February/March newsletter

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27

When Paul wrote those words, he wasn’t just talking about a perfect (and imaginary) church. He was addressing a real community of real people. The church in Corinth was about as real as they come—richly gifted for ministry, but also troubled by conflicting loyalties and confused practices. (Just skim 1 and 2 Corinthians and you’ll see what I mean.) Yet it is this community that Paul calls “the body of Christ”!

As we progress through the weeks after Epiphany, heading towards Lent, we have spent some time with Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In these chapters, Paul tells us how amazing our life together is meant to be: one body, each individual member gifted by God and placed in relationship with the others, all holding together in love.

Sometimes we get to experience that in our life as a parish. For example, if you stopped in to visit our Confirmation class on a Wednesday night, you would see youth and adults from all four congregations in our parish, sharing and learning from one another, growing in faith and in relationship. Or you might see how the body of Christ works by visiting the Minnewaska Lutheran Home, where you are sure to run into volunteers from our community, visiting and working with staff and residents.

Sometimes, however, the image of one body of Christ seems no more than a distant dream. We’ve experienced some of that this past year, as we struggle with issues brought up at last summer’s Churchwide Assembly, and as we try to faithfully respond even though we don’t all agree with each other. We read that “just as the body of is one and has many members…so it is with Christ” (1 Cor 12:12). But that isn’t always what it feels like!

But still, regardless of our experience on any given day, Paul’s words are us true in Starbuck as they were in Corinth: we are the body of Christ. We are the ones who gifted by the one Spirit for the common good—not because of our worthiness, but because “in the one Spirit we were baptized into one body” (12:13a). What exactly does this mean for our life together and for our individual lives? We’ll spend the whole season of Lent (and, indeed, the whole church year!) exploring the answers to just that question.

May God’s love and peace be with us all.

~Pastor Sarah

More resources for summer Bible study

So, maybe a women's Bible study group isn't your thing. (Or maybe you just can't get enough.) Here are some other resources, from a quick scout around the Internet:

• A list of devotional resources from the ELCA.


• Some topic studies from the ELCA.


• Learn about the Book of Faith initiative (warning: their website has music that plays automatically), or, even better, check out their social networking site.


• WorkingPreacher.org is billed as a site for preachers, but their "Preaching This Week" section includes brief, accessible scholarly commentaries on each week's lectionary readings.


• Suggest your own favorite resource (if you're feeling brave, leave a link to it in the comments)!

~Pastor Sarah

Prayers: Women's Bible studies

One of the first things I noticed about this parish is how strong the women's groups are. There are Bible study groups meeting from all four congregations. That's pretty impressive! So this is mostly a prayer of thanksgiving!

Summer is an especially fun time because some of the groups meet together at Berries & Marigolds (muffins and cinnamon rolls, yum), while others will meet in members' homes. This is a great time to get involved if you haven't been attending--you do not have to be a regular member in order to come. (It does help to let the ladies know ahead of time, though.) College students who are home for the summer (or women who are usually working but might have some vacation) would be especially welcome! (Call your church office for dates and times.)

What's really cool is that the entire Bible study for this summer is available online. So if you don't get the magazine or you missed a session, you can jump right in! This summer's study seems like it would even be great for individual devotional reading, if that's more your style or if you can't make it in person.

You can also check out the Lutheran Woman Today blog. They have good taste in blog hosts, don't they?

~Pastor Sarah

Praying for rain

It seems like every conversation these days comes around to "and we really need some rain" sooner or later. As for myself, I don't much mind that my yard is dry (my neighbors might feel differently), but it's a much bigger deal for farmers. (My basil seems to need something, but I'm not sure if lack of rain would make the leaves turn purplish.)

So it's interesting that this coming Sunday's gospel reading is the story from Mark 4 where Jesus calms the waves during a big storm. It seems a bit ironic, since around here, most folks seem to be hoping for a bit of a storm! It's an interesting twist on the old metaphors--usually we think of storms as times of trial, things to be avoided--but sometimes a good storm is what you need.

I'm not sure if any of this will affect my preaching this week. We'll see.

~Pastor Sarah

Happy June!

Wow! June has just begun, and it feels like we're already off to a running start! How quickly things seem to run at this time of year--the school year and the Easter season are wrapping up, but summer activities and new directions are just getting started.

psalm 23
Originally uploaded by khrawlings

This morning I was doing a Hebrew word-study (of all things) and I thought I would share one of the tools I was using, because it is so cool! The NET Bible is a free online Bible using a new English translation that is generally pretty solid. But what I really like about it is that it has tons and tons of translators' notes, even making such exotic topics as text criticism accessible to someone who hasn't studied the original languages. And now, if you click on a verse number, you get a BibleWorks-like comparison of translations, including Greek and Hebrew and links to concordances.

I happen to think that exploring biblical languages and translations is The Coolest Thing Ever, but even if you aren't as interested in languages as I am, this is a useful tool for devotional study, or for whiling away those extra hours that come up when you're, say, transitioning between being at college and being back home in the summer.

(It even tells you how to pronounce the Hebrew. How cool is that?)

~Pastor Sarah

Reflections for Pentecost

This year, as I was looking at the Pentecost reading from Acts 2, I was struck with the strangeness of it all. Far from the picture-perfect little scene I usually imagine, this time it struck me as rather chaotic and even a little frightening.

If you just take verses 2 and 3, you get:

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.

Sounds kind of scary, doesn't it? Can you imagine being there, and experiencing that? Today we might suppose a bomb had gone off. But of course we know what is happening:

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

But what if we didn't know what was happening?

How many times does the work of the Spirit in our lives look like this? At first, it seems disruptive and even frightening. Perhaps all we can see is the noise and confusion. Only later, or perhaps with someone else's help, can we tell that God was doing something amazing.

~Pastor Sarah

Today is...

...well, it's still Easter. In fact, it's the 40th day of Easter, which means it is also the Ascension of Our Lord.

A lot of congregations don't celebrate the Ascension all that much, partly because it always falls on a Thursday, and who has church on Thursday? (Well, my seminary did, but that was on purpose, because no one had to be at church anywhere else on that day.) Some communities will choose to celebrate the ascension on the next Sunday (i.e. this coming Sunday), but it's not all that common, at least not in most Lutheran circles that I'm aware of. There isn't even an extra page for it in my "Pastor's Desk Diary" from Thrivent, although a search of elca.org reveals 64 congregations named "Ascension". There's even an island named after it.

So what is with this weird-seeming festival? Why don't we celebrate it more often? Or...why do we celebrate it at all? Isn't it a little hard to take seriously the image of Jesus literally rising up into the sky--like he's, what, up there in orbit somewhere? Or maybe on the other side of the moon? Our cosmology has changed a bit since the New Testament ascension accounts were written.

And yet. Without the ascension, the event that started with the crucifixion and the resurrection isn't complete. The Apostles' Creed still includes the line, "he ascended into heaven". And that's important, so important that we'll be celebrating it this Sunday. Why? Come and see!

~Pastor Sarah

Maybe we should just call him "Fred"?

The assigned gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Easter is always John 20:19-31, the story of the poor fellow we always call "Doubting Thomas", even though he spends as many verses believing as he does doubting (no, really, count them).

I have always liked this story, maybe because it is often thought that Thomas might have been a twin--and if he really was a twin, then he would probably prefer "Doubting Thomas" to "Thomas the Twin", which would be annoying even if it weren't redundant. (Being called "the twin" or "the twins" gets old. Trust me on this.) Did Thomas look just like one of the other disciples (or even Jesus), and so they jokingly called him "the Twin"? Or was he a twin? If so, did he leave his brother or sister at home, or if he had a twin sister, could she have been one of the women who traveled with Jesus? I could imagine how that could lead to some humorous exchanges.

But the real reason I like this story is because Thomas--solid, sensible Thomas, who really gets far too much blame--doesn't get in trouble for doubting. In fact, Jesus meets him right there, doubts and all. This is a good reminder for the second week of Easter: yes, the Easter message is for real people, doubts and all. And Jesus comes to us in our doubts. In fact, doubts often mean that we are getting to know him better! They're how we grow in faith, strangely enough.

Actually, this Sunday is Holy Humor Sunday, so I don't know if I'll be able to work any of this into my sermon. But I'll be thinking about it, quite certainly.

~Pastor Sarah

Resources for Holy Week

In case I get too busy over the next few days (it could happen), here are some resources for prayer and devotions (and study) for the remainder of Holy Week:

• Readings and prayers for the Three Days (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Vigil of Easter). If you are unable to make it to work and/or are looking for something more substantial for personal devotions during these days, reading through all or some of the vigil readings would make an excellent study. The readings are designed to evoke the full sweep of salvation history.


• An article on Maundy Thursday that gives some background on the name (but is otherwise somewhat incomplete).


• And one on Good Friday, which is somewhat better.


• Lent/Holy Week/Easter resources compiled on an ELCIC site.


• Lent resources from Anglicans Online.

~Pastor Sarah

The heavens are telling the glory of God!

The opening of Psalm 19 (which we read yesterday) certainly seems appropriate on a beautiful day like today, doesn't it? Just last week, we were getting blizzard warnings, and now the sky is sunny and clear (and warm, too). Sometimes, you have to look closely to see the beauty of God's creation--and sometimes it is really, really obvious.

Day to day pours forth speech,
   and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
   their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
   and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:2-4a)

Actually, the part of me that remembers being a physics major in college is thinking, "well, actually, the stars in the heavens kind of do communicate, not with sound but with light". And there's a whole involved metaphor there. It's amazing how much the stars are telling us, for example. What scientists do is listen to what they have to say--which, in a way, is like listening to their proclamation about God their creator, isn't it? (I've never really understood why people sometimes think that faith and science are incompatible.)

~Pastor Sarah

Tuesday update

Weather: Still cold.

This year, the Souper Bowl of Caring raised $2,754,289, all of which goes to local organizations. We chose not to participate this year, so we can stay focused on the 30 Hour Famine. Still, it's an exciting project, and a cause for giving thanks! And if you stop by their website, you will notice that the countdown is already on for next year!

Yes, I saw the Super Bowl (well, most of it--okay, okay, some of most of it). I even saw the much-vaunted all-3D commercial break, which didn't mean much to me because I didn't have 3D glasses. Even if I did have 3D glasses, it probably still wouldn't mean much to me--my eyes just don't cooperate. I can't even do those "Magic Eye" things. You know those optical illusions where you're supposed to state at something for 30 seconds and then look away? And...uhm...something is supposed to happen? I can never get those to work, either. (Although most of these are pretty good.) There is probably some biblical application here somewhere. Maybe it's how you can go about your life without seeing God anywhere...but if you look with your eyes wide open, you will inevitably see God's presence all around you.

From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Incidentally, Psalm 147 is actually the assigned Psalm for this week, except that the lectionary only includes verses 1-11 and 20c (which is basically the ending "Alleluia"/"Praise the Lord"). Sometimes verses are omitted because they are confusing out of context or because of length, but in this case, since it was the winter weather verses that were left out, I have to wonder. Did someone, somewhere (possibly someone living in a warmer climate), think they were doing us Northerners a favor by leaving the snow and frost references out?

~Pastor Sarah

Skiing reflections

We had a great time at our retreat at Luther Crest this past weekend. The facilities were perfect, the food was great, and all in all I highly recommend Luther Crest to any group looking to plan a retreat. We had a fantastic group of youth, of course, which made everything twice as much fun.

The cross-country skiing was a lot of fun, which for me means that I only really fell about four or five times (some people have higher standards). Pastor Paul showed us the ropes quite well, and so it is not his fault that I kept falling over sideways. I even got to use my fledgling downhill skills once or twice (on very small hills). It helps that I tend to laugh when I fall (the worst has happened, and it was not that bad, and actually it was pretty funny).

The challenge for me, with skiing, is that I do not like that feeling of being out of control. When I strap on skis and introduce any sort of slope to the equation, I am not in charge anymore. And, like most people, I suspect, I don't like that. I want to be in charge of where I am going, both literally and figuratively.

This, of course, tends to get me into trouble when I try to ski (as in, I don't get anywhere). But it gets me into even more trouble in the rest of my life. Because, really, I'm not in charge: God is. And God's will is going to end up being done, not mine. (That's why Jonah gets so angry in our reading for this week. He knows that God is going to do things God's way, and he does not like it.) But that's what being called by God is all about--it's about God being in control of our direction. And because it's God who is in charge, even the parts where we mess up can be opportunities for grace. So yes, even when we fall over, we may end up laughing. (And yes, like with my skiing, we may need practice!)

~Pastor Sarah

It's that time of year...

This is annual report/congregational meeting season. It seems strange to be writing an annual report when I have been here less than a year!

Unless I am miscounting (which sometimes happens), I have been here almost exactly six months. I can't decide if it feels like I've always been here, or if it seems like I just got here. You would think it would be easy to tell the two apart, but not so much.

Our gospel lesson for this Sunday, the Baptism of Our Lord, is Mark 4:4-11. Even though I've never preached it before, I get this weird déjà vu feeling whenever I read it. This was the reading first lesson for the first day camp I ever did, way back in a little town in Ohio called Gallipolis (Bob Evans territory). I had the fifth and sixth grade too-cool-for-camp group, and I really had no idea what I was doing. But it turned out okay, which was a good lesson for me, anyway.

~Pastor Sarah

Epiphany is January 6th...

...but we'll be celebrating it the Sunday before, the 4th, because Lutherans don't usually have big church services on a Tuesday. Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season (I will finally have to stop saying "Merry Christmas"), and the revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ, that baby born in Bethlehem. It has also come to be associated with the visit of the three "wise men" or "kings".

Actually, anyone who has ever played a Bible trivia game probably knows that there were not actually three wise men. Or, rather, there could have been three, but Matthew doesn't happen to tell us. Three is just convenient to hold the gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Actually, "We Three Kings", for all that it reinforces the "three kings" thing, gets the gifts exactly right:

Glorious now behold him arise,
King and God and Sacrifice

I love this stuff. The point of the three gifts is that they identify the recipient. They tell us who this baby Jesus is. Gold is a gift for a king. Frankincense is an offering for a god. Myrrh identifies a sacrifice, and is associated with death.

But the other things about these gifts is that they make no practical sense. What is a baby going to do with frankincense, really? What use has Mary for myrrh? I suppose they could sell it, especially the gold, but then, why not just give them money? Do these wise men really have no idea what kind of things a baby needs?

Okay, so I kind of like the image of these three (okay, we'll say three) incredibly intelligent, scholarly men (and we'll say they're men), completely and utterly baffled by a tiny baby. Maybe Mary offered to let them hold the baby (he might've been old enough to be toddling around, but that's another topic), and they sat there frozen, as people unused to babies sometimes do, terrified of breaking this tiny, precious thing. I hope he spit up all over their beautiful (though travel-stained) robes, and then Joseph had to change his diaper, and the visitors were just horrified. But still, they gave their gifts, useless and impractical as they were. And despite it all, they were special gifts, beautiful gifts, the kind that gets remembered for two thousand years.

This makes me think about how we try to give back to God. What do we actually have that would be of any use? God doesn't even need our worship and praise. God doesn't need anything. But God chooses to want a relationship with us, and God even graciously accepts our well-meaning gifts. Actually, God even enjoys our gifts, because God loves us that much. He doesn't have to. There's no practical reason why he should. But that's God. Practical? Not so much. A good thing, too.

~Pastor Sarah

Give to God the things that are God's

This week, I've been reading about hunting. This coming Sunday will be Hunters' Sunday in our parish, and we are encouraging everyone to come to church in their best camouflage and orange gear. I am not a hunter, and I don't know a whole lot about hunting, so...I've been reading.

One of the things that I've noticed is that there seems to be a certain unexpected kinship between hunting and my favorite leisure activities (knitting and spinning). There is a lot of time for quiet reflection--for some that sounds hopelessly boring, while others will cherish those moments. There are exciting moments (okay, I admit that turning a heel on a sock does not sound nearly as exciting as sighting your first deer), but if that excitement is the only part you enjoy, you are going to be bored most of the time.

Our gospel reading for this week includes the great line, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:20). The point is not so much about whether or not we should pay taxes. It has more to do with recognizing God as the true source of all that we are and all that we have. "The things that are God's" include much more than just our coins--they include literally everything. Our whole lives are formed according to God's gracious gifts to us. Even our leisure time.

So what does this look like? For a hunter, perhaps it comes during those moments of quiet reflection. That time can be a prayer, in appreciation for the beauties of God's creation. It doesn't have to be a constant internal monologue, either--sometimes the most profound prayer is the one you pray by simply sitting still, listening.

For you, maybe it's not hunting. Maybe it's not knitting, either. But whatever it is that you do this week--hanging out with friends, singing in a choir, sports or other physical activities, even simply studying--that can be an opportunity to think of God, who makes all these things possible.

~Pastor Sarah