Sunday, October 5, 2025

Vicar Karla

Luke 19:1-10

            While putting together today’s sermon, the Sunday school song some of you may know featuring today’s gospel reading was the only thing running through my head. Specifically, I remember being a kid at Sunday school and everyone being so excited to shout the line “ Zaccheaus. YOU COME DOWN!”

The song goes,

Zacchaeus was a wee, little man,

And a wee, little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree,

For the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior came that way,
He looked up in the tree,

And he said,"Zacchaeus, you come down from there!"

 While singing the rest of the song including “Zacceaus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he” I also admittedly always pictured a leprechaun up in a tree trying to catch a glimpse of Jesus passing by.

             As an adult, though, I think about a few more things than just this fun Sunday school song.

             Why was Zaccaeus so short? Was he just vertically challenged, or might he have had a condition such as dwarfism which wouldn’t have had a name at the time. Why was he so determined to see Jesus? Had he heard about all of Jesus’ ministry and miracles and he just needed to see for himself? And then, after he was able to get himself up into the tree, how do you think he would have felt when this very person he was so intent to catch a glimpse of, looks up and calls him by name. And not only does Jesus know his name but now he’s got a houseguest for the evening, too.

             It’s important to note that Zaccheaus was not only a tax collector, but he was, in fact, a traitor to the Jewish people. He was a Jew who was working for the Roman Empire, collecting their ever increasing taxes, and by all accounts, turning his back on his people. Frankly, the anger and the grumbling of those who saw this is pretty understandable.

            But Zaccheaus seemingly takes some responsibility for the past harm he had done against his community. He vows to give his possessions to the poor and to give back, not just once, but four times, anything that he defrauded from others. He takes accountability in that sense for the wrong that he does. And, he entrusts his resources to those who need them.

             Zaccheaus is so moved by his encounter with Jesus that he immediately vows to share his resources. It feels a bit like A Christmas Carol, doesn’t it? Where Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits, and through visiting Christmases past, present, and future, and he is so moved by what he sees and experiences that he generously shares his previously tightly held resources, loosening the purse strings that hadn’t been opened for many years.

             The transformation of Zacceaus is dramatic, to say the least. The author of Luke sets him up to appear to be quite the villain. Not only is he a tax collector and a prop for the Roman Empire, but he is a chief tax collector. Throughout the gospel of Luke, the wealthy are majorly criticized, beginning with Mary’s call for the wealthy to be brought low when she learns she is to carry and birth Christ into the world. Zaccheaus is rich. And, as is so often the case, he is rich because he has deliberately taken resources away from these subjects of the Roman Empire.

            Today, we start a season of cultivating generosity and stewardship here at Faith Lilac Way. There is much that is unique and counter cultural to our world about a community of faith. Where the world teaches us that we are to hold tightly to our resources, that there is not enough, we get to celebrate that in God, there is enough, and not just enough, but abundance.

             One of the most beautiful things about starting this season is the celebration of community. This place only works when we all do it together, when all of our resources join together to do all the things we get to do here. And it’s all important. From keeping the lights, heat, and air conditioning on, to making sure that we have plenty of candles and communion elements each Sunday, to ensuring that staff are compensated for their time and talent, to being bold and generous with what we are able to share. Through everyone coming together, we are able to support local, national, and global ministry partners, and engage deeply with both our Minneapolis area synod and the wider ELCA and even beyond to the Lutheran World Federation which makes up all the Lutheran worshipping bodies globally.

             I don’t know about you, but it is really easy for me to get overwhelmed and honestly downright depressed at the state of the world. It’s easy to think that I’m in this alone which feels overwhelming. But, when I think about all of those connections to our ministry, I start to feel anything but alone. Our individual congregation connects to the other congregations in our synod which connects to all the ELCA congregations in this country which connects to all of the Lutheran communities around the world. And that’s how our individual support works, too. Our financial support might feel singular, but remember that it connects to everyone else’s support and that is what makes all of this happen.

             As we enter this season, I invite us all to be open to God’s abundance and to think about what giving significantly to Faith Lilac Way means to you because it means something different to everyone. Pray about what that significance looks like for you and your household and give thanksgiving that that all of our significant contributions come together to do so much good and share God’s love and grace.

             Let’s be like Zacceaus and be bold in our sharing and in our repenting. Let’s never forget that it is never too late to receive and celebrate God’s love and forgiveness.  Amen. 

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Called to love and care for our neighbor

When I was in college, we were required to take Phy. Ed classes as part of the distribution of classes. I decided that, since I didn’t really know how to swim very well, I would take beginning swimming.  I didn’t realize that a good portion of the class was on the swim team.

Every week the instructor introduced a new stroke – of course it was review for the swim team – and then told us to get in the deep end and use this stroke to swim across the short end of the pool. Then he would have everyone get out – except for three of us who he had swim the stroke back again. Every week I was chosen to stay in the pool to swim the stroke again while the rest of the class watched. I didn’t understand why until, finally, I was invited to get out and watch with the rest of the class. While the three students swam, the instructor pointed out to the rest of the class the “good example” and the “bad example.”  Then I realized, in all of the times in which I had to do the stroke a second time, he was using me as “the bad example.”  I hope the other students learned from my bad example, because I didn’t learn much in that class.

Some of the parables of Jesus are confusing and scholars wrestle with what they mean. But today’s parable is really clear. The “rich man” is the “bad example.” The rich man spends his life luxuriating in his wealth and “feasting sumptuously” every day in a gated home.  Meanwhile, outside of that gate lays Lazarus. This is not the same Lazarus who was a brother of Mary and Martha who Jesus rose from the dead. He was simply a poor hungry hurting man, who would have gratefully eaten the leftovers from the rich man’s table. But the rich man gave him nothing. He was only befriended by the dogs who licked his wounds. The contrast between their lives is clear. And so is their fate when they die.

Lazarus, whose name means, “God is my help,” is carried to heaven by the angels and welcomed to the bosom of Abraham, claimed as a child of God.

The rich man is sent to Hades. He’s not given a name – probably on purpose because, like a fable, the parable is meant to teach us all a lesson. Rich people were often then – and now – considered “blessed” because they were entrusted with so many riches. But instead of using these resources to care for the poor and needy, represented by Lazarus who was at his gate, the rich man chose to focus on himself, his comfort and his desires. He even does this after death, audaciously calling on Abraham to “send” Lazarus to “dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue.”

Notice that the rich man knows Lazarus’ name, so he can’t even claim that he didn’t “see” him at his gate. Instead, in his life, he clearly saw Lazarus but did not choose to help him. The rich man was so busy living his self-centered opulent lifestyle, directing others to do his bidding, that he doesn’t see that he could have been living differently. He doesn’t see and that his over-consumption wasn’t good for him and that he could have used those resources to help other people. He doesn’t see that this is not the life that God has called him to live.  In the parable, the rich man serves as the “bad example.”

As for Lazarus, we do not know his back story or how he ended up at the rich man’s gate as a helpless hurting and hungry man. What we learn in the parable is that God saw him, had mercy on him, and claimed him as his own, giving him a place of honor beside Abraham. He is an example of God’s surprising love and care for the “least of these.” But we don’t learn much about how we “should” live.

So where is the “good example?” In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a lot of parables that give us good – and bad – examples of how to live the life that God wants us to live. One of the more well known “good examples” is the story of the Good Samaritan.  You remember the story of a man who was ambushed, robbed and beaten by robbers. Three people walked by the victim on that day – first a priest and then a Levi – given their roles, people would expect that they would do the right thing. But they walked by. Then the Samaritan came upon the hurt man. There was an old family feud between the Jewish and Samaritan people and so everyone would assume that a Samaritan would not do anything goo. However, it was the Samaritan who stopped, cared for the man, took him to an inn and paid for his care and promised to come back and settle the rest of the bill and to care for him. Even though the lawyer who asked the question didn’t want to admit it, when Jesus asked him, “who was the neighbor” the lawyer had to admit that it was “the one who showed him mercy. The Samaritan was the “Good example.”

Our lesson in Amos provides another bad example. He cries “WOE” to those who think they are secure in their wealth and can’t be bothered by the problems of Joseph, another tribe. Amos declares that these rich and haughty people will be the first to be exiled.

There are times, when reading scripture that we have a hard time connecting to Biblical times. Sometimes we look at the Bible stories from a detached and theoretical perspective. But there is nothing theoretical about the lesson from Amos or this parable or how Jesus is calling us to live our lives.

 Jesus is clear. Amos is clear. Living a good and godly life means caring for others – especially those who we could consider one of “them.” Because “they” are also children of God.

And so, as we read in our Psalm, do not put your trust in princes or leaders. Instead, praise GOD and look to God for the way to live your life. This is how we walk in God’s way of justice. We are to advocate for the oppressed, give food to those who hunger, care for the stranger, the poor and the vulnerable.  This is the way of Jesus.

 There are plenty of “bad examples” in our world today of people of wealth and power that oppress the innocent, ignore the needs of the poor and hungry and vulnerable and shut out the stranger. There are lots of those stories all over the news and the internet. I trust that you can find those on your own. But we don’t hear often enough stories of Good examples, of people who are seeking – maybe not perfectly – but who are seeking through their actions and their words to live the way of Jesus. And so I want to leave you with this example:

One of our elderly members was living alone in her home – and she did not want to move into a care facility. Her family worried about her living alone, but wanted to honor her wishes. Still, they wanted to make sure that she was really ok and not just keeping up appearances when she knew that they were coming. So, they started to stop by her house more often, sometimes unannounced. What they found, was that the neighbors were pitching in to help. The neighbors shoveled the driveway, mowed the lawn and brought over “leftovers” from their meals. The family soon realized that the neighbors were not just providing occasional leftovers but were actually cooking for their own family plus one. They always had just the right amount of “leftovers” – that happened to be hot from the oven -- right at the elderly lady’s dinnertime.

When the woman’s family sought to thank them and even offered to pay them, the neighbors were surprised. They were a financially poor family – but they didn’t want payment. They considered their neighbor lady as part of their family too. So, it wasn’t out of obligation or out of duty or out of trying to win “points with God.” The neighbors were simply doing these acts of kindness out of love. They were living in the way of Jesus and as a result, the older woman became more than someone who just lived next door; she was someone whom they had grown to love.  This is what it means to live in the way of Jesus. 

 I was thinking about a particular woman and a particular neighbor. But you might have noticed that I did not give any names. Like in Jesus’ parables, with the exception of Lazarus and Abraham in today’s parable, the characters are always described and not named. This allows us as readers and listeners to enter the story and to imagine yourself in the different roles. Although I don’t always hear the story, I know that many of you have been the Christ-like neighbor to your neighbor far and near. And many of you, like me, have been on the receiving end.  When my mother was ill, her neighbors and friends and people I didn’t even know from her church offered love, care and support. And much of it came by the way of delicious food.

Brothers and sisters, friends in Christ, let us pray for our neighbors, advocate for the poor, the stranger, the vulnerable and seek to follow the way of Jesus in all that we do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Sunday, September 21, 2025

In a detective novel our book club read recently, the chief inspector said that there are two wolves inside each of us with different motivations who fight to determine our actions.  His assistant asked, “So how do you determine which wolf wins?”  Ah… said the inspector, that depends on which one you feed.

Which wolf will you feed? This isn’t a biblical image. But I invite you to look at the scriptures for today with this question in mind.

In our first lesson, Amos makes it pretty clear which wolf the landowners were feeding. They didn’t have money as currency in those days so the value of grain and everything else was determined by weight. So, if the balances were uneven, and the landowner included chaff and dirt along with the grain, of course the grain would cost more and ordinary people were forced into poverty just so that they could feed and clothe their family. Which wolf were the landowners feeding? It was not the wolf of faithfulness, love and generosity – Amos makes clear that the landowners don’t really want to stop working to honor God even on the sabbath but are eager to get out fill their pocketbooks. Instead, they are feeding a wolf concerned with their own pocketbooks, a wolf of selfishness and greed.

But Amos reminds them – God sees and remembers their injustice. In our Gospel, Jesus reminds his followers of the lesson Amos taught – you cannot serve both God and wealth.

In other words, we can feed the wolf of love, generosity and faithfulness or the opposite – a wolf of  hatred, greed and self-reliance, an assumption that one does not need anyone else. 

When phrased like this, it is easy to choose – of course we want to be faithful, loving and generous. But because we are human, and imperfect, the lines get blurred, especially when we take these words out of the abstract and put it into the increasingly violent world that we live in.

The letter of Timothy was written at a time that was also violent – and it was dangerous to be a Christian. And yet, he writes, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” This encouragement to pray for everyone is not new. But he also encourages them to pray for “kings and all who are in high positions” - this despite the hostility and violence of the king and the rulers towards them as Christians. The reason, “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity,” sounds like he is encouraging Christians to “keep your head down” and don’t make waves.  But prayer is not necessarily passive. For Prayer has power beyond the one who prays, for when you pray, you are inviting the Holy Spirit to intercede. And prayers can change both you and the world around you because prayers can lead to action. In fact, prayers for peace can and have led to incredible actions.

In 1989, Germany was still a divided country, split by the Berlin wall. East Germany was ruled by the Communist Party and the Stasi, the State Security Police. There was no public neutral space to gather except for the churches. And so, a youth group from eastern Leipzig started “peace prayers” every Monday at 5 PM at the Nicholas church in which they would light candles and pray. Soon other people yearning for peace joined them. It became such a large gathering, that the Stazi and officials from the Communist Party came to see what was going on. And when applicants for emigration and other regime critics came, along with Christian and non-Christian citizens from Leipzig and other parts of East Germany came the Government reacted. It closed access roads to the church, and conducted large-scale checks at the train station. Some people were arrested or given “temporary detentions.” And yet, the people continued to gather.

By September, the 2000 seats in the church were filled and people coming out of the church were joined by tens of thousands waiting in the Square outside. All held lighted candles in their hands and slowly they began to move toward the ring road that surrounds the city center. As a retired professor at the University of Leipzig said: “It started with 5 or 6 but each week there were more of us praying for peace. Eventually we filled the church and then the square around the church and then we spilled onto the ring road surrounding the old part of Leipzig. Eventually there were 300,000 of us marching past the Stasi headquarters. Chants of ‘We are the people’ began and then soon changed to ‘We are one people.’ But there was not one broken shop window and there was no violence.”

On October 7, 1989,… the authorities cracked down and for ten long hours uniformed police battered defenseless people who made no attempt to fight back and took them away in trucks…The press, [which was run by the state] published an article saying it was high time to put an end to the “counter-revolution,” if need be, by force.

And then…on Monday, October 9th, 1989, the order to shoot the protesters was given.

On that day, 1,000 communist party leaders had been ordered to go to Nicholaikirche, St.Nicholas church. 600 of them were in the church pews by 2 PM.

Rev. Fuhrer, with compassion for the party leaders, said,

“They had a job to perform like the Stasi personnel who were on hand regularly and in great numbers at the peace prayers. And so it was that these people, including [the] party members, heard from Jesus who said: “Blessed are the poor”! And not: “Anyone with money is happy.” Jesus said: “Love your enemies”! Instead of: “Down with your opponent.” Jesus said: “Many who are first will be last”! And not: “Everything stays the same.” Jesus said: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it”! And not: “Take great care.” Jesus said: “You are the salt”! And not: “You are the cream.”1

The Holy Spirit was clearly at work.  The prayers of peace ended with a blessing and the call for non-violence by respected leaders. And then, Rev. Fuhrer reports,  “as we – more than 2,000 persons – came out of the church-- I’ll never forget the sight–tens of thousands were waiting outside in the Square. They all had candles in their hands.

He reflects, “If you carry a candle, you need two hands. You have to prevent the candle from going out. You cannot hold a stone or a club in your hand. And the miracle came to pass. Jesus’ spirit of nonviolence seized the masses and became a material, peaceful power. Troops, industrial militia groups, and the police were drawn in, became engaged in conversations, then withdrew. It was an evening in the spirit of our Lord Jesus for there were no victors or vanquished, no one triumphed over the other, and no one lost face. Not a shot was fired. 1

And it all began with a small youth group in a church holding peace prayers and carrying candles. As one former community party member said, “We had planned everything. We were prepared for everything. [guns, pitchforks, rocks and clubs] But not for candles and prayers.”

Friends in Christ, our world, our country, has become increasingly violent.  I cannot close my eyes to the deaths and injury of the children at Annunciation church and the death of so many other children in this country. I cannot close my eyes to the killings in churches from Emmanuel to Annunciation. I cannot close my eyes to the political assassinations here in Minnesota of State Senator Mellissa Hortman and her husband and of Charlie Kirk in Utah. I cannot close my eyes to the violence that is happening as immigrants are being grabbed in the street or at their work and deported without due process. I cannot close my eyes to the violence that is happening in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Africa and the list could go on.  And neither can you.

And so… I must be very, very, careful about which wolf I choose when I speak or when I act. And so must you. Because it is tempting… oh so very tempting to speak and act with hatred, to divide ourselves up into us and them, to embrace retribution instead of reconciliation, to desire a “win” for me and mine and let everyone else fend for themselves. But this is the way of the wolf of hatred, greed and selfishness – is not the way of Jesus.

For hatred cannot conquer hate. Retribution only leads to more retribution. “Winning for me and mine” means someone is “losing.”

This is not the way of Jesus. For Jesus has shown us that the only antidote to hatred is love. The hard answer to violence is not retribution but reconciliation. The answer to division is unity. The way forward is through prayer. Candles can help too.

Sometimes it is tempting to turn off the media, shut my ears to the problems around us in this world. But you and I cannot live in a protective bubble when the world around us is full of violence, hatred and greed.  We are a part of that world.

And so, which wolf will you choose? The wolf of  hatred, greed and self-reliance or the wolf of love, generosity and faithfulness. 

Let us pray: Come Holy Spirit, and direct us and guide us to embrace the love of God, the communion of Christ and the joy of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sunday, September 14, 2025

REJOICE!

Have you ever lost something and spent a lot of time trying to find it?

I have. So… I can relate to the stories that Jesus tells about the lost sheep and the lost coin. I’ve spent far too much of my life looking for something I’ve lost – whether it’s my keys, my phone, my sunglasses, my wallet.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of going back to the last coat I wore or checking my head to make sure my glasses aren’t perched up there. But sometimes I feel more like the woman sweeping her house, looking again in every nook and cranny to find the lost item.  And when I find them – I’m happy – although I might describe the emotion as relief.  I’ll admit that I don’t usually throw a party.

But in his story – that’s what Jesus says the shepherd does when he finds the lost sheep – and so does the woman when she finds her lost coin. They are both so happy to have found what was lost – that they cannot contain their joy.  They call for a celebration with their community; a party!

Their reaction – or seemingly over-reaction is a bit surprising. And yet, Jesus has a way of inviting us, by telling a simple ordinary story, to glimpse the extraordinary way of God. Because after each story, Jesus declares, that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

The stories aren’t about repentance. The sheep isn’t being naughty – it’s just that sheep, by their very nature, follow their nose to the next blade of grass. They don’t even notice when they are getting farther and farther from the safety of the herd. They don’t repent in order to be found.

Likewise, a coin has absolutely no independent agency. It can’t repent. A lost coin does tend to end up in a hard to reach, dusty spot. But that’s not by design. If it were out in the open – it probably wouldn’t be lost.

Jesus tells these stories to the Pharisees in response to their grumblings about who he is eating with, because in the social culture of the day, who you ate with mattered. Jesus was a rabbi – which gave him some status. So the Pharisees were at first honored to have Jesus join their table. But they were absolutely appalled that he also ate with tax collectors and the people that the Pharisees called “sinners.” 

And so Jesus’ word to the Pharisees – and to all people who would exclude others from the table – is that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

The good news is that Jesus is the good shepherd who doesn’t give up searching, seeking, looking for the wayward sheep. And Jesus will not give up seeking out each beloved person until this “one” who was lost repents – or literally turns around, and returns to the way of God. And so of course he spends time and eats with those who are called “sinners” – or worse, “Tax collectors.” The tax collectors were considered traitors, those who worked with the Empire. Both groups were considered “other” – not us – by the Pharisees and all “good company.”  But Jesus does not seem to care one whit. Because Jesus wants ALL of God’s children.

But, some have argued, is it really wise to abandon the 99 in order to pursue the “one” lost soul? Some scholars argue that this was the risk that Jesus is willing to take for the one wayward soul. But others think that the 99 are where they are supposed to be – and so other shepherds can watch over them. Either argument could be true. But, I would argue, the point is not to figure out the risk for the “99 righteous” but rather, to recognize that there aren’t 99 independently righteous souls. Instead, we all need a savior. We all need a shepherd for some course correction from time to time.

Have you ever felt a time in which you feel a bit lost, or angry, or frustrated with the world – or at least your corner of the world?  Perhaps you have lost a loved one. Or maybe you have felt alone – or lonely – or anxious. It is at these times that Jesus seeks you – perhaps even a bit more urgently.

C.S. Lewis in his book, Surprised by Joy, tells of the way that God pursued him and would not let him go – even in his darkest hour. Referencing a poem by the same name, Lewis referred to God as the “Hound of Heaven” – who would not give up and would doggedly pursue him – no matter what. This is the kind of seeking, searching God that we have, a God that will doggedly pursue you and delight in you when you repent, that is turn, back to the way of God.

And then it is God who throws the party – and all the angels and the hosts of heaven are rejoicing, filled to the brim by joy.

What does that joy look like? Is it a dance party? A beautiful sunset? The smile of a baby? Let’s join the celebration and rejoice!

Thanks be to God. Amen.

September 14, 2025 + Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran church + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

 https://timehrhardt.com/2020/11/23/2-timothy-28-13-the-hound-of-heaven/

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Vicar Karla

Well, let me tell you, the gospel text for today is not one that has preachers chomping at the bit when they look at the lectionary. Throughout the book of Luke, we are shown Jesus as a peacemaker- not a peace keeper but a peacemaker. Someone who prioritizes the lowly, who exemplifies God’s love through justice making. Luke is filled with apt reminders of our shared calling to follow Christ’s calling to love and serve our neighbors, paying particular attention to our neighbors who are neglected, and not just neglected, but and even harmed by the powers of this world. Today’s reading from Luke, though, reminds us that Jesus tells us following these directives is not easy and that there is a cost to our discipleship.

One of the most prominent examples of this costly discipleship is the life and ministry of Lutheran theologian, Dietrich Bohnhoefer. Bohnhoefer was a Lutheran minister living and working in Germany as the Nazis rose to power. He was a staunch critic of the church’s complacency and of the ways he saw the church bending to the will of a tyrant, the tyrant here being democratically elected Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer criticised the church for not exemplifying true discipleship to Christ, ignoring the plight of the ostracized and capitulating to an alarmingly rising fascist empire.

Bohnhoeffer left Germany for a time for further study at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he found himself inspired by the activism of African Americans in Harlem. He witnessed firsthand the ways that racism was blatantly on display in the United States, and he returned to Germany emboldened to speak out against the church’s capitulation to the Nazis. Not surprisingly, this made him a target. And though he was given numerous opportunities to leave Germany to live in safety and comfort, he refused those opportunities again and again eventually being executed by the Nazis as an enemy of the Third Reich. His discipleship and determination to follow Christ’s teaching led him to pay the ultimate price which was his life here on Earth.

Now, I don’t know about you, but as I look around at the ways harmful policies are advancing throughout the United States, targeting the vulnerable who are already on the margins, I feel pretty confident in knowing how Jesus would react. Despite the alarming rise in Christian Nationalism which proclaims a wrathful and vengeful Jesus Christ, we know that Christ centered the lowly and encourages us to love and to serve and to do so boldly. But, in today’s context, what is the cost of that discipleship?

Today’s gospel reading reminds us that our calling to follow Jesus, to follow his example of justice and services is a tall order to be sure and that it is not without the risk of making us a target of the powers of the world that do the harm in the first place, especially when so much of that harm is done by those who claim their faith as justification for that harm. I follow a lot of female theologians, pastors, and bishops on various social media platforms, and none of them can post anything without someone inevitably coming in the comments to accuse them of heresy, to “remind them” that women can’t be pastors….when in fact, as we know, it was actually women who were the very first to preach the good news of Jesus’ resurrection but that was my Easter sermon so I digress.

Jesus does not sugarcoat the call to discipleship, and today’s gospel reading reminds of that. Jesus doesn’t tell us to follow him when it is convenient, easy, and without risk. It is precisely the opposite; that we are called to enact that discipleship in the midst of the hardships and in the midst of the ways that sharing this message of justice and love may just put us at odds with the ways of the world.

It seems so odd, doesn’t it, that we can hear messages of prosperity gospel in various parts of Christianity. If you’re not familiar with the term, it basically comes down to the belief that if you are successful in life, it is because God wants you to be. That if you have the good job and the fancy house or the third vacation home or the private plane, it is because God is pleased with you and that is your reward for your ardent belief or faith in God’s goodness. And so often, we see the measures of success that are used are ones that celebrate the accumulation of wealth and of stuff. Those are the world’s metrics of success. Not God’s. When we have texts like today where Jesus tells us pretty point blank that not only does our worth not come from the things we are able to accumulate but that all of those things actually separate us from our discipleship.

May we all work earnestly to not measure our success by the things the world prioritizes, but rather by the generosity and humility that Christ advocates for. That where the world tells us to buy more, to earn more, to keep more for ourselves, Christ reminds us to be generous, to share what we have because in God there is abundance.

Sunday, August 31, 2025

You Are Invited

You are invited. Those three little words open up an opportunity to be a part of something – usually something special – a birthday party, a wedding, an event, a celebration.

 Sometimes, it is a formal event. Just last weekend, I was at a wedding of dear friends of ours. The banquet tables were set, the candles lit and it looked quite inviting. It was even more inviting when I found my name on a place card at one of the tables. It felt good to know that I belonged. Also, I noticed that I was sitting at a round table with friends – there was no head and no foot – we were all simply gathered together to celebrate.

 In Jesus’ day, there weren’t place cards on the table and the tables were not round. There was a distinct difference between the “head” and the “foot” of the table. The food started at the head of the table – and those at the foot of the table got the leftover scraps. Naturally, everyone wanted to sit at the head of the table. But they were also expected to “know” where they belonged. As Jesus warned them – don’t scramble for the best seats, closer to the chairs of honor – lest you be shamed by being sent lower down the line.

 Jesus’ teaching – to humbly take the lower place rather than seeking a seat of honor – would have seemed radical to his listeners. And Jesus also has a counter-cultural message for the hosts – don’t invite those who will “return the favor” and invite you back. Instead, invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Invite those who never get invited to anything, the ones who are considered “less than.”

 Years ago, when I worked at Augustana Lutheran, they decided to host “Parking Lot Banquets.” Every summer, they would set up 15 or more tables in the parking lot, cover them with brightly colored vinyl table clothes and invite the neighborhood. They would also invite a musician or a band to come and play. But unlike other events in which the hosting church put on aprons and served the poor, who went through a line.  Augustana invited their suburban partners to bring a feast while they joined their neighbors at the table. It was a remarkable site to see these faithful Swedish elders of the church – who I had just seen a few days earlier dressed in their Sunday best – come in casual clothes and sit at a table with the neighborhood people, many of whom were poor – and who came for a good meal.  Meanwhile, the people from the suburban church would bring the heaping plates of food to the people sitting at the table, serving the meal as if they were in a fine restaurant and as graciously as they would serve Jesus.

At first, I wanted to be one of the servers. As a staff person, I thought it was my role to serve and help with the logistics. But one day when I standing around trying to look useful, a mentor friend of mine said to me, “Pam, there are plenty of volunteers to serve the food. What we need are people to engage with our guests so that they know that they are honored and that they belong, that they are a part of us. Sit down and be served with our guests.” That deepened my perspective of what hospitality looks like and the humility needed to be served like the neighbors were and not to have the power of being “in charge.”

Luther Seminar professor Rolf Jacobson tells the story of when he felt honored by someone else’s hospitality. He was invited to a small luncheon that was honoring then poet laureate Maya Angelo who spoke at a youth convention. He said that when he got to the hotel banquet room, there were two round tables. Maya Angelo and the ELCA bishop of the time and other ELCA dignitaries were at that table, and there were a few open spaces. But, he said, I knew my place since I was a newly graduated seminary student and so he wheeled himself to the other table, the lesser table – Rolf has been in a wheelchair since he was a young man. 

But, he said, after the meal and when the dignitaries were about to honor Maya Angelo with a gift and were starting to heap praises on her, she left that table and went over to Rolf and said to him, “What is your story? I want to know about you.” He was so honored that she – instead of listening to the accolades about her work – chose to seek him out to ask about his story.1

What I love about this story is that she wasn’t forced to go and speak with the young man in the wheel chair but she chose to fore-go the accolades, risk offending the ones who were honoring her and instead to approach someone who was different than she to hear his story. She chose to act with humble curiosity and not with self-importance or righteousness.

Sometimes it’s tempting – at least for me - to put someone like Maya Angelo on a pedestal. I love her work and this story just made me appreciate her all the more. But noticing someone who looks “different” and then getting out of her chair and moving – while remarkable – is not a superhero move. This is something that ordinary people like you and me can do.

Rolf’s story reminds me of when I felt honored – or maybe a better term would be “rescued” – in the lunchroom of what was then Plymouth Junior High. I’ve told this story before but I couldn’t help but reflect upon the difference that one little invitation made for me.

It was the first day of a new school for me. And, even though this was a huge difference from small village school that I had attended, I was doing well following my schedule and finding my classrooms. But then came the lunchroom. I followed the person in front of me, carrying my tray and selecting my food. It was all was great until… I came out of the serving line and saw rows and rows of junior high students sitting in clumps with their friends. There was no designated seating. I didn’t have a place card. I didn’t know where to sit.  And so, I paused and looked around, not knowing where to go.

At that moment, Cindy came up to me and said, “Would you like to sit with us?”  With a sigh of relief, I said, “Yes.” And she led me back to her table of friends. Cindy didn’t have to do that. She could have said, “Welcome to the Plymouth Jr. High Lunchroom. Glad you are here. You can sit anywhere you want.” And then gone back to her friends. But I was so glad that instead, she noticed me and then invited me to her table. Cindy isn’t an extreme extrovert. She was an 8th grade girl – who happened to be Lutheran and it was probably a little bit of a risk for her. But it was a huge relief for me.

This is what hospitality is all about: noticing someone and inviting them to your table. Do you see how it is different than just welcoming someone?

Last week, I mentioned a verse from our reading from Hebrews, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels” – and I like the translation “unawares” - without realizing it.  It likely refers to the three strangers who visited Abraham and Sarah and who announced that they would have a child. But it also reminds us that God is at work in our world – and sometimes shows up in the strangers that we meet. And so, as followers of Jesus, we – you and I, are invited us to show hospitality to one another AND to the stranger, the other, the “outsider” by noticing and inviting the “other” to our table because – the table doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to Jesus.

As we read in Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” That doesn’t mean that nothing changes in our world. That means that the love and care of Jesus doesn’t change. But Jesus is still at work inviting us all to change ourselves and our world to reflect God’s kingdom world. And sometimes that begins with two simple invitations. First, you/ we have received an invitation from Jesus to his banquet - for the banquet belongs to Jesus; And then, you/we are invited to extend that invitation so that everyone will know that we ALL are invited to His table. Amen.

August 31, 2025 + Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

1 Workingpreacher.org Podcast 1039 Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost, Aug 31, 2025 with Dr. Rolf Jacobson

Sunday, August 17, 2025

By Faith We Follow

This Gospel passage has never been a go-to favorite of mine. I happen to love my mother and mother-in-law. I don’t like the thought of division. I don’t particularly like conflict. But Jesus is not, of course, advocating for division. Instead, he is describing what happens in our world, our communities and even, sometimes, in our closest relationships.

 In the Gospel, we get a picture of the human side of Jesus – stressed by injustice, oppression and pervasive sin – which is everything that goes against God. Jesus sounds frustrated that – despite all of his teaching to follow the Truth, the Word and the Way of God – people do not listen. They/we cling to the false security of Empire, possessions, comfort and status.  And this breaks Jesus’ heart.

The Guthrie production of Cabaret portrays Berlin in the days before and after the Nazis take power. Prior to the takeover – the first act – no one is worried about anything. Eat, drink and be merry! And they are. If people had been paying attention they might have seen what was happening. But – in the play – no one was paying attention. They were comfortable – and oblivious to the world outside of their own little circle. They were just having fun. They assumed those other things “won’t affect me.”

 But in the second half, we see that oppressive governments affect everyone.  I won’t give away the way the show portrays the story – but you know the history. When the Nazis took over the country, people who didn’t “fit” the criteria of the day were killed or deported. In this case it was the Jews who were rounded up and sent to concentration camps; those who were considered “other,” or “queer” were also sent away and/or killed. The show ends with an ominous note. 

 When we put on this musical at Armstrong High school years ago, I wondered, how could the Germans not have seen?  How could they have said nothing? Done nothing? Of course, there were some who did. Bonhoffer is our Lutheran hero. But other Lutheran pastors and parishioners said nothing. They got along to get along.

 Today, my heart breaks every time I hear stories of the children of Gaza starving because parents can’t access food – and when they do manage to get to the distribution site – they are in danger of being killed.

“The United Nations reported that since May more than 800 people have been killed while trying to access food from distribution sites run by the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” the new organization sponsored by Israel and the U.S.”  It makes me wonder – why are the authorities attacking their own aid sites?

The Lutheran World Federation general secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt expressed deep concern. She said, “We cannot look away as children are starving and people are unable to safely collect water from aid points,” she said. “Our humanitarian colleagues [the workers who are trying to help] are suffering alongside the rest of the population.” Many of them are hungry, exhausted, and struggling to carry out their duties to care for others…“One of them told us: ‘We see the toll in each other’s faces – our bodies thinning day by day since the ceasefire collapsed. The hunger is no longer invisible.’ ” 

My heart breaks – as it should – with any news of injustice. But even more than other places, Gaza has a special place in my heart.

I will never forget the care that I was given by a family in Gaza. St. Olaf used to send a group of students and a teaching professor and guide every year to live in Jerusalem for a semester. For our Thanksgiving break, we decided it would be great to do something with the students from Berzeit University of Jerusalem. They wanted to go “home” to Gaza. So we boarded a bus with them and headed to Gaza where we were divided into “couples” and sent to our host homes. My friend Joe and I were hosted by an extended Palestinian family. I joined the men for dinner, sitting in a small room with mats on the floor and with one small TV in the corner of the room playing American cartoons. I think they were trying to learn English.

But it was after dinner that  my heart warmed. I was invited to the women’s sleeping quarters. It was a small roomwith mats on the floor covered with warm blankets and filled with shy giggling girls, mothers with little ones and older women. I felt at home with them and fell asleep surrounded by these new “sisters” whose language I could not understand – except for the giggles.

That house has been destroyed. I don’t know what happened to the family. But they – like all the other families – have either fled the country, been killed or, if they tried to return are starving to death.

It was also at Gaza that I first came to understand how deep and how treacherous and divisive the conflict is between the Israelis and the Palestinians as half of us were invited to – unbeknownst to us-- participate in an illegal rally and the other half of the students were hidden away to “protect” them from the Israeli soldiers. All of the students – American and Berzeit made it back safely to Jerusalem after some lengthy negotiations by our leader but I suddenly realized that the conflict wasn’t academic or abstract. As Jesus said, conflict will happen – over faith, over land, over freedom as well as all of the tweedled beetle battles of our everyday lives.

We know how to tell whether or not it will rain or be a sunny day. Today we have technology and satellites to help us predict the wind, sun, rain – and lots of other variables too.  But we still do not know how to interpret the present time.

Responding to the world around us seems overwhelming at best. It is tempting – like in Cabaret – to just ignore the noise of the news around us. But we do so at our peril.

Instead, we need to choose where we stand. Friends in Christ, let us stand with Jesus.

But wait. Where is Jesus standing?

+ Jesus is standing at the food lines in Gaza and in Crystal. + Jesus is standing with the Palestinian Christians in the rubble of their bombed church and with the Palestinian Muslims at their burned down mosque. And, Jesus is also standing with Jewish people whenever antisemitism rears its ugly head. Jesus is standing at all of those places right now.

+ Jesus doesn’t take ordinary sides because the power of sin is pervasive. Instead, we always find Jesus with the oppressed, the vulnerable and those in need.  And that is where we need to be too.

Our lesson from the book of Hebrews reminds us that this has always been a challenge for people of faith. However, he encourages us to look to their example, and to hold fast to their example of faith – despite the challenges that came.

He writes, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,”  Notice this image for “sin.” It is like a cold wet pair of jeans that have been soaked through by a freezing rain and are stuck to you so tightly that you have to literally peel them off your body. Sin –everything that goes against the love of God – needs to be stripped away. 

In its place, you are invited to the warmth of God’s love.

And so, as the the letter to the Hebrews proclaims, “let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” – as if you were running in the Olympics with the great cloud of witnesses in the stands cheering you on. Let us join them in “looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:1-2

This is the gift of faith to which God calls us – the faith that – despite the challenges -- looks to Jesus to show us to Way, to proclaim the Truth and to give us – and our neighbors – Life with Christ Jesus.

Jesus, Savior, give us courage to stand with you by the side of those who are oppressed, vulnerable and in need. Grant us the faith to follow where you lead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

August 17, 2025 + Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

 1 https://www.oikoumene.org/news/especially-in-times-of-global-crisis-we-need-international-and-ecumenical-organisations

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Vicar Karla Leitzman

          Several years ago now when I started seminary, one of the courses we were required to take that first semester was called Christian Public Leader, or CPL. Not to be confused with CPE which is Clinical Pastoral Education and an entirely different requirement but my sermon on my frustration of Lutheran acronyms will be another Sunday. Each week, we had both a large group class with a lecture and readings and then another day and time each week, we all met online with our formation groups. These were groups of seminarians all around the country engaging in a small group and a facilitator. The aim was to give new students a community and tight knit group right off the bat, and I was lucky enough to mostly really enjoy my group.

          Our group facilitator serves as a pastor in Florida and had so many fascinating experiences as African American ELCA pastor in a very white denomination. He was incredibly kind and supportive, and whenever I think of him, I think of his constant refrain, “always be ready.” He started saying in response to new seminarians who were uncomfortable leading prayers when put on the spot. (One thing no one really tells you when you start seminary is that you will immediately start getting asked to pray with no lead up or warning. At first some find it daunting, but you’re told pretty rapidly to just get over it and let the Holy Spirit work.)

          So, when Pastor Reggie asked a student to open or close us in prayer on the spot and it was evident there was some trepidation, he just said, “always be ready.” This always be ready refrain has admittedly stuck with me and not just for when I am asked to pray somewhere. It’s become emblematic to me of being ready to respond to God’s call, to always be ready to be aware of the ways the Holy Spirit is moving in unexpected ways.

          We see today’s gospel lesson often utilized for stewardship Sundays as an appeal to not hoard wealth here on Earth and instead share the abundance we have. It reminds us to not cling to wealth and physical, fleeting things, to not measure our success by the amount of stuff we accumulate. That the more we measure our success by earthly metrics like how many homes we own, being able to afford, or finance, the fanciest new boat, or whatever it is, the more the gospel calls us to the countercultural act of looking for abundance and measuring success not by earthly means. I have also heard this passage used by a more charismatic part of our Christian faith that reminds people to always be ready for Jesus’ second coming and the inevitable rapture that will come as a result. Always be ready, never commit any sins, be the perfect Christian….or else. Which, let’s be honest is pretty near impossible to live up to.

          But what is going on more broadly in this part of Luke? How do all of these chapters and passages work together? This is part of a bigger narrative of Jesus telling his listeners to be ready to follow God’s message of love, mercy, and justice. In today’s gospel reading, we get a kind and uplifting Jesus, one who tells us not to worry, who doesn’t chastise us. Next week, we will see a different narrative.

          But what does being ready actually mean? Jesus says to make purses that do not wear out, so I guess I could take a favorite purse I got in Mexico City which recently broke to be fixed. But underneath all those seeming service things, what does it mean to “always be ready?” To not be encumbered by the perceived scarcity of this world to instead be open to God’s abundance?

          Last week, Pastor Pam and our council here at Faith Lilac Way shared the news that we are entering a period of discernment with First Lutheran Church of Crystal and Cross of Glory to explore what it could mean to create something new together. There are obviously a lot of feelings about this possibility, and all of them are valid, and God meets us in each and every one of those feelings. And, if we were in a place where we clutched tightly to our own individual resources and ideas, we would have fallen short in this directive to always be ready. When we are willing to be open to the newness and abundance of the Holy Spirit, we are subsequently pushed to lessen our tightly held grasp on our individual resources.

          There is so much I love about being the intern, or vicar, here at Faith Lilac Way Lutheran. The list of things I am grateful for is pretty exhaustive. One of my favorite parts, though, is that I am here because of perceived scarcity that gave way to abundance. With awareness of current and projected congregational resoures, it was determined that the vicar before me would be the last one. And then, after a longtime member of the congregation passed away, the congregation received an unexpected legacy or planned gift which was to be used for scholarships. This all happened right around the seminary called Pastor Pam and asked, even though Faith Lilac Way said they would not be taking any more interns, if perhaps you all might be open to a two year, part time intern. Because there was not really a designation for scholarships, the family said that using the legacy gift for an intern would be a wonderful use of these resources. And the rest is history. Here I am.

We never know when or for what we are going to be called to be ready. But in this case, I am very fortunate that Pastor Pam and all of you were ready. That perceived scarcity gave way to abundance and a new idea in the form of part time intern for two years who has another fulltime job. Many congregations would not have been open to that. You could have said, no we don’t have enough resources and this new legacy gift needs to be used for something else and a part time vicar? How in the world can that work? But. you were ready.

          Being ready can be daunting and unnerving. We might not feel ready and find ourselves saying a variation of “Really God? Are you sure about this?”

          One of my very favorite hymns, which we will sing in a bit here, is Will You Come and Follow Me. Honestly it always hits me in the feels, especially the fourth verse. “Will you love the you you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?” What is the you that you hide? What are the pieces of yourself that you push down, that you squirrel away because you convince yourself that no one could love those parts of you? Think about that for a minute….. The me that I hide, I hide for a reason. The me that I hide is judgemental, quick to anger, sarcastic to the point of rudeness, angry. It gets hidden for a reason. And this hymn is basically saying, God loves all of those parts of me and calls me, and all of us, just the same. God says, you do not have to hide these things from me, I see them, and I love you just the same. Through grace, we are not the things about ourselves that we perceive are the worst of us. We are loved, and called, and named, and known just the same.

          Being ready means being attentive to God’s call even when we might have some trepidation or nerves. It might mean straight up saying, “God I don’t like this. I have my reservations and I don’t feel ready. But I am going to go forward anyway.”

          May we all continue to be ready, to be attentive to the ways we can be God’s church together. May we show up in our fullest selves, the parts of ourselves we hide and all. Because God meets us in all of it and then some more.

Sunday, August 3, 2025

 Rich Toward God

 What does it mean to be “rich toward God?”  Jesus encourages us to be “Rich” – “towards God.”

 Today’s Gospel, at first read, is a little hard for us. After all, we want things to be fair. So why wouldn’t Jesus take the young man’s side? We don’t know the back story on the young man who asked Jesus to be the arbitrator of his father’s estate. But at that time the tradition wasn’t what we consider “fair.” The elder brother got a double portion of the estate. That’s not fair. But remember, Jesus is in the midst of a teaching on learning to pray, to seek, and to trust in God above all things that are earthly and temporary – and into that conversation, up pops a question about dividing up the family inheritance. The man is a little tone-deaf. Is he listening to Jesus? Or is he so focused on his own self-interest that he can’t think of anything else? 

 But Jesus isn’t to be distracted by questions of wealth management and so instead of taking his part, he warns the inheritance seeker:  “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  It feels like a harsh rebuke. Isn’t he just asking for fairness? But Jesus knows his heart – and ours - and the temptation of counting our wellbeing in terms of how much “stuff” we have.

 And so, Jesus tells a parable about a rich landowner. The actions that the rich landowner takes sound reasonable. After all, we are taught to save up for the rainy day. It’s even Biblical. Remember the story of Joseph who set aside a good portion of the grain in the 7 good years so that there would be food for the people during the 7 years to follow?  The landowner has all sorts of plans on how to use the abundance of grain that he has received. And that, in itself, is not the problem. Notice how many times the landowner uses “I” or “me” or “my.” 

 He calls a board meeting of “me, myself and I” and begins by taking his own council and says:  ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said (to himself), ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 

 In that little dialogue with himself, his soul, he says I or my or refers to his own soul 12 times.  Perhaps a little self-absorbed? Is he really going to tear down his barns and build larger ones himself? Are there no workers with whom he could share? Does he not live in a community?  Is the abundance of grain that he has received all his to hoard? If we remember back to the story of Joseph, the reason for building the storage bins during the years of good harvest was to save food for the people to eat in the seven years of famine. 

 As theologian Debie Thomas writes, “In the carefully curated narrative of a proud, ‘self-made man’, Jesus sees an isolated, insecure soul who has forgotten human connection, forgotten God’s generosity and provision, forgotten that possession is not stewardship, and forgotten that in the face of Death (the great equalizer) we are all naked paupers but for the grace of God.”1 

 Jesus wants us to be rich – but not in temporary physical things, not in money or status or the stuff in our closets or the number of followers we have on social media. So what does it mean to be “rich towards God?”

 Maybe it means for guarding against our/my desire to hold tight to what we/I have or I/we think belongs me? And, instead remembering that I am but a steward of these gifts for a time. Maybe it means prioritizing relationships and caring for the neighbor, the other, the one in need? Maybe it means loosening our grasp on what we have always done and instead, fervently asking, praying, seeking God’s wisdom and God’s Holy Spirit to direct our plans and our dreams for our future.

When I look back at the history of Faith-Lilac Way, the brightest times that stand out for me, are when you have done just that – listened to and responding to the Holy Spirit calling you to care for the neighbor, to love one another and to praise and worship God together.

I’m often asked about the name of the church. I assumed when I first came, that it was a merger of two churches. But no. It was a compromise. The organizing pastor, Pastor Seebach, went door to door as Robbinsdale and Crystal were just being built and before the sidewalks had even been laid, inviting people to come to a church that he was organizing on Lilac Way. And people responded and gathered in the basement of the Masonic Temple on Sunday mornings to praise God. But the church needed an affiliation and so Pastor Seebach went to a Lutheran church body – I think it was the United Lutherans – and asked if he and this new church located on Lilac Way, called Lilac Way Lutheran, could affiliate with them. The church synod elders said yes, but “Lilac Way” is not a proper name for a church. They wanted the name to reflect the values of the church. Pastor Seebach said, “Faith” of course, and so they compromised and named the church, “Faith-Lilac Way.” I like that this church began by listening to one another and the Holy Spirit and then coming to a compromise that honored both the desire for our values and our location to be included.

Faith-Lilac Way has also been a leader when it comes to caring for the neighbor. While Pastor Ingman was here, there was a growing concern that people in the neighborhood were going hungry. Our congregation joined with others to create the North-Suburban Emergency Area Response – we know it as NEAR food shelf. Members of our congregation have been active supporting it by volunteering and by giving to this ministry ever since.

 And that’s not the only neighbor focused ministry that the Holy Spirit has led Faith-Lilac Way as a church and as individuals to be engaged in. Many of these ministries address food insecurity and are in collaboration with other churches. These programs have changed over the years – what began as Dinner at your Door has become Meals on Wheels; Kidpack which provided snacks transitioned to become Every Meal, providing whole meals for kids and their families over the weekend. Volunteers put the meal in kids’ backpacks at school.

 When I first came to Faith-Lilac Way, a couple of leaders wanted to respond to need that they saw in the neighborhood – children needed help in school – and  so, guided by the Holy Spirit, we began a “Study Buddies” program. Lots of adults signed up to help a child learn to read, do math and learn to study. I think we as adults gained as much as the children did from those encounters.

 Finding affordable Senior housing in the neighborhood was a problem for some of our members and neighbors in 2008. Pastor Bob Wertz and other leaders on the church council had a vision of building beautiful senior housing apartments next door to the church. The congregation rallied and with help of the Holy Spirit and with the partnership of other organizations and neighbors, we went to the Robbinsdale city council to ask for permission to change the zoning. We then worked with Commonbond who built RobbinsWay next door. Since then, God has blessed us with many opportunities to do ministry together with the residents of RobbinsWay. 

Loving and serving the neighbor has been and continues to be how the Holy Spirit has led Faith-Lilac Way. And, we increasingly have found that we can do God’s work better when we partner with other churches and with our neighbors. Wildfire, a group of six and then eight churches, began around a pastor Bible study in the neighborhood. It was truly the work of the Holy Spirit – and so what began as a group of three churches around a bonfire, became a Holy Spirit guilded WILD fire. And so, what began as churches doing large group Confirmation programs together once a month has grown to encompass many other ministries that we can do better together.

It is out of this sense of collaboration and Holy Spirit nudging that we are now exploring what it could look like for us as a congregation to do more ministry together with First Lutheran and Cross of Glory. We are at the very beginning of asking these questions: Is God making things new? In our shared neighborhood is God creating a space and a place for new possibilities for ministry? How is the Hoy Spirit calling us?

 We are in a liminal time. We are, as it were, standing in the doorway, and praying for God to lead us in this next chapter. We will be gathering after worship to talk and pray about what God may be inviting us into. And, at the same time, Cross of Glory Lutheran and First Lutheran are also gathering and having these conversations.  There are many questions, the answers to which we do not know yet.

 But this is not something to fear. Because we know that we are not alone. God is with us. And God is with the people of Cross of Glory. And God is with the people of First Lutheran. And when we ask and trust God to lead us – we will experience life-giving renewal. As Paul writes to the Colossians, “In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian (who were the most barbaric of all), enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all.”

And so, friends in Christ, rest in the promise that Christ is all and in all and let us sing together, pray together and rejoice together that God is at work in us and with us today and in our future as well. Thanks be to God. Amen.

1 Debie Thomas https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2291-rich-toward-god

August 3, 2025 + Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

Sunday, July 27, 2025

A few weeks ago, I was on an amazing trip, bicycling around Bodensee, a large lake that borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It was absolutely beautiful!  Some of it – especially our journey into Switzerland along the Rhine River -- was quite bit more hilly than we had been led to believe. To be fair, they would say that there would be a “little up.” They weren’t kidding.  But three weeks ago today, we were on the German side of the lake. It was Sunday and we were hoping to find a church to attend. But there was nothing available in the town we were in until late morning – and we had to be out of our hotel and on our bike before then.

I was disappointed because I had asked God for a church service - but knowing that God is not only found in churches and that I could pray anywhere, I contented myself with humming praises to God as we biked through beautiful wooded paths, stopped at a little chapel along the side of the road and then continued our journey along the blessedly flat lakeshore and parks. It was enough.

But, as we were biking along a park by the lake, I noticed that there was what looked like a high school band and a couple of people in long robes and I realized that they were having a worship service! We pulled our tandem bike off the path into the park and were welcomed. I only have beginning German, so I wasn’t able to understand the sermon. But some of the tunes of the hymns were the same and I was able to sound out the words. And then… we said the Lord’s prayer. 

The general cadence of the way we say the Lord’s prayer is the same in most languages and so I delighted in praying the Lord’s prayer, joining my prayer to the prayers of the people all over the world – and knowing that you all would be praying the same prayer – in English – 8 hours later.  

This is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The Lord’s prayer as we and people all over the world say it, is structured more closely after the version in Matthew’s Gospel, but the message is the same. When we pray, “Hallowed be thy name” we are saying we revere God’s name, and treat God’s name as holy.  As I’ve told my confirmation students, when you say, “Jesus” or “Oh God” - you can expect that God is listening - saying “Yes?” So make sure you remember that you are addressing God when you say God’s name.

Jesus also teaches us to ask for God’s kingdom to come. Thy Kingdom Come. It means we are looking for God’s way to be done – which may not be what the culture tells us is in our self-interest.

Jesus invites us to ask for what we need – daily bread. Martin Luther taught us that this is an inclusive word for all of our daily needs – not just food but also housing, health, education, and the welfare of our community. 

Jesus also teaches us to forgive one another as He has forgiven us. And, to ask that we not be brought to the time of trial.

We could have a whole sermon series on each of these petitions but what struck me this time as I was reading and praying about what you and I needed to hear this week was Jesus’ invitation to: Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.” Because, as Jesus reminds his disciples and us, that God is Good and that God can be trusted to give us not only good things – our daily bread – but also the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Ask, Search and Knock.  That sounds so easy. Does that mean if I ask for whatever I want, I will get it? Does God really work that way? If so, why not ask for the moon? Or at least a red convertible.

There are some churches, especially those that teach the “prosperity Gospel” that insist that if you ask, and don’t receive, it means that you haven’t been praying hard enough or long enough or that you have sinned in some other way.  Kate Bowler writes in her book, “Everything Happens for A Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved,” that when she got cancer her church prayed for healing, and she prayed, and when she wasn’t healed, they assumed that either she had not been persistent enough.  She hadn’t pounded on God’s door loud enough like the neighbor who woke up his friend to ask for bread to share – or… more sinisterly… they wondered if there was something else wrong with her.

But Kate had been praying. But she wasn’t receiving the gift of healing. I’m guessing we have all been there – either ourselves or prayed for a loved one who is sick and we pray for healing – and it doesn’t come. And we wonder if we can trust these words of Jesus:  “Ask, and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” And if we stop right there, it does sound as if Jesus is promising us whatever we want. So why not ask for the red convertible? Won’t God give it to you if you just pray hard enough?

But Jesus isn’t done speaking. Jesus compares the generosity of parents to their children to the generosity of God to God’s children —and we as mere humans fall far short.  Jesus even calls us evil in comparison. He says, “If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” 

So, it turns out that Jesus is not telling us we can have a red convertible if we just ask long and hard enough. We can’t even guarantee that our prayers for others will be granted in the way that we want.  Kate Bowler discovered that while the answer she kept receiving was not healing it also wasn’t over… And so she learned to live with this uncertainty, to recognize that she is mortal (as are we all). She learned that what was true – was not that she could ask for whatever she wanted but rather that she can trust the Holy Spirit to be with her every day – regardless of the situation of her health and her life.

And so can we. Trusting God in the midst of uncertainty is not always easy. But it helps if we don’t start when we are in the trenches of our pain or sorrow.

And this is why Jesus invites us to Ask, Seek, Knock. And one of the best ways to do this is through a daily practice of prayer.

I had been taking beginning German in preparation for our European trip. And while I am by no means fluent or even close, I had fun being able to order off the menu and to greet people with “Guten Morgan” and thank them with “viel Dank”. But I hadn’t had time to do my daily German homework – especially after we went to Italy. I spoke English primarily but when I tried to speak a little Italian I found myself sometimes saying Danke and sometimes saying Gracias and sometimes saying Grazi. The foreign language part of my brain felt completely scrambled. So… when I returned home and went to my class – I felt completely unprepared. While my classmates were asking questions and speaking in sentences, I was confusing tenses and mixing in a few words of Spanish in the midst of my halting responses. The teacher gently reminded me that in order to really learn the language, I needed to practice it every day – even if only for 15 minutes – rather than try to cram all my homework in on the day of class – which is exactly what I had been doing.

I think that is how it is for prayer too. When we develop a daily practice of prayer -  praising God for the gift of life, the goodness that we see; asking God to heal the hurts of our life and of our world; searching for guidance and direction; forgiving one another and knocking on the door of truth; we learn to trust God with our cares, our prayers, our life.

This is what Jesus is inviting you and me into – a daily practice of prayer which means asking, seeking, and knocking on God’s door. And trusting that God has already sent the Holy Spirit to us to guide us and to give us more than we had even imagined possible. Thanks be to God. Amen.  

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Sermon Jul 13, 2025

Vicar Karla Leitzman

Luke 8:26-39

           Well, there is certainly a lot going on in today’s gospel story. We’ve got demons and pigs and drowning and boats- oh my! When you hear the word demon, what do you first think of? For me, who really loves the original Exorcist movie from 1973, which is a must watch for me every fall right around Halloween, I will always think of the possessed child who can rotate her head all the way around. It is apparent that she is literally oozing with evil. Even if what you think of isn’t that particular scene, I would wager that your image is equally evil and vile, the antithesis of goodness and happiness.

This story is fairly early in Jesus’ life and ministry as depicted in the book of Luke. Prior to this, we don’t have a lot of stories about his miracles, life, and ministry. So it is because of that it is pretty shocking that this man described here is actually the first person to overtly name Jesus’ divinity. This disheveled, naked, probably terrifying by all accounts, man is the first person to name Jesus’ divine identity. And, truly, what could be more indicative of Jesus’ ministry? That the man, fully divine and fully human, is named first by the outsider and the ostracized.

           This man would have been considered the lowest of the low, and his presence exhibits that every society through every space and time, has had people that they don’t really know what to do with so they ignore them. They push them to the sides, the margins, the corners. And here, the ignored, marginalized person is precisely who emerges as the one to listen to. The person who everyone else has clearly tried to stay away from is the first to know who Jesus is.

           In this early chapter of Luke, we see Jesus crossing a boundary and traveling to a new country that is not Galilee. This matters because this is Gentile land, not a Jewish stronghold. This means that Jesus and his disciples were now considered to be outsiders, foreigners. And right away when he steps off the boat, not only does this ostracized person see him, but he recognizes him and names him as God’s son. It’s not the leaders, the powerful, those deemed important or powerful by society- no, not by a long shot.

           And, did you notice how Jesus doesn’t run away. He doesn’t ignore this person, no, he doesn’t fear him. Instead, he asks his name.

 The name “Legion” is loaded to be sure. During this time, a legion would have been a militarized unit of 6,000 Roman soldiers. 6,000 soldiers, of which there were many, whose sole job was to protect the power of the Roman Empire, to put down anyone who subversed that power and might. The demon’s response naming itself, Legion, means the demon is saying there are many of us. Like the legions of Roman soldiers your followers have been brutalized by, we are mighty and do much to pull people away from God’s directives to love and care for others. Protecting power and increasing brutal occupation of foreign lands is our business.

           Jesus sees this man for who he is underneath all of the dirt and grim and ways he is marginalized by society. A quote from author Parker Palmer comes to mind, “ The human soul doesn’t have to be advised to be fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed, to be seen, heard, and companioned exactly as it is.” As humans, it is so often in our  nature to want to fix problems. To solve issues. We want to listen to someone share a problem and immediately offer a solution to fix it. But, sometimes the greatest power is to be found in the ways we simply answer our call to accompany and really look to see and understand others.

           Vicar Judith Jones serves multiple Episcopaleon congregations in Oregon and wrote the following in her commentary on today’s passage:

 “How many people in our world are haunted by a traumatic past and tortured by memories? How many live unsheltered and inadequately clothed because of social and economic forces that they cannot overcome, no matter how hard they struggle? How many are imprisoned, regarded as barely human, excluded, cast out? How many are enslaved by addictions no longer knowing where the addiction ends, and their own selves begin? Where do the governing authorities separate people from their families, denying them the opportunity to seek better lives? Where do occupying armies still brutalize entire communities and hold them captive to fear? Jesus comes to challenge and cast out every power that prevents us from living fully and freely as human beings created in God’s image. Jesus claims sovereignty not just over our souls, but over our lives here on earth. Many among us resist that news, finding deliverance from Legion too frightening, too demanding, too costly. But those whom Jesus has healed and freed know that his liberating love is indeed good news, the gospel that he commands us to proclaim throughout our cities and towns. Still today God is at work in Jesus, bringing God’s kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.”

          Jesus comes to bring something better than legions of soldiers who brutally keep the status quo, who maintain the power of the ruling empire at any and all costs. Jesus comes to show us there is more to us than the darkest pieces of ourselves that both we hide, and the pieces of ourselves that society tells us we need to put over there, in the margins, in the corners. Those pieces we are ashamed of. The pieces that pull us away from God’s abundance and freely offered grace.            

How do we today witness those we define as “other” be the ones who notice things the rest of us don’t? When we put ourselves in the shoes of these “others” what can we see? Public Theologian and writer Nadia Bolz Weber created an online blog a few years ago entitled, “The Corners” which is a somewhat curious title. She was centering the stories of those who are pushed to the furthest corners of society’s margins. In one of her first posts and introductions to her writings, she wrote, “It may feel as though some of us have been relegated to the corners, but here’s the thing: from the corners, I can see the whole room. I love the corners. I always have. It is where I will always choose to sit, because I love outcasts and the girls who talk too loud.  I love humor that comes out of lives that have not been easy. I love sober drunks, single dads, sex workers and the guy who lost a leg in the war. These are my people. So here’s what I hope: that what is posted here is water, God willing, for those planted in the corners.”

  Friends in Christ, this week and beyond, may we commit ourselves to look for Christ in the corners. To see the face of God in those who the world ignores, who the world wants nothing to do with like the man inflicted by this Legion of demons in today’s stories. Because these corners are the places where Jesus showed us and told us he would always be.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Vicar Karla

Sermon- Jul 6, 2025

           Back in January of this past year, I was very fortunate to go on a travel course to Guatemala and Mexico through Luther Seminary. The purpose of the course was to engage with the Lutheran Churches in both Guatemala and Mexico and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role that the global Lutheran Church plays in both of those countries and in the region.

          A key component of our time in Guatemala was to be spent in remote villages which are largely inhabited by indigenous communities and these are the places where the Lutheran Church in Guatemala is most connected. These populations are a fascinating and beautiful conglomeration of people including those who left Guatemala during the 36 year long civil war to go to refugee camps on the Mexico/ Guatemala border, as well as people who fought for the government and those who fought against it as guerilla militants.  While we were in these villages, we even met key guerilla leaders who were instrumental in brokering peace deals to end the war.

          Now that this brutal and lengthy civil war has finally come to an end, they all must now continue learning how to live together in a spirit of reconciliation and hope. And, it is the Lutheran Church in Guatemala that is most closely accompanying these communities into what is next. These villages, by our standards, would be considered to be pretty primitive. We were very well briefed by our church partners to help us anticipate some key components of our experience. For example, the only electricity came from generators and there was no running water. Now, I happen to love a good cold bucket shower, especially in the heat we were experiencing, but it was certainly an adjustment.

          The roads to get to these villages were the definition of backroad with innumerable bumps and jostling with me needing to take multiple rounds of dramamine since an unfortunate aspect of my aging has been developing motion sickness. You really get the feeling that you are going far behind what we would consider to be modern civilization. The night before we were to arrive at our first village destination, my roommate for the evening and I were in our hotel room, repacking our bags because we wanted to be able to leave our suitcases on the bus and only bring in our backpacks. This was admittedly a bit of a tall order as we all had to bring in our own sleeping mats, sleeping bags, and mosquito nets. As we were unpacking and repacking, I felt myself stop as a realization hit me like a ton of bricks. We were repacking our bags and bringing with us more for just a few days than people who are fleeing their homes and taking long arduous journeys could even comprehend bringing with them. Even though I was impressed with myself for packing lightly- a small carry-on sized suitcase and a backpack for 3 weeks including the aforementioned sleeping gear- I still had so much stuff. As I looked at my things, I found myself thinking, how much of this do I actually need?

          We arrived and were welcomed by children shooting off firecrackers and jumping up and down to wave us in. We walked into a very modest room with a few benches and uneven tables where a lone candle was burning as the women of the congregation finished preparing lunch. It was evident that this burning candle was for a special occasion, and we were the special occasion.

          The truth is, I have never experienced such radical and beautiful hospitality as I did in these remote, modest villages. Where these families maybe only ate chicken once a month or for a very special occasion, such as a wedding, they had prepared chicken for us, forfeiting significant income which could be generated by selling them. In the evening, the lights went off with the generator promptly at 9pm…. Or so we were told. But when they saw that a few of us were still up after 9 writing and chatting, they kept the generator on for us.

          As I read today’s gospel passage, I am struck by the ways that the disciples are about to set out on their pilgrimage and that they are to be dependent on the hospitality of others. I talk at length, from this very pulpit, about our profound and urgent calling to share hospitality with the stranger as we are mandated to do literally dozens of times throughout the bible. And, as this passage exhibits, we are also called to accept that hospitality is when it is offered to us. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes struggle accepting help, let alone asking for it in the first place. The beautiful thing about being people of faith and in Christian community together is the ways that we care for one another. That sometimes it is up to us to share care and hospitality, and sometimes it is incumbent on us to accept it.

          When we went to these villages, it was not up to us to fix anything, to solve any problems, to give money or items. It was our job to accompany and to learn from them and to receive the hospitality which was shared so abundantly with us. And, we profoundly felt God’s presence in this accepting of their hospitality. In receiving the giving and sharing of these gifts, God comes to this human community. God is present in our accepting the hospitality and care which is offered to us.

          Jesus’ disciples in today’s story are dependent on the mercy of hospitality of those they would encounter as they set out on their commission from Christ to share God’s love and peace. They were vulnerable. Not only is Jesus telling them to take nothing, but he is telling them that he is sending them out to be lambs amongst wolves, reminding us that this is dangerous. Bodly sharing God’s messages of love and justice is not easy, nor is it without risks. There is vulnerability in that risk and in being humble enough to receive what is offered to us.

          Being in Christian community together means to both give and to receive. That when we have the resources to help our neighbors we do, even when the resources may feel modest or even inadequate. And, it also means to be willing to ask for and accept help from others in the community. Because we do not have to do this alone. In a world, more specifically maybe even in an American context where individual freedom and self sufficiency is prized, God offers something else, a way of Christ coming near to us amidst that rugged individualism that can feel so isolating.

          This week, I invite you to look for the places where you can offer care to those who may need it. Where can you linger over coffee and conversation rather than running off to the next thing on your busy schedule? And, where can you receive care from others? Where are places where you can be brave enough to ask for help? In a world that pushes us to only worry about ourselves, let us be brave enough to discern where we can rely on the hospitality and mercy of others.