The Upload
Posted on Oct 14, 2016 by
Hey Salem Community-
Our confirmation program began in September and there are twenty-one awesome middle school students and four incredible adult leaders participating in the program. There is great energy and excitement as well as some nervousness among the students as they get to know each other and feel connected within the group. We have established some rules and boundaries in our group and now we are living into that covenant together. The most important rule we lift up is that we treat each other with respect and care, no matter what. As I tell our students, you aren't expected to be best friends with everyone, yet you are expected to lift each other up and seek the best in one another.
This years focus is on The Reformation, Martin Luther, and the Small Catechism. The lens we will look through is that of relationship, specifically Creator, Neighbor, and Word. In other words, how do we understand The Reformation and our Lutheran roots through our relationship with God, each other, and the holy scriptures. We believe that it is crucial for our students to connect their story to the God Story and our Lutheran theology. That being said, how does a 500 year old story connect with our culture today and the lives of our students, families, and communities? Honestly, I think this gets back to relationship with God and each other.
The current political climate is all about division and difference. We are expected to be either for something or against it. There is no room for dialogue or discourse and the name of the game is winning. As our confirmation class began unpacking our theme for confirmation this year, I asked our students if they had ever felt left out or excluded. Maybe they sat alone in the school lunch room because their friends had a different lunch hour. Or maybe they were left out of a peer conversation in the hall or even were the subject of that conversation. Their response to my question was that it really hurts to be left out or excluded from community. That prompted me to ask them what might help us to build up community and be inclusive of one another. Their answer was relationship.
Our opening scripture focus has been Matthew 22: 34-38, When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
We spend so much time focused on what is right that we completely miss what is real, each other. Our relationships with those we struggle with, a kind word to a stranger, going the extra mile for a friend. Seeking out those on the outside and sharing a seat at the table. God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves and neighbor is a “BIG” pool to draw from!
As we interact with people over the next week, my challenge for us is to see the stranger, engage each other, and build the body of Christ.
Peace- John Holt (Director of Youth and Family Ministries)