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Author: Jamie Gaffke

Cultivating: An Understanding Heart

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Cultivating: An Understanding Heart, HERE.   In the first of the 3 stories the author of Luke offers today, we listened as Jesus foretold of an unsettling series of events which lay ahead in Jerusalem. Somehow, it is all too easy for us to gloss over the “we don’t want to go there…” we don’t want to talk about… let alone actually face… arrest, violence, or death… whether we live in the 1st century or the 21st. But we are in Lent and each and every year of our faith journey as followers of Jesus we purposefully walk this journey to Jerusalem ...
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Cultivating: Space to Listen

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Cultivating: Space to Listen, HERE. One of the “what can we do as we self-isolate at home?” activities you might have taken part in during the pandemic is binge watching shows on a streaming platform. How many of you can relate? Have any of you binge watched a series or two… or three… or more? Which ones have you watched? I am not much of a TV watcher, but even I have gotten hooked on a few shows—the most recent of which has been the Mandalorian. The Mandalorian is a continuation of the Star Wars saga, taking place a few years after the dest...
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Cultivating: Delights of Love

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Cultivating: Delights of Love, HERE. My dad was a high school math teacher. Now and then, he would toss out random story problems for me to solve. Now, how many of you are good doing math in your head? As a kid, I was, and was even on our high school math team (I fully embrace my geekiness!). I remember the excitement I had when my school supply list included a Texas Instrument calculator, and how disappointed my dad was that the school would allow us to use a calculator in class. However you do math, whether it is mentally, or you use a cal...
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Cultivating: The Intent of the Heart

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Cultivating: The Intent of the Heart, HERE. Cultivating and letting go. This is our theme for the next 6 weeks. We will be reflecting on what God is cultivating during these days of inbetweeness. The past year has been really Lent-y, full of grief and ashes. In fact, in many ways, it seems like Lent 2020 (when we first went into full social distancing mode and moved worship online) never ended. A few weeks ago, I shared 8 faith practices with you from the Abbey of the Arts. This is an online abbey which encourages “transformative living thro...
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Expansive Love

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Expansive Love, HERE. When I was a child, one of my favorite poems was by A. A. Milne, Halfway Down[1]: Halfway down the stairsis a stairwhere I sit.there isn't anyother stairquite like it.I'm not at the bottom,I'm not at the top;so this is the stairwhereI alwaysstop.Halfway up the stairsIsn't upAnd it isn't down.It isn't in the nursery,It isn't in town.And all sorts of funny thoughtsRun round my head.It isn't reallyAnywhere!It's somewhere elseInstead! Somewhere else instead. There is anything much more ordinary than a flight of stairs? I re...
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Hope. Compassion. Restoration.

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Hope. Compassion. Restoration. HERE As we approach the one-year mark of worshiping online, lay leaders, staff, and I have been making plans for Ash Wednesday, Lent, and worship opportunities for Holy Week. I want to remind you that, in our current, dangerous, deep freeze, there is good news! Easter is only 8 weeks away, with all the hoped-for newness which sprouts in the spring (and yes… in Bible study on Wednesday everyone reminded me that in Wisconsin it can also still snow on April 4)! Reflecting on what lies ahead, I have to share with y...
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Hold On…

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Hold On…., HERE. Over the past few months, there has been a viral phenomenon happening on social media. Not “viral” as in the coronavirus, but viral as in a social media fad which has spread widely. Maybe you have seen it. Have you seen trend “How it started—How it’s going”? These are often before and after photos of people, animals, and/or events. For example, there is this then-and-now pairing: The photos show an adorable puppy as “how it started,” and then the grown dog in “how it is going.” Here is another example, from Memorial’s shift...
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When You Go Fishing With Jesus

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, When You Go Fishing with Jesus, HERE. This Sunday the assigned Bible reading gives us Jesus. Jesus on the shore telling a group of people to go out beyond their comfort zone and to try again. Of course, the fishermen know what to do, right? They are people who do a really hard job. They are knowledgeable and skilled in their profession. These are people who KNOW how to fish. They know the lake of Gennesaret, or what we often call the Sea of Galilee, inside and out—up and down. They know the shore. The sky. The deeps. The shallows. The moveme...
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Holy What Ifs

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Holy What Ifs… , HERE. Let’s start… here. A place where waters were once calm. Clear. Inviting. While in reality it is the middle of winter and the lakes are frozen, wouldn’t it be wonderful to be here? Looking at a calm, inviting body of water, with ripples of possibility? As you look at the photo, what feelings, thoughts, memories do you have? Pastor Kris invited people to type their responses in the chat. Responses included: “Canoeing with my Dad & sister.” “Looks like a fish just jumped. Get your fishing pole.” “Pontooning on Long ...
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Those Who Dream… ponder in their hearts

Posted on by Jamie Gaffke
Those Who Dream… ponder in their hearts You can watch the video of Pastor Kris’ reflection, Those Who Dream… ponder in their hearts, HERE. In today’s Bible reading, there is a tugging and pulling, a wondering and an answering, which reveals God to us in a radically new way. Here Jesus (a preteen)… and Mary (a young adult)… and a wider faith community (the elders)… demonstrating for us the ways in which our faith journeys are disarmingly simple in all of life’s complexities.   This cross-generational narrative includes the necessity of repeating faith practices over and over, as “every year” J...
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