A Cool Lutheran in Heaven

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter For the Years of Winter…

Roger Imhoff was cool. He was a good-looking version of Tommy Lee Jones. He wore blue blazers and khaki pants and penny loafers. He drank beer and smoked cigarettes. He was married more than once. He was a Lutheran pastor.

Roger was one of the first persons I met when I attended an annual conference of The Academy of Parish Clergy [APC], almost 40 years ago now. He confused me. He looked like a Baptist, dressed like a Presbyterian, and drank like a Catholic. Until I met Roger I had never used the words “cool” and “Lutheran pastor” in the same sentence.

From then on, though, whenever I attended an APC event, I hung out with Roger, hoping people would think that I, too, by association, was cool.

In the APC, I always referred to Roger as I Imhoff, to distinguish him from II Imhoff, his brother, David, the current President of APC.

I always wanted to be cool like Roger, but it was a stretch. Instead of being the good-looking version of Tommy Lee Jones, I’m sort of the less-blue version of Papa Smurf, or the more-blue version, according to how cold it is UP here at the moment. Despite the best efforts of my wife and daughters, I dress like a fugitive from Goodwill. I smoke bacon and drink the Kool-Aid. I’ve been married to the same woman for 53 years.

Roger was very much in the world. He was willing to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

But he was also cognizant of the consciences of his weaker brothers, and sisters. [I Corinthians 10:23-33.]

He was in the world, but not of it. He was a II Corinthians 5:19 kind of cool.

The Rev. Roger G. Imhoff, Jr., APC, entered the church triumphant at 11 pm on, fittingly, a Sunday, Jan. 29. Today I feel more at ease about transferring to the church triumphant when my time comes, because I know it is now a cooler place.

JRMcF

The “place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where life is defined by winter even in the summer!

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{I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}

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