Dear Friends,  

Grace and Peace to you in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

I offer you a reading from Isaiah, the 43rd chapter, verses 18 and 19.

“Forget the former things;    

do not dwell on the past.  

See, I am doing a new thing!    

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness    

and streams in the wasteland.  

This passage has been a popular passage in our synod ever since Bishop Bill Gafkjen was installed as the leader of our mission territory. He has always used it as an invitation to look for the new things that God is doing in our lives, our churches, our communities, and the world.  

And, in that vein, I want you all to take a moment to consider the new things that God is doing in your life and in the life of our community at Lutheran Church of the Cross. As our country slowly continues to open back up as we continue closing some of the chapters on our pandemic life, I invite you to look for the new things that God is doing, and I invite you to forget some of the former things of the past.

Many of us stand at the trailhead of new paths in our life, post pandemic paths. And, we are faced with the opportunity to seek new things and to not revisit old paths. What do you want your “post pandemic” life to look like? Do you want to be as “busy” as you were before the pandemic? Do you want to fill your time with the same things you used to fill your time with?  

Or, do you want to fill your time and life with new things? Have you discerned God calling you to new things? Have you felt God inviting you to let go of former things? Some things about your life and work will remain as they were, but you have the opportunity to ponder what can be new and what can be forgotten as we establish our “new normal”.  

Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and listen with ears that hear. Come, Holy Spirit.  

Your Sibling in Christ,

Pastor Robert