December 2023 Newsletter
Good Day all! So the consecration happened. It turns out my body and mind are still processing the event. It all still feels unreal. I have sent most of my thank you cards, but two people are not going to get thank you cards, even though they are very well-deserved. It is a matter of a couple mystery gifts. One is a beautiful nature-forward paper Moravian Star from the Star Factory in Hernnhut and the other is a gorgeous delicate cross necklace, that I have already started wearing. These gifts arrived home detached from any identifying card. It is killing me.
I am grateful and have no one to offer my gratitude to! If you or someone you know gave me these wonderful consecration gifts, please let me know, it will ease my mind greatly.
The church got me a handmade mosaic based on Ezekiel 47:1-12—the great river flowing from the temple. I have yet to check with the planning committee so I am not sure they know this, but that is the very first scripture I preached on when I arrived at Waconia in August of 2011. Ezekiel is offered a vision of the Holy Temple by a man whose appearance shown like bronze. The visionary man has a measuring reed in his hand and for 7 chapters he leads Ezekiel around measuring the width of the temple, the positioning of the gates, the size of the pavements and chambers of the outer courtyard, the inner courtyard and its recesses, all of the windows, the vestibule, the nave, the altar, you get the picture…Ezekiel sure did.
But finally in Chapter 47 the shiny bronze measuring man leads Ezekiel back to the entrance of the temple and they find water flowing from the temple toward the east and the measuring man now takes out a cord and measures out a thousand cubits into the water and it is ankle deep, another thousand cubits and he takes Ezekiel into the water and it is knee-deep. Another thousand cubits and it is up to his waist; another thousand and it is a river that Ezekiel could not cross—it is deep enough to swim in.
I remember telling this congregation, new to me, but not to each other, that I would be there for them. No matter where they were at--if they just wanted to go ankle-deep I would take off my sandals and dip a toe in with them; if they wanted to go in knee- deep, I would roll up my pants legs; if they wanted to try wading in up their waist, I could do that too. And if they wanted to swim? We could leave our towels on the shore and dive right in.
Some years later, one of the prominent church leaders reminded me of that sermon and said, “Remember, don’t ask me to do too much, I am just an ankle-deep kind a guy.” I laughed because it was clear he was well into the river with me. And it was all good.
Ezekiel’s river is lined with trees for food and leaves for healing. What a vision of the church?! I have been so well-fed and nurtured by the church at Waconia. It is such a great honor to dangle my feet, to wade, to swim in this river of life with them. I am so very grateful. Very grateful…this is my thank you card…for now.