GETTING STARTED AT THE CWA

Today the bi-ennial churchwide assembly of the ELCA gets underway in Minneapolis. Over 1,000 "voting members" will spend a week deliberating over some important but non-controversial issues like helping relieve Malaria and HIV/AIDS by spending increasingly rare dollars for things governments ought to take responsibility for.

The really "prickly" issue relates to a Study on Human Sexuality that the ELCA has been working on since 1994.

Departing from classical Lutheran ethical categories such as Law and Gospel and the Orders of Creation, the statement focuses on sociological concepts such as "trust" as the guiding image.

This approach reveals the clear bias of the Church toward justifying the full acceptance of gays and lesbians in their roles as clergy.

Strong resistance to this statement has emerged, not only within the ELCA but also in sister churches belonging to the Lutheran World Federation, some of which are considering approaching the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to contemplate forming an international body willing to support the traditional teachings held by Lutherans for centuries.

What that means for the ELCA's future causes many of us traditional Lutheran pastors the jitters. We'll be watching the CWA carefully to see what future is in store for us all.

MEGAN'S MESSAGE

I enjoyed the ride home with Luke and Megan Sweeney. Although I've known them for several years, I don't think I've ever had that much time to talk with them and listen to them. That's one of the sad things about being a pastor in a relatively large church-- we spend time with people, but often don't get much of a chance to spend "quality time."



One of the things I enjoyed most about the ride was hearing from Megan what she got out of the event we were part of. Simply put, I learned that she really enjoyed hearing the stories that the speakers told each night.



It occurred to me later that she was picking up on one of the key elements of the four-night event. Every person has a story, and when they get a chance to tell their stories, you get a chance to share in their lives, and your life becomes fuller and richer as a result.



When preachers talk about "post-modernism," we are usually speaking negatively. One of the frustrating aspects of the way our contemporary world has become is that there is so little that really ties everything together. What we usually have is just "fragments," little pieces of life that may or may not be connected in any cohesive fashion. In fact, many times they actually contradict each other, making life even more confusing to us.



What Megan shared was important to me because it made me aware of the fact that there is a way of making some sense out of the disconnectedness of life we experience constantly. She listened to what people actually said, and she didn't feel compelled to tie everything together.



Maybe that is a good strategy for finding meaning in a world of randomness. Listen to what people are actually saying, and don't try to force everything into a meaningful whole. Of course that won't produce a comprehensive, cohesive "meta-story" that makes sense out of everything in creation, but that may be o.k. After all, every story is ultimately just a snippet of the larger story that we think of as God's Story.



So I will try to learn from Megan. I will try to learn how to listen better and to value the stories I hear for the sake of those who tell them. Later on some theme may emerge that ties things together, or maybe not. But the very act of telling one's story and hearing the stories others tell may be enough to make the "present moments" of our lives worthwhile.

THE FINAL 24

Literally speaking, it doesn't quite make 24 hours, but the title sounds good. The Gathering is now over, and I think we all agreed that the last 24 hours were the best part.

The Final Mass Gathering gave us a chance to be on the floor level, a goal every teen at the gathering seems to have. The music was familiar and when the program started, we had a visit from the Mayor of New Orleans who enthusiastically thanked us for lifting the spirit of his city. That brief speech was followed by Bishop Hanson's reading of a letter to the Gathering from President Barack Obama.

The evening program included several other speakers, one of whom was the author I read a year ago. He had a Christian message and told us that there is the "Evil One" who is at work in God's world trying to spoil what God created good. Others spoke, including a woman who told us she was told to speak about environmental issues but chose instead to focus on God our Creator. She believes that caring for the environment is ultimately a theological issue, not a political one.

Others spoke and their concerns were important, but one shared he regret that she grew up without any faith at all and wished she had what she saw present in the teens here.

There was a final singing group, the Katinas, who come from American Samoa. Their faith was clearly articulated in their songs.

In the morning we headed out to the Dome for the closing service. Again the music was familiar and clear. The Procession included many teens carrying the supplies and the equipment they used on servant days. The sermon was pretty good until the bishop started listing what he saw as "evils" in our world including racism which he said was caused by white power and privilege and religious extremism and fanaticism which he didn't further define.

Following the service we headed out to the French Quarter. Along the way we stopped at the boarded up entrance to the former Comfort Inn where I served as Hotel Life Pastor in 1997. Later we ran into Pastor Kathleen Koran who now serves as an Assistant to Bishop Rimbo. She was with the teens from her former church in Brewster.

The French Quarter was not very impressive to me. Much of it seemed so seedy that I felt embarrassed being there with the teens. Fortunately a brief shower came up and diverted our attention as we headed out toward Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant. After a waiting period we went into a room where a group from Massachusetts was having lunch before hitting the road for their 24 hour journey home.

Looking over the last 24 hours the theme seems to have been clear: "We can change the world—there is power in One." I wonder whether that is the point the teens got from the event. Changing the world CAN be good, but looking at the way change is coming about in our country these days, it's obvious that change isn't automatically good. Perhaps the better way to state the theme would be: "God is at work changing our world, and if we are willing, he will even change the world through us." Now that's the kind of change I can believe in.

Photo Album from Youth Gathering

I've published a photo album from the Youth Gathering on my Facebook Home Page. Check it out.

FINAL NIGHT

We left for the Dome at 4:15 so we could get a chance at floor seats. The crowd was large already and we waited about an hour before the doors opened. The boys came up with the idea of being an advance party like the Navy Seals, slipping into the Dome without having bags to check and groups to keep together.
They got through the crowd as we hoped, and found a row of seats right near the center of the floor, blocked on one side by the Production Booth.
So we were now "Conga-line accessible," a major triumph.
It doesn't get much better than this!

JUSTICE LESSON #1

Someone made an innocent mistake. She didn't realize that the wristbands were color-coded, or she simply forgot to ask, "Which team are you on?" It doesn't matter.

Her mistake went unnoticed for three days, but on the next to the last day of the Gathering, when the boys went to the "Early Restricted Session" at the Interaction Center, they learned a lesson about justice.

"You can't enter," the security guards said. "You have purple wrist bands, and today is the day for the Green Team's Early Restricted Session. Only green wrist bands can go in at 11 a.m."

The idea of giving each of the three colors their own three hour restricted session in the busy Interaction Center was a good one. For three hours our kids (and 12,000 of their closest team members) would have the full run of the place. The other 24,000 would have to wait till 2 p.m. to get in.

"But we are on the green team," James said. "No, you aren't because your wrist band is purple.," was the reply.

I was already about a half mile down the hall, just about to enter into a self-directed learning center when I got Laura's call asking me to intervene. She was waiting back at the Food Center with the girls until Megan got back from changing her shorts.

So off I went to see what could be done. Five minutes later I was there, pointing out to the Security People that obviously someone had made a mistake when handing out wristbands, and we didn't even realize there was a color code. Imagine being prevented from having what you had a right to have simply because of the color of your wrist!

We could have accepted their response and walked away. That would be a peaceful approach to the problem. But they realized that this was a matter of justice, and they waited for someone with a red shirt named Jermaine to come to hear them plead their case.

I must admit I was rather angry. This was not the first injustice we had encountered this week. On the first morning I went into the T-shirt distribution room with the two "Large" shirts we were given arbitrarily. Donna had realized we needed two "Extra Large" shirts and had tried to get an exchange only to be sent out to "negotiate" with people to trade them out. I took the shirts back to the same lady and told her what we needed, and when she told me to try what Donna had already tried, I told her I would simply stand there until I got the shirts I needed. We got the shirts exchanged.

This time I was there for the boys (and ultimately for the others as well). We told Jermaine that we had done our community service and the learning centers already and wanted to get in for the restricted session. I even offered to show her video on my camera from Thursday's outing. "I believe you," she said, and they let us in. Obviously someone had made a mistake and no one realized it until it mattered.

So what did we learn about justice? 1. Sometimes injustices occur because people make innocent mistakes. 2. Sometimes injustices are perpetuated by people who are simply trying to "do the right thing." 3. Sometimes force or the threat of force can intimidate people who are victims of injustice and deny them what they are due. 4. 5. Sometimes, if you know you are in the right, in order to rectify injustices you have to be willing to stand your ground. Sometimes injustices can be overcome without shedding blood.

No one planned such a lesson for us for today, but we did learn something from the experience.

BREAKFAST AT MOTHER'S
After the Agape-led rap worship service, we walked over from the Sheraton to Mother's Restaurant where they have the world's best ham. I had the Breakfast Special with ham, grits, biscuits, and scrambled eggs. They are a model of efficiency in serving tons of people. We're full and happy.