Let love be genuine

"Let love be genuine... Contribute to the needs of the saints." In this way, Paul encouraged the church in Rome, as we hear this Sunday. It's also what I've experienced from you all in these recent weeks. Thank you again.

This week, I came back to the office for the first time since my accident. I do not have much stamina yet. I take it day by day. I'm learning patience, and you all continue to be patient with my recovery too.

I will be glad to be with you in worship Sunday, celebrating life, life in Christ, and a savior who suffers with and for us. I have most certainly experienced Christ with me, even in my first memories after the accident. I trust you've experienced it too: when God's consolations come to us, we can rejoice in being alive and in belonging to a God of hope, forgiveness, and healing, even when life is at its worst.

This week, I also made the decision not to travel to Tanzania in September. Zion people will still go, marking the 25th anniversary of our companionship with Kirangare Lutheran Parish. It was a hard decision, and I will miss seeing our brothers and sisters. But I hear it from you, my family, my doctors, and my own body: "Don't push it."

Living life - honoring the gift that it is and cooperating with God's healing and love - takes discipline and discernment. Sometimes, saying no to things we want to say yes to, and at other times, saying yes to things we want to say no to. In this holiest of spirits, Jesus said yes to the cross for our sake. It is the mystery of faith that Jesus, by his abundant grace, has made the pattern of our life together.

And speaking of life together, this Sunday, Zion welcomes to worship our sisters and brothers from St. Mark Lutheran Church in Davenport. Another gracious gift, symbolized in a joint choir. Let love continue to be genuine.

Thanks be to God.

Pastor Clark Olson-Smith