Saint Matthew's

(NOTE: I’ve locked the comments on this post and deleted those with personal attacks. Things were getting a little out of hand. This is still a church blog.)

A while back, I was asked what the difference was between a priest in the Roman Catholic Church and a pastor in the Lutheran Church, specifically in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. When the person’s eyes started to glaze over, I knew I lost them.

They weren’t looking for theological issues as to the differences in the view of being a clergyman.

I knew what they were after – they were wondering how the Roman Catholic view of church governance differs from how we Lutherans “run” a church.

In a nutshell, we Lutherans believe that the pastor is a pastor, God’s undershepherd who guides and protects His flock. We preach. We teach. We comfort. We love.

A pastor is not the CEO. Pastors don’t run the church; we leave that up to a church council, a Voters’ Body, an assembly. If the church wants to paint the sanctuary, the pastor has input, but the decision is made by the leaders in the congregation. The pastor could think that the color that was chosen is ugly; but the pastor doesn’t have veto power over the color. When we painted our sanctuary, I let my opinion be known — it just so happened to jive with the opinion of our Voters’ Body. If it didn’t, and they chose to go with a color I wasn’t thrilled with, as their pastor, I would enthusiastically support their decision.

That is what a pastor does.

My opinion is my opinion. I support the decision of our congregation in all matters, even those that I may not be thrilled with, since I am the pastor. And I lend my support to their final decision because that is what a pastor does.

I am not Saint Matthew’s CEO. The Voters’ Body works in that fashion. We’ve been blessed to have a wonderful group of men and women who make hard decisions for our church. They take up the mounting challenges of running, staffing, and operating a non-proft organization centered on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they do an incredible job. They are a blessing to His Church and to our little place in northern New Milford.

As Saint Matthew’s pastor, I preach Christ crucified. I speak of the love of God through Jesus, our Savior. I bring Christ’s body and blood to God’s children in need of forgiveness. I care for the sick, love the angry, and bring God’s peace to those who worry. I bring God to the hurting, to the sinful, to the pained. I admonish the sinful and call them to the repentance. In a short sentence, I serve God’s people.

That pastoral care service extends beyond our church walls into our community. I serve as Chaplain to the volunteer New Milford Fire Department. I serve on the New Milford Senior Advisory Committee representing Saint Matthew’s. I serve on the Board of Directors for New Concepts for Living, a wonderful community group that helps the disabled live normal lives. In a few months, I will begin service on the Board of Family Promise of Bergen County, formerly known as the Interreligious Fellowship for the Homeless.

I regularly visit the sick in our local hospitals, not just of Saint Matthew’s but of our community as a whole. I’ve sat with dying children and their heartbroken parents and siblings. I’ve baptized babies who were struggling to stay alive. I’ve buried people I never had the opportunity to know.

None of this makes me any better than anyone else. I am a sinner just like you. I haven’t lived “the perfect life.” But who has. There are  many things I’ve done wrong; but I repented and know that my God loved me beyond anything I can imagine and that by His grace and mercy, He forgave me.

I get attacked all the time for my beliefs, especially in my unwavering understanding of the exclusivity of faith alone in Jesus Christ that saves me from eternal damnation. But my faith keeps me strong. I am regularly smeared by those who hate me, especially by a tiny, tiny few in our New Milford community who have gone out of their way to knock me. They’ve called me a liar, a hypocrite, a killer, someone who is destroying New Milford, and some other assorted vulgarity that is not printable. They’ve spat at me, thrown rocks at me, and said some vile things against me. For instance, one person said that my mother, when pregnant with me, should have fallen down the stairs so that I could have died. The same person called the parsonage and left a terrible message calling me child molester since that is what all priests do.

Through the smears and attacks, my faith is still strong. My head is still up. My outlook never brighter. I continue to serve our Lord and Saint Matthew’s and His greater church because that is what He wants me to do. He wouldn’t have called me to serve unless He had a plan for me. He called me as a pastor to serve.

That is what I do.

I am not a CEO. I am a pastor serving a wonderful congregation in New Milford, New Jersey.

Yesterday afternoon, I joined with the chairwoman of Saint Matthew’s Samaritans, Evelyn Comer, at the new Bergen County homeless facility on East Broadway in Hackensack to gauge how the new facility serves dinner. Through the Interreligous Fellowship for the Homeless, Saint Matthew’s will serve dinner at the facility on February 19th. Our collective intentions were simple – to see the kitchen, how dinner and dessert are served, and maybe meet some of the directors, though I didn’t think this was possible.

We arrived at 4:30pm, about a half-hour before the start of dinner service. The newly constructed facility (it only opened last July) houses 90 individuals as they transition themselves to living in permanent housing. Additionally, there is a first-class medical area, offices and rooms for outside organizations to provide services and help to the homeless of the county, and, of course, the walk-in dining area.

Evelyn and I entered the facility through the main door, which opens up into a spacious area where a manned front desk and security guard were on call. After “checking in,” the security guard showed us to the dining area. Nancy Woods, one of the directors with the IRF, showed us around the beautiful kitchen area. As Evelyn and I were on our little tour, we found out that a group from Bergen Catholic High School in Paramus was unable to serve the dinner that night. They delivered their meal — baked ziti, meatballs, salad with Creamy Italian dressing, and apple turnovers — but they couldn’t serve. The bus that was to take the students to the facility was not able to take them back to the school, which, of course, causes a little bit of a problem.

In tight jams like this, IRF volunteers come in to staff the dinner service. As Evelyn and I heard about their little plight, we offered to help them with serving dinner. I was on salad patrol — dishing up the pre-mixed, pre-dressed salad into bowls — and making them available for the diners. Having the opportunity to greet the nearly 125 people who came for dinner was blessing. A smile, a “good evening,” and a “God bless you” go a long way in the hearts of God’s children, especially those who, if circumstances were different, would not be at the facility for dinner.

As the rush died down a bit, the director of the facility, Julia Orlando, came in to see how things were going. After talking a bit, she said she was taking a colleague and friend of hers on a tour of the building and offered me the chance to join them. Evelyn, who was on butter, dish, and utensil patrol, as well as a fellow server, Chris, came on the tour with us. The two-storied facility is really first-class. It houses nearly all of the homeless services and programs offered by the county and outside organizations, which is a real blessing for those who need the help. There is no need to travel across Hackensack or even the county to get help; it is all right there in one building.

After the tour, and learning that they have a donation area for books (if anyone here at Saint Matthew’s has a few books at home that they are not using and they are in good condition, bring them to church and I will deliver them), Evelyn and I returned to our assigned tasks, but by then, dinner service was complete. The volunteer staff had just about finished the clean up of the kitchen area, so Evelyn and I took our experiences and returned home.

The Samaritans will serve a dinner at the facility on Friday, February 19th. To help defray costs, we will be taking a collection next week during the Souper Bowl of Caring. All of your donations go to help those in need. Next Sunday, please remember the Samaritans. Please remember those in need here in Bergen County.