February 2023 – Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez

The Big News

Yep, that’s right. The day is finally approaching in which I will be ordained in Word & Sacrament in the ELCA! The story leading up to this day is long, most of my life really. So after decades of waiting on myself and the church, here I am saying “yes”!

Attend Ordination Online

You are welcome to attend my ordination online on the YouTube Channel, “GatheredByGrace.”

Called to a Congregation

The good people of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rock Island, Illinois called me to be their pastor on January 8, 2023. I began ministry among them immediately (the very next day). This amazing community of Christians is loving and missional. Their tag line is “a place for all people.” And they work at it! They also look outside their walls to see the deep needs of the world. Then they get involved out there in the world, working toward being part of God’s kingdom here on earth.

An Excerpt From Something I’m Writing

I love Jesus who is with God and the Holy Spirit. But not Jesus alone. Not Jesus the metaphor for a godly, dystopian superhero who shows up in Disney-style miracle scenes. Not Jesus the fictionalized character in a story I don’t want to read because it causes me and others harm. Not Jesus the caricature, the gross distortion of who and what God is. Not Jesus allowing human all-knowing-ness of God to obliterate the mystery of God.

Upcoming Events

My public schedule slows in this season of my life.

Thursdays find me teaching a pastoral care class in listening, caring, and assessing for Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. Teaching like writing is a love of mine and I am grateful for this unexpected return to the classroom.

Spirit fills me each Sunday when leading worship and preaching at St. John’s.

July sends me flying to very hot Phoenix, Arizona to present a workshop in trauma pastoral care at the ELCA’s Rostered Ministers Gathering.

Some things are swirling for fall. Stay tuned.

“…What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” *

Reflection

Fallow field. Ground still, frozen. Plowed and harrowed for future days. Covered in frost or snow. Waiting for sowing, tending, harvesting.

Dormant, but only to the unobservant. Moisture seeping, trickling down. Absorbed through minute openings in hardened ground. Causing movement beneath. Winter’s soil preparing, ripening. For springtime’s burst. Energy creating improvisations, mistakes, hidden gems, harvest, and a few weeds.

In the beginning, healing is like standing on dormant ground. Cold seeping up through soles. Life numb, standing still. Feeling like a small speck in life’s vastness. Waiting to trust the un-death of dormancy.

Healing Practice: Unseen Seeds of Hope

Keep a list today. On a small piece of paper. One you can fold up. Fit in your pocket. Carry with you for writing on. Perhaps with a stubby pencil recording the moments, even fleeting ones, in which hope settles on your heart for a second as a realization, a discovery, or an opening into what’s possible. Name these moments of unexpected joy, mercy, compassion. Gathered for sowing in future’s field.

Prayer

God, witness in me this day what I cannot see. Witness the tiny seeds of healing and hope I sow in my own fallowness. Witness in me my life-force still living. Witness in me my surprise in discovering unexpected joys. Receive my thanks for what I do not know will bless me this day and tomorrow and in my own healing. Amen.

*1 Corinthians 15:36

Image by Gergely Meszárcsek from Pixabay