i happened on a house

 built of living light

 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, thesecond chapter!

 

In today's Gospel we hear the story of the magi following the star, following their dreams, all to worship God. In light of that story, I have a few stories to tell.

 

The first one took place on a chilly evening in April. The days were getting longer, but they were still short. The apartment I was living in was one medium-sized room with a kitchenette and bathroom installed on opposite ends in the middle of the room, creating a tiny bedroom space and a tiny living-space. The apartment I was renting was in the basement level, or as young adults in D.C. liked to call them, "English basements." Regardless, living in the basement level made the chilly evenings even more chilly.

That night, however, I was going to do something I had never done before... (PAUSE)

I was going to pray for a congregation I was going to serve.

Yes, I had prayed for the churches in, New Oxford, Seattle and Washington D.C. that I had worked at, but this was different. This congregation I was going to pray for would be the first one I would be called to, yes called as an interim, but still called.

I always write my prayers in a small black journal. As I prayed for you all, folks I hadn't even met yet, I felt myself falling in love with you. So for the first time I prayed for a congregation I was going to serve, the first time I prayed for you all, I wrote,

"Everything is happening quickly, yet feel alright and prepared. Be with me in this process. Show me the story of this congregation as a part of your story. Merge my story and the congregation's story together, so we might live out your great story. Be with the people of Trinity Lutheran, O Lord."

As I wrote, 'be with the people of Trinity Lutheran,' I felt the gravity of it all.

And so it began that evening. As it turned out, it was only the first of many prayers for you all - for us.

As all things do, though, it had taken some time to get there. There was high school, college and seminary.

There were the difficult times in college when the tough decision to stop pursuing journalism and instead go into the ministry were made. There were the exciting moments of working with other students to create a worship experience on Tuesday evenings. There were the discussions, the ministry trips.

There was working at a Lutheran camp high up in the Rocky Mountains.

And there were the hard goodbyes to say. Leaving my high school, my college friends in Iowa to go to seminary in Pennsylvania. There were the challenges of navigating seminary.

I remember, very clearly, about a month in to seminary; on a cloudy day, one of my professors suggesting I not pursue ministry.

There were the friends to make at Gettysburg. There were the conversations and joys to share.

And there was everywhere seminary would lead me. To serve as a chaplain in St. Joseph, Missouri for a summer. Going to Nicaragua and Honduras. Working at a church in Seattle. Finally to be Gettysburg's resident scholar in Washington D.C.

The classes at Howard seminary, a Historic Black School; classes with Dominican monks, liberation theologians. The occupy protests. That crazy night when the police force finally disbanded the camp in McPhearson Park, I was there.

There was working at the ELCA's Washington Advocacy office. Being on staff at one of the cathedral Lutheran Churches in the United States.

And there was graduation

During this time my conviction that ministry must be done amongst, on behalf of and with the marginal grew.

While I was in Seattle I worked with the homeless shelter the congregation I served housed. I also worked at a policy office that advocated for the rights of the poor and hungry. In Washington D.C. I worked at the ELCA's national advocacy office, doing similar advocacy and I worked with congregations to share their stories of ministry amongst vulnerable people with public officials.

And there was the whole process of working with the ELCA.

The psychological evaluation -I've got some funny stories, if you ever want to hear them, from that battery test.

The essays and interviews to be approved. Then there was the placement process.

I remember an Early october day, leaving my prophets class at the Dominican house of studies, taught by Father Ryan, and opening an email from Julie Higgs requesting that I consider returning to Southeastern Iowa Synod.

There was the panic when a staff member thought my placement paperwork was lost. That fateful March day when I got a call from Pastor Paul Ostrem telling me I was assigned to the Southeastern Iowa Synod.

I had been waiting for that call for months; all of us seniors were told to be expecting placement calls sometime that week. Wouldn't you know it, I got my call on Friday. I was in class and I had left my phone on vibrate, and when I saw the caller was from a number I didn't know, I jumped up from my chair and ran outside to take the call.

As I spoke with Pastor Paul he informed me that some odd things had happened in the process, and suggested that I might want to find some work, because there might not be any immediate calls available after graduation.

So I applied for jobs, and one day I shot Pastor Paul and email, just to fill the synod staff in that I had lined up a job in Colorado. About twenty minutes later, I got a call from Pastor Paul.

He asked me to wait on accepting the job because there was something he was working on. Other than that, though, Pastor Paul was pretty tight-lipped. So I sat on my hands a while longer, and then he told me a little more about a potential congregation; but still wouldn't tell me the congregation or city.

 

Finally, after a meeting with you all, he called me to tell me about Trinity Lutheran. He gave me a couple phone numbers, and that was what lead to that evening when I first prayed for you all.

Through dreams and stars I've followed in my own sinful way, and it has led me here.

 

And there is another important story; yours.

Trinity, formed in 1884, to be the first English Speaking Lutheran congregation in the city. Early on, this congregation's legacy was ground-breaking. Compelled by the vision of sharing God's good news in people's native language, Trinity was formed.

And there was the fire, of course.

:-) Rumors still circulate that the fire started after a particularly moving solo :-)

There were tumultuous years. There were years when Burlington's population was booming, and the congregation expanded, expanded, expanded.

There was the sudden and tragic death of Pastor Chuck. There were the pastors who followed. A period of conflict when certain members left.

And there is the current "ziet giest." The demographics of the United States changing rapidly. We keep reading about, and seeing, how fewer and fewer people are going to church. In fact, this month both The Lutheran and The Christian Century had stories about the "shrinking church."

(Both of these stories are good, and I encourage you to read them.)

Through all of that, the changes of the current times and your historic past, you all have continued to follow, continued to gather.

And it must be said that you have been faithful.

Often when all these changes take place so rapidly, it is easy to feel like everything is just happening to us, that we've lost our agency - our ability to act. It feels like we're just watching all this change, unable to act.

But through all the change, you've all been faithful.

 

I have two stories about this.

 

The first was shortly after I learned about you all. I was telling the pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington D.C. He asked how often y'all had communion. I said weekly, of course.

Then I realized, though, I had never asked - I just assumed you did. And, as I analyzed my assumption, I remembered that it wasn't completely common to have weekly communion. In fact the congregation I was a member of in Des Moines only has communion twice a month.

One time when I was chatting with Bobbi I asked, how often Trinity had communion. She told me weekly, and I said that made me happy. -And I need to work on my Bobbi impression- but she said, "Oh honey, it makes us happy, too."

But as you all know, you've been having weekly communion for some time. In fact, you were likely the first lutheran congregation in Burlington to have weekly communion, and more than likely you all were one of the first in the Southeastern Iowa synod. As Gary and Cindy will tell you, they called the synod office to find a congregation in the area that had communion every Sunday only to be told the synod staff didn't think there were any such congregations.

You've all continued Trinity's legacy of being a groundbreaking church.

 

The other story is one that the Burlington Hawk Eye documented, you all hosting the AIDS quilt. When I first came to Burlington, Father Paul and I spoke about the possibility of doing something for World AIDS day. First, though, I said, I had to get to know you all better. And what I learned so quickly, and that the Hawkeye captured so nicely, is that you all are such a welcoming and inviting congregation, that there was no way something like hosting a quilt that honored people's death would be an issue here.

As I spoke with the reporter for the story she talked about how surprised she was that everyone here was so open (obviously she's heard a number of stories about close-minded churches). And I told her that, that is just how you all are - you're welcoming and open. You're faithful and caring.

Anyway, what shocked that reporter so much is that you all, just as Trinity was in its earliest formation, are a groundbreaking church.

Through the stars and dreams, you've followed and it has brought you here.

The vote you will soon be having is significant in the life of any church. Yea or nay, it is important.

This vote is saying you are going to continue living out the legacy began so many years ago in Burlington, in Saunderson Heights, in Iowa, in the Southeastern Iowa Synod, in the ELCA, in the United States, the world. This vote is saying that you are considering how you will invest considerable resources to continue ministry into the twenty-first century.

But this vote is about more than continuing, isn't it?

It is also about change.

The times have changed. You all have changed. Our youth are growing and changing.

This vote is also about how you all will continue to be faithful, but also how you're committed to being the church in the twenty-first century, whatever that might look like.

Yes, this vote is significant; and it is a testament to your legacy and your continued faithfulness.

And it is why having this vote on Epiphany is entirely appropriate. Epiphany is about the magi noticing the changes in the skies, and seeing God at work in those changes. Epiphany is about those magi being led, by a star and their dream, to follow and even take a different route all to worship God.

 

And that is, really, what this vote represents. How you all have followed God and now it has brought you to this place, this vote. Yea or nay, you have all been so faithful. Like those magi, continue to follow the star, listen to your dreams. Follow where God is leading, worship Christ.

Amen.