Deacon Reflection: Someone Please Answer the Phone

By The Rev. Bob Thomas

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An old fashioned telephone ring always jars me wide awake. From the time I was nine years old, I had a recurring night vision that I was never sure was a dream or a nightmare. I somehow knew that God was on the other end of the line. In the nightmare, I’d pick up the ringing phone and say, “Hello?” The line went dead. I missed the message.

I’d then realize I had my hand to my ear, and I was sitting on the end of my bed. I tried to figure out what the message from God was about and realize that I had just woken up out of a deep sleep.

During my freshman year in high school, the call came nightly until Fr. Howie Muhlbaier, my guidance counselor and stage crew chief, convinced me to answer the call by entering St. Joseph’s Vincentian Seminary. For many reasons, I felt I had answered way too quickly and was not where I was supposed to be.

This discomfort and the call dream continued convincing me to leave at end of year with “Sorry, wrong number.” The call dreams continued without change and without letting up into the age of cell phones. 

During this time, I pursued answers as a Roman Catholic and public school teacher, jack-of-all-trades in theatre, football player and coach. I understood a judging God way out there observing us, ready to pick up the phone and call. He sat with the Big Book waiting to trip you up as He counted each act in the ledger and called you on it. 

Before I retired from theatre, my performances, tech work and directorial endeavors for more than 40 years were offered as giving a piece of myself to the audience to let them enjoy or criticize. I also felt that I was using the special talent that God had given me as a prayer.  

One marriage failed and in my 30s, I met Cyn. We found The Episcopal Church, her lifelong home. From my wife, Cyn, I learned that God's love flows from each of us and that the ministerial journey can be so joyous when you have a partner to team up with.

I knew that I wasn’t called to the priesthood, but God wouldn’t stop calling. What now?

ANSWERING THE CALL

When I was in my 40s, with the calls still coming at least once a week, the Rev. Bob Ripson became my spiritual director. We talked at length about the calls. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I shared that I wanted to be a team player who could be a voice for those who needed it and a helping hand to those society had ignored.  

With Fr. Bob’s help, I entered the Diocese of New Jersey’s Deacon School. At 44, I knew I had finally answered the phone as they brought General Seminary from NYC to NJ every Saturday for three years.

Once a week for those three years, we trudged off to local hospitals for CPE, where we learned that pastoral care was as much about the patients' problems as it was about us learning to deal with our own problems. 

The next dream call came on the day I was ordained to Trinity Cathedral in Trenton, New Jersey. With 12 other candidates on Halloween 1998, the Rt. Rev. Joe Doss ordained us and the Rev. Charles Rice, our preaching professor, taught us about being a chameleon.

Fr. Charles told us we had to be ready to change to do whatever service ministry each parish needed. He also told us to be ready to change completely both within the parish you serve as the needs change and to be ready to do something completely different each time the bishop moved us.

In parishes in New Jersey over 10 years, I was a bus driver for the parishioners who didn’t have a car, Sunday school teacher, parish administrator, head of Christian Formation, bishop’s deacon, food pantry worker, food service worker and on more committees with inside and outside business ventures as the parishes and vestries needed. 

Then the call came to move from New Jersey to North Carolina, and serving in that special relationship with a new bishop was the answer.

From the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, I learned the Diocese of North Carolina was my Galilee, and the power of the Eucharist could be seen in the small acts of kindness that one person does to transform another into a member of that beloved community traveling on Jesus’ Way. I continue on this journey under the Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman and the Rt. Rev. Anne Hodges-Copple today with Bishop Michael now as our Presiding Bishop.

Along the way, I met Francis and got to know Jesus as to the loving God who was a part of us all. Instead of guilt trips, I found love and joy in the Eucharist, Sacrament of Reconciliation and daily offices. I realized God wasn’t holding a whip to flog us with but was offering us a chance to turn around and get back on the Way toward eternal union with Him. I found out that instead of punishing us for how bad we were, God was showing us His boundless love and calling us to be a part of that love in the same way the two lovers share in “The Song of Solomon.”

As a deacon in the Episcopal Church, my life’s call is to live out the Franciscan values of peacemaking, service to and justice for the poor and oppressed, care for creation and simplicity of life. I try to live all of it daily as well as in my roles in my own family and my parish family. 

THE CALL TODAY

My work today is both secular and church-based as deacon at St. Timothy’s, Wilson. I bridge the gap between the two by bringing the needs of those outside the parish family into the parish family to remind the church of our need to go constantly into the Galilee around us and work with those less fortunate to better their lives and ours. 

One of the ways I do this is to answer the call as a soup server. On my day in January, as I sat and watched the snow fall, I reflected on how many of our people were outside really fighting the cold because they had no place to live or inadequate heating in the place they lived. These are the majority of people whom we serve at the Wilson Community Lunch program. 

Then, I mused about a typical day serving our people. Preparing whatever portion of the meal needed to be done with my volunteer teammates, I am reminded first of Jesus and Francis’ admonishment to feed the hungry and care for the poor. We are always trying to do both and remember that those in need are a part of the Beloved Community, too. 

As I see the people line up to be let in at 10:30 a.m. on the day I volunteer, I pray that each has had a good evening and each will find the resources to live out their lives here in Wilson. I pray for those who are too sick on that day to make it here for a good hot meal.

As Rev. John Wilson, one of the success stories, prays over the food and invites everyone to enjoy the company and the good food, it reminds me of  Christ’s “The poor you will always have with you,” and there, but for the grace of God, go I. I try to greet each person so that the Jesus in me can meet the Jesus in them as I serve the soup and get someone to help those who need assistance  navigate the trays full of hot food to their seats. 

Once the hundred or so people are served, we clean up and carefully place the leftovers in the refrigerators for the next day. As I do that, I am praying for the volunteers who will serve each day until I return. When I get into the car, I pray for the team I work on, many of whom are church members at St. Timothy’s and other Wilson congregations. There are even a couple of success stories who have returned to volunteer and were or are still eating their lunch with us.

I have learned when that old phone rings, I answer immediately from Dan Schutte’s hymn, “Here I am, Lord, it is I, Lord. I heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, where you need me. I hold your people in my heart.”