Hoops and Hands
Word From Wiese
April 1, 2026
Not foolish, but faithful.
Although I’m super temped to lean into April Fool’s Day in this email and string you along a bit on some crazy topic, I’m going to go a different direction. First, a Hoops for Haiti update, and secondly, some comments on hands—yours and God’s.
Thanks to all of you who are praying for and/or supporting financially some of God’s special children in gang-disrupted Haiti. Last year, along with 5 other ELCA congregations, we collectively raised $65,000+ to add classrooms to one of our rural schools, to which city families are fleeing for refuge. This school provides education, food, faith, and God’s hope! This year, funds will provide solar energy and resources for the increasing enrollment.
Here’s a video from Principal Verbo sharing his gratitude and showing some pictures of the students and progress.
If you filled out $25 brackets—COS winners will be announced next Sunday!—or just tossed in money, thank you! All financial gifts are due this Sunday by midnight. A neat Easter celebration to be sure. Click here to give now!
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Secondly, as we move into Holy Week, I ask you to consider your hands. The hands holding your iPhone right now or
operating your computer. They’re amazing. So much talent and love in those hands. Indeed, a lot of amazing hands throughout the course of human history.
What mastery in the hands of those 3-point shooters who propel teams like Arizona and Michigan to the Final Four.
Can you imagine the talent in the hands of the craftsmen who chiseled the captivating gargoyles keeping watch high above Notre Dame in Paris or who assembled the stained-glass of our Shepherd’s Window at church?
What dedication resides in the fingers of brain surgeons or violinists to curate such healing and beauty? Or how about the hands of mid-wives who’ve held hundreds for their first holy borning cries?
Indeed, astounding wonders happen in the hands of the right people. A pen in the hand of Maya Angelou or Thomas Jefferson. A portfolio in the hands of Warren Buffet. A German Chocolate cake recipe in the hands of my mother.
But when Jesus comes to his finish, there is no question whose hands he calls for. Not Caesar’s who holds the ruling scepter. Not Peter’s who’d like to hold the sword. Jesus cries out, “Father, into YOUR hands I commit my spirit.” Only one set of hands will do!
In college, I served a couple of summers at a church camp perched beautifully on the bluffs of Lake Erie. Founded by immigrant Lutherans from Finland, camp featured sauna and pool, crafts and sports, faith and fun. One week per summer the old Finns would come back and try to worship in Finnish each night. I was dating a cute young counselor named LuAnne. The older Finnish ladies encouraged me to adorn her with the phrase, “minun kulta,” which means “my honey” in Finnish. Still today, when I call my wife “minun kulta,” yes it means “my honey.” But it conveys so much more—all the feelings and history of those special summers and now over three decades of marriage.
When Jesus cries from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” he’s quoting Psalm 31:5. I’m told when Jews like Jesus would quote specific verses from Scripture after so much study and devotional use, it became part of them, to the extent that when they cited one verse, they were really lifting up the spirit of the whole psalm. Just like minun kulta means more than just “my honey,” in a much more profound way, in quoting Psalm 31:5 Jesus not only entrusts his spirit to his heavenly father, Jesus is also tapping into the verses around it.
So Jesus is activating the verse in front of it, which states: “Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.”
Likewise Jesus is also activating the verse that follows it, which states:
“You have not given me into the hands of the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.”
Jesus knew that only his Father’s hands could be trusted to rescue him from that cross, the trap of his enemy’s hands, and reposition him to the spacious place of resurrection and new life.
That was Jesus’ choice. How about yours? In whose hands are you really committing your spirit? A political party’s? A financial advisor’s?
If you choose Jesus’ hands, we remember this Friday that they might not look too healthy. Swollen from being shackled in prison overnight. Sweaty and bloody from the torture, even before they were pierced with nails for you and for me.
If you choose Jesus’ hands, you gotta remember they are the hands, that just a few hours before his crucifixion, broke bread and passed around a cup, marks of a new covenant in his blood, a meal of forgiveness to whom he invites ev-er-y-body.
If you choose Jesus’ hands, we remember these are the hands that on the same night took water and a towel to wash the feet of his disciples, as he called them friends, and invited them to see a life of using their hands in creative and humble service as the pathway to deep joy and satisfaction.
Jesus made a decision how to use his hands, and whose he will trust. We get to choose as well. Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s hope,
Pastor Fritz
Reflection Questions:
- When you honestly examine your life right now, whose “hands” are you most tempted to trust—your own, someone else’s, or God’s? What would it practically look like for you this week to more fully commit your spirit into God’s hands?
- How is God currently inviting you to use your hands (your abilities, time, influence) to serve others in a Christ-like way?
Let us pray:
Gracious Father, Jesus teaches us much this week as he uses his hands to wash feet, share bread and wine, and offer them to receive nails to pay the price of salvation for all. As Jesus entrusts his spirit into your hands, heavenly Father, might we remember to do the same each day—as we awake, live our schedule, and say our prayers each night with gratitude. Whenever we feel trapped or afraid, remind us that your hands are strong and faithful, leading us to new life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.