Dear Fellow Home-bodies in Christ,
Yes, we are indeed home-bodies right now, ever since Governor Bullock issued the “Stay at Home” directive last Friday. Well, many of us are. Some, those who are essential to the ongoing functioning of our communities, are out doing their work, keeping us safe, caring for our health, providing food on grocery shelves, picking up our trash. Thank you to all those who continue to work and risk your health for our well-being!! But many of us – at least those of us who have homes -- are staying home as we’ve been asked and ordered to do. For some this is the most time we’ve spent in our homes in months, even years. For others staying home with family members we only see occasionally has been an experiment in relationship growth. For those who are introverts, staying home is a dream come true…until it’s not anymore. For those who are extroverts, seeing the same walls and people only through a screen is a bit maddening. One question we might be asking during this stay-at-home time when we’re not able to join together in physical, in-person worship is: where is God in all of this? Is God in God’s own home safe and sound and watching us from a distance through Zoom or Facetime as we suffer through Covid19 alone? Or has God left home to somehow punish the group of people we dislike the most with this awful virus or to punish us for some slight? The answer to both of those questions is no, absolutely not, no way! The God of steadfast love and endless mercy, the God of forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ does not work that way. God is with us in this time, suffering with and supporting us, loving us in our love for one another and weeping when we don’t. In the Gospel of John, we hear several references to God’s home that describe vividly where God is right now. In John 1:14, we hear that the Word – God in Jesus Christ – became flesh and made his home among us. Literally, Jesus pitched his tent in our home. Later, also in John 1:38-39, two disciples ask Jesus where he is staying. And Jesus says “Come and see! Come and see my home, my place, and my way.” Also, when Jesus is getting ready to depart, Jesus says, “In my Father’s home there are many dwelling places and I am going to prepare a place for you.”(Jn 14:2-3) And then, in that upper room where the disciples are staying at home in fear, Jesus breathes the Spirit into us, his followers, again entering our homes to stay. (Jn 20:22) In these words from Jesus, the Word of God, we see that we are already home with God and God is home with us. God’s home is our home and our home is God’s home. Because Jesus became incarnate and lived with us, God made us God’s own home in this place. Because Jesus breathed the Spirit into us through our Baptism, God made us God’s own home in this space. And now Jesus calls us, invites us to dwell with him in his home, following him and his way of “staying at home” by trusting in God (faith) and loving one another in all that we say and do, perhaps even by finding ways to help those who have no physical home. In Christ we are home in God, and God has made a never-ending home in us. Praise be to God! I would like to close with these home-y words from Henri Nouwen, again from Following Jesus: Finding our Way Home in Anxious Times (p. 20-21): “The Lord is my house. The Lord is my hiding place. The Lord is my awning. The Lord is my refuge…my tent, my temple, my dwelling place. The Lord is my home…the place where I want to dwell all the days of my life. God wants to be our room, our house…to be anything that makes us feel at home.” So stay at home with God these next several weeks until once again we can return in person to our communities and congregations and be at home in Christ together. May God bless and keep you all in your homes! Bishop Laurie
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“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 Siblings in Christ,
“It’s cancelled!” How many things in your life have been cancelled this week? School? Worship? Dinner out with friends? The NCAA tournament? In many ways it may feel like life itself was canceled during the past few days. But here are some things that I can assure you haven’t been cancelled:
Instead of only thinking about what has been cancelled, spend some time today thinking about what has not been cancelled in your life and take joy in it. Give thanks for it. Life continues on; differently yes, but life still goes on. Another thing that has not been cancelled is the Golden Rule. Nor has God’s command to love our neighbor as our selves been removed. The Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – is still alive and functioning. And especially in this time of uncertainty, anxiety and fear, God still calls us to follow it. The Golden Rule is found in one form or another in every major religion and many spiritualities, philosophies and secular ethical programs throughout the world. Jesus names it in his Sermon on the Mount (Mt 7:12) and pushes us further to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” But following this rule is not easy. In order to follow the Golden Rule, we must be able to self-reflect honestly and have empathy for others. We need to be able to step into another person’s shoes and ask ourselves “How would I feel if I were in this situation and that were done to me? If I wouldn’t like it, maybe I shouldn’t do it them. If I would like it, then maybe I should consider do it for them.” Perhaps this is where we go wrong. Turned in on our selves and our own anxieties, we forget how to self-reflect and empathize with our fellow children of God. So what does it mean to follow the Golden Rule in the time of pandemic? Hopefully you can think of many different ways to “do unto others as you would want done unto you.” Hopefully, you will find many new and exciting ways to “love your neighbor as yourself” during this time. Please watch for a pastoral letter from me later in the week describing various ways we as church can “do unto others” especially regarding giving, Holy Communion, conducting meetings, etc. But in this newsletter piece, I am going to focus on one crucial way we need to follow the Golden Rule as we face Covid19 together: Postponing worship services and congregational gatherings. Because it is the best way we can love our neighbor right now, I am strongly recommending that all in-person worship services and other congregational gathering activities across the Montana Synod be suspended at least until Easter, at which time we will reassess the situation. Some of you have already made that decision. Thank you for loving your neighbor and doing health unto others. But if you haven’t made this decision yet, I encourage you to do so – for the sake of the health care workers who are already being pushed to the limits; for the sake of your grandparents, parents, kids and grandkids and someone else’s; for the sake of the person with lung disease or diabetes or heart conditions that just might breathe in one of your air droplets; for the sake of your community, your state, your nation and your world. On NPR last week, there was a story about rural hospitals and how they will be affected when the virus hits their community. (Rural Hospitals Brace For Coronavirus) Many of you live in towns with a small hospital that you and your neighbor rely on when you get sick. But most of these rural hospitals don’t have the staff, the resources, the equipment or the space to respond if the virus enters your town. Even our city hospitals will easily be overwhelmed if this thing takes off. It’s easy when we live in a rural place with so much space between our town and the next to think we’re safe. I know, I’ve lived and served in such communities. But all it takes is one person who goes to “the city,” catches the virus, brings it home, greets folks in worship and shares their new-found “friend” with others before the little hospital in the town is overwhelmed. Put yourself in the shoes of the healthcare worker in that hospital or in any of our hospitals and clinics in the state; how would you want/need people to act? Hopefully, you would want others to respect your life and others enough to take every precaution against spreading the virus. Hopefully you would want others to love you as much as they love themselves. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s a simple command from God that, in times of fear and anxiety, we too quickly ignore. But the only way we will get through this is if we walk this wilderness journey together, putting ourselves in others’ shoes, taking on one another’s burdens and going the extra mile. This is what Jesus Christ did for us and does for us every day. Let us be Christ’s body for one another, sharing the new life we know we’ve already received. In the meantime, as you go through each day in physical isolation from each other, remember that “y’all [together] are the body of Christ and individually members of it. If one member suffers, all suffer together with [them]; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with [them].” (1 Cor 12:27, 26) Let us be one in Christ together! 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.
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. “Are you following Jesus? I want you to look at yourself and ask that question. Are you a follower? Am I?”
These are the first words of Henri Nouwen’s newly published book, Following Jesus, Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety. (p. 11) In this book that reads like a devotional rather than a textbook, Nouwen speaks words of hope, faith, and spiritual guidance to those who are wandering in life’s busy-ness not following anything and to those who have given up to sit in lostness. “It is into this deeply tired world of ours,” Nouwen proclaims, “that God sends Jesus to speak the voice of love. Jesus says, ‘Follow me. Don’t keep running around. Follow me. Don’t just sit there. Follow me.’” Nouwen adds that this voice of love “can completely reshape our life…to one that is focused and has a point to go to.” “Are you following Jesus? Am I?” These questions are crucial questions for Christians in this third decade of the 21st century. Are we truly following Jesus or are we wandering around in wildernesses of emptiness, exhausting ourselves in a search for what matters? Are we truly following Jesus or we sitting in apathy, not caring if anything matters? Of course, in order to answer Nouwen’s questions, we who say we are followers usually find ourselves asking the follow-up question, “What does it mean to follow Jesus? We don’t spend a lot of time exploring together as church what it means to follow Jesus. We don’t seem to want to talk about our faith in Christ at all or what it means for our daily lives. These days we seem to want to focus on and react to politics, social justice issues, the changing church. We talk about our excitement or fears or angers about these things. We talk about our possible answers and fixes to these things. But we don’t talk much – at least not deliberately, intensely, deeply – about following Jesus and what it looks like in this time and place. And we should. Not just because it is our primary call as Christians – to follow Christ. But also because for those who own the identity of Christian, it is only in and through our following that we can respond to the socio-political and changing church issues that face us. If we don’t have some sense, some understanding, some feeling of what it looks like, means or feels like to follow Jesus, all of our reactions to the issues of the world will be meaningless. If we don’t have some depth of relationship with the God who is love made incarnate in Jesus whom we follow through power of the Holy Spirit, then we will wander wildly from one human solution to the next. Or end up collapsing in hopeless apathy when none of them succeed according to our expectations. For finally following Jesus is about relationship – a rich relationship of faith, hope, and love. Faith is a relationship word, not a “you have to think my way about this belief or that issue” word. Faith is first and foremost a deeply trusting and hope-filled relationship with the God who loves us and gives us new life. In this trust and hope, empowered by the Spirit welcomed in, the follower of Jesus commits to this way of new life given by God. And this new way of life that we as followers of Christ are called to commit to in faith starts, ends and is filled with love. That is why the be-all and end-all of the whole law that guides this life is contained in the Two Great Commandments: “The first is, ‘…the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Jesus, Mark 12:29-31) But more on the Two Greats (as I call them) next week. But for now I highly recommend Nouwen’s book as an excellent spiritual and relational exploration of what it means for us, as individuals and community, to follow Jesus -- the voice of God’s love. In that love, Bishop Laurie Jungling “Rejoice and be glad!” Jesus says this to his followers who are persecuted and reviled and slandered as they follow him. Be glad. Have joy. Even in your suffering. (Mt 5:10)
Is he kidding?! How in the world can we possibly be joy-filled and glad in the midst of persecution and suffering? And there will be persecution, Jesus declares again and again. Jesus may have promised to lead us through a rose garden but he was clear that there would be many thorns in the following. Where’s the joy in that? But maybe we’re looking for joy in all the wrong places. Too often we confuse joy with happiness. But they aren’t the same thing and we run into trouble when we think they are. Happiness is an emotion, often fleeting, that comes and goes based on the events that happen to us. We spend a lot of time, energy and resources searching for happiness, looking in all sorts of places – possessions, relationships, money, success, drugs etc. – for the next high of happiness. But since it’s transitory, happiness quickly disappears until it’s replaced with the next “happy hour”…at least until the timer runs out. Joy, on the other hand, is spiritual and is centered in our relationship with the one who calls us to follow. Joy is a gift, often given over time and through a cumulation of our experiences of God’s love, peace and blessing with us. Joy doesn’t disappear over the next hill or into the next valley. Joy, once discovered, remains with us, not through our work but through the power of the Spirit when in faith, we open ourselves to the in-spirited Christ within. What does this joy look like in everyday life? If I had to pick two of the most joy-filled people in the Bible, I’d pick Anna and Simeon. (Luke 2:25-38) And it’s not just because they eventually got to see and touch and hold the salvation of the world, although that was the moment their joy was fulfilled. No, they lived in joy even before that special day. Neither Anna nor Simeon had an easy life. They were members of a persecuted and oppressed people, practicing their faith in an Empire that saw them as conquered. Anna had been widowed and left childless early in life. Simeon had received a promise that seemed to take forever to come about. Yet both Anna and Simeon lived their lives in the joy of expectant waiting, prayer-filled worship, and devout relationship with the God whom they trusted to bring new life to the world. Anna and Simeon didn’t spend their lives searching for momentary instances of happiness; they lived every day in the new life given them each moment through God’s promises, celebrating the beauty and blessing of God’s life they were receiving. Joy is a gift shared by God, not only as an end result of following Jesus but in the following itself, thorns and all. In our following, we find joy in the now through the promised new life of God’s indwelling future. Joy doesn’t deny the pain and persecution of the following; it acknowledges it as real. But at the same time, joy says to death, suffering and persecution, “You don’t get the last word. Life does. Love does. Impossible-to-understand peace does.” Joy always finds God’s new life and blessing in the present (as difficult as it may be to see sometimes) and hopes through faith for the new life God gives. So let us follow Jesus, falling in joy with God in the same way we fall in love with God. In this following we will discover what it means to love…but more about love next week. In the joy of Christ, Bishop Laurie Jungling So, what does it mean to follow Jesus? I hope you saw an image of what following Jesus can look like in last week’s Spotlight on Project Hope in Columbus, MT. And I encourage you to keep your eyes and ears open for other glimpses of what it means to follow Jesus in this world.
Often, when we’re asked the question “What does it mean to follow Jesus?” we think first about what we do? After all, we’re the ones who are called to follow; therefore, we should be doing the work of following, right? But actually following Jesus is first and foremost something God does, not us. Following Jesus starts with Jesus himself – his invitation, his call, his promise, his gift. Only in the receiving of God’s gift in Christ do we begin to participate in the following. This comes clearer to us in the first verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are you,” Jesus says to various groups of people. Think again about what it means to be blessed: to be filled with the life and love of God into the depths of our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits. To be blessed is to receive the vitality of God’s wholeness, abundance, and unconditional love into our being. To be blessed is to be given pure grace. I invite you to look at those beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12 and ponder what Jesus’ blessing means to those he calls to follow him. Here are just a few of Jesus’ blessings: · “To you who are poor in spirit: the kingdom of heaven, God’s own abundant life and love given in me (Jesus), has entered your life. · To you who are mourning: the comfort I bring fills you with the peace of God’s own abundant life and love. · To you who are meek: the earth that I save will empower you with God’s own abundant life and love. · To you who hunger for right relationship with God and neighbor (righteousness): that right relationship is fulfilled through God’s own abundant life and love. · To you who seek to make peace: you are God’s beloved child, filled with God’s abundant life and love. · To you who are persecuted as you try to live out your right relationship with God and neighbor: the kingdom of heaven, God’s own abundant life and love given in me (Jesus) has entered your life. · To you who are reviled and persecuted and slandered with all kinds of evil falsely simply because you follow me: rejoice and be glad because you are filled to overflowing with God’s own abundant life and love.” Following Jesus begins with God’s blessing given to us in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. It is only through the abundant love and life of Christ received into our lives that it is possible to follow him. Through Jesus we receive forgiveness and are restored to living relationship with God. Through Jesus we are given the compassion to love our neighbors. Through Jesus we receive faith, hope and love. Through Jesus, the Spirit inspires (in-spirits) us with all the strength, support, wisdom and blessing we need to follow Christ into the world -- always in it, never of it. But you know what? There is another gift we receive when we follow Christ. “Rejoice and be glad,” Jesus proclaims in the last beatitude. This is a promise, not a command. And in it Jesus promises that in following him, even as we move toward the cross, there is joy and gladness. But more about joy in following Christ in next week’s article. God’s blessings of life and love be upon you always. Bishop Laurie What does it mean to follow Jesus? Not what did it mean, but what does it mean right now, in this time and place? That is the question that we in the Montana Synod will be exploring more deeply over the next months and years as we discern how to be the body of Christ in these changing times.
Essentially, following Jesus is about being in life-centered relationship with God in Christ through the power of the Spirit. This is a relationship that starts not with anything we do but with Jesus saying simply, “Come and See; Follow Me.” And when we take that first step of trust, of faith, we see in Christ a new way of life that is radically different than the world around us lives or preaches. This is a life that has all of its being, seeking, and doing, all of its thinking, feeling, and acting centered in God’s love “for you” in Christ. In inviting us to “Come and See, Follow Me,” Jesus calls us to follow him right into a life-newing relationship with God. And this new life in relationship with the God who is love has consequences for how we live in this world. Following Jesus isn’t merely about getting into heaven someday or showing up in church occasionally. For the Kingdom has come near, now and today, and that matters for how Jesus calls us to live in relationship with God and with our neighbor...all of our neighbors including creation itself. As Jesus declares: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31) Following Jesus is about living out these relationships of love with all our heart, spirit, mind and body. And we do so not from our own power, which is limited and tainted by sin, but through the power of the Spirit who enters and forgives us when we have the courage to let go and let God. When we can do that, the new life-changing love of God becomes our center and we can follow Jesus with a faith-filled vitality that seeks to live God’s Kingdom into the world around us. And what does this following look like for us in our particular context and lives, you may ask? Well, that is what we’re going to explore together in various ways. And one significant way we will discern what it means to follow Jesus today is to start seeing it happen right in front of our eyes. Beginning next week, the Synod News will be offering a new regular series entitled “Spotlight on the Synod.” In this series, we will tell a story about ministry taking place somewhere in the synod that makes “Following Jesus” visible to us. Jenny Kunka, our NRIT director, will be gathering and writing these stories of how the Spirit is working through you in your communities to love, welcome, and serve God and neighbor. These stories will be offered once a month in place of my article so that you can see some of the exciting and creative ways enthusiastic ELCA Lutherans around the Montana Synod are following Christ in their neck of the woods. So, as we travel the synod, I invite you to tell us about the inspiring, distinctive and vital ways your congregation or ministry is “Following Jesus” so that we can shine a spotlight on it for the rest of the Synod to see. Your fellow follower of Jesus, Bishop Laurie Jungling |
Bishop Laurie Jungling
Elected June 1, 2019, Laurie is the 5th Bishop of the Montana Synod Archives
September 2022
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