May 2026

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. – Proverbs 21:3

Grace and peace to you all! I hope this finds you aware of the blessings of the Lord all around you.

I have to apologize for the lateness of our News & Views this month. I was called for jury duty and spent Friday and Monday through Wednesday in jury selection. I even sat in the box! For a moment it seemed that I was going to be seated on the jury for a very long trial, but I was ultimately excused. What a relief that was! This is the closest I’ve ever been to serving in our judicial system, and it has turned my thoughts to the idea of civic duty.

The truth is, I had no real desire to serve on a ten-day trial. There is work to be done here at St. Luke’s: sermons to write, services to plan, meetings to attend. I would have missed Lutheran Lobby Day, something I look forward to every year.

I also wasn’t looking forward to the issues in the trial themselves. I won’t go into detail, but the evidence I would have had to see and the discussions I would have been part of would have been challenging, to say the least.

Getting out of jury duty would have been easy. I could have said that I had a hardship that I couldn’t get out of. I could have said that I was unfit to serve on the jury because of my beliefs or my inability to separate them from the issues. I could have said that the issues I have with policing policies or the systemic issues in our society would preclude me from giving any officers a fair hearing, biasing me toward the defendant. I could have even stretched the truth about Lobby Day, saying that I had meetings with legislators that I couldn’t miss.

But none of that would have been the truth, and more than that, it would have been a denial of the very system under which we live. We are bound by a mutual pact, one that we enter with our citizenship in this nation. We are given rights and protections in this country, and in response to those rights and protections, we are expected to participate in its management. This includes jury duty, voting, and remaining informed.

The same can be said of this church, but on an even deeper level. Unlike being a citizen of the United States, there is no requirement to participate in church. We can’t compel anyone with punitive measures to participate. Instead, we rely on a sense of duty and engagement to keep it functioning.

What happens when that engagement ebbs? We can see the results in both the church and the country: unhappiness. Dissatisfaction with the direction either is going. These inevitably lead to a spiral downward as more people pull away from engagement in the system.

But this is not the solution. To disengage means to give up agency, allowing the same downward spiral to continue and further entrench the things making us dissatisfied.

The way to create a better system is not to disengage, but to engage more fully and seek to make changes. When is the last time we had an election in the congregation with more than one nominee? When was the last time anyone had to express their vision for what the congregation should focus on? When was the last time we had people taking a position because they had an idea and not just because we needed a warm body in the seat?

Our congregation and government only work when we are involved. If I was seated on the jury, I would have done my duty to the best of my ability, because that is the only way systems that run on our participation function. I encourage you all to consider how you can become engaged, so that we can work for something better in the future.

Blessings,

Pastor Rob