Day 1 Kjersti Aagaard (2009) and Jim Versalovic (2017)

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ~Ephesians 4:2

How can we keep from singing on such a momentous occasion for Christ the King as a church and as a faith community? May this healing place remain strong and resilient beyond this pandemic, as we look forward to the next 75 years. No pandemic, no storm can shake our inmost calm. We vow to keep the faith in Christ.

How can I keep from singing? (Robert Wadsworth Lowry, 1869)

My life flows on in endless song; Above earth’s lamentation, I hear the sweet, though far-off hymn That hails a new creation Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing It finds an echo in my soul How can I keep from singing? What though my joys and comforts die? I know my Savior liveth What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night he giveth No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that refuge clinging Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth How can I keep from singing? I lift my eyes, the cloud grows thin I see the blue above it And day by day this pathway smooths, Since first I learned to love it, The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart A fountain ever springing For all things are mine since I am his How can I keep from singing? No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that refuge clinging Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth How can I keep from singing?

Christ the King Lutheran Church reflects the people of Houston’s truth: nearly everyone is from somewhere else, but all are welcome. A Lutheran all her life, Kjersti attended Christ the King during one of her recruitment visits in 2006 and found immediate comfort in the familiarity of the liturgy and song (it is no exaggeration that she found her “church home” before her “home home”). Jim came to Christ the King as Kjersti’s betrothed in 2011. Having been raised Roman Catholic, Jim had forayed into several

faith beliefs, from Episcopalian to Unitarian Universalist. Now as a Lutheran at Christ the King formally since February 2017, Jim has found the peace of Christ that makes fresh his heart, and a fountain ever springing. It was the interwoven tapestry of the liturgy and music that has made Christ the King our faith home.

We were married at Christ the King on December 27, 2013. Surrounded by our children, parents, extended family and friends and colleagues from over the years, it was a service of reflection in word and song. Kjersti has been a member of the Holden Village community in the North Cascades for 40 years, and our service wove scripture and our marriage vows with the Holden Evening Prayer liturgy of Marty Haugen.

Magnificat (Marty Haugen, based on Luke 1:46-55) My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, and my spirit rejoices in You. You have looked with love on Your servant here, And blessed me all my life through.

Great and mighty are You, O Holy One, strong is Your kindness evermore. How you favor the weak and lowly one, humbling the proud of heart! You have cast the mighty down from their thrones, and uplifted the humble of heart. You have filled the hungry with wondrous things, and left the wealthy no part. Great and mighty are You, O Faithful One, strong is Your justice, strong Your love, as You promised to Sarah and Abraham, kindness forevermore.

My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, and my spirit rejoices in You. You have looked with love on Your servant here, And blessed me all my life through.

Our marriage is rooted in the spoken and sung liturgy of love and humility. Our pledge to each other has been to prioritize kindness, mercy, humility and love in our actions and deeds-both at home and in our chosen professions. We have found that the musical liturgy at Christ the King enables us to reaffirm our vows every week, and carries us through the week. Although neither of us are blessed with the gift of voice, we lift our prayers in song with a conviction and joy that is disproportionate to any semblance of “on key” talent. These collective voices raised in song at Christ the King hold us in love and joy, and these blessings carry our lives forward as we continuously strive to give more to our world than we take.

Day 2 Linda Alexander (2003)

Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ~ John 12:24

When I was a child between first and sixth grades, except for one year in Pecan Park, Houston, our family lived in the country in Perry, a village in northern Ohio, named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to commemorate his victory over the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. We could see Lake Erie from my sister’s and my upstairs bedroom window and swam in it each summer. We had seven acres of land. It was truly a land of plenty, bounty and a child’s wonderland for play. Our daddy was a civil engineer during the day but was always working diligently in our huge garden year-round when he was off work, as his own father had done having grown up on a family farm in Kansas. We had apples, pears, avocados, peaches, white and purple grapes, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, rhubarb, strawberries, gooseberries, sour cherries, dark red cherries.

Annually, Daddy planted each year: corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, green onions, lettuce, cabbage, various greens, etc. Mother would always be busy canning and freezing all the produce. The six large apple trees in the front yard provided us with apple cider each year. Our daddy said he thought Johnny Appleseed had planted those trees. We climbed them for tree houses and loved our rope swing. There was a very large farmer’s field of asparagus next to our property, from which the farmer invited my mother to cut as much as she wanted, even though we had our own asparagus patch (and I was not so keen on asparagus at that time). But I loved walking through that field when the asparagus had grown into five or six-foot ferns and looking up at the sky and thinking about God in the very blue heaven. However, what fascinated me the most was when we planted peanuts. We hulled the peanuts from the nursery and planted the individual raw nut and from that one nut grew a whole root system of many more nuts! Amazingly wonderful.

I always think of those peanuts when reading the verse from John 12. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the renewed civil rights movement of the Summer of 2020, we are learning many lessons and hopefully with God’s grace and help, looking to find new ways of living and caring and relating to one another. In a way, the tragic death of George Floyd is not unlike the lone peanut that, once planted, grew and spread and generated abundance. In dying to old ways, we can look forward to bearing much fruit, according to Christ’s good promise.

Celtic Blessing – (Sunday service at Christ Lutheran Church, Santa Fe, NM) May the Christ who walks on wounded feet walk with you on the road. May the Christ who serves with wounded hands stretch out your hands to serve. May the Christ who loves with a wounded heart open your hearts to love. May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet, and may everyone you meet see the face of Christ in you. Amen.

Day 3 Mary Ayala (2003)

…He arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ~Mark 4:39

God, when I am surrounded by Life’s storms and I feel life closing in on me, please let me remember Christ’s example to slip away and find a place to pray. When I am pushed beyond my limits and feel that I can’t pray, I know you listen to my heart and with your command “Peace, be still” you send me the Holy Spirit to relax my mind, calm my fears, and humble my heart so that I can again focus on Jesus Christ. His mercy makes the fearsome situations less threatening and helps me to have the faith to give it all into his hands and pray “Thy will be done.”

Sometimes, when we ask for relief, the storms seem to remain and still rage about us. At these times God hears us and his answer to our prayers is to bring us the strength to pass through the storms, and as he accompanies us on life’s journey we grow stronger and our faith grows deeper.

“If finding God’s way in the suddenness of storms makes our faith grow broad, then trusting God’s wisdom in the dailyness of living makes it grow deep. And strong. Whatever may be your circumstances, however long it may have lasted, wherever you may be today, I bring you this reminder: The stronger the winds, the deeper the roots, and the longer the winds, the more beautiful the tree.” Author Unknown.

Day 4 Jill Bailer (1980)

…but they who wait for the Lord will renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. ~Isaiah 40:30

At a time in my earlier life when I was unhappy with my employment situation, this verse from Isaiah, which we sang almost monthly during the Guitar Service back in the ‘80s, kept me going. As I would run up the stairs to fetch another costume to rent to the overflow of customers at Halloween, I could picture myself with wings soaring over a mountain peak. With that picture in my mind, I would find myself feeling less weary and faint from the 12-15 hours workday associated with this time of year.

This verse from the Bible and the song written from it gave me the strength to persevere until better times, just as it did the people of God who were exiled in Babylonia during Isaiah’s time.

What Bible verse or verses come to your heart and mind when you are tired and faint in body and spirit? During this COVID-19 time of the year of our Lord 2020, we need to keep those encouraging words close at hand.

Dear Lord, thank you for the wonderful poets of your written word and the talented musicians that set those words to music for us to sing. Keep your words close to us during these trying and dangerous times. Amen.

Day 5 Mary Ann Beseda (1982)

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. ~Psalm 23

I think of this psalm each morning as I walk my two shepherds (of the Australian variety). One of my dogs, who is a rescue, is highly reactive to other dogs so we are out the door by 4:30 a.m. We are all alone in the world it seems, except for the occasional cat or possum. I find this daily ritual both comforting and spiritual. I take deep breaths and thank God for lungs that are healthy. I pray for those who are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, including patients fighting the virus and the essential workers we depend on for health and sustenance. I thank God for the worship prepared each week by the ministry staff every Sunday at 11:00 a.m.

And I connect with the natural world, saying hello to the moon and stars. Observing the phases of the moon restores my soul as I feel a part of the universe. I pray for the planet and express hope for its inhabitants. May we all find wisdom and courage and love for our neighbors during these challenging times. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow.

Day 6 John Boles (1981)

These opening words from Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities have been playing in my mind lately like a musical earworm: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Especially the negative phrases. How do we discover the courage to persevere in such times as these? We must turn to our faith, our trust that God is in control and will bring us through the dilemmas we face. Certainly that gives us hope, an expectation that in time all will be well. Fearful of Covid 19, worrying about the plight of our nation, I find myself often turning to those familiar words of Psalms 23: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

I have no solutions to fall back on, only trust that God is with me, and all of us. Watching our grandchildren, I see them exuding optimism, joy, confidence, trust. They seem immune from the worry and even cynicism that mark our age. Their fresh faces reinforce my belief that God is walking with us through these perilous times and will lead us to deliverance. I give thanks for that promise.

Heavenly Father: We ask for your comfort, your strength, and your mercy to help us navigate our personal journeys during these strange and worrisome days; protect us, help us protect others by our behavior, and enable us at all times to remember that in dark times you are the light of the world. Amen.

Day 7 Nancy Boles (1981)

Jesus commanded: “’Quiet! Be still.’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” ~Mark 4:39

When I was a child growing up in Baltimore, my parents and I went to the beach—in Baltimore they said went to the shore— every summer to an old beach-side vacation town called Ocean Grove, originally founded shortly after the Civil War as a Methodist retreat. I grew to love the ocean, its immensity, the constant sound of the waves, the view of the morning sun coming up over the eastern horizon. When my husband and I moved to Houston forty years ago, I began to get my ocean fix in Galveston. True, the Gulf is not the Atlantic, but it looks and feels the same. Every summer, and several weekends during the year, I would walk along the Seawall, being refreshed by

the smell of the salty air, the sound of the waves lapping onto the shore, and the blue-green immensity of the water stretching to the horizon. The ocean/ Gulf just seems to suggest infinity to me, and its everlasting wave action suggests eternity. I find it so peaceful and relaxing. I know that summer thunderstorms can rile the water, I’ve seen how powerful hurricanes can turn the peaceful lapping of the waves into terrible forces of chaos and destruction, but I know the wind and water will eventually quieten, and the ocean will again be calm, relaxing, eternal.

The ocean is to me a metaphor for life: normally calm and often filled with pleasure, but it can be disrupted by conflict, or illness, or fear of the unknown. But I like to think of Jesus confronting the waves on the Sea of Galilee. As it says in Mark 4:39, Jesus commanded: “’Quiet! Be still.’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” If when we are faced with buffeting wind and scary waves we turn to our faith, it is as if Jesus is there calling out the forces of adversity and calming them. This thought is especially comforting today as we confront a perfect storm of troubles in our nation: economic, racial, and then the pandemic. Yet through our faith we are confident that eventually calm will return to the ocean of life, and the eternal, comforting reality of the gentle lapping of the waves will bespeak the immensity of God’s care for us. Our Heavenly Father, reach out your hand to us, your people, and give us comfort, give us strength, confirm our hope, and enable us to see your eternal light in these dark and stormy times. Quiet the winds and calm the waves of life. In you we find deliverance and peace. Amen.

Day 8 Terri Bourne (1990)

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. ~Genesis 1:31

Do you want to improve the world? I don’t think it can be done. The world is sacred. It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it. ~Tao de Ching 29

Always remember you are braver than you believe, smarter than you think, and twice as beautiful as you’d ever imagined. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. ~Rumi

Every creature is a glimmering, glistening mirror of divinity. ~Hildegard of Bingen

God of grace, bring me ever closer to a sense of oneness with you and with all of your creation. I pray that my words and actions this day will reflect your enduring love. Amen.

Day 9 Lisa Brenskelle (2008)

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? ~Job 38:4-7

This church was founded 75 years ago, and a building was built for worship. That building still stands today, because its foundation is good. What makes for a good foundation in life? We would likely say faith. So, what does the faith teach us? As God makes abundantly clear in the verses above where he is speaking to Job, He is the creator of all that is, was, and will be. We confess God the Father as Creator every Sunday. We also confess the Christ as Savior, and while we often selfishly think of our own redemption, the Bible is clear that the Christ came to “reconcile all things to himself” (Colossians 1:20) and that we, with the entire creation, long for redemption (Romans 8:22-23). We also confess the Holy Spirit as the giver of life, and state that we “look forward…to the life of the world to come”. What are we looking forward to? The Bible makes clear that God intends the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). So, God made/makes all things, reconciles all things to Godself, and restores all things. This is the central and foundational message of the faith - the Good News.

What does this mean for us, for humanity? God created/creates us, reconciles us to Godself, and restores us - because we are part of the “all things” on behalf of which God acts, intricately bound up with all the rest of creation. Indeed, this is Good News. How then shall we live, in light of this Good News? John 10:10 states that the Christ came so that we might have life abundant. And, Genesis 8:17 makes clear that God wants all life to abound on Earth. What makes for an abundant life, and what part do we, humanity, play in that abundant life that God so desires? Genesis 2:15 indicates that our role is that of caretaker of all creation on God’s behalf and Mark 10:43 says we are to be servants. This makes sense. Life can only abound if the foundation is firm, so the Earth needs our care. A report from the United Nations states: Healthy Planet = Healthy People = Healthy Economy. This statement is a secular recognition of the firm foundation; of putting first things first. If the planet is not healthy, people will not be healthy, and unhealthy people result in an unhealthy economy. Our God-given role as caretakers is therefore critical to abundant life.

So, how are we doing? The myriad environmental crises that we face: climate change, pollution, loss of biodiversity and more, make plain that our sin has been holding sway. What does the faith, our foundation, indicate that we should do about sin? Repent (Acts 3:19-20). Repentance means to recognize our sin, our failure to care for all creation as God intends, to confess, receive God’s forgiveness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, to change our lives. Remember Psalm 85:9: Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. God of compassion, our firm foundation, have mercy upon us; bring healing to our relationship with all your creation. Forgive us for our mistreatment and neglect of the creatures with whom we share your earth, for what we have done to harm them, and for what we have not done to help them. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. We ask you to fill us with your Spirit, that we may care for one another and for all your creatures, according to your will and in the fullness of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Day 10 Anita Bryant (2002)

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. ~Isaiah 41:10

Ever since the COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions were first put in place, it feels like we are more and more cut off from those things that renew and rejuvenate our spirit. The stress of restrictions on visiting friends and family, travel restrictions, a ban on group celebrations, and, of course, the end of in-person church services and meetings can all pile up and leave us feeling that we are cut off from the people and places we need to be near to feel completely at peace.

Native Americans have a concept of the necessity to regularly reconnect with one’s homeland as a way to re-center your spirit and remind yourself of what is important. If you no longer are able to live in the place of your birth, you should strive to return regularly like a pilgrim seeking renewal. But how do you reconnect with your homeland when you can’t or shouldn’t travel?

Similarly, it can feel that we are cut off from our spiritual homeland as we are unable to experience the profound joy of singing and worshiping together. Can we fully experience the renewing spirit of worship if we are unable to gather together? Are we really connected with God and each other when we are so very much apart?

Thanks to the profound gift of the Holy Spirit, I’ve come to believe the answer is yes! The reassuring, constant presence of the Holy Spirit has become increasingly precious to me during these months. I have often heard the phrase, God is always with you, but have come to rely on and experience this as truth every day. We are not alone no matter how alone we may feel. We are constantly renewed and refilled by the Holy Spirit who gives us what we need.

Fear not, for I am with you…. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you… Thanks be to God!

Day 11 Dan Butterbrodt (2013)

…the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. ~Genesis 11:9

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ~Galatians 3:28

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… ~Matthew 28:19

During my thirty plus years in the international steel business I have been blessed with many exciting opportunities and challenges. I emphasize international as I’ve lived and worked abroad in four countries (Russia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Saudi Arabia), and traveled to approximately 60 others—although most of this travel was to view steel mills and warehouses to negotiate purchases and claims, with little time to take part in normal tourist activities.

Throughout my career my colleagues and supervisors have represented a United Nations of humanity. I’ve had bosses from Japan, the USA, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, India, France, and Lebanon. As far as my relationships with subordinates, I have hired and managed people from numerous ethnicities, religions, ages, and gender identities. What hits me the most when thinking about all these people are the things they sought, with the most universal being peace and security for their families—often in lieu of themselves.

So, it gives me pain and anxiety to see the current state of affairs in our country; and believe me, our situation worries people all over the world as they look to our country for strength, stability, and freedom. If we cannot get along in the USA, what chance does the world have? The recent events, particularly regarding race, have also caused me to take stock of my career and actions in treating all people as Christ would treat them:

Was I always positive and approachable? Did I mentor my team members as much as I could? Was I careful in my actions and language not to offend? Could I have been a better witness for Christ? My record on the above questions is mixed...sometimes excellent performance, and at other times abysmal. In Galatians, Paul is not saying that differences do not exist between people but is saying that in Christ it does not matter. This teaching is not based on the current political climate of the culture in Paul’s time or ours, is not a liberal vs. conservative issue, but it is the direct result of the Gospel. It is a statement about our equal value in the eyes of God, and how we should view each other. We each bring different talents and personalities, but the one constant is that all of us are one. The Gospel message has freed us to not only be civil, but to serve one another without hesitation.

Dear God, thank you for your great creation of all different types of people. Give us the thoughtfulness and strength to not only be mindful supervisors, colleagues, and workers— but give us the strength to be loving and purposeful witnesses for Christ. And please grant all people everywhere the peace that passes all understanding. Amen.

Day 12 John Cates (2003)

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. ~Psalm 56:3

Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let not your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ~John 14:27

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. ~Psalm 91:5

The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. ~Ecclesiastes 1:9

Be still and know that I am God. ~Psalm 46:10

My goodness how time flies! It has been 10 years since I wrote my previous devotional.

During that time our family has experienced a few trials. We have been shown that God’s presence in our lives enabled us to conquer both the fear and the despair they occasioned. My wonderful loving and much more spiritual wife Diane always says that in crises I always go into my Captain Cates “General Quarters Mode” and rely on my library of casualty procedures. That is certainly true! But it is also true that our Lord and Savior, whom I do not always see and whose presence I do not always feel in my life, always stands next to us and fills us with the love and strength to bear life’s sometimes unpleasant surprises. While I know that neither I nor my family are in any way unique and I know that many have suffered far more than we, there are two events that occurred over the past ten years that I regularly relive in my discussions with my God. They were and continue to be so revealing to me regarding God’s love for me and for all of us that I hope that in sharing them, some of that love might flow out to others.

One dark early morning, deep in the bowels of MD Anderson Cancer Center, my beloved wife was about to undergo cancer surgery. My reserves were exhausted, and I was completely out of casualty procedures! I simply did not know what to do next. I was lost and afraid. At that very moment, completely unannounced, Pastor Moore appeared in our small pre-op cubicle. He prayed with us and then anointed Diane with oil. I was suddenly and unexpectedly overcome by the feeling of God’s love. I knew that we were filled with and surrounded by the Holy Spirit. We squeezed each other’s hands and I gave her a kiss. As her consciousness faded. I knew that no matter what the future held, we would face it together with God, that we would move forward, and we would not be afraid. Through God’s grace and love, we have.

Just a few years later our youngest son was the victim of a hit and run accident while he was on his bicycle. He suffered ghastly injuries. EMTs responding said that if they had arrived just a few minutes later he would have bled out and died. There were multiple skull fractures, traumatic brain injury, and deep gashes that narrowly missed arteries. The surgeons and doctors said that they could not predict what he would be like, if he woke up and if he lived. In that moment, the cold breath of despair washed over me. I was drowning. But then God’s peace quietly and unobtrusively surrounded me. My heart was

neither troubled nor afraid. I knew that no matter what the future held, we would face it together with God, that we would move forward, and we would not be afraid. Through God’s grace and love, we have.

Now in the year 2020 CE, just when my hubris convinced me I had charted a safe course through our remaining years; pestilence stalks the darkness and a plague is destroying at midday. I have been very afraid. But God, one more time gently tapped me on the shoulder to make his presence known. How you might ask? Just when I had despaired of the world making any sense to me, our church asked me to write a devotional. Through that simple request, God reminded me that there is nothing new under the sun and that he is indeed our God. No matter what the future holds, we shall face it together with him, we shall move forward with him, and we will not be afraid!

Day 13 Trish Chapman (2006)

Unexpected and mysterious is the gentle word of grace. Ever-loving and sustaining is the peace of God’s embrace. If we falter in our courage and we doubt what we have known, God is faithful to console us as a mother tends her own.

In a momentary meeting of eternity and time, Mary learned that she would carry both the mortal and divine. Then she learned of God’s compassion, of Elizabeth’s great joy, and she ran to greet the woman who would recognize her boy.

We are called to ponder myst’ry and await the coming Christ, to embody God’s compassion for each fragile human life. God is with us in our longing to bring healing to the earth, while we watch with joy and wonder for the promised Savior’s birth. ~ ELW 258

Unexpected and mysterious is the gentle word of grace. Everloving and sustaining is the peace of God’s embrace. The text of Jeannette Lindholm’s “Unexpected and Mysterious” sung to Calvin Hampton’s tune “St. Helena” gives me chills every time I hear or sing it. I don’t have the words to describe how moved I am by the haunting music and the joyful, reassuring words. While embracing the fact that we are unable to grasp the depth of God’s love for us, these words inspire me to have hope, and remind me to trust, even though I can’t fully understand.

In a momentary meeting of eternity and time, Mary learned that she would carry both the mortal and divine. Even though I carried only mortal children, when I was pregnant I felt closer to God than at any other time in my life. The joy and wonder at the miracle of life growing inside of me made God’s presence in my life and in the world so much clearer. I remember wondering how any woman could carry a child and be an atheist, so completely and simply did I know His creative power and presence in those months.

We are called to ponder mystery….

At a time in history when science and technology are advancing at a feverish pace, I have to remind myself to slow down and embrace the unexpected, mysterious grace and love that are always with us. “If we falter in our courage and we doubt what we have known, God is faithful to console us as a mother tends her own.”

Gracious God, help us to see you in everything we encounter. Surprise us with your beauty, joy and peace. Amen.

Day 14 Nick (2019) and Janeen (2008) Cornor

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. ~Acts 4:32-35

After three years of law school, Nick and I took a much-needed vacation to Mexico. It only took a few hours before Nick had slipped and broken his toe. Oddly enough, this new ambulatory restriction became a blessing as we took advantage of the down time to listen to a podcast by the pastors from Nick’s former church on tithing.

The pastors quoted an interview from theologian Lauren Winner where she stated: “I know of nothing that will transform someone’s spiritual life more abruptly than beginning to tithe. If we want to learn about dependence on God, tithe. If we want to have our treasure in heaven, tithe. If we want to have any hope of having solidarity with the poor, tithe.”

The pastors explained that tithing is not merely a transactional relationship between us and the Church but a deep spiritual practice and act of worship whereby we acknowledge that God is sovereign and that all we have are His.

The head pastor confessed that tithing had stirred up deep fears regarding money stemming from his poor upbringing and that after years of tithing, he had come to a place where he didn’t trust his own motives without tithing. He also explained that practicing this spiritual discipline had forced his family to be good stewards of their money. They also explained that tithing was only the beginning point of generosity and that if we were to model the Church in Acts, we were called to be recklessly generous.

Convicted by the Holy Spirit, we made a commitment to tithe and still do so today. We have had many challenges since that day: welcoming a family member into our home, the Covid-19 pandemic, and buying a new home. Throughout this entire time, we have never wavered from our commitment to tithe and believe that it has helped spur spiritual growth that we had never thought possible.

We have also realized that tithing is indeed the beginning point of generosity. As we have tithed, the Lord has further convicted us to give in addition to our tithe and we continue to be amazed that God continues to provide us with the means to do so.

Heavenly Father, we know that you are a giving God. As your image bearers, help us to shine Your light by our giving. Amen.

Day 15 Kelly DeVany (1997)

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. ~Ephesians 3:14-21

During this unique time in our lives, one can wonder or doubt about the love of God or the will of God. I know I have questioned it from time to time during various challenges in my life. And then I came across these verses from Ephesians. It helped to renew my faith and love of Christ during those times of disbelief. Current scholars have disputed if Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians while he was being imprisoned in Rome or if it was written by a disciple of Paul to help preserve his ideas. This letter was written to the Gentiles to let them know that he cared for them and remind them that they are part of the Christian family. There are four attributes that were written in these verses that help us to understand the importance of God through our faith and love in Him.

The first one is reminding us of our inner spiritual strength that we can use during our times of joy or struggles. We can lean on God to help us through times in our lives. He can give us the will power to tackle our various tasks in life. Plus our inner being can be rejuvenated by worshipping with other believers and hearing the words that are preached during sermons. The second one is that Christ dwells in our hearts. We are witnesses to love throughout our days and in our church. If we open our hearts to Christ, then we will find love in our hearts. The third one is that we have the power to understand the extent of God’s work. There are many stories of generosity that we hear about from other members in our church, or from family and friends, or from the news. And it’s a good thing to take the time to listen to these acts of faith because it will help us to see God’s work being done by others than just ourselves. Plus it can bring moments of inspiration to take action on a project of our own that would benefit someone in need and help us to understand more about our faith. The fourth one is that we understand the love of Christ is beyond anything that we know. Since He revealed his love for us, we can still learn about the world around us so that we can live a fulfilling life through him.

This prayer that Paul wrote has helped to remind me about the greatness of the love of God that we have to experience. There are many times of joy and hardship in one’s life and it is reassuring to be able to read this prayer to help you to persevere through all of it. If I am having trouble being witness to any of these four attributes, I know that I will be able to see them at work in our pastors, staff, and members of Christ the King. We are a family of God and each of us is an important part of this family. We have been brought together through the inner spiritual strength, the faith, the will, and most importantly the love of God. Soli Deo Gloria.

Day 16 Logan Faron (2015)

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first,[a] to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. ~Luke 1:1-4

Sometimes when I get really excited about telling a story I will go into far too much detail for the listener and my wife will lovingly remind me to get to the point by saying “Skip Intro!” and in some cases I can indeed pare things down to just the essentials.

For a while now I have been enamored with the start of the Gospel of Luke – who reaching across time and space has considerately ensured that I am being taken care of in my continuing instruction. I know that this is generally not a verse that holds that much cultural resonance, but I cannot help but feel excitement when I think of it. It is thorough, it is personable, it is captivating. It is the anticipation before a jump ball, the giddiness of when an amusement park ride first lurches forward, or the thrill when a Star Wars opening credits crawl appears. Perhaps it is like when I get excited for a story I am telling. It is many things – but it is also very representative of being a member of Christ the King. Just as Luke has done the work, “all has been prepared” for us in 2020 – decades of work have made something very special.

I came to the church 6 years ago after meeting Pastor Moore at the wedding of two great friends. I enjoyed the peaceful courtyard, the magnificent nave, and the bulletin with so much going on. As a new Houstonian I quickly felt at home; I became a member and Pastor Moore officiated my wedding the next year. Excitement abounded as I started a new life as a husband and a new congregant. As I grew with Christ the King, I was thankful for the contributions of those who built such a wonderful place. I have always felt at home in the classroom and the opportunities to learn and read have been a great source of joy. Now that I have been around for a few years I value the opportunity to contribute as well.

This is a place where we are drawn to continue to meet together and while it is often joyous, we confront problems, injustices, and tragedy often thrust on those who do not get to choose sides knowing that love and grace are always nearby. I am thankful that we can continue to grow and reflect together to meet the challenges of the world that are both familiar and unexpected. Christ the King has gathered people together with enthusiasm in the love of Jesus for many decades. There are so many vibrant aspects of the life of the congregation, that hey, it would make sense that we have an orderly account of them.

Lord, give us the strength to continue the great works that many have pioneered before us and the creativity to share the good news of Jesus in whatever medium is necessary to inspire. Let us be brave and just so that our world is fair and moved by your divine love. Amen.

Day 17 Larry Foust (2004) One of the thirteen judges in the book of Judges was Gideon who, when asked to become the ruler of his people, declined both for himself and his heirs, saying “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.” Judges 8:23. Abimelech, Gideon’s son by a concubine, has other plans. After his father’s death, Abimelech murders 70 of his brothers with the assistance of mercenaries. Abimelech fails, however, to find his youngest brother, Jotham, who escapes. Jotham travels to the top of Mount Gerizim, where he offers the following fable:

The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. ~Judges 9:8-15

The fable is an ancient version of political satire. It juxtaposes the nurturing, generous, and selfless service of the olive tree, fig tree, and grape vines with the ruthless, greedy, and cruel Abimelech. The olive tree, the fig tree, and the grape tree produce nutritious fruit for all to consume. They are altruistic, reflecting the best characteristics of a servant-leader. In contrast, after killing 70 of these brothers and being installed as king, Abimelech embarks on years of ruthless conquests. Far from being a servant leader, he is a selfish and arrogant tyrant.

The 75th year of the founding of Christ the King Lutheran Church is important for another reason: it is a year of national elections. In a few weeks we will choose our leaders. It is, therefore, fitting to reflect on the character we want from our leaders. Will we choose leaders who serve us or leaders who expect us to serve them? Will our leaders be motivated by self-interest and ambition or by a desire for the

common good of all people residing in the US? Will our leaders be autocrats who prefer the company of other autocrats or leaders who strive for compromise and consensus?

I hope you vote (safely). I, for one, intend to vote for the olive tree, the fig tree, and the grape vine.

Postscript. At the conclusion of his fable, Jotham curses Abimelech and his conspirators, a curse that is realized a few years thereafter. Abimelech, who executed 70 of these brothers on a single stone, is fatally wounded by a woman striking his head with (fittingly) a millstone. Abimelech’s followers disperse.

Day 18 Alicia Goodrow (1992)

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. ~Isaiah 53:6

During the time of Stay At Home in the few weeks preceding Easter and continuing until almost Pentecost, I joined a Self- Isolation Choir out of Bristol England and made a deep dive into the text, word painting, and music of Handel’s Messiah with over 4,000 of my new online choir friends. With twice weekly formal YouTube rehearsals and some self-study, I explored both the text and music of more than 20 choruses in much more detail than most ever can.

We started learning the complex mosaic of Chorale 27: All We Like Sheep just about the same time that Texas started “opening up” after weeks of more cautious shut-down. As I tried to stretch my amateur’s skills to meet the challenge of the scattered runs and overlapping entrances, the twists and turns of the little groups of aimless and lost sheep planted themselves firmly in my imagination.

Listen to the musical word painting in the clip below – or on the recording of your choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDar_26Inrk

Basses and Sopranos come together briefly ALL WE LIKE SHEEP. Then Tenors: ALL WE LIKE SHEEP. Finally Altos: ALL WE LIKE SHEEP……each part starts the sentence with one or two other voices. They confidently proclaim their unity as SHEEP.

But then each voice drifts off, literally, in a musical wandering trot or skip or run….EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN WAY. For three pages, the little sheepish basses, tenors, altos, and sopranos run away from each other, bump into each other, get lost, turn in circles, and come to complete stops with no warning. They are truly lost. Each drifts and skips in his or her own world with such a narrow field of view. There is no clear plan, direction, or leader.

These sheep haunted me in my dreams waking and sleeping for several days. They were so familiar. Some wore little sheep masks. Others did not. All needed to be shorn. I suspect many could have used a bath.

Then one day, I recognized them. They were my friends, neighbors, colleagues, and strangers at HEB and on the Bike Trail and waiting in line for take-out coffee and sheepishly venturing out into the new and ever-changing world. We were not only sheepish….we had become sheep. Wandering, stopping, turning, peering out from behind masks, spinning, hesitant - without a leader or direction or timeline or agenda. We had truly GONE ASTRAY - EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN WAY.

I like lists. I like plans. I enjoy leading others on clear and sometimes not clear paths. Rules developed by sensible, informed, elected (formally or informally) leaders generally make me feel more empowered, not less empowered. I know where I’m supposed to be headed, so I get packed and head off that direction. I am a lawyer, a Scout Leader, a Mom. People ask me for directions; and I look them up confidently in whatever rule/info source seems to apply to the problem at hand.

But here I am as sheepish as everyone else. Wandering, chafing a bit, and blinded by the fog in my glasses from my masked breath. Scared. There is no clear path for society much less for me individually. My path and Henry’s path at work and home is reasonably well-worn and still visible to provide daily structure- but I still wander. Haley and Zach can’t see their daily path at all now that school is finished, and the future is foggy. We don’t skip like frolicking sheep with this new freedom. We often stop and stare or change direction suddenly or run away.

Curiously, the music and Isaiah take a sharp tonal turn to cut off the wandering and remind us of both our status and our way out. The sheep come together in a strong, synchronized proclamation: AND THE LORD HAS LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL….

In Christ, the bearer of our sins, we lost sheep have a way out of the fog. We can follow. We can cast off our confusion and the chaos of our lives for clarity. Perhaps in this moment, the INIQUITY OF US ALL is our personal and communal confusion, our wandering each to his or her own way, our sense of helplessness and fear. It is this heavy weight of wandering that is lifted from us and laid on our Lord Jesus Christ.

While this temporary time of collective sheepish wandering will come to something of an end, it is an existential state that underlies our being even when the path seems clear. We each drift to our own way. We need our Savior to lift the burden of wandering aimlessly astray to grant us the peace of wisdom and understanding.

Oh Christ, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Oh Christ, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Oh Christ, Lamb of God, grant us peace. Amen.

Day 19 Haley Goodrow (2015)

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. ~Mathew 25:40

For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, ongoing away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. ~James 1:23-25

God teaches us how to love for he embodies selfless parental love. She shows us that true love resembles a flame needing eternal attention and action. Jesus commands us to love one another and showed us through his actions that there is no truer act of faith than to serve another, to wash their feet, especially those who have been cast out by society. The Holy Spirit empowers each of us to go out and love setting each of our hearts aflame. They teach us to overcome our prejudice and anything that may stop us from serving another. They show us that everyone as a child of God is beloved, and as Christians our truest faith is the act of loving each other and all of creation. Therefore now more than ever, I see God in our world working through medical providers, Black Lives Matter activists and those working to end systemic violence and oppression, and all those loving their neighbors as themselves.

God grant me the strength to examine how I am living your love in my life, and fill me with the courage to stand with those lending their voices to freedom and justice in our world. Amen.

Day 20 Vicki Gorman (2011)

Your love, O LORD, forever will I sing; from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness. ~Psalm 89:1

Singing is what I do. Early on I tried to follow other paths, but eventually I gave up and accepted my vocation. I have been richly blessed. If singing is praying twice, I have prayed for hours and hours a day; not a bad way to spend my time! I cherish my memories of soloing with the Honolulu Symphony and performing intimate chamber music with dear colleagues but singing hymns has always been my passion. The texts move me and connect me with all of those who have gone before and all of those who will carry on.

And I sing: Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine, we feebly struggle, they in glory shine; Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia! ELW 422, verse 3

As the angel said, “Fear not,” are words I have often sung, so much so that I now truly believe them. Those two words are my litmus test for a leader. I am incapable of viewing anyone peddling fear as a faithful servant of my Lord. In responding to that two-word command I have learned to walk with God through the difficult days: in 2010, when the financial collapse of 2008 resulted in the demise of the Honolulu Symphony, uprooting twenty years of island living and propelling us to follow thin prospects to abundance in Houston; in 2016, when my son was in a terrible car accident; in 2020, when a global pandemic imposed a social distance keeping me from family in need of my care. That incomplete list will increase.

And I sing: In you alone, O God, we hope, and not in our own merit. We rest our fears in your good Word and trust your Holy Spirit. Your promise keeps us strong and sure; we trust the cross, your signature, inscribed upon our temples. ELW 600, verse 3

My prayerful answer to this command is always the same, Thy will be done. That’s a tough one. I like being in control. I like believing that my choices, my commitments, and my actions will result in security and well-being. But people disappoint, health care is retroactively cancelled without notice, accidents happen. Yet as part of the body of Christ, I am never alone in good times or in trying times. I can kneel hopelessly at the rail during the Longest Night Vespers, pray, “Thy will be done,” and witness the miracle of healing. Yes, it’s pretty incredible, but it is real.

And I sing: Our Father, God in heav’n above, we pray, united in your love; Your name be hallowed. Help us, Lord, in faithfulness to keep your word. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as there before your throne. ELW 746, verse 1

Raising my voice in songs of lamentation or praise, thankfulness or supplication, with the community of Christ sustains me. Leaving my Hawaiian family, my ‘ohana with whom I worshipped, feasted, and served, reconnected me with my extended biological Texan family and introduced me to my new faith family. I collect and carry my beloved ones in my heart. My first year of teaching at Punahou School in Honolulu, a student invited me to join her family in celebrating her birthday. Like many families in the islands, just about every nationality and religion was represented. As we joined hands in prayer, her father offered thanks in all the holy names of God.

And I sing: Join hands, disciplines of the faith, whate’er your race may be. All children of the living God are surely kin to me. ELW 650, verse 3

And so I fear not, I pray that God’s will be done, and I sing: This is my prayer, O God of all earth’s kingdoms, your kingdom come; on earth your will be done. O God, be lifted up till all shall serve you, and hearts united learn to live as one. So hear my prayer, O God of all the nations; myself I give you; let your will be done. ELW 887, verse 3

Day 21 Kirk Hanson (1983)

He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. ~Isaiah 40:11

I have had the good fortune to spend four years living and working in India, a transformative experience. The land rises from the coastal plains of the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal towards the Western and Eastern Ghats; the central Deccan Plateau and the Himalayan Mountains of the north are crisscrossed by the great valleys of the Indus, Ganga, Narmada, Godavari, and Kaveri Rivers. The climate ranges from tropical in the south, to the deserts of Rajasthan, to the continental extremes of summer heat and piercing winters in the interior north. The land provides mangos and guavas, oranges and onions, coconuts and papaya, jackfruit and star fruit. (The old star fruit tree behind our house brought shade to our son’s bedroom and to our neighbor’s kitchen; on some afternoons I would make a star fruit sandwich.) There are elephants, tigers, and leopards, monkeys, mongooses, and pangolin. There are cobras and kraits. Bird songs, the hum of lowing cattle, temple chants, and morning calls to prayer are intermingled with the sounds of city traffic and military aircraft rumbling overhead. Extreme wealth and comfort exist side-by-side with extreme poverty and suffering: migrant workers and their families were living in shacks and tents just beyond the walls of the gated community where I lived.

Though living in a city of more than eleven million people, trips to the international airport outside the city, or daily commutes to my workplace located in a modern industrial park near the airport, took me through countryside covered by farms, vineyards, and orchards interrupted occasionally by a small town or village. From the air-conditioned comfort of my car or bus, I often saw shepherds and shepherdesses leading their flocks to pasture in the early morning, tending their flocks by day, or leading them to the safety of their farms or villages at day’s end. At summer’s end, the shepherds would bring their flocks to the fields of spent sugar cane for the pleasure of foraging on stubble leftover from the harvest. Although most villages no longer have gates that are closed at night, the shepherd’s traditional role as gatekeeper lives on through colorful locale names such as “Jyothipura Gate” and “Hancharahalli Gate”. Like our Father in heaven, the shepherds watch over and care for their flocks continuously. My memories of India continue to remind me of the richness and abundance of God’s creation, to be thankful for my many blessings and daily bread, and to love all neighbors as myself.

The King of love my shepherd is, Whose goodness faileth never; I nothing lack if I am his And he is mine forever. Thou spreadst a table in my sight; Thine unction grace bestoweth; And, oh, what transport of delight from thy pure chalice floweth! And so, through all the length of days, Thy goodness faileth never. Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise within thy house forever. ELW 502 Amen.

Day 22 Cliff Helmcamp (1983)

It was Saturday, June 10, 1944, at St. Joseph’s Infirmary in Houston that a young doctor delivered a bouncing, six-pound, baby boy, the first child of very excited parents. The doctor probably gave little thought to the event as this was one of hundreds of deliveries he was to make in a long career. He was a man of faith and at the time was perhaps thinking of his church home. Indeed, in just 379 days he was to be part of an exciting new venture, attending the first worship service of a new mission church. His name was C. J. Ivan Ekman, one of 43 charter members of the newly named Christ the King Lutheran Church. I was the newborn baby.

While our paths never again crossed, they did intersect at Christ the King. My journey to the corner of Rice Blvd. and Greenbriar came during the most stressful time in my life. I left my previous church home and seemed adrift. A friend suggested that Christ the King might be a good fit for me. I scheduled an appointment with Pastor Edwin Peterman who put me at ease and assured me that I would be welcomed into the congregation.

What I was soon to find was a diverse family of faith — people from all walks of life willing to accept each other as children of God and working to share gospel through word, sacrament and deed. Indeed, “The Village Church with a Global Mission.” We all have stories of our journey to Christ the King, different paths, but arriving safely to our new home, our church home. May God continue to guide those in search of a new church home to our doorsteps where they will find loving acceptance in this “Healing Place” especially in this time of Covid pandemic as we celebrate 75 years of continued faithful ministry.

We pray with the hymn writers: Guide me ever great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore. Open now the crystal fountain where the healing waters flow; let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, shield me with your mighty arm. ELW 618

Day 23 Judy and Bert Hungerford (2015)

I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night cometh and no man can work. ~John 9:4

Dennis had made up his mind to die rather than to have the surgery. Our wonderfully talented, next-door neighbor on the mountain suffered from a cardiac disease that had robbed him of the majority of needed oxygen in his blood. A crusty electrical engineer and licensed electrician who prided himself on the electrical work he did in our homes, in our cabin alone he had installed four fans and a new heavy duty electrical line, he could no longer stand the exertion required to install the lines and appliances. His pride suffered.

Bert and I knew something was amiss because Dennis wore a heavy winter vest in 80 degree summer weather when the rest of us wore shorts and shirt sleeves. All Dennis said was that he was cold plus a few details about the cardiac condition.

I finally learned more from his wife Marty, one morning over coffee. Usually reticent about personal issues, the words came tumbling out. She had tried to reason with him “too many times,” she said, about a surgical procedure that could help him. She had finally given up talking to him about the surgery to which he was adamantly opposed because they had argued about the topic to the point where it was harming their marriage. He did have medical insurance, she offered, although I knew they were short on ready cash. His decision was to keep walking until he keeled over. Period.

Later as Bert and I talked about the situation, two questions became clear: Did Dennis realize how much his neighbors loved him? Was this a question of inadequate insurance and money? Our answers were “no” and “yes,” respectively, but there was only one way to find out.

With the help of another neighbor, we compiled a list of fourteen friends, close enough to Dennis to pitch in the several hundreds of dollars each necessary for the surgery. George, Dennis’s closest friend, happily handed over the bills, while insisting that he knew Dennis would never agree to the surgery. Most everyone else felt the same way, too, but the wallets continued to open and the money came in. We converted all the contributions to cash so that cashing a check was not an excuse, found an all- inclusive card that we donors could independently sign, and designated a couple to bring the gift to Dennis. Bert and I “won.” No one else wanted to approach him.

So, with Marty’s help we arranged for an informal morning coffee at their home. We arrived, the conversations started, and somehow over the subsequent cups of coffee we were discussing how much the neighbors cared for Dennis and wanted him to get well. We handed over the card in its bulging envelope. Dennis opened it; his expression was unreadable as he read the opening words, “We love you and want you to be with us. Please have the surgery.” The bills spilled into his hands. Bert and I were frozen, wondering if we had lost a friendship. Dennis looked up and asked, “All these people?” Yes, we nodded. Suddenly he broke into a great smile, nearly shouting, “I’ll do it.” And he did. And the surgery

was successful. And he was grateful, but no more grateful than those of us who had the opportunity to help. It was, and still is, a Christlike moment for all fourteen of us. I believe for Dennis and Marty, too.

Dear Lord, please help us to live in the daylight and always be observant enough to see who is in trouble and needs help so that we can become a helper, rather than living in nighttime when we have missed the opportunity to aid someone who never asked for that help. Amen.

P.S. Dennis is alive and well, and he and Marty have been living a fruitful life, although at a lower altitude, for a decade.

Day 24 Dennis Hutchison (2013) There are two Psalms that, when combined, create an opportunity for all adults to consider leaving as part of a holistic legacy for the betterment of future generations. This legacy is described in the following scriptures:

Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. ~Psalm 127:3

The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas and established it on the rivers. ~Psalm 24:1-2

Every child is indeed a heritage and gift from the Lord, and there is much in Scripture that gives parental and societal guidance on the devout upbringing of God’s children. What could be a more meaningful legacy than delivering a world to future generations in which children can learn, play, and grow safely in an environment that provides clean air, clean water, nourishing food and healthy recreation that extends their lives rather than shortens them.

Each of us—not just parents—have been entrusted by the Lord to create social, spiritual, and a world ecology in which children can learn, play, and grow safely. Supporting God’s children and (as stated on the Caring for Creation web site), “being earth keepers is foundational to our Christian vocation,” and central to our ability to leave a legacy that perpetuates the Lord’s gift.

Merciful God, grant us the wisdom, foresight, and leadership to support and protect your children and to preserve your world for generations to come. Amen.

Day 25 Carolyn Jacobs (1978) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…. ~Hebrews 12:1

Two major inspirational events marked my religious formation. The first was an Ecumenical Student Conference in Athens, Ohio, in 1963, with the theme “For the Life of the World.” The theme came from the title of our study book, which was written by one of the speakers, Alexander Schmemann. Participating in education and worship with 3,200 college students in a large auditorium was unforgettable. An even greater gathering of 95,000 people at the closing assembly of the Kirchentag (biennial Protestant religious gathering--now ecumenical) in a stadium in Hannover, Germany, in 1983, was another high point. The theme of that gathering was “Umkehr zum Leben” or ‘Turn Around (repent) to Live.” It focused on peace in the face of the nuclear arms race. Participating in such large-scale events with so many other people of faith is thrilling and inspiring. Yet the challenge is to follow through on those high points. Here is where the local church plays a crucial role in sustaining faith and spiritual growth to transform inspiration into action.

Born and raised a Lutheran, I naturally joined Christ the King Church when I came to graduate school at Rice in 1966. I was a member until 1970, then spent a few years away from church and eventually away from Houston. When I rejoined Christ the King in 1977, this congregation turned me from an inward focus out to the world again. Major strengths of CTK are our involvement with many organizations, issues, and projects where we can live out our faith, as well as providing opportunities and food for spiritual growth to keep us going for the long haul. On this 75th anniversary of our congregation, let us celebrate and continue these strengths as we look to what our community and country and world need today and in the future. Let us “run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”

Dear God, as we face illness, injustice, divisiveness, and violence in our land and in the world, lead us to learn, to grow, to turn around, to act for change and for healing. Give us wisdom, discernment, strength, will, and courage to go forth on the path before us. As we worship, grant us vision, till your love’s revealing light in its height and depth and greatness dawns upon our quickened sight, making known the needs and burdens your compassion bids us bear, stirring us to ardent service, your abundant life to share. ELW 712 Amen.

Day 26 Kim Jacobson (2013)

Be still, and know that I am God. ~Psalm 46:10

Some years ago, I went on a “girls’ trip” with some friends to Montana. Our first stop was in a remote area about 10 miles south of the Canadian border. It was an absolutely gorgeous setting. We stayed in a guest house at the top of a hill that sloped down to a crystal clear lake with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop. After a long day’s travel from Houston, we sat on the porch, luxuriating in the clean crisp air and stunning landscape. After a bit, I wandered down to the edge of the lake and perched on a log. Taking in my surroundings, I offered up a prayer of thanks to God for the opportunity to be immersed in such an amazingly beautiful part of His creation. I went on to thank God for my friends, asking that He bless our time together, that He watch over my family back home, and, honestly, I went on for quite a while. When I finished, satisfied that I had covered everything with God, I hopped up and started back toward the house. I had only gone a few steps when I felt a pull back toward the log. It was a very strong feeling and I yielded to it, stepping back and repositioning myself at the edge of the water. This time, however, I was quiet…..and I waited, as I once again took in the beauty of the lake and surrounding mountains. Within moments, I was enveloped by the most powerful feeling of love. It washed over me and through me – as if God was saying, “Okay, Kim, you had your turn to talk to me, now I want to talk to you.” It was the most amazing experience – in that moment, I felt completely loved and accepted as a child of God. Don’t misunderstand me – this was not a conversion-type experience. I’m a lifelong Lutheran – fortunate to have been raised with a strong faith. Rather, this was a transformative experience in the sense that God touched my heart and soul in a way that I have carried with me ever since. And, as so often happens when we look back, we can see God in the fabric of our lives. That “touch” from God has sustained me through some very difficult times and, to this day, it continues to nourish my faith and remind me always to find times to be still.

Be Still and Know that I Am God Be Still and Know that I Am Be Still and Know Be Still Be

Day 27 Daniel Johnson and Diane Persson (1998)

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all our years away; they fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the op’ning day. O God, Our Help in Ages Past, ELW 632, Verse 5

“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” is familiar to most of us, and fits with a 75th anniversary. God is “our eternal home” as the first and last verses echo, and the metaphor of time as a tranquil flow is comforting, carrying us through the stages of life like a ride through Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World”. The flow of time seems intuitive to us in modern times, with clocks and calendars taken for granted, and we need no church bells to coordinate us. We scarcely notice the changes in text of the hymn, to “bears all our years” as the ELW has it from “bears us all” in the LBW green book, but the change captures the issue of who’s moving, us or what surrounds us. It’s not the only change our Lutheran hymnals have had, indicated by the “alt.” in the text credit to Isaac Watts, 1674-1748. His original “Bears all its sons away” was in the old red book (c. 1958) but couldn’t survive into the inclusive language era. Regardless the textual tweaking, the continuity of tone resonates in the familiar tune.

In sharp contrast are the words of Psalm 90, the first verses of which the hymn paraphrases. The King James Version which Isaac Watts probably used has verse 5 begin, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep” and the NRSV we now use has “You sweep them away; they are like a dream.” The original Hebrew uses the word zaram, to gush. No tranquil flow here, it’s a turbulent tsunami or flash flood following a downpour, maybe even recalling cultural memory of flooding of the Black Sea about 7500 years ago following the last Ice Age, and presaging the catastrophic sea level rise that may sweep away Christ the King Church before 7500 more years roll by.

Big changes set the stage for rebirth and renewal, and Isaac Watts crystalized consolation from the gushing flood. This seems like the physical process of annealing, where glass or metal is heated to loosen brittle bonds, then cooled to become stronger.

Poem prayer: Anneal me Lord. Stir my soul. Melt my heart. Open my mind. Pry apart the sticky strands of my DNA. Forge me in the fire that does not consume. Recombinant! The old is made new. Crystalize the insight. Steel my nerve. Stirred not shaken.

Day 28 Mary Koenig (1993)

Fifty years ago, the Biology teacher at El Rodeo School in Beverly Hills advised me that there would be a special day the following week: “Earth Day.” She explained the idea as I listened, hastily wolfing the mid-week cafeteria fare.

“We should celebrate the earth’s bounty and make promises not to mess it up for future generations.” She meant business, and outlined the case against environmental pollution. There was no way I could disagree, so April 22, 1970, I found myself leading a parade of enthusiastic middle school kids down a swanky portion of Wilshire Blvd, with the Los Angeles Country Club to the west and Saks Fifth Avenue ahead on the east.

One of my motivated pupils, Keith - whose father imported killer whales to Marine Land in Palos Verdes - wore a gas mask. Other students simply carried home-made signs like “Stop Pollution” or “Save the Planet”. These were age-appropriate placards, and I remember that these kids were enthusiastic, un- jaded and very pleased that the principal had granted me permission to walk them down Wilshire Blvd. I assume that their parents believed this extension of classroom learning was progressive and amusing. I also suspect that this exercise never caused another moment’s reflection. Earth Day has now had fifty years of cultivation.

Today, we are managing to stay alive through isolation, and as I think about the poets who have given wing to my imagination, I am profoundly grateful. The earth adorns, even as Nature closes Her eyes: First, from Ted Hughes’ “Hawk Roosting”: I sit in the top of the wood, my eye closed Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. The convenience of high trees! The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth’s face upward for my inspection. My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation to produce my foot, each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot… Like birds of prey, mankind has soared with confident entitlement. We survey, believing that since we have mastery, the earth’s bounty is ours for the taking. We assert hawk rights. Moreover, we are not inclined to apologize for wanting it all.

But what happens when the paradigm shifts and something insidious threatens our false sense of mastery? Remember the scene from the Disney film, Fantasia, when the shadow creeps and we hear Mussorgsky’s tone poem, A Night on Bald Mountain? Holy Toledo! You mean I cannot confidently count on tomorrow being as comfortable as yesterday? Does Fate contrive against the just as well as the unjust? Does the demon return in the form of a deadly pandemic? I must confess that I am afraid of those images, and it is a child’s whimpering fear of darkness and witches and loud cymbals. Mercifully, when the far-off

bell from the little church at the corner of Rice and Greenbriar rings I am more than ready to accept it as a sign of hope.

Lord, bring me to a place of hope where I can see light. I want to walk as a child unafraid of terrifying graphs plotting out deaths and ratios of spreading disease. I want to not turn aside from strangers in grocery stores. It is earth day, and I want to embrace Creation without the need to pretend it is mine to master. I see what You are doing, although I don’t always get you, God. Poets say it better than me:

“You are leading me on to the spots we knew when we haunted here together” and I was a child. Thank you, Thomas Hardy.

Help me to look upward, or downward, content that it is “You, Mastering me, God.” Thank you, Gerard Manley Hopkins.

“How strange we grow when we’re alone, and how unlike the selves that meet, and talk... The word is life endured and known. It is the stillness where our spirits walk…and all but in-most faith is overthrown.” Let me revel in a freshly pruned life, open to what comes next. But when I think of age, and loneliness, and change I am afraid. I remember when we “suddenly burst out singing and I was filled with such delight as prisoned birds must find in freedom. Everyone’s voice lifted…everyone was a bird, and the song was wordless.” Thank you, Siegfried Sassoon.

Regarding Self-Pity: “I never saw a wild thing sorry for himself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” Thank you, D.H. Lawrence, for reminding me.

Amen.

Day 29 Elizabeth Kragas (1999)

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

During the pandemic almost every normal daily activity outside the home has been affected. I am cut loose and untethered from the daily business of running here and there, attending group meetings and keeping a schedule. Zoom meetings are one way I connect socially, but satisfaction in them is waning as the weeks drag into months.

So, I find that I have been slowly tuning my life to my garden. Can’t see friends? Then put in a pollinator garden, and the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds will be my new friends!

I search for a small tree to plant, and a magazine editor says Japanese maples are the best—Ok! A little maple arrives during the heatwave and all the leaves fall off! Never fear says the experts, the leaves will come back in. And now they are! I am so excited for a tree full of leaves to change color in the autumn. I watch a squirrel return to his home every night. At 8 o’clock sharp he runs along the top of the fence, then onto the redbud tree, and then 30 feet above the ground, he jumps across to the giant oak tree! He scurries straight up, higher and higher until he hops, skips and leaps into his snug, safe nest.

Dear Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for the beautiful butterflies that come visit my garden. Bless your whole creation, and keep us safe—even the cheeky little squirrels. Let us hop, skip and leap into your loving arms! We are all your children. Amen.

Day 30 Maureen Lamson (2016)

I am a big fan of all those TV shows about space. My favorite is How The Universe Works, where noted astrophysicists explain the mysteries and workings of our realm. They talk about nebulas, black holes, super novas, quasars, pulsars, neutron stars, and my favorite, magnetars. They tell of the millions of light years that are between the stars and the earth.

So I find myself imagining being able to travel that far from mother earth. I wonder that if I was drawn over the event horizon of a black hole, and my atoms were spaghettified, yes, that’s the correct term; who says astrophysicists don’t have a sense of humor? Would I meet God way out there? Would my soul find its way to heaven? Can I travel so far that God isn’t there? Where are you?

My favorite Psalm, 139, answers my question. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me.

Thank you, God of everywhere.

Day 31 Jessica Lockheed (1998)

This little light of mine….I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine….I’m gonna let it shine This little light of mine….I’m gonna let it shine Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!

Such a simple song that many of us were taught as children and yet so amazingly profound and often so very hard to remember. It is based on a text that is a bit more sophisticated, You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. ~Matthew 5:14-16

I remember singing this joyful song at Vacation Bible School when I was a small child. I remember singing it at the Women’s March with my sister, my niece and thousands strong in Washington as a form of solidarity and insistent protest. I most recently remember tearing up while watching it on a television show being sung by a trans-woman who was showing her truth for the first time in her church. Until that moment she had been dressing as a man, hiding her light. She feared rejection and judgment from her church.

For me church is now home, it is safe….a refuge from any storm. However, there have been times in my life when church felt foreign to me. When I found CTK in 1992, I found a church home, a place where everyone was welcome. Christ the King is open in a way that few places are. We aspire to be a beacon shining to guide those in need of a guiding light.

The metaphor for light is one that comes easily to us. We take comfort in knowing that Jesus is the Light of the World. We work to shine our own light. But we also know that there are shadows of pain and isolation, shadows of hatred and bigotry, shadows of loneliness and rejection. Our Black and Latin brothers and sisters fight daily battles against social structures designed to create hierarchies of injustice; they fight generations of pain and exclusion through separation and othering. Our LGBTQIA brothers and sisters often live in fear and uncertainty from a young age: fear of rejection from their families; fear of being alone; fear of being ostracized from their church; fear of being outcast. Our immigrant brothers and sisters live in fear and uncertainty of being accepted; being welcomed; finding shelter; finding work; feeding their families. So many people, so many truths. We just need to open our hearts and let each other in.

We shine brighter together because we stand stronger together. But we also need to welcome others to share their light, their truth and to heal in the light that we share.

Lord, help us to remember your gift of Light is one meant to be shared with the World. The gift of Light is one of hope, love, joy, peace and understanding. It is an embracing Light that unifies people in your Grace and Love. Amen.

Day 32 Johnny, Martina (2005), Hannah (2017), and Elena Longoria

The Longoria family celebrates 75 years of community and gives special thanks for the youth outreach, rich musical tradition, and stewardship opportunities at Christ the King Lutheran Church.

Heavenly Father, thank You that we are celebrating 75 years of service at Christ The King Lutheran Church. We thank You that we are all One in Christ, and we pray that as members of Christ The King, Your body, Your Holy Spirit would knit us together in the bonds of unity and love.

Lord, You have promised that You are the One that would build Your Church and we ask that You would continue to equip each of us, both individually and corporately with the talents and gifts that may be used to Your praise and glory for the edification of the rest of the saints of God.

Protect us from the wiles of the enemy who seeks to destroy and cause divisions among Your body. Help us to be sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable and gentle towards each other. Let us not be motivated by selfishness, but in humility may we seek to regard the needs and necessities of others before our own.

Give wisdom to the whole Church, to our pastors and deacons; give wisdom to those who teach and a teachable spirit to those that listen. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all this day and for ever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Day 33 Valerie Lloyd (2013) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I’ve always loved this verse since I first heard Pete Seeger’s rendition of it in his famous song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” It’s impossible to not mentally croon along with him in his gentle chorus as you read the verse “a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” The calmness he brings me is based in the certainness of everything that this passage describes. A time for everything, yes everything, the good and the bad, the painful, isolating times and the times filled with laughter and friends. It’s Pete Seeger’s casual command to “turn, turn, turn…” that makes the meaning of this passage stand out to me.

I’ve always resisted change vehemently. I’m scared of change, of the unknown, of uncertainty, and of having no control. I think we all feel this way sometimes, when we can feel the certainty of our current life slowly start to drift away. When normalcy takes on a different, darker light, and we feel like we are running out of the good times, it’s a natural response to fight and grab onto what we have, even if it doesn’t serve us. We fear the changing of time. We do not trust that the unhappy times will end. The Teacher tells us in this passage that not only will every different kind of time come, but it’s in God’s plan of the universe for this to happen. A fact of life written into the fabric of everything around us: there is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. We can trust in this truth during the turbulent times in life and remember that the turning is inevitable and beautiful. Like Seeger’s calming voice guiding us along the verses, God guides us and brings us back to the times of laughter after a long period of weeping.

I feel empowered by this scripture to let go of my fears and trust that the Lord will make this time of isolation and fear short-lived. I know in the next year there will be little that is familiar and comforting, but I also know it is not forever. Worrying about when the times will change will only make them loom further away in my head. Instead, I can read this verse and listen to Pete Seeger, and let the times turn from one to another without worry. We will always survive the times of war and hate and cherish the times of peace and love. Remembering God’s constant comfort through it all—like a steady hand on the rudder of a ship, steering me through hazardous waters—frees the worries from my mind. I can instead focus on daily happiness and joy.

Dear God, let me remember your infinite wisdom and knowing. Remind me that the times of hardship will pass, and comfort me with times of gladness and peace. Free me from my worries, and let the times turn from one to another without friction or anxiety. In your name. Amen.

Day 34 Marie Martinez (2018)

Hear my pleading, Lord! Be merciful and send the help I need. My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me, O my people.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” Oh, do not hide yourself when I am trying to find you. Do not angrily reject your servant. You have been my help in all my trials before; don’t leave me now. Don’t forsake me, O God of my salvation. For if my father and mother should abandon me, you would welcome and comfort me. Tell me what to do, O Lord, and make it plain because I am surrounded by waiting enemies. Don’t let them get me, Lord! Don’t let me fall into their hands! For they accuse me of things I never did, and all the while are plotting cruelty. I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the living. Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you. ~Psalm 27:8-14

The Biblical languages enthusiast in me shudders at the thought of turning to the Living Bible’s paraphrase of this text, but there’s something beautiful about how it reads.

In this prayerful portion of Psalm 27, David’s heart hears the Lord say, “Come and talk with me” (v. 8). In Scripture, hearing indicates much more than mere auditory sensory perception. It is not a passive act. Hearing leads to doing, to following, to obeying. David’s heart hears and then responds.

In this psalm, David is conflicted. On one hand, he is begging God not to hide God’s face from him, fearing abandonment and rejection. Yet, at the same time, he states that even if what are considered the most tightly knit human relationships are dissolved, God would still take him in and call him God’s own. He pleads with God to help him, to save him from his enemies, all the while remaining fully confident that God will intervene as God has done for him in the past. This internal conflict is very much so relatable content!

There is a popular saying that quips, “As of this very moment, you have survived 100% of your most difficult experiences.” Is it just I, or is that phrase easier to appreciate when you’re on the other side of a challenge? Some days don’t feel like there was any morsel of survival at all. Sure, your body is still alive, but is to survive simply to make it out alive? I would say that for people of faith, survival is, yes, to have lived through it, but more specifically, survival is the resurgence within ourselves of the Christian hope

that inevitably gets lost to some degree along the way. In this sense, we can be surviving well before our trials are even over. In verse 7, David tells the Lord to hear his pleading. His pleas, full of desperation, fear, forsakenness, and doubt, also illustrate David’s confidence that God can and will act to save him. He is surviving. The parallels between this verse and Jesus’ cry from the cross in Matthew 27:46 are beautiful. “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Jesus’ cry is full of pain, lament, forsakenness, perhaps doubt. But the very act of crying out underscores his faith in God’s hearing the cry. (Jesus is quoting the psalmist’s plea in the opening verse of Psalm 22!) He believes that God will hear him and will respond. And what a response: the reconciliation of all things to God’s self in Christ Jesus (Col 1:19-20)!

David illustrates for us what it means to cry out to God, to listen to God’s beckoning for us “to come and talk” (v. 8). And then, we are instructed to “wait for the Lord” (v. 14). Waiting, like hearing, is not passive either. We wait in prayer. We wait in service. We wait in active listening. And we wait in confident expectation that God will, indeed, act.

What are you hearing God say to your heart? What action does that inspire on your part?

In what ways are you actively waiting for the Lord? In what way is your waiting passive or even impatiently passive?

Gracious God, thank you for faithfully listening to your creation as we cry out to you. Grant us ears that truly hear and hearts that understand, and embolden us to respond to your call in ways that glorify you. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Day 35 Linda Marx (2005)

We, as Christians. are commanded to love. We are challenged to love. Love thy neighbor! Love your enemies! Whatever you do, LOVE. Throughout the Gospel, we read the many acts of love by Jesus, and some of us are amazed! And then there’s the early church in Corinth! (We may have more in common with them than we want to admit!) In the early days, they really struggled. Their actions were self-centered. Their concern was for status. What a dysfunctional mess! The Apostle Paul steps in (by letter) to advise them, to tell them of the community function of love. Perhaps love is the glue. He writes: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. ~1 Corinthians 8:1-2

And then there is the reminder that it is not about us as individuals: All things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial. All things are lawful, but not all things build us up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other. ~1 Corinthians 10:23-24

Love is the proper care and consideration of others. Love is an essential ingredient of life; it builds us up. Then, Paul encourages us to strive “for the greater gifts” and he shows us a “more excellent way”. And so he writes the love chapter! How often do we read it? Can we really live it? Let’s read it now: Love If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not selfseeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. ~1 Corinthians 13

Love is a “thing”. It can be a verb. It is an attitude. It is a behavior. It is quite the challenge! We fall short. We do not love as we have been commanded to do. We struggle to love people who don’t think the way we want them to think. We struggle to love those who don’t live their lives the way we think they should live. We struggle. Unfortunately, Paul gives us no exceptions to the rule. He gives us no reason to withhold love. He reminds us of the importance of love to our community, and to the world. He schools us on that fact that God does not withhold his love from us! and so we continue to struggle….to love.

Paul’s parting advice to us: Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of our beloved church, let us go forth in love. Build us up. Heavenly Father, help us to love others as you have loved us! Amen.

Day 36 Rachel McWhirter (2020) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight; In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. ~Isaiah 43:19

No one who has experienced the year 2020 has escaped the uncertainty of change. This year has been the equivalent of rapidly approaching a freeway interchange while the dreaded “recalculating” phrase is repeated by the driver assist voice – yet no clear route has been determined. Changes in life’s plans may be unexpected, uncomfortable, and even unwanted at times, but change is necessary and divinely built into the fabric of our existence. Changing plans is often the better part of wisdom and God may intervene to put us on another path. We see this clearly illustrated in the Bible many times – but the example of Saint Paul has been highly relatable to me this year.

During his second journey as a missionary, Paul (accompanied by Silas) intended to revisit the formative churches in the Asia Minor provinces with the purpose of starting new ones, “but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them” (Acts 16:7). All doors were closed, God had other plans. At Troas, Paul had a vision of a man asking him to “come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). Thus, they left Asia Minor to become the very first Christian missionaries in Europe.

Paul also didn’t originally plan to minister to the Galatians. He was sidetracked by illness (can’t we all relate?) Nevertheless, God utilized Paul to plant a church! Paul lived among the Galatians, learned of their culture, and he loved them. While he preached the Gospel, he figured out how to communicate Christ in a way that was relatable to these people. The relationships he cultivated were crucial in this understanding. When Paul says, “become like me, for I became like you”, (Galatians 4:12) he encourages them to follow his example of what faithfulness is. Paul serves as a reminder that often the best way to communicate Christ’s Gospel of grace and love is to live and communicate in relationship with others.

The COVID-19 pandemic seemingly took many things from me – a career, the lives of loved ones, a sense of stability I enjoyed. I am not alone in this experience. However, it never took away my faith that God’s changes in my worldly plans would be far greater and reaching than I could understand. As a newly accepted member at Christ the King (and new Lutheran to boot), I never expected to be so quickly called away from the path I had created for my own life to help the church during a global crisis. Instead of reeling against the changes hitting me like constant tsunamis, I fell to my knees in gratitude for all I had lost more than once – thankful to have been included in finding new ways to help ‘plant the church’ digitally in spite of everything else happening around me. This new virtual frontier is an untamed ministry full of challenges, but I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by a congregation steeped in love for our neighbors and guided by leadership that didn’t hesitate to make a way for the Word to be accessible to all of God’s people – wherever they may be in the world.

Sometimes, we just have to start over – and over, and over once again, seeking God to help us to find the right path as we regroup. Amid all the changes in our world and in our lives, there is one constant:

Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His Word abides. His saving love is the same now as it was when He took up the cross and laid down His life for our salvation. Sometimes when you’re stuck ‘recalculating’ you literally have to let Jesus take the wheel as the starting point to reroute your life. What changes are you facing today? What changes are you putting off, pushing up against, or even running from? How would your life and your relationship with God look differently by yielding to change?

Gracious, merciful, and steadfast God, we know that change in our lives is inevitable, but we are afraid. Your son, Jesus Christ, came into the world as one of us and suffered as we do. Where hearts are fearful and constricted, grant courage and openness. Where anxiety and illness are infectious and widening, grant healing and reassurance. Where impossibilities seem to block every door and window, grant creativity and resilience. Where the dark twists our thinking, grant peace and illumination. Where spirits are weary and weakened, grant reimagined dreams and sources of hope. All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Day 37 Lisa Miller (2019) Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea. ~Isaiah 48:17-18

This was God’s remonstrance to Israel, His chosen people: Had they walked with Him and trusted Him from the start, their lot would have been very different and they would now be experiencing far greater blessings. This should be a no-brainer, but it seems that Jesus’ moral principles are simple, the application difficult: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27); “always treat others as you would like them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12); and “forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

“How can I do better?” I’m always asking myself. “Why should this walk be so difficult?” Looking for an answer, reflecting on my own life-journey, it feels like the words of a popular song from my misspent youth, “What a long, strange trip it’s been!”

That journey has at times taken me — a Lutheran transgender woman — in contact with perhaps well- intentioned people, who, using any of a half-dozen scriptural “clobber” passages taken from eisegesis, demonstrate that somehow I’ve made a “choice” that has strayed from walking with God. God hates me, they tell me. But why? What have I done?

At other times my life-journey has taken me to less well-intentioned people, who see my gender identity as a disease, who try to legislate me out of existence. They want to make me a felon for using a public restroom. They tell medical professionals to use their own moral judgment about whether they should treat me or not. God hates me, they imply.

It’s sometimes difficult, at least for me, to discern the right path when one is steadily fed misleading information!

Am I mistaken? Am I enough? Will my enemies destroy me? Do I have the stamina to see this through? Doubts are constantly swirling through my head. Yet the person who fails to trust God’s Word completely forfeits more than comfort. She forfeits peace.

These times inevitably lead me, like Jacob, to a point where I’m wrestling with God. Even when I realize that I’m fighting God, I still have to struggle with Him in prayer; I still have to get Him into the center of my life. That takes grappling in prayer, that takes introspection, very often I’ve felt like my heart’s dead! I hold up the Law, I hold up the Commandments: “You must live up to this standard!” my heart tells me! And being the Law, I’m terrorized, and being terrorized — feeling insufficient — finally, once I despair of my own ability, then I hear the gospel. I hear the good news! Christ has paid it all!! I simply have to believe that His justification is sufficient, even for right now, even for the moment that I feel terrorized by the Law.

The Christian life is a reapplication of the doctrine of justification again and again and again! “If only you had trusted Him from the start, how very different your lot would be!” This is what Christ the King Church does for me. It gives me a chance to unfold, to be myself — a healing place where I can love God and others as myself, treat them as I want to be treated, and to forgive and be forgiven.

Father, thank you for caring about our pain and disappointments. Calm the whirling winds of fear and hurt that threaten our faith. Keep us from trying to cope with our struggles by our own strength and willpower. Help us to release our emotions to you and trust you to sustain us. Thank you for your comforting words of wisdom. Let us receive the healing of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Day 38 Marie Monroe (1982)

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” ~Genesis 15:5

Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ~Genesis 17:4

“Now we are all part of that Great Family, which has become as many as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand in the desert.”

These words come near the end of the Godly Play story, The Great Family, which tells the story of Abraham and Sarah’s travels and the promise made several times that he will be the father of a great nation, whose members are more than stars in the heavens. God also reassures Sarah that she will have a baby by the end of the year, though she is 90 years old.

We start this Sunday School year with this story and its promises. This story is a favorite with the children, coming at the beginning of the year and involving wooden characters moved slowly across the sand in a “desert box,” a large sand box. God keeps telling Abram, at first, and Abraham later that he will be the father of a family. We tell the children that God told him that “the members of the Great Family will be as many as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand in the desert.” And what did Abram do? He laughed. Just as Sarah laughed later when she overheard strangers telling Abraham that they would have a son. She was 90 and he was 99! So she laughed so hard. And then do you know what happened? Abraham and Sarah had a son and they named him “Laughter” which in their language was “Isaac.”

This is a good story to have during a pandemic. It’s full of promise and reassurance. And the best promise is that they are not alone, not at all. Even though they are beyond the age when they could expect a child, God keeps reminding them “you will be part of a great family.” Families are exactly what we need now — someone to carry on our stories, laugh with us, make faces behind their masks, remind us that we are not alone. God promises us that things will not remain like they are now. So we, like Abraham and Sarah, can laugh even though we are away from our friends, scared of getting sick, and wondering what next? They laughed and so do we.

What a relief to know that now we are all part of that Great Family. Dear Lord, Teach us that all of your children are our brothers or sisters. Make us joyful at the strength we have, joined together as the body of Christ. Amen.

Day 39 Linda Murray (2020)

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. ~Psalm 103:8

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11

You might wonder why these two seemingly unrelated bible verses were chosen together, so let me explain with a few background stories.

As a full-time working single parent adopter of three foreign-born older children (ages 6, 13 and 13 at the time of their respective adoptions, all many years ago), these two verses are now very much beloved in our family.

Faith, patience, love and hope are some of the key ingredients for successful family life.

When my children first arrived into the US, they had limited English and were very used to experiencing adults or caregivers who had failed them. As a result, all three of them would constantly test their boundary limits, in order to see if I, as their new parent and caregiver, was also going to fail them by harming them or sending them away.

During their first year in the US, the youngest was clumsy and many times didn’t even try to anger me on purpose, while the teens made it their mission. This was infuriating to me, could they not see how lucky they were now? Hmmm, time to stop for reflection!

The six-year-old had once dumped a full saltshaker out onto the living room floor, and the teens dropped a bag of flour, plus dumped out the coffee grounds all over the kitchen floor. Both spills created dangerous situations, especially when you also have a houseful of pets that could become very sick getting into those spills, making me very mad.

As we swept and cleaned up those messes, I struggled to stifle my growing anger, especially when they would instead make the mess worse by not really helping to clean up. As usual, I was only partly successful in stifling my anger.

In reality, as mild as my children’s transgressions were in the grand scheme of things, you’d think that I would have been able to laugh it off. To instead make it a teachable moment. Sadly, I would often instead give in to anger. Especially if that “spill” occurred after a long frustrating day at work, I was only partly successful in stifling my anger and keeping things in perspective. In my anger and frustration, I was lacking the grace that my children needed to be demonstrated to them in those moments.

When we consider the depth of human imperfection and the scope of human evil, how remarkable it is to then discover that, unlike us, God is “gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.

In my fits of anger, I had to try to really remind myself of our Lord’s grace, and then in turn, to try to display and model that same behavior of love towards my children. Knowing that children who’ve never previously known the love of an earthly parent will also struggle to understand the depth of love that our Heavenly Father has for us, it was critical for me to model a behavior of grace rather than of anger. So the action step, for us all in this story, is to be aware of what sparks anger in you, and to try to remember God’s steadfast love, by praying to our gracious God: “to please help us to be slow to anger and abiding in love towards others as God is toward us. Amen.

As the children began to understand this, and as we all tried to model that behavior of grace towards each other, then the second verse, as quoted above from Jeremiah 29:11, also became our family “theme verse”.

Over time, the children began to feel my love and see that they were now residing in a safe place, and that no matter their undesirable behavior, they were still very much loved and that this was their home. They gave their hearts over to our Lord, and began to prosper. Over time they understood what it meant to be a child adopted not just by me, but by God. As believers, we are all God’s adopted children. We are part of God’s family, not just our small family unit, but a part of a bigger family community.

My children began to learn and grow, plus see their new future here in America within a positive light, in this new loving forever-home environment, strengthened with the knowledge that God indeed does have a plan for each one of them individually, to prosper them and to give them “hope and a future”.

Those two bible verses, plus this prayer, “A Family Blessing”, are posted on the refrigerator as visual reminders. A Family Blessing Lord of all, Bless our families. Be they formed by blood or by circumstance, make them holy. Lord, may we find you in our relationships, in our families, in our households, in our communities, in our church families, in our workplaces, and in our collective global humanity. May we look across all that divides us and see one true family. Families that come in all shapes, sizes and colors. We are basically all one human species. Let us celebrate any perceived differences harmoniously. Let us embrace each other as a family does. Let us love each other as a family ought to do. For where there are two or three gathered together in your name Lord, there, the Spirit is present and God is with us. Amen.

Thanks be to God! Especially in these crazy days, when we are all “together, while apart” during this time of quarantine, these two bible verses, plus this prayer, helps to remind ourselves to continue to love one another and to have hope for the future.

Day 40 Naomi Nelson (1983)

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ~Matthew 16:15-16

Last fall, our church group embarked on a Holy Land tour designed to visit areas of Jesus’ life and ministry. But to my surprise one of the first sites we visited was an ancient pagan attraction – temple ruins once built to honor the Greek god Pan. Sitting below the cool waterfall that flows into the Jordan River, we learned that here, near Caesarea Philippi, the disciples were confronted with pressing questions about the identity of Jesus.

In this idolatrous area, Jesus asked his faithful disciples “Who do you say that I am?” This open-ended question was a typical teaching style of Jesus; such questions required answers of deep personal reflection. A closed-ended question with a yes or no response may have been sufficient, but Jesus wanted more. Peter responded with an answer that professed his personal beliefs – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

That powerful question to the disciples became real for me that morning and has challenged me ever since. My answer to the question “Who do you say that I am” waxes and wanes depending on my mood, my spiritual needs, and life’s circumstances. Sometimes my answers seem speculative because of my

own doubts, hesitancies, and questions. At other times, I feel that my answer is solid and unmoving like the rocky grotto. I find the identity question important but difficult because Peter’s answer suggests much more than it appears. The answer has deeper implications – it not only identifies who Jesus is, but because of that identity demands actions of trust and commitment.

God is working through faithful persons on our Church Council, ministry, music, and support staffs to enrich our loving community, and to provide worship and service opportunities that strengthen each of us in our journey of faith. There is encouragement at our church for asking questions and contemplating answers as we discern together not only who Jesus is but who are we once we have pondered that question.

Far from the fixed rocks of the ancient ruins and the freshness of mountain water, Jesus continues to confront us with the stirring question “Who do you say that I am?” I think it’s perfectly legitimate to ‘borrow’ the answer from Peter and to proclaim “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Let us stand with the witness of Peter and the disciples as we celebrate the 75 years of blessings on Christ the King Lutheran Church. Thanks be to God.

Day 41 Alice Oeben (1976)

But Jesus said, “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” ~Matthew 19:14

When I was a very little girl, the first song I learned in Sunday school was “Jesus Loves Me.” The words were simple, repetitive and easy for young children to learn. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong; they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”

Another song we were taught as a companion to this was: “Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” The word, “black,” in this song was the only time I heard it used to refer to those we knew as “colored people.”

I was born in North Carolina and went to school there until we moved to the southern part of Virginia. We lived in an old house, Shady Grove, which had been built in the early 1800’s. It was the home of Spotswood Henry built on land which had been given to him by his father, Patrick Henry. The house was built of plantation bricks made from the red clay soil of the area. Regrettably, but most certainly, slaves were used to make the bricks and to build the house. I returned to North Carolina to go to college, studying nursing. When I graduated, I had never attended an integrated school. Integration took place the following year.

It was my patients who taught me about the feelings of black people. The hospital wards were separated and labeled “Colored Medical Patients” or “White Surgical Patients” and so forth. Public restroom doors were labeled White Women or Colored Men and so forth. Water fountains also were marked Colored or White. I will never, ever forget the little old black lady who needed to get out of her chair and walk. Her shoes were on the floor beside her and I stooped over to put her shoes on her feet. She immediately put her hands on my shoulders and tried to pull me upright. She cried out, “No, Missy! No, Missy!” She was mortified that a white girl would be putting her shoes on her feet. Another day, I was giving a bed bath to an elderly black gentleman who was weak, bedridden, and unable to do anything for himself. As nurses, we were careful to keep all patients warm and covered with towels in a way that preserved their modesty, but this man was distressed that I would be bathing him. I told him that an orderly would come in afterwards to assist him in completing his bath. Talking with him throughout helped distract him, but I think he was very relieved when I was finished and the orderly came in. These and others patients helped me greatly in understanding the feelings of black people as we all struggled with the changing social practices. May we continue the struggle to change social and justice practices and find new ways of living together in Jesus’ love.

Jesus loves me, this I know. Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. The Bible tells me so.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lead us to treat one another with love and compassion as brothers and sisters in your family, called to serve the world in your holy name. Amen.

Day 42 Sharon Ostwald (1995)

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, [a] they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. ~John 6:16-21

I remember many years ago when Mel and I, with several other young couples, climbed aboard a friend’s pontoon boat in Excelsior, Minnesota to picnic while we watched the sunset across Lake Minnetonka. A few clouds drifted through the sky with a soft breeze that promised a smooth ride – and we were all in high spirits. Before we had sailed too far, the beautiful clear sky began to turn dark. Then the wind picked up and the rain came, first soft, and then hard and stinging. The pontoon boat did not offer any shelter and the waves began to toss the boat. The conversation stopped as we sat quietly and held on to our seats and prayed. We were frightened! We were too far from shore to turn back. The Captain of the pontoon, more familiar with Lake Minnetonka than most of us, steered the boat toward Big Island, a deserted island in the middle of Lake Minnetonka. He made the right decision and we reached the shore safely. We all scrambled off the boat, cold and soaked to the bone with baskets of wet, soggy food. But we were safe and we were thankful.

We are all in a storm now; it is called COVID-19. While it is easy to say that “we are all in this together”, the truth is that while we are all in the same storm, we are in different boats. Some are sailing in expensive, well-equipped yachts, some are in open pontoons, and still others are in rusty rowboats, quickly taking on water. We do not know when this storm will end or how our lives will be changed. But we do know the Captain who has promised to always be with us whatever our situation. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ~Romans 8:38

O Great God, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and our love for all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each other’s burdens and reaches out to help those who are in need. Use us to help heal our world. Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer this prayer in all the holy names of God. Amen. (adapted from Fr. Richard Rohr)

Day 43 Beverly Palmer (1980) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ~John 1:1

Then God said……. ~Genesis 1

In my childhood home, words were used only to express unhappiness, bitterness, disappointment, judgment or to give orders and demands. But then because of my extraordinary junior year English teacher in high school, and a subsequent long- term immersion into university English programs, I began to learn the true power of words. I learned that the powerful feelings about everything trapped inside of me could be expressed and that the expressed emotions are what can transform your picture from black and white into wide-screen technicolor.

I know our parents loved my sisters and me, but rarely was that love ever expressed in words or physical affection. Nor were thanks ever offered for things other than an occasional gift. Then one day while dating my husband-to-be, he called me an endearing term, and even now I recall the thrill that charged through my entire body. It was then that I learned how meaningful and therapeutic to others kind and loving words can be. And I continued to learn about words.

I learned that words can give much joy to others. When I moved away from home in 1969, I began writing frequent letters to family and friends, and began receiving letters from them telling me how much they enjoyed them and how they laughed at my descriptions of daily life. I looked forward to their letters in turn.

I learned that gentle, rational words can diffuse difficult situations. Many misinterpretations and misperceptions in interactions with others can be avoided by well thought-out words, thereby enabling wonderful friendships and relationships instead of resentments, failures and hatred.

I learned that words have power to change others. Discussion and sharing of feelings in my childhood home were non-existent. Gradually each family member began pouring out his/her heart and soul in letters in response to my letters and to each other’s letters. Tolerance of others’ foibles grew. I learned how words and memory are intricately linked. As I reviewed all my saved correspondence, my family is vividly present to me again. I was also reminded how retrospect is truly clearer than hindsight as I have begun to understand a lot of my history. Sometimes I wish I could go back and change things or even apologize, but understanding has also enabled healthier current relationships.

I did not have to learn how words can be used in every negative way possible—to deceive, to manipulate, to hurt. It happens everywhere every day. I will not use words in that way. I see a true Christian’s role as contributing to the world’s beauty and diminishing its ugliness through word and deed.

As a result of all I have learned about words, I find myself constantly assessing each vision, each utterance, each experience, for its meaning, its beauty, its relationship to everything else, and considering ways I can share it with others, verbally or in writing. I think psychologists call this living mindfully. This habit has enriched my life and provided flexibility in dealing with its vicissitudes. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant by truly “seeing” and an “abundant life.”

Is it no wonder that God’s mode of operation is through the Word? God spoke the world into being. God continues to call each of us into service by name. God sent Jesus to us so that he could teach us through his words in our physical presence. God inspired the writing of the scriptural words that continue to teach and inspire us. God is present to us weekly in church through word and song. Now all that is truly powerful use of Word. I find it most humbling that God chose to make us in God’s own image, giving us the ability to also use words. I pray that we use them wisely.

Day 44 Hatley (2015) and Audrey Post (2018)

Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. ~Hebrews 11:1

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, and the other belonging to the Lord When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of his life. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.” The Lord replied, “My precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints in the sand it was then that I carried you.”

The devotional story above is one that I first heard a few years ago in a Bible study setting and it has stayed with me throughout the highs and lows that have happened since. It feels much easier to remember and glorify God when things are going well and life is good, but by the same token, it can also be easy to forget God’s presence when things are hard and to ask Him where he was. The trials we experience are part of the paths we walk throughout life -- there is no road where the going is always easy. What the devotional above highlights, however, is to remember that God is always there with us, supporting and caring, when the seas get rocky and storms roll in. Quarantine has been incredibly difficult. We’ve each experienced a loss of some kind — loss of connection, a sense of normalcy, things we were looking forward to, and more. It is easy to bemoan the losses experienced throughout this period of upheaval and to wonder how we will survive all of the challenges that seem never ending. By remembering that God is always supporting us, however, we remember that all we experience is placed in front of us for a reason and that we never face it alone.

Dear Lord, it is in these times of need that I turn to you, I look for your light as the darkness around me encroaches. I look for your wisdom in the endless uncertainty of my world. I look for your direction as I feel directionless. I strive for your forgiveness as I navigate the trials and tribulations of a country in turmoil. But above all, I look for your kindness to lighten the darkness, I strive for your kindness to lighten the darkness. Amen.

Day 45 Ben Remmert (2014)

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us. ~1 John 4:7-12

2020 has been a year unlike any that has ever been seen before. Every year can boast this, but not with such a high level of anxiety and mass communication for the world. We have so much concern about how life will go back to “normal.” When will schools/day cares be able to safely have our children and youth learn? When can we comfortably gather with our family and friends to celebrate holidays and family milestones? When can we go to the store without fear that our neighbor may have something that would cause us to be sick? I am reminded that through all our anxiety and concerns, God’s love for all is greater than our fears of the unknown.

Love appears in the Bible 872 times while the word “fear” is in the Bible 524. So it’s clear that God’s love is greater than fear, right? If only it were that easy. The news we receive constantly drum up fear. Our bodies have a physical response to our brain telling us something is coming our way that could cause harm to us, to our family and friends, and to our way of life. That “someone we love” piece holds the

other side of this equation. When someone we love is in danger, our love moves us beyond our fear. Yet we live in a world where: sickness and cancer win too many times. people are not welcomed. violence becomes our response to injustice. children are hungry. young people live in fear of their parents being deported. women and men march for rights we thought were long ago attained. fear seems to win.

And yet…. our Christian faith tells us this about love. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. I pray to be fully formed in love that calms during fear. I pray our communities challenge the fearful world. I pray that each of us not only prays for love to banish our fears, but for that same love of Christ to move us to action for our neighbors across the world. Amen.

Day 46 Velma Rice (2000)

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. ~Joel 2:28-29

Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness. It does not come at the end, as the feeling that results from a happy outcome. Rather, it lies at the beginning, as a pulse of the truth that sends us forth. ~Cynthia Bourgeault

In his book, The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann uses the Exodus story to explore how to nourish a community from a dominant culture of oppression to an alternative community of justice and compassion. Like Brueggemann I feel there is a parallel with our current society. Brueggemann writes that we have lost our identity and our hope. The first thing that Moses does is to expose the static gods of oppression and exploitation; then Moses begins to form a new community of justice and compassion around the freedom of the great I AM. “Liberation begins with the grieving complaint of Israel”, the primal scream, and the capacity to grieve! “And God heard their groaning”. This new community knows “that something is ‘on the move’ in the darkness”; they affirm the darkness and find the “one who can be trusted” with the darkness. This is when the community begins to understand that this God of freedom is also God for us, the powerless marginalized people.

Then the community can reclaim their hope and their identity. Being made in the image of God they sing and dance their freedom in the doxology, the Song of Miriam.

The Spirit of Pentecost has been poured out on us! Let us reclaim our identity and rise up, individually and as a community, and name the impotent gods. Let us lament until our groaning becomes the moan of birthing. May we walk with St John of the Cross through the “dark night of the soul” trusting “the one who can be trusted with the darkness”. May we listen with the Indwelling Spirit, the one who from the beginning, sends us forth with the pulsing hope of love and compassion. And in the Spirit of freedom and Prophetic Imagination may we dream dreams, see visions, and sing & dance as an alternative community.

Day 47 Judith and Phil Richey (2017)

Love God. Love your neighbor.

Five seemingly simple words. Putting the concepts into practice on a daily basis and in every situation proves much more difficult.

Jesus answers the query as to which is the greatest commandant with these words “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.’” Mark 12:30-31

It seems that in today’s environment this is a particular challenge. Everywhere I look, I see division. Which lives matter? Only one type? All types?

And what about political choices? Does choosing one side make the other wrong automatically? Does hurling vitriol toward the other justify your choice?

What about exercising your personal freedoms? Are those freedoms guaranteed? Do you interpret what freedom means differently from your neighbor? If so, who’s correct?

Everywhere I look in social media, on the news, in the online new reports I read, I see division. I see very little love for the neighbor, much less for God.

Even my God-loving friends are divided on what loving God is supposed to look and sound like.

Some would even take this pondering a step further and ask “Who has the truth?”

We question if there is such a thing as an ultimate truth. Is it more about beliefs than truth? Maybe we don’t have knowledge of the truth…

Where does that leave us?

The scribe who came to Jesus and asked about the greatest commandment probably thought Jesus would respond by picking one of the commandments handed down to Moses. Jesus, instead, lead the listeners in a new direction by giving them these two commandments of which “There is no commandment greater than these.”

Can we go in a new direction when it comes to love? Can we literally choose love in every situation, with every person, every day?

On social media, it’s so easy to get sucked into the river of hate that flows through our screen. Viewing those hate filled posts gives us the choice to engage with same, or to “show love, love, love”, to quote the Beatles.

My choice is to show love. With my God-loving friends whose brand of faith looks radically different from mine, I read, digest, seek to understand, and move on. With my friends who spew the hate, prejudice and promote racial injustice, I stop and say a prayer for them. Sometimes I engage in loving the neighbor within myself by “snoozing” someone for 30 days to take a break from the anger. I also take banana pudding across the street to our neighbor who freely uses inappropriate language because of all the other things that are so wonderful about him— his loyalty as a friend, willingness to do anything for you, the way he has taken one of my sons under his wing and been a hunting and fishing buddy. With the bad there is a world of good.

Isn’t that really what it’s about? Within our world, there is bad and there is a world of good. When we devote ourselves to being the good through loving God and loving our neighbor, maybe we can affect change, one moment, one post, one person at a time. Oh Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to show love to our neighbor, every day, in every way. Where there is hardness in our heart, cleanse our hearts and return our sight to you. Where there are bitter words on our lips, cleanse our tongues and return our thoughts to you. Where there is cowardly courage in our fingers through our keyboards, direct our hands and fingers to bring uplifting messages sharing your love for all through all of our communications. Show us, Lord, every way we can bring your love through our actions so we may truly love our neighbor as we love you. Amen.

Day 48 Sergio Rodriguez, pastoral intern (2020)

Blessed is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, their God, the maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, who gives bread to the hungry. ~Psalm 146:5-7a

An emotional weight fills the heavens and the earth around us during times of great suffering and loss. In many respects, our collective life seems to be gathered up in a thick fog, a cloud, that seems to make our days longer, our resiliency shorter and our need for guidance greater. In short, each of us reaches out to familiar faces, places and rituals as a way of moving forward day by day during this paradox of a year; an anniversary in the middle of a pandemic. Even though, dear sibling in Christ, I may not know you as much as I would have liked, being your Intern for this year, I want you to know that I too bear upon my shoulders a heaviness of sorts. I carry a heaviness because I wish the circumstances would have been favorable; I still have much life that I would care to share with you in person. During a similar time of loss, when my sister and I had to close our food truck, my mother would speak these words that seemed to impact the healing power of hope to my wounded heart: Vivimos bajo la misma luna (we live beneath the same moon). Whenever it would seem like you’re far away and sorrow carries you to distant lands of grief,” she would say, “we are much closer in spirit and love even though you may not discern it. You may not see it but it’s Dioscito (our precious God) who made the heavens and earth, the seas and all that is in them, he is the one who has set this moon for us as a sign of hope. Ten Fe (Have Faith).”

Yet to be honest, my mother’s words are difficult for me to accept. I struggle with the boldness and sincere confidence of my mother; the tenacity and the embrace of God even while the storms of life rage. I struggle because I carry within me doubts born from suffering and grief. I carry these doubts because, as many of you have experienced in life, my own life seemed to have proven the contrary. Growing up in a working-class household, there were times when my parents had no bread. So I would wonder about God. God, when will we have food and parties like the people on tv? When I grew older, I lost my baby sister, grandmother, uncle, both grandparents to various unexpected circumstances. Again I asked. God, when will I see them again? And where did they go? When folks would ridicule me for my accent or tell me to go back to the other side of the river, I would again ask God; why do they hide much ignorance and hatred within their heart? For a while when I discovered I was gay, I felt ashamed to even talk to God. Years later when I found myself sitting alone in my room in Fort Wayne, IN contemplating why I had made the decision to get my Master’s at a Missouri-Synod seminary, I found myself asking God; where are you in the middle of this night of the soul that I am experiencing? After each of these moments of suffering, I would hear in the stillness of my soul the very voice of my mother echoing these words: “Ten fe. Vivimos bajo la misma luna.”

So, I offer up to you, dear friends, I bless you with these words that they may accompany you during the fogginess of this time: Blessed are you who live under the same moon as I; the moon made as a sign of hope by the Maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them. Amen.

Day 49 Lucky Sahualla (1994)

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. ~Matthew 15:21-28

I love this story because it is one of the few times that Jesus loses an argument. It reminds me that God in Jesus the Christ came to us not only in human form, but as a human. The Canaanite woman may not be from the “house of Israel” geographically or even religiously, but she is Jacob-turned-Israel in that she tenaciously wrestles with God and prevails.

If one were to write the musical of the Gospel of Matthew in the style of Lin Manuel-Miranda of Hamilton fame, one can picture there might be a mixture of sweet songs about God’s love and peace, folksy tunes as parables set in daily life, inspirational rock ballads, and fierce rap battles. This would be a rap battle. It would be perhaps set as the final battle in a 3-round freestyle rap off featuring our young and ascendant hero, Jesus, spinning rhymes full of wit and confidence in the wisdom of his teaching and the power in his healings, of how God gives him power over all things.

Round 1: Jesus obliterates the Pharisees about his disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath. Round 2: Jesus twists the Saducees words into knots over how a person is defiled.

Round 3: Desperate, exhausted mother of a tormented child at her wit’s end, pleads for her daughter, taunting Jesus that maybe he is no match for the demon. Undeterred by his response calling her a low down, dirty Canaanite dog in all kinds of colorful ways, she takes Jesus down with one simple refrain, repeated over and over again building it up until she shouts one final time in his face, her hand out … open … inviting … “What you gonna do? You be you!”

Suddenly, what was a raucous crowd falls to complete silence. Jesus’ crew, which had been living it up basking in the glow of their leader, freezes. The scene hangs in the air for a moment as we zoom in on Jesus’ face, anticipating his response. Is that a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek or a tear? After a seemingly too long pause on that single drop of water hanging precariously from his cheek bone, it falls from Jesus’ face. We see he has taken her outstretched hand into his, and he looks her in the eyes and says, “Woman your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you wish.” He lifts her arm up in victory, but her other arm comes up too, in praise of God. She falls to the ground crying, her sweaty, tear-stained

hair splayed over Jesus’ feet as the crowd goes wild such as no crowd ever has before, erupting in chant, “What you gonna do? You be you!”

Dear God, thank you for this glimpse into how you revealed yourself to us through Jesus in humility with a listening ear and a caring heart. Help me stay in that relationship with you, to stay in conversation with you—even if animated and heated at times—about my life, my joys, my pains, my fears, and my hopes. God, I trust you. Give me the strength to wrestle with you when I need to, to praise and thank you when I ought, and to plead to you when I must not lose hope for the healing and justice I seek. Amen.

Day 50 Andrea Salas (2003)

I never realized how much I take it for granted that certain things I see as fundamental to who I am will never change, and then, when they do, when they have to change, I’m left reeling.

Up until the last few weeks, I would have instantly dismissed the idea of “internet church” as being something I’d never have an interest in, because as much as my house and my church both feel like home to me, I appreciate the separation and the differences between the two. One is a place to be recharged on a daily basis through the motions of sleeping, eating, interacting with my family, and having me-time, while the other is a place to be renewed through the rituals of worship and connection with my community. Though I do appreciate a chance to sleep an extra hour or two (who doesn’t?), the process of getting ready for church and the fifteen to twenty minute drive to get there helps to center myself in a way.

But now, as I write this, we are in the midst of a global pandemic. SARS-CoV-2, a new and rapidly spreading virus more commonly known as COVID-19 or simply Coronavirus, has been wreaking havoc. Businesses deemed non-essential have closed temporarily, though many are doing what they can to adapt without losing too much revenue by switching to doing business online or offering delivery or curbside business. Half the world has come to a standstill.

I, on the other hand, work an essential job at a veterinary clinic, deemed an essential service. Much of my routine is unchanged, except for Sunday mornings. And with the state of things as they are due to the coronavirus – with so many places temporarily closed including places of worship – the inability to go to church has me all discombobulated.

Of course, there have been and will continue to be times when I as an individual can’t go to church due to illness, injury, travel, or other personal barrier. But the idea of church ceasing to exist as it always has, even temporarily, as a tangible experience in a physical building surrounded by people able to see, hear, and touch each other – well, it seemed unfathomable to me. But it didn’t really hit me until the first Sunday morning after it was announced that CTK would be closing its doors to the congregation and streaming services online, and I was watching the service on CTK’s YouTube channel. And the voices of

my parents were the only ones I could hear lifted in song with mine, pretty much drowning out the sound of the six people singing on the screen. At the same time, while I could only hear two other voices with me, I could see on the computer screen that there were more than a hundred others, unseen and unheard, sitting at their own tables, isolated in their own homes, watching the same channel, unable to hear any voices but those of the people next to them and the ones on their computers, still holding onto as much of a sense of community as can be had in a time where your world shrinks to the size of a three-and-a-half-by-six-feet table and a nine-by-thirteen-inch screen.

And knowing that, I know that when we are finally able to stand closer than six feet, when we are allowed to gather together with more than nine other people, when we’re allowed to shake hands and hug again, the sound of a hundred other voices surrounding me will be a thousand times sweeter.

Day 51 Federico Salas-Isnardi and Donna Olson-Salas (1987)

And then he said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we describe it? It is like the mustard-seed, which is smaller than any seed in the ground at its sowing. But once sown, it springs up and grows taller than any other plant, and forms branches so large that the birds can settle in its shade.” ~Mark 2:30-32

The seeds of our faith were planted in the fertile garden of Christ the King Lutheran Church in 1987. They were given light and water through the Word and the music of the services. They were given the nourishment of a caring family and new friends and acquaintances.

With the baptism of our three children new seeds were planted in faith that they would grow and be nurtured by the same elements. Today, we have faith that we will continue to be part of a garden of congregants that, over the years, has expanded growing stronger roots, thicker branches, and beautiful flowers.

The faith that we have grown as a community by welcoming different people, incorporating different traditions and ideas while maintaining a strong Lutheran identity has added richness to the soil. This soil has made it possible for the church to adapt to changes; we overcame natural disasters coming out stronger than before. We learned that the faith we grew at CTK is so strong that even in the midst of a pandemic, while unable to attend services at our beloved church building, we continue to worship together while separate. We have realized we are the church not just the building to which we want to return safely someday.

As the tree of our faith celebrates 75 years, we pray: Dear God, we are blessed to have seen the small seed of our faith grow into a strong healthy tree in the garden of Christ the King Lutheran Church. Grant that we may continue to be

nourished by your word, as our community of faith is healed from this pandemic in your garden now and for many years to come. Amen.

Day 52 Linda Schoene (2000)

My childhood friend Ann and I have birthdays just ten days apart. Every year we schedule a birthday call to catch up and reminisce. This year Ann reminded me about a childhood bedtime prayer we shared. Those bedtime prayers remain one of her fondest memories. It goes like this:

Dear God who loves all children I pledge myself to thee. I’ll always do my very best and do it lovingly. Bless this home and all my folks. Protect me as I play and help me to remember to say this every day. Amen.

In times of crisis such as these uncertainty, worry, fear and isolation can easily become my focus. Trying to understand and find meaning can seem impossible. Ann’s reminder led me to think about childhood faith and to try to keep it simple. As infants, trust is one of the first things humans learn, provided they are in a loving environment that is responsive to their needs. There is no more loving environment than to be in God’s care and in community with the body of Christ.

As I say this prayer these truths are confirmed and trust is maintained. God is loving and he loves me. Because of his love I am able to show that love in devotion to him and in love for neighbor. I have confidence that I can ask for God’s blessings and protection. Finally I can ask God to give me those gentle reminders to be faithful on a daily basis. For me, there is strength in that simplicity and trust.

Trust in the Lord and do good: dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. ~Psalm 37:5

Day 53 Diane Schoppe (2006)

One Friday night, picking up take-out for dinner, I received a call from my sister. Our father, healthy up until now, was being rushed to the ICU to be placed on a ventilator. I drove home in a shock, plopped the food on the kitchen counter, and ran upstairs to be alone. As I cried in despair and prayed to God to save my father’s life, the words of Psalm 130 entered my mind:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

These words brought me a measure of calm and peace. They caught me, mid-air, in my descent into crushing grief and fear.

Of course, they arrived in a musical setting! In the evangelical environment in which I spent much of my childhood, we sang for about an hour each service. Most of the songs were straight scriptural texts set to simple tunes. The sermons, however, were rambling and at times, I suspect, not theologically sound. As an adult, I sought out a church with more liturgical structure and was fortunate to eventually find Christ the King.

In this Lutheran church, I feel that I am connected with other Christians around the world, and even with all Christians who have lived before me, in worshipping the risen Christ. So many times, I have experienced God’s peace and love through the words in the Bible. In Sunday School, we ask the children if they are ready, and encourage them to “get ready” to hear the story. As adults, we can also get ready to receive God’s gifts, in many ways, including reading and hearing the scriptures, and participating in church life.

What a blessing, to have a framework for life’s unanswerable questions, its insurmountable struggles, and its joys which are too big and too vast to absorb. The combination of song, scripture, liturgy, and sound doctrine help to protect me, to catch me, if you will, when I am falling. To remember to hope.

Dear Father, let your Word rescue us in our despair, strengthen our connections to each other and the rest of Creation, and guide us ever closer to you. I wait for you, O Lord, for in your Word is my hope. Amen.

Day 54 Jim Shields (1974)

Keep me from saying words that later need recalling; Guard me, lest idle speech may from my lips be falling; But when, within my place, I must and ought to speak, Then to my words give grace, Lest I offend the weak. ~ELW 806

Black lives matter.

When black people first started this campaign to protest their mistreatment in our criminal justice system, we - rich, powerful, white people - quickly responded with:

All lives matter.

How could black people say they matter more than us?

Oh, how I wish all lives mattered. They don’t. The data are overwhelming, obvious, and not arguable. If you are rereading this for the 85th anniversary of CTK, remember that 2020 was the year of the pandemic. Black people are suffering and dying from this horrible disease in numbers that are intolerable and far greater than the numbers of white people who suffer and die. This is nothing new for black people. Our society is, and always has been, rigged against black people.

In his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain captured the depravity of Southern slave-holding values when he described Huck’s inner turmoil over whether to turn in runaway slave Jim or help him escape. Huck’s conscience was derived from the society in which he lived, and his conscience told him he would be a low-down scalawag if he didn’t turn Jim over to the authorities. Slavery was evil, but society said it was good. Mark Twain resolved this conflict when Huck saw a higher authority than society and said that even though he would go to hell, that would be better than turning in his friend. Twain’s genius was in pointing out the obvious through the eyes of a boy.

The bumper sticker morality of today provides cover for the evil of putting more black men in prison than in college. “If you do the crime you’re gonna do the time.” This evil of institutionalized racism has society so bamboozled that we accept it as good old law and order. Like the society that defined Huck’s conscience, today’s society allows us to brutalize an entire segment of our population with not even a whimper of protest.

But when, within my place, I must and ought to speak, Then to my words give grace, Lest I offend the weak.

Oh, how I wish all lives mattered. Until they do, we must and ought to speak. The weak are being crushed by us.

Black lives matter.

Day 55 David Stouter (2008)

Faithfulness is everything. It makes it possible for life to flourish even in the midst of difficulty. It makes hope possible. Faithfulness and hope go together and make for results that can pass down the generations. Unfaithfulness in all its forms is destructive of life and hope and it too will pass its legacy down through the generations. The results of this are seen in our national history and in events of our day of which we are having to be much more aware, and I think we need to be.

When we consider God and faithfulness the stakes are higher still. God’s faithfulness makes our faithfulness possible. The possibility of our faithfulness is dependent on God’s faithfulness. The entire Scriptures and the story they tell about the relationship of God and humankind revolves around the whole idea of faithfulness. In those same Scriptures we see all that keeping faith between God and humankind can be and all that unfaithfulness can be. Those same writings contain examples of accusing of unfaithfulness that goes both ways. The Psalms, a favorite biblical book which is beloved by many, can be shocking when there is accusation but it speaks to our experience.

So important is the need for God to be viewed as faithful that St. Paul in Romans writes, “Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true. Luther in his writings about faith quotes it this way, “Let everyone prove a liar that God may prove true.” God’s faithfulness is important. God’s faithfulness is everything. Where I work at MD Anderson Cancer Center the questioning of God’s faithfulness by patients and their families is not uncommon, not that illness has a corner on the market on human suffering, hardly. But the doubts can exist none the less. Again, Psalms has many examples of this. Mostly a psalm will by the end have come to a reaffirmation of God’s faithfulness and love. But some don’t. Even if someone does not doubt or accuse God for their current experience, but they can affirm God’s faithfulness, it makes a difference in how the experience is met.

Over the years I have changed how I end a prayer with Christians. It just happened one day and now it is a common phrase I use. “We trust in your faithfulness, and your faithfulness to us is your Son Jesus Christ.” Or, “…and your faithfulness has a shape and that shape is Jesus.” To me that sounds pretty Lutheran. “Let everyone prove a liar that God may be proved true.” There is no end to the kinds of things that may lead us to question God’s love. Though God may seem to be hidden and things feel bad, God’s love for us is proven and present for us in Jesus Christ. St Paul in another letter writes about coming to the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we might add, in the face of the crucified Jesus Christ. God’s faithfulness is shown where we may think God cannot be. And I admit that this chaplain needs to be reminded of that again and again. If faith comes by hearing, then many times in a day faith is nourished and sustained as I “preach” it aloud to myself as well. Our faithfulness is always dependent upon God’s prior and enduring faithfulness. In a sense God’s faithfulness is more important than our own, which can be a light shining in a dark place.

O God, we come before you, thanking you for mercies shown to us throughout our lives. May our lives be so ordered by the knowledge of these mercies that they will show forth your glory to the praise of your Name. We pray this, trusting in your faithfulness to us and your faithfulness to us, is your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose Name we pray. Amen.

Day 56 Jo Stouter (2008)

“Oh Master, from the mountainside Make haste to heal these hearts of pain; Among these restless throngs abide; Oh, Tread the city’s streets again.” ~Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life, by Frank M. North.

Christ the King Lutheran Church invites others to join us with bells, banners and broadcasts. The bells are a local way to let everyone know something is happening, something special. Announcing the service is about to start is a joy of church life. Proclaiming the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer is a tradition of CTK—I ponder each petition with the chime. Bells strike forty times for the forty days of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Of course there is the stunning pain of bells rung for each year of a person’s physical life on earth during the funeral service. Bells announce and give meaning locally to so much we do at church.

The beautiful Texas limestone expanses of our exterior church walls are draped with banners to inform others of who we are. Pedestrians, passengers, and drivers are invited to participate in the major liturgical seasons of the church and our services. Who does not look forward to the banners of Lent, Easter and Christmas? I love how this is made accessible to the hundreds of people who go past the church daily.

Finally, internet broadcasts bring these messages and services of the Lutheran church beyond Rice Village to the world. The most meaningful words of God are brought to the minds and hearts of all to live out in their lives. We have such talented members and ministers who think broadly about ways to bring the message to the world. This latest way of using the internet helps take down the walls and brings God’s Word to all in message, music and prayer. Heavenly Father, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the congregation, help us to continue your ministry beyond our Village to the city of Houston and the world. Amen.

Day 57 Scott Swanson (1978)

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. ~John 13:34-35

I joined Christ the King Church in 1978. It’s a peaceful place where the noise of life goes away so that you can hear what Love sounds like.

“If we could spread love as quickly as we spread hate and negativity, what an amazing world we would live in.” If we truly love one another we will give away the very best of ourselves to others. I have failed more than succeeded over the last 73 years at “loving one another.” Loving people can be difficult at times. Feelings of intense or passionate dislike for someone are usually subjective. We never seem to have meaningful communications with people we hate or dislike. What would this world be like if we did?

A very long time ago I was in great despair. I went to church and sat in silence in the darkened and empty nave, staring at the altar. After a very long time a powerful voice passed through me and knocked me to the floor proclaiming, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” That memory still moves me. I will never forget that day. I know that I am not alone. Christ is with me.

As I receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at the communion rail, He strengthens me. It is through His love for me that my capacity to love others is increased. In communion I am not alone, Christ is with me. Loving God, increase our love for one another. Through Christ, Amen.

Day 58 Leonard Teich (1999)

For me, Paul’s letter to the Romans, specifically the eighth chapter, contains a whole world of ideas, or “truths” if you prefer. Romans 8 starts with a proclamation of human freedom, ends with an ironclad guarantee from God, and in between it explains how the Holy Spirit redeems the human race and the entire rest of creation. All in one chapter. But the Apostle can do that to you. Here’s how it begins: (All quotations are from the NRSV) For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. ~Romans 8:2

Freedom is one of Paul’s chief messages in all his letters, but here you have it straight out - once you’re in Christ, you’re free! And you can’t be snatched from freedom again. Ever. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God. ~Romans 8:26-27

Wherever else the Holy Spirit abides, it most assuredly lies in each human being in the deepest part of the Soul. When we have run out of words in the face of the Holy, the Spirit intercedes for us and expresses our deepest awe and longing with “sighs too deep for words”. Paul himself could be called a mystic because he penetrated so deeply into the Mystery and nowhere does he get further into the Mystery than in this passage. He has been there, at that point when he is face to face with the inexpressible but yet he wants to communicate his longing. He has discovered that at that point the Spirit takes over and goes all the way into the “Ground of Being” as Meister Eckhart put it. Then Paul invites us in. Am I ready? I hope so! Paul has discovered how it is that one can go so far into the mystery that one can be within Christ and in that sense be one with God and in fact one with all creation. For God and his creation are inseparable. And we, as Christians, are the stewards of that creation. So Paul writes further: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ~Romans 8:19-23

So the creation waits on the children of God. That’s us! Now that we know how to free ourselves or redeem ourselves as it were, once we have done so, we can turn to freeing the rest of creation. It appears to me that the Spirit has been moving among us for at least the last 50 years in the environmental movement, if one goes back to Earth Day, 1970. Or 180 years if one goes back to John Muir, or 800 years if one goes back to Francis of Assisi. In any case Paul says the creation is a definite Christian calling and it’s high time we got to work on it. And as Lutherans I believe we have a special calling and maybe even a special competence. So CTK’s creation care ministry comes straight from the Apostle. Quite a provenance!

Finally at the end of chapter 8, Paul makes us an iron clad guarantee: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38-39

In other words, once we are in Christ, we’re free men and women and nothing on this earth can undo that. If there’s a more solid guarantee anywhere I’m not aware of it. Amen.

Day 59 Susan Teich (1999)

Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle. ~Numbers 10:2-3

Five bells cast in Aarle-Rixtell,The Netherlands, by the Royal Bellfounders Petit & Frutsen, ring out from the bell tower. Weighing between 220 pounds and 1,852 pounds, they were installed between 1986 and 2005. Their voices are heard throughout the neighborhood – calling us to Sunday services, marking the Lord’s Prayer during worship, tolling out the departed’s age at a funeral, and singing in the New Year on December 31st at midnight.

So the children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing to the Lord, accompanied by loud instruments. ~2 Chronicles 30:21

Our great Saxon organ, was built in a former schoolhouse in Georgetown, Massachusetts, by Fritz Noack. Most of its metal pipes came from the workshop of Günter Lau, near Dresden. It was built in the style of Zacharias Hildebrandt, who was known to Johann Sebastian Bach and whose organs Bach admired. It has filled our Nave with Bach’s own music and that of many others since its dedication on September 24, 1995.

Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. ~2 Samuel 6:5

The dainty portative organ, by tradition made to be portable, serves as a continuo instrument, supplying chordal accompaniment. Its Gothic inspired case and its handmade pipes, of either lead-tin alloy or seasoned wood, were made in Staunton, Virginia, by Taylor and Boody. It added its gentle voice to the Nave at its dedication on April 29, 2007.

Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. ~1 Samuel 18:6

The Blüthner piano in our Nave gives out a Blüthner’s characteristically clear and crystalline tone. Only Blüthners use so-called aliquot stringing, the use of extra unstruck strings in the piano to enrich its tone. The Blüthner factory opened in 1853 in Leipzig with Julius Blüthner’s motto, “God will lead me!”

But now bring me a musician. Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. ~2 Kings 3:15

A Bösendorfer piano adds its signature tone, dark and rich, to the Parish Hall. Bösendorfer pianos have been built in Vienna since Ignaz Bösendorfer began production in 1828. Ours, a Model 225, has 92 keys

instead of a piano’s standard 88, a Bösendorfer feature. The extra keys are all at the bass end of the keyboard.

And all the people went up after him; and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth seemed to split with their sound. ~1 Kings 1:40

Petrof pianos come from the Czech Republic, near Prague, and are known for their romantic tone, their sounding boards of spruce, and their largely hand construction. The Petrof company was founded in 1864 in the city of Hradec Králové by Antonín Petrof. Our Petrof is played in the Choir Room.

The Lord will save me, and we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our lives, in the house of the Lord. ~Isaiah 38:20

A harpsichord made by Jan Kalsbeek in the Dutch Hanseatic town of Zutphen was inaugurated at Christ the King on October 17, 2010. It adds to our worship a tone that in Kalsbeek’s words is “slender, but very intense.” He modeled it on two harpsichords made by Michael Mietke, found today in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. One1719 recipient of a Mietke harpsichord was Johann Sebastian Bach.

Then David and the Israelites played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets. ~1 Chronicles 13:8

Two Yamaha pianos, an upright in the Adult Classroom and a grand in the Rehearsal Room, accompany us with their warm and wide tone. Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Now a multinational conglomerate, Yamaha’s original purpose as a musical instrument manufacturer is reflected in its logo— a trio of interlocking tuning forks.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ~Colossians 3:16

Our Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnals, dedicated on November 19, 2006, give us the notes and words to sing in worship service. Each hymnal was funded by someone in our congregation, and bears a bookplate honoring a person or persons chosen by the donor. As we hold the hymnals in song, we use the greatest of our many instruments at Christ the King – our human voices.

Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted. ~Isaiah 49:13

Day 60 Lee and Sarah Thweatt (2004)

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. ~Philippians 1:6

As Sarah and I reflect on CTK’s 75th year, we are of course mindful of what just a few of those years have meant personally to our family. Like so many others, important milestones in our family’s life have unfolded in and around the physical space of CTK. Our youngest child, John, was baptized at CTK, and we felt the presence of God through the church a few years later as he battled cancer as a toddler. All three of our children were confirmed in the church at CTK. After many years attending as visiting worshippers, Sarah’s mother and father joined the church when they moved to Houston as permanent residents. Sarah’s father is now interred in the CTK columbarium, to be followed, in time, by her mother. In future years (hopefully many years from now!), it is planned that the columbarium will also house our ashes, too. Perhaps there will be a wedding or some other life event celebrated and experienced by our family at CTK. So much has started for us in this place, ended in it, and will continue in it, too.

And as much as CTK has been where we have been in the physical sense, much more important are the moments of spiritual sense we have felt there. For these moments, the ones felt during the singing of Silent Night on Christmas Eve, or after a particularly moving sermon or choral performance, or watching another family’s baptismal moment, or communing with military veterans, or even just hearing the bells ring on a Sunday morning as a call to worship, the years thus far are not enough. But we are thankful to have the chance for more of them, and to hear and hope that for the next 75 years, the Lord continues to bless and keep our church, that the Lord’s face shines upon our church with grace and mercy, and that the Lord looks upon our church with favor, and gives it peace.

Day 61 Susan Myres Uri (1983)

75 Years - 900 Months - 3900 Sundays - 27,394 Days – what a wonderfully engaging legacy is contained in those years. I just realized that I have been a member for half of that length of time and it has entirely defined my adulthood thus far. As I did in our 65th devotional book I leaned on my love of the hymn/poem of “I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry” written by John Ylvisaker. This year of all years it is more poignantly fitting. The last time I focused on how it applied to me and my family. But I realized that it equally applies from our congregation’s perspective.

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. I was there when you were but a child, with a faith to suit you well; In a blaze of light you wandered off to find where demons dwell. Our baptism 75 years ago, the era of our congregation communing in what is now the parish hall. We grow and add many families with young children.

When you heard the wonder of the Word I was there to cheer you on; You were raised to praise the living Lord, to whom you now belong. If you find someone to share your time and you join your hearts as one, I’ll be there to make your verses rhyme from dusk till rising sun. Our hearts are joined with members and leaders who bless us with their time, toil and talent, laboring together to build the mission and work of our congregation both within and without.

In the middle ages of your life, not too old, no longer young, I’ll be there to guide you through the night, complete what I’ve begun. When the evening gently closes in and you shut your weary eyes, I’ll be there as I have always been, with just one more surprise. Fully engaged in services in our current nave through the present time, we commune with help from the internet. We engage in difficult but exciting conversations and decisions about our next phases.

All blended together over and over with the refrain, 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. ELW 732

What wonderful comfort now, more than ever, as we struggle to deal with the tsunamis that bombard us including: political turmoil and polarization; racial injustice; a deadly pandemic and financial insecurity. As we care for our world, our country, our neighbors, our families and ourselves, let us rejoice knowing God is with us along the entire path. He’s got us covered from beginning to end.

Day 62 Donna Vass (1991) and Tom Bouldin (1978)

To be your presence is our mission here, to show compassion’s face and list’ning ear, to be your heart of mercy ever near, Alleluia! To be your presence is our mission bold, to feed the poor and shelter homeless cold, to be your hands of justice, right uphold, Alleluia! To be your presence is our mission blest, to speak for all the broken and oppressed, to be your voice of hope, your love expressed, Alleluia!

We are your heart, O Christ, your hands and voice, to serve your people is our call and choice, and in this mission we, the church, rejoice, Alleluia! ELW 546

We are in the middle of a pandemic and feeling very isolated; cut off from our church and the world. If someone had asked us on January 1, 2020, what the year would hold, it wouldn’t have been this. It’s been tough on many levels. But this hymn reminds us that our mission still holds. To be compassionate. To feed the poor. To be God’s hands of justice. To speak for all the broken and oppressed. To be God’s voice of hope, God’s love expressed. To serve God’s people. Alleluia! Even if we can’t be physically present for others, we can still lift our voices. We can speak up and speak out. We can sign petitions. We can write or call our elected officials. We can vote. We can donate. We are not powerless. We are God’s presence here on earth, after all!

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Day 63 Kristine Wallace (2010)

When we are baptized, we are named, and then baptized in God’s name. Our church is named “Christ the King”. Some of the passages in the Bible that mean a great deal to me concern names.

In Genesis 32:24-30 Jacob wrestles with a ‘man’ and won’t let him go unless he blesses him. “So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob’. Then he said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him.” Jacob receives a new name [“God strives” or “the one who strives with God”], but his polite request remains unanswered.

From my study of Greek and Roman history, I know that it was important in prayer to address the deity with the right name. A Roman prayer ends: “or by whatever other name it is lawful to name you”. We find a similar concern in Exodus 3 when Moses encounters God at the burning bush. “But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses: ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13-14) The Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translation gives the Hebrew: “And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher- Ehyeh.” He continued, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)

Various English translations of this name are possible: I Am That I Am; I Am Who I Am; I Will Be What I Will Be, but it is rendered respectfully in our Bibles, “LORD”.

What strikes me, however, is that God’s name, unlike the names of other ancient deities (Zeus=sky; Hera=lady), is not a noun, but a verb, a first person verb. This implies relationship, the covenant relationship with Israel and our relationship as children of God. Since the Hebrew verb form can express present time, I AM WHAT/WHO I AM gives us strong assurance: God is an ever-living presence on which we can rely in all our joys and sorrows, times of faith and times of doubt. God is stable, but his name also reveals that God is not static. I find implicit in “I WILL BE WHAT/WHO I WILL BE” God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ and God’s Holy Spirit poured out on all of us.

The gospel writers wrestled with this name issue. Matthew and Luke may allude to the Jacob/Israel story when they recount how Joseph by an angel in a dream (Matthew 1:21) and Mary by an angel in person (Luke 1:31) were told: “you are to name him Jesus”/”you will name him Jesus” [Gk. Iesous; Heb. Yehoshua= ”the Lord saves”]. The gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke report that, like the pagans concerned about the proper name for a deity, people were uncertain what to call this extraordinary person: John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets? (Mark 8:28; Matthew 16:14; Luke 9:19). Despite his significant given name, Jesus then asks the disciples a pointed question: “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29; Matthew 16:15; Luke 9:20) Peter has the answer: “You are the Messiah”, but as happens later, Peter does not really understand what he has said.

In his gospel, John omits this incident or perhaps applies it to John the Baptist (1:19-23). Instead, we are brought back to that mysterious name of God, with the “I am” sayings. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” (6:35), “I am the light of the world” (8:12), “I am the good shepherd” (10:11; cf. also 10:7; 11:25-26; 14:6; 15:1). These help us understand God, but do not limit or restrict who God is. For John also reveals that Jesus makes a direct connection with the divine name: “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am” (8:58; cf. 6:20; 8:24, 28; 13:19; 18:5, 6, 8). Jesus is God, not of the past of Roman Judea, but of all time: I AM/I WILL BE.

I have wrestled with the name of our church, Christ the King. We declare Jesus is Christ/Messiah and King. I need to recognize and ponder how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus painfully and wonderfully redefined those words. I also need to remind myself daily that, to modernize the regal metaphor, God is Number One, I am not. “Christ the King” reminds me to love and serve God first, then my neighbor, and then myself.

Day 64 Courtney Webb (2020)

As I walk the halls of the hospital during the day and the streets of the neighborhood where I live at night, I find myself repeatedly reciting and finding comfort in these Godly Play words: “They could only go forward and they did.”

A year ago this week, I completed a chaplain residency programs at Children’s Hospital in Dallas, my husband completed his graduate program, and we moved to Houston seeking new jobs, a new home, and new community. It has been a full year of transition, of learning, of struggle, and of finding new ways to trust God in the midst of it all.

The guiding words I share above come from the Godly Play story “Second Creation: The Falling Apart.” Even the story title seems fitting, as it often feels like many things as we used to know them are “falling apart.” We find ourselves in an in-between place, a liminal space, a global pandemic space, where we don’t know what the journey ahead holds; and yet, we know that our daily lives are experiencing so many differences. We know that we cannot go back to when it was all together (AKA pre-Covid). Jerome’s language of the end of this Godly Play story continue to guide my feet and my heart as I imagine God journeying with me as we each learn how to create a new future out of all of these differences. Spoiler alert – here’s my favorite part from the end of the story:

“The differences also did something wonderful. Now Adam and Eve could take things apart and put them back together again. They could be creators, almost like God. They couldn’t make something out of nothing, but they could make something out of the differences. After the differences, Adam and Eve could not go back to when everything was all together in the Garden. They could only go forward and they did.

God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden. An angel and a sword was put at the edge of the Garden so they could not go back, but only go forward. God went with them on their journey to help them be the best creators they could be, and to be with God in this new way, and to stay one with God.” (Jerome Berryman, Godly Play, Volume 6, 30).

My prayer is that these words are as empowering for you as they are for me. We are daily absorbing and moving through an incredible amount of differences. And yet, I wonder what it looks like to lean into the freedom of co-creating something new with God? When I find myself waiting and wishing to go back to a previous time in life, a previous job, a pre-Covid time, it is easy to sink into a place of despair. I wonder what might happen if we stop waiting for normal to come back again? I wonder what could happen if we lean into the truth that God goes with us and that we can “only go forward.” I wonder what might happen if we stay curious about how we can take things apart and put them back together again in new ways? I wonder how a present moment and forward-facing mindset can renew hope for the future and help us to continue to make-meaning?

Creator God, inspire us with the knowledge deep within our beings that you journey with us and that you are doing something wonderful with all these differences. Amen.

Day 65 Wendy Wentland (1995)

This, one of the daily offices practiced and treasured by the Church for eons of time. The gift of today has been granted and lived, with all its quietude or lack, successes and failures, blessings and seeming curses. And here we are at day’s end, minds crowded with unanswered thoughts and unresolved issues. Light has changed to dusk, shadows creep from every corner and behind everything. Only the sky bears remnants of glimmer, lavender and peach hues losing their brilliance to soft, then dull grey. Trees and shrubs rustle no more. Be still and know that I am God.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ~Matthew 11:28

Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Book of Common Prayer

Day 66 Wendy and Nathan Wiker (2012)

Let streams of living justice flow down upon the earth; Give freedom’s light to captives, let all the poor have worth. The hungry’s hands are pleading, the workers claim their rights, The mourners long for laughter, the blinded seek for sight. Make liberty a beacon, strike down the iron power; Abolish ancient vengeance, proclaim your people’s hour. ~Let Streams of Living Justice, ELW 710

We’ve always loved this hymn, both for the beautiful melody and for the message. The message and resultant action is also one that has led to our greatest fulfillment and joy at Christ the King. Whether it’s been through our long involvement with the Feed the Homeless ministry, our current involvement with Christian Community Service Center, or the various human rights issues that Christ the King has marched or demonstrated for, we are thankful for the opportunity to show compassion and advocate for justice for those oppressed or without the resources or privilege that most of us at Christ the King take for granted. As choir members and one of us being a lifelong “high” church Lutheran, we absolutely adore the music, liturgy, and theology of Christ the King, but it’s the most simple of all commands: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” that illuminates this hymn and our faith journey. All people have worth. All people deserve equal rights. And all people deserve Christ’s and our love—full stop, without judgment.

Dear God, we know that we fall short in loving our neighbor as ourselves and are guilty of being selfish with our resources and take our privilege for granted. We pray that we are given the strength, time, energy, and means to do all we can to help and ensure justice for the vulnerable and oppressed. Thank you for sending your Only Son to show us the way, and let us further this compassion for those most in need and therefore deserving of this love. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Day 67 Irmi Willcockson (1991)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. ~ Psalm 119:105

Yes, I jumped on the bullet journal wagon. Probably later than many, judging by the sheer number of pins on pinterest, supplies at local crafts stores, and how to videos. So, I’m not unique, but my journal is uniquely mine. I’ve found it particularly helpful for my faith life. I reserve two pages each month for devotions, changing the color I use with the church seasons. A short note summarizing the reading, a prayer, an insight, a call to action. Since this is a journal and not a diary, some days there is no entry. Building the habit of (daily) devotions has become more important as my path has meandered, or I find myself suddenly on an entirely different path.

Holy God, use your word to light my path, help me see where you would have me go. Amen.

Day 68 Katherine Willcockson (2016)

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.

I think that each person in Christ the King’s congregation has experienced a time in their life when things didn’t go as planned. Whether through an untimely death, a sick family member, or a lost job, we all know the feeling of being thrown off the train tracks of life that we thought we were securely fastened to. For me, this jolt came in the form of mental illness. I thought that I had distanced myself from the world completely, and I had tried to remove my faith from my life as well, thinking that God has truly stopped helping me in any way. When I was admitted to a psych hospital, the idea that I was still a member of Christ the King had

left my mind. My fellow church members did not forget, though. The first time that my parents asked if someone from church could come and visit me, I was taken aback. I could not imagine that they would want to see me in such a dismal place. But, as often as time allowed for, Deacon Ben Remmert, my youth pastor, came to visit me and give me communion. Pastor Liebster also visited to talk with me. Haley Goodrow took the time to choose a book and send it to me as reading material to pass the time. Upon arriving back at my house, I saw flowers from other fellow church members sitting in vases around the house. I had tried to push God and my faith community out of my life because I felt that God could not love someone like me. But, Ben reminded me that God’s love for me had never wavered. Pastor Liebster comforted me in allowing me to share my thoughts about faith and validating them. Haley sent me love and acceptance in the form of a book to read. My fellow church members encouraged me to return to church by showing me that they had never forgotten about me or loved me less. Although I felt I was lost beyond hope, I remembered that I was still one of God’s children – one of his sheep. And, as he does for all of his sheep who have wondered astray, he led me back. A favorite hymn of mine – Shepherd Me, O God, ELW 780 – became perpetually stuck in my head when I returned home from the hospital, and it served as my reminder that I will never stray too far from God.

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life. Amen.

Day 69 Anna Fay Williams (1989)

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ~Matthew 6:34

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus admonishes us to first look to the Lord and his righteousness, and further instructs us about our worries.

With the current events we have more than enough worry to go around: the corona virus, the resolution of long injustices on racial issues, and the evidences of climate change on our food supplies and weather. With the corona virus pandemic, we hear forecasts that are confusing and seem to paralyze us in comprehending our future in “the new normal.”

In my early childhood, I often worried about our future. My mother was a worrier. When I was about ten years old she kept me home from a class outing because she feared a school bus accident. For years, she worried about tornadoes and incessantly called for me to take cover. Later in my life, she begged me to cancel a trip to Mexico where I was speaking at a solar energy conference because she feared I would be kidnapped.

When my own life was in shambles, my worries included the loss of a business with no job in sight. Though I was constant in my faith, I only wanted a restoration of what I had known. But one day, I dropped at the bedside and prayed to God for help. No sooner than I exhausted my prayers, the phone

rang. A blessed voice asked, “When can you come to Houston to work for us?” The offer came from an engineering firm where I had interviewed but had given up hope after not hearing from them.

Ironically, my new responsibilities were in forecasting conditions in the oil industry. Eventually, other positions led to forecasting in banking, real estate and health care. As I studied the forecasting models, I realized that outcomes were driven by the early underlying assumptions but that it is difficult to fully comprehend the “troubles of the day” in a comprehensive manner and to consider their relevance to the future. There may an unknown factor like Covid-19 that completely upends any forecast.

Personally, at the time of my prayers, I could not have predicted a future in Houston, a marriage to a wonderful husband Tom Williams, completing a doctorate in health sciences,, and my religious life at Christ the King Lutheran Church. When I hear the dire predictions about the coronavirus, I must rest on my faith. I am assured that there will be a future that requires the best decisions that I can make for today. My prayer is that I do so in a careful and considerate manner and marshal the resources that the Lord provides for us as promised in Matthew 6:33. Then, too, I can’t help but remember a few lines from Bobby McFerrin’s popular song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double Don’t worry, be happy Don’t worry, be happy now

Day 70 Tate Williams (2009)

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer. ~Psalm 19:14

It is not what goes into your mouth that makes you ritually unclean; rather, what comes out of it makes you unclean. ~Matthew 15:11

I am intimately reminded of these verses in my daily life and reflect on them often.

Words are central to the liturgy and one means through which we communally respond to and participate in the sacred. Whether I am in Lutheran, Catholic, or Episcopal services the words come easily, familiarly, and lovingly. I know what to say in church. It is in the unscripted liturgy of daily life where I fail.

Words are the primary means by which we interact with one another. We talk, text, or write constantly. Others cannot read our thoughts (thankfully) and most people only know and remember us by what we say, not what we do. By this, I do not mean that what we feel, believe, or do is not important – it is. Rather, what we say is, more often than not, where the rubber hits the road.

Our kind words most commonly lift people up through acknowledgement, praise or thanks. Yet, casual rudeness and deliberate insults wound more deeply and more frequently than we may recognize. Our egos immunize us against our poisonous tongues. We may minimize or justify our insensitive words to ourselves. Even brief expressions have lasting effects.

We have all seen people work tirelessly for another only to lose that person with harsh words or none at all. Likewise, we have witnessed people overlook or forgive misdeeds simply on account of an apology or kind word. I spend most of my time somewhere between these extremes, though too often not by much. Know thyself.

And so, as part of my silent reverence and supplication in daily life I repeat the final verse of Psalm 19 and also pray, Lord, give us the wisdom to see what is right and the strength to do it, to realize it’s about what you want and not what we want, to use the most of the time and the talents you have given us in accordance with your will that we may be humble, loving, servants of your son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ministers of his word, examples of his sacrifice and salvation, and stewards of his creation. Amen.

Day 71 Andy Winesett (2002)

2020 is Christ the King’s 75th anniversary year but unfortunately it will probably be remembered more for global pandemic than celebration. The lucky of us have only had to endure social distancing, masks, lock-downs and quarantining; too many have been impacted by the virus in significant ways with stories of unimaginable sadness and heartbreak. The outbreak is far from over and regardless of how it concludes, it will be remembered long after 2020 is over. But exactly how will it be remembered is, in part, up to us.

My family and most of my friends have so far been lucky. Our impact from the pandemic has been more of an inconvenience and less of a trial. Compared to the stories of severe illness and economic hardship, we have been lucky. Nevertheless, the pandemic with all of the forced quarantine and isolation are challenging for everyone, regardless of its severity.

A close work friend of mine once compared anxiety and stress to a gas in a closed container. No matter how few or great the number of gas molecules there are, the gas will always fill up the entire container. Just because worry or some other unpleasantness is minor compared to someone else’s, it still exists and is felt impacting the walls of the container. A work deadline or expense can be all-consuming to someone, regardless of their awareness of more extreme anxiety, for example, the overwhelming pressure experienced daily by emergency room physicians.

During challenging times such as these it is so important for us to remind ourselves of all of God’s blessings and joy in our lives. As Christians we will find joy even in difficult times, as 1 Peter reminds us in chapter 1:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Joy can and should be identified and appreciated with the amplifying backdrop of trial. Joy can be great, such as loving family, health, prosperity or a great church community. Often in life they are small and too often can be overlooked or forgotten when experienced with trial.

Social distancing has taken away one of my favorite weekly activities - Saturday morning long runs with my friends; but for now it has been replaced by a new Saturday morning joy – post grocery shopping family waffle breakfasts cooked by my daughter Emily. Gone this summer is the anticipation of our semi- annual trip to visit grandmothers; replaced instead by new regular Sunday afternoon Facetime calls with my mom along with my sister, brother, and 18 month old niece. Why did it take a global pandemic to start this wonderful new family tradition? Anyone who experienced online school in the spring now appreciates and knows what a blessing our teachers are. With a depressed economy, it pains me to think of those struggling to find work or the courageous, hard-working small businesses who have failed through no fault of their own. The economic downturn, however, means fewer cars on the road, cleaner air, and a safer environment for me to teach my daughter Olivia how to drive. Yes, even teaching a teenager to drive is a joy!

This outbreak will end through vaccine, herd immunity or somehow. Soon after we will probably return mostly to normal. The legacy of the pandemic will be of sickness and struggle, but I’m hopeful it will not be entirely that. So many simple joys either new or newly realized, will be part of that legacy going forward. “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

Day 72 Leslie Winesett (2002)

When you tell a story to a Sunday School class full of 4- and 5- year-olds, it’s hard to know what they are hearing and retaining. The story is often accompanied by a soundtrack of interruptions: Velcro shoe straps fastening and unfastening on repeat, blurted out requests to use the bathroom, announcements about itchy mosquito bites and upcoming birthday parties. Sometimes you wonder if the children are listening at all.

One of my favorite Godly Play lessons is the story of Jesus’ birth, told during Lent in the context of his life, death, and resurrection. The storyteller holds a plaque with a picture showing the faces of Mary and Joseph. The baby Jesus is also pictured, but only the back of his head; he is looking up into the faces of his parents. The storyteller uses an index finger to trace a line down Mary’s nose and then across her eyes, drawing a cross on her face. The motion is repeated on Joseph’s face and accompanied by these words: When the baby looked up into the face of the Mother Mary, he already saw the cross. When he looked up into the face of the Father Joseph, the cross was there, too.

A few years ago, when I told my class this story, a 5-year-old girl cut in with a revelation. “Hey!” she exclaimed, pointing at the child next to her. “You have the cross on your face, too!” She looked at every child in the class, finding the cross on each of their faces. Finally, she turned to the back of the room and pointed to the silver-haired co-teacher sitting in a chair. “Even the old people have the cross!”

Every once in a while, in a room full of noisy, wiggling kids, you get a moment like this one. You have confirmation that they are not only paying attention, they are forming their own understanding of their relationship with God and with each other. In these moments, it’s my turn to listen and learn.

Here’s what I learned from my class that day. All of us have the cross, all the time, every day. It is part of who we are. On our faces we carry a reminder of Christ’s journey toward the cross, the pain and suffering of his death, and the pure, transformational joy of his resurrection. The promise of God’s grace and mercy and love and hope is all around us in the faces of everyone we meet. We just have to remember to look for it there.

Compassionate God, when the baby Jesus looked up into the faces of the Mother Mary and the Father Joseph, he already saw the cross. Help us to see the cross in all of the faces we see – every size, shape, color, and age – and to share with each one a measure of the grace, mercy, love, and hope you have given us through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Day 73 Adrienne Winston (1998)

Be still, and know that I am God! ~Psalm 46:10

2020 has been a year unlike any that many of us have yet experienced. SARS-CoV-2 cruelly introduced many of us to it through widespread suffering and the loss of lives, livelihood, and security along with the smaller, but no less profound loss of the fellowship, embraces, and simple joys that were once so easily taken for granted. During these unprecedented times, feelings of abandonment, confusion, and despair have become the companions of many, and feelings of guilt engulf those of us who have not experienced the losses of employment or loved ones that others have. This sense of guilt and anxiety about the future has stalked me since the beginning of the pandemic; even the simple act of taking pen to paper (or rather, taking fingers to keyboard) for writing this devotional was nearly impossible. I missed deadline after deadline creating and destroying countless drafts because everything that I wrote seemed either trite or platitiudinal. What could I possibly say in the midst of so much grief and sorrow? How could I speak a word of hope into the abyss of 2020?

And yet, these feelings are not unique to us and would not have been unknown to our foremothers and fathers in faith who established Christ the King Church 75 years ago during years of economic depression, war, and racial strife: years much like those that we are facing now. In the midst of enormous suffering, the founders of our congregation heard God’s call and stepped into the unknown.

To gather as the body of Christ is to take part in a radical act of faith: the realization that God alone is God, and that all of creation is a gift of God’s love.

Social distancing, research, education, and lifting up our loved ones and leaders alike in prayer are all our sacred duty in this time to each other, all of creation, and God. But it is no less vital for us to acknowledge our own position as God’s beloved creation. We must act with courage and conviction, but we must also allow ourselves to surrender to the God who has created all that is and gives us life. Powers, principalities, and yes, pandemics rise and fall, but God and God’s promises endure. So be still, and know that God is God: yesterday, today, tomorrow, and always. Amen.

Day 74 Rachel Zoch (2015)

How Long, O Lord?

I’ve heard the psalms compared to the blues – a decidedly funky form of lament. I frequently find myself, especially in 2020, lamenting the state of the world or asking for help with my own hardships or those of loved ones and others by asking, “How long, O Lord?” – a lament that first appears in Psalm 6, verse 3: My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

The psalms are a great source of comfort to me, partly because they feel so honest. A dear and thoughtful friend of mine once observed that David does a great deal of whining about his enemies in the psalms. How much of our own prayer is complaining to God?

And God always listens. The latter verses of Psalm 6 are echoed throughout the book: The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.

The brighter psalms, like Psalm 96, express deep joy and help me remember that because I belong to God, who watches over me, the rest is just details. Psalm 27 is a particular favorite, from its declaration of faith in verse 1: The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?

... to the last verse, which helps me remember that God is always with me and the source of my strength: Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Patience isn’t really my thing, so “wait for the Lord” is a message I need to hear! And when our church adopted the “cranberry” ELW hymnal a few years ago, I found that message repeated again in the lovely

Advent hymn Awake, Awake and Greet the New Morn by Marty Haugen, especially the fourth verse: Rejoice, rejoice, take heart in the night, though cold the winter and cheerless, the rising sun shall crown you with light, be strong and loving and fearless; Love be our song and love our prayer, and love, our endless story, may God fill every day we share, and bring us at last into glory. ELW 242

This is my prayer: May we be strong and loving and fearless, and may God fill every day we share so that we may share God’s love and cast out fear. Amen.

Day 75 Daniel Zorn (1998)

Hearing God’s Voice

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand. ~John 10:27-28

A favorite hymn from the Taizé community, used in our contemplative worship services, is Evangelical Lutheran Worship (#751), “O Lord, Hear My Prayer,” taken from Psalm 102. The hymn’s lyrics: “O Lord, hear my prayer, O, Lord hear my prayer: when I call, answer me.”

Have you ever wondered, “What is God’s will?” I have many times. What do we mean when we say we want to know the will of God?

I seek God’s guidance many times. I ask Him to give me an answer; show me the way.

I do not expect God’s answer to be ushered in by dramatic music being cued, nor the razzle-dazzle of lights and glitter, nor jazz-hands. I would just like an answer. And many times, I hear nothing. Yet, the hearing problem is not with God not speaking, but with me not listening!

So, perhaps, the question to ask is, “How can I know the voice of God?” Yet, it is difficult to hear God’s voice.

In 1 Corinthians 14:10, we are told there are many voices in the world clamoring for our attention: The Voices of the World The Voice of Satan The Voice of Self The Voice of God

God’s faithful – Believers – are often compared to sheep. It is the characteristic of sheep to not know where they are going. They must be led. Jesus says, He is the shepherd or leader of the sheep. He says, His sheep know his voice and follow Him instead of the “strange” voices of the world, Satan, or self. However, how do sheep recognize His voice? I have been thinking, what is required to really hear the voice of God? I think of:

Salvation – Every one that is of the truth hears my voice. ~John 18:37 Receptivity – Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any one hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in, and will sup with them, and they with me. ~Revelation 3:20 Faith – But without faith it is impossible to please him: for they that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. ~Hebrews 11:6 Attentiveness – And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. ~Exodus 3:4 Discernment – Father glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, an angel has spoken to him. ~ John 12:28-29 Openness – If you hear His voice today, do not be stubborn. ~Hebrews 3:7 What does hearing God’s voice provide other than an answer? It provides me with or reminds me of my communion – my deep relationship – with God. It provides me with the comprehension – to understand, to perceive the sense of what is being said, and reminds me that through Him I am able to comprehend so much more; it provides me and reminds me of compliance – to follow Him, to be a doer of His word; it provides me with a spiritual flywheel – it increases my capacity to hear and to believe God; and it provides me with encouragement and hope – the eternal God reminds me that there is more to true life than these passing physical circumstances and body.

In the Old Testament, God spoke at many times in a variety of ways. Today, He speaks to us in His Son, Jesus (The Word), as we hear Him in the words of the Bible as interpreted by the Holy Spirit.

I like the story told on Franklin D. Roosevelt. Apparently, President Roosevelt got tired of smiling the expected presidential smile and saying the usual expected things at all the White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was really listening to what he was saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed a big smile and said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” People would automatically respond with comments like, “How lovely!” or “Just continue your great work!” Nobody listened to what he was saying, except for one foreign diplomat. When the president said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning,” the diplomat responded softly, “I’m sure she had it coming.”

Are you listening? Voice of God, sometimes you shout, sometimes you whisper – keep speaking to me and help me to open my ears, my mind, and my heart to Your word and to Your will. Amen.

Day 76 Kate Paxton

Almighty God-Father-Creator forgive us when we fail to embrace the Mystery-the Wonder-the Belovedness of All Your Children and All Your Creation. Help us to open our eyes and our hearts. In the name of your Son, our Lord. Amen.