Sunday, February 9, 2020
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Schuyler, NE
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
image source
When I first started discerning a call to ministry, my first instinct was to try to resist it. “No, no, no,” I said; “I’m pretty sure you’ve got the wrong person.” I thought of the people I had observed being pastors and leaders in the church, and it was really intimidating to me to think that I could be one of them. They seemed to have patience and knowledge and wisdom way beyond mine. And they seemed like people of deep and abiding faith, while my faith life, by contrast, often felt like a hot mess (and still does sometimes, if I’m being honest). I was immediately ready to reach for that bushel basket and pull it over myself.
I decided that I needed a LOT more information if I was really going to follow this path. So I started talking with pastors and reading books that pastors had written; I started visiting seminaries and talking with other people who were thinking about ministry. And, in the process, I got to hear a LOT of people’s call stories. So many call stories. I remember I was at a visit weekend at Wartburg, sitting in a room with maybe 30 or 40 other people, all taking turns telling our stories. And after at least half a dozen people compared their call story to Jonah – who you’ll remember ran away from God’s call and got eaten by a fish – after that, I realized that I was far from being the only one trying to hide under a basket.
Continue reading “Sermon: Be Salty and Get Lit”









