity to offer an alternative narrative to the fearful and hateful ones that are being promulgated in the name of Christ.

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. – Ephesians 2:13-14

Beloved of God,

There’s much talk about division within our country these days.  These divisions have always been present to a greater or lesser degree, but in recent decades they have become much more visible and vocalized.  As the upcoming election looms, it’s hard not to find ourselves and our personal position on candidates and issues hardening.  Human  division is nothing new; we Americans certainly didn’t invent it!  As the Biblical record (and anthropological evidence) attest, divisions within the human family have existed from the beginning, with one side or another often claiming divine sanction for their particular group’s point of view.

One of the divisions St. Paul addresses most frequently in his letters is the division between Jews and Gentiles, i.e. between those who are heirs to the promises God via the old covenant (Abraham and Moses), and those who are heirs to the promises of God mediated through the new covenant initiated in Jesus Christ.  In his Letter to the Ephesians Paul says there’s room for both – Jew and Gentile – in the new covenant God has initiated in Jesus.  In Christ, says Paul, God has accomplished something no one else could—through Christ’s self-giving sacrifice on the cross he has “broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”  Writing about this, Paul speaks not as if it may happen “someday, by and by,” but rather that it has already been accomplished!

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  – Ephesians 2:19-20

As followers of Jesus, the invitation for us is to look at our fellow human beings through the eyes of Christ, seeking opportunities to confirm our kinship rather than for evidence of irreconcilable differences between us.  Jesus himself practiced this when he gathered a diverse community of disciples around him and he did it often through table fellowship.  Wherever he went, he made mealtimes occasions for teaching that God can mend divisions that seem insurmountable.  His approach offended some religious leaders and confounded others. The Eucharistic Meal we share each week is a reminder of his radical promise to be fully present, offering himself and calling his diverse community of followers into unity.

Wherever we may find ourselves this summer, whether close to home or across the ocean, the invitation is for us to look for those things which unite us—evidence of our common humanity.  Responding to this invitation will no doubt stretch us beyond our comfort zones, as his invitations always do.  But what an adventure—to see if, in crossing into new territory, we don’t discover that the Spirit was already there before us!

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

Behold how good, how pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!  It is like precious oil on Aaron’s head running down on his beard, running down to the collar of his robes.  It is like the dew of Mount Hermon, falling on the hills of Zion. For that is where GOD bestows the blessing—life that never ends.

– Psalm 133

Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Beloved of God,

As the flora of the natural world comes to life around us these April days, we continue our celebration of the resurrection.  One of the greatest signs of the resurrection life to which we are called comes to us by way of the Scripture readings during this Easter season.  One of those, Psalm 133, is a favorite of mine.  One of the “psalms of ascent” or pilgrimage psalms, this psalm was sung and recited by folks who were making their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy festivals.  When I think of this psalm I imagine groups of travelers walking—some for days—perhaps camping out a night or two enroute, with their eyes set on the goal of reaching the Holy City in time for the sacred celebration.  Along the trail I see them reconnecting with family members, renewing friendships, and, hopefully, experiencing the sweet nectar of a community in tune with each other and in tune with life.

My seminary advisor, Professor of Old Testament Jim Limberg, enjoyed teaching his Hebrew students a melody for singing Psalm 133.  After learning the tune, he’d lead us on a pilgrimage to other classrooms while the Hebrew words echoed through the halls: “Hine ma tov uma nahim – shevet achim gum yachad!” Behold how good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!

On April 14^th this month our congregation will once again expand as we receive by Rite of Welcome a new group of people who have been called by the Spirit to make Peace Lutheran a spiritual home base.  Some of their names and faces will be familiar to you while others will be new.  If you haven’t yet met them, April 14 will be an excellent opportunity to do so!  Each of them—Christina, Jacob, Eugene, Raymond, Ann, Kristin, Patty, Shari, Pidge, Matthew, and Paul—have a story to tell about how they felt drawn into our community and what they are hoping to both receive and share in the life we share.  It’s been a joy to learn more of their stories during our Journey of Faith process.  As they become more deeply connected at Peace, I hope you will share in the joy of coming to know these new “kin.”

Then, on April 21^st the circle will expand wider still as we welcome Astrud Bernadette Gray to the body of Christ through Holy Baptism.  When Astrud is baptized we, the people of Peace, will be articulate our promise to support her and pray for her as her new life in Christ continues to root and grow.  We will call her “sister” for she will be one of our new siblings, one of our kin.  It makes me want to sing!

Living with resurrection joy!

Pastor Erik