An (en-)chanting end to the school week!

One of the more interesting (and, really, esoteric) aspects of Lutheran worship is chanting parts of the service. I can recall only a few times ever hearing the pastor chant, and only small parts of the liturgy, typically during Communion...

During my field work "coming out" a few Sundays back, the pastor asked me if I was okay with chanting a few lines during the first service; I balked. I had never chanted in front of full pews and that Sunday the pews were full of folks who didn't know me from Adam. So the pastor chanted. In retrospect, I should have just done it, but the pastor understood and was okay with it, so...

All my chanting practice has been in the "lab" (yeah, kind of like Frankenstein); however, this afternoon we chanted parts of the service in the chapel. (It's becoming easier.) I soloed the Collect for Grace, Benedicamus, and Benediction below:

I think I'll be assigned an actual service next quarter during which I'll be losing my amateur status...

Things are happening here fast! Next week we have our first call interview and I've already learned which two professors will conduct my TI (theological interview) after the holidays. One was "randomly" assigned by the seminary and I chose the other. As it turns out, both will be my professors next quarter (and I already know them now). Two weeks from today this quarter ends...

As I mentioned in the previous post about a week ago, a mutual friend of ours from our Navy days who is originally from Indiana (but stayed in Maryland after the Navy) was taking care of some family business and we were able to get together last Sunday for lunch at a brew pub in Warsaw (Indiana, not Poland), about 30 miles beyond our church. Where has time gone? Thirty-one years ago yesterday he stood as one of the witnesses at our secular nuptials on Misawa AFB in Japan at the legal office. Seems like a different lifetime ago to me now...

Lastly, since our arrival last June my wife has had the opportunity to meet many of my classmates and professors, along with other seminary wives... But there are a few characters in this story that are occasionally worth mentioning. Last Saturday night we spent a nice evening over at my advisor's house with other "advisees" and their wives. I am hesitant to mention names in my posts, but I'm going to break tradition. This is a pic of me and the inimitable Dr. Fickenscher, my advisor, a man of kindness and grace who is second to God Himself in making this seminary experience a reality. He is the director of my program and was willing to waive my vicarage requirement (as I completed a 2-year vicarage under a different program a few years back). I am very grateful that God placed him in my path (or vice versa)!

Anyway. That's it for now-- we're off to meet another seminary couple for a steak dinner.

Until next time... С Богом!

Wrestling with God...

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. (Genesis 32:22-32 ESV)

I'm over-booked...

I attended a lecture this morning given by the LCMS Rural & Small Town Mission director. It was very interesting! He helped me see through many of the stereotypes associated with rural congregations. He gave two statistics that I thought were surprising: 1) about half of the just over 6,000 congregations in America are rural/small town, and 2) about 40% of rural small town congregations don't have a permanently called pastor.

And he mentioned a survey which revealed the re-definition of the phrase "practicing Christian," ("those who attend a religious service at least once a month, who say their faith is very important in their lives and self-identify as a Christian") which I found here. The entire survey is telling-- if you have a minute or two, look it over.

Friday during the chapel service, my current Old Testament professor happened to preach on a pericope from Genesis that we have been discussing in class-- the one in which Jacob wrestles with God (see verse at top). He did a fantastic job! (He told us in class that his sermon was going to be on the final.) This is one of those Bible accounts about which every seasoned exegete and armchair theologian has an opinion, but this professor (who is one of my favorites, in or out of class) sold me during chapel. The answer to the question has two sources, the first is found in Hosea 12:3-4 (my underlining):

In the womb he took his brother by the heel,
and in his manhood he strove with God.
He strove with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought his favor.
He met God at Bethel,
and there God spoke with us—

And the second is the meaning of the name Israel, which could mean (this prof is also a Hebrew teacher) either "one who strives with God" or "God strives." Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate Son. One of the more fascinating aspects of studying Lutheran theology is the Christology of the Old Testament, looking for Christ from the start of Genesis through the end of Malachi (the last Old Testament book).

Well, it's the weekend. We're about to head off to my advisor's house for dinner, then tomorrow after church we're meeting an old Navy friend (who was one of our witnesses at our civil marriage "ceremony" at the Air Force Judge Advocate's office in Japan 31 years ago on the 27th) about an hour from here. Thankfully my course load is manageable tomorrow and I'm not a part of the worship services line-up. And the Cowboys have a bye...which reminds me...

The president of the seminary saw the Dallas Cowboys shirt I was wearing yesterday in chapel and gave me a hard time (in fun) as we were exiting. In the crowd of other seminarians within earshot I told him that I liked him until he dis-ed my shirt and the 'Boys-- he shot back that he liked me to until he saw my shirt. I had to chuckle afterward because I'm certain all of those guys looking in on this exchange must have wondered what was going on! A caveat-- he and I get along very well (he's another professor on campus I've come to really like; I'll have him for Church History in the summer). I suppose that in my own way I'm creating my own seminary legacy...

Onward to Week 8 (of 10)! (Pretty soon I'll have to buy more books, but I don't know where I'm going to put them. See pic of my work area...)

С Богом, ya'll!

The Hebrew was (again) Greek to me...

"Father, give us courage to change what must be altered,
serenity to accept what cannot be helped,
and the insight to know the one from the other." (original "Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr, 1937) 

click to enlarge

Wow! Has it really been a week since my last post?! I surely intended to touch this blog at least once before now... Hmm. Must've been busy or something...

So. How have I been? Fair to middling, I'd say. There were a couple of low points since we last met-- three, actually, if we include Sunday night's debate... O where to begin?

My classes have been going very well here in the monastery; however, there was a slight burp in the force on Friday that left me in a foul mood that persisted until we got out on the patio, cranked up the grill, and relaxed in the cool of Fall's arrival. And, truthfully, I was still carrying a bad day hangover into Saturday morning's death march-- by Saturday evening's fire bowl on the patio, I was over myself.

Friday morning I had the first part of a midterm exam in my Pentateuch (Old Testament) class; it was a one-hour translation of selected texts from Genesis in Hebrew. As I've mentioned before, I'm the only guy with no Hebrew skills (well I know תהווה is Yahweh...), so my translation was from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew. No working aids. Plus parsing of more than a few words, verbs mostly. With 5 minutes left, I realized I hadn't even made it to the last page... It was a train wreck...

My last hour of the day was in Liturgics lab, during which time we were videoed performing a part of the worship service, reciting the words by heart-- the words we had to say I already had memorized, but in the brief pause between the two parts I skipped a groove or something and was prompted by the professor along the way to the end. It was a mess and I told the professor I didn't even want to see the replay (we were being videoed so we could see ourselves)... So I left for home feeling like a doofus, which just exacerbated my foul mood. Not my typical seminary day.

The cherry on the sundae Friday was watching the Rangers tank against Toronto.

After dueling repeatedly with the Tarrant County Elections Administration (in Texas) by phone, email, and letter mail, common sense finally prevailed and we both voted absentee in the coming November election. For the first time in our marriage, we cast split votes (it's nobody's business who votes how or for whom, but this campaign season has compelled one of us to break with tradition). I WILL say, for the record, that I cannot understand how any sentient being could cast a vote for Donald Trump in good conscious, or support the badly broken Republican Party, EXCEPT in good faith that electing such a blowhard-- who was nominated by Republicans after holding a Svengali-like sway over the decency and moral fiber of this country-- would signal a need for reformation and begin a repair and rebuilding process. I will also say that I cast my vote with a very heavy heart (but also with a solid faith that God knows what He's doing).

Sunday night, we could take neither the Rangers euthanasia, nor that display of playground bullying and posturing between the candidates (who treated one another like a bitter couple in the throes of hateful and messy divorce-- one of them is going to get custody of us, yikes), and so we hit the rack early. sigh sigh sigh

Yesterday morning I got up with a plan. I left early for the seminary and "broke into" the lab that's really the training chapel, flipped on the equipment, then videoed myself correctly completing the part of the service I tripped over on Friday. When that was done, I went looking for my Old Testament professor and we had a nice and fairly positive chat about my midterm exam. When that was done, I found a bench and sat down to contemplate the morning, the day ahead, life-- what's really important. And I thanked God for unwrapping me from my own axle. The image is the view from my bench at 8:40am.

So the ship is still afloat and still on course (in spite of Friday)...

Until next time...

С Богом, ya'll!

P.S. I thought I knew everything. Today I learned what a tuckpointer is. (So NOW I know everything.)

P.P.S. How 'bout them 'Boys! 4-1 without Romo!

3-parent babies, a definitive end date, and a beautiful hymn...

In Adam we have all been one,
One huge rebellious man;
We all have fled that evening voice
That sought us as we ran.

We fled Thee, and in losing Thee
We lost our brother too;
Each singly sought and claimed his own;
Each man his brother slew.

But Thy strong love, it sought us still
And sent Thine only Son
That we might hear His Shepherd's voice
And, hearing Him, be one. (From 1961 hymn In Adam We Have All Been One by M. Franzmann, based on Genesis 3 & 4.)

Our less-than illustrious hometown newspaper here in Ft. Wayne (weak sports section, Garrison Keillor's Saturday column shows up aperiodically, and we have the WORST carrier in newspaper history) on Sunday made a one-sentence note of a baby born with three parents. Just when I think it's safe to venture out beyond the monastery walls, wham! Another symptom of a disordered world. I have plenty of opinions about this, but rather than rant myself into a lather, I'd like you to be the judge:

Exclusive: World’s first baby born with new “3 parent” technique

In other news, after a friendly round of discussions with my advisor, he has agreed that my program of study's prescribed follow-on one-year pastor internship (called, in the Lutheran church, a vicarage) can be waived. So my official academic end date is August 2, 2016. I expect that by the time that date arrives, I will have a call to a congregation somewhere, most likely back in Texas.

It's hard to believe that this first quarter of study is half over! Next month (on the 28th) the winter quarter begins!

I robed up for the first service at our field work church (where we had been worshiping anyway prior to my assignment) and then participated in the second disrobed (contemporary service). It was clunky to start out with-- I forgot how hot I get under that alb (robe). And I had the wrong order of service bulletin, so the pastor and I had to share-- he asked me to do more than I thought I was going to do, including chanting during the first service. I respectfully declined; though, in retrospect (and I told this to the pastor) I should have just gone ahead and made my chanting debut. We're doing it in liturgics class, anyway... Oh well. I'm certain my chanting debut is still right around the corner. My biggest (but not serious) faux pas was reading the Gospel text from the pulpit, rather than the lectern. The pastor cuffed me for it... Seriously, though. I'm very lucky to be assigned to this particular pastor-- he's very flexible and in his words, "I'm not a liturgical Nazi." (But it would have been nice to know ahead of time all that would be expected of me...and I didn't have to do the children's message because it was Lutheran Women's Missionary League Sunday-- praise the Lord!)

I'm singing with the first year choir and we will be singing a hymn that just moves me (I don't know if it's the melody or the words or both), called In Adam We Have All Been One (#569 in your Lutheran Service Book). If you click the link you can get an idea about it; however, it's from some other church and you have to hear 20 men in our incredibly acoustic chapel to get the true feel-- it's downright Gregorian...otherwordly.

So, all is good here. I love the class discussions and am so glad God led us to the seminary-- I just love it!

С Богом!