09/17/2014

Trinity's Midweek Blast for September 17, 2014

Hope for the World

Up until a little over a year ago, when I became Trinity's president, I served as a congregational pastor. For years as a pastor, I began every gathering with our middle and high school youth with a familiar litany. Whether gathering as CIA (Confirmands in Action) on a Sunday afternoon or with a mix of middle and high school youth at a weekend retreat at Camp Lutheridge, we would begin this way:

Leader: Who are we?
All: The church!
Leader: Why are we here?
All: To be disciples!
Leader: What does the church say?
All: He is risen!
Leader: What do we have to offer?
All: Hope for the world!

It is this litany that serves to keep me centered amid the seemingly never-ending agenda items that define my days and weeks as Trinity's president. The challenges that Trinity and other theological seminaries face are difficult and complex. It would surprise me if virtually all of the readers of this midweek message were not able to name many of the issues we face; so, I will not rehearse them here. Suffice it to say that almost all seminaries, and especially those in our church and other mainline bodies, would confess that we are living in stressful times. At the same time, we also live in exciting times because the stakes are high for what we do. It is a great time to be the church! What we do is worth all the sweat, travel, long days, busy weekends, and everything in between. More than anything else, Trinity is fundamentally in the business of hope. That hope radiates on our campus day in and day out.

Trinity Lutheran Seminary forms leaders for Christ's church at work in the world. If you pay any attention to the world in which we live, you will see that people everywhere are hungering for hope, not wishful thinking, but a hope, as the scriptures proclaim, that does not disappoint. I was reminded of this again as I spent last weekend at Pebble Beach and Monterey, California, where I was invited to preside at a "destination wedding." The groom was a nephew from North Carolina. The bride was from the central valley of California. The couple met in graduate business school in Tempe, Arizona. Attendees included family and friends on both sides, and lots of college friends from the three universities the bride and groom attended. The guests came from every region of the country and from the U.K. The conversations were rich, and the theme of this message was consistent: People are hungry for hope.

It would be a mistake to presume that the rising number of NONES - those who respond "none" to the question of religious affiliation and who were likely the majority of those under 40 at the wedding last weekend - are totally secular in their worldview. They are not. In a recent Pew Research Center study, 81% of those who identify as NONE either strongly believe in God or are pretty certain in their belief in God. What the data show and what my experience confirms is not that there is an exponential rise in the number of atheists, but rather the church has simply lost traction in people's lives. I do not believe that this is irreversible. I believe, as some congregations have learned, that NONES can find their way back into the life of the church, if the church is clear about its mission and that mission is compelling and bathed in hope - the hope grounded in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Resurrection hope gives us the lens through which we can see beyond the global crises of the day. It is the source of energy that gets us through distressing news and developments among those we love. It is the light that shines in the most difficult times. It is the reason that we at Trinity do what we do. It is the inspiration behind the theological formation of those whom God sends to us, and who will serve as ambassadors and voices for hope for the world.

In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,

Rick Barger, '89
President
Trinity Lutheran Seminary