Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
What a joyful morning it was at Trinity Lutheran Church last Sunday when two of our Trinity Preschool alums were baptized into the Christian faith and into our membership. Fourteen-year-old Matias and his eight-year-old sister Azalea stood at the font, next to them their parents, behind them a loving family, and before them a community of faith promising to care for them. Matias and Azalea are not employed, they have no higher education degrees, they have little to offer God and yet God’s non-transactional love for them was declared.
Loved, forgiven and never alone. The water in the font is not holy water, rather it is among the most common of elements. There is a method to the crazy love of our God. The grace filled promises of God come to us in the common elements of daily life; water, bread and wine. The vehicles of grace are poured out to the rich and the poor. With each meal, bath, and rain shower we are reminded of God’s unfailing love for us.
Tomorrow we will gather at the font again. This time we will be sending one of our own out into the mission field. Orion Gudgell will be headed to South Dakota to spend a year serving an ELCA congregation as a pastoral intern. He will be leaving the Pacific Northwest and a community he loves for the Great Northern Plains. He will receive a pittance of a stipend, and he will work long days serving the people of God. He cannot punch out at 5 p.m.; no, he will continue to serve in the evening, on weekends and on vacation. His head will not hit the pillow at bedtime without carrying the people entrusted to him in his heart. It is a baptism by fire that our ordained pastors go through, like a boot camp, or residency, and a time of discernment. A year from now, the time of discernment will lead to a series of questions that will define the rest of Orion’s life. Will you accept the call to follow Jesus? This is not a job. This is not a career move. This is about laying down your life for those that you are called to serve.
Intrigued by our church sign, Orion wandered suspiciously into a TLC worship service 8 years ago. He came searching for an authentic community that would accept him and love him as he was, not as they thought he should be. He found that community among us. Orion was baptized at Trinity in 2017. For the past 7 years he has been answering the call to ordained ministry with rigorous study, trips to Luther Seminary, completion of his course work, and an internship at Bethany Nursing Home in Everett. He has faithfully and patiently jumped through one bureaucratic hoop after another.
Tomorrow we will send Orion with a splash of water and prayer. Perhaps a year from now we will gather at the font with him again. He may join those who have been ordained at TLC; Pastor Peter Mohr, Pastor Annette Andrews Lux, Pastor Sean Janssen, Chaplain Mark Cook and Pastor Elizabeth Felt.
Tomorrow, we will send Orion into the mission field, but every week we also send you out. You are the hands and feet of Jesus in the world, you go places where I cannot go, you were called in the waters of baptism; called to ministry and service wherever you find yourself, day or night, Sunday or Monday you are to follow Jesus. That is how it works, that is God’s plan. May God bless Matias, Azalea and Orion. May God bless you as you build a better world through love.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
In love, Pastor Jim
PS: If you would like to respond directly to Pastor Jim, please email rvlindus@whidbey.com.
