June 8, 2009

CHICAGO – "Attitude is everything" was a phrase that Dr. George Tiller had made into buttons. Many mourners wore those buttons to his funeral June 6 at College Hill United Methodist Church, Wichita, Kan. Tiller was shot and killed the previous Sunday morning before worship at nearby Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was a member.

"Attitude is everything ... but not our attitude," said the Rev. Lowell R. Michelson, Tiller's pastor, during the funeral sermon. "God's attitude ... an attitude of love."

"God does not turn away from our lives when things go bad. In fact, God leans in all the more and tilts with unconditional love in our favor. It is bold to stare death in the face with such an attitude," he said.

"The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changes us and the world. We know that death doesn't have the last word. It isn't the end of the story. It is only the beginning."

Reformation is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Tiller, 67, was serving as an usher the morning he was slain in the foyer of the church. He was one of a few doctors in the United States who provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy. A suspect has been charged with Tiller's murder.

At the funeral Michelson spoke after Tiller's four children and a longtime friend shared personal stories about the doctor.

"Years from now," Michelson told Tiller's family, "people will remember less the details of the crime committed, and the flurry of attention this week has received, and much more the steady way with which you have handled that lump of sorrow that sticks in your heart and your throat – a pain none of us can imagine."

Michelson had similar words of promise when the congregation of Reformation returned to worship June 7.

"Our sanctuary has been violated. A place of safety and trust became something other. As we face this hour and the days and weeks ahead, we ask God to grant us courage," he said.

"It is only through the power of God that we can begin to heal," Michelson said. "Like a Kansas sunflower tilting toward the sun, like a parent leaning over to hug a weeping child, God bends in love toward us. The love of Jesus is stronger than the darkness of this time."

The home page for Reformation Lutheran Church is at http://www.reformation-lutheran.org/, on the Web.

ELCA News Service