For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

– Galatians 5:1

Beloved of God,

Two of our own, Eldon and Marcia Olson, began their 34 hour flight odyssey this week en route from Southwest Seattle to Southwest Africa for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) gathering in Windhoek, Namibia. (You can read an article about their journey on page 3 below.)  There they’ll be gathering with representatives from 145 Lutheran church bodies from around the world representing 74 million Lutherans from 98 countries.

This LWF gathering during this 500th anniversary year of the Reformation centers on a central theme and three sub-themes.  The central theme is: Liberated by God’s Grace. This theme articulates two pivotal insights of Lutheran theology: the prevalence of God’s grace when it comes to justification, and the gift of freedom that results from God’s transformative action. The theme tells us that the gracious love of God, through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, opens up opportunities for us as faithful Christians to reach out as healers and as people able to reconcile to a world torn apart by strife and inequality.  “We are liberated by God’s grace,” the theme suggests, “but from what and for what?”  These questions lead to the three sub-themes: CREATION is not for sale; HUMAN BEINGS are not for sale; SALVATION is not for sale. We are freed by the grace of God to engage in this Christian ministry.

The fact that the Lutheran Church of Namibia is hosting the gathering is of particular interest to me because the presiding Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Namibia is Dr. Shekutaamba Nambala, whom I met at Luther Seminary when both of us were students—I working on my M.Div. and he on his PhD.  We met during a class we were both taking on the Holocaust, and our families, who lived in adjacent housing complexes, became acquainted.  I recall riding together and talking with Shekutaamba in the backseat of a car on our way to a Holocaust lecture.  My theological understanding of LIBERATION BY GOD’S GRACE expanded through interactions with Pastor Nambala and other students from around the globe.  Their voices and experiences helped me move from the “WHAT” of freedom in Christ, to the “SO WHAT.” The Lutheran Church in Namibia played important roles both in the liberation struggle against apartheid and in the Namibian struggle for independence. Liberation in the Namibian context meant refusing to “submit to a yoke of slavery” any longer.  As incidents of intertribal conflict and even genocide have unfolded on the African continent over the 30+ years since we met, I’ve often wondered about the trajectory of Dr. Nambala’s ministry.

As I surfed the internet this week I found an article highlighting Dr. Nambala’s comments at the funeral of a regional Namibian political officer.  It seems that on the casket, the flag of the political organization to which she belonged was laid on top of the Namibian national flag.  Bishop Nambala took exception to this practice and called for national unity. The members of competing political parties are all God’s people, he said.  Tolerance towards one another is needed.  He called on his country’s national administration to ensure equal distribution of national wealth and to refrain from serving personal interests.  I think there is much in these statements made in his context that rings true in our own as well.

We have indeed been liberated by God’s grace, as St. Paul, and Martin Luther after him, both affirm. Lutherans have trumpeted that truth for half a millennium now.  Yet the questions remain: From what? And for what?  These are questions each Christian community—wherever its location around the globe—must ask continually.  And the answers we give must be as concrete and enfleshed as the ministry of Jesus himself:  full of invitation, reconciling conversations, bold truth, acts of healing, transforming encounters, gifts of forgiveness, lavish love.  Such liberating gifts as these are not com­modities that can be traded or brokered way.  They are not for sale.  They can only be given away.

Pastor Erik

This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD.

– Exodus 12:11

Beloved of God,

After hiking five miles in the snow through fields of standing corn and over frozen lakes in the dead of a Minnesota winter, every one of us in Troop 72 was famished. But we all knew there would be nothing to eat until a fire was going. So, gathering wood quickly, we built a kindling tipi over thin strips of birch bark, put a match to it, and waited—all eight pairs of eyes eager and focused—for smoke and flame to rise. What we were after, what we needed for cooking, were hot coals, so we tended the growing fire with studious care, feeding ever larger pieces into the flames at careful intervals, until the crack and pop of the wood and the enveloping warmth convinced us the fire would succeed.

Then, reaching into our green canvas knapsacks, we took out the foil pouches we’d packed at home before our journey began; pouches filled with chunks of carrot, potato, and onion, and seasoned with pepper and salt, with a large paddy of hamburger in the middle. And as soon as the flames were low enough, we tossed our treasures onto the coals, sat back, and waited for the sizzle and the mouthwatering aroma that signaled dinner was on its way. When the meal was ready we pulled the pouches off the coals with pairs of sticks, opened them up, and dug in to what—even 45 years after the fact—was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Meals to remember. What’s on your list? Some meals stand out from the rest. The first date; the wedding feast; the last taste of home before going away; the first meal alone after years of living together. Sometimes the menu or the occasion are everything. Other times it’s neither the menu nor the occasion but the company we keep that’s memorable; or the setting. At the first Passover it’s all of the above. God’s people are poised on the edge of something that they cannot fully grasp, and won’t for many years. The menu is lamb and unleavened bread; the occasion is their last meal together in Egypt; the company they keep is all whose doorposts have been marked with the blood of the lamb; the setting is the land of captivity—Pharaoh’s land—which they will soon be seeing in the rearview mirror.

There’s urgency in the air in this story from Exodus:

This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD.

There’s no time for yeast; no time to boil water. No time to prepare the animal in the usual way—just roast it quickly over the fire. Make certain your shoes are laced, your staff is in hand, your clothes are on, your pack is ready; for the time for which you have been waiting, is at hand. In the morning, you will be on your way.

Our Lenten journey comes to a culmination with the Three Days—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil. We’ll mark the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples with two elements: bread and wine. It’s the old meal; a meal celebrating liberation from bondage. And it’s the new meal, the new covenant Jesus instituted on the night he was betrayed.  We take Jesus at his word when he says, THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MY BLOOD—trusting he is fully present with us, offering himself with the bread and wine. In his Large Catechism Luther compares the benefit of the Lord’s Supper to a remedy that heals sin’s disease. It is “a pure, wholesome, soothing medicine that aids you and gives life in both soul and body. For where the soul is healed, the body is helped as well.” In other words, forgiveness and healing.

As we cross the threshold together from Good Friday to Easter, the feast of remembrance becomes a Feast of Victory for our God. God’s greatest surprise of raising Jesus from death animates our life together. There is urgency here, too, and energy enough to carry us and our mission forward. Let’s make the journey together, and find our lives renewed.

Pastor Erik

“The LORD said to Moses: Write these words;

in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel…

And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”

– Exodus 34:27-28

Beloved of God,

Lent is a season of truth-telling.  And truth seems to be in short supply these days. Everything, it seems, is up for grabs.  Your point of view not getting enough love?  Find the right Facebook group, chat room, or online news source, and you’re home free.   The data don’t support your perspective?  Crunch your own data.  The science doesn’t backup your worldview?  Enlist some “alternative facts.”

Lent is an antidote to all this.  The ashes we wear are a no-holds-barred articulation of human origin and destiny in one sleek sentence: REMEMBER YOU ARE DUST, AND TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN. In Lent we tell the truth about the way things are with us:  We are in bondage, and cannot free ourselves.  It is a hard truth; but it’s a good truth, because it disabuses us from any notion that we can get our act together if we only try harder.

During this 500th anniversary year of the Reformation, our worship planning team has us focusing on Luther’s Small Catechism during our 5 Wednesday evenings together, beginning March 8.  In his explanation of the 1st Commandment in his Large Catechism, Brother Martin says: “Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God. The intention of this commandment therefore is to require true faith and confidence of the heart, which fly straight to the one true God and cling to him alone.”  If we can’t grasp this 1st command, what chance we’ll honor the others?

The season of Lent reveals truth as paradox: on the one hand, the weakness of our wills and the limits of our abilities to do what God requires; and on the other hand, the depth of God’s love for us in Jesus and the boundless ability of the Holy Spirit to transform our lives.  Contemplating this paradox is the journey of Lent.

To help us do this, we’ll see a new artful expression appear, by degrees, on the East wall of our sanctuary during this season.  This installation is inspired by 15th century Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev’s depiction of the Holy Trinity. (At right)

Franciscan Richard Rohr notes that icons like this “point beyond themselves, inviting a sense of both the beyond and the communion that exists in our midst. This icon shows the Holy One in the form of Three, eating and drinking, in infinite hospitality and utter enjoyment between themselves. The gaze between the Three shows the deep respect between them as they all share from a common bowl.”

The opening stanza of Brian Wren’s hymn on the Trinity reads:

When minds and bodies meet as one and find their true affinity,

we join the dance in God begun and move within the Trinity,

so praise the good that’s seen and done in loving, giving unity,

revealing God, forever One, whose nature is Community.[1]

The central truth the season of Lent reveals is the incessant Voice of the Triune God calling us into relationship—through the Ten Commands; through Jesus’ journey to the cross; through the Font which gave us birth; through the communion of the Table. All of these reveal the passionate longing of the Triune God to share the Divine Feast with us—to teach us the steps of the sacred Dance.  This truth is more hopeful than anything the world casts our way.  So get your toes a tapping!

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] Brian Wren. Words © 1980, Hope Publishing Company 

Give me your tired, your poor

your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;

the wretched refuse of your teeming shore;

send these—the homeless, tempest-tossed to me;

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

– The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus

On the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor

Beloved of God,

Many of us can remember a time in elementary school when we were assigned the task of committing a song or poem to memory.  The “50 Nifty States Song” I learned as a 4th grader at Hawthorne Elementary in Albert Lea, Minne­sota, was one of these.  I can still recall the school assembly when all of us fourth graders sang out the name of each state—in alphabetical order no less.  The song had a catchy tune, and even now as I write that tune plays in my head some 50 years later!  Things put to memory when we’re young tend to stick.  Which is another argument for committing Bible verses and hymns to memory—they’ll be accessible to us when we need them.  But that’s another topic.

Along with the “50 Nifty States Song” there is a poem I committed to memory as a youngster that has stayed with me all these years.  It’s a poem by Emma Lazarus (above).  She donated the poem in 1883 to the campaign to raise funds for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. It came to prominence only after her death when it was placed on the completed pedestal in 1903.  I saw it in person when our family visited Liberty Island at the end of my sabbatical in 2014.  Ms. Laza­rus entitled her poem THE NEW COLOSSUS. Having seen the place in Rome where Nero’s original COLOSSUS once stood, I had another layer of meaning to add to the content of what she wrote.

As our boat prepared to land on Liberty Island that brilliant summer day, the words which I’d put to memory in my elementary school choir came to the surface once more.  The poem, which never fails to move me, took on even greater meaning when we docked at Ellis Island.  There we stood in the very room where my grandparents Ingvald and Anna Kindem had stood with their three young children, Olaf, Halvor and Andi, on June 5, 1923, as immigrants from Norway.  In the computerized files, we were able to find their names on their ship’s manifest and even glimpse a photo of the ship itself—The Stavangerfjord—which bore them safely across the ocean to this new land.

Emma Lazarus’ poem and my own family’s immigration story have been much on my mind in the aftermath of the recent Executive Order banning the admittance of immigrants and refugees from certain countries.  Had Ingvald and Anna been turned away at Ellis Island, what would our family story have been?  We talked about that around the dinner table last night.  Our kids figured that if this had happened, they’d have been born in Norway.  “Not so fast,” Chris countered.  “If Great grandpa Ingvald and Great grandma Anna had been turned away, Grandpa Roald and Grandma Shirley would never have met; Dad (Erik) would not have been born, he and I would not have married, and therefore you two would never have been born.”  A point worth contemplating.

The President’s Executive Order is already having a direct impact on the Lutheran Church’s work with refugees, as David Duea, President and CEO of Lutheran Community Services Northwest pointed out in an email this week:

“Our Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program (URM) in Spokane was ready to welcome a 17-year-old young man, scheduled to arrive early this week. He is from Afghanistan, where his parents and sister were killed by a landmine. The boy fled Afghanistan to Indonesia, where he has been living in a shelter. He was scheduled to fly from Jakarta to Los Angeles Monday. Unaccompanied refugee minors usually fly with an escort.  We have not heard from the escort… We have no idea what to expect. This is one example of how a story being felt around the world is impacting real, individual lives.”

Another stark example concerns a 24-year-old man from Sudan who has been registered and waiting to come to the U.S. since 2010.  Mary Flynn, Refugee Program Director at Lutheran Social Services of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is worried the Sudanese refugee is in danger. His case was being expedited because he was a victim of violence and torture.  Now after 7 years of waiting, the possibility of resettlement itself seems in danger.

It has been heartening to see the many expressions of concern and solidarity, and offers of legal aid for those whose lives have been flung into turmoil as a result of the Order.   As followers of Jesus—who was himself a refugee from violence (Mt. 2:13-18)—you and I are called to stand with the vulnerable, whom Jesus called “the least of these who are members of my family.” (Mt. 25: 40)

Some of you remember the chaos that swept through Japanese immigrant communities 72 years ago this month as a result of Executive Order 9066.  The displacement and internment of people of Japanese ancestry—including many who were citizens of the United States—was driven by prejudice and fear.  It remains a dark chapter in our nation’s history.

It seems to me that the words emblazoned on the Pritchard Park Memorial on Bainbridge Island—Nidoto Nai Yoni–“Let it not happen again”— also apply to the immigrant and refugee crisis that is developing before our eyes right now.  A clear process for vetting refugees has been in place for decades and often takes years to complete.  Less than ½ of 1% of the world’s refugees will ever have the opportunity to be resettled in the United States.  When it comes to refugees, there is no such thing as a “rush to our borders.”

We join our colleagues at Lutheran Community Services Northwest and at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services in welcoming refugees no matter what their religious background or country of origin may be. We support refugees who are fleeing dangerous and violent conditions.  Not only is our compassion needed, it is com­manded by our Lord. Faith is more verb than noun—it has legs.  Let’s seize the day by putting our legs of faith to work for the sake of refugees and immigrants.  Let’s make certain Lady Liberty’s lamp continues to shine by the golden door.  In the process, we will ourselves become the “light of the world” Jesus has called us to be.

With you on the way,

Pastor Erik

 “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters;

the God of glory thunders;

the LORD is upon the mighty waters.”

– Psalm 29:3

Beloved of God,

Chilly weather companions our passage from 2016 to 2017.  Mini-snow people have spouted on our back lawn, and Kai and Naomi, inspired by the properties of snow and ice, have been on expeditions harvesting sheets of ice from neighborhood puddles and bearing them home, like treasure, on their sled.  Watching them brings me back to the days when I did same—with icicles—during long Montana and Minnesota winters.  The bigger, the better!

Watching the snow accumulate on the Olympics and Cascades evokes sighs of gratitude within me.  In this age of climate breakdown (climate “change” is too benign a term), heavy mountain snows recall the way it’s meant to be.  A heavy snowpack plays an essential role within the annual water cycle, and translates into promising prospects for everything and everyone who calls the Northwest bioregion home.  Yet, it hasn’t always been that way, as Cynthia Barnett documents in her book, RAIN: A Natural and Cultural History.[1]

“As even tempered as it grew up to be,” she writes, “Earth started off 4.6 billion years ago as a red-faced and hellish infant…For its first ½ billion years, Earth was a molten inferno some 8,000 degrees Celsius—hotter than today’s Sun.”  Scientists aptly name this violent period in Earth’s evolution “the Hadean eon,” from the Greek word Hades, or hell.

But the same process that made Earth a molten mass also set the stage for what it would some day be.  The flaming meteors that bombarded Earth had water locked inside of them, and as they crashed and split apart, they spewed out that water in the form of vapor.  “All that water,” Barnett writes, “would prove an invisible redeemer [when]… about a half a billion years after it started, the blitzkrieg began to wind down.  As the last of the flaming chunks fell to the surface or hurtled away, the planet finally had a chance to cool.  The water vapor could condense.  At long last, it began to rain.”

We’re not talking Seattle drizzle, Midwest gully washers, or even Florida hurricanes, folks—we’re talking cataclysmic torrents that fell and were taken up again and again and again in a seemingly endless cycle; storms that went on, literally, for millions and millions of years, eventually forming the primordial oceans, aquifers, lakes, and rivers from which life itself first emerged.  Rain: the wellspring of life.  Rain: the force which has shaped the story of life on this planet, and human culture in particular, from the beginning.  Rain: which seeded whole civilizations and led to their undoing.  Rain and its wondrous offspring—clouds and rainbows—which have inspired painters, writers, and poets for thousands of years.

Seeking language to describe the ideal king, the psalmist writes: “May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.” (Ps 72:6)  And David’s hymn of praise, Psalm 68, extols the God who “rides upon the clouds”; the “Father of orphans and protector of widows” who sends rain in abundance, restoring the heritage of his chosen ones; the “Rider in the ancient heavens” whose “power is in the skies.”

Sacred traditions with water at their centers can be found among peoples all over the world, including our own.  In the Western church, the first Sunday after the Epiphany is celebrated as The Baptism of Our Lord, and the appointed gospel takes us to the waters of the Jordan, where people have traveled in schools to receive John’s baptism of turning.  When Jesus comes to be baptized, John is taken aback at first and suggests their roles ought to be reversed.  But after receiving reassurance from Jesus, John immerses him in Jordan’s waters.  Then—the Spirit of God like a dove, and the Voice from on high: THIS IS MY SON, THE BELOVED, WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. (Matt. 3:13-17) Ever since this encounter, baptism has been the headwaters of the Christian story, a sacred sign that we our bound to God, that we journey with Christ, and like him are companioned by the Holy Spirit.

From that moment countless eons ago when Earth’s molten surface began to cool, and the heavy vapors of H₂O that surrounded her young atmosphere began to condense, giving birth to rain, the One who called it all into being has been waiting, patiently, for the opportunity to call you to new life through these waters.   Never doubt for one moment that you were meant to belong—to be bound as, St. Patrick sang, “to the strong name of the Trinity, the Three in One and One in Three.” And when you see the snow pilling up in the mountains; when you watch the raingardens at Peace receive the sky’s liquid offering; when you collect ice offerings, muddle in puddles, cross creeks and rivers, and venture on, over, or around the Salish Sea, remember that these waters, which once fell as rain and will again, are all signs—constant and true—of God embracing and blessing you.

Walking wet with you,

Pastor Erik

[1] Cynthia Barnett. Rain. A natural and cultural history. (New York: Broadway Books, 2015)

“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;

and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

John 8:31-32

Beloved of God,

One of the events that informs our life together and the life of the larger church this year and next is the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation on October 31, 2017.  In anticipation of that event, the Sunday Adult Class is beginning the fall with a study of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses.  It was these Theses, posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517, that historians point to as the beginning of what would come to be called The Reformation.  Luther wasn’t the only reformer, of course.  Many others, both prior to, during, and after Luther, paved the way for this new movement within the church catholic to take root.  But Luther became the face of the Reformation.  His penchant for prolific writing (55 volumes worth!) in language the common person could understand, combined with the invention of a printing press with movable type, made him the bestselling author in Europe for over a decade.  What he wrote—much of it challenging to greater or lesser degree the received tradition he had inherited—caught the attention of the age.  But what was it that made this movement which began as a trickle, become a flood?  What were the “hidden springs of imagination, high up in the hills, that were to feed the broad river of the Reformation?”[1]  According to author Peter Matheson, it was the advent of new images, allegories and metaphors for the divine and the human—metaphors taken from a reanimated reading of the Bible—that subverted the world which the Reformers inherited and paved the way for another. “When your metaphors change,” writes Matheson, “your world changes with them.”

The most pervasive image of the Reformation is that of the liberated Word of God.  The gospel of John is steeped in image and metaphor, as evidenced by the series of seven “I AM” statements of Jesus: “I am the bread of life; I am the light of the world; I am the gate for the sheep; I am the good shepherd; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the vine.” In John 8:31-36, the gospel text appointed for Reformation Sunday, Jesus says to the people who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Their first answer (and mine) is “We have never been slaves to anyone.” Oh how hard we work to keep the truth of our shadow from becoming known!  We do our best to hide it even from our own selves!  But before we can participate in the freedom God offers us in Jesus, we must own the fact that we are far from free; there are forces at work within and around us that keep us bound tight.  The freedom from “sin, death, and the devil” that Luther understood as pure gift of God—unmerited and unachievable—compelled him to preach Word alone, Faith alone, Grace alone, as the pillars of the good news.  This insight has served as a touchstone for the whole church for five centuries.

The danger inherent in any historical movement is that overtime the images and metaphors that once served as a fresh, invigorating wind, awakening the senses and animating the imaginations of a generation, can become immovable truths, fixed in stone; can become, in other words, fossilized.  The invitation for us, as we enter this 500th anniversary year, is not only to ask what images animated Brother Martin and other 16th century Reformers, but what images and metaphors can animate the church of this day, carrying the momentum forward so that the church does not become a museum relic of the past.

The life we share together is full of possibilities—you can read about many of them in this edition of Peace Notes.  Which ministry opportunities ignite your passion? Which are you drawn to be part of?  Where are the gaps that you sense need to be filled?  Go ahead!—use your imagination and creativity to ask how you individually might embody good news in our time and context, and how we might do so together.

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] Peter Matheson, The Imaginative World of the Reformation. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).

Have you not known? Have you not heard? 

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth; who does not faint or grow weary;

whose understanding is unsearchable. God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

– Isaiah 40:28-31

Beloved of God,

Our approach to Rachel Lake, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, was four miles long.  The first three followed Box Canyon Creek up valley, gradually gaining elevation from 2,800 feet at the trailhead to 3,400 at mile three—an average gain of only 200 feet per mile.  But the final mile—up the steep wall that gave Box Creek its name—had acquired a nickname of its own: the Cruel Mile.  As Kai and I began the upward slog, using our poles and any available tree, rock, or root we could grab, we became newly aware of the weight of our packs, and the reality of the 1,300 ft elevation gain ahead of us impressed itself viscerally on our minds and bodies.  This was Kai’s first backpack trip, and I’d put a good deal of effort into finding a destination that would allow him to experience the gifts the wilderness provides without exacting too steep of a price.  As my legs grew tired, I found myself inspired by Kai’s desire to keep going without complaint. “How much do you think we have left, Dad?” became Kai’s refrain every few minutes. “Oh,” I would reply, remembering our sabbatical experience, “about 200 meters.”[1] By the time we arrived at Rachel Lake we were eager to shed our gear and make camp.  By the time the sun set that evening, we were more than ready to crawl into our bags and give our bodies a rest.

When morning came, the weariness of the day before had dissipated, and after a breakfast of freeze dried eggs and sausage, our thoughts turned to the day ahead.  Another mile, and 400 feet above us, lay the Rampart Lakes, a series of smaller alpine lakes heartily endorsed by the guide book, and we set our sights there.  And Rampart Lakes did not disappoint!  But it was still early afternoon and there was plenty of day left.  What if we were to climb to the top of that saddle over there, at the south end of the basin?  And so we went.  The final 40 feet required some scrambling, but in the end we were rewarded with vistas of mountains all around, and a view all the way down to our Rachel Lake campsite far below.  Unforgettable.

Meaningful experiences, shared vistas, shape us.  They become reference points in our life together.  Sometimes, the experiences we worked hardest to obtain become the most precious to us. Not all shared experiences, of course, are worthy of being remembered.  Each of us could point to decisions, conversations, encounters, mistakes that we would gladly do over or take back if we could.  Regret, whatever its specific content, can ride roughshod over us if we let it, even to the point of overwhelming the rich and joyful moments we’ve known.  Thank goodness we have as companion on the way a God who knows how to strengthen us when we’re weak and to lift us when we’re weary—whether that weariness comes from physical exertion or from the weight of past sins!

As summer turns to fall and rhythms shift and change, we can take a cue from the autumn leaves, which teach us the art of letting go.  We have much to engage in together this month in our shared ministry at Peace; so many meaningful activities and opportunities for learning and serving and growing.  At times the calendar can become so cluttered that it feels less like a gift and more like an uphill slog!   But our Lord’s gracious accompaniment makes the journey all worthwhile.  With a spirit of joy and comradery—let the fall begin!

With you on the Way,

Pastor Erik

[1] Wherever we went on foot in Italy during our sabbatical, whether in the cities or on rural roads or trails, when we stopped to ask a local person how far we had to go to reach a particular destination, the answer was, inevitably, “About 200 meters.” This was true whether the actual distance was half that amount or several times that amount.  It became an inside family joke.

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.

If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to then, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

– James 1:17, 2:15-17

Beloved of God,

Recent events lead me to reflect on the vibrant nature of our congregation. Oddly enough, one catalyst for my reflection is our family’s recent visit to a congregation I once served.  25 year ago I served as interim pastor at Church of the Mountains, a Presbyterian congregation on the Hoopa Reservation which had been established in the 19th century.  I had rich experiences with that community, with ecumenical partners, and with the Tribe.   As we snaked our way along the winding roads leading to Hoopa, I told my kids about the two majestic Redwood trees that flanked the sidewalk leading to the front doors of the church building, trees which had been planted at the congregation’s founding. I remem­bered their great trunks and the shade they cast in the late afternoon, bringing welcome relief during 100+ degree summer days.  What greeted us when we drove up was quite different.  The two great Redwoods had been cut down.  The adjacent parsonage with its shade trees were gone—the victim of a fire some years back.  The cross on the steeple had been removed. The white clapboard church building hadn’t seen paint in who knows how many years.  The front doors were chained and paddle locked shut.  The whole property seemed abandoned and forlorn.  It was downright depressing.  The cause of all this was obvious, when I thought about it:  that congregation had ceased to play a continuing, vital role within the Hoopa community.  So, when the last of the aging members died, the congregation’s mission—its reason for existing—died with them.

Contrast this with the scene at Peace during the last week of July:

• A steady stream of blue-shirted servants of all ages—“LIVE GENEROUSLY” their shirts declare—with the full spectrum of experience to do God’s work with their hands, bend body and mind to the task building a Tiny House. Energy is high as hammers pound nails, saws cut boards, drills bite wood, and a house rises from the patio deck.[1]
• Volunteers from within and beyond the congregation show up to be part of it. Neighbors out for walks stop to learn what’s going down. A West Seattle Blog photographer comes by to capture a moment.[2]
• As evening comes, Twelfth Night Productions players fill the Fellowship Hall with costumes, music, and dance numbers—adding their melodies to the cacophony of hammers, drills, and skill saws.
• Meanwhile, after Sunday worship the Fireside Room fills with Peace women gathering to celebrate the impending birth of Hannah and Steven’s first child. (The seventh child born to the congregation over the last 16 months.)
• A journalist and photographer from King County’s Rainwise program stop by to capture images of our blooming raingarden and to interview congregation president Michael T and myself about the process and philosophy behind our congregation’s commitment to the project and to the Green Congregation movement.
• The 75th Anniversary Task Force holds its first planning meeting for our congregation’s Diamond Jubilee in 2019.

There’s more I could add, but you get the picture. There is vitality here at Peace, flowing from our vital sense of mission!  We are indeed a Spirit blessed community!

When my friend and colleague Greg stopped by to see the build, he commented “This is the book of James in action.” (I.e. faith active in love.)  Martin Luther, zealous to prove that God’s grace trumps any works we might come up with, once famously called James the “epistle of straw.”  My response to Greg (and Luther): “We’re spinning straw into gold.” “

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” AMEN!

Projects like building a Tiny House demand a lot of energy but they also unleash a lot of energy. And there’s another layer to the learning as well.  Building an 8 by 12 foot house is an invitation to imagine what this house will mean to the person for whom this small home will be an upgrade. And to imagine what it might mean for us whose lives are filled with stuff to pare down to the smallest configuration.  It invites us to ask, what is essential?  What do we really need?

In his letter to the Colossians, portions of which we’ve been hearing these summer Sundays, St. Paul speaks of earthly things and heavenly things. “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is,” he writes.  But it’s hard to seek the things that are above when you’re homeless and longing to have a roof over your head.  So, here’s the question: this Tiny House we’re building—is that an earthly thing or a heavenly thing?

The answer, of course, is YES.  It’s both.  Indeed, it’s something that’s bringing heaven and earth together. Beneath the enthusiasm for putting hammer to nail, the development of new skills, and the smell of freshly cut wood is the deep satisfaction of knowing that we are—quite literally—doing God’s work with our hands.  We’re building something substantial and real that will make a profound difference in someone’s life; and has already made a difference in our own.  We’ll wrap up the building project this first weekend in August, and celebrate after worship on Sunday, but the Tiny House will stick around for a little while as staff members from LIHI (Low Income Housing Institute) determine where this particular Tiny House will be placed. Come by and check it out.

Pastor Erik

[1] You can view a YouTube summary of the first four days here: https://youtu.be/KCtpmK3MVZE Courtesy of Anne Churchill.

[2] You can find the West Seattle Blog article here: http://westseattleblog.com/2016/07/west-seattle-scene-peace-lutheran-builds-a-tiny-house/