Grace and peace to you friends!
I hope your summer has been going well for you! The weather has been a little wet, but we have also had some nice warm days, which I enjoy the most!
As we enter into our last month of “summer,” what do you most look forward too? Have you had enough summer company and you are looking forward to some rest? Perhaps your summer company is yet to come and you look forward to hosting. Fishing, camping, vacation, gardening, house/yard projects. It sure seems like we cram as much in as we can in the three short summer months we get to enjoy here in God’s great north woods!
Summer at our house has been full of travel! I was in Guatemala for two weeks in June. River was in Europe for 10 days in June. River and I went to the ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans in mid-July. Now we are shifting to getting River ready to move to college! A bittersweet moment for me!
Amid the busyness it is so important to find the time, make the time, and to stop and take a breath. Stop and breath in God, allow the Spirit to enter in and offer rest for our souls.
A favorite verse of mine comes from Matthew, where Jesus invites us to come to him, all that are weary and carrying heavy burdens and he will give us rest. YES! Rest! We don’t have to do this thing called life alone! We have God on our side. We have God who has promised they will share the yoke with us. God will come alongside us. I find this gospel to be of comfort and peace in times such as the middle of summer!
Thank you for showing up, friends! Thank you for coming together to “be” the body of Christ. Thank you for your love and support, your caring for one another and for your steadfast faith! I look forward to the routine of fall, the colors, and most of all seeing more faces in worship as folks make their way back to “town” from the lake! But for now, we have a few more weeks to enjoy summer!
May you find solace and peace as we enter into the last days of summer!
Peace to you~
Pastor Liz
Greetings Our Savior’s,
It is summer! As you might know I love summer! I can’t ever get enough sunshine, blue sky and being near the water! I am writing early this month as I prepare for two weeks of vacation in Guatemala. And when you read this I will have just gotten back. Time is an interesting piece of our lives isn’t it?
I wonder how you are all doing with last month’s challenge to find a summer spiritual practice. Have you? How is it going? It isn’t too late to start one, find one or begin again!
As I think ahead to when you will be reading this, I am reminded that, with the turn of the months, the beginning of July brings Independence Day to our agendas and activities.
As we move into Independence Day and the freedom in which our country was founded on; no astricts, no exceptions. Lady Liberty has words on her pedestal that remind us of where we all came from and what we, as a country were founded on. Here is the poem on Lady Liberty:
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
We are called to be witnesses, to love, to work for justice and to be compassionate, especially to the other. To those not like us. To those not from this land, but from other lands.
When we take risks, when we listen and follow, when we exercise our faith and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us into uncharted waters, into new beginnings, into change, into standing up and speaking the truth, working towards justice and taking care of orphans, widows and children; some people might call us crazy. Some people might get upset and leave. Some people might speak out against you, but how is that different then what Jesus endured. How can we live and love like Jesus as Christians in today’s world and not expect a few storms, a few bumps, a few challenges. We can’t, because the ways of Jesus are not the ways of the world. The ways of the Kingdom of God often collide with the kingdom of the world.
We thank all those men and women who have served, are serving and those who are yet to be called into service to our country. Thank you for all you have sacrificed and given up to fight for our freedoms. To fight for, to stand up for, and to work towards a country that is free. May the Lord bless you now and always!
Peace to you!
Pastor Liz
Greetings friends!
As we move from Easter into Ordinary Time, I invite you to set some boundaries around your devotional time this summer. I know summer can be a busy time for most of us as we retreat to cabins, take vacations and spend time watching our kids and grandkids play and participate in their summer sports and activities, however, as school lets out, as traffic picks up, as the sun shines nice an’ bright, we can set some time aside for prayer, praise and practice.
I challenge you to find a spiritual Practice that you can maintain over the summer. This could be going for a walk to take in God’s great creation daily, every other day, a few times a week – whatever works for you. It could be picking up the Bible and reading a few chapters a day. You could find a nice devotional book and read it every day while you have your first cup of coffee. Get in your kayak and let the ripples of the water speak to you as the Spirit draws near through nature. The options for a spiritual practice are endless and it really is up to you and how you like to spend your time. Invite God to be a part of your summer in a way that is new or old, or that could use some renewing.
Once you have your Practice picked out, commit to writing down at least one God moment from the day ~ a Praise. God is all around us, and sometimes we just have to pause long enough to see, smell, hear, taste, experience something to understand that it is God touching us. See if you can keep a daily log of those times and then take a minute at the end of each day to Praise God for them.
The third P is Prayer. How can you add prayer to your daily routines? Perhaps as you are taking a walk as your practice, you can also be praying. Maybe you already pray daily – awesome! Is there a way you can change it up? Add additional prayer times into your day. Keep a prayer journal. Write your prayers all week on a piece of paper and then place it in the prayer wall – a practice of literally giving your prayers to God. God hears us. God wants us to pray. And God’s will is done when we Pray.
I LOVE summer and ordinary time in the church! It is a great time to step back, slow down, take a deep breath, regroup. I love being outside, at the lake, in my kayak or hammock. We live in a world that is so fast paced, we really do miss the roses, miss the bumblebees and the call of the loons. I am going to be intentional this summer about taking time to put these three P’s into better practice because I am certain that when I do, and if you join me in this challenge, that we will find some inner peace – we will have the time to smell the roses and watch the bumblebees.
May the Spirit lead and guide you into ordinary time, and may you be filled with peace and joy as the sun shines and the birds sing during these summer months that are before us!
Peace to you~ Pastor Liz
Spring Greetings!
This in between time of seasons, both spiritually and in the cycle of mother earth, can be long, drawn out and difficult. I long for warmer days, sunshine and the song of the birds. I long for green grass under my feet, flowers in bloom and bees buzzing about. I long for the Word of God to soak into my heart and the voice of the Spirit to lead me along the way.
While we wait for green grass, the Word of God can provide wisdom and nourishment. While we wait for blooming flowers and singing birds, the Word of God can be music to our ears. However, sometimes even the Word of God can come seem like an in between time. Can seem like we are waiting to hear, and are open and listening, but nothing is there. We wonder where is God in our broken world, in our hurting lives, in our grief stricken environment. We wait on the Lord with patients and with love, with curiosity and with imagination.
This in between time of seasons, stands to remind us that even when we feel we can hear, see, taste, feel God, God hears, sees, feels and tastes us. God is with us and God is indeed leading us through this in between time. Things are happening, our faith is deepening and our curiosities are coming alive, we can trust that to be true!
What will your intentions for the month of May look like? Can you find time each day to dwell in the Word? Can you find time each day to pray for two or three people that you haven’t seen in church or around town lately? The power of prayer moves people and you can be a part of that movement. If you prayed each day for just two people by the end of May you would have witnessed and held in prayer 60 different people and who knows what kind of movement the Spirit would be empowered to do in their lives, in your life!! Try it!
Set your intentions for the month and might one intention include prayer and might another be happiness and kindness!
WHY I WAKE EARLY
By Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the miserable and the crotchety –
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light-
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
May happiness and kindness be yours to find, enjoy and dwell in this spring! Remember May 19th is Pentecost, wear red and plan to attend worship for fire in the font, the wind swirling around like the Spirit and the breath of the choir – singing come, come, come, holy spirit come!
See you around! Pastor Liz
Happy Spring! As I look out the window on Monday, March 25th we are in the midst of a snow storm, one of very few this winter. The first day of spring was just five days ago and most of the winter has looked like spring with little snow, warm temps and brown, dirty, dried up surrounding.
We can’t change the weather. We can’t complain about the snow because we need the moisture so badly. We can’t snap our fingers to change the seasons. We can however, live into the hope that Spring will come again. That green grass will rise up out of the ground, flowers will bloom, and the trees will be dressed in leaves again soon. Maybe not as soon as we would like, but indeed soon. I have loved the snowless winter, but the dreary brown is getting old. This fresh blanket of snow has me humming Christmas carols again, not Easter songs!
In the midst of Lent… In the midst of winter… In the midst of the changing seasons… what gives you hope? What gets you to the other side? How do you manage the transition?
By the time you read this Holy Week will be over and we will have rejoiced on Easter morning that we made it to the empty tomb yet again! How did you do it? How did you get here? How did we get here?
I love the Lenten theme this year of Being Altered by the Spirit…. How have you been transformed? Who or what are you looking for? The benediction that sends us out each Sunday morning:
People of God, May you be disrupted … altered…. and transformed
As you pursue the Holy Spirit out ahead of you. May the power of the Holy Trinity +
bless you this day and every day. Amen.
(Written by: Rev. Tessa Moon Leiseth Bishop, Eastern North Dakota Synod, ELCA)
It reminds us that the Spirit, that God is always out ahead of us in all we do. As we look for, seek and pursue the Holy Spirit out ahead of us, perhaps it is in those moments we arrive at each new season, new journey, new transition just how and where we are supposed to. Perhaps as we seek and wonder, as we ask and pray, God leads us in ways, through paths, that we could never navigate on our own. Perhaps it is in the seeking that we actually find and in the asking that we actually discover.
However you came through Lent and into the glorious sunshine of Easter may you know that you have arrived at just the right time, in just the right place, and just as you are in God’s timing, God’s naming and in God’s placement. May you dwell in this place and time as you are until you are ready to seek again, to journey again, to transition again.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
Happy Easter friends! I look forward to this Easter season with you as we continue to dwell in the Spirit who has plans for us and is already out ahead of us, preparing the way, softening hearts, opening imaginations and waiting for us! Exciting things are taking shape here. I feel so blessed to be here with you, to have heard the Spirit call me home to be with you during this time in our life as church, as people, as ministry, as community together right here at Our Savior’s! I am thankful for each of you and for all those yet to come! Thanks be to God!
Check out the instruction inside the newsletter on how to Subscribe to our YouTube page and watch worship LIVE! That’s right, we are live each Sunday morning at 9:25am so you can join us from home! Bulletins are emailed out each Friday (are on our website) and will be posted on our FB page. You can call the church office if you are not getting the Friday emails.
Happy Easter!
Pastor Liz
