It is November and Thanksgiving is
coming. Yet this year, I’m filled with thanksgiving for one primary reason.
Twenty years ago, I became a Lutheran right here at Christ Lutheran.
Like many young adults, I wondered and
wandered in my journey with God. As I began to refocus my life with the help of
friends, someone recommended I check-out this faith community. Coming from my Roman
Catholic background, I found the theology sound and grace focused. The liturgical
worship was familiar and like home to me. The music and preaching encouraged me
to trust in God and rejoice. They didn’t just entertain. Yet among my greatest
reasons to join the congregation was the people I found here – people willing
to engage with the word, the world, and me.
Every seeker’s needs and ultimate experience
will be different. Some might benefit from moving on, but they can still be
blessed on their way. Others might find hope here and remain. Every visitor’s
contact with us – no matter how short or seemingly insignificant – matters. For
in welcoming them, we welcome Christ, and potential miracles lie before us. Lives
can change for the better.
In Matthew 8, there was a centurion who
desired to see his servant healed. Jesus responded that he would come to the
centurion’s home to heal the servant. Understanding the honor this represented,
the centurion protested, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof;
but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” With this sign of
faith, the servant was declared immediately healed.
We might not be worthy of Christ
entering our home (spiritual or otherwise), but Christ desires to come in
anyway. Through our experiences in welcome and hospitality, we don’t just meet cultural
expectations. We don’t just bring joy to others or ourselves. We are offered the
opportunity to meet Christ in a new and vibrant way. Christ is seeking to do
something new through our experiences with every visitor.
As we begin to see holiday visitors, I invite each and every one of us to recommit in our authentic, gracious welcome of people who are new to us. Make the time to welcome them with a heartfelt graciousness. Get to know them a bit. Let them know you. Open your hearts; vulnerably sharing your faith and struggles. Just as happened with me, you might prove just who the person needs to have their lives changed eternally. Also, in my experience since, you will likely find that welcoming Christ in others will bless you as well.
Originally published in the June 2019 newsletter of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, VA.
What was one of the simple things that people did to
make me feel at home again at Christ Lutheran? They asked me my favorite color.
The answer is blue, and this became a challenge to our flower team. They went
out of their way to find blue flowers during a season when they are hard to
come by. Those responsible succeeded (using hydrangeas mixed with other flowers
and even blackberries from someone’s yard), and they were beautiful. This
reminded me how all our worship services are cared for down to the smallest
detail.
So often, it is the small things that matter most in
welcoming others. Once, I had a couple join my congregation just because the
altar guild had prepared to welcome them with gluten wafers. I have seen that
if the sanctuary was too dark, too light, too cold or hot, perhaps the mic
isn’t working just right, or in any other way things seem uncomfortable (even
dirty restrooms), it proves a hindrance to worship and relationship.
Thankfully, our property team stays on top of this. And when my friends and
family shared their first impressions from my installation, they mentioned the spirit-filled
music as well as the authentic friendliness of those in attendance. Everything
that had been done and all who were there made them feel welcome.
In planning, preparing and attending worship, we don’t
just do so for our benefit. We gather and serve to welcome others in Jesus’
name.
Originally published in The Hub, a weekly email of Christ Lutheran Church, Fredericksburg, VA.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this article are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
As Thanksgiving approaches, I find a favorite movie has begun playing on television over and over again, Miracle on 34th Street. This year, I have been reminded that miracles can happen over and over again in real life as well – whenever people choose to love one another as Jesus asked.
This past All Saints Sunday, I was given permission to share a sacred story. It was a tale of a suffering saint, not from long ago, but of one in our midst. Our sister in Christ, Rachel[i], a long-time member of our congregation, a baptized and believing child of God, was in desperate need. She was alone, fighting mental illness, and at risk of becoming homeless.
Rachel is well known to many if not all in our congregation. She has been a congregational member since the 1990s, although she has attended on and off since that time. Of late, she has especially stood out. Visibly, she has grown weaker and distant. Flowing conversations have become more and more difficult. Recently, one might only be answered with a short phrase or a single word. Due to medical issues, she is often seen getting up and down during our worship – going outside the sanctuary to the rest room or for water – and then returning. To be frank, her demeanor, appearance and behaviors could easily put one off or prove annoying.
This situation is sadly not unusual. She shares a story with many who are without family and suffering from mental illness. It is a story that began perhaps before birth, as her mother is said to have suffered from both mental illness and addiction. (Such issues are believed by some to often be partly genetic.) Yet, Rachel also reportedly suffered severe abuse in her original home from others who should have loved her. It is quite a testimony to her tenacity and gifts that she escaped that environment to become a valued employee where she worked and love a family of her own.
Still like many with similar histories, married life proved a challenge. When her husband allegedly became abusive, she decided to divorce him and start again. Unfortunately, he was able to use her mental condition and lack of financial means against her. She lost her children to his custody, and the now adult children – seemingly not understanding mental illness nor family systems – continue to blame her for the dissolution of their family. There is no meaningful contact or support.
Although she had tried hard to provide for herself and for her children, life seemed to work against her as new problems and challenges arouse time and time again. With this, her mental illness seemingly began to take control of her life. She had lost family, and she now lost friends. She eventually lost her job. Initially, a neighboring family tried to help her, but they, too, ran into problems of their own in the difficult economy. They couldn’t help her any longer.
All along, members of our congregation were walking beside Rachel. Certainly, I offered pastoral care and counseling. On top of that (if not more importantly), she received help with food, shelter, and rides. People tried to be patient with her and relate to her; always welcoming her into our assembly. Several sought to be like family to her inviting her to share in holidays and celebrations in their home. Despite our congregation’s current financial challenges[ii] and being a relatively small congregation[iii] for our area, our council managed to quietly pay for her room for several months while she was staying with her neighbors. We also provided assistance with necessities. Our president captured the council’s collective feeling when he said, “She’s been our sister in Christ when it was easy and times were good. We can’t pretend she isn’t our sister now when it is hard. We need to help her.”
Indeed, Rachel is not her mental illness. She is the person who always volunteers to help others, especially children. She heard of a need for children’s sandals and shoes overseas from a veteran she knew, so she initiated a collection through our church. Hundreds of youth in Afghanistan benefited. She is always ready to help us with property needs, vacation bible school, or mission work despite her current limitations. She is one who walks miles to join us for worship or events if she cannot get a ride. She insists on donating money for our shared ministry even when she has little and is told to use it for her own needs. As another person who knew her well said, “Some people love this church, but Rachel LOVES this church. It is her family.” Rachel is our sister, Christ’s sheep, and remains a beloved part of our family of faith.
As with family, Rachel had given the local social services permission to cooperate with me in meeting her needs, but we were confounded as to what could be done when Rachel finally became homeless. The local county only had funds for short-term housing (2 weeks), and our congregation struggled to find the money to pay the discounted rent with her neighbors never mind at a hotel or apartment. It appeared Rachel would be moved into the sometimes rough Richmond homeless shelter system. This put her at further risk of being far removed from her church family, being set back and delayed in her disability claim, and starting anew with a different social worker in an overtaxed, urban environment.
As I pondered this situation, I recognized the great challenge before us to get the money we would initially need to care for Rachel – $2500 for the first few months of housing using the county’s vendor. It was the safest place, easiest transition, and best rate we could hope for, and yet we don’t have that kind of money lying around. As I prayed about it, it struck me that perhaps I was looking at this problem the wrong way. Yes, it is an enormous problem in many respects, but what if we just tried to address the need bit by bit, step by step, and day by day? We could have a special appeal in our church and ask friends in the greater community to help Rachel. If we just looked for fifty people to offer fifty dollars (about the cost of a family eating out in many cases or to attend a family outing), that could cover the initial need. For those who couldn’t give, they would be asked to pray, help Rachel in concrete ways when possible, and welcome her in our assembly.
Symbolically, fifty is a number of freedom and new life, and that is what we want for Rachel. Leviticus 25 describes a Year of Jubilee when debts were to be forgiven, forced servitude was ended, and people began fresh. We now had a chance to help free one of our own sisters in faith – just 50 people and $50 at a time. We would call it our 50 X 50 Campaign, multiplying the love we ourselves had received as individuals from Christ and assuring Rachel that she is not alone.
Announcing this at worship on All Saints Sunday, I was nervous as to how the congregation would respond. I was heavy in my heart because I knew well what was at stake. In past police, hospice care, and mission work with at risk youth in South Dakota, I carried too many memories of those who didn’t make it through such times. Yet our hope is in a God of steadfast love. It is a love of miraculous, healing power that often works through the lives of ordinary people in unexpected ways.
So, I took the risk and made the appeal trusting that “all things work for the good of those that love God,” and God answered through his Holy People. Despite our attendance being lower than average that morning[iv], over $4000 was raised to help Rachel. We have never collected that much money in any appeal that fast before, and I dare say, never for anything as important. Since then, money is still coming in. In a world where too many people wonder if anyone could love them as they are, Jesus spoke love to Rachel that morning. Through us, he is still speaking.
Over the past few weeks in worship, we heard once again about the Beatitudes and how we should love one another. We were urged that we should be patient with and support the weak. We were reminded – both Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians alike – that saints are needed for earth and not just for heaven. I can’t say how this particular sacred story about Rachel will end in the immediate future, but I know Jesus and his people are in it for the duration. We have to be, because that’s exactly the way Jesus asks it to be.
As church, we should never focus on how weak we are or the size of any challenge ahead of us. We just need to seek to love, and Jesus will do the rest. Thus, we are told that we can rejoice and do all things through Christ who strengthens us – even miracles – one relationship at a time…even from a small, old building on Atlee Road.
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As Rachel’s needs are long-term and many others’ suffer as she does, donations are still being accepted for our benevolence and charitable work. If you would like to help, please send your tax deductible donation (noting “50 X 50” on the memo line) to:
Messiah Lutheran Church and School 8154 Atlee Rd. Mechanicsville, VA 23111
In hindsight, the above story is reminiscent of this song. Originally written at the time of the recent “Great Recession”, it reminds us all to love one another and boldly be ambassadors for Christ. We are never truly alone (Matt. 28:20)! Enjoy…
[i] For the sake of this public message, the woman’s name has been changed to provide for some privacy. It is a story shared with permission.
[ii] Although our financial situation has improved these past few years, it is still not unusual for us to struggle just to pay bills some months.
[iii] Messiah’s average attendance is about 95 with a bit over 200 members.
[iv] Attendance was in the mid-80s on November 3, 2013.
“Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:8)
Summer is a season of growth. Planting is done, but there is much watering, weeding and tending left to do before the harvest. Sure, we can plant seed in the best soil available, then walk away and hope things grow by the grace of God. Yet, our plot probably won’t bear as much fruit, vegetables or flowers without our active, attentive, intentional involvement. Life might never sprout at all.
We, too, grow by the grace of God. The seed of faith has been planted in our hearts, and our history, surroundings and dispositions affect us much like soil. Worse, life can be hot and dry or too stormy; threatening to wither us, outside of our control. So like the local fields, we need tending. Our summer travels can be part of that, refreshing and renewing us, yet we can’t ever think rest alone is enough to make us yield thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. God has to be in the mix, for only God makes things grow and become greater (1 Cor. 3:7).
To help with this, Messiah is offering a number of opportunities to encourage individual growth, as well as the growth of our congregation and greater community. We’ll have a series of unified services with special offerings from visitors wishing to minister to us – including their use of liturgical music and performing arts. We’ll celebrate our full communion and shared ministry with All Souls Episcopal in worship together and pulpit exchanges. We will minister to others through our Lutheran Family Services Picnic for adopted and foster care families, the summer program at our school, our popular vacation bible school, and more. These efforts will certainly bless our neighbors this summer, but volunteers time and again report the multiplied blessings they have encountered through building relationship with others and in serving together. Yet, that’s not all. Opportunities continue for bible study, contemplative prayer, Christian formation, and active service including with our many partnering non-profits. We’ll also have youth and adults attending Caroline Furnace Lutheran Camp, mission trips, and other retreats for all ages. God will be active here. Why not you?
Growth requires balance – daily rest and work centered on and fed by the love of God. Yes, near or far, at rest or active in service, we remain the church. We have nothing to fear from darkness, storm or death, for eternal life will be ours through faith. Still, our shared hope remains as in Paul’s long ago prayer; that all of us together may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as we bear fruit in every good work and as we grow in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10).
No matter our circumstance, we find ourselves always in a mission field. Jesus has come so that we might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10) while in that field and beyond. On vacation or not, no matter the season, let us heed Christ’s invitation, cooperate with the grace offered us, and intentionally strive to nurture his life in our hearts and the hearts of others.
Peace,
Pastor Lou
The above pastoral letter was originally published in Messiah Lutheran Church and School’s newsletter, The Messenger (July 2013 edition). To view the entire issue of The Messenger or to see the full calendar of events, visit: http://www.mlcas.org
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this article are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
Logo of L'Arche ("The Ark") Communities, downloaded from larche.org
Despite the heated language in our polarized world, justice and peace are Gospel values. People too often use such words like a weapon for their political agenda (conservative or liberal, believer or non-believer) rather than listen to them with a holy fear. These words are powerful, spoken from the mouth of God to our hearts. Lived out, they change us and the world. We are to love the poor, the oppressed, the widow and the orphan. We are even to love or enemy. We should never let ourselves be led away from these words and who first spoke them just because they are sometimes misused. Instead, we should seek their depths in the wellspring which is Christ and his community, the church. We should strive to live them out every day, so we and the world can be transformed by love.
One of the most powerful ways to grow into love is to experience it in the real world. Recognizing our own need for love, we must allow ourselves to be rooted into the gospel message as the Spirit moves. Through situations, people, and places, as well as our own weakness, the Spirit intends to drive us into the wilderness. The Spirit calls us to experience new life there. I believe Gospel stories become Gospel realities as we seek to live them out concretely in our lives; sometimes in places where we are not so comfortable. Through sacred but small moments, our relationship to the world and each other will be transformed.
As a community of faith over the last few seasons of Lent, Messiah has been examining the Christian life and witness of well known figures of the last century. We do so hoping to grow as individuals and a community. As pastor, I have tried to identify people who shared different yet compatible visions of community: Dietrich Bonheoffer, Brother Roger of Taizé, and this year, Jean Vanier and the community members of L’Arche. Each has been given a vision by God of what community can be. Through their lives, they exemplified what Br. Roger so often described as a “parable of community” that teaches us and the world new possibilities.
L’Arche literature and websites proclaim that community isn’t an ideal but you and I. Despite our differences in politics, theology, or ability; we are called to be one with each other and with God. A local L’Arche community describes their shared life in this way:
L’Arche Blue Ridge Mountains mission is to create fully-accessible homes where people with and without disabilities share life in a spiritually based community. We strive to make these homes places of caring and faith, where individuals’ unique callings and abilities are brought out.[1]
Through their words, I can hear an invitation of what “church” can become in a real and too often difficult world. I first became fully aware of L’Arche while volunteering with the Community of Taizé. (I had heard of them and a famous member of their community, Henri Nouwen, but I hadn’t gotten to know them well.) A group from the original home at Trosly-Breuil came to visit, and a young man proudly and joyfully told me about his life there. Pasquel (I still remember his name, a name which means Easter) ended his witness by offering me a new beginning. He invited me to live with them. I was unable to accept the invitation at the time, but I remain deeply touched by his testimony and openness. Somehow, I still feel in communion with him and his hope and vision for tomorrow, even as I feel called in the here and now to be at Messiah Lutheran in Mechanicsville. Who knows what tomorrow might bring? Yet, I believe we all can live that hope out no matter where we are.
Personally, I know his vision can be a reality. Long before I knew Pasquel, I knew the love of my grandmother. Her firstborn, my aunt, was born with a serious mental disability. At the time (the 1930s), people encouraged her to put my Aunt Theresa into an institution. She wouldn’t hear of it. Instead, she chose to respond to her call to love. With time, patience and effort, Aunt Theresa grew to be a beautiful lady with much love to share. She held a job, learned to drive, and even helped care for my grandparents as they grew older. I believe my grandmother, my aunt, and my family were transformed by grace; a grace that saw past the dark realities and allowed us to live in the light of hope. I never saw my aunt as disabled although I couldn’t avoid her disability. Only love stands out when she comes to mind.
With these varied experiences now part of me, I hope to nurture that similar love which is already active at Messiah by sharing in an exploration of the Christian life and witness of Jean Vanier and L’Arche. During Lent, we’ll read Jean Vanier’s writings, watch some videos, discuss our impressions, but most importantly (if things go as planed), we will worship and fellowship with members of L’Arche Blue Ridge Mountains to help celebrate the season of Easter. Both communities have much love to share and much more to learn about love. Together, I think our Lenten journey will be a true adventure; an adventure more deeply into the love which is Christ. We will be blessed to share in the resurrection more concretely through a new life with God and each other.
What if you wrote a blog and no one cared? I am not sure if I have anything prophetic to say, but maybe something I say can make someone’s day better. I’ll just try to be like the destitute widow (in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21: 1-4); offering all that I have for the glory of God as I feel moved. Because of my schedule as a Lutheran pastor, please be patient for new posts. Welcome to my first ever blog!
Husband, Pastor, Law Enforcement Chaplain, and member of the Clerical Errors (aka "The Three Priests"), I'm sharing my two cents with anyone who cares...
You can also find me on social media as Loudluthrn (Lou-d-Luthrn or Lou the Lutheran). It is a moniker given me while attending a Presbyterian Seminary, but I'm a loud and proud Lutheran too (just not too loud and proud, mind you).
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