The Internship Equivalent of Finals Week

While the rest of my fellow bloggers are winding down and taking a much-deserved break at the end of a long semester, my life is winding up. It never ceases to amaze me just how busy a church can get during this time of year - the Christmas concert (along with all the rehearsals), the Children's pageant, three Christmas Eve services, one Christmas day service (in which I'm preaching), and all the festivities throughout currently stand between me and a nice vacation on the 26th. Of course, I still have to decorate our apartment, wrap presents, and send out cards, too. This is most definitely the busiest I've been since beginning my internship.

This guy will look much more festive after tonight's decorating party.

With all of this going on, it's important to find a moment to breathe and relax. But it's even more important to look around and take all the festivities in. I am, after all, here to learn. So, I hope that this next week will not only be fulfilling spiritually, but also educationally. It's going to be a busy week, but I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot from it. And, when I can't find time to breathe and relax, I remind myself that at least I don't have to study for a final or write a 15-page paper! Despite how worn-out I may get this week, I can at least have that assurance.

I'll have more to share next week. Until then, rest easy, keep awake, and enjoy the holidays.

Moving Through the Journey

There is a quiet hush that falls as deeply as the misty rain that confounds our childlike spirits as we look to the holidays with anticipation and frustration. The chaos of a sea of papers descending on our heads seems never ending while we crawl in earnest towards the end of the tunnel, stopping only for a moment to lift a glass or two to celebrate with our fellow brothers and sisters who travel this road.

As quickly as the madness erupted, it soothes into streams fanning out into a mass exodus away from the Seminary. Finals and projects have consumed our every waking moment up into this moment as the year comes to a close. The conversations have drifted around to points of interest: Israel, Seattle, Nebraska, Tennessee, France, California and even a little town in the midst of Illinois.

The blogger and her camp family

What strikes me as interesting is that many of us who have answered God's call, our call stories are wrapped in our experiences in Creation-which have happened deep in the wilderness of camp. As outdoor ministries continue to strive to have a stronger voice in the wider Church, no matter where I roam throughout Creation my camp always has a special place within my soul and the people who embraced me as one of there own.

It is in this wilderness, where Creation stands bare, natural we too understand how our souls are opened to the love and mercy of God and even when we feel deemed not beautiful to stand out and be noticed, Our Creator showers fragile magnificence fueling the fierceness within of who He wants us to be.

As we travel towards the wonder of Christ's birth in this Advent season, many will experience newness of life, onto that pathway of serenity. For me, to feel the roughness of gravel under my feet, my gaze weaving through bare branches over my valley-and to have the place where God spoke, and still whispers to me so close I am truly at peace.

May your travels during this Advent speak life into your being, alighting it with the Holy Spirit and God's infallible Love.

Blessed Advent. God's Peace.

Greek is good vs. Greek is gone

While many of my other classmates are celebrating the “end” of their Greek class this semester, I hear the familiar phrase, “I’ll never have to do that again”. Unfortunately, I will have to be the bearer of bad news (the κακηγγελιον if you will). Greek doesn't end yet.

In our Life and Letters of Paul class, we were tasked each week to translate about ten verses or so from the letter we were examining on that day. In the “Book of Revelation” class that I sat in on when I visited, they began the session by translating a part of the book of Revelation used in The Messiah. I have a hunch that Jesus and the Gospels will call for Greek translation as well.

I have some good news too (or ευαγγελιον, for that matter); it does get easier. The more one works with the language the better they will get at it, especially if it’s classical Greek. It does begin overwhelmingly in a one semester course, but now there are only a few Greek surprises that will come our way. We can work with Greek now and not even for a grade! It can be for fun! (Hah, Greek for fun…guess that gives away that I would consider myself a Greek geek huh?)

Learning the intricacies of the Greek language can provide meaningful insight on several passages of the Bible. Even the different ways to translate a genitive (a possessive or distinctive form of a noun) can have a significant impact on how to communicate in faith languages. Consider, for example, the translation often rendered in Paul’s letter’s “the faith in Jesus Christ” which can be legitimately rendered “the faith of Jesus Christ”. This little change suddenly affects our understanding of Paul’s connection between "salvation" and Christology in a way that should be addressed and identified.

In the end, Greek can be one of the most valuable tools for anybody wrestling with the Bible. It has rough patches and might be very frustrating a lot of times, but I can’t help but urge those discouraged by Greek to not fret or worry, it will get better and I’m sure there will be Greek geeks like me to help if necessary!

Whether Greek is good or Greek is gone, congratulations are in order for my classmates who have conquered their semester of Greek! Way to go and ευχαριστεω υμων…I hope I got that right, I’m not too good at formulating a Greek sentence. Something to work on I suppose J

Until next Friday!

P is for Pastor

Today I completed my last test for what will undoubtedly be one of the hardest classes for me at seminary - Greek.

I am not a language person. I attempted four different languages in college, and only fulfilled the credit because I had a sympathetic professor who saw how I struggled and let me do a sociological study about American Sign Language and the Cleveland community. Needless to say, I approached Greek with an intense sense of trepidation, and soon found that Greek was far harder than anything I had ever tried to learn to begin with.

This entire semester has been a struggle. I purchased iPad apps to learn vocab. I hired a friend to tutor me, doing her laundry in lieu of payment. I made late night phone calls to people who love Greek and spent hours writing and re-writing paradigms. I have never worked so hard at something so abstract to me in my entire life. It all boiled down to this one test, and I look forward to knowing the test score to see exactly how well that work paid off.

There is a saying, "P is for Pastor." We need to pass the class so we can transition from talking about ministry to working in ministry. It's not to make light of our work here, educating ourselves to the best of our ability is our duty as church leaders, but it helps to keep that education in perspective.

A seminary education covers a wide breadth of knowledge. Not only do we learn practical stuff like how to preside over communion and what are appropriate words to say to someone who is in the hospital, but we also learn highly academic things like Biblical Greek and Systematic Theology. Covering such a wide gauntlet of options it is unlikely that each course is going to celebrate our strengths - sometimes they are going to show us our weakness.

But that is the beauty of being a part of the body of Christ. I will never be a person who could translate a passage from Luke in the blink of an eye. It will take me hours to do what could take a fellow classmate mere moments. That being said, I'm really good at helping a committee discern a workable budget, and I am definitely the person who develops a strong volunteer ministry. My natural skill sets may not be in translating the language of the saints, but I am blessed to be in a community with people where such talents are their skill sets. Together, as a community we do the work of God's kingdom.

Maybe the "P is for Pastor" doesn't have anything to do with passing. Maybe it has everything to do with recognizing we are part of a body greater than ourselves.

Freed In Christ

Original Poetry by the Gypsy Woman. Picture by R. Pitts

As the semester begins to come to a crashing halt and chaos ensues in many of our lives at this moment, a surprise was breathed into life during one of my Preaching labs. Many of my classmates, peers and friends have been introduced to the poetic side of me, as I may have mentioned previous and expected to hear the Gospel authentically through my words and reflected in my eyes. The one thing that I hope people understand is that Seminary is not a place to be stripped of who you are, but to celebrate whom Our Creator has called you to be. Therefore, from my Gypsy soul to yours...

What does it mean to be Free?

How does your soul sing when washed with living waters

Drowned to the darkness and despair of an empty life

Reborn in the endless melody of a new Son

Does the beat within bring your steps to the openness of Creation?

Standing in the four winds, hearing the rhythm and the love of ancestors before you

Solitude of the valley bringing you to your knees?

Whispers that allow the tears to flow?

Does the music intertwined with the softness of your hands

Pulling, twisting, reaching for that little sprout, little seed?

Bringing you to the Cross

Infusing your being, burning within the blood

Does the essence knowing that the Creator touches your spirit

That Christ walks with you

In bondage you are freed

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone? 

Blessed Advent season. God's Peace.

Saint Nick and Social Justice

As I've become acclimated to the culture and customs of the Lutheran church (Becoming a Lutheran was my college rebellion - Daring, I know), I have learned about many traditions and stories I had never encountered before. One of these is the celebration of St. Nick's Day on December 6th, which just so happens to be today. The first time I ever heard about the traditions surrounding this day was when a friend of mine gave me a small stocking stuffed with candy during finals week in our freshman year of college. I had no idea that some cultures give stockings of candy on this day in lieu of, or in addition to, a stocking on Christmas Day. And, I had no idea that a tradition like this was centered not on Santa Claus, but on the historical Saint Nicholas.

Of course, I knew that St. Nick was a Bishop from Europe who secretly gave presents to children and helped children in need, but that was all I knew about him historically. It wasn't until a year ago today, when a professor at LSTC gave a sermon on the life and work of this legendary character that I began to realize just what, exactly, the story was all about.

Saint Nicholas was a slight bishop from Myra who lived during the 4th century and probably attended Christianity's very first ecumenical council in Nicea in 325AD. But, he is best known for the gifts he gave to a poor family in danger of losing everything. In the culture of Myra, women could not get married without giving a dowry, a large sum of money, to the groom, and this particular family had three sisters. Because the three sisters were so poor, they could not afford to get married, making them vulnerable to being sold into slavery or forced into prostitution. Nicholas save the family from that threat by generously providing dowry money for all three impoverished sisters. This was no simple gift; this was an act that saved three women from an almost certain life of slavery or prostitution. This was an act of love; this was social justice done in the name of God.

Today, women all over the world are still in need of people like St. Nicholas to free them from oppression and poverty. Charities and organization all over the world are working to end human trafficking, forced prostitution, and poverty. One of the many ways we can help is by donating to organizations like Heifer International or Lutheran World Relief, which provide resources for female farmers (who make up 80% of the world's farmers), undereducated women, and artisans to create sustainable, life-giving small businesses which can pull them out of their poverty. This kind of gift is one that can literally bring peace to the world.

Wouldn't it be amazing if, along with the candy we give our friends and children on St. Nick's Day, we would give to those in need and teach others, including our children, to do the same? To me, this is the legacy of Saint Nicholas, and it is what Jesus Christ has called us all to do.

Don't Stop! Won't Stop!

The famous all-niter, it seems to come up once a year, when the perfect storm of lots do and little time collide. The list was getting too long of extra little things that needed to be done. Now they can be daunting, but the nice part is that having people around you doing it too, makes it a festivity. An experience that does not give woe to procrastination or misunderstood assignments that need redoing, but rather as the facebook and google chat lists get smaller, there remain a few names. And as those names disappear, others reappear, and you chat quick; an encouraging word or a website that will give a chuckle. Maybe you talk about getting McDonald's, but decide not to because just talking about it is enough calories to make you think twice. So then you go back to work. Moving from the table to the couch and back, discussing with your roommate how if only your professor could see the hour long talk you just had about the assignment, they would surely give you an A on that alone. Discussing how if the room was bugged no one would know what to make of your senseless singing and beat boxing as you worked on papers. I have to say I love the all-niter and all the wonder that goes into the evening. I feel quite accomplished and ready to take on the day with all my smaller list items finally out of the way, I can focus on the big fish preaching finals, reciting Hebrew, and papers about the Apostle Paul! And the Biggest Fish of All... Ugly Sweater Party!