Prayer Request

Please pray for the people of southeastern Minnesota who have experienced torrential rains and flash flooding, and expect more rain this week.

You can read more about it here.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foodhold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.

I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

Psalm 69:1-3

Why I haven't posted my sermon yet

1. Let me tell you something funny that happened yesterday.

At 2:00 I was just about done with my sermon, except about one paragraph or so. The Saturday service was beginning at 5:00.

I took a break to try to think of a quick children's sermon for the next day, came back and went into my files. When I found my sermon, the prompt I got was "Sermon title... already exists. Replace?" Without thinking, I pressed, yes.

And I replaced my sermon with a blank page.

At 2:00 p.m.

I did re-write it. (put the coffee back on!)

2. Today, after church, I REALLY wanted to post something funny. I don't know, it's just been a stressful week. So, I posted the ELCA song.

3. We had company for my husband's birthday after church. Neither of us got our naps (which we usually take religiously. ) We cleaned and cooked and entertained.

4. I know it will be late, but maybe tomorrow.

5. See #1 above, and I'm thinking of revising it in the posting... just as a mental exercise. I like what I wrote, but I'm just curious about what a couple of minor things would do.

6. Now I'm finally going to get a little break and rest! Good night everybody!

Something funny, I think

E-L-C-A (sung to the tune of "YMCA")

People, are you listening to me?
Speaking evangelically,
Are you looking for the place you belong?
You can join in singing this song.

Welcome! That's what we say
To the nations, as we follow the Way
Stronger, united, diverse
A true multicultural Church.

Chorus
It's good to be in the ECLA,
It's good to be in the ELCA.
You can show your true face,
In this welcoming place,
You can gro-oh-oh-ow in grace.

It's good to be in the ELCA
It's good to be in the ELCA
You can get yourself clean,
You can have a good meal,
Experience love that's real.

Global! That's what we are
And yet local, and in the image of God.
Social, serving neighbors in need,
Called into community.

Synods! We've got sixty-five,
Bishops! Keep the rubrics alive,
College-s and seminaries,
Congregational outreach!

Chorus

Worship! That's what we do.
We've got music, and a new hymnal, too.
Confessing, the Three and the One,
Living out vocation.

Baptized! By water and word.
We are fed by one Heavenly food.
Simul justus et peccator.
You can find what you are looking for!

Chorus

I don't know who wrote this. Our youth director found it. I will be happy to give credit if anyone knows.

Update: this song was performed and probably written by a group called "Lost and Found" at the 2006 Youth Convention in San Antonio. Thanks, Matthew!

Also, our staff ALMOST sang it at our last new member dinner, but we couldn't learn it in time.

Rain and other gifts

I do believe the drought is over. Officially.

It started raining at 9:00 this morning. It is not done yet. I got a good walk in with the dog before the rain started, one in which she was profusely admired as beautiful by a man up the street from me. I agreed.

I took communion to the retired pastor and his wife this morning. She is in the nursing home, and he visits her. We talked about tomatoes. He has a large garden. I have one tomato plant, planted too late. I said it looks like a tree, but has few tomatoes. He said I should cut it back. It is putting too much energy into getting big, and not enough into bearing fruit.

I do believe there is a lesson in there someplace.

Later on he brought tomatoes from his garden to church. I can't wait to eat them. Perhaps at my husband's birthday party tomorrow?

One of my favorite people came to church tonight. Wait, wait -- two of my favorite people, D and A. I officiated at their wedding back in April, and then they went and moved to New York City! Manhattan, of all places. You can read portions of my wedding sermon here.


A. used to come to my Bible studies all the time. In fact, she is one of the reasons I started the Bible studies. She always came to the Saturday night chapel service. Then she started bringing Someone with her. This was intensely interesting to all of the widows who attend the service on Saturday. They have all taken her under their wing.

They were in town for her high school reunion this weekend, and came to the chapel service. It was so great to see them. They said, "Come and visit any time." I would love to go to New York! I visited once in 1981, when I was interviewing to be a missionary in Japan. It was my first time 1) hailing a taxi, 2) taking the subway, 3) seeing a Broadway play. If we could see the Twins and the Yankees play, I'll bet I could convince my husband to go.

For Lutherans: They attend Robert Rimbo's church. And they have also attended Heidi Neumark's church. And they still like my preaching. They are people of taste and discernment.

Exhausted

There were two hundred people at B's funeral this morning, and the luncheon afterwards. Just a few of us went to the cemetery for the committal service at about 2:30. We read Philippians 4:4-8 (her favorite Bible passage), Psalm 23, and Matthew 14:22-32. In between the funeral service and the committal I wrote about a page of my Sunday sermon (called "Everybody talks about the weather..."). After the committal, I wrote about another paragraph, typed some random notes, and hit the wall. I had a meeting in the late afternoon, wrote the Sunday prayers (so far) and went home.

Yesterday I promised my Husband that I would cook supper tonight. But as I left the church, I knew that wasn't going to happen. So when I walked in the door, I said, "I'm tired. Let's go out to eat" and he said "Ok." He also said his mother called and said that "It was the best funeral service she had ever been to" (or words to that effect.) (His parents are members of my church). "She really said that?" "Words to that effect."

I fixed Scout's supper -- really predictable: rice, egg and ground turkey. After sitting around for awhile longer, we headed out to a local eating establishment: the kind of non-trendy place that is not too busy on a Friday evening.

In the parking lot we saw two members of my church. They were just leaving. One of them called out "What about that Bible study you were going to have this summer?" I was going to lead another No Experience Necessary Bible Study, but the Senior Pastor and I collaborated on one we wrote together, and I didn't have time for both.

We went in and sat down, ordered a couple of burgers. I looked over at a table across the way, and recognized another member of the church -- or at least a regular visitor. She's Episcopalian. I'm not sure if she has actually joined or not.

The parking lot woman came back. She said, "I'm sorry if I sounded critical. I just really needed that kind of Bible study this summer. I know you are busy." I said I would be sure to have a new Bible study in the fall -- and that she could stop in to talk any time, if she wanted to.

I was really hungry when I came in, but I could barely finish my burger. I did anyway. The woman from the other table came up to me and said, "Thank you for recognizing my face." Suddenly I remembered her name, and introduced her to my husband. "That made my day," she said. Mine too.

"Where do you know her from?" Husband asked. "Church," I answered. "Does she know you well?" "No." I paused. "Well, maybe she does. After all, there are 1500 of them, and only one of me."

At home, Husband showed me something else Scout can understand. He said, "pretty soon," and she went to the front window and looked out. He explained: "that's because I tell her 'she'll be home pretty soon.'"

Smart dog.

I'll be going to bed -- pretty soon, I think.

Saints Triumphant

I've been a pastor at this congregation for just over nine years now, which is longer than I have lived anywhere other than my parents' house when I was growing up. Although it's a fairly large congregation, I've gotten to know many of the people quite well. And even the the ones I don't know well -- I feel like I know them well, because, they always sit in this pew, or they always come to a certain service, or they sit in the top row of the choir, or they shake my hand in a certain way when they leave worship on Sunday. One man always touches my arm as I come down the center aisle in the morning, and asks me, where am I taking my next vacation? (Last Sunday he said I should consider Hawaii.) A friend overhears, smiles, and says, "He really likes vacations."

This congregation was founded just after World War II. We will be 60 years old in December. In the years I have been here, we have experienced a lot of loss: sometimes, on All Saints Sunday, the list of names is so long, and so full of memory and meaning, that it is hard to bear. Some of the losses are the expected ones: people who have lived long and faithful lives who peacefully go home to Jesus. Sometimes they are tragic, lives ended too soon, it seems.

So, lately, and while preparing for another funeral, I have been remembering just a few of the saints who have made this place a church for me, saints who are now feasting at the table of the Lamb, but whose presence I still miss in at our weekly feasts here below.

Saint J... his wife has become one of my good friends. But he was wonderful in his own way, not the least because of his wonderful sense of humor. What I miss most is the gift he had of the well-placed phrase, which sometimes could make me laugh until I cried. Even in the hospital, he knew how to make his visitors comfortable. He died of lung cancer. At his funeral, just before Christmas a few years ago, grown men were sobbing.

Saint L...I remember her as the Happy Nursing Home Resident. But I knew her before she went into the nursing home. I used to visit her in her home, when her husband was still alive, and they cared for each other. He had a magnificant garden, I recall. I had the privilege of taking over the monthly communion calls after the intern left one year. L. loved living at the Nursing Home. Her room was filled with many kinds of toys, stuffed animals, matchbox cars. I particularly remember a singing wall fish that sort of gyrated when you pushed a button. She was never lonely because people liked to stop by her room to get their daily dose of "uplift." But she was sad whenever she lost a roommate.

Saint K... She was always such a Prayer Warrior, both for herself and for others. She had a chronic and debilitating illness. But when she went to the hospital, she made friends with everyone on her floor, as she prayed for them. She used to sit out on her porch and pray for everyone on her block. She was often ill and in pain, but I don't think we ever thought that she would die.

Saint P...She was a real jewel of a woman, with a special tenderness for children, for families, and for service men and women. She wrote letters to all of our service people. She took under her wing all of the families with children who sat next to her in worship, and made them her own family. A story was told at her funeral about the time she stood up at a somewhat contentious congregational meeting, and said, sweetly, "Just remember: Jesus is in this room."

Saint C.... He was a retired pastor who attended our congregation. I remember him for his thick Norwegian brogue, for sitting in the same place every Sunday, and for always saying a good word for my sermons. After he retired, he kept busy in a variety of ways, including serving as a greeter for a local discount store. A true Lutheran, he believed that all work was holy, not just that of Pastor. At his funeral, at the age of 95, there were 400 people.

Of course, there are so many others: ushers and Sunday school teachers, parents and children, choir members and lunch servers and gardeners, those who befriended children and took communion to nursing homes. Ordinary people. Great people. They will all be missed. May they all be welcomed to God's great feast.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God."

Holy Sonnet X

Death, be not proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure: then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou'art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

--John Donne