A Word from Pastor Nathan

Last week, the Rev. Dr. Joretta Marshall, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Pastoral Care and Counseling at Brite Divinity School, and I shared a conversation by Zoom. Unfortunately, I never had Joretta in class, but she was the Executive Vice President and Dean. Two years ago, she helped me discern a path from Brite to Elyria, Ohio.

On Tuesday, we discussed the many layers of loss, the ambiguities of grief, psalms of lament, and the theological claim that there is no place where God is not. She affirmed some of my wonderings and provided gentle turns toward what I could not see clearly. Joretta also reminded me of a favorite word: penultimate. Death, loss, and silence are penultimate. So are sermons delivered at funerals.

On Thursday, Joretta followed up with me by email and said, “You are really important to God’s work in the world, and not at all important. Both are true.” I had to read the second phrase at least three times to be sure that it wasn’t a typo.

Preparing the funeral service last week was the most difficult theological, biblical, and spiritual challenge I’ve experienced. I wanted to be the pastor the family and the community needed, and that required finding the Word within words. This work is important, and it’s critical, but the work belongs to God; we are the players. We are not at all important as we think we are; we aren’t the center of the universe. The narrative is not about us.

The invitation in Joretta’s words is to see the grace in both. We need all the grace we can get to do the work, to show up, to be present, to hold silence, and to speak. There’s also grace in trusting that we are not at all important. Everything we do is penultimate. Tom Bailey writes, “The pines have reawakened me to something that as a forester I’ve long known by heart: The work we live to do is work we’ll never see completed. The snow will continue to fall. The geese will come back, just as they will continue to go. I have my faith. The strength of belief. But this is the truth in our story the pines need to relate. This, they whisper, this is the grace that keeps this world. Honor it.”

Grace be with you, dear friends,