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After 31 years of vibrant ministry, Deacon Joan is retiring. It’s hard to overestimate the impact she has made in the life of First Lutheran over the years. Everything she has touched has grown and expanded and blessed this congregation. Choirs and Bell Choirs have grown tremendously over the years under her lead-ership. New ministries have sprouted up and given life to count-less people over the past three decades. Joan sees it all as a tool for ministry. She never gets caught up in the thing itself, she always has her eye on how God will use it to minister to individ-ual people. She is an inspiration. Now, it is hugely unfair that she is retiring during a global pan-demic when we are restricted from throwing her the kind of

huge celebration she deserves. So, we’ve come up with an alternative. Because the truth is, Joan doesn’t want to retire, not really, not fully. Our alternative is to go ahead and let her retire officially, but then rehire her as our part-time handbell director for the year. This way we don’t have to try to find a handbell person during a pandemic. But more than that, Joan gets to continue ministry with the handbells, go on her last tour next summer which was cancelled this year and continue to be in ministry at a more reasonable pace. AND we get to celebrate her properly when she concludes her service next year. Strange times call for creative solutions, and we’re excited about this one. So, this week we will cele-brate Joan’s official retirement. The Bishop will do an end-of-call rite with her and have an exit inter-view with the Council and Staff. But then starting July 1, she’ll have a new role as our new and very experienced handbell director. Let’s spend the entire year saying thank you to Joan for all she has done, will do and more importantly for who she is! -Pastor Travis

DEACON JOAN TO RETIRE, (SORT OF)

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From the Pastor

Well, we did it. We had our first in person wor-ship service last Wednesday. We held three 20-minute services on the front lawn and had Holy Communion together. Even though we wore masks and sat six feet apart it was still so good to see so many of you! We had 217 people show up, which was more than I expected, but it felt safe. We are in a new time when we’ll have to experi-ment and learn how to do ministry in this new era. Some of our experiments will fail and some will succeed, but we will learn from everything we do.

So, what did we learn last week from our front lawn communion service?

• Seeing each other matters, even when we can’t spend time in conversation. Just laying eyes on each other was encouraging and up-lifting.

• We can gather safely. People followed the rules, wore masks and kept distance. Every-one took the rules seriously, and it made us all feel safe.

• We had many more older people than young-er people gather. This fits the demographic of our church. We thought the noon service might catch people on their lunch break and the 6 pm service catch people after work, but that really wasn’t the case. We may need to adjust to catch our working-age people.

• Whispering the Lord’s prayer is powerful and meaningful. We were looking for a way to pray together that didn’t add risk, and whis-pering proved to be a great way to add to the prayerfulness of the service.

• It was probably the first time any of us had heard live music in three months. What a gift to hear piano and violin played. Even though we couldn’t sing, we could be touched by the music.

• Receiving Communion was a gift. That famil-iar taste of the wine and hearing the words “given for you, shed for you” strengthened our faith.

Because this went so well, we plan to do it at least twice in July, on the 15th and 29th. We’ll continue to discuss as a staff what we are able to offer based on what we learned. Our desire is to give the con-gregation as much as possible, but we also must acknowledge our own limits. Filming the online services takes a good bit of time; the editing and production itself is a full time job. The messy mid-dle will require a hybrid approach of both in-person and online ministry. This will stretch the staff and so we have to be mindful not only of what is worthy of doing, but also what is fair to those who work for our congregation. Everything is a balancing act these days! Thank you for your encouragement and support and for giving your leaders the benefit of the doubt as we navigate ministry in this time. -Pastor Travis

THE MESSY MIDDLE Joshua 24:14-28

So how’s your faith in humanity holding

up these days? When you look around at how we are acting as a society, what’s your analysis? Are you discouraged and disappointed in humani-ty? Or are you encouraged and hopeful?

My judgment changes according to how many people are wearing masks when I walk into a store If I see most customers wearing masks, then I feel encouraged. I get this “we’re in this together” feeling like we can maybe curb the spread of this disease and get back to our lives. But if I walk into another store and no-body but the employees and I are wearing masks, I get discouraged like we’re going to be in this messy middle for a long time.

When I see protests turn violent, and when I hear of more police shootings, I get dis-couraged thinking we don’t have what it takes to improve our society. But when I see peaceful protests full of whites and blacks together mak-ing a case for concrete changes, when I see po-lice officers and their chiefs arguing for com-mon sense reforms, then I’m encouraged. May-be we can get better. Maybe, just maybe, we can turn the corner towards a better society.

When I saw video of a packed soccer stadium in New Zealand, I was encouraged. They came together, did the tough lockdown together and defeated the coronavirus in their island nation. Maybe we could do the same; it gives me hope. But then I look around and see cases on the rise in neighboring states, and I’m not so sure. But at least Colorado is doing good right?

This is the Messy Middle where something has started, but we’re not sure which way it’s going. There are reasons to be optimistic and there are reasons to be pessimistic, and we each have our part to play to bend the curve to-wards God’s preferred future. As we contin-ue our sermon series on the Messy Middle today, we walk with Joshua as he addresses the tribes of Israel about to take possession of the Promised Land. We were introduced to Joshua when God freed Israel from slavery and marched them through the Red Sea di-rectly to the Promised Land. Joshua was one of twelve spies who went in to see this land that God had promised them, but he was on-ly one of two who came back optimistic that Israel could conquer the land. Ten of his fel-low spies thought it was too risky, and they didn’t trust God. So instead of going into take the land, Joshua had to wander for 40 years in the wilderness until a new genera-tion was raised up. Joshua rises through the ranks and becomes Israel’s leader after Mo-ses. He fights for the Promised Land; he takes his small underdog army and trusts God to fight for the land.

God had promised the people. God gives them victory after victory until the land is theirs, and it’s time to go and settle into what has been promised to them. But before they go, Joshua wants to have a little talk with the tribes of Israel because he knows them well just as he knew their fathers be-fore them. Joshua wants to remind them to

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THE MESSY MIDDLE, CONT.

Joshua 24:14-28 stay faithful to the God who freed them from slav-ery, the God who fed them in the wilderness, the God who has given them the home he promised half a century before to Abraham. But he’s not so sure they will. His confidence, his faith in humani-ty, so to speak, seems to be wavering. He calls them to a choice in a verse that we’re familiar with, “Choose this day whom you will serve whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” The people shout out, “We will serve the Lord, for he is our God!” But instead of congratulating them for their commitment and marching with them in victory to the Promised Land, what does Joshua say? “You can’t serve the Lord.” Basically, they make their commitment and Joshua says, “I don’t believe you. I’ve see you falter in the past. I’ve seen how quickly you leave your faith behind and just go along with the culture you’re in. In Egypt, how many of you started wor-shipping Egyptian gods? Then just days after we escaped, you made a golden calf to worship it and now some of you are tempted to serve the so-called gods of this region.” Joshua doesn’t trust his peo-ple to keep their faith. He’s worried that their com-mitment isn’t as strong as the words they are will-ing to say.

I know we’ve felt that in the church. How often have we listened to confirmation students make their vows and then a few years go by and we don’t see them at church anymore. How often have we seen parents promise at their child’s baptism to raise them up in the Christian faith and then fail to keep that commitment? It’s hard not to get cynical when you see people make and break promises over and over again throughout the years. It’s hard to watch our children and their children wander

from the faith and to know you can’t make anyone believe.

Someone wrote recently that a pandemic reveals the character of a society, but I also think the pandemic is revealing the character of the church, the character of those of us who call our-selves Christians. Are we as committed to Jesus as we say we are? I believe that God is doing work in the church right now through this difficult time. God is inviting us to examine our faith by asking some hard questions. How committed are we to following the way of Jesus in this world? Is our faith more than just church attendance? When we can’t worship like we prefer, do we still have a vi-brant growing faith? What does our faith rest on? What does it mean for our daily lives? Are we will-ing to grow in faith through personal devotion or are we just consumers of Christianity that others produce for us? I think many Christians will have to learn that their faith needs to be more than just involvement in a congregation. We need a faith that endures when the world changes. We need a faith that is strong enough to adapt to great diffi-culty. We need a faith that sustains us when we are forced into isolation. This is a time to grow in our faith to check the foundation and make sure it’s strong to reconfirm our commitment to the Lord Joshua named the threats and temptations that faced the tribes of Israel as they entered into the Promised Land. He called for a renewed com-mitment and then questioned them to make sure the commitment they were making was sincere.

Our threats are not the false gods of Egypt and Caanan, but rather the false idols unique to our culture. Idols like consumerism, where we reduce Christianity to something akin to a Walmart, where we pay our money and make our demands. I’ve been tempted in this way every once in a while; someone will come to me upset with something the church has said that made them uncomfortable or challenged them, and they try to

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use their membership and offerings as leverage in a negotiation. I fall into the trap myself by acting like some store manager trying to persuade people to keep coming and buying our product. Can you imagine Jesus trying to convince anyone to remain his disciple? No, Jesus like Joshua lays down the challenge: choose this day whom you will serve. Remember the rich young ruler? Jesus said to him, “Go and sell your possessions, give to the poor and come follow me.” When the man didn’t want to do that, Jesus didn’t back down or try to twist his arm. He certainly didn’t lower the standards. Jesus isn’t selling anything; he offers the gift of life and a way of discipleship, one that will require personal sacri-fice and service to others. Consumerism is a false god that we all need to leave behind as we recom-mit ourselves to serve the Lord. Choose this day whom you will serve, and if we say we will serve the Lord, then consider the cost. Jesus says that no one sits down to build a tower without first estimating what it will cost him, and no commander sets out to battle without first determining if he has the forces to prevail.

This messy middle is a time to choose again whom we will serve. If we are choosing to serve Jesus, then we must die to ourselves, our ego, our consumer tendencies and serve God alone. This world needs Christians who follow Jesus over self. This world needs Christians who adhere to the values of Jesus over the values of this world. This world needs Christians who put others ahead of themselves, who seek to serve the poor, marginal-ized and oppressed as their savior taught them. Joshua challenged his people, tested their commit-ment, but they remained firm saying they were serious and sincere they intended to serve the Lord. So, Joshua said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the god of Israel.”

I think this messy middle is a gift from God, a time to incline our hearts to the Lord again.

Every struggle is an opportunity to grow in some way. This difficult time is an opportunity to grow in our faith to learn a faith that can survive and sus-tain us even when we don’t have things like our Christian community and in-person worship. Our youth director Shelly reminded me of the story of John McCain as a POW in Vietnam. He didn’t have a worship service provided for him. He didn’t even have a Bible to read, but he knew the hymns and scriptures by heart and recited them to strengthen others during a time of isolation. May God give us each a faith like that, a faith that is personal, a faith that is portable, a faith that is ready to share when life gets bleak. We don’t know what comes next; it may get harder before it gets easier. Our world may be fundamentally changed by the time this whole thing is over. Let’s do that work of shoring up our faith now as soon as we can. Get out your Bibles and read as much as you can to learn the way of Jesus. Get on your knees and grow in prayer; cast all your worries upon the Lord and seek God’s di-rection. Seek out those in need and serve them with pure and generous hearts. Let’s do this work now because we don’t know what’s coming. We don’t know how long this Messy Middle lasts or what things look like on the other side of it. But we do know the Lord is with us, the Lord will bring us through. The Lord will be there on the other side, whatever that looks like. Choose this day again, to serve the Lord. Amen. -Pastor Travis

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A PLACE TO TALK An online community 10am on Thursday mornings via Zoom https://zoom.us/j/209040388 Or call in: 1-346-248-7799 Meeting code: 209040388# While we are not gathering at the church, we continue to try to find ways to bring people together. This is Thursday morning group is the online community of the “Growing Old Gracefully” group. It is led by Pastor Maertens, Pastor Anderson & Jan, and Dr. David Fenell. We invite you to grab a cup of coffee and join in this conversation. We know it isn’t quite the same as gathering around the coffee and cookies at church but you might be surprised how similar it is and how much you’ll enjoy that second cup of coffee in the morning with your church friends! If you have any ques-tions about the group or the technology to ac-cess it, please call Pastor Carrie at 703-587-5636 or drop her an email at carrie@flccs.net. Look forward to seeing you online! June 25: The topic is “Suicide” presented by Dr. David Fenell.

Last week I decided to cut off a few branches on our Ponderosa pine. The job looked easy because I would not need to use a ladder since all they were close to the ground. The branches were dry and brittle and only two and a half inches in diameter, so they would be easy to cut.

I went to the garage and grabbed my smallest bow saw. The tree stands about eight feet from the edge of the driveway down a fifteen-degree angle. As I started walking down the incline, my feet began to slide, and I realized I need to approach the tree from a side angle. Well, that was easy, and I proceeded to trim off six branches. Now, all I had to do was carry them down the hill to the edge of the road. Unfortu-nately, I strained my left thigh muscle biking a few weeks ago, and my left leg did not have the strength to steady my walk down the hill.

What to do? I decided the only thing to do was get the branches to the driveway, put them in the back of my Honda Pilot, and drive them down the driveway to the edge of the road.

As I was putting the branches into the car, I started to laugh. Sally came out of the house and asked, "What’s so funny?"

I said, "Old man moving tree branches." I told her, "I always made fun of people who got into their cars and drove down their driveways to their mailboxes to collect the mail. Now I am

THE GIFT OF ACCEPTANCE

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doing the same thing. Instead of mail, its pine branches."

"Well,' Sally said, ' you can still weed-whack the grass."

"Yes,” I said, “it is better than pushing up the grass from below."

Sometimes we should stop and be grateful for the things we can still do and not lament over the things we cannot do. Joan Chittister says, "One of the gifts of aging is to become com-fortable with the self we are, rather than to mourn who we are not."

-Pastor Maertens

WHAT TO DO… IN CASE YOU DIDN’T GET THE SUNDAY SERVICE EMAIL If you don’t receive the email from the church for the Sunday service, the service is available on the First Lutheran website, flccs.net. There is a link on the main page titled Online Worship. Click on that link and the worship service will appear. Worship videos are posted on our website by 7 am on Sunday morning. They are also posted to our YouTube site on Saturday afternoon. Usually, after checking, we can see that emails are being sent to you. However, for some reason, the emails are being bounced back. Our advice is to figure out how to mark emails from flc@flccs.net safe for your Internet provider’s server. We do not drop anyone off our database list unless asked.

DOLL DOCTORS

Doll Doctors will meet the first Monday of every month in Fellowship Hall beginning July 6.

EVENING MEN’S GROUP This small group will is meeting again on Thursday evenings from 7– 8:30 pm in Luther Hall. All are welcome!

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PEEL HOUSE CLEARANCE We are getting close to beginning construction on the Peel House and rekindling the gift God has given to us in that building. There are sev-eral items that need to be removed from the house that we thought might be of value to someone. Before we list them on Facebook we want to give our members first dibs. We’d ask only that you consider making a donation to the Rekindle the Gift campaign and that you make arrangements to remove the items from the house yourself. All items will be given to the person who can remove them the quickest, so no dibs or saves. Here are some pictures of things you might be interested in. To make a claim, call the church, ask for Harry Mosco and schedule a time to collect.

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NO COLLECTIONS FOR THE SOUP KITCHEN First Lutheran is not collecting jars or other containers for the Marion House Soup Kitchen at this time. They are not able to use them due to the setup necessary for Covid-19. Please do not bring them to the church in anticipation of a future use. When the Soup Kitchen is able to use them again, we’ll let you know.

FINANCIAL UPDATE

Year to Date Budgeted Income through June 23: $953,902.00 Year to Date Income through June 23: $873,903.00 Amount behind for the year: $ 79,999.00

FROM THE ARCHIVES - FIRST LUTHERAN IN THE ‘20s From the church bulletin, December 29, 1925. THE END OF THE YEAR means the settling of accounts. If you have any envelopes left in this year’s carton, please return them, if possible, not later than next Sunday, so that the treasurer of the church may be able to prepare his report.

WOODCARVERS The Woodcarving group will meet this Wednesday, June 24, from 7 - 9 pm in Joseph’s Workshop.

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Middle school youth group is at 4 pm every Sunday https://zoom.us/j/180569595

High school youth group is at 5 pm every Sunday https://zoom.us/j/856667945

SUMMER SUNDAY SCHOOL June 28 is the last meeting of Summer Sunday School. Classes will not meet in July and August. The Sunday School classes will meet for the last time with the following links: Kindergarten & 1st Grade at 7 pm Sunday nights: 4th Grade at 12:30 pm on Sunday nights: Join Zoom Meeting Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83451551183 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/488852972 Meeting ID: 834 5155 1183 Meeting ID: 488 852 972 2nd & 3rd Grade at 10:30 am Sunday mornings: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/779314033 Meeting ID: 779 314 033 WATCH THIS SPACE FOR INFO ABOUT VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL! MORE TO COME SOON!

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PLEASE CONTINUE TO SEND IN YOUR OFFERINGS

Suspending worship might threaten the financial well-being of the congre-gation. We still have a large staff to pay as well as other bills. We want to continue to support those agencies that help those hardest hit dur-ing times like this. Please continue to support this ministry with your offerings. When you receive envelopes in the mail you’ll notice a larger white envelope. That is a post-age paid envelope you can use to mail in your offering. We also have the ability to receive of-ferings online at www.flccs.net. Just click on the “GIVE” tab and then “MAKE A DONATION” and follow those instructions. You can even set it up to draft automatically each month, which would really help the church during this time. Thank you for your faithfulness!

ONLINE WORSHIP TOGETHER!

We discovered a new way to worship together using Facebook Premiere. Each Sunday we will start the online worship video at 9:00 am on Facebook. This way we can enjoy it at the same time and the pastors can be in the chatroom with you to check in and share reflections. The video will also continue to be emailed to you at 7 am on Sundays for you to use at your conven-ience and also posted on the church website. But if you’re a Facebook user and want to join us at 9 am, you’re invited!

ZOOM STEP BY STEP

Step #1: Download Zoom. In your web browser, enter

the URL https://zoom.us/download Download “Zoom Client for Meetings”.

Step #2: Open Zoom. Double click on the Zoom icon on that

should appear on your desktop at the end of the download. It is a blue icon with a white video camera within.

Step #3: Join Meeting. Once you have opened the Zoom applica-

tion, find the icon that says “Join” and click it.

You will now be prompted to enter the “Zoom ID”. You can find this number attached to the back end of the URL you were sent on the invitation. For exam-ple, if your invitation has a code like https://zoom.us/j/209858456 you would enter the nine numbers that appear on the tail end of the link. https://zoom.us/j/209858456. This is the “meeting ID”.

Final Step: “Join with Audio”. Once you have successfully entered the

“Meeting ID” it will link you to the video chat. In the case that it asks you if you would like to “join with Audio”, select “YES”.

You should now be able to see everyone, and also hear everyone.

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group:

June 28 Wally Astor Wendell James Gloria Lynch John Morrow June 29 Marta Holley Mikylea Isidore Brian Meyers Colin Spaziani June 30 Spencer Bradley Michael Nelson Terry Pixley Dolores Wascher July 1 Bob Friess Kyle Ketchell Herman Livingston Gabrielle Marlin Paula Nickodemus Jana Schutte Allison Tuma

July 2 Arielle Bakken Karis Marcotte Helen West July 3 Barbara Brown Tom Grounder Perry Pool Perry Pool Sue Raabe Ruth Rose Jack Uddenberg July 4 Anthony Anderson Easton Walker Sharon Wheeler

June 28 Bob & Kathy Friess - 34 years Lee & Eileen Hensel - 45 years

June 29 Jerry & Vonnie Hovind - 63 years William & Doreen Hulka - 63 years

June 30 Andrea Nyquist & Douglas Penn - 2 years John & Mary Palmen - 13 years Peter & Barbara Swan - 58 years

July 1 Eric & Terry Lynn Senzek - 3 years

July 2 Jerry & Jennifer Herman - 26 years

July 3 Bert & Jolene Bedford - 44 years Kurt & Lori Peterson - 27 years

Happy Birthday to Dolores Wascher

who will be 90 on June 30. Congratulations!

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Our condolences and prayers surround the family and friends of CAROL BACHMEIER

Fred Bachmeier’s wife; Julie & Debbie’s mother; Tim’s mother-in-

law; grandmother of two. The service will be June 25 at

Memorial Garden’s Chapel followed by the burial at Memorial Gardens.

Cliff Allen Cheri Anderson Wanda Anderson Joyce Arneson Dean Arnold Jaclyn Arnold Vernevelyn Baty Fred Bachmeier & Family Bill John Braden Jerry Brunet Butch Leslie Crowley Frank Davey Sharon deHala Bill Duven The Ebert Family Eric Carol Foltz Kelsey Forbes Michael Foret Tom Gosch Andy Grasmick Lee Gross Cody Haines Jon Haring Eleanor Hjelmstad Jon Haring Cheryl Haver & Family Jutta Heberer Beverly Hodges Casey Jacobs Terry James Peter Jepson & Family Carol Johnson Josh Jones Carrie Kahl Diana Keys

John Link The Lougeay Family Neil Mahon Jay McCoy Anthony Miller Brandon Miller & Family Hannah & Jeremiah Miller Debra Mills Mark Mueller Patrick Murphy Carole Mutzebaugh The Arvin Nelson Family Arlene Niles and Family Rhea Nordberg Sam Norton Bill Phipps Sr. Don Reed Don Reichert Aaron Rindahl Skip Robinson Louis Rosini Israel Roth Sylvia Sandner Roger Schomber Ron Scott Ruthann Sielken The Simon Family Cathy Stanley Lori Stevens Cliff Stoker Russ Stott Aaron Thorson The John Thorson Family Jim Underwood Christine Welch Tony White Greg & Carolyn Young Ben Zeeb

Please keep these members of First Lutheran, their family and friends, in your prayers this week.

Our condolences and prayers surround the family and friends of MARGUERITE GATES

Flo Pritz’s sister. The service will be at a later date

In Montevideo, Minnesota.

PRAYER REQUESTS Please email any prayer requests to flc@flccs.net, or call the church office at 719.632.8836.

Our condolences and prayers surround the family and friends of

DON NILES Arlene Niles’ husband.

The service will be at a later date in the First Lutheran Sanctuary.

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HOLY COMMUNION - SOMETHING NEW We tried something new last week with outdoor midweek communion on the front lawn. Over 217 attended three services on a beautiful Wednesday. Here are a few photos!