Pastor in the City

The Promise of Renewal

2011-05-17T06:51:00.000-07:00

Just as Holy Week and Easter began in a whirlwind of activity, so it has continued. In a period that began with an exhilarating youth mission trip to Washington, D.C. This Easter season has held both sorrow and joy, promise and predicament. All of these movements have been held fast in God's solemn promise to renew the whole creation by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We have walked alongside beloved friends as they approached death and commended them into God's hands. We have celebrated with triumph the joys of Easter with bright colors and resounding song. We have watched the earth turn to the flush fullness of Spring.

During the week of May 9th, I was privileged to attend the National Workshop on Christian Unity in Pittsburgh, PA. I went as the bishop's ecumenical representative for the New England Synod, and as a member of the board of the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network. Signs of new life in the ecumenical movement are all around. From the Newfire movement that brings young adult ecumenists together, to the publication of a statement by the workshop urging the member churches to gather next year in Oklahoma City to witness to God's ongoing work in bringing Christians to full, visible unity, signs of Spring abounded.

On May 15th, after concluding a period of study fourteen young people came to the Lord's table and partook in the Sacrament of the Altar for the first time. It was a day of bright celebration. Just one day earlier, the promise of renewal came in the form of a special ceremony at WPI. After extended negotiations several seniors were allowed to enter the commencement ceremony late as a protest against the awarding of Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson with an honorary doctorate. Following the main ceremony, approximately one hundred and fifty students, parents, and concerned citizens stayed for a counterpoint presentation. It was my honor to serve as master of ceremonies for that event, and to introduce the speaker, Richard Heinberg, the senior fellow in residence at the Post-Carbon Institute. (http://www.postcarbon.org) In the spirit of Easter, I charged the graduates with developing an economy of redemption, where God's renewing work of transforming the whole creation is reflected in our refusal to turn any plant, any animal, any community and any person into trash to be thrown away. What a blessing these signs of renewal have been!

Thoughts on Witness and Prophetic Leadership

2011-01-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

My great grandparents could never have imagined the kind of world in which I live. They could have never imagined the kind of ministry I would serve in. From the seeming miracle of liturgies streaming through a web browser to church meetings run around the glow of an HD projector to the stream of church news coming through text messages, nothing is as it was. How could the generation who bore their children in the midst of the most horrific war the globe had ever seen, imagine the life of people living at the turn of the following century?

However, it occurs to me that the same unpredictability existed in the lives of their own children, my grandparents. Could those who were infants during the Depression of 1893 imagine the deprivation of the Great Depression? Could the generation that witnessed the so-called Great War have foreseen the devastation of the Second World War? Could my great grandmother have possibly considered that her daughter would work outside the home for much of her adult life, let alone that her last assignment would be to inspect machine parts for a space-plane called “Columbia”?

Since the 1950’s the warning bells first sounded by M. King Hubbert’s theory of peak oil, echoing in the 1960’s through Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring and amplified by the oil embargo of the 1970’s, there have been voices crying out for future generations of unborn humanity. Why have we been so slow to respond? I think part of the problem is the long horizon we have been asked to consider. Warnings about the lives of our grandchildren or great-grandchildren are so far from our lived experience that we simply can’t figure out where to stand. As much as we want to act with compassion for these unknown generations, their very lives are a non sequitir to our own. Imagine my great grandparents trying to come up with a way to prevent the crimes of 9/11/2001, or seeing the road to credit perdition that would make the Great Recession of 2008 a reality.

As we have gone along more or less unmoved by our predicament we have undergone a period of foreshortening. We have gone from warnings about the lives of distant and unimagined people, to warnings that are about the lives of today’s grade-schoolers and even the present class of college students. Just as the warnings of peak resources, climate disasters and the corresponding financial collapse have become more urgent, the need for change has become more critical. Radical solutions for providing food, water and other basic needs will be necessary, not because they will save us from a massive social and economic transition, but because they will be the survival tools for that transition.

Even as the carbon-fuel infrastructure is both unsustainable and irreplaceable, the extent to which we bend the powers of this socio-economic machine to transition tasks will be the extent to which there is a degree of peace and happiness in the transition. We simply cannot wait to produce the alternative energy systems, the renewable modes of transport, the ecologically and economically sound localized communities until the peak pricing system has reached runaway proportions. We can’t waste another dollar or another barrel on wars to control this declining resource. There will be a day when the decline is a publicly traded fact. If military might rules the day at that point, the escalation to mutually assured destruction is a very real possibility.

I believe with all my heart that God has not abandoned us. I believe that God is working through countless people to make a path to life in this trying time. And I believe that God is calling the church to cease whimpering about attendance, worship wars, and cracks in the church steps. In the great collapse that followed the unwinding of the Roman Empire, the church remained as a remnant of the old culture into the dark ages. The monasteries of the Middle Ages provided beacons of light in a dark time, and preserved much of the culture that would be more broadly reclaimed in the Renaissance.

I hear God calling us again today. To be preservers of the sacred story. To be brave relinquishers of the status quo. To be a community of teaching, service and love. I believe God is calling us to lead. To bend every bit of carbon-energy we have to sustainable organic food production, localized community and renewable energy. In order that we might be both a witness and a lifeboat in the days to come. That the final petroleum generation would leave a legacy of life for their children’s grandchildren.

New Blog

2010-12-29T06:11:00.000-08:00

Please check out my essays and thoughts about the massive energy transition that is coming in the near future. You can follow my updates at The Final Generation blog.

The Second Day of Advent

2010-11-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

I was home sick again today, but things are looking up on that front, so I expect to be back in the --~~saddle~~-- office chair tomorrow. If you have to be home sick, and can accommodate it into your life, I highly recommend having a puppy curled up at your feet while you sleep. It makes the moment seem less unpleasant, no matter how loud you snore when thoroughly congested.

I'm looking forward to setting up our Advent wreath tomorrow (actually a reusable form in the shape of Noah's Ark, a gift from my mother). I'm always amazed at how taking just a few minutes to light it before dinner and spend some time reflecting changes the character of our meals, even though we always pray before eating.

This week will bring one of my favourite Advent activities, the shopping party for the families of Concordia Lutheran Church. Each year the youth groups of several churches gather for a big shopping trip. We divide into groups and use donated funds to find gifts for several families, including parents and children. We then wrap all of the gifts and load them into a truck for delivery. It is one of the most popular events of the year.

I believe that this comes from the joy of pure giving. These gifts are given to strangers, out of love and have almost no chance of being reciprocated. It's the kind of giving that comes from the divine heart.

On the First Day of Advent

2010-11-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

All the little mile markers have been passed. The Halloween Candy and costumes were surreptitiously mutated into garlands and blinking icicles. The slant of the advertising began to change ever so slightly, from "buy this, you need it!" to "buy this for someone, they need it, and you might need one too!" There have been television spots featuring frightening men and women with an OCD like attraction to sales, and a manic longing to make Christmas a reality, sooner rather than later. Finally, with Thanksgiving out of the way, our brief homage to gratitude has given way to a bacchanal of desire and the paradox of saving by means of spending.

I entered into this season sick; not some sort of high-minded world-weariness, but a honest to goodness respiratory infection, with coughing and aches and the like. It's not a big deal, but it has kept me out of the stores for the large part. It also seems to complement my own sense of impending disappointment.

Not disappointment with Advent, I love the season. I love immersing myself in the hopeful language of the prayers, the call to reflection and introspection, the yearning and even begging for the Savior to come. I love the songs which echo with strains of resurrection and redemption. I crave the promises of an enduring peace they contain. My disappointment seems to be rooted in the reality of what Advent will lead to, Christmas.

It's not that I'll be let down by the telling of the Christmas story, the children carrying the creche to its place, or the soaring anthems of the late-night Christmas Eve worship. It's not as though I have onerous visits to make, I enjoy spending time with family and friends. I'm certainly not dreading tacky and awful gifts, my circle of exchange is small and thoughtful. I'll be let down by Christmas, because with all that Advent promises, all we'll get is Christmas.

The great trumpets to announce a new day, will probably not blow this year. The quivering earth, the rattling stars, the falling of the heavens, the end of injustice and hate are all still off in the future. We will sing Magnificats with gusto and put them away with a pile of wrapping paper on Christmas night. If the greatest presents are presence, then when all the visiting is done, I will still be left wanting.

For if this Advent is leading to another Christmas, then the best I can hope for is a powerful rebirth of joy in my life. A joy that comes from knowing that the first Advent had momentous consequences for the whole world because it ended with Incarnation. It was that gift that makes me yearn so longingly that this Advent would end with Restoration. That the Incarnate one would be that way, here, now with us. And that all of God's waiting people, who long for the days when stars are falling, will see each other, face to face once more, and know just how impoverished our giving is compared to the gifts we have received.

Because in that great company of souls waits a dear brother named Gerald. He was my father, and his presence would be greater than all presents combined. Because if we could meet face to face, then I could do the same with the Christ we are all waiting for, and there would be no more occasion for tears ever again.

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

Your kid's an All Star? Wow! Someday he'll be average like the rest of us.

2010-09-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

Your kid's an All Star? Wow! Someday he'll be average like the rest of us.

Loved to Love: Experiencing Joy at the New England Youth Gathering

2010-09-21T06:21:00.001-07:00

Gathering is what Christians do. It's what turns individual teenagers from Holden, Worcester and Whitinsville into a youth group, gathered in the name of the Holy Trinity. It's what turns our group of fifteen into a group of forty when the parishes of the Lutheran Interparish Youth Group (LIPY) assembling around the same campfire for bible study. It's what turns our forty into a moving, waving, dancing crowd of almost six hundred believers, praising God and eating forgiveness at God's table.

We gather to hear words of forgiveness and promise, to worship God because God is truly awesome, and to demonstrate that Christ indeed has a living, breathing body with numerous hands, feet, hearts and minds. We gather to sing, because musical praise is a long and storied part of being Lutheran, indeed of being disciples, who sang out even on Jesus' last night. Whether we pump our fists and cry out for God to “take it all”, surrendering our lives, or belt out harmonies on How Great Thou Art as though it were a modern rock tune, we gather to sing.

We gather because God is great, because the love of God is too big to be contained and not shared. Not just among the believers, but among all the people of the world. Our speaker for the weekend, Pastor Ralph Supper, himself a Hammo alumnus from his days at Emmanuel Lutheran in Warwick, RI, challenged us to see how unbounded God's love is. He encouraged the assembly to see this love spilling over from our lives into the lives around us. Not just among family and friends and fellow Christians. But to everyone whom we encounter.

We are called to love the way God loves. Crazy, risky, dangerous, world-upsetting, life-changing, seed-planting love. We are challenged to trust that the only thing that belongs on a poster that begins “God Hates...” are the words “...posters that claim that God is not Love.” When we are tempted to fill in some group of people, we have failed as followers of Jesus. For when we look to Jesus, whose Cross informs our best understanding of God, we see no hate. Only forgiveness, mercy and love are offered to meet the hate of the world.

We gather, because we need to look squarely at that Cross to be reminded. That it is among us, that it is on us, that is was for us. All alone, we are too tempted to pass it by without looking into the loving eyes that are looking down at us.

Our latest Worship Broadcast

2010-09-08T06:49:00.001-07:00

TLC Service 09/05/2010 from Paul Gustafson on Vimeo.

Trinity Tweets!

2010-08-14T07:35:00.001-07:00

Want the Latest News at Trinity Lutheran Church? Text this message: follow @tlcworcester to the following number 40404. Standard text messaging charges apply. Or follow the Church on www.twitter.com/tlcworcester

Come Follow Me

2010-08-13T07:10:00.001-07:00

Attending a conference on sharing the Gospel in a 2.0 world has its share of thoroughly expectable moments. Photos of last night's forum live on Facebook this morning. Countless people, across the generations, are fact-checking, time-killing and cross-talking on high tech smartphones throughout the crowd. One of the presenters gets an audible text alert on stage. The lobby is full of lap-toppers, winging their way across the internet, writing articles (as I am this very moment) and networking with the person across the table and across the country all at the same time.

We're twitchy, twittery, super connected. Though never more connected than in a moment of mystery that takes place when all the blinking, beeping things are silenced. When we go off the grid to that sacred space where the only long-distance communication is from writers who are thousands of years dead, from prayers that were crafted by people who couldn't imagine a light bulb, much less a computer, from a God who longs for us to read this one instant message. “This is my body for you. Come and eat, you're going to need strength for this journey.”

Whether like like a sudden tumble or the upside-down doorway that alerts us to a dream, Eucharist is this powerful reminder that the seemingly dull world we make our way through is not all that there is. We may be asleep to who we are, to the needs of our neighbor, to the reign of God breaking through our defenses. When Jesus calls out our name, calls to us through our dreaming, stumbling existence, we are shaken awake. “This is me, here now for you, follow me.” Like a people walking around staring at our shoelaces, we get to look up and see the amazing world and the incredible people that surround us. And because its scary and daunting to really see the need all around, Christ provides us with sustenance.

Without worship, a conference on reaching young adults in a 2.0 world might is easily lost on diatribes on iPhones, real language, cultural commuting, evangelical tattoos, liturgically colored earrings and the like. With worship though, we are reminded that sharing the Gospel is at the heart of who we are. Regardless of whether we are running version 2.0, 1.0 or some beloved old 0.08. The Gospel is for all. After all, Jesus called you and called me. That was a pretty radical place to start, who knows who he might call through us.

The Power of Privilege

2010-05-20T06:09:00.001-07:00

When we confess that we are captive to sin, it is not merely individual bad acts or moral lapses that we confess to. Instead, we also call to mind the systems and structures that we participate in that commit sin on our behalf and sometimes with our assent. It can be much harder to discern our involvement in these structures than to understand that we spoke crossly to our neighbor or failed to help a neighbor in need even when it was in our power to do so. Part of the reason that structures are so hard to perceive is the flow of good that comes from them. If we were all involved in a system of oppression that provided no material benefit, no comfort and no sense of human good, it would be assured that we would want to escape from it.

However, when systems of oppression provide easier routes for going on a business trip, traveling around the world on vacation, getting into highly selective schools, being hired, getting a loan, being tenured and the like, those of us who benefit from these advantages have a hard time seeing the downside. Consequently, the insistence of people who have been the victims of prejudicial violence, whether it be exclusion, name-calling, housing discrimination, being unable to bury your own spouse, or outright physical violence including government sponsored genocide, can seem like calling too much attention to themselves, or even asking for special attention and redress that is disproportionate to their complaint. We look for ways to cling to the idea of privilege, which at its heart suggests that while all people may be human in some sense, the fullest humanity resides in men more than women or transgendered people, in whites more than people of color, in the financially successful more than the poor, in heterosexuals more than gay, lesbian or bisexual people. We take solace that even if we do not meet all of the conditions for superiority, we are at least better than one of these "others".

As the Apostle Paul writes in the book of Galatians:
27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. Gal 3:27-29
I wonder how easily we might adopt such a radical baptismal formula in our own liturgy, or in our own welcome strategy. Could we even contextualize these thoughts to our own time to recapture the radical nature of them? Could we declare from the Font that "there is no longer American or Mexican, there us no longer straight or gay, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."?

The Law has destroyed the human instituted distinctions between us, for we have all been revealed as sinners, as unrighteous, as damnable, and as outright enemies of God. Confronted with our own shortcomings, we defiantly wave a banner in God's face, a banner older than any political entity, older than any state or tribe. We have the banner that bears images of the fruit we should not have eaten, and the fig leaves that express our shame at our own bodies. We cry out that we have stolen the power of judgment from God, and that we know what is "right and wrong" and will not hear of God leveling all of the structures we have built to keep things, and even people in their place. Ultimately we are left to despair in the face of what God is doing and to weep for ourselves.

The Gospel gives us hope in this very circumstance, that when we have assumed a world of limited good, and when we have participated in structures that have sought to ration out that limited good on the basis of race or gender, that God's forgiveness has invaded this thicket too. God has waded into the whole mess of human life, both our individual failings and the power dynamics that pervade the whole human race. In setting all of us on the same plane, rebellious and prideful children that we are, God has created the circumstances for forgiveness to be received as an equally undeserved gift and blessing by every human person. The cost for such a gift was nothing less than entering into these same power structures and enduring the deadly brunt of human judgment.

Jesus walked the earth as a poor Jew in an occupied nation under the sway of the most powerful nation of his age. He walked the earth as a laborer who though religious had no right to contend with the religious authorities. He walked the earth, derided as a fool, an evil wizard, a blasphemer, a destroyer of good society, a friend of drunks and whores, and a glutton and drunkard himself. He walked the earth under suspicion of being a bastard child, perhaps the product of fornication or the all too common practice of military rape. When he sought to proclaim a festival of Jubilee, a year of God's favor and a reign of God that was the source of unlimited good, we mocked him. When he told us how deep and wide and unbelievably awesome God's love was, we murdered him. Were this the end, we might conclude that God was foolish to contend with something as intractable as systems of human power. As Christians, we confess that God raised Christ from the dead, a sign of forgiveness for us, a declaration that even death is a feeble tool of domination, and that we have been caught up in the Holy Spirit's work of making the whole creation new. A creation where only one has privilege, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Tiptoeing onto the Web

2010-05-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

Our first videocast on Vimeo:

Children's message 4/25/2010 from Paul Gustafson on Vimeo.

Mission to Philadelphia

2010-05-03T12:44:00.001-07:00

Ecumania!

2010-04-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Though I'm very disappointed to be missing the National Workshop on Christian Unity this year, I'm hoping that the calendars will coordinate better next year. In the meantime, I've been very busy with this work in 2010 around the Synod.

In January, I attended the Massachusetts Council of Churches annual meeting which as held at Assumption College here in Worcester. I met a number of interesting colleagues and gathered some information about environmental auditing that our congregation could do.

Yesterday I was excited to be a part of coordinating the liturgy that celebrated the new Full Communion agreement between the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bishop Margaret Payne of the ELCA New England Synod and Bishop Peter Weaver of the UMC New England Annual Conference led worship. Bishop Weaver's sermon was energetic and inspiring. The following statement was printed in the Worship Folder for the assembly to explain full communion.

"The Churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) adopted a full communion agreement in August, 2009 with The United Methodist Church (UMC), following adoption of the same agreement by the UMC General Conference in 2008. It is the ELCA’s sixth full communion relationship and the first for the UMC.

Full communion is not a merger, but means that the two churches express a common confession of Christian faith and mutual recognition of Baptism and sharing Holy Communion; agree to mutual recognition of ordained ministers for service in either church; express a common commitment to evangelism, witness and service; engage in common decision-making on critical matters; and mutually lift criticism that may exist between the churches.

The two churches began formal theological dialogues together in 1977, which led to interim Eucharistic sharing in 2005.

The ELCA has 4.6 million baptized members, and the UMC has 8 million."

The next big event has a decidedly more somber tone. I will be representing the Synod at a Memorial Service on the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide at Our Savior's Armenian Church in Worcester. Though the occasion of remembrance is sad, it will be a powerful witness to join together with representatives and members of many churches in upholding the life and dignity of our neighbors.

On the Alleluia Side

2010-04-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Reposted from "Many But One"
http://manybutone.wordpress.com
Here it is Easter Wednesday and I'm still dwelling in the afterglow of the Vigil fire. I'm so grateful to my various colleagues for all of their hard work, especially John Weit, our new musician for jumping into the experience head first. I'm also grateful to the other writers here on this blog, your contributions provided great food for thought to use in my ministry settings and I know that several parishioners read Many But One during Lent after I publicized it in the newsletter.

As for me, I am always touched by the powerful drama and saving truth of Holy Week. For better or for worse, though I suspect largely for the better, my father reflected deeply and profoundly on the sufferings and the triumph of Christ during his own battle with terminal cancer. My cruciform witness comes from a hospital bedside as much as from the hill of Golgotha.

In our interfaith dialogues at Worcester Polytechnic Institute we discussed the troubling violence and suffering that permeates Holy Week. However, I would suggest that these very real trials are precisely what make the gospel so relatable to people in great distress of their own.

The passion and perhaps even the seeming "reboot" of the resurrection make us uncomfortable, because it is uncomfortable! We are brought face to face with death, our mortality and a radical promise of life that contradicts every bit of logic. We are invited into the pattern of the Paschal Mystery and what a joy that is, tears, shouts, joy and all. Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

On a Mission from God

2010-03-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

We won't be wearing sunglasses, or driving around in a beat-up police cruiser, and we're not getting the band back together. However, this month our youth and their adult guides will be setting out on a mission to make a real difference in the lives of people in Greater Philadelphia. Youth from the congregations that participate in LIPY-CM (Lutheran Interparish Youth of Central Massachusetts) will travel to Philadelphia this month to engage in a week of service, fun and fellowship.

Already our group has collected and assembled food for the Upper Darby community pantry, and books and school supplies for the Drexel Hill after school program. These gifts are a way of saying thank you to Pastor Dave Shaheen and the people of Christ Church in Upper Darby, PA who helped organize our work sites.

We will be staying at Camp Inabah, a retreat center of our new full-communion partner, the United Methodist Church in Spring City, PA. Aside from lodging the camp will provide our food and our space for daily devotions and check-in. Each work day, a few of our youth will work on projects at the Camp as a way of thanking them for their hospitality.

During our work week, we will be serving in and around Philadelphia, particularly the West End and North Philadelphia neighborhoods. We will be volunteer for the following organizations: Share Food Bank, The Urban Tree Initiative, Upper Darby Weed & Seed, Cradles to Crayons, and The Upper Darby School District. Each of these sites will enable youth to have hands on service activities, engage with organizations that are committed to the well-being of their neighborhoods and meet new people from the local community.

No trip to Philadelphia would be complete without visiting our region's seminary, the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, for a tour and for worship. We have made arrangements to meet with the Admissions office to learn more about vocation. We will also hold our closing Eucharist in the seminary chapel, where our director of music, John Weit used to lead the assembly in song.

I am extremely excited about this year's trip and hope that you will prayer for the group as we travel, work, pray and laugh together during the week of April 19th to the 23rd. Your support means a great deal to the youth who are involved.

Does God Need a Guardian

2010-03-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

“But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” -from Matthew 1:18-21

On March 19th, the church commemorates Joseph of Nazareth, a descendant of King David, a carpenter and builder (we might say construction worker today). Joseph was Mary’s husband, (probably arranged from an early age) and functioned as Jesus’ human stepfather through his childhood. The last we hear of Joseph in any of the Gospels is in Luke’s account of Jesus in the temple as a boy (age 12-13). He is also mentioned in Matthew and John as people question whether Jesus could possibly be Joseph’s son. It turns out that questioning the legitimacy of someone’s birth circumstances is indeed a very old tactic to discredit them

The bigger question for Christians is not about Joseph’s genetic relationship to Jesus, but really whether he is important in the story at all, especially since Jesus’ public ministry is clearly grounded in a profound sense that the God of the Torah is also his Abba. There are apocryphal stories of Jesus as a child that feature him doing some astoundingly divine and yet childlike things, making birds out of dirt, levitating or flying, and zapping a neighborhood bully with a bolt of retribution. Does a child with such power need a foster father?

Yet, our affirmation of the full humanity of Jesus means that like all other humans, he grew, learned, changed and experienced his life as all children do. Studies have shown how vital positive adults are in the lives of children. Matthew’s witness places the responsibility for the flight to Egypt and handling their stay there with Joseph. In some small part, Joseph’s patient willingness to be a dad to a child that was not his own, and to provide the love, protection and guidance needed was a harbinger of the longstanding Christian ministry of adoption and caring for orphans.

That is the power of all parenting, both birth and adoptive, that the child may surpass the parents precisely because of what they give to the child. For Mary, what an honor to give life in the flesh to the life-force that spawned the galaxies. For Joseph, what an honor and a privilege to be the protector and the rescuer of the one who would rescue and save us all. God’s ability to work through the most ordinary people, and to do the extraordinary amazes me every day.

Let us pray:

Loving God, for Joseph and for all parents who foster, adopt and protect the children who were not born to them, but who were entrusted to them, we give you thanks. Go with them and with all parents this day, who in sharing your unconditional love with a child, reveal the might of your love for your own Son, Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

What to Remember, What to Forget

2010-03-03T08:33:00.001-08:00

“Remember the wonderful works he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
O offspring of his servant Abraham,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones.” -Psalm 105:5-6

If salvation is a “done deal”, why do we keep going back to the well (or perhaps the font?) and remembering the deeds of God. Why spend half a year every year rehearsing the birth, life, passion and death of Jesus? Why spend another half of the year remembering the ministry of Jesus and the nascent church and recounting what the Holy Spirit has done? Can’t we just peg our hopes on the sure and certain hope we have in God’s Gracious nature and get on with it?

The answer to this quandary is both yes and no. Our faith does allow us to move forward, not to be paralyzed in re-enacting ancient ritual out of fear. On the other hand, we do well in Lent and throughout the year not to adopt a totally casual approach to God’s grace. We can easily forget the lengths God in Christ has Gone for us. Or we can remember God’s goodness in a way that is not central to our lives and wellbeing. God can end up in that glass box down the hallway with the sign that reads “in case of emergency, break glass”.

Today the psalmist calls us to recall the history of God’s dogged persistence with the children of Abraham. We see the pattern of challenge and struggle and God’s willingness to get involved. This very pattern will be recalled through Holy Week and especially at the Great Vigil of Easter. This pattern of retelling the salvation story forms the scriptural base of the Jewish celebration of Passover. We need to remember that God has not forgotten us. It helps us to remember who we are.

Come Dwell with us

2010-02-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

During this season of Lent, I am participating in a multiuser weblog with six other Lutheran pastors from around the country. Each day, one or more of us will offer a brief devotional reading that is based on the ELCA's daily reading e-mail devotional. You can subscribe to the daily e-mail by visiting http://listserv.elca.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=BIBLE-READINGS and entering your address. You can visit the Lenten blog by surfing to http://manybutone.wordpress.com Not only can you check in daily to examine new reflections on the scriptures, but also participate in the conversation, leaving comments and asking questions of the authors. What follows are some samples of the work you will find there. Won't you stop by and check us out?

“I love Moses! He is the only person throughout the history of the world to have actually received a burning bush from God. In that bush he received a crystal clear message from God as to what he was to do with his life. God told Moses that he was to go to Pharaoh to bring God’s people out of Egypt. Moses was called by God to God’s work and God promised to provide him with all he needed to get that work done. Really, does it get any better than this?”
Rev. Meredith Lovell Keseley

“This season starts with the words “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” and it leads us to the death of the cross. Yet despite the dust and death, this is a season of life … for in Lent the church takes an honest look at sin and death and dares, nonetheless, to speak a word of life. We can’t proclaim new life without also speaking about death. We can’t seek to draw close to God without first confessing our self-alienation from God. We can’t proclaim forgiveness without acknowledging the reality of sin.”
Rev. Chris Duckworth

“It was when the Israelites shared what they had that they were able to create a beautiful tabernacle. And it is in sharing what we each have, whether physical gifts or spiritual gifts that we are able to come together as a Christian community to worship and serve the Lord.
Who are the skillful women and men in your lives? And how do you use your gifts and skills to worship and serve the Lord?”
Rev. Becca Middeke-Colin

Multiblogging!

2010-02-10T05:57:00.001-08:00

For the season of Lent I will be cross-posting my writing from a collaborative blog called Many but One that I am writing with six colleagues from around the United States.

To the faithful assemblies gathered around Word and Sacrament, and apparently around the LCD flat screen, grace and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. I bring greetings from the church that meets at the corner of Salisbury and Lancaster streets in the city of Worcester. My name is John Longworth, and I serve as the Associate Pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. My call has a special focus on education, catechesis and young adults. As part of my work with young adults I spend some of my time each week ministering to students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a university in the same neighborhood as the church building.

I live in Worcester with my wife Sara. Sara's daily work involves driver examinations for the Central Massachusetts Safety Council Auto School, though her calling is centered around handmade clothing and fine arts. Fortunately, Worcester has a growing arts scene and is a very diverse immigrant destination. This makes two of our favorite activities, exotic cooking and exotic dining, quite possible.

Beyond its status as an immigrant and refugee destination, Worcester has a rich history as an industrial center, a medical/biotechnology hub, a college town, home to New England's only diner factory and to several classic diners, and a bastion of independent punk and hard rock, from the days of Wormtown radio and the shows at the Paris, Palladium and Tammany Hall to weekends at Ralph's Diner (Punk Dive Bar par excellence!)

Our Baptismal Promises

2009-12-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

The youth commission is looking for disciples, particularly four advisors and two teachers who feel called to engage with, serve beside and care for our youth in grades 7 through 12. This is an excellent opportunity to continue our promises made at baptism, to love, support and care for our new sisters and brothers in their life of faith. The time you give in encouraging and supporting the faith exploration of a young person is invaluable, because it strengthens their connection to the faithful people of the church.

The two teachers would be involved in the confirmation studies program, where we follow an alternating course of bible study and catechism each year. The teachers may elect to team-teach the Sunday morning class or one teacher may wish to take that class and the other would team-teach with me on Wednesday nights. These are important years in the life of a youth, as they form an adult understanding of scripture and are asked to take some responsibility for their life in Baptism. Part of the responsibility for these positions include participation in the fall confirmation retreat at Trinity Lutheran Church and the spring confirmation retreat at Camp Calumet.

The four advisors would help to plan youth activities, coordinate transportation and food as needed and would help gather supplies for the program. Youth group advisors would also take turns collecting important permission slips and deposits and submit them at the church office. Youth group advisors would assist me in recruiting volunteers for larger events.

In order to keep the wide selection of youth activities and events going, we need the engagement of thoughtful Christians who are looking for a place to serve. If this ministry seems like the right place for you, please contact me (508) 753-2989 or jmlongworth@trinityworc.org and we can have an individual conversation about the future of the youth ministry here at Trinity Lutheran. You can be a part of continuing a tradition of solid ministry and powerful growth. Many thanks, Merry Christmas and a Blessed Epiphany to you all.

God's Waiting People

2009-11-19T10:12:00.001-08:00

In a funeral sermon, one image I like to lift up for the mourners is that of God's people as a waiting people. That is to say, everything which God has promised to do hasn't come to completion yet. Therefore, we are a people who are expectantly waiting for the fulfillment of those promises. We long for the day of Jesus' return and to see our beloved friends and family who have already died. We have something more to look forward to than the empirical world that surrounds us. We have something more to hope for than a generic God who is “nice” or “friendly”. Indeed, we hope in a future where the reign of God is apparent, clear and unchallenged by any human rebellion. We hope for a future with life as prevailing truth and death as a forgotten oppressor. The same is true for the beloved dead who are doing their waiting in the presence of Christ.

In some ways, “the battle is o'er the strife is done” when a believer dies. They have already died the death of eternal abandonment in Baptism and been redeemed to live for God. Their second death is now a passage from waiting here on earth to waiting in the near presence of God. But we sell God short when we imagine their waiting place as the complete picture. If we bound in the waiting church in heaven, transforming it into some sort of cosmic resort, as though those who have died are on some sort of vacation of a lifetime, we disregard their eagerness to see the kingdom fulfilled too. So even though many things are transformed at death, Christians are God's waiting people both here and after death.

Waiting for the day when Christ will return and there will be no separation between the living and the dead. When the victory of God will be clear, and that victory will be Christ's triumph on the Cross, not some sort of maneuvering in the cosmic equivalent of extra innings. We are waiting to see the promises of scripture fulfilled, where those who have fallen asleep in Christ will be the first to become fully awake. We are waiting to see that vision from Revelation of God coming down to earth to dwell with us forever, remembering that ancient promise, “I will be your God, you will be my people.”

In a manner of speaking, you could say as we prepare for Christmas this year, that God's people in heaven and on earth are hoping to celebrate Advent for the last time. Oh what an Advent that would be! Oh what a morning, when the stars begin to fall! A peaceful and blessed Advent to you.

Learning to FLY (Forming Leadership in Youth)

2009-10-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

So, you've affirmed your baptism, you've learned a little bit about the amazing gifts God has given to you. More and more, adults in your life are asking you questions like: “Where do you want to go to college?”, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”, “Where do you want to live when you finish High School?”. While there may be some answers forming in your mind, it can be hard to make such important decisions without some tools.

Picking a college because of a beautiful campus, degree program and sports you love aren't bad reasons, but this sort of decision making isn't as complete as it could be. The same goes for choosing a career path because it sounds fun, or seems like a good way to make money. Engaging your faith as part of the decision making process is an important aspect of being an adult Christian. Ultimately your decisions about your education, your career path, and the extracurricular and Church volunteer activities you choose are all a part of your stewardship. Your church is here to help with that process, that is why I've begun offering a class called FLY (Forming Leadership in Youth). Over the course of the year we will meet for lunch after the 10 AM liturgy to engage in a Bible Study called “What on Earth am I Supposed to Do?”, a study of themes around our calling in the world and our gifts.

Beyond the classes, each participant will be expected to observe a church council meeting, visit at least two commissions to learn about the working of the church and to interview an adult member who is not a family member about their faith journey. We will have regular classroom guests who will take the opportunity to share their faith journey and help connect their daily life to their life of faith. Students who would like to join the class should plan to come to our next session on November 22nd, 2009 at 12 pm. We meet in the Education Conference Room down the hall from the Pastors' offices.

Upcoming Classes:
November 22, 2009- Justified- Who's going to save me from me?
December 21, 2009- Gathered- Am I in this alone? (Katherine Duffy's story)
January 24, 2010- Enlightened- How can I learn more?

Just the Guys...

2009-10-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

It's not easy to be a man of faith. So much of what is genuinely powerful about Christianity and the life of Christ falls into the realm of the subjective, the relational, the emotional and the celebration of God's power in weakness and vulnerability. All of this is held up against the cultural expectation for men to be right, in charge, more thinking than feeling and utterly silent on the relationships that matter most. Often times this tension results in a sense of faith that is so deeply personal that it is repressed, either out of embarrassment for the strong feelings attached, or out of a need to exhibit self-control even when things are out of control. Sometimes you need a space to be both a guy and a Christian. Sometimes you need to know that other guys are in fact going through the same things. Sometimes you need to be fed and just know that Jesus is present, and that you can lean on him without any sense of shame.

Starting on October 14th you can plan to take 45 minutes out of your week for Bible study, prayer, and breakfast with some of the men of Trinity Lutheran Church. This is a great opportunity to make friends, renew old friendships and get a spiritual charge before heading into the middle of your week. Participants will receive a Lutheran Study Bible if they don't already have one. We will meet in the Golden room at 7:00 a.m. and be on our way by 7:45 a.m. Each week we will have a light breakfast with coffee, take an opportunity to check-in as a group and discuss the readings that will be read during worship on Sunday. We'll look for insights that are important for our working lives and family lives and try to compile some key sermon points to listen for. We'll close each session by holding one another up in prayer.

Study and prayer without service makes for an incomplete walk with Christ, so the Men's Breakfast will also be traveling to Calumet in early May next Spring for the camp opening work weekend. The trip is free, it just requires your work gloves and your energy. We'll take time during that weekend to further explore our faith and to give back to an important ministry of the New England Synod.

You can simply drop in on October 21st, but I'd love to have an idea of how much food to provide for the session. Please drop me a line at 508-753-2989 x.13 or jmlongworth@trinityworc.org. Let me know if you plan to attend and if you have any allergies that I should be aware of.

A Gathering to Remember

2009-10-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

The pictures have begun to roll in and are being posted at http://www.elca.org/gathering. The journals have had their final entries and the last of the brightly colored tee shirts has boarded a plane or a bus and headed home. Even so, in many ways the 2009 National Youth Gathering in New Orleans continues. It continues in the sounds of Jazz and Blues that still float in our memory as we reflect back on our week there. It carries on in the reverberations of thirty eight thousand people crying out “And also with you!” It lingers in the rich taste of chicory coffee and the crispy sweetness of a beignets. It still haunts as we remember the high water marks stained into the sides of buildings, and the vast emptiness that makes the Lower 9th Ward feel like a desolation. It still delights when I recall the sheer gratitude that poured forth from the locals as they greeted, fed, housed and welcomed us.

The National Gathering continues in the hearts and minds of the youth who attended, who heard the music that shaped a city, who saw the eerie above ground graveyards and restored their dignity, and who painted, planted and cleaned their way through the lower delta region. And it continues because the gathering was a testimony to Christ's reign, even in hard times and in beleaguered places. It was a sign that God has called a people to be the hands and feet that do God's work in the world. I believe that our group was indeed changed by New Orleans, and did their part to change NOLA for the better too. We look forward to sharing our stories with you this year, please ask! We also hope you'll make time this fall to watch our slideshow and see what we saw.

As part of our ongoing commitment to bringing the enivironmental work we did in New Orleans home, our collection of cell phones, electronics and printer cartridges will continue through the rest of the year. Please place these items in the box in Jeppson Hall, a complete list of acceptable items can be found at: http://recycling4green.com/price-list/pricelist.pdf

I was deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead such a trip and look forward to talking to everyone soon about the planning process for the 2012 ELCA National Youth Gathering.

Back to the drawing board

2009-06-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well, keeping up with a keen Bible study hasn't been as easy as I expected. Perhaps I need to do less ministry so I can blog more? I don't suppose that would work. At any rate, there are all kinds of transitions going on right now, so I feel like I'm in a vortex of change. Our current musician is leaving at the end of the month for Texas, and the search committee is wading through the pile of resumes in an attempt to gather some candidates for interviews. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my father's death, a transition that just seems to keep on changing and surprising me. At the beginning of the month I took a week to help my sister with her 3 week old baby boy, Thomas. Next month we'll be off to the National Youth gathering in New Orleans and later this summer I'll be visiting the Church Wide Assembly in the Twin Cities. This Spring in Phoenix, AZ I became a board member of LERN (Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives Network) and am getting excited about planning various ecumenical activities throughout this year. There are schedules, policies and actions to plan for confirmation, high school youth, young leaders forum, young adults group, WPI and more! Whoever said the summer was slow wasn't paying attention!

Lectionary Thoughts- Advent 1 to Advent 2

2008-12-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems that I actually get to this blog about once a month, which is certainly less than I'd hoped. If only there weren't so many real world needs, distractions and concerns! First, let me say, Happy New Year! Yes, I know it's December 3rd. However, for Christians, the Church calendar just restarted last Sunday with the beginning of Advent. We've also moved into the second year in the three year lectionary cycle. That means that the controlling Gospel for the year is Mark, where everything happens euthus, which is Greek for immediately! Mark is sort of a rapid fire prologue to a powerful passion narrative. There's no Christmas story, no detailed temptation during Jesus' spirit walk in the wilderness, and far fewer parables. Mark is so terse that next summer we'll use a big selection of John texts to fill in the calendar.

If you never lay eyes on the Advent texts, it's easy to assume that a Christian celebration of the season of Christmas is all about a "Silent Night" image. Offering up Perfect peace, quiet, and Mary glowing and reveling in her infant son. We can imagine a silent baby who radiates holiness and a watchful stepfather who guards his family. We can cram a pile of thoughtful shepherds, gift giving wise men from Persia, India and Babylon into the tiny cave. We can even find spots for a fat jolly elf in a red suit with a cold (or maybe he's been tippling? how else do you account for the red nose and rosy cheeks?) and a Syrian boy with a drum who is a conscript into the occupying Roman army. Well, I suppose throwing in Santa and the Drummer Boy are a bit unfair, but sometimes we try so hard to synchronize not only the two Christmas stories (Matthew & Luke) from the Bible, but also pop culture information we've collected along the way.

Yet, if you look at the texts for Advent, we have the prophet Isaiah last Sunday begging God to "tear open the skies and come down", crying out for God to rock this world and shake us to our sinful core. Next week it doesn't get any rosier, we have a prophet in a smelly camel-skin urging people to repent before the mighty messiah arrives. If you've ever taken time to get to know some homeless people, you've probably met John the Baptist. He/She was the one who in his/her total deprivation of self seemed to understand the real mess our world is in and who knew just how desperately we all need saving. Fortunately, there's plenty of language in the readings that speaks to God's ability to redeem and reshape us.

In Isaiah 64, the prophet confesses that "You are the potter and we are the clay", God can remold our lives. And in this Sunday's texts Isaiah again proclaims reconciliation.

40:1 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

For Christians, Christmas is about "Advent" or "arrival". Hence the name of the preparatory season before the Holy Day. It's about the "first advent", the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem during the reign of Tiberius, because his life and ministry flow from that event. It's also about the "second advent", the promised day of Christ's return and the elimination of death. And in between those events, it's about the "little advents", the signs and events that remind us that the Divine is breaking into the world. Those little advents, like the sacraments, the confession of faith of a new believer, the free service to neighbor, the proclamation of God's Word, the rebirth of a person's faith, the anointing with the Holy Spirit, all point in the direction of God's movement. Not away from us, and not stationary waiting for us to claw our way up, but down to meet us, right where we are in order to transform our very selves.

Peace and a Solemn Advent!

All Saints Sunday through Sunday 31

2008-11-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Lectionary Thoughts
Well, here goes another stab at keeping up with this! This past weekend, many Christians around the world celebrated the Festival of All Saints. In fact, the goofy costume wearing, sugar-coma inducing, teeth-rotting celebration on October 31st (Halloween, the CVS version, not the modern pagan holiday) is derived from the term All Hallows (Saints) Eve. All Saints had deepened significance all around for me this year, from the one year anniversary of my ordination, to the death of my father earlier this year, the communion of the saints is a vital part of my faith journey right now. Preaching-wise, I focused on the presence of Christ and the saints gathered to him for All-Saints. This is a theme I like to return to whenever I have a funeral/memorial with communion. In the process of grieving, we must relocate the dead to a new place in our consciousness and lives at every other table, both noticing their empty seat and also shuffling up the seating chart for the sake of the living. But at the communion table, we still dine with them, the only difference being that they experience the meal in a new context. To recognize the presence of Christ and all the saints in this way offers a startling and positive reminder of the promises made to us, and of the vital importance of gathering in Christian community. There are no lone ranger Christians if the communio is understood fully.

That reality make this weekend's apocalyptic texts even more interesting. The question of who is and isn't a part of God's people is asked again and again. Is it simply the people who do "religious stuff", like festivals, worship and ceremonies? Or does being God's people mean acting in justice, with a compassion that is associated with God? Amos seems to strike right at the notion of formal religiosity with no real-world component. Paul addresses the anxiety of the church in Thessaloniki that brothers and sisters who die before Christ's return are somehow lost, promising that they will reap the benefits of grace even before the survivors do. Finally, the Matthean community wrestles with Jesus' cryptic teaching on the unpredictable return, wondering who will be ready and who will be caught off-guard by the full presence of Christ. Will we skip out on the bridegroom's entrance in order to seek more (preparation, holiness, material security, political benefit, blessing, endurance, self-improvement, etc.) before drawing close to him? Knowing that the church is always the faithful departed, faithful gathered and the faithful who are far away by no fault of their own, how do we live into this reality, making our invisible communion more visible?

What did that Christian just say?
Apocalyptic- When certain texts are called apocalyptic (e.g. Daniel, Revelation) this refers to a their containing a revelation (from the Greek apocalypsis) of a truth that may not be apparent to the reader based on the facts of history at the moment. Apocalyptic writing frequently is produced in response to the crushing forces of Empire (Babylon, Seleucid, Rome) in a way the disguises the political critique contained therein. At the core of these revelatory images is the firm belief that God is the ultimate arbiter and ruler of history. (God's the decider...) This means that systems which purport to replace the role of God as maker, sustainer and redeemer of the world are bound to fall to God's judgment. These systems are often represented by terrible beasts and other fantastic creatures in order to show both their power, but also the fact that they are unnatural. Unlike the majestic power of a lion or a killer whale, these chimeras are not wholly one sort of creature or another. They are an amalgam of powers from across creation, but by being shown as beasts, the writer places them under the innovator and author of the universe, God. The Apocalypse does not refer to a particular point in time, but rather to a special time where people see the systems and powers for what they are, and see the judgment of God reasserted and made plain. It's the revealing of truth that is so powerful, it seems as though the world is ending, because the powers that seek to dominate it begin to crumble and are proven to be pretenders to the throne. Often times, Apocalyptic visions are combined with eschatalogical hopes. These hopes are related to "final things" an eschaton is a thing that is final. Christians place our hope in the apocalypse (revelation) that in the eschaton (when all is said and done, both individually and corporately), the powers of the world which dominate and crush us (including death) will be revealed as overcome by God's compassion for the world (as expressed by the enemy-love of Jesus), and that God will dwell among the people in a way that is evident to all.

Holy Cross Day through Sunday 25

2008-09-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

Lectionary Thoughts
This past Sunday, churches using the Revised Common Lectionary had two choices for planning worship. The texts for Sunday 24 continued the journey through the book of Romans and the Gospel of Matthew. However, September 14th is also Holy Cross Day, a day to venerate and contemplate this complex symbol. Western Tradition has been to celebrate Holy Cross whenever it falls on a Sunday. The day calls us to reflect on the central paradox of Christian faith. When treated honestly, we acknowledge the cross to be brutal, awful, and horrific. We open ourselves to the mystery that something that looks evil can be good. We open ourselves to the awesome compassion of a God who drives straight into the worst of places precisely to bring what is missing: comfort in the face of pain, solace in the face of heartache, forgiveness in the face of rebellion and life in the face of death.

Hopefully, we come to recognize that while the crucifixion was a moment in history, that the consequences of God's total emptying of self now cast a new light on a whole host of circumstances. Whenever we stand face to face with the compelling arguments that the world is lost and that suffering will overtake us, we can see the Cross in that moment, and know the foolish wisdom of God, creating life where there should be none.

Commemorations this week
9/16/2008- Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage and Martyr d. 258
9/17/3008- Hildegard of Bingen, Abbess & Mystic d. 1179
9/18/2008- Dag Hammarskjold, Diplomat & Mystic d. 1961
9/20/2008- Nelson Wesley Trout, Bishop d. 1996

What did that Christian just say?
This week's term is martyr in honor of Bishop Cyprian. The term martyr comes from the Greek marturion, which means "witness". This could be a witness in a court case, or a witness who provided a letter of reference for a person. The marturion, could vouch for the character of the person whom they were attesting to. In some sense, all Christians are witnesses (or at least we're called to be), attesting to the character of Christ. In the early church, during times of intense persecution, martyrdom, i.e. "witnessing" took on a special meaning as some believers chose to face punishment, torture and even death rather than to renounce Christ. While this act was not essential to remain a believer (after all a religion of 100% persecution martyrs doesn't last long), it was held up as an example because of the powerful testimony it gave to those who observed their stand. More recent thinking has moved beyond understanding the witness of martyrs under persecution to consider how every Christian can witness to their faith, especially in the way they face death, even if that death is from natural causes.

Prolonged Web Silence...

2008-08-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

Friends, I just sat back and realized how long it's been since I posted to City Pastor. Since my last post, I've buried my father, spent a week of vacation helping my mother, been to Cape Cod (know to locals simply as "The Cape" as if there were no other), and spent a busy month planning, revising schedules for Sunday School, Catechism studies, and our Wednesday community dinners. I've tried to build excitement about the New England Youth Gathering at Hammonasset park in Connecticut, and spent time working with the commissions and committees that are both in and out of my portfolio. All in all, I'd say the sabbatical of my colleague has been a smooth, but tiring process. Smooth because the many volunteers who have pulled together to keep things running have been simply wonderful. I've been blessed with patient responses as I get up to speed on all the aspects of the parish that were less familiar before the sabbatical.

Right now, we're in the thick of a fantastic Vacation Bible School week. Our grade schoolers are with a team of counselors from Camp Calumet and our preschoolers are with a dedicated group of volunteers and junior counselors. The preschoolers are learning the seasons of the church year, dressing in a new liturgical color each day, making seasonal crafts, and I've been using my biblical storytelling talents to present a seasonal story each day that lifts up the core of the season. Getting ready for each day means coming in an hour early to work with my text and memorize (or refresh) the text in my head since I'm working without any written references. It's been exciting, and the puppets and visual aids that Ruth, our summer intern made for the storytelling time have been excellent.

It will be such a radical change of pace next week when I head to WPI to work on the Campus Religious Center and the 70 energetic bouncing kids are all back at home. Ah, the sound of silence.

Joy & Sorrow

2008-06-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

Dad died peacefully just before seven this morning. Now that we've all said our goodbyes, the work of grieving begins in full as we commend him into God's hands. Though Augsburg won't mention it in the little red book next year, from this day forward, June 17 will be the commemoration of Gerald of Hartford, Renewer of Society. Let light perpetual shine upon him, and may he rest in peace.

Wedding Mania

2008-06-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

Two down and one to go! June is still one of the most popular months for a wedding and this June is no exception. Weddings are a real challenge, while they are almost always joyous occasions, it can be hard to find a deeper Gospel message in the midst of the glitter, the fancy clothing and the party-goers. Even though the wedding preparation process is first and foremost for the couple, in my listening to their story I discover some of what will form the basis for a wedding sermon. Unlike a typical Eucharist, where the assembly is addressed as Christian community, or a funeral where the assembly is addressed as those who mourn, at a wedding, the assembly is addressed through the couple. My message for them, as Christocentric as possible, flows through the celebration of their relationship to the gathered friends and family.

I spent last night on a cot in the hospital, keeping an eye on my father and giving him Celtics updates, a truly surreal experience even for someone who has covered overnight and 24 hour shifts as a hospital chaplain. It's hard to say what today will bring, but every day brings subtle changes that reflect new aspects of the dying process. With great wisdom, my mother reflected on how the travail of birth is so oddly mirrored in the slow and difficult process of death.

Lutherans Assemble!!

2008-06-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's not as flashy as the Avengers getting together to save the world, but I had a great time (if a bit exhausting) at the New England Synod Assembly. This assembly was special to me for a few reasons. First, it was my first assembly as a clergy voting member. Secondly it was the first opportunity for our summer immersion student to observe the larger church conducting itself in business, worship, sharing and discernment. Finally, I was able to witness the ordination of two colleagues from Philadelphia seminary who have been called to serve here in New England. All around a momentous affair. The hearings, elections and business went smoothly and peaceably, and the worship was amazing. From belting out hymns in the assembly hall to our festive Eucharist on Friday, everything both went well and had a spectacular feel to it. Kudos to the Trinity Choir, to Donald our choir leader and to Steve our guest organist. Your worship leadership was excellent.

This Assembly was also challenging, not because of the early mornings and the late finishes, but because of some other things that bumped into it. There was a wedding rehearsal Thursday and a Wedding Saturday that took time and energy. There was lots of planning and finalizing for Sunday. During the assembly, I received news that my father, who was undergoing treatment for lymphoma was discontinuing treatment and entering a hospice program. Sara and I spent time with him and other family members on Sunday so that we could celebrate Father's Day a week early. It was the best Father's Day and the hardest Father's Day ever. I give thanks to God for the gift of faith that has allowed me to face these trying times with a sense of peace and a deep seated hope. The amazing support I've received from colleagues, parishioners and friends has made the entire ordeal much more bearable. It was so moving to be prayed for at the assembly, by brothers and sisters I know well, and those I have yet to meet.

A Time to Learn

2008-05-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

So here I am in Philadelphia, getting ready for the Project Connect orientation at the seminary. The Project helps people who are discerning a vocation in ministry through retreats, mentoring and supporting immersion experiences in local congregations. This summer I'll be working with a student from Valparaiso University on pastoral care training and visitation. It's exciting to help mentor a future pastor and the experience thus far has confirmed my thoughts about wanting to be an internship supervisor when the time comes. I'm looking forward to hearing our guest preacher this weekend, the first of several sabbatical helpers. There are many activities popping up all over and I'm excited about getting engaged with all of them, with hopes that I'll have the energy to do them.

2nd Sunday after Pentecost

2008-05-25T12:48:00.000-07:00

For those of us in liturgical churches (which has more to do with style of liturgy than its presence, according to the esteemed theologian Dr. Gordon Lathrop, all Christians have some kind of liturgy, even if it is gathered silence. Otherwise we'd have no cause to ever gather.) we are entering into several new seasons at once. Memorial Day, which properly is set aside to remember the gift of self that countless soldiers have given throughout our country's history, marks the "unofficial start of summer" in the U.S. and folks orientation moves away from schooling and work towards warm weather and recreation. At Trinity we have our own transitions as some programs are modified during the summer and others are paused until the fall. And of course, with Pentecost and Holy Trinity Sunday behind us, we enter the sea of green. Green readings, about the life and work of the church; green vestments to test the endurance in buildings without air conditioning; green paraments to remind us of our life in God.

The 'summer', however it is loosely defined, is not time off for the church. Worship and some education continues apace. There is ample planning, preparing and revising going on. Summer is a time to reinvigorate home visitation because the weather is less of a barrier to traveling to folks' homes. And in our particular context there are students to mentor, a vacation bible school to run and a campus ministry that needs to be brought up to speed.

This is the time to open up the garage, sharpen the tools and make sure we have what we need for the harvest ahead!

Helena's Handbasket

2008-05-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we remember Helena, the mother of Constantine. Following her son's conversion to Christianity, Helena was involved in a journey to the Holy Land where she was responsible for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the site of Jesus' tomb. Her generosity, simplicity and piety were well known in her time and she would worship alongside commoners in spite of her high social standing.

What a Mystery

2008-05-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

One God, three persons. When translators attempted to bring the Greek idea of One God, three hypostases into Latin, the image they came up with was One God, three Personnae. These personnae were the masks from ancient theater that let the audience know that the same actor was appearing as more than one character. The same actor stood behind each personnae, giving life and energy to the character. Yet, each personnae was distinct, a person in their own right. I made these fun masks for the Sunday School devotions for the Feast of the Holy Trinity. No matter how we try to wrap language around the Trinity, it is always a mystery. However, this is certainly one of the more fun ways I've tried to offer some understanding on this doctrine.

For a fun geeky note, I snapped the photo with an LG VX9900 and then mailed myself the image in order to blog it.

Lost in Space?

2008-05-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Pentecost to everyone! And for anyone who is keeping track, today is the commemoration for Matthias the Apostle. Technically number 13, Matthias took the place of Judas after Judas committed suicide. Matthias was chosen because he had been with the disciples from the beginning of the mission (a reminder that there were always more than just 12) and he had known Jesus. It's striking to think that discipleship and even apostleship work that way. The Spirit moves and selects the right people for the task, guiding each of us towards a place of purpose.

Between my father's illness, traveling and meetings for the church it's been hard to do much blogging lately. However, thanks some recent birthday gifts, I've been able to acquire a pretty amazing new device. See it here for further inspection http://eeepc.asus.com/global/
The EeePC is no larger than a paperback beach book or a paper daytimer. However, it has the much of the functionality of a notebook computer. To add to my joy, it runs a custom Linux desktop that is perfect for the form factor. And yes, even though it is small, it is possible to type on the keyboard. I am actually writing this post on the Eee. This little 2 lb. wonder will replace my turbo-charged widescreen laptop for traveling and off site meetings, I can pack it in its case and carry it like a datebook.

I tested out the media player yesterday, and was able to drop my music collection from the laptop to an 8G SDHC card. In addition, I've ripped a couple of movies I own and put them on the SDHC as well. The Eee makes a pretty sharp movie player for the road. The fullscreen mode was clear and sharp. Just plug in the headphones and enjoy your flight/train/bus.

Tonight we're holding the second class for the month of May, offering some basic perspective on Lutheran Christianity and our confessional history. If you're a local reading this, stop by Trinity Lutheran in Worcester at 5:45 for class followed by a community dinner and a contemplative worship.

Whirlwind of Activity

2008-05-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, just as much as Chicago and the National Workshop on Christian Unity plunged me deep into the bleeding edge of ecumenical discourse, last week's mission trip to central Pennsylvania got me immersed in youth work and service activities. The trip was a lot of fun, and we focused our spiritual life on four key topics:

1. God made everything, including us.
2. We're not alone, God is with us in and through the community of faith.
3. God has a special calling for each of us.
4. In service to our neighbors, we show God's goodness and act as the hands of Christ.

And our apologies and thanks go to the hardworking staff of the Gettysburg Pizza Hut on Baltimore Pike for rising to the occasion and feeding 57 hungry people at the drop of a hat.

Drawing to a Close

2008-04-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

Next year I may be blogging the conference from an internet tablet in Phoenix, AZ. I'll have to see on that. In the meantime, things are drawing to a close here. I've met lots of fascinating folks and am excited to take some of what I've learned here home with me. Like the wedding at Cana, the organizers saved the best for last. The final panel discussion featuring one Orthodox, one Reformed and one Catholic presenter offered amazing insights into their conception of both the local and the global/universal church. The room for dialogue was excellent and I feel better informed about each. Tonight we have a final Eucharist at the Lutheran Center Chapel and then tomorrow I'll be headed home after a plenary with some national church staff. I've made a number of good contacts both for returning to New England and for future ecumenical work around the U.S. Once I get the CD's of some of the talks, I'll be posting selections from the conference here.

Big Church

2008-04-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

"Big Church", as my wife and I sometimes refer to life and expressions beyond the congregation, has involved a good deal of my time this past weekend and this entire week. It began on Saturday with a trip to the Mission Area Conference in Sturbridge, MA and continues with the National Workshop on Christian Unity in Chicago, IL. I am always humbled and deeply gratified when I participate in such events, precisely because they are reminders that I am part of something much bigger than one parish, and in the case of NWCU, much bigger than just the Lutheran branch of Christianity.

Mission Area Conference involved a daylong get together with members and leaders of churches from central and western Massachusetts. We heard a presentation by our Bishop, had workshops on topics of concern and had a great networking lunch where I met a variety of folks involved in Christian Education.

NWCU involves a concurrent education program and the meetings of various ecumenical networks. So I've been attending both the mixed programming and the meeting of LERN (Lutheran Ecumenical Resource Network). I'll post more on both later.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share the bookstore haul. (Lord save me from conference bookstores!)
William G. Rusch "Justification and the Future of the Ecumenical Movement"
David Batstone "Not for $ale" the official book of the Amazing Change Campaign
Julia K. Dinsmore "My Name is Child of God... Not 'Those People'"
Siku "The Manga Bible", a Japanese style graphic representation of Genesis through Revelation.

So Many Surprises

2008-04-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

When you begin the week with a story as familiar and as startling as the road to Emmaus, it's hard not to start seeing amazing surprises everywhere. Whether it's the feeling that the campus ministry work that I've been inching is on the precipice of real movement, or the many and varied couples I'm preparing for marriage, or even the delight of reconnecting with an old friend from years ago, the days feel full of potential.

April will be over in the blink of an eye, especially with the conference and the youth mission trip. Each of these opportunities will spur new ministry and will solidify some of the core elements of my own call. I feel very energized about all of the possibilities that lie ahead and am excited to roll up my sleeves and engage this work.

This Saturday I'll be at the Mission Area Conference for Central and Western Massachusetts. I'm hoping to learn about what's going on in terms of community ministry around the area. This ought to be a good time for doing some networking as well. My hope is that I'll come across some blogworthy items to report both there and from the National Workshop on Christian Unity that is coming up.

It must be Spring

2008-04-02T06:46:00.000-07:00

Confirmation students beg to have class outside, even though it's not exactly warm enough. Discussions of the calendar revolve around weddings, wedding rehearsals and the annual New England Synod Assembly, birds are singing around my house, sometimes it's even still light when my office hours are finished. It must be Spring.

It was a little disorienting this past Friday to do a little shopping in the cold and damp weather, feeling as though Winter still clung to us, when I saw the Easter decorations cast on to the clearance shelf. However, I am deeply grateful to be in the Easter season. With the recent challenges I've experienced in campus ministry, in addition to coordinating the final stages of our upcoming youth trips, and generally working a few too many hours, I am glad to be in the fifty days of Resurrection. When I take time to pause and reflect I am awed by God's presence in these struggles, carefully and wonderfully opening paths to life when it appeared that all routes where cut off.

I more deeply appreciate Dietrich Bonhoeffer getting "stuck" on Job in his bible study in prison, and I feel as though I ought to dwell there for awhile as well. Job contends mightily with God, but he never curses or rejects God's justice.

First Foray

2008-03-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

I'm excited about tonight, it will be my first foray on to a college campus. I've been invited to take part in a student led forum at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) that engages questions of science, ethics and the advancement of both. Tonight's forum focuses specifically on the non-physiological causes of illness. I look forward to expounding on the experience. Hopefully this can serve as a stepping stone to meaningful involvement in the campus next door.

Easter Miracles

2008-03-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

My first Holy Week and Easter as a pastor went well when you take everything into consideration. During the two weeks leading up, it seemed as though there was work every night of the week. And of course Holy Week is worship, followed by getting ready for more worship, followed by setting up for the next worship. So it's not surprising that I had a Spring cold in my Easter basket this year. Even so, with lots of water, tea, cough drops, zinc supplements and tissues, I made it through the week, participating fully. I even delivered a couple of well received sermons on Maundy Thursday and the Easter Vigil and managed not to panic long enough to sing the sung portions of the Easter Morning liturgies.

Business aside, I do love this time of year. The various parts of the week, especially the Triduum (Thur, Fri, Sat) really refresh my faith and strengthen my gratitude. We heartily want to deny that the head can lead the heart, and that only "good feelings" will ultimately confirm our faith. However, I've discovered the opposite to be true, if you want to get splattered with watermelon, you need to sit down in front at a Gallagher show. If you want to be splashed by the Holy Spirit, you need to make a conscious choice to be present when the Spirit is most accessible. Doing all these practices can bend our heart in a new direction.

There were some disappointments, like not being able to spend Sunday night with my sister, brother-in-law and parents. Calling that afternoon to say hello wasn't exactly the same. Perhaps next year the circumstances will work out better to get together.

I wish everyone a happy Easter, and I pray that the 50 days will inspire and feed you until Pentecost!

Feeling Sort of Maundy

2008-03-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, depending on whom you ask. Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum or command. Therefore, on this commemoration of Jesus' great commands we recall his good instructions "Do this in memory of me" and "Love one another." For non-church folks, the fact that washing each other's feet is part of today's worship is plain bizarre. Yet for certain wings in the Christian household, what is odd is that we have bounded this practice and use it only on this day each year.

Now, I've participated in foot washing in three circumstances (on a retreat, on a couple of mission trips, and on Maundy Thursday) and each time it was a very humbling and worthwhile experience. Was it odd, embarrassing, and awkward? Absolutely yes. Do I have "nice looking" feet? I don't think so. Yet I am very glad to have participated. A little embarrassment for Jesus' sake is a good thing, it's both humbling and allows me to be the weak-arched, funny middle toes person that I was created to be. I often wonder what else would happen if church was a safe place to be honestly broken instead of tenuously held together.

Two sides of a Story

2008-03-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's really fascinating to be in the same city as the Synod (the area under a bishop) offices, because it seems that I see the staff from there quite often. Today was just that way, folks who came out for a Eucharist and Healing liturgy at lunch time had the opportunity to hear our Bishop preach, which is always really a positive experience. It was fascinating to hear about the whole assignment process from a leader's perspective, especially since good friends of mine are going through the process right now. The whole experience of guessing where you'll end up and then coming to terms with the placement, the potential congregation and community are all fraught with nervousness and wonder. It will be exciting to see folks who do end up in New England at assemblies and the like. The Spirit moves in astounding ways and I'm always amazed at how things come together.

New(ish) Computer

2008-03-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

After much waiting the "new" desktop is here. Actually the case and the monitor are the same, so is the floppy drive (not that I have any use for it). Just about everything else is new, the motherboard, the AMD64 dual processors, the 4GB of DDR2 memory, the 500GB hard drive, and a squeaky clean installation of Ubuntu Linux 7.10. I've really gotten into the open source community this past year and I really like the stability and security we have now. Many Windows applications have great native alternatives, and for the pesky few that don't, they can either be run through a software layer like WINE or in a virtual machine running a Windows XP Pro desktop. I also really appreciate the sense of community effort, from blogs and boards to wikis of all kinds, the support is far better than the customer support from a restricted OS. There's something about open source that reminds me of the early church as described in Acts 2, where the believers provided for each other out of their wealth and shared all things in common.

Something New

2008-03-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

I had always imagined myself chronicling my new adventures when I landed in a new church, what I never imagined was how long it might take to come back around and actually put something down. Even so, I find it all the more ironic that I'm sitting here writing on Holy Monday, after a very busy and emotionally charged Passion Sunday. In some ways, the remaining full week that lies ahead is not nearly as daunting as one might imagine. To be sure there are plenty of prayers to be written, sermons to be crafted and even some rehearsing that needs to be done. This however does not take away from the humbling reality that a story that is much larger than me, or anyone else is driving the week. That's a situation for which I'm truly grateful.