Mary

June 1, 2018

The California gold rush of 1849 changed the landscape of that place forever. We still see the effects of it in the major metropolitan areas that didn’t even exist a hundred and fifty years ago. More immediately, the area around Sutter’s Creek soon was dotted with claims marked by water races, cabins, and mounds of earth. Later techniques for extracting the gold included blasting hillsides with high pressure hoses that tore gaping holes in mountainsides. You have to move a lot of earth to get to the gold.

Sometimes life is like that. Though they are organizationally necessary, I have little interest in and patience for administrative tasks and meetings. Unfortunately, Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church are just that. Business meetings—ugh! But if we persevere, we often find golden nuggets in all that pile of dirt. 

Today at Annual Conference, we heard some outstanding preaching. People have told me that I am a good preacher, but I know better. I’ve heard good preaching. Today’s preacher twice expounded for forty five minutes from memory, with passion and stories that so captured our interest that we wished he would have kept going. Nuggets I quickly pocketed. I’ll dig them out later and look them over, examining their beauty, and investing their value. 

An even more precious nugget was seeing my good friend Mary Martin. It’s been about five years, in which time her husband sickened and recently died. She confided that it’s been a hard three years. She misses him deeply, not only now that he is gone, but in the final couple of years when he so sick. Mary and I talked, and I introduced her to my friend Chuck when he came upon us. We recounted how she roped me into being her assistant ordination coordinator years ago, and then bailed on me when she was called on for a different conference job. Mary and I are different in many ways. I am die hard conservative; she is just as committed a liberal. I am quiet and reserved; no one who knows her would ever accuse Mary of being quiet and reserved. 

Mary taught me a lot without even trying. From her I learned tolerance and grace, and how to embrace difference in ways that produce growth. And exuberant love for life and people. I’ll never hold a candle to Mary’s exuberance, but she continues to hold hers high so I can always see what it looks like and keep walking towards it. 

Most of my closest friends share with me many points of connection. With Mary, it’s only three: her willingness to reach out to me years ago, our mutual love for Jesus Christ, expressed in often different ways, and the Christian love and respect we have for each other. Mary, it was so good to see you today. I am so very thankful you chose me those years ago, and initiated a friendship that I treasure more than all the gold California could ever produce.