Pastor's Message

Luther once described the Bible as the manger that held the Christ child.  In other words, the Bible itself is not the truth, but it contains the truth within it.  When we try to justify opinions by selecting choice verses out of the Bible, we may be holding onto a thread of truth, but we risk losing the rest.  People have used individual verses out of the Bible to justify wars, slavery, and many forms of discrimination.  One place in the Bible says to turn swords into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4), while another says to turn plowshares into swords (Joel 3:19).  Well, which is it?   There are two creation stories in the first couple chapters of the first book of the Bible (Genesis 1:1 – 2:3, and 2:4-25).  The story of Jesus instructing Peter how to fish comes at the beginning of Luke, the end of John, and nowhere in Matthew or Mark.  How potentially confounding.

One of the “the Bible says so” arguments is that women should not be preachers.  The most commonly used are 1 Corinthians 14:33-34 and 1 Timothy 2:11-14.  I read one pastor’s commentary that justified only men being pastors because as Genesis 1 shows man was created before woman, and that’s the order of things.  I find it interesting that he didn’t quote Genesis 2 where man and woman are created together.  Wouldn’t using a similar pattern of thought then allow us to say men and women can be pastoral colleagues?

Earlier in Lent I traveled to Media, Pennsylvania.  There at Reformation Lutheran Church I worshipped and prayed as one of my relatives became ordained as a pastor.  There were two unique images in my eyes that day.  The first was that for the first time I saw a female bishop ordain a female pastor. 

Bishop Claire Burkat of the Southeast Pennsylvania Synod ordained my mother’s younger sister, Anita London.  Bishop Burkat, elected in 2006, preached a wonderful sermon.  My aunt Anita is a very spiritual woman whose ministerial talents will benefit her new church.  Both of these women raise up Christ and glorify God as pastors.  To deny either of them the call of pastor (or to deny the Church their gifts) based on a select Bible verse is to lose the wholeness of the fabric of God’s truth through the pulling out of a single thread/verse.

And then in the worship service came the time for prayer and the laying on of hands by present clergy.  Many men and women dressed in white albs and red stoles came forward to place a hand on Anita’s back, shoulders, and head.  And as Bishop Burkat led us in prayer, I glanced up at Anita, and I couldn’t see her.  Her outline was there, but there were so many hands laying on her that she was completely covered…covered by the prayers of others…shrouded by the Holy Spirit.  I now saw in physical, real form, an example of the phrase, “Many Hands, One Heart.”  This is what the Holy Spirit gives us.  It brings us together in prayer and in community, so that together we may be the body of Christ, being led by the heart/love of Christ our Lord.
Anita London…relative…blessed child of God…and a pastor.  Amen.
-Pastor Rob

God’s blessings…our heritage.
God’s children…our friends.
God’s world…our mission.
God’s work…our hands.