Living with Grace in Anxious Times

While scrolling through social media recently, I saw a colleague I really respect get blasted by someone in their community. Publicly. That's just one example of some alarming abuse that's been happening lately. Here are some others:

• A pastor receives the agenda for an upcoming Council meeting and "Accomodating Pastor's children in worship" is an agenda item. 
• Online video worship services being critiqued for not being professional enough.
• Pastors observing recommended social distancing & strict visitation policies at local hospitals being criticized for not visiting members in person in the midst of a pandemic.
• Furloughed ministers being asked to continue providing pastoral care for the communities which are no longer paying for that care. 

These are times of high anxiety, fear, and grief. Anxious, scared, and grieving people are rarely capable of exhibiting their best behavior. Even when accounting for the current environment, however, it's disturbing to hear these stories of abuse from colleagues I know are doing everything they can to provide pastoral care to the communities to which God has called them.

In this time of uncertainty, change, and fear, we can present a counter-narrative of faith, endurance, and love. In fact, we already are. The situations I described above are all true, but they are the unfortunate exceptions. I've seen congregations shift to video worship services and graciously laugh about our lack of sophistication & polish. Several congregations have scheduled parades of members, driving past the houses where their ministers live and honking, waving, singing, doing something fun to tell their pastors and deacons they are loved and appreciated. Phone trees have been set up so that every member of a congregation gets a call from a fellow member at least once a week. How many of us have hosted a Zoom Bible Study or caught up with friends at a distance?

Learning one new skill requires a period of trial and error, of failing a little bit less each time until we build up the competency desired. Most of us will never be Tour de France-level bicyclists, but almost all of us learned to ride a bike at some point in our childhood, right? We learned how to ride by falling down until we didn't, until that crazy balance clicked in our minds and bodies. We developed that competency over time, usually in private, and eventually we were able to not even think about how to ride a bike - we just hopped on the seat and took off.

This global pandemic has stripped away most of our former competencies and left us all juggling job and family requirements that were unthinkable less than six months ago. In a sense, we've all been told we can no longer walk, or even ride a bike: everything is on a unicycle now, everyone has to do it, and it all has to be done where everyone can see. We're building new competencies in every aspect of our life and work, all at once. We are falling down - regularly, often, and publicly. It's a painful time to be a person.

This is a time for grace if ever the was one. This should be our primary language in the church, but we've adapted so well to the cultural language of performance and production that grace is an unfamiliar dialect - it sounds familiar, but it'll take some time to be fluent in it again. This is a time for grace with ourselves. This is a time for grace with the limitations imposed on us by this pandemic we cannot control. This is a time for grace with our families and housemates who grow every more wearying and annoying with each passing interminable day of social distancing. This is a time for grace with co-workers who still don't know how to mute video conference calls or don't have a private spot where kids or spouses won't pop into the background. This is a time for grace with Council members who are insensitive or even absent because they're worried about losing their jobs. This is a time for grace with all of this and more. 

We once believed grace was easy, right? Here in the American midwest we are particularly good at the sort of grace that left room for grudges while presenting an outwardly peaceful countenance - the sort of thing Dietrich Bonhoeffer called 'cheap grace.' Now we're discovering how difficult the actual practice of grace can be, and also how essential it will be moving forward in a world which will long remember how we responded in this hour of pandemic. Faith, endurance, and love - this is how we live with grace in anxious times. May God's Holy Spirit fill you with this grace, and may it flow through you into the world around you, now and always.

Book Review: Dear Church by Lenny Duncan

"Christianity at its core is subversive. But radical evil wants complacency, not subversion...Radical evil wants walls up around our hearts, around our congregation's life, and around this country. Division is how evil operates. We have all become intractable... 

To walk away from a theological commitment to the least of these is to leave Christ on the cross and ignore what happens three days later. To pretend that this isn't our time to stand up and speak a good word over this world is gross misconduct. If I don't accept this call now, I should be defrocked. If the church doesn't accept this call now, it deserves to die."

June Newsletter Article - Church Members and Cattle Prods

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” - Hebrews 10:24-25

May Newsletter Article - Worship Matters

Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Beloved in Christ, in this time of celebration I want to say a word of thanks to all of you. As I reflect on our time together this past Lenten season, I am grateful for the time and attention many of you gave to breaking bread together and gathering in worship. Lent has always had a special place in my heart because it is a time when the Holy Spirit can bring about change and growth in all of us through the extra time and attention we give to the gospel and to receiving it together.

As we move into the celebratory season of Easter I want to draw your attention to a series of workshops held at St. Petri in upcoming months for those of you involved in worship leadership at St. Petri. Worship Matters workshops will help all of us learn more about the different roles we have in worship, where those roles originated, and how to carry them out with great effectiveness and joy. We’ll meet & pray, learn a bit about each of the different elements of worship leadership in our congregation, spend some time considering the “how-to” aspects of those elements, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions or concerns that might arise during each session. We’ll rotate through the different parts of worship leadership as many times as we feel is necessary, so those of you who miss a session will have chances to attend when we work around to it again.

My tentative schedule for upcoming months is as follows:

• April 27 - Assisting Ministers
• May 25 - Lectors
• June 29 - Audio/Video Tech
• July 27 - No meeting (I have a prior commitment)
• August 31 - Ushers/Greeters
• September 28 - Altar Guild
• October 26 - Acolytes

If we identify other things we’d like to be doing in worship leadership, they can be added to the schedule as needed. Otherwise, I’ll begin the schedule again in November or December with Communion Ministers, since the first of the Worship Matters workshops was held in March with them.

If you’d like more information about any of these worship leadership roles, please let me know. One thing I do want to make clear is that these sessions are for those who want to be added to the roster of worship leaders and for those who are already actively leading in these roles. We can all learn more about leading worship - even a seasoned pro like myself needs to do some continuing education to grow and learn!

I look forward to seeing you at these workshops this year. For all the difficulties of modern schedules and activities, our weekly worship services are still the time when the largest percentage of members and guests gather in one place to receive the proclamation of the gospel. Worship still matters, in other words, and so we pay attention to Worship Matters (see what I did there?).

May the joy of the risen Christ sustain your own joy this Easter season.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Scott

Text Study - Notes for Lent 2C

Prayer of the Day
God of the covenant, in the mystery of the cross you promise everlasting life to the world. gather all peoples into your arms, and shelter us with your mercy, that we may rejoice in the life we share in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 
Amen.

Gospel Reading: Luke 13:1-13, 31-35
1At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." 

6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' 8He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" 

31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’"
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TEXT NOTES

• Glossary Items
• “Blood mixed with sacrifices”: no other ancient source mentions a specific instance like what Jesus describes here, but “such bloodshed was not uncommon: Pilate’s troops killed a group of Samaritans climbing Mt. Gerizim; Pilate introduced Roman effigies into Jerusalem, causing a riot and a march on Caesarea; Pilate seized Temple treasury funds in order to build an aqueduct.”
• Siloam: whatever this disaster was, it is only mentioned in the gospel of Luke. There is no mention of a Tower of Siloam anywhere in the Old Testament.
• Are there other terms/characters/words you don’t understand?

• The Lutheran “Both/And”
• Lutherans tend to view theological matters from a place of tension between two viewpoints that can be understood to be mutually exclusive. This story indicates one such tension in Jesus’ ministry:
• On the one hand, Jesus preached an urgent need for personal repentance/reconciliation because of judgment being imminent (v. 1-5 here).
• On the other hand, Jesus clearly regarded his own ministry as a postponement of this judgment, a sign of God’s mercy allowing further time for repentance (v. 6-9 here).
• When Bad Things Happen To Good People
• The title of Rabbi Kushner’s famous book above shows a central belief that was common in Jesus’ time: calamity was a sign of sin or some sort of unfaithfulness, while success was a sign of righteousness and purity.
• Jesus doesn’t explicitly name Job as a resource, but his argument appears based on the same point made by the book of Job: life is uncertain, and success and misfortune cannot be reliably assigned to sin or righteousness.
• “Such a theology is always better in theory than it is in dealing with the tragedies and calamities of life. Nevertheless, these deaths serve as a graphic warning of the coming judgment. Just as these Galileans and Jerusalemites had perished suddenly, so also all of those who heard Jesus would also perish if they did not repent.”
• The Fig Tree
• Agricultural imagery was common in the Old Testament - one example was the care expended on the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-2.
• Leviticus 19:23-25 gives each newly planted tree three years in which its fruit is not to be eaten, and the 4th year is to be left completely to the Lord.
• Helpful Pharisees?
• There are 2 schools of thought as to the motives of the Pharisees in v. 31-35:
• Herod was afraid that Jesus was a religious troublemaker who would destabilize Herod’s kingdom, and this was a threat designed to get him out of Galilee. Herod wouldn’t have actually harmed Jesus because of his growing popularity.
• The Pharisees were actually trying to protect Jesus from Herod, who had already executed John the Baptist. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus has some other encounters with Pharisees that are not as antagonistic as we expect.
• Herod the “Fox”
• In Hebrew, ‘fox’ has a wider range of meaning than in Greek or English. The craftiness of the fox is a shared definition, but a second common use in Hebrew was the inferiority of the fox to a lion or a larger predator. By calling Herod a “fox” Jesus was saying his work was more important than worrying about an inferior predator.
• The Hen
• A curious image for protection: the hen can do nothing against a predator but use her body as a shield, even against a fox.
• “If you have ever loved someone you could not protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament. All you can do is open your arms. You cannot make anyone walk into them. Meanwhile, this is the most vulnerable posture in the world - wings spread, breast exposed - but if you mean what you say, then this is how you stand…She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body.” Barbara Brown Taylor, in The Christian Century

• Questions to Ponder
• The 24-hour news cycle often tells us of tragedies around the world as they are happening. Does this make tragedy less or more tragic? Less or more anxiety-causing?
• If you had ‘one more year’ like the fig tree to produce ‘fruit’, would you do anything differently?
• What other questions do you have?

Ash Wednesday: Bring Your Kid

I originally wrote this piece four years ago, but it seemed worth revisiting this year.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.  For Christians, the Ash Wednesday service marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a penitential period in which we fast, discipline ourselves, and reflect on the life and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a holy time of anticipation and purpose, and for many it is our "favorite" season of the church.

But Ash Wednesday begins with a stark reminder of our mortality.  Ministers dip their thumbs in a bowl of ashes made from the palm branches waved to honor Jesus on Palm Sunday and mark a cross on the foreheads of all participants, while pronouncing a death sentence on us all:  "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Lectionary Bible Study - Transfiguration Sunday - Luke 9:28-36

Gospel Reading: Luke 9.28-45

²⁸ Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³⁰Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ³²Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. ³³Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. ³⁴While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. ³⁵Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ ³⁶When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

³⁷ On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. ³⁸Just then a man from the crowd shouted, ‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. ³⁹Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. ⁴⁰I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.’ ⁴¹Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.’ ⁴²While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. ⁴³And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

While everyone was amazed at all that he was doing, he said to his disciples, ⁴⁴‘Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.’ ⁴⁵But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

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TEXT NOTES

• This text marks the close of the Epiphany season. Between Jesus’ birth and crucifixion, there is arguably no more astonishing epiphany (from the Greek epi phanos meaning “shining upon/through” or “revelation”) than the Transfiguration - an event that graphically reveals who Jesus is and gives a glorious glimpse of who he will be. Yet for all its drama and power, this transfiguring event appears to play a very limited role in the rest of Jesus’ ministry or in the disciples’ immediate perceptions of Jesus. 

• Transfiguration has a definite connection with Jesus’ baptism - they are the only times that the “voice of God” is heard audibly in the gospel of Luke.
• The Transfiguration also draws a connection to the epiphany experienced by Moses on Mt. Sinai, the Old Testament reading appointed for the day. When Moses descended from Sinai after his long time with God, “the skin of his face was shining” and he had to wear a veil to cover the brightness of his features. 
• Moses and Elijah represent the great Jewish traditions of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). Luke is the only gospel to reveal the content of their discussion: Jesus’ impending departure (“exodus”?) from Earth.

• In addition, the verses preceding this story in the gospel of Luke are about Jesus’ identity. When Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain, Peter has just confessed that Jesus is “the Messiah.” Identity is crucial in all that follows: Jesus is redefining who God is and what it means to be Messiah (“anointed of God”).

• Peter’s astonished babbling tells the reader that Moses and Elijah were actually there - no hallucination. His offer of shelter is congruent from the tradition of offering hospitality (usually food and drink) to the traveling stranger, evoking not just the Jews in the wilderness but also Abraham and Sarah and their descendants encountering God as sojourners in Genesis.

• “Why do the disciples not rush down the mountain and share with everyone what they have witnessed? 
• Hans Conzelmann suggested that secrecy about Jesus’ identity ensures that Jesus will fulfill his divine purpose; if the people knew without a doubt that Jesus was the Messiah, they would actively save him from the cross, interrupting the divine plan. This also would explain Jesus’ repeated commands during his public ministry to stay silent about his identity (as he does following Peter’s confession in Luke 9:22).


• Another explanation would be that secrecy about Jesus’ identity allows for a well-paced fulfillment of an important theme: proclaiming salvation to the “ends of the earth.” Jesus begins as a relatively obscure hometown figure, but then becomes a powerful preacher and healer whose fame spreads rapidly into a wide range of social circles. Not only does Jesus’-news reach greater numbers of people -- Jews and Gentiles alike -- but it also reaches all socioeconomic levels of society, from social outcasts to elite rulers (shepherds in Luke 2.17-18, John the Baptist in prison in Luke 7.18, tax collectors and sinners in Luke 15.1). Higher up on the social pyramid, a centurion requests Jesus’ help (Luke 7:3), and news even reaches the royal court, as Herod hears “about it all” (Luke 9:7-9)” (Michal Beth Dinkler. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3005)

Questions to Ponder

• In the gospel of Luke, prayer is involved whenever something significant happens. After his baptism, Jesus was praying when the divine voice spoke. Jesus prayed before appointing his twelve apostles. In this story, Jesus was praying when the divine voice spoke. What does this tell us about how Luke thinks about prayer?

• The disciples were overwhelmed by what they experienced, so they said nothing to anyone about what they had seen. Jesus still talks about suffering and death while in his transfigured glory. What kind of a messiah is this, anyway? 

• Peter’s well-known impulse to build 3 chapels on the peak is usually derided by scholars, theologians, and preachers. “We mustn’t linger on the peaks, but return to the valley of service.” “One can’t live in the rarified atmosphere of a mountaintop; we’re meant to live in the valleys of human experience and suffering.” Is this a fair critique? Why or why not?

• Think about one of your “transfiguration” experiences. How did it change the way you view God? Yourself? Your life?

Questions to Ponder

July Newsletter Article - Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Summer is here, and that means it’s camp season! Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp is yet another of the important ministries we support with our benevolences at St. Petri, both as a congregation and as individuals. July is a great time to talk about the wonderful ministry we support just up the road to the north of Story City.
Riverside has been a camping presence in the Story City community for 75 years. “Riverside was established in 1943 thanks to the extraordinary vision of Pastor A.J. Bringle. Ever since then, Riverside has been a place of worship, rest, community, experiencing the Holy Spirit, and growing in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Tens of thousands of people have been impacted by the ministry here, along the banks of the Skunk River…” In 2017, Riverside welcomed over 2,500 campers, including local kids at day camps throughout the state, and approximately 7,500 people participated in some sort of event, retreat, or camp program hosted by or connected to Riverside throughout the year.
Riverside offers a variety of opportunities for people of all ages and abilities. There will also be a large shift in leadership in 2018 as longtime executive and equestrian directors Dave & Jan McDermott have announced their retirement, effective in October 2018. Riverside has already found its next executive director - Chris Dahl, current program coordinator, will step into that role this fall. Many of you know the years of dedicated service the McDermotts have given to Riverside and the Story City area - I’m sure an extra gift to Riverside in their honor would be appreciated.
As a longtime camper & staff veteran myself, I know firsthand how important camping ministries can be to the life of faith. There is something special about places set apart, like Riverside, where we can be invited to step out of our “boats” and into a new way of thinking or living the faith God has given us. I’m grateful that St. Petri supports Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp, and I look forward to a vibrant future for both our congregation and the camp just outside of town.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Scott

April 2018 Newsletter Article

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Alleluia! So goes the shout of the church in this Easter season. With Christ arisen, we, too, live again in the hope of resurrection and in life that extends far beyond the grave. The question before us, now that death no longer holds us captive, addresses a new hope for the future:  how shall we live? 

One of the marks of Christian life after Easter has always been generosity. In the days of the early church, believers often gathered together for communal meals, and some communities actually created a sort of communal society, where all goods were held in common and all shared freely from what God had entrusted to them. Two millennia later, we Christians of the 21st century still practice this generous sharing of what God has entrusted to us. Here at St. Petri, we share a beautiful, historic congregation with its own building and local ministries. We also share as a congregation to support ministries beyond our local community. Over the next few months, I’m going to share the stories of these ministries with you, so that you will be better informed about what happens to every dollar you return to God in thanksgiving for what God has given to you. 

The largest portion of our giving goes to the Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In a newsletter article a few years ago, Pastor Mark Anderson of the NEIA Synod Staff shared a brief glimpse of the many ways the Synod partners with our congregation in the ministry of our church:

This is too short a space to review all the synodical ministries or narrate the budget, but here is a summary of what I think readers will care about the most.

Sharing Jesus and Supporting Congregations

Evangelism

• Use a strong social media presence to proclaim the Word, call the church to prayer, and lift up and encourage congregations’ witness.
• Consult with congregations who request assistance in renewal, stewardship, and evangelism.
• Accompany our new worshiping communities in Farley and Parkersburg.

Passing on the Faith from Our Generation to the Next

Youth, Family, & Young Adult Ministry

• Provide help for parents to teach the faith to their children.
• Support youth workers and youth ministry.
• Offer Christian leadership training for high school students.
• Support campus ministry.

Raising & Supporting Pastoral Leadership for Congregations

Leadership

• Walk with candidates through the process of becoming pastors and other rostered leaders.
• Secure funding to support Seminary Education.
• Train and coach new pastors.
• Guide congregations through the call process.
• Provide continuing education opportunities for rostered leaders.
• Help church leaders to prepare to retire.

Sharing Daily Bread & Working for Opportunity

Poverty & Justice

• Domestic Hunger Grants fund community and church gardens to grow food for food shelves, food banks and community meals.
• Barnabas Uplift provides job training for the unemployed.
• Provide funding to Lutheran Services in Iowa for the care of children, families, the elderly, and people with special needs.

In addition to undesignated “mission support,” (offerings received from congregations) the members of the Northeastern Iowa Synod last year gave:

• $177,000 to ELCA World Hunger
• $55,000 to support Lutheran World Relief
• $49,000 to support missionaries
• $48,000 to the ELCA Malaria Campaign
• $15,500 to Domestic Disaster Response

We give thanks for all those people and congregations who give to support the wider church and for all the ministries these gifts make possible.

This is just a snapshot of the many ways we congregations of the Northeastern Iowa Synod provide support to one another through the offerings we pass on in mission support. Individual congregations could not do this on their own, but together we support and encourage one another, and the sum of what we can do together is much larger than the parts each individual church offers. I join Pastor Anderson in thanking you for your generous support of our ministries, and I encourage you to grow in that generosity in 2018!

Yours in Christ, 

Pastor Scott

February 2018 Newsletter Article

The new year has come and gone and most of us, for better or for worse, have discovered which resolutions we’ll keep and which ones were just wishful thinking (almost all of mine fall in the latter category every year). I’d like to invite you to add a resolution to your list that should be a lot easier to keep than a gym schedule. I invite you to reshape the way you think about the ministry of St. Petri Lutheran Church. Give me a minute to explain what I’m proposing.

As a congregation, we are really, really good at special offerings, and that’s something to celebrate. When our youth are raising funds to pay for their mission trips, they don’t have to beg and plead. When the Council decided it was time to finally replace that worn out carpet in the Fellowship Hall, the committee in charge of overseeing the project had what we needed in just a few weeks. Even when you determined it was time for a major renovation of the parsonage, a project which required a significant investment of time and resources by a lot of St. Petri members, it was done in plenty of time for us to move in and feel cherished by this congregation (which we do - we’ve told churches around the synod that St. Petri is a model congregation when it comes to maintaining and managing a parsonage). 

At the same time, our general operating budget at St. Petri has consistently been a source of concern for the Council over these past five years. In 2017, we’ve been in a deficit at the end of every month, even though our actual spending as a congregation has been below budget, finishing the year just over 96% of what we projected at the annual meeting last January. Financially, St. Petri runs a very tight ship which is well-managed and properly overseen by our Council and through an annual Audit Committee. For 2018, the Property and Trustees Committee is proposing a general budget which is actually lower than 2017, but includes salary raises for staff which are in line with the minimum guidelines established by the Northeastern Iowa Synod every year. 

My proposal in relation to all this is quite simple: everything is special. It’s wonderful to be able to see our special gifts installing new carpet in the Fellowship Hall, but the Bible Study which meets in that Fellowship Hall is also special, right? How about the electricity which allows us to run the lights for social hour after worship every Sunday morning? The heat which keeps the building warm in the winter? The piano tuner who keeps our instruments sounding good all year round? The cleaning supplies our custodians use to keep the building looking nice every week? The copier which prints the weekly bulletin? The internet connection that helps us stay connected in a digital age? All these things are indeed a special part of the ministry of St. Petri Evangelical Lutheran Church, and without your support of the general operating fund, those special parts of who we are and what we do will be limited. Sure, fixing a toilet or making sure all the light fixtures have bulbs that work might not feel as special as sending a kid to Puerto Rico for a mission trip or building a new sign out front of the building, but if it’s part of what we do as a church, you know it’s special and it’s critical that we support it with our prayers and our offerings. 

So that’s my proposal for a new resolution for you, members of St. Petri Lutheran Church: everything is special. I’m asking you to support the special work our church is doing in the Story City area with the sort of generosity you’ve given the other special offerings in the past. I’m asking you to help us move forward as a congregation in 2018 and unleash a bit more of the special potential this congregation has to be a force for God’s kingdom this year. I hope to do more of it myself, and I invite you to join me on that journey. God bless you all in this new year. 

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Scott

October Newsletter Article

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. - (Colossians 3:14-15)

June Newsletter Article

I got nothin’.

This is the fourth attempt I’ve made at a monthly newsletter article in the past 24 hours. To paraphrase from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, each of the first three articles sank into the swamp (or burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp). I’m hoping this fourth one stays up. 

Every summer, Kristin and I look forward to the end of school and a change in schedule with some anticipation. Yay! Things will slow down! Days are longer! We’ll go camping! Then every summer goes exactly the same as the summer before it: we over-schedule ourselves, forget that we actually have jobs to do on top of all the extra stuff, run out of time to do all the things we want to do, and wind up as exhausted in August as we were in May. I’d love to say it will be different this year, but I’m looking at the calendar and I don’t see it happening. Again. 

God does not intend for life to be a continual, frazzled run from one thing to the next. While I was in San Antonio this week, I had the chance to hear a sermon and a lecture from Dr. Walter Brueggeman, one of the preeminent Old Testament scholars in America today. I was reminded of the lecture I heard him give in January 2009, when he was Theologian-in-Residence at the UCC church in Ames. At that time, Dr. Brueggeman was working on his book Sabbath as Resistance, in which he argued that the constant demand of production and consumption in 21st century American life was every bit as enslaving as Israel’s generations in slavery in Egypt as told in the book of Exodus. In an environment where the Egyptians demanded production without cessation, Brueggeman argues, God created a law of Sabbath which was intended to break the cycle of unceasing labor. Sabbath was not instituted to be one more demand on a servant people: it was instituted for the benefit of the people. Without time for rest and re-creation, Brueggeman argues, we are less than God means for us to be. Ferris Bueller was right: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Then you sit down to write your monthly article and you realize you haven’t done much in the way of looking around, and you get what I got: nothin’.

I know you’re all just as busy as we are - some of you even more so. I know that sometimes the luxury of stopping is just not possible. But as we enter this summer, I invite you, for your own benefit, to consider how you could find sabbath for yourself before your well runs dry like mine did today. Turning nothing into something, after all, is what God does - in seminary the fancy Latin phrase we use to describe it is creation ex nihilo. It’s not what we were meant to do. It’s beyond us. So, before your something turns into nothing, schedule nothing for yourself so you can look around and consider the somethings all around you and how God has made them all. Blessings, friends!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Scott

"der Leib Christi"

¹⁴When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. ¹⁵He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; ¹⁸for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:14-20)

Dear Unsigned Letter Writer,

"Children reflect family values very well. Of more than 127 letters (note: 5 from the local newspaper were copied on the reverse side) I found only 8 that did not have great lists of wants; not one word for other needs and desires. Where are family values? One child only wanted to see Daddy once in a while - how very sad. What can we expect from tomorrow's citizens and leaders? What values & love?? We are failing our children every day."

January Newsletter Article

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Happy New Year! Like many of us, I’m always interested in looking ahead to what new things may come with the turning of the calendar pages. Let me use this space this month to fill you in on some upcoming opportunities for growth at St. Petri.

We will continue our twice-monthly gatherings to go through The Lutheran Course for a few more sessions, and I’ve enjoyed the Sunday evening meetings so much I’m going to continue with additional courses as well. After we complete The Lutheran Course we’ll shift to a slightly different format with a book I’ve wanted to explore for quite a while: Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers by Martin Marty. This little volume comes highly recommended by both theologians and my mother, so I’m excited to get started with it in a few weeks. The format will be to read and discuss one chapter (10-15 pages) each session: as we draw closer I’ll have a schedule printed up for those who want to take part. I’ll have order forms ready for folks in a few weeks as well - cost will be $14/book. If I’ve figured the dates correctly, this course should start on Sunday, March 12th and will last until September, meeting the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month at 6:00 p.m.

I’m also restarting the Wednesday Bible Study group at Dinners By Dawn in Story City. We’ll meet in the back room at 11:30 a.m. every Wednesday I’m in town and discuss the Bible readings for the upcoming Sunday together. No, you don’t have to buy food to be part of the study (although I’m sure Dawn would appreciate your patronage if you’re able), nor do you have to come every single week. This was a very enjoyable group for folks to drop in when they were able, and as your preacher it has always been very helpful to have input on the text at hand from the members of our congregation. I hope to see you when we restart this Bible study on Wednesday, January 4th at 11:30 a.m. 

These are just a few opportunities for continued growth in faith as a member of St. Petri - if there are topics or events you think would be beneficial for us as a congregation, please contact me and I’ll be happy to look for ways we could put your thoughts into action!

How about you? What’s new with you this new year? Personally, I have started seeking a Spiritual Director with whom I’ll be visiting monthly to talk about the state of my ministry, my personal growth in faith, and the rest of my life as a child of God. That’s the big resolution this year for me. I encourage you to look beyond the usual resolutions and take some time to assess how investing your spiritual health could be helpful for many other areas of your life as well. If you’d like resources for your personal growth, please make an appointment with me and we’ll see if we can’t find something that helps you grow.

I pray you will all be blessed by the goodness and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this new year. It is, as always, a true blessing to serve you as your pastor, and I’m excited to see where this year will lead us together. 

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Scott

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
What does this mean?
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.

I don't know about you, but I am more ready for this election season to be over than any I've ever experienced.

Eighteen months of campaigning. Eighteen months sorting fact from fiction. Eighteen months of partisanship, obstruction, gaslighting, and paranoia. In recent weeks the veneer of substantive political discernment has been ripped away completely, revealing a sordid game of lurid sexual misbehavior and assault (fictional and actual), an almost complete disregard for facts or the rule of law, hacked emails, torched campaign facilities, graffitied mosques, and invective that buries itself so far beneath what we should expect from our elected leaders that we'll need to look up to even see what disappointing public discourse looks like.

Here's the thing, though: we've taught our politicians that this sort of campaigning works. We have elected leaders who have capitalized on polarization, fear-mongering, and scapegoating to get themselves elected, only to discover they cannot work with fellow elected leaders who used the same tactics but don't have the capacity to set them aside once the campaign is over and the work of governance begins.

Thankfully, Brother Martin gives us a way out of this festering swamp of half-truths and character assassinations - if we have the courage to choose the hard path of truth-telling and fair listening instead of the easy slide back into mudslinging and obstructionism. Famous for his invective, it seems as though Luther was the last one who should have written about bearing false witness, but in his definition of the 8th Commandment Luther lays out a vision of a community we would be fortunate to call home. To be sure, politics in Luther's time didn't resemble the modern nation-state. Luther wrote his Small Catechism for households to learn how to deal with each other - the concept of representative democracy wouldn't be put into play in the U.S. for another two centuries. Yet Luther's Germany was experiencing a political revolution in addition to a spiritual reformation. Without the support of princes willing to defy the emperor and the pope, Luther would have been executed long before any sort of transformation was able to take hold. Luther himself spoke bluntly to princes and commoners alike: he admonished the peasants when they rebelled against their feudal lords, but also criticized the lords when they violently put down the Peasants' Rebellion of 1524-1525. One of the most under-appreciated aspects of Luther's work was his willingness to debate, to question himself, to convince and be convinced by means of disputation, and to acknowledge his own shortcomings as well as the admirable qualities of his friends and opponents.

When I meet with couples for counseling prior to marriage, we always spend time in an exercise called "Active Listening and Assertive Speaking". In the exercise, each partner takes three opportunities to state a desire they have for the relationship, using "I" language and avoiding "you" language ("I feel frustrated when the kitchen is a mess" instead of "You never clean the kitchen"). When each partner has stated their desire, the other partner is asked to repeat the statement back in their own language, in such a way that it is clear they have understood what their partner is saying. I remind each couple that in many instances we listen defensively, looking for excuses and opportunities for denial. Active Listening involves listening to understand, not defend. It doesn't even involve listening to agree - the point of the exercise is to remind each partner that part of bearing true witness in their relationship is to see things from their partner's point of view and understand why they may feel the way they feel.

Imagine how our politics would change if we approached the election season with that same mindset! Disagreements are bound to happen, but what a better democracy we might have if our candidates could say, "My opponent X is right to note that this issue is a problem for us. My opponent has attempted to address this issue by doing _____, and while I don't think it worked, I am grateful for my opponent's work on it. Here's what I think we should do to address it: listen well and then you the voters should vote for what you think is the best solution for all Americans."

There are anecdotal tales of presidents, legislators, and staffers regularly crossing the aisle and meeting together to actually achieve the hard work of governing in such a way that the maximum benefit for the most people could be achieved. This sort of work is impossible in an environment dedicated to seeing the worst in those who disagree with you. I hope and pray we will learn from this election and turn toward a better way in the future, and to that end I am rededicating myself to discuss issues instead of people as much as I can. I hope you'll join me in that effort.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Scott

April Newsletter Article: The Liturgical Year from Advent through Lent

“Alleluia! Christ is risen!”
“Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

By the time most of you are reading this article, we will have moved from the meditative, reflective season of Lent into the celebratory season of Easter, in which we spend seven weeks proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus with joy and passion. (Yes, I said “PASSION” - consider it an invitation to grow spiritually this Easter season.) But how do we get there in the church calendar? Why is it so early this year and so late in other years? Today I’m going to take a moment to walk you through the “first half” of the liturgical calendar observed by a substantial majority of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

March Newsletter Article

Beloved in Christ,

Stepping away from our series on worship to give you some snapshots of things going on at St. Petri that deserve some extra attention.

February Newsletter Article

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In a few short days, the season of Epiphany will come to a close and the liturgical season of Lent will begin. I am one of those people who finds the season of Lent to be an annual challenge and blessing – it is a time in the church for heightened awareness about our sin, God’s mercy, and the life of Jesus in which that mercy overcame that sin.

Fall Theological Retreat

This week I'm in Dubuque, IA for the Northeastern Iowa Synod's Fall Theological Retreat (#NEIAFTC). This annual event is a highlight of the year for me: I get to spend time with my colleagues in worship, prayer, and reflection; the speakers are usually very good; there's time for recreation; and I generally go home energized for parish ministry (which is good, because 72 hours away from the office generally leaves me with plenty to do when I do return). This year, everything on my list has happened just as one would hope.