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In last week’s sermon, we pondered the questions, Who am I and Who does God hope that I am?
For many years, in the OHSU Department of Surgery, I worked as a Molecular Geneticist, determining the origin of breast cancer and devising new treatments. Along the way, I trained generations of medical students and residents who would go on to
pursue medical research careers. It was fulfilling and meaningful work. My research took me to the scientific boundaries of what it means to be alive as well as when life ceases to thrive.
Exploring the mysteries of science was heady work, but I did not feel complete in my being. I longed for a deeper understanding of my place and that of humanity in God’s world. I was not finished asking, Who am I? Who does God hope that I am? Pursuing these answers took me to the seminary. I studied at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and was ordained to the priesthood.
Today I am a scientist and a priest. By following a path God set before me, I was always
going to be so. The belief systems and ways of viewing the world, intrinsic to these
roles, are intrinsic, as well, to who I am. This is how I have been made by God.
This past week, I was asked to offer the invocation at the OHSU Department of Surgery
Graduation. It felt like coming full circle. I stood before the surgeons who, as a faculty
member, I had once been a scientist and colleague. I stood before them, no longer
wearing a lab coat, but sporting a clerical collar. Together, we bowed our heads in
prayer. We prayed in gratitude for the beauty and gifts of life. We prayed for the wisdom to accept that which cannot be controlled, that which does not thrive. And above all else, we prayed that we become the people that God hopes for us to be.
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