Ring, Ring!
Last Saturday, October 4th, I was privileged to attend the installation of the ELCA’s new presiding bishop, the Rev. Yehiel Curry at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, MN. It was particularly poignant to be celebrating the installation of the ELCA’s first African-American presiding bishop in a glorious, nearly 100-year-old Gothic sanctuary that was once home to a congregation founded in 1919 by 12 Norwegian Americans.
What a profound movement of the Holy Spirit, that we should live in such a historic time in which our church, still roughly 95% white, is being led by one who is in a significantly underrepresented group within our denomination. It was moving and uplifting to worship with more than 1000 other Lutherans, ecumenical guests, and visitors to sing praises to God for this new season within the ELCA.
The Minneapolis Tribune described the celebration this way: “Saturday’s service incorporated multiple languages that crossed continents. A choir from Curry’s Chicago congregation joined with the National Lutheran Choir to sing a mix of traditional psalms and hymns along with bluesy renditions of gospel songs.” O, what a celebration it was!
In another historic move, on Friday, October 3rd the world witnessed the election of Dame Sarah Mullally as the first woman to be chosen as the Archbishop of Canterbury designate. Mullally’s ministry as the spiritual leader of both the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion will be filled with amazing rewards and daunting challenges. For she will stand in the breach within the world-wide Anglican community, especially over issues of women priests and bishops, and same-sex marriages.
The sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Kevin Vandiver at Presiding Bishop Curry’s service, spoke powerfully and prophetically about the calls to which both Curry and Mullally humbly responded. But the preacher also challenged those of us sitting in the pews to remember that ALL of us are called at our baptisms into Christ to be bearers of good news in a broken world. And we do so as my colleague Pastor Schantzenbach said last week, “not in lofty spiritual pursuits, but in the faithful living of everyday life.” Indeed, we are called and anointed as Jesus was at the beginning of his earthly ministry, “to bring good news to the poor… proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed”.
Having humorously described the landline telephones with their 10-foot-long coiled cords that could stretch from room to room, (which many of us in the congregation still fondly remembered), Rev. Vandiver ended his homily with two words, signaling God’s call to God’s people: “Ring, ring!”
“Ring, ring!” Who is God calling you to be today and what is God calling you to do? “Ring, ring!” What is God calling us at Gloria Dei to be and do in this time in which our congregational witness, both within and outside of our walls is so very important? Let us pray for the will to do that which the founding pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, Harry Emerson Fosdick, called the people of his time to do in his famous hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory”:
God of grace and God of glory, on your people pour your pow'r;
Crown your ancient church's story; bring its bud to glorious flow'r.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the facing of this hour, for the facing of this hour.
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