Sermon for Sunday, August 30, 2015 at St. David's, Manayunk and St. John's Bala. The audio can be found at: https://soundcloud.com/…/pentecost-14-b-st-davids-and-st-jo… The Text was not followed exactly, but it follows:

There is a part of me that would hope that you recognize that I’m an old Boy Scout, you know,  Boy Scout Law - A Scout is:

·                  Trustworthy,
·                  Loyal,
·                  Helpful,
·                  Friendly,
·                  Courteous,
·                  Kind,
·                  Obedient,
·                  Cheerful,
·                  Thrifty,
·                  Brave,
·                  Clean,
·                  and Reverent.          

I’m an old Boy Scout and church camper, we were almost always taught that cleanliness was next to Godliness.  I remember going to the well on the property of the camps and using the handle to pump up water into a bucket to take back to the cabin so that we could fill the five basins that hung on the outside wall of each cabin to begin our morning wash up.  A swirl of the water and a toss into the nearby woods meant that we had washed our face and hands and under our arm, we were ready for the day.  And if we tossed a cup of creamy water we had not forgotten to brush our teeth.  Hanging the metal basin back on the side of the cabin meant that the morning ritual of cleanliness was now complete and we were ready for a day of getting dirty again.          Secondly, until people are convinced that their “insides” are the problem, they will not seek the proper cure.  We are concerned with what is outside of us, and we work hard to protect our bodies from bad things going inside.  If one’s “insides” (conscience, heart, free will, etc.) are seen as good; people then sometimes look there [that is on their inside] for their salvation. When we become aware of our own personal errors, there is a problem because we tend to look for a cure against our sin from the core of our own being, internally.  Yet way too often we are dealing with deeply entrenched attitudes and beliefs.  If we keep turning to the same sources to address the evils we encounter – then there is no cure.          If and When one realizes that one’s “insides” are at the heart of the problem and that no cure can be found within, then one needs to be cured by a power outside of one’s self – a power that can change the insides.It is clear in our text from Mark 7:14-23, that• “inside” things defile us, which leads me to conclude• “inside” things can’t purify us, because they are the cause of the defilement    and• “outside” things going in can’t defile us, so can we conclude• “outside” things going in can purify us, because they are not the source of our defilement? This is not simple logic.  Whether or not this simple logic stands up, I think that it is true theologically and spiritually.          When one goes on a spiritual walk with Jesus and with God, it can offer new ways of not only viewing life, but living life. A similar saying is attributed to Jesse Jackson: “It is easier to walk your way into a new way of thinking – than to think your way into a new way of walking.”  More simply stated: I’ve heard it suggested that intentionally smiling helps make one’s inner disposition “happier.”          It would seems that after reading the Gospel lesson for today, as an 8-12 year old I would not be meeting the standards that the leaders of the synagogue seem to be setting as the standard for the disciples of Jesus.  While not addressing the specific lessons we have heard over the past few weeks of: miraculously feeding the 5000 people (from John6:30-44), or walking on water and calming the sea (from John 6:45-52). Jesus and his disciples had been in places where water for cleanliness would have been hard to find or in an overabundance, but not easily consumed.
          When Jesus and the disciples landed at Gennesaret: “people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it or him were healed.  So much for the sterile environment of a hospital or a clinic.”          The fact that some of his disciples had worked with food with common hands –that is unwashed, and that the 5000 and the disciples were eating the bread and the other shared food; the Pharisees and the scribes had some questions for Jesus:  “Why are your disciples not walking according to the tradition of the elders, but with common hands are eating the bread?”          Apparently this questioning in Mark relates both to the required amount of water and to the proper manner of washing. The hand was cupped, fist-like, to make the most efficient use of available water.  This practice is not derived directly from the Torah but from the “oral law” – the tradition of the elders, which Pharisees regarded as having equal authority with the written law.  This tradition, eventually recorded in the Mishnah and developed in the two Talmuds, sought to spell out as clearly as possible what obedience to the commandments entailed. [p. 102]           Pre reading that lesson while on a cruise to Alaska with some really old friends – Bill and Bonnie Siiss,  Dawn and I noticved upon arriving in Vancouver there was a constant reminder that cleanliness was to be observed to avoid the germs that have made cruise liners infamous in recent years for group sickness.          Everywhere there was a dispenser with Purell hand sanitizer.  On the ship, there was a dispenser at every elevator, the entrance to every restaurant, and in every bathroom there were signs encouraging you to use paper to open the bathroom door as you exited, after you had washed your hands.  Obviously today, we are operating in a different time and place, than the one described in our Gospel lesson for today.          Though walking by a dispenser before going into the buffet on the ship would not have qualified according to the Talmud.  Surely we created a cup with the palm of our hand and the courteous machine squirted an appropriate amount of hand disinfectant into our palm, but there was no water involved, no towel involved, just the rubbing of the hands.          One way to convey the power of the Jewish distinction between clean and unclean, perhaps, is to draw a parallel with authoritarian societies and organizations, where people avoid all contact with a person who is under suspicion or who has been fired, for example, so as not to endanger their own position.          .  If sin is seen as only “doing bad things,” The cure is “ to stop doing bad things” and/or “start doing good things.” This mindset leads to misusing tradition as a means of curing sin.          A theological friend, says, “Our salvation has to come from outside of us, because our insides are cesspools of sin. It is God, who is outside of our defiled and defiling insides, who comes into us from outside of us in Word and Sacrament. It is God, who comes into our insides through our ears and mouths, to purify us.”          Is it going too far to suggest that we may live by God’s grace? Grace that does not depend on human ability? The disciples are to take no bread of their own, but to trust God.  God is gracious enough to provide bread for 5000 men plus others in the desert  –  (and they probably didn’t wash their hands in the proper fashion before eating).          Simply stated, the cure for our inner and the inner sin of others is Jesus.  Jesus announces the forgiveness and destruction of sin through The Word [- the scriptures] and via the Sacrament – the sacrificial gift of Jesus in the Body and the Blood. We are called upon to believe the announcement  – to trust the verbal and tangible Word, rather than trusting our insides.

Many thanks to Brian Stoffregen  and James Edwards (The Gospel according to Mark)

A Response to Roz - as history and life are never perfect...

 Yesterday, I read Roz's blog post, /Embracingmyshadow, I tried to post them in parallel, but the type face enlarged is still difficult to see [try below] but you can read both and make your own assumptions about who and where we are... Rich 

June 27, 2015

The Truth Shall Always Set You Free.

I read more than I write about our shared Beloved Community, but as one of those who watched and shared your progress through a graduate educational process, I believe I know and have experienced all the history you speak of in your intro.  Most recently, my writing and reading has been in the area of defining Luther [and Lutheranism] and Race.  I await its publication, and seem daunted by the amount of research done and knowing that the published piece will be 1/10 of the stuff I’ve unpacked.

I wish that I was quoting Luther when I flippantly offer the phrase about the church we both love, when I say that the welcome mat outside the door, says “Welcome Sinners”, knowing full well that the city church in Wittenberg has a stone depiction of a pig, to firmly indicate that Jews are not welcome. So yes the church has been one of truth-telling, risk taking and prophetic enough to say “Show me in Scripture where I am in error.”

My parents converted from Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal (AME), so I came along for the ride. Confirmed, educated, married and ordained and now ‘retired’, I’m living into my third iteration of Church and am seriously looking at how we became this church seeking to fulfil a ‘wish for 10% in 10 years and failing to be the inclusive church hoped for.  The decline in the number of people of color is probably less dramatic than the general loss of members in the entire Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which started with 5.5 million members.  As church, we have at times led the way or stayed longer, but we are no different from the general society in addressing cultural differences.

So here I am, a Black Elder in a predominantly white church. Achieving adulthood during the mid 60’s to early 70’s, I benefitted from a few trail blazers, who helped to set my identity in culture and faith.  Black and White mentors opened doors and opportunities and served as buffers from racism and brokenness in church life.

Church College, church camp, Luther League, and seminary, where I was a ‘visible’ symbol of progress.  Integration was to be celebrated.  Travel within church circles forced issues of my being a cross cultural experience for others.  Shared with colleagues from Philadelphia and Puerto Rico who are no longer with us.

Hair was not the element touched, but intellect, and familiarity with a liturgy without need of a book was the surprise for others in our encounters.  Short hair wasn’t touched, but Afros were fair game in any setting.  Even after ordination, as an officer in a church organization wearing full clerics, participating in an installation, the question was asked, “To which denomination do you belong?”  Followed by, “How long have you been Lutheran?”  How does one answer, when you are serving a congregation with 6^th and 7^th generation Lutherans in the Caribbean?

How does one respond, when your bishop asks you why a suburban congregation would be interested in you after a couple of vacancy preaching assignments, and your only response is that five members were your college classmates?

I am sorry that I was not able to sufficiently prepare you with a defense of the microagressions that would fall your way.  The rationales are defenseless.  On leaving for college, my wise mother reminded me that wherever I would go, “You will be certain to add color to the gathering.”  Our experience is not considered to be a part of the foundation of environment, though we may have experienced the most visceral reaction by being ignored.

Paying attention is a survival mechanism, when one is in the minority.  Awareness of surroundings and supporters, or [the lack thereof] is essential in surviving and/or succeeding.  Yes, DuBoix was important, along with Cone, Wilmore, Malcolm X, Pero, Strobert, Floyd-Thomas, Ray, Westfield, and Collier-Thomas. [name dropper].  Multi-lingual and multi-cultural, are the gifts brought to all tables.  Always aware that I and others live simultaneously in two worlds, though one has little or no perception of the other.

A week ago on Wednesday night, I started re-writing my sermon for Sunday at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Lansdowne, PA, full well knowing that once again I would add color to the group gathered.  Recalling  the open door policy of the AME Church, it’s history of having a teacher among its leaders, Daniel Payne, who was educated at Gettysburg, the ELCA’s continued openness to educate clergy from other denominations, especially at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, and sharing the pain of the murder of two of its graduates.

It was only later in the week that it became apparent that the perpetrator was a confirmand and church camper from within our midst.

The welcome mat still says “Welcome Sinners.”

The Welcome mat has always said “Welcome Sinners”.    

There is no guarantees of consistency in the way that people respond to the challenges of society.  While Fabritius and Falckner, were open to sharing the Gospel message with all they encountered and Muhlenberg questioned the institution of slavery, Muhlenberg’s son would be a slave holder,  Pr. Berkenmeyer in New York would defend slavery, John Bachman would grow up in a household that had slaves and freed them.

When called to St. John’s Charleston, SC, he would seek openness to minister to free Blacks before 1818 in Charleston, yet he held slaves and defended the south as it attempted to leave the Union.

Somehow even this week, I sensed that the church is still the church that raised me.  For every action by every member cannot be the measure of what it means to be justified by Faith Alone and simultaneously have the ability to Sin Boldly.  The despair felt in being alone is not something neither I nor anyone else can alleviate.  Even with public descent at the time of my mixed race marriage, there were those who affirmed, supported, and shielded.

Yet I am fully aware that each time I change my set of colleagues, there are lessons to be taught, as well as learned.  Even in retirement the fatigue of continually teaching the same lesson of the value of my [and your] humanity seems to be emotionally taxing.  I am tired of being someone else’s multicultural experience.

My age may be the defining element of being verbally open about what is going on inside, recently I recommended to another former student that candor was best for me.  Social media seems to be a preferred medium for those who have well trained fingers, rather than well trained tongues.  Yet the recipients do not receive the visual cues that come with face-to-face interaction.  More ‘offense’ seems to come in responding to social media.  As has been said by ‘others’, we can be blinded by the inward focus and navel gazing when the focus is on the keyboard and not the face.

Now is the time I wish that none of us were ever alone.  There is a reason we have been trained to read about disciples and being sent out by twos.  It becomes easy to question your sanity and your accuracy, while you question your emotional stress and perhaps even your sanity.  Where is your companion Jesus, when you need him?

Loneliness is difficult to explain in the midst of a group who know what personal loneliness is, but have no ideal of the depth of cultural loneliness.  I know that in the moment, it would not have been helpful to ask how was your personal truthfulness about your feelings had the effect of victimizing them.  When one feels personal pain and voices it, one can wonder where are the comforters, who sense the pain in a sister during a time of cultural crisis.  Somehow your cultural crisis was perceived as a personal and spiritual attack.  Oh how quickly we can become defensive and blame the victim.

Unless the rules are posted, I’m never sure which ones I may be breaking.  Benefit of doubt and waiting are difficult to accomplish when the pain is live and real.  Though not related, responding to death is not always governed by a timetable or rules [that are unposted.]

If you had not assumed a relationship, as fellow members of church body, then perhaps you would not have shared. They obviously were not prepared to hear or share your pain of Wednesday past.  There have been

consistent problems in personal interactions when one ASS U ME s.

Sorry for the blatant word play, but it relieves my tension, and it expresses a Truth.  I choose to be Free.

I believe that we are in the business of sharing God’s Love.  We are in the business of sharing the Pain and the Pleasure that comes within the Community of God’s People.  We are called to share God’s Truth and God’s Love.

I’m sure that if I analyzed the Thursday supper with Jesus and Judas I could find elements of a disrupted community, but the instructions seem to be relatively simple, even in the midst of conflicted situation.  Do what you must do.

Truth remains: Retired Black Ordained Elder in the Lutheran Church.  Called to speak the Truth in Love. Called to forgive those who sin and reconcile.

Our prayers need to be expanded beyond just the significant concerns that are raised about racial hatred and its expression in the United States.  Though many have also hinted that this week’s tragedy was an attack on religious liberty, we find that the issues may be much closer to home as an exercise of cultural fear.  It is a question of who is our brother and sister.  How do we teach and encourage spiritual development, which says we are a part of an inclusive body of Christ.

On Sunday I added this word from one of our predecessors who struggle to voice and live his humanity in midst of times that may be eternal.

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world! 

Langston Hughes

I pray that as a collective body, as the church I desperately love, that we will continue to seek the truth so that we can all experience liberation and abundant life.

With Love and Concern

The Prof.

New Eyes of HolyRoze & Old Eyes of Stu - Both on the Beloved Church

Draft of Sermon for St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Landsdowne, PA, June 21, 2015

The Events as Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston are continuing to play out in the news over this weekend.  From the standpoint of a pastor, these events carry lots of responsibility for pastors and congregational leaders.  Part of the DNA of African Methodist Episcopal churches is openness to the stranger.  Their history, started right here in Philadelphia, is openness to all who come to worship and pray.  For their beginnings started with a resistance toward black worshippers coming to the main altar rail at St. George’s Methodist Church near the Ben Franklin Bridge.  Richard Allen led the Black congregants out to find a place of worship of their own.

I found it amazing how many new readers proposed the need for security in churches.  What I found seriously troubling was the news programs ability to find pastors who seriously noted a need for ‘armed’ security in houses of worship.  It’s not that I don’t want to be safe.  As the interim pastor at Christ, Upper Darby, we were continuously challenged to be an open and inviting place with our food bank, multiple community programs, neighborhood outreach, afterschool program and beginning next week, Summer Day Camp.  

Churches are known to places of sanctuary.  Even one place is referred to as our sanctuary.  The security we seek may not be come from the forcefulness of armed guard and metal detectors that have been suggested by some this past week.  We cannot live and profess the freedom of the Gospel from the midst of a locked, guarded sanctuary. 

Even in the midst of a community gathering on Thursday night at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, the gathered congregation, which represented the multiplicity of faith communities and communities of people of other spiritual contexts did not let the host past host pastor recognize those who were new to the worship space as guests, for they affirmed the reply of one person, that on that night, everyone gathered was AME.  There is to be no fear in the Christ community.

Please re-read the Gospel for this day. 

4:37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.
4:38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"
4:39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.
4:40 He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"
4:41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

We do not profess a faith of fear.  It is rooted in the Gospel.  The disciples, who were not fishermen, had not availed themselves of swimming lessons from those who were skilled at taming their fears of being at sea.  Sea storms can be fearful, even in the last month we noted the drowning deaths of tourist on the Yangtze River, a river ride I took 3 years ago.  Jesus seem to trust the ability of others, and when called upon, he did have the ability to call upon a higher authority.  Peace be still.

This teaching moment was not lost on Jesus, when he asked them “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith.  Those gathered in that boat rocked, fear inducing boat ride were still stunned to witness Jesus have the wind and the sea obey him.  Do we still join them in our wonder?

Perhaps we need to take our forefathers in the faith a bit more seriously.  As Jesus spoke truth to his detractors, so did Luther, with a simple statement of “Here I stand”.  Richard Allen, founder of the AME Church was limited to leading worship at St. George’s at the 5 AM service.  Daniel Alexander Payne, who as a member at Mother Emanuel, was sent north with letters of introduction from the Pastor at St. John’s Lutheran in Charleston in 1835 to Gettysburg College to enhance the education that he had obtained to form and lead his own school at age 18. Payne was ordained a Franckean Lutheran before returning to his Methodist roots and become a Bishop and President of Wilberforce college.  It is no small wonder that the AME church college and seminary system mimicked the Lutheran system of education of clergy.

Even two of the victims at Mother Emanuel AME church - the Rev. Clementa Pinckney and the Rev. Daniel Simmons - were graduates of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.  These were our brothers in Christ, who had been welcomed without question into seminary classrooms that we support, just as we have done with AME pastors here in Philadelphia.  Our openness to teach and share faith with others is the power of the Gospel lesson for today.

Our prayers need to be expanded beyond just the significant concerns that are raised about racial hatred and its expression in the United States.  Though many have also hinted that this week’s tragedy was an attack on religious liberty, we find that the issues may be much closer to home as an exercise of cultural fear.  It is a question of who is our brother and sister.  How do we teach and encourage spiritual development, which says we are a part of an inclusive body of Christ.

We have been asked to pray by Bishop Herman Yoos, Bishop of the ELCA South Carolina Synod and by Bishop Elizabeth Easton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

We do this not because in this week we are all AME, but we do this because we are all children of God and Sisters and Brothers of Christ, who invites us all to have open doors to share both God’s Word and God’s Love.

AMEN.

My thanks to Brian Stoffregen, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Southeastern Synod of Pennsylvania, Bishop Yoos and Bishop Eaton and all that I have learned about our joint history.

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world! 

Langston Hughes

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.   

What do you say when they are ready to vote on a new pastor?

I hope that this sermon paves the way for shared ministry.  The audio can be found at:
[ https://soundcloud.com/tigerowl/pentecost8-2014 ]

JESUS MAFA. Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48287 [retrieved August 4, 2014].

Have you ever seen a hungry mob of 35,000 teenagers descend upon a downtown on a weekday night when all of the businesses have closed at 4:30 pm or 5 pm?  Trust me, It’s not a pretty picture.  Have you ever heard of a Mc Donald’s or Burger King running out of food?  Fancy restaurants suddenly becoming reservations only or not admitting guests because, shhhh, they were all teenagers…..  IT’s a stunning fate in the midst of the market economy of the century changing year of 2000.

Though the planners had conversations with the convention planners and hotel planning staff, prior to the arrival of the first 35,000, these business people of St. Louis were thoroughly unprepared.   The information that is shared when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America books a Youth  Assembly starts with the fact that they don’t count rooms or beds, they count the pillows, for our youth groups are assigned four and five to a room.  This is a distinct variable in entertaining youth, in terms of how many a city and their hotels can entertain, the spirited hungry hoards of youth that the ELCA can bring to a city.

 The twin towered Marriott hotel I was assigned to, assured me as Hotel Pastor in Charge, that they were ready.  I knew early in the day when the buses of youth began to arrive and they were having trouble getting all their rooms checked in that we were in serious trouble.  I didn’t think it could get worse.  But it did.  After the evening program at Edward Jones Dome, home of the St. Louis Rams, the church youth of the ELCA excited by the music and the presentations at the event Titled “Dancing at the Crossroads” trouped back to the cluster of hotels in downtown St. Louis and to buses for the suburban locations.  Back at the hotel I asked the management staff if they were prepared for our youth to return and order evening snacks.  They responded in the affirmative, but in the hour and a half after the final event at the Dome, the snack bar was empty the grills and restaurants were out of food and the youth were moaning that there was nothing available to eat……Fortunately we did have a band in our hotel which continued to entertain the hungry, moaning, energized youth until our mandatory midnight in your rooms curfew.

I know the fears expressed by the disciples in our lesson for the day.  In the middle of a city across the street from the St. Louis Cardinals this Marriott Hotel had become a “deserted place, and the hour is now late;” and I could only “send the crowds away to pray and to their bedrooms, so that they could get rest and in the morning go into the villages and buy food for themselves."  Ultimately I knew that these youth of America were not going to starve to death, though many of them voiced that concern.  Perhaps I didn’t have enough faith, but I’m not sure that I would have heard Jesus words when in scripture Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."  The moans of the 600 youth in ‘my hotel’ would have drowned him out.

Did you notice the subtle difference in what the words say in scripture and the way we talk about the miracles of Jesus?  Almost universally we say that Jesus fed the 5000 or 3000, the number changes from Gospel to Gospel or even chapter to chapter.  It was a working of the spirit that was important to the early life of the church, thus the story is a shared experience.  In today’s lesson: 14:16 Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."  14:17 They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish."  14:18 And he said, "Bring them here to me." 

Please note who does the feeding.  Jesus says that the people do not need to go away.  Jesus instructs the disciples to feed the people, YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT.  While the disciples plead that they have limited resources, 5 loaves and 2 fish, Jesus follows with a simple instruction, “Bring them here to me.”  Like any dinner party he invites the guest to take their seats, he says grace and blesses the food, and instructs the disciples to act as their waiters and distribute the food.

There are at least two lessons here.  First there is recognition of how to both see a need and address it. For Jesus when he sees the sick, he heals. When he sees the ignorant, he teaches. When he sees the demon-possessed, he exorcises.  When Jesus sees disciples noting a need, he challenges them to go to work: “You do something.” (Or, more specifically, “feed the hungry.”)  Quite rightly it would have been easier if Jesus had just sent them away, but they were the ones who recognized the need, and Jesus was, in one way instructing them that, should they see a need, then the task is not to pass the need on to someone else, but survey your own needs and address the need. 

Were the disciples looking for a feeding method that did not involve a great deal of work on their part?  There certainly could have been other ways of feeding the hungry that didn’t involve so much work by the disciples. Jesus could have miraculously made the people’s hunger pains disappear. If Jesus was going to miraculously make food appear – why not have it appear in the stomachs – no work for the disciples and no garbage to clean up. Jesus could have waved his hand and the magic words, “Colonel Sanders,” and every family would have their own bucket of chicken right in front of them.

Have you ever thought about how much work it would be to distribute food to 5000 men, besides women and children – and then to clean up the mess? How significant is it that there were 12 disciples and 12 baskets of garbage picked up at the end?  Was Jesus teaching at every step along the way?  Was this a way for one more lesson on the observation and the practice of being a Jesus follower?  Was Jesus just demonstrating that it is possible to use what seem to be meager resources to address the problems that face the Christian Community?  For Jesus being a disciple was more than being a learner, but a worker.  In the end after sending the disciples out into a boat after the leftovers are gathered, he did exactly as the disciples had suggested at the beginning of the parable, “Jesus sent the multitudes away.”

Two learnings from within the lessons and parables: 1: No one leader does it all.  Rev. Silas D. Daugherty, Rev. Paul S. Wagner, Pastor Robert J. Mayer, Pastor Daniel Shook, Pastor William Heisley, and Pastor David Shaheen did not lead this congregation alone.  Each of them has people who worked alongside of them.  They were not only disciples of the congregation, but of the Christ who redeemed them and died for them.  Some of those partners in ministry were the ones who signed the charter in 1921, but some of the partners in ministry are the people sitting next to you in the pews.  How many of you have played any role in the life of this congregation beyond just sitting, singing and praying on Sunday morning.  Don’t be bashful.  Disciples are not bashful people; they are the ones who say loudly and proudly that they are a child of God and a disciple of Christ.  They are the ones who say to others I belong… to Christ Lutheran Church.   They are the ones who invite others to join them at Christ Lutheran Church.

As this congregations takes the initial steps toward new leadership, no that you are not the first ones to do that, even in this location of God’s outpost for feeding those who are hungry for the food and the word.  But you are the ones who are to be called upon to introduce your new leader to your friends, families and neighbors.

Lesson 2: No leader accomplishes the ministry of the Gospel without the support of the members of the congregation.  We made commitments in the vacancy to fund a new furnace for ministry in this building.  We agreed to reduce our debt load.  We will agree to support financially a change in leadership in the congregation.  And all through these years we have said that we support the work of the Community Outreach Corporation which uses our building for many of their services.  You see nothing stops.  The ministry of the gospel continues even during the vacancy all by the grace of God and your support.  None of that stops.  It just gets more interesting, to us all by the Grace of God.  AMEN.

Thanks to Brian Stoffregen.