My brother loves to tell the story about his visit to a community where I once was the Interim Minister at the local congregational church. After he had seen the people he came to see, he stopped at the general store for a cup of coffee. After comparing notes about travel conditions and the latest changes in the weather report, he thought it would be fun to talk with the other people enjoying their morning coffee about my work in that church. He said to them, “I think that church once had an Interim Minister named Urie. Do any of you attend there? What do you remember about him?”
He said that several of them said that the congregational church was their church. So he asked the part he was most interested in again: “What do you remember about an Interim Minister named Urie?” The way Paul tells the story, there was then a very long silence. Finally, someone said, “Oh yeah, he was the guy that made us give thanks for black flies.” Others in the group smiled, and nodded, and agreed.
That is when Paul interrupts his story with a laugh. “Meet my brother, the minister who asks people to do impossible things. That’s good – making people give thanks for black flies.”
I suppose he could have reported something worse. I might have been remembered as the minister whose sermons put people to sleep, or the minister who made people angry because he never listened to what anyone else thought, or the minister who spent all his time goofing off and never was prepared for anything. Instead I was remembered as the minister who asked for the impossible.
Just to keep the record straight, I don’t think I ever told anyone that they should give thanks for black flies. What I probably said, and will say again, is that we can give thanks for the unpolluted, sparkling streams where black flies reproduce; even when the black flies are biting. We can give thanks in all circumstances. I think it is good to give thanks in all circumstances, even if we do not like a part of what is happening. So I will claim the title of asking for the impossible.
That is a part of what Interim ministers do is to ask for the impossible. I will keep asking you to be the church. I will keep asking you to be the kind of community God intends the church to be – a community where love and healing are real and where there is always room for one more person.
I will keep asking you to follow where God leads even when you don’t know how much work that is going to be. I will ask you to start your thinking with what the church and community needs rather than starting with what you want. That might seem impossible. It may be impossible for human beings but with God all things are possible.
Over the next few months as your Interim Minister I will keep asking for and expecting the impossible. For I am sure that God will be with us.
Peace – art urie