Searching for Grace

Part 2: First Sunday

Second of a five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ. In part 1, Paul made the difficult but necessary decision to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and accepted a call as transitional pastor of Grace United Church of Christ.

Paul’s first task as pastor of Grace UCC was learning how to put on a clerical collar. “This is complicated,” he complained to his wife Sarah.

After helping him figure out the mechanics of the plastic collar and the metal tabs that held it in place, she teased him, “I think you look cute in your new dog collar. I bet it will keep ticks and fleas away for several months.” They both laughed loudly.

Paul debated whether to wear a collar. He told Sarah, “Some clergy in the UCC wear one; others don’t. However, I like the symbolism of it. It reminds me and others that I represent a faith tradition.”

Several months later, when he got stopped by a policeman for exceeding the speed limit, his collar motivated the policeman to give Paul a break.

“Since you are new in town and since you are a minister, I’ll give you a warning this time instead of a ticket.”

A nice side benefit of the collar, thought Paul.

After figuring out how to put on his collar, Paul put on his new black pulpit robe. He told Sarah, “I’ll need to buy four stoles—red, green, purple, and white—for the various seasons of the liturgical year. Unfortunately, clergy stoles don’t come cheap.” Thankfully, Grace Church paid for the stoles as a gift to their new transitional pastor.

Paul told Sarah, “I’ve got a lot to learn about mainline church life, especially their worship. I’ve been reading up on the seasons of Lent and Advent and special holy days like All Saints Day. Although Grace is less formal than many liturgical churches, these special seasons and days are still important to them.”

As his first Sunday at Grace Church neared, Sarah asked, “What’s your sermon going to be about?”

“I’ve decided not to preach a traditional sermon. Instead, I’m going to share my faith story with the congregation, from my conversion in high school, to my early years in the Baptist church, to my evolution toward a more open-minded, grace-filled, and inclusive understanding of faith. I’m only going to hit the high points, so that part will only take about ten minutes. Then I’m going to talk a bit about being a community of grace. I’ve already timed it out. I can get everything covered in less than twenty minutes.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” said Sarah, excited about her husband’s new opportunity.

That Sunday, early in the service, Linda Caldwell, chair of the transitional pastor search committee, said, “I’m pleased to introduce our new pastor to you, Reverend Paul Graham. I’m also happy to introduce you to his wife, Sarah, and their two daughters, Hope and Joy.”

After a few introductory comments, Paul said, “I’d like to answer a question several of you have already asked me. The question is, ‘What should we call you?’ The answer depends on your age. I’d like the children and youth to call me Pastor Paul. If you are an adult, I prefer that you simply call me Paul. I know some people are hesitant to call their minister by a first name. They think it lacks respect. But, according to Loretta Lynn, that’s not so. Loretta Lynn and Jimmy Carter are close friends. So Loretta has always called him Jimmy, even when he became president. A reporter once asked her, ‘Don’t you think it’s presumptuous of you to call the president of the United States by his first name?’ Loretta replied, ‘I call Jesus by his first name.’ After the congregation stopped laughing, Paul said, “So I hope you’ll call me Paul. However, if that’s not comfortable for you, it’s fine to call me Pastor Paul or Reverend Graham.”

Later in the service, after the offering and choir anthem, Paul stood for the sermon. After sharing a few highlights of his faith journey, Paul said, “When I first heard about Grace UCC, I immediately felt attracted to your name. I’ve come to the conclusion that people in today’s world desperately need grace, not judgment. So my dream for our church is that we will always live up to our namesake.”

Paul then read from Matthew 9:10–13:
 

And as Jesus sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

 
After reading the text, Paul said, “At his core, Jesus was a man of mercy and grace. He consistently loved, accepted, and welcomed imperfect sinful people into God’s family. And he calls his church to do the same, including our church.”

Paul transitioned to his concluding story. “A few months ago, Sarah and I went to the theater to see a new movie called Awakenings. Some of you may have seen it. It stars Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. If you haven’t seen it, and plan to, I apologize in advance for ruining it for you!”

“Awakenings,” Paul explained, “Is based on a true and touching story about a group of catatonic patients at a state mental hospital who lived in a coma-like existence for decades. However, through the use of a new drug, a caring doctor wakes the patients out of their catatonic existence. Among them is a man named Leonard. After decades of living in a vegetative state, Leonard awakens to life. As the movie unfolds, we delight in Leonard’s progress and learn that he is an intelligent, sensitive, and loving human being.

“As the weeks progress, Leonard makes friends with a woman who regularly comes to the hospital to visit her father. She and Leonard hit it off and become fast friends. However, as the story unfolds, Leonard begins to regress. The miracle medicine slowly loses its effectiveness. Leonard begins to develop tics all over his face and body, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before he returns to his catatonic state. Before long the tics become so overwhelming that it’s difficult to watch him anymore. Still, the woman continues her friendship with Leonard. She accepts him as he is, even with his awful twitches. She still values him as a human being, cares about him, and affirms him. In short, she gives Leonard the wonderful gift of grace.

“Near the end of the movie, Leonard has lunch with this woman. As they eat, she tells him about a dance she recently attended. Leonard replies that he has never danced before and probably never will. After lunch they both stand up. As Leonard prepares to leave, he reaches out his trembling arm to shake hands with her, probably for the last time. She takes his hand but won’t let go. Instead, she puts Leonard’s arms around her in a dance position and holds him closely. And there, on the cafeteria floor of the state mental hospital, she and Leonard begin to dance. As they dance, the camera focuses on Leonard’s face—beaming with joy in an incredible moment of grace.”

Paul concluded, “As I watched this remarkable woman dance with Leonard, I thought to myself, ‘This is the way it is with God and human beings.’ Like Leonard, every human being twitches with flaws and sins and brokenness. And yet God, like this woman, holds us close with compassionate, unconditional love and dances with us across the floor. I don’t remember the woman’s name. But I’d like to think her name was Grace.”

After pausing a moment, Paul invited the congregation to stand and sing, “Amazing Grace.” When they finished the song, Paul lifted up his right hand and gave the closing pastoral benediction, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

That afternoon after lunch Paul sat in his recliner and pulled out his journal. After writing all about his first Sunday at Grace, he ended his entry by saying, “For the first time in many years, I feel at home.”

Seven months after his first Sunday, Paul ate lunch with Glen Hightower, chair of the church council. Glen said, “Paul, we are delighted with your initial work at Grace. Although I love our former pastor, the truth is, he fell asleep at the wheel his final few years before retirement. And the council likely encouraged that. We didn’t advocate for any new initiatives, nor did we challenge him or ourselves to step beyond the status quo. Everybody grew complacent and comfortable, and we stagnated as a church. You are bringing new life and energy to our congregation, and I deeply appreciate what you are doing.”

Glen continued, “I realize you are still technically our transitional pastor, with only five months left on your contract. But I don’t know a single person in the congregation who doesn’t want to make this arrangement permanent. So, setting that nonissue aside, what is your perspective on Grace? What direction do you see us going in the future?”

Paul, who had been thinking about that question since he first arrived, was more than ready to answer.

Paul replied, “It seems to me that Grace seems shy, apologetic, and almost embarrassed about its progressive theological culture. And I get that. We live in a city that is overwhelming conservative and evangelical. Our community is full of religious-right, “Moral Majority” kinds of churches. But people looking for that kind of religion will never connect with our congregation. So there’s no use even trying to reach them.”

Paul continued, “For several years now, I’ve sensed a growing backlash against religious-right religion in America. People, at least some of them, are growing weary of angry, arrogant, closed-minded, and judgmental Christianity. For example, when evangelical leaders say horrific things about homosexuals, it turns off a lot of folks, especially young people. Several years ago, when a well-known religious-right leader said, ‘God does not hear the prayer of a Jew,’ plenty of people thought, ‘If this is Christianity, I want no part of it.’ When conservative churches tell women that they cannot be ministers and that they must submit to their husbands, a lot of people cringe. And, when churches tell people they must choose between faith and science, plenty of folks walk away and give up on religion.”

Paul moved to his main point. “This growing discontentment with conservative evangelical religion provides Grace Church with an exceptional opportunity. I think that instead of shying away from our progressive theology, we should embrace it. I believe we should enthusiastically and boldly communicate that we are an open-minded and grace-filled church. In short, I’m suggesting we provide a viable and positive alternative to religious-right theology. Our city has large numbers of progressive-minded people who would be open to a church like that. Those people are our niche. Let’s focus on them.”

Glen Hightower liked what he heard. This young man is going to make a significant impact on our church. 

The following year went exceptionally well at Grace UCC. Upon his one-year anniversary the congregation enthusiastically approved changing Paul’s status from transitional pastor to permanent pastor. However, the honeymoon was about to end.

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(Note: The stories in this series come from Martin’s novel An Inconvenient Loss of Faith. You can download the novel (for free) at www.DoubtersParish.com).

Martin Thielen, retired United Methodist minister and writer, is the creator and author of www.DoubtersParish.com.