Pastor Kathryn pointed me to an article the other day by one of our divinity school classmates, Peter W. Marty. Peter is the host of Grace Matters, the radio ministry of the ELCA, and senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa. This excerpt is from his just-published book, The Anatomy of Grace / 2008 Augsburg Fortress. I immediately gravitated to his understanding of “church.” He writes,

“Occasionally a publisher sends a book manuscript my way, asking for a review to aid some front-end marketing. It happened again last week. I didn’t have time to read and review the book, nor did I have great interest in it. In this case, the author had written a treatise on why the church has so thoroughly failed young adults. Disillusionment and disappointment are favorite words in her argument. The author asks, with more cynicism than innocence, “What does going to church every Sunday really have to do with anything?”

My first response to the book is: If your expectations in life are unreal, your disappointments will be huge…. If your expectation for church is the thrill of one euphoric experience after another, you’ll probably never return. If on the other hand you view the church of Jesus Christ like a verdant garden, you may feast forever. Yes, it’s full of sweet corn and manure, both holiness and holy mess. But it is still the garden of God’s grace.

My second response is: Church is always about more than satisfying personal desires and hanging around like minded people. At least it ought to be. It is a community where we have a realistic shot at being changed, once we’ve immersed our lives in the joys and sorrows of everyone else’s life. It offers an unsurpassed opportunity to suddenly stop life, at least once a week, and give collective thanks for blessings too many to number.

My third response is: Some of the beauty and significance of church is total mystery. Why certain people would bother to love others, forgive others and serve others in the peculiarly Christlike way they do is beyond comprehension. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like a jumble of words coming together to form an unexplainably rich poem.”

I continually encourage all of us to immerse ourselves more and more in the Marin Lutheran Church community of faith. Take a break, at least once a week and give collective thanks. Immerse your life in others joys and sorrows and so allow your own life to be changed. Amen.

Pastor Tom

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