This is Sarah, signing off

One week from today my stuff will be packed and Kevin and I will officially be on the road to our new home in CA. Since I have countless hours of packing to do, I doubt that I will be posting many blogs between now and then. So...I hope you have enjoyed my participation in the Life at Luther blog! I know that I have enjoyed the blogging and the comments and posting of pictures.

Actually, I have thoroughly enjoyed my life at Luther as a whole. It has been an amazingly quick 4 years. I have met some of the most wonderful people I can possibly imagine, my brain has been stretched, my faith has been challenged and I have learned oodles and oodles about the church and the work of ministry. I'm still a little nervous about beginning my own work as a pastor, but also excited and hopeful. I pray that God will guide all of us through these "paths as yet untrodden." I believe that God will.

So, with the awesome picture of myself dressed up for the 80's Prom, this is Sarah signing off! Thanks for the memories!

How great thou ark

I seem to remember being told when Luther Seminary began this blog that movie reviews were fair game. I've seen many a good film in the past year but never one so blog-worthy as "Evan Almighty."

Tracy and I went to see it yesterday in Eagle River, Wis., on a visit to her parents' cabin. We picked "Evan" over a wealth of other sequels, partly because, having seen "Bruce Almighty," we were actually caught up on its cinematic chronology (whereas we hadn't seen the second installments of the "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Ocean's Eleven" and "Shrek" franchises and weren't about to jump into the third). Also, we were really looking forward to seeing this movie, partly because it involves God and partly because it stars Steve Carell.

As a disclaimer, I should say that I'm glad I saw the movie before learning that it was absolutely panned by critics. I think these reviews are well founded, largely because "Evan Almighty" is apparently the most expensive comedy ever made (around $175 million) and yet, I'll agree, is hardly an almighty laugh fest. The jokes are often flimsy, there are many goofy aspects that serve no purpose, and it just doesn't have the luster of better-developed comedies. But it's really not as a comedy that I (and Tracy, too) liked the movie.

Carell takes the spotlight in this film, since Jim Carrey, who in "Bruce Almighty" took God's powers for a comical spin, opted out. Carell, who has since "Bruce" has risen from second-banana roles (also, notably, in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy") to leading-man status ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and NBC's "The Office"), reprises his role as Evan Baxter, who at the start of the movie is making the jump from TV news anchor in Buffalo, N.Y., to newly elected U.S. representative.

Evan is just getting used to the life of a Congressman, and he, his wife, Joan (wordplay, I'm sure, with Joan of Arc/Ark), and their three sons are getting settled near Washington, D.C., when God shows up and commands Evan to build an ark in anticipation of an unexplained flood. Evan eventually accepts this calling, albeit reluctantly, after much coaxing by the Almighty and the unrelenting pursuit of various animals that will populate the ark. Accepting this mysterious call leads Evan to butt heads with a coalition of senior Congressmen who are pushing a bill to develop fringe areas of U.S. National Parks. Meanwhile, his fellow officials, the media and his family all question his sanity.

Lack of Oscar-caliber wit aside, the absurdity of the premise flows nicely into where I'd say the movie succeeds best — as a story about the relationship between God and a reluctant but faithful follower of the 21st century. I doubt that many of the film's naysayers have been through the process of discerning whether to enter the ministry. And I'm willing to bet that, like me, other people who have regularly faced the frustrating questions of what God is calling them to do and why, absurd as it all may seem, will better appreciate this movie.

Carell, as in the more polished and critically acclaimed comedy "Little Miss Sunshine," shines in this more serious dimension. His portrayal of Evan's understandable skepticism struck a chord for me. Morgan Freeman thankfully reprises his role as God, and, I have to say, there is perhaps no better actor on earth to play the Man Upstairs. The overall portrayal of God is one that is, in my opinion (and I'm sure someone can find reasons to argue with me), as theologically reasonable as one could hope for in a Hollywood comedy. Albeit sidestepping how the biblical story of the flood involved the death of most of humankind, God here encourages Evan to do his will, mysterious as it is, while only offering the explanation that God loves him. My two favorite moments in the movie involve this assertion of divine love — one in which Evan mocks it in frustration and another in which he proclaims it: Responding to a reporter's question of why God would choose him, Evan says (nicely in line with the Lutheran doctrine of election), "He chose all of us."

"Evan Almighty," while certainly not the summer's best film, is easily one of my favorite movies to surface since I started at Luther Seminary. I may be biased by my status as both an optimistic Christian and fan of Steve Carell. I may have simply fallen prey to a Hollywood scheme to attract a faith-based audience. I may be easily amused by scenes involving monkeys. But in a rare movie that left me above all with a genuine feeling that I'm doing the right thing by answering God's call, crazy as it may seem, Evan and his ark more than stay afloat in my book.

Two out of three ain't bad

It's always nice to name a blog entry after a classic Meat Loaf song. What's even nicer is that the "two out of three" is in reference to the Milwaukee Brewers winning two of three in this weekend's interleague series against the Minnesota Twins.

As previously discussed, Tracy and I are big Brewers fans. The Twins, too, have always had a place in my heart (Tracy, on the other hand, leaves no room in her heart for any baseball team besides the Brewers), so we always try to catch at least one of the Brewers-Twins games each season. This season, we got to see the Brewers during their visit to our (relatively) new home state of Minnesota and with our (relatively) new friends from Luther Seminary. We caught two games at the Metrodome, on Friday and Saturday. And can you believe it — those were the two games that the Brewers won.

Joining us at both games was Jake, whom I must thank dearly for helping me out when my computer's hard drives went kaput a couple weeks ago. Jake is the not-so-happy looking fella in the photo to the left, taken Friday night. This is because Jake is a big Twins fan. He started looking like this when longtime Brewer Geoff Jenkins belted a grand-slam home run into the retracted football-season seats beyond right field. This momentous event put to an end our discussion of how Jenkins now looks more like Brett Favre than Brett Favre looks like Brett Favre and also put the kibosh on Jake's fun for the night. The game ended up to be what the headline-writers from my old newspaper would categorize very technically as a "romp" for the Brewers, who won 11-3. What made this game all the more fun (from the perspective of a Brewers fan, anyway) was that our seminary classmate, Sarah, and her husband, Brian, just happened to sit down right behind us. Brian was rooting for the Twins and gave Jake someone to commiserate with. Sarah is a fellow Wisconsinite and was one of the countless other Brewer-backers having a ball in the Metrodome on Friday. We exited the revolving doors that night to the strains of Brewers fans singing "Roll Out the Barrel."

Saturday, we were joined by our Luther buddy, Chris, and his wife, Heather. Chris is from South Milwaukee and of course joined me in backing the Brewers. Heather wore a Twins shirt but isn't a die-hard like Jake, who also brought along two of his other friends to support the Twinkies. Reflecting our friendly diversity in fandom, mascots T.C. the Bear and Bernie Brewer set the bar for sportsmanship while once again teaming up for various sideshows and shameless promotions. But Jake once again turned not-so-happy when the Brew Crew took the lead in the third inning and never looked back (it also probably didn't help that we kept teasing Jake about how much he looks like Twins outfielder Jason Kubel). This game was doubly great for me because it was the first time since Tracy gave me my beloved Derrick Turnbow jersey that Turnbow, the Brewers' fireballing set-up man, pitched a solid inning at a game I attended. After the game, this earned me in my jersey countless high-fives and shouts-out ("Nice game, D-Bow!") from strangers who applauded me for Turnbow's performance.

The Twins squeaked out a win on Sunday, which I was almost happy to see, considering that the Twins fans are such good people and that I was watching that game on TV rather than in person. But this weekend will long stand in my memory as one of the best I've had in the Twin Cities since coming to Luther. (It was also good that I didn't lose my voice from cheering since I had to lead in singing the liturgy from our new hymnal and deliver the children's sermon at my Teaching Parish this morning.)

It's exhilarating to experience camaraderie with random people who wear the same team's apparel, but it's even better to enjoy a night of baseball with some good buddies from the seminary — especially when we can achieve consensus despite our tastes in baseball teams. Saturday night's slow exodus through the dome's revolving doors included a reprise of "Roll Out the Barrel" and chants of "Go, Brewers, Go!" This prompted Jake, a Green Bay Packers football fan, to note that he would join in if only the chant were instead "Go, Pack, Go!" Somehow, with the Wisconsin faithful running out of Brewers chants, "Go, Pack, Go!" indeed soon echoed through the concourse. And sure enough, we joined in together.

Ten-men weekend

My allergies and asthma held me back from overnight outdoor adventures when I was a kid. They kept me away from fireplaces, much less campfires. Needless to say, I was never big in the church-camp scene.

Whereas I developed an interest in the outdoors over time (embarrassingly, thanks mostly to "Survivor," I suppose), it was just last weekend that I at last got my first real church-camp experience — with a bunch of guys mostly twice my age.

Each Master of Divinity student at Luther Seminary spends four semesters in partnership with a Twin Cities-area congregation, known until recently as a Contextual Leadership site and now called a Teaching Parish. My congregation is Galilee Lutheran Church in Roseville, Minn. I've had the chance to teach and preach there on several occasions, but the men's retreat last weekend was my first chance take part in any big event with the folks of the congregation.

Nine of us hit the road on Friday evening en route to Bay Lake Camp, a 72-acre island northeast of Brainerd. Strengthened by a heaping helping of Angus beef from an Embers restaurant along the way, we arrived shortly after sunset at the camp's dock, where a pontoon boat took us to the island, just as our 10th camper, Wayne, arrived in his fishing boat.

The island turned out to be a spectacular place, particularly once I was able to see it in daylight. As the camp staff told us, the island was donated to First Lutheran Church of St. Paul in 1908 but didn't become a camp until 1926. The island has provided First Lutheran with great opportunities for ministry over the years, particularly with youth programs. The congregation has determined to hold onto this unique blessing, even as the land is worth millions. Now, it's an exciting time of renewal, with a new lodging facility and expansion of the dining hall just around the corner, thanks in no small part to donations from more than half of the 600 households on Bay Lake.

The island proved to be a great place for Wayne and some other early risers to fish. They caught some nice bass and bluegill, but the real spectacle ended up being a swimming deer (they didn't try to hook the deer). There were plenty of spectacular views around the island, which the amazingly hospitable camp staff showed off during a sunset boat tour. It also proved to be a treacherous site for a disc-golf course. I not only finished dead last in our tournament on Saturday, but I also finished with a wood tick affixed to my shin — lucky for me, our Pastor Dick is a seasoned tick-remover.

In short, this was a great place to take in the splendor of God's creation, and it was a fitting venue for my Bible study on "Creation and the Green Church," considering creation in light of the environmental concerns facing the world today. I had never led a Bible study before, and I suppose it went pretty well, considering that pretty much any of these guys knew more than I did about at least some of this stuff. The only tense moment was when Pastor Dick lit a piece of newspaper on fire and waved it in the air as part of a dramatic portrayal of Genesis 1. I had a great time with these great guys all weekend, even as they teased me a bit for missing my wife so much. (It was the first time in our two-year marriage that we spent two whole nights apart!)

The real highlight, though, was Sunday morning's church service on the waterfront. I was pleased to take part by reading the lessons and, at the end of Pastor Dick's sermon, playing the part of a troubled passerby who is suddenly welcomed into a church community, played by the other Galilee men. A service in such a beautiful outdoor setting is something in itself, but the deep camaraderie of the entire weekend peaked amid the fellowship of the larger community of folks who bring their boats to the island each Sunday morning. I met a bunch of friendly lake-dwellers, one of whom confessed that she was fooled into thinking that our sermon skit was not a skit at all (I have to say, that group of guys has talent). The crowning moment of the weekend came just after the service, when one of our guys, Abraham, learned that his second grandchild had been born that morning (even out in nature, you gotta have cell phones these days).

What an adventure. What a way to catch up on all that church-camp fun I missed as a kid. Heck, we even sang campfire songs and made S'mores — granted it was indoors and around a fireplace, but even fireplaces are primitive and dangerous to me.

Life!

Okay, it as been awhile! This last month has been absolutely crazy. Let me first say that our trip to Europe was absolutely amazing! We spent time in Amsterdam, Paris, and several places in Germany. We relaxed, ate amazing food, rode the trains, caught up with friends, enjoyed some great German beer, and we even saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. Very cool.

After we returned from Europe we graduated! Family members came for the ceremony which was also very fun. It was a little surreal, but I have the diploma and I am pretty sure that they will not be taking it back from me. After that Kevin and I headed back to SD to visit family and to participate in our friends' wedding. Good times. While we were home I also received the news that the congregation I have been interviewing with officially voted to call me as associate pastor. YAY! Got that news on Sunday, spoke with the Bishop of my new synod and scheduled the ordination on Monday! In less than a month I will be ordained and on my way to my new congregation in San Luis Obispo county in California! God is good! More on all that in a minute...

THEN on the way back to MN our car broke down just outside of Belvidere, SD on Interstate 90. It was the worst! Luckily we have AAA and they sent someone right away to tow us the 100 miles back to Rapid City. Not only do we need a new clutch, but we need a new transmission too. Boo. Thankfully my incredibly generous mother and stepfather are letting us borrow their VW Beetle to drive until the Escort is fixed. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the Beetle. However the Escort breaking down did add an unexpected couple of days to our time in SD and is just a minor unexpected expense. But like Kevin keeps reminding me, at least the breakdown happened now and not in the middle of Nevada during our move.

Now that I am back FINALLY I am trying to get the next few weeks of my life organized, because they are going to be pretty big weeks. I am getting my mind wrapped around the ordination service. It's a lot to do! I get to invite special people to come and participate. I get to plan the service and arrange the reception. Whew! My favorite part so far has been making the invitations. I have this nerdy love of clip art and of filling out forms, so I kind of get to do both things at once. And then there is the move! The congregation is generously paying for it, but I want to find the most economical way to get us and our stuff there. Any advice on cross-country moves is welcome!

Laptops and Robbers

In one of my first classes at Luther Seminary, we as students were repeatedly asked to consider "What God is up to" in a particular place and time. Although it seemed like a good thing to keep in mind, it got on my nerves sometimes. God's actions aren't exactly obvious, and I hardly consider myself capable of figuring them out.

With the unexplained failure of both of my computer's hard drives last week, however, I think I actually have an idea of what God was up to. Yeah, I know. Sounds ridiculous. But bear with me.

When I suddenly lost seven months worth of files on my beloved computer, I immediately started pondering whether God might be sending me a message about my priorities. If you've got a half-hour or so, you can read about all that in painstaking detail here. For those of you who did actually read my last post, I'll provide a little update.

Thanks to my awesome friend, Jake, I was able to recover virtually all my photos and music from my MacBook and, in a very welcome surprise, most all of my precious notes and audio recordings from my Early and Medieval Church History and Lutheran Confessional Writings courses. It also looks like I'll be able to recover all the stuff from my old external hard drive, which for some reason failed at the same time my MacBook crashed. Due to technical specifics that aren't worth explaining, a bunch of my seminary stuff is apparently gone for good. But even though I'll be mourning the loss of my PowerPoint presentation on Count Zinzendorf for a while, I am extremely happy about what I was able to get back. And I did learn a lesson about not taking my computer so seriously.

But that's not the really theologically interesting part. That came Monday, when my dad called. Turns out that Sunday night, someone broke into my home church in Green Bay, where my dad is the pastor. With a frightening savvy for burglary and, sadly, an apparent awareness of the church's inner workings, the burglar or burglars ripped the church's safe out of its groundings and, traveling into the church offices through the ceiling, made off with two computer monitors, a multipurpose laptop and some backup hard drives. For whatever reason, he/she/they also took a bunch of pizzas, a pizza oven and the shoddier of the kitchen's two microwaves.

But the thief or thieves didn't get my dad's laptop. That's because, in a rare circumstance, particularly for a Sunday night, he had brought it home from the church. That's because he was without another laptop at home — I had asked him to send his personal laptop here, to Minnesota, when my mom came to visit last weekend. And that's only because both of my hard drives hit the skids.

I shared my dad's astonishment when he explained all this to me on Monday, while the church was busy with security adjustments. Someone had done a terrible thing, and I'm praying for whoever this was. But if that laptop would have been stolen, along with those backup drives, my dad would have lost just about everything. And that surely would have happened, were it not for my own mysterious computer mishaps. Certainly, all the files and programs that help my dad do God's work were more important than my copious notes from The Church and Music or Creation and the Triune God (no offense to Dr. Westermeyer and Dr. Marga). I wondered if God had come to the same conclusion. It was enough to make me shake my head and laugh as my wife and I were leaving for our anniversary dinner on Monday evening.

God was up to something. This time, I'm quite sure of it, although I can't pretend to understand how it happened. I'm not about to argue that God pointed his finger at the general vicinity of my apartment complex and zapped my two hard drives. I do know, however, that there aren't many other wild coincidences that would have resulted in my dad's computer resting safely at home that night. It's enough to make you start pondering atonement theories of laptops: "One dies so that another might be saved" — I mean, come on. But it does make me feel better to think that maybe, just maybe, I lost all that data for a higher purpose.

That God of ours. He's always up to something.