BIG Things Come In Little Packages

Big things come in little packages. I can remember being told that by an aunt one Christmas when I was a boy. It isn’t always true, but there is enough wisdom in that saying to make me stop and look again at the little things to see if something big is really going on unnoticed.

One big thing that happened recently took place at one of our smaller congregations with perhaps the smallest nave – St. John Lutheran Church in Marblehead, Ohio. There on Sunday, Jan. 12 history was made as Bishop Marcus Lohrmann installed Pr. Julie Kling as pastor of the congregation. What made this so important, you ask? Why was this a “big deal” in a small package? Pr. Kling is a pastor of the Presbyterian Church USA. Because of the Formula of Agreement between the ELCA and that church body Pr. Kling was invited to extended service in our Synod, first by the congregation who voted to offer the invitation and then through the Bishop who, in the terms of the Formula, actually extended the invitation to Pr. Kling on that Sunday afternoon.

And what an afternoon it was. Along with Bishop Lohrmann who presided, the General Presbyter of the Maumee Valley Presbytery, Elder Hilary Shuford, was present to offer a “charge” to Pr. Kling to encourage her to let Jesus be the center of her mission and ministry at St. John’s. I was asked to offer a “charge” to the congregation and encouraged them to surprise the new pastor by offering to join her in mission and ministry without being asked first. There were three choral groups who added to the celebration – one from First Lutheran in Bryan, Ohio, one from Covenant Presbyterian Church in Toledo, Ohio, and another from West Bethesda Presbyterian Church from Montpelier, Ohio. One of the lectors who participated is a pastor in the United Methodist church, another is a Lutheran, and the preacher for the day, Dr. Kenneth Christiansen from Defiance College, is a member of the United Church of Christ.

What happened on that cold, quiet, Sunday afternoon was more than the installation of a new pastor. It was an ecumenical celebration of the love and grace of God manifest in the people of God we call the Church. Anyone driving past on State Route 163 might have thought it was a little thing, in a small place, or nothing of importance going on there. But big things do come in little packages – for the Lord of the church was there in our midst to bless this small example of the oneness we share in Him. I am grateful to have been a part of it. And I pray that the Lord will continue to bless St. John Lutheran Church and its new pastor as they begin a new phase of their mission and history together there in Marblehead. Soli Deo gloria!