It is a duty and a delight.  I love learning.  The next few posts will be about a recent continuing education trip back in April.

Some pastors choose not to go away for events like this for a variety of reasons.  I happen to not be one of those pastors because I know that I have much to learn and I know that my learning will benefit myself and the congregation I serve.

I went to two events.  The first was at Valparaiso University, about 90 minutes outside Chicago.  The other was at Wheaton College, west of Chicago.  I highly recommend both events.

The first set of posts will be about the time I spent at Valparaiso with about 500 other Lutheran pastors, church musicians, and other church workers.  The conference was called the Institute of Liturgical Studies.   This year’s focus was on Christian funerals.  I knew that it would be a powerful event, but I didn’t realize how powerful of an event it would be.

We had wonderful speakers, vibrant worship, and lots of chances for conversation between colleagues about funerals.  In addition to the learning, we experienced first hand what a community goes through as it experiences the death of someone.  Tom Long was a plenary speaker.  His new book, Accompany Them With Singing, is a great read.

We were also blessed with Tom Schattauer from Wartburg Seminary.  He spoke about Ben Larson, a seminary student who died in the January earthquake in Haiti.

There were lots of great workshops, including one I went to with Walt Wangerin.  He has been diagnosed with lung cancer and has talked openly about his certain death.  I picked up his new book Letters from the Land of Cancer and started reading it.

Oh yeah – and there was the campus community to help focus our conversations… One of the campus pastors at this Lutheran college, The Rev. Darlene Grega, had committed suicide just a few days before this conference on funerals was to begin.  She was a beloved member of the Valpo community that everyone knew.   Which made her unexpected death all that much harder.

Just to give you a sense of how difficult things were on campus – I went to a workshop on the funeral sermon that was led by Fred Niedner at Valpo.  He talked about his ministry as a pastor and a theologian on campus and how from time to time he had to preach funeral sermons.  He had intended to share a little bit about funeral sermons he had preached throughout the years, and he did that for a few minutes.  But then the conversation changed at we found out that he was to be the preacher for Pastor Grega’s funeral the following Saturday.  As he told us that, he lost his composure.   I could tell how hard this was for him and how much he cared for this woman who had made the tragic and unfortunate decision to commit suicide.

Lots to process.  Lots that was excellent about this event…. More to come later….

I’ve been fascinated with this simile for sometime. The first psalm intentionally begins with the image of those who are open to God’s instruction. “[Those who are open to God’s instruction] are like trees transplanted beside a source of water; they are never without a resource to sustain their lives – mainly God’s live-giving instruction. What the tree imagery highlights is not primarily the aspect of fruitfulness but the importance of a stable rootedness. The root is in precisely the proper place – beside water, which represents God’s life-giving instruction.” (J. Clinton McCann, New Interpreters Bible Commentary, volume 4, p. 685)

The world asks us to seek a different rootedness. I often wonder if the world is rooted in the virtue of happiness. The saying goes, “Do whatever you want as long as it makes you happy.” Most of the time, our happiness leads us to an incredibly self-centered life. If you don’t believe me, go to any bookstore and see the number of books in the self-help section that help us to unlock the secret to our best life now. Don’t buy those books because I can tell you the underlying message of them: Life is about enjoying what I want, I need, and I desire. My happiness is what matters most.

Unfortunately, this sort of teaching often gets brought into the church as the gospel. But this sort of teaching is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church has said that those self-centered wants, needs, and desires often lack the deep roots necessary to sustain a fruitful life.

In other words, we take it seriously when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” It’s not about you or me; it’s first and foremost about God. My wishes come in second place to God’s wishes.

To use a bit of circular logic, self-centeredness is a problem because it puts the self at the center. That was at the heart of Adam and Eve’s sin.

Thank God our sin is not the final word. The ability to lead a deep life has been made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We human beings would be perfectly content with being enslaved to sin. But God knows better. God chooses another way for us and liberates us from sin, death, and the Devil.

I remember a time Caroline and I planted several bushes in our yard. Where we were living had some very tough clay for the soil. We spent a good part of an afternoon, working hard digging through the clay so that we had a deep enough hole to plant the bushes. Despite the sweat, sore backs and blisters, it was worth it. Had we chosen to stop working or to plant our bushes in shallow ground, our plants would not have survived. Thank God for the shovels and other tools we had to dig deep. Without them, we couldn’t have made a dent in the tough soil.

So it is with our faith. With out the hard work of digging deep, I am not sure our faith will survive. God calls us to use tools of our faith – Word, sacrament, community, and prayer, in order that we can bless others. As we use those tools to dig deeper, we can be sure that Jesus is there, breaking away the tough soil of our hearts and minds.

I’m looking to post once or twice a week and try this blogging thing until school starts back.

That’s a good thing. We’ve been very busy. The people of New Orleans noticed that we were here and how we made a difference there. A random woman stopped us yesterday and thanked us. She was a Christian, not a Lutheran. She said it was wonderful that so many of us were here, especially because of their faith. Another woman saw us in the aquarium and thanked us. She even gave us a hug.

It is exactly when we look beyond ourselves and look towards the interests of others that we live out our faith. (Phil. 2:1-8). It is my hope that these youth lead us to more reaching out in our community to see the ministries God is calling us to do in the world.

prp

We were blessed to hear Bishop Hanson preach. Music was great. A little fact about worship this morning… The planners used saw horses, doors, and a tarp for the altar. These items are to be donated for homes in the area.

One neat thing that happened last night…. Bishop Hanson read a letter to the youth gathering from President Obama. He thanked us for coming here and making such a difference in this area. That was neat. In all my times at the youth gathering I’ve never hear a letter to the gathering from a president. I would even venture to call this a historic moment for the youth gathering.

We’ve also been in the paper and TV every day. This was a big deal for New Orleans because we were the largest convention since Katrina. The economic impact was huge for this city. This is, of course, in addition to all the service project hours we did. We’re talking over 250,000 hours of work in the city. Bishop Hanson shared in his sermon this morning that it would take 98 years to have one person do the amount of work we did in three days. Pretty impressive.

We’ve had all sorts of folks from New Orleans talk to us about how thankful they are to have hosted us here. We’ve made a great impact in the community. God’s work. Our hands.

Good night to all. We leave tomorrow morning for the train station at 5:30 am.

Peace,

prp

After that we went off to our servant life site in St. Bernard Parish. We went to a recreation center with a gym and a pool. It was amazing to see the abandoned houses and lots still around. Remember the “X” with the numbers on the sides? There are still homes in the area with those “X”‘s on the side. There is still a long way to go in New Orleans and through out the Gulf Coast.

We painted an underpass under I-10. It is actually a great gathering spot for the community because it’s cooler than standing under the sun. Of course you would have to get used to the sounds of cats and trucks going above you, but it’s a part of living there anyway.

Tonight at dinner I was talking with the guys about the trip this far and asked them what they would tell them. I heard some really neat comments…

Walk. Pastor Russell really meant it when he said we need to walk. Go to the Lake Murray Dam and walk it. Then walk it again. We walk a lot. Be prepared for blisters.

Have fun. This is a time to try new things and be open to God’s work.

Talk to others. There are lots of people from ota states like Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. You will laugh as you hear how things are said in that part of the country.

Time to listen to Mayor Ray Nagin thank us. His smile is lighting up the whole room.

Later!

prp

Click this link for YG 2009 pics.

I’ll try and figure out how to post these pics on this blog, but it might be later…. Maybe after we get back!

prp

Yesterday we went and did some workshops and other learning events.

A few of us were talking with a hotel staff member last night who was here when Katrina hit. He was telling us that he left for Houston thinking it would be 3 or 4 days at the most. He wound up staying in Houston for 10 months. Then when he got back there was an 8 pm curfew. There were few street lights, few people there. It felt like a ghost town. I could imagine him resonating with the books of Lamentations as Jeremiah looked to see the destroyed city and at the same time hear a bit of Ezra and Nehemiah as the city is being rebuilt.

He talked about how a real milestone for the community was the Wal Mart opening. Until that point they only had convience stores open for groceries. Imagine how hard life was for countless numbers of people as they dealt with just basic things like grocery stores.

Here’s an interesting gathering fact… We are providing school supplies for 13,000 k-3 children in New Orleans. That’s enough for every child in the public school system. Pretty cool, huh?

Off to worship now. Later, y’all!

prp