Spring Fever

It is definitely spring in Minnesota.  Beautiful flowers are scattering their petals, scent, and pollen all over the place.  People are creating excuses to be outside.  Children can be heard laughing all over while they scatter dandelion puffs before they can even manage to get their hands near their lips to blow on  them.  

"Spring has sprung, and so shall we," as Freak tells Max in Freak The Mighty (one of my favorite books for adolescents).  It has indeed sprung.  All over the place, and much to the superb dislike of my allergy overwhelmed senses.  Yet despite the sickness and colds that allergies are determined to bring, I have greatly enjoyed this spring.  

It has been a new experience to watch the season of new life overlap with the liturgical season of Easter.  I am used to Spring ending soon after Easter as the summer makes an early appearance in Phoenix.

Here though the preparation that the earth is undergoing in winter echoes our preparation during Lent.  The new growth of the springs is then echoed by the season of Easter when we celebrate the promise of resurrection and the newness of the church.

We can of course argue that the church is no longer new as it is over 2,000 years old.  Yet it is also the body of Christ, and it is made new everyday as we are made new everyday.  That is the gift of resurrection that we often do not see.  Yes we await eternal life with Jesus, but we also live a life today that has a new start whenever we need it, even if that need is moment to moment.  

We prepare during Lent to grow into the newness of Christ.  Or at least that is the opportunity that we have.  Often it serves only to prepare us for a long Eater Sunday.  Well my prayer for you this spring, this Easter Season, is that the celebration of Resurrection Sunday is not forgotten, but is remembered everyday as you become yet again a new creation in Christ.  

Christ is Risen!

Blessings,

Tina

Prairie Star Ministries

I had the wonderful experience this past weekend of visiting the site that I will be interning at beginning in September.   It was a truly blessed weekend, and a great chance to get to see where I will be living and working.

The site consists of 5 congregations.  Two of these churches are in small towns.  I will be living in Dundee, MN where the congregation of First Lutheran is located.  Evangelical is located in the town of Heron Lake, while the other three congregations, Immanuel, Amo, and Grace, are all open country churches.  There is also a retreat/education facility as part of the parish as well, called Shalom Hill Farm, and yes it is an actual farm.

Some of you may chuckle at the thought of me in this situation.  After all I was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ which is not only a very large city, but smack in the middle of the desert.  As if that was not enough the only other time I have lived away from home I lived in Tokyo, which is one of the largest cities in the world.  Yet here I am getting ready to live in a place that has a population of just over 100 people, and work in a ministry that will require driving around from one small congregation to the next.  I am sure many of you will find the thought of me living and working in such a situation comical.  I also chuckle from time to time about how out of my element I will be.  However, I chose this site purposely, knowing that as I learned how to be a pastor in this setting, I would have the chance to grow in a situation that I have never been a part of.  

I am of course scared about how good a job I will do.  I will be out of my element.  I will be on a huge learning curve.  I will also be sure to make a few thousand mistakes along the way.  Yet I get to do that among a great team of people who will all have a large stake in this ministry.  I do not just mean the other pastors that I will work with, but all of the other who work alongside them, and all of the people who attend the congregations.  

I am sure that this will be a wonderful opportunity to grow further in my call to ministry.  This is probably true because it is such a change from my past experiences.  I look forward to the experience and to sharing it with you.

Peace in Christ!

Life in Community

Yesterday I had to once again evaluate my feelings about living in community.  I will claim that we should endeavor to live our lives in a way that the people around us uphold one another in every aspect of life.  This would mean, in theory, that I believe that we should call attention, gently and with our neighbor’s best at heart, to things that others around us need to change.  

This is an easy enough sentiment when I perceive others as needing that corrective intervention, maybe it is not as easy when it is I receiving the corrective.  I will admit that I used to have trouble with anything that could even potentially be viewed as criticism, and that I still have to work at not taking things too personally, or thinking that that voiced concern takes away all the good that there is.  Yet, I also have to recognize that I have become much better about this.  I have also learned that I can evaluate what others say and take it or leave it, in short I realize that other peoples’ opinions are just that and are not necessarily better or worse than mine.

But what about the larger community in which we live?  The community that lies beyond family, friends, school, work, church, etc?  I have always felt, or at least thought I felt, that the idea of community with certain boundaries of course, was just as needed.

That was until yesterday.  Yesterday I was driving along Lake Street in Minneapolis just enjoying the beautiful spring day.  As I stopped at a red light a car came up beside me and honked repeatedly, then fervently motioned for me to lower my window.

With his angry eyes blazing he yells, “You have no brake lights. None.”

Completely taken aback by his manner I simply looked at him with wide eyes and rather lamely said, “Oh. Okay.”

“Humph.  YOU HAVE NO BRAKE LIGHTS!!”  He yelled again, obviously impatient with my lack of immediate action.

“Okay.  Thanks.”  I could think of nothing else to say at that moment with him continuing to glare at me.  Of course the second the light turned green and he squealed through a left turn, I thought of several witty comebacks from, ‘Thank you very much Mr. Sunshine,’ to, ‘Oh let me pull my magic wand out and just fix that right up.’  I mean seriously, my mind continued on.  What did he expect?  How would I know that my brake lights were out?  They were working the last time I stood behind my car.  It was just in for a bunch of little repairs during which time they check that stuff.  And what did he expect me to do about it right now, here in the middle of the street?  The big jerk.  And yes, let us pretend that I am that nice during my internal rants.

All through this tirade in my head there was a quiet little voice just waiting to be heard. This is just part of living in community. Conscience?  Spirit-led thought?  Rationality?     

And this is what I want to help build?    

He is just a concerned neighbor, doing his best to protect his community.  Isn’t that what you believe we all are called to do?  Ugh.  Don’t you hate it when your own principles and ethics come back to interfere in your life?  

I do believe that.  I do think we should act on that value, holding each life around us as valuable and a beloved part of God’s creation.  This man was doing that.  Or at least there was an attempt there.  Yes his delivery was harsh, extremely harsh.  However he sought to let me know of a potential risk to myself and others.  Who knows how long this problem has existed, and no one else has brought it to my attention.

What about next year when I am working in ministry setting that includes 5 small congregations, working out of a town of about 5500 and living in a town of about 100?  I am of course not at all familiar with small towns, but I am pretty sure that I will get a whole new perspective on community and what it means to hold one another accountable.  

Community is messy because it involves people and their human natures.  This leads to misunderstandings, misinterpreted communication, and even sometimes just a basic clash of personalities.  What a disaster.  What a potential land-mine of problems.  What a beautiful expression of imperfect, often misguided, sinful persons all holding onto the wonderful promise of being redeemed and reconciled to God and to each other through Christ.

Welcome to the world of community, Tina, hold on for the wild ride.