The Virginia Theological Seminary campus was really beautiful. Image taken from the Virginia Theological Seminary website.

From Friday February 20th to Sunday February 22nd, there was a conference for interns in the Episcopal Church Service Corps at Virginia Theological Seminary, in the DC suburbs.  The conference was an opportunity for interns and their directors to meet together.  As part of my internship, I went to this conference, and so did my director, Bryan.  I do not know what the program for the directors involved, except for when they were with us.  The program for the interns involved chapel Friday night, extensive Bible study on Saturday, with a focus on call stories, a driving tour of DC, and church Sunday morning, which was at Trinity Episcopal Church in Northwest DC, the church with which the DC internship program is associated.

Bryan and I arrived a bit late on Friday, because it took longer to get from the airport to the seminary than anticipated, so we missed chapel on Friday night, but we were there for the rest of the program.  Also, I had the chance to see my mother some, which was nice.  I grew up in the DC area and my parents still live there, though my father was away that weekend.  My mother, in fact, drove Bryan and I to the airport Sunday afternoon, which was very convenient for us.

The conference provided an opportunity to meet other interns in the Episcopal Church, which I thought was pretty exciting because there aren’t any others here in Spokane.  It was good both to meet people in different programs, in order to see how ours here in Spokane is similar to and different from the others, and also just to meet other young people that are excited about serving in an Episcopalian context.

The program we interns experienced provided many subjects for further thought.  Our Bible study of various call stories provided a lot of material for my own thoughts about my sense of call and vocation.  Towards the end of the Bible study we talked some about the challenges of being an intern, particularly those posed by family members and friends who do not understand what interning with the church is about and why it is something in which we are engaged.

It would have been even better if the conference had provided more structured ways to process the issues it brought up, perhaps in small-group discussions or something.  It would have been particularly helpful to have had some sort of structured way to discuss how the call stories we studied related to our own senses of call.  It would also have been helpful to discuss in small groups the challenges of interning, especially if the emphasis were not just on what the challenges are, but also on how to deal with them.

One of the aims of this conference was to build connections between the interns, and having small-group discussions would have helped with that aim, too, because it would have built in program time geared toward interacting with other interns.  As it was, the program relied mostly on large-group time, alternating with completely unstructured time, neither of which provides much structural support for getting to know the interns from other programs that one does not already know.

However, do notice that Jesus’ coming to John was not routine for him.  He came of his own accord intending to be baptized. He did not just happen by, nor was he importuned by others.  His action was by intention, not default.  By choice, not chance.

And by choosing to be immersed, Jesus’ life was changed forever.  Baptized at the hands of John, his identity and his calling were confirmed and his ministry empowered.  Immediately afterwards he began his public ministry.  For Jesus to be baptized was to say it’s time to sink myself into this calling.  After his baptism, extraordinary, even miraculous, actions occurred.

Baptism preceded miracles.  Immersion came before empowerment. The power of the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus at his Baptism and his true identity was no longer hidden or in doubt.  Choosing to be immersed seems to have made all the difference.

That truth has not changed.  To be intentional about immersing ourselves in what we believe, in the values and calling of the Gospel, is to incorporate in our decisions and actions that which is beyond our understanding, yet gives great freedom and purpose.  The inclusion of which is directly related to how we spend our money, what we give our attention, and, in both the short and long term, how we will invest our lives.

The caution I would extend is that we can too easily live by default, simply doing again what we’ve done before in the living out of our faith.  It is certainly possible to be neither intentional nor immersed in it, thereby missing out on the clarity of identity and calling that Jesus knew from the moment of his baptism.  Acclaimed National Geographic photographer, Dewitt Jones, observes that the familiar patterns which sustain us can also be our prisons if we fail to open ourselves to new perspectives, and to do so deliberately, avoiding life by default.

During the four regional days with clergy in Advent we reflected on these words of Alvin Toffler:  The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”

As we enter into what the New Year offers, conscious of the great needs and opportunities around us, may we immerse ourselves more deeply, as Jesus did,  intentionally to live more fully the calling we’ve been given and see more clearly the wonder it can bring.

The collar does that, invites conversation. It’s one reason I wear it when traveling and the reason some clergy do not. On that day it invited a trip-long conversation about God with a person eager to tell her story. I offered an ear, which was welcomed, and later told a faith story of my own. The encounter meant something. The invitation was automatic. As I look back on it, I am thankful.

The real story of course is not about collars, but about being the Church. It is about being reminded, all of us, that the calling of every congregation, of every Christian, is to live and serve in a way that without qualification opens the door into conversation, into questions of faith, for those who already believe and for those who wish they could. No one should have to wonder whether their questions and stories are welcome and can be told. It is in consistently opening the door to the world around us, to the celebrations and to the cries, that we live out our calling.

Our Diocesan Convention theme this year is “Living a Scandalous Gospel.” It is a theme I promoted and am enthusiastic about. We will have time at Convention to flesh this out and to grapple with what is scandalous about the Gospel of Jesus, what it says to us and calls us into. For if we are not scandalized by it we may well be missing the point.

To live our faith in a way that signals to others an invitation to conversation can be inconvenient to be sure. I had other plans for my flight; i.e., an Inland article to write, a presentation to prepare. Both had to wait. The One who called himself gate, who is the true door opener, seemed to have had other plans – the kind that extend well beyond an airplane encounter to the world, to the voices calling to be heard and to the needs begging to be met.

While one cannot begin to cover the scope of what “Living a Scandalous Gospel” means, we can at least look at one way Jesus was a scandal to those around him, by caring about those others did not.

At a time when 24 hour news cycles are consumed with the style of glasses a Vice Presidential nominee wears or the hair transplants of the other V.P. nominee, it somehow seems naive, out of touch or misguided to actually care that people in India have no water to drink; that an Anglican Bishop in Sudan must walk five miles through life threatening territory to communicate to the outside world; or that a working woman in this country spoke last evening about preparing to sleep in her car for the first time and for days to come.

You and I can name the needs. In fact, not to do so and to then act on them is itself scandalous. May we challenge ourselves and each other to follow wherever Jesus leads.