“Present to the Pain”

Reverend Amy Zalk Larson

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church  

 Decorah, Iowa

Click here to read scripture for the day.

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

These words, often called the beatitudes from the Latin word for blessing, are incredibly counter-cultural. Australian pastor and poet Nathan Nettleton says, “If we were to write the beatitudes that we seem to be living by, they would sound something more like this:

Blessed are the comforters, those who distract us or medicate us or entertain us into a state of blissful numbness so we can avoid mourning and pain, for they will turn a huge profit.

Blessed are those who compulsively and excessively satisfy their every hunger and thirst, for they will keep the economy ticking along very nicely, thank you.

Blessed are those who take mercy for themselves, but who in the face of anyone else’s wrong- doing, argue that we must be tough and make an example of transgressors — for they will always be ahead in the opinion polls.”

One thing that distinguishes those beatitudes from those of Jesus is how we’re invited to engage the painful realities of life. Our culture encourages us to do all we can to avoid pain: eat, drink, spend, escape. Steer clear of people who make you feel uncomfortable. Avoid conflict. Turn that frown upside down. It could be said, “Blessed are those who don’t have to deal with pain for they will live the good life.”

Yet, Jesus calls blessed those who are hurting, long suffering, passionate for righteousness, striving for peace, and persecuted for doing the right thing. These types of people all have one thing in common. They are identified by pain – by their own pain or by their engagement with the world’s pain. They’re not the well-off, the wealthy, the lucky, but rather those marked by pain. And Jesus says they are blessed. Jesus directs our attention to the places of deep need and struggle, to those wrestling with it all. He says look, notice. God blesses, honors, esteems, and sees those who are in pain.

God has chosen to be identified with the pain of the world. This is radical. Often, we think pain means we’ve been abandoned by God. People and places scarred by pain are often described as godforsaken. When things are going well, we think God has blessed us; when things fall apart, we often don’t know what to think about God. In the beatitudes, Jesus teaches that God has chosen to bless and to be with those who face suffering, that God has chosen to be in pain. Jesus teaches this and then demonstrates this by his death on the cross.

In the cross we see that God has entered the pain of the world. God has chosen not to avoid or minimize suffering, but to fully engage it for the healing of all creation. God is so very present amidst suffering – in the hospital room, funeral home, war zone, refugee camp, detention center. Many of us have found that to be true in our own lives. We’ve known God’s presence most fully in times of grief or when we’re walking with people who are in need. We’ve cried out, “Where are you God”, and find, in time, that God is right there with us. God is in the pain working healing and new life. We can’t always feel it, but God is there. God’s presence is the blessing we all need; it is the blessing we are given in Christ Jesus.

When we see that God is in pain, this gives us an important way to view and engage the world.

Rather than seeing the needs of our neighbors as a nuisance or something to be pitied, we can recognize that need is a place to meet God and join God. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by all the hurt in our world, we can trust that God is at work in the suffering, and that God gives us what we need to join that work. Rather than offering charity because we’re so blessed and should give to those less fortunate, we can be present with people in need, yearning together for the blessing of God’s healing presence.

This is how we become pure in heart, merciful peacemakers who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is how we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. This is how we live as God’s people together – by entering into the pain of the world. Being present is the most important thing we can do for those who are suffering. It’s how we offer a blessing to them, how we help make God’s blessing to them known. We can’t be physically present with the people of Gaza and Israel right now. Yet through our ELCA, we participate in a ministry of accompaniment, being present in this place of generational trauma.

Our Peace Not Walls campaign connects ELCA members to our companions in the Holy Land and promotes dignity, full respect for human rights, healing and reconciliation. With our Palestinian Lutheran partners, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, we accompany Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims working together for peace with justice. The Peace Not Walls campaign is providing regular updates and steps we can take to accompany God’s people in this time. We can keep our hearts open, we can pray, we can advocate as you have the opportunity to do today during the Fellowship Hour.

It is brutally hard to be in pain, to witness pain, yet God is in pain.

God is present with us in all the suffering of the world. God is present with us today.

God’s presence empowers us to stay present to the painful realities of this world, to move through pain, to heal, to be a healing presence for others.

God’s presence brings joy and hope for you, for us, in all things.

Let’s join in silent prayer and reflection.

November 6, 2023

Beloved People of God,

Being your pastor is one of the greatest joys of my life. So, it  surprises me to be writing to you to say that I have been called to serve another congregation. I feel deep grief about leaving you soon, even as I feel peace that this call is the next right thing for me and my family. 

My husband Matt and I are both called to serve Christ’s church as pastors. For the past four years, as Assistant to the Bishop in the Southeastern MN Synod of the ELCA, Matt has been commuting to the synod office in Rochester and driving for hours to get to congregations in the synod. The synod office is now moving further into Minnesota. This is necessitating a move for our family. 

Matt and I also take our calls to be parents seriously. For a number of reasons, it is a good time for Abby to make a move. This surprised us, as she is a sophomore in high school. However, discernment and conversation with and for Abby have been a key part of this decision as well. She loves to ride horses and a move to horse country is most welcome for her. We’ll be further from Nate but still under three hours away.

The people of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Red Wing, MN voted to call me as their pastor on Sunday, Nov. 5. I have accepted the call and will begin serving them on January 22, 2024. I have informed the Congregation Council of this in a special meeting. My last Sunday with Good Shepherd will be Sunday, January 7, 2024. I will then take my remaining 2023 vacation days so my official last date of call to Good Shepherd will be January 15, 2024. 

Our NE IA Synod has asked me to help the council set up a transition team for you. The Synod will help you in the interim time between called pastors and in the call process. Pr. Liz Bell from the NE IA Synod will begin this process with the council on Tuesday, Nov. 14. Erica and Kelli will work with the leaders of the Decorah Area Youth Gathering Trip to make sure Good Shepherd youth will be ready for the ELCA Youth Gathering.

It has been troubling to have to keep this process confidential in order to honor the discernment of the call committee and congregation at St. Paul’s Red Wing. That’s been especially hard as we’ve been looking to next year at Good Shepherd and preparing for Stewardship Sunday. Yet the mission of the congregation is strong and clear and your generosity is crucial in a time of transition.

Throughout this discernment, I’ve felt deep peace knowing that the Spirit is alive and at work in this congregation. You are a strong, vibrant congregation not because of your pastor but because of your commitment to love, welcome, and accompany others in Jesus’ name. I have never known a more generous congregation, never heard a congregation sing so powerfully, never experienced deeper joy in worship than I have with Good Shepherd. The Spirit of the risen Christ has brought you to new life for the sake of God’s world. 

I am so grateful for the call to be your pastor for the past eight years. I have grown so much as a person and pastor by sharing in ministry with you. Any gift that you see in me is one that has been strengthened by my time with you. Your patience, faithfulness, trust, and willingness to experiment have been instrumental in everything we’ve done together. The chief gift you’ve given me is your love. I cannot thank you enough for all your care for me and my family. I love you all and you will always have a special place in my heart. Even as I prepare to end my time as your pastor, I am grateful that I will always be your sibling in Christ.

Peace to you,

Pastor Amy

Confirmation Sunday and Reformation Sunday

“The Practice of Love”

Reverend Amy Zalk Larson

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church  

 Decorah, Iowa

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

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

A lawyer asks Jesus a question to test him. We don’t have tests in Confirmation classes here at Good Shepherd, but if we did, all of the students and the whole congregation could pass the test Jesus is given. What is the greatest commandment? What does God care about most? Love. Love God. Love others. We could all get an A+ on that test if it was just about giving an answer.

Living that answer is a whole other thing. Love takes work. It takes practice and commitment in much the same way that trumpet, basketball, and the musical do. That’s not how we usually understand love in our culture. We say we fall in love, that love is blind, it happens at first sight, it breaks our hearts. We describe love as a feeling that just spontaneously arises, or not, as if wehave no power or agency about love.

But Jesus doesn’t say, “I hope love happens to you. I hope that you can conjure up some warm, fuzzy feelings about God, that you’re uplifted every time you see that person who repulses you, that you feel glad in the presence of your enemy.” Jesus doesn’t say you must feel a certain way. Instead, he commands us to live out love towards God and others, to make a conscious choice to act in loving ways regardless of how we feel, regardless of how others act.

The first three of the ten commandments tell us how to love God: Trust God rather than things; honor God’s name; worship God. The rest of the commandments tell us how to love others: Honor elders; protect life; respect your own and other’s relational commitments; guard what belongs to others; speak the truth; let go of wanting what others have. These commandments are given so that all may know the life God wants us to have.

When we choose to act with love, we thrive and others thrive. Our Psalm today describes it beautifully. We are like trees planted by streams of living water – we’re grounded, we grow, we offer beautiful things that help to heal and feed the world. Still, so often we don’t make the choice to love. We don’t protect the lives of others, pain grows, our souls are injured, and the seeds of conflict are watered. We covet what others have, robbing them and ourselves of well- being and peace. We speak in deceitful, mean-spirited ways that diminish ourselves and our common life.

We need help. So, thankfully Jesus doesn’t just command us to love and say good luck with that. Jesus goes all in on love – loving with his whole being, his whole life to the very end. Nothing, not even death, can stop Jesus from loving you, forgiving you, raising you up to new life each day to love again. Jesus helps you to experience God’s love so that you can love. Our Confirmands bear witness to this in their faith statements.

One writes, “God loves all of us and I believe God will forgive me for my mistakes. In the Bible, there are all these stories about people that have done great things with God’s love and bad things and God still loves them.”

Another says, “God is a safe place for me to find peace within myself … God tells me I am strong when I feel weak. When I feel like I don’t belong, God tells me I’m his.”

The Confirmands also describe how worship and this congregation help them to experience God’s love. One says, “Church has become important to me for a variety of reasons: from community, to music, to the strong connection to God that I feel when present.”

Another writes, “Good Shepherd makes me feel loved and helps me find my identity.”

These young people also describe how they use their whole selves, heart, mind, and soul, to love God and others. One wrote and is quoted here  – “Sharing my gifts of music that God gave me with the people of the church” and “doing God’s work with helping people less fortunate.”

Another says, “When I volunteered for House of Hope with my church youth group, I felt connected with God, because I could already see how God had created opportunities for the people at House of Hope.”

All three confirmands bear witness to the importance of using our minds to learn more about the Bible, having conversations about faith, and asking hard questions of God. One wrote: “I had a lot of questions as a child about things like “Where’s heaven?” and “What does God look like?” Now, as I learn more about faith, I see that it’s not exactly a clear-cut response for any of these. However, I do know that regardless of the answer, I don’t need to worry about it.”

Another wrote, “My relationship with God is already very steady; however, I do like to wonder about these things because I feel like it makes my relationship with God become even stronger.”

Colin, Victor, and Lulu, you help us to see what it looks like to choose love. The day you were bap- tized, the people of God celebrated God’s love for you and the new life you are given in Christ Jesus. Now today we get to celebrate your love for God and others as you commit to living out this new life, living out your baptism.

Today you promise to act in ways that will help you to experience God’s love and help you act with love in the world. You promise:

   to live among God’s faithful people,

   to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,

   to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,

   to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and

   to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.

These are things we do as God’s people.

This is how we keep practicing and keep showing up for Team Love.

Thank you for committing to this team today. Your witness helps us all to keep practicing love in a world of conflict and pain.

People of God, our Gracious God, through our savior Christ Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, loves and forgives you always so that you can love.

“What Do You Want?”

Reverend Amy Zalk Larson

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church  

 Decorah, Iowa

Click here to read the story for today.

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

What do you want?

What do you really want?

Do you know?

Can you ask for it from others? From God?

I’m struck that Moses knows what he wants and boldly asks for it. In an intimate conversation with God, Moses pleads with God to go with him and the people, and begs to be shown God’s glory. Moses names what he wants.

That’s often hard for me to do with other people and with God. Last year, I had a minor medical procedure for a thyroid condition, a procedure I’ll need to do every year now. The scheduler told me, “You don’t need a driver for this”, so I just went on my own.  But it turned out to be really painful and uncomfortable, and I wished I’d had my husband Matt with me. Thankfully, I knew he’d gladly come, and we scheduled for that this year. But the week of the procedure, our plans to help some extended family kept changing, and we were both ending up with a really full plate. I’ll just go to that procedure on my own, I told Matt, I’m fine.

Yet as the week went on, I noticed I was really grumpy about the plans that had changed. I was frustrated with the extended family – why can’t they just get it together? I got curious about my anger and realized it wasn’t the change in those plans that was bugging me. It was that I wanted Matt at that procedure. He was glad to come, we had a nice day, and even got to enjoy some Indian food together. I went on from there to help our family gladly and peacefully.

I was grateful that I figured out what I wanted ahead of time, so that I could ask for it. Usually that happens after the fact, if at all. What do you want? Can you ask for it? What gets in the way? So many things get in the way of me asking for what I want, especially from God.

• I’ve been taught to put other people’s wants and needs above my own.
• I’ve learned to distrust my desires – they might lead me to eat too much sugar or binge on too much Netflix.
• Marketing tells me to fulfill my longings by shopping and that just leaves me wanting.
• And honestly, I often wonder if asking God makes any difference. I’m afraid to name what I really long for because I don’t want to be disappointed.

What gets in the way for you? It helps me to see how God responds to Moses when Moses asks for what he wants. First some context. Right before our story today, God tells Moses that an angel will now accompany him and the people as they continue to travel through the wilderness. God has been with them but an angel will now take God’s place. Moses pleads with God to continue to accompany him and the people in the wilderness. Moses doesn’t want to lead these people without God’s presence, and he tells God that. Moses’ plea leads God to change plans and to say, “The very thing you have asked I will do.” Then, Moses says, “Show me your glory.” He makes another big ask. God basically says, I hear you, but you can’t handle seeing my full glory. I’ll give you a glimpse of me and I’ll protect you, make sure you aren’t overwhelmed.

All this shows us that God is in a real, intimate relationship with us, that God listens to us, that what we want matters to God. And it isn’t just Moses who gets to have this kind of conversation with God. Jesus invites us all into it, teaching us that we can call God ‘daddy’, rest in the bosom of our mothering God, and be at peace sharing our longings with God. Our desires matter to God and they can help join us to God and to God’s longings for the world. For instance, yearning for a quiet night opens me to pray for the people of Gaza and Israel living with such fear and pain. Honoring my desire for quiet helps me keep working for a more peaceful world.

In this conversation with God and Moses, we also see how God works even with our harmful desires. Moses thinks he wants to see God’s glory but finds he really needs God’s protection. This happens to me with sugar. Paying attention to that unhelpful craving can help me to recognize that I’m tired, that what I really need is some rest and some joy. That also connects me to other people because we all need rest and joy. I’m learning to trust that God is present in my desires, that God longs to hear my wants, and that they can open me to the needs of the world.

What do you want? Can you tell God? What will happen if you’re disappointed? Moses spoke of his desire to see God’s glory and didn’t get exactly what he wanted. I wonder if naming that desire before God helped him to let go of it more peacefully when it couldn’t happen. Sometimes when we haven’t identified what we want we live with a nagging sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment. Things just seem off, but we don’t know why. If we can say what we want clearly to God, then if things don’t go as we hope we will still feel disappointed, but we’ll at least know why. Then we can let go and open to what is next.

What do you want?

Where is God in that longing?

How is that longing connecting you to God’s longing for peace and well-being for all?

You can approach your wants with curiosity and gentleness because God is with you, God is holding your life and all your longings.

Later today we’ll bring our longings to God in sung prayers.

For now, let’s join in a moment of silent prayer and reflection.

“Practicing Faith Amid  Turmoil”

Reverend Amy Zalk Larson

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church  

 Decorah, Iowa

Click here to read story for the day.

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

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. A movie version of this came out about 10 years ago, it’s also lovely.

In our story today, I think it’s safe to say that Moses is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Everyone around him is behaving badly, even God apparently. The people that God and Moses have been leading out of Egypt and through the wilderness seem to have lost their minds. They’re dancing around a golden calf that Moses’ brother Aaron has made them. They’re dancing, partying and saying to a golden statue, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Which means they are breaking rule #1 of the ten commandments that God has just given them: “You shall have no other gods … you shall not make for yourself an idol.” But with those words still ringing in their ears, the people ask Aaron to make a god for them.

God sees this all unfold and lets loose. Moses experiences God, at first acting like a petulant teenager, “Let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot.” Then when God tells Moses, “Your people, whom you rescued, have acted perversely,” it sounds like one angry parent saying to the other, You’ll never believe what your son did. I imagine Moses’ head is spinning, that there’s a huge pit in his stomach. Everything is out of control. Everyone is flying off the handle, behaving in shocking, and yet also understandable ways.

The people are anxious and afraid. They feel vulnerable in the wilderness. Moses has been up on the mountain talking to God for a long time, and now he’s been delayed even further. What is he doing, does he have food up there? Is he still alive? They start to panic. And when we’re panicked and afraid, we don’t make good decisions. Gripped by fear, our brains don’t function fully; it isn’t easy to regulate emotions. We react impulsively, make snap decisions, try to do something, anything, to help us feel less anxious. All that seems to be at play for the people in the wilderness and for Aaron who gives in to peer pressure and makes an idol.

God’s reaction is even more shocking and yet it, too, is understandable. God is in real relationship with the people and cares deeply about them. God is not some unmoved mover who stands at a distance from humanity, separated from the pain and pathos of our lives. What we do matters to God, it impacts God. So, when the people turn away from relationship, God grieves.

Where does all this leave Moses? His life’s work has been to lead these people on God’s behalf. Now God is erupting with anger at them, threatening to destroy Israel and start a new nation with Moses. I imagine Moses feels hopeless seeing all this fear and pain swirling around him and not knowing how to help – the way many of us feel watching events in Israel and Gaza. I imagine he can empathize with all sides in this conflict between God, Aaron, and the people, and doesn’t want to have to choose sides. It seems Moses is facing the perfect storm of faith crisis, family feud, vocational discernment, and national political tensions.

What is he to do? In the face of God’s anger, Moses pleads with God on behalf of the people. As he does, Moses responds to God in very faithful ways and helps the situation. His response shows us a helpful way to be in times of turmoil. Moses stands with the people and calls on God to remember that they are God’s people, not Moses’ flock: They are your people, you brought them out of  the land of Egypt. Moses recounts God’s good and mighty deeds and asks God to consider what the Egyptians will think if God destroys the Israelites. Moses wants the world to know that God is good.

Then Moses pleads with God, “Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.” Remember your promises to these people!  Moses clings to God’s promises even when nothing makes sense. He claims these promises and boldly prays that God will honor them. When Moses is faced with an overwhelming, multi-layered crisis, he roots himself in practices of faith: He stands with God’s people and advocates for the defenseless; he recounts God’s mighty deeds to show God’s goodness; he clings to God’s promises and prays for God to honor them.

When nothing makes sense, Moses practices faith. And soon he and the Israelites have a powerful experience of the heart of God. They experience God to be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. We read, “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” And this is the way they experience God from this time forward. It’s how they continue to describe God throughout the Old Testament: gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Moses’ response to God helps us to see where and how we can stand when we find ourselves confused and shaken as turmoil and chaos swirl around, as we witness people behaving terribly everywhere. When we don’t know where to stand, when nothing makes sense, we can stand where Moses did and practice faith.

We can advocate for all of God’s people who are fearful, anxious, and afraid.

We can do that in the Israel-Hamas war. There are resources on the ELCA website.

We can confess what God has done to help ourselves and others trust.

We can cling to promises God has made to us all.

When you don’t know where to stand, what to believe, or how to think, remember that in baptism, in Holy Communion, in hearing God’s word, and gathering as Christ’s body, you are planted and rooted deeply in faith. You are forgiven and set free to practice faith for the sake of the world.

You can stand in hope and trust, you can practice faith – even on terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

Let’s join in a moment of silent prayer and reflection.

Amen