FTE "On Call" Blog

Melissa Wiginton

Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning

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August 20, 2010

Gutsy Questions, Beckoning Pastors

Driving through downtown Decatur, GA last week, I passed the sign in front of First Baptist Church at least a dozen times. It announced the title of the coming Sunday’s sermon: "What If I Can’t Forgive?" That’s a pretty gutsy sermon title. Just asking the question lays certain claims, namely that (a) forgiving is a good, something I should do; (b) forgiving is hard and sometimes I can’t do it; and (c) something happens if I can’t forgive. If we could get CNN to conduct a poll, I doubt a majority of Americans would agree with these as blanket claims, true no matter what it is that needs forgiveness or whether the offender apologizes. This question goes against the grain; it calls us to how we should live. "What If I Can’t Forgive?" is a prophetic question.

Yesterday, August 19, 2010, the last US combat troops left Iraq. Our country rejoices that the soldiers are out of danger and on their way home to be reunited with families and friends. We believe the Iraqi people can and will flourish in freedom. We are turning a corner, leaving the war zone and entering other spaces where a different peace waits to be made. I imagine that there are unhealed wounds in the hearts of every person touched by the war in both the U.S. and Iraq: the soldiers who served, their wives and husbands, children and parents; people who harbor resentments, anger, maybe even hatred toward their fellow citizens with different opinions or belief systems; leaders of political regimes, countries, and even religions. All the way around, people hold a lot of hurt. We stand in need of forgiving and of being forgiven. "What if I Can’t Forgive?", Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell’s question, is a timely one.

Thinking about her asking this question causes me to wonder: What if the world did not have people doing what Julie Pennington-Russell does? What if we did not have pastors to stop us, to step in front of us and to say out loud that we need to ask what happens if we can’t forgive? The church is the community that holds us accountable for the practice of forgiveness; the pastor is the one in the community to speak the question into the shared public space even as she touches on the intimate places in the hearts of those in her special care. The pastor can bring the riches of Scripture and Christian wisdom, including the insights and arguments of theologians, into the community’s life to help with walking the way of Jesus Christ. With these resources, the pastor can both provoke and temper the voices of the members who are in positions to lead as ministers, teachers and healers in the community beyond the congregation.

Last spring, a young woman graduating with the M.Div. told me the story of her call and vocation. She told me about falling in love with church as a child and then experiencing one painful event after another in which she was hurt and disappointed by Christian leaders and excluded from the church. She talked about wanting to give up at times but of not being able to walk away, and of not knowing even now exactly where she belonged.

“If you could have your dream job right now, do you know what it would be?” I asked her.

“Oh, yeah.” She broke into a full smile. “I would go to work for Julie Pennington-Russell. She is my hero.”

This is not a blog post to valorize Pastor Julie. But it is to say that from what I know of her—the near totality of which is on this page—she is what this world needs: A pastor who can ask and work at answering the hard questions that lodge in every human heart, to touch the places that need healing from deep in the soul out into public life, and to beckon the next generation of leaders to do the same.