Rev. Paul Walker “The Marilu Switcheroo”
Scripture: Micah 6:1 - 8
I remember vividly the day I first met Marilu. We met for coffee, having been set up by a mutual friend/parishioner to discuss the possibility of a call to Christ Church. I had halfway glanced at the resume she had sent me, and she, I’m sure, had halfway investigated what kind of church Christ Church might be. I don’t think either of us had given the other a whole lot of thought.
You know how these things go. A quick mutual sizing up, followed by the usual exchange of pleasantries. Only with this meeting, I noticed that the usual exchange of pleasantries wasn’t the usual exchange of pleasantries. 5 minutes in, I thought, “I am being entirely myself with this person, entirely at ease. What is happening here?” We quickly moved to a more substantial conversation. The same thing happened. “Did she really just talk about the theology of the cross? The bound will? The grace of God for ungodly people? Did Dave Zahl, who liked the look of her resume, tell her to say these things?”
Marilu had me at hello – like she does with everyone – but now she had my rapt attention. I asked her a question about what she would truly like to do. Something like, “I know you’ve done many things – social work, spiritual direction, racial reconciliation, pastored a church for people who are hearing impaired, not to mention run a business, live in South America, and raise a family, but what really floats your boat?”
Her answer sealed the deal, at least on my end. She gave an answer that no one anywhere ever gives on a job interview. Normally, you answer that kind of question with an impassioned articulation of your passion, a clear and strong and convincing sense of single-minded purpose. Instead, Marilu just said, “To be honest, I don’t even have a boat to float. I’m lucky just to be here.” I didn’t even know how perfect that answer was until I heard it. Aren’t we all lucky just to be here? Once we’d signed the official papers, I remember thinking, “God so loved Christ Church, that He gave us Marilu.”
God knew that Christ Church needed Marilu’s boat, or rather her fleet of boats. Her preaching and teaching, her mission and service, her retreat leadership and centering prayer, her engagement with the wider community: we needed all those boats. The lectionary scripture given to us today from Micah is a fitting summation of her fleet: “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Here’s the thing about Marilu, though. Many people who make that famous verse from Micah their life verse motto kind slip into a kind of Pelagianism and self-righteousness. Those can tend to head the flotilla of warships against the unjust, unkind world. The “humbly” conclusion of the verse often gets overlooked.
Not so, with Marilu. I saw a picture of a sign in front of a Baptist church in Atlanta, Marilu’s hometown and the home of the Super Bowl bound Atlanta Falcons. The sign said, “God has no favorites, but sign guy does – go Falcons!” Unlike sign guy, and like God, Marilu has no favorites.
Of course she cares very deeply about justice and kindness, but she also knows that the “rain falls on the just and the unjust”, and that we are in some way all the perpetrators of injustice and the wielders of unkind words and actions. She knows that “us against them” is a zero sum game and that the world is divided enough without us dividing it up ourselves.
She knows that every single one of us is in some way against God, but that God Himself is for us, every single one of us, both the just and the unjust. She knows that God so loved the world, that He gave us His only begotten Son, whose blood falls on the just and the unjust alike.
Or more accurately, Christ’s blood falls only the unjust, which is in fact all of us, to make us just before God. The world, of course, believes that it is foolish to love the unjust and the unkind. But in the words of St. Paul in today’s reading, “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And it seems pretty clear to me that we who are being saved are just lucky to be here.
So today, I definitely feel just lucky to be here at what we’ve been calling the Marilu switcheroo. Bishop Shannon, thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to do the switcherooing. Thank you all for being here in support of Marilu and her many boats. And Marilu, today we all thank God for you.
Amen.
