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.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Freedom. What do you think of when you hear that word? Perhaps – you think of our country’s freedom - especially this week when Americans across the country celebrate the 4th of July with flags, parades and of course fireworks. It’s good to celebrate. It’s also good to remember that Freedom isn’t free. Our political freedom cost our forefathers something – the lives of some Americans were lost for the sake of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  

Freedom was the rallying cry. But it wasn’t freedom for all. Other patriots, in later years, needed to raise the banner of freedom again –freedom for people regardless of the color of their skin, freedom for women to vote, freedom for people to love whomever they love. As a country, we love the idea of Freedom – at least for ourselves. We want to be free.

But people don’t always agree on what or who should be free or even what it means -not now and not in Paul’s day either.  Paul is writing to  churches who were having a debate over what it meant to be a Christian – and whether that meant following all of the rules of the Torah, including the dietary laws and circumcision. Paul, as someone who had been a strict follower of every Torah rule for his whole life, argues that Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled that law and set them free. This is why he proclaims: For Freedom, Christ has set you free! They were Freed from the law that determined who belonged. Instead, all who believed belonged. The family of God just got bigger.

St. Augustine once said, “Love God and do whatever you want.” He then pointed out that the order of those two parts of the sentence matter. As Christians we are not free to “do whatever you want” as long as we love God. Rather, if we truly put LOVE GOD first, and let that determine our actions and our words, then whatever we do and whatever we say will always the love of God.

If, however, freedom, is used selfishly, it can easily lead to lawlessness and strife.

As Paul quickly clarifies, Christ has freed you FROM the laws that bind you AND Christ has freed you FOR love and service to the neighbor. He writes,“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another.” Paul envisioned a world in which Christians with higher status and money and resources would use those gifts to raise up Christians who had fewer resources; the rich would share with the poor – even “enslave themselves” to indicate the radical change from a society that was divided into rich and poor, slave and free, to become a community of mutual love and care.

Alas… it is more tempting to use that freedom selfishly.

Fifteen hundred years later, Martin Luther, in reading Paul’s letter to the Galatians, argued that the rules of the church had again gone astray. This time, the church was requiring purity, good works and indulgences – which were fees collected by the church – as requirements for salvation. But Luther, pointing to Paul’s teachings, insisted that Christian freedom means that:

“Christians are free to love without any thought of reward for themselves [because]… their charitable actions are not motivated by self-interest but rather by the neighbor’s need. 1 In other words, Christ has set us free from working for our own salvation. We have a savior, Jesus, who has already done that work. Our job is to use our gifts, time, w good words and works as a grateful and loving response to the love of Christ. Luther’s work helps us as Lutherans and Christians generally to remember that Christ sets us free – and so we are free to serve our neighbor.

But Luther wasn’t perfect. When German peasants were inspired by the words Luther wrote about their freedom and equality in Christ and began a mass uprising, Luther sided with the ruling Princes and urged them to put down the rebellion – which they did in a horrific and bloody war.

As Lutherans today, we can learn both from the wisdom of Luther and from his mistakes. As one scholar wrote: “In a world that is still marked by inequality, injustice, and polarization, the story of the peasants’ struggle for freedom invites Christians today to critical and humble reflection. What is Christian freedom for — for us? Is it merely a spiritual freedom, pertaining only to individual salvation and preserving the social status quo? Or freedom also for the greater, collective good?”2                                     

Let us join Paul’s call to Freedom – not only from the forces of evil but also Freedom FOR the neighbors. For as Paul writes earlier to the Galatians, we are all one in Christ Jesus. And that means that when one hurts, we all hurt, and when one suffers, we all suffer, and when one is wrongly enslaved, we all are wrongly enslaved.

To learn how to use our freedom well, Paul points to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  Notice that are not just “spiritual gifts” that are only directed towards God. These gifts are also meant to be used in relationship with other people. 

So, how do we live into the Freedom which Christ gives to us? What is our freedom for? There are many ways that we can use our voices to advocate for others, our hands and feet to serve and our hearts to care.

Our book club just finished reading, “Human Kind: Changing the World One Small Act at a Time” by Brad Aronson. He tells stories about teachers and mentors giving a word of encouragement, neighbors helping a family who had a sick child and other simple acts of kindness that transform the lives of the recipient – and the giver.  One story struck me because the idea was so simple and anyone can do it.  

Cheryl Rice was having a difficult time at work. The project that she was working on wasn’t coming together and she was losing sleep and confidence in her own abilities and worth. But one day, a colleague gave her a card which said, “YOU MATTER.” That’s it. But those words were enough to turn her perspective of herself around. She said, “I’ve struggled at times with my own self-worth, and when I received the card, it felt as if a question I carry around with me had been answered. I matter.” That little card filled me up.

It also inspired her to help someone else. She had 100 cards printed with the words, “You Matter” printed on them. She at first gave them to friends and family but one day, she overheard the cashier say to the woman in front of her, “Hello, How’s it going?” Instead of saying “fine,” teh woman replied, ‘Not so good. My husband just lost his job and my son is acting out. The truth is, I don’t know how I’m going to get through the holidays.” Cheryl felt bad for this woman – but she didn’t know what to do – she was a complete stranger. And then she remembered the cards. She went over to the woman and said, “I overheard what you said to the cashier. It sounds like you’re going through a really hard time. I’d like to give you something – and she handed her a “You Matter” card.

The woman read it and began to cry. She said, “You have no idea how much this means to me.” Cheryl went back to her car and cried too. 3

And then she decided to take it a step further and printed a 1000 “You Matter Cards” and offered them online for free in a “You Matter Marathon: No running required.” People responded and the stories of grateful responses to this simple gift of love and kindness poured in. And then the idea exploded. At this point over 3 million cards have been given out in every state and in 100 countries. As one recipient said, “Ours is not the task of fixing the world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”4 This is proof that acts of kindness – even small ones -- can have a huge effect.

Siblings in Christ, Christ has set you and me free to act with loving kindness and to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit with one another in our everyday lives. Today we will be witnesses as Analeya receives the gift of baptism and is made free in Christ. Our role as the body of Christ is to join with her parents and godparents in praying for her, and teaching her that she is a beloved child of God and that she has been made FREE to love others as Jesus Christ loves her. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran+ June 29, 2025+ Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

1 Martin Luther, Freedom of a Christian as quoted by Barbara Pitkin (below)

2 Barbara Pitkin, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay

3 “Human Kind: Changing the World One Small Act at a Time” by Brad Aronson

4Website https://youmattermarathon.org Quote by: Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Vicar Karla Leitzman  Sermon for 6/22/25  World Refugee Sunday

Some of my most beloved and cherished childhood memories include the people who lived closest to me. When I was a child, the girls who lived next door to me and I loved to pull raspberries off of the bush and pop them in our mouths, and we also were known to rip asparagus out of the ground and eat them immediately, dirt and all. The neighbor on the other side was also a pretty constant fixture in my life growing up. When I got my first bee sting as a little kid, it was even she who heard me screaming first and right away ran over to help calm some of my hysteria.

 I grew up in central Minnesota outside of several tiny towns, but unlike most of the other kids I went to school with who lived much farther out of town than I did and had no immediate neighbors, we lived on a road with several houses around us. When I first heard this gospel reading as a child, my first thoughts were of those on each side of my parents, and as is often the case, there was much held in common between mine and their families. All three houses were inhabited by white middle class occupants. Generally, we looked the same, held similar ish political views and all had some form of advanced education beyond a high school diploma.

It is generally pretty easy to associate the word neighbor with those who are like us, those who are near to us, those who think like us, look like us, vote like us, have similar life experiences to us. But, as this parable points out, those are not the only people we are called to see as our neighbor.

 Biblical societies would have been highly tribal and tight knit. You kept close to your immediate communities, and there would have been hostility between communities. For example, in our gospel lesson of today, the Jews of Judah and Galilee would have been pitted deeply and significantly against the Samaritans. The Samaritans identified as being Jewish, but whose center of worship was not the temple or Jerusalem. To the Judean and Galilean Jews, Samaritans heretics and were the lowest of the low. They were thought to be the antithesis to temple centrality and deeply held values and beliefs of the time. In contrast, the priest and Levite, who walk right on by, would have been considered to be the epitome of good and righteous Jews.

 Despite its prevalence, this parable can actually be one that makes preachers tense up a little bit. It is often thought to be a very straightforward story. I could truly come up here and reiterate, love the lord your god with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. The end. And don’t get me wrong, that would be a worthy sermon. Any sermon that shares the lesson that Jesus calls us to see everyone as our neighbor and to show mercy to those who need it is, indeed, a most excellent message. A notable thing is this is not a story of a Samaritan being the one needing help. Jesus could have told a story of a Judean or Galilean religious leader stopping to help the wounded Samaritan. The religious leaders of the time would have likely heard that story and recognized some shock value because they would know how subversive it would be for a Jew to stop and help a Samaritan, but the Jewish person in the story would get to be the protagonist and the hero.

 Instead, Jesus shifts it all to emphasize this so-called enemy, the one who is thought to be unclean and unworthy, as the one who stops to help, thereby humanizing him. There is much to be found here about what it means to be in a community together. Where the religious leaders ignore the man who is in need of care, it is his supposed enemy who shows him mercy, and kindness, and nearness. And in doing so, the listener sees him as more than the worst things that are perceived about him. So, what makes the Good Samaritan good, so good in fact that this parable transcends so far beyond Christianity and religious teachings? I think one of the most significant reasons this Samaritan is thought to be good because he takes the time to really see and to discern the needs of the man in the ditch. And, he gets in the ditch with him.

This parable shows us that the kingdom of God is one that brings us closer to one another despite our differences. It was the Samaritan who sees the man in pain, who joins him in the ditch and discerns what he needs. In a world where we are given countless opportunities to be distant from one another, to keep others at arms’ length, this gospel reminds us that we are called for nearness with one another and that God comes near to us. Underneath the perceived simplicity of this story, is the crux of our faith and our shared calling to use the freedom that we have in Christ’s death and resurrection to freely and abundantly go out to love and serve the neighbor.

One of the reasons I really love the Gospel of Luke and it is because of stories and parables like the Good Samaritan. See, in Luke over and over again we are reminded that Jesus has a heart for the outcast, the stranger, the lowly, and that we are all called to share that heart. It is in the gospel of Luke that we hear the Magnificat and Mary’s song about the powerful being brought down and the lowly raised up. It is here, too, where we see that God chooses to come to a world that is fraught with pain and discord, coming to Earth in human form as a Palestinian outcast in a far removed town in a land brutally and forcefully occupied by Rome. In Luke, we get a picture of not only that Jesus is with refugees, but Jesus is a refugee himself as his family is forced to flee to Egypt for fear for their safety and wellbeing. The gospel of Luke, over and over again reminds us to look out for those who are overlooked, and therefore, the Samaritan, the outcast, the lowly, the vilified, is the one who stops and notices. God came to the mess, to the nearness of the proverbial ditch, and calls us to do the same. Throughout the bible, in both the old and new testaments, we are reminded to uplift the stranger, the alien. Because the world too often falls short in doing this, the countercultural messages of the gospel call us to repair the cracks and margins where the outsider is too often relegated.

At Global Refuge, the new public facing name of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, we have been working for eighty five years to welcome all of our global neighbors who long for new beginnings. We began in 1939 as a group of American Lutherans worked to help Lutherans in Eastern Europe flee to the United States amidst an increasingly precarious setting at the start of World War II. We were there in the 50s as thousands of Cuban refugees arrived in Miami and beyond, and we were called upon yet again after the fall of Saigon in the mid 70s to resettle thousands of families from South East Asia. I would wager that there are those of you here this morning who were part of congregations that sponsored families of boat people and that some of you are likely even still in contact with those families today. We know together that meaningful welcome is more than what a government or agency can provide. We need partners, like all of you, to amplify and share Christ’s beautiful welcome and accompaniment.

Today, the neighbors we welcome together come from all over the world. We are no longer responding to one crisis at a time but overlapping crises, requiring us to be nimble and culturally responsive in ways I am not sure those first partners in the late 30s could have even comprehended. And, we remain rooted in our Lutheran call to accompany and to walk with all who look for new beginnings, seeing all of these people as our neighbors. Our job is not to wave a magic wand and try to fix these challenging situations, but we are called to walk with newcomers, to get in the ditch, to help them learn a new language, to help them complete their behind the wheel hours so they can get a drivers’ license, to help them navigate the unfamiliarity of an American grocery store. We are called to accompany and to be with them in the long welcome, not just an immediate quick fix.

There’s a quote from pastor and activist Sandra Van Opsta; that it fitting: “God’s people are knocking on our doors, asking us to let them help us be the church God always intended us to be…we must pay attention to immigrants- not for their conversion, but for ours.” Where it can be so tempting to cling to our tribal tendencies, like those early biblical societies, to see those the most like us as our neighbors, God always intended for us to be more than that. The things that separate us from one another and create harm and pain amongst us, are not of God.

I will close with a sweet story from one of my good friends who lives in North Minneapolis. Her new neighbors next door to her are an Afghan family who have recently been resettled. They are a fairly large family, two parents and six children. They came over to introduce themselves to my friend and they were very confused and alarmed to discover that she is in her mid thirties and lives alone in her house with her dog, which is exactly how she likes it. In their cultural context, it is strange that a woman of her age would live alone, unmarried and without children. So, most evenings, they bring her dinner. They bring plates of food and sometimes invite her to join them at their house. My friend could view her neighbors as the outsiders, those who need help, and instead, they are the ones going out of their way to accompany her and make her feel welcome and appreciated. They are sharing what they have with her, living out a call of sharing abundance and goodness. Being the body of Christ means many things, including identifying when we are the ones who are called to share resources and help and when it is time to receive them.

This morning and this week, I invite us all to go and do likewise like Jesus tells us in the gospel. When we are the ones in the ditch to have the courage to ask someone to come down into it with us. When we are the ones with capacity to help, to be open to the ditches we can climb down into, especially when it makes us nervous or uncomfortable. To go and show mercy and to be humble enough to both share and receive God’s love and abundance with one another. Whether we are showing care to our neighbors who very alike to us, or our neighbors who could not be more different than us, may we remember they are all dearly loved children of God. Because love thy neighbor doesn’t only mean the neighbors who are most like us, but all of God’s people.

 Let us pray,

O God of Community, we thank you for all of the ways you draw near to us. Through your Holy spirit, move within and through us to honor that nearness by drawing close to one another. Where there is discord and division, work through us to work for reconciliation. Where there is pain, help us to hold that pain as our own and to accompany all who struggle. When we see those who are different from us, may we see your face reflected in your dearly beloved children. Be with all who flee their homes and all that is familiar in search of newness and opportunities. Make our arms strong so we may open them in welcome.

We ask all of this through your son, the one who fulfilled your promise of goodness and mercy, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Join the Dance

 A few weeks ago, I attended my college reunion. It was fun to see old friends again and to catch up, and reminisce. Several of us remembered taking “Ballroom Dancing” as our Phy Ed class and falling in love with it. But it has some limitations. It requires knowledge of the steps – and it requires two people. It’s a partner dance.

 And that can be a problem. As my classmates and I gathered together, along with alumni from other classes, some returned without their partners, some never married, and many, probably most, of the others never learned Ballroom dance.

 So how do you have a dance in which all can participate? Obviously, you can’t have ballroom dance. But at this event, there was another challenge: there were people there celebrating their reunions in increments of 5 from the 5th to the 65th . How do you accommodate people wanting to hear music spanning from the 1950s to today?

 They came up with an ingenious solution. Everyone received a set of headphones – which had three settings, a trinity of settings – of red, green and blue and each of the headphones was connected to a different DJ’s music. And so, you could listen to music from different eras on each headset and change them whenever you wanted. So, there were people listening to different music but still dancing together.

Admittedly, it looked funny from the outside to see people dancing and not hearing any music. But to those who were dancing, it was super fun and everyone was included – including those who just wanted to chat. They could talk without having to compete with blaring music.

 Today we celebrate the festival of the Trinity. The word “trinity” is not found in the Bible but came about as followers of Jesus tried to explain their experience of God. In the beginning, most of the Jesus followers were Jewish, who were committed to monotheism, a belief in ONE God.

 But they also had experienced Jesus as God incarnate, God taking on human flesh and the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, coming as Jesus promised, to guide, teach, and comfort. Clearly God was doing something new and they were trying to wrap their heads around One God revealed in three ways.

 Theologian and contemplative priest Richard Rohr describes it in this way. He says that “for God to be good, God can be one. For God to be loving, God has to be two because love is a relationship. But for God to be supreme joy and happiness, God has to be three. That’s because lovers do not know full happiness until they both delight in the same thing. 1 ”

 Rohr explains, “The law of three is made in order to undo the law of two.” 2 We tend to divide things into two – black OR white; rich or poor; right OR left…it becomes oppositional and you choose sides. You need a dance partner in order to participate. But when you have three, it changes the dynamic. It becomes relational, not dualistic. Speaking to a group of scientists, Rohr goes on to explain that “What physicists and contemplatives alike are confirming is that the foundational nature of reality is relational; everything is in relationship with everything else” 3 .

 In the Fourth Century, three theologians, two named Gregory and one named Basil, tried to explain this without the benefit of physics. They described the relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as a circle dance. In a circle dance, everyone is included – regardless of who you are. All the things that we typically divide into two – male or female – young or old – rich or poor are irrelevant. For in a circle dance, people come together, and those who know the dance well, carry along those who are new, those who are young and those whose footsteps are faltering. With arms clasped together, shoulder to shoulder, each one is included, each one is a part of the dance. There is unity – but not uniformity.

Unity but not uniformity. Relationship and community across difference. These are some of the things that we were talking about when Dave Fernelius and Grant Galarneau-Becker, our president and Vice President and I gathered with other local ELCA pastors and representatives of their churches this past week. All of the churches are a part of the Wildfire collective – a group of churches that have been collaborating in many different ways over the past 17 years.

 We have done a lot of ministry together - and plan to continue. But it seemed time to revisit our “why” – why do we gather together so that we can be open to ways that God is leading us in the dance of revealing God’s love to our neighbors within District 281, the geographical space that we all share.

 The world around us is changing. That is not new. But the rate of change is unsettling. For example, some of our neighbors next door at Robbins Way depend upon Medicaid for their healthcare. Many of us depend upon North Memorial hospital for health care. With the US Senate budget changes that are looming, some of those resources may no longer be available. It is tempting to just ignore the changes around us and to hope that the problems just go away.

 And yet… in times of challenge and change, God speaks – and we need to listen and then act. As citizens and as people of faith, we cannot be silent. We can’t say, “it’s someone else’s problem. It doesn’t affect me.” We have been called by Christ to care for our neighbor. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to guide us. And so, together, we are called to discern how God is calling us to act in our community and in our world and then to respond.

 It may not be easy. But who would have guessed that you could have three kinds of music going at the same time and people in their 20s to 80s dancing together? The challenges of our world are much more significant than figuring out a reunion dance. But God has empowered us to be witnesses of God’s love and grace to ALL people. To act, we need the courage of Jesus and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide us. And these are exactly the gifts that God has given to us for this time. “Through Jesus’ example, teaching, and love, we are made to understand and to rejoice in God’s love for us and to learn to love one another as neighbors dwelling close to the heart of God with the Son in the unity of love.  And when we do this, we show the world, in loving words and works, that it also is beloved, by embodying God’s love for it.

Meanwhile the Spirit is with us always, guiding us on the way of love, creating a space for us and in us to be part of the Trinitarian dance of God.” 4 The creator God has prepared the dance floor, Jesus has begun the music and the Holy Spirit is calling, “Will you dance?”

 1 The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformationby Richard Rohr on YouTube

ii Ibid

iii, Deacon Peter quoting Richard Rohr and The Divine Dance; The Trinity and Your

Transformation ibid

iv Meda Stamper Workingpreacher. org

Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + June 15, 2025, Holy Trinity Sunday + Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Come Holy Spirit. Come.

How does the Holy Spirit come? When we read the lesson from Acts

about the disciples speaking fluently about the power of God in foreign

languages – without one lesson – I’m filled with awe and amazement

and confidence that this must be the work of the Holy Spirit.

But a violent rush of wind and tongues of fire is not the only way that

the Spirit comes. In the Psalm we read that the Holy Spirit was there at

creation, creating all the world and all of the creatures in it -- and that

the Spirit is still creating and renewing the face of the earth. John’s

Gospel talks about the Holy Spirit coming as an Advocate, abiding with

us. The book of Romans speaks of the Spirit as bearing witness – with

our spirit – that we are children of God. Like a prism, today’s readings

show different ways that the Holy Spirit shows up in scripture.

But scripture is not the only way that the Holy Spirit is made known.

Where have you seen the Holy Spirit at work? Or have you just been too

busy “doing” to stop to notice that the Holy Spirit is at work among us?

You would not be alone.

But once in a while – we do. If you go to Louisville, Kentucky, to the

corner of Fourth and Walnut, you will see a cast-metal sign with the

words “A REVELATION” on it in Big Capital letters commemorating a

spiritual vision by Thomas Merton.

Thomas Merton had been a graduate student in English at Columbia

University. He was well regarded and clearly had a promising as an

academic. But, to the surprise of his family and friends and everyone

who knew him, he declared he had a call from God. He left the

university and joined the Trappists monks in Kentucky. The move was

not easy. Thomas struggled between his desires to be active in the world

and his call to the contemplative world. He became a prolific writer and

best-selling author. But these accolades were not the reason for the sign.

In his book, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Thomas explains:

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of

the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the

realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I

theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we

were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of

separateness … I have the immense joy of being [human], a

member of a race in which God became incarnate. As if the

sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm

me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could

realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling

people that they are all walking around shining like the sun 1 .

The Holy Spirit opened his eyes to see the world the way that God sees

it. Sometimes we see it too – sometimes, like the Psalmist, we see God’s

work in creation – a beautiful sunrise or sunset, a mountain top, the early flower buds of spring, the green grass of summer and the sun sparking on the lakeshore, the snow glistening on the flocked trees in winter. If we stop and look, we can see God’s hand at work.

God is also at work on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville and

at 42 nd and Welcome in Robbinsdale. Today we will be baptizing Elijah,

this little baby who is named after a great prophet. And we will be

inviting the Holy Spirit to come. Using ordinary water and ordinary

words, the Holy will come in an extraordinary way to bless and to claim

Elijah as a child of God and sibling to Christ Jesus.

As Paul writes in the book of Romans, “ you have received a spirit of

adoption.” In your baptism, you are made – each one of you – a child of

God. And so we can be empowered to call out to God with all of our

needs and cares just as a little child cries out “Daddy, Mommy” when

they are hungry, tired, afraid AND when they are joyful and have

discovered something new. God takes delight in each of you, just as the

parents and grandparents of a child take delight in a newborn baby.

Like the sign on 4 th and Walnut in Louisiana, God’s Holy Spirit bears witness to this Revelation at Elijah is becoming a child of God on 42 nd and  Welcome and is surrounded by you, also God’ children – who are

“shining like the sun” – even though you can’t see it.

When we cry, “Abba! Father!”  it is that very Spirit bearing witness with

our spirit that we are children of God.

We need to keep reminding ourselves – and each other of who we are

and whose we are. As Paul reminds us, “you did not receive a spirit of

slavery to fall back into fear.” But it is so easy to do. We live in a world

that is full of forces that would enslave us – to hatred, bigotry, and

injustice. When we react with fear, we put our own selfish interests

above care for the other, the neighbor, the poor, the hungry, the migrant,

the one who was born somewhere else or who looks different from me

or you. When we succumb to fear, we are tempted to circle the wagons –

and leave those outside our circle to the wolves.

But this is not the way of Jesus. And this is not the way that the Spirit of

God leads us. Instead, as theologian Candace Hall writes, “As children

of God freed and forgiven, God’s Spirit reminds us who we are when

we’re fearful. When we’re suffering. When we think we’re ‘not enough.’

God’s Spirit reminds us that God made us in [GOD’s} image. We’re

beloved as God’s children, and there’s nothing we can do about

it.” 2   God loves you. Period.

Remembering who you are, and whose you are, let us joyfully proclaim,

“Come Holy Spirit, Come. Be made known to us and through us in the

words we say and in our actions. May the Holy Spirit shine through you

today. Amen.

1Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master: The Essential Writings, Paulist, 1992, 144–145)

2 Crystal Hall, Workingpreacher.org 2022 

Faith-Lilac Way Lutheran + Pentecost + June 8, 2025+ Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane

Sunday, June 1, 2025

It sure does not seem like it has been seven whole weeks since we gathered here together for Easter Sunday, with all its pomp and circumstance and beautiful flowers and returning alleluias. And yet, today is the seventh Sunday of Easter which is also the last Sunday of the liturgical season, and we will soon look ahead to Pentecost next week.

Because we are still in the Easter season, it admittedly struck me as slightly odd upon first reading that today’s gospel lesson comes from the part of the book of John where Jesus is getting ready to be handed over to the Romans. It’s kind of like, “wait now, are we going back and doing Holy Week all over again?” And yet, when we start to think about what is to come as we move forward into the soon to come season of Pentecost and the start of the Christian church, it actually makes perfect sense that this is the final passage that tees us up, so to speak, for all that is to come and all that the Holy Spirit is soon to do.

In his final hours, Jesus prays for unity, for connections amongst all God’s beloved children and for the rejection of the human created divisions that we create to separate us from one another. Just as is so often true still today, during the life of Jesus, social divisions were strong. Your citizenship, who you worshiped, to what Empire you gave your allegiance, where you called home were the things that that defined you. But, Jesus brings something new. Jesus shares love, a desire for beloved and radical community, and a new way of being, a new way of loving and caring for others. He prayed to God for connections and nearness, that God’s love which is embodied and enfleshed in Jesus will continue to be made known.

 Did you know that Jesus prayed for you? That in these last days of his life, amidst his betrayal, he prayed for all of his disciples yet to come and he prayed for unity.  We fall under that category. We, along with generations past and those yet to come are all part of this prayer.

Many of you know that I returned from a travel course through western Turkey on Friday night. (I’m only a tiny bit jet lagged.) And, because I knew I would be preaching on this text shortly after returning, I had these verses from today rolling around in my head for much of the trip. Jesus praying for his disciples to come is just so incredibly striking to me in general. And, then so many layers got added as I was immersed in the early years of the Christian church and the first gatherings of Christians. Jesus prayers today’s set the stage for Pentecost and for all that is soon to come.

It just happens that the day we arrived was actually the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical council at Nicea, and though we did not go to Nicea on this trip, it was still incredibly neat to realize that I was in the country where it happened on that anniversary. The council of Nicea was an ecumenial gathering of bishops in Nicea, now modern day Iznik, Turkey,  meant to generate consensus on doctrines of the Christian faith. A few hundred years after the death of Jesus, many churches had been established throughout these far flung corners of the world, and Emperor Constantine decided it was time to come to some shared understanding of what it meant to be a Christian in the early centuries of the church.

One of the main outcomes of the Council of Nicea was the Nicene Creed, the development and finalization of was hotly debated and contested and we still say that creed together all these years later as a way of affirming our faith and acknowledging these vital foundations of our church.

 Another main outcome of the gathering was a consensus on the trinity, an affirmation that God is three beings, creator, son, and holy spirit, all working both together and independently. The Holy Spirit coming alive on Pentecost, moving through and among the followers of Jesus, is a continuation of this Easter celebration of love, justice, and unity. But, we’ll dig more into Pentecost next week.

In the meantime, it is amazing to take note of all of these Christian foundations which people of faith have continued to build upon and sometimes deviate from throughout these rough two thousand years of Christian history.

There is something comforting to be about realizing that we are not the first to question and wander- our Christian ancestors who came before us have been doing the same thing this whole time. And, amidst all of that wondering, wandering, and questioning, Jesus reminds us that he desires unity for us. That as a communion of all dearly loved children of God we celebrate that there is so much that connects us.

In his final hours with his first disciples, when he was so close to being handed over to the Romans to be executed, Jesus prioritized praying for his followers and friends in the present and all those yet to come, and he prayed that they, which does include us, would all be united together in God’s abundant and expansive love that is enfleshed through Jesus’ ministry and life.

The foundations of the early church remain with us today, which serves as a reminder that our faith is both ancient and always being made new through our God of the Trinity.

As we go out into this week, I invite you to think about a few things:

Where are the places in your life where you have felt yourself stand atop a strong foundation? And, where are the places where you have built a foundation which those who come after you will stand on what you have built and then create beyond it? Who are the people, both anticipated and unexpected who you have had to work with, whether by choice or necessity, to create that foundation? What are your hopes for all who will come after you?

In these last days of this Easter season, may we remember that through Christ we are always made anew. That we stand on structures established by the great cloud of witnesses who came before us and we leave. May we be emboldened to continue to work together to make God’s unity, love, and grace known to all. Amen.

Vicar Karla Leitzman