Beloved of God,

I love baking bread from scratch.  In my book few things in life match the satisfying aroma of freshly baked bread just out of the oven and the message of home, hearth and love it conveys.  And I love this image Matthew gives us of a God who, like this Bakerwoman, is willing to get up to her elbows in dough, kneading and turning, pushing and folding and then, waiting with patience as the leavening does its thing, transforming a handful of ingredients into a life-sustaining loaf of bread.  Friends, you and I are in that dough!  And God’s strong hands, and the Spirit’s leaven, are at work in, with, and through us bringing lightness, structure and substance to a world that is longing to be fed with food that will truly sustain—the kind of bread only God can provide.

At our annual meeting (January 26) I suggested that, while it can seem like drudgery at times, the annual meeting can also be an occasion for taking in the satisfying aroma of the mission we’ve been about together; time for marking our journey, giving thanks for God’s sustaining gifts, and setting our sights toward God’s hope-filled future.   Peace is a Spirit-blessed community through whom God is bringing gifts of bread in the form of welcome, joy, belonging, and good news into the world.  What a privilege it is to be part of it!

2014 will be an important year for this congregation.  Capital projects that have been on the drawing board—projects your collective generosity will enable us to fund—will begin taking on flesh.  And in a scant few weeks we’ll embark on our first-ever sabbatical experiences as pastor and congregation.  For us Kindems that experience will be marked by a geographic pilgrimage from Seattle to New England, the British Isles, France and Italy, and encounters with places and people of whom we could only dream, were it not for your support and the incredible generosity of Christian Theological Seminary and the Lilly Foundation.

You, for your part, will have your own set of opportunities for a sabbatical journey which, though less geographical in nature, is no less spiritual.  Under the coordinated leadership of the Sabbatical Planning Team and Church Council the table is being set for some truly marvelous and extraordinary experiences!  My fervent prayer is that each one of you will choose in your own ways to embrace and enter into as many of those experiences as you can; to find your place at that table, for I am convinced that great gifts and life-sustaining food await those who will do so.

March 2nd will be my final Sunday with you until August.  Realizing that I need to be on the receiving end of the sermon that day and to sit with my family, I have asked Rev. David Wold to be the Word-bringer that morning, and he has graciously consented.  Rev. Eldon Olson and Rev. Martha Myers will also have roles within the service.  I will preside at the Table where—just as he promised— Christ will meet us with bread for the journeys we are about to make.  Following worship, we’ll gather for a bon voyage celebration meal.  I would love to see you here at Peace that morning.

Please hold our family in prayer—as I know you already do—as we move through this final month of preparation for this life changing journey.  There are still a number of details that need attending before we step on the plane, and alongside these, there’s the ongoing inward preparation for this extended Sabbath.  We, in turn, will be holding you in our hearts, and look forward to posting some of our thoughts and photos on a Sabbatical blog I’m in the process of setting up.

The God we meet in Jesus is both a Bakerwoman and a steady Companion, (a word which means, literally, “one who shares bread”) who meets us on whatever road we may be traveling, in whatever circumstances, assuring us that he is both able and willing to go the distance by our side.  For this we cry, Thanks Be to God!

With you, on the Way,

Pastor Erik

“O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”