The phrase “eating crow” means to admitting something that is less than savory. The idea is that if you were to ever eat a crow, it wouldn’t taste that good. It certainly wouldn’t taste as good as cake.
After my article last week in which I challenged some of the clericalism that I see in the Lutheran church today, I walked past the ping-pong table on Sunday after Bible study only to see a cake. Honestly, I didn’t take a long look at it, but I could tell what it was right away. I ducked my head and smiled and went about getting ready for worship.
After worship, I was humbled and honored to be shown the appreciation of University Lutheran. The cake was great and the gifts were much too generous, but the best part were the cards and the personal thank you’s before we all left and went on our way. 
I joked with some of you that I would have to print a retraction to my last article. I’m not going to do that. I don’t have to. The way in which you went about this was not an example of the clericalism I talked about.
As proof of that, I would like to provide you with what I witnessed Sunday after worship. Since this deals with some of my idiosyncratic behavior, I need to assure you that this is not disingenuous. I think what I saw is a very healthy picture:
After the “Go in peace, serve the Lord”, I went to my usual station, leaning on the teakwood table by the front door, saying good bye to people and catching up. Many of you went to the cake. So much so, that when I arrived at the table myself, a good 3/4ths of the cake had been sliced and eaten. This caused a well spring of joy in me, because in it I found proof that the celebration wasn’t about me — it was about us together as University Lutheran, as God’s elect, His Church.
You let me go last, which tells me a lot about our relationship. And after all, that’s all a pastor is – a series of relationships where we share in the discipleship that has been handed down from disciple to disciple for 2,000+ years. I wouldn’t be the pastor that I am today without my relationships with you all. Thank you.
So tonight I look forward to sharing cake once again with the people who show up on Wednesday night, and relishing being able to eat cake instead of crow. Thank you once again.