03/04/2015

Trinity's midweek blast for March 4, 2015

The Vision

Having just returned from Haiti, it takes a while to shake the images we encounter while walking alongside our partners and others we meet throughout the immersion. At the same time, I am guided by a biblical portrait of prophetic hope: the eschatological banquet of Isaiah 25:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.  - Isaiah 25:6-10a (NRSV)

This portrait of promise and hope not only fuels my engagement with Haiti but also informs my leadership at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. As a pastor, it informed my theology of the table. All means all. Everyone is invited to the banquet. Everyone is invited to participate in the promised future. God's vision excludes no one; neither should we exclude anyone as we participate proleptically in this promise.

This promise says that one day God will tear down everything that divides us, demeans us, and fragments us - gender, religion, ethic, sexuality, income, nationality, and all other differences. One day God will swallow up death forever and take away all disgrace and shame. One day there will be no more hunger, no more exclusion, no more judgment passed on the other. One day we will stand on the promises of God, rather than on our own rightness.The guarantee of this promise is not only the authority of the prophetic word of Isaiah. It is also and essentially the sure and certain hope wrought by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Jesus taught, loved, ministered, and healed as if embodying this vision. He ate with those we exclude. They arrested him and tried to silence him through the terror of death on the cross, but God raised him up.

Trinity forms leaders for Christ's church at work in the world. The leaders we seek to form - authentic servant leaders who are healthy, vibrant, self-differentiated (maturing), transformative, resilient, and evangelical - are those who can see and taste this vision, and who are willing to dream what the world cannot dream; they work for what the world is unable to do and they direct people and re-story people to a vision of a God who is big enough and resilient enough to embrace the entire world.

As I write this message, Israel and Iran are in another war of words and the U.S. is being drawn into it. ISIS and Boko Haram are destabilizing the Middle East and Africa with a ruthless form of terrorism. It seems like every day in this country there is another mass murder. The environment continues to suffer under a global community that lacks collective courage and resolve. More children go without food and clean water every day on this planet than at any time in the history of humanity.

In the midst of a divided and violent world, we are vested with the call to lead people and communities as a sign of what is promised. We do not work for peace and justice and salvation for all people so that we can feel good about ourselves. We do such things because we are grasped by the unshakable promise of the empty tomb, and if the vision of the banquet is where God will lead this world, let's get on with it!

In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,

Rick Barger, '89
President
Trinity Lutheran Seminary