Ends and Beginnings and Celebrations and Et Ceteras

Okay, so I haven't been around the last couple weeks.

I know.

I've missed you too.

I simply had a hard time justifying spending time writing things that were not my last few assignments for seminary. And now they're done. They're all done. What a time of life, right? Marcie and I are going to have another child in July-ish, I'm done with seminary, and I'll be a pastor at a church sometime (hopefully) soon. It's been crazy ,but here are a few things I've been thankful for in the past couple weeks:

• A Very Rosie Christmas Concert - On Friday night, Dec. 5, Marcie and I went to the Rosie Thomas Christmas concert hosted by Calvin College at the Ladies Literary Club in downtown Grand Rapids. It was fun, and one of those shows that both Marcie and I can enjoy in equal measure. Rosie is ridiculous, hilarious, utterly unpretentious, and her singing voice is simply beautiful. Rosie T is a paradox, and I think that's why I like her so much. Also it was most excellent to hang out with the Zabel's.
• Call + Response - The very next night, we went to see Call + Response, a rockumentary about human trafficking and the contemporary slave trade. Cornell West's insight into slave music and The Scrolls' performance of Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" were highlights of the film for me. Some of it was really hard to hear, but it was well worth the watch. Kudos to Justin Dillon for taking on the project.
• My Seminary Friends - I won't necessarily miss the drive, but I'll miss the people. I'm pretty confident we'll see each other around, but with a lot less regularity.
• My Last Night on Earth (or, rather, in Chicago) - A small gathering of my aforementioned seminary friends went to the Chicago Ale House for dinner on Tuesday night to celebrate my last night in Chicago, my last night on campus as a North Park Seminary student. It was nice to just sit back and enjoy the moment, even though all of us had large assignments and finals looming over our heads. Also, mad props to Tommy for giving us a discount.
• The Corner Landing - There's a little place in Ionia, MI that serves all you can eat prime rib on Thursday nights, and it's called the Corner Landing. Marcie asked if I wanted to meet her parents out there for dinner Thursday night. I still had a paper to finish, so I was hesitant, but the reality is that I will do anything for prime rib. When we got there, I found out that it was a surprise party for me! There was a whole mess of family there, and they had balloons, cards, presents and many congratulations for me. I'm so lucky to have a wife who does those sorts of things for me. Also, my father-in-law gave a toast that brought me to tears. It was good.
• Marcie's birthday - Marcie had a birthday on Friday, and Addison and I had a blast getting ready for it: buying presents, wrapping presents, baking a cake and practicing singing "Happy Birthday" with the guitar. Unfortunately Marcie wasn't feeling very well, so it was pretty "chill." Thankfully, the first trimester is almost over, and with it (hopefully) the nausea.

Over the last month or so, I've been reminded over and over of some words from the (only) hit song by Semisonic, "Closing Time." The lyric is, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." It rings true in so many ways in my life right now, as I grieve some ends whilst (yes, whilst) anticipating new beginnings with great joy.

In the meantime, I'm just trying to take it all in.

Reflections on Completing Seminary

I will complete my M.Div in less than...

...wait for it...

...keep waiting...

A little longer...

... ...

... ... ...

SIX weeks.

If you skipped to the answer before reading all the ellipses, you're no fun. And probably a communist.

Your political stances aside, I'm not entirely sure what to think or feel about this finishing of seminary. I'm excited, but a bit scared; relieved, but a bit apprehensive.

I've enjoyed the journey. I started in the fall of '04, just before the last election (the release of Bush version 2.0). We lived in Chicago for a year, Indianapolis for two, and now Grand Rapids for nearly a year and a half. Addison was born in Indy, and though it seems weird, she will forever be a Hoosier. I've been a full-time student, a full-time pastor, a full-time chaplain, a part-time student and a part-time pastor, not necessarily in that order.

In the next step, I'll be a full-time pastor. I've had a great experience so far working with the Evangelical Covenant Church to find a church that's the right fit for us and the church. The right fit hasn't come quite yet, but we've learned a lot from each conversation, each interview, each encounter. I've met great people from a few different search committees who demonstrate hearts for Christ and his church.

Early in the journey, I think my call to ministry suffered from a lack of mystery. I felt such a strong call at such a young age (16) that I just dove in headfirst, and honestly, it didn't always require that much faith. I've always felt pretty safe.


But now, being less than six weeks away from the end of seminary, I don't feel as safe. I'm excited for what God has for us, but we've reached a point where we must rely on faith. There's no other way. And no matter how much we prop up our faith with experiences and reason, it's still scary.

'Cause if there's one thing we know for sure about God (or at least Aslan), it's that he's good.

Not always safe.

But good.

He's the King, I tell you.

200mcs: One Down, Two To Go

I haven't retired from blogging, I swear.

I finished my first 200 mile commuting semester (henceforth 200mcs) just under a week ago, and I really enjoyed it. The 200 mile commute thing kind of sucks, but in a weird way, it's been really good. A lot of good thoughts swirled in my head this semester, and a lot of my classes interacted in profound ways so that it was an especially meaningful semester.

I wrote papers on the image of God, the incarnation, resurrection and return of Christ, eschatology, eco-theology, sacraments, the Trinity, gospel communication to indie-hipsters, hospitality and the christological basis for ecological preservation and designed a worship service for the first Sunday of Advent. I read some great books (The Way of Jesus Christ by Jurgen Moltmann, Free of Charge by Miroslav Volf, a book on sacraments by Leonard Vander Zee), a lot of good ones (Jesus the Liberator by Jon Sobrino, a couple books by Robert Webber, Whose Religion is Christianity? by Lamin Sanneh, Eyes Wide Open by William Romanowski, Border Crossings by Rodney Clapp, Mosaic of Christian Beliefs by Roger Olson, Selling Out the Church by Kenneson and Street, White Woman's Christ and Black Woman's Jesus by Jacqueline Grant, Luther, Feminism and the Cross by Thompson along with a collection of African christologies), and the occasional forgettable book (...).

I had some great conversations with old friends and made some new ones. I learned a lot about theology, christology, worship, communication and hospitality, and learned the art of sleeping on a six foot couch. I walked the line between guest and mooch, and when I came home I was able to truly be with my family. I got to see Yo La Tengo, Rosie Thomas and Over the Rhine all thanks to my wife's place of employment, Calvin College. Addison got bigger and smarter and more beatiful every day, and I have come to appreciate Marcie more than ever. It's sufficient to say that I don't deserve her and that's a fact.

I didn't blog much because I kept painting myself into a corner, promising to post about something specific, but never feeling inspired to fulfill those promises. From henceforth no more promises will be made on this blog.

You have my word.

And you have my love.

Living Jesus

So as the semester is approaching on Monday, I have decided to get a bit of a headstart on reading. I know once classes start, it's gonna be a whirlwind, so I'm at least introducing myself to some of my books.

I've started working on a couple books for my Christology class. I was excited for the class to begin with, but after beginning the readings, I'm even more excited. The first book we have been assigned is Living Jesus by Luke Timothy Johnson, and it is right up my alley. The basis premise is that in our quest to learn Jesus, we have, for the last 100 years anyway, begun with the wrong question. Before we get into historical method and source/redaction/form criticism, we need to ask a far more basic question; "Is Jesus alive or dead?"

Johnson argues that if Jesus is alive, as so many of us confess, then we ought not treat him as a historical (dead) figure when trying to learn about him. Rather, we take what we know of who Jesus is through the eyewitness accounts of his disciples and friends, continued over the past 2000 years through the work of the Holy Spirit in his church, also combined with our own experience of Christ in the context of the church, and now we're closer to being able to learn Jesus.

The whole historical Jesus quest always struck me as odd, and Johnson has put some solid feet on that which was only an inkling in my relatively uneducated mind. I'm also beginning to read Jurgen Moltmann's The Way of Jesus Christ, and in his prologue, he explains that he named the book what he did just because Jesus is so dynamic, and cannot be nailed down as "known" in some static sort of way. Jesus is always known in a dynamic relationship, not as a static, distant historical figure. So I'm getting the same sort of approach from two different angles, and I feel theologically energized by it.

Dear God, what have I become? I just used the term "theologically energized." Oh yeah, I became a seminary student again. My fellow nerds and I will retire to the nerdery with our Greek lexicons.