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Dearest Friends;
I didn’t get to preach this morning, and so I
must warn you that I may go over the two minutes that were allotted to me on
this occasion.
As “the new kid on
the block” among the pastors present here today, it is my privilege to have the
last word. We were asked to give some reflections on our time at Martha and
Mary—and Paul, Woody and Bob have the advantage over me in that regard. They
have had time to reflect, and put their service to this congregation into
perspective. Well, I’m not there yet. I’ve been pretty busy focusing on the
present, and looking to the future. But before I talk about that, there are a
couple of memories that I would like to share with you.
The first goes back
almost four years when the call process began here to find a new pastor. When
the name of Martha and Mary was given to me by the Bishop’s Office, it was just
that—a name. I knew very little about you. I read the congregational profile
you had prepared—but that didn’t tell me too much. Most of them are pretty much
the same, in that they accentuate the positive, and deny the existence of any
warts—not that you have any. But then, I met the Call Committee.
They were friendly,
to be sure, but so open and honest that I immediately knew that this was a real
prospect. We talked about all the basic stuff—theological stance, style, can
you sing or not, do you like kids. We talked about everything that seemed
important, except for the elephant in the room—which they were too polite or too
politically correct to bring up. I happened to be a woman. Martha and Mary had
never had a woman as their pastor. So I
brought it up.
How do you all feel
about that? Do you think it will be a problem, I asked? I remember saying that I didn’t come
with a “woman’s agenda” or with a “feminist agenda”, but with a “Pastor’s
Agenda.” If I were called, I would simply be the best pastor I could be. And if
my being a woman was a problem, then they should not call me.
Well, they did. You
did. And in that action, I learned that this is a church that is courageous,
and open to change—as it is led by the Spirit.
The second time
that I saw that courage and openness to change came about six months later,
when the opportunity to serve the homeless in our community came to us in the
form of WINGS. Here you were, with a brand new pastor—the first who chose not
to live in your ample parsonage. And you were faced with a
decision about what to do with it. Tear it down? Sell off some land? Both
expedient and viable options, but what would best serve the purposes of God?
You chose compassion, and gave the use of the former parsonage to the WINGS
organization. In the last three years, hundreds of formerly homeless women and
children have been served by the use of that space and the services it has
provided, and former resident families have had shelter, and have been given a new
start in life. If that is not faith in action, I don’t know what is.
Over the past year,
as we have celebrated our 40th Anniversary, we have had an
opportunity to look back at “the good old days” at Martha and Mary. And indeed,
they were good. Forty years ago, when this church was founded, we were living
in what is called “Christendom”. That means a Christian sort of Camelot where
it was assumed that everyone was a church member, or wanted to be. Forty years
ago, young families were streaming out of the city into the nearby suburbs
seeking homes and a church home. Martha and Mary was there, and was blessed by
those families.
Those days are gone,
and will not be back in the same way. But that does not mean that God is not
active, or that people do not have the same need of God. They just may not know
it, and so our challenge is greater.
What will “the good
new days” look like at Martha and Mary? That is what we must determine
together. How will we show a welcome to those who may not even know what they
are seeking? That is what we must decide together. But we need not start from
scratch. We have forty years of our own history
on which to build, and 2000 years of the witness of the Gospel on which to
build. And with that as our foundation, we cannot fail.
The Lutheran Church
of Martha and Mary, over the past forty years, has shown itself to be faithful
to the Gospel, open to the Spirit, courageous, and willing to change as the
Spirit demands. And so, God willing, we will continue to be. AMEN
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