Dear Friends in Christ,
I had been planning to use this July column to look ahead to Labor Day Weekend, which I will still do. First, I want to commend to you Bishop Eaton’s Statement on the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with her calls to action. I know this legislation will impact our communities, though not exactly how and when. Current local events also felt big this past week as I watched the story of the two firefighters’ deaths in Kootenai County. Then we heard that Bruce and Barbara Turner and the new priest, Father Akinpelu James (a Luther Seminary grad), of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Idaho Falls (which hosts New Day Lutheran) were in a car crash. Bruce died and Barbara and Akinpelu sustained injuries. I am grateful that our faith tradition gives us the tools to make space for grief and prayer and lament. These leave room for encounters with the divine, even and especially when we feel that we are in the darkest valleys. Please be open to God meeting you there in the valley.
What then for the people of God? I have been thinking a lot about two other related gifts of our tradition—Affirmation of Baptism and our theology around vocation. I love so many parts of the Affirmation service. What I appreciate the most probably depends on the day I am having. Sometimes it’s the renunciation of the devil and all that rebels against God (added in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship edition). Sometimes it’s the summary of the five promises (sometimes called the five gifts of discipleship). Sometimes it’s the gifts of God named in the liturgy. I still love the prayers in the old Lutheran Book of Worship. Being reminded of who we are and whose we are is always a good and powerful thing. I suggest taking a Sunday this summer or in the fall to have your whole congregation affirm their baptism. Are there people worshiping with you who are probably not baptized? That’s okay. You can invite them to participate in whatever way they feel comfortable and use it as an opportunity to talk about our Lutheran understanding of Holy Baptism.
I know several congregations, and there are surely more, who have heard from their members on Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings about how they connect their faith with their current or past jobs and careers, how they live out their vocations. If you have not done this yet, maybe this is the year. Often in the late summer and early autumn we are good at blessing teachers and farmers, but what if this year, leading up to or following Labor Day, we blessed all varieties of labor? This could take place during the offering time—offering thanks for the gifts people offer in the way of labor. I think people need to be reminded, now more than ever, that God blesses them outside of our hour of communal worship, that God cares about our labors (volunteer and compensated). Equally important, we all need reminders that united with Jesus Christ, we each can bring gifts of empathy, connection, and presence to our laboring, no matter what it is.
From the e-newsletter of Rev. Tim Brown, Director of Congregational Stewardship Support:
Blessed be, God of all creation.
Give softness to the land.
Give us skill to work the land.
This plough is sign to us of Your blessing.
Give us softness of heart.
Give us skill to serve You.
Blessed be God—Creator, Christ, and Spirit,
Three of Glory, Three of Light, Three of Life.
—From Meg Llewellyn, The Celtic Wheel of the Year: Christian & Pagan Prayers & Practices for Each Turning (Anamchara Books, 2020)
-Bishop Meggan Manlove