Pastor Devotions – Our Stories, Our Lives

By Rev. Anders Nelson

Mabel-Henrytown Tri-Point Parish – Mabel First Lutheran Church, Scheie Lutheran Church and Henrytown Lutheran Church

Body: In the mainline protestant tradition, the first Sunday in November is All Saints Sunday, the Sunday immediately following All Saints Day, the day in which we remember those who’ve died both in the immediately preceding year, as well as all the saints who have been important to the church and the lives of the members of each community of faith. It’s a worship service that is full of meaningful moments of reflection, poignant moments of bearing grief, and celebrating the promises of baptism which those who’ve died have fully realized. Celebrating this service has me thinking about the important work of telling our own stories. 

When I first arrived to this parish, one of our members died within the first few days of my call starting. I hadn’t had a chance to meet this person, and yet we were gathering to perform a funeral in the next few days. As a still relatively green pastor who’d only done a handful of funerals, I was unsure of how I’d be able to properly bear witness to the life of this individual’s life and God’s promises for them without having met them. However, after gathering with the family to talk through their choices for scripture texts and hymns, I asked them to share the stories of the deceased that were close to their hearts as they were grieving. I was expecting a handful of kind anecdotes about this individual and then we’d all be on our way. Instead, we remained for another hour or so as I heard an abundance of stories from these people who had so recently lost a beloved member of their family. We laughed, we cried, we bore witness to a life well lived together. In doing so, this family made my job of bearing witness to their life through the lens of scripture that much easier and more meaningful. 

I’d imagine that outside of the context in which those stories were shared, they may have seemed frivolous or innocuous, but in the work of remembering the life of someone dear to us, they all become important. These many points of reference, points that are deeply meaningful and the points of the day-to-day life of the person being remembered, all help to provide a fuller image of them, thereby helping us to remember them in their fullness, not just in the way that rose-tinted glasses might have us remember them. It’s through the repeated sharing of these stories that we’re able to hold onto them in moments where we might otherwise forget them, and what better way to keep those stories alive than through the sharing of them with those who will also appreciate their retelling, with those who may have additional context or importance to add to the stories we share so that they might continue to bear full witness to the beloved saint being remembered. 

So, dear reader, as the colder weather begins to draw us into our homes for warmth and comfort, as we prepare for a season of seeing family and friends to celebrate a myriad collection of holidays, I invite you into the sometimes frivolous and sometimes deeply meaningful work of telling stories, remembering meaningful moments of levity, joy, and grief together with those with whom we’re gathering, that these stories and work of knowing one another better bears witness to the fullness of our lives, to the promise of deep love and care we receive not only from our God who promises to love us, but from our companions in this journey of life we set out on together. May these stories shared always be in our back pockets when we need a reminder of such promises, whether that reminder is needed in the midst of loneliness or as we bear grief together in remembering the life of someone who has died. It’s my prayer, dear reader, that these stories, our own and the stories of those important to us, will bring us comfort and joy in all that life’s journeys might hold.