Men of Issachar

1Chr 12:32: “Men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”

Finished my last day of preaching practicum today and our professor took a moment to stand on a soapbox for the sake of preaching. He recounted his experiences with Kennedy and MLK assassinations, Watergate with Nixon and then posed to us his reflections over the past 24 hours.

The Democratic Party supported and endorsed an African-American President.

The Republican Party announced that they would have a female Vice-President.

He went on to mention that as pastors we are better orators than anyone as it is our craft and livelihood. But his point was that, in a few months, history will be changed for better or worse. This Presidential campaign has deep implications for religious institutions. For people who are afraid of multi-ethnic situations, for people who are used to the gender dominance of males, and for every single institution of academic, religious, business, and social ladder.

As part of a younger generation I have known that a time would come when my colleagues at Fuller, notably on gender lines, would not have to worry about gender being an issue in the process of ordination. With the possibility of a female being moved to the second most powerful position in our nation I suspect that most of those issues will start to fade away. I suspect that the ethnic issues will fade as well.

As I’m getting ready to move into another stage of life with graduation, my professor reminded me that there will be many things that will change. One comment from class was ‘I wish Dr. Scholer could have lived just a few more days to see this VP nomination.’ I think he knew that the time was coming soon; All he had to do was look in the eyes of the women he taught. He could see it in their eyes. I can see it there myself.

1Chronicles still holds much of the patriarchy that is common in the Old Testament. We are keepers of a different context, and I’m just beginning to understand the times.

T-minus 7 days

I’m moving in a week. This is a mixed bag of emotions for more than one reason.

I’m going to preface what follows with the following statement. In the past 7 days I have taken ‘Ords’, which are basically 4 ugly nasty cruel tests that are, in my opinion, designed to drive the most sane person crazy, and someone like me to madness. On top of this I have had to preach a sermon for class. You have been warned.

I can remember when some of my other friends left Seminary, and while they were still close I didn’t have a pile of really good friends just suddenly up and disappear. So now with me getting up and disappearing, I have that sense of losing a pile of wonderful friends. But right now I just have a sense of loss as I’m having to say goodbye to not just friends but people who I hope to call colleagues in ministry.

Now I have always been a relationship guy and as a confession most of the angry posts from April-May or so finally came back around and I had to look at myself in the mirror and realize I was the jerk. Reconciling relationships or developing relationships are a central point in my life and really drive the core of my being. I finally reconciled that situation and even though it was done somewhere between the tenth and eleventh hour it is done, and I feel peace, and I was wrong … so very very wrong … to be angry.

In some ways I’m trying to tie all the loose ends I have up and feel like I have closure with those around me. I’ve just made 2 new friends on my hall and I’m going to be gone as suddenly as I arrived. It will be sad because they are two very interesting people.

Part of me wants to vent about Ords but at the end of the day I wonder how much of that is a means to answer the specific questions and how much of it is do we know how to use the methods we have learned. I still think some of the questions we were asked came from left field … Deep deep left field … and others were very appropriate for formation. The part that I keep trying to come back to is the pastoral nature of the tests, this succeeds … right now … about 30% of the time. The pastoral parts of the questions are what make the test worth the effort and the experience.

Maybe it is this intersection that is making me think right now. Or maybe it is a need to speak in non-intellectual terms and prose. Maybe I’m just trying to get back to the place where I can talk normal.

I Miss Having a Driveway

Something I was thinking about a month ago while I was home for a few days before my intensive started. Probably around the 4th of July or so, I think I was home for Mom’s Bday. Anywho I remember spending the time inside my parent’s house, having a driveway to wash my car, a backyard with grass, plants to tend and garden, or plants to have your children tend. It isn’t about the driveway but rather the sense of a house and a building that is a place to call your own.

I think after having lived in an apartment for almost two and a half years on a renting agreement I had forgotten what that sense of ownership does. It isn’t that I haven’t done some nice things with my very small space, but rather all the things that I wish I had time to do, or want to do, or would do if I knew I was going to live here for another 5-10 years. But there is something about having a driveway that appeals to me.

This apartment/condo living where basically the landlords build parking lots around buildings just don’t appeal to me anymore. It is a way to live, but it just doesn’t feel like home to me. Now I’m not sure if it is that I’m just getting older or graduating or having a late 20s crisis of life, but I have never had this sense of needing a ‘house’ to feel like I’m living. But the more I think about it, and as I helped some friends move from an apartment complex into a house, I find that I miss having a house with a driveway.

I think there is something inherent in a house that is welcoming, inviting, and feels like a place of rest. I have seen this not only in my parent’s house but also in some of the people that live in houses that have been converted to housing by Fuller. Some of the intentional communities are just welcoming just by the nature of their construction. It isn’t like your walking into a two-room place where there is a living room/study room and then a bedroom that is just used for sleeping. But a house has this living room, where you like … live (weird I know) … and beds and study places are tucked away behind doors and there is a sense of division between work and play.

I think it is a little like multitasking … I have a studio loft, which is basically a one-room thing with an upper floor where I store my bed and clothing. The downstairs is my study room, living room, kitchen, dining room, music room, library and spare bedroom all in one. I can entertain dinner for 6 but I have to fold up my coffee table hide it under my couch/futon (which is where I keep my guitar cases when not in use), slide the couch/futon about 4 feet, and then pull another chair out of my closet for 4, barrow 2 more chairs if I want to do 6, and set a table that is a little tight even with 3.

I love cooking for others, and as a general rule I find the most joy in my life when I am serving others. Often that is in the form of food, but functions in conversation as well. I would host more … if I felt like it wasn’t a chore to do so. So I miss my driveway where 4 cars could drive up and unload guests to share food and fellowship (and maybe an occasional game) for the sole sake of having a place that doesn’t just feel like home, but is home.

Maybe it also has something to do with the issue that I’m moving in a month too. Could have something to do with this as well.