Sermon for Sunday, March 22, 2020 – “God’s Power Within You”

March 22, 2020 by

Fourth Sunday in Lent
Online Worship
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Scripture passages: Isaiah 43:1-5a; Psalm 23; Ephesians 3:14-21; Mark 4:35-41

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

“A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.”

Oh, do we know what that feels like. The massive storm of the coronavirus has arisen. The gale force winds pound. The waves beat against our boats. We are already being swamped.

This storm is real. This storm needs to be taken seriously. And there is something even more real, even more important for us to remember. We are not alone in the storm. God is present with us in it. It may feel like God is sleeping, like God is not doing anything in this storm. We may wonder, like the disciples did, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” Yet the power of God is at work.

The power of God brings peace amidst the storm.

The power of God brings faith when we, like the disciples, only know fear.

The power of God brings hope out of despair, life out of death.

This is what God does.

Still we wonder, how is this power of God at work? We don’t see Jesus simply stilling this storm with a simple word. So how is the power of God at work in these days of global pandemic? As Ephesians reminds us, God’s power is at work within us. We’re reminded that God “by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

God’s power is at work within us. God’s power is at work in this storm, within each of us, to work faith, hope, courage, creativity and acts of love in this time.

God’s power at work within us helps us to organize even when we can’t meet in person to care for each other and the most vulnerable. I’ve seen this happen in Decorah this past week as the Decorah Area Faith Coalition and the newly formed Decorah and Winneshiek County Mutual Aid Network are working together to care for our community. I’ve seen this happen at Good Shepherd as Pr. Marion and the Social Justice Subcommittee work with me to organize our congregation into flocks with designated shepherds who will help to care for us all in this time.

God’s power at work within us also helps us to be creative and resourceful in this time. I see this creativity at work in people who are sewing masks for our medical professionals. Many hospitals around the country are providing protocols for how masks can be made and delivered to where they can be washed and put to use. I’m hoping we can do this for Winneshiek Medical Center as well, soon; the hospital in Cresco is accepting masks. If you live elsewhere check your local hospital website for their recommendations.

I also see resourcefulness at Good Shepherd. Brooke got us ready to livestream worship in less than 24 hours last week. Our Communications Subcommittee and administrative assistant have worked to launch a way for people to give offerings right from our website so that we can carry on our mission as a congregation even when we can’t gather. Watch for more on that soon.

Kathryn Thompson has continued her amazing ministry by generating a number of resources for children, youth and family; and Youth Forum will be meeting using Zoom after worship today. Many who have never used Zoom have figured it out this week. I have had such joy seeing some of your faces during our Bible Study, Faith Coalition and Social Justice Subcommittee Zoom meetings.

Other congregations are also being creative and resourceful using the different gifts they have. We will be sharing these and collaborating together in the days to come.

God’s power is at work within us. We can’t always see this. We can’t always feel it. Sometimes all we can feel are the storm clouds above us. So, this week I have been doing a meditation that’s been helping me to be attentive and open to God’s power at work within us.

This meditation is called a Light Visualization and it’s a very helpful secular meditation technique.

You visualize sunlight above your head washing over you and filling up your body from your toes all the way up your head. This visualization helps you to experience calm and peace even amidst storms. I’ve been praying this meditation this week with our Ephesians passage for today in my mind. Our Ephesians passage is a prayer that we may be strengthened in our inner beings with power through the Spirit and that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

So, this week I’ve visualized that sunlight above my head as the love and power of God. I’ve imagined it washing over me and filling me with all the fullness of God, strengthening me in my inner being. I’ve imagined it doing the same for you all dear people of God as I’ve prayed for you all this week. That power and love of God is always there – above our heads, within us, all around us. This exercise just helps us to notice it and receive it and experience it.

Let’s take just a moment together and I’ll lead you through this prayer practice so that you might experience being filled with all the fullness of God and being strengthened in your inner being.

Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Then let your breathing return to its normal rhythm.

As you breathe in and out, imagine the sunlight of God’s love and power above your head. Imagine it washing over you, filling you with warmth and peace and light. Imagine it filling you up, starting with your toes, moving up your legs, past your knees, then to the upper half of your body through your chest, filling you up while continuing to flow from above, flowing down into your fingers, your wrists, up to your elbow and shoulders, filling up your neck, your face, your forehead and the top of your head. Then simply let your mind rest in this awareness that you are filled with the love, the power, the fullness of God.

As you move through your day, when all you feel is a dark cloud over your head, you can take a moment to flash this image quickly. Just take a breath and imagine being filled with the sunlight of God’s love and power from the tips of your toes to the top of your head.

The power of God is at work in this storm. It is at work within you. God works peace amidst the storm; God works faith out of fear, hope out of despair, life out of death – for you, for me, for this world God so loves.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Filed Under: Featured

March 20, 2020 Message from Pastor Amy

March 21, 2020 by

Beloved of God,

We will soon be in a position to send a letter via the postal service with a summary of our plans for continuing ministry even when we can’t meet in person. For now here is info about Sunday worship and the Shepherds who will be assisting the pastors in caring for “flocks” of Good Shepherd members in this time. 
 
Here is the link to participate in the livestream of the Sunday morning worship service. You just click here, you don’t have to type anything in, just click here. You can join in as we stream this at 9:30am Sunday or participate later as the video is accessible to view later at that same link. The bulletin for Sunday is attached to this email.
The links for worship and the bulletins can also be found on the website goodshepherddecorah.org under the WORSHIP tab.
 
We have also learned that Luther can broadcast our service on the radio with the help of an international student. It will be broadcast live at 9:30am on KWLC 1240am or by clicking by clicking here luther.edu/kwlc/
 
Shepherds for our Flocks
Good Shepherd congregation is putting in place a system to help us all stay connected in mutually supportive ways during this extraordinary time. Under the guidance of Pr. Amy, and with the support of the Social Justice Sub-committee, we have grouped the congregation into 10 “Flocks.” Each Flock has 14 or 15 individual and family group members. These Flocks will be cared for by 10 “Shepherds.”  You can think of these Shepherds as an expansion of the pastoral ministry of our congregation. The Shepherds will be in direct communication with their Flocks through phone calls, email, and hand written notes. Shepherds, as much as possible, will assist with arranging support services for their flock – meaning they will contact other members at large – to pick up groceries, medications, or run other necessary errands. Shepherds will share pastoral concerns with Pr. Amy and Pr. Marion who will provide further care. The Shepherds will maintain confidentiality, and will only share needs and concerns with Pr. Amy and Pr. Marion.
 
Your shepherds will be calling you to check in starting next week.
 
Peace to you,
Pr. Amy
Filed Under: Announcements

Covid-19 Update – Message from Pastor Amy, March 18, 2020

March 18, 2020 by

Beloved of God, Peace to you today.

Good Shepherd is continuing to try to do its part to help flatten the curve of this virus. We will continue to care for each other and our larger community via phone, email and online resources. We can care best by practicing physical distancing during this time.

Please stay home if at all possible. This is the most important thing you can do for your own health and for the good of the community. I know it is hard to be stuck at home. This is how we can best practice the love of our neighbor at this time.

In-Person Worship Suspended  

  • Because the CDC has recommended no gatherings of more than 50 people for 8 weeks, we will not hold in-person worship until Sunday, May 17. This includes the next weeks of Lent, Holy Week and Easter. It is so hard to think of not having worship together on Easter. We hope and pray the recommendations change. If not, we will stay the course to do our part. Please continue to support the operating budget of the congregation at this time. See below for more on this.
  • We will offer Worship online Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. See below for more information.
  • We will temporarily suspend all weddings, funerals and memorials until May 11.
  • Graveside services will be offered for immediate family only and physical distancing of 6 feet will be maintained carefully. Memorial services will be scheduled at a later date.

Building Closed

  • The building will be locked and closed to all except staff, Cantor Jonathon Struve, Treasurer John Moeller,  and Reg Laursen (he has been appointed building manager by the Executive Committee). People requesting financial help will see a sign requesting that they call to make an appointment with Pr. Amy. We will also have a dropbox with pen and paper where they can leave requests.
  • We do not yet have an end date about when the building will reopen. It is possible the building could reopen before we hold large worship services.
  • We are closing the building because
    • We need to limit who enters the building to keep it safer for our staff who will be there to serve the congregation and the community.
    • We want to model the importance of physical distancing with all who use our building. We will ask support groups not to meet in the building but we will arrange Zoom meetings for them so they can meet online.

No In-Person Meetings for Good Shepherd Anywhere Please, All Programming Suspended

  • Because Governor Reynolds has banned all gatherings of 10 or more people and because we serve a very high-risk population, all programming and all in-person meetings and groups related to Good Shepherd will be asked to meet via Zoom (instructions below), phone, or postpone until notified of a change. This impacts Congregation Council, Committee Meetings, Circle meetings, Prayer Shawl, Bible Study and informal planning meetings. Many of these gatherings are smaller than ten people but we need to do our part to protect vulnerable populations and try to prevent community spread.
  • If you had a Good Shepherd group or meeting scheduled at the church building or in another location,  Administrative Assistant Jenny Werner will remove it from the church calendar unless you contact her at the church office 563-382-3963 or by email at decorahgoodshepherd@gmail.com  and indicate it will continue via Zoom (see more about Zoom below).

Worship Live Streamed and available to view later as well

Holden Evening Prayer every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. 

Sunday Morning Worship at 9:30am.

To participate in the live broadcast of the service tonight, click on the link: here. 

If you just click on the link it will open the livestream of the service for you. You can participate live at 7:00 p.m. or watch later, as the service will be archived.

Here is a link to the bulletin we will use each week for the Holden Evening Prayer service. It is only the words as we don’t have permission to post the music. Just click on this link: Holden Evening Prayer

You can print it out at home or follow along on a split screen on your computer or on your phone.

The links to participate in all upcoming Wednesday evening and Sunday morning worship services will be posted on our website: goodshepherddecorah.com under the WORSHIP tab or by clicking here.

The link will change for each worship service, you will need to find the link for an upcoming service

The bulletins for Sunday morning will be posted there as well as they are available.

As of right now, it appears that Luther will not be able to broadcast our service on KWLC radio while the campus is closed.

Listen to or Read the Sermon The audio and text of the sermon will continue to be posted on our website goodshepherddecorah.com under the CONNECT tab at the Sermons or by clicking here and on our Facebook page.

Connect with others via Zoom

The congregation now has a Zoom account. Zoom is a way to connect with one person or a group via video or phone (landline or cell phone). We have purchased a Zoom account that will allow multiple meetings using this same meeting ID.

You can join a meeting on Zoom two different ways.

  1. You can join as a video call.  This will allow you to both see and talk to participants in the meeting.
  2. You can join by phone. This will be audio only.  You will be able to hear and talk to participants in the meeting.

We have simple instructions for how to use Zoom. If you would like to use Zoom for your group, call or email the church office at 563-382-3963 or decorahgoodshepherd@gmail.com

Jenny will schedule your meeting via Zoom for you on the church calendar.

Bible Study Via Zoom

Join Pr. Amy for Bible Study every Thursday at 10am via Zoom. Even if you haven’t participated in the past, you are most welcome to join this gathering when we are all in need of community and have more time at home!

To join, just click here and follow all the prompts on your screen. You can trust Zoom and agree to all prompts.

  • It is OK to click “Allow” or “Open zoom.us” and OK to allow Zoom to use your camera and microphone. 
  • You shouldn’t need to download the zoom app, you can just access the meeting through your internet browser. 
  • You may also see a window that says join with computer audio, you can click on that.
  • Once you are on the call, you may need to click on the “start video” icon at the bottom of the screen. Until you do that, there will be a red line over the camera icon and the video won’t be working.

You can also just join by phone by calling the number below and entering the Meeting ID# when prompted.

Call-in: 1-646-558-8656; Meeting ID: 356 019 3007

You will asked for a participant ID, just hit pound to skip that.

Shepherds for our Flocks!

With the help of the Social Justice Subcommittee, we are organizing the congregation into 10 “Flocks” – each flock consisting of about 10 individual members or family groups. Each flock will be overseen by a Shepherd.

A Shepherd’s basic responsibility will be to serve as the contact person for their flock. They will check in with members of their flock – via phone, email, or written messages of care and concern, in order to let each person or family group know we are praying for them and are available to assist with groceries, medications pick up, pastoral care, or other things they might need. The Shepherds will communicate with each other, Pr. Amy, and Pr. Marion as we care for each other.

Caring for the Larger Decorah Community

The Decorah Area Faith Coalition and Decorah Now have created the Decorah and Winneshiek County Mutual Aid Network. This is a place where you can volunteer to help others in the community or indicate you need assistance. Here is the link for that, and you just click on the link: decorahnow.com/mutual-aid-network/

The Food Pantry is also in need of young, healthy volunteers who can help to bag groceries and distribute them via a drive-by pick up method. The food pantry will only be distributing pre-bagged food through drive-by pick up. To help, sign up at www.decorahpantry.org/volunteer.

Your continued generosity toward our operating budget will be more important than ever during this time. That’s especially true as we seek to take care of our amazing staff. If you’re not using electronic giving via your bank or automatic withdrawal, you can still mail your offering to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 701 Iowa Avenue, Decorah, IA 52101. We are also working on a way you can give directly at the website.

Consider making an extra donation to the Mission Assistance Fund to help those facing financial hardship. You can do that right now by mailing a check to Good Shepherd.  Put “Mission Assistance Fund” in the memo line of your check.

Remember this, dear People of God: It is the same God who called Abraham into an unknown land, who led Moses and the Israelites through wilderness and into promise, who worked through politics and circumstance to save God’s people through Esther, and who tore through the heavens to proclaim Jesus as beloved Son that is with us still today. It is the same God. Our realities may change. God does not. May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Pr. Amy

Filed Under: Announcements, Events

Good Shepherd’s Building Closing as of Tuesday, March 17

March 16, 2020 by
March 16, 2020
 
GOOD SHEPHERD’S BUILDING CLOSING AS OF TUESDAY, MARCH 17 IN ORDER TO CARE FOR COMMUNITY
 
Good Shepherd is continuing to try to do our part to help flatten the curve of this virus. We will continue to care for each other and our community via phone, email and online resources. We can care best by practicing physical distance in this time. 
 

• Because the CDC has recommended no gatherings of more than 50 people for 8 weeks, we will not hold in-person worship until Sunday, May 17. This includes Holy Week and Easter. We will offer online alternatives.  Wednesday Midweek Lenten services at 7:00 pm will use Holden Evening Prayer.


• We will temporarily suspend all weddings, funerals and memorials until May 11.

• Graveside services will be offered for immediate family only and physical distancing of 6 feet will be maintained carefully. Memorial services will be scheduled at a later date.

• Because President Trump is recommending avoiding gatherings of 10 or more people and because we serve a very high-risk population, all programming and all in-person meetings and groups related to Good Shepherd will be asked to meet via Zoom (instructions will be shared soon), or phone or postpone until notified of a change. This impacts Congregation Council, Committee Meetings, Circle meetings, Prayer Shawl, Bible Study and informal planning meetings. Many of these gatherings are smaller than ten people but we need to do our part to protect vulnerable populations and try to prevent community spread.

• We need to limit who enters the building to keep it safer for our staff who will be there to serve the congregation and the community.

• Please do not plan any meetings or gatherings at the church.

• We want to model the importance of physical distancing with all who use our building. We will ask support groups to not meet in the building but we will arrange Zoom meetings for them so they can meet online.

• The building will be closed to all except staff and Reg Laursen as he has been appointed building manager by the Executive Committee. People requesting financial help will see a sign requesting that they call to make an appointment with Pr. Amy. We will also have a dropbox with pen and paper where they can leave requests.

• Staff will work remotely or in the building.
Filed Under: Announcements

Sermon for March 15, 2020 – “Waters of Compassion from Our Hearts”

March 15, 2020 by

Third Sunday in Lent
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Today’s worship was livestreamed and available through radio broadcast only.

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

In our reading from Exodus today, the people of God were wandering in the wilderness uncertain and unafraid. They couldn’t find water. They couldn’t tell if God was with them or not. I’m guessing some were completely panicked and some thought others were overreacting just a bit.

We know something of what that is like. These days of a global health emergency are frightening and unsettling. And dear ones, it is OK to feel whatever you feel – afraid, isolated, overwhelmed, angry, ill-equipped, frustrated, all these things; it is OK to feel them all. We are not alone in all these feelings. We are not alone as we face this situation.

Today all of our assigned scripture readings give us stories of communities and people who have experienced things similar to what we’re facing today – communities and people that have known disruption, fear, suffering and social isolation. In these stories we see that God’s people have been in times like these before and that in these times, God is so very close, so very present. Our Gospel reading shows us that God, in Jesus, was present to the Samaritan woman at the well in the midst of her social isolation. Our Romans passage assures us that God is present in suffering, that God pours love into our hearts so that we might endure. And our reading from Exodus shows us that God was present to the Hebrew people even when they felt so very alone in the wilderness. The people had endured intense hardship in Egypt. God had delivered them, but then they found themselves journeying in the desert with no water. They got really worried, to say the least.

They forgot that God had led them out of Egypt and that God was leading them through the wilderness. They panicked and quarreled and tested God. They asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Yes, came the resounding answer, yes. God was with them. God is with us. God said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.”

The people could only see the rocks, they could only see cold, lifeless stones all around them. On their own, they could not see that water does in fact course through rock formations. They needed God to help access the water that was already there. They needed God to unleash the gifts within God’s good creation.

In our current wilderness time with COVID-19, fear will try to turn our hearts to hard, cold, lifeless stone. Fear will try to tell us to panic and hoard supplies. And our sin, our human tendency to curve in on ourselves, will try to keep us fixated on ourselves and how this all impacts us.

Yet beloved people of God, there are deep waters of compassion and kindness coursing within each of our hearts. We have been baptized into Christ, who is living water for the world. As our reading from Romans today reminds us, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” [in baptism]. And God is present with us even now to unleash this living water from within our hearts. And oh, dear ones, we need the waters of compassion and kindness to flow from our hearts now more than ever.

The world needs us to rise to this occasion and bring forth the love of God for the sake of the world that God so loves.

Psychologist Gretchen Schmelzer has written a powerful article entitled “This Can Be Our Finest Hour — But We Need All of You.”[1] I’m going to read most of her article now as it is such an important word.

She writes: “For the vast majority of people nationwide and worldwide, this virus is not about you. This is one of those times in life, in history, when your actions are about something bigger. They are about someone else. They are about something greater, a greater good that you may not ever witness. A person you will save whom you will never meet.

 You may be healthy, and your kids may be healthy. You parents may be healthy. Everyone around you seems fine. And all the things you planned and the 2020 spring you thought you were going to have has been completely undone … It all seems fast, and out-of-proportion and disorienting. You look at each action and think—but it would be okay if I did that. It’s not so big. We worked so hard. They would be so disappointed.

Your losses are real. Your disappointments are real. Your hardships are real. I don’t mean to make light or to minimize the difficulty ahead for you, your family or community.

But this isn’t like other illnesses and we don’t get to act like it is. It’s more contagious, it’s more fatal—and most importantly, even if it can be managed, it can’t be managed at a massive scale—anywhere.

We need this thing to move slowly enough for our collective national and worldwide medical systems to hold the very ill so that all of the very ill can get care. Because at this time of severe virus there are also all of the other things that require care. There is still cancer, heart attacks, car accidents, complicated births. And we need our medical systems to be able to hold us. And we need to be responsible because our medical systems are made up of people and these a- mazing healthcare workers are a precious and limited resource. They will rise to this occasion. They will work to help you heal. They will work to save your mother or father or sister or baby. But in order for that to happen we have very important work to do. ALL OF US.

So, what is our work? Yes, you need to wash your hands and stay home if you are sick. But the biggest work you can do is expand your heart and your mind to see yourself, your family as part of a much bigger community that can have a massive—hugely massive—impact on the lives of other people … You can help by canceling anything that requires a group gathering. You can help by not using the medical system unless it is urgent. You can help by staying home if you are sick … by cooking or shopping or doing errands for a friend who needs to stay home … by watching someone’s kid if they need to cover for someone else at work … You can help by seeing yourself as part of something bigger than yourself.” From Pastor Amy: I would add, too, that you can join in public policy advocacy for the most vulnerable and for our communities. The ELCA Advocacy Network has issued an alert that we’ll share on our website and Face- book page.

Gretchen Schmelzer continues …

When the Apollo 13 oxygen tank failed and the lunar module was in danger of not returning to earth, Gene Kranz, the lead flight director overheard people saying that this could be the worst disaster NASA had ever experienced—to which he is rumored to have responded, “With all due respect, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”

Imagine if we could make our response to this crisis our finest hour. Imagine if a year or two from now we looked back on this and told the stories of how we came together as a team in our community, in our state, in our nation and across the world. Your contribution to the finest hour may seem small, invisible, inconsequential—but every small act of ‘not doing’ what you were going to do, and ‘doing’ an act of kindness or support [or advocacy] will add up
exponentially. These acts can and will save lives. The Apollo 13 crew made it their finest hour by letting go of the word “I” and embracing the word “we.” And that’s the task required of us. It can only be our finest hour if we work together. You are all on the team. And we need all of you to shine in whatever way you can.”

Beloved of God, we often wonder if we can shine the way the world needs. Our hearts often feel like hard, cold, lifeless stone. But there are waters of kindness and compassion coursing within our hearts. God is present with us to unleash those waters, to let healing help flow for us and through us for the sake of the world.

As Romans assures us: With the presence of God, we know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

[1] http://gretchenschmelzer.com/blog-1/2020/3/10/can-we-make-this-our-finest-hour

Filed Under: Featured