“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath (spirit) to enter you, and you shall live. (Ezekiel 37:5)
 
I’ve been thinking a lot about breathing these days. I picture those people with the Covid-19 virus trying to suck breath into their lungs, with or without ventilators. I think about the doctors, nurses and other health care workers having to breathe through masks all day…or not being able to breathe through them because of the shortage. I breathe in a deep lungful of fresh Montana air as I walk, thanking God that I can breathe. Even the planet is breathing easier as the pollution levels have dropped drastically around various parts of the globe.
 
Breathing, the in and out of air through our lungs into all parts of our bodies, is central to life as we know it. Without breathing we die.
 
In the ancient Hebrew language as well as ancient Greek, the words for breath and spirit are the same word. (Heb: ruah; Gk: pneuma) God breathed spirit into the first human and there was new life. God continues to breathe the Spirit into us so that we may have new life again and again in Christ.
 
In this time, we need to breathe. Yes, physically of course. But spiritually, mentally, emotionally as well. We need to just stop and breathe. Slowly, deeply, gratefully taking each breath as a gift of life from God. Take a moment now and pay attention to your breath and say, “thank you, God, for your breath of life.”
 
Remember though that as followers of Christ, the life of breathing in the Spirit is a life of love, a life of hope, a life of kindness to others. The Spirit’s breath breathed into us in our baptism gives us the strength and courage to love our neighbor as ourselves.
 
One way of supporting and caring for the breath of others right now is to avoid sharing your breath with them. Six feet is the furthest those tiny virus nuclei can travel, so staying out of that range is important. That is why I am still strongly recommending that all worship services or activities for which congregations gather (ex. Lent suppers, Bible studies, fellowship times, non-essential congregation meetings, etc.) be suspended and/or postponed for the time being, most likely until after Easter. We will continue to assess the situation but start planning how you might do Holy Week and Easter in ways that protect, nurture and care for the breath of life in our neighbors.
 
Another way you can care for the breath of others is to support our health care workers by sewing masks and gowns. Get your quilting groups and sewing clubs working (in their homes) to sew masks that our hospitals and clinics can use to protect themselves and their patients. Be sure to follow the specifications that they are asking for by looking on the hospital or clinic website. (For example, the Great Falls clinic has this link)
 
Also, as spring arrives and many of you think about gardens, consider planting a crop of vegetables the excess of which you can share with your local food banks. Providing fresh produce grown with love in the Montana and Wyoming soil and air is a great way to serve the breath of life in your neighbor. During WWI and WWII these were called victory gardens. Perhaps now we can call them Spirit gardens.
 
There are many ways in your local communities to support the breath of life in others; open your spirit to the Spirit’s working in you to discover what other ways you might serve.
 
And then come back to the source of your breath, to the God of your creation, the Christ who heals you, and inspiration of the Spirit. Refresh your hearts, souls and minds in the diverse worship, prayer, and Christ-centered opportunities provided by your congregations so that you can breathe in the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is your spirit’s respirator, inspiring you with God’s comfort, courage and hope now and always. So don’t forget to stop and breath with Jesus this week and “Receive the holy Spirit.”
 
“When he had said this, Jesus breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:22)
 
Bishop Laurie

Dear Fellow Followers of Christ,
 
                We live in anxious times, even more anxious than the usual anxiety that has been pervading our society over the last several years.
 
                Every day we are hearing about the covid-19 virus and the deaths and suffering caused by it. We also know that this year’s version of the flu is taking its toll on certain populations. Disease, especially when words like pandemic are attached to it, always brings out the fear and panic in us. Witness the recent hoarding of cleansing wipes that cares only for the self and nothing for the neighbor in need.
 
                What does it mean to follow Christ during this time of covid-19 and the flu? No doubt you’ve seen some resources offering various forms of practical, moral, and theological guidance.

• The ELCA has put out this resource regarding worship practices.
• I would also commend to you my Northwest Washington Synod colleague bishop’s practical suggestions for congregations found on their website
• Also, this advice for community and faith leaders was released from the CDC that may be useful for preparing and planning events and worship activities.
• Finally, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton has shared her thoughts on how we can respond to the disease, drawing on Martin Luther’s not-so-famous essay on “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.”

 
                However, another piece of news emerged from the ELCA Churchwide council meeting this week that may be exciting for some and anxiety-producing for others. While some are applauding the removal of the “Visions and Expectations” document from use in the ELCA due to the suffering and trauma the document’s use and abuse has caused, others are anxious about the possible consequences of its removal. Will the church descend into chaos without any guidelines of expectations for our leaders? Will there be a free-for-all where pastors, lay leaders, and lay people alike feel the freedom to do whatever they like whenever they like without any consequences?
 
                The answer to these questions is “No,” of course not. For the purpose of guiding and governing the behavior of our rostered leaders and candidates for ministry, bishops and candidacy committees will use the “Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline.” This document will be the guide for our church’s “disciplinary processes of counseling, admonition and correction, with the objective of forgiveness, reconciliation and healing” when responding to unacceptable behaviors by leaders who harm others. Also, as you can see when you read the whole document, it guides the behavior not only of our rostered leaders but also congregations and members of those congregations as we work to live our lives together in Christ as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
 
                But my answer of “No” to these anxious questions goes beyond these documents. Because finally we as followers of Christ are not first guided human-constructed documents, as well-meaning or harmful as they may be, but by God’s Law of Love. In all that we do – all of us, whether rostered leaders, lay leaders, lay people -- all we who claim to follow Christ are called and commanded to love our God with our heart, soul and mind our neighbor as ourselves (Mt 22:36-40). This is the central Law that governs our lives as followers of Christ as well as all legal, aspirational, and character tools we try to develop for living in this world. In other words, if anything we construct does not, in word or use, love God and neighbor, it does not serve God’s Law of Love.
 
                But “Love God and Neighbor” is so broad and so general, you may say, and it’s hard to use in specific situations. True, though it does point us in the direction of Love and away from hate, fear and anger. But fortunately God has given us more to work with: the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments (and Luther’s rich explanations of them), Paul’s letters, the Sermon on the Mount, and other direction from Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions as well as reason and our experience.
 
                I do not have the space to offer a discussion of these facets of God’s law here, but that is where I am headed during this time of Lent: to explore in more specific detail how these gifts of God’s Law can help us better follow Jesus in these anxious times even as we are both sinner and justified saints.
 
                In the meantime, as you struggle with your anxieties, I invite you into scripture and to return to your faith – your trust and commitment first and foremost in the God of Love and New Life. First, in regard to any anxiety and/or excitement you feel regarding the removal of “Visions and Expectations”, remember: “For you were called to freedom [in Christ], brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself…’” We are called to live by the Spirit, my friends. Therefore let us be guided by the Spirit in all that we do and all that we are. (Gal 5:13-26)
 
                Second, in regard to covid-19, remember: “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, you will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God in whom I trust’…You will not fear the pestilence that stalks in darkness…” (Psalm 91; did you notice the number reversal 19 to 91?) So use common sense, pray, wash your hands, elbow bump the Peace, stay home if necessary, be wise in how you conduct worship, and love your neighbor, caring for them even as you care for yourself.
 
In Christ,
 
Bishop Laurie

               What does God’s Law of Love have to do with following Jesus? Everything, according to Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5-7)
 
                Jesus begins his Sermon by blessing his followers with the abundant life that comes only in him. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward of new life is great in God’s kingdom.”
 
                Then he gives his followers their identity: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.” This is not you must try to be salt or light, but you ARE already. We as his followers are those who flavor the earth and light up the world.
 
                He then calls his followers to live out this identity in Christ into the world so that following Jesus means living in ways that let Christ’s light shine and let Christ’s salt flavor the world. “Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” These are the same words that are said to us during our baptism.
 
                And then throughout the rest of the Sermon, Jesus describes what it looks like to let Christ’s light shine: by fulfilling God’s law of love in the world, not just in its most basic form but in its fullest. “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
 
                The problem is that some days, we don’t care for God’s law of love very much. The law is always telling us what to do. It gets in the way of our freedom and keeps us from doing, saying, and thinking the things we want. When we don’t follow God’s law, it has this annoying tendency to make us feel guilty and accuse us. And when we feel accused we fight back, demanding the law be repealed because we believe it takes away our freedoms.
 
                That is until someone hurts us. Then we’re crying “there oughta be a law” and demanding someone be punished. I used to tell my ethics students that “everybody is moral relativist until their car gets stolen. Then the law is their best friend.” For many, the law works great when it’s used against others; but when it’s about us, then we’d just as soon be rid of it.
 
                So, if we dislike the law so much, why spend time talking about it? Especially in church where we come to feel good about ourselves. In church, we want to be comforted and consoled. We want to be given good news, uplifted and encouraged. We want to be told how much God loves us and we want to be confirmed as mostly good people who mostly follow God’s commands.
 
                What we don’t want from the church (the body of Christ) is to be given a bunch of laws to follow or ways we’re supposed to behave. And we certainly don’t want someone, including our pastor, pointing out how we fail to follow those laws. Often the implication is, “Church isn’t supposed to tell me how to live my life. Church is supposed to be a safe zone where I can go to feel good about myself and escape the demands of God and my neighbor.” 
 
                Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian who stood up to the Nazi’s and was killed for it, calls this “cheap grace.” “Cheap grace” is when we receive the free gifts of Christ but don’t let them change how we live in the world. It’s when we turn the gospel into something meaningless by refusing to recognize the power that the gospel has to change how we live together.
 
                A little boy really wanted a new bike. So he sat down to write God a letter. He started by writing, “Dear God, I’ve been a very good boy...” Then he stopped and thought, “No, God won’t believe that!” So he started his letter again. “Dear God, I’ve mostly been a good boy...” Then he stopped, thought a moment, and then shook his head. “No, God won’t believe that either.” Standing, he went into the bathroom and grabbed a big towel from the shelf. Then, he went into the living room where his parents kept a ceramic statue of the Virgin Mary. He took the statue, wrapped it safely in the towel and stowed it under his bed. Then he returned to his letter. “Dear God,” he wrote, “if you ever want to see your mother again, you’ll get me that bike.” 
 
                Too often, we humans are like that boy. Although God has given us the law of love to help protect our lives here on earth, we keep trying to turn it into tool of power against God and neighbor or use it to manipulate God and others into giving us our way. We use it as a weapon to prove our own righteousness and judge others. Or we use it as a tool to earn our moral righteousness by climbing over others’ backs.
 
                But when we finally admit that we can’t follow the law on our own, it’s only then that we realize just how much we need Christ. It’s only then, in our inability to follow the law, that we’re willing to turn to the gospel, saying, “God save me! I can’t do it myself.” It’s only then that we are able to hear Jesus’ invitation to follow him into his new life in which we will let the light and love of God shine in all that we do.
 
                God’s law of love is indeed life...as it governs our lives here on earth. It protects us, serves us, and guides us into a safer, kinder, healthier life together when we follow it. The law is God’s gift to us and it blesses us in a sinful world. But at the end of the day, it has no power over our salvation before God. The law can’t save us from our sinful selves. Only Jesus Christ can do that, by giving us new life in relationship with God and empowering us to live as the salt and light he’s made us to be.
 
Your fellow follower of Christ,
 
Bishop Laurie

                “Stop coveting! Just stop it. Try and stop coveting.” This is the example I gave my students when teaching them about how Lutherans understand Law and Gospel. Invoking the 9th and 10th Commandments and Martin Luther’s explanations of them in his Small Catechism, these words and our attempts to stop desiring more than we need -- especially in an advertising culture that tells us over and over again that we need everything constantly -- show us our inability to keep the Law of Love as God gives it to us. We simply cannot stop coveting or harming others through our coveting.
 
                As we follow Jesus into the 40 days and nights of Lent, we enter into a time of preparation, a time of confession and forgiveness, a time of diving more deeply into our relationships with God, neighbor, and self. Hopefully, through this journey, the Spirit will find us more transformable into the disciples Jesus calls us to be.
 
                Part of our journey through Lent will involve walking in the Word of God, which first and foremost means walking in Jesus himself. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” (Jn 1:1, 14)
 
                Jesus is God’s ultimate and intimate Word to us. And for Lutherans listening for that Word, we hear it in the shape of God’s Gospel and Law. Whether you’re reading the Bible, whether you’re hearing God’s Word preached in a sermon, whether you’re meeting Jesus Christ who is the Word of God made flesh, you are experiencing both Gospel and Law.
 
                But what do Lutherans mean by Law and Gospel? The easiest way to describe Gospel and Law is to use English grammar. The Gospel, which means “good news,” is when God is the subject of the sentence and is acting upon us, the recipient. For example, God saves you; God loves you; God heals you; God forgives you. God guides you; God transforms you; God cares for you; God has mercy on you. The Gospel is the life-giving, life-supporting, life-directing Word God is constantly doing in you and for you in Christ; you only have to receive it in faith with an open spirit through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
 
                The Law is also God’s Word to us. But the Law happens when God makes us the subject of the sentence and teaches us how to live together in a sin-filled world, including as Christ’s community (the Church). “Love your God; love your neighbor. Don’t bear false witness. Do to others what you’d want done unto you in similar circumstances.” Here we as Christ’s followers are the actors, the subject, expected to act (or not) while God and neighbor are the recipients. That’s the Law: it teaches us how to live with and toward others.
 
                God’s Law is actually experienced in two ways. First, the Law is a gift of love by which God orders our lives so that we can live healthier, happier, more blessed lives in this sinful world. If we actually followed God’s Law of Love, the world would be a better place to live. The problem is we don’t because we can’t.
 
                Take for example the recent reactions in our country to the “threat” of the coronavirus. Rather than loving and caring for people who may be ill, in our fear of this unknown attack on our lives, some have started scapegoating and blaming certain groups of people or hoarding things like masks or expecting to be first to receive any cure or demanding exclusion of possible carriers.
 
                Or take for example the current election rhetoric among candidates and their supporters alike. Luther defined the 8th Commandment as “we are to fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.” Are the candidates following this basic law of living in community together? Are we as followers of Christ expecting them to? Are we even trying to keep the 8th Commandment ourselves?
 
                This is where the second function of God’s Law enters: as the gift of a mirror, which when it is held up in front of us, reflects God’s expectations for Christ-centered and life-supporting relationships back to us. And when we see our own reflection in that same mirror and our inability to follow the law, and then compare it to how God calls us to live, we feel accused and yes, even guilty. But it is only in this reflection that we truly realize that we can’t keep the law on our own and that only God can save us.
 
                But, even then, lest we fall into hopeless apathy or into angry guilt or helpless shame, here the Gospel enters our lives with its Amazing Grace-filled news: God saves you; God loves you; God heals you; God forgives you. God guides you; God transforms you; God cares for you; God has mercy on you.
                Over the next weeks of Lent, we are going to spend some time with God’s Law. We will journey with Christ as he reminds us that he is not here to abolish the law but to fulfill it. (Mt 5:17) We will explore with one another the important role God’s Law of Love plays in following Jesus.
 
                But as we take this journey, cling to and never forget the good news of the gospel of God’s forgiving, loving and accepting grace for yourself AND for your neighbor. For it is only in God’s grace given in Christ that we can hear the law and live together in love.
 
Blessings to you on your Lenten journey,
 
Bishop Laurie.