Pastoral Care

I knew at the outset of this summer that among the many duties of a minister, pastoral care is my biggest blind spot. The situations in which people need their pastor to be present - illness, divorce, imminent death of a loved one, unexpected death of a loved one - these are, for the most part, foreign to my experience. Furthermore (or perhaps as a result), I don't really know quite what they hope the pastor will do or say during a visit, and intercessory prayer presents something of a challenge to me.

But I'm learning. Next week I'm going to spend half the day with our Pastor of Care & Nurture, and this afternoon I will go to a nursing home with another associate pastor. But I wanted to get something in here about my trip to the hospital last Wednesday afternoon.

We (the associate pastor & I) visited a woman who had been in a coma since having a stroke on that Sunday. She was in her forties, and had had a really tough time over the years with alcohol and with heartbreak. It had taken a toll on her body, and here she was, being watched over in the hospital by her mother. That Wednesday morning, the doctors had told her that the brain damage from Sunday's stroke was something from which she would not recover, so by the time we arrived, they were mostly just watching her breathing, to make sure that she stayed alive until her brother arrived from Wisconsin. She passed on Saturday morning.

Both mother and daughter have had a long relationship with the church, but the mother is very active here, and right now is totally standing on the church, and on God, to support her; in the last eighteen months she has lost a husband, a grandson, and a daughter. Today we will plan the funeral.

I don't have any grand lessons from the visit, but it was a confusing time. I was uncomfortable, and scared by the situation; I have never been in the room with a dying person before, or been part of a conversation about a person's imminent death. When we got out of the room, I was sweaty and choked up. On the other hand, it was a very peaceful time. There was no uncertainty about what was going to happen, and the mother's sorrowful resignation to God was really a profession of faith. Those really are sacred, grace-filled moments.

Recap: Bible 101, Week Two

This week's topic was the Old Testament. I figured that the most profitable thing for everyone would be to spend the time trying to get our minds around the basic contours of the story of Israel. I'm talking mainly about the political history: enslavement, exodus, entry into Canaan, monarchy, exile, etc. Any piece of the Old Testament, from the short stories we learn in Sunday School to the prophetic books and even the wisdom literature, cannot be fully understood except in relation to this long narrative of God's gracious election of Israel to be a light unto the nations.

We did some of that, and you can view the information I prepared here. But predictably, we also spent quite a bit of time discussing the interpretive challenges that the OT poses for (some) modern Christian readers. When I asked what these challenges are, class members quickly brought up divinely sanctioned violence, divine anger & retribution, and the male focus of the narrative. Nobody directly brought up the question of how to see Christ in the OT while still respecting the OT's integrity as Hebrew Scripture. But in a way, all those questions are related to our impulse to disregard the difficult parts of the OT -- to consider it, in a word, old.

We ran into a few pretty strongly held alternative perspectives. I understand the desire to feel free to pick and choose which Scriptures are normative for me, but I am surprised with how comfortably people talk about actually doing that. There doesn't seem to be much sense that such an approach even needs defending. I didn't respond as well as I wish I could have; how can I take three or four Divinity School lectures and turn them into bite-sized nuggets that I can use in a setting like this? Sometimes you have to throw up your hands and say, "Well, yes, if I thought God was some sort of ethereal process, then I probably would feel free to do whatever I wanted with the Bible, too." I was helped a lot by having Heather in class with me; she was visiting Chicago and Indianapolis over the holiday weekend, and she brings a lot of knowledge about the Bible and biblical studies to the table. Also, she don't mess around.

I'm starting to see that each week, we are getting into the topic I intended to cover in week four: how to approach the Bible both critically and faithfully. I don't have any idea yet what we will do during that class, but I actually am preaching that day, and my subject is our reverence for Scripture. That's fortuitous, but it leaves me thinking, "What do I say during the hour-long class that is different than what I say during the sermon?" Maybe I can just give them an hour of B-material that didn't make it into the sermon itself.

Next week is the New Testament. I'm not sure what direction we'll head yet, but I think I am going to put on the brakes a little bit. This is supposed to be introductory, background information, not a discussion of hermeneutics.

Personalized Bibles

While doing some initial sermon prep, I came across something called The Personal Promise Bible. You can special-order a Bible from them where they insert your first name into over 7,000 different spots in the Old and New Testaments. That way, you can understand that God is making promises directly to you, without the confusing suggestion that God's promises might extend to all people.

You can enter your name on their website to see a sample of how the Personal Promise Bible works. This tool is kind of fun.

14 G-Rod is not a well-regulated militia.

I have to confess ignorance on the whole DC handgun ban controversy. I guess I got so used to seeing headlines about the case in the Washington Post and on DCist that I never bothered to read any of the articles. So when the Supreme Court ruling came down last week, before I could think about questions of crime or liberty, I had to overcome my initial shocked reaction: You mean handguns weren't already legal in DC? Could've fooled me. There certainly have been a lot of patriots exercising their second amendment rights in spite of the ban over the years, from the Capitol to the block next to the Sojourners intern house. The University of Maryland men's basketball program even did its part to protest this tyranical law. Antonin Scalia shall vindicate you all, faithful Americans.

Recap: Bible 101, Week One

In week one of my "Bible 101" class, we discussed the formation of the biblical canon. We focused mostly on the New Testament; since the New Testament was formed more recently than the Old (i.e. it's not just a clever name), we know more about the process by which they formalized the NT. At the same time, there seem to be a lot more conspiracy theories about the formation of the NT canon. Why did they exclude certain texts? What has the church been hiding for two millenia?

We led off with an exercise that forced them each to make a short list of the most significant films of all time; then they had to pair up and consolidate their lists (dropping a few films in the process), then pair with another pair, etc. The idea was to simulate a process of consensus-building when people are operating with different criteria.

Then we segued into some actual historical information. Using my notes from Dr. Rowe's New Testament class and a few other resources, I put together a brief timeline. During the class I also made a (probably ill-advised) attempt to explain Gnosticism in about four minutes, in order to show why the Gospels of Thomas, Peter, and Judas were all excluded from the canon. I was tempted to point out just how crazy they seem - the Gospel of Peter describes a walking, talking cross that followed Christ out of the tomb (see paragraph 10) - but given all the water-walking, blind-healing, and resurrection in the canonical Gospels, my hands were tied.

I think the thing I most regret not making time for was a discussion of what "Holy Scripture" means. We give that unique title only to these certain texts; what does that mean for how we approach them? How does this understanding guide our interaction with other texts? Is it bad to read noncanonical gospels? What about other nonscriptural texts that we revere. Can we read Augustine in church, or Luther? Can we read passages from MLK's speeches? Can we compose liturgies using the words of Bono?

This week I'll be working on figuring out how to give a one-hour primer on the entirety of the Old Testament. I have a sinking feeling that Ecclesiastes is going to get the short end of the stick.

Church softball bragging.

Today I had a nice surprise: TBS was carrying the Mets-Yankees game, so I got to see my first Mets game in a while. It was fun to watch the Mets win one (too rare of a thing), and in that bizarre weekend-warrior sort of way, it was the perfect pump-up for this afternoon's church softball game. Because of the stellar performances of past Duke interns, including one who had played two years of collegiate softball, there is a lot of pressure for the summer intern to contribute on the diamond. Much to my surprise, in two games I'm 5-6 with two singles, a double and two triples; five runs scored. We're 2-0. That's more than anyone on the Mets can say.

Watch for something on Monday recapping today's first installment of "Bible 101".

Book report

I have to say that it's a bit lonesome moving to a new city where you don't know anybody. As an introvert, I find it a lot easier to try to get the most out of time with myself (which is in short supply during the school year) than to find lots of ways to keep busy spending time with new people. But to be honest, I really have enjoyed this aspect of my summer, because I have been able to do a lot of reading that would not be possible during the semester.

I read about 3/4 of Amy Laura Hall's new book, Conceiving Parenthood. (See links to these books in the sidebar at right.) Dr. Hall teaches ethics at Duke, and this book looks at how American mainline Protestantism has willingly bought into the national ideal of "proper" and "model" families in a way that leads us to believe that we are justified not by God's grace, but by our ability to shape our families and homes through science, professional child-rearing, and even eugenics. It had a lot of pictures in it.

I also read Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. (Well, all but the final 2 chapters. I got the Dillard and Hall books from the beautiful public library here, and they were due back.) Here's a nice quote from Annie, on the difficulty of seeing: "My eyes account for less than one percent of the weight of my head; I'm bony and dense; I see what I expect."

William T. Cavanaugh's Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire was the third conquest of the summer. I really like his work, and I would recommend this book as a first read for someone who had not encountered him before, because it is a bit more anchored to everyday experience. He points out how the currency of consumerism isn't attachment to things, but detachment from things; the whole point of advertising is to capitalize on our infinite and ever-changing desire for anything new or exciting.

"In a consumer culture, we recognize the validity of Augustine's insight: particular material things cannot satisfy. Rather than turning away from material things and toward God, in consumer culture we plunge ever more deeply into the world of things. Dissatisfaction and fulfillment cease to be opposites, for pleasure is not in possessing objects but in their pursuit. [...]
"Desire in consumer society keeps us distracted from the desires of the truly hungry, those who experience hunger as life-threatening deprivation. [...] One can always send a check to help the hungry, but one's charitable preferences will always be in competition with one's own endless desires. The idea of scarcity establishes the view that no one has enough. My desires to feed the hungry are always being distracted by the competition between their desires and my own."

On the downslope.

Hard to believe, but I (along with many classmates in other churches) am already on the downslope of my field ed summer. Last Sunday marked the midpoint of my ten-week term in Indianapolis. After this Sunday, I will only have four full weeks remaining.

My experiences this summer can be divided into learning by doing and learning by observing. I recall the summer I spent in Chicago during college, working with community organizers at The Resurrection Project; that was mostly learning by observation. By contrast, my summer running a free lunch program for kids at Wesley UMC in Norfolk, VA was entirely learning by doing. This summer has been a mixed bag, which I think is great.

The most exciting thing I have done/will be doing is a reasonable amount of preaching and teaching. There was the junior high VBS class and last week's children's message. I'll be doing the children's message again this week, and potentially in future weeks. I will only get to preach once, on July 20; I'll post that sermon once I've delivered it. The thing I am most excited about is the four-week 'Bible 101' adult Sunday School class that I am starting this Sunday. The idea is to provide an opportunity for folks with less familiarity with the Bible to get 'back to basics' in an environment where they don't have to worry about being the one who asks a stupid question. The first week's topic is "Where Did the Bible Come From?" I may do a brief summary post after each class; we'll see.

On the other hand, there is a lot that I've learned by observation. The biggest thing I would put in this category is what I've learned by watching my senior pastor navigate group settings and contentious meetings. What jumps out at me is what he doesn't say. I cannot recount to you the number of occasions where, if I were running a given meeting, I think that I would've interrupted the group conversation to say something. "What I think X means to say is this..." "That's a well-made point, but unfortunately, it is not at all Christian." "Here's what we're going to do, and I will tell you why." He doesn't say those kinds of things. I have strong impulses to correct people and to ensure the efficient progress of group discussions. I thought the pastor was able to restrain those impulses, but it turns out he doesn't really have them. We had a really fruitful conversation this week about how he has found that by observing several minimal guidelines (e.g. don't let anyone malign another person), he is able to let such conversations run their course and reach a more productive outcome than if he were simply to tell people what to think from the get-go. In short, I'm learning something about leadership from him.

The main area where I haven't been able to learn as much as I'd hoped is pastoral care. Because of the confidential nature of pastoral care, and the requisite levels of comfort and relationship, I just haven't had many opportunities to observe my colleagues in action. That's too bad, because this is also the part of ministry that is most foreign to my experience. I have a few plans that should help me gain some more exposure over the next four weeks, but if I am serious about learning pastoral care by doing, it seems pretty clear that I may have to do a CPE internship at some point.

A dose of reality

A moving and provocative article in today’s NYT about Iraqi Christians faced with a quandary that is difficult for any of us to imagine: watch as insurgents target and kill your priests and parishioners, or make regular payments that will protect you, but will also fund the insurgents’ violence elsewhere.

For Iraqi Christians, Money Bought Survival

It's a good reality check for me, as someone who likes to sit at my computer and opine about Christians who are complicit in violence, Christians who choose self-preservation over self-sacrifice, et cetera. Then I read a story like this, and any impulse to judge goes totally out the window. Something about war seems to have the dual effect of simultaneously intensifying the decisions people make and muddying the waters of right and wrong. It's probably that as the stakes rise, the available options get worse and worse.

Request: Bible Translations

Does anyone know of a good resource that provides brief comparitive descriptions of some of the most common English translations of the Bible? I've been looking for a 1-2 page guide, but have been surprisingly unsuccessful. If you can point me anywhere (or if you just know a lot about the topic and can write something yourself), just leave a comment or shoot me an email. Thanks!