On The Death of a Parish Priest

 

George Plattenburg Service

July 9, 2014

            We are gathered here this morning to do two things: 1) As we always do when we gather to worship, celebrate the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus; and the more poignant – painful task today of 2) Honoring the memory of a man, a colleague – George Plattenburg - who made the decision fairly early in his life to give his life to Christian ministry and more particularly, to the ministry which takes place in parish churches. I think that I can say without too much fear of disagreement that that is a noble calling! For this service I chose not to read one of the recommended Burial Office Gospels, but instead picked one from the service for the ordination of a priest. In case you didn’t appreciate it the first time, here it is again:

            And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. Teaching and Preaching and Healing! That is the model for ministry which Jesus sets before us. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to the disciples, “The Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

            George Plattenburg was one of those, I am guessing, back in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s whose imagination was stirred by that imperative from Jesus and he decided to become one of those laborers following the direction of the Lord of the harvest. Again, it was and is a noble calling!

            George was born in Oxford, Ohio. His father was an Episcopal clergyman, the archdeacon of the Diocese of Ohio at one time. George spent his childhood in Ohio and also in upstate New York where he graduated from high school. He went to college at Sewanee – the University of the South - a place well known in the Episcopal Church, graduating in 1955. Having been in ROTC in college, 2^nd  Lt. George Plattenburg spent three years in the Air Force as a navigation officer. It looks like he then made a brief run at a business career but decided instead to heed the call to the ministry and he became a seminary student at Bexley Hall, an Episcopal Seminary in Gambier, Ohio. (This was back in the day when Episcopal postulants actually went to Episcopal seminaries.) He was graduated in 1962 and was ordained to the priesthood the next year.

He began his ordained career as an assistant at a parish in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then he took his growing family to Kemmerer, Wyoming where he served what is called a two point parish. That means that every Sunday he had one service in a small church and then drove forty five miles to a second church where he officiated and preached at another service. And he did that summer and winter, rain and shine. I’m sure he even drove it in blizzard conditions.

I knew a young Lutheran clergyman who went to seminary in St. Paul,

Minnesota. He signed on to become the pastor of a three point  

place in North Dakota. Before he went out there, he got married. His

new wife had not been part of the decision to go there. When they

drove into the small (and I mean small) town where they were going to

 live, he stole a sidelong glance at his wife. She was sitting there

crying! It was not an easy transition!

George was in Kemmerer for seven years and I would guess that it was there that he really learned how to be a parish priest. Years ago we used to say that it was the small rural parishes that did the actual training of parish clergy. They are demanding situations! The clergyman is a one man band. George then spent some time in Moline, Illinois and in 1976 moved to St. Louis where he spent the last 38 years of his life.

I knew George in the 1990’s when he was involved in the Urban Partnership, a ministry of two priests alternately serving four small urban parishes. Prior to that he was an associate at St Peter’s, Ladue where he worked for David Benson. His last place before retirement was St. John’s, Tower Grove Park.

            George’s son George Jr. was good enough to share some memories of his father with me.  I especially liked two images. The first was of George, Jr. accompanying his father numerous times on that forty-five mile trip between those two small towns in southwestern Wyoming so that he could serve as the acolyte. The second description  with which I was really taken was of George’s weekly sermon preparation. Every clergy person who has ever served in a small parish knows about the pressure of that weekly sermon. It was always there over your head, week after week after week. There wasn’t anyone else to spell you of the preaching responsibility. Apparently George used to put it off until late Saturday evening or even early Sunday morning. The process by which he did his sermons was described to me as “creative panic.” I understand that completely! I have been there.

            What is there that is so compelling about parish ministry? I could write a book! It is still striking to me how little people really appreciate the great value of this institution which came into being through the action of the Holy Spirit following the Ascension of Jesus. That action gave us a place, a sacred place, to live our lives in the midst of the chaos & confusion of secularity, most importantly during our transition moments. Each one of us makes a life journey and the parish church offers us a sanctuary along the way where we can be strengthened through the power of the gospel which Sunday after Sunday by a process sometimes of creative panic is preached there. God bless the people who make that happen. God bless the parish clergy! God bless George for his decision to follow that vocation and answer the summons of the Lord of the harvest.

            It is not an easy life to choose, but the Lord of the Harvest remembers those who have been faithful. George Plattenburg, rest in peace!  You fought the good fight! Amen.