Theater in London

While we’re in London we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to see a couple plays — King Lear at the Globe Theater and Golda’s Balcony.  Golda’s Balcony is a one-woman play, portraying the life of Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir.  We thought this would be helpful preparation for our time in Israel, and we were not disappointed.  The play was powerful and inspiring, showing her commitments and character.  On the one hand, the play demonstrates why Israelis are so insistent on defending their country; repeatedly we heard “Never again!” and “Finally after 2,000 years we have a homeland.”  On the other hand, Golda’s final words in the play were the Hebrew word for peace: “Shalom, shalom, SHALOM!”  The challenge we expect to learn more about next month is how to pursue peace and support the legitimate concerns of Israelis and Palestinians.

Riverside in London

Our hotel in London is located between two parks, Bloomsbury Square Gardens and Russell Square Gardens.  As I was enjoying a sunny afternoon in Bloomsbury Square, I noticed a sign that said that both parks were designed in the early 1800’s by Humphry Repton, a leading landscape architect of the day.  Of course, Repton is the person for whom our Repton Road in Riverside is named.  From what I’ve read of Frederick Law Olmstead I don’t recall if he met Repton, but I know that he visited Europe and was familiar with the landscape architects here.

Another Riverside connection.  He’s not buried there, but he is memorialized in the stained glass window above “Poets’ Corner.”  Robert Herrick, the English poet for whom Herrick Road is named, is not buried in Westminster Abbey along with Chaucer, Byron, and Tennyson, but he does have a memorial in the stained glass window in that special section of the Abbey where other figures in English literature are buried or memorialized.

Our Sabbatical Travel Schedule

Pastor Timm’s Sabbatical Travel Schedule

 

June 23-29:     London, England, and “Faith, Science, and the

Environment” Seminar at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University

 

June 30 – July 30:     Four-Week Summer Program at

The Tantur Ecumenical Institute, Israel

On the road to Bethlehem from Jerusalem

Studying the “Fifth Gospel”

 

July 31 – August 9:    Travel in the Footsteps of

St. Paul and St. John in Turkey and Greece –

Istanbul, Ephesus, Athens, Patmos and other islands

 

August 10-16:             Recovery Time

 

August 17:      Return to Ascension 

Reading Suggestions

One book that I have been reading during my sabbatical is The Language of Godby Francis Collins, a prominent scientist best known for heading the Human Genome Project.  He shares how he grew up in a non-religious home and through medical school considered himself an atheist or at least an agnostic.  Dealing with patients, however, who displayed great faith in the face of illness forced him to reconsider his position.  With the help of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity Dr. Collins came to see faith as the most reasonable response to human experience.  He has become a firm believer as well as an accomplished scientist, and his book is intended to convince people that science and faith can live well together.  His book seems quite readable to me and is intended for a “lay” audience — that is, people who are experts in neither science nor theology.

The book includes questions as a guide for a discussion group.  Anyone interested in discussing this book together after I return from sabbatical?

Speaking of books and C.S. Lewis, recently we were able to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian.  The Chronicles of Narnia are written for children, but adults who enjoy fantasy can find them interesting and meaningful too.  Whether you saw the movie or read the book or both, what biblical event is alluded to in Prince Caspian?

More Reflections on Preaching Festival

Among the lasting memories of the “Festival of Homiletics” in my first week of sabbatical are the presentations of some well-known speakers. 

Well-known to some at least.  One speaker was Walter Wangerin, Jr., a friend of mine from high school and college days, an accomplished author and story teller, former speaker for Lutheran Vespers, writer for The Lutheran, and currently a professor at Valparaiso University.  Some of you know that he has had health problems recently, but his health has stabilized and he is able to take speaking engagements again.  One of his gifts is to tell stories with deep emotional impact, even for children.  It was a privilege to witness that gift in action.

Garrison Keillor is not a preacher exactly — at least not the ordained variety — but he is a story-teller par excellence.  He couldn’t speak to the conference in person, but he agreed to a video interview that was shown exclusively for the Festival.  The interviewer asked him if he thought there is a parallel between the stories he tells from Lake Woebegone week by week and preaching.  I was surprised when he said “No!”  His stories, he said, are for entertainment.  Garrison expressed a high regard for the more serious purpose of preaching.  But, he added, a good story will make a good sermon.  I was also surprised when he said that he often feels depressed after a performance, feeling that his story telling was inadequate.  Yet he knows that many people find them engaging, even inspiring, which he attributes to grace.  Many preachers, myself included, can identify with that sense that whatever impact or inspiration comes from our words is due to God’s grace.

The presentation that has stayed with me most specifically was one by Barbara Lundblad.  I knew Barbara twenty years ago through campus ministry connections.  She has become known as a preacher nationally and now teaches homiletics/preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York.  Her presentation was entitled, “Jeremiah, Martin, and Me.”  The “Jeremiah” part of her title is a play on two “Jeremiahs” — the prophet Jeremiah and Jeremiah Wright.  I thought she used the prophet Jeremiah skillfully to address the issue of racism in our society today.  (I suppose the “Martin” in the title could have been a dual reference to Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., but in this ecumenical context she meant to refer only to the latter.)  Her perspective has been influenced in part by having an office at Union Seminary next door to James Cone, one of the most prominent black theologians in our country.  Reflecting on the issue of racism raised by the controversy over Jeremiah Wright, retired pastor of Trinity U.C.C. Church in Chicago, she suggested three responses based on the prophet Jeremiah:  Learn to blush — the prophet called on the people of his day to repent of their faithlessness to their covenant with God; today we might respond by “blushing,” by shame over the racism that remains within us and our society.  I surely have reason to confess that my growing up in central Wisconsin surrounded me with examples of racism and that I have prejudices and racist sterotypes that bubble up from within me.  Honor outrage –   The prophet Jeremiah expressed outrage over the faithlessness of his people.  People today express outrage over the persistance of racism today.  Barbara talked about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his outrage that discrimination against African Americans persisted 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.  Yet honoring outrage and accepting anger are difficult for many of us.  “Can’t we all just get along together?” we often ask aloud or silently.  I suspect that the most difficult aspect of the Jeremiah Wright incident was witnessing the anger and outrage.  The truth is, however, that we may not be able to move forward in race relations without “honoring the outrage” on all sides of the issue.   Buy a field — That doesn’t mean, however, that we remain fixated at that stage.  One of the surprising aspects of the prophet Jeremiah who repeatedly prophesied that Babylon would conquer and destroy Judah is that he bought some property in his hometown.  Why buy property when the country would be destroyed?  His purchase was an indication of hope for the future.  Barbara Lundblad encouraged us to follow the prophet’s example by moving forward — not ignoring the first two steps, but moving onward beyond them, building a positive future based more on hope than fear.  I appreciated her clear and thoughtful presentation that faced a current issue head on and offered a hopeful way to move forward.

Preaching Festival Reflections

My week at the “Festival of Homiletics” was a deeply rich experience.  (“Homiletics” = the seminary word for the study of preaching.)  For five days I listened to over a dozen well-known preachers either preach or lecture about preaching.  I came away a bit overwhelmed by the experience.

Incidentally I was one of over 2,100 pastors at the “Festival”!  This conference has grown in popularity over its 15+ year history.  I saw many pastoral colleagues, including Pastor Bruce Modahl of Grace Lutheran in River Forest and Pastor Elizabeth Musselman who now is our campus pastor at the University of Chicago.

What did I learn?  In brief, the speakers encouraged using stories in preaching (Will we be hearing more about Rhonda?), preaching from the heart — not only the mind, and immersing oneself thoroughly in the biblical texts for a given Sunday and then sharing how you struggled with the text personally — a couple of the sermons I remember were especially creative in drawing extended comparisons in contemporary life with the situations in a biblical text.

One speaker I especially enjoyed was Zan Wesley Holmes, Jr., a retired African American Methodist pastor and homiletics professor at Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas.  He talked about his pride in his preaching as a young pastor, fresh out of seminary and committed to scholarly preaching based on careful Scriptural study.  At that time he was serving as the pastor of the only church in his suburb.  After a while a Baptist church was established in that suburb.  The church was located on the same street as his parsonage and had their service an hour later than his.  On several occasions when he was driving home from church, he noticed members of his congregation attending the Baptist church.  Upset by this, he approached one of his active members whom he saw going to the Baptist church and asked her why she was doing that.  “Oh, don’t worry, Pastor,” she said.  “You feed us real well, but we go there for dessert.”  He decided to meet with that pastor and learned from him that his careful, scholarly preaching could benefit from adding passion and spirit to his intellectual depth.

Zan also shared how another congregation that he served had grown through intentional study of the lessons assigned for each Sunday.  He initiated a program of lay-led Bible study of these lessons; he attended one of these groups each week but could only listen — and was amazed at the depth of faith and insight he witnessed in these groups.  Our ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson spoke with the ELCA clergy at this conference and emphasized our upcoming ELCA emphasis on study of Scripture.  As we consider sermon feedback, I may want to imitate Zan Holmes approach and thus participate in our ELCA emphasis on Bible study.  Perhaps this would be more sermon formation than feedback, but whatever the case it would be a way of increasing the intentional dialogue around preaching at Ascension.