No Girls Allowed!

So, this coming Sunday is Lutheran Men in Mission Sunday at the congregation I serve.

 

Truth be told, I’m not 100% sure just what that means…but I am 100% sure that I have no idea what to expect (except that there are “no girls allowed.” How fun to serve in a congregation where the absence of female leadership in worship is unusual!)!

 

I met with the two gentlemen who will be the primary leaders for worship on Sunday, and I was reminded of something that I was told in seminary. It was something like: “Remember, you do this pastoral thing all day, almost every day…Not everybody else does. It will become natural to you…It won’t be for everyone.”

 

At their request, I met with these two remarkable, and very accomplished, men for about an hour…looking at the bulletin; figuring out what to take out and what to leave in; deciding who was going to stand or sit where, and when; what lesson(s) to preach about; what hymns to sing; etc., etc., etc. It was, in all actuality, very humbling for me. I don’t remember what Earl has retired from – something to do with TWA (someone who is reading this may be able to help me on that), but Ralph retired from an executive position with Estee Lauder – both of them are world-travelers. These are strong and wise men, who reminded me that what I do is sacred…holy…different, and not to be entered into lightly.

 

Their concern over doing the absolute best they can do for God and for the people of God, caught me up short – and convicted me of being (at least occasionally) unaware of the impact worship has on folks’ lives.

 

It also reminded me that I do not do nearly as good a job as I like to think I do of reminding folks that my ministry (or calling) as a pastor is no higher or better than anyone else’s…just different. That, in fact, their//your life-ministries (I think I just created that hyphenated word…I like it) stand a far better chance of impacting “un-churched” folks than mine does. After all, they//you spend more time “out there” than I do. It reminded me that I need to do a better job of helping folks worship with every breath they have…doing their absolute best for God and for the people of God in every moment they have.

 

I think that Ralph has decided to preach on a different gospel lesson than the one assigned – I told him that I thought it would probably still “take,” even if it is not the one assigned for this week in the lectionary.

 

But the assigned gospel reading (if anyone’s interested) is from Luke, the 18^th chapter. I didn’t really get any farther than the first verse. It says, “Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Lord knows that we are living in times that threaten to make us loose heart…How wonderful to be reminded, by this unlikely duo of men, that God hears the prayers of all people: seminary trained and drop-outs, young and old and world-travelers and homebodies and executives and those who speak in front of people easily and those who struggle to put words together and those leading worship and those who will never set foot in a church. And how wonderful to have lips other than mine speak those prayers and model lives of intentional worship.

 

I am looking forward to being able to sit with my family in worship this coming Sunday…And I thank the Lutheran Men in Mission men for that blessing.

 

And I am eager to see how God will use these men, with and through their wisdom and their nervous concern and their determination…how God will use them to change me and to change the world.

 

No Girls Allowed!

So, this coming Sunday is Lutheran Men in Mission Sunday at the congregation I serve.

 

Truth be told, I’m not 100% sure just what that means…but I am 100% sure that I have no idea what to expect (except that there are “no girls allowed.” How fun to serve in a congregation where the absence of female leadership in worship is unusual!)!

 

I met with the two gentlemen who will be the primary leaders for worship on Sunday, and I was reminded of something that I was told in seminary. It was something like: “Remember, you do this pastoral thing all day, almost every day…Not everybody else does. It will become natural to you…It won’t be for everyone.”

 

At their request, I met with these two remarkable, and very accomplished, men for about an hour…looking at the bulletin; figuring out what to take out and what to leave in; deciding who was going to stand or sit where, and when; what lesson(s) to preach about; what hymns to sing; etc., etc., etc. It was, in all actuality, very humbling for me. I don’t remember what Earl has retired from – something to do with TWA (someone who is reading this may be able to help me on that), but Ralph retired from an executive position with Estee Lauder – both of them are world-travelers. These are strong and wise men, who reminded me that what I do is sacred…holy…different, and not to be entered into lightly.

 

Their concern over doing the absolute best they can do for God and for the people of God, caught me up short – and convicted me of being (at least occasionally) unaware of the impact worship has on folks’ lives.

 

It also reminded me that I do not do nearly as good a job as I like to think I do of reminding folks that my ministry (or calling) as a pastor is no higher or better than anyone else’s…just different. That, in fact, their//your life-ministries (I think I just created that hyphenated word…I like it) stand a far better chance of impacting “un-churched” folks than mine does. After all, they//you spend more time “out there” than I do. It reminded me that I need to do a better job of helping folks worship with every breath they have…doing their absolute best for God and for the people of God in every moment they have.

 

I think that Ralph has decided to preach on a different gospel lesson than the one assigned – I told him that I thought it would probably still “take,” even if it is not the one assigned for this week in the lectionary.

 

But the assigned gospel reading (if anyone’s interested) is from Luke, the 18^th chapter. I didn’t really get any farther than the first verse. It says, “Jesus told them a parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.” Lord knows that we are living in times that threaten to make us loose heart…How wonderful to be reminded, by this unlikely duo of men, that God hears the prayers of all people: seminary trained and drop-outs, young and old and world-travelers and homebodies and executives and those who speak in front of people easily and those who struggle to put words together and those leading worship and those who will never set foot in a church. And how wonderful to have lips other than mine speak those prayers and model lives of intentional worship.

 

I am looking forward to being able to sit with my family in worship this coming Sunday…And I thank the Lutheran Men in Mission men for that blessing.

 

And I am eager to see how God will use these men, with and through their wisdom and their nervous concern and their determination…how God will use them to change me and to change the world.

Thankfulness, awareness, and being "made whole"

My parents are here! My parents are here! Thanks be to God, my parents are here!!!!

 

Last week, they moved here from Tennessee.

It has been a move, long in process (or, it felt long in process to me)…full of mixed emotions for them and for all of us, at various levels (the high school I went to was in that small town, as was the church that was so foundational to my understanding of faith/Jesus/pastor-ing); but also, so welcomed.

They got here a week ago today (or tonight).

 

My brother and his wife; my nephew (my brother’s son) and his wife; my sister; and my own family were all awaiting their arrival.

Cliff (my husband and the household chef) had prepared a wonderful pot roast for dinner. It started cooking at noon. The house smelled WONDERFUL (I can’t think of a better “family together” meal!). We had hoped to gather at 6:00 or 6:30 for dinner either at our place or theirs (we were ready to pack up and head to their “temporary” apartment at a moment’s notice…whatever would be easiest for them!).

 

My sister was traveling with them from Tennessee – following in her car. She had been with them for the final couple weeks of packing, house-closing, and “good-bye-ing.”

We called her at about 4:30 or 5:00 to check on their progress. “We are stuck on I-40. There was apparently a terrible accident. We’re looking at a couple hours delay – at least.”

 

The accident ended up being the one in which 8 people were killed – most of them members of Front Street Baptist Church. Many of them my parents’ age. I think we knew details of the accident before my parents and sister did.

My father and sister took two different detours and got separated.

Leslie, my sister, got to our house first.

When she got there, we called to check on Mom and Dad. My father had taken a detour that put him on two-lane roads (he was driving his truck and towing another car). He sounded so exhausted and stressed.

We all just looked around at each other. It would probably be more like 8:30 or 9:00 or 9:30 before they arrived.

Their coming to our house was “off the table.”

 

We determined that we would go meet them at their new place. “No.”

“Okay…Then let’s…hmmm….let’s…hmmm…what should we do?”

“Okay…let’s time it so that Ken (my brother) can meet them at the gate, so that he can help Dad get the car off of the towing thing. Donna (Ken’s wife) can take them some food. The rest of us will wait till tomorrow to see them.”

“I don’t know…it will look kind of creepy if Donna and Ken just sit outside the gate in their  truck and wait for them!”

 

We ended up letting Dad be Dad – we asked him…So wise, so good, so loving and compassionate. So focused on “first things”…what is best for mom. That night…Rest...No company.

 

So there we were – a houseful of siblings waiting for our mission to start – nothing to do…our plans all shot.

So, we sat around and talked about Mom and Dad and how blessed we are.

We sat and cried and laughed and told stories about each other and lessons learned and life and models of love and courage and faithfulness.

Don’t get me wrong…we have, in our family, known death and divorce and tragedy.

Inevitably we have said things we wish we could take back. And not been as patient with each other as times sometimes called for.

We don’t all agree on politics or even religion.

But, we have learned to recognize blessings when we see them!

 

Last year at Christmas, we were – almost all of us – grandkids, too – at my folks’ house in Tennessee (the one they just sold)…We were all sitting on top of each other watching a football game or something, when Mom came in and told us that “she had some things to say…And who knew whether or not she’d be around for another year to tell us (she, right now…today, is on the “outer limit” of her prognosed (?) length of survival for the type of cancer she has…Apparently, no one has told her, though!)”. She proceeded to tell us how thankful and blessed she has been with the love that has surrounded her, that each of us is a gift to her life, and that what we do and who we are matters, and that she is proud of us.

We were all silent and tear-filled in our throats and eyes. She put into words what none of the rest of us could – but which we all wanted to.

 

It was one of the most “whole” moments of my life. I see them everywhere now. Whole moments.

 

It used to drive my sister and me crazy…We’d be traveling somewhere (just about anywhere) and Mom would say, “Make this a memory!” And then she’d start singing (which is a HOOT) the old Seals & Crofts song “We may never pass this way again.” I doubt that she knew that she was doing so – but she taught us to see blessings…To notice…To be aware.

 

I saw them that night, a week ago, as we (all of us minus Mom and Dad) put into words the blessings of love and life and lessons learned.

 

The gospel lesson for this week (Luke 17:11-19) is the story of the 10 lepers.

They are all “made clean” or healed (17:14, 17) – it’s the same word in Greek. But only one of the lepers is “made well” or “made whole” (vs. 19) – which is an entirely different word from the one used for being healed or made clean (it’s the word for “saved,” “liberated,” “freed.” And that makes all the difference!

 

Mom’s cancer has been “in check” for a while (more than a year!). But there are so many other things going on physically with her right now.

Hard to tell whether the cancer is getting “squirrely” and causing problems, or if the new things are entirely different.

In any case, she most likely will not finally be “healed,” but already she is living in wholeness. And so am I – because even as death comes (for her or the folks from Front Street Baptist Church or any of us) we (or I) will walk into it in wholeness, having been “made well” - aware of how blessed I am and so, doubly blessed in gratitude and praise.

 

Thank you all for the way you bless me – I want you to know I appreciate you and thank God for you every day!

Faith, Mustard Seeds, and Barbara Eden

Some clergy girlfriends and I got together yesterday to talk about this coming Sunday's sermon (we do this just about every week. It's not intentionally all women. In fact, there is one fearlessly faithful man who is usually present - although he was absent this week...God love him. Hang in there Gus!).

 

Anyhow, we were looking at this upcoming Sunday's gospel lesson (Luke 17.5-10). It's the one that says, "If you had faith the size of of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey."

 

It's a verse that has always sounded like not-such-good-news to me. In fact, I usually leave it feeling convicted of not even having that much faith! OUCH!

 

This is just one of the many reasons that scripture is best opened when we "talk it out" with others. My sister pastors really helped me out.

 

First of all, they pointed out that there isn't anyone in our congregations, who is paying any attention (including all of us who were in the room), who doesn't also wish they had more faith...So maybe we can give ourselves a little break.

 

Then, they pointed out that Jesus never says that "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can waive a magic wand (or blink your eyes ala Barbara Eden in "I Dream of Jeannie"), and the tree will instantly uproot itself and be thrown into the sea"!

 

Now, maybe you never read it that way...but I always did.

 

What Jesus says is that if the disciples have faith the size of a mustard seed, they can uproot and move the tree (which is totally passive in this verse)...which probably is going to take some sweat and swearing and maybe some tears (depending on how old or deeply rooted that tree is). And Lord knows, we all have "trees" in our lives that could stand to be uprooted and thrown into the sea and drowned. Again...maybe that's just me. But I doubt it!

 

And then, my sisters pointed out that Jesus says this to the apostleS (plural)...Right?! Sometimes it takes all of us working together to move that old tree! Remember the friends who carry the paralytic into the presence of Jesus (took four guys doing a lot of carrying and digging to get that "old tree" moved to where it needed to be!) And Jesus commends them on their collective faith! That's in the 2nd chapter of Mark, if you want to read it for yourself.

 

Here's the thing...Faith has to do with showing up and doing what needs to be done.

For example, a member of the congregation I serve drove up a little bit ago and had a big box of gifts to leave for the Drop In Center (our ministry to the mentally ill). "Faithful," is Archie (and whoever he ended up grabbing to help him) going out to help her unload it. Thing is...Archie wouldn't use the language of faith to describe what he did. 

 

Which, I think, points to an underlying problem we have. We tend to limit "faith talk" to great-super-human acts...feats, almost. You know (like a tree uprooting itself at my command!)?

 

We forget that faith is simple and every day. And we need to do something about that. We need to call faith "faith." We need to point out that being a good and honest friend, or working at jobs to keep food on the table or keep the world running, or paying your taxes and voting for people who spend those taxes well, or holding hands with someone as they go through grief and transition, or doing any number of ordinary, every day things is being faithful!

 

This is faith - heading out the door each day, looking for opportunities to be a co-worker with God in the world (whether that looks like sharing a prayer with someone or solving a conflict at work or writing a letter to your congressman or being a patient parent or carrying a heavy box for someone).

 

On the surface, it may not look like much...But added together and together and together, and then blessed by God - it is all quite extraordinary.

 

Thank you for your faithfulness.