Mentor Story Three: Ross Merkel

Dear Ross,

I don’t really know what we thought of one another when we first met. I find it pretty funny that our first meeting was immensely uneventful, something that can be easily forgotten... except for my bit of kleptomania in stealing your pen. I recall that I found you to be odd; you really, really, really wanted that pen back.

Honestly, I still think you’re odd, and I mean that in the best way possible.

We met again when I came to interview at St. Paul for my internship placement in early 2011. I remember leaving your office excited and terrified of the possibilities of having you as my internship supervisor. I continue to be grateful to God to this day that I was at St. Paul for internship and that I have you as a mentor. You became my supervisor during a point where I was still trying to discern my call; I was frustrated with the injustices within our denomination and I was ready to call it quits and return to being a housewife eating bonbons all day. You were open and honest with your struggles with the ELCA; you taught me that while the easier thing may be to quit and walk away (and eat delicious bonbons), following God’s call is not the easier thing to do. If I really wanted to enact change, you taught me that I had to be within the structures and systems of power because within the walls, I can still have a say.

God places people where God needs them at points in our chronos existence, thereby transforming our chronological lives to get a glimpse of what God does in kairos time. I truly believe that is how you came to be at St. Paul and why your ministry has not only endured, but also flourished. You have shown so many people time and time again how the resurrected Christ is at work in the world, especially when we respond to our neighbor in need. You have also formed and shaped a new generation of pastors to challenge the church and the status quo for the sake of the Gospel.

There are not enough words to convey what I want to say about the impact of your ministry in the greater church and the world. There are not enough words to express what I want to say about our relationship... but will there ever be enough words? Will there ever be enough time? I know that come September 15^th, when the Pastors’ Study becomes the Pastor’s Study, life at St. Paul will be incredibly quiet and I will very much miss you. God be with you and Bob as you venture into the next part of your journey.

Your brown sister in Christ,

Pastor Tuhina Verma Rasche

Ross taught me about being a shepherd. He taught me about being a resident theologian. He also taught me about loving my neighbor, and what a glimpse of the Kingdom can look like when an entire community can come to love their neighbor.

In all honesty, when I came to Ross as an intern, I was a bundle of sad and angry emotions. I felt that as a brown woman and a convert to Christianity, I didn’t have a place within the church. I felt that I was hitting my head against a wall. I was tired of being nice to people when they gave me backhanded compliments. I was tired of not speaking up for myself. I told Ross on my first day of internship that if “the experience sucked,” I would quit. He told me that his wish for my internship was to have a formative experience in building my pastoral identity. He told me that he had high expectations and that he was not likely to back down. That first day of putting everything on the table set the tone for our relationship.

I didn’t know much of Ross’s story with the greater church when I came to him as an intern. I came to learn it through the people of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Oakland (I still think that I am the only intern [or at least one of a very few] in the ELCA who started their first Sunday of internship at a Pride festival). I continued to learn about it when I was called to St. Paul to be Ross’s colleague in ministry. I learned from Ross that living out the Gospel is far from the easy; the Gospel calls us into uncomfortable places. The Gospel calls us into places where we can be persecuted. But it is also the Gospel that sets us free. We are to live out the fullness of who God created each and every one of us to be. We are to love our neighbor in the fullness of who God created our neighbor to be, and that call to love can be complicated. Ross preached, taught, and proclaimed that God’s people were to feed Jesus’ sheep through agape love. Ross showed me that through the Living Word, through our own hands and feet as the risen Christ in the world, we (God’s people) are to feed Jesus’ sheep. He taught me so much about agape love; that self-pouring out, the self-giving love of one’s self for our neighbor in need. Sometimes that agape love brings joy; sometimes it was accompanied by heartache. Ross taught me this by living it out in his ministry, that he shared joys and struggles with the congregation, and in the midst of many events both good and bad, he continued to tell us and show me where the Holy Spirit is at work in the midst of our elation... and in our scars. Ross taught me that the Gospel has something to say in every. single. aspect. of our lives. I learned that this is tied to liturgy. Liturgy is not just some thing that Christians do on Sunday; liturgy is living an entire life of worshiping God. Liturgy is the “work of the people.” I learned from Ross that everything we do in social justice, worship, and the entirety of our lives is to proclaim the Gospel.