large as this longing

If you’ve been following my posts over the past months, you know that many of them have been responses or reflections to the ideas and writings of my theology professor. He is leaving his current position and taking a job at a university in Norway so our seminary community is compiling a book of farewell/tribute letters for him. The following is my contribution. It includes some thoughts on how the past two quarters of study have impacted my life. I thought I’d share it here. Following that is a link to his faculty info (if you’d like to find out more about this guy).

–
Dr. Shults,

It is with sadness that we bid you farewell. The past two quarters
have been some of the most reflective and challenging months of my
life. Thanks to your lectures, your books, and your ideas, I have
spent long hours pondering things like truth, goodness, and beauty.
God has come alive in a very real way as I have been challenged by new
ideas and new ways of thinking.

One of the things I value most about these past two quarters is that
what I’ve learned is not simply content. If that were the case, I’d
walk away (as with most other classes) retaining some things but
forgetting a lot of it. New categories of thinking do not go
away…and this I think will be a blessing and a curse. Ready or not,
I’m stuck with this new perspective. It will impact not only further
study and contemplation, but my ministry and life as well. Indeed, it
is delightfully terrifying!

Thank you so much for your dedication to the Bethel community and for
sharing your passion in ways that have changed my life.

Darrin
–

http://seminary.bethel.edu/stpaul/faculty/shults_f.html

I’ve been studying for my theology class today. Here is a quote from a book we’ve been reading, “Faces of Forgiveness” by F. LeRon Shults (my theology prof).

“All of our lives are spent longing for a face that will grant us peaceful loving attention, a face that will secure us and call us into a hopeful future. In Christ, we find that face; by the Spirit, we become that face for one another.”

I find this idea truly fascinating. In fact, it is much like the founding idea of this blog. (see “the longing” under previous posts). Essentially it is saying that Christ is the object of our desires–our longing. What is most intriguing about this idea from Shults is his point that we, as we live in community with each other, manifest the very face of God. The implications of this are quite significant. This means that what God offers to each of us is made real in our lives through our relationships with others. How we understand and experience things like grace, forgiveness, and divine love have everything to do with how these things are being lived out in our communities.
I think that if we could really begin to understand this more, our society (and our churches) would be much less individualistic and more self-sacrificial. And maybe we’d be a lot less lonely.

Today was confirmation suday at my church. Ten ninth graders announced publicly their commitment to follow Jesus. It was a great day! Each one got up in front of the church and gave a little talk about a matter of faith that has been important to them. I loved the rare chance to listen to students talk about their faith. In youth ministry, it often feels like I do way to much talking and opportunities to simply listen are few and far between. And sometimes, getting teenagers to talk about anything remotely spritual is like pulling teeth. It was a great reminder of the importance Jesus puts on fellowship. We all (even ninth graders) are members of one body. As Paul reminds us…

“we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body…Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.”
1Corinthians 12.

It is on Sunday mornings like these that I remember that my faith, my religion is all bound up together with the rest of the body of Christ.