Saints Among Us: A COS Tour Guide, Pastor Bob Graetz
September 30, 2020
“Saints Among Us.” Have you ever heard that phrase? On pages 15-17 of our Lutheran hymnal there is a list of commemoration dates of various “saints of old.” As Lutherans we are encouraged to find hope and inspiration regarding how to live the Christian journey. But isn’t it fantastic when we bump into people in our daily lives so inspiring that we thank God for not just saints of old but saints living and walking among us today? This is how many COS disciples felt when we took a civil rights pilgrimage to Montgomery, Alabama in 2013. Our group was a nice mix of high schoolers and senior go-getters. Our wonderful good fortune was that legendary Pastor Bob Graetz and his wife Jeannie would guide us throughout the day.
(Photo above: COS with Pastor Bob Graetz, 2nd from left, in front of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Behind us, the Scripture Amos 2 engraved in wall, “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,” with waters flowing over the names of civil rights martyrs in front of us. 2013)
Bob grew up in West Virginia and ended up attending Trinity Lutheran Seminary. Upon graduation, he felt the Lord’s nudge to do what he could to improve race relations in our country. So, he accepted a call to Trinity Lutheran Church, a primarily black congregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Pastor Bob explained to our COS group that his arrival happened to coincide with preliminary planning for the Montgomery bus boycott. Before Bob knew it, he was sitting in the living room of Martin Luther King Junior to help strategize arrangements. As you know, the goal was desegregation of the bus system as a symbol of a larger problem. Blacks and whites sympathetic to the cause agreed to boycott the use of the buses to put financial strain on the system, hopefully inducing change. So, folks like Pastor Bob agreed to serve as taxi drivers so people could still get to work. Pastor Bob drove a specific route each morning, picking boycotters up and driving them to their jobs since they weren’t using the bus. After working at the church throughout the day, Pastor Bob would then reverse his route in the evening, returning his list of workers safely to their homes.
As you might imagine, there were many whites irate that Pastor Bob would assist the black community. Our mouths hung open as he told us the story of how his home was bombed. Verbal and written threats came constantly, rocks crashed through his windows, and sometimes he needed to play games with his young kids where they hid behind furniture when the threats were high. Fortunately, the large package of dynamite thrown in front of his house seemed to be guarded by angels because it never exploded. But a smaller bomb did explode. Our COS group was privileged to stand in the front yard of Pastor Bob’s old parsonage where he showed us where he found a crater after the bomb’s explosion. In the spirit of Scriptures’ image of bending swords into plow-shares, Pastor Bob and Jeanie decided to plant a tree in the bomb crater.
On that special day, our COS group was immensely inspired as Pastor Bob shepherded us to his first congregation, the Civil Rights Museum, Dr. King’s home (which we got to tour, room by room, seeing where Pastor Bob would meet with Pastor King and the tiny kitchen table where Dr. King prayed so fervently for the Lord’s guidance), and Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the center of that early movement, which happens to stand just feet away from the state capitol, where the President of the Confederacy took his oath of office.
Pastor Bob Graetz, who, many of us felt that day was a “saint among us,” was called home earlier this month. He’ll be missed by thousands whose lives were inspired and motivated by his extremely gentle presence complementing a fiery faith in Jesus’ vision of justice for all. Not every life is highlighted in the obituary pages of the New York Times, but Pastor’s Bob made the grade. Here is the link if you’d like to read it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/obituaries/robert-graetz-dead.html
One of our staff called this upcoming Sunday’s gospel “ominous.” Jesus tells a tough story making the point that God is watching our world that God’s loaned us. God worked hard to create a vibrant vineyard that all can enjoy and gets angry when selfishness, prejudice, and injustice damage the vineyard vision. We celebrate Lutheran Pastor Bob Graetz for a life and ministry which remind us that we all can play our part to honor God’s vision for our nation and daily lives.
Inspired with you,
Pastor Fritz