Trips, Travels and Journeys (Pt. 2), Spirit of Joy (virtual), August 11, 2024

Grace and Peace to you from God, who accompanies us on our journeys, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, who is our Christ. Amen.

Had anyone told me 10 years ago that today I would be living in an apartment 30 miles west of St. Louis, internship completed, approved to be ordained as a pastor in the ELCA, I wouldn’t have been shocked. I would have burst out laughing. No way that was happening.

In 2014, we were empty nesters. I was executive director of a poverty relief non-profit organization. Mike was working in sales. Our son Michael, then 24, lived a mile up the road. We were counting the days until our home was paid off and we could do some renovations and live out our retirement there. We had become members of an ELCA church in Prescott Valley and really felt connected there.

Not that becoming a pastor never crossed my mind. An intern pastor first talked to me about it 40 years ago, as a teenager. Nope – I was set on becoming a journalist. And for 15 years of my career, that happened, 10 of those at the Verde Independent. And then, God nudged again. But then I began working in social services and thought that was the place I would work until I could retire.

And then God nudged again in spring 2016.

Sometimes I read Psalm 139 and wonder if the author somehow knew what twists my life would take:

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

And then, a few verses later, Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

Here’s the first of several questions I am asking you today: When did YOU first feel the Spirit working in your life? Because it happened to you, or you wouldn’t be here today.

By 2017, the Spirit’s pull on my heart and mind was too powerful to resist. In March, I submitted my candidacy paperwork to the Grand Canyon Synod office. Like Abraham and Sarah, God had called me to a journey. And like Abraham and Sarah, the journey was more about coming to trust God than relying on my own judgment. The obstacles were many. Over and over, I thought this, THIS is the obstacle that will derail everything. Multiple delays in my candidacy process. Then a change of where I thought I would go to seminary. And in March 2020, Covid-19 arrived. This is it.

You see, I had planned to work full-time while starting seminary online. But then in March 2020, the pandemic crashed the party. By then, Mike’s health issues had prevented him from working, and his cardiologist was blunt – “This is deadly for someone with his heart and respiratory issues. Don’t risk it.”

My workplace wasn’t giving anyone the option of working from home at that point. So, not knowing how we would do it, I became jobless and committed to isolating until the pandemic passed. Our savings dwindled. We took money from our retirement.

From Ephesians, we read, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; 11 put on the whole armor of God.” Who would have thought that in 2020 and early 2021, the armor of God was an N-95 mask, gloves, and shopping at 9 p.m.? Never had two people felt more relief at driving to Phoenix in March 2021, twice, to line up in the State Farm Stadium Parking Lot for the Pfizer vaccinations. We had “prevailed against everything,” as Paul wrote. But as I went into my second year, everything began opening up. And the synod was very clear that they wanted me to do at least a year in residence at seminary. We considered every option: living apart, shuttering our home in Prescott Valley, renting it out. Eventually, we accepted the inevitable. God was calling us to leave Arizona and trust. In June 2022, with gas nearing $6.00/gallon, I moved to Chicago to do Clinical Pastoral Education, a chaplaincy in a large hospital.

Here's Question #2 for you: When in your life did you feel God calling you forward into something new, something difficult, something unknown, and What was the armor of God for you?

I no more than arrived on campus, when on two consecutive days, my two favorite professors announced they were moving on. Alone, wondering whether I had made the right call in coming to Chicago, sitting on a hardwood floor in my nearly empty apartment, I cried out to God for help.

And the reading from First Kings says, “Suddenly an angel touched Ezekiel and said to him, 'Get up and eat.' 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, 'Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.' 8 He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God."

Sustenance in summer 2022 looked like texts from friends, calls from Mike, potlucks in the LSTC quad, a bag of cookies or some cinnamon rolls from a neighbor, a walk to Promontory Point on Lake Michigan for a picnic on the Fourth of July. The ten weeks of chaplaincy was challenging. Just as it was wrapping up, I contracted Covid. But I finished and flew back to Prescott Valley to pack most of the big furniture.

Two friends drove our U-Haul from Arizona to Chicago for us! These and other friends helped prepare the house to put it on the market. And just before Thanksgiving, the house closed, and Mike joined me at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Seven months later, we packed another U-Haul and drove to Missouri, for internship.

Question 3 is this: Who have been the angels in your life who stepped in with food, with a helping hand, or just the right words to get you through the most difficult times in your life?

By the time I’d reached internship, I thought it would be smooth sailing. Unfortunately, less than two months in, I injured my left leg. Two sets of X-rays were inconclusive, and several medications provided limited relief, but the random shooting pains were debilitating. I wasn’t sure I would be able to continue. Finally, weeks later, a third set of X-rays revealed the cause – I’d been walking on a stress fracture just above my ankle for more than a month. An orthopedic boot allowed my leg to heal and my internship to continue.

There were so many tears, and so much joy on July 28, as Trinity Lutheran celebrated the successful completion of my internship. Now I’m finishing up the last of my seminary coursework online, and awaiting assignment to a Synod. Chances are it won’t be in the Grand Canyon Synod, as there aren’t many calls available right now for First Call pastors. We’re looking at several Synods in the Upper Midwest, within a few hours of where my parents live, where there are nine or ten pastoral vacancies nearly all the time. That’s the reality of the shortage of pastors in 2024. There aren’t enough leaders.

From Philippians, chapter 3: “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

At this point, the finish line is in sight. I’m served my field work and internship and feel like I have a clear idea what becoming a pastor will be like. And the more I think about it, dear friends it’s not that much different from the life you’ve been called to live, except I will be doing it full time, equipping God’s people to serve, and pointing them to our Savior, Jesus. Like you, I will be building relationships and community. Like you, I will be visiting people in my congregation when they are ill or in the hospital. Like you, I will be praying and reading scripture and trying to understand how Christ wants me to live in a time such as this.

And so, Spirit of Joy, I have one more question for you:

Question #4: What is your call? What is it that God is asking you to do today that helps share the good news of Jesus Christ in your corner of the world?

I will keep you in my heart and in my prayers as we continue this journey. And blessings to you as you continue to think about your call and your mission going forward in Spirit of Joy’s 30th year. If it’s possible, we’ll be there to celebrate with you in April 2025.

Amen.

Just When You Think You're Settled, Trips, Travels and Journeys, SOJ, July 2, 2023

In the middle of a move to Missouri for internship, I received an email from Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church Pastor Sharon Brown in Clarkdale, AZ. She was doing a service of travels, trips and journeys for the weekend of July 4, 2023, and who better to talk about journeys than their seminarian, in the middle of yet another one! I recorded the sermon for them for their weekend services.

Grace and Peace to you, from God our Creator, and from Jesus, who is our Christ.

On the move. How fitting that Pastor Sharon asked me to give the reflection to you at Spirit of Joy this week about journeys, when so many things are in flux. As you hear these words Sunday, I bring you greetings from Chesterfield, Missouri, where Mike and I have landed for the next year as I begin my final year of seminary as an intern pastor, a vicar, at Trinity Lutheran Church. I also bring you greetings from my seminary community, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, which just completed its move after 55 years on Hyde Park’s East 55th Street to co-locate with Catholic Theological Union near Chicago’s lakefront. So much change! So many endings and new beginnings!

So, just when you think you’re set and settled in, don’t be surprised if God has other plans. I’m sure Abram and Sarai could relate to that. A child-free couple in their 70s, living on the land, accompanied by their nephew, servants, and all the livestock they could handle. I’m sure they expected to live out their days that way. Then, God approached Abram with a call – THE CALL. You, Abram and Sarai. You, childless ones. You, with no particular claim to fame. You will now be called Abraham and Sarah. I have chosen YOU to be the beginning of an entire chosen people.

“Go. To the land that I will show you.” Go out, to a new and unknown place. Following a call requires a lot of trust.

In 2016, I was working as a vocational specialist at West Yavapai Guidance Clinic, helping people with mental illnesses find jobs. Not an easy job. It often takes a couple of tries before these clients find the right fit. I was no one special. Our son Michael had moved to Portland, Oregon, and we were empty-nesters. I expected to work there until I retired, perhaps in another 10 or 12 years. But God had other plans. A year later, I was submitting my candidacy paperwork to the Grand Canyon Synod office, starting the process to become an ordained pastor.

Last year we sold our home in Prescott Valley and moved to Chicago. And this spring, we prayed for God to prepare the place where we would go for internship and start preparing the place that would be my first call a year later. And as God called Abraham and Sarah, God still is calling old and young people to “Go. To the land that I will show you.”

* * *

You do realize that some churches have existed 50 or even 100 years and have never had anyone experience a call to rostered ministry? While Mike and I are members of Emmanuel Lutheran across the hill, the experience of chartering Spirit of Joy was another milepost on my way to recognizing my call. Along with Pastor Bruce Lerum, Spirit of Joy has been instrumental in the calling of TWO pastors so far. There is something special happening here. The Spirit is at work, giving people a vocation, a direction, a call. And God is not just calling ordained pastors. Each one of you. God has gathered you here, is preparing you, and is sending you out to serve, Gather. Prepare. Serve – G.P.S. The original GPS.

* * *

Do you listen for God’s direction in your life? Many years ago, my brother was stuck. He and his family were faithful worshipers, active in Bible study. He had opened a business, but it wasn’t lucrative enough to support his family. He didn’t know what God had in mind for him next. And that was the conversation he had with some men from his congregation: What am I to do now? I feel like I’m drifting. I’m waiting for direction from God, and I’m not hearing anything. One of these men told my brother “God can’t steer a parked car.” God can use whatever you do for good. God can even direct your steps as you go. Just keep moving.

I think the Psalmist understood that thought. Listen to those words from Psalm 139:

“You know when I sit down and when I rise up; 
you discern my thoughts from far away. 
You search out my path and my lying down 
and are acquainted with all my ways…” 
And then the Psalmist continues: 
“If I take the wings of the morning 
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 
even there your hand shall lead me, 
and your right hand shall hold me fast.” 

If we are walking with God, those steps are being directed. God knows what we are thinking, the roads we are traveling, what we are doing. No matter the path we take, God’s hand is guiding us. In my own life, even the roads that looked like dead-ends to me at the time, or were difficult or painful episodes, in retrospect were occasions that I learned something I needed for the future.

* * *

In the short passage that we heard from Mark’s gospel, Jesus gives Simon and his colleagues a training in a handful of words. In just five verses, Jesus guides his followers in the rhythm of living as disciples. First, he goes off to pray. We should begin our days and our work in prayer. It’s important! Second, the disciples searched for him. We need to actively discern what Jesus is calling us to do. And third, they went off into the neighboring towns, where Jesus proclaimed the message and healed. We need to get outside of our walls and serve in whatever ways we determine we are being called to act.

Take heart, Spirit of Joy. God is with you as you journey, as you seek to determine how God is calling you to do ministry here at this place and throughout the entire Verde Valley. God’s Spirit is up to something in the people gathered, prepared, and serving here. Stay in prayer, seek our Christ’s purpose, and get out into the community to serve out that purpose. I am praying that God, who began good work in you, and in this place, will grow and perfect it in the years ahead. Until I can be with you again and Mike as well, trust in God’s call and keep moving ahead! Amen.