Nostalgia for Summers Long Gone

I find myself missing so much of my past.  That's one of the hazards of clearing out memorabilia.  But let me make a list, and since I'm writing on my theology blog, let me focus on the church aspects of what I'm missing; let me focus on summers of my youth:

--I found pictures of a group of us attending the first Lutheran youth event, back in 1981, when we all went to Purdue and stayed in the dorms.  It was my first glimpse of what college life might be, and it gave me the hope that my life might improve after high school.

--There were other summer events that brought large groups of Christians together.  In my college years, the Lutheran Student Movement gathering happened in early August.  There were Global Mission Events for both youth and adults.

--I miss the smaller gatherings too:  church picnics and such.  I miss the days when the whole church would head to a park.  I remember that my grandmother's church would go up the mountain to Lutheridge, a church camp that was 90 minutes away.

--And of course, there's Lutheridge in all its summer splendor to miss.  When I think about what I got to experience as a child, and just because I went to camp one year a week:  music, worship, the thrill of the Arts and Crafts lodge, hikes, sliding rock, canteen . . . on and on I could go.

--I am missing Vacation Bible School, but more the VBS of my youth than the VBS of some years ago when I helped as an adult.  I miss the lazy days of hanging out at the church most of the day for 2 weeks.  I don't remember much about what we did, but I remember it as a time of fellowship and feeling included.

--But I'm also missing the relaxed feel of the summer.  We still went to church each Sunday, but there weren't activities throughout the week, like there were in the school year.

Camp Counselors and a Prayer for VBS

We have camp counselors sleeping in our storm ravaged cottage.  One of them was here 2 years ago--I had this moment of staggering loss when I thought about how different everything was 2 years ago before Hurricane Irma came and put almost a foot of water in the cottage where it stood for days.

I feel like I shouldn't feel this loss.  At some point, I may look around and say, "Hey, our main house is better now.  The hurricane damage forced us to get on with what we needed to get done in terms of house renovations."  But it's hard to imagine getting the cottage repairs complete.  I have hopes that at some point I'll look up and say, "Hey, we finally did this."

I say that the cottage is just fine for the counselors.  It's clean, and although the walls are lined with boxes, there's space to sleep and space to sit.  It's better than the tents they might have slept in at other camps.  It's better than the cabins with campers in some ways.

Two years ago, the cottage had a TV.  This year, we haven't replaced the TV yet.  Will we?  My spouse thinks it needs a TV; he worries that counselors will be bored out there.

The camp counselors are here because they're leading our Vacation Bible School.  Let me remember that they're not here for a resort vacation.  I have a vision that their days will exhaust them.  My spouse, as I said, thinks they may get bored or feel pushed away out there.

Last night while I was waiting for them to arrive, I thought about my own family of origin and all the times we had college kids stay with us.  I remember when I was in 5th or 6th grade, a chorale group from a Lutheran college came to give a concert, and students stayed with the various members of our congregation.  It was the first time that I remember hearing about college and feeling like I couldn't wait for that time period.  Before that, as I played with dolls, I imagined the future in terms of a husband and children.

It is also the first day of Vacation Bible School.  Let me compose a prayer for the start of VBS:

Nurturer God, please be with our VBS this week:  the children, the counselors, the other workers, the parents who entrust their children to us.  Let the work be full of good fruit.  Let the play be peaceful.  Let us all have a glimpse of your Kingdom, as it will be, as it can be right now.

Cottage Conundrums

I have a small cottage in my backyard, which is a small backyard.  We think that the cottage was once a garage, but for years (decades?), it's been a cottage with a small kitchen, a medium-sized living room, and a bedroom with a closet and a bathroom.  The cottage is 440 square feet, small for a U.S. living space, but many people across the globe would find it spacious.

When we first moved in, we had a friend who needed a place to live, and we offered it to her.  For the most part, the arrangement worked well, and then she decided to move to Utah.

We haven't done much with the cottage since, although we've had ideas.  We could make a lot of money if we rented it short term, but we'd spend a lot of time getting it ready for each visit.  We could rent it to a long-term tenant.  We know people who wish they had office space, and it would make a nice office--which would probably result in less wear and tear on the space.  We've thought of moving the dining room suite out there and eating there during the few times a year we have people over; that scenario wouldn't preclude keeping it as space for overnight guests.

I am aware of the aching need for rentals for people with moderate income.  Those people often have whole families, and the space doesn't really work for more than 2 people.  I am also aware of how many immigrants would feel like they'd won the lottery if I made it possible for them to live there.

With the recent hurricane, I hesitate to rent it out again--especially to people who would have no other resources if a storm came and the cottage couldn't be fixed quickly, a scenario which is not only possible, but increasingly likely as sea levels rise.

Two weeks ago, I volunteered the cottage to house Luther Springs camp counselors who are coming down here to be in charge of our Vacation Bible School next week.  I needed motivation to do the hurricane clean up that was still to be done.  We discovered that the AC had stopped working at some point, and since it was just installed in March, we had the AC company back to fix it.  So far, so good.

As we've been working on getting the cottage ready for the camp counselors who will be arriving Sunday, we've also been talking about what to do with the cottage. We were talking about what it would take to get the cottage to anything rentable, particularly on a short term basis, like Air BnB. Rustic-cozy might not appeal to that crowd.

What do I mean by rustic-cozy? No TV. Perhaps no wi-fi. Concrete floors--but with a rug on the floors. Flowered curtains and quilts. A serviceable shower, but not a garden tub. A serviceable kitchen without a lot of work space.

Suddenly, I had a vision of a monastic retreat house, something for everyone who has ever yearned for Thomas Merton’s hermitage. Those are the type of people who might be reliably quiet.  They wouldn't complain about the lack of luxury.  

I have no idea how to find those people or if they’d be willing to go on that kind of retreat.

I also thought of offering optional retreat exercises, mostly along creative lines.  We could create a vision board.  We could make creations with beads that would help us pray.  Could the back parking pad be transformed into a labyrinth?  It's barely big enough for many vehicles--the thought of a labyrinth makes me smile.

So many possibilities, so hard to know what to do.  I will spend the week-end on the most immediate task:  finishing the cleaning, so that the cottage is ready for those counselors.

Dinner with the Camp Counselors

Last night's dinner with the camp counselors went well.  I was nervous about it, and those of you who are better at these social occasions might wonder why.

I knew it would be just me and the 5 camp counselors for dinner.  I'd have been less nervous if some of the church VBS leaders had tagged along, but they had been working VBS all day, so I understood why they didn't want to make the trek to my house.

I had decided to make chicken with poblano mole sauce.  It's been a success when I've served it before, but it's unusual.  I made a black bean and corn salad to go with it, and I put out tortillas and tortilla chips.  I hoped that people would find enough to eat.

Happily, they loved the chicken.  They took seconds of everything.  We talked about Wednesday's dinner.  I worried that they get pasta too often.  They've been staying in people's houses all summer, and some of them have been doing this for several years, and they said they've never had spaghetti.  So, I will make my pasta with marinated veggies, along with some meatballs in a tomato sauce, and I'll let them decide how to combine it all.

I find it fascinating that I'm making meals for 4 college students and a high school student, and no one is a vegetarian or a vegan.

The item that makes me most nervous about hosting a get together with people I don't know is the question of what we'll talk about.  I needn't have worried.  Our conversation was wide ranging, from all the foods one can deep fry (squares of mac and cheese anyone?) to strange food combinations, like peanut butter on a burger to various camp experiences, some with food, some not.  We spent a lot of time after dinner talking about musical instruments.

The high school student was fascinated by the dulcimer, which I bought for $40, but never taught myself to play.   Actually, it would be more accurate to say I taught myself, but now I don't remember--it was a brief season with the dulcimer. 

By the end of the evening, he played it with a bit of a slide guitar sound.  As always, I'm fascinated by how people play instruments when they've had no training.  What makes some of us frozen with fear, while others explore? And I was intrigued by the fact that all of us can play the ukulele, to some extent.  Is the ukulele becoming more popular?  Or was it just some fluke?  I suspect it has to do with how affordable an instrument it is and how accessible.

They stayed for about an hour and a half after dinner.  We talked not only about musical instruments, but about camp experiences, both the residence camp and the travelling to churches to assist with VBS camps.  I was interested to know what kinds of lodging they'd had.  They've stayed in people's guest rooms mostly, with a sleep sofa here and there.  So our cottage is perfectly fine; in fact, one of them said, "If I was a college student here, I'd love to rent something like this cottage."

As I cleaned up, I tried not to notice all the ways I'd failed to clean my house for them--I was too busy getting the cottage in shape.  I had clean dishes and a clean bathroom, but my floors could use a sweeping, and let's not talk about the dust. 

I decided long ago that I can't keep up the housekeeping standards of a past generation.  But I don't want to let that fact keep me from extending hospitality.  I suspect that most people don't even notice the dust--or they say, "Hey, I'm not the only one who lets the dusting get away from me."

I'd like to have people over more often--but that often requires a feat of scheduling that's beyond me.  So for now, let me be happy to have had this experience--and its reinforcement of my belief that this hospitality is a worthy skill to practice.

Hosting the Camp Counselors for VBS

A few weeks ago, I was struck by the idea that for the first time in years, I wouldn't be helping out with VBS.  This week, it's occurred to me that I am helping, and it may end up being just as labor intensive, although it will be very different.

This year, many fewer of us will actually be helping with VBS itself, in terms of being on site and working with groups of children.  This year, a group of camp counselors from Luther Springs will be running our VBS.  We will have VBS in the day, not in the evenings.  We will have a much smaller group of kids.  It's both strange and a relief.

We have often had more neighborhood kids than children from our own church; we just don't have that many children as part of our church family.  Is VBS a valid ministry, worth the money and time we devote to it?  I know about the studies that show that one common denominator in adults who attend church are that they attended VBS or church camp.  I suspect that those adults were also going to church as children.  I don't know the stats for children who only attend VBS or church camp.

Of course, we're not putting together a VBS week just to have church members in 20 years.  Why are we doing it?   For a variety of reasons:  because we always have, because we feel it's important to these kids at this time, because we've had fun doing it, because we have a core group of people who are public school teachers and thus they have time in the summer.  If that core group didn't exist, those of us with full-time jobs in the summer literally would not have time--or we'd have a very streamlined VBS, with fewer decorations and other elements.

This year, we have camp counselors coming, something we've never done.  We have an empty cottage, so 3 of them will stay here.  I will provide dinner two nights this week.  I'll provide some transportation.  I've already done a lot of shopping and prep work.  I will do some cleaning this afternoon.  I've done laundry so that they will have sheets and towels, and then I will do laundry after they leave.  It will probably end up being the same amount of work as past years, when I've led the arts and crafts--but it feels very different.

My cottage is a historic structure, and it has some quirks.  I am hopeful that they'll be delighted with the lodging--but I'm worried that its flaws will detract from their experience.  Of course, for the most part, they'll just be there to sleep.  Let me also remember that people who are expecting resort-like accommodations don't usually sign up for a summer as camp counselor.

Likewise, I hope they like the meals I've planned.  I put a loaf of bread and peanut butter and jelly in the cottage, along with breakfast foods.  They won't starve.

I think I'm also feeling some anxiousness because we haven't done this before, so I'm not sure what to expect.  The schedule is still a bit loose.  So I'm preparing meals that can sit for awhile. I'm telling myself that all will be well.  And it will.

I also want to remember something one of my VBS planner friends said to me when we had lunch on Friday.  She said that hosting the camp counselors is like hosting missionaries.  It was only later that I reflected how many people I know who worked at church camp who have gone on to work in the Church.  Perhaps these experiences will not only be formational not only for the children who come to VBS, but also for these counselors.

Different Approaches to Vacation Bible School

I was reading past blog posts, and I realized that during most summers, in late June, I'd be involved in Vacation Bible School as the Arts and Crafts director.  It was stressful, it was fun, and it was rewarding.

I will be involved in VBS in a different way this year.  Our church is trying something different:  we will have camp counselors from Luther Springs come to do a week-long day camp at our church.

My grandmother's church did something similar.  She was still involved, as she helped with lunch.  Unlike my grandmother, I have to work, and I have no accrued vacation time that I can use until November, so I won't be volunteering this year.

We will help in other ways.  We have a vacant cottage, so some of the camp counselors will stay with us.  I imagine that we may need to help with feeding them and perhaps transport.  Still, it won't be the same.

I feel oddly sad about my inability to participate this year.  But I'm a grown up--VBS is not about me.  Our VBS serves neighborhood kids, who aren't church members for the most part.  We have about 8 children from the church who have participated in past summers--and that's all the church kids who were the target age who were in town.  The other 50-60 kids are from the surrounding neighborhoods, and VBS is likely to be one of few spiritual experiences they will have throughout the year.

I am hopeful that the camp counselors can make the experience even richer for the kids--or richer in a different way.  It's worth a try--just as our church doesn't have many young kids, we also don't have many adults who can commit to VBS the way our grandmothers did it.

Prayer Loom in Pictures

Our church first experimented with a prayer loom for Holy Week, specifically with our Maundy Thursday service.  I had thought we might do more with it in the months that followed, but we didn't.  Happily the prayer loom was just fine left all alone.

Last week, I moved it to the arts and crafts area of VBS.  It looked like this, with the Holy Week prayer stands still there:

We had four groups of elementary school children come through the arts and crafts room last Thursday.  With each, I explained the concepts of prayer and talking to God, and how the strands of yarn represented our prayers.  The children were eager to choose their yarn and start weaving:

I talked about how we could write people's names on strips of cloth or tags of paper and weave them in.  A few children did that.

One group wove one strand of yarn and went to painting with watercolors.  One group spent the whole time weaving.  One group had some of the children interested in the loom for the whole time while the others painted.  At the end of the night, the loom was significantly fuller.

I have now moved the prayer loom and the basket of yarn to the back of the sanctuary, with a sign (which I borrowed from this site) that invites everyone to weave more prayers:

It will be interesting to see what it looks like in the months to come.

Ukulele Metaphors

Yesterday, our weeks of ukulele lessons culminated in a recital of sorts.  We played "This Little Light of Mine" as the first song of our VBS service:

I love this picture of me and the ukulele:

Yesterday was a day of church endings of several starts:  our week of Vacation Bible School came to an end with our VBS Sunday service, and our 5 weeks of ukulele came to an end.  I've been seeing church friends and acquaintances much more often than I will for the rest of the summer, as we take our vacations and go back to work/regular life and get ready for school to start.

In so many ways, it's been a wonderful time, and I'm somewhat sad for it to come to an end.  It reminds me of other high festival times, like Holy Week or Advent/Christmas.  It's been a great opportunity to have something similar in the summer, which is so often a time of vanishing/ramping down in U.S. churches.  It's been good to stay connected to people.

There's no doubt in my mind that we've deepened the spiritual lives of the VBS kids--will it stick?  I don't know, but I know the statistics:  it's these kinds of experiences, along with church camp, that are the best predictors of adult church participation.

Have we deepened the spiritual lives of the ukulele group?  To be fair, it wasn't designed to be that kind of group or experience.  It was designed to teach a group of people efficiently and to provide fellowship--it's done that.  Most of us started out with no experience, and we can now pluck our way through a song.  We'll keep meeting on the last Sunday of every month, so it's been a success, since we want to keep going.

We are also preparing ourselves for the potential of something larger:  teaching children?  becoming more of a part of worship?  We don't know yet, but we're strengthening the foundation.

In so many ways, that's a metaphor for spiritual and church life.  We gather to strengthen ourselves, both individually and as a larger group.  We know that God has gathered us for a reason, even if we're not sure what it is.  But we prepare, and thus, we are ready.

VBS Brief Retrospective with Pictures

A week ago, I was exhausted at the thought of the coming week:  work in the day, Vacation Bible School in the evenings.  And it was exhausting, but it was also good.  Here's a look back, with pictures.

On Monday, we did the project that the kids liked best:

We squirted the colored vinegar into the trays of baking soda to make bubbly colors and structures.  We could have done that all night, if we'd had more baking soda and more time.

On Tuesday, we mixed equal parts glue, water, and borax to make cave goo.  We also added some food color.

On Wednesday, I thought we'd have a calmer project, making bats out of construction paper and toilet paper tubes.  It was hard to keep everyone focused.

And so, I had some trepidation on Thursday, when we were going to experiment with the prayer loom.  But the kids really liked it.

On Friday, we decorated t-shirts with fabric markers.  I was happy to see that some of the kids were capturing what they had learned during the week.

Time is short--time to go to church for VBS worship.  I may blog more about the week later.  The prayer loom deserves a deeper exploration.

VBS and the Prayer Loom

Last night, I led the VBS children through use of the prayer loom.  I first got the idea from someone's Facebook post which led me to read this article.  I thought, let me tuck this away for Vacation Bible School.  But then my pastor wanted to build one for Maundy Thursday, so we did (see this post for more on that process).

We have 4 groups of children in a given night, groups of 7-12 children.  First we had a brief discussion about prayer and what we do when we pray.  Then I took a strand of yarn and said, "When I pray, I ask God to look out for everyone I love and everyone I don't even know.  If I know anyone is going through anything and can use help, I let God know.  For example, my dad is having surgery tomorrow to take a skin cancer spot off his forehead"  . . . I started weaving . . . "and when I pray, I ask God to be with my dad."

I also showed them how I could write people's names on strips of fabric I had prepared, but they weren't interested in those.  I used a hole punch on a piece of construction paper and wrote the name of the person I prayed for--several children followed my lead.

Through the night, I wondered if they understood the prayer aspect or if they just liked playing with the wide variety of yarn.  One group wove one piece of yarn each and then they were done--on to watercolor paint!  One group wove during the whole time.  In one group, several children wove all sorts of yarn into the loom, while others seemed uninterested.

At the end of the night, a child who is six years old came to me with a plastic lei that she'd worn all night, that she'd let her friends borrow before demanding it back.  She handed it to me and said, "You go home and give this to your dad so that he won't die tomorrow."

There was so much I could have said, but I was most tempted to explain that my dad wasn't likely to die.  But in the end, I said, "Thank you so much."

All the way home, my brain returned back to the issue of prayer, of VBS arts and crafts, of what children understand and what they don't.  I thought of the earnest child offering me her beloved lei, and I vowed to remember that children likely understand far more than I think that they do.

Prayer Looms, Politics, and VBS

Tonight, as President Obama leads a town hall meeting on race, I will be leading VBS children through use of the prayer loom.  I first got the idea from someone's Facebook post which led me to read this article.  I thought, let me tuck this away for Vacation Bible School.  But then my pastor wanted to build one for Maundy Thursday, so we did (see this post for more on that process).

I didn't unloom the prayers that we wove through the loom, so tonight we'll say a few sentences about prayer, and then we'll choose some yarn.  I'll have some big beads available too.  Then we'll add the yarn to the weaving that's already there.

I also have some cloth--we could write our prayers on cloth--but as I've been watching the children this week, I'm shifting that plan.  Maybe we'll use paper.  And instead of writing, maybe we'll draw our prayers.

This project was the one that I was most looking forward to, but I won't lie--this week has been the most exhausting VBS week that I remember.  We have large groups of children, and it's a mix of elementary school ages.  We have more boys, and they are more rambunctious this year.  It is so hard to get their attention, to keep them focused, to keep them from throwing things.

I confess that I always thought I would like to be an Art teacher in an elementary school.  I have this bucolic view of children bent over drawings done in crayon, of safety scissors snipping out interesting shapes, of clay being molded into new creatures.

I always forget that only some children would do this.  Many more would be sticking clay to each other, cutting their clothes, drawing guns to use during recess.

I hope that I have unexpected reserves of patience tonight.  This project is one that is closer to my heart, and I hope it goes well.

I will make a braid of my own.  I will weave my wishes for all the ones I love, both known and unknown.  I'll be mindful of President Obama's town hall meeting tonight, and I'll weave some prayers for healing and support for each other and a vision for a way forward into our loom.  I'll weave hopes for the VBS children and all children into the loom--in some ways, they are so very fortunate, and in more ways, this generation will face enormous challenges.

I can't solve those challenges--none of us can, all alone.  But by working together, we can weave a beautiful tapestry of solutions, a web which will hold us from the abyss.

Oh Me of Little Faith

Last night was the first night of Vacation Bible School, and I confess I had been feeling anxiety.  We are trying new crafts--"cave slime" made from glue and borax and "soda-lightful bubbles" with trays of baking soda and colored vinegar.  I am anxious about how it will all work.  I have a back up plan--watercolor paints.  I usually try new projects, but they're usually activities that I've done with adults, and so my anxiety is about how kids will react--not about my inability to visualize the process or my ability to visualize disasters.

So I went to church last night with no real sense of how it would work.  I mixed food color into the vinegar, which I had poured into small bottles.  I spread newspaper across the tables.

What is the purpose of this project?  We talked about how faith in Jesus gave us hope, and hope is a bubbly thing.  Then I squirted the colored vinegar on the baking soda, and we watched it fizz.  Then everyone got their own trays and got to play--part science project, part art.

The kids delighted in the colors, which they mixed.  Some kids liked a soupy mixture, while others tried to make clay.  As the colors swirled and sizzled, we talked about what it looked like:  "You created a planet!"  Some kids were careful, while others dove right in, leaving their hands deeply colored in purples and greens.  Some kids managed to get baking soda all over themselves.  I wonder what their parents thought of it all.

I had friends who cycled through the room, who reminded me that I was worried that kids would get bored.  We laughed at my lack of faith.  Most of these kids would have kept concocting "pictures" until we ran out of baking soda and colored vinegar.

Now it's on to cave goo--and then we're back to more traditional crafts (traditional to me, that is).  Pictures to come later.

Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel

The readings for Sunday, June 12, 2016:


First Reading: 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15

First Reading (Semi-cont.): 1 Kings 21:1-10 [11-14] 15-21a

Psalm: Psalm 32

Psalm (Semi-cont.): Psalm 5:1-8

Second Reading: Galatians 2:15-21

Gospel: Luke 7:36--8:3


In our day, Pharisees have come to have a bad name as the rigid, judgmental Jews who didn't recognize the greatness of Jesus. It's important to realize that in many ways, they were the most devout of the Jews, not just religious officials who kept rigidly to hollow rules and restrictions, as Christians often paint them. In his book, The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson notes, "They had the best track record in Palestine. They had historically proven their sincerity and loyalty to the demands and promises of God wonderfully. They were the strongest and most determined party of resistance to the ways of the world, represented in Herod. . . . There was much to admire in the Pharisees. Every Jew owed a debt of gratitude to the Pharisees for keeping Jewish identity alive" (212).

It's important to remember that the Pharisees were rigid about rules and regulations because they thought the way to God led them to follow that route. They weren't being judgmental and exclusionary out of meanness. No, they thought the future of the faithful depended on right action. It might be worth examining our own individual behavior and the behavior of the church both as an individual group and a larger institution--where do we see ourselves? How might we be the Pharisee in the story?

Those of us who have grown up in the church or who have been attending church for many decades forget the radical nature of this story. We have this vision of Jesus that no matter where he went, people were swept away by his message and washed his feet or poured oil on his head.

This woman was an outcast, marginalized in so many ways. We don't know the nature of her sin (the fact that she was a woman in a deeply patriarchal society would have been damning enough), but we know the fact that Jesus allowed her to touch him was profoundly shocking to the Pharisee. Jesus uses this encounter to teach about love and forgiveness.

Today's Gospel also reminds us of how religious people can be so blind to the sacred as it appears in our midst. We religious people forget that the God of our Judaic-Christian scripture is most often found in communities of the poor, destitute, and outcast. We prefer to stay in our sanitary structures, to not let the poor and destitute trespass in our hearts. In doing so, we're likely to miss out on a deeper relationship with God.

People who are part of institutionalized religious structure face dangers that we often forget to understand. We lose ourselves in rules and regulations; we create a rigid hierarchy to help us determine who is holy and who is a sinner. It's so easy to forget that our central task is to love deeply and widely. Jesus comes to tell us strange parables so that we'll remember. Jesus comes to show us a way to live that will be a way of love and far-flung community. Jesus comes to give his life, to show us that the way of love is such a threat to the larger culture of empire and conquest that we can expect the same. But God incarnate in Jesus comes to show us that the risks are worth the reward.

Maundy Thursday Prayer Loom

Today is Good Friday, the day no bread can be consecrated.  My mind is full of past Good Fridays--the day that our church's labyrinth was vandalized, and I spent Good Friday helping to clean up and lay new roof tiles along the outline.  I think of the times that we got the grounds spruced up for Easter.  Last year we were on a plane to Hawaii, flying backwards across Good Friday.

This morning I'm feeling an interesting mix of contentment and anxiety.  I'm travelling tomorrow, off to two retreats, including one with Kathleen Norris at Mepkin Abbey.  My spouse stays home to take care of his teaching duties.  I will go to Good Friday service, sleep for a bit, and get up in the wee, small hours of the morning to blaze north.  I will see grad school friends, one of my best undergrad mentors, retreat friends, and 2 of my favorite locations on earth (Mepkin Abbey and Lutheridge).  I have a lot to do today to get ready.

But it will get done.  Today my heart is also happy.  Last night during our Maundy Thursday meal and service, I thought, this may be may favorite service.  Of course, I think that about many a service that's out of the ordinary.  I had similar thoughts about Ash Wednesday.

Oddly, I rarely feel that way about Easter.  As a Christian, Easter should be my favorite.  But it's not.

I like the non-Easter, non-Christmas services because they give us room to experiment.  Last night was amazing.  We've developed a service that incorporates a true dinner.  Not much experiment there.  No, last night's experiment was the prayer loom.

I wasn't sure if anyone would actually use it, and it was slow at first.  But eventually, everyone joined in the fun:

We had a variety of yarns, and I encouraged people to choose a yarn or texture that would represent their prayer.  I said that we would weave our individual prayers together into a tapestry.

We don't quite have a tapestry yet.  We will leave the loom up to see what happens.  I know that some people will return to weave some more.  And I plan to use it for Vacation Bible School.

I'm intrigued by smaller scale prayer looms, as well as this group project.  But more than that, I continue to be intrigued by prayer practices that incorporate some sort of physicality beyond speech and folded hands and kneeling.

Prayer Loom in Progress Part 2

On Saturday, we put some feet on the prayer loom and assembled it, just to be sure it could be done.  Here's a shot of the feet, but it's at the church. 

I wanted to transport it in its assembled state, but it wouldn't fit in the car.  So, we transported it in 4 pieces and put it together at church:

We decided to have it sit with its longer edge along the floor.  My spouse thought it would be easier for children to use it that way, and I think he's right.  But it's light enough that it could be put on a table, if we wanted.

It's attached with wing nuts at each corner.  Each corner is notched and designed to fit specific piece of wood to specific piece of wood.  But the last corner is always difficult.

So now, the prayer loom sits empty, waiting for the yarn that we bought on our way home from church.  The plan is to use it as part of our Maundy Thursday service.  I look forward to being part of the service and seeing how it all comes together.

Prayer Loom in Progress

We are in the process of creating a prayer loom.  It began when I saw a link to this article on Facebook.  I thought, that could be neat for Vacation Bible School.  A few days later, my pastor wrote to ask if I thought my spouse could create a prayer loom and sent the same link.

I can tell when the Holy Spirit is trying to get my attention.

Here, as in many places where God beckons, my first response was, "I don't have enough time."

But of course there is time.  My spouse had this week off for Spring Break, and his dad and step-mom came for a visit.  His dad is very handy, and my hope was that they'd construct it during their time together.

On Wed. night, I came home to this sight:

Some women rejoice in flowers, but I rejoice in a prayer loom in progress.

These four sides will eventually be made into a square, a 4 x 6 foot square.  I still need to figure out a way to make it stable and able to stand by itself--a project for next week-end.

I am struck by the nails protruding from wood.  I like its Good Friday feel, this reminder that Holy Week will soon be upon us.

I like the way these ideas travel.  My in-laws will now take this idea back with them to their small church outside of Memphis.

I like the simplicity of this project.  Most of us can hammer a nail into wood.  And all sorts of wood would be suitable for this project.  We could reclaim wood from other projects.  And if we have anyone in our congregation who knits or crochets, we will have an abundance of yarn for the loom.

I look forward to seeing what my congregation does with this prayer loom, and of course, I will report back.

VBS and Adult Memories

Two weeks ago, we'd have been headed towards our last night of VBS.  In many ways, I'm still exhausted from that week of working long hours at work and then going to work at VBS until after 9.

People ask why I do it, and I trot out the usual reasons:  it's important, it's fun, my church needs all of us to help.  But as I've talked to people through the years, I've been amazed to realize this aspect:  a lot of the grown ups that I know have a VBS connection of some kind, and no one ever has a bad memory of VBS.

That's not true of any other aspect of church that I know.  If I had a dollar for every bad memory that people have told me about worship, I could retire at least one year early.  I've heard youth group horror stories, and even the occasional bad memory of camp.  But not one person has ever told me of a bad memory of VBS--on the contrary, most people have phenomenal memories.

Is it because so many of us are so small when we encounter VBS?  Perhaps.  But I wonder if something else is at work.

It's not the specific approach to VBS; people have such varied memories of how their churches did VBS that it can't be that.  Perhaps it's the glow of memories that are associated with special events in the summer--I wonder if the same would be true of Christmas memories.  Just as I've never heard a bad VBS memory, I rarely hear about horrible Christmas Eve worship.

Maybe it's that all the adults work hard to make sure that VBS is a good experience.  I'm sure that our church is not the only one who has a lot of non-church children come to VBS.  Because it's only one week, we can work very hard to make it a peak experience.

I'm also intrigued by how many people have worked on VBS as adults, and they're not all the people at work whom I already think of as church folks.  One woman told me that when her kids were young, she helped out with VBS.  It was often a community effort.  She described months of making sets and props and costumes and that each church in the community would use them through the summer.  She said she always felt bad for the churches who had VBS late in the summer, as the community resources had gotten a bit tattered by the end.

What a cool idea!  Not for the first time have I thought that we could do more to use VBS--or other events--to help link churches throughout the community. 

I used to think that it made sense for one Lutheran church to do the Confirmation classes, one to do the VBS, and so on.  Most churches don't seem that interested in that idea.  But they might be interested in sharing in some other way.

Maybe as we network with area Lutheran churches to support our camp, Luther Springs, other ways to collaborate will be made clear to us.   

VBS Music and Theology

I have had the music of VBS in my head for over a week now.  In some ways, it's not horrible. Many of the lyrics are somewhat Biblical, after all.  We spent the week singing about the might of God, the love of God, the uniqueness of God--all in simple sentences, with an upbeat tempo.

When my brain is full of VBS songs, I wonder what my brain usually contains when it's not these lyrics.  In my younger years, it would have been different songs.  But now I don't listen to music as much as I once did--somewhat strange, since music is so much more accessible now.

People across disciplines have long known that if you want the brain to remember something, one good way is to put it to music.  I remember song lyrics long after other knowledge has seeped from my brain.

On Sunday, as I watched the group of VBS kids sing about God who can do anything, I thought about future years.  Will they wonder why this God who can do anything neglected to do something they deem important?

The theology that we teach in VBS is fairly simple--and I'm not saying that critically.  VBS is designed for children, after all.  And a recent trend in VBS is to have curriculum designed for multi-age groups--which means that the theology is geared towards first or second graders.

But I have noticed that many grown ups have never moved much beyond this elementary school theology.  This fact used to enrage me.  I saw it as a failing of the modern church.

Lately, I've been wondering why I have been so angry.  After all, if people have a theology that brings them comfort, who am I to criticize?

But the thought that pushes at me:  is theology meant to bring comfort?  If we delve into theology to understand God, then a second grader's theology isn't serving grown ups well.  Was Jesus sent into the world to bring comfort?

Yes, in some ways.  But no, in important other ways.  There's the social justice angle, after all.

We focus on social justice in our VBS--or to be more accurate, we have a charity project.  This year we raised money for earthquake victims in Nepal.  In the past, we've worked on clean water and malaria nets.

When it comes to social justice, many grown up Christians still have the theology of children.  We care for those who are down on their luck by giving money.  Most grown ups, regardless of spiritual background, don't spend as much time working on changing the social structures that keep people trapped in poverty.

I know that many adults don't care about theology at all.  They come to church for a variety of reasons.  They have friends in the church.  They like to sing in the choir.  They feel better about themselves after an hour in church.  It's a respite from regular life. 

Is there a way to interest these worshippers in a deeper, more complex theology?

Hybrid Sunday

We usually have the Sunday after VBS as a VBS themed Sunday--the kids sing, there's no sermon, and after the service there's a waterslide (the bounce house kind) and lunch (a way to use up extra kid food from the week).

Earlier this week, the bishop of the ELCA called for this Sunday to be a day of repentance and mourning:  repentance for our culpability with the culture of racism and mourning for the 9 martyred in Charleston.  At first glance, it didn't seem a good fit with VBS Sunday, but our pastor decided to try.

And to make the Sunday even more interesting, a couple wanted to affirm their wedding vows.  They're a couple with a delightful child--the family had once been members of the church and come back every year for VBS, and this year, the father/husband could come too. 

How did these elements work together?  Well, at first we experienced the joy of the VBS songs and Bible readings.  Then we moved to the liturgy of repentance and mourning.  From there, we wished each other peace, took up the offering, and celebrated the Eucharist.  And then, after the joy of the Eucharist, we had a marriage renewal. 

As we went along, our pastor reminded us that this is what life with the Lord looks like.  We will not immediately defeat death, but it can be faced with grace.  In any life, there will be grief, but there will also be joy.  We have assurance that God is with us in both our joy and suffering. 

It was a great service, although I do wonder what our large number of visitors thought of the service.  Maybe they, too, were moved.  Maybe they just wanted to move through it so that they could get to the lunch afterwards.  We tried to explain each part as we went along, so that visitors wouldn't be lost and confused.

With every service, a good worship planner tries to see it through both the eyes of the long-attending member and the visitor.  I think we did a good job.

The Innoculating Power of VBS

Years from now, when I think back to this week, I'll remember it as a week of huge changes at work, as we think about the faculty members who will no longer be with us full-time, and a week of Vacation Bible School.  Oh yes, and some important court decisions about fair housing, health care, and there was another . . . what was it?

The event that most of the nation and future historians will remember from this week will be yesterday's ruling on gay marriage.  I listened to this story on NPR yesterday about Evan Wolfson the man who wrote a paper as a law student arguing for the rights of gay people to marry; he wrote it in 1983, and he's spent the time between then and now working on that goal.  I thought about how few of us see our goals and visions so thoroughly accepted.  He will go to his grave knowing he's been a success in what he set out to do.

And then I pulled into the church parking lot and the whirlwind that is VBS started.  Later, as we waited for the kids to finish their rehearsal, we watched photos from the week that we projected onto a screen.  Many of those pictures captured the children in amazing lights, with a variety of expressions--most of them happy ones.

I thought of that Wolfson and his campaign as I looked at those pictures.  I thought of each child and each life and how we cannot know the outcome of our actions.  Some of us will be lucky, like Wolfson, and know for sure.  But most of us won't.

Our VBS has more children from the neighborhood than church children; we see them once a week each summer, and that's it.  I have hopes that we've planted seeds.  Will they flower later?

History tells us that yes, the seeds will bloom, but in ways we can't anticipate.  Have we inoculated these children against the messages of hate, intolerance, greed, and other negativity beamed at them throughout each day? 

How I hope so!