A Tribute to Lew Hudson

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of leading the Memorial Service for Lew Hudson in Baxter. Lew was a very special man who made a beautiful impact in the world.  Below is an edited version of the sermon I shared.

I got to know Lew as I was growing up in Worthington, Minnesota.  He lived on 1937 Summit and my family lived on 1914 Summit.  Our families saw a lot of each other.  LuAnn and Cindy were babysitters for my sister and me.  They got thirty-five cents a hour and then got a raise to fifty cents a hour.  Becky would go to the bus stop with us, and Fred hung out with my sister.  The Hudsons went to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Worthington, so the connection between our families only grew.  

His sense of humor was always part of our family's relationships.  I remember one day after Halloween waking up and seeing a grave stone in our front yard.  Lew did it—and we laughed about it for a long time.

I loved seeing the pictures that LuAnn, Cindy, Becky, and Fred shared on Facebook after Lew passed.  So many of them showed Lew with his sense of humor.  Chasing a turkey in a t-shirt, shorts and boots.  Who does that?  Standing with in a top hat and a black suit with Fred holding a flag.  I don’t know this for sure but it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the Bicentennial.  And just sticking out his tongue.

He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1927.  His dad was a minister and he had two older brothers.  His dad, mom and siblings traveled around and eventually landed in eastern Iowa.  Lew went to high school in Bloomfield Iowa and attended Drake University.  And then his life changed.

One night he was walking in Des Moines and he came upon his friend, Bill.  Bill was driving a 1941 Ford Sedan.  They did what guys did in those days.  They went cruising.  They came across two women, Irma and Norma, who were at a bus stop.  They asked the two if they’d like to go for a ride.  Irma and Norma weren’t ready for that, said, "no," and got on the bus.  Lew and Bill weren’t going to be deterred that easily.  They followed the bus.  When the women got off, the two guys asked them if they wanted to go to a softball game the next night.  Irma and Norma looked at each other.  And they said, “yes.”  The next night as Lew and Bill drove to pick them up, the big question was who would go out with whom.  The two agreed that Lew would take the tall one, Irma, and Bill would take the short one, Norma.  The same conversation was going on among the girls about who would go out with whom.  Irma and Norma came to the same conclusion as Lew & Bill.  And destiny was established.  Both couples got eventually got married.  Lew and Irma were married for 69 years.

Fast forward a few years to 1960.  Lew took a job at the radio station in Worthington.  He loved being on the radio.  Eventually he became a reporter for the Worthington Daily Globe.  He joined the Presbyterian Church.  And Lew became part of the community. 

I remember the initiative that Lew established with some others in Worthington to develop a relationship with Cuero, Texas.  Worthington celebrated Turkey Day; Cuero did too.  The great gobbler gallop, a turkey race between the "fastest" turkey in each town, was born!  The trophy was the Traveling Turkey Trophy of Tumultuous Triumph.  Sounds like words that a newspaper reporter would coin.    

When I talked with Becky & Fred this past week Becky shared that for Lew family, faith, and community were most important.  Lew was able to combine faith and community in a way that honored the Presbyterian tradition.  Wherever he went Lew was involved in the community.  When he moved to Brainerd, he took the time to run for school board.  Some people in their 50’s and 60’s would be looking forward to retirement and going to the lake—especially in Brainerd.  But that wasn’t Lew.  It’s amazing to me that he served for 15 ½ years on the school board including three years as the board chair.  That is service in the Presbyterian tradition.

           

And Lew served the Presbyterian church. They were part of a group at Westminster in the late 60’s, early 70’s who saw their beloved pastor fired.  Though I was very young, I remember how painful that was for Lew, my parents, and many others.  But Lew (and others) stayed with the church despite the pain that he experienced.  He was willing to bear with people who caused him and his friends great pain.  Serving six times on the Session of the church again reveals his willingness to serve.  In most churches a term in the Presbyterian church is three years.  That is 18 years of Session meetings.  I love Session meetings, but I wouldn’t always call Session meetings the most stimulating of activity.  There was Lew—willing to serve.

           

Lew was a honorable man.  Becky shared with me that one rule he applied to life is “is it true, is it fair.”  He undoubtedly applied this rule at school board and Session meetings.  He had a deep sense of integrity and what made something right. 

           

Even with his sense of service, Lew had a sense of curiosity.  Fred shared that he played video games with him.  Can you imagine?  Most people Lew’s age look at video games as something meant for kids and something that keeps kids from doing important things like reading, spending time with family, or being in nature.  But there was Lew—with a sense of curiosity, willing to play a video game with his son.

           

He loved a good laugh.  And he was willing to share those laughs in his columns.  One year three teenagers were set to sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are” at the Christmas pageant at Westminster in Worthington.  It was a Christmas pageant, so they hadn’t practiced too much.  But there was one problem.  The three guys were were supposed to sing the song from memory.  The first guy got up.  He was a good-looking guy with a beautiful voice.  He was doing well.  But then he completely blanked on the words.  So he did what any rational person would do.  He started making up words—to “We Three Kings of Orient Are”—at a Christmas pageant.  The other two guys knew what was happening, and they couldn’t stop laughing.  The second guy got up to sing—but he couldn’t carry a tune and laughter took him away.  Then the third guy got up.  He was a more serious person.  He had complained that the group hadn’t practiced enough.  The first guy knew that this third guy was going to be upset about what had happened.  He silently prayed that this third guy would mess up.  And the third guy sang beautifully—until—his mind went blank too.  Three for three.  

           

Lew was in the audience for this “performance” of the Christmas pageant.  He loved it.  And, of course, he couldn’t help writing a column about the “three wise guys.”  Those three people will always be connected by that story.  Of course, I was one of the three.

           

God loved Lew deeply.  When the woman came to the tomb two days after the death of Jesus, they were expecting to find a dead body.  Instead as they came to the cave they found that the stone was rolled away.  They went into the cave.  The body was not there.  But an angel was.  That angel shared 17 words that can give us comfort as we think about the eternal fate of Lew.  Why do you look for the living among the dead; he is not here; he is risen.”  Jesus was raised from the dead.  Because of that resurrection we have faith that Lew is enjoying an eternal connection to God.  It’s a mystery yes.  And it’s a gift that God gave to Lew.  And a gift that God gives to all of us.  Lew opened up his gift and enjoyed a lifetime of service to his family, church & community.

           

Praise God for the resurrection of Jesus.  Praise God for the life of Lew Hudson.

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Send them Back?

I have never had someone tell me to go back to my place of birth. 

If someone did, I would hardly understand the question.  By the way I was born in Primghar, Iowa.   

But since President Trump’s failure to stop a crowd at his rally last week from shouting “send them back,”  I’ve been astonished the number of times my friends of color have said they’ve been told this phrase.   

And I’m embarrassed by my own astonishment.

For President Trump to target Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Rep. Rashida Tlaibfour, four women of color, is clearly an act of belittling a group of people based on their race.  That’s racism, and President Trump should be called out on it.

President Trump continues to target this group of four women.  He did it this morning in another tweet.  The only way he would change is when he sees it in his own self-interest.  If he thought his own political base would decrease their approval of him based on his comments, he might stop. But according to polling his approval rating among Republicans has gone up in the last week.

If the act of the crowd at President Trump’s rally wasn’t so sad it would be comical.  To actually be sent back, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would go to the Bronx; Rep. Ayanna Pressley would go to Cincinnati,, Rep. Rashida Tlaibfour would go to Detroit, and Rep. Ilhan Omar would go to Somalia.  And if the entire Congress was sent back to their place of birth five Senators and twenty-two other Representatives in addition to Rep. Ilhan Omar would go to a foreign country.  As I said above, if I went back I would go to Primghar, Iowa.

But at the baiting of President Trump the crowd didn’t ask these other people from Congress to go back to their home countries and didn’t ask anyone who was white to go back to their home countries.

The conduct of the crowd was chilling and frightening. President Trump originally said he disagreed with the chant—even though he let it go for thirteen seconds—and then he even backtracked on that statement.

Let’s be clear.  Targeting a group of people based on race is racism; targeting a group of people based on their place of birth is xenophobia. Both racism and xenophobia have no place in our culture.  They are both sins.  Every person who is human is susceptible to each. 

I’m actually less interested in calling out racism--though it has to be done--than in developing friendships with people who have a different skin color than me and people who were born in a different country than me.  I’m also committed to leading a congregation made up of many races and nationalities. 

This Sunday at Chain of Lakes Church I’ll wrap up a summer sermon series on friendship.  I'm taking the themes of friendship in the Toy Story movies, relating them to Scripture and then asking the question of what can be learned about growing in friendship.  I’ll challenge everyone present to develop friendships with people who have a different skin color and with people from a different country of birth.  I’m not naïve enough to think that these two acts can end racism, but these friendships can be an anchor for understanding in these divisive times.  

All of us need this anchor of understanding.  Especially when race is again being used to divide our country.

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I can still eat a rabbit and be a religious leader, right? Thoughts on kicking a church out over gay marriage

I spent last week traveling to Glacier National Park with my family, so didn’t have the opportunity to share my thoughts on the recent decision by the Evangelical Covenant Church  to kick out First Covenant Church in Minneapolis from the denomination and to revoke Rev. Dan Collison’s, pastor of the church, ordination in the denomination for celebrating a gay wedding in the church building. 

I hesitate to even write about another denomination's issues, but I identify myself as a pastor in the one church--one church with many denominations. So I can't help share my views as what happens in a congregation in another denomination matters to me. 

This action attracted plenty of attention as two articles in the Star Tribune each garnered almost 300 comments on the newspaper’s web site.  Those articles and comments can be found here: http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-pastor-faces-unprecedented-defrocking-because-of-lgbt-stance/511808592/   http://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-pastor-and-first-covenant-church-evicted-over-lgbt-stance/511979272/

A letter written by four leaders of the Evangelical Covenant Church about the decision can be found on the denomination’s web site: https://covchurch.org/news/letter-from-the-covenant-regarding-the-decisions-made-at-the-annual-meeting/

I’ve written about my beliefs about gay marriage in other parts of this blog. For those who don’t want to search through the blog, it’s worth knowing that the first wedding celebrated at Chain of Lakes was a marriage I officiated between two men—Chris Audet and Richard Garcia.

However I don’t intend to make the case in this particular blog about gay marriage. Instead I want to share my dismay that a denomination (in this case the Evangelical Covenant Church) would kick out a local congregation and revoke the ordination of a pastor over the issue of gay marriage.  To me this is an example of the excess of Subscriptionism. 

Subscriptionism—"what’s that?” you might ask.  Subscriptionism is a view that a person must subscribe to a certain set of beliefs in order to be part of a faith community or a denomination.  

In the 18^th century American Presbyterians went through a rigorous debate about Subscriptionism. The history is worth knowing. These two web sites share a preliminary introduction to that history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Dickinson_(New_Jersey) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adopting_Act_of_1729

Put briefly, in the early 18^th century Presbyterian pastors were required to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith.  Jonathan Dickinson (who later became President of Princeton) argued that this put the Westminster Confession of Faith at the same level of Scripture. He helped pass the Adapting Act of 1729 which stated that candidates for ministry had to subscribe to the Westminster standards but could declare a scruple (a modern-day description of a scruple is a dissent) to the standards.  The governing body could then decide if the scruple was allowed.

Beliefs about God matter; theology matters; humans are always going to disagree about theological beliefs.

For me an individual’s or community’s belief about gay marriage doesn’t rise to the level of whether a person or a community of people can be part of a congregation or a denomination.

As many people in the comment section in response to the Star Tribune's stories noted, the Bible can be used to affirm almost any viewpoint. I’m reading through the Bible this year using Eugene Peterson’s Message translation.  This morning I read Deuteronomy 13-18.  In these chapters I read about stoning prophets who encourage people to follow other gods; I read instructions about not eating camels, rabbits, badgers or animals with a cloven hoof; I read about how financial debts should be canceled every seven years; I read about tithing; I read about principles that leaders need to follow when they judge people.  To the best of my knowledge none of these issues are splitting apart a denomination.  Yet there they are in the Bible.  I find these six chapters of Deuteronomy interesting, a bit bizarre, but they don’t diminish my own love for the Bible and what it teaches me as a follower of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps most importantly anyone can disagree about these issues and be leaders in a faith community. 

To the best of my knowledge no one’s ordination has been revoked for eating a rabbit.

For me the teachings of the Bible become authoritative when they are consistent with the life, death, resurrection and teachings of Jesus.

If Jesus magically walked into my house, I would bow down and worship him.  I would encourage other people to worship with me.  I highly doubt that he would refuse our worship based on our views of gay marriage.  I think some of the questions he might ask me are “Do you love me? Do you believe in me? Will you follow me?  Will you encourage others to love me and to love their neighbors as they love themselves? Will you teach others to believe in and follow me?”

At Chain of Lakes Church a person becomes a part of our congregation (we use the language of disciples and not the traditional language of members) by affirming that Jesus is Lord and Savior.  A person becomes an Elder or Deacon in the church by affirming nine constitutional questions.  The list of the questions can be found here: http://www.highlandpres.org/publications/OfficerInstallation.pdf. 

A person can believe in or be opposed to gay marriage and be part of Chain of Lakes Church.   We find our unity in saying that Jesus is Lord and Savior.  The strength of this unity is more important than other theological differences. 

My hope for the church universal is that we can continue to find strength in what unifies us and not be divided by our differences. 

I’m saddened by the actions of the Evangelical Covenant Church as I believe their action has made theological belief more important than the teachings of Jesus.

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