2/50: A Sustaining Word

A favorite song from the musical Come from Away in which the passengers grounded in Newfoundland after 9/11 pray together.

The Lord has given me 

the tongue of a teacher,

that I may know how to sustain

the weary with a word.

Isaiah 50:4

An excerpt of today’s sermon. The full service is available online.

Early one weekday morning in 2014, I arrived at a board meeting for the local homeless shelter. I’m sure I was late, sleepy and full of my familiar inner dialogue of shame. I was intimidated by the lawyers, real estate developers, social workers and successful journalist in the room. I was sure I should have prepared and done more, and yet with no earthly idea how. I was parenting two pre-teen girls with a husband who traveled 2 weeks out of the month, while keeping up with a full-time+ job as an over functioning associate pastor at a large-ish church.

A white envelope slid across the table with the words “Rev Jen” on it. I slipped it into my bag and opened it as soon as I got into my car, thinking maybe it was a donation to the church or tickets to the next concert at the amphitheater. But inside was a cut out New Yorker cartoon with some joke about Moses. 

The envelopes appeared at every board meeting, usually with a New Yorker cartoon, sometimes with a poem or an article, and I can’t pretend that I didn’t look forward to them. Soon enough, I became fast friends with Bruce, a retired news writer, who picked me as his friend. Our lunches and coffees were vulnerable conversations about life, politics and theology. Bruce managed to cheer on my work as a pastor and not project on me some perfect ideal of what a pastor should be. 

Bruce has been the embodiment of the lectionary text from Isaiah today that begins this way: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” (Isaiah 50:4)

In a world where loneliness was epidemic even before we had a worldwide pandemic, we need those teachers who know how to sustain the weary with a word. I would venture to say that nearly every person you lay your eyes on right now could be counted as the weary. I know I am. But here’s the deal: we can both be the weary AND be the ones who sustain the weary. 

So, slide those envelopes across the table. Write a note. Pick up the phone. Send a text. Give a gift. The world needs a sustaining word and there is no one but us to speak it.