The Margins

I made a late-night run to Fred Meyer this week and chose a checkout line that seemed to be moving quickly. As I waited my turn, I noticed a flag marking this particular checkout line as “family friendly”. Looking around me, I wondered what exactly this designation meant. Candy, gum, and toys were all resting in their splendor at perfect child-height, so I knew at least that my definition of “family friendly” was not theirs. When I made my way up to where the checker stood, I asked her as she scanned my items what “family friendly” meant in this context.

“I’m the only one who is nice to kids” she quipped. “Seriously, though, it means that there are no magazines in this particular aisle.”

Looking around I realized that, indeed, I had learned nothing about Angelina Jolie or a Kardashian while waiting. Interesting that I hadn’t even noticed.

“My boys care much more about the Hot Wheels and chocolate than they do about the Booby magazines!” I told her and she laughed. We then compared notes about our kids and she asked me if I was sending my kids to a local Vacation Bible School that is apparently very fun here in Shoreline. I told her that no, I wasn’t, and she proceeded to share with me details of all the local churches and what they offered in terms of VBS programs.She made a comment about how she sends her kids to as many of them as she can and that it is nice to have a bit of time to herself. “You definitely should do it!” she told me, in that one mom looking out for another mom kind of way.

I mentioned that we did attend our church’s VBS and that I work at our church. Her countenance changed, and she spoke differently to me at that point.

“You see, I didn’t grow up with anything having to do with the church,” she said with tears showing in her eyes. “It means so much to grow up learning about God when you are a child. I never got that. I had to wait far too long and I made a lot of mistakes in my life. It just means so much to get it when you are young. I want my kids to have that, since I never did.”

I thought of the comments I made last summer about families that hit up a different VBS every week. I think I looked down on this a bit, like “oh, people are just taking advantage of basically free childcare and not having to deal with their kids for a week!”

I was reminded that most of the time, we really don’t know what is going on with people: the stories behind their decisions, what their motivations are, and we are far too willing to fill in the blanks and offer our judgment.

“The monastic life is a culture of silence,” he said. “It’s not that there’s nothing to be said, it’s that there is so much to be heard.” He said that the practice of silence stands in strong opposition to a culture that is “obsessed with multitasking…

Multitasking has been normalized. It is costly to the soul,” he said.

From Jennifer Grant at Her.meneutics

My church had planned to celebrate my recent ordination this past Sunday, however a trip to the ER Saturday evening with a sudden illness meant that I had to spend the day at home in bed. I wrote this letter to be read in my absence.

Dear SCC Family,

Well, this is not at all how I had imagined this day would go. As I sat in the ER last night, and as it became more and more clear that I would not only not be preaching today but I would not even be there with all of you, I was overcome with sadness and had to fight back tears a number of times. It meant a lot to me that I would have a chance to celebrate my ordination with all of you, and I am so sad to miss the festivities planned for today. I want to thank Pastor Dennis and my mom, Vicki, especially for all of their hard work and planning in preparation for today. It means a great deal to me that you went to all the trouble you did to make this a special day for my family and me.

I asked Doug to read this letter on my behalf so that you might at least have this opportunity to receive my personal thank you for all of the ways you have, as individuals and as a body, supported me and my family through this long and involved process of becoming an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant denomination.

So, thank you.

Thank you for being my Sunday School teachers.

Thank you for helping to send me to camp to learn how to ride horses and become a disciple of Jesus.

Thank you for teaching me to share my faith through music and drama.

Thank you for teaching me to study the Bible.

Thank you for Confirmation, CHIC, mission trips, and service projects.

Thank you for being my mentors, teachers, and friends.

Thank you for loving my family: the one I was born with and the one I have now been given.

Thank you for inviting me to preach when I was young and didn’t know what I was doing.

Thank you for supporting my mission work in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Thank you for publishing things I had written, in the Pacesettter, and inviting me to come and teach at adult Sunday School and retreats.

Thank you for calling Doug and I to serve as pastors here, and allowing us to lead you.

As we moved through the ordination process, the one thing that we were always reminded of was that taking the vows of Ordination is a recognition of God’s call in our lives as seen and affirmed by a multiplicity of voices in our life and our ministry. We cannot alone decide to “become” ordained. A Seminary education does not entitle us to ordination. Our local church cannot ordain us apart from the broader consensus of the conference and the entire denomination.

That moment in St. Paul where I took my vows and received the laying on of hands from those who have gone before me, represented the agreement of a great many people that God has indeed been at work to call and gift me for this ministry. It was very much a “it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us” kind of moment and I felt your presence there with me in a profound way.

That is what I want to bear witness to today through this letter: that you, as a community, were faithful partners in my call to ministry. And also, to encourage us all to continue to pay attention to the Holy Spirit at work in our midst as we affirm what we see God doing in people’s lives here at SCC. Let us not tire of teaching Sunday school and sending kids to camp and leading mission trips and mentoring our young people. Let us not grow weary of helping people go to seminary. Let us not stop taking risks by inviting people to preach and teach and lead even when they don’t totally know what they are doing. I am sure we have future ministers in our midst. We just don’t know yet who they are. Let’s make sure we pay attention, together.

With my gratitude and love, and for God’s glory.

Pastor Erika