When Shall We Three Meet Again?

Time slips through the slender creases cradled in our hands and yet is an ever present companion

When shall we three meet again?

In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

When the hurlyburly's done, 

When the battle's lost and won.

That will be ere the set of sun.

Where the place?

Upon the heath....

Where shall we meet?

The semester is now racing through the closeness of the trees as the 

sun softly crawls and spills onto the horizon; as I fill my calendar with

deadlines for my own sanity offinishing strong and satisfied my world has

begun its transformation.

Our community here is a transformative and transitionary one; we spend 

two or three years soaking up the warmth of knowledge and stand in pools of

questions that trickle off o four feet, leaving an outline of dwelling among our

footsteps as we walk away,presumably to dry off. We attend Chapel and

gallantly observe as the names are breathed forth of those leaving our 
community; we hug one another and remark-"Next year, in front of the font." 
Now, that next year has arrived, and the realization that there are people I 
will never see again.

My biological class, as I am fond of saying, the class of 2014 will be returning

this summer as we, my adoptive Class of 2015 will be embarking towards the 

islands of Internship..and our paths may not cross. I won't have time to chat,

catch up, reconnect with them. And  yet, there is a difference. Our energized

class of 2016 will take their bow onto the stage and leap into the audience 
as the path to internship widens and beckons them forth-and I may miss their 

performance. And yet there will be a difference.

There is something that shifts in the atmosphere as one shifts away from the 

harmonious LSTC community: the realization that this, our vocation and what 

Our Creator has called us towards is concrete. Our souls sync up with others 

whose experiences reflect with our own; our bond reaches out and is as tangled

as stout ivy that covers and blankets statues and figures that belong to time

memorial.

There will be Synod Assemblies, First Call Pastor Conferences and Clusters, 

Churchwide Assembly gatherings and the magic of  Skype. We shall meet once

more but this time our feathers and our costumes will be slightly brighter. 

We shall recognize each otherbut the transformative blessings of the Triune 

God will encompass our very beings and we shall view one another in a
different light.

This shimmering pool of water speaks to me even now, as I have conversations

with dear friends of mine from the class of 2012, who joyfully come and visit 

these hallowed halls  which reflect back to them as an oasis. They now stand 

as my cloud of witnesses,to the indescribable joy and challenges of being among 

the ordained. 

This year was our turn among those gathered at Chapel; the Book of Life or 

rather our awesome Field Ed's binder was opened and we were called forth to 

boldly proclaim and to ask God to help and guide us. We traveled through the 

font as the waters of baptism were playfully splashed about; our conversations

as we passed  the peace turned to"So have you heard from your Intern
supervisor?"or"Where are you going to be staying?";"My intern congregation..." ,
"There are a couple of LSTC alum who are serving in the area and.."

Where shall we meet? Joyfully out in God's Creation where we serve, and 

continue to be nourished through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks Be To God.

Lape Bondye, God's Peace.

CPE- Christmas Break- Midwest Blizzard-Advent

Thursday I had my first CPE interview in Minnesota and the weather forecast for Madison WI was 4-18 inches of snowfall on Thursday.  Wednesday I diligently watched the weather radar and after talking to Scott and a friend in MN, decided to head north on Wednesday night so as to avoid the potential blizzard conditions.  Lo and behold, MN also got slammed with tremendous winds and a mere 5-9 inches of snow.  The interview went well, and when I called Scott to let him know I was going to head home, he highly recommended I stay in MN another night.  His 4WD got stuck in our road as he was coming home, and the city is not making any plans or promises that the side roads would be plowed on Friday.  So I spent another night in MN- waiting.

Waiting occurs everyday in our lives.  I have spent the better part of Christmas break waiting anxiously for my grades.  When I got them, I did an all out ALLELUIA, PRAISE GOD! Because I actually truly did survive my first semester of seminary!

Waiting for CPE interview decision.  Will I get the place I really want? 

Advent.  It is still advent, even though my family members just left our house and even though we visited dad at Sylvan Crossings for our annual Christmas celebration, I still wait to celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Lord.  Jesus, fully divine, yet born a human. 

Four Candles by Johnathan Rundman

we celebrate a new year
a few weeks before the calendar
we shovel off the sidewalks
unlock all the doors
we're gonna light four candles

we get to hang blue paraments
keep those flower vases filled
put up the banner with the trumpets
we serve on the altar guild
we're gonna light four candles

the wait is nearly over

A Rare Energizer

While I hoped to start this mad-dash to the end of the semester re-energized from my wonderful Thanksgiving break at home, I was already dragging by mid-day yesterday.  Woof.  I rolled into my 6:30-9:30pm Church History class tired and anxious about the long night of work ahead. ...And then, we visited LSTC's Gruber Rare Books Collection, housed in JKM library. 

I was excited to have the opportunity to hear about these rare books from the library's current curator--and my current Pentateuch professor--Dr. Ralph Klein, but little did I know what we were about to see... 

Luther's "September" New Testament

For an hour and a half, my class slobbered (metaphorically speaking)  over original prints of numerous books including a Gutenberg Bible (15th c.), Martin Luther's translations of the New Testament into German (1522), and a King James Bible (1611) to name a few.*  It's not every day when you get to stare at such profound and tangible pieces of history.  I was tickled! To say the least, this was an amazing field-trip for a girl with an imagination--I could only think about the hands that prepared these books and then passed them down from one century to the next...

Oldest known complete
Greek cursive New Testament (9th c.)

I cannot express how humbling it was to be in that room. I was standing among books that changed the course of church history; I was standing among two esteemed Biblical scholars of the modern age; I was standing among my peers while we engaged this history even while looking forward toward our own discernment journeys and how we must continue too share the gospel as it had been shared for centuries before us.  

And while I cannot explain exactly why this trip to the library was so re-energizing, when I left that room I was ready to hit the books again with full force.  Three cheers for books!

*****

 

*For all you Greek New Testament scholars out there, Dr. Klein even brought out the big kahuna: the oldest known complete New Testament written in Greek cursive (9th c.), known to New Testament scholars as manuscript #1424!!!