Pastor's Column May 2005

Getting Blessed

Jim Ring brought in a bunch of flowering plants for us to bless and later plant in the courtyard. They sat there, looking gorgeous, on either side of the lectern I preach from. They were hard to miss, but I did. The service came and went, and the flowers didn’t get blessed. Or maybe they did.

By Monday, the flowers were in the courtyard. They sat there for a few days in their plastic pots. Looking gorgeous. I forgot to plant them. But I looked out of the window today, and they were in the ground, watered, fed, and looking blessed.

It was just another little reminder of who it is who does the blessing around here: not me.

I pray a lot. I pray when I get stuck, which is to say, a lot. I pray when I know something needs to happen but I don’t know how. Then, when it happens, I think about how clever I was to figure it all out. Or, if I’m feeling humble, I marvel at the amazing set of coincidences that came together at just the right time. Bill Moyers calls coincidences, “the way God is made manifest.” Lucky for me, God never asks for credit.

The Muslim poet Rumi writes, “Spring is Christ: martyred plants rising up from their shrouds.” How many things do we give up on, chalking it up to death and defeat and decay? Things get to a point where hope is just a better form of denial. But God is never finished. Never finished.

I remember the first day I walked into the door of this place for worship. It was 21 years ago this month, and I was being introduced to the congregation by Skip George, the pastor at the time. I looked around. There were precious few of you to look at (accent on the precious, of course). The building, I was informed, was expected to come down any day; I admit I was surprised to return a week later and find it still vertical. The place was broke. An official UMC study said it should have been already dead. I prayed. A lot.

A lot of people worked hard to make SP&SA what it’s still becoming today: an amazing, lively, growing place of grace and compassion. Pastors like Skip and Bob Richmond and Ed Horne and Amy Gregory and Cari Jackson; lay people like you. But through it all it’s been clear who does the blessing around here: not us.

I’ll bet this year will bring some amazing growth as we welcome a new associate pastor, live in new space and find new ways to be in ministry. But it’s really all up to the one who does the blessing.