Reflecting on Installation Sunday

Hello Church -

What a beautiful and powerful service this past Sunday was! I am so grateful for everyone who joined us for the Installation Worship Service, whether in person or in prayer, and also want to share my deep thanks to all those church leaders, staff, and guests who made the day possible. What a gift to receive this Sunday, and what a responsibility to carry forward! I’ve been reflecting a lot on the importance of vows recently, and what we mean when we promise things to one another on the journey of faith and life. What do you think of when you consider the vows, the promises, that you’ve made in your life?

I’ve made vows only a handful of times throughout my forty-six years, and we have marked those times on a wall of family photographs in our dining room. Behind black, framed glass there are photos from our wedding, from both of our kids’ baptisms, and from my ordination. I will have to add a photo of this past Sunday to this wall, marking the promises and vows that I took - that our whole church took together. We’ve marked these occasions on this wall because vows are powerful places of identity - they affirm an agreement and establish a relationship. God’s own story with the people of Israel started with a promise - I will be your God, Yahweh promises, and you will be my people. I will give you a name, land, and a future full of descendants God said, if you follow me and circumcise every male. Vows affirm that we are in agreement with a role, a vocation, or a calling that has been placed over us. We say yes, wholly and intentionally, to what’s been asked of us - yes, I will be faithful to this marriage. Yes, I will raise my children to know about the love of Jesus and the story of God’s people. Yes, I will uphold the promises I’ve made to the calling of being a pastor. Yes, I will love and lead this specific congregation as they have called me. We affirm our part of what has been asked of us.

When Peter and I were first married I used to look at our written vows often, usually around each year’s anniversary. It wasn’t because I forgot them, or because I needed to be reminded of just what it was that I had said yes to :). Rather I found myself looking at them as an encouragement that reminded me of all the goodness that I was a part of. Reflecting on our common marriage vows, the promises that we had both already made to each other, was a grounding truth, a way to see afresh the goodness, the faithfulness, the choices, and the identity that Peter and I had chosen. Look at what God did in my life, I would think, remembering our beautiful wedding day and smiling at our little apartment and our crazy work schedules; no matter where we headed, these vows were in our story, and I felt so lucky, so tethered by them. Vows bring truth to mind, they remind us of the abundance we already have, and they help tell us what we’ve already established.

I also remember being a teary mess as I said the baptismal vows during both of our kids’ baptisms, as we made promises as parents, as the church made promises to our chubby cute babies, and as we trusted in the prevenient grace of God to cover and flow over our children’s foreheads and into their lives just beginning to unfold before them. Vows affirm something in the present to be sure, and they also establish a relationship that has ripples into the future. We promise this now; and in the future, on days when we might not remember, when we might not feel like it or when we might need to be tethered to this identity or this relationship, the vows remain. The communal promises of a congregation to a child, or to a pastor, or the ways we as parents or partners promise to one another at our best, never knowing what the future will bring, these are the promises that remind us we belong to one another. Remember who you belong to and who you are, they call out through the years. Remember who you said you wanted to be, the vows echo into our future stories.

Now there are times that vows need to be broken. There are times that violence, abuse, manipulation, and other hidden or seen actions rupture or weaken or make necessary the choice to break a vow. Domestic violence or spiritual abuse or other forms of unhealthy attachments are never the intended result of a sacred promise made with the intention of faithfulness and life. Even a sacred vow does not take the place of life-giving, life-empowering choices, and getting free from anything that threatens life. Full Stop.

Outside of cases where vows may be covering or used to further abuse or violence of any form, vows are a healthy tether to ground us, remind us, and encourage us. Promises and covenants in the Scriptures function the same way, to call people back to their common fidelity especially when they do not feel like it. To give direction when they forgot their way, or when they have found a new or easier potential path up ahead. Remember who you are, and whose you are, and be encouraged vows call to us.

LaSalle, in this season of focusing on our identity as a congregation, and looking at both our history and our future together, we’ve been given a gift as we made vows to one another. We made promises that contain identity, that covered a holy yes to one another and to God, and that established a relationship for the Holy Spirit to work throughout! Far from a guarantee or a rule, these promises tether us to God and to the potential of walking fully into the goodness God has for us. I look at these vows that we made Sunday, and I am reminded with tears in my eyes - look at how good God Is! Look at how God is at work, and is flowing over into our stories and our futures with abundance, with life and liberation, moving us toward more than enough, toward relationship, toward goodness. Thank you church, for your yes, your faith, and this journey that we are on together! Gratefully - RevDoc Liz

OUR VOWS

These are our commitments we make as members of the Body, as we stand in agreement with how God is leading this church through the ministry of our new pastor.

Will you receive Liz Mosbo VerHage as your pastor, recognizing her place in spiritual leadership, and receiving the Word of God and the sacraments, counsel and care, through her ministry? If this is your promise, answer "we will."  

Church: We will.

Will you do your full part to supply her needs in a way that will be pleasing to God, and will you encourage her and share with her in the work of Christ in this church? If this is your promise, answer “we will.”  

Church: We will.

CHARGE TO THE PASTOR

Will you commit to preaching the Word of God, administering the sacraments, comforting and counseling those in need, and instructing all to live into their calling in Christ Jesus, through the strength that God has given you?  

Rev. Liz: By the grace of God, I will.

Will you commit to leading this church with the authority that God has given you, speaking the truth in love, and relying on the wider Body to help supply your needs, pray for you, and join with you in this high calling?

Rev. Liz: By the grace of God, I will.