Looking back on the past year, it’s pretty easy to get discouraged. Amidst continued economic problems, superstorms, long elections and the tragic school shooting in Connecticut, not to mention what might be going on in our own personal lives, it’s easy for all of us to wonder where God is in everything we’re facing. For young adults coming of age in such challenging and changing times, figuring out what it means to be a person of faith can often be particularly difficult.
Luckily, our Lutheran tradition offers the world the
precious insight that God is gracious God who loves all Her children. In a
world where we’re hungry for acceptance, love, community and meaning, whether
they’re a person of faith or not, the central Lutheran insight that God loves
us is indeed very good news. But
the question then becomes, how do we respond to the good news that God loves us
in the actually world we live in?
Perhaps putting it even more fundamentally, how does God’s
good news affect who we are?
Throughout our weekend at Calumet, we’ll be exploring that
very question through four steps, with 1
John 4: 7 – 12 as our guiding framework:
7Beloved, let us love
one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and
knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is
love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his
only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this
is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so
much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God;
if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Our first step
during devotions on Friday night will be to think about how we live
out our faith in everyday life. We’ll be doing this through a fun bingo
activity where participants can sign off on squares about what types of
service, etc. they participate in.
Our second step
during the Saturday morning session will be to think about issues
facing our world and how Lutherans are responding to such issues.
Participants will break into groups and answer quiz questions about
various facts (multiple choice, true/ false, etc.) They’ll then break into small groups and discuss what
they’ve heard. If there’s leftover
time, they’ll report back some of their responses to the larger group.
Here are just a few of the facts about the world we live in
that we’ll touch on:
- Lutheranism
is no longer a Western tradition.
Roughly 5% of the US population is Lutheran, while roughly 50% of the
Namibian population is Lutheran.
There are more Lutherans in Lutheran World Federation member churches in
Ethiopia and Tanzania than in the United States.
- Despite
nearly eliminating hunger in the US back in the 1970s, nearly one in four
American children live in a household facing food insecurity. One quarter of children below the age
of five are stunted worldwide due to lack of proper nutrition.
- In
2011, Lutheran World Relief helped nearly 5 million people in forty
countries. Lutheran Social
Services is the largest single charitable organization in the United States,
based on revenue.
- One
third of US teens report being bullied in school, while 8% of students report
being injured or hurt with a weapon at school.
- ELCA
Lutherans advocate for social justice through a national office in Washington,
twelve state public policy offices and the Lutheran Office for World Community
in New York.
- Nearly
a quarter of American young adults have no religious affiliation. New England is the least religious area
of the country.
- Average
global temperature increased by about one degree Celsius over the 20th
century. The Antarctic and
Greenland ice sheets lost 36 to 60 cubic miles of ice per year between 2002 and
2006.
- The
ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program sends roughly fifty young adult volunteers
to serve abroad each year.
- In
developing countries, women tend to work far longer hours than men. In Asia and
Africa, studies have shown that women work as much as 13 hours more per week.
- After
a strong effort since 1990, nearly 90% of primary-school aged children are now
enrolled in school worldwide. Most
countries have achieved relatively equity in primary school enrollment between
girls and boys.
Our third step will
be to reflect on what it means to be a person of faith in the world
we live in. We’ll do this by discussing how what we learned in the
morning session relates to what the 1 John passage reads in our small
groups. We’ll then take some time
to think about what it means for us to be a person of faith and then break into
different stations where we can express our identity. This can be done through writing, taping of YouTube videos,
art, and perhaps even a skit performance.
What we come up with will be shared with the wider world through a
variety of avenues (LWF Youth Blog, NE Synod blog, etc. are possibilities)
Our final step will
be to gather around Word and Sacrament during Sunday worship to showcase and
discuss what we’ve experienced over the weekend.
God's peace,
Dustin
Dustin is currently a vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice building in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.
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