You are the legacy

These words held such power as Dr. Ralph Klein addressed the LSTC congregational community in his sermon today. The Ralph W. and Marilyn R. Klein Chair of Old Testament was established this year, announcing Dr. Esther Menn as the first seat holder in said chair.

While he preached to all of us, he specifically addressed his five charming grandsons when he used the words, “You are the legacy.” The tears welled in my eyes as I heard him tell them to speak to the future Klein Chair professor, fifty years from now, and tell him or her about Nana and Poppa.

I was so moved by watching him share this moment, which recognized his esteemed scholarship and generosity, with his five young boys. Part of me wished that I was one of his grandchildren, being a part of that legacy. I’m not though. I am, however, part of the team that is called to minister to his legacy.

I may never have one of the Klein children in Sunday School or sitting in a pew in my parish, but I pray that I will be a mentor for other children, inspiring them to find God in the world. We are called to empower and encourage the future generations of our church. I pray that God blesses Dr. Klein’s legacy and teaches me how to better serve God’s children.

--Meredith Harber

Postscript: Listen to the podcast of Ralph Klein's sermon.

Meredith is a junior (first year) M.Div. student from Marion Center, Pennsylvania. She was raised ELCA-Lutheran and she’s here to prove that there ARE Lutherans outside of the Midwest! After spending a year in the West Bank, Palestine, she came to LSTC with a strong pull towards the interfaith emphasis. She’s still thinking about it, but she is open to where God is calling her. She does know that she is excited and energized by the LSTC community. She is exactly where she needs to be right now.

Prayer Life at LSTC--Guest Blogger of the Week

I did not realize how much one community could pray before coming to LSTC. Granted, I’m a life-long Lutheran with your stereotypical aversion to praying in public, whose high school youth group played the “nose goes” game (the game starts when one person surreptitiously places their finger on their nose, the last person to notice has to perform a prearranged task) to decide who had to pray. But I went to a Lutheran college (Go Gusties) where there was daily chapel, blessings and benedictions before conferences, community meals and graduation, it should be similar to that right? Not so gentle reader, not so.

When classes started I discovered that all of them open with some form of prayer, in one a student takes concerns of the class and prays to open the day, in a couple others the professor opens the class in prayer, in worship class students signed up to open the class by praying the collect from the previous Sunday. Prayer concerns go out to the community by email and there are lengthy petitions in chapel, my goodness it just never stops!

As I adjusted to the sheer volume of prayer I realized that it is not out of obligation or route that continuous community prayer happens here, rather it is a thread that ties these nomadic religious scholars and teachers together, at the same time creating community and connecting us to the whole world. For that I say thanks be to God.

–Emily Hefty

Emily Hefty is a junior (first year) M.Div student from Portland, Oregon. Emily graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2009 after studying music and religion and spent a year volunteering with AmeriCorps in Portland before coming to LSTC. Emily enjoys theological study, chapel and exploring Chicago with her husband, Nick.

“The Victor”

Half the people at my internship site call me “The Victor.” My formal title is vicar, but that not being a familiar word they settled on the closest thing they could figure out. I must admit it makes me smile every time I hear it. Most days I do not feel very victorious in this new and unfamiliar place, a cheery “hey Victor” helps me remember that people here believe in me.

I preached and led worship for the first time on Wednesday night. Standing alone in the cavernous sanctuary as I was getting ready for the service, I did not feel very victorious. Shivering in the cold and dwarfed by the enormity of the space, I did not feel up to the task of faithfully leading God’s people in worship.

But it was Holy Cross day on Wednesday. And on Holy Cross day we celebrate the triumph of the cross. With shouts and praise and glorious red paraments, we celebrate the incredible juxtaposition that is Christ’s victory in the cross, God’s strength in human weakness, eternal life from death. “Foolishness,” Paul called it, “but the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18).

What a day to begin my year as “victor.” A year where I will stand in this liminal space, not yet ordained but not quite lay. As I learn, and grow, and make tremendous mistakes, I pray that I remember the way of the One I follow. One whose power is in weakness.

--Kjersten Priddy

Kjersten Priddy is on internship at Atonement Lutheran Church in Syracuse, NY. Atonement is a Horizon internship site that does urban ministry on the south side of the city. She is originally from California and is learning to love snow. She enjoys running, biking, and seasonal vegetarian cooking, and she is a die-hard Washington Nationals fan.

A Walk in the Park

Last week my wife and I took a walk through Hyde Park, the Chicago neighborhood LSTC calls home. As a senior in the M.Div program, I’ve lived here before, for my first two years of seminary, but we’ve been away on internship. It was time to get reacquainted with our old/new neighborhood.

We had forgotten the trees. Leafy and full, they line the avenues, standing like sentinels in front of brownstone apartment buildings, allowing just enough of the evening light to dapple through. Crossing the street, we enter the campus of the University of Chicago, full of gothic architecture and gargoyles galore, with shoulders as big as this city’s.

Approaching the edge of campus, we find the neighborhood already beginning to change. Construction crews crawl over the towering skeleton of the university’s expanding medical center. In its shadow, a few small, storefront businesses hang on.

Beyond this porous border lie the other neighborhoods that make up this city, spreading out like puzzle pieces in every direction but the big blue of Lake Michigan. In my time at LSTC I’ve had opportunities to learn and to do ministry in so many of them, in congregations and in the wider communities that surround them.

My heart full of memory, I pause for a moment, and give thanks: for what has been and what is to come, here in this place, here amid a kaleidoscope of cultures and a patchwork of people, here in Chicago. --Matt Keadle

Born in California and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Matt attended Valparaiso University before deciding to explore a call to seminary. He chose to attend LSTC in order to study urban ministry, and over the last several years he’s had an opportunity to do just that. After a study abroad program in Mexico City and a pastoral internship in Seattle, Washington, he is in the midst of his final year at LSTC.

Blessings of New Students--Guest Blogger of the Week

Whether the last time you were in a classroom was in the past three months or the past three decades, the first day of seminary can be a bit, well, daunting. Although all the new students had spent the previous week forming relationships and building a new community, I’ll admit I was still a little nervous for my 8:00 a.m. Church History class.

By the time chapel rolled around I was starting to feel better. As the bells rang to begin the morning worship, I felt a very welcome sense of peace fill me. I relaxed, took a deep breath, and let the familiarity of liturgy wash over me. I was surrounded by a wonderful new community who had come together to celebrate and rejoice as we began our new academic year. In the middle of the service the presiding and assisting ministers asked each of the new students to gather around the baptismal font.

Reminding us that in all things we are called by God, and that through all things we should seek to glorify God, the 2010 entering class was blessed before the assembly of returning students, faculty, staff, spouses, partners, and children. We are all children of God, and to be reminded of that as we begin our new academic endeavors is, I believe, the most important lesson we will learn in our time at LSTC.

--Jenna Pulkowski

Jenna Pulkowski is a Junior MDiv student originally from Roscoe, IL. After graduating from Luther College in 2009 with a BA in English (what do you do with a BA in English???) she moved to Denver, CO to do a year of service with the Urban Servant Corps. She likes (really, really, REALLY likes) coffee, mountains, fall weather, volleyball, and Chicago. If you ever want to talk theology, coffee, camping, traveling, or pretty much anything else she’d love to have a chat with you!

The Score Sheet - Intern: 1 Fear: 0

I'll admit it. Fear plays a part in my decisions. Maybe it has to do with being an introvert but I feel we all have it to some degree about various things: the future, our social life, the next generation, money, the world. And then there's that horrible cliche: "Don't worry about anything. Pray about everything."

Because of course we will worry - we're human. More specifically, we are seminarians. We get to pair our fears with the weight of spirituality so it becomes not only a decision about where to go to school but an entire discernment process about our entire life. We fret about where to go to seminary, what CPE and MIC will be like, where to go on internship or first call, and how to find good news in a text filled with law. It is terrifying.

And yet.... here I am in Montana, snubbing my fears about being farther away from my home in Tennessee than I ever thought I would be, to catch glimpses of God in the beautiful mountains and in long conversations with elderly residents about life as they've lived it. I am blessed beyond imagining. I won't lie and say the fear is gone. But it becomes easier to note it's presence and go, "So what?" It becomes easier to pair that worry with prayer. "Montana? Really, God? But... okay. Send me." And here I am.

Alison is an intern in big sky country splitting her time between chaplain type work at an assisted living facility and parish ministry in Billings, Montana. She originally comes from Tennessee so her seminary journey to Chicago and then to Montana is certainly food for thought. She is passionate about the WORD, in all forms, including preaching, blogging, and the Word that was in the beginning and is now. Amen!

Being Open in the Spirit

Surrounded by my fellow new peers and classmates in a circle, I allowed myself to be in a vulnerable position, to be open and humbled so that as we began this journey together there were no questions or barriers between us. I spoke what it meant to be an African-American woman not only in this city, but within our church family and more personally our LSTC community.

Diversity is, and will always continue to be a hot topic in this part of the world yet, if we are to come together and commune with the Holy Spirit in fellowship, worship and prayer, then we must respect each other’s path; respect our ancestries and the shoulders of those we stand on and the responsibility of honoring them.

There are many who feel that multiculturalism is not important—and as I expressed to my 30 new sisters and brothers, that for those who express disregard or displeasure it is because they have no sense of where they have come from.

Yet, in God’s eyes we are not different and even here, no matter what label you bear—M. Div., M.A. or Advanced Studies student; first year, intern or finishing a dissertation—one thing is clear. We have been called to God’s Mission, spreading God’s love and mercy through Word and Sacrament, through passing of the peace and raising our voices in praises and song. Regardless of where we come from, we are all beloved children of the Most High, of the Creator, of God.

--Kwame Pitts

Kwame Pitts hails from Chicago and worships at Zion Lutheran Church where she has joyfully served as a deacon to working with middle and high school youth. Excited about starting as a M.Div, she will continue to explore her passions of youth and outdoor ministry and “allowing the Holy Spirit to guide my steps.” She also enjoys writing poetry, reading, her family and celebrating life. Kwame is married to Robert, a teacher and photographer and lives in Seminary housing with her two children.