Telling Me Where to Go

For over a month now, I’ve been looking forward to the day when I will walk to the front of the Concordia Seminary chapel and, in front of my friends and family and fellow seminarians, and I will hear the announcement of what was as close to my dream job as I had ever been offered:

“Jedidiah Maschke
Pacific Southwest District
Lutheran High School of Orange County
Orange, California”

Well, the day had come. As I was standing around with all the other candidates and realizing that I was much more nervous than I thought I would be. What if they had given me some sort of call to somewhere I would never have thought of going? I guess that would be OK, wherever I go that’s where God wants me to be. So why are my hands shaking and my chest heavy?

I managed to survive the opening hymn and the Bible verses and even the sermon wasn’t too long, and before long I was standing there ready to hear those words I had so longed to hear. In the back of the chapel, Anna raised the camera to catch my reaction. I heard my name announced:

“Jedidiah Maschke
Michigan—“

The camera dropped, as did my jaw, and in that very instant the thought ran through my head: “Well, if it’s Michigan, I guess it’s got to be something special, a nice little church there…wait. Me? In a nice little church?” But before I could think any thing else, the voice continued:

“--Southwest District
Lutheran High School of Orange County
Orange, California”

I was so in shock that I didn’t know what to do, besides go and shake the hands, get my call packet, and stumble back to my seat with a very confused look on my face. I hadn’t misheard. People as far away as Texas heard “Michigan.” (Ok, they were listening on the live webcast.) I realized that I had received the call I had wanted and prayed for. I also realized that I was the first person ever to get a call to the “new” Michigan Southwest District, and I had to be pretty special for them to create a district just for me. I got my pictures taken with the Pacific Southwest District people, but just to make it official, I am declaring myself the president of the Michigan Southwest District. Just so you know.

Anna has her second interview, with Abiding Savior in Lake Forest, coming up later tonight. She’s already interviewed at Hephatha Lutheran School in Anaheim (Hills), and she’s been contacted by Immanuel in Orange also. We’re praying that the right decision be made regarding her job now, and also for a smooth transition for me. Any prayers you would offer would also be much appreciated.

Right now, it looks like I’ll be taking off after my summer CPE unit, so I’ll be working the chaplain job until mid-August. Trips to Wisconsin will be frequent but brief…I’ll be up for Nate’s graduation and the State track meet, sometime in July probably for my ordination, and then the first weekend in August for Ben’s and Jen’s wedding. Then it’s out west! Things will be pretty busy for a while now, but I thought you all should know what’s happening.

Twas the night before Call Day

Twas the night before call day
and all through the apartment
there was all sorts of stirring
wondering where we’d all be sent

Tomorrow is the big day…for me at least. Anna just got another message today about another school that wants to interview her…well, now she’s had as many places calling to interview her as I had interview me. So if we go to Cali, she’s got some choices to make.

So right now I’m standing at the edge of a precipice, trying to make out what’s in front of us. I have no choice but to trust that the Holy Spirit can work even through fallible call committees and seminaries. For info on where we go, check out www.csl.edu after 9pm CST. I’ll be out celebrating (or lamenting…just kidding…I hope).

Another Chance

Completely randomly today, I walked into a hospital room where I met a couple of very interesting women. The patient was in the hospital for emphysema and asthma or something related to her breathing and her smoking, and this woman had basically hit rock bottom.

Her: "I don’t really practice any religion."
Me: "I don’t practice religion either. I’m kind of just winging it."

So in the course of conversation, we dug deeper into her beliefs. The other woman in the room was this woman’s mother, who was raised Roman Catholic but decided not to raise her kids with any religion. She immediately pointed out that she thought this was a mistake.
We got onto the subject of prayer...the mother seemed pretty insistent on it. I tried to offer suggestions, talking about who I pray to, Jesus. When she asked why not God, I pointed out that even though I can’t explain it Jesus is God. I mentioned that Jesus knew a bit about suffering, having experienced death on a cross, but he showed us that death wasn’t the end, and that just like Jesus rose from the dead we will also rise to go to heaven. She said that she felt a little more comfortable praying to Jesus than some old guy, a la George Burns.
As I look back at it, I was trying to do this a little different than the other time. Instead of trying to force in the whole story of the gospel, I tried to wait for appropriate moments to respond to this woman’s questions, trying to be responsive to where she was. I may never know what happens to this woman, but I do know that this was another chance for me to sow the seeds of the Gospel...and there will be more.

Candy from Strangers

I have to admit, there have been some times recently where I've felt about ready to shake the dust off my Skechers and leave town. Granted, I know that I can't yet, I still have another 4 1/2 months left on my contract, and there is some reason God has not smote me yet. Sometimes, God, I just wonder why I can't be somewhere where I can see some RESULTS.
For instance, last week I was talking with some people I know up on the floor, one of them is a social worker who is a fantastic person, very welcoming. I felt the desire to share the basics of my faith with the people there, creation of the world, fall into sin, Jesus coming to save us, etc. So I tried the basic dialogue evangelism stuff. And my friend, who is a non-believer, said I came across as defensive.
It's hard for me to NOT to believe that there's something different I could do to get people to believe. And yet, that's what I'm called to believe as a Christian. If someone comes to faith, it's solely the work of the Holy Spirit. If people don't come to faith, then do I just blame them? Or is there something in me that is getting in the way. Am I being too defensive? Or worse, am I being offensive?
In talking to some friends, I realized that in many situations we are going to need something more than telling people what's "the truth."
So the question arises...how can we lead people to "the truth"? I don't think we can just plop it in front of them and expect them to just swallow it, without knowing where it comes from? I mean, we all learned as children not to take candy from strangers.
I was reading the first chapter of "Why I Am a Lutheran" the other day, and this paragraph stood out to me:
"Truth without grace won't help us. Moses brought truth. Moses brought the Law, and every word of it was true. But it only showed people their sins, their weaknesses, their failings, their lack of love for the God who gave that Law."
It's cliche to speak of "the bitter truth." But that's really the heart of it...the truth hurts. So the challenge is to communicate the sweetness of grace, the sweetness of the love of our Savior, who searched us out to give us sweet life and meaning and purpose, so that we in turn can be not just strangers with candy but friends who share that sweet sweet grace in times of need.