Written by: United Theological Seminary July 14, 2020

A Call for Lament (in the time of a global pandemic)

A while ago, I woke up from a nightmare. In this dream, I knew that my brother was in an upper level of an abandoned skyscraper, unconscious and badly burned, hooked into an IV that I did not know who operated. When I learned about his condition on the phone, I felt and heard a noise escape my throat – one I have only heard once before. The unmistakable, guttural cry of grief: someone is dead or dying. By the time I saw my brother’s body in front of me, in the dream, I woke up. It was dark. My body automatically turned over, bringing me to my knees and I prayed. With gratitude, gratitude that I knew, with almost certainty, that my brother was safe at home. Then grief washed over me again, because just as I knew my brother was fine, I knew that someone else’s brother was experiencing my dream as their reality.

A few days later, I was asked, “how do you respond when you notice the holy in your life?” Immediately my dream came to mind: prayer, gratitude, grief. Prayer: a physical act; embodying, surrendering, being presence. Gratitude: filling up with and casting thank you into my relationships and beyond into the world. Grief: a punch to the gut, a reverberating wave washing over me, moving through me… connecting me to you, to what is greater than all of us.

…Is grief holy?

Theologically and intellectually, I believe that holiness is not only found, but inherent in lament, suffering, death. But during actual moments of despair from personal failures to family dynamics to global pandemics, it’s challenging for me to name the holy when it seems like everything around me is falling apart; it’s challenging for me to name the holy when it hits me, again, that’s it’s not good enough for just me and mine to be safe and well. And yet, exactly in these moments of despair, I fall to my knees in prayer, gratitude and grief; I realize what is most holy.

I, and I assume many of you, have been told again and again to see the blessing in the situation, to find hope in despair. But I ask you now: have you lamented today?

Have you paused long enough to feel what you are feeling? Before moving to comfort others or post a cat picture, have you grieved? Have you allowed yourself to feel a little more (even if you can’t name why or what)? Rather than reacting to the fear of disconnection, have you actually let yourself experience disconnection? Have you let yourself break down and cry? Are you allowed the space to break down and cry?

I had not cried until writing this sermon the fourth time.

I am a lingerer. After gatherings, meetings, classes, I stay, talk and laugh with the other lingerers. But these days, logging off of a Zoom call, I am met with loss and longing. Emptiness and the sudden sense of being alone opens like a chasm in the room. Yet, I have learned that if I scroll online or text people as a distraction from what I’m feeling, it does not make me feel better or more connected. It numbs me. It prolongs the process of facing my experience. I don’t want more depression–the lack of feeling–in this world, or anyone to get stuck in despair. I need us to practice feeling more, feeling honestly, allowing our emotions to move and change.The moments when I finally allow myself to feel what I feel–which sometimes looks like me moving around in physical distress, banging the floor with my hands, curling up to cry; at other times, sitting with my breath and allowing the tears to just fall. These are the moments when I am alive. Even in the deep sadness of loneliness, I am utterly connected to all that’s around me, has come before, and is yet to come. When my tears slow, my breath regulates and I am aware of the floor beneath me, I experience a shift: though broken, I feel whole.

The call for social distancing and quarantine is asking—or rather demanding—most of us give something up…be it work, an income, travel to loved ones, social gatherings, in-person theological discussions, physical contact, comfort in knowing we can shop for our needs.

There are those of us who are on the front lines in hospitals trying to save lives and reduce needless suffering; those of us concerned with laws, the distribution of resources and sanitation; those of us focused on parenting, educating and nourishing our children. We need these people—you—to continue doing this work and to do it in morally responsible ways—but what about the rest of us?

There is tremendous possibility to organize, to get to know our housemates, families and neighbors more deeply—I went for a walk the other day and saw more neighbors that I knew and didn’t know, than I have ever seen on a neighborhood walk before. We stopped and waved, chatted from across the street, noticed one another and kept our physical distance—yet we were all together. There is tremendous possibility to get to know one another in powerful ways and to respond to the many needs and shortcomings being exposed in our society. So, for those of us who have the capacity and opportunity to reflect in this moment, what are we clinging to that is preventing the conditions for the possible transformation we swear we give our lives to?

In the enormity of this disruption, sacrifice and uncertainty, do any of us actually know what this moment is calling for? How many of us are pretending, or trying to pretend that we know?

I have been. I have been pretending. Yet, there is a part of me (which I’ve brushed off as selfish, but might actually be the wise voice I’m ignoring) that keeps calling out for me to pause and retreat, to surrender to this moment of ceasing.

Please hear me, this is not a call for the most vulnerable to bear even more; the most vulnerable among us are always the most impacted, consistently suffer more, find themselves in despairing circumstances, and usually respond with incomprehensible resilience. No, this is a call for those of us who have the privilege of self-quarantining, for those of us who are being given the space to pause and witness as the world as we know it disintegrates around us.

This is not the time to cling to false idols and “apparent security”. This is a time to enter into despair. This is a time to grieve. This is a time to let false hope die and put our faith in the creative possibility of transformation by dedicating our lives to being a part of the organism of community. The role of grieving is not to be taken lightly.

Have you lamented today?

Theologian Henry N. Wieman writes:

Despair…despair is the state of mind ensuing when the good to which one clings as source and sustainer of all other good has been taken away. When that to which one clings is not truly the source and sustainer, its removal and the consequent despair open the way for the real source to enter… creative power (has the possibility to) dominate over all else as it could not before and could penetrate beneath every obstruction raised against it… but this… radical transformation cannot occur without despair if by despair (we mean) the removal of every other good to which one clings as ultimate source and sustainer.

Otherwise known as idolatry.

Perhaps, for many of us, what we are clinging to is not only the “apparent security and stability” of meeting our material needs, but also the false notion that when others suffer, we do not. But deep down, we know, there are no other people’s brothers. There are no other people’s children or grandparents. We live in a world filled with our siblings, some we have yet to meet and others we will never get the chance to.

Have you lamented today?

I’ve asked this three times now, and I’m wondering: Does it land? Do you feel called to lament? Where… what part of your body do you feel grief stirring? If you’re willing and able, put your hand right there. What does your grief feel like? Who is your grief connected to? Perhaps, you can even hear it’s message…

We do not create transformation… as local community healer and leader Susan Raffo says: We do not create transformation, we create the conditions for transformation to be possible.

What spiritual practices are you being called to in this moment? What spiritual practices move you into and through despair, allowing Source to enter?

Yes, may we—may we lament, personally and collectively. May we fall to our knees in prayer gratitude and grief. May we surrender to this ceasing, not in order to tolerate suffering, but precisely the opposite: to not allow this ripe opportunity for creating the conditions of radical transformation that we know this society needs to pass us by. May we surrender to the one true source with many names: Creativity, God, Mystery, Love.

Amen.

This Blog Post was originally written as a sermon for the course UU Theologies taught by Demian Wheeler in Spring 2020.

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June 25, 2026

Activism Alums immigration justice Liberation Theology

Alum Rev. Todd Lippert (’03): Living a Public Ministry

As Rev. Todd Lippert was growing up, his life was dominated by two constants: music and church. Both of his parents were music teachers. His dad was the high school choir director, and his mom was the elementary school music teacher. Though his family had been Baptist for generations, they ended up attending a United Church of Christ (UCC) church where his mom was hired to play the organ. It was also much closer to home than the nearest Baptist church. “I always took Christian faith very seriously,” Todd asserts. “The church was a sacred and holy place to me.” In seventh grade, Todd remembers talking to his father. “I was at the bottom of the stairs talking to my dad at the top of the stairs. And that was when I said for the first time, ‘I wonder if I might want to be a pastor someday.’” But, Todd adds, “the idea was really terrifying to me,” so he put it out of his mind. At the University of Iowa, he pursued a music degree. During a philosophy class toward the end of college, a professed atheist professor began asking some of the same questions about faith that Todd was confronting. “I was wrestling with whether I was a Christian or not.” Deciding on Seminary The turning point came one Sunday morning after graduation when Todd and his wife were at church. At the time, he was selling Yellow Pages ads and contemplating an MBA. “I hated it,” Todd confesses. “I was miserable.” Watching the preacher at First United Methodist Church in Iowa City, he thought, “Maybe I could do that, and maybe I need to pay attention to this call to ministry that keeps bubbling up.” United was the first UCC seminary that came up on the computer, and when Todd visited, “it felt like home for me as soon as I arrived.” Since his wife was doing graduate work at the University of Minnesota, they moved to the Twin Cities. “At United,” Todd recalls, “I had the space to figure out how Christianity was meaningful and how this faith fit together for me.” Professors who welcomed and encouraged his questions were key to his faith formation, and the “liberation theology that moved through the curriculum, with its focus on justice, was extremely appealing to me.” Todd was also inspired by his classmates. “I saw the student body deeply engaged in the political and social questions of the day.” At United from 2000 to 2003, Todd experienced the Bush v. Gore lawsuit, 9/11 terror attacks, Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone’s tragic death, and the Iraq war launch as he was earning his MDiv. Public Theology Justice-seeking activism, Todd asserts, “really cemented my understanding that the body of Christ is about bringing the realm of God into being wherever it is. And that was something that would have to make my life better and make my community better.” Since graduating, Todd has worked as a UCC pastor, a Minnesota state legislator (2018–2022), a community organizer with ISAIAH, and a community minister with Creekside Church. The clergy organizing work during Operation Metro Surge was especially impactful and reconnected him with United. Todd went through “nonviolent direct action training with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, one of the authors I read.” He also worked with Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler, his former Hebrew scripture professor. United, notes Todd, equipped him “to be able to understand what is going on in our world, and in our communities, and I had the tools to get better and better at that, reading the present through a biblical and theological lens.” He is extraordinarily proud of the way the church showed up in Minnesota and grateful for United. “I really want,” Todd concludes, “the love-your-neighbor values of the church to be a force in our public life, not an afterthought. I want it to be a force in our political life.”

Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman Promoted to Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, supported by the McVay Endowment

Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, June 24, 2026 —United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is delighted to announce that, effective July 1, 2026, Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman will become the Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, supported by the McVay Endowment, and Director for Formation. This promotion to an endowed chair follows Rev. Dr. Justin Sabis-Tanis’ appointment as the inaugural Wilson Yates Chair in Theology and the Arts. Announced during Commencement in April, the McVay chairship reflects the esteem with which United’s board and faculty members regard Professor Packman. In February, Dean Kyle Roberts proudly reported that Dr. Packman was being promoted from assistant to associate professor and transitioning from a three-year contract into a tenure-track position. Dr. Packman joined United in July 2021 as a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Practical Theology. At the Spring 2022 Convocation to welcome and bless our new faculty member, Dr. Packman—who holds an MDiv and PhD from the University of Chicago—presented on “The Atmospherics of Theological Education.” By December 2022, Dr. Packman’s “teaching, mentoring, and other stellar capabilities” prompted United to offer him a contract to continue teaching past the terms of his Louisville Fellowship. Since then, he has co-authored an article in The Oxford Handbook of Friedrich Schleiermacher, had a paper (“The Consolation of Studying Theology”) published in the Christian Century, and presented at the September 2025 Schleiermacher Kongress in Kiel, Germany. Spiritual and personal formation is a vital component of Packman’s work with students, and he will continue in his role as the director for Formation. In May of 2025, he began a new initiative, the Formation Pilot Program, to gauge the foundational axis points of students’ formation at United. “This is a remarkable moment in theological education,” Dr. Packman explained this spring, “where what it means to be a theological learning community is being reimagined in real time. This pilot program is designed to interrogate this question from across the life of the seminary, and to build up our community in the process.” “Dr. Packman’s doctoral studies,” observed Dean Roberts in his April announcement, “focused on Christian theology and ethics, and his current research explores questions about racism, intransigent evil, and Friedrich Schleiermacher’s philosophical and theological ethics. Combined with his MDiv studies in pastoral formation, these make Dr. Packman well-suited to occupy this chair while he continues…serving as the Director for Formation.” President Molly T. Marshall reflects, “Dr. Packman brings academic excellence and pastoral sensitivity to his teaching, collegial relationships, and community involvement. His theological depth suffuses his courses in ethics and formation, seeking to form good human beings as transformative agents for a world in travail. I am delighted by this appointment.” As Dr. Packman shared when he was offered a chance to continue teaching at United past his Louisville Fellowship, “It’s such an immense gift to get to do this work, and it’s an honor to get to do it with folks like you. I’m so eager to see what we build together!” Now, as a new chapter begins with his elevation to the McVay Chair, we are overjoyed that such a prodigiously talented scholar and teacher can continue to journey with our dedicated and curious students. About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, exploring multi-faith spirituality, and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Contact Nathanial Green (he/him) Director of Marketing and Communications press@unitedseminary.edu • 651.255.6138 Admissions and Enrollment admissions@unitedseminary.edu

Rev. Dr. Tim McGregor (’26) Finds Hope for Healing in Exploratory Theology

Rev. Dr. Tim McGregor (’26) has been a chaplain, pastor, and church planter for years. How did he find this well-trodden path? Tim says his mother introduced him to Christ. “She was very devout,” he explains. Unfortunately, she was also very sick, so Tim spent more time in hospitals than in church as a child. Still, he recalls one incident during communion when he was 11. Tim shares that he “had a very out-of-body experience with the divine while I was in church, and it touched my soul.” Tim grew up and pursued a BA at Tuskegee University. While there, he experienced another out-of-body experience when he was robbed at gunpoint and stabbed. “At that point,” he reflects, “I decided to rethink some of my living and some of my decisions. It reignited my spiritual walk.” As he changed the way he lived, Tim felt a spiritual nudge. Others observed that they “saw the calling” on his life. And dreams about preaching began to recur. “Before I ever preached a sermon, I dreamed I was preaching…in the same church where I ended up preaching later on.” Christian Theological Seminary Though Tim identified as National Baptist, he decided to attend Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) in Indiana—a progressive school aligned with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It helped that Dr. Edward Wheeler, an ordained Baptist minister whom Tim knew when Wheeler worked at Tuskegee, was CTS’s president. During a United chapel service this March, Tim described his experience at CTS as “quite grueling,” but also that he “learned a lot.” As he clarified more recently, he had to “let go of a very fundamentalist perspective,” and that sort of deconstruction was difficult. “It was a crucible situation,” Tim asserts. Chaplaining and Church Planting After earning his MDiv in 2003, Tim spent years in Mississippi and Texas planting churches and working as a hospital chaplain. Since returning to Minnesota, he’s been a chaplain at Regions Hospital, Abbott Northwestern, and the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, and pastored at Family Bible Church. He suspects that the time he spent with his mother in hospitals likely inclined him toward hospital chaplaincy. When he decided to pursue a DMin, Tim reviewed his options. Only United, he found, had the interreligious chaplaincy program and liberal ethos that made his MDiv work transformational. Plus, he could attend onsite or online as his schedule allowed. “It was a great benefit,” Tim attests, “to do both.” United and Nat Turner Tim credits Dr. Jessica Chapman Lape, former director of the Interreligious Chaplaincy program, with positively shaping his education. Her theological knowledge and emphasis on her African American heritage impressed him. Dr. Munjed Murad’s Comparative Theology course elevated Tim’s intercultural acuity. Munjed is an assistant professor of World Religions and Intercultural Studies, supported by the Johnson-Fry Endowment. Tim describes his dissertation, “The Exploratory Theology of Nat Turner and Its Effects on African and African American PTSD,” as “a labor of love.” Why Nat Turner? “I appreciate his passion and his desire to live and fight for the rights of his people,” Tim explains, “and his willingness to do so in the name of his religious beliefs.” In addition, “I’m always interested in people that…have been misunderstood or written off as villains.” Shepherded with vital support from Rev. Dr. Andrew Packman (assistant professor of Theological Ethics and Formation), Tim’s dissertation studies Nat Turner, his traumatic experiences as a slave, and his burgeoning theology. It also traces links to the moral injury, trauma, and PTSD endemic to military service, especially for African American veterans. Tim wants to “understand more about…how to be an asset to my community.” He feels that “United was a really good place for that” and is a rich resource for “clergy…and spiritual caregivers” who are going to help us “keep pressing toward better understandings.” Tim is grateful for United’s role in honing his academic and spiritual voice.