"God's Gumbo"
#92-40Presented on The Lutheran Hour on June 1, 2025
By Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Lutheran Hour Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
Reflections
Text: John 17:20-21
The late Eugene Walter, author, chef, and proud Southerner once observed, "Sooner or later, Southerners all come home, not to die, but to eat gumbo."i Gumbo—likely invented in New Orleans some 300 years ago—is among the most recognizable dishes of the American South, a delicious thick stew served over rice with an eclectic mix of ingredients—from celery, onions, peppers, and chicken, to Tabasco sauce and turtle meat. Gumbo is sometimes used as a metaphor, as a picture of the American melting pot, and the city of New Orleans is often featured as a signature dish of American e pluribus unum, that out-of-many-unity these United States are supposed to represent. Although, both America and New Orleans have had a checkered past when it comes to that unity. Sometimes the gumbo has been served up warm and welcoming; other times, not so much.
Reverend Greg Manning, a pastor-friend of mine, whom you'll get to hear from at the end of this program, he lives in New Orleans and serves a church there in a neighborhood called Broadmoor. Pastor Manning tells a story of how he once found a neighbor, an 89-year-old woman passed out in a park across the street from his church.
Pastor Manning was walking through the park and notices this elderly woman, unconscious on a park bench. He calls an ambulance. Thankfully, they were able to revive her. Later, when she learned that it was the local pastor who had helped her, she wanted to go thank him personally. And she wanted to tell him why she was sitting in the park that day.
She said, "Pastor, I was sitting in the park just thinking about how when I was a child, I was not permitted to sit in that park. It was an all-white area. We weren't even allowed to come in here. And so I was just thinking about the joy I have now of being able to sit there."
See, years ago, that was largely what defined the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans, where Pastor Manning's church had been planted back in 1927, started as "Broadmoor Lutheran Mission." Just a few blocks from the new mission plant, the city council had authorized a sign to be staked in the ground, which stated, "For White Only."ii
Today, almost a century later, things have changed. Broadmoor is a multicultural community—Black, White, Hispanic. And by the grace of God, people still gather on the site of that hundred-year-old church plant, and in the love of God, they have come to reflect the neighborhood. Pastor Manning says that it is their vision, following Jesus, "to be a little bit of everything, like a good ol' Louisiana gumbo." It's their vision, not because it's trendy, not because it's part of some critical theory or government program or corporate action. It's their vision because it's Jesus' vision. Jesus didn't envision His church for some people, but not others. Jesus didn't envision an exclusive church for one demographic only. Jesus didn't envision a segregated legacy for His people.
Listen to how He says it in one of His prayers that we have recorded for us in the New Testament. To my knowledge, it's the only prayer in the Bible in which Jesus explicitly prays, not in the first place for the people there in front of Him at that moment in history 2,000 years ago, but rather, He prays for us—for you, for me, for all who trust in Him today. The prayer is recorded in the Gospel of John 17. Jesus prayed it, just having washed His disciples' feet as a symbolic act of His sacrificial love. Jesus prayed it, knowing that He was about to be betrayed by one of His followers, and denied and disowned by the others. Jesus prayed it, knowing that the next day He'd be crucified on account of our sins. Jesus begins His prayer thanking and praising God His Father. Then He prays for His first followers. He prays for their protection, their unification, their future mission, which would commence after His resurrection from the dead. And in the last part, He prays for us. He said, "[Father] ... My prayer is not for them only [for My current followers], I pray also for those who will trust in Me through their word. [I pray] that all of them would be one, that they would be unified, just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, let them also be in Us so that the world may trust that You have sent Me. [Father,] I have given them the glory that You gave to Me so that they may be one, that they may be one as We are One—I in them and You in Me, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and that You have loved them even as You have loved Me. Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me from before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You. And they know that You have sent Me. And I have made You known to them, and I will continue to make You known so that the love You have for Me would be in them and I Myself would be in them." The words of Jesus, John 17:20-26.
Jesus, in this prayer, inspires us to imagine a future for His people, the church, gathered in a Christ-centered, cross-shaped, diversified unity. Jesus inspires us to remember the base, the Chef, and the guests of that unity. Or, as Pastor Manning puts it, like a good ol' Louisiana gumbo.
Jesus's words in John 17 are powerful and inspiring, but they may also be demoralizing, or deflating, maybe even damning. Because maybe you haven't experienced church like a rich helping of Southern gumbo. Maybe it's been more like bland, cold gruel, or a scalded, hot mess that probably just ought to be thrown out. Jesus' words don't deny those experiences. They're real. But they do help us remember that His followers, we're not done yet, we're a work in progress.
Pastor Manning in New Orleans, he prays for his church to be like a good gumbo. But he knows that they're not always as flavorful and friendly as they ought to be or could be. Every Sunday, he reminds them that the soup's not done yet. They're not complete. They're not perfect. "There are no perfect people allowed here," Pastor Manning says.
We are not perfect people, but we people perfectly saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We are not perfect, but we are called to savor and share the perfect message of Jesus Christ, who died and rose and lives to forgive us, His people, imperfect people whom His Spirit is nonetheless pleased to gather together, to let us simmer a while, to slow cook, in the transformative warmth of His cross-shaped, self-giving love. Jesus' prayer reminds us that we're not done yet. And His words inspire us to trust the process, because you can't rush a good gumbo.
I'm told that across the South, no two people make gumbo alike. Chefs have styles; families have traditions, and the best place to learn is in your grandmother's kitchen. A good gumbo is an improvisation like jazz, with ingredients that can include almost anything but the kitchen sink. And the ingredients themselves represent the diverse history of New Orleans.iii There's the spicy andouille sausage and other French culinary inspirations that came from the French colonists who, around the time of the American Revolution, got kicked out of Canada by the British, resettled in New Orleans and were called Cajuns. There's the bay leaf that came from the Roman Catholic nuns of the Ursuline Order, who settled in the bayou and brought herb gardens with them. There's the powdered sassafras leaf known as "filé" (fee-lay) introduced by the Native American Choctaw tribe; there's the shrimp and crabs native to the warm waters of the Gulf, the rice from Asia and Africa, the French-style fresh bread served on the side, baked in New Orleans by Swiss and German immigrants, some of whom no doubt helped found that Broadmoor Lutheran Mission back in 1927. And we can't forget the okra, brought from West Africa by people once enslaved. In their language, okra was called kin-gombo, which is where the dish got its name.
For all the difference and diversity in the dish, there's a common base that binds it all together. It's called the roux—r-o-u-x. The roux is made with equal parts flour and oil or some other sort of rendered fat. Roux means "red" in French—not so much "rouge," not scarlet red, but roux like ginger, like browned butter, like the lifeblood of the lamb painted on the door at Passover. If we imagine the church like a good ol' Louisiana gumbo, it's not the diversity that defines it, but the lifeblood of God's Lamb, Jesus, whose love has the power to bind diverse people together. If the church and the world are like God's gumbo, then you've got to give the Chef room to work.
Pastor Manning will be the first to admit that he's not the Chef, nor am I the Chef, nor are you—not in the church and not in the world. God is. At best, we're His go-fers, His students, His scullery assistants.
Pastor Manning remembers, 14 years ago, when he was first called to that old New Orleans Lutheran mission in a once all-white neighborhood. The neighborhood had changed since 1927, and the church had struggled. They still had a large, gothic sanctuary but only about five members. When Pastor Greg Manning was called there, he became the first-ever person of color to become a member of that church. He remembers showing up at the church and sitting out on the front steps with a co-worker, a deaconess named Michelle. Two blocks down there'd been a murder. It took a while for the police to come and clear the area, so the body was just left there out in the open for several hours. While they waited, Deaconess Michelle told him, "Greg, God called you here. He's going to use you."
Greg had to learn to be patient. He couldn't rush things. This wasn't his kitchen. It was Miss Tammy's kitchen, actually—Tammy—the long-time Lutheran lady who was still the backbone of the little church. You didn't mess with anything in the kitchen without her. It was her kitchen. But more importantly, it was God's. And Greg had to trust God's process, to wait on God's timing. And in the last 14 years, Pastor Greg Manning has seen God provide for him and for the church in ways he would have never been able to guess.
So, we're imagining God's people, the Christian church, like a Louisiana gumbo. We've considered the base, the cross-infused, sacrificial love of Jesus who binds us together. We've considered the Chef, the Master who has a process that can't be rushed. And now we need to remember the guests. This is part of Jesus' prayer that we sometimes overlook. Christians have said a lot about the need for unity in the church. We've prayed for unity and worked for unity. Which is all well and good, as long as we remember who the Chef is. And as long as we remember why unity matters. Unity matters, not just because nobody likes to be part of group that fights all the time. Unity matters, not just because diversity makes for a well-rounded organization. Unity matters, not because it's trendy. No, unity matters according to Jesus because God created the church to reflect divine Unity, the Unity of God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, who are mysteriously three different Persons, distinct Persons, yet perfectly One—One in nature, One in purpose and One in will, eternally bound-together by cross-shaped, self-giving, sacrificial love.
Unity is not something we achieve. Unity is a gift. It is participation in God's own character. And this isn't something we have for ourselves. It's not a prize we're trying to win in a contest for the most diverse gumbo. No, Jesus says that our unity is a gift for the guests, for the mission, for the people who do not yet know God's love for them. And Jesus prays that we may be brought to complete unity to let the people out there in the world know that God, His Father, sent Him, and that God loves them, and He invites everyone, all tribes, all languages, all nations to be in His family.
Pastor Manning remembers how Miss Tammy, that long-standing Lutheran lady in his church, how she used to reminisce that this was "a family church." It wasn't always clear what Tammy meant by that. Sometimes she'd say it with a sense of loss. She'd remember how, years ago, the church had been filled with people that she knew, who looked like her, and sang like her, and prayed like she did. But then all of a sudden, Tammy was one of the few white people left, surrounded by black people she didn't know so well. If this was family, it sure looked different. Now Tammy wasn't the only white person. She also had her elderly grandmother with her. Tammy's grandmother, Miss Dottie, was in her 90s, and she'd also been an old-school Lutheran all her life, but she decided to stick with Pastor Manning, even if he did have a different way of doing things. In fact, Miss Dottie used to sit up in the front pew during worship, and she'd raise her hands to praise Jesus with the band. And if an old Lutheran like Miss Dottie could do it, Tammy thought, maybe family could look different?
Pastor Manning tells of a turning point in the congregation. A prominent black woman named Lola had joined the church. Miss Lola wore white pearls and was friendly with the mayor of New Orleans. She was one of those natural leaders. Miss Lola lived in the neighborhood. She used to attend a megachurch outside the city. But when she noticed all this activity in that old church in her own backyard, she checked it out and she joined.
Now Lola could tell that Tammy had been the backbone of the church, and she wanted to honor that. So, Lola went to Pastor Manning one day and says, "We want to have a fellowship birthday celebration for Tammy." When the Sunday came, Tammy saw all the activity in the kitchen, unbeknownst to her—the decorations, the food, the cake—and she didn't know anything about it. Nobody had told her. "Who's all this for?" she asked. Lola and the others told her, "It's for you, Tammy. Happy Birthday! It's all for you."
It may be different than it used to be, but in Jesus, this is what family looks like.
One of the best things about Gumbo is that it's a forgiving dish. If you get the roux right, you can add just about anything. And you don't even have to measure. You just add a healthy portion to the pot. Gumbo is forgiving, but it's also a lot of work. And because it's so much trouble to make, nobody ever makes just a little, which is a blessing, because if you've got a good pot of gumbo on your stove, you're likely to have the whole neighborhood in your kitchen.iv
And with God's portions, we should plan for nothing short of the whole world. As they say at Broadmoor Community Church, "If you've got money like Peyton Manning or just a lot of love like us and Pastor Manning, you are welcome here."
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
i Eugene Walter as told to Katherine Clark, Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet. New York, Crown Publishers (2001), 266.
ii Walter Stern, "Public Schools and Ghetto Formation in Interwar New Orleans," e-Rea, Journal 14.1 (2016). Accessed on April 17, 2025 at https://doi.org/10.4000/erea.5226. The full text of the sign was, "Under the new law - Act 119 of 1924 - this block is for white only. Anyone destroying this sign will be dealt with according to law."
iii Grace Lichtenstein and Laura Danker, Musical Gumbo: The Music of New Orleans. New York, Norton (1993).
iv See Wynton Marsalis, "An ode to gumbo on CBS Sunday Morning," Accessed on April 17th, 2025 at https://wyntonmarsalis.org/news/entry/wynton-marsalis-an-ode-to-gumbo-on-cbs-sunday-morning
Reflections for June 1, 2025
Title: God's Gumbo
Mark Eischer: You're listening to The Lutheran Hour. You'll find FREE online resources, audio from previous broadcasts, and more, at our website, lutheranhour.org. Once again, here's Lutheran Hour Speaker, Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today, I am visiting again with Pastor Greg Manning, who served as our guest preacher last week and whose church I mentioned in the message today. Welcome back to the program, Pastor Greg.
Greg Manning: Hey, thanks for having me.
Mike Zeigler: So Pastor Greg, last week, you shared with us how you were born blind, but how you have truly seen with the eyes of faith how God has been faithful to you through that difficulty. You faced other struggles though, particularly in ministry, and as I understand it, you were called to serve as a pastor in New Orleans about 15 years ago. Is that correct?
Greg Manning: Yeah, that's right.
Mike Zeigler: Okay. And the church you were called to was named Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, which means in Latin, "Glory of God Lutheran Church." But people in your community, they had some misconceptions about that name. What were some of those misconceptions?
Greg Manning: Yeah, absolutely. I always like to frame it by saying Gloria Dei is a good classic name that worked well in 1927. Everybody might have known then that it meant, as you say and as we understand, the "glory of God." But in 2011 when I became pastor there, and people would call the church, and I started picking up the phone and people would ask, "May I speak with Gloria, please?" Or mail would come in the mail, and it would say, "Mr. or Mrs. Gloria Dei." I then began to think to myself, "Well, this name may not be as effective as it was in 1927 in getting people through the door. In fact, when I first heard the name, I thought it was a Hispanic- sounding name, and then I later learned that it wasn't. So we had to really do a rethinking of that name.
Mike Zeigler: So the name becomes a symbol perhaps for how the church was not quite connecting with the community, so tell us more of the story of how did God work through you all to connect more deeply with your community?
Greg Manning: Yeah, that's a great question and one that I love to tell. So I was the first person of color ever to be a member of what was at that time Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. And remember that the church was established and founded in 1920. And often, as we see in many urban communities where churches were founded, the community changes, and Gloria Dei was no different. The community around it had changed to be predominantly black and white and Hispanic, and when it was first established, it was an all-white community. And now, the community had changed, but the church had not changed. And again, I was the only person of color, and so we began to just reimagine who God was calling us to be. And so in 2016, we changed the name to Broadmoor Community Church, and we said, "Well, this could be the first step to getting people in the door, first by putting out front a name that they understand."
And Broadmoor is the name of our community. And so we established a new vision and new mission, being our mission is "love times two," to love Jesus and to love you. We said, "We want you to come in this door and know that we just want to love on you and let the Holy Spirit change you, if you will." And so those were the steps, and we've gotten people in the door, and after we get them in the door, we preach the Gospel. People often ask, "Are you still Lutheran?" Yes, we're still Lutheran. We declare that we're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone, but we had to get people in the door first.
Mike Zeigler: Pastor Greg, what are some of your hopes for the church moving forward, for greater opportunities to serve in the community there?
Greg Manning: Yeah, that we would just continue to be that place that, what I call, that we would put feet to prayer, that we would be active just being Jesus with skin on in the community, that people would see us as a light on that very busy corner, that they would all know that they are welcome in that church. I put out a banner on the front of the church. Two banners. One says, "No perfect people allowed," and the other banner says, "We are not a White church. We are not a Black church. We're everybody's church." And I just want everybody to know that no matter who you are, come on in the church, and we want to tell you about Jesus because we're not perfect people; we are imperfect people declaring the perfect message of Christ and His love for us. So I just want us to continue to just be that light, that light in the darkness in whatever way we can.
Mike Zeigler: And I'm sure that God is doing that through you. I can hear it in your voice, brother.
Greg Manning: Thank you, my friend.
Mike Zeigler: How could we pray for you and your congregation, your community there?
Greg Manning: We have a lot of needs in our community. People are really hurting right now. We have a food pantry. We distribute 4,000 pounds of food a week. We have people though that call the church even before ... even today, people are calling the church asking for support in rent and supporting utilities. People are hurting. And we're a small church. We don't have a lot of funds. And so I just pray that we would be able to just touch people and that they would know that we are helping them because God has called us to do so, to love them. And so we just pray that all of us would just be one in Christ and be servants of the Lord, as He calls us to do.
Mike Zeigler: Amen. Well, could I offer a prayer for us now and then I will ask you to say the benediction to send us out? Would that be all right?
Greg Manning: Absolutely.
Mike Zeigler: All right, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for our brother, Pastor Greg Manning, and the people of Broadmoor Community Church in New Orleans. We ask that You would fill them with the joy of Your Good News in Jesus, the creative power of sins forgiven and peace that He speaks over us. Help them and strengthen them as they reach out to their community as people are hurting, and they need help in tangible ways, and most of all, to know that You are the Father who loves them. Help them to be one as You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are One.
And we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Pastor Greg, would you bless us?
Greg Manning: Absolutely. Now, may the Lord God bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord look upon you with His favor and give you His peace, both now and forevermore. Amen.
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Crucifer" by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
