My friend Jim

The Story Teller

The night I walked into Sweet Caroline's, a pub in Baltimore’s Locust point neighborhood, to meet with a local pastor that had just taken a church right down the street from the one that I had taken at about the same time I had no idea how important that initial meeting was going to be.

Sitting at the bar next to the man that you call Pastor and that I call friend was the beginning of something special. We come from different backgrounds and traditions and yet I can honestly say that I don’t know what or how I would have survived ministry in Baltimore without him. That He continues to be a source of encouragement, love and friendship even as there are miles separating us speaks to an even greater truth.

The truth is this man embodies so many of the attributes of the Carpenter from Nazareth at least to myself and my family.

Matthew 13:53–54 CSB

When Jesus had finished these parables, he left there. He went to his hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

Jesus was a story teller. Using stories to teach important truths is a good way to get us to remember those truths. (Selena and Vapor Man) The True story of the Gospel while not hard to understand is hard to accept, mainly because as humans we think we need more than the simple truth. We need more than the very real idea that without God in our lives we are broken, with God we are whole. The fact that we are designed for relationship with our creator is terrifying, no imagine someone you think you know because you grew up with him, because he ran around the village for years, because he tagged along with his dad helping build things suddenly coming home and he’s able to do all these things he shouldn’t be able to do and he’s able to teach things that there’s no possible way for him to know and understand. Jesus left his home town the son of a carpenter, the first time he came back they tried to push him off a cliff, this time they were amazed at what he was able to do, but still were unable to grasp and accept who Jesus really was and what he really was going to mean to the world at large. And so they asked a question that they didn’t really care about the answer too. Where did this man get this wisdom, where did this man get these powers, and then they did what humans the world over tend to do. They decided that they knew better because I mean really there was no possible way this man they all knew, who’s family lived with them could be anyone but the carpenters kid. They rejected the truth, they rejected the grace and love and mercy of God not because there was not proof of who Jesus was. They rejected the truth because they wanted too. They were upset that Jesus was more and they chose to be offended.

Matthew 13:57 CSB

And they were offended by him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.”

I have learned a lot in my 28 years in ministry. I have learned that true ministry happens in the unexpected places. As pastors there are things that are expected from us. We are expected to study and prepare for sermons, to run meetings with vestry’s or consistories, or council’s or boards. To pray with those that are anxious, or afraid or hurting. We have the privilege of celebrating the joys in life weddings, and births and graduations. We have the honor of holding peoples hands as they face the hard things that diagnosis that went wrong, the pain of losing a loved one, the fear that happens when a job evaporates. These are the expected areas of ministry. But what I have learned and what I am sure Father Jim has learned and what we all need to understand and lean into is the unexpected places of ministry. In my church I talk about he chance to be Jesus with Skin. My friend Jim has said that sounds kinda creepy, and to be honest as a fan of just about any zombie movie around I can understand where he’s coming from but the concept is valid.

Our lives as Followers of Christ should be marked by actually following him. By doing what he did, by reading those red letters in the Gospels and in parts of Acts and acting on them. My friend Jim, your Pastor or colleague Jim does these things. The ministry in the unexpected places is the ministry of Jesus. The miracle of grace and joy and love should happen here in the walls of this building, but know this. If it can’t, if we have gotten so caught up in the expected ministry of the pastor that we fail to see the need for the unexpected ministry of the Body it will happen anyway. As followers of Christ we must be ready to put aside the the things that we “know” for the mysteries that we don’t. We must be willing to say just like the man that so desperately needed God to step in.

Mark 9:24 CSB

Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

This man that has been called to this church has and will continue to love you, serve you, teach you, and encourage you. He will be there for all those things that you need him for, but know this the truth of the matter is that his ministry to you while important, while needed and rightfully expected, will be enhanced all the more as he is the man that I know and love. The one that ministers more in line at a Star Wars premier, or through a trip to help do a really hard thing, or a Nerf war in an empty house, or singing All things Bright and Beautiful in the park with his Shine Jesus Shine Neo Evangelical pastor friend.

Pray for my friend, encourage him, honor him but more importantly love him and his family the way you need to be loved. I can tell you this with 100 percent certainty , as you do you will receive all of that and more from Father James Perra. Or as everyone that I tell about him knows him. My friend Jim the Episcopal Priest.