August 21, 2022 - The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost - The Way of Jesus and the "Biblical Proportions" of God's Grace

As I began this blog post I was listening to a lecture where upcoming events the speaker was foreseeing would be, he predicted, of "biblical proportions". His implication was that these events were big and important, especially in a bad or unpleasant way, such as in the expression "an epidemic of biblical proportions".

This stands in stark contrast to how I want to use biblical proportions today as a way to remember and reflect on what I experienced with the Creator congregation, Pastor Glenn, his friends and family. 

Creator's Sunday worship for August 21st was the last that service that Pastor Glenn would preside over in the Oregon Synod and which, for me, was a service of biblical proportions. Not to say like the grand, history-altering events that change the fates of entire populations but the more common kind of life changing experiences that are recorded in the Bible. These are profoundly personal, grace-filled moments like the one Elijah experienced in 1 Kings 19:12-13:

 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?

Pastor Glenn's last sermon spoke eloquently to the day's Gospel Lesson from Luke 13 about Jesus healing the woman who was bent over and crippled for eighteen years. He emphasized that the woman was healed; not because of anything she had done, nor overcoming any demon, nor because of any request for intervention made on her behalf but because she was there in the synagogue and Jesus saw her.

There were some exceptions but most of the congregation were not aware this would be Pastor Glenn's last sermon in Oregon. He and his partner Greg are moving to Wisconsin. All were aware of the power of his reflections in the sermon. When he announced the significance of this Creator service for him during the worship announcements I know I was not the only one who felt the sudden significance it gained for them as well.

I personally worked with Pastor Glenn, in large part, on a team called for by Bishop Dave years ago called Believe.  Synod staff, pastors and lay people met regularly to envision what a church of the future could be. All of us, like the woman in Luke, were bent by our experiences within an imperfect, human church,. Yes, we were trying to stand up straight and to praise God. We ended up not changing the practices of the ELCA or the synod much, but we were also there ready to be healed and, after many years, I can acknowledge simply being there helped us stand up straight and praise God.

These are the biblical proportions I find most prevalent in life. Small, quiet moments that shake my soul, that help me stand straighter, and that allow me to better look into the faces of the many on the journey together with us. 

I can and do praise God for these beautifully proportioned moments.