Posts
[Editorial for the CTS Prophet, May 2, 2007]
There Are No Children Here Anymore
It struck me this past week, after SpringFest and Chris and Mariah’s wedding, two events at which we were treated to such a rare sight in our buildings:
Children.
Laughing,
playing,
eating,
running.
Talking in church.
Creating ‘blessed disruption.’
Such a rare sight in our buildings.
Such a rare sound.
There are no children here anymore.
Oh, occasionally, someone will bring a child to campus:
Perhaps daycare fell through.
Perhaps they’re on their way to other errands.
But if a child comes to visit us,
(since they are only visiting),
With whom shall they play?
After all, there are no children here anymore.
There are no families here anymore.
Oh, occasionally they come to visit:
Spouses drop in, partners join us for lunch.
But if a family comes to visit,
With whom shall they speak?
After all, we seminary types get boring all to ourselves,
Talking our seminary talk.
So they stay a few awkward moments
Out of place. For now.
No place for the mothers to gather
No place for families to find support
No place, really.
Call us a Seminary perhaps, but not a community:
There are no children here anymore.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It has now been one year since that last remaining student housing at CTS was closed. This has had a tremendous, mostly negative impact on our community, which we don’t really take time to talk about. This next year, we will begin to understand what the absence of housing in an expensive urban neighborhood means for admissions and student accep-tance rates.
Seminary is a sacrifice of time and energy, particularly for students with families. This year, students have been torn even further between seminary life and family life. This is perhaps most true for our international students with families, particularly for families that don’t have readily available com-munities to join and help them to adjust to life in the U.S.
There are no stated plans to secure housing for students in the immediate future. What will this mean for us two years from now? Ten years from now?
Administration has started talking about using the 5th floor suite, a cluster of offices which was leased to the University until this year, as a ‘Student Services’ Suite. I hope that in this space, there will be a place for families and children to gather; perhaps a room set aside for an informal daycare collective such as happened at McGiffert and continues in other seminar-ies in our neighborhood. I also hope that there will be a place for commuter students to rest between classes, as well as to feel connected to the wider community. It would also be wonderful to give space there to the international students’ language program, to move them up to a place of honor on our campus, rather than the most inhospitable room in our building. This wouldn’t fix everything, but it would be a small step in the right direction.
Most of all, I want CTS to be a place where everyone can truly belong, a place everyone can call ‘home.’
Le Anne Clausen, Editor
Monday, April 30, 2007
Question, Teach, Transform?
[Editorial for the CTS Prophet, reflecting on the seminary's slogan]
If I question, will you teach?
Will I be transformed?
Will you?
What if I question your teaching?
What if you teach me to question?
What if I teach you?
What if you question me?
What if I transform you and
you transform me?
What if I transform your teaching?
What if you transform my questioning?
How far does transformation go?
Is it only out there, or in here also?
In what direction shall we be transformed?
Will it really be for the better?
Could it go the other way?
What can’t be questioned?
Where can’t it be questioned?
What can’t be taught?
Why not?
What resists transformation?
Where does the boundary lie?
Where does the boundary lie?
If I question, will you teach?
Will I be transformed?
Will you?
What if I question your teaching?
What if you teach me to question?
What if I teach you?
What if you question me?
What if I transform you and
you transform me?
What if I transform your teaching?
What if you transform my questioning?
How far does transformation go?
Is it only out there, or in here also?
In what direction shall we be transformed?
Will it really be for the better?
Could it go the other way?
What can’t be questioned?
Where can’t it be questioned?
What can’t be taught?
Why not?
What resists transformation?
Where does the boundary lie?
Where does the boundary lie?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Prevent Tragedy, Act in Love
Editorial for the Hyde Park Seminarian, 4/25/07
“There are so many angry people here, [Virginia Tech] could happen to us on this campus.”
These were the words I heard a week ago Monday, while delivering the Seminarian to one of the many campuses here in Hyde Park. They were words that haunted me, because I knew from my own observations that they had a ring of truth. This timely street prophet continued: “Somebody doesn’t get the assignment they wanted, or there’s a problem with a professor or administrator, or they get lost in the bureaucracy…” Indeed, there are many situations of human brokenness that could lead a troubled person to commit acts such as this.
There’s a lot of ways to look at how students are vulnerable in the seminary setting. We are often separated from our families, from our home congregations and communities. In such a large city, finding help for the things that trouble us can be daunting, and expensive. We may not have good support services at our seminaries, or, our seminaries may not feel like safe places to talk about these things. Seminaries themselves are not always the first places we will find healthy, functional, and loving communities that do not cause undue harm to persons. Where the foundations of our faith meet realities of finance, grades, or housing, unjust policies, we can become shaken and vulnerable.
Sometimes, the violence doesn’t turn outward, but inward. Recently, the LSTC student government began to advocate for a ‘suicide policy’ that would guarantee students be treated pastorally and given appropriate health care, rather than be subject to punishment by seminary administration. According to Illinois Equip for Equality, actions such as eviction from student housing and expulsion from an educational program due to mental health conditions are illegal under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (www.equipforequality.org).
There have been some attempts in the media to characterize the student who committed the massacre as a monster, or to demonize him for his mental illness. I don’t believe these statements are helpful. There have also been opinions that perhaps more students or academic personnel should carry weapons, to act more quickly when something like this happens. I think this is only a disaster waiting to happen, as quickly as a moment of heated debate or a little alcohol.
What I do believe is that this is a situation that did not have to happen. Family, classmates, and university and medical personnel all knew this person was troubled. Rather than increasing alienation, greater interventions could have been made, in a loving and supportive manner, that may have prevented such a tragic outcome. Sometimes I think we all want to ‘pass the buck’ because it’s more convenient or comfortable to do so, but are the consequences worth it? Is closing our eyes the mandate for people of faith? It is true that some tragedies we cannot prevent, but that does not release us from doing what we are able.
Finally, safeseminaries.org is a website created, and still being created, for seminary students who feel that they are having unusual difficulties during their theological education. If you have questions, or have resources to contribute that you feel are important, you can visit the website, or contact info@safeseminaries.org.
Pray for the families and communities that have lost so much this week. Act in love and concern for one another. Speak up, wherever you feel most able to do so.
Peace,
Le Anne
“There are so many angry people here, [Virginia Tech] could happen to us on this campus.”
These were the words I heard a week ago Monday, while delivering the Seminarian to one of the many campuses here in Hyde Park. They were words that haunted me, because I knew from my own observations that they had a ring of truth. This timely street prophet continued: “Somebody doesn’t get the assignment they wanted, or there’s a problem with a professor or administrator, or they get lost in the bureaucracy…” Indeed, there are many situations of human brokenness that could lead a troubled person to commit acts such as this.
There’s a lot of ways to look at how students are vulnerable in the seminary setting. We are often separated from our families, from our home congregations and communities. In such a large city, finding help for the things that trouble us can be daunting, and expensive. We may not have good support services at our seminaries, or, our seminaries may not feel like safe places to talk about these things. Seminaries themselves are not always the first places we will find healthy, functional, and loving communities that do not cause undue harm to persons. Where the foundations of our faith meet realities of finance, grades, or housing, unjust policies, we can become shaken and vulnerable.
Sometimes, the violence doesn’t turn outward, but inward. Recently, the LSTC student government began to advocate for a ‘suicide policy’ that would guarantee students be treated pastorally and given appropriate health care, rather than be subject to punishment by seminary administration. According to Illinois Equip for Equality, actions such as eviction from student housing and expulsion from an educational program due to mental health conditions are illegal under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (www.equipforequality.org).
There have been some attempts in the media to characterize the student who committed the massacre as a monster, or to demonize him for his mental illness. I don’t believe these statements are helpful. There have also been opinions that perhaps more students or academic personnel should carry weapons, to act more quickly when something like this happens. I think this is only a disaster waiting to happen, as quickly as a moment of heated debate or a little alcohol.
What I do believe is that this is a situation that did not have to happen. Family, classmates, and university and medical personnel all knew this person was troubled. Rather than increasing alienation, greater interventions could have been made, in a loving and supportive manner, that may have prevented such a tragic outcome. Sometimes I think we all want to ‘pass the buck’ because it’s more convenient or comfortable to do so, but are the consequences worth it? Is closing our eyes the mandate for people of faith? It is true that some tragedies we cannot prevent, but that does not release us from doing what we are able.
Finally, safeseminaries.org is a website created, and still being created, for seminary students who feel that they are having unusual difficulties during their theological education. If you have questions, or have resources to contribute that you feel are important, you can visit the website, or contact info@safeseminaries.org.
Pray for the families and communities that have lost so much this week. Act in love and concern for one another. Speak up, wherever you feel most able to do so.
Peace,
Le Anne
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Hit the Streets, See the World
Editorial for the Hyde Park Seminarian:
Registering for Next Year?
Hit the Streets, See the World
I believe that no one should graduate from a seminary today without a used passport or an arrest record for nonviolent civil disobedience. As of this spring, I have a growing rap sheet for the latter. And, although on an extremely limited budget, I’m on my second passport.
Some of us may be studying in Chicago because of family or other life constraints. Others of us though, I believe, came here because we wanted to learn about ministry in the city. We wanted to learn how to work with people from other cultures and who speak different languages and who have backgrounds different from us. We wanted to learn not just to preach and teach, but to begin to address some of the biggest challenges in our nation and our planet. We wanted to be where the rubber hits the road, and we weren’t afraid to work.
However, I believe for many of us, something happens once we come to seminary. We get insulated in our own campus or neighborhood bubble; the daily grind clouds the vision we arrived with, and we start just doing what it takes to graduate, or what was most comfortable and familiar, forget-ting the bigger picture.
Don’t let this chance go by. It goes too quickly, and it’s hard to take the time once we’re loaded down with a regular job and even more people who depend on us—not to mention when we’re making payments on our student loans.
I’ve been told CTU requires study abroad for all its students, which I think makes incredible sense for ministry in our world today. LSTC and McCormick regularly offer a few J-Term programs in cross-cultural settings. McCormick has also had semester-long exchange programs in Korea and Lebanon, although these may be in danger due to an unfortunate change in administrative priorities. I’m sad to admit my own seminary, CTS, rarely engages the wider world despite our stated commitments to global sensitivity and its many other good pro-grams. [I was unable to get information for Mead-ville and the Div School, but would welcome their perspectives in a future edition of this paper]. It’s also important for each of the seminaries to help students find sources of financial aid that exist for these studies.
Still, if your own seminary does not offer the opportunities you seek, there’s the possibility of cross-registration for these courses as well. And don’t forget SCUPE or ACTS Urban CPE, which both offer ways of encountering the city beyond Hyde Park.
Finally, if you are concerned about the wider world but simply can’t find a way to afford the cost or time away from other responsibilities, don’t let that stop you from participating in the free opportunities that exist on our campuses. The pages of the Seminarian are full of notices for speakers and chances to interact with students from other back-grounds on issues that matter.
Here are some websites to help you get started. Or, write in and ask, and I’ll help you get started.
For cross-cultural, sudy abroad, and ACTS Urban CPE: http://www.northpark.edu/acts/catalog2006/cat02.html
Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Educa-tion: http://www.scupe.org/
peace,
Le Anne
Registering for Next Year?
Hit the Streets, See the World
I believe that no one should graduate from a seminary today without a used passport or an arrest record for nonviolent civil disobedience. As of this spring, I have a growing rap sheet for the latter. And, although on an extremely limited budget, I’m on my second passport.
Some of us may be studying in Chicago because of family or other life constraints. Others of us though, I believe, came here because we wanted to learn about ministry in the city. We wanted to learn how to work with people from other cultures and who speak different languages and who have backgrounds different from us. We wanted to learn not just to preach and teach, but to begin to address some of the biggest challenges in our nation and our planet. We wanted to be where the rubber hits the road, and we weren’t afraid to work.
However, I believe for many of us, something happens once we come to seminary. We get insulated in our own campus or neighborhood bubble; the daily grind clouds the vision we arrived with, and we start just doing what it takes to graduate, or what was most comfortable and familiar, forget-ting the bigger picture.
Don’t let this chance go by. It goes too quickly, and it’s hard to take the time once we’re loaded down with a regular job and even more people who depend on us—not to mention when we’re making payments on our student loans.
I’ve been told CTU requires study abroad for all its students, which I think makes incredible sense for ministry in our world today. LSTC and McCormick regularly offer a few J-Term programs in cross-cultural settings. McCormick has also had semester-long exchange programs in Korea and Lebanon, although these may be in danger due to an unfortunate change in administrative priorities. I’m sad to admit my own seminary, CTS, rarely engages the wider world despite our stated commitments to global sensitivity and its many other good pro-grams. [I was unable to get information for Mead-ville and the Div School, but would welcome their perspectives in a future edition of this paper]. It’s also important for each of the seminaries to help students find sources of financial aid that exist for these studies.
Still, if your own seminary does not offer the opportunities you seek, there’s the possibility of cross-registration for these courses as well. And don’t forget SCUPE or ACTS Urban CPE, which both offer ways of encountering the city beyond Hyde Park.
Finally, if you are concerned about the wider world but simply can’t find a way to afford the cost or time away from other responsibilities, don’t let that stop you from participating in the free opportunities that exist on our campuses. The pages of the Seminarian are full of notices for speakers and chances to interact with students from other back-grounds on issues that matter.
Here are some websites to help you get started. Or, write in and ask, and I’ll help you get started.
For cross-cultural, sudy abroad, and ACTS Urban CPE: http://www.northpark.edu/acts/catalog2006/cat02.html
Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Educa-tion: http://www.scupe.org/
peace,
Le Anne
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
When A Feminist Isn't A Feminist
I've been thinking a lot lately about women and power dynamics. Really, it's been on my mind since I first started seminary three years ago--and started meeting women who had some power.
In short, I realized there's a difference between women who are feminists, and women who are simply after power. A woman who wants power is in it for herself. She will feel no qualms about stepping on, or even crushing any woman under her on her way to the top, in her quest to attain or maintain power.
That's not the kind of woman I can admire. Even though many of these women would call themselves feminists.
A feminist, on the other hand, knows that the liberation of one does not come without the liberation of all, and will extend a hand to help the women who are under her--whether by being younger, or by being students, or laywomen, or of a different color or ethnicity or orientation or economic status. They may break through the glass ceiling, but they're not going to turn around and start nailing down boards, and concrete, trying to prevent other women from coming through after them.
Wish I didn't see it all the time. Hope I never get like that.
Wonder if you see it coming when you do get like that, or if it just sneaks up on you?
In short, I realized there's a difference between women who are feminists, and women who are simply after power. A woman who wants power is in it for herself. She will feel no qualms about stepping on, or even crushing any woman under her on her way to the top, in her quest to attain or maintain power.
That's not the kind of woman I can admire. Even though many of these women would call themselves feminists.
A feminist, on the other hand, knows that the liberation of one does not come without the liberation of all, and will extend a hand to help the women who are under her--whether by being younger, or by being students, or laywomen, or of a different color or ethnicity or orientation or economic status. They may break through the glass ceiling, but they're not going to turn around and start nailing down boards, and concrete, trying to prevent other women from coming through after them.
Wish I didn't see it all the time. Hope I never get like that.
Wonder if you see it coming when you do get like that, or if it just sneaks up on you?
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Holy Fire
(Editorial, Hyde Park Seminarian Easter Edition)
Jerusalem. Holy Saturday.
Below, in the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Fire is lit from within Christ’s tomb and quickly spreads to candles held by the crowds. Each year planes stand ready at the airport, to carry that fire to Greece and all the cities, kindling hope sparked first in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, up on the roof, Coptic Christians are dancing through the night, beating their drums, until sunrise. You want to join them, to be surrounded by the Spirit.
***
Chicago. Holy Saturday.
A bonfire is lit in a church courtyard in the city. The people gather.
Outside, fire trucks and ambulances
Sirens in the night
A paschal candle lit, fire quickly spreads to candles held by the crowd
Entering the sanctuary
Vigil is kept in the night: Prayers, hymns, and retelling the history of our salvation:
Creation, fall. Adam and Eve, cast out but lives spared from death in the wilderness.
Noah, a dove, the ark. Tossed about in deadly floods but landing on dry ground; a new promise.
Isaac, saved, spared from terrible death.
Moses, Miriam, and the people.
Spared from an army’s slaughter as the sea opens up.
They are saved.
Life spared from certain death--
Dry bones reconstituted in a valley
Three men delivered from a furnace
Over and over again:
Ways of life opening up to conquer the forces of death.
And now Jesus Christ. Resurrected. Life that overcame certain death in our world and in our systems of justice.
And now and always, us. Saved. Spared from certain death, the certain punishment for we, the killers of God.
God’s justice is different.
***
In the church, all candles from the vigil are extinguished. It is silent.
The faint scent of lilies enters the room, the first sign of new life.
A shout in the darkness:
Christ is Risen!
In the darkness, a chorus of replies:
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Again and again, this call and response. Then:
Light so bright it blinds your eyes
Banners unfurled: Alleluia!
A chorus of handbells, the pipes of the organ nearly bursting, the choir sings:
‘This is the feast of victory for our Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia!’
The word is preached, Communion is served
Bread pressed into palms, sweet wine poured from the cup
Blessings, Benediction
Exuberance, celebration, a sigh of relief:
The long Lent is over. Resurrection is here!
Moving from the chapel to the fellowship hall:
More wine, a feast in the middle of the night
More light, people from the streets drift in to eat
New friends made in sanctified space.
Outside, bitter cold. Snow dusts the ground.
The city still dies, the world still suffers
Yet,
“Jesus Christ comes to stand with us in the midst of our death-filled lives!”
words of the preacher not forgotten
words of hope for another year
Easter is here.
Le Anne Clausen spent three Easters in Jerusalem before start-ing seminary. Saturday night was her second vigil visiting Augustana Lutheran at 55th/University. Sermon quote from Robert O. Smith.
Jerusalem. Holy Saturday.
Below, in the courtyard of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Fire is lit from within Christ’s tomb and quickly spreads to candles held by the crowds. Each year planes stand ready at the airport, to carry that fire to Greece and all the cities, kindling hope sparked first in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, up on the roof, Coptic Christians are dancing through the night, beating their drums, until sunrise. You want to join them, to be surrounded by the Spirit.
***
Chicago. Holy Saturday.
A bonfire is lit in a church courtyard in the city. The people gather.
Outside, fire trucks and ambulances
Sirens in the night
A paschal candle lit, fire quickly spreads to candles held by the crowd
Entering the sanctuary
Vigil is kept in the night: Prayers, hymns, and retelling the history of our salvation:
Creation, fall. Adam and Eve, cast out but lives spared from death in the wilderness.
Noah, a dove, the ark. Tossed about in deadly floods but landing on dry ground; a new promise.
Isaac, saved, spared from terrible death.
Moses, Miriam, and the people.
Spared from an army’s slaughter as the sea opens up.
They are saved.
Life spared from certain death--
Dry bones reconstituted in a valley
Three men delivered from a furnace
Over and over again:
Ways of life opening up to conquer the forces of death.
And now Jesus Christ. Resurrected. Life that overcame certain death in our world and in our systems of justice.
And now and always, us. Saved. Spared from certain death, the certain punishment for we, the killers of God.
God’s justice is different.
***
In the church, all candles from the vigil are extinguished. It is silent.
The faint scent of lilies enters the room, the first sign of new life.
A shout in the darkness:
Christ is Risen!
In the darkness, a chorus of replies:
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Again and again, this call and response. Then:
Light so bright it blinds your eyes
Banners unfurled: Alleluia!
A chorus of handbells, the pipes of the organ nearly bursting, the choir sings:
‘This is the feast of victory for our Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia!’
The word is preached, Communion is served
Bread pressed into palms, sweet wine poured from the cup
Blessings, Benediction
Exuberance, celebration, a sigh of relief:
The long Lent is over. Resurrection is here!
Moving from the chapel to the fellowship hall:
More wine, a feast in the middle of the night
More light, people from the streets drift in to eat
New friends made in sanctified space.
Outside, bitter cold. Snow dusts the ground.
The city still dies, the world still suffers
Yet,
“Jesus Christ comes to stand with us in the midst of our death-filled lives!”
words of the preacher not forgotten
words of hope for another year
Easter is here.
Le Anne Clausen spent three Easters in Jerusalem before start-ing seminary. Saturday night was her second vigil visiting Augustana Lutheran at 55th/University. Sermon quote from Robert O. Smith.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Love is Patient, Love is Kind
Greetings everyone,
I just received back a DVD with the copy of my first sermon for preaching class. I like the audio; I even like the visual even though I am reminded that the camera (sure, the camera) adds ten pounds. I waited for the DVD to send a transcript to you since I changed some things at the last minute. It is below:
Le Anne Clausen
April 3, 2007
1 Corinthians. 13:1-13
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
“Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
------------------------
Brothers and Sisters,
I am not about to preach a wedding sermon from this text.
Instead I am going to preach to you here in this room, church leadership, in this season of Holy Week. Or, for you who will be working in the church, Holy Hell Week for the rest of our working lives. I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned right now, I’m only concerned about survival until Sunday afternoon. There are so many prophecies to preach, words to speak; so many songs to sing and lessons to rehearse and rituals to perform, I’m already exhausted.
Love is patient; love is kind;
It’s just as bad around here this week, isn’t it? How many of you are feeling absolutely buried under papers and midterms and presentations right now? Or Academic Council, fifteen committees, 76 phone calls, 110 emails to return, is there time to even get to worship this week, and if we do get there, will it come off without a hitch? Will all the pieces and all the people be in order, the logistics all planned through and carried out?
Love is patient; love is kind;
Some of you know I’m trying to figure out what to do with my life next. I have a lot of things I could do; and little clear sense of which to do first. Do I go back into activism? Do I go to the parish? Do I go to jail? Do I get a Ph.D? What is required of me, in order to do the good I want to do in the world? What kind of formation, or even credentials, do I need to be accepted? These are questions as real as where my heart leads me, and I worry they will drown out the speaking of the Spirit. They can’t be ignored; I just don’t want them to take over.
Love is patient, love is kind;
We’re good at talking about stepping back from the rush at Christmas to remember the true meaning. We’re maybe not so good yet at talking about this in Holy Week. Rather, we rush through, don’t we, just as everything rushed straight through in all its full-steam confusion 2,000 years ago.
There was a religious leadership at the time, also, and crowds of religious people, trying to do the right thing, trying to observe the formalities, trying to preserve the traditions…somehow missing the core, not seeing the forest for the trees.
None of these things here we’re trying to do in our seminaries and churches and lives are bad; in fact all these things are good and probably have good intentions and noble purposes. But, when love is lacking; they are empty.
The apostle says love is patient, love is kind—and I’m already convicted. Opportunities to love always seem to show up when I’m already fifteen minutes late; when my hands are full; when I’m tired and don’t want to play any more. The people in my path who need loving are too stubborn, too crazy, too needy, they ask too much; I want to tell them to go away! I’m a seminary student, isn’t that enough?
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Seminaries, unfortunately, are not always places or communities of amply-realized Christian love. What if we were to rewrite this epistle: If I could conjugate all of Greek and Hebrew, memorize all the theologians and the Bible, and profess all theories of transformation, be published in all the prestigious journals and make national news…but have not love, I gain nothing?
What is it that we’re all about? What is it that we should be about?
But as for prophecies, they will end. As for courses and tests and practice sermons; faculty disputes and student uprisings; they will end. We have our necessary struggles in the quest to do good, but we cannot neglect the love, the patience, the kindness. For what else then shall we be faithful or hopeful?
Oh, how we see in a mirror darkly, but miss so much of the beauty. We get the general idea—do good; we just forget so often in our harried lives to love.
If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, you know it is packed wall to wall in every street with people running errands—to work, to school, to the market. It probably wasn’t any different at the time Jesus entered, cleared the Temple, ate with his disciples, was arrested, and then taken out to be crucified. What an interruption, the crazy man, in the midst of the hustle.
There were a lot of learned, faithful people in Jerusalem that day. There was lots of arrogance and rudeness, and insisting on one’s own way. Yet here is this man in the midst of the craziness whose love is patient, whose love is kind. While we go about in our lives like children thinking childish ways, acting childishly, here is a love who bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Here is one who sees completely while we see partially.
Here is love for us that does not end.
Wherever we go in this life, whether here in seminary, or this neighborhood, or into the churches, wherever we go there’s going to be expectations, demands, to do lists and on and on; they will surround us at all times. We will be tempted to dig in our feet, get stubborn, grow stagnant, and miss the point.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t miss the point: love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love never ends.
I just received back a DVD with the copy of my first sermon for preaching class. I like the audio; I even like the visual even though I am reminded that the camera (sure, the camera) adds ten pounds. I waited for the DVD to send a transcript to you since I changed some things at the last minute. It is below:
Le Anne Clausen
April 3, 2007
1 Corinthians. 13:1-13
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
“Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
------------------------
Brothers and Sisters,
I am not about to preach a wedding sermon from this text.
Instead I am going to preach to you here in this room, church leadership, in this season of Holy Week. Or, for you who will be working in the church, Holy Hell Week for the rest of our working lives. I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned right now, I’m only concerned about survival until Sunday afternoon. There are so many prophecies to preach, words to speak; so many songs to sing and lessons to rehearse and rituals to perform, I’m already exhausted.
Love is patient; love is kind;
It’s just as bad around here this week, isn’t it? How many of you are feeling absolutely buried under papers and midterms and presentations right now? Or Academic Council, fifteen committees, 76 phone calls, 110 emails to return, is there time to even get to worship this week, and if we do get there, will it come off without a hitch? Will all the pieces and all the people be in order, the logistics all planned through and carried out?
Love is patient; love is kind;
Some of you know I’m trying to figure out what to do with my life next. I have a lot of things I could do; and little clear sense of which to do first. Do I go back into activism? Do I go to the parish? Do I go to jail? Do I get a Ph.D? What is required of me, in order to do the good I want to do in the world? What kind of formation, or even credentials, do I need to be accepted? These are questions as real as where my heart leads me, and I worry they will drown out the speaking of the Spirit. They can’t be ignored; I just don’t want them to take over.
Love is patient, love is kind;
We’re good at talking about stepping back from the rush at Christmas to remember the true meaning. We’re maybe not so good yet at talking about this in Holy Week. Rather, we rush through, don’t we, just as everything rushed straight through in all its full-steam confusion 2,000 years ago.
There was a religious leadership at the time, also, and crowds of religious people, trying to do the right thing, trying to observe the formalities, trying to preserve the traditions…somehow missing the core, not seeing the forest for the trees.
None of these things here we’re trying to do in our seminaries and churches and lives are bad; in fact all these things are good and probably have good intentions and noble purposes. But, when love is lacking; they are empty.
The apostle says love is patient, love is kind—and I’m already convicted. Opportunities to love always seem to show up when I’m already fifteen minutes late; when my hands are full; when I’m tired and don’t want to play any more. The people in my path who need loving are too stubborn, too crazy, too needy, they ask too much; I want to tell them to go away! I’m a seminary student, isn’t that enough?
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Seminaries, unfortunately, are not always places or communities of amply-realized Christian love. What if we were to rewrite this epistle: If I could conjugate all of Greek and Hebrew, memorize all the theologians and the Bible, and profess all theories of transformation, be published in all the prestigious journals and make national news…but have not love, I gain nothing?
What is it that we’re all about? What is it that we should be about?
But as for prophecies, they will end. As for courses and tests and practice sermons; faculty disputes and student uprisings; they will end. We have our necessary struggles in the quest to do good, but we cannot neglect the love, the patience, the kindness. For what else then shall we be faithful or hopeful?
Oh, how we see in a mirror darkly, but miss so much of the beauty. We get the general idea—do good; we just forget so often in our harried lives to love.
If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, you know it is packed wall to wall in every street with people running errands—to work, to school, to the market. It probably wasn’t any different at the time Jesus entered, cleared the Temple, ate with his disciples, was arrested, and then taken out to be crucified. What an interruption, the crazy man, in the midst of the hustle.
There were a lot of learned, faithful people in Jerusalem that day. There was lots of arrogance and rudeness, and insisting on one’s own way. Yet here is this man in the midst of the craziness whose love is patient, whose love is kind. While we go about in our lives like children thinking childish ways, acting childishly, here is a love who bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Here is one who sees completely while we see partially.
Here is love for us that does not end.
Wherever we go in this life, whether here in seminary, or this neighborhood, or into the churches, wherever we go there’s going to be expectations, demands, to do lists and on and on; they will surround us at all times. We will be tempted to dig in our feet, get stubborn, grow stagnant, and miss the point.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t miss the point: love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love never ends.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
House Hunting
From the Editor: House Hunting
(Hyde Park Seminarian, April 4, 2007)
This past weekend, I moved into the Graduate Student Co-op on University Ave. I now have fifteen housemates, remarkably low rent, and actually not that long a wait for the shower or laundry machines to be free. You could say so far I’m enjoying it.
Even though I have a new home for probably the rest of my seminary life, I am often aware of the increasing difficulty seminarians face finding housing in Hyde Park. CTS recently lost the last of its on-campus housing, which has created an all-commuter campus, and several of my classmates either struggle to pay Hyde Park rents, or commute from long distances to campus most days in the week.
The situation varies from one school to another, but all seem to have some sort of trouble with lack of housing space: Only full-time students and their families may live in McCormick housing, which may be financially impossible for many students these days. LSTC recently restricted its policies on which students and recent graduates could live in their dorms. Meadville can only house part of its first-year class in its residential buildings. Students at CTU have not been happy about the renovation plans for their on-campus residences, saying the design doesn’t meet the needs of their lives today. Students at the UofC may find the prices or size of student housing options frustrating.
In coming years, seminaries will need to be attentive to their students’ concerns about housing and make reasonable efforts to address them. The makeup of the student body has changed dramatically since the 60’s or earlier when most residences were built. Also, in landlocked Hyde Park, it strikes me that the seminaries should find some way to cooperate to provide housing to a greater number of students at affordable rates. This would have the added benefit of being neighborly with students from other schools and faith traditions--good practice for today’s world realities.
In the meantime, you may also find yourself looking for alternative housing. There are several housing co-ops or intentional communities in Hyde Park. The largest is the Qumbya Co-op, which has three buildings spread throughout the neighborhood. Each building has its own ‘vibe,’ and rooms come available throughout the year. Div. School students and other seminarians usually live in each house. The Grad Student Co-op will have several openings available this summer as students graduate. There are application processes for both systems, and you can find out more at the web addresses below:
www.qumbya.com
graduate.coop@gmail.com (write for details)
Peace,
Le Anne
(Hyde Park Seminarian, April 4, 2007)
This past weekend, I moved into the Graduate Student Co-op on University Ave. I now have fifteen housemates, remarkably low rent, and actually not that long a wait for the shower or laundry machines to be free. You could say so far I’m enjoying it.
Even though I have a new home for probably the rest of my seminary life, I am often aware of the increasing difficulty seminarians face finding housing in Hyde Park. CTS recently lost the last of its on-campus housing, which has created an all-commuter campus, and several of my classmates either struggle to pay Hyde Park rents, or commute from long distances to campus most days in the week.
The situation varies from one school to another, but all seem to have some sort of trouble with lack of housing space: Only full-time students and their families may live in McCormick housing, which may be financially impossible for many students these days. LSTC recently restricted its policies on which students and recent graduates could live in their dorms. Meadville can only house part of its first-year class in its residential buildings. Students at CTU have not been happy about the renovation plans for their on-campus residences, saying the design doesn’t meet the needs of their lives today. Students at the UofC may find the prices or size of student housing options frustrating.
In coming years, seminaries will need to be attentive to their students’ concerns about housing and make reasonable efforts to address them. The makeup of the student body has changed dramatically since the 60’s or earlier when most residences were built. Also, in landlocked Hyde Park, it strikes me that the seminaries should find some way to cooperate to provide housing to a greater number of students at affordable rates. This would have the added benefit of being neighborly with students from other schools and faith traditions--good practice for today’s world realities.
In the meantime, you may also find yourself looking for alternative housing. There are several housing co-ops or intentional communities in Hyde Park. The largest is the Qumbya Co-op, which has three buildings spread throughout the neighborhood. Each building has its own ‘vibe,’ and rooms come available throughout the year. Div. School students and other seminarians usually live in each house. The Grad Student Co-op will have several openings available this summer as students graduate. There are application processes for both systems, and you can find out more at the web addresses below:
www.qumbya.com
graduate.coop@gmail.com (write for details)
Peace,
Le Anne
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