One down, five to go

It's probably too soon to really reflect on my first semester of divinity school. After all, I did just take my last final yesterday and slept until 11:00 this morning. What I can tell you is that I'm having the time of my life! Even with the craziness of four final papers and five final exams (this is where taking five classes gets to be a little insane), I am so filled with gratitude for all I've learned and the friends I've made, that I not only have no complaints, I can't think of even a downside. Well, maybe being apart from Tim during the week, but his business has grown so busy and he travels so much that we wouldn't see each other that much more anyway! So I can safely say that missing the dogs is the worst of it, but the greeting I get when I go home almost makes up for it!

For those of you wondering just what it is that one learns in seminary, I can tell you that it's most definitely NOT how to be a priest or pastor in a church, at least, not yet. This first semester has been all about content:

• What do the Hebrew scriptures really say, at least through the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic History?
• How do we translate those Hebrew scriptures from the original language?
• What were the worship practices in the early church and how have they developed over two millennia?
• How did theologians explain the meaning of this Jesus person in the first 500 years or so of the church which pretty much established orthodoxy for the rest of history for the western church?
• How did we go from house churches meeting in secret in the 1st century to an overblown church that needed reforming in a bad way by the 16th century?

It was in the out-of-class time that we really learned about church, if by 'church' we mean a community of the faithful. Morning prayer and Eucharist every day, spiritual direction groups, dinners with friends, chatting over coffee, supporting one another in our struggles with new life as grad students, mourning with those who lost family over these last months, celebrating with those being ordained or having their children baptized, commiserating with those catching the flu just as exams are looming - it's been a microcosm of the world here in our little New Haven community on the hill. What we don't generally deal with is the part of the real world that will become our ministry when we leave here. Yes, some students volunteer at the soup kitchen and some at the food pantry. Others who are doing their field work as interns are facing issues of pastoral crises and people in all kinds of physical, emotional and spiritual need. But for those of us in our first semester, we get to sort of ease into it, concentrating on learning to be a divinity student. The world will be there, just as much in need when we're done as it is now.

One other thing that we do as first year seminarians is pray, a lot. Maybe we don't have the time to sit in quiet reflection or journal or meditate as much as we once might have, but with chapel two times a day every day and, quite frankly, learning about God all day every day, it all feels like an act of prayer. How very Benedictine, don't you think? Ora et labora. But for the next three weeks, my labora is complete and I can rest for a while and really reflect on these past months before the craziness starts up again. Such joy awaits!

Let the madness begin!

I think there is a reason most people don't take five classes in seminary: it means lots of papers and (gulp) five final exams. In three of the classes, we had midterms so got a pretty good idea of what the expectations are, but in those two classes with no midterms, I've got pages and pages and still more pages of class notes and readings from which I have to somehow decide what's important. This should be interesting.

I'm feeling very relieved today to say that I have completed the last of four final papers. Woohoo! While I miss Tim, I'm glad he was in California this weekend for Davis' adoption ceremony (Gotcha Day) so that I could stay here in my cozy New Haven nest and write. Sadly, I was not able to prove that Arius was not a heretic, but I did conclude that, given the context of his times, he wasn't as far off the rails as his opponents would have us believe. That makes me feel better.

And on top of all of this, it's Advent, my favorite season in the church year. It's a time to get ready, not so much for the craziness that has become Christmas but for the inbreaking of God into the world. We're in that in-between time when Christ has come and just as surely will come again. We had John the Baptist yelling at us from Matthew's gospel this morning - REPENT! What's that? No happy holidays and ho,ho,ho? As a priest friend of mine says, there's a reason you won't find John on any holiday cards. But he is, all the same, a necessary part of this season. Someone's got to break through the madness in our world and get our attention. Repent! Turn around! There is something bigger and better and more enduring than the things we grasp so tightly in our closed fists. What's more important than welcoming the stranger, or feeding the poor, or clothing the cold, or housing the homeless, or caring for the sick, or visiting the prisoner, or loving the mentally ill? What's more important than ridding ourselves of the hate that separates us from our brothers and sisters next door and on the other side of the planet? What's more important than proclaiming that our lives are abundantly full and there is enough for everyone? What's more important than saying that it's time for the killing to stop? What's more important than making sure that all of God's children have the opportunity to grow up in warmth and safety? What's more important than setting a table and saying to all who will listen, "Come, you are welcome here?"

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!