Palmberg: Allow Yourselves to Become 'Holy Hostages'

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (June 20, 2004) - With the echoes of jungle drums calling worshippers to gather, the 119th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church got under way as more than a thousand people gathered at First Covenant Church to honor martyred Covenant missionaries and all who give their lives in sacrificial living.

The church is one of two settings for this year's annual meeting – business sessions will be conducted at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, scheduled to conclude late Wednesday afternoon.

It was a moving and emotional time with large banners gracing either side of the altar and displaying large sketches of four martyred Covenant missionaries, including Dr. Paul Carlson, killed by rebel soldiers in Congo in November 1964, and three missionaries killed in 1949 in China, including Dr. Alik Berg, Martha Anderson and Esther Nordlund. Numerous family members were present and were recognized by President Glenn R. Palmberg who praised the martyrs and asked family members to "please receive our gratitude and appreciation."

The evening service followed the premiere showing of a new documentary on the life of Dr. Paul Carlson with the 1,200-seat First Covenant sanctuary comfortably filled. The producer and director of the documentary, Rick Carlson, was presented with a gift of appreciation as were two architects of this year's celebration, Revs. James Hawkinson and Glen Wiberg.

"I'm simply overwhelmed," said Lois Carlson Bridges, Dr. Carlson's widow who worked with him in the Congo mission (see accompanying photo). "This is the first our family saw of the film – it is overwhelming, tremendous.

"Those things always happen to somebody else, don't they?" Lois said in reflecting on her husband's capture by rebel soldiers and his ultimate death. "This time it was our family. Then, the trying days of his capture . . . and how hard it was, especially for the families here and others around the world. With Paul's death, it seemed like such a tragedy. Why was he in the news? Why was he picked up and imprisoned in Stanleyville? Yes, it's hard. But, it's healing . . . to hear the witness." (To read more of Lois Carlson Bridges' reflections, please see Recalls Life of Martyred Husband.)

Carlson Bridges spoke approvingly of the work in the ensuing years to rebuild the hospitals in Congo and establish medical programs, noting that her husband's witness is going forth again. Carlson's brother, Dwight, also spoke. A highlight of the evening came with the presentation of the first Dr. Paul Carlson Award to Joann Laurel LeVahn, who worked as Carlson's nurse and medical assistant in the Congo mission (see related story elsewhere in the Covenant news report).

It was the faith and character of Dr. Paul Carlson's life that provided the foundation for the message brought by President Palmberg, who used the Matthew text of judgment day and the separation of the sheep and the goats as a framework. A central theme throughout was the importance of motive when examining acts of mercy and compassion.

Those rewarded in the scripture text were surprised at being invited into the kingdom, Palmberg suggested, largely because they did not do kind deeds to earn a reward, but rather did acts of compassion "because that's who they are." He argued that the true test of motive comes when no one is looking.

"Jesus cares about who we are when no one is looking," Palmberg explained. "It's more than accepting Jesus – it is about following Jesus. The poor matter to God, he said, noting that the poor are a dominant theme in the Old Testament, second only to idolatry, that one of every 16 verses in the New Testament talks about the poor, that one of every 10 verses in the Gospels addresses the poor, and that in the book of James, one of every five verses talks about the poor.

"How can we profess to take this book seriously and not be involved in ministries to the poor?" Palmberg asked with arm raised and Bible in hand. He then quoted from the writings of North Park Theological Seminary Prof. Klyne Snodgrass, who observes that "a person is neither a disciple of Christ nor affirmed on judgment day on the basis of ancestry, ritual act or verbal confession. One is a disciple in actually following Jesus' compassion, and one will be affirmed for showing the compassion and mercy that stem from being a follower of Christ."

Snodgrass takes it further, suggesting that "we cannot separate our relation with God from our relation with people," Palmberg continued. "To experience the compassion of God makes one a channel of compassion, and in the needs of others we encounter our own relation to God."

The decision to show compassion and mercy goes beyond the intellect and pierces deeply into the soul and marrow of who we are as people in relationship to God, Palmberg believes. He used the writings of Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas to shed more light.

Levinas says that "when I look into the face of another human being, I immediately find myself responsible for them," Palmberg quoted. "He says this is not something I choose; rather, this is the trace of God in me. He uses an interesting word – he uses the word 'hostage.' I am made a hostage of the other person by my inability to turn away from my responsibility.

"Paul Carlson was a holy hostage long before he was taken," Palmberg continued. "It happened when he was a short-term missionary and first looked into the face of his brothers and sisters in the Congo. That's when the trace of God in him connected to the trace of God in them. And he was a hostage – a holy hostage from that day on."

Introducing a more contemporary note, he spoke of rock star Bono who, with his wife Ali, went to Africa and spent a month working in a refugee camp. On the day they were leaving, Bono says a man approached him carrying a baby. "This is my son, the man said. "Please take him with you when you leave." If you do, he will live. If you don't, he will die." Bono has since dedicated his work to making sure extreme poverty comes to an end.

Reflecting on Carlson Award recipient Jody LeVahn, Palmberg declared "they are both holy hostages. And we have a whole section here tonight of people who have become holy hostages – we call them missionaries."

On a much more personal note, Palmberg shared one experience from his November 2003 visit to Congo where he was greeted by a crowd of some 6,000 people in Karawa. One face stood out from the thousands of others – a small boy who came alongside Palmberg and grabbed his hand as they walked the tree-lined dirt road to the missionary house where the delegation was staying.

"When I would look down at him, he would smile," Palmberg said as large photographs of the lad were projected onto two large screens suspended in the sanctuary. "I thought to myself, this is a very bold little boy to walk right up and take my hand. But, as I reflect, I wonder. I wonder if God sent him, hoping that I would look into his face and become a hostage.

"I cannot take all of you to visit the Congo and look for yourselves into the faces of the children," Palmberg continued. "But, God's question to us as a church is: Will you look into the face of this little boy and allow the image of God in you to connect to the image of God in him? And let yourself become a holy hostage?"

Palmberg devoted some time to reviewing the deplorable conditions under which people in the Congo today live, lacking food, medicine, adequate medical care – one hospital doesn't even have soap to wash down the floors and beds. Then, in a surprise announcement that gripped the audience's attention, Palmberg calmly reported a matching grant of one million dollars that has been pledged by two individual donors.

"I have all the faith in the world in the generosity of Covenant people," Palmberg said. "We have been given a commitment . . . by two deeply committed donors, if the rest of us in the church will stand up and match it." Then, with a warm smile and twinkle in his eye, he declared: "Let's blow the roof off of that match!"

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