Odds & Ends

Our church’s monthly newsletter has a page called, “This ‘n That” which provides the pastors a space to post announcements of upcoming events, give short summaries of recent developments, congratulate people, offer condolences, and list people who need prayers for healing. It is a helpful way to communicate important matters to the members in a succinct manner.

I found it very useful, which is why I’m beginning a similar “page” for my blog. I’m calling it, “Odds & Ends” (to avoid copyright infringement?). I don’t know how often it will appear, but whenever I accumulate a few things to tell you which don’t warrant an entire article, I’ll stick them in “Odds & Ends” and pass them along. I hope you will find these short comments useful and interesting.

  1. The Bible translation I am using the most in my blog citations is the English Standard Version (ESV). It follows in the long tradition of the King James Version/ASV/RSV while taking advantage of recent textual discoveries and updated language. Before switching to the ESV I used the NIV because it was very comfortable and understandable, but its tendency to play loose at times with its translations, plus the decision of the copyright holder to forbid public use of the NIV from any editions before 2011, led me to make the switch. (Besides, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (ESV), just sounds better than “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (NIV). I know my preference is subjective and not a rigorous scholarly opinion, but it is after all my blog!
  2. You may have noticed that except for my first post, I have not been capitalizing the personal pronouns which refer to the Deity. This is not to show any lack of respect or honor for God, but to be consistent with both the modern English translations which I cite (such as the ESV) and the Hebrew and Greek biblical texts from which those translations are made. Pronouns such as he, his, him, and himself are not capitalized in the Greek or the Hebrew texts, so using lower case letters is actually more scripturally accurate.
  3. The Bibles pictured in the heading on my blog pages are from my own library. While I was looking online for stock images of books to place in the header and portray my interest in reading, my wife asked me why I didn’t just take a picture of my own books since I had so many to choose from. It was one of those “duh!” moments. She was right of course, so I got out the camera and took the picture you see. We like how it turned out, and besides . . . no royalties! (Unless you want to use it, then let’s talk . . .)
  4. Besides writing my blog and trying to assimilate the books from my church office into my home library, I’m also finishing work on my second book, which has the working title of Raising Ebenezers: Recognizing God’s Miracles in Your Life. I was almost done with it until I taught a course on miracles at church and realized there were a few more things to be added to the book. By the way, Ebenezer means “stone of help,” and refers to a stone that Samuel erected to commemorate God’s help in defeating the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). Watch for news of publication when it’s done!

Until next time, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace.

Read: 1 Samuel 7:5-14

A Trifecta of Trust

Over the years, long before I headed off to seminary at the age of 40, I found certain passages and books of the Bible to be especially exciting and interesting. While there were too many to list all of them here, they included the Great Flood of Noah’s day, the plagues of Egypt leading to the Exodus, the collapse of Jericho’s walls, Gideon’s victory over the Midianites, David’s killing of Goliath, Elijah’s defeat of the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, and most of the book of Daniel. In the New Testament I enjoyed the account of Jesus’ birth in Luke, Jesus’ miracles, and most of the book of Revelation. You can probably detect a pattern here: God’s power demonstrated in dramatic events which delivered his people and defeated his enemies. The sort of things we would expect from a mighty and holy God!

Those passages and others like them still appeal to me a lot. But since then, largely as a result of my pastoral ministry, study, and life experiences, I have also come to appreciate “quieter” passages, especially those that speak of faith.

Faith – also called belief and trust – is the essential fact and requirement of a Christian’s life. Without it, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6); through it God justifies us (Romans 3:28) and saves us by his grace (Ephesians 2:8). But it’s important to note from the start that biblical faith requires an object of that faith. Unlike what is portrayed in popular movies and television shows, true faith is not some personal spiritual quality which we create or conjure up to give us an optimistic view of the future. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is not a feeling; it is an assurance of something specific. Ultimately, faith is belief in the greatest “unseen” reality, and that is in God himself.

In pondering faith and its meaning and applications, I have found three verses to be especially helpful and motivating. You could call them a “Trifecta of Trust.” They are more than just any three verses from among many that could be chosen; these verses impacted me at different times in my life, and they represent to me ascending levels of trust in God and in his Son, Jesus Christ.  They are as follows:

The first verse is about believing there is a God, specifically the God who revealed himself to us in the Bible. While there are many verses that call on us to believe in God, the one that first impacted me as a teenager was my confirmation verse,

John 1:12, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

This verse speaks specifically about Christ and promises a blessing attached to faith in him and in God. As a young believer, I knew that God was real and I believed in Jesus by name. I also appreciated that he accepted me as his child (though at the time I wrongly saw this adoption as a future event; in my mind, the “right to become” a child of God did not mean I was there yet.)

In its context, this verse contrasts the unbelief and rejection which Christ faced from his own people, to God’s adoption of those who receive his Son. For the reality is that most of the world then and now rejects our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who reject him will in turn be rejected by God, for the promise of salvation in John 3:16 is followed by the warning of John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Paul adds in Romans 1:20 that there is no excuse for such disbelief: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

So the basic requirement of faith is to believe in God. It is the foundation for all that follows, even to eternal life.

The second verse(s) was given to me after I arrived and began my studies at seminary. At that time I was a candidate with a large Lutheran church body, but encountered resistance from the very beginning by that church’s candidacy committee due to my belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Realizing that I was on the fringe of that denomination and would be constantly at odds with its teachings and leaders, I began to consider alternative Lutheran bodies.

It was a scary time. We had sold our house, quit our jobs, and moved to a different state to attend seminary. I was attending one of the most expensive seminaries in the country, and now on top of that, the idea of leaving a likely placement for an unknown affiliation meant more uncertainty.

After a particularly rough meeting with my candidacy committee, I contacted one of the alternative church bodies I had learned about: The American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC). During a phone conversation with the AALC’s Seminary President, Dr. Norm Lund, we prayed for my discernment. Then Dr. Lund told me to open my Bible to the following verses:

Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make straight your paths.”

In that entire Bible which I opened, there was only one passage that was highlighted. I don’t remember highlighting it, nor reading it before that moment. But there it was, standing out from the page in glorious yellow highlight: Proverbs 3:5-6. I knew as I read it that the Lord was making my path straight to where he wanted me: in the AALC. Over the next two years that same passage kept coming to me in books, on a key fob given me by an elderly gentleman usher, and finally on my ordination day banner (and cake!).

It’s one thing to believe there is a God, and even to believe he is your God, but it takes more to follow that God wherever He might lead you. This is especially true when there is no way you can see the situation working out. You accept the promise that the Lord will direct you in the right way, and that the result – his result – will be good.

This is tough to do, because we want to be the masters of our own fate, and to be in charge of where we’re going and what we’re doing. We may turn over some things to God, but everything? Trust in the Lord with all our heart? Seriously? At minimum, we want to understand what is going on and why things are happening to us as they are: “Why me, Lord?” “What did I do to deserve this?” “Why now?”

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust completely in God, who happens to be the One with all power, all knowledge, and all love, who seeks what is best for us. I think that sounds like a good plan to trust that God knows what he is doing.

Now that I have retired, I have questions about where God will lead. What paths will lie ahead? What all does He want me to do? Those questions are natural, but Karen and I do feel confident that the Lord will make His will for us known, and that we can trust Him for making all our future paths straight. The key to me is two-fold: to trust in God, and to acknowledge Him in everything I do.

Finally, the third verse is one that has become more important to me over time as my ministry has brought me close to people who have remained strong in faith even when horrible things happened to them or their loved ones. They showed a deeper level of faith that trusted God in the worst of times when He did not answer their prayers as they desired. A loved one was not healed; a relationship ended; a job and home were lost. And yet, they still trusted God and worshiped him in spite of their disappointments. The verse which speaks to me about this level of faith – a faith that believes in God when there is no deliverance – is found in the book of Job, and was spoken by Job in the midst of his losses and afflictions. Job questioned why those horrible things had happened to him, who was a righteous man, but he affirmed that his faith did not depend on God’s blessings:

Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him . . .”

Both previous verses contain a promise: John 1:12 promises adoption as God’s children, and Proverbs 3:5-6 promises God’s guidance and assistance. This verse promises nothing to the faithful believer. It requires nothing from God; the believer will trust God no matter what, no matter how badly things turn out. This is an incredibly powerful kind of faith, and the people who show it humble and inspire me.

It was the kind of faith shown by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3, who when ordered by King Nebuchadnezzar to bow down before his golden image or face death in a burning fiery furnace, could answer: “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

It was the kind of faith shown in 2015 by the 21 Coptic Christians who were ordered by their Libyan Islamic captors to renounce Christ. They refused, and instead praised Jesus Christ even as they were beheaded. It is the kind of faith being shown by Christians in many places today, who put their faith, and hope, in the true God regardless of their earthly fate.

So where does this leave me? I know I have the first level of faith, that is belief in Jesus Christ. I have learned to trust and rejoice that God directs my paths and I try to trust Him in more and more areas of my life. But of that third level of Job-like trust when there is no deliverance, I’m less confident. I want to have that kind of faith; I just don’t want to face what Job, Shadrach, and the Copts did to prove it. And yet, look at what Jesus went through for me . . .

So where does this leave you . . . ?

 

The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Hebrews 11

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, Now What?

Okay, now what do I write about?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself since beginning my blog just four days ago. I felt inspired when I wrote it, am happy with the way it turned out, and appreciate the kind comments of those who first reviewed it. But I understand that a blogger doesn’t stop with just one post; a blogger is supposed to keep writing new posts all the time. So now what do I write about?

This reminds me of when we lived in Indiana. I had begun taking some seminary courses in extension while working at my “day job” as executive director of a large local youth organization. When that job ended in the fall of 1990, my pastor knew I would be available to help out at a local country church, St. George Lutheran in nearby Edinburgh, Indiana, whose pastor had recently died.

I preached for them one Sunday, dressed as Martin Luther and portraying the Reformer and the events by which he helped launch the Protestant Reformation. I guess the message was well received because they invited me back the next week to preach again and lead the service. All right, this was different. Whereas I had written the Luther monologue and had previously presented it at my own church (First Lutheran in Columbus), I hadn’t actually preached a sermon per se.  So I asked myself, “Okay, now what?”

Then I sat down and wrote a sermon. I put into it everything I knew about Jesus Christ and John the Baptist and the Christian faith. I cited numerous scriptures and gave multiple illustrations and the sermon was twice as long as it should have been and it was terrible. When the service ended I felt bad and a bit embarrassed. I said my good-byes, not expecting to see those nice people again.

But then during the week, they called and asked me to come back again. Now I REALLY asked myself, “Okay, now what?” What else could I preach about that I hadn’t already covered the previous Sunday? I was stumped.

During that week I happened to share my anxiety with my sister who was living with us at the time. I said something like, “I don’t know what else to write about; I’ve told them everything!” To which she replied, “What gives you the audacity to think you have exhausted all the riches of God’s grace in one sermon?”

Ouch! She was right. Now, over 22 years of sermons later, I retire knowing I have barely scratched the surface of the riches of God’s grace.

Which brings me to the title of today’s post: “Okay, now what?” I feel like I did after the sermon at St. George! But, putting on my thinking cap, I have come up with several options for future posts:

  • Exegetical exposition of scripture texts such as those found in the lectionaries for each week
  • Sermons I have preached or articles I have written
  • Insights gleaned from my years of pastoral ministry
  • Essays on other topics which interest me, such as mineralogy, paleontology, herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians, not the study of herpes as one person suggested), history, archaeology, creation, and languages
  • Travelogues of places I’ve been
  • A journal of my retirement
  • Reviews of funny cat videos

After drawing up this list, I realize there are plenty of things to write about in this blog. Maybe I’ll get around to some of them. Maybe I’ll end up focusing on one important topic, such as the grace of God. Maybe I’ll take your suggestions. But for today, maybe I won’t write a post, and instead just ask the question, “Okay, now what?”

The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Ephesians 3:20-21

The Irony of Emeriti

Hi, and welcome to my first ever blog post! My name is Richard Eddy. Also known as the Reverend Richard Eddy, B.S. and M.Div. Also known as Pastor Rich Eddy for the past 22 years at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church (AALC) in Elk Grove, California. And, since January 1st, as Rich Eddy, pastor emeritus.

Which term, pastor emeritus (plural, emeriti), gives me some pause. Sure, it is a gracious title and status bestowed by our national church body on those pastors who retire from the active ministry of shepherding congregations. It allows the retiree to remain on the clergy roster and retain his credentials for a possible future call or for conducting pastoral duties in the absence of an actively called and employed pastor. And it is done to recognize the retiree’s former service to the church body with an honorific. I appreciate the recognition.

And yet, the term does come with a couple issues which are rolling around in my head as I take on this new life status.

The first issue has to do with the whole concept of “retiring from ministry.” As more than a few members of my church have pointed out to me, “The Bible does not speak about retiring,” and, “The word ‘retirement’ is not in my Bible!” And don’t forget, “Moses worked until he was 120 years old! And he died in office!” (I assume the member who said that last comment wanted me to stay around another 55 years rather than see me die in office . . .) Of course, they are right. The Bible does not speak of a pastor, let alone one of Christ’s Apostles, reaching a certain age and saying, “Okay, I’m done here.” No, almost every Apostle died a martyr’s death while spreading the Gospel, and the one we believe avoided that fate, John, certainly served the Lord as a witness and a writer of Scripture for the rest of his life, too. The Bible does not speak of retirement, but neither does it speak of vacations, five-day work weeks, or any number of other things we accept as beneficial.

The answer has to do with our concept of “the call,” derived from Scripture and our Lutheran Confessions. As I understand it, there are three different calls which God gives us. The first is when God calls us by the Gospel to faith in Jesus Christ. That call is independent of who we are, where we are, whatever work we do, or what qualities (or lack of them!) we possess. I have had that call since my infancy and childhood; it did not change when I became a pastor at age 43, nor will that call change now that I have retired. We are all called to persevere in our faith to the end, whether that end comes at death or at the glorious return of Christ. That kind of call  never ends.

The second kind of call is summed up in the term, “vocation,” which literally means, “calling.” We believe that any kind of honest work which benefits people (and which provides for those dependent upon us) can be a calling from God. While pastoral ministry is certainly a godly calling, it is no more so than the calling of a farmer who grows crops so people can be fed. As Martin Luther put it, if we were all pastors, we would all starve to death with no one to grow our food. Scripture also speaks of the nature of our call, whatever it may be:  “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:23-24). I received God’s call to become a pastor in 1989 while working fulltime as director of a youth agency in Columbus, Indiana. That call came to me while worshiping one Sunday, though the details of that incredible event are best reserved for a later post. Suffice it to say that I did not have the call to pastoral ministry before that date; I always believed my youth work was a divine calling. Once receiving that new call, I would have been disobedient not to change careers and seek the new ministry to which God was calling me. Likewise, I understand my retirement as not so much retiring from one vocation, as retiring to a different one, a new vocation. This new vocation is also a call from God to serve Him, but in a new way. Just as God’s call to serve him in pastoral ministry was unexpected, I fully “expect the unexpected” in my retirement, but for now I anticipate being called to study and write.

The third kind of call is the commission we all have to spread the Gospel near and far, so that all may hear of the salvation purchased for us by Jesus Christ on the Cross. This topic is worthy of its own future posts, but for now let me just say that the call to evangelize applies to every believer, and I see my new freer schedule as allowing me to reach a larger audience with the Good News through the printed (and digitized) word.

The second issue I have with the term pastor emeritus is caused by the term emeritus itself. It is ironic that the Lutheran Church, especially, which emphasizes correctly the sheer grace of God in bestowing salvation on us apart from any merit we might have, will call some of its pastors, emeriti, which comes from the Latin term meaning “from merit” or “by merit.”

The term comes down to us from the days of ancient Rome, when soldiers who had served faithfully were pensioned off and given land for their years of service. According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, “Emeritus, which is the Latin past participle of the verb emereri . . . was originally used to describe soldiers who had completed their duty. (Emereri is from the prefix e-, meaning ‘out,’ and merēre, meaning ‘to earn, deserve, or serve’—also the source of our English word merit.)” So then, by definition, I am a pastor “by my merit” or “by deserving it.”

Which I know of course, is not true. For my call to serve the Lord as a pastor of his Church is nothing I earned or deserved. I did not seek it nor expect it; God came and by his grace called me one day to be a pastor for him. It was a call beyond my ability or merit, and even now as I look back on the past 22 years, I am amazed by what a blessing it was for God to call me to the ministry. I have seen him at work in people’s lives; I have benefitted from my own study of God’s Word to prepare sermons and studies; I have been blessed by my pastoral colleagues’ sermons and discussions; and I have been overwhelmed at times to be surrounded by a congregation of loving and believing servants. As I contemplate all that has happened, I think that God called me in order to build my faith, to teach me to trust in his leading, and to work on my life to conform me more to the likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ.

So, will I use the term, pastor emeritus, to describe myself? Sure I will! I think it has a cool ring to it and as I said, I appreciate the recognition given by my denomination for my service. But I will do so, knowing that the merit is that of Jesus Christ himself, who not only called me to serve him, but gave his very life for my sake – and yours. We are saved “emeritus,” by the merit of Christ.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Proverbs 3:5-6