TRINITY LUTHERAN SEMINARY ty,
COLUMBUS, OHIO

JANUARY 9, 1989
“THE FAITH OF THE MINISTER SERVING IN. THE PARISH"
JOHN M. BUCHANAN, PASTOR
FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CHICAGO

Good to be home and to see old friends...
There is always some ambiguity about returning.
Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again, and you
can't and everyone of us has felt foolish in the
inevitable effort. I lived three blocks from here.
I drove by the house this morning and it’s
different. They painted the shutters a different
color, took out the bushes I planted, On the other
hand this place is only a “sopt-of" home. My
connections with Lutherans go way back. I married
one - in a place with the auspicious name, Trinity
Lutheran Church. She became a Presbyterian only
when she had no other alternatives and would, I
fear, return to the fold if given half an
opportunity.

In Divinity School the first and most lasting

;

impressions were made by Lutherans: Joseph Sittler
- Jaraslav Pelikan and Granger Westburg. My
flirtation with the sons and daughters of Luther
continued. Here - in Columbus ~ a very good friend
was Howard Wiison - at Capital, who at least
studied in Edinburgh and Walter Bowman who did so
many things for Broad Street Presbyterian Church
that some of my folks thought he was the,pastor.
And then, a favorite idea took shape and Bread
Street established a Theologian in Residence
program and Waiter was the theologian, followed by
others ~ which put Lutheran thealogy in a
Presbyterian parish with, I trust, benefits to
both .

Come to think of jt - that's all Lutheran
theology needs ~ is a Presbyterian polity: then it
wouldn't have nearly as much time on its hands tn
which to be reflective.

In any event, it continues. My path
occasionally crosses Martin Marty's and he actually

Knows my name. But that's nothing much: Marty

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Knows every ordained clergyperson in North Anerica -
by name. The Bustin Hoffman autistic in
Rain___.___ memorizes the phone book. Marty knows
all of us...

Anyhow, it's hard to like Garrison Kei?or
and not at least have great sympathy for Lutherans.
Keillor, I suspect, is a closet Calvinist, or
cryptic Catholic, or secret Jesuit. he loves - or
feels sorry for ~ Pastor Inauist...but truth often
Comes out of the mouth of Father Emit.

When Father Emi? announces his retirement,
Clarence Bunson stops by to visit.

"I hope they're not going to give me an ugly
Plaque," Father Emil says.

Clarence responds "We'll give you a trip to
Florida.”

“Why net Jamaica?"

“I don't think old priests are to go farther
south than Florida. Unless they're missionaries,
of course."

“Then maybe the parish would send me to

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Florida, and you Lutherans could pay the freight
from there to Jamaica and I could be a Lutheran
missionary."

“You'd make a good one, Father. You sure
have the intelligence for it. With your
background, we could probably train you in a couple
of years.”

Father Emil smiled a sweet, tolerant smile.
"Being a Lutheran is my idea of a vacation,” he
said. "f can't imagine anything more relaxing. To
take those truths that are too hard fer you and
change them a little to make it easter on yourself
— just like, if you're tired of falling down, you
turn down the force of gravity - I tel? you, Luther
Was a great man all right." (Leaving Home, p. 28,
29]

When Norman Wegmeyer invited me to speak at
this Institute he told me about the Theme: The
Faith of the Minister. But as the correspondence
developed, being a good Lutheran, Norman extended

lots of grace and freedom and so I have adopted a

it

subtitle for my presentation which is Surviving jin
the Parish... and it seems to me that one of the
best Ways to approach that topic is with a joke
which you may or may not be able to use. It was
told to me by a Chief Corporate Counselor to a
Major Carporation who said that it was true. It is
about a Chief Executive of another major auto maker
and nis speech writer. The speech writer: was the
Dest in the business: brilliant, witty, with a
touch of poetry in him. Best of a1], he had a
sense of whit the CEQ would want to say in every
conceivable circumstance. He knew how his boss
thought. Or his boss thought like he wrote. In
any event it was a remarkaDly successful
arrangement. The CEQ had absolute confidence in
his speech writer — so much so that he stopped even
reviewing the speeches ahead of time. Instead,
Just opened up the locse leaf notebook and read.
But he was not a considerate CEO. In fact, he
often belittled and humiliated his speech writer jn

front of others and over the years the speech

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writer, although continuing to turn out
masterpieces —- came to despise his boss.

Finally, it came time for the speech writer
to retire. But the CEO prevailed on him to stay on
for one last job. It seems that he ~ the CEO — had
been invited to address the European Economic
Community and he wanted it to be at his very best.
The speech writer agreed, wrote the speech, the CEO ;
Flew to Paris — went to the opening session of the
European Economic Community, mounted the podium,
opened his loose leaf binder and read -

“Thank you for the high honor of addressing
you, Today I will identify the ten mast critical
problems impinging on the world. I will analyze
each from the point of its historical origin, its
cultural expressions, and its political, economic,
psycho-social and artistic dimensions. and then I
will make ten proposals - for solving these ten
critical problems."

He turned the page - page 7 was blank -

except for a simple sentence wrich read —

"OK you $.0.8., you're on your own.”

supviving in the Parish... a timely topic,
I trust, in the midst of post Christmas fatigue.
it was particularly devilish this year, I thought.
Here it is the season of quiet joy and loveliness:
the time for family and friends, and for a cup of
tea in the evening, looking at the tree... but
along about 3:00 a.m. December 25, Sunday - morning,
having presided and preached at 5:30 and 11:00 p.m.
saturday night, and having spent a few moments with
family and having arranged the gifts under the tree
and now ~ facing another series of services within
a matter of hours - I began to sag. And as the
rest of the human race was opening gifts while I
Was opening the church, and later as the rest of
the world was sitting down to dinner and I was
trying to deal as compassionately as possible with
three very needy people who assumed, with some
Justification, that a building with Jesus’ name on
it would be open and a place where one could expect
to find food and shelter in his building... I

sagged some more. Someone always needs a pastor on.
Christmas Day — and there are those falks in the
hospital and someone always dies at about that
time.

I discover each year that with a few
exceptions, our culture takes about two weeks off
between December 20 and January 3, at a time when
you and I have to work double time. And af you
ever understand the notion that, for the sake of
your family, you should give as much of yourself to
the celebration as others were doing, you were
stretched pretty thin, or feeling guilty, or
exhausted - or all of the above.

And now, finally - into a tiny empty spot in
the calendar, January - while our folks are skiing
in Aspen or sitting by the ocean in Naples, we're
in Columbus, Ohio, at a theological seminary,
talking about our faith - or the lack of it.
Garrison Keilior would Jove it.

But it’s more than the seasoned frenzy.

Actually, I tove it. I can’t imagine celebrating

Christmas without it. It’s more than occupational -
overload. In fact, we seem to have something of a
cultural epidemic going on - a new and fairly
serious outbreak of stress, stress-related i1iness
and burnout. The New York Times last week

new research on a now definable
condition Known as Yuppie Disease. It’s symptoms
are anger, depression and chronic fatigue:

TIME magazine in a recent feature on the
search process for pastors of tall steeple churches
~ noted that 25% of the clergy persons in maintine
denominations are trying to move to new positions.
I think that's conservative. I think half of us
are unhappy and wish we weren't. Our insurance
programs show that sisnificant numbers of us need
psychiatric and psychological clinical care. We're
hurting and part of it is the reflection of a
culture which is hurting.

A young professional in a three-piece suit,
apparently Jate for work, came barreling into a gas

Station in his BMW, screeched to a halt in front of

the pump and yeTled, “Can you fill it up? Can you -
Fill Wt up now?" The attendant was busy and
indicated that he would be there in a minute. The
young man pounded the steering wheel, yelled that a
minute wasn't fast enough and tore back onto the
street. Minutes Tater he was back at the pump,
having realized that he wasn't going far on an
empty tank. (Newsweek, April 25, 1988, "Stress on
the Job."] |

That incident was an illustration in a
Newsweek cover article last Aori] about stress. It
was one of hundreds of similar articles in
professional journals and popular magazines
recently on the topic of stress and burnout.

Anyone who deals with people: health
professionals, bus drivers, waitresses and bank
tellers, Knows that there is something pecutiar
going on, something new and unpleasant. We are
becoming a stressed-out society.
| We are acknowledging that stress is real:

that much of it is peculiar to this particular |

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time. People have always experienced stress, but
at nowhere near the level that has become the norm
for us. We Know that stress is sometimes creative
but mostly it is unhealthy and debilitating. It
makes us feel miserable. If it is unresolved it
results in a condition called BURNOUT - which is
the collapse of the human spirit, the emptiness
which occurs when one has spent-out 217 one's
physical, emotional and spiritual resources. We
are learning a lesson that is as old as the human
race, namely that the ways to cope with stress and
the threat of burnout are often spiritual.

What is stress? A psychologist friend of
mine says its “any outside pressure that makes you
feel bad inside."

stress is part of being human. In all of
creation, God gave us, alone, the ability to worry,
the capacity to imagine the worst and we are
experts at it In his newest book, Frederick
Buechner says telling us not to be anxious is Tike

telling a person with a head cold not to sneeze...

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“We torment ourselves with detailed visions of the -
worst that can possibly happen." Buechner
observes. “the nagging headache turns out to be a
malignant brain tumor. When your teen-age son
fails to get off the plane you see his picture
tacked-up in the post office among the permanent ly
missing.” {Whistling in the Dark, p. 16]
Partially, stress results from a magnificent
physical response system designed to protect us
called the Fight/Flight response: "a primitive
reflex that prepares humans for conflict when
confronted with danger... The body secretes
adrenaline and hydrocortisone. Hormones turn off
some functions including parts of the immune system
— and turn on short-term energy reserves."
(Newsweek, op. cit., p. 42] It's a wonderful
phenomenon. It's our four-alarm, cal]—out-ali-the-
troops, ability to react immediately to threats...
But - it 1s not always appropriate. Newsweelc
observes: "The same mechanism that helped cavemen

ward off their predators interferes when a

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situation calls for a long, sustained response —
like driving a car or like putting up with a
demanding boss. the trouble is the Fight/Flight
response gets triggered in the office... and you
can’t reach through the phone and strangle the
person who set it off.”

it not only feels miserable to be stressed,
it 1s very unhealthy. The simple fact is. that when
yOu aré stressed your digestive system isn't :
working very efficiently. Thase jolts of
adrenaline stretch the walls of your arteries and
they thicken over time. The cost of stress-related
itIness is estimated to be 150 billion dollars per
year.

What is new and particularly dangerous is
that stress now results from our way of life and
overwork. "Today's business world has generated
corrosive ways to wear down cur bodies and
spirits," Newsweek observes. Fully three-quarters

‘of Americans say their job causes stress.

A New York Times article reported a major new

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study of occupation related stress. It described
the classic case of a broker on October 19, whose
blood pressure and pulse perfectly reflected the
drop im stock prices. The mere the market fell,
the more his pulse and pressure increased. The
interesting new discoveries, however, ere that top
executives are not as vulnerable to stress as
others ~ particularly those in high demand/ Tow
control jobs, that is people who have to produce
but have Tittle say in how to produce. A recent
study revealed that race care drivers are not
nearly as stressed hurtling around the trace at 200
mp.h. as they are in the pit, when the mechanics
are in control. The highest risk category of a1,
it turns out, is mothers and homemakers whose
daytime job is high demand/low control, and who
then come home to meal preparation, piano lessons
and an argument with a husband.

The good news, relatively speaking, is that
you are not imagining it. It’s not just because

you're older, slower and not able to keep up.

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In fact, there is more stress about the bad
news. The bad news is that it feels terrible, can
ruin your relationships, deplete your spirit.
render you ineffective, make you sick, and
ultimately ki771 you.

Part of our unhappiness — the threat to our
survival! comes from our participation jn our
culture. And part of it is related to our
particular work — to what we do and who We are.

Our work 7s often lonely - structurally, the
system doesn’t surround us with supporters, friends
and colleagues. Often there is no care-giver for
US; and we insist that those who could, be called
"Executives."

The Tocal parish in which most of us work is
a lonely outpost. It's difficult for some of us to
have clase friends - the congregation. Sometimes
we ere the youngest person around —- by 20 years. A
young woman colleague sat and wept in my office and
teid me that in one year she had not had a single

social contact in her central I1vinois, rural,

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parish and she was dying of loneliness.

We live in a different time zone, live by a
different calendar. We are always out of step.
sunday is Friday for us... our weekend begins
sunday night. Monday is Saturday. who wants Monday
off? J want Saturday atong with everybody else.

So do my children. There are no weekends to go
away far. Holidays are when you work double time.
When your neighbors are packing up the wagon for
spring break, you're in the middle of Holy Week.

We live by different rules, expectations and
possibitities, and white that's part of the reason
we went into this business, there is a time between
the age of 35 and 40 when your peers are beginning
to hit it - big and buy new houses and cars and you
Know with a terrible clarity, that your 3.5% cost
of living increases aren't even going to make much
of a difference and that what you know a17 around
you 7s essentially it.

Ambition, drive, upward mobility are

encouraged, nurtured, celebrated and rewarded in

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the culture, but not in the church. We are not to-
let ambition, dreams, pride - interfere, so we

bury them - or tet them out and live with the
guilt.

We have high demand, low reward jobs. We
must function with considerable ski11 and expertise
as counselors, scholars, executives, teachers,
accountants, cheerleaders, and - of course ~
preachers. We can't really get by very well unless ©
we do all of it with skil1s and yet we're not sure
anyone even takes us seriously. We are caricatured
by our culture, people don't think we have a real
Job, our kids tell as their friends ask ~— "What
does your Dad/Mother do?"

We can find ourselves in every page of Anne
Wilson Schaef's Co-Dependence, as those whose
“lives are structured by the question ‘What wil]
others think?'... those who are totally dependent
on others for their very right te exist." (p. 48,
49}

And, since there is no clear job description,

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ne sales quota to meet, no preduction schedule to
accomplish, we never know when we are done working, |
and we are susceptible to the work addiction Schaef
describes (although I'm suspicious of a cultural
disease which includes everybody in the world) and
Which Wayne Oates descriptively called Workaholisn.

One of the best essays - and one of the mast
helpful ~ was written years ago by Professor
sittler under the title - "The Maceration .of the
Minister (It is published several places ~ The
Ecology of Faith and portions in Grace Notes and
Other Fragments, the little book cf essays
published on Sittler's 75th birthday. I commend it
ta you. Even if you don’t like what Sittier says,
he uses the jJanguage beautifully and innovatively.
Reading @ good Sittler sentence is a Tittle like
watching Michael Jordan blast off at the free throw
even fer a soaring gicrious slam.

“Ta macerate™ is to “chop up into smal]
Pieces." The size or lecation of the -congregation

doesn't matter; although I have a sense that

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maceration is more of a likelihood for men and
women in solo situations, going it alone and doing
it alt.

Sittler wrote that “in seminary classrooms,
the student comes ta know that the 'basileia tou
theou' is a phrase of enormous scope and depth, and
its study ought to persist throughout life. And
then the professor visits the graduate on the job
and sees the lines of old books on the shelves.
Filed on top of these will be mementos of present
concerns: a role of blueprints; a file of
negotiations between the parish, the bank and the
Board of Missions; samples of asphalt tile; and a
plumber’s estimate.” {Grace Notes and Other
Fragments, p. 58]

And finally the heart ache ~ the sense that
thins are not not right, are maybe even out-oft~
controt in our lives: the sense that everyone else
seems to be living orderly, intentional existences
with jobs that pay them what they are worth and

reward them for excellence while yours feels Tike

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it iS careening from one crisis to another - or
like the circus performer spinning fragile plates
on top of sticks, madly rushing from plate to
plate, keeping them ali up in the air... the
disappointment that these little colonies of heaven
we sense in fact are not always heavenly, that the
people in them are altogether human which means at
Teast partially hellish, translate that sametimes
thoushtiess, unkind. hurtful... the unflattering
comparison with your successar - “Why when Rev.
omith was here we used to have big crowds on Sunday
morning”... the mindless criticism, the sense that

because you're the preacher they can say anything.

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The way many of us try to survive in the
parish, it seems to me, is by outworking everybody
else, in the fanguage of Co-Dependency, by becoming
people pleasers with such a totality of commitment
and that we we can even justify it as the Cost of
Giscipleship. Do you recal? Richard Pryor's
attempt to make comedy out of the terrible
incident tn which his drug apparatus blew up and
his clothes were on fire and even thoush he knew
better he raced out of the house and ran down the
street - because he said he Knew as jong as he was
running he was alive and that if he stopped running
he'd be dead. I didn’t laugh at that. It sounded
too familiar.

Wayne Cates called it Workaholism — a disease
which appears in our 20s and 20s and if
uninterrupted can and often is fatal in our 60s.
You know the symptoms - A workaholic salts
conversations with allusion to how eariy he was at
work and how she stayed later than anyone —

—a workandotic always finds a way to say how

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much work he is doing

—she 1s always busy, breathless, slightly /
disorganized, in a hurry, always a little Tate.

-he is truly over-committed, believing that
if he doesn't do it nobody else will with the sad
result that nothing is done very well with
resulting guilt and despair. |

~she has real trouble with grace, real
trouble receiving gifts from others ~ compliments,

Kindness, Jove, acceptance, grace — from anyone and
from God.

How te survive? I do believe it helps to
Know why we hurt. And while there is a risk that
we Will wallow in self-pity or even enjoy our
martyrdom. and a very real possibility that we wil]
feel anger and resentment ~ I think it makes sense
ta look honestly at what we do and why we don't
feel good about it.

And I Tike - madestiy - to propose some
survival techniques.

The first is

“Live in the present... It was @ moment of
pevelation for me when, reading a book by James
Dittes, Minister on the Spot, I saw that that
wonderful character in John 5, lying on his mat for
38 years beside the pool of Bethzatha, really
didn’t want to be healed, at least in the
present... Maybe someday, somehow he'd make it to
the pool on time. I think there is something
intrinsic to our humanity which is aroused by the
eschatological dimension of the Gaspe? which leaves

US always watching and waiting for "it" to happen

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in the future, whetever “it” ds.

We conclude, early on, that the Kingdom isnt ~
coming in the parish. Maybe another one... with 4
few more members, a bigger bucget, more leadership,
more commitment. We invest heavily in the hope
that the future will bring us joy, satisfaction,
peace, salvation even. In the meantime we have to
grit our teeth and slug it out.

That, I propose, is a lousy way to be jin
ministry and it's a lousy way to live: It's a part ©
of our humanity that needs saving. Soa let's ask
God to save us from it. Let's stop taking so
seriously the wonderful success stories others tet]
us about their parishes and Took with renewed
interest and love and hope to ours.

Let's listen to one of our brothers, . Fred
Buechner :

"You are alive. It needn't have been so. It
wasn't so once and it will not be so forever. But
it issonow. And what is it Tike: tobe alive in

this maybe one place of al] places anywhere life

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1s? Live aday of it and see. Take any day and be
alive in it. Nobody claims that it wil] be
entirely painiess, but no matter. It is your
birthday and there are many presents to open. The
world iS to open." {Alphabet of Grace, p. 36]
The second is
“Not all demands are equal

If they are. If you cannot say no, if you
respond with totality and immediacy to every
stimulus you are not in charge of your life. God ~
is not in charge of your life. You can’t really
blame your people either. The fact is nobody's in
charge.

The Maceration of the Ministry is a fact,
maybe not even a bad fact. I love the diversity —
the demand to be administrator, counselor, scholar,
teacher - al] before noon. Marty tells about
sitting on an airplane talking to a very successful
business man ~ whose whole life is invested
essentially in selling paper clips - and thanking

God for the magnificent diversity of this modest

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job of ours. But ~ you don’t have to exacerbate
the Maceration. You can understand it and say no .
sometimes and stop believing that stuff about 7t
not getting done if you don't do it. You can
assemble a Personnel Committee - even if its only
one other person and clarify what the people for
who you work want you to do with your time. You
will, I am sure, be surprised by the possibilities
of grace which almost always occur simply by asking
them to help you with this.

The third idea is ~

Administration is Ministry

Tedious routine is not the shadow side of our
calling - it is better described as the enabling
power of mission. Administration is helping
churches do what God calls them to do. If you mean
what you say when you affirm belief in the Holy
CathoTic Church, there is nothing more urgent than
learning how to administer and doing it with
intelligence, imagination, love and in prime time.

The fourth idea is that there is ~

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“Rent to Be Paid

Jim Glasse said it in Putting it Together in
the Parish:

“Most parishes want three things from their
pastor. If he meets these minimal requirements -
he is free to do what he wants. Gnce the rent is-
paid she is free to march for peace, paint
pictures, play golf —

“But first -— the rent

1. Preaching and worship ~ a Sunday morning ~

to which they are nat ashamed to bring their
friends. |

2. Teaching and Pastoral Care - they want
to Know that the pastor cares about them and will
help them with their faith journey.

3. Administration —- a balanced budget, a
working furnace and a visible and effective
organization."

Glasse says paying the rent is not full time
work, but if we do it ~ we will be free.

Idea five is -

2/

—_
7

~Ihere 3s enoush Time -

Remember that great Michael Quoist prayer
about time - "they never have enough time...they
have no more time... Lord we have enough time."
It's true,

When T was newly ordained, serving a small
church in Northern Indiana — steel workers and
small farmers and a teacher or two - I knew that it
was important to prove my worth te them by working
harder and jonger than anyone else. It was
Saturday, Sunday, early - I was behind my desk.
Into. the study came the husband of the treasurer to
bring me my check and a dozen eggs. Mike Paddock,
grizzled, tough foreman in the mil]: "What the
hel] you doin’ here on Saturday morning?” Mike
asked. “You ought te be home with your family,
like everybody else.” "But Mr. Paddock," I
protested, "IT need to be available to people. I
need to be here when they are and that means
Saturday.” “Baloney" he said. ‘People don't wanna

see you today. They wanna go to the store, get 2

28

haircut, watch the game. Go home. They'll see you

Vt

tomorrow.

If we work al? week and then tell ourselves
that we must be there for our people when they are
free - we will work evenings and Saturdays and
Sundays and we do, many of us. So some time ago I
Started refusing to do that and I'm sorry someone
didn't tell me even earlier. I missed bathing the
babies for a while - but not for long. I simply
refuse to miss one-time games or concerts... I am
fairly shameless about it. TI am stil] saying - “I
can only stay 30 minutes. My son's game begins at
8:00."

Mike Paddock never heard of Henri Nouwen —
but they think a lot alike. Nouwen talks about the
Ministry of Unavailability ~ of being intentionally
Unavailable and what that does not only for us -
but for our people. I've never refused a telephone
call because I was praying - but I'd like to, and I
certainly have refused meetings and appointments

because I have symphony tickets. And I have had

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folks say thank you for showing that it’s OC to
miss a church meeting in order to be with family.
Nouwen was appalled at a71 the open deers in our
offices - our relentless accessibility and the tol
it had to take on us personally.

Idea six is —

~Be a Steward of Yourself... spend your
lives with intention. Give 7t away ~ with
imagination.

Take care of yourself physically. We are, in:
fact, whole beings. Your heart and spirit are
connected to your arms and back and stomach. so
eat right and sleep enough and get regular exercise
and nurture your spirit. Read - read as much as
you want to read - it is part of your job ~ and it
is how you feed your soul.

Cite successful broker, Pau} Gignilliat —
quoting Shakespeare ~

Cite states attorney, Jim Zartman plays
violin two hours a day - 6:00-8:00!

Buechner wrote:

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“AL 1ks heart most tnealogy, Tike most
fiction, is essentially autobiography. Acaquinas,
Calvin. Barth, Tillich, working out their system in
their own ways and in their own language, and ali
telling us the stories of our lives, and if you
press them far enough, even at their most cerebral
and forbidding, you find an experience of flesh and
blood, a human face smiling or frowning or weeping
or covering its eyes before something that happened
once... {f cannot talk about God or sin or grace, <-
for example, without at the same time talking about
those parts of my own experience when these ideas
become compelling and real.” (Ibid, p.3, 4]

So, in the final analysis, it comes back te
the faith of the minister. Having laughed, wept
and mused over our "sitz in leben" - we are left
with our faith and the cali of Jesus Christ to be
faithful witnesses...

And I confess to you that the ropic always
makes me a little defensive... Albert Curry Winn,

former Presbyterian of Louisville Presbyterian

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Theological Seminary - addressed the students clown
there recently and said what parishes want are
pastors "who are not friends, but men and womer: of
authentic faith.” He cited a recent Alban
Institute study of why Jay people are dissatisfied
with their pastors. “The expected answers were,
‘he preachers on politics too much, she doesn't
visit enough... but what emerged as the major
complaint was ‘spiritual inauthenticity. *"

Now I like Al Winn a lot and I respect the
Alban Institute - but I get a little impatient with
what feels like a scolding for not having enough
faith. And I have fussed with this a little bit in
preparation for the presentation and I have located
in myself feelings of inadequacy when someone says
something Vike people are unhappy with their
pastors because they think they're phonies.

The truth is you can't conjure up faith, You
can’t have stronger faith because a seminary
president or a distinguished research institute or

a visitor from Chicago urges you to. -

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Faith is a gift. Know one knew that more
thoroughly than Martin Luther. It is part of what
God does for us ~ graciously - gives us the ability
to respond to love and mercy - with trust.

So — what to do? Oon't do anything...
Instead of doing - listen for a while. Stop
talking about faith and be quiet.

I'm proposing that you have enough faith -
simply because it is god's gift to you.
Acknowledge it, embrace it, weep tears of Joy over -
it.

“Listen to your own life” Buechner advises,
"Pay particular attention to those times when you
have a Tump in your throat and tears in your eyes.

Acknowledge your own experience as @ person
of faith — your own expertise in spiritual
discipline and faith journey. You don’t have time
for that stuff.. You think about devotions,
prayers, retreats - but can’t Fit them in?

Aliow me to propise an alternative scenario.

You and I prepare sermons - we read and study

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scripture - we pray - particularly if praying means
struggling with, wrestling, agonizing over, cursing
sometimes, expressing our hearts - week im and week
out. We spend a lot of time or spiritual
discipline and we are on a Journey. Our faith is
growing and devetoping and becoming every time we -
Jay it al] out before a congregation.

So listen to your life and your spirit. And
pay special attention to moments of passion and
profound caring ~- when your eyes, in spite of
yourself, are full of tears.

And Jisten to the Gospel. Listen to what you
preach.

It begins - Tike music - not in your mouth —
but in your ear, someone said. The Gospel is heard
and experienced before it 7s spoken.

So listen - the words you speak to others are
for you.

The words of encouragement, consolation,
courage and hape which you struggle to articulate

with all your integrity and strength — those words

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are first of all for you.

,.the bread you break for others is first of
al} - bread for your hunger and the cup you are
privileged to raise in the company of the faithful
is first of all for your thirst.

..the Gospel is not limited to your
understanding of it... the Christian faith, the

of God, is not limited by my experience
of it - or by ability to articulate it. in fact,
there are times when I must articulate what I do -
not yet fully comprehend - or fully believe. there
are times when I must rely on that larger faith of
the Church to get me by ~ all the saints have known
that.

But that Gospel is for me - and you. The
grace we announce is for us. The acceptance we
proclaim iS our.

The Good News of the Gospel is that in Jesus
Christ Gad loves us.

That grace requires no work, no merit, no

overture, no martyrdom to merit it... It requires

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nothing - only our openness and receptivity. That
grace we believe is sufficient. At least once we _
believed that the grace of God in Jesus Christ was
all that was necessary to save life -
That grace is for you...
Thanks Be Io God!

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