SERMON

All Saints Sunday

10^th anniversary of the ordination of Pastor Ruth VanDemark

sermon by Rev. Robert Klonowski

Wicker Park Lutheran Church, Chicago, IL

November 1, 2009

This week at the parish I serve, Faith Lutheran Church in south suburban Homewood, we buried Wilbert Schilling. Wilbert was a very old man who was physically debilitated for a very long time; if there was ever a case in which death is a blessing, this one was it. I met Wednesday morning with Wilbert's daughter and son-in-law to plan the worship service for the funeral, and discovered that we would bury Wilbert in Resurrection Cemetery, 72^nd & Archer Avenue, if any of you Wicker Parkers know our South Side at all.

I was delighted to hear that, because Resurrection is the very old, historic cemetery of the South Side immigrant Polish community in Chicago, the Polish community that worked the old stockyards and the steel mills, my Polish community. Not to put too fine a point on it, Resurrection is the place where we put dead Klonowskis. So I called my dad and arranged to meet him there after Wilbert's committal service, and we spent part of an afternoon kicking through the autumn leaves, walking from one set of gravestones to another. We remembered and we told stories and we prayed. We spent part of an afternoon among our blessed dead.

If you're going to get a call to preach on All Saints Sunday, that's a pretty good way to prepare, walking among the blessed dead. Furthermore, if you're going to get a call to preach on All Saints Sunday, it's good to get that call from Wicker Park Lutheran Church, where people worship every Sunday surrounded, surrounded by our blessed dead. For this is a place that fairly exudes history. At this point this building is among the oldest church structures in the city. It was built in 1906; Resurrection Cemetery, by the way, was consecrated for use in 1904. Go on Wicker Park Lutheran's Web site and you are greeted at the home page, not by any of you, current members of the congregation community, the ones who happen to be currently breathing, but by a very old photograph, who knows when it was taken, of the Wicker Park congregation many years ago, your predecessors in the faith at Wicker Park, most of whom must by now surely be long dead. Who were the people, the saints gone before, who put up this building? Who, for that matter, had the idea about that remarkable baptismal font? We worship this morning surrounded by our blessed dead.

But that's not unique to Wicker Park church, if you think about it. The church of Jesus Christ always worships surrounded by our dead. We read Scripture this morning in every congregation and we are reading about people long dead, in words written by people now centuries gone. We sit in church buildings, every church building a legacy to us, part of the vision and the stewardship of congregation members who came before us, many of them by now dead. We say prayers this morning in every congregation the words of our liturgy and the Lord's Prayer - who taught you the Lord's Prayer, do you remember? And who taught the person who taught you?

We, the people of the church of Jesus Christ, sit here this morning surrounded by the dead.

So how is this going so far as a sermon for Halloween weekend? Is this morbid enough for you? Ah, then, see, you have to understand not just that part, but the whole of what Christianity holds true about death and the saints. Think of it this way: my wife, whose ministry in daily life is as physician, at the medical center where she works they have a monthly conference for the docs called "Morbidity and Mortality." They discuss the deaths in the hospital that month and what they can learn from them; Morbidity and Mortality. Now that's at the medical center; here in the church, All Saints Sunday is all about morbidity and immortality. We come to church on All Saints morning for a little conference on morbidity and immortality.

For as the South African anti-apartheid activist and Lutheran pastor Simon Farisani told the 60 Minutes reporter Morley Safer many years ago, when Safer asked him about the possibility of assassination if Farisani continued his ministry and witness, "Ah, Mr. Safer, there is something here you must understand. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a Christian." All Saints Sunday is our opportunity to remember, not just the saints that have gone on before, but also the fact that eternal life continues to bust out all over.

Think of what I said about the Wicker Park Lutheran Web site, with that photograph of Wicker Park saints long gone before. Then this week I get in my inbox the latest edition of the Wicker Park Lutheran e-newsletter, with news about a new class for nursery age, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten age kids. Saints from 80 years ago and saints that are 3 years old; eternal life continues to bust out all over.

Think of that remarkable baptismal font. What is the idea behind that? Who made that decision all those years ago and why? I don't know. But I do know that infants in arms, some hundred years later, continue to be brought to that font, to receive as always the promise of God's never-ending grace. Eternal life continues to bust out all over.

Think of this neighborhood, the community of Wicker Park. Think of the context a hundred years ago, when the witness of this building was erected, how those people in the old photograph articulated the gospel for people in this area. Now the area is, shall we say, different. I mean, for those of us who are South Siders, you need to know that when we think of Wicker Park we think of it as, different. Yet the gospel continues to be articulated on the lyrically-named comer of Hoyne and Lemoyne, an old gospel articulated in a new way to new people. Eternal life continues to bust out all over.

Pastor VanDemark, one of the purposes of our gathering here this morning is the observance of your tenth anniversary here in this ministry. I can think of no more appropriate image for your ministry then the image we remember on All Saints, for your ministry has always been characterized by the received wisdom and witness of the church that has come before you, and the creative and challenging articulation of that witness to a new world. I can think of no kind of pastoral ministry style, Ruth, that could possibly be better suited for the ministry at Wicker Park. This has indeed been a calling for you, Ruth; I mean, you ARE the pastor that God made for this ministry; you ARE the pastor here in Wicker Park.

And the strength of your ministry here is like unto the distinctive strength of the Christian church that we remember on All Saints, the distinctive strength that Pastor Farisani tried to get across to Morley Safer. That strength is the understanding that it's not all about us, that the witness of the Church is also about the many, many who have come before, and, after we're gone, the many, many who will come after.

Concerning those who will come after, Ruth, I want to tell you something. After I had you as my first pastoral student intern, it has taken twelve years for the Church to decide they could trust me with another one. But I am working right now with my second pastoral intern and, Ruth, I want to tell you about her.

She's a complete pain in the neck. She's smart as a whip. She asks questions, every day, and sometimes it seems every moment of every day. She seems to have no fear or qualms whatsoever about disagreeing with her supervisor. She pushes my sorry self to better ministry; she sharpens my thinking and sometimes changes my mind. She is absolutely on fire with the idea that the gospel message is the only thing that makes sense in a world like this one; she is focused with every fiber of her being on the idea that the transforming grace of God through Jesus Christ is transforming our lives, our communities, our world. You know where I'm going with this, Ruth.

To paraphrase the 20th-century American social philosopher John Wayne, in his summary theological treatise True Grit: Dang, Ruth, she reminds me of you. In a couple of years she will be ordained to her own place of ministry, her own Wicker Park, and she's going to be great pastor.

And so the witness of the Church goes on, and eternal life continues to bust out all over. It is the promise of All Saints, it is the witness of all the history of Wicker Park Lutheran Church, and it is the hallmark of your ministry, Ruth, for which we give thanks to Gos this day. We give thanks to God for your ministry, for through your ministry eternal life just continues to bust out all over.