Monday, April 9, 2018

Beginnings

Yesterday the Eastern Association of the Missouri Mid-South Conference of the United Church of Christ gathered at St. Peter's United Church of Christ to install me as the Pastor and Teacher of this church.  It has been six months since I began to serve in this new ministry, and nine months beyond the candidating weekend and the calling vote.  So much has happened in the disruption and settling that is part of a new call.  Yesterday was also the sixty-second anniversary of my baptism into the faith and family of Jesus Christ.  The feeling today is one of deep gratitude to God for the life and ministry that I have experienced.

I thought during the installation of those who have surrounded me with prayers in such sacred moments: in baptism, ordination, installations and farewell services.  When the service ends, the gathered ones scatter.  The wider church and my colleagues in ministry go away.  I am left alone, but I am not alone.  We are never alone.  That connectedness that we have in Christ continues.  It gives us the strength and the courage to persevere in hope.  It shapes our spirits, challenges our attitudes, and moves us to action.

At Eden Seminary, I learned from Professor Brueggemann that prophets were part of a prophetic community.  They were not lone voices crying out for justice and preaching hope.  The prophets were surrounded by a community as they preached.  Their words live on and continue have impact long after the prophet is gone.  From the context of God's community, a prophet speaks with authority.  I seek to be such a prophet in this ministry which is anchored in the community of St. Peter's United Church of Christ.

The most difficult question in the past year came from a member of St. Peter's Church during the congregational meeting when I was called:  "So, why St. Peter's?"  The answer I gave was rambling and not really clear--even to me.  A call involves a mystery.  With each passing week, I am growing to see that God called me here to heal and to build, to be transformed and to become an agent of God's transformation in the lives of others who serve with me.  With each passing week, the call grows stronger to engage the scripture in a way that strengthens my soul and the souls of those who will gather to hear what I have to proclaim.  With each passing week, I become more convinced that the truth of the gospel needs to touch and change the world that is into the world that God desires it to be.  I pray that I will have the courage and the capacity to love and serve faithfully now and in the times yet to come.  I sense it will be so!  I am deeply grateful for this special community of Christ's disciples, with whom I am called to engage in ministry now.

And so, we begin to run this marathon with perseverance and joy.  I begin with a heart filled with gratitude to God for the church that has called me to serve.  Thanks be to God! 

 

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