Streams of Mercy

I’m one of the countless “Buechnerds” who give thanks for the life of Frederick Buechner, the 96 year old novelist and theologian who died in his sleep at his farm on August 15, 2022.

Buechner found a way to address a growing cynicism about organized religion at a time when churches and denominations and society itself are divided and polarized. Buechner was able to transcend the political and theological divisions of our common life. Neither liberal nor conservative, neither evangelical or mainline, Buechner managed to attract readers throughout all of life by emphasizing the personal over the political. His eloquence and honesty made him a mentor to a generation of pastors.

I want to share some of my favorite quotes from his writings, to honor the life he lived and to give thanks for the many ways his life touched mine.

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness, touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

“We must be careful with our lives for Christ’s sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.”

“Your life and mine flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.”

“For all thy blessings, known and unknown, remembered and forgotten, we give thee thanks, runs an old prayer, and it is for the all but unknown ones and the more than half-forgotten ones that we do well to look back over the journeys of our lives, because it is their presence that makes the life of each of us a sacred journey.”

The One who judges us most finally will be the One who loves us most fully … Christ’s love sees us with terribly clarity and sees us whole … The worst sentence Love can pass is that we behold the suffering which Love has endured for our sake.”

“Jesus never approached from on high, but always in the midst, in the midst of people, in the midst of real life and the questions that real life asks.”

“Matthew the tax-collector and Thomas the doubter. Peter the Rock and Judas the traitor. Mary Magdalene and Lazarus’s sister Martha. And the popcorn-eating old woman. And the fat man in the pick-up. They are all our family, and you and I are their family and each other’s family, because this is what Jesus has called us as the Church to be. … Be the light of the world, Jesus says. Where there are dark places, be the light especially there. Be the salt of the earth. Be life -givers to others. Heal the sick, feed the hungry, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. That is what loving each other means. If the Church is doing things like that, then it is being what Jesus told it to be. If it is not doing things like that – no matter how many other good and useful things it may be doing instead, it is not being what Jesus told it to be. It is as simple as that.”

I could go on and on… I give thanks for the life of Frederick Buechner and for what he has meant to my life and ministry. Rest in peace dear friend, rest in peace.

Elizabeth

(All of these quotes were taken from Listening to Your Life, Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner, with keyed index to individual works in the back of the book. A wonderful resource to help one get acquainted with all of Buechner’s writings)