Does it Matter Where I Sit?

Teaching Parish is an opportunity to get our feet wet when it comes to public ministry. This is accomplished by "observing and listening to the congregation...by teaching and preaching...[and] by worshipping and praying with the congregation..." (Teaching Parish Reference Book 2008-2009, p. 14).

The first Sunday I attended Rural Lutheran incognito, so to speak. The pastor didn't introduce me or tell anyone I was coming. He wanted me to get a feel for the congregation the way a first time visitor would. and asked me to sit in a particular part of the congregation. Though there were only 30 + people attending, no one talked to me until the peace. Mouths moved, but no one sang around me. My overall response was one of sadness for the people.

This past Sunday I could sit wherever I wanted and I was being introduced. The experience was completely the opposite. Was it because of where I was seated? Was it because more of the committed people were there? Was it because they were expecting me? The answer could be yes to each of these.

The church is small, declining in numbers, and rural. After the first visit, had I been the average outsider, I may not have returned. If my first experience had been like the second visit, I would definitely return. The issue is one of hospitality, of welcoming. I am a Lutheran and not another flavor because the Lutherans were welcoming when I was church shopping.

Radical hospitality makes us feel like we've come home, being embraced by God and God's people. Let us welcome home all we meet today.

Flickr pictures

Amity and Communion

Yesterday while I was at teaching parish, Ray, still at Seeing Eye in NJ, took new guide dog Amity to church for the first time. All went really well until...communion distribution.

Amity was seated beside Ray who was kneeling and waiting for the pastor to give him the bread. As soon as the pastor offered Ray the bread, Amity stretched, reaching her head forward like she wanted communion too. Ray, the pastor, and the Seeing Eye trainer lost it. They couldn't help but laugh. That was Amity's first church visit. She's already a good Lutheran dog. As one friend remarked, "Okay - so THAT dog needs to go to First Communion class!"

For Abby it's compline, for Amity it's communion. What can one do with dogs like that? If only all God's people were as interested in the means of grace as these dogs are!










Flickr pictures

Untrodden Paths

One of my favorite prayers is:

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting up; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (ELW p. 317).

The first time I prayed this was at an evening prayer service at Emanuel Lutheran Church in RI. It struck a chord with me then and continues to do so. As the time approached for the move to seminary and since our arrival, these words have echoed in my heart, "...not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us..." I don't know where we'll go after graduation in 2012. I don't know where my internship will be my third year. I don't know where my CPE will be this coming summer. Until today, I didn't know where my teaching parish would be that starts this Sunday.

Today I found out where I was going for teaching parish because today was matching day! Pastors and mentors came to the seminary and we were introduced to one another to get acquainted with each other and the church that would be the teaching parish. I feel like the pastor of my teaching parish and I really connected and it sounds like a good fit. Though still untrodden, at least this path is now known. It's not always easy, but can we entrust to God's care and faithfulness those unknowns of our lives? Paul did. Shouldn't we?

Flickr picture.

Appreciating God's Creation

Thanks to RevGal Leah Sophia for this YouTube of beautiful scenery and one of Rich Mullins' songs, "Calling Out Your Name." It seems a fitting way to begin the week. Peace.

Yellow Leaves All a Twitter

I was first introduced to Frederick Buechner by a pastor who quoted his well-known wisdom on discerning vocation as "That place where your great joy meets the world's great need." Buechner has a new book out and Jim Martin offers a thoughtful reflection on it. Please check it out.

By the way I just joined Twitter, so if any of you are members, let me know. Blessings.

Flickr picture

Vulnerability Friday Five

Sally at revgalsblogpals posted the following for the Friday Five:

I have recently been reading a book entitled Jesus wept, it is all about vulnerability in leadership. The authors speak of how Jesus shared his earthly frustrations and vulnerabilities with a select group of people. To some he was the charismatic leader and teacher, to others words of wisdom were opened and explained and some frustrations shared, to his "inner circle of friends: Peter, James and John, he was most fully himself, and in all of these things he was open to God.

So I bring you this weeks Friday 5:

1. Is vulnerability something that comes easily to you, or are you a private person?
It comes to me very easily, at times too much so. I feel that I have nothing to hide. Of course, I'm in seminary with a wonderful community of faith. In the parish I suspect I will need to be more guarded in what I share and with whom.

2.How important is it to keep up a professional persona in work/ ministry?
I despise pretense and artificiality. Though one must be professional, how can one be an example if he or she appears so perfect? I have found it encouraging when a pastor has been able to share that he or she wasn't sure if they did the right thing in a particular situation (ie. when someone comes to the church off the street that's in financial need).

3. Masks, a form of self protection discuss...
Yes they are. If we do not reveal our true selves we do not have to worry about being hurt or misunderstood. Masks become uncomfortable as well after time for the one wearing them. To maintain that distance from others takes a lot of work.

4. Who knows you warts and all?
My husband and children as well as a few close friends that have walked with me through hell and back. I would add to these my spiritual director in RI. As a sidebar, I would appreciate prayer as I seek to establish a relationship with a new spiritual director while at seminary.

5. Share a book, a prayer, a piece of music, a poem or a person that touches the deep place in your soul, and calls you to be who you are most authentically.
There are several, so I will post 2, 1 a song and 1 a prayer.

AND THEN YOU
We arranged our lives as best we can,
to keep your holiness at bay,
with our pieties,
our doctrines,
our liturgies,
our moralities,
our secret ideologies,
Safe, virtuous, settled,
And then you -
you and your dreams,
you and your visions,
you and your purposes,
you and your commands,
you and our neighbors,
We find your holiness not at bay,
but probing, pervading,
insisting, demanding.
And we yield, sometimes gladly,
sometimes resentfully,
sometimes late... or soon.
We yield because you, beyond us, are our God,
We are our creatures met your your holiness,
by your holiness made our true selves.
And we yield. Amen.

Walter Brueggemann from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth

Flickr picture.

My Prayer Reminder

Corporate prayer is one of the great joys of seminary life. Along with worship, it is at the heart of why we're here, what we do, and how we are empowered for service. One of our favorite prayer times is compline or evening prayer.

Each night at 10:00 we gather in the courtyard for this student led prayer service. For the Lutherans, it begins on p. 320 in the ELW. Whether spoken or sung, it never fails to move me. It's like God is tucking me in for the night.

Tonight was my turn to lead compline. At 9:45, Abby stood up in our apartment and looked at me. Her expression was, "Mom, it's time to go now." Normally her sense of time revolves around meals and snacks. But tonight it was for prayer time. She enjoys it because she gets to see people that love and pay attention to her. But it was still amazing to me that she has the timing down now for compline. Thanks be to God to have such a sweet reminder.
Flickr picture.

Powerful Prayer

Please take a look at this post on Dream Awakener. A prayer of Walter Brueggeman's was posted which is incredible. It's not about us, was the message as we gathered today for orientation. The center of our life together in this place is worship, as it should be.

Flickr picture.