The 2017 assembly will begin with registration on Friday, June 9, at 8:00 a.m. in the Lund Center with Worship at 10:30 a.m. in Christ Chapel at the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

We are blessed to have Victoria Flood, Director, Mission Support, as our ELCA representative this year. Victoria will deepen our understanding of the opportunities within our own congregations, communities, and church at large. Father-son duo, Rev. Harvey Nelson and Rev. Jon Nelson, will be our Bible study leaders. Their dialogue will take us deeper into the great commission and what it means to make and be disciples in today's world.
 

"Help and support...in all of life's needs."
+Bishop Jon V. Anderson
I keep wondering about our responsibility to protect the lives of our neighbors in the last week. As racist behavior and words become more common we need to speak to protect our neighbors who are being attacked because their skin color or culture is different.

As we approach the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, the reformers call to build our ethics around love of God and love of our neighbor keeps circling in my mind. You can read Luther's catechisms and see this way of thinking about our decisions and actions.

From Luther's Large Catechism: The Fifth Commandment
"God wants to have everyone defended, delivered, and protected from the wickedness and violence of others, and he has placed this commandment as a wall, fortress a refuge around our neighbors so that no one may do them bodily harm or injury

First, we should not harm anyone, either by hand or deed. Next we should not use our tongue to advocate or advise harming anyone....we should harbor no hostility or malice against anyone in a spirit of anger and hatred.

...this commandment is violated not only when we do evil, but also when we have the opportunity to do good to our neighbors and to prevent, protect, and save them from suffering bodily harm or injury but fail to do so."

-The Large Catechism - The Book of Concord, Wengert and Kolb ed. p. 511-2

As I read about my college dealing with racist incidents, I continue my work of seeking to better understand the challenges of people of color in our society. Racism is a serious and deep problem. This is the book I am currently reading, Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism, by Drew G. I. Hart. It was recommended by my friend Bp. Wayne Miller from Chicago. In the chain of books I have read, this one is helping me see even deeper into the experience of bias and racism. I am only halfway, but far enough to know this is helpful as we seek to do our work of fighting our own racism and resisting the ways this sin works in our context, culture, context and world.

The Christian tradition's concepts of sin speak to both sins we commit and the kind of sin that happens when we omit doing something. This language acknowledges sin has a personal and a communal nature.

When we hear someone attacking our neighbor, we are called to love them by defending them.

Thanks for your courageous love and support of neighbors who are different in the past and in the future.