The Ladder Of Ascent

for Kory The week is like a ladder we climb day by day until Sunday when we reach the highest rung and we pause and rest. And there, out there, beyond us is the vista that stretches all the way to Heaven. That pause contains your Sunday sermon, your talk to the parishioners who elected you to be their pastor, the one who climbs the same steps as they do, the one who gazes over the same vista as they do, the one prays often as they do that we will be admitted into the Life Eternal. Such is the life of the pastor. And the calm you display and the summons to goodness you invoke are the proof we need to know you are leading us on the Right Path. At any moment, one of us may step off this Ladder of Ascent, with fear and trembling which becomes hope and faith which becomes desire and fulfillment which becomes our entrance, our homecoming, our salvation. But that is a Mystery we must each of us experience alone before God. Your role is to take us across the vast plains of the world and to accompany us each week on the Ladder of Ascent. It is the place of tests and triumphs, of sin and forgiveness, of giving and receiving grace. It is your mission to take us, holy and healthy, to the highest rung of the Ladder of Ascent, until we take a final step into the abyss and the Hand of God saves us, and we are favored by His rescue forever.