Transcript
Let us pray. Let your gospel come now, O God, not only in word, but in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Listen now to the reading of God's Word from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, the second chapter beginning at the 14th verse through the first three verses of chapter 3. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads
in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing Him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing, to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not peddlers of God's Word like so many, but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God
and standing in His presence. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts to be known and read by all, that you show that you are a letter of Christ prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of
human hearts. This is the Word of the Lord. We all know about letters of recommendation. We have either written them ourselves in behalf of others or we have asked others to write them in behalf of us. Every student at Princeton Seminary has submitted letters of recommendation to the admissions committee, from a pastor, a professor, a friend. The purpose of a letter of recommendation is that it is written by someone who does know us to someone who
does not know us. And the intent is to tell the person who does not know us what swell-keen people we are, and that we are qualified in every respect, plus two or three, to be considered for an appointment, for a job, for admission to a program, for whatever. A letter of recommendation is a way of putting our best foot forward. Whoever the intruders into Corinth were, and we really do not know who they were, nor
are we sure what position they represented, but they were intruders and they were troublers and they brought letters of recommendation. Apparently, these letters of recommendation were so persuasive and so powerful that the Corinthians began to wonder why Paul, when he had first come to Corinth, did not bring such letters of recommendation. And Paul's point is that there are other ways of presenting letters of recommendation. And for him, they were his letter of recommendation. What God had
done through the proclamation of the Gospel in Corinth to bring about faith and life in Christ in this congregation, that was his letter of recommendation. Look around you, see what you see, there it is. A letter of recommendation written not on tablets of stone or on papyri, but written on human hearts. I want to read to you this morning a letter of recommendation that came to my desk last week and I have been chomping at the
bit ever since it came to read it to you. It's a letter of recommendation of what God can do in human life. It's from one of our 1992 graduates, whom you, many of you, will identify immediately as I begin to read. But let me set the stage for this by saying that the author of this letter is a black woman who came to Princeton Seminary over three years ago and within two weeks was uncertain whether she
should be here. And we happened to meet on my way home one evening out in front of the administration building and foolishly I asked her how it was going. And I got the answer I didn't want to hear. And she went on to tell me that she was seriously thinking of withdrawing. Why? Because she didn't have any perception whatsoever of what all of this had to do with what she felt called to do. She had had
two weeks of CH01, OT01, and she could not understand how any of that had to add any relevance whatsoever to the urban setting of the inner city to which she felt definitely God had called her to minister. And we talked for quite a while and I just kept saying don't quit, don't give up, it will make sense, trust us, if God has brought you here it's for a purpose, hang in there and all the other Pat
phrases my type of people use to talk to those types of people to keep them in this place. Well she stayed. And where is she in ministry today? Bozeman, Montana. What is she doing? She is the Methodist campus pastor. Let me read the letter, it is delightful. I will delete an expletive or two. To my pastor, I miss you so much. I'm sorry I'm writing you so late but I have been swamped. I am exactly where
I should be. Thank you for helping me discern my call to Montana. You helped me listen to the voice of God. Please, please work with the seniors and Dean Foose to risk, to trust God and to not let exclude the remote areas of our country. I am one of five Princeton alums working in Montana. Kerry Holder, Episcopal and I are working on a human rights conference October 10 and 12. I am working with students who are
Native American on tribal colleges. I'm tired but so very, very happy. I have gone white water rafting, climbed mountains. I'm performing an exorcism with an orthodox priest, parentheses, don't ask. I'm conducting revival meetings, traveling to Native American reservations and working on my languages, Hebrew and Latin. Do I miss Princeton? No, no. I miss you, Michael Livingston, Dr. Millory, Dr. Neely, Dr. Olson and I cry when I think of Dr. Froelich. He was my teacher, my friend,
my role model. Princeton is like boot camp. It kicks your blank. But when you're out there on the field, all the things you've been trained to do become second nature and that training saves lives. I am a Princeton alum. My training shows in every aspect of my ministry. From my preaching, parentheses, praises to Dr. Nichols who allowed me to be who I am, he gave me a foundation to rest my many gifts on. People are so
hungry for classical theology. They want to know about theodicy, about sin, salvation. I work hard on my sermons no matter how busy I am, commentaries, word searches, exegesis, et cetera. It's habit now. In Bozeman there are over 61 churches. Most all are fundamentalists. No training at all. My phone rings off the hook from people saying I've never heard the good news. I did not know there was grace. I've cried so many times when I hear this.
Wesley, Calvin, and Luther are the warm, gentle rays of hope to my flock. Out of 35,000 people living here in town, there are only 10 blacks. Out of 800 faculty, 2,000 support staff, I am the only African American. Out of 100 clergy in Bozeman, there are only two women, and I'm the only ordained woman. Most people here have not seen or heard a woman preach, but they love me to pieces, and I'll bet they
do. And I love them too. I thank God for my Princeton training. My education works everywhere, urban or rural. Michael Livingston was and is my role model. I try to be like him, for he always puts Christ first. I'm doing campus ministry because my campus pastor used a ministry of empowerment. He, being an African American pastor at Princeton, showed me it can be done. Princeton is not easy, but the ministry of Christ is a long, winding
journey. Princeton gave me the stamina. You're the best. You'll always be my pastor. Sign the Reverend Denise. P.S. Give my love to everybody. P.P.S. Please show Dr. Whitelock my bulletin and newsletter. I learned how to do things, these types of layouts, in his computer class. My budget has been cut. No wonder I couldn't read that. My budget has been cut, so to be able to do this on the computer helps. The only thing
Princeton didn't teach me was how to ride a horse. Denise sent articles from local newspapers that have featured her and her ministry there. I learned much about her that I never knew before. I didn't know that she came from Cleveland. She came here from Manhattan. I didn't know that her mother had committed suicide when she was seven years old, or that her brother had done the same thing some 16 years later. I didn't know that she
held her father's head in her arms for three hours while he died, waiting for a medevac unit. We all bring so much to this campus that is hidden, hidden from view. I read that letter with great joy. I'm glad Denise Rogers stayed at Princeton. I'm glad she hung in there, graduated, and it just tickles me to death to know that God called her not to the jungles of Cleveland, but to the wild, wild west. And you
think she's not having a ministry there? Think again. The Methodist Church will never be the same again in Bozeman, Montana. Thanks be to God for his incredible grace. Amen. Let us pray. We thank you, Lord, for the miracle of your redeeming love in human life. We thank you for Denise Rogers and her life in ministry, and pray for her this day that she may be strengthened and focused and open and useful to your spirit. And what
we pray for her, we pray for all who have gone forth from the class of '92, and for all who have gone forth from this place and all places like it to serve Jesus Christ and the world. We pray for ourselves who look forward to going forth and to serving you in ministry. Enable us who are here at this time to use these days, these months, these years to prepare ourselves for we know not what, but
you know, and you know that in your providence what we learn here will be useful for the work of your kingdom and the ministry of the gospel. So when we are prone to be tired and overworked and overloaded, when we are thinking of moving out, keep us here. Keep our nose to the grindstone, our shoulder to the wheel, and even though it's difficult to work in that position, keep us at it in order that we may
be honed and shaped and informed and enriched, that one day when we do go forth to serve Christ in the church and in the world, we may be as prepared as humanly possible. So we pray for one another, we pray for your church across the world. May it be a useful instrument in the power of your spirit. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, amen.
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And now I will go forth in peace and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.