Pastor's Notes

Tom Ridenhour was my first preaching professor. A life-long Lutheran, he did not fit any stereotypical mold for Lutherans. As a native of North Carolina his ethnic foods leaned more toward grits than lefse. No Minnesota or Upper Midwestern accent. His was a southern drawl. His college and graduate years were with the Methodists of Duke and the Congregationalists of Yale with a stop in between with some Lutherans at Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. (By the way, ULC member and pastor, Jacqui Pagel also had Tom as her preaching professor.)

In preaching class the first weeks were spent on discussions and lectures on everything from the theology of preaching to ways to write a sermon for better eye contact. Then came the sermons, preached in class, by each student. You sometimes think it is hard to make your way through one sermon on a Sunday morning? Imagine having to listen to four or more in a single setting!

While an anxious classmate was up front preaching, we co-classmates, diligently sat at our desks filling out printed sermon evaluation forms commenting on eye contact, delivery, content, and more.

At the conclusion of each sermon, Dr. Ridenhour would stride confidently to the front, turn, and begin the evaluation discussion with a question. Quickly we learned that first question revealed his evaluation focus. Questions were often, “Where was the Good News in that sermon? How was the delivery? Could you hear him well or did she have good eye contact or seemed to be reading the sermon. Most memorable and most feared was the question, “Was that a sermon?” Now he would have to add a new question for some, “How would that appear on live stream?”

I wonder if Tom checked out his old students and their preaching once everyone went online. Somehow I think he had heard enough preaching from his hundreds of protégé’s during his forty or so years of teaching. I shudder to think that he might have caught me in the act on live stream!

Dr. Ridenhour asked questions so the preacher could learn and so those answering the questions could reflect and learn. Much of scientific, engineering, and even music, the arts and writing accomplishments were because someone had a question. “What would happen if we….? How might we be able to…..? What if we did this and/or that?”

Unfortunately, people of faith seem to fear questions regarding faith. Too much faith remains stagnant because we are unable to ask questions of one’s self or of our faith. If our faith seems a bit out of touch with today’s life it may be because we haven’t asked questions of it or have asked the wrong questions. It is also faith to which we must turn when questions seem to lack a definite or certain answer.

Jesus wasn’t afraid of questions. “What must I do to inherit eternal life? How can one be born again? Where do you get that living water? Who is my neighbor?” These are just some of the questions that came to Jesus.

Jesus responded to some questions with parables, straight answers, a healing, or a theological revelation about God. He was unthreatened by people’s questions. This ought to give us release from out anxiety about asking questions of our faith, or, for that matter, of God. Yes, it may change our faith. It might also strengthen it as we understand how it now relates to some new chapter of our life.

Imagine, finishing a sermon in class to your peers and a professor and have the professor begin with, “Was that a sermon?” I can’t remember what questions he asked after my sermons. I probably blacked them out because of fear or embarrassment. Regardless, many who had that question asked of an early preaching masterpiece no doubt went on to learn from it and become adequate if not very good preachers.

What if we saw life as more than pursuing answers to our questions. What if we saw life as having a consistent practice of asking questions of us? Think of your life. Of course you understand much more now than in the past. The future will provide even more insight. Yet has not life questioned you in the past? Will there not be further questions asked in time to come? As followers of Christ we need to work on being more comfortable in asking questions and more comfortable in having questions asked of us. A life of following Christ is not a linear progression of further understanding. It is also a bumpy path of trying to navigate what comes to us.

I wish Jesus had had a dog for a pet. Can you imagine the parables Jesus would have been able to tell if his constant companion was Fluffy or Rex and not Peter, James, John, and the others?

Oh, the images of unconditional love that would have been displayed in such parables! Being happily greeted at the door, tail wagging, and tongue eagerly waiting for a welcome greeting. Such a greeting would occur had Jesus stepped out for only a moment to get the Jerusalem Times from his doorstep or been out on the road teaching for a week or so.

Curling up for the night to read the Torah after a hard day of being accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners, along comes Rover to share the moment. Going outside to work on the garden (don’t be surprised, Jesus after all talked about lilies in the field and seeds), his dog Haboob (picture a dust-colored Toy Poodle) tags along with Jesus just as she does as Jesus travels about the house.

So many possible images for God’s love of God’s people could be displayed in parables by Jesus talking describing the relationship of Jesus’ dog with Jesus! If only! Dog lovers I am sure would concur. Now for cat lovers, I’m sure there would have been parables about independence, aloofness, etc. but that is for another writing.

Yet Jesus chose instead to hang with those who misunderstood, who blundered and disappointed, who faltered, denied and even betrayed him. This, of course, is good news to us who too often do much of the same. This is why there are also parables about the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Ten Virgins, and The Rich Man, and Lazarus. These are parables who do not show all their characters as acting in ways God would approve. These are parables that display the truth of living as humans, with humans in a world more complicated than any dog can understand.

When I was installed at a previous church, in his sermon the Bishop said, “Gary, you are not here to be loved. If you want to be loved, get a Black Lab, they will love you to death.” Well, we went and got a Maltese instead. It worked out just fine. I almost never had a reference in a sermon or writing to one of our dogs. Such pastoral parables would have been more of the fantasy and fairy tale world variety than that of the real world in which we actually live.

Ours is not a world of a fantasy world. Ours is a world where people do hurtful things and we are among those who contribute to hurtful things through our very actions, our inaction, and our participation in systems that cause strife for some others. Jesus tells parables about such a world and tells them into such a world for those living in it to hear.

Jesus tells such parables to bring comfort and to bring awareness in the hope of correction. Jesus walked about in the world with his eyes wide open and his determination to be in such a world unwavering. We may dare say it is because he walked about with such open eyes he was determined to be there and do something for it.

Do we only look for a world that responds like an eager and loving dog? Or do we allow ourselves as followers of Jesus to have our eyes open to both the sins of the world and our own participation in them to be determined to bring the Good News of Jesus into those places and those people in need of what we have to share?

Go ahead, get a Black Lab, a Toy Poodle, or even a mutt. (Get it from a shelter). Use Lassie or Queenie as a respite from the hurts of the world. Just do not see the way your dog treats you as the way everyone is apt to respond to you and each other. Look to your dog for love, but to Jesus for help and guidance to navigate this all too often very real world in which we live. Jesus, after all, tells these stories for us…for you!

Music adds to our faith what words on their own are often unable or inadequate to do. Words put to music can lift us off our feet, draw us away from our troubles and motivate us to trust and hope yet another day.

What would Christmas Eve worship be without music? Easter? And for that matter, even the melancholy tunes of Good Friday have a way to reach right into our bones and our very being. Words convince us and affirm us. Music moves us and touches us.

I am writing of this, because, after 17+ years our director of music and my partner in worship leadership Aiko Yamada Mancini is leaving us for a new adventure in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We have been so blessed to have Aiko and her manifold gifts for such a very long time.

I am certain this congregation never had someone to lead the worship music for this length of time. The pattern my first 6 years here is the kind this community had for some time. A graduate student comes for a few years, gets their PhD or MA and off they go. Sometimes we have been their first experience in congregational worship and music leadership and we then send them off as our gift to the larger church with a graduate degree and some experience gained here to continue to serve.
Musicians that have passed through here from what little history I am aware, are serving now in congregations in Berlin, Germany, Scottsdale and Sun City Arizona, Los Angeles, California, and Seoul South Korea, to name a few. Our little community is quite the gift-giver to the Church!

Now Aiko moves on from music director of ULC to ULC icon. My heart is heavy for our loss (and my personal loss) but lifted in joy for the excitement Aiko and Brian have for their latest adventure. Aiko leaves behind more than a legacy. Aiko leaves behind students and members who have been a part of the music ministry by their vocal efforts and/or their instrumental contributions. I have no doubt this will continue.

When I think of Aiko I often think of standing at the door after Sunday worship waiting to shake someone’s hand. Few come as most remain to hear the final notes of the postlude being led by Aiko and those accompanying her. That is how good Aiko’s leadership has been: people don’t want to leave! Are there any of us who will ever forget Aiko’s joyful singing of “Lay lo lay lo lie lo…”? One could feel in that very tune that in Epiphany we were indeed celebrating Christ for all the world.
I remember shortly after Aiko began directing the choir, Allan Bieber joined the choir. He told me he hadn’t sung in the choir for many years, but when he saw Aiko’s smile and enthusiasm he had to be a part once more.

An opus is defined as any artistic work on a large scale. Here in this small community Aiko’s work was large. We have become her opus as joyfully we join in her musical leadership and are lifted into a better place. We promise to work hard to remain such.
We will miss you, dear friend Aiko! But we are better for your having been here. To Pittsburgh we now bequeath you and Brian with grateful, albeit pained, hearts. Via con Dios! We wish you both many more years of joyful singing. Lay lo lay lo lie lo!

Where do you go to hear the voice of Jesus? Where do you turn or, perhaps, to whom do you turn?

Scripture, of course, is the Christianity 101 answer. We can hear Jesus speak in the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, parables, and so many places. Some of Jesus’ words in scripture are comforting, others may be challenging, while some can be motivating.

Worship is a good place to hear the address of Jesus to our community and to us. There scripture is read, always with a gospel text involving Jesus one way or another. Often the second lesson is from a letter written by St. Paul where Paul may be commenting on the meaning of some part of Jesus life, death, and resurrection.

Sacraments convey in a more visible form communication from Jesus. Do this. Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

There are other ways we may hear Jesus speak in the prayers, liturgy, hymns, and various actions in worship.

Essentially, we tend to hear Jesus speak where we expect Jesus to be. Scripture and worship are very naturally connected to Jesus so we anticipate something of Jesus to come through where we expect to find Jesus: in church.

Maybe you have even heard Jesus speak in the words of another outside of worship. Someone offering comfort in a scary or troubling time; someone expressing some concern about us or some aspect of our behavior and offers a word of correction to us.

What about places we never expect to hear Jesus address us? Sure, possibly in the workplace, school, the neighborhood and even our favorite watering hole. Some conversations can knock us off our feet when they come as more than the word of a friend or neighbor, but as a word from God.

Then there are those places where I am not sure we ever look for Jesus to come to us. Yet in the gospels it is clear Jesus speaks even especially through these. I am talking about the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned, and the thirsty. The very people whom we often avoid are those Jesus specifically names as a place he will be. You and I may offer assistance to these folks, but how often do we listen to them anticipating that
Jesus may have something to say to us through them?

It seems Jesus had a habit of hanging out with all the wrong people. For you and I to hear Jesus speak to us more fully, it would also seem you and I have to listen for Jesus in all the wrong people.