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