Yesterday was Reformation Sunday in the ELCA, the day we acknowledge Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany, even though he might not’ve actually done that – scholars dispute the historical accuracy, but who cares. I’m still learning the annual cycle of the ELCA, so I’m always stoked when I show up and some new thing is happening. Next week is All Saints Sunday and that oughta be good.
I did the MMPI t’other day. I googled it before I did it, just in case I needed to know how to game the system and I accidentally typed MMBI which got me the Multidimensional Model of Black Identity and my first thought was “Oh shit – I’ma fail this one.” So I was glad to find out that it was really the MMPI which is one of those where you fill in little circles with a No. 2 pencil and they tell you if you’re a psychopath. They coulda just asked me. I didn’t fake anything, but I did give myself the benefit of the doubt. Those tests always have shit like T/F – “I often feel guilty when I am cruel to small animals” and you’re thinking “There’s no right answer to this.” I circled F because I don’t feel guilty about it at all.
This morning I scanned and sent in the last of the forms that I had to fill out and send in so the agency that decides if I’m a psycho can decide if I’m a psycho. I’m scheduled to do a teleconference with a head shrinker on Friday – it was originally last Friday, but it got shifted to 1 Nov. because my pastor had to go to a pastor conference and couldn’t administer the MMPI with enough time for them to determine whether or not I frequently kill and eat prostitutes, so it got moved, which is cool by me because I’m only a wee bit superstitious and I really like that this thing is happening on All Saints Day because Martin Luther/All Saints Church and because the ELCA holds that we’re all simultaneously 100% sinner and saint, which is bad math, but good theology. My 100% sinner part is right out there – I wanna shine my 100% saint side to the shrink.
And I started a new class at the Anabaptist college where I’m getting my Bachelors – Biblical Perspectives which is looking to be way more interesting than the last three classes on corporate team building exercises and organizational structure charts. The textbook is The Bible as Story: An Introduction to Biblical Literature – https://www.google.com/search?q=the+bible+as+story+an+introduction+to+biblical+literature&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS864US864&oq=the+bible+as+&aqs=chrome.3.0j69i57j69i59l2j0l2.7527j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 and it’s pretty good. I always looked at the OT as a buncha stories and didn’t get the big picture. This is helping a lot. I recommend.
And I kinda wonder whether this blog is valuable at all. I have thoughts and insights and such, but I’m busy all the time and I don’t seem to have extra time to also give t this. It’s mostly just a thing I check into once in a while to say “Hey, I’m still working on getting into seminary and I still cuss.” The original plan was to document the process of becoming a rostered minister in the ELCA, and to share thoughts and shit. When I started, I had time to dig into things and come up with a way of saying shit, but now I really don’t. It’s also true that I don’t have internet at home because I’m strapped. I’m expecting some skrillas to come my way in the near future, so maybe I’ll be able to get on top of things and get the ‘net hooked up at home which’d make it a lot easier for me to post about stuff’n’things early in the morning or late at night when my brain is more conducive to that kinda behavior. I dunno. I’m not quitting this – just saying it hasn’t been great lately and I know that. It might get better.
God is doing stuff. Of that, I have no doubt. I’m experiencing it all the time, though I don’t know how to articulate it. I have a strong feeling that I’m on the right course of action, which is a good feeling. I’m getting things done that need doing, learning about God’s ongoing relationship with His human creatures and feeling like I can participate in that relationship. The OT shows how God leads people through stages of development which allow us to become more like what He intended, and I’m seeing this here present time as a stage in hat growth. The ELCA ordains women and LGBTQ+ people, but them folks ain’t yet represented at all levels. We’re still working on that. And we’re still pretty white. And our membership is declining. I gotta write a research paper for some class sometime coming up and I’ma do it on the ELCA’s shrinkage and how we might get some new peeps to show up. I ain’t got into the research yet, but I’m thinking that our enemies might be our friends – the criticisms of the ELCA oft include that we ordain women and LGBTQ+ people, and I’m thinking that we oughta be leading with that info. There’s a lotta queers and dames out there that might not know we want ’em in our church, as leaders and congregants. I’d like to see some more peeps of color in the pews, but that’s more complicated. I can see how peeps of color might rather be around each other and there’s a perfectly good AME church near my house, so why should they come to the ELCA? It’s worth looking into, but I kinda think I’m more likely to reach out to lesbians. And crazies and drunks too, of course. Them’s my people.
Luther von Wolfen 