Breaking From Tradition

Families change.  We sometimes don’t like to admit it, but the elderly die and infants are born and our families just keep changing.  One problem is that as our families change so must our traditions.

I was watching the most recent episode of Ugly Betty and it was all about family changes and changing traditions.  This episode was very timely for me, as I just spent Thanksgiving with my sister and mother in Madison, WI.  My sister was unable to go home due to work obligations and I was going to be in Madison chaperoning a youth event anyway- so we decided to have thanksgiving there.  My mother decided to come up and join us and thus our long-standing tradition of family dinners at my grandparents’ houses changed...at the very least we took a temporary break from tradition.

I thought it would be hard on my mother, especially not having dad there, but we all had a wonderful time.  My mother insisted on having a full thanksgiving meal, so she packed up turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, pie, cookies, etc.  into the car and brought thanksgiving to Madison.  It definitely wasn’t thanksgiving as usual around Carrie’s tiny table in a small one bedroom apartment, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t Thanksgiving.  This year’s holiday was not deficient of anything, it was extraordinary and special in its own way.

The church is no different:  In the church we must stop holding so tightly to our traditions.  We must begin, instead, to honor the past as we look forward to the excitement of the future.  We must bring a relevant Christ to a new and exciting millennium -and we will probably have to use new methods!

I spent the past week with my sister and mother and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  I won’t look back longingly for “the way things used to be,” but instead I look forward to next year’s Thanksgiving holiday for whatever lies ahead.  Perhaps next year will be thanksgiving at Grandma’s house - or my mother’s house - or maybe we will have thanksgiving in Fiji.  Who knows what the future will hold.

I Have Been Violated.

Okay- this is freaking me out a little bit.  I got back to school and thought I would drive out to Lincolnshire to the IMax and watch Beowulf.  I didn’t want to drive half an hour just to find a sold out show or something, so I purchased my tickets on-line on Fandango.  I even had to setup an account on Fandango...so it’s not like I set this up and don’t remember...   Next thing I know, I log into Facebook and it is on my mini-feed that I purchased a ticket for iMax to see Beowulf.

Somehow Fandango knows my facebook or vice-versa and it got connected through my email address and wham-bam-thankyou-ma’am....   My business is being announced on facebook.  Has anyone else had this issue?  Does it feel weird to anyone else?  I’m sure it is a facebook application that I’ve downloaded that ended up doing this, but still........

Bullies.

This morning on 103.5 the morning talk show was about school bullying.  They were discussing Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View.  It was interesting to listen at first, but then as calls came in, I realized that no one was talking about the underlying issues!?!  Why is it that children bully and is it a new thing?  So far as I know there has always been schoolyard bullying.  It is the tactics that have changed and, perhaps, escalated.

As I consider what it was like to grow up, I think that bullying was simply a part of my formative years.  I’m not saying that it is right, but I think it natural as children learn about interpersonal relationships.  In fact, having been the victim of bullying (although I never thought of myself as that) helped me to become the person I am today.  In fact, it is still a part of my life, today...does bullying ever stop?  We become more sophisticated with how we bully, but it continues throughout our lives.  We perpetrate bullying and we are victims even as we move through adulthood - we just have new names for it:  “business”, “politics”, and “war”.

I don’t believe that bullying is something that we can stop.  I’m not even fully sure we should - even if we could...  I believe we must accept that bullying is part of our growing up process, but we can not accept the escalation of violence and the new ways in which bullying now takes place.  Most of all, we must work toward the elimination of hate crimes that happen daily in schools.  We must make schools a safe place for our children and we can accept nothing less.... but can we control the actions and words of others?  No.

We can only control ourselves:  our own actions and our own words.  We must consider this when dealing with the issue of bullying.  How do we model kindness for others?  How do we change attitudes?  It is not by creating a new law or rule!  It is not by retaliating!  We can only affect a change of heart when we share the love that God gives us.  We can not simply implement new District-wide policies or put more police on-campus.  We must mobilize our churches to go into the schools.

First UMC in Green Bay has begun to do this.  They do not go preach or evangelize in the school - that wouldn’t work (or be legal).  They have 80 adult volunteers that volunteer as aids in the classroom.  They are there to show the children that they are important and loved.  I have seen this first hand and I have to believe that it is working.  It doesn’t just help the child experience God (LOVE).  It can be a deeply spiritual event for the adults who volunteer without even the uttering “God” or “Jesus”.

I'm Back!

Wow, it has been a crazy few weeks.  I had a midterm exam in Old Testament, on which I did well.  I turned in my midterm essay for History...don’t know how I did on that, yet!  I completed my practica in my United Methodist Worship class (we develop and led a worship service) and we did well on that (my litany was only so-so, it didn’t “draw on the theme of the service”).  Tonight I have a quiz on the latter prophets, my rule of life is due on Wednesday and Thursday I have a paper due on Stookey’s Eucharist book.

I write all of that only to excuse my on-line absence over the past few weeks, but now I’m back.  This weekend I should have been reading for my Old Testament, but instead I am catching up today.  I went to Janesville, WI to worship with a church (the church for whom I led a youth retreat a few weeks ago).  It was fun to see the youth again and to  get away from the seminary for the morning.  When I got back Sunday afternoon my friend Jill, from Green Bay, had just arrived in Chicago, so she picked me up on her way down into the city and we were able to catch up.  I came back up on the train around 8 p.m. and was able to read some old testament on the train home although I was sitting near to a nut case and it was hard to concentrate.  I should tell you the story:

This strange guy starts hitting on this odd girl who sat next to him.  He starts telling her everything about him and his job.  She clearly was not interested after just a minute or two and you could see her eyes roving for an empty seat away from the guy.  Everything about her verbal and physical cues should have told him that she wasn’t interested, but he asks for her number and she wouldn’t give it to him. (smart girl) but he just keeps on it - all the way until she was off the train and then he continued swearing and kept muttering about how she was playing hard to get....    weirdo!

It has been a busy but fun weekend.  Now I just have to get back to work today so that I am well prepared for tonight’s class.

Hoping For Mail.

Now that I’m in seminary I get way TOOO excited when there is a letter waiting in my mailbox.  I could be someone writing me a note, it could be a check, it could be a note saying “you have a package waiting”, and there are always bills, too...  I feel a ‘let down’ when I go to my box and there is nothing waiting for me (or if it is just a bill).  Does anyone else ever feel that?

There is a sense of anticipation for me as I go for the mail and as I draw closer that anticipation grows as well.

Two weeks ago we turned in a paper on the church calendar for our United Methodist Worship class.  One of the things that becomes startlingly clear  as I read Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church by Laurence Hull Stookey (Abington Press, 1996) is that in American culture today we have forgotten what it is to relish in anticipation.  I open up my Mail program for instant email.  I go online and watch my favorite television show instantly on a whim.  I can purchase something immediately, online, and have it shipped to my home the very next day.  Our world is full of instant gratification.

The story of Christ is a very different story.  It is a story of waiting and hoping.  In fact, even before Mary began her anticipation the world had been anticipating.  Why is it, then, that we skip advent.  Why is it, then, that Christmas turns into one day?  Christmas is a season beginning on December 25 and Advent is the season of anticipation for four weeks prior.

What if we put away the wreaths and holiday packaging and left them until later.  What if we pushed Christmas away until  December 25 so that we could truly appreciate its absence right up until that most joyous season begins?

Several pastors I know do not like to use Christmas Carols during advent.  Churches tend to hate this.  They hate to wait until Christmas because they want it to feel like Christmas all through lent.  I think this is because in America we hate to wait.  Perhaps during the upcoming advent season you and your family can find some anticipation amid a season of craziness.  Perhaps you can learn to appreciate the excitement of anticipation...   Perhaps you will more fully embody Christ when you learn of the excitement of His coming!

The Church Is Falling Apart.

The job of a prophet is to speak the word of God.  Here it is:

Love the Lord your God with all of your being.

Stop worshiping Baal.

Stop squandering what I [God] have giving you.

Love your freakin’ neighbor.

The list goes on, but these Truths are not just ancient wordplay, nor are they recent revelations.  These are (badly paraphrased) words of God spoken through the prophets.  The prophets were not always revered (or even tolerated) by the people, but they laid down the law on behalf of God.  Let me tell you a couple of things:

We live in a world which has forgotten what it is like to invite God to dwell with us.  We go to church once a week, perhaps, but we don’t know how to live out our faith anymore.  Mostly this comes about because our church leaders no longer model faithful living.  Pastors want to have a nice car, house, pension, etc. so how in the hell can pastors expect others to drop their nets and follow them when they still have their net grasped in their hand?  We forget what it is to be inspired and instead fill our pulpits with mediocrity.

Laity in the church must claim their ministry.  Our laity must go out doing the work of the poor at the danger of losing life and limb.  We want to insulate ourselves from harm or death and our churches worry about lawsuits.  The truth is that our ministry into the world can not be without risk.  The early Christians risked death by meeting together.  When was the last time you risked death by going to church?  We must be fully committed to embodying our faith.

God is calling us to an authentic faith.  God wants us to drop our selfish ambition and greed to follow the life of Christ.  That can not be accomplished once a week nor is it accomplished in church council or slick advertising.  Our churches need to grow, but not in numbers.  Our churches (and their pastors) much first grow in spirit and commitment.  Let our churches speak loudly and with relevance to a broken world.  Let us proclaim the truth, even when it is hard to hear.

Our churches must begin to model stewardship. Forget these ridiculous buildings and projection systems and fancy coffee/bookshops in our churches.  Let start with basic Biblical literacy and interpretation and if we can learn to do that - let’s take our resources and begin to change the world (not our foyers).  What???  You think that it takes a nice looking building and fancy equipment to have lots of people?  Our churches don’t need a lot of uncommitted people, we need to model a committed faith that uses resources to change lives not to build a bigger freakin’ budget.

Our churches must strive to help our communities and the people in them to be transformed physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We might pretend to do mission in a sterile and safe way with part of our ‘budget’, but that just isn’t good enough for God.  God said it best of all “Love the Lord your God...and your neighbor as yourself”.  God didn’t say just love your neighbor with the scraps that are leftover.  God said to love your neighbor AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.  This isn’t easy, but if we begin to live more simply we can also begin to simply provide for those around us.

It is time for change.  Let’s not take baby steps. Let’s not downplay the significance of our sin.  Let’s not molest the Bible until it makes us feel justified in our lifestyle.  Instead - Let’s start a spiritual transformation in the church.

Try it.  I don’t want to have to pull out my sword and get all “Old Testament” on you. (see Exodus 32)

Just Dorking Around

I’m not sure really what to say today.  I should be working harder on my reading day, but I’ve had my mind on a lot of other things this week.  This is a long weekend for us (a five day weekend for me!) and I think that makes it even harder to focus and get my work done.  Lots of students have put together birthday parties and “night out”’s  for this weekend so I’ve found myself with many fun things to draw my attention from my work.  I have a paper to start on the church calendar (liturgical year / church year...) and a presentation to put together for my Old Testament class...plus I have a content quiz in O.T. and a midterm coming up in that class.  Ugh!

Well, I should stop thinking about it and start doing something about it, so I’m logging off and buckling down!

 

The Church Is In Trouble!

The United Methodist Church is heading for trouble.  In discussions with other seminarians, and through my own personal observations I see a deep lack of effective leadership.  District Committees on Ordained Ministry and Conference boards are supposed to be the gatekeepers, but our church feels so desperate for pastors and in many places those boards are so clogged up with mediocre leadership (I am TOTALLY not talking about my BOM, by the way!) that we just allow people through.  The church has developed a STANDARDIZED SYSTEM of tests to ‘weed out’ the bad apples.  I guess these boards must think that if people can get through the rigorous (ridiculous) process then they must be okay.

This is not working!  We can not assume that just because people get through the tests that they will be good pastors, and YES we need to qualitatively and, often, subjectively evaluate our candidates for ministry to make sure they are good!  You see, high quality leadership tends to cultivate more people who have the skill sets needed for ministry with the ability for high quality leadership.  Mediocrity only breeds mediocrity.  The members of these boards of ordained ministry need to take a personal interest in the candidates for ministry.  They need to visit them and really get to know their ministry styles, abilities and gifts.  They need to REALLY know who they are approving as certified candidates and take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for them!

As a church we must stop accepting mediocrity.  We should not be scared to stand up and demand ONLY THE BEST leadership.  We should not be so wimpy as to not ask the hard questions and turn down the wrong people.

The ordained ministry is a sacred trust.  We have already sacrificed that trust, now we must repair the damage the best we can.

A Birthday Gone Bad!

I can’t exactly sleep.  I have just had the best and worst day ever.  I enjoyed church this morning.  It was nice to hang out in the High School sunday school room and it was great to sit in church with my mother and my grandmother.

I read all afternoon to catch up on my Old Testament course reading and then mom had a Birthday party for me.  The Phillips family and my grandparents on the Carnes side all came up to the house and shared in a potluck and cake.  My cousin Marc and his friend was even able to make it for a while.  I enjoyed being with my family.

Unfortunately, I just can’t seem to get along with my father.  After our guests left, the night did not go so well.  I am no longer speaking to my father and I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to comfortably spend time in Pittsfield from now on.

It seems like we should just automatically love our parents.  I don’t know how two related people allow themselves to come to such a point that they can not stand to be around one another.  At first glance, God does not seem to like this, but, on the other hand, some of the greatest sagas of the Bible are about family members who have grievances with one another.  I have struggled to forgive my father for my childhood all of my adult life, I really thought that I could.  I thought I did, even, but I also know that I can’t forget what I went through growing up.

All I can hope for, now, is to find some peace through distance and hope that he can, as well.

Googlesnarks and the Hayride

What a great night we just had.  I went home to see my parents for my birthday.  They had already scheduled a Sunday School wiener roast and hay ride at the house, and somehow I managed to convince my mother that it was okay to do something on my birthday besides ‘dote on Scott’.  I prefer it, in fact.

I didn’t know most of the people who came very well.  Some I remembered from when I lived in Pittsfield before, but I quickly got to know all of them.  What a great bunch of people.  There were five elementary / middle school aged children that came with their parents, otherwise it was all adults.  While we were out on the hay ride there was little girl sitting next to me who (you could tell) wanted to get the other littler kids to be scared.  I turned her game around on her.  I started talking to the woman next to me about the googelsnarks that live in the trees and grab little girls off of hay-rack rides...  It was sooo funny.  I laughed enough that she couldn’t quite tell if I was serious or not and then she would try to scare me.

It was such a relaxing fun night.  I hope I have a chance to do more activities with the Pittsfield church.

A Twitch

 

This week I have had a twitch in my eye and a very sore neck.  Hmmm...  Wonder if it had anything to do with the Research Report due last night and the fact that I felt as though I was behind in my reading?

Stress has a different effect on all of us.  If you had asked me whether or not I was stressed this week, I would have denied it.  That isn’t just me *trying* to be modest.  No.  The truth is that we all find ourselves in self-denial sometimes.  For me, this week it was the stress of school that I ignored until my body finally said, “HEY!  Scott!  Pay attention to your stress!”

Sometimes our self-denial manifests in our spiritual lives. There are times that I ignore my spiritual needs.  Do you ever do that?  Who really ever thinks, “Oh, yeah...I think I’m spiritually unhealthy this week?”  There is a question that is very important, especially as United Methodists: “How is it with your soul?”  The guy upstairs (not God, but literally the guy who lives in the dorm above me), often asks me, “How is it with your soul.  I seldom respond with a very straight answer (sorry, Tim), but having that question asked of me on a regular basis has made me think more about my spiritual health.

This is a question that I ask us all to ponder.  “How is it with your soul?”  Take a dry erase marker and write it on your bathroom mirror or put this question up on your refrigerator door.  Take moments throughout your week (or day) to think about how it is with your soul: looking beyond the everyday and looking to “the heart of the matter.”

The Research Report

Ugh!  I am printing out the final copy of my research report for class tonight.  What a relief!  Last night was a long night as a finished the report which I had been putting off!

Procrastination is definitely one of my sins.  I think my classmates and I are pretty well united in being pleased that our teacher, Mr. Lester has these smaller papers due throughout the semester in leading up to our exegesis paper.  This research report is not technically for a grade, but we are reporting on our progress in our research for the exegesis paper.  The main thing that I learned was that I didn’t have nearly enough material!  My research has only begun!

I went to the community meal, late tonight and was still trying to eat when worship began, so here I am writing on my blog instead of in worship, but I think that is okay for tonight.  I’d better get this report into its cover and head off to class!

Give Me the Technology, Please!

I’m doing laundry again today!  Every week, it seems, I am right back where I started.  It is a never-ending cycle.  We are in the 21st century.  By now, George Jetson had a machine that just created clothes each day for him, didn’t he?  Why isn’t technology working for me, like that????

You know, for the people of the third world, our technology in the United States is a futuristic wish!  I felt so stupid when I spent a month in Cuba.  A brought many clothes with me, but I just assumed there would be a washing machine and dryer at some point.  My roommate from Bangladesh would wash one of this two pairs of underwear in the sink each night and hang them up to dry so that he could alternate.

During our second week I finally need to clean my clothes (because I had more clothes on this trip than many of these people had in the homes).  We all went to the courtyard and turned on running water that was completely red with rust and washed our clothes.  I had no soap because I had not even conceived of such a thing as a “bar of laundry soap”.  How stupid could I have been back then?!?

So far as the third world goes, running water for clothes washing is a luxury.  How is it that I have become so spoiled?  I gripe about having to take my clothes to a machine, dump in liquid soap and wait for it to finish cleaning my clothes for me!!!

I see now, these amazing new washer and dryer systems that cost thousands of dollars.  How is it that we have come to this?  Is work really that revolting?  Can we no longer take care of ourselves?

Why is it that we can purchase new computers, laundry machines, flat screen televisions, fancy new cars...and yet we have a hard time putting money in the offering plate?  Have we really become so lazy and self-centered?  I have been guilty of this!

I think that God sometimes calls us to make adjustments in our lives.  I am now living at school with no money.  It is a weird feeling after several years in the work force, but I find that I am content living in this dorm room.  Every time I think of something I want - I remind myself of the bigger picture of what I need and what I wish to accomplish with my life.

I hope that we can all find ways to live more simply and give more richly.  I believe that is what God is calling us to!

Falling Behind

I have already fallen behind, it seems.  I have reading to catch up on and I feel exhausted.  The truth is that I don’t DO ANYTHING!  I don’t have a job, that is.  My life is exercising, reading and writing for school, walking, hanging out with other seminarians and sleeping!  This is a schedule that most people would love to have.  The problem is that, up until last week, I had not made school my vocation.  I need to be reading about 4 hours or more a day to keep up with the coursework and I have been slacking off.  I got caught up this weekend with my Old Testament class and I think I have found my new ‘rhythm of life’ as I start this new week.

That is what I have been missing - a rhythm.  I found the beat that I need to keep!  What about you?  Do you have a rhythm in your life?

No matter what we do:  working, riding our bicycles, walking, sitting in the car waiting for the kids, studying... the list goes on...  Everything is better with really great music that fits the occasion.  Our lives need music as well.  God gives us the right rhythm, we only need to listen for it and pattern our lives upon it!

I hope that you will spend some time contemplating God’s rhythm for your life.  Turn off your music and be in prayer with God.  Listen for a new and better pattern to emerge from the stillness of prayer!

Northwestern Is Trashy!

The photo above is DISGUSTING!  It is not disgusting to me because of the trash.  It is disgusting because there is so much in that can that is not trash!  I can not believe the amount of recyclable material that gets trashed on Northwestern’s campus. As I look around campus I wonder where all of the recycling bins are!?!  Maybe you need a secret password to use them or maybe they are invisible...because I can’t imagine that a university this size would not have the resources to maintain nice looking recycling receptacles around campus if they really cared.

To be fair there is recycling available on campus, but Northwestern needs to do two things:

1.•Put outdoor recycling for cans and bottles along Sheridan Road and other main arteries of campus

2.•Initiate recycling and environmental education programs around Northwestern and the greater Evanston community.

As an on-campus faith community, I believe that Garrett-Evangelical could be a part of the solution.  Just about every night I have been walking my 10,000 steps and along the way I find myself picking up trash off of the ground.  As we care for our bodies and walk around campus, why not pick up trash and grab recyclables that are right on top of the trash can to keep our environment in shape, as well?!?

The Dean’s Challenge

Tonight during worship Dean Lightsey made a challenge to us that we keep our bodies as healthy as our minds and our spirits while in seminary.  Firstly, she walks every morning at 5:30 a.m. and invited all of us to join her.  No way that will happen, but she (G-ETS) purchased pedometers for all of the students and she has further challenged us to at least 10,000 steps per day.

As I finish the night and head off to bed, I have only gotten 2,706 steps completed... but we only got the pedometer at 6:30 p.m. tonight and then I had class all evening....  There I go making excuses for exercise already!  I am going to get serious about this.  I will try to remember to tell you all how I’m doing with this!

Going To Church

 

Well this was my second week to worship with First United Methodist Church in Evanston.  The young adults were invited to a cookout that evening at the pastor’s house.  I got a ride and really enjoyed myself.  It was a great way to get to know others my age in the church and there were about 21 people who showed.  I thought that was pretty good.

The church is about half the size of Green Bay, but otherwise very similar in size, atmosphere, etc.  I asked about volunteering in the Sunday School and I’ve been told that there is a six month waiting period before new people are allowed to work with youth.  That’s cool, but I just want to get involved in the church and I really miss being around youth all of the time.  I can’t believe how much I miss it, in fact.  After six years of youth ministry I realize how much the youth have had an impact on me.  You all have kept me young and, from time-to-time you’ve even inspired me!  :-o

In the mean time, I think I will continue meeting with this young adult group.  It was a lot of fun and I really enjoy all of the people I met.

Construction, Ugh!!!

Northwestern is doing work nearby and I don’t know how long it will go on.  I don’t know what they are building or fixing, but it involves cranes, trucks, concrete, jackhammers...   I am so sick of construction.  I hate the noise of jackhammers wake me up in the morning and the dust that is everywhere!  Construction can be a real pain in my backside.

The University seems to have a problem. Apparently Evanston won’t allow them to buy more property than they already have or something (the city and the University don’t really get along).  I think our faith works like that sometimes.  The people of God are constantly under construction.  New people come into the faith, new churches spring up and, at times we must tear down in order to build anew.

Sometimes as evangelists (yes, even a liberal gets to use that word) we must make some noise (and DUST) if we are to truly grow the faith.  I’m tired of sitting patiently in a pew waiting for our church to start construction.  I’m tired of ‘waiting’ until it is my turn to make a difference.  We must connect the social gospels with the holy spirit.  We must become a church of deep commitment both to God and also to all people around us.

We may have to sacrifice in order to do this.  We may have to raise a ruckus, but I believe lives will change and it will bring a pleasing scent to God’s nose.

Lamenting A Loss...

So I’m watching “The Focus Group” the third episode of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”.  I am lamenting the loss of this amazing show.  It is appalling that such a witty, smart, deep and competent show would get cut midseason (last February).  There are many shows that did not do well during their first season...take seinfeld, for example, but that was before reality tv.  Networks want instant gratification.  They are willing to put large quantities of junk on the air...shows that aren’t quality and won’t last, just for quick ratings.

Maybe Studio 60 was ‘too smart’ for America...but then again, perhaps the network needed to give show with intelligent content some time to catch on.  The problem seems to be the network executives who were incapable of giving America the benefit of the doubt.  Hello, we do have brains!  After great success with West Wing, the network owed Aaron Sorkin the benefit of the doubt.  I am tired of television that does not challenge me intellectually.  I am tired of television that is ‘safe’.  I am tired of reality-garbage that drains my brain rather than the smart and witty scripting from shows like West Wing and Studio 60.  NBC needs to grow a pair and bring back this show.

The early episodes of Studio 60 spoke deeply about cultural issues of America, but, even more importantly, this show poked fun at hollywood and network executives and - well - the whole TV industry.  I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that it got cut. Okay, I’m done with this tirade, but don’t be too angry with me.  Lamenting is Biblical.  We are allowed to be angry and express it.  In this case I am cursing a network, but from time-to-time we all feel a need to lament our situation to our God.  Go for it.

What Does the Lord Require Of Us???

 

Last night we began talking about the sacrifice traditions in our Old Testament class.  As a class we basically avoided the discussion and side-stepped by talking about Moses as an intercessor between the people and God...  ANYWAY- That isn’t the point...the point is that we are uncomfortable in talking about sacrifice.  It is much easier to simply discard Sacrifice as an Old Testament thing, but as I pointed out to the class:

It is a shame that we fail to truly understand Sacrifice.  We have sacrifice as part of our ritual every Sunday morning in church- the offering.  The early people placed an animal, their food, upon the altar.  This was the most valuable commodity there was!  This was not just a small thing they could do without...this was the ultimate sacrifice they could make (short of sacrificing themselves)!

This sacrifice was about keeping covenant - about their relationship with God.  We will fail the people of our churches if we do not help them understand that to sacrifice is essential to understanding the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We can not just sacrifice what is comfortable, but what will be hard to do without! To sacrifice is to draw closer to our Lord Jesus Christ and to our community of faith.

When I talk about offering, I talk not just of money but also of time, sweat and prayer.  That is not to say, “Oh, I would rather give my time than my money.”  We could do that, but we wouldn’t grow.  We must inspect, seriously, what the Lord has gifted to us and then determine a sacrifice that we will, with God’s help, endure.  We are given help with that:  The Bible says 10% and although it may seem difficult, I suggest we begin there!

Vocation

Vocation is a complex idea.  Have you ever thought deeply about the term “vocation”?  In today’s society we think of our vocation as our job, but let’s look back to history.  In the New Testament we find “klesis” which really meant ‘divine calling’.  This was not just a job this was God’s pull on a person’s entire being.

At the time of the reformation, Luther translates klesis into the german word “beruf” which basically means job.  Luther suggested that our job defines our call from God and that we should remain content to serve God through our occupation.

How is it that we find our divine calling?  Is it simply our job, or is that too limiting?  Above you can see a photo taken during one of my classes in seminary.  Here we have students studying to be professional pastors.

I believe that we limit ourselves - even pastors - if we limit our calling to our occupation.  God calls us, every facet of our being, into service.  We must use our occupation to glorify God and better the lives of other.  We must also, however, use our time with our family to grow (communally) in closer relationship to God.  Finally, we must join with others of faith to build faith communities that glorify God and  bring all into a closer relationship with God.

Consider carefully how you answer the question, “What is it that you do?”  or  “What is your job?”.  It is time that we accept God’s call on our lives and become strong, proud and caring MINISTERS of GOD!

Community Dinner

Each Wednesday the Garrett-Evangelical community comes together for an evening meal together.  The school even pays, yay!  It is great enough to just get free food, but there is more to it than that.

Just like the early disciples, we find ourselves sitting together and sharing stories, jokes, laughter...and, I’m sure, at some point: tears.  Just as dinner was a way for the early apostles to grow closer to one another and Christ, so it is, also, with the seminary community.

I really had a great time tonight with friends.  We got scolded about our calcium intake, laughed about spaceships, and learned about one another’s families and outside lives.

I already value the Garrett-Evangelical community and I am proud to say this is my home and family.

The Trinity

Some of you are probably wondering what exactly a person learns at seminary.  Last night we spent a great deal of time discussing the trinity during History of Christian Thought and Practice.  I want to share a bit with you:

The first person to really give us the language for discussing the trinity was Tertullian at the turn of the third century.  He used the word trinitas in his writing “Against Praxaeus”.  In short:  he developed the idea of three persons possessing one substance.

Growing up in the church I never really had a great deal of clarity about the claim of trinity and I suspect many other people in the church don’t know much about where this ideology comes from.

From where does this all come? The western church (Rome and Carthage) focused on the “oneness” of God and the Eastern Church (Jeruselem, Antioch, Alexandria) focused on the “three-ness” of God.  Especially in the Western Church there was a great movement to preserve the one-ness of God and this was called Monarchianism.

One school of thought was called “modalistic monarchianism” that God ‘changed modes’ or ‘wore different hats depending on who / what God needed to be.  People with this ideology believed that Jesus was just “God the father” in disguise.  The other school of thought was called “dynamic monarchianism” which argued that Jesus was simply human, not divine, and God “adopted” Jesus because he was the first perfect human being.  This ideology suggested that Jesus provided salvation to the world by providing an example.  These both came to be regarded as heresy by the early church, by the way.

These might seem a little ‘out there’, but Dr. Papandrea reminded our class that we see examples of the modalistic monarchianist heresy in the United Methodist Church when we use creeds that replace the language of the trinity with “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer”.   In this language we assume that God ‘changes roles’.  Dr. Papandrea also reminded us that Jesus was a creator, the Old Testament saw Yahweh as one who saves, etc.  In other words, God transcends all of these typologies and labels.

I have a lot of trouble personally reconciling the trinity.  I have not yet processed my understanding of the trinity, but this lecture helped me immensely in understanding how the early church understood the trinity.

Miriam and the Tambourine

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took the tambourine in her hand; and all the women when out after her with tambourines and with dancing.

And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has

        triumphed gloriously;

Horse and rider he has thrown into

        the sea.”

Exodus 15: 20-21  (NRSV)

Two Weeks In

Okay, so now I’ve had two weeks of classes.  I should know exactly what I’m doing, right?  Wrong.  Classes are going well, but it seems that there is something new around every corner and more work than I could have known!  It is hard to imagine keeping up this pace for the next three years.  Grad school is going to keep me moving!

Garrett-Evangelical is an amazing place to be, and I’m glad that I chose to live in the dorms.  I am only a minute from class and the meals are actually pretty good.  I can’t wait until the dining halls switch to a full schedule, though, once all of the Northwestern students get here.  Everyone tells me that the food selection is much better once the other dining halls open up!

The reading is intense.  Each day I’m going to try and journal about some of the things I am reading and learning, so stay tuned!  The biggest reading loads are in my Old Testament class with Mr. Lester and in United Methodist Worship with Dr. Anderson.  It has been a struggle to finish all of the reading each week.  The struggle is not with the amount of reading - it is with the type of reading.  It is hard for me to be motivated to read 80 pages of form criticism on the Old Testament, for example.  Do you blame me?

A surprising thing about seminary is the community.  I envisioned a community not unlike my undergrad dorm where everyone has classes at different times during the day and then hangout down in the lounge in the evening.  Not so, in seminary.  Everyone is in different situations.  Some people commute to campus, some live in the apartments, some live in dorms.  Among all of those people, some work full-time in another city or somewhere else in Chicago, some have a student appointment, some are phD students who are full-time clergy...   The list goes on-and-on!  With such big course loads, we find ourselves along Lake Michigan, in the Library, in the lounge or in our rooms READING, WRITING, and STUDYING in our “free time”.  It is much different than I imagined it, I guess...

That said, I have had a great time getting to know people.  Last Friday a group of us went down to Nevin’s to celebrate a friend’s birthday and each Thursday night we go to IHOP after class at 9:30p.  One of the guys from my dorm and I have started a spinning class at 6:00a on Tuesday and Thursdays (stationary bikes).  It has been refreshing to wake up and get my days started with exercise!  In October the Northwestern WTF Tae Kwon Do club will start up and I’m planning to join.  In fact, I’m planning to go down to the rec and exercise when I finish this blog entry.

Anyway- The last two weeks have been amazing and I can’t wait to tell you more!