Dispatch #32
Wednesday, October 9
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Autumn weather, the sky a valiant blue, the breezes chill, the sun so warm I sweat a-crutching through it.

Trees are changing right now--and I don't have to wish I were somewhere near to them. I only wish that Thanne were here to walk among the trees at my side.

Thanne says the autumn brings cleanliness.

And when I compare the falls to the springs on our bit of land--the third with the first seasons of the year--I too find the autumn more hopeful and fulfilling, because spring (despite the buds) is muddy. Our mud is clay. Clay makes a greasy mud and a miserably slippery spirit--as if the soil will never truly renew itself (though it does).

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Of the three-point plan we've outlined to take Lutheran Vespers to its next level, the second point is "Endorsement."

The more that the ELCA truly embraces Lutheran Vespers as an outreach ministry; the more that members of the administration at Higgins Road include the sweetly ubiquitous radio in its constructions of missions; the more that ELCA congregations become aware of the service which Lutheran Vespers provides not only for their members, but also for thousands of human souls scattered throughout their ministerial areas; and the more that regions of the church speak favorably of Lutheran Vespers ... well, then: the more shall this program be honored and supported as unique and necessary in the whole church's effort toward "Making Christ Known"!

Nothing else in the ELCA accomplishes what the radio ministry of LV accomplishes every week (with its potential listening audience of 4 million people, world wide). We are a Lutheran presence in regions of the country where Lutheran themselves are the small slice of the demographic pie (such as in the southeast). Our audience--despite our avowedly Lutheran traditions and theologies--includes people of all denominations, as well as people who will never enter churches of any denomination. We are Grace in the ears of those who suffer private anguish, personal guilt, a crushing sense of worthlessness.

We do serve Church shut-ins and Bible classes and confirmation classes, too; we offer congregations resources at many levels of their common labors. But we most definitely are not restricted to these offerings (are not merely a shut-in ministry, as some would define us--acting, I can only suppose, rather out of feeling than out of fact and knowledge).

Public "endorsement," "endorsements" ecclesiastical and clarion, can shatter old notions and clarify the truth of this ministry.

Can you imagine my glad, good gratitude for the number of synodical Bishops who have involved themselves in this tour (once "OutSpoken," too soon, "OutBroken")?

Bishop Paul Stumme-Diers of the Greater Milwaukee Synod rode his bicycle with me up the "Holy Hill" and down again into Hartford Wisconsin.

Bishop Bob Berg of the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin ate supper with us one evening in Rice Lake, and then the next in Chetek introduced me to the people present for a full rally.

Except for my sudden break (by the break of a bone and the need to convalesce) I would have met with Bishop Richard Foss in Fargo-Moorhead at Concordia College--a program which went on without me, though it used my voice and a sermon I had taped for the anniversary of 9/11, a program at which the Bishop appeared almost, as it were, in my stead, smiling upon this ministry a beneficent kindness whether or not I was there.

When I was laid up in the hospital, letters and telephone calls came from other bishops: April Larson of the La Crosse Area Synod, Jim Stuck of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod (my personal Bishop and Pastor), Mark Hanson, presiding Bishop of the ELCA.

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the steadfast, dignified, consoling, genuinely ministerial Bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl set me at peace (despite my galumphing mis-coordination on a stiff crutch) by introducing me both with a story and with personal grace.

And then in Nebraska Bishop David deFreese appeared both at a reception the night before our rally, and then again at the rally itself, to introduce me to a gregarious, kindly group of people.

How bracing have these words, these gifts, been for all of us on the tour, and for the acknowledgment of the ministry Lutheran Vespers performs for the sake of the Gospel, in the name of Jesus Christ.

But even so, it is not over.

Tonight, here in Cedar Rapids, Bishop Philip Hougen of the Southeastern Iowa Synod will make his presence a benefaction for Lutheran Vespers, introducing not only me to the people, but introducing this ministry as well.

And in Rockford Gary Wollersheim, Bishop of the Northern Illinois Synod, will also greet us and name us before the people of that area where a rally will be held. Several years back I took the stage with Ken Medema (pianist) before several thousand people of the city. That experience has never left my memory, so well prepared for, so widely attended. The battery in my microphone went out suddenly, in the middle of a wonderful story, and my voice in the auditorium dropped from strong to gone. Ken, on the other hand, struck immediately into a talk-song on his own mike, making the thing up, while I paced and pitched sentences in his direction, he catching them on the hook of a bright note. When the battery was replaced, lo: we had not lost a single soul in the audience! Onward, on we went.

And on we go now, praising the pastors of the church, both at the level of congregations and at the level of synods, for their generous "endorsement" of the ministry.

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We have spoken face to face, now, with more than 3,750 people. Add the 1300 at Concordia (to whom we spoke by indirections) and our present tour has touched more than 5000 people.

And, still, we are not done.

Walt