Dear Saints of the Northwest Intermountain Synod,

It has been just over ten days since the wildfires began burning in Spokane. We grieve with the around 7 households of our ELCA congregations whose homes were destroyed by the wildfires and of course so many of you know friends, co-workers, and relatives whose homes were destroyed. All our ELCA church structures are still standing. We celebrate the heroism of firefighters, the way the community came together, the acts of kindness (including all of you who welcomed evacuees into your homes). 

This afternoon, pastors from Spokane to Wenatchee and I met with Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) staff and volunteers. LDR is part of the ELCA and is also a partner with the Washington State VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster). You might be seeing adds for Lutheran World Relief, which is now Corus International, great with international disasters and of course please sending them your quilts! However, we are encouraging you to give to LDR during this time of wildfires.

Dear Saints of the Northwest Intermountain Synod,
My heart breaks for the greater Spokane Community in the face of wildfires, which are still burning as I write this.
We pray for firefighters and those coordinating responses to the wildfires and planning for recovery. 
Links are provided of who can receive your financial donations.
I offer a Litany in Time of Wildfires

Why the 2027 ELCA National Youth Gathering

I am a huge fan of the ELCA Youth Gatherings. When I stood for the bishop’s election in our synod in 2023, I quoted Galatians 5:13-14 as a central verse for my life and ministry. Guess where I first really heard that verse—the 1991 Gathering in Dallas when the theme was “Called to Freedom.” I attended again in Atlanta.

I have recently been saying around lunch tables and in sermons that my answer to just about everything in this moment is, remember your baptism. As you participate in the life of your congregation, remember your baptism. As we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday, remember your baptism. As you read the news, remember your baptism.

It was timely to hear Kimmerer speak so close to Holy Trinity Sunday, when many of us will hear the beautiful creation story, or song, from Genesis 1. As we consider the relationship with the Holy Trinity, our relationship to other humans, our relationship with our siblings—human, plant, and animals--consider the deep wonder and joy with which Kimmerer the botanist writes.

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.