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| Pastor's Corner | | by Pastor John Manz
In August of ’85, the community of Gloria Dei was deep in prayerful discernment. On Sunday the fifteenth, the pastor who gave the Parish Concerns announced that a call had been extended to our new Associate Pastor. “Welcome home Pastor Susan,” were the exact words said.
In March of ’90, the people of Gloria Dei once again were praying for wisdom and guidance. The answer came on Sunday the twentieth with an invitation for Pr. Susan to become our tenth Senior Pastor. Hard to believe, but back then there were no congregations our size in the ELCA with women senior pastors. The rest is history.
Now it is time to say goodbye. We’d rather avoid the painful experience. But nothing, even the good stuff, lasts forever. Perhaps this is why people and relationships are so precious. It is lamentable but true. For every welcome home there is a goodbye. This side of eternity we are never far from grief. Sometimes it is just a heartbeat away. Sometimes we see it coming. But it all hurts just the same.
The words of ancient and sacred wisdom, part of the collective memory of a whole generation, come flooding back. “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven … a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” Ecclesiastes 3.1,4.
It is important that we do an honest job of grieving. It won’t work to take shortcuts or pretend its business as usual. After the fifteenth of August we no longer will see Pr. Susan in the hallways. No more will we hear her so very distinctive laugh or listen to her tender words from the pulpit. There is no sugar coating the fact that Pr. Susan is leaving Gloria Dei. To everything there is a season…
A quarter of a century ago this congregation said to Pr. Susan, “Be among us to baptize, and preach the Word, and forgive our sins, and preside at our Table, and remind us of God’s grace even when we bury our dead.” Across these years she has been faithful to her calling, faithful to her Lord. And look at what’s happened. Susan has helped the community of Gloria Dei claim it role as people of hospitality. She has nurtured in us a caring, healing, welcoming spirit. She has shown us how to throw our doors wide open to many who heretofore have felt so very excluded.
By all means let us grieve, and let us grieve well. This is a sad time. But if for everything there is a season, then surely now is also a time to rejoice and give thanks. For through Pr. Susan’s ministry we have been graced into understanding our identity as the Body of Christ in a new way. And we have learned to embrace our purpose as signs of that gracious Lord in every situation and circumstance .
Yes there is a time for everything. But truth be told, there is enough grace to go around so that rejoicing and giving thanks will never be out of season.
As Pr. Susan would say, ‘Thanks be to God. And Amen.’
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