Campfire and Campus Chats with PJ: Homecoming Worship at Thiel College

Author's note: because I haven't preached a full service since I left Minnesota and due to the nature of the spectacular service and the astounding mishap that happened right before Holy Communion, I thought this really did qualify as a Campfire Chat blog post.

Prayer of the Day

Holy God, your mercy is great and your love endures forever. We are mindful of the many paths, roads and sidewalks we’ve traveled to join together on this morning. No matter the distance or the means of our travel to Homecoming, keep us ever mindful that our home is always in you, O God, and that you welcome us on this morning as we come to remember, to pray and to gather as the Beloved community of Jesus. Be with us all and hold us fast, in his gentle, holy and blessed name we pray. Amen.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

I don’t know if you just walked down Brother Martin’s walk to the Chapel or came up on one of the many sidewalks that brings you from down campus to this place. Alumni and friends, maybe you crossed stateliness or journeyed from the next county. Since I’ve moved to PA, I noticed that I’m crossing little boundaries often on a daily basis: from Mercer County to various townships and boroughs, not a day goes by that each of us journeys over lines that we may not even notice. As we’ve come to huddle up in this place of grace, we are all one in Christ Jesus, gathering here to pray...
God of all journeys, we've come from near and far to gather this Homecoming weekend and blessed by you, we wait for your word of hope and renewal. Be with us all and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable, O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Yes, there is a Chicago Street in Greenville, PA

Last weekend, it was a great blessing to travel with twelve Thiel College students to the Installation of the new Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. If you don’t know much or anything about her, she is our neighbor just to the west of us in Cleveland. On August 14, at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburg, she was elected to be the first female presiding bishop in the history of Lutherans in the USA.

Getting ready to head out to Chicago at Chicago and Alan Streets with Louie, Audra, Liz, Cheryl, Amanda, Ivey, Rachel, Bess, Stephanie, Sean, Saba, Robert and me

Many of the Thiel College students are here on this morning. Some of the students are Lutherans who are very active or some by their own confession are, “not so much” active. There were students of other Christian communions and our friend, international student from Pakistan and the disputed region of Kashmir, who was a joyful traveler as well. We visited our friends at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, met friends at the installation and also traveled to Valparaiso University on the way home. Everywhere we went, we made friends. Some of our students had never been out of PA. So the fun tradition of our trip was to stop – yes, stop – at each state border, jump out and to take a photo by the new state sign welcoming us across the border (two of them are in the back serving as greeters and they are laughing). No one stopped us. No one asked for our credentials, ID’s or documents as we made our way west, state-by-state-by-state-by-state-by-state.

First year student, Robert, and international student, Saba

Saba, Rachel, Sean, Bess, Cheryl and Robert

Saba, Robert and me

Bess, Sean, Rachel and Cheryl

The city of Chicago, Illinois' welcome sign is over the toll road

Uneventful border crossings aren't always possible. There was no way to get out for a photo-op coming into Chicago. As you can see (or may know) the sign is across the toll road. It would be dangerous to get out here and plus it was raining. Happy border crossings aren't always the case across the world on the borders between peoples, governments and nations. Like between:

Israel/Palestine

India/Kashmir

North/South Korea

US/Mexico

Galilee/Samaria…for Jesus.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee…

Jesus was traveling through a border region. The kind of place that wasn’t very safe. Not then, not now. Disputed border regions are thin places where tensions run high. Thin places where mistrust and suspicion are the rule of the thin, tight line between the one place and the other.

Somehow, perhaps because no one wanted them on “their side,” ten lepers (outcast, unclean and unwelcome in any community) found themselves in betwixt and between…a real no man’s land…for the untouchables, the incurable and the banished. There, they were stuck. Until Jesus passed through their hellish tent city.

Jesus had been traveling around and about Palestine and Israel (that’s how we’d know those places today). He went to places he wasn’t really supposed to go and met with people he wasn’t really supposed to meet – like lepers – and people he wasn’t supposed to touch – never touch.

No wonder they called out to the traveling healer-rabbi. News had spread of his healing power and compassion. Keeping their distance, as they knew they ought, the gravely, terminally ill lepers with flesh falling off their bodies, cried out. Jesus commands them to go, as was the custom in Jewish law when one had leprosy, one would go have it checked out by the priest. Maybe it was a sprint to the priest’s place. Maybe they thought it was a test to see who could get there the fastest. I don’t know – if Jesus told you to do something and you believed in his power to heal – I think I might take off running, like many of our 5K racers did yesterday morning. Maybe, just maybe the foreign dude (the hated Samaritan, for Jews and Samaritans did not get along), had second thoughts about showing up on the door step of the Jewish priests knowing that he’d be turned away yet again. So, he slows down – just a tad to notice that – yes! – he’s been healed! So, it wasn’t a race to get to the priest’s house after all. Everything’s back to normal, no skin is falling off his face or limbs – he’s just healed. And with that he turns on his heals to race back to Jesus.

To Jesus.

In absolute humility and profound gratitude, the Samaritan leper guy falls to his face. Not just his face to the ground kneeling, but he lies prostate – flat, his entire body laid out belly-to-the-ground in gratitude before the healer-rabbi guy. And he was, as Luke reminds us, a Samaritan. A nobody. A ne’er-do-well sort of fellow. But this guy is filled with gratitude to the marrow of his bones and he wants to thank Jesus.

They other nine are long gone of to Chez Priest/Casa Priest, but the dude, the guy who people wrote off as a loser all the time – he gives thanks. Jesus takes note of this. “Where are the nine – didn’t they notice and turn around to give praise to God?” Humph – Jesus must have shrugged noting this guy who had done pretty much a belly flop in front of him. “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

But, wasn’t he already well? What about his behavior made him – more well? My hunch is that Jesus thought about healing in bigger terms than anyone around him then or anyone who hears this story now can comprehend. I think that healing has more to do with our entire beings than just our mere physical healing, that is so sought after and important. Sometimes that kind of healing doesn’t come…it’s true, we know this having lived our lives. But other kinds of healing come when we let go and commit entire beings to a life of gratitude to God and to God’s beloved community – the people of God with us on earth.

“…your faith has made you well…” Jesus told the once-leprous man. It may be a bit of a cliché, but if we have an attitude of gratitude, it can make all the difference in our world and to those around us. Our ability to turn back, turn around and give thanks to God at the feet of Jesus can make the entire difference in our lives. An attitude of gratitude, not one of privilege and haughty behavior will win the day, every time.

With the grace and leading of Jesus we are called to journey with him to the thin, border places our lives and our world to bring healing and hope where is only misery and despair. Jesus has gone before you and he is with you…so, gather up the discarded people, scoop up the throw-away children and cherish the moth-balled seniors. All are treasured and precious in God’s sight. Love and cherish them as God loves and cherishes you!

And above all, be thankful, truly and deeply thankful for all, here at homecoming and all places.

Journey with Jesus and love the world in his name. Amen.

October 13, 2013: Prayers of the People

Bess: With grateful hearts we come before you, O God, to praise you and give thanks for your great compassion which covers the whole earth: Hear our prayers, O Holy One, as we life up your creation, and especially as we pray for those who are ill, those who feel unclean and the ones who are alone and outcast. God of grace; Hear our prayer.

Sean: Gracious God, we give thanks to you with our whole hearts: Raise up prophets within your Church to heal and renew your children, that those who live with stigma and prejudice may feel your mercy, and those who stay at a distance because of fear and rejection may be embraced and healed. God of grace; Hear our prayer.

Bess: Almighty One, fill our leaders with compassion and vision, that they may recognize the suffering of those beyond our borders, in border towns and places of despair. Empower and inspire each one of us to reach out to them with empathy and care. God of grace; Hear our prayer.

Sean: Compassionate One, look upon the lepers of the world, upon those who suffer from HIV/AIDS and other devastating diseases throughout the world: Comfort them with your grace, and empower humanity to use our abundant resources to bring healing and love to our most vulnerable neighbors. God of grace; Hear our prayer.

Bess: Cleanse our hearts, O God, that this community may be a haven of faithfulness and service, free from arrogance and division, reaching out with gratitude to reconcile and heal the earth. God of grace; Hear our prayer.

Sean: Wondrous God, strengthen those for whom we pray with your comforting Word. We turn back to thank you for all the abundant blessings and grace.  Raise us up to new life with Jesus, we will also live with him and follow his ways of healing and peace. God of grace; Hear our prayer.

PJ: Fill our hearts, minds and imaginations with such expectancy and thanks, O God, that we may walk in deep gratitude for all around us and that we would practice this gratitude with glad and generous hearts. Keep us ever mindful of your healing presence that comes to us through Jesus Christ. Into your loving arms we commend all for whom we pray, fill them with your healing peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Facebook post following the worship service:

Well, it's just hard to know how to describe this morning's Thiel CollegeHomecoming worship service of remembrance at The Chapel at Thiel College. It went from wholly amazing with incredible music by the handbell choirs, choral tones and harmonies by the Thiel choirs woven with the voices of the Alumni Choir and worshippers alike, to holy beauty in word and song to holy pyro-fire, Batman!, as the 100+ candles in remembrance of the alumni who died last year since Homecoming melted down into the sand to become a melted pool of wax with 100 tiny, little flames floating that caused the glass rim to crack - no, crack is not right - snap, explode off the bowl sending the wax river with little flames over the edge, the bowl breaking, the college President and his wife in the front row and Chapel staff standing right there at the ready to feed the people with bread and wine turning around to feebly blow at the little flames, when a wonderful choir alumnus who is a chemistry teacher comes bounding forward down the aisle like a super hero with a fire extinguisher ready to douse the flaming wax river flow - when all the flames went out in the sand just as he bounded into action and I whispered to him, "I think it's out." He said, "Well, yes it is..." So, he went back and communion continued and the choir kept singing and the Chapel staff was calm in the face of danger and it was lovely, wholly amazing and holy. No one was hurt and as worshippers left the Chapel, they were so kind and grateful and said the loved the service in spite of the candle-wax lava flow and one elderly woman whose husband we had named because he died last year and was there with her daughter (also a Thiel alumna) said that he was an outspoken, feisty fellow and that he would have loved the service and would have loved the candle-explosion and she was convinced that he was there in spirit and must have had something to do with the careening, flaming wax flow. So, all was well as I led my first large Homecoming worship service at Thiel College. It was a blessing and I am wholly and holy blessed to be at this place of grace. Cody Danner took a photo of the remains of the candle-explosion - too bad we didn't get a pic before, because it was really quite pretty.