Paul Running was a friend and mentor to me. He came to TLC after retirement. He was a parish pastor in Wisconsin in the early 60s. It was a golden era for the Lutheran Church, especially in the upper Midwest. His career path was set, and then he experienced a call to ministry in a different place. God called him to serve in the United States Navy as a Chaplain.
This call to service would lead him away from the good life in Wisconsin. No more beer-cheese soup, cheese curds, walleye fishing, or Green Bay Packers games. Chaplain Paul Running was off to the Bay of Pigs and then to Vietnam. His place was with the Marines and Navy on the front lines of conflict. Chaplain Paul Running would end his Navy career as the Chief of Navy Chaplains, serving at the Pentagon.
In retirement, Pastor Paul and his wife, Marilyn, were regulars at Trinity Lutheran Church. They encouraged the young pastor and the young pastor’s wife. They were a gift to us. Then Paul got cancer. This man who knew battle would now fight for his life against renal cell cancer.
I visited Paul in the hospital after a particularly difficult surgery. The surgeon had just given him the report. We embraced and I sat down with my communion kit in hand.
Paul’s eyes began to fill with tears. He said, “The surgeon was just here. I wish you had been here too. He said that everything went well. But then very casually, very matter of fact, the surgeon said, ‘we had to give you two pints of blood, and we had to use some donor bone on your back.’ The body broken for me and the blood shed for me. It makes me think of communion in a whole new light.”
On this Veterans Day, I give thanks for my mentor, Chaplain Paul Running and for all who have sacrificed their comfort, their bodies, and their blood for the cause of freedom. Freedom is not free; it comes to most of us as a gift, a costly gift indeed.
This Sunday you will be invited to come down the center aisle, to hold out your hands to receive the bread and the wine. Perhaps as you do so, you will remember Paul Running and the real meaning of the words, “this is my body given for you; this is my blood shed for you.”
See you in church!
Love,
Pastor Jim
PS: THIS SUNDAY is Sweatshirt Sunday! Wear your favorite Huskies, Cougars, Seahawks, Wolves or Falcons sweatshirt! Show your colors this Sunday as the family gathers to worship and serve.
