Home Page | Posts | Without Sin – Part 1

Fair Linen is the name of the long white cloth that covers the top of an altar. It’s traditionally made of the highest quality linen available (and affordable) at the time of its purchase, and it’s not hard at all for this single liturgical item to cost upwards of $500 each.

I grew up in the Lutheran church. I’m a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and have served congregations, on synod staff, as a hospice chaplain and bereavement coordinator, as well as the chaplain at a senior scaled living facility. Most of my career has included youth ministry as a significant focus, and I’m frequently heard saying, “adults are nothing but trouble.” The variety of ministry contexts has afforded me a wide view of what it means to be part of the Church, what it means to be Christian, what it means to be Lutheran — and a whole lot of what it means to be human as I’ve walked with so many people over the years.

In every expression of my ministry, in every setting in which I’ve served, there have been items that reflect what folks gathered consider sacred. In my early hospice ministry, it was my now-tattered LBW Occasional Services book that I carried with me like a life preserver until I felt comfortable enough that I could just carry me into the room. In my congregations, there are paraments, candles, pulpits, stained glass windows, beloved banners, and other items that remind us of the contributions of the saints who came before. In youth ministry, it’s decks of cards, craft supplies, curriculum guides, thrift store communion ware, dance music, and standing in circles while swaying to songs like Light the Fire.

Now here’s me being honest — I literally came up with the name and idea for this site at 10:17am EST this morning. I know this because I messaged my friend Sanchez and got the laugh. I put it to the back of my mind, but I kept thinking about it.

The more I thought about it, the more I love this image of unfair linen.

As much as congregations, youth ministry, hospice and other ministry contexts are filled with what’s sacred, wherever there are people we also get messy humanity. We get what’s traditionally known as the profane, which is really just a fancy way of saying secular. In hospice, it’s waiting to pray with someone whose bedding the CNA is currently changing because a