Sunday at Vang and Hegre

This morning I led worship at Vang, with Pastor Gary Wees as guest preacher in the absence of Pastor Terje Hausken. It was the first time I had been at Vang for a service that included communion, so it was great that we had competent, hospitable lay leaders to guide us.

The highlight for me was the children's sermon. I used the Spark Story Bible, which is always a hit with younger kids. But the kids themselves are the best part, of course. I heard all about their birthdays. When I said we were talking about kings, I was reminded that Ariel's dad was a king. And after we read about Jesus on the cross, a child who was probably 4 years old told me that Jesus died to forgive our sins, and he came back on Easter. "I know the whole story!" she said. Too flippin' cute!

I've been lamenting lately about my lack of interaction with children. After teaching the three- and four-year-old Sunday school class last year at Resurrection, I really miss that shot of energy every week. It was refreshing for my spirit to spend even those few minutes with the kids yesterday. I'm on the lookout for other opportunities. They aren't easy to come by with my worship and adult education commitments on Sunday mornings, but I'll figure something out.

From Vang I headed to Hegre, thanking God that the ice we were supposed to get stayed north and west of us (sorry for those who got it!). It was lovely to share worship with Pastor Dick Hegal, who was on vacation the last time I was at Hegre. And I showed up on the right day...there was a potluck after worship, followed by Christmas decorating. I didn't get to stay to decorate, but the meal was amazing, as always!

And I finally got pictures! I adore the painted panel behind the altar, so here are increasingly close-up shots of the Hegre chancel, plus a view of the nave from the front.

Purple funeral

This week I assisted with my first funeral. It was for a beloved saint of Grace Lutheran Church. I mentioned before that we started planning it during the weekend when we should have been at the Church Youth Fest at Luther College. The visitation then took place in Faribault on Monday and the funeral at Grace on Tuesday.

I didn't have much opportunity to get to know Arlene well during the two and a half months I've been here. (This, of course, is the major drawback of dividing my time among eight churches.) But I did learn that her favorite color was purple, so I did my part in paying tribute:





I couldn't have guessed that I would ever wear purple tights to a funeral (nevermind the fairly large purple earrings), but it seemed like the right thing to do. Several family members and friends noticed and appreciated it, and many of them were sporting purple as well.*

It was one of the many ways we celebrated Arlene's beautiful and creative life. She was very artistic, mastering everything from quilting to woodworking to rosemaling. Pastor Judy wore a stole Arlene had made, and Arlene's husband gave me a bracelet she made:





It was a lovely service, full of both personal remembrances and the gospel of Christ. There is no better time than a funeral to proclaim the sure and certain hope that death will not have the final word, that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, and that in Christ we have peace.

Also, the ladies of Grace really know how to host a luncheon! Complete with lefse and Norwegian flag napkins. Perfect.



* Side note: I have now received "best-dressed intern" or similar accolades at three of my churches. Some might find such compliments trivial or demeaning, but I have fun with my clothes, so I appreciate them. At another of my churches, an elderly woman expressed appreciation that I always wear skirts. I'm a little more ambivalent about that one, though I can take it in the spirit in which it was intended. There's so much to say about gender, ministry, and clothing. Others are already writing about it better than I could, but I still might give it a shot one of these days.

Weekly beauty: Stained glass

From Lands Lutheran Church, an unusual subject--a woman (Mary Magdalene, maybe?) at the cross:




From Dale Lutheran Church, a more contemporary rendering of the nativity:




From Vang Lutheran Church, an interesting configuration around the balcony.




From First Lutheran Church, another subject that struck me as unusual, but which I've seen depicted in a few different churches in the area--Peter's failed attempt to walk on water.

"Reclaiming YHWH"

A few weeks ago one of my professors, Mary Hess, posted a link to this piece on her blog, Tensegrities. "Reclaiming YHWH" talks about the ancient Jewish concept of YHWH (God) in comparison to the ancient Greek concept of Zeus.

The author, Ellie Roscher, argues that the early church's understanding of God was deeply influenced by the Greek view of Zeus, and therefore many of YHWH's characteristics were obscured or lost to Christians.

Here's an excerpt:

YHWH is humble, self-emptying, abundant love. Zeus is a self-contained, muscular, sexual, manipulative, controlling male. YHWH is relation with, Zeus is domination over. Zeus deals with creation like an appendage, YHWH is deeply in, with and through all of Creation. Our Church today is worshipping a very Greek influenced God. Zeus is winning....If we don’t start making the vulnerable, relational YHWH God accessible, we are going to keep losing young people.

Very provocative thoughts that I think have some merit. I encourage you to read the rest of the post for more on how and why this distinction impacts young people.

Unexpected worship

One of my pastors called me last Wednesday and told me he'd be presiding at a funeral the next morning. Consequently, he wondered if I could fill in for him at a "short devotional service" at the Twin Rivers Senior Campus (independent and assisted living apartments) in Cannon Falls. (When he started talking about scripture, hymns, a "meditation," and communion, I caught on to his verbal trickery and realized we were really talking about a full worship service.)

With confirmation Wednesday evening, I didn't have much time to prepare a service and sermon for Thursday morning, but I had some good resources in my toolbox, so I got it pulled together. Thankfully, my clinical pastoral education experience had included worship at Ebenezer Ridges Care Center, so at least I had some idea what to expect. I brought CDs for the hymns in case they didn't have an accompanist (they didn't), and I photocopied the hymns and parts of the service that included congregational responses in case they didn't have hymnals (they didn't).

About 15-20 people attended and it was lovely to share worship with such faithful saints. Here's the chapel space at Twin Rivers.





After worship, I opened the Veterans Day flag-raising observance with a prayer. Thankfully, I had been warned about that so I was prepared. Veterans Day is meaningful for me in an abstract way, but it was touching to share this holiday with people for whom it has much more personal meaning.





Twin Rivers is a very nice facility and the folks I talked to were quite happy there. I even got to chat with the gentleman I visited in the hospital my first weekend of internship, and I hope to visit again soon!

Birthday festivities

Last Monday was my friend Clint's birthday. I love when Clint has a birthday. During summer Greek two years ago, when I hardly knew him yet, Clint learned I was 28 and called me ancient, and he has yet to live it down. So every time he has a birthday, I can tell him he's inching closer to being ancient himself. Next year he will turn 28 and will officially cross over into ancient territory.

I was in the Cities already for the fall theological conference, as was my friend Mat, and we happened to have a free evening Monday. So we headed over to Clint's place, where we were joined by some other friends for dinner and games.





We played Mexican Train Dominoes, which I had never played before. It was fun. The best part was Clint and Mat's propensity for angles in their train. Check out the utter mess they made compared to the rest of our neat, normal right angles. Craziness.





Never a dull moment.

Fall theological conference

The Southeast Minnesota Synod recently held its annual fall theological conference for pastors and other church leaders.

We gathered in Bloomington and attended four presentations on theological topics ranging from how we relate to scripture to how ministry is changing from decades past. We worshiped each day, with evening prayer on Sunday, remembrance of saints on Monday, and Holy Communion on Tuesday. Here is Bishop Harold Usgaard leading worship on Tuesday morning.





We had time just to socialize, which is always a delight. It was nice to see familiar faces from text study and conference meetings, and to meet new people from around the synod. And it's always great to spend time with fellow interns. We (the interns, that is) even enjoyed breakfast with the bishop one morning.

As a result of that breakfast with the bishop, we interns all got to opening worship just before it started that day, so there wasn't much seating left. We ended up clustered in the front corner. It was like a kiddie table at Thanksgiving but at least we were in good company. Here's my friend and fellow intern, Mat, and the rest of the room from our vantage point.





It was a great chance to gather, and the worship was especially refreshing. As the bishop said at our breakfast, it can be difficult to really worship when you're the one up front having to pay attention to what comes next and where you need to be. So worship opportunities like this are a nice change of pace.

First snow and canceled plans

It snowed. Friday night, all day today (Saturday). It's supposed to keep it up tomorrow too. Wet, heavy, gross snow. More like slush once it's on the ground. And ridiculously slippery.

My supervisor, Judy, and I were planning to take five high school students to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, for the Church Youth Fest this weekend. We gathered at Grace in Nerstrand this morning. I almost slid into the ditch on the way there, going only 30 mph. It took Judy more than twice as long as usual to make her commute. It was ugly.

Here's my driveway earlier this evening, after quite a bit of melting. Still snowing, as you can see.








So Judy finally arrived about a half-hour after our appointed gathering time, and we probably spent another 20 minutes trying to decide whether or not to go. Painful deliberations! The roads were awful, but we knew they'd probably get better south of Rochester, but it's an hour to Rochester in good weather. We would have missed the first few hours of the retreat.

The kids were so excited that we really hated to let them down, but we finally decided it just wasn't worth taking the chance with other people's children. We're hoping to plan something else fun to try to make it up to them. Those cancellation decisions are agonizing!

As it turned out, we still had to do a little bit of driving that day, as we went to Faribault to help a family begin planning a funeral, which will take place this week. It was a slippery and unpleasant trip, and I was quite relieved Judy was driving!

We had to stop on the way to clear the car a little, so we pulled into St. John's United Church of Christ outside Nerstrand.





The trip back from Faribault wasn't quite as treacherous, so we kept wondering whether we had done the right thing in canceling. Who knows? Agonizing decisions, I tell ya.

Meanwhile, I now find myself unexpectedly without Sunday responsibilities! I imagine I'll end up at Grace for worship, simply because Grace and Vang are closest to me, and I'll be at Vang next weekend. I'll hardly know how to function on such a carefree Sunday morning, but I think it'll come back to me.

Weekly beauty: Prayer space

Here's my little space for prayer, tucked in a corner of my bedroom. I adore it.








You can see better photos of my icons here. The space also includes candles (obviously), a Bible, a hymnal, several other devotional books, and prayer beads. The binder contains several printed copies of Macha Chmakoff's paintings, which I posted about here.

Setting apart a space like this makes it much easier for me to put aside other concerns, shut out distractions, and engage more fully in prayer. We are, after all, embodied people, so surroundings and senses make a difference in our prayer and worship.

I absolutely believe and affirm that we can pray anytime and anywhere, and I often do just that. But I also like to carve out intentional time to pray in a more focused way than I can usually manage with my "anytime/anywhere" prayers, and this space helps me do that.

Taking charge

The seven pastors I work with have well over 200 years of combined ministry experience, and once a month we gather to discuss a topic of my choosing. They pass along their extensive wisdom--experiences, reflection, tips and tricks. It's magnificent.

Last week we got together and discussed weddings. We talked a lot about pre-marital preparation and other issues, but also about managing the rehearsal and ceremony. Specifically, it can sometimes (not always, by any means!) be challenging to work with photographers, outside wedding coordinators, and over-zealous family members.

Their comments reminded me of this blog post from Beauty Tips for Ministers, one of my favorite blogs. The blog's author is a Unitarian Universalist minister in Massachusetts, and she writes thoughtfully and humorously about many different aspects of ministry as a woman. She recently wrote about the importance of establishing oneself as the authority within the context of a wedding, and not allowing the spectacle to overshadow the sacred. Here's an excerpt:

My first rule is, ask nicely. The moment that your reasonable and polite request gets ANY pushback, become all business and be assertive. If you STILL get pushback, morph immediately into Rev. Do-Not-Mess-With-Me. Perfect your steely death gaze....I’m sorry, darlings, YOU must be the Alpha at any wedding or funeral. Not the sound guy, not the wedding planner, not the florist or the caterer. If bringing on an In Charge persona isn’t your thing, fake one until it comes naturally. We’re not out to win Miss Popularity or to be warm and sweet and get walked all over.

It was a good reminder that pastoral office carries with it an authority that I have to claim if I'm to serve effectively. Much of the time, it's helpful and appropriate for a pastor to tread lightly and walk alongside those she's serving. Other times, it's necessary to take a more assertive stance in defense of the gospel and its proclamation in a particular context.

It's something I've been living and growing with throughout my seminary study. So perhaps my progress needs to be tested. Is anyone willing to cross me so I can practice being "Rev. Do-Not-Mess-With-Me"?