What I've Been Up to for the Last Six Months

What follows is a post I wrote for my internal Vicar's Page at Saint Peter's Church where I currently serve as Vicar, but I figured it could work as a general update on my year as well.  Please leave comments and questions!

Well, much like what often happens on these sort of things, the last six months got pretty busy, and I've thus had "Update the Vicar's Page" as an item on my to-do list for almost that long.  My hope is that over the final two months of my internship at Saint Peter's and the Lutheran Office for World Community, (my last Sunday is August 11th) I'll have the opportunity to add to this page a little more frequently.

That said, the last six months, while quite busy, have been filled with absolutely amazing experiences at both internship sites, so I figured I could go through a quick exercise of filling in folks on what I've been up to.  After a great break over Christmas and New Years, I served as chaplain at a retreat at Camp Calumet Lutheran in New Hampshire.  Working with a rowdy group of teenage campers reuniting from the previous summer, we had a bunch of great talks on faith, service and global mission - and had a bunch of fun as well. We "live-tweeted" the entire retreat on Twitter, and for more information you can check out my personal blog here.

After getting back from my time in New England, things we really started to pick up.  A major aspect of my internship at the United Nations is doing communications work for Ecumenical Women, a coalition of church denominations and ecumenical organizations working to advance the rights of girls and women, especially at the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  As the 57th session of CSW was taking place at the beginning of March, I spent a great deal of time this winter blogging, posting videos and managing online registration for various Ecumenical Women events during CSW.  I believe our work at CSW57 turned out to be a huge success... outside of getting strong agreed conclusions we had more traffic at the EW website than ever before with over four thousand views and many great stories shared during the month of March.  In addition to working with Ecumenical Women this winter, I spent time following the Security Council and Food & Hunger issues at the UN. Perhaps most notably, I've also been working to increase faith-based participation in the World We Want 2015, a web platform where global citizens can give their input for what should follow the Millenium Development Goals in 2015.  If you have no idea what the Millenium Development Goals are, no problem!  Check out an Ecumenical Women post I wrote here giving a basic overview of the whole thing.

While it was sometimes difficult, I tried to balance my work at the UN with my responsibilities and opportunities for ministry at Saint Peter's as well.  Outside of preaching frequently at our Jazz Vespers service, I spent a great deal of time working with our immigration advocacy group this winter, primarily to organize an Immigration Advocacy Workshop, which after being snowed out in early February was held on March 16th.  Roughly twenty-five folks from Saint Peter's, Sion Iglesia Luterana and the local community worshiped together and learned about immigration advocacy on a Saturday afternoon.  For a copy of the bi-lingual liturgy we used for worship, click here.  We also attended New Sanctuary NYC's weekly Jericho Walk for immigration reform a number of times.  I also attended an amazing conference at Union Theological Seminary in February entitled Digital Church: Theology and New Media.  While there I heard a number of clergy and lay leaders discuss how they've used social media to strengthen their ministries.  A number of folks also identified a number of theological issues brought about by the new digital context we find ourselves in.  Another great success was leading an adult forum at Saint Peter's entitled "Ask the Vicar," where folks could ask me questions on my internship experience thus far, my background, etc.

After a brief trip to visit friends at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia where I'm working towards my Master's of Divinity, my focus shifted almost exclusively toward work at Saint Peter's during Holy Week.  I preached during one noontime Mass and assisted with the daily liturgies.  I was also absolutely blown away by how powerful many of the worship services were during Holy Week at Saint Peter's, especially the Easter Vigil.  After Holy Week I traveled to Washington D.C. twice in one week, first for Ecumenical Advocacy Days (a conference that this year focused on food and hunger) and then for a rally for immigration reform with two members of Saint Peter's.  Both experiences were great, especially the many opportunities I had to meet with our elected officials (or at least their staff).

Following my busy week of travel the Lutheran office at the UN hosted a number of seminarians for the Nolde Seminar on Faith and Human Rights, which provided me with a great opportunity to catch up with friends from seminary and learn a great deal as well.  Perhaps one of the most moving days of my internship took place in early May when a number of Saint Peter's members showed up to accompany another member to his hearing for refugee status.  To me, that day couldn't have been a more powerful expression of what "doing Church" is supposed to be like.

Since mid-May things have slowed down a little bit.  I've been preaching more frequently, especially at Jazz Vespers, continuing to work on communications for Ecumenical Women, working on faith-based participation with the World We Want and number of other issues at the UN.  I also attended a powerful anti-hate crime march in response to the killing of Marc Carson in the Village.  For a bit more on my experience you can check out a blog post here.  Another great success was Saint Peter's Parish Council voting in favor of a resolution official endorsing our immigration advocacy group, now called Nuestro Refugio (Our Refuge).  We've also been working on strengthening the partnership between Nuestro Refugio, Sion Iglesia Luterana and New Sanctuary NYC, as well as ensuring there will be leadership in group once my vicarage ends in August.

Well that's about it.  Check back here frequently, and please contact me if you have any questions.

God's peace,

Vicar Dustin

Dustin currently serves as 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 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.

Lent 5C Sermon: Stories of Liberation, Stories of Freedom

What follows is the first draft of a sermon I'll be preaching this 
Sunday on the appointed lectionary gospel reading, Saint John 12: 1- 8.  Would love to hear some feedback.  Thanks friends!

A young man who has recently come out to his faith community stands up to an intolerant, bigoted pastor by boldly proclaiming that he is a child of God reconciled through Christ and that he is no less a Christian because of who he loves. After suffering for decades under the weight of drug addiction, a middle-aged women enters a twelve-step program at a church in the Bronx, cleans up, and only two years later is elected president of the parish council. Young Coptic Christians encircle their Muslim sisters and brothers peacefully protesting in Tahrir Square in order to protect them from harassment during evening prayer. These are stories of liberation. These are stories of freedom.

Wrapped in the loving support of his local congregation, a father navigates an inefficient, under-resourced and unjust immigration system in order to remain with his two young, American- born children. After worship on a Sunday morning, a group of elderly African-American women venture out together to cast their ballot at local polling station, only to be kept waiting hours by a system that still wants to deprive them of their right to vote nearly fifty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. A Presbyterian woman marches through a blizzard outside the United Nations with thousands of others two Fridays ago on International Women’s Day. Struggling against heavy winds, she holds up a sign that boldly states, “Jesus is feminist”. She holds up that sign despite knowing that other Christians, Christians weighed down by centuries of patriarchy and privilege, are at that very moment actively working within the UN system to curb the rights of girls and women. These are stories of liberation. These are stories of freedom.

A family, two sisters and a brother to be precise, gather together a group of close friends for a banquet in the village of Bethany, just a couple miles outside of Jerusalem. There is much to celebrate… the brother, Lazarus, was raised from the dead only a few days earlier, yet there’s also tension in the air. The Passover is coming, and everyone’s wondering whether the guest of honor will attend the corresponding city festival despite the possibility of his arrest. One sister hosts the meal; joyfully presiding over its many courses while the other seems noticeably tense. Near the end of the evening, the second sister, Mary, bursts up from her seat and reaches under the table, pulling out a large package of costly, fragrant ointment. Then, making one hell of a scene, she scandously stoops down at the feet of Jesus, and the feet of her Saviour, and carefully anoints him with long flowing hair. Mary doesn’t stop until the ointment is all used up, despite the protest of other folks in the room who have no idea what’s going on.

You see Mary is in fact what the Bible typically terms a prophet, as she’s the only one besides Jesus who knows what’s really going on. She realizes that in one sense, her Saviour is already buried, that his fate is already sealed, and thus that he must be properly anointed. One particularly ornery guest named Judas, thinking that Mary’s actions are some sort of expensive thank you note for raising Lazarus, calls Mary wasteful… instead of spending all that money on nard he argues it should have been given to the poor. Jesus strongly rebukes this accusation, cries out “leave her alone,” and affirms Mary’s prophetic action, thereby saying that its not about what Judas, Mary, or what anyone else for that matter is doing at all… its instead about what the Son of God will soon do for all humankind. This too, my sisters and brothers, is a story of liberation. This too, is a story of freedom.

Throughout much of my internship this year, I’ve often found myself thinking a lot about what the whole point of what this Gospel thing is anyway. In a world that seems to be turning away as fast as possible… what does the Church, what does Jesus in fact, have left to offer? We often hear that God in Christ forgives us of our sins. This is certainly true, we are forgiven, but I have come to believe that what God truly does in Christ is something even deeper. Because when we are forgiven, when God reconciles us to Herself in Christ, an even more amazing work happens: we are liberated, we are freed from all that ails us, and that is truly Good News. And this world needs that Good News as much as ever, because without it, none of the stories I’ve told this day would be possible. Because you see, when you got the Good News of Jesus the Christ on your side, the powers of patriarchy and intolerance, the powers of hate and violence and the powers of sin and death don’t have a shot.

Not too long ago, sometime around Christmas I believe, you heard it aptly asked from this pulpit, “Where is God for you today?” After a long, cold winter, after blizzards and superstorms, after mass shootings and the massive stress of a presidential election, as we enter a new season of rebirth and light and as we prepare to celebrate the Good News of Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection in Christ, I’d like to leave you all with a new question. What is Christ liberating you from? What is Christ freeing you from? What is Christ liberating you from? What is Christ freeing you from? Because you see my sisters and brothers, the stories I shared today aren’t just the stories of Copts in Tahrir Square, or of a recovering drug addict parish council president, or of a young woman making a scene, anointing the feet of her Saviour… these stories of liberation, these stories of freedom in Christ, are our stories, all of our stories, as well. So I ask one more time, what is Christ liberating you from? What is Christ freeing you from? To put it another way, what is the new thing Christ is doing in you?
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.

Immigration Advocacy Workshop and Additional Resource

As you may have a seen in a recent post, this past Saturday at Saint Peter's Church where I currently serve as Vicar we were supposed to hold an Immigration Advocacy Workshop.  Unfortunately, a whole lot of snow happened and we thus had to reschedule.  Luckily it wasn't too difficult to find an alternative date.  Here's the updated information in both English and Spanish in case you'd like to join us:

Immigration Advocacy Workshop (rescheduled)
Saturday, March 16, from 2:00-4:00 p.m.
In the Sanctuary and Living Room, Saint Peter's Church
Late last November, members of Saint Peter's and Iglesia Luterana Sión gathered together over brunch to discuss how we could begin organizing around important social justice issues, with an initial emphasis on immigration advocacy. We decided to plan an Immigration Advocacy Workshop, and those efforts have now come to fruition. Ravi Ragbir, Director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York, will discuss how current issues relate to past immigration and Amy Gottlieb, Program Director of the Friends Service Committee's Immigrant Rights Program, will discuss why immigration issues should matter to people of faith. After worshiping together we'll proceed to the main discussion and conclude with time for light refreshment and informal conversation.  Please join us!

Taller sobre defensa migratoria (reprogramada)
Sábado, 16 de marzo, de 14:00 - 16:00
En el Santuario y living room, Iglesia San Pedro
A finales del pasado mes de noviembre, los miembros de San Pedro y la Iglesia Luterana Sión se reunieron durante brunch para discutir cómo podríamos empezar a organizarnos en torno a importantes cuestiones de justicia social, con énfasis inicial cuestiones de inmigración. Nos decidimos a planear un taller de defensa migratoria, y esos esfuerzos han llegado a buen término. Ravi Ragbir, director de la Coalición del Nuevo Santuario de Nueva York, hablará sobre problemas actuales relacionados con el pasado sistema migratorio y Amy Gottlieb, directora del programa de Servicio de los Amigos del Comité del Programa de Derechos de los Inmigrantes, hablará sobre por qué los temas de inmigración debe importar a la gente de fe. Después de orar juntos vamos a proceder a la discusión principal y concluir con un ligero refrigerio y conversación informal. Por favor, únete a nosotros!

In the midst of the planning process for the workshop I discovered a number of additional immigration resources.  The infographic to the left does a great job of explaining the many weaknesses of immigration reform as it's currently proposed.  Here's a list of some of the other great resources out there:

- A recent statement on immigration reform from Christian Churches Together in the USA, a group representing the full breadth of Christianity (including evangelicals) in the US, can be found here.

- A list of prayers from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service can be found here (check out their site for additional great resources as well).

- A great worship resource from the World Council of Churches, including a comprehensive list of Bible verses, can be found here.

- A Roman Catholic parish resource kit can be found here.

- An amazing resource for non-denominational/ evangelical churches entitled "I Was a Stranger" can be found here.

This by no means is an exhaustive list of resources out there.  It is amazing (and very encouraging) though that the full-breadth of American Christians have been able to rally around immigration reform, given their history of agreeing on very few public policy concerns.

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.

Immigration Advocacy Workshop @ Saint Peter's Church

As part of my yearlong vicarage project at Saint Peter's Church, I've been blessed to greatly grow in my understanding of congregation-based advocacy, specifically around the important issue of immigration reform.

Long before I began my vicarage, there had been interest at Saint Peter's in strengthening the parish's social justice ministries, but once we began exploring how to do so this past fall, it quickly became apparent that organizing around a specific issue, rather than advocacy in a general sense, was the way to go. Given both the current legislative environment and Saint Peter's new covenant relationship with Iglesia Luterana Sión, a predominately Spanish-speaking congregation, it also seemed obvious that immigration reform should be the first social justice issue to organize around.

Thus, the people of both Sión and Saint Peter's gathered in between our respective worship services this past November to gauge interest in the topic and begin discussing how we could mobilize.  While our group had a great deal of experience and interest in social justice issues in general, we decided a good first step would be organizing an informational workshop to provide us and the community with information on how the history of immigration in the United States relates to our current situation and why the issue should matter to people of faith.  After a bit of planning over the holidays, we organized a workshop for this Saturday, February 9th from 2 - 4p.  What follows is our bulletin announcement of the event in both English and Spanish:

Immigration Advocacy Workshop
Saturday, February 9, from 2:00-4:00 p.m.
In the Sanctuary and Living Room, Saint Peter's Church
Late last November, members of Saint Peter's and Iglesia Luterana Sión gathered together over brunch to discuss how we could begin organizing around important social justice issues, with an initial emphasis on immigration advocacy. We decided to plan an Immigration Advocacy Workshop, and those efforts have now come to fruition. Ravi Ragbir, Director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York, will discuss how current issues relate to past immigration and Amy Gottlieb, Program Director of the Friends Service Committee's Immigrant Rights Program, will discuss why immigration issues should matter to people of faith. After worshiping together we'll proceed to the main discussion and conclude with time for light refreshment and informal conversation. Please join us! For more information, contact Vicar Dustin.

Taller sobre defensa migratoria
Sábado, 09 de febrero, de 14:00 - 16:00
En el Santuario y living room, Iglesia San Pedro
A finales del pasado mes de noviembre, los miembros de San Pedro y la Iglesia Luterana Sión se reunieron durante brunch para discutir cómo podríamos empezar a organizarnos en torno a importantes cuestiones de justicia social, con énfasis inicial cuestiones de inmigración. Nos decidimos a planear un taller de defensa migratoria, y esos esfuerzos han llegado a buen término. Ravi Ragbir, director de la Coalición del Nuevo Santuario de Nueva York, hablará sobre problemas actuales relacionados con el pasado sistema migratorio y Amy Gottlieb, directora del programa de Servicio de los Amigos del Comité del Programa de Derechos de los Inmigrantes, hablará sobre por qué los temas de inmigración debe importar a la gente de fe. Después de orar juntos vamos a proceder a la discusión principal y concluir con un ligero refrigerio y conversación informal. Por favor, únete a nosotros! Para obtener más información, consulta al Vicario Dustin.

If you're in the New York area, please feel free to come as well... just contact me ahead of time if possible at dwright@saintpeters.org.  If not, please check back on It's Only a Northern Blog for information about how the event went, as well as a .pdf of the liturgy we used for our opening bilingual prayer service.

While planning the workshop over the last couple months, some members of Saint Peter's and Sión have also partnered with the New Sanctuary Movement of NY to participate in their weekly Jericho Walk around the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices at 26 Federal Plaza.  Reflecting the Israelites march around the walls of Jericho in the book of Joshua, participants walk seven times around Federal Plaza in silent prayer and then conclude with praying out loud.  Having attended twice myself, I can certainly say it's a powerful advocacy action and also serves to comfort those who are facing deportation hearings inside.  To get a better idea of what the Jericho Walk is like, check out the video below:



Immigration reform, I'd argue, is perhaps one of the most obvious policy issues the Judeo-Christian faith speaks to, so we'll certainly be engaged in advocacy until justice for immigrants is attained.  Has your congregation or faith community worked on immigration reform?  If so, please comment and let me know what you've learned.  Thanks so much!

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.

The World We Want

What follows is cross-post of a piece I recently wrote for Voices for Change, a blog run by the advocacy ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The blog is an absolutely amazing resource that lifts up the voices of Lutheran advocates around the country, so I highly encourage you to check out additional posts here.

Nearly halfway into my yearlong internship with the Lutheran Office for World Community at the United Nations, I have certainly been blessed with a wide variety of powerful experiences. I’ve sat in on meetings with ambassadors, planned for the upcoming Fifty-Seventh Commission on the Status of Women with an ecumenical group of colleagues from other advocacy offices and even met two Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Through such experiences however, I’ve been burdened with one central question, “How can ELCA members throughout the country participate in the global conversation I experience everyday in New York?”

On the local, state and federal levels of democratic government, grassroots advocacy is an often difficult but fairly straightforward process. Organizers identify a legislative issue that lines up with the stated values of their organization and then urge others to contact government officials about either voting for or against related pieces of legislation. This process is straightforward because we, of course, elect government officials to represent us in decision-making; we are their constituents and we can hold them accountable by voting them out of office.

On the global level at the United Nations, things work a bit differently. Our Permanent Representative to the United Nations is not elected but appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Because of this indirect system of representative democracy, our grassroots impact on global decision-making can often seem minimal.

Luckily, there is an exciting new way for Lutherans around the world to directly participate in global-decision making: The World We Want platform. In the year 2000, world leaders gathered to set specific global development goals to be reached by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals. Today the deadline is less than three years away, and we’ve made progress: access to clean drinking water has increased, fewer people live in unhealthy urban slums, and most importantly, the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide has been cut in half. This success shows us that change is possible, but more must be done: inequality is growing, 950 million people still go hungry each night and climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions more.

When world leaders first met to create the Millennium Development Goals, they left something out, something important: your voice. Without your voice gathered together with others from around the world, without people-power, shaping the world we want is not possible.

This time, you have a seat at the table. Through the World We Want platform, you can participate in a survey on your priorities for the world and your community called MyWorld. Maybe you want to contribute on a deeper level? After creating a profile you can submit directly to consultations sponsored by a United Nations panel of experts. Perhaps you want to share your own story? You can post pictures or even a YouTube video, and then be sure to share your posts with the Lutheran Office for World Community (lowc@elca.org).

A new world is being created. Whether it’s the world we want is up to us. Participate, contribute and share on the website — the World We Want.

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.

Three Types of Christians, Epiphany 3C (sermon video)

I preached this sermon this past Sunday on January 27th, 2013, based on all three lectionary readings for the day, Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and Saint Luke 4: 14 - 21.  If you want to check out more sermons from Saint Peter's Church where I currently serve as Vicar, check out our Vimeo page.  I'd love to hear what you think and thanks so much for watching!



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.

What It Means to Be a Christian, Epiphany 3C Sermon

What follows is a sermon draft I'll be preaching during Jazz Vespers tomorrow at Saint Peter's Church, where I currently serve as Vicar.  It reflects on all three lectionary readings for tomorrow, Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and Saint Luke 4: 14 - 21.  It's honestly one of my weaker ones in a while I think, so I'd love some input.  Thanks for reading!

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, and especially over the past week, thinking about what it means it to be a Christian, particularly in the rapidly changing, sometimes exciting, but often discouraging, times we live in. And I’ve been dwelling on this question for two main reasons: First, upon hearing that Saint Peter’s was cited for its strong post-Superstorm Sandy relief efforts in the most recent issue of The Lutheran, I decided to pick up a copy. While I was happy to see Saint Peter’s mentioned in the storm-relief article, I was pretty bummed after the reading another article, entitled “The Shrinking Church,” which discussed the rapid decline of Lutheran churches all over the country. I’ve also been thinking about what it means to be Christian recently because of Barack Obama’s inaugural address. In the address, he not only boldly supports preserving the planet and advancing gay rights, but also cites faith in God as reason for doing so. In a time where many Americans, especially younger ones, have come to identify Christianity with irrelevance at best and bigotry at worst, the President’s words couldn’t have been more encouraging. To sum it up, stuck between fear of decline and hope for the future, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a Christian.

And it was amidst such thinking this past Wednesday night while reading the three possible Bible passages for this Sunday’s sermon that I realized we needed to read all three of the passages tonight. We needed to include all three, and the Saint Peter’s staff needed to graciously include all three in the bulletin at the last minute (thank you!), because when juxtaposed with one another, each Bible passage illustrates one of the three ways most folks, I think, view their Christian faith in our contemporary world. To demonstrate what I mean, I’m going to need three volunteers to hold up one of these signs [EACH WITH A BIBLE VERSE], in order to sort of help organize what we’re talking about.

Thank you all very much for volunteering, and please know that what I’m about to say by no means represents the holder of each sign… So first we have the Nehemiah 8 folks, and by that I mean those whose view of faith is based off an easy to make misinterpretation of the passage. In Nehemiah 8 Ezra reintroduces the Torah to the post-exilic Jewish community rebuilding Jerusalem… and everyone promptly gets upset about having all these new rules. Ezra, along with Nehemiah, then begins to explain while the Torah is an amazing gift from God. Nehemiah 8 contains some profound lessons, but it’s easily misread to mean that the most central aspect of being a person of faith is following the rules, not sinning, or something like that. Now, sin is very a real thing, and the Bible definitely has some good advice about how to live our lives, but there’s a problem with the view of what it means to be Christian.

First, since the Bible was written over many hundreds of years for many different types of communities, many of the “rules” in are somewhat ambiguous, if not outright contradictory. And since it’s not possible to perfectly make sense of everything in the Bible, we can’t help but making up our own interpretation at times. And then, if we think we’re doing a great job of following whatever rules we make up, we in turn can’t help but look down on others who don’t follow those rules and thus we end up just sort of being downright mean to others. On the other hand, we might end up thinking we’re horrible at following the rules, and we end up living a life of despair that God hates us, or that we’re wholly bad people or that we’re going to hell, to use a predominately post-Biblical term. Looking at it from a different angle, this view of what it means to be a Christian only leads us to worship ourselves, and maybe the Bible, rather than God Herself.

So, now we’ll move onto the second popular view of what it means to be a Christian, the one reflecting a misinterpretation of 1 Corinthians 12. In this passage, Saint Paul writes to a diverse, urban congregation in Corinth that’s experiencing a great deal of conflict, telling them that we’re all one body in Christ, despite us all being different parts of that body. It’s a really good and powerful message, but can also easily be misread to mean that the central aspect of being Christian is to just be nice to everyone and to sort of stick up for the little guy in whatever you do. Now, this on the surface sounds a whole lot better than what the Nehemiah 8 folks over there are doing, but let’s dig a bit deeper. On the one hand, if we think we’re succeeding at being nice to people all the time, perfectly welcoming folks into our communities, its really easy to get cocky and really difficult to take a critical look at what were doing, and in turn its really easy to make some very big mistakes. On the other hand, we might think we’re failing all the time because we’re not helping others enough, only to end up downtrodden and hopeless. In the end, the second view of what it means to be Christian ends up looking a whole lot like the first… we only end up worshipping ourselves, rather than God.

Now much of the time, all of us either end up holding view number one or view number two… it’s profoundly in our DNA as people to fixate on what we’re doing… we simply can’t help it. Luckily though, we have a third view about what it means to be a Christian, a view that clearly shines through our Gospel reading today from Saint Luke, a view that reminds us that it’s not about us at all, a view which is very, very good news. Returning to his hometown, Jesus goes to the synagogue, picks up the scroll of Isaiah, and reads the following: [ASK VOLUNTEER #3 TO READ].

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And then, giving the first sermon of his ministry, Jesus simply states, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Much like what follows this Gospel story, the good news might not always make folks happy, it might stir things up, it might startle people, but that’s what the good news is: the profound notion that it’s not about what we’re doing at all, but rather about all the amazing things God is doing through Christ. And just think about how good that news is… it means that we don’t need to be perfect, it means that we are loved, and it means that we are forgiven, no matter what.

So, when thinking about what it means to be Christian in this place, in this city, in this most exciting but discouraging of times, while we can’t help but standing up and caring for our neighbors because of how much God loves us, know that it’s not really about what we’re doing at all… it’s about a God that loves us, a God that cares for us, and God liberates us all from whatever may oppresses us, through Christ.


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.

Liberated Into God's Song, Advent 4C (sermon video)

I preached this sermon a few Sundays back at Jazz Vespers on December 23rd 2012, predominately on the Gospel lectionary text for the day, Luke 1: 39 - 56.  If you want to check out more sermons from Saint Peter's Church where I currently serve as Vicar, check out our Vimeo page.  I'd love to hear what you think and thanks so much for watching!



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.

Calumet Youth Retreat Plan: Faith, Identity and the World We Live In

Friends, as part of my internship this year I have the honor of chaplaining a retreat up at Camp Calumet this coming weekend in New Hampshire.  It'll be for sixty youth between ages 13 - 15 who were Yellows campers at Calumet last summer.  I haven't done one of these in a while (and never one this big), so I'd love to hear your thoughts:

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 20^th 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.