Loading...Today is a special day of celebration. Today five of our St James’ family, Teresa Cheatham, Lucy Dosker, Dan Haas, Joe John, Judy Pfeiffer and one whom we have adopted as our own, Kippy Young, graduate from EfM, Education for Ministry. They started this chapter of their faith journey four years ago and for four years have faithfully studied, discussed and participated in weekly meetings.
To prepare for what I wanted to say today I turned to the Gospel as I always do, hoping to find an uplifting passage or one about journeying or learning, something that I could relate to EfM and their journey. But No. It was about nations rising up against nations, and about earthquakes and famines. Not only was it not uplifting it was one of those passages we would rather not read at all. It is one that we find difficult to understand and apply to our lives. I don’t like to preach on passages like this but the Revised Common Lectionary prevents us from cherry picking the easy one or our favorite passages.
I was discussing this with Rev Debbie and she said” but isn’t that what EfM is all about”. She was right. In EfM we learn to dive deep into scripture even and maybe in particular the difficult ones. We explore other works of theology and examine our life experiences, looking at them through different lenses, from different prospectives and points of view. We learn to find God in everything we read, do or experience. In short EfM helps us with our goal to a stronger relationship with God.
Rev Debbie also reminded me that in EfM we work together as a community. Again, she was right. We don’t have to struggle with these difficult passages alone, we examine everything together, sharing perspectives and experiences. This sharing enables us to see the world in ways we may not have ever experienced.
I am not going to say any more about EfM because one of our graduates, our own Verger extraordinaire, our Verger Superior, our Grand PooBah Verger, Joe John has volunteered to share his reflection on his journey through EfM. But before he does, I want to tell you a little about how Joe became an EfMer. Many years ago, I really am not really sure how many, but it was more than 10 ago, I asked Joe to consider joining our EfM group, telling him that I thought he would really enjoy it. He said he’d think about it. Later he told me that he might someday but not was not the right time. So, every year I asked him and encouraged him but got the same answer. Not now, it’s not the right time. Finally, he said it was time, and he paid his tuition, ready to begin his journey. Then our Priest resigned and Joe, being Senior Warden, said he had too much on his plate so once again, it was not the right time. But I had his money. He said to keep it that he would join us someday. And so finally, several years later it was the right time and Joe began his journey. And now I’ll let Joe tell you the rest of the story.
