EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past nearly four years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on Aug. 18, the 13th week after Pentecost. For the summer, we moved to live Wednesday night services that were simultaneously livestreamed.
This week's gospel: John 6:56-59
56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
Message:
So, as we have been talking about for the last five weeks -- you might be aware of the fact that this is the fifth week in a row that we are in the Gospel of John, Chapter 6 specifically -- this five weeks is known as the "Bread of Life Discourse"
And so I hope it is OK with all of you that I've decided to go in a different direction tonight. Being this is the fifth week, I don't think anyone needs a fourth sermon on "The Bread of Life." ... Did anyone not get what the "The Bread of Life" is in the first four?
So, I thought this would be a great opportunity to do something a little different today. I'd like to share something that was one step in the process of getting through seminary in the last five years, and I thought that going into a congregational vote on Sept. 12 that this might be a good way to open up and share a little bit more with all of you.
If it's OK with you, we can be a little less formal tonight, and if there's a question you might have, feel free to ask. So, is that OK? ... We can always go back to "The Bread of Life?" ... No. OK. Alright.
I know I've shared parts of the seminary process with you, but as you go through seminary, you're kind of walking two trails at the same time, right? You have the academic process that you have to go through to obtain your master's of divinity degree degree at Luther Seminary. But at the very same time, you're walking this path for the church, a path to be ordained. In the academic sense, I could take that degree and never go on to become ordained. t would just be a master's degree that I paid a whole lot for, and you know, theology just becomes a hobby.
But, of course, most of us that go down this road have a desire to be ordained. So you also walk this path, the path of the church that involves a myriad of levels, including the synod which is the next level of organization in the church, up from the parish. And for Faith Lutheran, we belong to a synod that's here in the northwestern part of Minnesota. I believe it's just over 220 parishes that belong to this synod. And there's 63 ELCA synods in the U.S.
From there, the next level of organization up is the church or our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. So, as a part of the synod, we also belong to our greater church. And they share this process called "candidacy." As part of this process of "candidacy," there are three different check-ins during your time in the seminary. During each of these check-ins, you need to pause and check in with the synod's candidacy committee and the candidacy committee folks from Luther as well.
In the first check-in, before you ever get to seminary, you have to go interview with this panel of people to judge whether or not you are worthy enough to go to seminary. ... As if they know your call, and they can hear god speaking! ... But this is the process!
Then, a couple of years later -- it was longer for me because I was on a longer trip through seminary than most -- but halfway through seminary essentially, there's another check-in with the candidacy committee and they say, "Yeah, you're still on track. You can continue."
And then finally, when you are about five to six months out from when you're about to graduate, there's a process called "approval." During this step, you interview the Luther Seminary faculty, and you have to write the approval essays which are a feared process for every candidate because it's about a dozen or so questions that pry into your theology, who you are, and how you see being a pastor. It ends up to be about 20 pages long, and it takes weeks and weeks to write.
After you have submitted your completed essays, you interview with two of the Luther Seminary faculty. Then they take their recommendation to the entire faculty, which votes on you. Then, after they've voted on you, you interview with a panel of four clergy people in your synod. That interview is also based on your essays. And they grill you for about an hour, and then they pass their recommendation on to the full candidacy committee here in the synod. And then finally, they vote on you.
Well, all of this transpired for me earlier this spring, and it is a very nerve-wracking time because when you get to that point in your life, all you can think about is: What if they don't approve me!
So, being you never get to see the behind-the-scenes process of seminary, I thought it might be illuminating for you to hear some of the essays that I wrote back in the spring, the essays that which were the basis of my approval for candidacy, and for becoming your pastor. And I think in that in these answers to these questions tonight, you get a pretty good description of what I hope to be as a pastor for you here.
Some answers are shorter than others. Some may sound like a sermon. Others are more essay-ish. So, at any point, please feel free to stop me and say, "What did you mean? Or what is that question about?" ... Anything that comes up, feel free to stop me and ask for more.
Question: Describe the ways you have nurtured your relationship with the Triune God.
My answer: A.) The most obvious answer is my pursuit of my Master’s of Divinity degree. Twelve years ago, I was out of the church and had been for two-thirds of my life. But then a divine order of events brought me to the doorstep of a church, where two pastors, a married couple, helped me heal. And slowly, over years at that church, the early childhood trauma and adult sorrow that had prevented me from finding a relationship with God started to mend.
After several years of lay leadership in that church, I was called to seminary at Luther. And since, over the past five years, my relationship has grown with the Triune God through my academic studies; through my own writing, reading and seeking; and through serving a small, rural ELCA parish for more than three years, first as a synodically authorized minister and now as an intern pastor.
Coming from an evangelical denominational background, I had a lot to learn compared to the many fellow seminarians who had spent their entire lives in the Lutheran church. And so I’ve had to work doubly hard not only to study the core Lutheran theology, but also to learn its traditions. I’ve spent long hours studying how Lutheran worship services differ from my religious background. I’ve spent additional hours reading core Lutheran writers that weren’t assigned in class. And I’ve also spent many seminary independent courses exploring how others view and see our Triune God.
I also am blessed to be surrounded by a network of great clergy colleagues who openly share their thoughts and theology with me in text studies, one-on-one conversations and through various synod functions. And I am happy to take advantage of those situations in which I find myself surrounded by people from whom I can learn.
Please remember, most of this was written about six months ago so the time references might sound weird given that I am about to graduate.
Well, there, with the first question, you start to get a taste of what those questions are like. Now you see why you feel that you are literally selling yourself to two different committees. So, if it sounds a bit like a sales pitch, there is a reason for that. ... Next question ...
Question: How is your relationship with Jesus changed, deepened, or been challenged during the internship?
My answer: A.) Frankly, I’ve come to know who Jesus is. Again, in my religious background, we focused heavily on the Holy Spirit, and we did not have the Christological focus that the Lutheran church has.
When I began at my church 3 ½ years ago, I preached a lot on the Holy Spirit, and little about Jesus Christ. It’s taken me years to understand the impact on Lutheranism of God’s incarnation here on earth among us, and his subsequent sacrifice. In a recent sermon I preached that God had to come to earth in the form of a mortal man and then he had to die to overturn the earthly empires that held power over this earth. He had to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom of God in a way that would shock the oppressors and the ruling elite. So he came in the form of a man, and he submitted to the injustice of this earthly kingdom to display his divine authority. And I know that I couldn’t have preached that particular sermon three years ago.
Secondly, I have come to know Christ in the others around me. I’ve learned that God is relational, and to know Him is also to know the ones who are your neighbors. I have embraced that teaching these past three years at my church, and it has allowed me to come to know Christ in an intimate way that I never could have imagined when I started out this journey.
So, that gives you an idea of how they push you to describe some of the things that you've learned during the seminary process.
Question: Describe two of the gifts God has given you for a life in public ministry and the ways you have developed those gifts. Describe one area in which you will need to grow as you begin a life of public ministry and how you plan to develop it. My answer: Gift No. 1: I am grateful for the gift of language that God has given me. From an early age, I took to reading and writing because it was an escape from the abhorrent surroundings in which I grew up. And for the past 30 years, I’ve worked at that gift. It has provided me a way to express myself in a world that I don’t understand. It has provided me with a career and a way to raise my family, in addition to pay for attending seminary. And I believe that this gift of language has helped me to connect with a variety of people in special ways throughout my life.
This gift of language has served me in a newspaper career, in my clinical pastoral education setting, in my preaching, in the act of sitting at the bedside of those who are ill, and in helping to guide grieving families through the loss of a loved one.
Gift No. 2: I am grateful for the compassion that God has instilled in me. We don’t have the space here to share the details of my broken childhood, but it was in those darkest of times I learned that every person is broken. And broken people inflict harm on others because they have not or could not find healing.
But I’ve taken that very hard lesson for a young child to learn and turned it to my advantage. I like to believe that I am the epitome of the “wounded healer.” One who can take the past harms inflicted upon them, transform those harms and then transfer them as compassion to others who are hurting.
Now remember, I'm having to answer that question in a personal way, and having to defend it in front of a bunch of Lutheran academics, the candidacy committee, who of course judge you on your vulnerability. And you can about get a sense of what these sessions are like for candidates!
Question: Describe your core theological convictions around Baptism and Holy Communion and place those convictions in conversation with Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.
My answer: A.) My core theological convictions involving Baptism and Holy Communion center on the divine symbolic mystery of both sacraments. Ironically, as I write this, two hours ago I finished teaching a First Communion class to four 5th graders. And my task was to somehow transfer my awe and wonderment over the mysteriously divine nature of how God offers us his grace, love and forgiveness through the very ordinary acts of washing ourselves and eating.
The four of them were not in wonderment over Matthew 26:17-19 like I was, but I tried to impart upon them the divine mystery of the everyday celebration of taking part in remembering Christ. Here the Lamb of God was replacing the lamb ceremoniously used in the Passover feast, and making a new covenant with his disciples. Jesus was granting all of us the opportunity to be a witness to his love, grace and forgiveness every time that we partake in communion until the day we can join him in the Holy Supper in God’s Kingdom.
In the eating of the bread, we are reminded of Jesus’ broken body, and in the drinking of the wine we are reminded of his blood that poured out for us while he suffered on that cross. But, the Good News is that the very partaking of this holy feast is a reminder that Christ did defeat death, rose from the dead and we one day will join him in his resurrection.
Recently, I had the opportunity to serve communion behind our altar to a group of about six people for the first time in a year. We haven’t opened our church to in-person services as of yet. But there was a group of women quilters who had just finished for the day as our Digital Services Team who helps me host services online was gearing up for service. Someone asked if they could receive communion, and ultimately all six said they would be thrilled to receive communion. So we set it up. And I cannot adequately describe in words the holy moment that took place. After the communion was served, I had chills that ran down my spine. And I knew absolutely, that in that moment, we were witnessing the presence of Christ. That is the power of Holy Communion.
The sacrament of Baptism is no less divine. Imagine that in the act of sprinkling a little basic water on a person, we connect them with the baptism of our very own Christ, the act that sprung forth his public ministry and transformed him from your average 1st century carpenter into a rabbi, the messiah and ultimately our savior.
What an absurd mystery that through our everyday encounters with water we are united with Christ. Through every encounter we have with this basic chemical compound, we are transported back to the days that as a young child, someone sprinkled our heads with water, and we instantly and divinely received God’s love, grace and forgiveness. We didn’t deserve it; we didn’t earn it; and we will never fully comprehend Christ’s sacrifice to give it to us. But we daily receive it nonetheless.
How are you doing? Is this OK? Is this a good substitute for the fifth "Bread of Life Discourse" week? ... Any questions? ... OK, we'll keep going!
Question: What do you find distinctive about the Lutheran understanding of God’s mission in the world, and why is that distinctiveness valuable?
My answer: The most distinctive aspect of understanding God’s mission in this world through a Lutheran lens is the principle of “justification by faith alone.” I can’t even adequately state how radical this concept is. What an absolutely absurd thought that the God of everything, the Creator of the Universe, who loved us so much, that he chose to come to earth in the form of a mortal man and be crucified just so that he could upend the earthly empires that keep so many oppressed and marginalized. And then that very same God offered us the forgiveness of all of our sins because his son whom he sacrificed paid the price for all of us.
Making things more absurd is the fact that God demands nothing from us in return for that grace upon grace. He tells us that it is not our good works we do for our fellow man, or the attending of church, or how much money we drop in the offering plate that earns us our spot in eternity. We receive our salvation simply from our faith.
That is the distinctive Lutheran theology that we should be shouting from the rooftops. That is the message that has the potential to bring back so many that have been turned off by the church’s message of shame and guilt. That is the message that has the potential to rescue so many who have been told that there is no place for them in the church. That is the message that has the potential to bring so many people to Christ.
Our message of grace can help combat the illegitimate and contorted message touted by an American church fixated with power, privilege and economic oppression. The Lutheran theology of justification by faith alone should be a liberating message to so many who have been told they don’t belong, that they aren’t good enough, that their suffering is deserved and/or justified.
We can use our Lutheran theology to be a liberating mechanism for so many. We can use our Lutheran theology to give hope to so many. We can use our Lutheran theology to help dismantle racist systems and institutions, and to be allies of so many people who yearn for such a church.
I share this next one because I think it ties back to our journey together. Michael, it ties back to your song earlier tonight. In a sense, this is my story and this is my song.
Question: Drawing from all your answers to the previous questions, describe how serving on the roster of Word and Sacrament or Word and Service will help you live into whom you believe God has called you to be.
My answer: For 20-plus years I lived with the tingling sensation of my pastoral call in the back of my head. Never forgotten, but seemingly always out of reach. But all of that changed about 10 years ago when I found my way back into the church.
Ever since college, I’ve felt called to some sense of higher purpose. It is why I enrolled in journalism and spent the next two and half decades writing stories about exposing corrupt systems, and using that influence in small communities all across the state to lift people up.
Meanwhile, I also had the opportunity to engage with dozens of non-profit organizations and civic groups, serving on many of their boards, helping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes, running the gamut of youth sports to combatting homelessness to supporting mentoring programs. I saw this as important work; as work that built up the communities in which I lived.
But now, near the end of my seminary journey, I can look back and realize that all of that was preparing me for this call, my pastoral call. This is the correct timing in my life for me to live out that pastoral call. Had I jumped at seminary as a young 20-something, I wouldn’t be bringing into my ministry the many gifts and skills that were honed over a quarter century in journalism and community building.
I know now that all of those years of service were a precursor to this moment in time. Now is the time that I am ready to serve as a Minister of Word and Sacrament; now is the time that my family is ready for me to serve; now is the time the church needs me to serve. … Now is the time.
And that is the Good News from this Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021.
So, that's about half of what I wrote for the approval essay process, and like I said, it doesn't come quick. It doesn't come easy either. You work it out over a lot of time, and you try to collectively build the essays. I hope that you found this valuable. A chance to hear something that you don't often get to hear from me because we focus so heavily on the gospel text each week. But this is a little bit more of my theology, and what I've from my years years here.
I just wanted to offer that for you tonight because I thought it was a good time. Yes, the process is difficult. The process is designed in a way that not everybody finishes the candidacy process. There's a number of people that just either change their degree to something more academic and gave up on the ordination route. There's others that find out that going down the path of ordination just doesn't intertwine with life right now. And they have to put it on pause or drop off altogether.
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