Traces of Grace

So, I get home from Jurisdictional Conference early morning on July 20 and am in worship later that same morning. Thankfully, some kind and gifted persons from my congregation had agreed to lead worship on that day. I shared my experience with the congregation - the beginning of the next chapter of our life together.

The week following was busy and blessed. I prepared for the following Sunday – July 27. I officiated or helped officiate at two weddings on the 26th – and that was a joy and privilege. Then we went on “vacation” - - - which involved moving our son’s belongings from Fargo, North Dakota to Duluth, where he will be entering a Master’s degree program in “Political Advocacy and Leadership” at the University of Minnesota here, and our older daughter’s belongings from Duluth to Minneapolis where she is entering medical school at the University of Minnesota. Our younger daughter was touring with Strikepoint, the world class handbell choir from First UMC where I am the pastor. When I think about my children, I am often overwhelmed by feelings of grace. They are delightful human beings.

All of this – and sorry if this seems the blog version of home made vacation slides (do some of you even know what those are??) – is a prelude to the mission trip we left for on Sunday August 3. Jurisdictional Conference, a busy week, an even busier vacation - - - and then off to South Dakota, Tree of Life Ministry on the Rosebud Reservation (a place we had been two years before). I was none too excited about doing this given all that had come before. I was tired. I was still trying to integrate all that had happened at Jurisdictional Conference.

As we were leaving, traces of grace wove their way into the journey. I heard that friends from the United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Minnesota, the community in which we had lived before moving to Duluth, and the church which my family attended as I was traveling as a district superintendent, were also going to be at Tree of Life. Their pastor, Jeff Hanson, is a close friend, and Jeff Reed from their church is a person I continue to get to know better and appreciate deeply (see the link to Jeff’s blog under “Links”). As we turned south from the freeway toward Rosebud and Tree of Life, a deep sense of peacefulness filled my heart. Was it returning to a familiar place? Was it knowing that in addition to being with good friends from my church (Ron, Carolyn, Laura, Dale, and my wife Julie) we were going to be at Tree of Life with old friends from Alexandria? Was it knowing that I was really going to be in a very different place doing different kind of work for a few days? I don’t know, except to say that this peacefulness was a trace of grace.

Arriving that night, the people from Alexandria were going to share in communion, and we were invited. Though I had yet to eat dinner that evening, I felt I needed to wait to do that. Some deeper hunger needed to be fed. As we shared the bread and the cup, I knew that though I had traveled reluctantly, this was where I needed to be. Traces of grace.

One day a few of us worked to begin repairing and restoring a home that had been badly burned in an electrical fire. As I walked through the house, there in what had been a bedroom was a box of VHS tapes – American Graffiti, Forest Gump among others, reminding me of a common humanity shared across racial-ethnic and socio-cultural and geographic lines. There, in that same room, was an overturned plastic crate on which a bird had built a nest. I walked over to look more closely and inside that nest were four eggs – new life emerging in a burned out building. Traces of grace. Where was God tracing new patterns in my life in places where I might be feeling a little burned out?

The traces of grace continued after leaving Rosebud. As mentioned, my older daughter is entering medical school and on Friday of that same week, we attended her “white coat” ceremony. The ceremony marks the entry of new students into medical school, but more importantly is meant to remind them that theirs is a humanistic profession – humanistic not in opposition to “theistic” but humanistic in contrast to a narrow scientism which forgets that medicine, while deeply rooted in science, is ultimately about the healing of persons and families. Listening to speakers talk about the meaning of the medical profession I was reminded that in many ways my own career as a pastor is a humanistic profession, too. It is a theistic humanism, rooted in a deep conviction that human life is ultimately healed as it is healed in relationship to God – but humanistic nonetheless. Pastors should be theologically astute, but the best theologian who does not care for the people God has entrusted to their leadership and care is not a terribly good pastor. Traces of grace can be reminders of why we do what we do.

Pictures can convey traces of grace, too – and here are some from our mission trip – including a picture of that remarkable scene of new life. May this be a trace of grace for you.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David