This letter - 1 Peter - is one of the most hope-filled books in the New Testament. Its purpose is to encourage Christian converts living in the midst of a hostile society. Like most of the letters, there are a few passages that I would rather ignore; I have to remember that the letter was written in a very different time and place. Still, there is enough life-giving in the letter to hold our attention. The author names “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1:3). That living hope is ours as well, even as the world around us groans. We hope that the God who created life out death on Easter morning will continue to create life from death. We hope that transformation is possible. And finally, like those disciples in the Emmaus Road story, we might say “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?” (Luke 24:32). 

Worship, including the sharing of the peace, gives us a glimpse of God’s reign that we can take into the world, and what a gift that is. Jesus gives us a peace, as he says earlier in John’s gospel, that the world does not know, a peace that exists through Jesus Christ even when the world feels like it’s shaking and absent of all peace.

Can breath from a global Lutheran church body like the ELCJHL blow through the atmosphere and give life to the rest of the church? If it could, the breath would whisper about six congregations plus schools and other ministries who are giving life to their local communities.

When I was with my mom in Minnesota writing my January column about the gift and need for communal singing and preparing for my trip the Holy Land, I could not have imagined what was about to unfold in Minneapolis and across the state of Minnesota. My heart has broken again and again as I watched videos of the shooting of individuals and violent apprehension of individuals by ICE agents. Our hearts go out to those families and to so many people living with uncertainty and fear in Minnesota and in our own communities.

I have thought a great deal about how singing together is something I missed so much during pandemic days, how I love singing with youth and summer staff around a campfire at camp, how during an ELCA Youth Gathering we often sang our way home from the mass gatherings in the dome, how singing Taize chants quietly with others gives me that peace that passes understanding. And sometimes, when I cannot find my voice, I simply listen and let others carry the song. Collective or communal singing is one of the best things we can do for our spiritual, emotional, and communal health, and it is something Christians, including Lutherans, have a lot of experience with.

I am ready for the old, old story. It does not matter that I have heard this story, sung this story, seen this story portrayed by artists from across the globe, or told this story countless times. Jesus, Son of God, will be born in Bethlehem and visited first by shepherds, far from the halls of power. He is coming soon, already here among us, and will come again, bringing the shalom that only God can bring.

I am writing this on All Saints Sunday, one of my favorite festivals of the church year. I love that we take this day to remember the pillars of faith (saints like Francis, Julian, Hildegard, and Augustine) and the ordinary saints of our own lives and the lives of our congregations (I am thinking especially of my half-brother and father today).

I have become just a bit obsessed this year with Ray Makeever’s hymn (found in All Creation Sings): Death be Never Last. He wrote the first verse shortly after his wife died and the other verses came later. Here’s a choral arrangement of the hymn by David Sims:

This afternoon, the ELCA will came together for the installation of Presiding Bishop Yehiel Curry. We had a number of ecumenical guests, but I am sure so many people present were ELCA Lutherans, and I thought again of the many gifts present in that sanctuary.

It was an honor to be one of the seven voting members from the NWIM Synod at this Assembly, under the theme For the Life of the World. (continue with summary report)

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.