from the pastor

September 29, 2002

I arrived home from my week in the monastery late Friday night, after swinging through Chicago to pick up Alison from DePaul. (Perhaps I should use another word rather than ‘swing’ to describe going the north/south length of Chicago during rush hour. ‘Sludge’ might be more appropriate.) Mindy came in from Bradley to join us for 24 hours. And so I have gone from spacious time at the monastery to packed time at home.

In less than 24 hours, we have been to a sad football game, a happier soccer game, the farmers market, the mall, the drug store, the gas station, the grocery store, a Mexican restaurant, the video store, the grocery store again, the drug store again, the mall again, the bank...And all that in between laundry--as you might expect when two college students hit home at the same time.

The fruits of a week in the monastery include a deep sense of serenity and centeredness. To go from a week in a monastery to a weekend with two college daughters home for the semester’s first time--is a baptism in extravagance. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

This week is the last for my sermon series on the life of David. Today’s sermon has been more of a challenge to develop than the other four. This week’s focus is on David and his relationship with God. I expected it to be more ethereal than the other topics. After all, previous sermons have focused on David fighting giants, fending off Saul and his paranoia, assessing a tragic mess he’d made of his life in the fiasco with Bathsheba, and surviving the rebelliousness of his son Absalom. What does it say about ME that I expected this last sermon to be a bit other-worldly and irrelevant in comparison to the juicy topics of the other four Sundays? I was mistaken in my expectation. This last topic has been the earthiest of all. The Bible gives us a chance to glimpse many relationships and overhear many conversations. But no relationship in the Bible is more explicit, more interesting, and more comprehensive than the one between David and God. We have dozens of stories, songs, and legacies to flesh out our acquaintance with it.

Today’s sermon will focus on four aspects of David’s relationship with God: his conversations with God, his communion with God, the mutual responsiveness between David and God, and David’s submission to God. I am planning on having copies of this series available to hand out next Sunday. (And also posted on our website: urbanagrace.org)

This weekend is a milestone for me. It was 30 years ago this weekend that I began serving the United Methodist Church in the role of a pastor. I haven’t kept a strict accounting of all that I have done in that time. But it includes some 3000 sermons, a couple hundred weddings, funerals, and baptisms--each, over 150 Bible study groups, about 15,000 listening sessions, about that many meetings, and hundreds of these Sunday morning letters. I’ve worn out 10 cars. And I’ve come to think that the only value of a pastor is contextual: it is a role alongside the roles OTHERS play--IN THE CHURCH. In its context, God can bless the work of a pastor. And I can sum it up in 11 words, borrowed from David: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the workers labor in vain." --Mike