Prayer

Holy One,

I don't understand where you are taking me. Your Church and your people depress me.
I want to be honest. Help my unbelief.

Amen

Life Together

I've been reading Bonhoeffer alot lately and I love his realistic view of Community:

"But the important thing that a Christian community should know that somewhere in it there will certainly be a reasoning among them, which of these will be the greatest. It is the struggle of the natural hu-man for self-justification. He or (She) finds it only in comparing oneself with others, in condemning and judging others. Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together." Pg 91 Life Together -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Rev Gator wants you

The Rev Gator wants you to support the Ecumenical Pub on Facebook. It's free and a place to speak your mind about theology and life.http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6790943142

Art courtesy of http://surlana.deviantart.com/art/Minister-Gator-73366766

Luthsem comes out of the closet

Luthsem has come out of the closet. No it's not what you think. For years my blogging name has been Luthsem as in Lutheran Seminarian because thats who I am but kind of hidden even though I later added Rich which is my first name. Since I'm a Senior at Seminary and about to graduate and be ordained that does not really work. Those in facebook and my friends at seminary know me. Here I am warts and all.

This Luther bobble-head is actually mini-Martin not me.

Blogging but do I really know community

There has been something on my mind lately. I've been reading a lot of Emergent and Liberation theology books with the focus on community. I've been doing blogs for a couple of years and reading a lot of blogs. I live in a small Lutheran seminary community and I wonder how many of the bloggers out there are really involved in their community. I'm asking this because I feel like I have not been truly in community except with my small Lutheran seminarians and a little with our Episcopalian brothers and sisters.
I hope to change that in the coming year and I hope all my blogger friends who feel isolated from the world will do the same. We all have a call from God to follow Christ and that may mean different things to different people except that we all practice love and speak out for justice for those who have no voice.