Rev. Dr. Susan DeGeorge’s Charge to Congregation

(delivered during Minister Margery Rossi’s commissioning)

South, doing a charge for a congregation you’ve known the textures of—the warts and the wonders of—for more than fifty years and that you’ve loved through all those years, isn’t so easy, so I won’t charge you with anything today. I know you’re much too thoughtful and much too independent a congregation for me to do that, but I can share five wishes I have for you as you move into this period of ministry with Margery.

The first is simply said. I know firsthand of how loving you can be. I’ve felt that over the years and have so appreciated it. Show that love to Margery on an ongoing basis. She’s got a hard task. She’s here to help you figure out who you currently are—all the good and the uncertain and the puzzling parts of that—and then, once you’ve done the work of discovering that together, she’s got another piece of work—to help you figure out who you can and want to be in the next period of your common life—the ways in which you’ll care for each other, the ways in which you’ll function together as a congregation, and the way you’ll use your campus and your energy and your hearts to embody the sacred well beyond 2022. It’s a hard piece of work for any minister so, as she does it, may you support her and show her how loving a congregation you really are. May you make sure that she feels that love surround her.

I know firsthand of such love and I bless this congregation regularly for the love that it’s shown me over the years. I also know firsthand that, because of its numerous hopes and commitments, there are times when, individually or in groups, people in this congregation can be a bit prickly, both with each other and with your staff. We all feel that way at times. I wouldn’t want you to be non-prickly. I hope though, that you’re honest and clear with Margery about when you’re feeling that way rather than either postponing talking about what’s bothering you until things go from prickly to problematic or sharing them with each other but not with Margery. Ministry only works well when we’re all vulnerable enough to trust each other by sharing what we’re feeling directly, kindly, and promptly with each other. So I hope you’ll be open, kind, and direct with Margery.

Third, may you trust Margery enough to move in the direction of wholeness together as a congregation. May you let her help you be the best South Church you could possibly be. May you and she together find ways so that, new experience by new experience, you move toward what is most uniquely the South Church of 2022.

Fourth, may you together pay attention to how and when to speak truth to power. Being brave and articulate enough to speak truth to power is a good start but alone it’s not enough. Justice work—caring about the needs of people or the rest of creation- requires community. May you remember to together be a community that has clarifying anger at obvious injustices and may such anger help you to together discover, situation by situation, when, like Moses before Pharaoh, to stand up and demand justice, when, like Jesus before Pilate, to stay faithfully silent in the face of injustice, and when, like Job before his so-called friends or the importunate widow before the judge, to be quietly but unceasingly persistent in your striving after justice.

And a last wish– as you work together with Margery, may you find yourself in the long line of weary saints who long ago stopped waiting for a miracle to bring about a new world but who exhausted themselves instead struggling to build one with their hands, feet, heart, and mind. There’s a story I’ve shared here before –probably more than once because I think it’s so spot on. It’s a parable by Megan McKenna. Let me share it with you again.

“There was a woman who wanted peace and justice in the world and peace and contentment in her heart and all sorts of good things; but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the newspaper and get depressed. One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures that are always on holy cards and devotional pictures. She looked again and again at Jesus and finally got up her nerve and asked,” Excuse me, are you Jesus?” “Yup, I am.” “Do you work here?” “No,” Jesus said, “I own the store.” “Oh, what do you sell here?” “Oh, just about anything!” “Anything?” “Yeah, anything you want. What do you want?” She said, “I don’t know.” “Well,” Jesus said, “feel free, walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want, and then come back and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

The woman did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no more prisons, no more hunger or poverty, no more gun violence, peace in families, harmony, clean air, anything you could want. The woman wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at the woman and smiled, “No problem.” And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up, and laid out the packets. The woman was puzzled. “What are these?” Jesus replied, “Seed packets. This is a catalogue store.” “You mean I don’t get the finished product?” “NO, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.” “Oh,” the woman said, and left the store without buying anything.

South, in your work with Margery may you together always be braver and more faithful than the woman in the parable. May you use your many gifts so that this congregation can go into the story’s store, make visionary lists, and then do whatever work is necessary to build the better world I know you can imagine together.

So my wishes for you as you work with Margery are for love, vulnerable directness, wholeness, truth, and the visionary persistence to move into God’s future. In such work in the days to come, may God deeply bless you.