Recently I heard a story about a Lutheran woman from the United States traveling through eastern Europe years ago. As she talked with a group of locals, it came up that she was Lutheran. One woman in the group told the American, “I know who you are.”

The European woman went into her house and came out with a quilt. She showed the American woman a label sewn onto the quilt which gave the name of an ELCA church who had made and donated it. "I was once in a refugee camp and had nothing,” the woman said. “You gave this quilt to me.”

As Lutherans who do God’s work with our hands, there is much to celebrate in this story, especially as we feel trapped in our homes and unable to worship together. We may also feel unable to help those in need.

That Lutheran woman did not personally make that quilt for that European refugee. But as one of millions of living stones of the ELCA, she enabled an organization through which one person in one congregation could make a much-needed quilt for a tired person in eastern Europe.

I thank you and thank God for being a living stone in this church. The gifts God has given you—of time, of money, of work, of prayers—fill your congregation. Those gifts flow through the Grand Canyon Synod and Churchwide ministries. What you do makes its way to the other side of God’s world through ELCA World Hunger, or to storm-ravaged communities in the southern United States through Lutheran Disaster Relief, or back to a food pantry in your neighboring congregation.

As we wait in our homes, we are not helpless. As unique and vital members of the church together, we are help-full. God’s work through the church continues and is unceasing. Let’s continue to safely reach out to friends, family, and neighbors. Let's continue to give time and treasure to our congregations. 

As we start an Easter season unlike any other, as we walk a lonely road out of Jerusalem, look for Christ risen. Listen for the words, "I know who you are. You are my beloved child.” 

The Rev. Deborah K. Hutterer
Bishop
Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA