The Festival of Homiletics has become one of the standards for many clergy in their continuing education (as if we didn’t get everything quite figured out by commencement day at the end of seminary). Homiletics is just a fancy word for preaching, and even though I only participated online, I could tell there was a bit of fanciness, to say the least, in the two beautiful sanctuaries used in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to host the hundreds who gathered in-person. From the pulpits of East Liberty Presbyterian and Calvary Episcopal, emerged some preachers who have some vibrant prophetic game, to put it mildly.
Evidently, it was on this day (May 15) in 1940, that Maurice and Richard McDonald opened a little drive-thru restaurant in San Bernadino, California, that would become a worldwide addiction. Now, this may not be good for the pastor to admit, but for quite a while during my younger years, McDonald’s was the only reason why I caved into the whole church thing on Sunday mornings. Because, after the sending hymn was sung and the “Go in peace. Serve the Lord.” was spoken, my mom would take us a few miles down the road to the most-beautiful-for-me Golden Arch. It was the same Happy Meal for me for the longest time: 4-piece chicken McNuggets, small French fries, sweet-and-sour sauce, and a Coke. It eventually grew to a 20-piece and super-sized fries, when I was under the impression that my stomach could handle absolutely anything. It wasn’t necessarily needed to get me to praise God on the Sabbath, but I guess it was just part of the nice wholesome (maybe not health-wise so) routine.
Our Northeastern Ohio Synod has been gathering in their respective conferences in recent weeks. Just so we’re on the same page, Divinity is a proud part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which helps not just with standard-American-religion-operating-procedure denomination affiliation and overall organizing church structure, but pooling resources together for more effective ministry to be done with ELCA World Hunger, Lutheran Disaster Response, Young Adults in Global Mission, etc. Within the ELCA, there are 65 (mostly geographical) synods. Within those synods, there are conferences, of which we are part of the Northwestern Conference. This allows for not only the respective clergy to meet on various topics, but also for lay involvement, working with other nearby faith communities (Bethel, Middleburg Heights; Good Soil, Rocky River; Christ, Avon Lake; First, Lorain; St. Matthew, Medina; to name a few).
This Sunday, May 5, we will confirm seven of our youth, culminating not just a two-year process of learning some Luther and Small Catechism and Bible and church and faith and more, but of a life-shaping journey since they were baptized. Many Lutherans, and other mainline faith traditions, call this an Affirmation of Baptism. Most of us born into this part of organized religion practice, are not fully aware of all that’s going on when water is poured over our head, and other family and friends promise to read Scripture to us and teach us some creeds and prayers and take us to a grace-filled Meal, not to mention that little candle being lit, almost igniting infant-us into letting our own little light shine to glorify this Other-Worldly Being that we don’t know about quite yet. Confirmation is meant to be a bit of a holy nudge into taking more personal and spiritual ownership on all the above.
Our siblings in Christ of the United Methodist Church (UMC) are in the midst of their General Conference until May 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Obviously, I’m not exactly up on my Methodist church structure operation or general hierarchy, but this would somewhat be our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) equivalent of the Churchwide Assembly, with voting membership gathering from our 65 geographical synods at one massive convention center to decide on church structure or overarching ministry matters. However, one difference would be that this General Conference is a global enterprise with church representatives from Africa and Europe, for starters. Yes, it can be rather moving to see the Charlotte Convention Center filled with Christ-worshipers and Wesley-adorers from so many countries throughout the world, but it can also…complicate things.
