Where are you from?

Happy New Year, Dear Church!

 Where I'm From, a poem by George Ella Lyon, writer and teacher

I am from clothespins,

 from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.

I am from the dirt under the back porch.

(Black, glistening it tasted like beets.)

 I am from the forsythia bush,

the Dutch elm

 whose long gone limbs I remember

as if they were my own.

I am from fudge and eyeglasses,

 from Imogene and Alafair.

I'm from the know-it-alls

 and the pass-it-ons,

from Perk up! and Pipe down!

I'm from He restoreth my soul

with a cottonball lamb

and ten verses I can say myself.

 I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,

 fried corn and strong coffee.

From the finger my grandfather lost

to the auger the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures.

a sift of lost faces to drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments –

snapped before I budded –

leaf-fall from the family tree.

Where are you from?

The poet names her family and favorite things as her “I am froms.” Where are you from? What did you bring with you when the Holy Spirit invited you to Grace Lutheran Church? What do you bring now? What if we each thought of several “I am froms” and shared them with each other? (I am from lakes and books, music, games and sunshine.)

I’m writing this the Sunday that Jesus calls the disciples. Like us, they brought their “froms” into their community. Some were from fishing; Matthew was a reviled tax collector; Simon the Zealot was an intense nationalist; Andrew lived in the shadow of his famous brother Peter who was always the first to speak, right or wrong; and Thomas needed proof. What a buffet of “froms”!

 Jesus called them all. He didn’t use AI to seek highly skilled candidates for his lifechanging, local-to-worldwide ministry. He invited everyone, starting with the first people he saw, and he invited you. Congregations start each year the same way, called and inviting everyone, in faith and hope in Christ.

Thank you, God, for the “froms” you have given us and the futures into which you call us.

Amen

Robin Brown, Bridge Pastor