Oregon Synod Assembly
Sermon Sunday Eucharist May 24, 2009

Assistant to the Bishop, the Rev. Susan Kintner

Dear Fellow Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Creator and from the Holy Spirit, our sustainer and guide. Amen

The Good News for today is that as this Easter Season concludes, and we see Pentecost on the horizon, scripture today promises us life, joy, truth, and holiness.

In Acts, Matthias is chosen to be the new apostle. In 1 st John we are told whoever has the Son has life. In John 17, Jesus prays for our unity, for his joy to be complete in us, for truth and our holiness. Psalm 1captures all of these facets with the image of the tree-

Happy, Blessed are those who delight in the law of the Lord. They meditate on it day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season and their leaves do not wither.

Psalm 1 is placed where it is on purpose. In announces for us that the book of psalms can be a way for us to learn the ways, the laws of the Lord, and to live a meaningful like. The psalms are hard. We have to chew them. They are the prayers Jesus knew. We pray with him when we learn these. We will be like well watered trees, yielding fruit with leaves that do not wither.

Have you ever noticed from an airplane how trees grow on either side of a river? They make a ribbon of green. We have been watered as a synod assembly. There is a village who have planned, prepared, graced us with art work, banners, gardens, fountains, worship, minutes, prayers, with the celebration of anniversaries, reunions and ever our work of resolutions, with quilts, displays, with youth and young children.

Eric gave us such playful and helpful examples of his life work. He attended yesterday afternoon’s plenary. I will forever remember his smiling face as he told us, “There will be some iceberg bumping this afternoon. Be careful. Be gentle.” I think we were.

Happy, Blessed are those who delight in the law of the Lord. They meditate on it day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season and their leaves do not wither .

I have a friend who collects Trees of Life. She has a vast collection. She married a Lutheran pastor who preaches always on the cross. Always. When they were courting there were many discussions: Tree of Life or The Way of the Cross. After many years they can now agree that the cross IS the tree of life.

How can we as the synod, as our congregations, be that Tree of Life, the tree watered by the stream of God’s love and grace, of Christ’s ministry, of the Spirit’s presence? What does it mean for our ministry as a synod?

I have a list of 5 things to share with you. I invite you to add to the list. Let me know.

1. We are watered by the Word. We need to spend time there daily. There are a million ways to do that. We can use the Sunday texts, in the new Book of Faith Bible there are three different cycles of daily texts, and in the new hymnal there is a daily lectionary.

2. We need one another, just as there are living cells in the tree, so we need one another. Bonhoeffer wrote in his book Life Together, about the gift of the physical presence of other Christians. It is important that you are here. It is important that you are here, and that you will be in your parishes when you go home. It was important that you were here to be part of the celebration of our pastors who have served so many years.

3. Eric has taught us how to welcome, how to see with new eyes—the elephant, the iceberg, the genealogy, and this morning Pentecost.

4. We have taken steps as a synod to receive God’s powerful gift of sexuality with care and inclusiveness. This year in one of my meetings with a call committee, one person didn’t want to interview a pastor from another part of the country because the pastor was in a Reconciling in Christ congregation, an intentional process of inclusiveness. We have 9 RIC congregations in our synod, and we are an RIC synod. She said, “We don’t have those people in our church or community, do we?” The chair of the committee spoke up and said, “Oh yes we do, and what is even more important, the people who love them are here—parents, friends, and siblings.”

I’m waiting for the day when we can realize that people who happen to be gay or lesbian are actually pretty ordinary, and we can use our energy for other issues. We’ve gotten lots of practice on how to talk about difficult issues.

5. In a world of need and change, Eric has given us a process so that we can find our path. We are pathfinders.

It has been good to be together, and it will be good to return to our home congregations with the news of our time here.

The Good News for today is that as the Easter season concludes, Alleluia, and we can see Pentecost coming, the Word today promises us life, joy, truth and to sustain us as we grow in holiness until we are with all the saints around the throne.

I give thanks daily for our ministry together and hold you in prayer. Amen