Are you here?
I AM
Were you there?
YES, I WAS … I AM … I WIL BE.
The whys … the how’s … they overwhelm me.
I AM THE BEGINNING AND THE END … THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA
I cannot see you.
LIKE THE STARS OF NIGHT THAT ARE ALWAYS THERE, HIDDEN BY THE LIGHT OF DAY, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS.
It’s too hard … too much.
LEAN ON ME, IT WON’T ALWAYS BE EASY, BUT WITH MY HELP YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THIS DARK VALLEY.
I don’t know what to do … where to go.
I WILL LEAD YOU AND SHOW YOU THE WAY OF LIFE.
Do Not Judge Me, Walk With Me
Do not judge me because the cloths I wear are tattered and torn.
My cloths do not define me.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me because of the color of my skin.
We bleed the same color.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me because my culture and traditions are different than yours.
We can learn from each other.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me because my ways are not your ways, my thoughts not your thoughts.
Respect, Honor and Embrace Diversity.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me by your statistics.
Listen, and hear my story.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me because my life experiences are different than yours.
We both have something to offer.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me because I do not have a college degree.
I have gained wisdom; you have gained knowledge.
Walk with me.
Do not judge me for we were both created in the image of God.
Created Equal
Take me by the hand; let us walk this journey together.
Let us become transformed.
Walk with me.
Through a Different Lens
My lens is different from those around me,
I see beauty in the snow
While another sees frustration in the shoveling.
I see beauty in the spacious fields,
While others may see emptiness and desolation.
I see beauty in diversity.
Other people may want uniformity.
I see beauty, strength, and wisdom
in the worn, wrinkled faces of my elders.
Some may see only weakness, sorrow, and hopelessness
and merely pity their elders
Lord, help me understand the lenses others wear
Lord, give us all the courage to see the lens of your expansive view
Posted in Issues and Challenges, Poetry
This reflection is one of four offered at the re-dedication of the central stained glass window in the Loehe Chapel at Wartburg Theological Seminary on 4 Feb. 2013.
This phrase holds a privileged place in our midst as it maintains a significance in our worship space.
In one moment as backdrop to the elliptical centers of our worship life
(Word and sacrament)
In another moment as focus of our pondering attention
It is privileged in our space
As focus
As background
As constant
A space where we practice ways of peace
That gathering in prayer for the nations here might
translate into ministry that mourns the hoarding of
resources and celebrates the tearing down of walls
A space in which our feet, our hands, our brows
Have worn to lustrous the path to the table
And what is the impact of this phrase as it presides over these and more worshipping acts?
Whether you read German or not, this bannerrolle has been bodying
this window forth.
A banderole is the way that art, classically, marks a quotation
So, this window claims that Jesus has been speaking in
our midst all of these days
And we interpret and are interpreted by Christ’s words
So, Jesus is addressing our community day by day…with proclamation:
“Gehet hin und predigt das Evangelium”
(Go forth and preach the Good News)
Go forth—there’s no becoming stagnant in this space
This space where we gather, and gather, and gather
For baptisms, for weddings, for ordinary time
Paradoxically, this space that gathers us,
Gathers us, not to make us insular
But to face us out
Toward first calls
Toward field work and internships
Toward CPE
So, gehet hin
There is a semester ahead of us
With ideas as yet unpacked
Practices not yet familiar
And conversations waiting in the wings
And with the spirited movement that winged Jesus from the Jordan to the Wadi
With that spirited movement get gehet hin
For the Spirit that makes Christ known in the gospel preached
Is the Spirit who beckons you, gehet hin.
Posted in Poetry, Sermon Segments
AUTHOR MINI-BIO: Carina was inspired to write this poem by her work at a local elementary school.
“The Bike Ride”
Dearest child who cried today:
I can’t tell you your life is going to be better.
When your mom came and rode away with you on the bike
all I could think about while you sobbed was
the air flowing in and out of your lungs
as the sobs built to a wail
rolling over all who heard it
but tried so hard not to.
I have no idea how she balanced you
or balances her life–
her reality.
I live in utter privilege
and it makes me sick that I cannot escape it.
Instead I add to it; I encourage it
I bow down in homage to it.
I am bound to it and it separates me from you–
your reality
How I wish I could duck my shoulder
and crash into that barrier
pulverizing it; shattering it into something smaller:
perhaps a mirror where I could see you in me
and I in you–
but sin prevents us; society prevents us; I prevent us.
You have challenges ahead of you I cannot begin to imagine
and you are five.
You cannot even zip up your own winter coat yet.
As I helped you today your huge eyes bored into mine.
Will you remember tomorrow?
Will I?
Will we remember that my eyes looked at you in love?
Your braids bounce against your face as you run and play tag.
Even during the game your countenance is so solemn.
I hardly see you laugh or smile.
Once in awhile–how my heart flips when I see it–
your face breaks open to reveal that you are still a child
still find wonder
still grasp the joy of realizing that somehow,
life
is
good
But today,
your face crumpled instead.
You instantly start to cry when your mother
does her best
to transport you from here to your home in 25 degree weather
driving a bicycle and clutching you to her through the dark streets:
I curse my own warm, empty car.
How hollow is my drive home
as I imagine your tears freezing to your face
on your night journey past neon-lit bars
and vacant front porches.
How universal is your story?
I pray you rest well tonight;
that someone tucks you in
tells you they love you that you are important
that you can change the world.
You changed mine.
Posted in Issues and Challenges, Poetry
Tagged challenge, change, Children, love, poverty, privilage, seperation
A poetic reflection on Karen Bloomquist’s lecture
By Tammy Barthels, M.Div. Middler
Guide me O God
In speaking the truth.
What is truth?
That our world is fractured, hurt and broken?
That we have turned inward with our hurt, anger and misperceptions?
What will bring healing?
Stepping out and embracing each other?
Can we allow ourselves to be transformed by others
who are different than ourselves?
We each have unique, God given gifts to offer.
Can we recognize the face of God in each other
and allow ourselves to be transformed?
Rather than building walls to protect ourselves because of our fear,
can we reach out to pick each other up, rather than pushing each other down?
Let us remember who we are from the inside out.
Let us form solidarity with those who are left out.
Let us see, remember and connect with each other,
through our faith, making steps to change the face of our world
Reuniting in hope.
Posted in Issues and Challenges, Poetry
Tagged connection, Karen Bloomquist, solidarity, tranformation, truth
As published in Dorothee Soelle: Mystic and Rebel by Renate Wind (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), p. 1
It’s not you who should solve my problems, God,
But I yours, God of the asylum-seekers.
It’s not you who should feed the hungry,
But I who should protect your children
From the terror of the banks and armies,
It’s not you who should make room for the refugees,
But I who should receive you,
Hardly hidden God of the desolate
You dreamed me, God,
Practicing walking upright
And learning to kneel down
More beautiful than I am now,
Happier than I dare to be
Freer than our country allows.
Don’t stop dreaming me, God.
I don’t want to stop remembering
That I am your tree,
Planted by the streams
of living water.
Translated from the German, “Träume Mich, Gott” in das Brot der Ermutigung (Stuttgart: Kreuz, 2008),
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Dorothee Soelle, dream, God, hungry, living water, refugees
You were meant for this;
This moment,
This day,
This Life.
From the beginning;
Each turn,
Each road
Lead you here.
God has prepared you;
Nurturing,
Nourishing,
Planting,
Making you fertile soil;
Blossoming,
Blooming,
Growing.
.
Now, God is calling,
In the calm,
In the clamor,
In all places.
You were meant for this.
Go in love
Go Serve.
Go!
Posted in Poetry
I wonder who is the woman in the mask staring back at me
The one I know so much about but whom I have never met
She is the person I am not but who want to be
But I can’t until I pay this debt
So strong, so brave, so proud
Staring back at me covered in a blue cage
A veil that hides, all the things my society longs for
I can’t even tell if she is happy, sad, or full of rage
There is no need to search for it anymore
She shows me pieces of whom she really is behind the mask
The woman in the mask’s young life is full of accomplishment
Incomparable to what I have done
But this never fills me with resentment
Just queries by the ton
More and more questions about the woman in the mask
The woman in the mask mystifies me
The woman in the mirror even more so
Note: This poem was inspired by the cover of a book called, Zoya’s Story. I read it for a Women’s Studies class as an undergraduate. It is an autobiography by a woman from Afghanistan. The book was very impactful for me. A link to the image that inspired this poem- http://www.amazon.com/Zoyas-Story-Afghan-Struggle-Freedom/dp/0060097825
More often than not we fail to embrace who God created us to be and instead view ourselves through the lens through which society and culture see us. We search for a love–that only God can give us–in things that are not life-giving and we are left empty. We allow society to strip us of our authenticity until we can no longer recognize the unique individuals God has created us to be. God, however, invites us daily to go within and seek the goodness God has created. Allowing ourselves silence and solitude, we will begin to hear God’s voice speaking to us, telling us that we are beloved children of God.
This poem was written in the reflection of God’s love that is calling us from within.
Remain still.
Breathe.
Embrace the Divine,
Within, daily.
Do not forget,
You are a Child of God.
You carry within you,
Everything you need.
Live with passion.
Discover.
Celebrate who you are.
Rejoice, be glad.
Embrace all you are.
For the Divine created you,
And you are good.
