March 29, 2020 - Fifth Sunday in Lent - The Lentiest Lent we have ever Lented

Josh Stromberg-Wojcik was Creator's guest pastor today in a live-stream service. Many congregation members contacted me by email, zoom, messaging and Facebook to say this service was what our congregation needed at this moment of "social distancing". How the pandemic has shaped our lives alone so far has left us with unresolved anxiety and fear. Josh quoted from a colleague who was prompted to post about this recently on Facebook "This is the Lentiest Lent I have ever Lented".

Ray with his mom and Kimber

In the midst of our pandemic response came Pastor Ray's abrupt and untimely death last Sunday. This week I have discovered a faith I could hang onto. Our collective grief for Pastor Ray, in this surreal moment, is somehow holy to God. This does not make his death easier to bear and, I must admit, at times I yearn for an explanation that might make it easier.

How can our great grief truly be holy to God? Ray's husband Eric wisely said he was not interested in hearing "higher" explanations for Ray's death from people who are reaching out to console him right now. I am not interested in those explanations either. I know, low down and deep in my bones, that God did not want Pastor Ray to die.

In the Gospel this morning John recounts that Jesus weeps. Josh's sermon emphasized how Jesus weeps and is troubled. God's response to death is not to fit death into some vast, cosmic plan. God knows when we grieve and God weeps for us and with us. Josh summarized for us Pope Francis'  Urbi et orbi that the pandemic is not to be understood as God's judgement on us. We have an opportunity for people to work together to weather the pandemic. "We are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed. All of us are called to row together, each of us in need of each other" the Pope delivered in his blessing.

Abruptly Eric, Ray's family and friends, and the Creator congregation as a whole, are all finding themselves on the same boat, fragile, disoriented and alone this week. So Pope Francis'  Urbi et orbi is a message I keep in mind for Pastor Ray's passing as well.  

Pastor Ray and Eric were on a roller coaster of life changes since his call to be Creator's pastor and Ray and Eric weathered and celebrated them together. Ray went through the many decisions that came from that call. The move to Oregon, how to best live with his mother, and the financial impact of the decision were all to be resolved. There was the move of Ray's mother to Oregon and her move back to Alaska. Her subsequent hospitalization, her eventual death and the emotional impact of that were all lived into. For Eric, he decided to follow Ray, to look for meaningful work, to continue his studies, and, recently, the announcement of the closing of Concordia where he was taking classes,

These were the lows but there were highs as well. There was their blossoming romance, their shared jokes and laughs, their marriage, their honeymoon and their excitement about the place they were currently calling home. All of these highs and lows they took in stride together.

The Urbi et orbi is traditionally given as an Easter blessing. Josh preached to those gathered online together that we know we are an Easter people.

Yes, Easter will come but God also gives us a time of Lent. Where God may feel most absent that is a time when God can be most present. Yes, God will bring resurrection out of death, yet there is still death to be reckoned with before new life.

"This is the Lentiest Lent I have ever Lented". I know Pastor Ray would have appreciated the silliness and the inherent, yet carefree, truth that post embodies.