Three Who Taught Me Ministry: Rev. Sheldon Seibel

As I prepare to retire from 42 years of pastoral ministry, I reflect on three pastors who were part of my early formation. This is the second installment.

His signature was on the front page of my second grade Bible: Sheldon Seibel, Pastor.  A graduate of Yale Divinity School (1952), he would have been a hundred years old last year. My memories of him are slim, but we are often influenced by others even without realizing it at the time. 

What I remember most is the day he wore blue jeans to a Saturday morning class at the church. It was a shock. As far as we knew, he slept in the same dark business suit that he wore on Sunday mornings. It was hard to believe a minister lived on the same planet as the rest of us.

I cannot tell you how much that simple fact affected me. The pastor did not live on a cloud. He did not walk three feet off the ground. He did not dictate how we should live - and then hide out of sight. He lived among us. Fully incarnational. Just like Jesus.

One night, after sharing a few margaritas, my father confessed he didn't agree with every sermon he had heard from Rev. Seibel. Two years before the pastor signed my Bible, he had marched in Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He talked regularly about it. No doubt it was a transforming moment for him, even if it took a while for my dad and many others to catch up with his passion for justice and goodwill. 

Sheldon Seibel was a witness to righteousness. He believed this life matters. Like the biblical prophets, like Jesus himself, he declared fairness is holiness, equality is God's gift, and all people are worthy of love and respect. As I reflect on my spiritual growth, his engagement with the powers and principalities planted a seed in my own faith. 

Nearly thirty years after he signed my Bible, my first collection of sermons was published in 1996. I dedicated the volume to him, tracked him down, and sent him a copy. He replied with an exceedingly gracious letter. "I had no idea you were in the ministry," he admitted. Then he  added, 

"When a bit of the vibrant and graceful past comes to knock at your heart there is most of all a sense of wonder about our influence upon one another in this rich and sometimes troubling existence which God has given us . . . I am touched that my Owego service contributed to your growth and development in the Christian Faith. I think I can risk saying I'm proud of you."

We don't always know how we affect others. Sheldon Seibel served our home congregation for eight years. The church folks did not remember him with a marble plaque on the sanctuary wall (nor should they). But his name is inscribed on my heart. 

And I still have that Bible.