Lutheran Woman Today

From Sarah to all God’s beloved who are struggling to understand St. Paul’s letter to the Romans,

     Grace, peace, and huge amounts of patience be yours in Christ Jesus.  Amen!

Dearest Sisters, I have begun to hear from some of you that you are being tested by the hard work of slogging through the first half of Paul’s letter to the Romans.  I have two encouraging words and one plea for you:

        You are not alone!

        You are right on track!

        Don’t give up!

Let me say a few words about these messages. 

First, “you are not alone.”  Paul’s letters have been heard and read for over 2,000 years.  People have struggled all those years to understand just what Paul was trying to say. Many persons have been inspired by the apostle, even our own Martin Luther. Yet there have been really big differences in what people have understood Paul to be saying. Those multiple interpretations are no accident. They occur because Paul writes very densely packed letters, filled with references and words and even grammar that can be understood in different ways. 

Part of the reason that there are so many different ways of being Christian to this very day comes out of varied understandings of Paul. So, you are not alone in pondering, wondering, and even just shaking your head and saying, “I give up!  Let’s just get back to Jesus.” In fact, check out this verse from 2 Peter 3:15-16: 

So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,  speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand….  (NRSV)

We just have to face this reality about Paul and keep on studying.

Second, “You are on the right track!” By now you are at the place in your study where people even in Paul’s day probably started to nod off. Can you imagine coming to hear this letter read after a long day of work and sitting in dim, candle-lit rooms?  I’d have been asleep by chapter 3! This letter is so front-end loaded. In our busy lives, we want to get to the meat of the matter and get there fast. 

But Paul is from a different world. He didn’t know these Roman congregations personally. So he goes out of his way to be thorough and clear (from his perspective, at least) about his beliefs.  Why? He does it so  that when he finally gets to the meat of the matter (how Christians live together and how they can support God’s mission) it will connect to Jesus.

So, let’s face this fact too: Paul is long-winded at the beginning of Romans, partly because the reception of the letter is so important to him.  He is insecure about who will hear it. 

Finally, “Don’t give up.” Like those ancient Romans we too try to pay attention until we get to the meat of the matter. Hang in there with Paul.  He’s trying to say really serious and complex theological matters to people who probably didn’t understand much. He thought it was important for them to hear the whole story of God and Jesus, of human believers from all kinds of backgrounds. This is not a casual letter, dashed off, but the hard work of a man who really, really cares.

And, if you find some of the material just too much to think about, let it go. Try again the next month. There’s something for everyone in Romans, inspiration and beauty aplenty. Take the best from each section and give thanks to God for Paul, who may be hard to understand, but who shows us a real human being, yearning for all of us to know, love, and trust God.

 Grace to you and Peace as we celebrate once again the coming of our Savior and hope for God’s reign.

Sarah

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Voices

Saints, Thanks, and Hope

By Kate Sprutta Elliott

 In the month of November, we think about All Saints Day and Thanksgiving. When I think saint and gratitude, I think of Marj Leegard, our “Give Us This Day” columnist for many years. When Marj retired, we ran an article about her by Anne Edison-Albright in our June issue. We invited readers to send cards and letters to her in care of the LWT office. We got a ton of mail! Every week, I was filling a large envelope (sometimes two) with your letters to her. Recently I received a letter from Marj that I’d like to share with you: 

Dear Kate and all my friends past and present at LWT,

I am not going to tell you how sorry I am for not writing sooner. It is at the top of my list every morning, but evening comes, and it is still there.

I must tell you that I was lying very still on my back in the hospital with a newly installed pacemaker when LWT arrived with Annie’s article. What a day! The nurses all read it and the news got around that I was not just that sick old lady in room 301, but I was somebody! (as are we all!) Thank you all for more than I deserve, but just the right amount for my day.

And the cards and letters—what can I say except “thank you, everyone.” They came in packets and they came one at a time. There were some with a few words and a name and some with long letters—some from a whole circle.

I am so grateful. I don’t take the credit. It is all these wonderful people around me who live in my stories.

Again, thank you all. I am getting along—with Jerome’s help and your prayers.

I love you all.

Marj

 If anyone embodies the theme of this issue—hope—it’s Marj. In the Bible study session, Sarah Henrich writes that “Paul insists that even as we exult in our hope of sharing God’s glory, so we also exult in—or boast of—our sufferings. We dare to exult because we know that no suffering is so great that it can overcome our relationship with God.”

And those sufferings can be really tough. In “Ordinary Saints,” Christa von Zychlin tells the story of Barbara and John LeMond, global mission personnel who serve in Hong Kong. When Barbara’s mother fell into a coma after a stroke, the LeMonds decided to care for her in their home—in Hong Kong. But they don’t see this duty as heroic, von Zychlin writes, “They are just doing what they’ve been called to do. The ministry of ordinary saints.”

In “Hope-full Promises,” Karen Melang takes us on a journey through Scripture to consider God’s promises—and the hope they offer us. She writes, “We who are desperate for assurances about our own futures have a God who owns the entire future, loves us dearly, and whose plans are for our good.” And that’s a reason for giving thanks, this month and always.

 Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor of Lutheran Woman Today. You may write to her at LWT@elca.org.

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We’ve got a lot going on in the office these days, trying to get more free resources for you edited and posted on our Web site. LWT Editor Kate Elliott has been helping out in that area and seemed a little stressed about all she needed to do. To help take the load off, I volunteered to write the editor’s note this month. “What’s the magazine theme again?” I asked. She couldn’t recall off the top of her head.

Later, she came over to my cubicle with a smile. “Remember, you said you’d be willing to write the editor’s note?” she reminded me. “Well, the theme is obedience,” she said, her smile melting into a smirk.

What did that smirk mean? Was she insinuating that I am a disobedient person?

I do tend to follow the beat of my own drummer, but if rules make sense to me, I’ll obey them. Associate Editor Audrey Riley piped up, “You could write about your dogs.” Well, I could, but they are neither obedient nor disobedient.

Kate said, “I was really thinking of Bob.”

Bob, my erudite, only-child, college-professor-turned pastor husband, has very-definite-ideas-about-a-whole-lot-of-stuff. But I wouldn’t call him disobedient. Passionate? Yes. Unruly? Often. But flat-out disobedient? No. Though not 100 percent obedient either.

Hey, like our dogs. And I suppose like a lot of Christians. Middle-grounders. We obey God when it’s convenient.

Karris Golden finds herself in this predicament.

In her article, “To Obey and To Love,” she says she struggles with being an obedient Christian outside the walls of the church. “I believe the good I do outweighs the bad. Yet I also believe that ‘good enough’ seldom is. Obedience to God requires one thing: love, perhaps the most difficult task we face.”

In our Bible study session this month, we find that Paul believes faith and obedience go hand-in-hand. Using Abraham as an example, Paul says that because Abraham trusted God, he obeyed God. Paul believes that for Christians, faith or trust in God should proceed into our obedience.

Gwen Sayler writes in “Freed to Obey” that “membership in the Christian community is open to everyone who trusts that in Jesus Christ, God has acted to reconcile all creation.”

Some of us, she says, still make “obedience a pre-qualification for faith,” while others among us “see no connection” to faith and service.

However, she writes: “Over against all the stumbling blocks we may put in the way, Paul’s words are clear: The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have changed everything. . . . God is at work in us and in our world, inviting us to trust and trustfully to act.”

Trusting, then acting: That reminds me of Women of the ELCA groups that are known for their service to others. These women make quilts for people in need, assemble health kits, school kits, and flood buckets. They knit hats, make home-cooked dinners, hold fundraisers, and lead Bible studies. On page 34 in our magazine, we share photos of a few of those obedient groups with you.

May we all become more like these faithful women, moving beyond our Christian comfort zones and into a place where our trust in God’s promises translates into our unequivocal obedience.

Terri Lackey is managing editor of Lutheran Woman Today.

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The new 2009-2010 LWT Bible study begins in the September issue. “To God’s Beloved: Paul’s Letter to the Romans” is written by the Rev. Dr. Sarah Henrich, who teaches New Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. Paul’s letter is important to our faith and understanding, and Sarah shines such a clear and appealing light on it. I’ve learned so much by working on this study. I know you will too.

We’re doing something new this year: Each session includes several “If You Have Time” discussion topics. Leaders can decide which of these topics will be the most enjoyable for their group, and which ones to skip or save for another time. Why did we make that change? Because readers asked for it.

You also asked us to continue posting free video introductions to the study and to each session on our Web site, and so we have. Free transcripts of the video intros are downloadable on our Web site—see the link here. Those who can’t access the videos on the Web can request a DVD; e-mail us at lwt@elca.org.

As always, the Leader Guide (which is really an essential piece; it helps the whole group, not just the leader), Companion Bible, and promotional bookmarks are available through our publishing partner, Augsburg Fortress, at 800-328-4648 or here.

The tradition of Lutheran women coming together to study Scripture goes back generations. What a gift to the church all these Bible-studying women are! What a wonderful tradition! Wouldn’t you love to share that tradition with more people? We have lots of ways to help you do that. We post the first session on our Web site for free so people can sample it. Print out several copies and pass them around. We have brochures and subscription envelopes for you to pass out, too. Call the LWT office at 800-638-3522, ext. 2730 or e-mail lwt@elca.org; tell us how many you’d like and where we can mail them. We’ll send them out right away.

All anyone needs to enjoy the study is a subscription to this magazine, which is $12 per year; order through Augsburg Fortress at 800-328-4648 or online at  Augsburg’s online subscription form.  Have you thought about gift subscriptions? That’s a lovely present for a newcomer, newlywed, or new mother. We’ve heard of circles chipping in to order a few extra subscriptions so that no woman goes without. And that’s yet another example of the faithful friendship that goes along with Lutheran women’s Bible study (you can read about how very much friendship meant in Paul’s world on page 9 of the Leader Guide).

I’m grateful to Sarah for writing this study and traveling around the country to introduce it, to my colleagues Kate and Terri for all their excellent work as we shaped this study, to our videographer Brett for driving to Wartburg Seminary to film the introduction and make the videos for our Web site, and to the dozens of other people whose work is essential to getting this study into the hands and hearts of the women of the church. But I’m especially grateful to Women of the ELCA—you—for your generous support of the whole endeavor. In another letter, Paul wrote, “I thank God for you.” And I borrow his words—I thank God for you.

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The online video overviews for the new Bible study, “To God’s Beloved: Paul’s Letter to the Romans,”  are now available on our Web site. Watch the Rev. Dr. Sarah Henrich, author of the 2009-2010 study and professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., as she talks about each session.

At the end of the introduction video, we talk to women who attended the Bible study intro event at Wartburg Seminary this spring. So be sure to watch it all the way to the end.

You can download the first session of the Bible study, transcripts of the videos, and a ritual for beginning a new Bible study that will be helpful as you kick off your first session.

Visit Augsburg Fortress Store online  or call 800-328-4648 to order the leader guide, companion Bible, and promotional bookmarks. If you haven’t already, you can also subscribe to the magazine through Augsburg’s online store (10 issues for only $12).

Follow Lutheran Woman Today on Facebook and Twitter to learn up-to-date news about the magazine.

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Lutheran Woman Today always likes to highlight what our readers are interested in — and our readers are always interested in ways to serve the church, the society, and the world. One way many of our readers do this is by making quilts for Lutheran World Relief and other good causes, and we’ve featured some of the thousands of groups of Lutheran quilters in our pages from time to time. But we know that’s not the only way our readers turn crafting into ministry — how about knitting and crocheting?

Do women in your congregation knit and crochet for service? What do you make, and for whom? We know many knitters and crocheters make beautiful prayer shawls — what else do you make? Do the knitters and crocheters gather at the church to do their ministry, or do you collect finished projects that people have made elsewhere — or both? How did your knitting & crocheting ministry get started? Who participates, and how do other people find out about it? How do you help someone who wants to participate but doesn’t know how to knit or crochet?

Tell us all about it — and maybe your group will be featured in a future issue of LWT!

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You can now download or view session one of the 2009-2010 Bible study, “To God’s Beloved: Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” that begins in Lutheran Woman Today in September.  Romans is one of the foundations of Christian theology. Martin Luther called it the most important piece in the new Testament. He even said it would be worth memorizing!

The author is the Rev. Dr. Sara Henrich, professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.

Download Session One and take a look. Also see our ritual for beginning a Bible study. Videos of the sessions will be available on our Web site shortly.

Visit Augsburg Fortress Store online to buy the leader guide, companion Bible, and promotional bookmarks.

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We are getting closer to putting the new Bible study videos up on our Web site. Sarah Henrich does a terrific job of explaining the 2009-2010 Bible study she wrote, “To God’s Beloved: Paul’s Letter to the Romans.” In the introduction video, she talks about the entire study. At the end of that introduction video, we talk to women who attended the Bible study intro event at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, this spring. In subsequent videos, Sarah discusses each Bible study session.

We first began putting videos on our Web site for Martha Stortz’ 2007-2008 study, “Blessed to Follow: The Beatitudes as a Compass for Discipleship.” They were so popular, we have continued the tradition.

This year, when Sarah introduced Romans study at the seminary where she teaches, Luther at St. Paul, Minn., the sound folk there taped all the sessions. We’re working to get links to that on our Web site so you can hear what she said. That should be really helpful as you prepare for the Bible study. So stay tuned! It’s an experiement, and I’m not sure we’ll get to continue putting sound files up. Let us know what you think about it once you hear them. If you like them, we’ll do our best to continue putting  them on the Web.

As you know the Leader Guide is a great way to learn more about the study. It’s not just for leaders, it’s for anyone who wants to learn about Paul’s letter to the Romans. Order the Leader Guide, Companion Bible and promotional bookmarks from Augsburg.

We hope you are looking forward to the study as much as we are!

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by Kate Elliott

You are reading this issue in summer. But I am writing in mid-March and there’s scarcely a green bud to be seen. I am trying to imagine a warm sunny day as you read the magazine outdoors or in front of an open window with a gentle breeze. I long for that season, but my reality today is cold rain and slush and blustery winds.

Last month, our Bible study session considered Mary in the early season of her life—as a young woman being greeted by an angel. In this issue, the two sessions reflect on Mary in different seasons of her life—as a mother and an older woman, a leader in the church.

In our lives, too, we experience different seasons. We have days of expectation and great energy and new life bursting out. We have days of fullness and contentment with friends and family. We have days of challenge and worry and grief. How do we live these seasons in the light of faith?

One way is through the support and friendship of other women of faith. Some may be women who are in the same season as we find ourselves—and some may be women who are in a very different season. We can learn from both.

In “Bold Connections,” we read how author Rebecca Kasten is touched by a close friendship with a woman more than 45 years her senior. “Eleanor cannot possibly know how much her friendship has meant to me. . . . she has become an extra grandparent to my children. . . . I listen to her experience, her views, and advice— her perspective is invaluable to me.”

Sometimes we share a season with women in a place and a way of life very far from our own. In “God’s Work, Our Hands,” Sue Edison-Swift tells of her trip to Malawi, Africa, to visit programs funded by ELCA World Hunger Appeal. She describes the washing of hands before a special lunch: “I jot ‘God’s work, our hands’ in my notebook, knowing that my understanding of ‘our’ had just expanded to include a world full of neighbors.”

Author Linda Johnson Seyenkulo writes about our encounters with the holy in the everyday light of faith. In “Open Yourself to the Holy,” she reminds us to “start each day expecting to hear from God, expecting to have a holy encounter. Know deep in yourself that the holy is everywhere, even just around the corner.”

Finally, I encourage you to read the introduction to our upcoming ninesession Bible study “To God’s Beloved: Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” by Sarah Henrich. She writes of how the Bible teaches her in her own seasons of life: “The Bible became to me a book not only of adventure, challenge, and engagement, but also a book of promise in the face of the real dangers, turmoil, and suffering that is part of every human life, one way or another.”

We look forward to beginning Sarah’s study in the next issue of LWT. In the meantime, enjoy this season, with all its blessings.

Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor of Lutheran Woman Today. You may write to her at LWT@elca.org.

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