“I am grateful to God…when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.  Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.  I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.”

1 Timothy 3:1-3

Beloved Siblings in Christ,

I remember with fondness and gratitude the letters my mother wrote, faithfully and dependably, during the years when I and my young family were separated by the miles from the rest of the family.  Those letters in her neat, careful script (before emails and social media were a thing!) were her way of extending her love and making our connection even stronger.  Later, when we moved closer so I could begin seminary, we had the privilege of being together on a regular basis, often traveling “over the river and through the woods” to join the rest of the family for holidays and special occasions.  To this day I don’t know how Mom, with all her other obligations, managed to find time to write those letters.  I see it now for what it was—a true act of generosity.

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is like those letters I received from home – personal, affectionate, encouraging.  Paul longs to see his young co-worker in the flesh.  He knows there is no substitute for the joy of being physically together. Because we are, as Paul says elsewhere, members of the one body of Christ, we need each other to be whole.  No one can be a Christian alone.  This is a primary reason why our efforts are trained on inviting you back into the rhythm of in-person worship and activities at Peace.  Your physical presence—makes all the difference, for without you we are not the same!  The wonderful level of participation on Rally Sunday was a resounding affirmation of the truth that in baptism God has made us siblings and called us into community together.  Ours is an EMBODIED faith, and you, dearly beloved, are physical embodiments of the gracious presence of the triune God.  Gathering together around God’s word and sacraments, beholding each other, making new connections, strengthening bonds for mission, discovering gifts—all this grows from being together.  (BTW, if you missed my sermon on September 18 where I explore this idea further, you can request a copy or find it HERE.)

October is month of harvests.  In coming weeks our family will make its annual trek to the Snoqualmie Valley to celebrate the generous way which Earth brings forth its gifts so that all might be fed.  The month will also include keeping an eye out for returning salmon in the Cedar River and Fauntleroy Creek—Sockeye and Coho making their final journey to spawn a new generation.  If there is a more profound picture of generosity in nature, I know it not, for these salmon come, as David Duncan has written, to nail “their shining bodies to lonely beds of gravel, not for anything they stand to gain, but that tiny silver offspring and 300 salmon-eating species of flora and fauna may live and thrive.”[1]  God’s benevolent, abundant design is behind it all—the Great Giver.

This month we will be launching our annual giving campaign—the first in three years—under the theme: CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF GENEROSITY AT PEACE.  Over a six week period we’ll explore this theme in a variety of ways, hearing from a variety of voices about the IMPACT Peace ministries are having in our lives and the larger community. Just as Christ did not live for himself alone, we do not live for ourselves alone.  The salmon knows this.  We know it too.  The gifts and resources with which God has blessed us are meant to be pooled and shared, bolstering our mission in Christ’s name in strategic ways, seeding a new generation, equipping us to continue our good work for the sake of this world God so loves.  I sense a growing momentum as I sit in on ZOOM meetings and hear of ideas and plans for growing our congregation’s “mission footprint” in 2023.  Generosity will be a crucial ingredient in bringing those plans and ideas to fruition.

With you on the Way, Pastor Erik

[1] David James Duncan, God Laughs and Plays. P. 167

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…Now you are the body of Christ and individually members  of it.”

1 Corinthians 12:12, 26

Beloved of God,

IT’S TIME.

One year ago, after 18 months of pandemic “live stream only” isolation, we began worshipping “IN PERSON” again.  The joy of worshipping together in shared physical space was palpable!  It may have felt a bit risky at first, but data-driven health protocols implemented by our Safe Opening Task Force (SOTF) enabled us to gather safely over the past 12 months.  Now it is time to take another step toward full in-person engagement.

Beginning September 18, masking for worship and educational activities will be optional.  (Read more about this decision and details in the report from the SOTF on page2.) Why September 18?  September 18^th is Rally Sunday and the beginning of a new program year at Peace, a date our worship and education teams and church council have chosen to invite the people of Peace to re-connect, re-discover, re-engage, and re-join.

Rally Sunday will begin with cross-generational activities at 9:15am, followed by worship @ 10:30 and post-worship fellowship and mission fair @ 11:30.  Our theme for the day is—WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST: Everyone has an important role.  (Read more on page 3.)  It will be a time for re-connecting with each other after long separation (and for some newer members, meeting others for the first time); a time for re-discovering our place within the vibrant community of Peace Lutheran; a time for re-engaging in the ministry opportunities that are present in our community;  a time for re-joining the pattern of weekly education and worship as together we encounter God’s word and receive the Sacrament so we can be equipped for lives of service in God’s world.

Some of you will continue to wear masks in worship, and no one will discourage you from doing so or look at you askance if you do.  I myself will continue to wear a mask at points in the service and while distributing Holy Communion.  Others of you will be ready to participate in worship and Sunday School without a mask.  Soon the SOTF will send out a survey out to help gauge how you and/or your household may be affected by the new protocol and we urge you to respond.

As we take this step toward fuller in-person engagement in our community’s life and mission once again, I look forward to seeing more of you, to introducing you to new faces and people, and to revitalizing the mission we share.

With you on the Way.

Pastor Erik

“I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old. 

I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.”

Borning Cry, John Ylvisaker

Beloved of God,

There’s a crow “cawing” outside my office window at Peace right now.  A young bird, newly fledged, he’s trying to figure out what life is supposed to look like and how it’s supposed to work after one leaves the nest.

I discovered him yesterday evening as I was rolling my bike out the door to head for home.  There he was, hanging out by the railing, unperturbed as I stepped out right next to him.  Not used to such nonchalance on the part of crows, I asked him what was going on.  He gave no reply, but I did hear a distinct call from the tree in the neighbor’s yard across the street—the kind of insistent call that used to echo through the neighborhood when we scattered Kindem kids were being called home for dinner.  We all knew what that signal meant; knew that we ought to come without delay.  But this juvenile crow?

I reached out with the toe of my shoe to gently prod him off the porch, but he only waddled a few steps forward.  Are you injured?  I asked.  Again, no reply.  I prodded once more and watched as he stretched his wings long enough to glide down to the landing below the stairs.  His wings seemed to work fine.  No injury, as far as I could tell.   Again I heard the insistent calling from the tree across the street:  CAW!!  CAW—CAW—CAW!!!  And then his weaker reply: CAW!  Finally leaving my new young acquaintance, I headed for home… AND… when I arrived back at church this morning, there he was – still; companioned this time by one of his siblings (who was further along the flight curve than he) and a parent crow, who took to CAWING at me vociferously as I tried with soothing tones to let her know that I meant no harm.  Walking past the three crows I went inside to learn more about the behavior I was observing.

Internet bird sites confirmed that young fledgling crows will spend quite a lot of time on the ground over the span of one-two weeks as they go through the crucial phase of learning how to fly and self-feed.  Once they leave the nest, there is no return.  Crow parents are extremely protective of their young ones at this time, leading to behavior such as dive-bombing.  Well, I haven’t been dive bombed yet—so perhaps Mother crow has caught the drift that I bear her fledgling no ill will.  With a little luck and parental vigilance, I’m hopeful that my young friend will find his way in the world.

August is the time of year when many young persons, too, are engaging transitions of one sort or another.  Venturing off to a new school.  Getting accustomed to the new body that puberty has wrought.  Going on road trips. Venturing toward a post-college life or career.  Or, perhaps, pledging themselves to another – “till death do us part.”  Life at this crossroads —for human beings as well as crow-kind—can feel precarious.  As Poet Michael Meade has said:

It’s our knowledge of death that makes us pray.  Every path a child takes looks precarious to the parent’s eye. 

And it is, and “precarious” is an old word which means “full of prayers.”

After 65+ years on God’s good Earth, I’m still musing about what I want to be when I grow up.  At times I find myself wondering, as that young crow must, what life is supposed to look like and how it’s supposed to work at this time of my life.  So the journey continues.  And, thanks be to God, we don’t have to make that journey alone.  For we are accompanied by the one who said:  I will not leave you orphaned.  I am with you always.

With you on the Way.

Pastor Erik