calendar August 10, 2009 in Bishop messages

The Mind and Church of Christ, Emptied in Love and Service

Reflections on the amazing and miraculous ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans by Bishop Claire Burkat.

The ELCA Youth Gathering called “Jesus, Justice, Jazz” was, by all reports, the largest convention in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.  This awesome and excellent event brought not only desperately needed revenue to the city, but 37,000 teenagers and adult leaders who poured love, faith, respect, sweat, and hope into Louisiana.

Powerful and grace-filled worship, inspirational speakers, heart-pumping music, contagious enthusiasm and adolescent energy packed the Superdome and the Convention Center for five very full days and nights.  In all, the ELCA Gathering participants from all over the United States contributed a quarter of a million volunteer hours to the people of New Orleans.  Our own Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod sent nearly 800 people.

The Gathering scripture theme was from Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death-

even death on a cross. (2:5-8)

I have never seen or experienced such selfless love and service on such a huge scale! The 2009 New Orleans Youth Gathering will forever change how youth ministry is accomplished and experienced in the ELCA.

The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, issued a proclamation declaring “A Special Day of Honor” for the ELCA and the gathering’s volunteers for contributing to the city’s recovery.

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson preached to the Lutheran youth, chaperones and volunteers gathered at the Superdome.  “God is not finished with you yet,” he said.  “God is calling you and God is counting on you.”

Bishop Hanson said that it would have taken one person working four hours a day, 365 days a year more than 98 years to put in the hours our youth contributed during the gathering.  Bishop Hanson read a letter from President Barack Obama commending and congratulating the enormous and inspiring ELCA effort.

Each day, 12,000 (one-third) of the participants boarded buses not knowing what service project they were to perform.  They came to work, with only the willingness to empty themselves for the sake of someone else.

During the Bible discussions I led during the week, I asked the teens how they experienced the mind of Christ in New Orleans.

One teenager from North Carolina, shared how he was prepared to build homes, to hammer some nails.  Instead his group was sent to do house to house surveys in a neighborhood devastated by the hurricane.  They were to gather information about what was still needed to be done to be sent to FEMA and other agencies.

He admitted to the group he never would have signed up for this.  But the experience was more powerful than he could have anticipated.  People three and four times his age, hugged him and thanked him, and shared their stories, and bared their souls to him and other teenagers.  I reminded them that they were, perhaps for the very first time, representing something and someone larger than themselves.  The mind and Church of Christ was going door to door in form of T-shirted teenagers.

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave…. 

One of the more remarkable and poignant projects where our young people served was at a very old, historic African American Cemetery, which was badly dilapidated.  They were sent to weed, seed, restore tombstones and, in some cases, bless and rebury bones.  You can read some reflections by our youth about where they saw God at work on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=109048693325

Among the 200 organized service opportunities were projects for 82 schools, 21 community centers, 13 churches, seven parks and 11 organizations to build or rebuild homes.  The gathering participants donated 13,500 backpacks filled with school supplies to students from kindergarten through third grade.  At the end of their exhausting (and hot!) days, many teenagers and found time to donate blood, or hair for pediatric oncologic wigs.

It was quite an amazing experience.  Police officers, waitresses, hotel staff, office and sanitation workers stopped Lutherans on the street (they knew who was Lutheran by the bright T-shirts and wrist bands) and thanked us for coming, for loving, for serving, for caring.

One wonderful story was reported of a youth group from Johnstown, Pennsylvania who stopped for breakfast at a local pancake house.  One by one, patrons of the restaurant came over and placed money on their table, not just to buy them breakfast, but to say thank you, and bless you for coming.

A local New Orleans reporter posted an article called: Gratitude for the Lutheran Teens who visited New Orleans…The Kindness of Strangers.

We’re humbled.  Humbled at their generosity.  Humbled at the sight of so many young people traveling so far to do so much hard work during their summer vacation.  Humbled that the “Katrina fatigue” felt by so many Americans was replaced, for a few days, with an enthusiasm even some of us find hard to muster some days.  Regardless of your faith, or lack thereof, these excited young volunteers were an inspiration, and just one of them accomplished more good than all the preachers and politicians in the world who saw Katrina as either perverse justice or crass opportunity.

How do you thank someone for helping rebuild your city? It’s a question with which we’ve all wrestled during the past four years, and the answer is: You can’t.

But the simple act of buying a stranger a breakfast said “Thank you” in myriad ways: Thank you for coming.  Thank you for caring.  Thank you for your sweat and your optimism, for your curiosity and bravery in traveling to a place so unlike your own home.  And, when many in the rest of the country seem to have “gotten over” Katrina and can’t understand why we can’t, perhaps the real message was: Thank you for not forgetting.  Most of all, thank you for reminding New Orleans — a city that’s so dependent on the kindness of strangers — that there still are people in this world who come to town and leave behind things more valuable than overflowing cash registers.

Listen again to our blessing and sending scripture, Philippians 2:1-8:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Let the same mind be in you that was^* in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, continue to call, gather and send us in His name to bless God’s Work with our Hands.

 

In Christ,

Bishop Claire Schenot Burkat

Read some brief reflections by our youth on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=109048693325 and view videos at the Youth Gathering webpage at http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Ministry/Youth-Ministry/Youth-Gathering.aspx

Gathering home page: http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Ministry/Youth-Ministry/Youth-Gathering.aspx