Bishop Ough delivered these remarks at the Historical Society luncheon, at the 2019 Annual Conference in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Bishop Ough delivers a message honoring and remembering Bishop Rueben Job at the 2019 Historical Society luncheon. Photo by Joni Rasmussen, jlynn studios.

Grace and peace to each of you as we gather to reflect on the life and witness of one of our beloved Dakota sons – Bishop Rueben Philip Job. I want to thank Dr. Stephen Perry, our conference historian, for the invitation to address you this afternoon. I consider it a sacred honor.

I also want to take a moment to publicly thank Dr. Perry for his dedication to authoring a new conference history. I have read portions of the history and it is both informative and engaging. I commend the history to you. As children of a God of history, we would have an impoverished future without a working knowledge of the faith and imagination of our foremothers and forefathers. This is exactly why I am so pleased to share some brief reflections about Bishop Job.

I was blessed to know and work closely with Rueben for 37 years, beginning in 1978 when Bishop Armstrong appointed me to the Dakotas Area Program Staff and Rueben was serving as a district superintendent based in Huron. The next year, Bishop Armstrong appointed Rueben to the Dakotas Area Program Staff and appointed me the Council Director. I became Rueben’s boss, and over our nearly four decades of journeying together, I never let him forget it! Actually, I was fully aware that Bishop Armstrong had instructed Rueben and Norm Shawchuck, who was also on the Area staff, to teach me, to form me, to make me a leader and to ensure I did not fail. They took these instructions seriously.

Rueben was born in Jamestown, North Dakota in 1928; the only child in his family to be born in a hospital. Rueben was raised to be a farmer on the Dakota prairie south of Jamestown. His parents were part of the great migration of German Russians who settled the southern tier of counties in North Dakota.

Rueben dropped out of high school in his sophomore year when his father had a heart attack and could no longer take care of the family farm. He loved the land, and I believe, would have been at complete peace to have remained a tiller of the soil. I remember calling Rueben on a crisp, sun-drenched September afternoon in 2013 while driving across the Dakota landscape on my way to a series of meetings in Mitchell. The splendor of the day caused me to describe to Rueben what I was seeing – the ripening fields of corn and soybeans, the deep blue prairie sky, the flock of white pelicans circling overhead, the water level in the prairie potholes, the freshly plowed fields. Suddenly, he interrupted me and said, “I can see it! I can see it! This I where I go when I close my eyes.” Rueben was a product of the land; he loved the soil, the outdoors, all of God’s magnificent creation. He remained a farmer at heart.

But, God had other fields in mind for Rueben, and at age 22, with the blessing of his disabled father and his mother, he responded to God’s call to leave the farm and prepare for ministry.

Thank God he met Beverly Ellerbeck on their first day at Westmar College in LeMars, Iowa. Had it not been for Beverly’s profound love for and encouragement of Rueben, and the dedication of his English tutor who recognized Rueben’s potential, we would not have the rest of the story. Rueben and Beverly were married in 1953 and raised four wonderful children – Deborah, Ann, Philip and David. Beverly brought to their 61-plus-year marriage an unwavering devotion to Rueben and family, a profound compassion for God’s people – particularly the least and forgotten – and her deep, unpretentious spirituality. Every soul needs a soul friend, and Beverly was such for Rueben.

Bishop Rueben Job. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Rueben graduated from Westmar College in 1954 and Evangelical Theological Seminary, now Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, in 1957. He was ordained in 1957 and served several North Dakota Conference congregations. His first appointment was Tuttle, North Dakota. Rueben and Beverly’s furniture arrived before the family and was unceremoniously unloaded in front of the parsonage. When Rueben and Beverly drove up, they found three men – elders of the church – sitting outside on their couch who immediately greeted Rueben in German with the question, “Can you preach in German?”

Rueben accomplished much in his 86 years – 

·a devoted, loving husband, father and grandfather; 
·a pastor of several vital congregations (long before we felt the need to define vitality);
·a passionate evangelist; 
ˑa chaplain in the United States Air Force stationed in Germany;
·a staff person for the EUB Board of Evangelism and, after the merger, the UMC Board of Discipleship; ·a visionary district superintendent;
·World Editor of TheUpper Room;
·a courageous bishop;
·the champion of the modern spiritual formation movement in The United Methodist Church;
·the chairperson of the Hymnal Revision Committee that produced the 1989 hymnal;
·author of over 20 books;
·a quiet activist;
·a contemporary mystic;
·a gentle prophet;
·the spiritual guide to hundreds and thousands.

Rueben devoted his entire life and ministry to the formation of pastors, laity and church structures into the image of Christ for the sake of the world. This was the singular purpose and enduring legacy of his life and witness. He devoted his entire life and ministry to forming individuals and organizations into vessels that carry, not their own words, but the Word of God; vessels in which the Word of God is deeply embedded, abundantly transparent, humbly obedient, joyfully expressive, gracefully inclusive, fully redemptive – no longer second nature, but first nature.

I was privileged and blessed to be a principle recipient of Rueben’s commitment to forming others in the image of Christ. Rueben invited me to join a covenant group when he observed I was in a spiritual crisis. That covenant group of five clergy colleagues was together for over 25 years. Rueben and the group rescued me from a dark night of the soul, taught me to pray again, and nurtured me back to spiritual health. Our covenant was framed around the general rules for all Methodist communities – do no harm, do good and stay in love with God.

I learned from Rueben that all who respond to God’s call on their lives – laity or clergy --- are also called to raise up those who will follow us and form them, or disciple them, into the image of Christ for the sake of the world. This singular purpose was evident in every leadership role he was called to: agency staff person, spiritual guide, retreat leader, editor of The Upper Room, bishop and author.

For Rueben, this formation in Christ for the sake of the world starts with love – God’s faithful, undying love.

Nearly two years before Rueben’s death, he asked me to preach at his service of death and resurrection. He was very explicit – stubbornly explicit. He wanted me to preach the Gospel – the love, forgiveness, salvation, hope, joy and resurrection that is ours in Christ Jesus – and not simply tell stories about him – some of which I know he did not want repeated in public. I told Rueben it would be easy to accept his invitation because all I would have to do is stand and say, “Rueben was the Gospel” and sit down. (Amen!)

Rueben specifically asked me to preach from I John 4:7-8: “…everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love.” (Common English Bible) This was Rueben’s mantra, his gyroscope, his anchor, his source of salvation, his life. I will never forget what he said to me when I pressed him for what he wanted me to preach at his funeral. He said:

Everyone is God’s beloved child. God doesn’t make the distinctions we make. I began to feel this when God called me on the Dakota prairie. That’s when I knew I was beloved of God. I wanted everyone to know this.

Rueben was an authentic evangelical. He knew Jesus as his personal savior. He walked humbly, faithfully, obediently, joyfully with Jesus every day. He wanted everyone to know they were beloved becauseof Jesus’ radically inclusive grace. He not only preached that God doesn’t make the distinctions we make; he urged, through his teaching and writing, particularly in his last years, for The United Methodist Church, to step back from its headlong rush toward exclusion, theological purity and disciplinary regulations and restrictions on matters of human sexuality. In today’s nomenclature, Rueben would be a progressive evangelical. And, I believe without any doubt, he would be working tirelessly for the unity of our church.

I learned from Rueben that all true evangelicals are dogmatic and unwavering in their love of God, their desire for all to personally know God’s love, but are expansive in their inclusion of all who profess their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. I learned from Rueben that one cannot fully embody or give expression to Jesus’ radical, inclusive and unconditional love unless one first practices Jesus’ disciplines of humility and downward mobility.

Rueben had a well-developed theology of what he called “spiritual embarrassment,” by which he meant we need to know our place. He taught and modeled that the disciple must understand his or her relationship to the Mystery if he or she is to be of any help to the community of faith. I remember Rueben saying to a class of new ordinands in Iowa:  “On the day you are convinced you got it right, go quickly and surrender your orders to the bishop, because you have just become God and not God’s servant.” Ouch! Rueben was a gentle soul, but he could be very direct.

Rueben practiced his theology of spiritual embarrassment. He practiced Jesus’ disciplines of humility and downward mobility. He did not parade in public. He did not seek celebrity status. He always placed others above himself in all things, often using his highly developed, wry, witty and self-effacing humor to do so. Rueben was never full of himself. He was a true servant leader.

Rueben penned these words in his journal in 1984 as he contemplated the magnitude of the office for which he was a candidate.

The episcopacy is not a prize to be won; it is not a goal to be achieved or a level of employment to be attained. At its very best, the episcopacy is an invitation, a call from God, discerned, and confirmed by the church, accepted by an individual, and lived out in community with other Christians in the world.

Rueben knew his place. And, he yearned and prayed for a Church with a well-developed theology of spiritual embarrassment, or what we might call today convicted humility.

I learned from Rueben that leadership is never about us, or what we think we are entitled to. Leadership is about the responsible and faithful exercise of the authority we have been given to speak the words and engage in the acts of justice and compassion that reveal the fullness of God’s power and mercy. Leadership is always about the word and spirit of God living in and working through us. Time and time again I heard Rueben repeat, “The spiritual journey begins and ends with God.” This endeavor we are all engaged in; this calling which we have all embraced; this journey into the heart of God we all hunger for is first, foremost and forever about God’s initiative and God’s love for us.

Rueben’s love extended to the world and all creation. He embraced Jesus’ vision of a world in which God is making all things new. A world in which tears are wiped away, pain is no more, peace prevails, injustice is swept away, all are included in the family of God, and the thirsty receive water from the spring of life. Rueben stood against injustice and oppression, not as an angry crusader, but as a loving, grace-filled advocate and partner with the least of these. When others suffered, he suffered. His diseased heart (the reason he retired early) was nothing compared to the broken heart he had for the victims of external injustice and internal darkness. When the icy threat of farm foreclosures gripped rural Iowa with despair in the mid-1980’s and destroyed hundreds of farm families, Rueben responded by telling the people that the conference would not close their churches. “We need the people more than we need their money,” he said.

I learned from Rueben the Methodist Way of intertwining acts of mercy and compassion with a relentless advocacy for justice for the poor, the stranger, the lost and the least.

Henry Thoreau said, “It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look …that is the highest of arts.”

God gave Rueben Job the gift of the “highest of arts.” Rueben changed the culture and environment through which those around him saw life. Many of us in this room, and tens of thousands beyond this room, have been enriched, challenged, taken where we had not intended to go, and been blessed beyond our imaginations because Rueben helped us see a new reality, a deeper reality. He helped us be about the work of changing, not only the environment and culture through which we see, but helped us be changed ourselves.

Let me test the house to see how we have been impacted, perhaps transformed, by Rueben’s ministry.
· Raise your hand if you have enjoyed a slice of pumpkin pie with Rueben. (This was his favorite!)
· Who has participated in The Upper Room’s Academy for Spiritual Formation?
· Who has been blessed by the joy of Rueben’s teasing humor or dry wit or just the twinkle in his eye?
· Let’s see the hands of those who have used one of more of the Guides to Prayer.
· Who has a deeper, more regular prayer life because of Rueben’s prayerful presence and example?
· Let’s see the hands of those who re-discovered our Wesleyan Rule of Life through the Three Simple Rules.
· Who has sung from the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal?

I think nearly every hand was raised.

I loved when Rueben prayed. His soul opened and God’s spirit prayed through him. I was drawn into the presence of the One who created us and loves us beyond measure. Rueben’s prayers taught me and many of us to pray. It seems fitting to conclude my reflections with one of Rueben’s payers – a prayer he wrote titled, Our Simple Prayer. I believe it is his word for us as we begin this Dakotas Annual Conference session.

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