Good-bye

{A letter to our pastor as he leaves our congregation for another. “Shellie” died about a year ago.}

Tyg,

Of all the words about the spiritual life, or simply life for that matter, that I have witnessed to be true in my almost but not quite 52yrs now, these may be the truest. They come from the writer Frederick Buechner: Here is the world. Terrible and beautiful things will happen. Don’t be afraid. While Buechner said Here is the world, he could have just as easily said Here is your life, and maybe that’s what he was really getting at because while most of us find the world somewhat interesting, what most of us are most interested in is ourselves. Call it selfish if you will, I call it human.

Tyg, I’ve heard you say a great many things in my time here as a member of the family of Trinity Lutheran. Some I’ve agreed with, some I’ve thought, Well, I don’t know about that, and some I’ve only pretended to listen to while maintaining good eye contact. But if I had to compress them all down into something that faithfully captures the essence of you, then it would be not the exact words but rather the spirit of Buechner’s truth: Terrible and beautiful things will happen in life. Don’t be afraid. It is a truth I have heard you speak to all of us in a variety of ways, and also a truth we have in the past and continue to this day to see you live. Your favorite day of the year – Ash Wednesday – (what kind of kookiness is that?) is a testament to this, and your constant reminder to us that we are dust, albeit lovely and brilliant and funny and shy and opinionated and merciful dust, but still dust, a dust to which we all of us will one day return to. In recent memory we witnessed as you had to put your money where your mouth was when Shellie died, this terrible, terrible thing that happened to you, but also to us. I still find myself, on occasion, looking for her face in Safeway.

While Buechner said Don’t be afraid, he could have just as easily said Keep taking chances because that’s what it means to stay alive and not let fear hamstring you. And we’ve witnessed this in you as you’ve walked away from that terrible toward some beautiful things, some dreams and visions and risks you’re about to take which may work out and may not. The beauty of it is that you keep taking chances. Now some of these gambles some of us may not agree with, may not even come close to understanding. In other words, we’d never do that. But its your life, not mine or anyone else’s. It brings to mind that day when Peter was a little too concerned about John’s story and how it would play out. He asked Jesus, and I paraphrase, “Well, what about him?” and Jesus replied, “Yeah, what about him? His story may be a part of yours, but its not your story. You follow me, I’ll take care of him.”

Thanks, Tyg, for living out before us the sermon that terrible and beautiful things will happen, none of us get a pass. But also, and I believe Buechner was intentional in his word order, that beautiful is the last word in that phrase, that beautiful gets the final say, that somehow, in some way, the darkness cannot overcome the light, that after Ash Wednesday comes Easter. Yes, go live into what’s next for you. We’ll do the same here. And while we hope not but know better, that no doubt there will be terrible moments ahead, we’re also betting on beautiful ones, for all of us. We’ve no idea what they will look like for you or for us, but we believe they’ll be there. And yes, while your story is not my story, it has been a part of it, and for that I am thankful. Plus, of course, all of our stories are wrapped up in God’s story, and that one ends beautifully ever after. And for that I am thankful, too.

There is no word in the Navajo language for goodbye. They say, translated, “Until I see you again.” I’ve always loved that. So until we see you again, we say this to you as we’re also whispering it to ourselves: Don’t be afraid.

Amen.