The Lutheran Zephyr

El Salvador Itinerary

I am part of a group of six members of my congregation traveling to El Salvador from August 1 through August 11.  Our goal is to learn about the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, walk with them for a few days of their faith journey, and initiate a relationship of mutual support and shared ministry for years to come.

Our itinerary is as follows.  Leaders in the denominational office of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador are serving as our hosts and guides.  I'll update my blog as possible while traveling:

• Friday, August 1 - travel day, arrive in San Salvador in the evening
• Saturday, August 2 - basic orientation and introductions; travel to Santa Ana to meet and worship with members of Iglesia San Pablo
• Sunday, August 3 - worship in the Church of the Resurrection in San Salvador, visit murals dedicated to the victims of the civil war, visit Parque Planes de Renderos and Puerta de Diablo
• Monday, August 4 - Visit the Word and Image Museum in San Salvador, visit church for worship and anniversary celebration in Guaycume
• Tuesday, August 5 - Visit San Jeronimo church in Guazapa for service of dedication of lay leaders - evangelists, catechists, and deacons; visit the site of Oscar Romero's martyrdom
• Wednesday, August 6 - Participate the pilgrimage in honor of the 21st anniversary of the Lutheran Bishop in El Salvador (from what I understand, this is quite a festival and day-long affair)
• Thursday, August 7 - free time, and a visit to the San Salvador Volcano
• Friday, August 8 - Visit the Central American University, site of the martyrdom of the Jesuit priests; worship service for the anniversary of Communidad San Lorenzo.
• Saturday, August 9  - Visit Iglesia Bendicion de Dios in Cara Sucia (west of San Salvador, near Guatemala border), meet church members for conversation and lunch; visit Playa Bola del Monte (beach!)
• Sunday, August 10 - Worship at Bendicion de Dios church, return to San Salvador
• Monday, August 11 - Return to Washington

Matthew 25 Network's Obamessiah Complex

I am a Christian.  I go to church every Sunday.  I believe that God's Kingdom is breaking into the world today, and that justice is a primary calling of all Christians.  I also like Senator Obama.  I've given money to his campaign, and will volunteer for his campaign this fall.  With that profile, I'm supposed to like the Matthew 25 Network, the Christian political action committee organized to support Barack Obama in the November election.

But I don't.  I won't be joining the Matthew 25 Network's Facebook group, nor will I send this group my money.  I like Obama, and I like the call to action that Matthew 25:35-40 represents, but I wouldn't conflate the two.

I find the above poster disturbing, showing Senator Obama's profile positioned alongside the words of Jesus - as if those words and the symbol of Barack Obama are one in the same.  Obamamania is morphing into an Obamessiah complex.

I'm tired and can't write much right now - I leave on an eleven-day church trip to El Salvador in 36 hours - but I agree with pastorricky99 who commented on Matthew 25 Network's YouTube page:

Why can't Matthew25 use this as an opportunity to encourage social action and gospel truth and challenge candidates to respond appropriately? As it stands, this organization appears to be a full scale endorsement of Obama, and not an organization that will challenge the next president to be the one who exemplifies Matthew 25:35-36.

The uncritical embrace of Senator Obama - placing Jesus' words into his mouth, claiming that as President Barack Obama would stand for Matthew 25:35-36, the "proudly endorse" language - is all a bit much.  This is not an anti-poverty organization - it is a political action committee using religious texts to endorse a political candidate.  And that crosses a line.  That bothers me.

Another few thoughts: I am sure that there are many Christians - from the left and right - who stand for the truths of Matthew 25:35-36.  But what is the role of government in this (faithful Christians can disagree on this issue)?  Matthew 25:35-36 makes no claim to Caesar, but to the Christian.  And what will the Matthew 25 Network do when President Obama has to cut funding to anti-poverty programs?  Will they care?  Will they even be there?  Or will his halo turn into Devil's horns?

Senator Obama is already on a pedestal.  We need not put him on a cloud with a halo over his head.  Obamamania is bad enough.  This Obamessiah Complex is beyond belief.

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Clerical Collar Etiquette

I do not remember receiving a seminar or guidelines in "clerical collar etiquette" when I was in seminary.  From what I understand, it used to be taught.  But not any more.

I think, in part, this is because I was taught mostly by Baby Boomers who are largely ambivalent about authority and power, having rejected authority as youth but who now find themselves holding positions of authority within the church.  Perceived as a symbol of power and authority, many shy away from wearing it or diminish its function as a sign of the office of ordained ministry.  Somehow not wearing the collar makes them "regular people" - as if a guy in a polo shirt is guaranteed to be down-do-earth, and the guy in the collar is sure to be a stiff!

I like the collar for use by clergy in the context of parish ministry - not so much in hospital chaplaincy - and I have been wearing it nearly every day on internship.  I don't think I hide behind it, use it to define myself, or wear it to distinguish myself over and against others.  But I do I wear it as a kind of discipline, a reminder of my office, a uniform.  I have rarely received special treatment because of it - only once has someone asked if I was a Roman Catholic priest, and only once in the past year have I received a free cup of coffee on account of it.  Rather than a benefit, I often get odd looks and stares.  I'm sure for women it can be even more befuddling.

But I admit to knowing very little about its history or tradition of usage.  So, I'm wondering - particularly for you pastors who are generally fond of the collar - under what circumstances do you wear the collar?  When do you choose not to?  To which church functions would you arrive dressed in clerics, and to which would you arrive in "civilian clothes"?  And where the heck did these things come from, after all?

Thanks.

Mission Blessing

Today at my internship parish - St John's by the Gas Station - we prayed for six members of our community who are leaving on Friday for an eleven-day mission trip to El Salvador.  This blessing was offered immediately prior to our regular blessing for travelers that we have been offering throughout the summer. 

Here is the blessing we used.  Feel free to adapt and use in your ministry setting.  The final prayer for travel is slightly adapted from the prayer for travelers found in "Responsive Prayer" on page 331 of the pew edition of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and is copyrighted 2006 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

- - - - -

Order of Blessing for Mission Trip Participants

In 1 Thessalonians 2:8, St. Paul writes: So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves . . .

Hear these words again, this time as if they were coming from the mouths of the pastors and lay leaders of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, whom you are preparing to visit:

Les tenemos a ustedes tanto cariño que hubiéramos deseado darles, no solo el evangelio de Dios, sino hasta nuestras propias vidas.

So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves . . .

Are you willing to receive not only the Gospel from our sisters and brothers in El Salvador, but to also accept the ways in which they will share sus propias vidas, their lives, their stories, their own selves?  If so, say Yes, with the help of God.
Yes, with the help of God.

People of God here at St John's by the Gas Station, will you pray for Jane, Sandy, Kimberly, Kelly, Mike and Chris, that they might be open to see how God is working in and through the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, and that with our sisters and brothers in El Salvador they might dream about how God can work through our partnership in mission?  If so, say Yes, with the help of God.
Yes, with the help of God.

Now, let us pray for all who are traveling in this coming week, that they might arrive safely at the destinations to which God is calling them.

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

O God, our beginning and our end, you kept Abraham and Sarah in safety throughout the days of their pilgrimage, you led the children of Israel through the midst of the sea, and by a star you led the magi to the infant Jesus. Protect and guide those gathered here as they set out to travel. Make their ways safe and their home-comings joyful, and bring us all at last to our heavenly home, where you dwell in glory with our Lord Jesus Christ and the life-giving Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

The Rev. Tour Guide takes you to Las Vegas

Page 13 of this month's The Lutheran magazine features an advertisement for a 9-day trip to the Rose Parade, Las Vegas, and Laughlin, NV - starting at $899.  Your tour guide?  A Lutheran pastor.

Previously on this blog I've wondered about pastors who use their title and office for questionable purposes.  Las Vegas tour?  This seems a stretch of any definition of the Ministry of Word and Sacrament.  Holy Lands tours?  Sure.  Tours of European churches?  Fine.  But when the only reference to things religious on this trip are "Lutheran Services provided by Pastor Bauman for those in the group who wish to participate," and "optional sightseeing tours including the Glory of Christmas at the Crystal Cathedral," I have a hard time categorizing this trip as an extension of Word and Sacrament ministry. 

If this pastor likes to lead tours, that's fine.  But when he does so, perhaps he should leave his pastoral title at home.

Lectionary #, Proper #, or Sunday after Pentecost?

I've been looking at the lectionary and wondering about the nomenclature of Sundays between Pentecost and Christ the King.  For most of my life these Sundays have been called, "The # Sunday after Pentecost."  When I went to seminary, I learned that the texts and prayers assigned to a given day were also organized into numbered "Propers," and the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship materials use "Lectionary #" to denote the assigned readings and Prayer of the Day for a given day on the liturgical calendar.

For display on a hymnboard or on a worship bulletin, "The # Sunday after Pentecost" is more descriptive than "Proper #" or "Lectionary #."  It makes sense to the lay reader.  But, it is also misleading.

Because Pentecost falls on a different Sunday each year - some years it falls in May, some years in June, depending on the dating of Easter - the number of Sundays between Pentecost and Christ the King is different each year. The season of Pentecost can have a variable number of Sundays.  For example:

This year the season of Pentecost will have 27 Sundays.  November 16 will be the "27th Sunday after Pentecost," and the final Sunday before Christ the King (which is the last Sunday in the Church Year).

Next year, because of a later Pentecost date, the season of Pentecost will have only 24 Sundays.  November 15, 2009 will be "The 24th Sunday after Pentecost," and also the final Sunday before Christ the King.

Since we cannot depend on a fixed number of Sundays in Pentecost - as we can in Advent or Lent - readings and prayers for the Sundays following Pentecost are not organized sequentially from a Pentecost starting point, as the phrase "The # Sunday after Pentecost" would suggest.  A Sunday's position in relation to Pentecost is largely irrelevant when it comes to the lectionary readings and assigned prayers. 

Readings and prayers for Pentecost and Holy Trinity - the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday - are fixed.  However, after Holy Trinity Sunday, the readings are based not on a sequence starting at Pentecost, but on a sequence working back from Christ the King Sunday.  The readings in the season after Pentecost lead us to Christ the King Sunday, with its apocalyptic, dawning of God's Kingdom imagery.  You'll note that by All Saints Sunday in early November, the readings have made a turn, and through November we have readings that make some moderate mainliners anxious.  It's the relationship to Christ the King, not to Pentecost Sunday, that is significant.

This year, the season of Pentecost will have 27 Sundays.  In 2011, the next time we're in the year of Matthew, the season of Pentecost will have only 22 Sundays.  Thus, what we read this year on "The 27th Sunday after Pentecost" - the final Sunday before Christ the King this year - will be the same readings as "The 22nd Sunday after Pentecost in 2011" - the final Sunday before Christ the King in 2011.  It's not the # Sunday after Pentecost that is significant, but the Sunday's relationship to Christ the King that is significant.

So why don't we have a nomenclature that reflects this orientation toward Christ the King Sunday?  It makes no sense in November (especially!) to refer to a holiday months earlier, when that holiday does not determine the readings.  It would seem to me more accurate to refer to these Sundays as "The # Sunday before Christ the King," or some other phrase that reflects the movement toward the end of the church year and its hopeful themes of renewal in Christ's Kingdom.

One reason for maintaining a reference to the Pentecost season is to emphasize that we Christians are living in the age of the Spirit, given at Pentecost.  Just as the disciples were gifted and led by the Spirit, so too are we.  We are a church still living from the Pentecost described in Acts chapter 2.  But . . . as helpful as a reminder might be that we continue to live in the wake of the Pentecost, I'm not sure that we need a named season to remind us of that truth.  That's Christian Living 101, whether in the season after Pentecost, or the season of Christmas, Lent, Easter, etc.  And a Pentecost reference point seems to confuse our liturgical orientation during those many weeks between Pentecost and Christ the King.

Details?  Nitpicking?  Perhaps.  But I was developing a calendar for adult education, a calendar that listed dates and the liturgical day.  I found it awkward to refer to the liturgical name of Sundays this fall, because using "Lectionary #" - as Evangelical Lutheran Worship does - might be fine for liturgical bookkeeping, but doesn't make much sense outside of worship planning materials.  But I find that referring to the Sundays in relationship to Pentecost is not truly descriptive of what the lectionary does.

Finally, I have noticed that in the churches in which I have worshiped Christ the King Sunday and its eschatological themes often come up as a surprise shortly after "the twenty-some odd Sunday after Pentecost."  Careful preaching and teaching certainly should set the stage for Christ the King, but our nomenclature can help, too.  The four Sundays of Advent offer a clear chronology that leads us to the Nativity of our Lord.  The five Sundays of Lent lead us to the cross.  And the Sundays between Pentecost and Christ the King lead us to the eschaton. 

Couldn't the way we refer to those Sundays also guide us along the way?

I'm Still Alive

It's been three and a half weeks since I last blogged here - my longest drought in my more than three years of blogging.  And tonight's post will have little substance to it . . . just a shooting up a flare to say, along with Eddie Vedder, that "I'm Still Alive."

A few quick comments, with more to come later:

• The Summer Faith Fellowships - conversations about life that lead to conversations about faith - have gone very well.  We've averaged about fifteen people at each gathering, and have discussed gas prices, community, freedom, political discourse, science/genetics, and television.  In each of these gatherings we have shared some informal fellowship/mingling time, and then about 30 minutes of conversation about the topic, and about 30 minutes or so on the God/faith question: what does God/faith have to do with this topic?  If traditional Bible studies begin with the Bible and (hopefully!) lead to life applications, these conversations have begun with the stuff of life and then asked the God question.  It has been an amazingly instructive and fascinating experience, and has changed the way I think about adult education and faith formation.
• Preaching with non-denominational Koreans - Since Memorial Day Weekend I've been preaching on Sunday afternoons at the English-language service of a non-denominational Korean church.  It has been a wonderful opportunity in terms of gaining preaching experience and exposure to a Christian tradition and a culture that is distinct from my own.
• Preaching without a manuscript - I'm a fan of preaching without a manuscript.  More to say.  Later.  And thanks to all who commented on my previous post about preaching - the 24 comments on that post is an all-time record for The Lutheran Zephyr!
• Going to El Salvador - on August 1 I leave with five members of my church for an eleven day trip to El Salvador.  The Lutheran Church of El Salvador will be our host.  We'll spend most of our time in San Salvador, but also visit Santa Ana, Cara Sucia, and other locations.
• Enjoyed a brief vacation - over the July 4th holiday we went to the Poconos in northeast Pennsylvania.  While there we had a fun day at the Crayola Factory and National Canal Museum in Easton, PA (hint: the Canal Museum is as good - if not better! - than the Crayola Factory).
• Picked up and began reading N.T. Wright's new book about heaven: Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.  I'm becoming increasingly convinced that eschatology is critically important for how we view life, vocation, and church (some of you loyal readers already know of my interest in eschatology by my post All Saints, All Souls, and the Return of Christ).  I'm thinking of leading a chapter-by-chapter reflection/study of this book on my blog starting in September.
• Heard myself say things that only a parent would be caught saying: "I'll deliver the pee" (my five year-old daughter's "sample" had to be returned to the doctor's office), and "Don't kick the dentist" (that same five year-old was not happy to visit the dentist's office and had to be reminded of kicking etiquette).

OK, more to come later.  That's all for now.

Comment: The Sermon Manuscript is a Must

Dwight, who blogs over at Versus Populum, offered quite the contrarian comment on my recent post, I Preached Without a Manuscript. 

Whereas most folks who commented (and who spoke to me at church that day) respond positively to the idea of preaching without a word-for-word manuscript, Dwight takes a sermon more seriously if it is written down in advance.  Read his comment (and the original post and other comments), and leave your own comments over there.

A Different Kind of Faith Conversation - Freedom

Tonight's Summer Faith Fellowship (described here and here) will be about Freedom.  These Summer Faith Fellowships are conversations about life that lead to a conversation of faith.

Beginning with a discussion of our own experiences of freedom and reflections on what it means to be free (particularly as we approach July 4), we will then reflect on the freedom we have in Christ and what it means to hope for and live in Christian Freedom.  We will be taking a special look at the wonderful South African song, "Freedom is Coming."

Full notes available here as a Microsoft Word document: Download gathering_3_freedom.doc

Peace to you.