Bearing the Word

December 14, 2011

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

This week’s message marks a bit of a minor milestone for me, as it is my 200th Mid-Week Message since becoming your pastor in 2007. I would otherwise let the occasion slide by unnoticed, except that I have to acknowledge some surprise at reaching this benchmark. I was quite unsure when I started writing these four years ago whether I’d have both the regular content and the ongoing stamina necessary to keep writing them. Nor was it clear whether I could fit it into the rigors of writing both the weekly sermon and the Sunday morning radio program. So it is not without some level of astonishment that I share this observance with you.

I can only hope that you’ve received as much benefit from reading these messages as I have had in writing them. The discipline of producing them has sharpened my command of language, in a form and scope quite different from the auditory experience of a live sermon. More importantly, as the messages have gotten longer, more substantive, and more varied, I have strengthened by ability to theologize on a broader array of contemporary issues at the intersection of life and faith. Words, after all, constitute my stock in trade, so writing these Mid-Weeks has made me a better preacher, a more effective pastor, and a more capable spiritual leader.


PASTORS WRITING BADLY

Whenever I’ve felt tempted to cut corners on the Mid-Week, I think about a shot in the arm I received exactly one year ago today. On December 14, 2010, Duke Divinity School’s Faith and Leadership website published an article by the Rev. Lillian Daniel called “Pastors Writing Badly.” [1] It is a call for ministers to give renewed attention to one of the most basic, yet most overlooked, forms of pastoral communication: the epistle. Daniel laments the lost art of simply writing to one’s congregation, whether it take the form of a monthly newsletter article or a weekly e-mail message. Too many pastors, Daniel argues, ignore the importance of writing these pieces well:


Pastors tired of writing newsletters would do well to remember that most Sunday worship attracts a fraction of our members. That means that more people may be touched by that newsletter than by our worship. The newsletter may be the only connection a home bound and elderly member has to the church. Just when I am convinced no one reads the newsletter, I hear a story about an article that truly turned someone’s attention back to God at a crucial moment.

And for good or bad, they have a wicked long shelf life. They lie on people’s kitchen counters for a neighbor to pick up, they get sent off or emailed to relatives if a child’s name is mentioned within, and they are even perused by petty clergy colleagues with an axe to grind.

I do have an axe to grind, and it is this. As much as I appreciate the minister’s workload, I want to suggest that even in the busiest week, we prioritize. As long as the newsletter is an afterthought, we miss an opportunity for ministry.

Lastly, sloppy newsletter articles are, in their frequency and practice, a rejection of one of Christianity’s historical treasures -- the well-written epistle. We are a religion in which we gather to worship, to hear the gospel, the prophecies, the songs, and then, as odd as it may seem, a letter. A letter from a pastoral leader to a church.

I don’t aspire to write like Paul in every issue of the Pilgrim newsletter, but I am humbled to note that 2,000 years later, we know him by his letters, and not his preaching. We also know those churches. And in their struggles, in their arguments, and in their growth, they had a leader who wrote to them carefully, critically, lovingly and with all he had. It’s time to reclaim the pastoral epistle at the local level, move the newsletter article higher up the list and take it seriously again.


Daniel captures perfectly why it is so important for clergy to maintain the discipline of good writing, and why writing these weekly messages is such an important part of my ministry to each of you. I’m grateful for any benefit it brings you.


BEARING THE WORD

In case you think clergy are the only ones who have the responsibility of influencing the world with their words, guess again. You do too. You don’t need to have a seminary degree, or formal religious training, in order to have the ability to be word-bearers.

Just ask Mary.

It is not a coincidence that this 200th message coincides with the Sunday that we turn our attention to Mary, for no one knew better the significance of bearing the Word than her. Orthodox traditions name her as the Theotokos, or “bearer of God.” Christian doctrine is careful to specify that Mary’s bearing of Jesus does not make her older than God, the creator of God, the source of Christ’s divinity, or even divine herself. What it simply means is that she was the vessel through which God gave the world God’s best, most complete self-revelation of love for humanity. Without Mary bearing the Word, the world would not know love in the Word made Flesh.

While most Protestants do not give Mary the kind of doctrinal prominence that our Catholic and Orthodox siblings do, hers is a critical example to incorporate into our discipleship. You don’t need to be a minister, drafting sermons and weekly messages to be a conduit of God’s grace. The Word that you bear may take a number of forms:

A timely word of encouragement to a troubled friend in need.
A prophetic word of truth for someone living amid the shadows of sin.
A liberating word of hope for a person gripped by grief, anxiety, or loss.
A reconciling word of forgiveness, to mend a broken relationship.

As noted preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor once said, “You are a word, about the Word, before you even say a word.” And whatever form that word takes, yours may be the vital link connecting someone else to an experience of God’s love. Just like Mary, you may be exclusively chosen by God to carry that word for a specific person. So may you birth that word in the way you live, speak, and relate to others, that you may say, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Peace and Joy,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org

[1] http://www.faithandleadership.com/blog/12-14-2010/lillian-daniel-pastors-writing-badly


WINTER OUTERWEAR REQUEST
Thank you for the tremendous response to our new winter outerwear ministry. Every day, new loads of coats, hats, and mittens arrive for distribution on Saturdays. There is now a need for snow boots, for all ages and sizes. If you have new or gently used boots to donate to families in need, please place them on the table outside the church office.

INCREDIBLE GENEROSITY
You all continue to prove to be a congregation of generous hearts. Thank you for your donation of over $750 to Stan Sitzmann’s Needy Children project, and for your efforts to ring bells for the Salvation Army, which has raised over $1,800 so far this December. You are truly putting God’s love into action!

END-OF-YEAR GIVING
Thank you for your faithful giving to support the ministries of the church throughout the year. You can help us end the year strongly and start 2012 without any operational deficits. For your gifts to be counted toward your 2011 statements, please postmark your contributions by December 31.

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE
Join us for another beautiful Christmas Eve Candlelight service on December 24 at 5:30 pm. We are also having a regular service on Christmas morning, Sunday the 25th, at 10:10 am.