Pastor Nancy's Virtual Tour

As we begin our sabbatical, I will post blogs. Here is a virtual tour of the five-week trip that begins the sabbatical. You can watch the tour if you download Google Earth Plug-In (very easy to do - click here). Many blessings, Pr. Nancy

Living Water: What Is It?

"Living Water--What Is It?"

Jesus has a wonderful conversation with a woman at a well (John 4:1-30): Jesus says, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

I don''t know about you, but if you're like me, you need reviving, renewing, inspiring. Easter brings that, but often often if we know we need something: Perhaps it is faith in Jesus, perhaps it is the wisdom that the spirit of God gives, perhaps it is participating in a loving community.

Come to Ascension tomorrow, as we talk about the living water that Christ promises the woman at the well and all of us!'

Blessings, Pr. Nancy

Holy Week and Easter--Renew Your Life

Dear Friends, During Holy Week and Easter, we move from death to life, as we follow Jesus' walk from betrayal and crucifixion into death and resurrection. I hope that each of you will take time this week to slow down, breathe, pray, and draw closer to God. The world longs for God's presence to bring peace, comfort, and justice. Often it is through people who are dedicated to the healing ministry of Jesus Christ who find the courage to make a difference. His resurrection brings joy and hope to each of us and to the world. As you join the Ascension community in worship, may you find strength and purpose in the life, teachings, and resurrection of the our Lord.

Blessings, Pr. Nancy

Services: Maundy Thursday at 7:00 p.m., Good Friday at 7:00 p.m., Easter at 8:00 a.m. and 10:30.   COMMUNITY EASTER EGG HUNT SATURDAY AT 10:00 a.m. at Ascension

The Priesthood of All Believers: You Bring God’s Love to the World

The Luther Rose

The scripture readings for this Sunday (Lent 3) are the 10 Commandments (Exodus 10:1-17) and the story of Jesus' cleansing the temple (John 2:13-22). The readings raise the question, what is worship? Jesus' teachings and healings all show that he was passionate about people's love of God, about where their heart is, that is, about worship and above how they live their lives out of that commitment.

Because basically these teachings (and faithful worship) pull us into an encounter with God, to be changed by God's love. This is spiritual worship! (The contemporary distinctions made by some people between spiritual and religious are so misguided!) This change, over a lifetime, is grace-FILLED, because it makes us capable of loving, of seeing the world as God loves it. For "God so loved the world [the Greek meaning is "cosmos"], that he gave his only Son..." (John 3:16)

God's love in Jesus pulls us into God's loving heart, pictured at the center of the rose. There all pains, griefs, sins, inadequacies are healed. Happily freed, we can live God's great and deep love in our daily lives. In that we are ministers, priests, bringing God's goodness and light (1 Peter 2:9) to places of darkness in ourselves and the world.

What a privileged life's calling, which is open to anyone who comes to trust that Jesus Christ is the way to abundant life.

See you in church on Sunday!

Faithfully, Pr. Nancy

What do Lutherans believe about abundant life coming through the cross? Come to church this Sunday (March 4) to find out!

White Crucifixion, Marc Chagall, 1938 CGFA

Lent 2

Only God Saves

How do we understand the saving work of Jesus Christ? How did a terrible form or torture and death become a religious symbol for life?

The apostle Paul wrote heart-stirring words about the cross: “We proclaim Christ crucified…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

How does the story of Jesus’ life and death both “cut us down to size” as human beings, in relation to all that we can do and achieve, and at the same time build us up?

Come to church this Sunday, where we will try to ask and answer these fundamental questions together.

Why Come to Church Tonight (Ash Wednesday) and this Sunday, February 26

Meditation Text: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God… [Mark 1:14)”

Happy Ash Wednesday.

Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann believes that even though the majority of people in the United States say they are Christian, many are implicit atheists. He reflects that the “prevalant American predilection for an “irrelevant transcendence” and “cozy immanence” are “pet gods of our culture,” which circumscribe God. God cannot be contained in human thought.

Yet, God is close to us and all creation, even living within our deepest selves! That’s the good news of God, which Jesus preached.

Traditionally Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fasting from meat; with a simpler diet during the day, we are reminded of those who have little and suffer from poverty. It is they who need our help. It is they of which we want to be mindful enough to actually help during Lent. Tonight, our service at Ascension is at 7:00 p.m, with sermon, Holy Communion, and imposition of ashes.

I hope that you are able to take today to reflect on the meaning of Lent, your own life’s pilgrimage to more deeply knowing and loving God and God’s good news of healing, justice, and eternal love.

Why Come to Church this Sunday? February 12, 2012 To learn how to come alive to our truest power!

Christ Healing a Leper   REMBRANDT 1957-60

Why Come to Church this Sunday? February 12, 2012

Meditation text: “Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand…” (Mark 1:41)

"It is at that knife-edge of uncertainty where we come alive to our truest power."  -- Joanna Macy

The Bible shows Jesus as a loving change agent; he wants to right wrongs and heal people.

But change is difficult for humans, and we don’t like living on the “knife-edge of uncertainty.”

Sunday’s scripture text (2 Kings 5:1-14) includes the delicious story of a role reversal by a man of power (Syrian general) who is healed of leprosy through a change in attitude toward humility; he is helped by “little people,” especially a captive slave girl.

But Western culture encourages us to be self-reliant, and to see individual pursuit of happiness as our greatest goal. Are those goals truly pointing to abundant life?

Come to church this Sunday to see if this question about abundant life leads to possible answers about what brings deep happiness and meaning. Hint: Christians through the ages have said that abundant life comes through reliance upon others and the Source of Love.

See you in church!

Pr. Nancy