Pastor's Message
September 2008
Greetings Children of God:
It is strange how life moves along as it does. The death of Bishop John Schreiber may bear minimal impact on most folk’s lives, but for some it twists our hearts so tightly that we truly feel what seems like agonizing pain. When any death is sudden and without warning it feels like a sledgehammer has been driven into our inner being. The questioning of ones faith and God grind down upon the mind. For some of us our faith and our sense of security wobble beneath the weight of the reality and power of death. The truth is that at such times our entire being -– mind, body, and spirit -- are attacked by the reality and power of death.
It is Wednesday evening as I write this article for the newsletter. I will be going to the funeral service for Bishop Schreiber tomorrow. I have spent the last few days trying to do my job and still grasping for something or someone to help me make sense of the death of a person I have known now for a quarter of a century. This person gave me a word of encouragement when I was almost ready to give up in seminary and is partially responsible for me being in this ministry. This person stood at my bedside after I had an emergency appendectomy and prayed for my recovery. This person was there as I announced my resignation without a call from a congregation years ago. He stood by me as the tears flowed down my cheeks and I presided over the Lord’s Supper for one of my last times at that particular congregation. We worked together for years seeking to reconcile the racial division that permeates this synod and the church we both loved and served. We were not good friends, but we were both firm in our conviction to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and help recover the sight of the blind, to find ways to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He tried to minister to this congregation through a variety of ways unknown to most members and supported me in my service as an interim pastor. We have laughed together and cried together more than once in these last twenty-five years. We were good colleagues and brothers through our baptism into Christ.
I seem to only be able to mumble some empty words of comfort to people seeking comfort over his death. I find myself getting angry at John Schreiber’s death and at the power of death when it violates our lives as it has for many of us. I find myself waking up at night and staring into the darkness. I pray and there seems so little for me to say. I find my faith weak and my words empty. What can I do?
The answer is simple and hard to believe that it can make a difference. I do it almost out of habit and out of my personal weakness. I sit still. I remember and read the words of promise in our sacred scripture. I hear that the Lord is my shepherd. I remember that even if a mother might forget her child that God has our names inscribed upon the palm of his hand. St. Paul whispers into my ears, my heart, and my life that nothing can separate us from the love of God and that death has lost its sting because of Jesus Christ. I sit still and I wait for the promised Advocate and Comforter to move closer to me. I remember the sound of water being poured over us in baptism and that "if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his". I sit still, wait and then I hear that "God will wipe every tear from our eyes, Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away... the Lord is making all things new."
I sit still and wait for a peace that goes beyond my understanding, and even my faith, to come to my life and the lives of others. What else can I do?
May you rest in peace John H. K. Schreiber, child of God who has been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.
A slave to Christ and a servant to the Lord’s church,
David Hendricks - Child of God