ELCA Blogs

Amy Martinell, Sioux Falls, SD

Warm-up Question

I don’t know about all of you, but I love to be right. I love it. Sometimes this is a really great quality; it drives me to do extra reading and research until I am sure I have the “right” information. Other times, it does not bring out the best in me. It can cause me to do not great things, like bring up an old argument when I’ve found new “proof” that I was right.

When was a time you were excited to have the right answer?
How do you behave in an argument? Do you seek out compromise or hold on tight to your stance no matter what? How do you behave differently depending on whether you are dealing with friends, parents, or people you don’t know as well?

How Long, Oh Lord, How Long

Last Wednesday as I sat down to begin writing this post, news broke of the fatal shooting of journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward. The horror was magnified as the violent act happened during a live broadcast. The typical interview dissolved into a dropped camera, screams, and gunshots before cutting back to a shocked anchor in the studio. Soon the station was reporting on the deaths of Parker and Ward, as well as on injuries to the woman being interviewed. Later that day we heard the alleged shooter, Vester Lee Flanagan II, was also dead due to a self-inflicted gun wound.

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We now hear the shooter was a disgruntled employee who claimed racial discrimination and sexual harassment pushed him over the edge, but such assertions are not nearly enough of an explanation or justification for his actions. We are still left with questions: Why is there such senseless violence? Why is life treated so cheaply? Why does this keep happening over and over again? Of course, questions are already be raised again about mental illness and gun control, but the real question seems to be, “How long?” How long, oh Lord, how long can we stand such distress?

Discussion Questions

How did you feel when you heard the news of the shooting?
How do you respond in the face of tragedy? Do you need time alone to process? Do you want to work for change and seek out new ways of doing things or does it cause you to shut down and do nothing?
When tragedy like the Virginia shooting happens we have a hard time understanding why this could happen. What in your own life do you have a hard time making sense of? What are times and situations where you feel like things have been unfair? What problems feel too big to change?

Lectionary 24 / Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Isaiah 50:4-9a

James 3:1-12

Mark 8:27-38

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Peter has the right answer. Peter has just had his gold star moment. He looked at Jesus and said no, you are not a prophet, you are not Elijah. You are the Messiah. You are the one who came to save us. Bingo! Peter has the right answer, but he doesn’t even get a second to savor his success. Instead, Jesus begins to talk about suffering and death. Peter stops him; this is not the Messiah he wants.

Of course, when asked who Jesus is, we know the right answer. We know Jesus is the Messiah, the one sent to save the world. Yet, I often find myself in the same place as Peter wanting to pull Jesus aside and ask him to be the savior I want, the God I want.

As I am rocked with yet another senseless shooting, as wildfires rage the west coast, as race relations continue to be contentious, I find myself growing both weary and angry. Where is our Messiah? Why aren’t we saved from all of this suffering and death and despair? Why God won’t you act?

We live awaiting the promise of our Lord’s return and redemption, but as we wait, we wait in a fallen world. And if you are like me, you grow weary, grow angry at this fallen world. Jesus is not a superhero savior swooping in to remove us from any suffering, but Jesus is present in these awful situations. Jesus is found in those who are there to help. Jesus is found those reaching out with love and compassion; he is found in those working and praying for change.

Most of all Jesus is found wherever life is proclaimed over death. So even as we grow weary, as we grow angry, we remember our hope is found in Jesus Christ and Jesus will not disappoint. We cling to the promise that Jesus will come again and redeem the world, will come again and right the many wrongs. We cannot heal the world from all the evils we see and luckily we don’t have to, that is the work of our Lord. We cling to the promise Jesus will come again to redeem the world, so maybe the real question is: What will we do as we wait?

Discussion Questions

The Jewish people waited for a messiah to rescue them foreign opposition and restore Israel. When Peter named Jesus the Messiah he was most likely looking for a military leader to lead Israel to glory. How was Jesus an unexpected messiah? How did he better fulfill the role of messiah?

What does it mean when we name Jesus our messiah? When and how have you wished God would be different? When has God played an unexpected or surprising role in your life?
Where have you seen God in hard times in your own life? When has God felt absent?
Theologians often call our current time “the already, but not yet” because Jesus has already saved us from sin, death and the devil, but has not yet come again. So I offer the question again, “What will we do while we wait?” What are ways you can make the world a little better? When have small acts of kindness done by others made a big impact on you?

Activity Suggestions

Make idols! We are all guilty of trying to make God into the gods we want. We are also guilty of making other things and people into our gods. Whatever we give our time, our money and our hearts to become our gods. Use play-dough to make figures of all the false idols in your life. When you are done, smash the idols to confess your wayward heart and offer a pray of thanksgiving to our Lord who welcomes back all wayward sinners.
What keeps you up at night? List together all of the things that bother you, which keep you up at night, which make you angry or sad or scared. The list will seem big and intimidating, but start small. Brainstorm and research the items on your list. Then create a make a change list and list small (or big) ways you could get involved and work for change. Encourage every person to commit to doing one thing on your make a change list. Check in on how everyone is doing next time you are together.

Closing Prayer

Dear Messiah, We pray for you to come again. As we wait, energize us show your love in all we do. Amen

ELCA Advocacy

Lutherans are taking action across the country! Below you will find our monthly State Advocacy Newsletter. Share with your friends!

Washington, D.C.

Mary Minette,

Interim Director of Advocacy

www.elca.org/advocacy

GOD’S WORK. OUR HANDS. OUR VOICES!: “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is right around the corner! If your congregation is planning a day of volunteering in your community on Sept. 13, consider advocacy action as one of the ways to put your faith into action! This year, you can help start a letter writing campaign by printing out customizable letters to Congress. These letters will help advocate for justice by educating your representatives about an issue and showing your community’s commitment to compassionate values. Mail your letters to the D.C. Advocacy Office at 122 C Street NW, Suite 125 Washington, D.C. 20001—and we will deliver the letters in bulk to your members of Congress! Click the links below for letters that help support public programs:

FEDERAL BUDGET: This month, members of Congress will return to Washington, D.C., after their summer recess. Looking ahead, there are many competing priorities with which lawmakers will have to grapple. Near the top of their list is the need to pass a federal budget for the 2016 financial year, which officially begins on Oct. 1. As Congress deliberates how to fund programs that help alleviate hunger, poverty, and the impact of climate change both here at home and around the world—now is a critical opportunity to take action. Remind our members of Congress about the policies we must protect by taking action here!

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: This month, the House and the Senate will have an opportunity to review the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. The controversial deal remains a key focus in a public relations battle, although there are at least a sufficient number of Senators in support of the agreement to sustain a presidential veto. In a letter to members of Congress on Aug. 5, the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, urged legislators to carefully consider ethical solutions that work toward conflict resolution and peace. You can join Presiding Bishop Eaton’s call for a peaceful solution at the ELCA Action Center!

FAMILY DETENTION: On Friday, Aug. 21, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release mothers and children held in detention “without delay.” Gee gave the department until Oct. 23 to comply with the ruling and also addressed the deplorable conditions children face while in Customs and Border Protection custody. This ruling follows her July 24 decision that family detention violates a 1997 agreement protecting children. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service called on the Obama administration to abide by the court order in a press statement last week.

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY ACT: We are excited that a number of Lutheran members in the House and other representatives from many of your districts have signed on to cosponsor the Global Food Security Act—an important bill that will help develop and implement a comprehensive strategy and funding to promote global food security. Many of these members were convinced to support this bill because you took action. However, we still need many more members of Congress to sign on so that there is enough support to pass the legislation. As we continue our advocacy here in D.C., we ask you to take action once again, and recruit your family, friends and colleagues to do the same. Click here to learn more about the Global Food Security Act.

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New York, NY

Dennis Frado, Lutheran Office for World Community

POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA: Member states of the United Nations concluded their negotiations on Aug. 2 on a proposed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development titled Transforming Our World, “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity.” The document, which sets forth 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, is set to be adopted at the end of September when state leaders convene for the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015. LOWC has been monitoring the negotiations and will be continuing to follow the implementation phase, including the development of target indicators by 2016 and the establishment of review mechanisms.

MISSION INTERPRETER COORDINATOR CONFERENCE: LOWC prepared a program and introduction to the work of the office for ELCA Mission Interpreters from across the church who met in New York on Aug. 28. Led by Christine Mangale, the group learned the basics about LOWC’s work and heard presentations from ecumenical colleagues and the International Organization for Migration on sustainable development, gender equality, and migratio German 2 n and development, and toured the United Nations.

VISIT FROM THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF HESSEN AND NASSAU (Germany): At the end of the month, LOWC hosted a delegation from the Evangelical Church of Hessen and Nassau (EKHN) (Germany), led by its president, the Rev. Dr. Volker Jung. In addition to hearing about LOWC’s work, the group met with Ambassador Heiko Thoms (see photo, third from left), deputy permanent representative of Germany to the United Nations, and had lunch with the Rev. David Gaewski, conference minister for New York of the United Church of Christ, and ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod Bishop Robert Rimbo.

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California

Mark Carlson

Lutheran Office of Public Policy

www.loppca.org

The Legislature returned from a month’s recess and will be completing its business in regular session on Sept. 11. There are also separate special sessions underway on transportation and health care funding. A priority for LOPP-CA is passage of ambitious, and contentious, carbon reduction goals (SB 350 and SB 32), and several Lutherans participated in an Aug. 25 lobby day organized by California Interfaith Power & Light and hosted by LOPP-CA at St. John’s Lutheran Church near the Capitol. The next day, more Lutherans participated in the Stronger California day focused on women’s economic equity and repeal of the Maximum Family Grant rule for CalWORKS/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The Rev. Leslie Welton of St. John’s and JoAnn Anderson of Incarnation Lutheran, Davis, were among those that met with Gov. Jerry Brown’s staff. On Sept. 2, a large Capitol rally and lobby day will show support for AB 953, a bill to address racial and identity profiling by law enforcement. LOPP-CA worked to connect PICO California, one of the rally organizers, with St. John’s Lutheran, which agreed to be the gathering place for hundreds of participants.

After viewing the webcast on racism by ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and William B. Horne II on Aug. 6 at St. John’s, LOPP-CA Director Mark Carlson, Conference Dean the Rev. Jason Bense, outgoing Sierra Pacific Synod Council member Joseph Husary, and synod anti-racism leader Jane Okubo participated in a candlelight vigil at the Capitol marking the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act (see photo).

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Colorado

Peter Severson, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – Colorado

www.lam-co.org

HUNGER ADVOCACY: ELCA pastors and lay people participated in hearings around Colorado in August to advocate for better funding for child-nutrition programs and other anti-hunger efforts. The Colorado Department of Human Services hosted meetings on a listening tour of nine counties. Lutherans were present at hearings in Logan, Douglas, Kit Carson and La Plata counties to speak up about the realities of hunger in their communities. Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-Colorado is working with a coalition organized by Hunger Free Colorado to raise the profile of anti-hunger and nutrition programs around the state and to encourage people to tell stories about why these programs matter and how they make a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Coloradans.

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Minnesota

Tammy Walhof, Lutheran Advocacy – Minnesota

tammy@lcppm.org

AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS: The Homes for All coalition heard proposals by members for legislation focused on seniors (the fastest growing group of homeless in Minnesota), and communities of color (dedicated state funding to increase housing options for households of color).

FINAL CLEAN POWER PLAN ANNOUNCEMENT: Director Tammy Walhof tweeted during President Obama’s live-stream Clean Power Plan briefing. LA-MN has also been part of many meetings and webinars to learn about and discuss the final plan.

GOV. DAYTON: Minnesota Environmental Partnership featured the governor (see photo) at its annual meeting. He answered questions, including one from Tammy. He mentioned a Clean Power Plan letter signed by more than 300 faith leaders that LA-MN and MNIPL organized and encouraged continued action.

NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTA SYNOD CREATION CARE TEAM PLANNING DAY:Proposed pipeline routes will cross the synod and endanger water sources, prompting the team to action. They will also be promoting “Graceful Engagement on Difficult Issues” (based on training Tammy provided previously). New subcommittees include a group to help Tammy develop ideas for climate conversations starting from frames of hunger and poverty, water, coal, and clean energy.

PUBLIC HEARING—PUBLIC UTILITLES COMMISSION: Tammy testified at the hearing, as did Diaconal Minister Mike Troutman (see photo). Breaks during the four-hour hearing allowed people to ask Tammy how their congregations can do more.

FACEBOOK: Tammy has been actively trying to increase LA-MN’s Facebook presence and has been testing issues and strategies. Lutherans, Christians of other backgrounds, and others are gradually finding the posts and page.

Twitter: @LuthAdvocacyMN Facebook

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New Mexico

Ruth Hoffman, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – New Mexico

www.lutheranadvocacynm.org

oh1 Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM Director Ruth Hoffman is serving on two task forces that are looking at housing issues. One task force is concerned with making supportive housing more available throughout New Mexico using the Housing First model, a proven approach that places chronically homeless people in supportive housing that is safe and affordable and then works with them to address the barriers that brought them to homelessness. The other task force is discussing alternatives for the mentally ill who have been arrested. Among the approaches that the group is looking at are better screening and treatment, alternative housing, and diversion programs. County jails have become de facto housing for people with mental illness who have been arrested for primarily minor crimes. Both task forces will be reporting to legislative interim committees this fall.

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Ohio

Nick Bates, The Faith Coalition for the Common Good

nick@oneohionow.org

Nick Bates, diaconal minister in the Southern Ohio Synod, spoke on behalf of the Faith Coalition for the Common Good on Aug. 26 in support of State Issue 1—an effort to create more fair state legislative district lines. The amendment will require bi-partisan support for a legislative map, establish guiding principles for the maps, and be a more open process.

“We have the capacity in Ohio to do many great things, like end hunger, reduce poverty, and improve education for all of Ohio’s children,” Bates said.

That is why we encourage a YES vote in November to create a fair process for drawing Ohio legislative districts. Fair districts mean fair elections, and in turn that will lead to policies that are fairer to all Ohioans.

The press conference, in the Ladies Gallery at the Ohio Statehouse, coincided with a report released by the League of Women Voters highlighting how gerrymandered legislative districts have predicted nearly every election result in recent history. Ohioans oh2 will have the opportunity to vote on the issue in November.

“As people of faith, we value community,” Bates said. “As the community of Ohio, we believe our governmental officials need to be accountable and connected to the community they serve.”

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Pennsylvania

Amy Reumann, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania

Tracey DePasquale, Associate Director

www.lutheranadvocacypa.org

STATE BUDGET: Pennsylvania heads into September without a budget, which is now two months overdue. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-led Legislature continue to wrestle primarily over major issues of education funding, public-pension system changes, the state liquor system and a severance tax on shale drilling. Non-profits are tracking the consequences of delay, and many school districts are faced with borrowing as they begin the year without state payments. Pennsylvania Lutherans continue to advocate for fair and adequate school funding and expansion of the state Housing Trust Fund.

HUNGER AND ENVIRONMENT: Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia featured Director Amy Reumann and the work of LAMPa in an on-line video interview.

LAMPa continued to prepare congregations around the state to add their voices to “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday with postcard campaigns for childhood nutrition and school funding. LAMPa Director Amy Reumann helped organize and participated in an Interfaith Climate Advocacy Training sponsored by Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light.

MIGRATION: Associate Director Tracey DePasquale helped train volunteers for the immigration detainees visitation program, “Walking Together,” and connected LIRS to leaders looking to make York a “Welcoming Community.”

Also in August: Lutheran hunger leaders and pastors from the Allegheny and Upper Susquehanna synods participated in a round table on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization held by congressman Glenn Thompson. Youth from St. Luke’s, Bloomsburg, visited with LAMPa to learn more about advocacy and tour the state Capitol. LAMPa had a display table at the Lower Susquehanna Synod Women of the ELCA gathering in Shippensburg.

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Virginia

Charles Swadley

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org

The Virginia Interfaith Center For Public Policy (VICPP) activities include:

Sent action alerts on a number of federal policy issues, including feeding program reauthorization and economic policy, to approximately 10,000 statewide faith-based supporters.
Organized and hosted two statewide educational webinars/teleconferences on the topic of redistricting in Virginia that attracted more than 125 participants. The events were produced in partnership with the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, New Virginia Majority, and One Virginia 2021.
Organized and hosted a chapter meeting of American Families United, a national organization of families working to help improve immigration law.
Hosted Virginia Department of Health for a policy and grassroots education planning sessions for nutritional and feeding programs.
Exhibited at the Interfaith Center of Greater Richmond’s annual meeting.
Hosted a table with our New River Valley Chapter at “Steppin’ Out” in downtown Blacksburg on Aug. 7 and 8 (see photo). Handed out more than 200 “Building Community” stickers. People filled in blanks on the stickers about what builds community. The stickers were intended to counter the pro-gun elements that permeate the event.
VICPP and Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare (VICPP’s healthcare advocacy program) attended and exhibited at Happily Natural Day on Aug. 29 and presented at the New River Valley Chapter’s annual “Coming Together to Make a Difference” of social justice organizations in Roanoke Valley on Aug. 30.
Participated in planning meetings for an Anti-Poverty Summit to be held February 2016 in Hampton Roads in partnership with the Center for American Progress and a number of statewide organizations planning.
Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare supported our Northern Va. Chapter’s organizing a Medicaid Expansion event on Sept. 10 in partnership with the League of Women Voters.
Worked with Virginia United Methodist Conference leaders to plan for seven “Social Action 101: Effective Advocacy with the General Assembly” educational events to be held across Virginia in November.
Chapter leaders, including Virginia Union Seminary faculty member, the Rev. Dr. Faith Harris, are working with the center to produce social justice and action coursework and workshops.
Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare will be participating in Labor Day activities in the Hampton/Newport News area to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

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Washington

Paul Benz, Faith Action Network

www.fanwa.org

POLICY UPDATES: The lead congressional issue for Faith Action Network (FAN) continues to be the reauthorization of our nation’s child-nutrition programs. We are supporting summer hunger reduction bills and urging support for all of this as we meet with members of congress and their staffs. We are also setting interim meetings with our state legislators in preparation for the next legislative session in January. Additionally, FAN is excited that all three of our ELCA bishops are going to Washington, D.C., for the congressional convocation with bishops of the Episcopal Church USA.

FAITH BASED ORGANIZING: FAN’s Network of Advocating Faith Communities (now at 101) is divided into 17 geographic clusters around our state. We are in FAN’s third programmatic season of gathering in cluster meetings to build relations between FAN and our advocates and their faith communities. We discuss FAN’s policy work as well as best practices for advocacy at the congregational level.

STAFFING: FAN is excited about our two new interns. One is an ELCA seminary student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and will be shared with an ELCA congregation two days a week. Our other new intern is from the United Church of Christ and will be at FAN four days a week. We also sadly say goodbye to Kelle Rose, who is moving on to graduate school—but welcome Erin Parks, who is a Pacific Lutheran University grad and recently spent a Lutheran Volunteer Corp year with the ELCA churchwide organization’s Justice for Women program.

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Wisconsin

Cindy Crane, Lutheran Office for Public Policy in Wisconsin

www.loppw.org

DIALOGUE WITH BISHOPS: The director met with four bishops at a Region 5 meeting to review LOPPW’s priorities and resources and receive input and ideas for future priorities. They also discussed ways LOPPW could play a role in supporting and rejuvenating ELCA World Hunger teams in their synods.

CARE FOR CREATION/WATER CAMPAIGN: LOPPW and the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin began working together to create a team that will access resources from ELCA World Hunger and the Washington, D.C., Advocacy Office. The team will focus on the impact of climate change on water availability and hunger and the interrelatedness of the three.

TRAFFICKING: LOPPW is working with UW-Madison to secure an intern for 10 hours per week for one semester beginning this fall. The intern will work with the director and the LOPPW/Cherish All Children advocacy team to create resources for congregations.

MONEY IN POLTICS: The director discussed this as one of the root causes of hunger in relationship to public policy with the bishops and one legislator to prepare for part of the agenda of our September annual Advisory Council/Staff Retreat. More immediately, LOPPW will address the threat of dismantling our state’s Government Accountability Board.

TRAINING: The director participated in a one-week community organizing training hosted by the ELCA.

INTERFAITH: The director met with staff from the Wisconsin Council of Churches to begin discussions about partnering on a future project with a focus on a public policy.

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What advocacy efforts are going on in your synod or state? We want to hear about it!

Contact us at washingtonoffice@elca.org

Bob Chell, Sioux Falls, SD

Warm-up Question

What is the silliest thing you have ever believed? When this author was a child Dad took me to watch firefighters practice their skills on an abandoned house. For years I believed firefighters drove around in their fire trucks and burnt down homes in disrepair. Perhaps you’ve heard about children who were told the ice cream truck played music when it ran out of ice cream—and believed it.

Unfolding Truth

A recent article in USA Today stated that employees in the airline industry routinely tell passengers things which they know to be untrue. Among the most oft told lies: “It’s a weather delay.” “We know you have a choice of airlines” (four carriers control 80% of flights). “Our fares have never been lower.” “Of course, you can make your flight.”Some, learning that airline employees are less than forthright are surprised while others are surprised at their naiveté.

Discussion Questions

When is misinformation a lie and when is it meant to put people at ease when things are beyond their control? Who speaks the truth today?
Is this article a sign that our society is going downhill or is it no news at all, simply reporting the way things—and people—have been all along.
Tell about something you believed as a child which was untrue or not as you thought it was? How did you learn the truth? Was the knowledge devastating or enlightening?
Has anyone given you a misleading answer because the truth was too complicated? Was this good or bad?

Lectionary 23/Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Isaiah 35:4-7a

James 2:1-10 [11-13] 14-17

Mark 7:24-37

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

A famous paining by French artist René Megritte entitled “The Treachery of Images” shows a tobacco pipe. Beneath the pipe is the inscription, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.”–This is not a pipe. His point is this: It is a painting, not a pipe.

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Likewise the Bible is NOT the Word of God. The Bible contains the Word of God. The Word of God is a living Word. It is Jesus Christ. If this is making your brain hurt stick with me for a minute. The Bible is not a test we pass or a hurdle we jump over to get right with God, it is the means by which God draws us into relationship. The Bible is not God, but points us to God. This awareness can be devastating or enlightening—or both.

As children we learned Jesus loves us. This is true, in fact it is the central truth of the Bible. Yet, in the gospel lesson Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman is troubling. Jesus appears to be rude and cantankerous. He seems to dismiss her out of hand and then, when she pushes back, changes his mind.

Explanations abound for Jesus behavior: he was testing her, it was a teaching moment for his disciples, and many more. They share one thing in common. They seek to explain why Jesus isn’t being rude when he is being rude. They seek to explain away that which is difficult.

Seven hundred years ago William of Ockham, said, in so many words, “The simplest explanation is the best.” Philosophers call this the law of parsimony or Ocham’s Razor and if you take a philosophy class someday you will study this till your brain hurts—at least mine did. It seems obvious doesn’t it? Gosh, maybe if we had lived seven hundred years ago we could have pointed out the obvious and been famous today, but that’s not my point.

My point is this; Jesus is being rude and dismissive to the woman he encounters. That is the simplest and, I believe, best explanation. However, it leaves us with a bigger problem. How do we reconcile Jesus’ behavior with what we believe about Jesus loving all of humankind.

Here is my disquieting and, I hope, enlightening, answer. Jesus was fully human. The church has taught and believed this since it’s beginning. We also believe and teach Jesus is fully God. We will set aside reconciling these seemingly irreconcilable beliefs for another time.

To believe Jesus was fully human means Jesus was fully human. It means he struggled, like you and me–with temptation, with stubbed toes and head colds, with overbearing parents, and with figuring out who he was and what he was suppose to do with his life.

One theologian, Raymond Martin, said, “Matthew, Mark and Luke are what Jesus said, John is what the church said about Jesus.” That may understate the synoptic authors’ theological interpretation of Jesus, but Martin noted that Jesus never claims to be the son of God in the first three gospels, but only in the gospel of John, written long after the first three gospels. Jesus hints at it, he alludes to it, but he doesn’t claim it with full authority as he does in John.

Could it be that this disquieting story is, in fact, an ‘aha’ moment in Jesus life, the point where, thanks to this woman, he realized the worth and dignity of the entire human family? I think it is, though some would disagree.

I believe Jesus was figuring out who he was, discerning what God was calling him to do just like you and I struggle to do. Just before he was crucified Jesus prayed “that this cup be taken from me.” Most theologians interpret this as Jesus wondering/asking/questioning if there was another way to fulfill God’s will other than the cross. I believe this, too, was an ‘aha’ moment for Jesus, when he caught another glimpse of God’s will for him.

Perhaps you find this disquieting, wanting to believe Jesus had all the answers all the time. Perhaps you find this comforting; to know Jesus was fully human and not only knows you, but knows and understands the questions you wrestle with as you seek to follow God’s will for your life.

However disquieting some of what we read in the Bible may be, it’s intent is the same, to draw us closer to God.

Discussion Questions

What does it mean to you that Jesus was fully human?
Have you had an ‘aha’ moment in your faith journey, when you knew, at least for a time, where God was leading you?
Why is it so hard to know God’s will for our lives? Is there anything we can do to make it easier?

Activity Suggestions

Ask an older family member how they decided what to do with their life. Ask them what one piece of advice they would give to someone trying to figure out where God was leading them.
Why do adults try to explain away things that are difficult or troubling? Have you ever done this? Was it helpful?
How would you answer someone who asked you how they should decide what to do with their life?

Closing Prayer

Jesus, you know us better than we know ourselves. You know how hard life is and how difficult it is to figure out the right thing to do. Keep us alert for the ‘aha’ moments in life, when your will for us is revealed. Amen.

Elyssa J. Salinas

August 27, 2015

Last night I went to the grocery store near closing, and I noticed how much food was still out in the produce section. There was an abundance of avocados, a plethora of pears and a bounty of bananas. There was no way that this would sell out by closing, so I wondered, what will happen to this food?

When we throw out our garbage, how much is food waste? We throw away leftovers, excess food that goes bad and remnants from our cooking. In larger settings like restaurants and schools, much of the food prepared for large groups may go unused. Food waste is astronomical in the United States, but how does that compare to the multitudes of people who go hungry every day? The Campus Kitchens Project, based in Washington, D.C., is working to raise awareness about food waste and hunger and to help college and university students do something about both.

The project makes use of the leftover, quality food from schools and grocery stores that would otherwise be wasted and uses it for meals in the community. Students run Campus Kitchens at their university or college and are able to have hands-on experience in running a non-profit initiative while working with partners in their local communities. There are currently 45 schools that are part of this initiative, which spans the country from coast to coast. The project’s mission is to strengthen bodies, empower minds and build communities through empowering and educating students about what they can do to combat food insecurity in this country.

Every Campus Kitchen has the same general model to combat food insecurity in its community. Waste is curbed with food recovery that takes uneaten, quality food from places like campus dining services or local grocery stores. There is meal preparation, which trains volunteers to use the donations to create balanced and healthy meals. Meals are delivered to organizations or families in the area where the students make connections with the recipients. These connections enable the students to get a better understanding of the issue of hunger through relationships and conversations. These Campus Kitchens also provide education and empowerment to families in the community, including culinary training with unemployed adults and children’s programs on nutrition.

Through an Education and Networking Grant, ELCA World Hunger has helped support The Campus Kitchens Project’s work to promote opportunity and raise awareness about food insecurity. ELCA World Hunger and the project agree that hunger cannot be solved by food alone. Education, advocacy and, especially, building relationships within communities are key parts in stopping hunger for good. At Campus Kitchens, as at many ELCA World Hunger-supported ministry sites, food is an entry point for a deeper, long-lasting relationship with neighbors.

To learn more about The Campus Kitchens Project please visit http://www.campuskitchens.org/start-a-kitchen/ or email Matt Schnarr, the Expansion and Partnerships Manager at mschnarr@campuskitchens.org.

To learn more about ELCA World Hunger Education and Networking grants, visit http://elca.org/News-and-Events/blogs/ELCAWorldHunger/646.

Elyssa Salinas is program assistant for hunger education with ELCA World Hunger. Please direct comments or questions to Hunger@ELCA.org.

Megan Brandsrud

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast of the United States. Damage and destruction sprawled from Florida’s panhandle to western Louisiana. 1,833 people died and many more were injured. With approximately 90,000-square miles of federally-declared disaster areas and one million homes and building destroyed, Hurricane Katrina is in the books as the most destructive and costliest disaster in U.S. history.

Lutherans around the world watched as news reports displayed images of the destruction and aired interviews with people who had lost so much due to the storm, and they turned to their church to respond. Immediately after Katrina hit, people started offering to volunteer in the affected areas and giving to Lutheran Disaster Response. More than $27 million was given to Lutheran Disaster Response to directly assist families that had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Lutheran Disaster Response started recovery efforts by working with its social ministry organization affiliates that were located in the affected area or had networks in the area. Lutheran Disaster Response also became involved with Katrina Aid Today (KAT) National Consortium, a coalition of secular and faith-based organizations that helped provide disaster case management, which provided $8 million to Lutheran Disaster Response for case management. In the end, Lutheran Disaster Response was able to provide case management to 11,000 households with the support from KAT.

A major component of our Hurricane Katrina response was volunteer coordination. With an unprecedented number of people who wanted to volunteer, local congregations in the affected areas started serving as volunteer hosting centers or setting up volunteer camps that would end up running for years after Katrina hit as volunteers continued to pour in from around the country. One example is Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs, Miss., that started Camp Victor, a volunteer camp that housed 50,000 volunteers from all 50 states and 20 countries. In total, these volunteers provided 1 million service hours as they helped to gut, repair and rebuild more than 2,000 homes.

In addition, “What a Relief!” formed as an alternative Spring Break volunteer program with Lutheran Disaster Response. During the program’s first year, more than 800 college and university students from 34 U.S schools participated in Spring Break service projects in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. For the next four years, Lutheran Disaster Response continued to coordinate more than 50,000 volunteers through “What a Relief!” as it expanded beyond the alternative Spring Break program.

katrina blog post

Students from Valparaiso University help clean out a house damaged by Hurricane Katrina as part of the What a Relief! alternative spring break program.

Throughout the Hurricane Katrina response, special attention was paid to providing emotional and spiritual care for those who were affected by Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina is Lutheran Disaster Response’s largest disaster response to date, and it helped shape the way Lutheran Disaster Response does its work, in addition to connecting people from around the country together to do disaster work with their church.

Follow Lutheran Disaster Response on Facebook for more Hurricane Katrina anniversary information this week.

Ryan P. Cumming

August 20, 2015

Ramoni Rani and her husband, Nor Uttam Hawlader, live in the village of Rajakhali in Bangladesh with their two sons. Like many Bangladeshi farmers, Ramoni and Nor use wood-burning stoves to cook food in their homes. The cost for fuel for the stoves can be very high for families with limited incomes, around 4,000-4,500 takas (about $50-57 per month). Wood-burning cookstoves also produce a lot of smoke, a key culprit in many health problems. In fact, a 2009 profile of Bangladesh from the World Health Organization found that indoor air pollution contributes to nearly 50,000 deaths every year. Ramoni, Nor and their children suffered from respiratory illnesses and eye problems because of the smoke in their homes.

Case Story on Improved Stove

Because of problems related to health, the cost of fuel and the risk of indoor fires, the Bangladesh Science and Industry Research Council developed an improved cookstove called “bondhu chula.” Yet, a Yale University study published in 2009 found that many Bangladeshis are reluctant to use improved cookstoves for a variety of reasons. Some of the Bangladeshis they surveyed didn’t know how to use the new stoves. Many had never even seen an improved cookstove. Nearly all worried about the cost.

Addressing some of these difficulties, Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh, supported in part by ELCA World Hunger, introduced bondhu chula stoves to 256 women, with significant, far-reaching goals:

reduce cost of fuel for cooking;
reduce the rate of respiratory infections and eye problems;
reduce the time women spent cooking;
reduce the number of trees cut down for cooking fuel; and
reduce carbon emissions from stoves.

By giving women in the Dumki Upazilla region of Bangladesh the improved cookstoves and offering training in using them, Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh helped many women provide a safer, cleaner and more affordable way to cook for their families. Ramoni and Nor, who participated in the program, found that the new stoves cut their costs and the time they spent cooking in half. Now the health problems they and their sons had are all but gone, and Ramoni and Nor can spend the extra money on taking care of their children.

The use of more efficient cookstoves is also a step toward better care of creation in Bangladesh. According to a 2009 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, nearly 2,000 hectares of forest are lost in the country every year. This results in a “serious imbalance in the environment of Bangladesh,” according to representatives of Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh. This makes the increased use of improved cookstoves – and the country’s growing emphasis on planting trees – even more important.

By providing clean, efficient cookstoves to Ramoni, Nor and more than 250 other people, Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh is meeting the significant goals of its program. Slowing the deforestation of rural Bangladesh, improving the air quality in homes, and freeing time and money for other activities are made possible in part because of gifts to ELCA World Hunger. This sustainable solution to deforestation, indoor air pollution, and high costs for fuel is an innovative way Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh is making an impact, while demonstrating how care of creation can make good economic sense for families.

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is program director for hunger education with ELCA World Hunger. He can be reached at Ryan.Cumming@ELCA.org.

Leah Shelton, ELCA Advocacy

One in five children in the United States experience a mental disorder each year. That’s nearly 16 million children every year. Mental disorders can be extremely debilitating, leading to isolation, self-harm, and a life-long stigma of weakness and danger. These effects, if not treated in childhood, can affect the child’s entire life.

With that statistic in mind, now consider that only 20% of childhood mental disorders are treated. This is the 20-20 effect: 20% of children have a mental disorder and 20% are treated. Treatment exists for such a small number for many reasons, including a scarcity of pediatric and adolescent psychiatrists and the cost of treatment. Childhood mental health awareness and treatment in the United States is detrimentally dismal.

We have a problem.

What is causing mental illness in children? There is an innumerable set of influences, but among the many risk factors is poverty. Recent evidence points specifically to poor nutrition. While there is not yet evidence of a causal relationship (lack of/poor nutrition causing mental disorders), it is evident that there is a definite relationship between child nutrition and mental health. The grips of poverty force families to go hungry, and without proper nutrition children may have an increased risk of developing a mental disorder or worsening a pre-existing one.

Childhood nutrition in the U.S. is as bleak as mental illness: 1 in 5 children in the U.S. do not know where their next meal will come from. Approximately 16 million U.S. children are food-insecure. Although I have never experienced the kind of anxiety that comes from searching for food, during my time interning at the ELCA’s Advocacy Office in Washington D.C., I’ve witnessed advocates from across the country telling their members of Congress stories about the constant anxiety they and their friends suffer because of food insecurity. Their stories opened my eyes to both the desperation of hunger and the vital role that public policy must play to keep them from starvation.

The federally funded National School Lunch Program makes possible school breakfasts and lunches, which these children depend on as a consistently reliable source of nutrition. While it may appear as if these hungry children will receive at least one meal a day for the rest of their school years, Congress has the power to change this, for better or worse. The National School Lunch Program and other programs, such as The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), are set to expire at the end of September. ELCA Advocacy is calling upon Congress to reauthorize these programs in order to continue providing nutrition for low-income families and children. So far, Congress has not reauthorized these programs, leaving 16 million children with food-insecurity.

By defunding programs such as the National School Lunch program, Congress is essentially sweeping the carpet out from under the feet of these children and telling them that their lives are not worth the $16 billion school breakfasts and lunch cost, combined. Even in terms of money, compared to the $247 billion childhood mental healthcare costs each year, funding nutrition programs is much more fiscally feasible and responsible. Even if the programs are reauthorized, special interest groups are lobbying Congress to neutralize federal nutrition standards for these programs. Students, some of whom find school lunch to be their only meal of the day, could find lower health standards in their food and continue this long term problem.

Why would Congress remove a program which is so closely linked to a risk factor for mental illness when the rates for both child nutrition and mental illness are oppressive? This would be detrimental, not only for children like the ones I met, but also for the federal budget. It is moral, fiscal, rational, and imperative that Congress fund child nutrition programs.

ELCA Advocacy has long supported child nutrition programs and intervening in the cycle of hunger and poverty which mental illness is so frighteningly connected to. As Lutherans, we must raise our voices to this injustice and ask Congress to stand by Matthew 23:35: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” By doing this, we stand by our challenge to ourselves to “become good stewards of … physical and mental health by attending to preventive care, personal health habits, diet, exercise, and recreation” (ELCA Health Care Statement).

*Check out how Lutherans are getting involved in healthcare initiatives at Lutheran Services in America.

**For more information on other public policy initiatives for preventing common mental disorders click here.

ELCA Advocacy

Lutherans are taking action across the country! Below you will find our monthly State Advocacy Newsletter. Share with your friends!