On The Road and Home Again...

I had a great time in St. Louis. I met people whom I had come to respect, admire, and feel a kinship to -- all through the miracle of the blogosphere. I rekindled friendships with people I had known for more than 30 years but seldom see face to face (like my good friends in the Atlantic District). I found friends in people who had been acquaintances (like a couple of musicians within my own Mid-South District). I met people who walk the path of life and service that parallels my own but who do it in places as different from Tennessee as California and Oklahoma and the Bronx. I remembered again why having Seminaries is a good thing and what a treasure we have in some of those wonderful professors who teach even old, curmudgeonly Pastors like me. I learned some things about those whom we expect to be Bishops of the Church but call them District Presidents and found surprisingly good news about many of those who take their offices as seriously as I take mine. I found out that I am not 30 years old anymore and how hard it is to get through three days of compacted schedules and presentations and a libation or two at the end of the day... and still get up refreshed and ready for the next day. I found out that although I like to think of myself as a young man, when I looked around the room, I saw people a little more than half my age and many with wisdom and learning that far surpassed me then and now...

But how good it is to be home... for in my heart I am no scholar but a Pastor. I want to be where there is an altar and a pulpit. As tired as I was, when I taught catechism to eighth graders last night it was refreshing to be where I am supposed to be, doing what I am called to do, and in the place where I am most comfortable -- being a Pastor. Later this morning I will preside at the Thursday 11 am Eucharist... in the chancel that has become as familiar a place to me as is my home and office. It is the working domain of those who, though always unworthy, are set apart by Word and prayer to shepherd the flock which belongs to Christ.

I am glad to be home... to the woman whom I love and have loved as the very extension and completion of myself and my best friend for nearly 32 years... to the house that is home to my family... and to the family of God that is Grace Lutheran Church (yes, warts and all)... Do you know what I mean?

It is similar to the feeling I have when Sunday morning rolls around again and we gather in the home that is the Lord's, and ours by baptism, to listen to Him whose love makes us a family and sit as His table eating what He has prepared for us... the sinner, the prodigal, the wounded, the child, the aged... Home...