ears ago at my college graduation, my father said something I’ve tried to keep in the foreground of my theological training. Shortly after I introduced him to one of my favorite theology professors, they shared this exchange: Professor: I hear you work in health-care administration? My father: Yes, and you teach theology? Professor: That’s right. I teach church history and on Martin Luther. My father: Well, good. In my work we need more people like you. We could use a few more theologians. Professor (with a startled, overjoyed look): Oh really? You see, theologians aren’t accustomed to being told by those in the (so-called) “real” world that they’re espe- cially needed in a person’s daily work.
Y
My father went on to explain that his lifelong participa- tion in the church had not particularly equipped him to confront difficult issues in the boardroom. Somehow his Lutheran faith ought to have something to say about what it means to live well, to die well—the very issues he dealt with as a health-care administrator. Too often in the church we neglect our call to equip Christians in their daily vocations. This call is at the heart of the baptismal promises we make to one another. To tend to this task, we must listen to the stories of those try- ing to negotiate their faith in everyday life. Over the past few months I’ve been listening to com- plex stories young adults tell about their lives. Young adults today, argues sociologist Robert Wuthnow, live out their faith in an increasingly changing world. Amid those changes, they tell stories of resilient faith. Carl Pierce, now 26, was part of campus ministry dur- ing his undergraduate years at Pacific Lutheran Univer- sity, Tacoma, Wash. A few months ago, Pierce, an emer- gency room nurse in Tacoma, left work shaken. He had spent hours cleaning and caring for a patient with cerebral palsy. His patient, who seemed to display signs of neglect, cried out that she wanted to die. It wasn’t a good day for the patient or Pierce.
“My faith informs my care,” he said. “Everyone is
God’s child so I want to provide care with that in mind.” Even though I spend most days studying historic and contemporary ways the church has understood the faith we confess, Pierce knows something about “God as phy-
Snyder is a doctoral fellow in practical theology at Boston University. A graduate of Texas Lutheran University, Seguin, and Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., he served as a lay minister in congregations in Texas and Minnesota. He is executive editor of Generate Magazine and a contributing author of The Hyphenateds: How Emergence Christianity is Re-Traditioning Mainline Practice (Chalice Press, 2011).
Hearing faith in
our everyday lives
By Timothy K. Snyder
sician” that I will never know. We use the phrase “God’s work. Our hands.” precisely when we speak of nurses who know in their bodies, in their souls, what God’s heal- ing and caring hands are all about.
Pierce knows firsthand that living well includes dying well—and we need to hear what he knows. Then there’s LeAnn Beasley. When she was 15, her family life was toxic. A friend invited her to Messiah Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. More than 10 years later, Beasley lives on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, working as an underwater photographer. At least five days a week, she is submerged beneath the ocean, capturing images that speak of God’s wondrously diverse creation and remind us that God said, “This is good.” But Beasley also teaches divers about our delicate eco- system and how a single human touch of a coral reef can destroy hundreds of years of growth.
If Pierce knows how our hands can heal, Beasley knows of our capacity to destroy. We need to know what she knows about God’s creation. Maya Mineoi, a college student from Toledo, Ohio, rooms with three other young women: an Episcopalian, a Jew and a Unitarian. At times they stumble into conver- sations about their different religious practices and how they make ethical choices—big and small. She sees “God moments” in their conversations and in her everyday life. But as a student, Mineoi is also learning how to doubt and struggle with things taken for granted. Her full immersion into her studies among diverse people has helped her to faithfully ask an important question: What if we’re wrong? We have been wrong before. Doubt is an
14 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52