In Memorium: The Reverend Doctor James Edward Gunther

Memorial Service for the Reverend Doctor James Edward Gunther, June 13, 2015 at Tabernacle Lutheran Church, Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA - Sermon by Rev. Dr. Richard N. Stewart
 The Audio can be found at:https://soundcloud.com/tigerowl/gunther-memorial-sermon

This is a letter written by Charles Sigel on March 1, 1985 for the 25^th Anniversary of Ordination of James Gunther.  With some significant edits, I believe it still has relevance today as we remember James in the 55^th year of His Ordination and the year of his home going.

Dear Jim: 25 years have elapsed. I remember sitting in the old ballroom of the Buckhill Falls Inn listening to those 25 and 50 year geezers going on about their ministry and all that the Lord had accomplished through them and thinking to myself, "Lord, spare us much more" and, suddenly, we are at the place where they once were.

But this letter is not about me, but about you. I have known many people with PhD and Th.D. after their names, but there is only one who carries a PHPP after his and you can guess who that is. Let's see, now. I probably could comment on each of those initials in turn, starting at the rear end (always a good place to start since then whatever you say can only get better) and working forward. ‘P’ for Priest. In a way, that's a funny one to be attached to a fellow who came from a Bible School and who, initially, had little time for things liturgical. But, in seminary, we both learned a great deal about churchmanship
and, I suspect, the importance of liturgy, and the place of a priest who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord was among the most important. I can still hear George Seltzer, "Decently and in order, gentlemen, decently and in order", It's strange, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I have a feeling that the last P used to stand for Pastor. That too is very appropriate for you. Indeed, that was my chief image of you - a person whose concern was to help others as God had helped him. And being a gadfly (you and John Steinbruck, who died on March 1^st) certainly come in handy when it came to moving the structures.

Then there is Parish. Long before the idea became popular that a parish was more than a congregation, you, Jim, were practicing that idea. Your slogan, “Where we Think Globally and Act Locally" is evidence of what I am saying. Though I have not kept close tabs, I know from reading and from other sources that Transfiguration is an authentic outreach congregation in its community. I am certain that is, in part, because you and your leaders have been able to develop this notion of parish geographically. That can only have strengthened the mission of Transfiguration, so that, now, they bless you for your presence.
Am I correct in recalling that, when you first came to the church, there were those who were not particularly happy with your presence because they had never before been served by an American Black? ‘Did they ever have some learning to do.’ Fortunately, they were able to put up with you (a chore and a half on occasion) and you were able to lift their sights to a new vision of what "parish" should include. Today, I know they are as proud as a new parent that you are theirs and they belonged to you and that, in that creative mix, genuine parish ministry has occurred.

H is for Humble. There were times when it could just as well have stood for Haughty. but, of course, that was only in my perception. I keep reminding myself that Moses too was a humble man and he certainly rubbed shoulders with the best of them. So too with the Rev. Dr. James E. Gunther who seemed to be able to find his way in and make an impression upon the likes of folk like Franklin Fry, Robert Marshall, Krister Stendahl, Jimmy Carter and, I suppose, many, many others whose names I do not even know. "Humble?” you say. You are talking about a chap, who used to sit in Johnny's Cafe on Germantown Ave., tear the church apart and put it back together again in a way which pleased

him. You are talking about someone who climbed into the ring with someone like Bill Lazareth and came out looking not that badly bruised. You are referring to someone who found his way about the corridors of power and learn, how to pull the right levers in order to make the system work for those who were on the outs. I tried to rein you in on occasion, but once a bull gets steamed up, there is no way you are going to get him harnessed. But that's O.K., for if I remember my

Old Testament correctly, sometimes the Lord is in the smoke and the fire. And what shall we say about Poor? Certainly you did not come out of a middle class Lutheran orientation any more than I did. So, in that sense, we were both "poor".  Again, thanks to the seminary, much of that poverty was overcome. But, in another sense, you were very rich, for you brought to the Lutheran experience much that it had never known: a different cultural experience, an awareness of people "out there" waiting to be served who were not traditionally Lutheran,

new ways of going at ministry, challenges to folk who for too long had been wearing blinders, a willingness and dedication to work "in the inner city” long before that became the modish thing to do - all those riches you gave to us out of your "poverty" and we have been mightily enriched thereby. So, if you are poor, then I am Santa Claus - and, given my figure, that is one role I do not often play. Charlie Sigel does not wear the suit well, though it fits me well.  Until we meet again, behave yourself (if that's possible) and please, please live up to PHPP.

With deepest respect and appreciation,

Charles Sigel -  Richard Stewart, PHPP - 2   and Jerome Taylor, PHPP - 3

I don’t know if any of us ever talked with Jim about this day. In his last note to me, he thanked me for my visits and an Easter Lilly, as he noted that he was doing well, but procrastinating to much.  He expressed amazement at how wide and great was the concern for the “Old Humble Parish Priest.”  Somehow there was an internal image that he would always be there, especially when you least expected it.  He would just show up.  That internal confidence in his omnipresence as the PHPP, led me down the path of asking questions about the 60’s and growth of a Black presence in the Lutheran Church.  For at many of the meetings I knew about as a seminarian, he was one of the leaders.  For in many ways, for those of us present to remember him, both from the family and the church, he would send us reminders of where we had been to celebrate where we are in the moment. 

In some significant ways especially for those of us in the church, he did prepare a place for us in the early days of the Lutheran Church in America.  He became friends across our Lutheran divisions to establish conversations with those who became a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and those who remained in the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod, especially in the African Descent community.  Yet simultaneously he served the church beyond the communities in which many of us live.  He worked and traveled widely on behalf of the whole church, while continually connecting all of us to our local settings.

There are some, especially in the family, who wish he have left clearer instructions about what’s next.  In the midst of the mysteries of all the materials and remembrances that he saved, there are heirlooms for the family and the church.  Jim did not give us the instructions, but he left all of us with the remembrance that there is a resource for those who can and will carry on.  Somehow, some way, we will encounter Jesus and the Holy Spirit who will remind us that God is present with us and is the way, God has been and will remain the truth and the life.  It is in this light that we will continue to find the paths to our family histories and our church histories in which Jim was such a strong presence and an ever lingering remembrance. AMEN.