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The Story Remembered: Advent Vespers Reflection

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Wednesday, December 14

Reflection by聽Adrienne Eldridge

Isaiah 35:5-7

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

In God there is hope.

Isaiah 35:5-7 My favorite season is spring. Why? Because so much has happened in the wintertime; under the ground life is hibernating, transitioning, and getting ready to spring forward. Even before signs of spring are all around, there is a sense of excitement, possibility, hope. Soon there will be little signs of life popping up through the dark and wet ground, reaching for the sky and new life.

The book of Isaiah is full of both caution and promise. In Isaiah 35:5-7 the prophet foretells the possibility of what happens when the promises of God are revealed. As humans, we forget and do not always believe it, we are caught up in the hurt and pain that keeps our eyes covered and our ears closed. Yet – there is a breakthrough from winter to spring, a possibility that brings hope to the dry deserts and sight to those who have lost their way. We are reminded of the miracles of God, and there are so many metaphors for our lives in the present day. In God there is hope.

Adrienne Eldridge

The Story Remembered: Advent Vespers Reflection

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Tuesday, December 13

Reflection by Ellen Weber

Isaiah 35:3-4

Strengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

鈥楤e strong, do not fear! Here is your God.

God will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.

God will come and save you.鈥�

A few years ago, when I was playing defense during my soccer game, I twisted and heard something in my knee. I knew something was wrong and I hobbled off the field. Luckily it wasn鈥檛 a tear and was a cyst, but I did need to take time off. With that time off of soccer, I learned more about how to strengthen my knee and the muscles around it, how to listen to my body about what I could do or what needed to wait. I found a new connection with my body that was deeply embodied.

God has given us this beautiful, holy body that so many of us are fearful of. We are taught to be fearful of our own body or certain kinds of bodies or ways to be in our bodies. Advent is a time to notice and listen to our own bodies as God chose to show up with us and among us in a human body through Jesus. By connecting with our bodies we can be reminded who we are and whose we are. With that reminder, we can show up for each other in ways that are rooted and with open hands and hearts for each other. Ellen Weber

The Story Remembered: Advent Vespers Reflection by Jeremy Myers

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Saturday, December 10

Reflection by Jeremy Myers

Colossians 1:15-20

[Christ Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers鈥攁ll things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the f irstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Environmental degradation is evident all around us. We are on course to increase the planet鈥檚 temperature by almost 2掳F by 2030 which will have devastating results. Our lives are fragile and dependent upon the wellbeing of the planet. During Advent, we not only wait for our own redemption, we also long for the redemption of the entire cosmos. In the fragile, dependent, weak, and defenseless infant Jesus, we come to see the invisible God in God鈥檚 entire fullness. This is miraculous! But, not only do we find God in the infant Jesus, we also find all things on heaven and on earth. In this infant Jesus, the invisible God is united with the visible and invisible creation. This newborn baby embodies both the divine and the cosmos. In Jesus, that which is considered 鈥渘ot God鈥� is drawn into one body with God. This is a season for telling this story Jesus. But Jesus is not the reason for this season. The redemption of our entire cosmos is the reason for this season. Jeremy Myers

The Kin-dom of Heaven is like a Front Porch By Kristina Frug茅聽

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Jesus can regularly be heard saying 鈥渢he kin-dom of heaven is like鈥︹�� and then offering an image, a story, a metaphor to root this vision to a place or experience. It is like a mustard seed, a lost coin, wheat among the weeds, a treasure in clay jars, the leaven that makes bread rise. Kin-dom or reign of God are of course, in themselves a kind of metaphor that reflect the ancient context of their teacher.聽 These metaphors speak to the audience – an agricultural community of peoples around the turn of the century – as Jesus seeks to stir the people鈥檚 imagination for the kind of world God desires them to experience and participate in.聽

Sts. Luke and James red front door with peace flags hung up on a string across the front yard.

The Riverside Innovation Hub and the congregational partners we鈥檝e been blessed to learn alongside these past several years, have been about this kin-dom of God work too. I cannot remember ever using this language explicitly with our congregational learning communities. But what we have been talking about and working towards is cultivating more places and relationships that reflect the ways God intends for us to be and be together. We鈥檝e been chasing after that call, one relationship at a time, one walk through our neighborhoods at a time, one story or surprise at a time.聽

Kin-dom metaphors may not quite fit our current context, but the idea of a front porch has caught our imagination as a helpful metaphor to encourage the relationship building work we are trying to be about. Relationships that shape stories that shape neighborhoods that look and feel a little bit more like God鈥檚 good intentions for a whole, flourishing and connected creation – one neighborhood block at a time.聽

On one of these neighborhood blocks – at the corner of Colfax and W 46th St. in south Minneapolis – sits Sts Luke & James Episcopal Church. Also on this corner block exists a front porch of sorts. It wasn鈥檛 always there, but a few years ago the folks from this congregation began seeking out places to listen to their neighbors and some hints of an invitation began to stir among them. Continue reading “The Kin-dom of Heaven is like a Front Porch By Kristina Frug茅聽“ →

Daily Devotions: God’s People [re]connect!

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Each year for the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute, daily themes are chosen that are grounded in a biblical text. During the months of training and preparation for the Institute, the college mentors engage in theological reflection as a team and dig deeper into the biblical texts together. Through their leadership development with staff and the Institute chaplain, they read, plan, write, and eventually lead daily devotions for participants using these verses. The following themes and verses are now this year鈥檚 devotions.聽

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Separation

Genesis 3:1-13

 Covenant

Genesis 9:8-17

 搁别耻苍颈辞苍听

Luke 15:1-10

 Breaking Bread聽

John 6:1-15

 颁辞尘辫补苍颈辞苍蝉丑颈辫听

Luke 24:13-35

2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to Pastor John Schwehn and Pastoral Intern Tori Remer for their guidance and support as mentorsDevos 2022 Title Image prepared to write these devotions. The hours of conversation, prayer, theological reflection, and support that were given throughout the process is gratefully appreciated. We are proud of our college mentors and their work this spring.

PERMISSION

AYTI offers these themes and devotions for use by our partners. All credit should be given to the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute when using this material. Thank you.聽

MISSION OF AYTI

The Augsburg Youth Theology Institute (AYTI) inspires emerging high school theologians to observe, interpret, and engage their world through Christ for the sake of their neighbor. Our participants learn how to reflect theologically on culture and find meaningful ways to respond to the call from God that happens in this process of reflection.聽

To achieve this, we provide an intense, one-week residential experience with a new theme every year. Students read theological texts and experience a college classroom, participate in worship, explore diverse community-based learning, and have intentional small group conversations led by college mentors. Following their week on campus, students write a theological paper on the theme and their paper is published in a journal to be shared with congregations and the wider community.聽

Continue reading “Daily Devotions: God’s People [re]connect!” →

“Today” by Kristina Frug茅

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I was asked to write a blog post this week for the Riverside Innovation Hub that would introduce a series we are calling 鈥淔ront Porch Stories.鈥� This series will highlight stories from neighborhoods near and far where congregations are creating, cultivating or entering into front porch places where neighbors meet neighbors. Places where curiosity can be nurtured, stories can be shared, and simple connections can spark new relationships. Places where new life and new hope might have some room to take root.聽聽

However, I鈥檓 struggling to have imagination for new life and hope today. Instead, death and hopelessness are crowding my heart and my mind, just as they are saturating our communities near and far – our schools, our corner grocery stores, our city blocks鈥β�

A tree with a small number of leaves on the edge of a cliff by the water. The tree has branches like an L with one toward the sky and one branch out toward the water. In the background is a dark forest and fog.Today, as I write, marks the 2 year anniversary of George Floyd鈥檚 murder in the neighborhood of Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, MN. His sacred life – like countless black and brown bodies before and after him – senselessly taken by uninhibited police violence.

Today, as I write, dozens of parents in the neighborhood of Uvalde, Texas have woken up to the first morning of the rest of their lives without their children. Young, beautiful, holy lives whose bodies and futures were destroyed with bullets and brutality.

Today, as I write, families and loved ones in Buffalo, New York prepare to bury their beloved elders, family members and friends. Ten cherished human beings who were targeted, terrorized and massacred by a young man embodying the violent evil lies of white supremacy ideology.聽

 

Today, my heart fears that the front porches are too few and that their power to overcome the constant waves of violence and grief are insufficient.聽

 

We talk about sowing seeds of love, connection, justice, mercy, and hope. Yet the seeds of violence, evil, hatred and fear have been nurtured far too well for far too long in our places. The two young 18 year old men and their evil ambitious destruction, reflect an ugly truth about the state of our humanity today. The systems tasked with stewarding our public safety reveal the deep roots of a harmful belief that some lives don鈥檛 matter. The seeds we have sown are breeding unimaginable violence and yet it’s completely imaginable because of how regularly it visits us.聽

Continue reading ““Today” by Kristina Frug茅” →

RIH Cohort Reflection: Springtime is a Time of Being Slowly Led by the Spirit

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Our Riverside Innovation Hub Lead Facilitator Geoffrey Gill reflects on the past month’s cohort meetings with congregations. Geoffrey shares wisdom and learnings from these important gatherings.聽

The word spring comes from old English meaning to leap, burst forth, fly up; spread, grow. It鈥檚 roots go back to Sanskrit sprhayati 鈥渄esires eagerly,鈥� and Greek spekhesthai 鈥渢o hurry up鈥�. (Etymonline)

Spring felt like it took its sweet time this year. It was like expecting a child to be born and then the child is not ready to come out yet. You can鈥檛 force these things, you take it one moment at a time and breath. As we breathe into the fullness of spring and our work becomes more and more rooted, it is clear that this work requires us to slow down, to be patient and to move at the pace of a growing flower. It may look slow and arduous at times, and this is the work of sowing seeds; we are like community gardeners for the public church and we are learning that this projectA red tulip in a garden bed. moves at the pace of building trustworthy relationships. You can鈥檛 force this to work, and you can鈥檛 just bypass any important part because it makes you uncomfortable or you don’t understand it. What I鈥檓 finding inside of most congregations is this sense of needing things to speed up, there is this deep eagerness to spring forth and jump into action. And on the other hand God is calling us to slow down. Yes, move forward and take action, and don鈥檛 move so fast that you can鈥檛 smell the spring flowers. Don鈥檛 move so fast that you forget or bypass why you’re even doing this work. This time and space of work requires us to trust the flow of the process; to do all we can and then let the spirit do what it鈥檚 capable of doing.

So, In-between our large learning events RIH hosts smaller cohort meetings. These meetings focus on the art forms of the public church framework. All of the cohorts met this April. The intentions of these meetings were to build and deepen relational trust, reflect on the process of sharing learnings with the leadership in each congregation and expand more into the art form: interpretation.聽

Continue reading “RIH Cohort Reflection: Springtime is a Time of Being Slowly Led by the Spirit” →

Little Things are Big Things by Ellen Weber

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This winter was long. April felt like an extended March. There is a whole lot of beauty in the winter and the cold can be hard on our bodies. In the midst of the cold, snow and rain, the last week of April if one paid attention, the green began to emerge. The tulips that I planted last fall began to sprout and I could see bursts of green in the mixture ofTulip leaves sprouting up from the brown ground. brown surrounding my house. I woke up to birds chirping out my window and watched squirrels dig up their nuts for nourishment that they had planted last fall.聽

I am an amateur gardener who definitely has lots to learn, but continues to show up in March to plant my own seeds knowing that not all of them will survive. During this Easter season of new life and resurrection, I am trying to pay extra attention to what around me needs nourishing. Which seedlings need water, sunlight, more space or coffee grounds added to the soil? When my tomato seedlings grow too leggy, I adapt by replanting them so the stems are fully supported and the plant can focus on rooting down to allow it to rise up. When my broccoli seedlings are too leggy, after googling why that might be, I realize that they are too warm.聽 In response, I make a shift so that they are no longer under the humidity dome. Each seedling needs something different in order to grow and eventually bear fruit.聽聽 Continue reading “Little Things are Big Things by Ellen Weber” →

The Promise of Dragonflies by Kristina Fruge

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While we wait for the Minnesota landscape to more fully thaw out this chilly spring, let me share a memory with you from a much warmer spring day several years ago鈥�

My precocious three-year-old daughter and I were en route between errands, stopping for a quick cup of coffee and goodies, when Marie spotted a giant dragonfly on the sidewalk. We squatted down to investigate. I cautioned her to move slowly so we didn鈥檛 scare it away, but her sticky little fingers were already reaching out to touch the creature. It didn鈥檛 move.聽

鈥淢ommy, what鈥檚 wrong?鈥�

鈥淥h honey, it looks like it鈥檚 dead. See the owie?鈥� I said, pointing at its mis-shaped and slightly oozy side of head.

鈥淲hat happened?鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know sweetie. But look how beautiful it is. Look at its lacy wings, look at the bright colors on its body.鈥�

鈥淚 like its wings.鈥澛� She paused鈥�.鈥淲hat will it do now?鈥澛犅�a black and white dragonfly sitting on two fingers.

鈥淲ell, maybe a momma bird will pick it up and feed it to its baby birds so they can grow big and learn to fly.鈥� I picked up the dragonfly and placed it in the grassy median nearby. I continued, 鈥淥r it will go back to nature in the grass here and make the dirt healthy so plants can grow.鈥�

鈥淥h, so it will come back alive?鈥�

I paused鈥�. 鈥淵es. It will. Just in a different way.鈥�

 

Thanks to Marie鈥檚 discovery and observations of the dead dragonfly several years ago, I now find my senses awakened anytime I see a dragonfly. Spotting the black and white iridescent wings of the 12 spotted skimmer or the vibrant green stick body of the ebony jewel wing stirs a hint of exhilaration within me. These sightings have become small but holy moments. They point me back to the complexity and simplicity of Marie鈥檚 interpretation of the promise of life present in the dead, lifeless body of that dragonfly.聽

While our chilly Minnesota winter hasn鈥檛 made room for any visits yet from these fascinating flighted creatures, they have been on mind this Easter.聽

To be candid, Easter has always been uncomfortable for me. Back in my youth ministry days, that mostly had to do with the fact that I鈥檇 start my Easter Sunday at 6:00am in the church kitchen preparing food with sleepy students for our church鈥檚 Easter breakfast youth fundraiser. But over the last few years, I鈥檝e simply struggled to connect with the joyful celebration of Easter worship. The Hallelujah chorus and triumphant shouts that 鈥淐hrist has risen indeed!鈥� have landed flat for me. Disingenuous seems too harsh of a label, but something has remained amiss for me with the Easter proclamation when life around me – or rather the devaluing of it – seems to reflect something far from the truth of this promise.聽

Continue reading “The Promise of Dragonflies by Kristina Fruge” →

Mentors for the 2022 Youth Theology Institute

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One gift we have each year at the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute (AYTI), is hiring current college students to train and lead as mentors during our annual summer institute. These students come to AYTI with energy and gifts for serving young people who are curious about how God is working in their lives and the world. These leaders spend the spring semester developing skills for small group facilitation, studying and researching biblical stories to prepare to lead a daily devotion with our participants, and honing their leadership skills to provide a safe and welcoming place for the high school participants during the institute.

2022 AYTI Mentors being goofy!
2022 AYTI Mentors being goofy!

We are excited to introduce to you the 2022 AYTI Mentors. They are such a fun group and we know the high school participants are going to enjoy spending the week of AYTI with them!

Continue reading “Mentors for the 2022 Youth Theology Institute” →