A Blue Sapphire Anniversary

On Pentecost Sunday, May 28, we celebrated the 65 Anniversary of Ordination of Rev. Pastor Larry Denef who was ordained in 1958. 

An earlier version of this tribute was first given at Gloria Dei's celebration of  Rev. Dr.  Larry Denef's  60th Anniversary of  Ordination in 2019. (we celebrated a year late)

What is the one thing that you are most thankful for when you think about Pastor Larry’s life and ministry?

Is it the theological forums he has led over the years which not only stimulated you to think about faith in a different way, in a less dogmatic way, but that pulled you to toward even greater curiosity about the biblical characters and stories and spurred you to ask even more questions about the faith you follow?  

Or maybe you’re most thankful for his willingness to lend his listening ear and share his words of wisdom born of experience with you when you needed a trusted counsellor?

Or maybe what you are most grateful for is his enduring faithfulness to both God and the church?

At an age when many would be content to sit back and rest on their accomplishments, Pastor Larry—while respecting the limitations that growing older brings — nevertheless continues to engage in the questions that concern him most—the relevancy of the gospel of grace in our day and age. Unitil quite recently he continued to write and contribute essays and letters to the Canada Lutheran and other publications. 

For me, it is this life-long commitment to learning and becoming which I witness every time I visit and engage Pastor Larry in conversation that is an inspiration to me. For Pastor Larry, the Christian life is not one in which you arrive at a destination or become "a somebody", rather the Christian always remains a learner throughout life, the Christian is always becoming. 

Pastor Larry could legitimately claim to have become "a somebody" if he wanted to: 

• he has been  listed among the ten most influential Lutherans in North America as well as listed in the Who’s Who in Religion in North America, 
• he is a recipient of the Samuel Schneider Human Religions Award from the Jewish Community Relations Council for Minnesota and the Dakotas
• and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary

But regardless of the accolades and accomplishments — in the many roles in which he has served the church, whether as seminary professor or writer or 

• curriculum editor for Augsburg publishing house or 
• Director for Theology and Adult Ministries of the American Lutheran Church 
• or Executive Director of the Division of Parish Life for the ELCIC 
• or as a parish pastor - first in Saskatchewan and then here on the North Shore at Mt. Olivet

Regardless of his substantial curriculum vitae, if you talk to Pastor Larry as he reflects on his life and ministry, you will find him focusing not on what he has accomplished, but on what he learned in and through the many expressions of his vocation as a teacher, theologian and pastor. You will hear him tell you how in each new situation or role he found himself in, God brought him to the end of what he knew or who he had been up until that point, and placed him in a position of curiosity and wonder about the new present moment and circumstances. You will hear him tell you how God brought him to a place where what was important was not what he had learned or done in the past, but what was most important was his relationship to a living God, who was calling him to trust and step out into the unknown—not unlike one of his favourite stories — the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. It was when Moses approached the burning bush with holy curiosity and wonder, that God revealed himself to him as the God Who is  - the Great I am who cannot be boxed in by a dogmatic religion, but a God who calls each of us into a relationship of trust.  

Statement of Recognition and pledge of support. 

Pastor Larry, we would like to honor you today for the many years of service you have given both to the wider church and then later here in this congregation in your retirement. This congregation has grown in faith in Jesus Christ because of your ministry and the life of our wider Church is richer and fuller because of your service as a theologian and leader. Your truth telling and challenge to the church—in a world grown cynical and hard—to find new ways to proclaim the liberating gospel of grace has been a gift. Thank-you for taking every opportunity to remind us that faith is not a dogma or a set of rules, but faith is a relationship with a God who says, “Trust Me!”

We pledge to you our continuing love and our sustaining prayers through all of the days before us.  

Ever living God,

We thank you for raising up men and women of faith to serve your church as pastors and theologians, through whom your people are equipped for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ. We especially give thanks and pray for Pastor Larry whom we honor this day for his service and contributions to the wider church and this congregation. 

Pastor Larry, may the Lord God always be with you, in your going out and your coming in. May the Lord fill your heart and your mind with his love in Jesus Christ. And may the Lord always inspire you to share that love with all those whose lives you touch. Amen.