A baptism during Lent…I know, I know

I helped with a baptism during Lent on Sunday.

At my home congregation, a lovely couple recently had their second child – a lovely baby girl. I have known the couple for several years – ever since they started to attend my home congregation. For awhile, I babysat their first born while the mother was working on her advance degree. I adore the family – they’re fantastic. But, like many young families in NYC, they have outgrown their apartment and are heading out of the city and back into the wilds of somewhere else. I will miss them terribly.

The young family, however, did want to baptize their child at my home congregation before they left and they wanted me involved in some way. Since I am an intern at another church, very few Sundays worked for me but the 5th Sunday in Lent did. I know, I know – a baptism during Lent isn’t ideal but it’s what worked for us. I arrived at my home congregation in a collar (for the first time) and I was assistant minister that day. And to start off everything, my pastor interviewed me for the Children’s sermon.

After the sermon and the hymn of the day, we began the baptism. Sadly, we failed to position ourselves correctly (I should have put more thought in how to position everything) so the video isn’t perfect and I hope, next time, to spend more time focusing on making the baptism visible to all the assembly clearly – that’s the one thing I didn’t put though into before the day. Yet, it went very well.

And then, at the end, when I stood in the narthex and shouted “God in Peace, Serve the Lord!”, my voice cracked. You can’t win them all.

Dr. Erik Heen Gets a Chair

Yesterday, at LTSP’s weekly convocation, Dr. Erik Heen was installed in a new chair, The John H.P. Reumann Chair in Biblical Studies. He gave a lecture entitled The Antikythera Mechanism, the Bible and the Cross. Dr. Keen is a New Testament scholar (which is why I have not had a class with him yet) but all of my fellow classmates love him. We sadly did not include him in our class skit this year.

Click here to read the LTSP press release. It is possible that the video of the convocation will be uploaded to the LTSP streaming media page sometime this week.

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President Krey, Dr. Heen, Dean Rajashekar

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computer, professor, cross

Gmail knows I am in Seminary

Whenever I see these ads, I have the same reaction to them as I did when I saw Devry commercials on tv when I was at Cornell. I’m just waiting for Gmail to start showing me Lutheran divinity degree mills. Then I will finally believe that Gmail fully understands me in ways that few computers do.

The Board is Back In Town

LTSP’s Board of Directors are in town. I’m excited. Can you tell that I am excited? I am excited.

I woke up early this morning, prettied myself up, and headed to breakfast early. When I arrived, a breakfast buffet was before me. Bacon! Sausage! Pancakes! Eggs! Fruit! EVERYTHING! When the board is in town, the food at the refectory improves. The lawn is cleaned up. The President tells all the students to behave. LTSP beautifies itself. The sun seems brighter, the clouds puffier, the sky bluer (except when it’s raining like today).

It is a good time to be on campus.

I know, I know – a common complaint is that the Seminary is not being honest with itself to the board. Should it not keep everything the same? Should the food options be as limited as normal? NO. Heh. The thing is, the board knows. They expect the place to be prettied. They expect the Seminary to put its best face forward. The Board is very good at talking to students to find out what is really going on and quite a few of them went to seminary at some point in their lives. One board member already discovered that none of the computers in the dorm, nor the communal tv, work and that the students used all the desks that are currently being stored there to build a fort. The Board understands.

It’s how I imagine the Seminary might be if financial resources were endless or if we all won megamillions twice a week for the next three years. But I think what’s really neat is that during the twice-yearly visits by the board, the education doesn’t get better. My classes aren’t more enjoyable. The professors don’t get smarter. The quality of the education is still really good. It’s just the things on the side that get nicer and I’m fine with the things on the side only being really nice a couple times of years. As long as the coffee is hot and good (which isn’t always true but hey, there’s WaWa), I’m pretty easy to please.

Is anyone out there?

Yesterday, I preached for the first time at my field education site. Once I can figure out how to get a publicly accessible video online (it’s too long for youtube), I’ll make sure to share it with all of you. My sermon is, however, posted on Facebook so if we’re friends, please go and watch. I was told I did a good job but it always takes me a few days to get the nerve to actually watch myself on video. I need the distance that only time can give.

Now, I won’t lie, I was a tad nervous about preaching but I wasn’t nervous about standing in front of the congregation. That doesn’t seem to bother me. What was throwing me, however, was the actual content of my sermon. This was only my the third time standing in a pulpit so I struggle over several weeks with exactly what I was going to say. I sometimes woke up early in the morning to find my brain already awake, working on the problem. The text was John 9.1-41 which is a fun story but, good Lord, it’s a lot of text. What exactly was I going to say? What did the Holy Spirit want shared? What would the community respond to? And how do I make it so I don’t sound like a complete ass?

I have a feeling that these will be the standard questions of my preaching career.

It wasn’t until Saturday before it all came together. I sat on my bed, with my dog sitting by my side, with Britney Spears’ new album as my soundtrack, and I cranked it out. I spoke it out loud a few times, threw in extra line breaks, and timed myself. It came out under 12 minutes which I felt was pretty good (the 9 am service has a time limit). Before bed, I polished my shoes, picked out what I was going to wear, and used a lint roller to remove all the stray cat hairs. I felt ready.

There was, however, one thing that I wasn’t prepared for while I stood in the pulpit during the second (11 am) service. In my sermon, I peppered in a few elements of humor (I like to make people laugh – it’s a vice). Several of the jokes I stole from preachers I had seen during the week (I’ll source them later, I promise). Some I came up with myself. I thought they were pretty good. My message was an attempt at a quick law & gospel sermon – it was gonna be a tad heavy and I like the juxtaposition that humor can add in a sermon. At the 9 am service, my jokes got laughs. I heard some snarfles. People got into it. Sure, it might just have been one person (a fellow seminarian about to head to her first call) but still! It worked. So when I stood in the pulpit a second time, I was a little cocky. My first joke worked – a little laugh. But by the second one, nothing. By the third one, I got a little worried. As I read my manuscript, a thought popped in my head “had I fallen flat? Is the mic on? Do I need to try something else?”

When I told this story earlier today, a classmate of mine remarked “That’s just like a standup comic I bet.” She’s right. For a moment, I thought I lost the room. I thought people were rolling my eyes. I thought, for a moment, that maybe everyone in the audience were having their eyes glazed over, that they would start checking their watches, and that it was over and done – and there’s still 10 minutes to go!

When I finished the service and greeted people at the door, the positive comments from folks were pretty fantastic. People really really liked it. They loved my imagery and the half-dozen retired pastors in the 11 am service all said I did a good job. Not to toot my own horn but I think I did well (even when I subtract the standard niceness given to pastors after their sermons). And I really enjoyed the process of creating the sermon and seeing what the Holy Spirit had in store. But the next time the funny in my sermon seems to fall flat, I’ll try not to freak out inside. Or maybe I’ll make signs. I have a professor who has a few – they seem to work.


cellphone pic!