Apples to Apples, Dust to Dust

This weekend at Luther Seminary, Student Services brought the fun. Here's the recipe:

1. Pop & snacks in the library (gasp!)
   
2. Faculty: Bliese, Marga, Lull, Throntveit, Granquist, Henrich, Schifferdecker (and some spouses)
   
3. Student Services Staff: Krista Lind and Judy Hedman
4. 100 + students
5. Kids
   
6. Apples to Apples, Bang, Cranium, Clue, Catch Phrase, Chess, checkers, some silly game with hats, the Barbie Game and more!

So much fun! I love getting together as a community. I can't wait to see photos from the event because there were many taken. Well played, Student Services!

Ash Weds - Recap

Coursework. Community. Context.

These are the three word that we use to describe the journey of being a DL student. This past week was a heavy one for me. I spent Monday-Wednesday at a cabin in the hill-country (120 miles from where I live). I spent three days in retreat writing and reading mainly coursework, but also working on some creative writing of my own. I then drove to Austin to St. Martin's Evangelical Lutheran Church - my context. I arrived just in time to for the Ash Wednesday liturgy and Imposition of the Ashes. I continue to be reminded that I am dust and that to dust I shall return (that text showed up in our Pentateuch reading) as I continually become overwhelm with my call as both student & minister. For anyone who thinks DL is an easier format for graduate theological education, I hereby invite you into my life for Lent. Throughout this lenten season, I'll me documenting my own "dust" moments - those times and places where the struggle, hardship and reality of humanity is so evident. And so I'll record moments - big and small - where I am fully aware of my brokeness, my humanity.

Dust Reminder # 1 - After a hard week last week I still haven't recovered enough to post online in any of my courses. I got close - but I'm still a day off. There just simply isn't enough of me to go around at the moment.

Falling on snow

When a friend took me through a "class" on how to walk on the snow and ice I thought I learnt enough to keep me from falling. That was not to be. Yesterday, I fell full body on snow and ice, and in the full glare of the blue clear sky. Thankfully, no harm came my way. This falling act met others too. I am aware of at least three who fell on the slippery ice. In my culture we say, "slipperiness has no regard for gentility" with my use of the word"gentility" meaning "respectable person." Does this sound like the human inclination to "falling?"
So, if I have no control over my falling on snow and particularly, on risky ice, how can I live and walk in this part of the world where snow and ice reign supreme half the year? Well, one way might be to heed to the city of Saint Paul's declaring "snow emergency," and take the necessary cover. Although a temporary measure, at least to allow for ploughing of snow to be done, it will be helpful for your safety. The rest of personal safety is really a matter of being alert and knowledgeable on some basic safety measures of ice and snow. In this regard then, my lesson on"how to walk on snow and ice" is far from over. As long as I am in a context where snow and ice form part of weather conditions half of the year, common sense and deep awareness of risks and dangers of this climatic phenomenon would be worth investing. The analogy I find here is one which opens me up to Law/Gospel theological dynamic as I "walk on the snow and ice" in life's faith journey.

Sometimes...I get overwhelmed

Sometimes life as a DL Student is crazy and I get overwhelmed.

Last week: Sunday through Thursday in Chicago for Mission Developer Training. Thurs-Fri coursework and a week's worth of work at The Netzer Co-Op.

Last week I was a group facilitator in our Systematic Theology course which means the rest of the group was waiting for me to post. After reading a hundred pages about the Atonement, I looked at the framing question: what is theology (good) for? Now, I have an undergraduate degree in theology and I consider myself a pretty smarty guy - so until I realized I had volume two of Christian Dogmatics and not volume one, I had no idea what was going on.

It was a long week.

I'm back though now and refreshed by the whimsical creativity of my community:
RE:Post from netzerco-op.org

So, what is it about the new worship gig in Austin. Liturgy | ATX is a bold combination of whimsical theodrama and alt. worship lite (until we can get those pews out of there anyways). This past Sunday's disaster turned creative absurdity has raised some laughter and buzz around the blogosphere -

Paul Soupiset in San Antonio had a fun re-working of my email to him and Jonny Baker of Grace-London added us to his running list of Worship Tricks.

It is a strange thing to get acknowledged for our well...yeah.

It all comes crashing down

I’ve got three pets in my apartment: a beta (Marshal), iguana (Peapod), and dog (Cooper). Something happened yesterday that made me take a step backwards to think about life for a while (for a little bit). Anyone who has ever had an iguana knows that they aren’t the brightest of beasts. I love Peapod, but he tries to eat anything animate or inanimate – that has a splash of colour to it. Even after four years of confinement (and he does come out often for walks and adventures) his terrarium doesn’t make sense to him. He doesn't "get" it (and he shouldn't - he's a wild beast!). If something colorful finds itself between him and his barrier – he’ll ignore his boundaries and try to eat it through the glass. He also tries to eat my ties whenever he’s given the opportunity. When I let him crawl around my office (where his terrarium is located) he has free range of space to roam, books to climb, and things to try to eat. If he’s out long enough, sadly, he returns to his terrarium, somehow scaling the glass that he tries and tries to escape day after day. This struck me. The terrarium is his world—its home no matter how much he hates being there sometimes. He’s truly a creature of habit. When I was cleaning yesterday afternoon I broke his “world.” While shifting some of the branches inside of the tank I shattered the glass on the right-hand side. Glass was all over the place. I made a mad-dash to a pet store to get a new one, but alas, despite his opportunity to escape he remained planted on his heat rock. I started to think about life a little bit: what’s the difference between the world and a terrarium? The world is certainly larger, but essentially we are trapped. If that isn’t fatalism—what is?! It’s time to read. Take care.

-Dan

Living in the Tension

We say it all the time at seminary...you just have to "live in the tension" between "already and not yet" or that blurry area between posing a question without an answer and truly wanting to have an answer. It is a time for living in tension at seminary. At this time last year, I remember it sitting like a fog over the student body.


Well - it's back.

There's tension for seniors who've made it through the whole candidacy process and have been assigned a region, but still don't know exactly where they'll be. A senior could be assigned to Region 2 and land in Hawaii or Wyoming, but don't know yet what synod will become their new home. MDiv Middlers have gone through internship interviews (and lots of them!) and are just waiting...waiting to hear where they are headed for 12 months of practice pastoring - it could be Bemidji or Phoenix.

I'm avoiding huge life-changing tension right now. Instead, I'm living in the tension of preparing my first sermon ever and whiplash. I can't decide which is worse.

Ashes to ashes

It is funny to read the texts that we have in the lectionary for today. Well, just one of them: go to your room, close the door, shut the windows, draw the blinds, and worship the lord in secret. But, today in the grocery store I saw the sign of the cross, the mark of Christ, on the forehead of my brothers and sisters. I saw and knew the repentance on their hearts and minds. I felt comfort and a drive to worship. There are humble and authentic ways to worship, and Ash Wednesday is one of them. Unlike those hypocrites we read of, it is not a sign of spiritual advancement or really really really excellent repenting. It is a comfort and a reminder of who we are, what we have been given, and what we are called to be: children of God who have been forgiven and justified to love our neighbor. That's a secret that demands humble proclaiming both in secret and in the frozen food section.

LENTil Soup

As if you didn't know, we've entered Lent. Another thing you already know is that today is Ash Wednesday, a day where people actually parade into church to be reminded of their sin and death.

Today in chapel (some, not all) flocked to have ashes imposed onto foreheads; we imposed, we established or forced the awareness of our own deaths, our own frailties upon us in such a way that our death and frailty stare back at us when we look into the mirror.

Journey language often gets used, to the chagrin of many. It's an appropriate metaphor, I'm sure, but the journey we take is a journey towards our neighbor and towards our own death. I am dust and to dust I will return.

Bonhoeffer reminds us in Life Together:

The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I will die. And the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, will be raised on the day of judgment. ...I find salvation not in my life story, but only in the story of Jesus Christ. (Publisher: Augsburg Fortress, page 62)

I think Ash Wednesday is a good day to bury hubris. Like the third commandment is a ceasing against our striving to be God, Ash Wednesday is a ceasing against our immortality project. From Luther grad Nadia Bolz-Weber:

We go to church on Ash Wednesday to be told that we are dust and to dust we shall return; the collagen-injected lips turn to dust, even the pilates-lengthened muscles, the 12 essential vitamins and minerals and the bottled water. We are told that we can live forever with the right combinations of exercise, diet and elective surgery. But we know—in those inevitable moments of disquieting silence—that the oasis is not all it's cracked up to be, and so we enter the desert where we can no longer turn from the inevitable dust, where the seemingly impossible happens: destructive self-centeredness is transformed into cruciform living. read more.

May your journey or whatever you'd like to call it be blessed.
Peace.

Ashes on My Forehead

i got ashes on my forehead
and i'm trying hard to learn
this dust that i have started from
is where i shall return
and i will follow out of love
'cause there is nothing i can earn
i got ashes on my forehead
and i'm trying hard to learn

Here we are, at the beginning of the 40-day journey of Lent. It is Ash Wednesday. We begin, this day, in solemn contemplation of our sinfulness and mortality by practicing the imposition of ashes on our foreheads. The sign of death prominently upon our brows. I have to wait until 5 PM tonight to get this physical reminder but, like death, it will come.

Every Ash Wednesday (and many other days), I get the lyrics of this song stuck in my head and I love it. How wonderful it is to have this musical reminder from Jonathan Rundman's Sound Theology to celebrate this day. Have a sample listen to Ashes or, better yet, splurge the $0.99 and download it from iTunes.

"Minnesota nice"

It’s come to my attention that the Midwest is known as the cradle of mild-mannered, “nice” people. Don’t get me wrong – there are a lot of wonderful people here, but surely there are some jerks! Minnesota has been my home for nearly twenty-five years (save the years I spent in Iowa for college – I was so much closer to the equator down there). Have you ever found yourself being too “Minnesota nice?” A recent misadventure of mine has led me to grow pregnant with rage and wrath not unlike the prophet Jeremiah (“But I am full of the wrath of the LORD, and I cannot hold it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years” (cf. Jer 6:11)! Ok – maybe not!

Here’s a little story about a small town boy who couldn’t say “no” to a philanthropist over the phone. Once upon a time (that’s what we in the trade call a “stock phrase” for all my form-critical friends out there)…in a majestic apartment in Saint Paul lived a seminarian who had just ordered Chinese delivery for his lovely fiancé. When his phone rang he thought it was the delivery guy needing to be “buzzed in” to the apartment – but, alas, it was a local theatre asking for money! He couldn’t say, “I’m not interested!” and ended up listening to the philanthropist’s speech. When she asked for money he said, “I’ll think about it.” Now - even though he recognizes the phone number of said philanthropist and he purposely ignores it – she still has called the boy well over twenty, yes, twenty times in the last week (from 8:00a.m. - 9:45 p.m.).

Well, recently I’ve grown perturbed with people who can’t take a hint. I’m too “Minnesota nice” to answer the phone and say “No!” – But I’m not “Minnesota nice” enough to pick up when she spam-calls me! I guess I’m just a jerk. What would you do? Would you keep calling someone to ask for money when they don’t answer twenty-some times or respond to your voice-mail?! Interesting stuff! Have a good night!
-DS

Let the studies begin!

This upcoming Tuesday marshals my first test of my M.TH degree program. It’s always difficult to do a “blind” paper, quiz, or test. I’ve been reading and rereading my materials diligently in order to secure a good mark (the non-Gospel kind). It’s really hard to gauge how much studying is too much or too little for this kind of thing. I’m sure that any student understands the anxiety that this situation merits. It’s an all too familiar feeling. Speaking of familiar feelings - I hope that everyone enjoyed God’s gentle reminder that it’s still winter in the Midwest. Did you like the weekend snow? I suppose it’s a good way to keep your car-scraping skills in peak condition. I guess we can’t complain about it. We’ve traded our short, dark days for long, cold ones. I pray that everyone had a safe, happy weekend. This upcoming week will be a busy one. You know what? Student loans are coming! That is something for which we can all be thankful. Have an excellent evening.

-Dan

It Works in Many Ways

Request: I would like to request a blog about tie dying.
Dedication: To my assistant

This summer another student (my "assistant") and I traveled to 13 Lutheran camps across the Upper Midwest and western United States. In our travels we connected with wonderful young adults serving in leadership roles in outdoor ministry. We got great tans, experienced daily worship and prayer, received Christian hospitality, were invited into the richness of people's lives, and learned about tie-dying.

I grew up tie-dying with my quasi-hippie mother. We had a rigid strategy of how one properly tie-dyes and employed this for many successful 4-H projects. But, while at all these camps, I discovered that the valuable wisdom of my mother wasn't universal. It seemed every camp we visited had a different way of tie-dying. Each strategy had been passed down from the wisdom of previous arts & crafts directors. Some used salt, or vinegar, or urea. Some used hot water in buckets, some use dye in squeeze bottles. Some projects were thrown in the laundry, some set in the sun. What is the most effective way to tie dye with 30-60 kids?...well, it works in many ways.

Now, it doesn't matter too much what wisdom-inspired method you use to tie-dye. What does matter is that you realize there are many ways to tie-dye and not be so closed in on your own experience that you don't come to listen to or value the wisdom of other experiences.

So too, with the journey of Christian leadership.

My experience at seminary is not going to be prescriptive for your experience as a prospective student or a current student. There is not one way to do this. Before coming to seminary, I thought seminary was for deeply spiritual folks right out of college who had degrees in religion from Lutheran schools. Maybe some think seminary is for those who have been in the church their whole lives, or former camp staffers, or pastor's kids, or those who love to read German theology from the 16th and 17th centuries, or get ecstatic about A Mighty Fortress is Our God, or have their call all figured out.

While seminary is for all of these, it is much more and much bigger than that. Seminary is for people who have had jobs as bricklayers and accountants, who've gone to public universities to study Zoology & Physiology, who have been Christians only a few years, who ride motorcycles & who are deeply discerning how & where God is urging them.

It works in many ways.

Give it a Try

This week, Luther Seminary hosted an event called Day in the Life.

I was lucky enough to be a part of some great conversations with people thinking about coming to Luther Seminary. The students enjoyed brownies, worship, meals with students, conversations with faculty, an evening at Manning's (the local bar/restaurant), campus tours, sitting in on classes, exploring the bookstore, a panel discussion with current students and more.

Probably the most valuable thing for these young people was having the opportunity to ask real questions of real seminarians. They took the chance to break down the stereotypes of what seminarians are actually like. Coming to Luther, one can see seminarians have limitless personalities, experiences, interests, and vocations.

I know that when I was considering seminary - a campus visit was what helped solidify that inkling of sorta maybe kinda thinking about it. If you are reading this blog, and sorta kinda maybe thinking about seminary -- come on down for a visit.

Maybe I'll even get to give you a tour and take you to lunch!

Take This Bread

On Monday, February 23rd, Sara Miles is coming to campus for chapel. I highly recommend your attendance.

She'll also be at Edina Community Lutheran Church for their Living Your Faith Seminar on Sunday February 22nd.

Who is this Sara Miles? My friend Lauren describes her this way:

Basically, she's a self-described left-wing, athiest, lesbian who wants into a church in San Francisco...takes communion...and is completely transformed.

She adds:

Her book blew me away and I thought you might be interested in hearing her story.

I too was blown away by her book Take This Bread and am happy to let you know that you can get your own copy in the Luther Seminary Bookstore.

Rise and shine!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a true night-owl. I rarely go to bed before midnight.I’ve been known to dabble in my share of “all-nighters.” I like my sleep and make it a habit to not be “up and about” before 10:00 a.m. Well…it turns out that the little cold that I thought that I had was a full-blown sinus infection. The past few nights I’ve been going to bed by about 10:30 p.m. (not so night-owlish). My previous dictum, “I ain’t got time to be sick” – definitely has to be taken back. I make it a habit not to miss any class (especially since I started my new program). This week, however, I’ve had to miss two full days of class. I am blessed to have friends that took notes for me! I’m feeling a lot better today – but I’ve been taking these gigantic “horse pills” to kill off the infection. Interestingly, the physician that treated me yesterday afternoon was at one time a seminary student himself. He was a MDIV student who fell in love with medicine while he was doing his CPE (the clinical portion of the MDIV study)! Instead of the regular “Do you have any pets?” or “How about this weather?” type of questions – it was nice to talk to someone about theology. Anyhoo – I’m off to get some things done for the day. I’ve got a loooooot of catch-up to do! Have a great day!

-Dan

Hug a senior day, 2009

Today is draft day, or better put: assignment night. The day when MDiv seniors, approved by the
church to do ministry in the ELCA, receive an envelope with a number from 1-9. In my time here at the seminary it has been very anxious and often somewhat disappointing initially. A few years back the Concord staff released an issue on this day that I believe had bunnies on it and the headline: Hug a Senior Day. It had clues for how to determine whether or not a senior wanted attention (if he or she was happy and excited or sad and in need of solace). I'm not sure it will come to that, but I am sure that my fellow comrades or students would do well to receive prayers.

Colin and I will probably not be assigned tonight. We will be spending a year after we graduate outside of the country as recipients of the Graduate Preaching Fellowship. We're going to be in Eastern and Southern Africa. More on that later.

From here on out this chaos of the call will start to get more refined as students begin to know what part of the country they'll be in. In a couple more weeks seniors will find out which synod they've been assigned to and may start interviews too. It's a busy time, to be sure!

Turn Tables, Take up whips?

Today's scripture text on Jesus chasing market people out of the temple comes at a time when comfort is a much preferred state than discomfort. Church leadership can be hard and yet, like our Great leader, the Christ, we must, at times, take up whips, turn tables and chase people out of the temple. However, in doing this, as leaders in the 21st century church, we must explain " in what authority" we do these things. In justifying our way of doing ministry, small groups, preaching style, our music; I believe that we are in mission with God. Times are hard, we have become too busy out of God, new ideologies seem more interesting than our age old Christian heritage. Yet, tables must be upset, and complacency thrown out. Martin Luther the reformer did it and it wasn't easy for him. Some of us have done it and it has not been easy for us. Our Lord, Jesus Christ did it and although opposed (not in this text) but his whole leadership style was contradictory to the status quo. We are reminded that Christ's stance won the day.

The Judge

God Pause looks at Psalm 50 today. While reading Pastor Olin Sletto's comments you cannot help but be reminded of the covenant people, their covenant, and the new covenant we have through Christ. Most of the time I find it uncomfortable to think of faith and life in terms of a trial, a test, or a prosecution against me. After all, I was baptized into the covenant, I didn't choose to be the way I am, I'm stuck with it. How can you blame me for something I was forced into? Underlying this sense is the knowledge that much like the people of Israel and the disciples of Christ I frequently fail to live up to the standards of the covenant and the expectations of my God.

But, it is a good thing to consider judgment from time to time. And, when I do I am comforted that the one who is my judge has entered into this life, become my peer, struggled with sin, and done so not to find better evidence against me and my brothers and sisters, but to save us. Our judge knows where we have been and who we are. We cannot lie to him or ourselves. Our judge knows the pain, fear, apathy, and all the other aspects of our lives. We don't have to lie to him or ourselves.

A Day in the Life

Yesterday and today you may have noticed that Luther Seminary was hosting some guests. These visitors were participating in "A Day in the Life" of Luther Seminary students. Some were in college or high school, but others were recently graduated, already working in the church, or working in a career. In some of the interactions I heard people ask, "So, you're thinking of going to Seminary?" But, after listening to Dr. Bliese speak with these folks on Sunday that seems to be an inaccurate way of talking.

The folks participating in "A Day in the Life" are, much like us, in the process of discernment. Whether we are students at seminary or not, we are in the process of learning what God has planned for us or called us to. We are called to be be called, wherever we are. Figuring out our call by listening deeply and doing is the vocational discernment that our visitors and we are engaged in. Seminary is not an end of the road, or a culmination, it is a part of the journey we are all on, with God and his children, our brothers and sisters.

I Got Laid Out.

It is with deep regret, a fat lip, and a headache that I report the Heretics soccer game.

The heretics had enough players to field 2 pretty decent 7-person teams. Instead, a few of us helped another team who didn't have enough players, though most of us played the dreaded purple team (ahhhhh). The team has long-legged fast mid-fielders who ran a give-and-go on us all night and we just couldn't seem to stop them. They moved the ball around really well - we substituted players really well. Neither of our teams was able to pull together a win.

It was a rough go -- Robert hurt his knee and Jeni almost got kicked in the face (several times). About midway through the first half, I took a ball to the face. This wasn't a shot that just stings, or makes you stagger for a moment before gathering yourself. I got laid out. (luckily no blood). I had pain in my neck and the next thing I knew blurry heads were gathered around looking down at me. Our cannon-legged Kat was immediately coaching me out of hyper-ventilating and pushing on my diaphragm. It was pretty crazy and left me feeling a bit off for several hours.

I honestly don't know what the final score of the game was (it's okay, I have an excuse), but it wasn't pretty. Dennis did get a goal in during the second half, though. Fliegen der Deutscher!

Most missed player: David Lose
Game MVP: Jonathan Davis (who worked his butt off as keeper first half)

I ain’t got time

Former Minnesota Governor, professional wrestler, and sub-par actor Jessie Ventura provided us with about seventy minutes of action-packed, gore-filled, mid-80’s cinematography during the movie “Predator.” His popular dictum “I ain’t got time to bleed” is one that resonates with me today. This weekend I’ve been taking care of business (henceforth, TCOB). On any given weekend I work ahead doing homework and reading for the upcoming week. This weekend, however, I’ve been reading like a madman. Unfortunately—I’ve come down sick. I ain’t got time to be sick! I need to get back on my feet by tomorrow. I’ve got too much to do and too little time to be sick! I certainly hope that everyone is staying happy and healthy. Have a wonderful and healthy week!

-Dan