Looking Forward

A few days ago the 2011-2013 course catalog came out. It's a little strange to be reading through it and saying "Oh! I want to take that!" only to find out it's being taught during the 2012-2013 year. I can't take everything I want to take; and it's a hard balancing act between PTS requirements, presbytery requirements, personal requirements, and interest. For example, I need to take a class focused on a Reformed theologian. Next year the two being offered are about Friedrich Schleiermacher's theology and a class about Calvin's theology and modern reinterpretations. Both classes would be great, and both would help in my future.

Play rehearsals are going well. My main costume is really pretty, and I found earrings online that match perfectly and were super cheap. We perform April 7, 8, 9 at 8pm and April 10 at 2pm. Call the seminary's speech office for tickets (free!).

 This Thursday we're starting our Lenten reflection series "Daring...". This series is being led by me but is an amalgamation of a lot of different resources with a splash of my creativity. We begin with "Entering" based on the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as set forward by Luke. Works well for a first session. Preaching next Monday  on 1 Samuel 16: 1-13, Samuel anointing David. Works well because we're talking about callings in worship for Lent, and the Daring... series is focusing on Jesus' anointing next Thursday. Gotta love it when the Spirit pulls moving parts into harmony.

This summer I'm taking Hebrew, but I get time off for good behavior before that. Going to spend some time with the parents and attend a reunion of my college friends! Also going to take some time up in New York at the Holy Cross monastery, a Protestant Benedictine community.

Oh, and next year I'll be working at Christ Presbyterian Church. It's a very small church (15 members) focused on intentional community to make a difference in the members' lives and the community's life. They have a labyrinth as part of their church grounds. Awesome.

Summer Reading List

This summer I will be learning Hebrew and having already spent a summer learning a biblical language, I am preparing a summer reading list of books I want to read but don't have the time during the academic year. Thus far this is the list:

1. Dogmatics in Outline--Barth
2. Letters and Papers from Prison--Bonhoeffer
3. Preaching the Gospels without Blaming the Jews--Allen
4. The Halachic Process--Roth
5. In Memory of Her--Fiorenza
6. Harry Potter 7 (again)
7. Birthing the Sermon--Childers

Lent 2011

PTS is doing daily Lenten devotionals.

Lent is pretty late this year. Holy Week is our finals' week. That's going to be fun for the student, faculty, and staff who work in churches or have loved ones who do.

Lent is about intentionality in our spiritual lives. Let's start by asking the question "What in my life is keeping me from getting closer to God?"

Reasons to love living in an apartment

1. My own kitchen 
2. People walk their dogs, and they let me pet them
3. Your own bathroom
4. Walking distance from a Barnes and Noble, Staples, and Whole Foods
5. Bus conversations
6. Entertaining
7. Playing Guitar Hero as loud as I want
8. Meeting classmates whose names I didn't know before
9. Not having a day lag with mail
10. Brewing my coffee my way
11. Watching parents teach their kids how to ride bikes
12. Sitting on my porch
13. Thrift shopping
14. Spending free time flipping through cookbooks
15. Couch
16. Artwork above the couch
17. Going to bed at 9pm
18. Having room to iron
19. Living and going to school in two different places
20. Baking bread

Valentine's Day

Today I had the opportunity to preach at Rider University's chapel this evening on "A Different Kind of Love" based on Ruth 1:1-18. It went well.

Rehearsals for the play are coming along. Still trying to get those lines down. "The ancient saying is no heresy. Hanging and wiving go by destiny."

I've been in my new apartment for over a week now, and my kitchen is pretty well furnished. Tomorrow I'll be making chicken chimichangas. Because I can. And because chicken was on sale last weekend.

That's about it for me.

Replying to the Open Letter to the PCUSA

My seminary is on fire discussing the "Open Letter" document that came out on February 7th. A lot of us see things differently, particularly the young (under 30) Presbyterians who are on the ordination track. We are all committed to the unity of the PC(USA). We made the decision to come to seminary rather than pursue other (probably better paying) careers. To many of us the church is not dying. It's being renewed. The church in the coming century will not look like the church in the 20th Century or the 16th Century or the 2nd Century. The church is constantly hearing the Holy Spirit speaking in different ways. It is not the number of church members that makes a church alive. It is the presence of the Spirit.

I would like to point you to Rev. Margaret Aymer Oget's reply. She puts forth a much better reply about the other issues than I could at this time.

I respectfully decline the invitation to the gathering this August. I will be in Hebrew, preparing for Ordination Exams, and living into my call in the PC(USA).

Two Awesome Things

Two awesome things have happened in the last couple of days. I moved into my first grown-up apartment, and I got cast in the part of Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice which the seminary is putting on this semester. A good friend of mine got cast as Gratiano, the dude Nerissa marries; and we're going to have a lot of fun. Merchant is a tragic comedy with lots of interesting religious and cultural questions you can discuss with your friends after you've seen it. Most of the scenes Nerissa is in are the comedy scenes, although looks like I'll be standing through a long court scene with nothing to do again this year. Hopefully next year the play will have no court scene. The apartment is fabulous and most everything's still in boxes. I don't have many storage things yet, and I'll be hitting thrift stores next weekend. Bookshelves I'm in desperate need of. The parents have mailed me a kitchen-in-a-box, and until then it's sandwiches, salads, oatmeal, and microwavable soups. Sounds great to me.