Recent research about Gen Z from the Springtide Research Institute suggests that a combination of three things leads to young people, aged 13-25, feeling like they belong in school: being noticed, named, and known by a community. Paying attention to someone, noticing rather than ignoring them, increases that person’s sense of connectedness. Greeting someone, holding the door for them, blessing them after a sneeze—all are simple ways to notice.
Read MoreJesus repeatedly prays that “they may all be one,” that through the communion of God and Jesus, we all may be one. This oneness is rooted in God’s immense love which goes beyond all time and space.
Even in that upper room, the reality of this oneness rooted in love is hard to conceptualize. The folks who fill that room are far from perfect, they will mess up some in pretty significant ways in the days to come, as they struggled to understand and cope with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Yet, knowing all this, Jesus prays for them and, in that moment, Jesus prays for us too.
Read MoreA disciple has asks Jesus how he will reveal himself to the disciples when the world cannot see him, as Jesus describes in John 14:19. It’s a good question. They have never experienced anything like what Jesus describes. Of course, Jesus gives a very Jesus-y answer to that question. Love. Love is the way the disciples will know Jesus.
Read MoreIn this gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should love one another.” This is a commandment that calls us into a relationship, with both God and one another. It calls us into a relationship of love.
Read More“Hindsight is 20/20,” the old saying goes, meaning that it is easier to see the meaning of things when you are looking back. Perhaps that is why today’s gospel reading is a flashback to John 10, a time well before Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is as if to say, now that we have encountered the Risen Jesus, we are finally ready to make sense of what he was saying.
Read MoreUnder the direction of Shawn Bristle, the Cantata Choir of Community Lutheran Church in Bullhead City presented the Easter Cantata "Upon This Rock" on Good Friday, April 15, 2022. Watch their presentation on Youtube or this blog post.
Read MoreThe Easter season is seven weeks long. Nearly every week the gospel lesson includes disciples encountering Jesus and failing to recognize him. This week’s gospel encounter is crammed with significance. There is a miracle and allusions to Peter’s failure to stand firm during the horrible events of Holy Week, as Jesus asks him repeatedly, “Do you love me.” Both are important and theologically significant, yet by focusing on them we may miss what is most significant. Namely, Jesus is in the world today if we have eyes to see.
Read MoreFor the first time in decades we are witnessing a confluence of significant religious holy days and cultural traditions during the month of April. Kristen L. Opalinski shares her thoughts in Perspectives, a new ELCA ecumenical and inter-religious blog. She also shares these links:
This April, Chicago has a rare opportunity for interfaith cooperation
The Confluence of Holy Seasons: An Opportunity to Grow Together
“We must be vigilant today and always, because, like Mary, the Risen One also calls us and challenges us to open our eyes and recognize him in our surroundings and in our neighbors,” Lutheran World Federation Council member Rev. Karla Steilmann Franco, says in this year’s Easter message. Read the Easter message in English, Spanish, German, or French.
Read MoreWe share this simple and ingenious testimony of Easter created by Working Preacher, fom the Center for Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary.
Read MoreIn this year’s message for Good Friday, Lutheran World Federation’s vice president for the Central Western European region, Pröpstin Astrid Kleist, reflects on the Gospel of Luke’s account of the Crucifixion, as Jesus is nailed to the cross to die between two criminals. Read the Good Friday Message in English, in Spanish, in French, or in German.
Kleist, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, reflects on the meaning of Jesus’ death for those killed, injured, uprooted and bereaved by Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.
Read MoreFrom the latest Zoom meeting on April 9, 2022, the Grand Canyon Synod Council brings you Easter greetings.
Read More“He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!”
In my life, the amount of hope I find Easter morning has always been related to the depth of the Lenten journey before. The glorious Sunday morn is not possible without the nights of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
Two Easters ago, the reality of the pandemic truly hit the church. And if you look at Lent through the lens of giving something up, it can feel as if we’ve had two years of Lenten fasting from normalcy.
Read MoreIn my part of the world, dogwood trees bloom at Easter. My Sunday Church School teachers told an old Christian legend to explain why.
Read MoreAs we enter the third year of this pandemic, we see the signs of stress and incivility, even the signs of war and disease in Ethiopia and Sudan, in Europe. It might seem like death still has sway, but Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds us to declare confidently on this Easter and all times "I know that my Redeemer lives.”
View in this post, on YouTube, or download the video here. Read the message as PDF in English or Spanish.
Read MoreAs we approach Holy Week and the Easter season, you may desire worship texts that hold in tension the joy of the resurrection with the reality of violence and suffering in our world in Eastern Europe and around the globe.
Below are three newly composed worship texts by Gail Ramshaw — For Good Friday, For the Easter Season, and an Eastertide Lament — available for use in your context during Holy Week. Guidance for use precedes each selection.
Read MoreCommunity Lutheran Church's Holy Week Cantata, "On This Rock," tells the story of the disciple Peter. Shawn Bristle directs the renowned Cantata Choir as part of the Holy Week program produced by Dean Leuthauser.
Sunday, 4/10/2022, 3pm PDT/MST
Friday, 4/15/2022, 7pm PDT/MST
