Go & Tell the Story

By Lisa Kramme, Director of Faith Formation It seems like winter was hard enough on the roads in Nebraska this year, potholes plaguing cities and towns because of larger-than-normal snowfall amounts.   Then rivers and creeks started to rise.   And snow started to fall—again—and in larger amounts than earlier winter storms had carried.   Now, five-and-a-half weeks after the bomb cyclone and broken levees, a number of highways lie broken and crumbling where water showed its brute strength.   Other highways are abnormally congested as road closures turn 10-minute commutes to schools, daycares, and offices into 45-minute detours for countless individuals and families. If roads could talk, I wonder what those over-burdened highways would be saying today. “I’m not sure I can handle this increased pressure.” “How much longer?” “When will crews arrive to help with problems that will happen more often until things are back to normal?” ...

By Diane Harpster, Administrative Assistant to the Bishop Dare to love and to be a real friend.   The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.      -Henri Nouwen As I write this, our Lenten journey has brought us once again to Holy Week.   In these next few days in worship we walk through the story of   Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.    Each year, I try to somehow imagine what those actual days must have been like; for Jesus, for his disciples, for those who loved Jesus and must have been confused and afraid by events unfolding around them.   What would it have felt like to be present in those days? I find it difficult to fully grasp the pain of witnessing Jesus’ crucifixion.   I can hardly stay present even in my imagination.   It is equally difficult to transport myself to the empty tomb as...

By Bishop Brian Maas For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the  Lord , who has compassion on you.   –Isaiah 54:10 Nebraska has no mountains, and most of its hills aren’t that steep, but God’s declaration stands. Even if time or tragedy completely reshapes the geography around us, God’s steadfast love will remain firmly in place. We’ve seen plenty of shifting geography in recent weeks. Rivers overflowed their banks and even changed courses; hills were eroded and plains had new berms of silt heaped on them. Houses, buildings, and livestock were damaged, destroyed, or simply disappeared. People lost their homes, their livelihoods, even their lives. The constants of so many individuals, families, and communities are forever changed, even gone. The hills and mountains of their hearts’ geography have been removed. But God’s steadfast ...