Trinitarian Soundings

Sharing in Mission

2012-01-30T11:05:00.001-06:00

I got to visit my favorite Sunday School class yesterday—no, not the one at Prairie Baptist where I regularly (that might be debated) attend. I was at Third Baptist Church in St. Louis for the launching of a new seminary program, so I went to the class I will not miss when there, the Prayer Partners class. Faithfully led by Linda and Howard Roos, this class is comprised of differently abled persons who love God, each other, and the larger world.

The class has a practice of contributing spare change to a common fund that is designated for some missional purpose. Over the years, the class has contributed well over $4000 to varied initiatives, creatively making a significant impact. Yesterday, the class presented an absolutely stuffed spaghetti jar to me containing $99.85, mostly in coin saved from bus fare change. It was a hefty offering! They knew I was preparing to go to Myanmar once again and wanted to share out of their substance with needs there. Members of this class have little margin to be generous, yet over time and together their funds can be transformative.

I offered two options for disbursing their funds: either Myanmar Institute of Theology or the Ywama Baptist Church Medical Clinic, located in the Insein section of Yangon, near the seminary. Quickly and unanimously they said it should go to the medical clinic. Often facing the challenge of adequate medical care themselves, they were thrilled with the impact of their gift: one dollar per patient. I am grateful to carry their funds and present them in their behalf. I will do my best to convey to the medical staff the sacrifice involved in this gift and the reservoir of love from which it flows.

This class reminds me of Paul’s commendation of the Macedonians: “. . . they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means . . . for the privilege of sharing in this ministry . . .” (2 Corinthians 8:3-4). Generous giving feeds the spring of joy, and the Prayer Partners demonstrate this fruit of the Spirit in abundance. Often dependent on others for transportation or special assistance, they enjoy and claim the empowerment of providing for others. They understand something of the mysterious calculus of grace; freely they have received, and freely they give.

After presenting the money, one by one members of the class prayed, some haltingly and some fluently, for our students and me. They prayed for our protection and the witness we will bear. As we complete final preparations for our pilgrimage, we go with added joy and strength because of their deep sharing in mission.

Molly T. Marshall

Central is launching a FOUNDATIONS program at Third Baptist Church in St. Louis, MO. To learn more about this new opportunity for ministry preparation, continue visiting our website.

Going on Pilgrimage

2012-01-24T07:19:00.001-06:00

In a little over a week, create students and faculty will be going to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) once again. We go with anticipation of being transformed by encountering faithful Baptists, other Christians, and those who follow another pathway of worship and service. We are deliberate in the language we use to describe this global immersion opportunity. Rather than calling this a “trip,” we name it as pilgrimage, a spiritual quest.

The legacy of the Judsons is ever in our minds as we prepare to depart. In February 1812, Ann and Adoniram Judson sailed on the Caravan, headed to India and eventually to Burma. Sea sick, home sick, and sick of the threat of war, they departed from Salem on the last ship to get out prior to the War of 1812. It was a missionary pilgrimage for them; they were changed even as they brought the light of the Gospel to new realms. How does being a pilgrim differ from being a tourist?

· Pilgrimage is a holy pursuit, a spiritual practice that endeavors to encounter God in a new way.

· A pilgrimage is a spiritual and physical journey that seeks to experience God more deeply through encountering holy places and graced persons.

· The pilgrim who finishes the journey is a different person than the one who began.

· A pilgrimage requires respect, humility, attentive listening to God, and openness to new vision.

· Pilgrimages differ from other types of travel in that the physical demands create a strong and unique camaraderie with fellow travelers, as well as the opportunity to viscerally connect with your surroundings and engage in a spiritual discovery.

· A pilgrimage is not only the exploration of the destination, but the very personal and internal exploration of the individual.

· Being a “tourist” is usually a private pursuit and does not pursue the well-being of the host community.

· As pilgrims we go seeking to learn the ways of God in Southeast Asia and how Christian witness takes hold in other cultures.

· A pilgrim displays respect for the lived religion of others even while deepening his or her own faithful convictions.

· Preparation is required for a pilgrimage. I encourage the class to be prayerful daily as you prepare for this remarkable opportunity. I assure them that I am already praying for each of them by name.

Jonah was called to proclaim God’s message to Nineveh, and he goes reluctantly, without care for the people. (He flunks the “pilgrim test” in every measure. ) Preaching a minimalist sermon of five words, he expects God to destroy the great city in the manner of Sodom and Gomorrah (which is why he sought a vista a bit out of the city to watch the fireworks.) When the mercy of God prevails over judgment, he expresses moral outrage at God’s welcome of these despised Assyrians; indeed, he would rather die (4:9) than be a part of the people of God that included them.

Important in our day is holding in tension the urgency of proclaiming the gospel with the capacity to discern God’s surprising ways of mercy in the larger human family. We trust that we will learn of both on pilgrimage to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma).

Molly T. Marshall

Central seeks to form students with discernment about global Christianity, learning about the ways God’s great redemptive project is flourishing.

Caring for the City

2012-01-17T12:16:00.002-06:00

Last evening there was a great gathering of the people of God at Friendship Baptist Church to celebrate the life and legacy or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Inspiring music, passionate prayer, and challenging addresses kindled renewed commitment to inclusive justice. Ministers, politicians, and faithful persons—Jewish and Christian—thought in concrete terms about where Kansas City has failed to realize King’s dream in the urban core.

Kansas City has devoted resources to the Kansas City Power and Light district, the Sprint Center, baseball and football stadiums, and the zoo. (Entertainment rather than empowerment?) Indeed, civic efforts to endow the zoo for perpetuity are growing apace. Revered pastor, Dr. Wallace S. Hartsfield, Sr., spoke about the implications of these allocations: “It’s not that I have anything against the zoo, but for God’s sake, think about the people!” Amen.

Thinking about the people will include a slight tax bump (1/8 cent) that will benefit the decaying neighborhoods east of Troost in Kansas City, MO. Over the next thirty years, 7 million a year can be garnered to renew infrastructure, transform blighted buildings, provide economic development, and protect the interests of those too often neglected in the halls of city government. This can and should be done. And it is time!

The little prophetic book of Jonah (only 44 verses long) illumines God’s great compassion for the city of Nineveh. You recall how reluctant Jonah was to go there, the capital city of Assyria, a long-term oppressor of Israel. It would be like a Holocaust survivor being compelled to bear witness in Berlin, or Martin King summoned by God to preach to a KKK convention. Jonah did not want to carry God’s word to this detested people. [I will write more about this next week as we consider the Jonah story more fully in light of the missional pilgrimage beckoned by God.]

What stands out is God’s sense of urgency about the well-being of “that great city.” So persistent is God’s care for Nineveh that the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a second time, and he goes, but only as a perfunctory prophet, preaching a minimalist sermon of only five words: “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Remarkably, the city repents, and the king leads the people toward appropriate practices of mourning.

Jonah is burned up by God’s merciful response—no compassion in him for the 120,000 persons and many animals spared by God. The saga of Jonah ends with the question of the Holy One hanging in the air: “And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city. . .?”

God is concerned about Kansas City, more concerned I daresay than many of God’s people. By voting this tax increase we have the opportunity to participate in its redemption. I pray that we will do so.

Molly T. Marshall

Central is preparing ministers who seek the welfare of the city. To learn more about our mission, continue visiting our website.

Calling Forth Light

2012-01-06T10:51:00.001-06:00

Epiphany marks the ending of the Gospel focus on Jesus as child and inaugurates the season of his ministry, beginning with his baptism. The interplay of the lectionary texts, Genesis 1:1-5 and Mark 1:4-11 (as well as the Prologue of John), illumine our understanding of the true light coming into the world. God, the One in whom there is no darkness, is the source of the light of creation and the light of redemption.

God speaks light into being at the beginning of creation, and without its priority nothing else could be created. It is understandable that light has symbolized the meaning of the Christ-event for people walking in darkness. As Wendy Wright observes in The Vigil: “The power of the symbol was not lost on most generations of believers who lived closer than we do to the truth that we are all ultimately dependent upon the sun for warm, vision, and light itself” (152). Linking God’s creation of Day, suffused with light, with the Sun of Righteousness, is a logical extension in the Scriptures. Indeed, the whole narratival arc of the Bible is about moving from darkness to light as the “dawn from on high breaks upon us.”

These ringing words, commonly read on the Feast Day of Epiphany, declare God’s illuminating promise for the world:

Arise, shine out, for your light has come!

the glory of YHWH is rising upon you!

Though darkness still covers the earth

and dark clouds enshroud the nations,

upon you YHWH now dawns,

and God’s glory will be seen among you! (Isaiah 61:1-2).

The baptism of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Mark is spare; Jesus came from Nazareth to be baptized by John. Two aspects of this complex event point to the transcendence of this simple act: the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and the Voice identifying the Son as beloved of God. The same voice as in the beginning now calls forth Lux Aeterna (eternal light) as it shines forth in one born of woman. God’s glory is seen among us—in the form of one like us.

In the Eastern church, the primary meaning of the baptism of Christ is not that he needed cleansing, but to portray the re-consecration of creation. His light would shine into the dark places of human violence, pride, and shame, and call persons to live as christophers, bearing the light of Christ. Further, his coming presages the reality that all creation will be drawn into the ultimate cosmic redemption disclosed by Christ.

We, too, have seen his star, and reflect his glory by shining forth justice and mercy in a world dimmed by sin. How needed in our time is the radiance of the true light that comes in Christ to make all things new!

Molly T. Marshall

Central believes that Holy Scripture tells the story of God’s great plan for a beloved world. Come study with us! Learn more about such an opportunity by continuing to visit our website.

Discerning the Christ

2012-01-02T08:56:00.001-06:00

Getting to the manger of Bethlehem hardly finishes the story, thus Luke 2:22-40 provides the conclusion to Luke’s infancy narrative. He has shown the parents of Jesus to be faithful to the laws of Rome; now he shows their faithfulness to the laws of Israel. The First Sunday after Christmas focuses on two liturgical themes: The Holy Family and the Presentation in the Temple.

It was customary to present the firstborn male to the Lord; making an offering for the purification of the mother was also a routine ritual. While at the temple, the Holy Family encounters two figures, Simeon and Anna, who literally could have stepped off the pages of the Hebrew Bible.

When we read Luke’s description of Simeon as one who was righteous and devout, upon whom the Spirit rested, we realize that here is a man who has lived as God intended. He has continued to look for the “consolation” or redeemer of Israel—even when others had given up believing the Messiah would ever come. Anna was the counterpart to Simeon—someone at home in the temple, constant in prayer, led by the Spirit, also expecting God’s Messiah to come.

It was a remarkable scene: the wizened Simeon, hands shaking with age and delight, took the pink, squirming newborn in his arms and praised God. He recognized that God had been faithful to the prophetic word spoken centuries ago. Simeon also realized God’s kindness in honoring his deepest longing: to see “your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples” (v. 31). Simeon then presented his life back to God: “Now you are dismissing your servant in peace.”

Much like Simeon, Anna perceived who the child was and responded in praise to God. Her spiritual sensitivity was acute, and she was called a prophet. Long years of prayer and attentive waiting allowed Anna to recognize the one for whom she had longed.

The scene closes and we are left wondering what happened to these saints. We do know, however, that their lives had reached their deepest fulfillment in being used of God to identify and welcome Jesus. Indeed, they were welcoming God. Madeleine L ’Engle sums up their vision:

How remarkable, how beyond the bounds of ordinary possibility, that two old people should see a small baby and recognize that he was the Light of the World!

Was it perhaps because they were so old, so near to the Beyond, that they were able to see what people caught up in the cares of life could not see?

Spiritual discernment comes through learning to pay attention to the presence of God. Without discernment, we will miss the abundant gifts of God all around. The sensitivity that characterizes Anna and Simeon came through regular practices of prayer, worship, and study of the Scriptures. God honors their fidelity, just as we should honor those in our midst who display such spiritual maturity.

As we begin this new year of our Lord, let us strive to grow in discernment, especially of the graceful ways Christ is present to us. He has come so very near as to be one of us, and we are enfolded in God’s consolation. Thanks be to God!

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central and its commitment to spiritual formation, continue visiting our website.

Delivering the Promise

2011-12-26T10:34:00.000-06:00

We have been on a journey these four weeks as we have examined the promises made to the prophets, John the Baptist and his parents, and Mary. The days of waiting--with their varied textures of joy, wonder, anxiety, and bustling preparation--now seem distant, dwarfed by the magnitude of the reality present to us. As the prophet write: "Behold, your deliverance has come" (Isaiah 62:11).

How long Israel had waited! Many had given up hope that God would ever deliver on the promise of a Savior. But in patient mercy, God came; in the fullness of time, God comes. And now the thin membrane that lies between heaven and earth is made translucent as the light of shared glory, human and divine, shines forth.

Part of what Mary would ponder in her heart later may be the irony of the "Son of the Most High" coming into the world like many other babies born to poor parents. In the fragility of the newborn, hanging by a slender umbilical cord, God came. In the insistent cry of the baby, the Word was made flesh. God's gift to the world was God's presence, coming on the humility of a helpless, dependent infant, whose cry demanded "Take care of me."

We marvel at Mary's courage in making this trip and enduring the travail of delivering the Christ--no epidural available! This was her first child, and that can be scary enough, even in the safe confines of home. Who assisted in the birth? Was Joseph the only one, or was there an experienced midwife somewhere in the Bethlehem crowd? We do not know. The baby came safely, in due time, and heaven rejoiced.

In Martin Luther's Christmas Book we find these words: "For our sakes he has taken flesh and blood from a woman, that his birth might become our birth. . . This is the way to observe this feast--that Christ be formed in us" (37). And the pathways he walks will pierce our hearts, as it did his mother's.

In his Sacra Pagina commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Luke Timothy Johnson offers an interesting insight about the deliberate phrasing, "wrapped him in cloth strips, placed him in in a manger, because there was no place." Johnson suggests that this threefold description anticipates "the same threefold rhythm of 'wrapped him in linen cloth, placed in a a rock-hewn tomb, where no one had yet been laid' (25:53) so that birth and burial mirror each other" (53).

God's self-giving in the Son will culminate on the cross. From cradle to cross, God has been with us, as one of us, for our sake. The true light is still coming into the world--and our sin, our neglect, our misunderstanding cannot extinguish it. God has faithfully kept the promise. Therefore, let us keep the feast.

Molly T. Marshall

Central was founded because our forebears believed God's message of grace and mercy must be shared with the whole world. To learn more of this expansive mission, continue visiting our website.

Singing out Justice

2011-12-18T08:32:00.000-06:00

I never got to play Mary in the Christmas pageant, probably because I could not sit in wordless contemplation! Indeed, many little girls prefer to be an angel because at least an angel gets to do something. Sitting in blue and white in calm repose (as if long travel and labor had not occurred), Mary is simultaneously "queen of heaven" and virgin mother. Laden with theologically heavy interpretations, the courageous, barely a young woman from Nazareth shrinks from view.

Willing to entertain Gabriel's startling message, and questioning it appropriately (Luke 1:34), Mary is the exemplary first disciple. Her role in this love story of cosmic proportions is indispensable, and her consent matters. St. Augustine was fond of saying that God would do nothing "without our consent."

God is not content to remain in heaven, but desires to make life among us. Truly, heaven cannot contain God's overflowing love; it spills into the world. God cannot wait for mortals to get it right (we never will), so God comes among us in the frailest form of human life, a male infant, and Mary is God's first earthly home.

She has found favor with God. Why Mary? She is a person of fierce faith; she believed the promises of God to her downtrodden people. Thus she looked for the redemption of Israel through the coming Messiah. She well knew that only God could lift the heel of Rome from the neck of her people; she knew that only God could call the arrogantly religious to true faith.

So God sends Gabriel with the great, but disturbing news of how God will accomplish the salvation of God's beloved people. Martin Luther said that angels love to show up at one of two times: when one is busy going about one's work, or when one is at prayer. We do not know what Mary was doing, but we do know the message: the angel tells her that God is with her.

Mary believed before she conceived. She trusted that the Lord was really with her, which is why she can sing of the many reversals of injustice as if they have already taken place. When she asked the Angel how she, a virgin, could have a child, she trusted Gabriel's word that the "Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her." Just as the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep, bringing forth new life, so it would be with Mary. What more unlikely place than a virgin's womb to bear the Son of God? Similar to the ancient doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing), Luke is portraying the power of God to create life out of seeming emptiness. Her own great reversal of identity was a sign that God would do what she sang out.

She trusts enough in God's love to believe that she will not face whatever happens next without companioning--God's and the intimate circle with whom she shares her story. Her faith encourages Elizabeth as together they try to make sense of what love was birthing in them.

Love can only choose to come; it can no more be ordered to arrive on demand than a family can dictate the time of a child's birth. Mary waited--with heaviness, yet with profound expectation that God's strong arm would put to rights the world's injustice. And now we wait for Advent's longing to be met by the coming of love and justice. May we confidently join Mary's song.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting Central's website to learn ways to share in God's redemptive mission in our world.

Rejoicing in God

2011-12-13T10:37:00.000-06:00

The third Sunday of Advent offers the deep pink candle, reminding us that a rose bloomed in winter, the highly favored Virgin Mary. This liturgical color also tells us that Advent is more than a penitential season; it is a time of rejoicing. Gaudete Sunday, so named because of the theme of rejoicing in the lectionary texts, calls us to joyous anticipation of the coming of the Christ. The words of Mary say it best: “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. . .” (Luke 1:47).

Scripture does not instruct us to rejoice after good things have occurred; rather, in faith we cultivating rejoicing as a spiritual practice that bears witness to a deep trust in the goodness of God. Isaiah 61 is awash in the language of jubilee, that time when God’s justice transforms the brokenhearted and mourning is displaced by joy. The prophet offers his word prior to enactment of “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isaiah 61:2), believing that restoration will come and, thus, God’s people will rejoice. As they labor toward the goal of establishing righteousness, the work itself participates in displaying the glory of God, and allows the gift of everlasting joy (61:7) to be theirs.

Yesterday I visited with a loving couple who live smack dab in the middle of the Ozarks in southern Missouri. They live simply on 187 acres of pasture, covered with small lakes and groves of walnut trees, which make it more interesting for the turkeys, coyotes, deer, and possums who share the land with the small herd of Angus cattle. Generous in their gifts to Central, they can think of no better investment than making it easier for students to prepare for ministry. They remember how many jobs they worked in order for the husband to complete seminary: grocery store clerk, elevator operator, pastoral work, church secretary, and other duties as assigned!

Their joy in participating in the seminary’s mission is palpable. They asked questions about new initiatives in congregational health, work with Myanmar Institute of Theology, our new library and chapel and, especially, Central’s students. They inquired about personnel by name—a good clue that they are devouring any mailing from the seminary. I was amazed by how current their knowledge was.

They spoke about their plans to give most everything away before they die, so that there would not be resources “just hanging over their heads,” as they put it. Delighting in their advocacy for Central, they mentioned other persons that they want to prompt to invest in Central’s mission. There are no sweeter words for a seminary president or institutional advancement vice president to hear!

The Apostle exhorts: “Rejoice always. . . “ (1 Thessalonians 5:16). This straightforward command suggests that joy can be a disposition one practices. Rejoicing and thanksgiving are expressions of faithful service. I was privileged to observe it up close yesterday. Gaudete, indeed!

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting our website to learn ways to “Gift Central.” I trust it will be an opportunity for you to rejoice in this glad season.

Repenting as Preparation

2011-12-06T08:13:00.000-06:00

The voice of the prophet cries in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert the highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). John echoes these words as he invites all of Judea to accept a baptism of repentance as preparation for the coming One, mightier by far than his cousin.
Few of us like to feel the pangs of repentance. It requires painful acknowledgement of our real condition, and it punctures any self-delusions about what we are capable of. Yet, without repenting, we continue in our obdurate ways that deny our accountability to God and to others. Martin Luther reminds us that the whole of our lives are lived "before God," inescapably so.
The Baptist knew that people could not make space in their lives to receive the word of hope Jesus would bring if they felt no lack and lived in smug satisfaction. His stark call to repent, literally "turn around," beckoned them to confess their sins, thus making a path for the Savior to enter their lives.
Currently I am spending a part of the second week of Advent in Santa Fe, NM, at the Presidential Leadership Intensive of the Association of Theological Schools. The city is culturally rich, with people of Spanish, Mexican, and Southwestern Indian heritage adding their distinctive perceptions of beauty and worship. Yet, persons of wealth, primarily of European-American descent, are crowding out native peoples, few of whom can even afford to live near where they work. Is repentance in order?
As the disparity between wealthy and poor Americans continues to widen, we need again to hear prophetic summons to repentance. Allowing nearly one in four children to live with "food insecurity" stains the American character which believes that is cares about justice for all.
Repenting calls us to value persons more than additional "stuff"; it prepares our hearts to see the world from the perspective of the compassionate shepherd who will tend the flock, especially the weak and vulnerable. How will that tending occur? Through us, of course, as we repent and receive the One toward whom John The Baptist pointed.
Molly T. Marshall
Continue visiting our website to learn about a seminary that prepares women and men to care about issues of social justice.

Waiting in Hope

2011-11-28T13:20:00.000-06:00

Pleadingly, the prophet Isaiah writes: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down . . .” (64:1). If writing today, he might put it this way: we desperately need you to show up, O God! This reading from the Hebrew Bible for the First Sunday of Advent begins with lament over the sin of the people and the seeming absence of God. Written during the time after the destruction of Jerusalem and prior to any rebuilding of the temple, this text offers frank acknowledgment that the relationship of covenant between God and the returning exilic people is gravely threatened. If only God would perform mighty acts as in the past at Sinai, then the people would be able to believe anew and turn from iniquity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a similar struggle as he reflected on God’s lack of intervention during the Holocaust. God had delivered Israel from Egypt; why would God not come to the aid of six million Jews? He concluded that God desires that Christians must mature and offer themselves in God’s place, for in Christ God has been “pushed out of the world and onto the cross.” And yet, when he faced death himself, he did so with radical trust in the faithfulness of God. Like the prophet, he believed that God “works for those who wait” (Isaiah 64:4b).

Waiting in hope is an active spiritual practice. It requires a fundamental trust in God’s faithfulness and the humility to allow the mystery of God’s work to unfold over time. Trying to force the Holy One to function now as in prior days displays a desire to control God; it also displays an unwillingness to perceive God in the surprising ways God may choose to reveal divine intention.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a most unusual experience as I joined treasured friends on their ranch. Deer, bobcats, and armadillos enjoy the spacious Texas plains-- and usually keep to themselves. Just after dusk one evening, a small doe came to the lawn just in front of the house. By being very still and quiet and waiting, the children enticed the deer with goldfish crackers and pretzels, and soon she was eating out of their hands and allowing them to pet her. She even allowed me to feed her and stroke her head and back. (There is photographic documentation!) After spending about ten minutes with us, she loped gently toward the river, presumably thirsty after her snacks.

Surely God comes in the awesome deeds that make the mountains quake (64:3); God also comes in the beauty of creation and, most personally, as the child. So, we wait in hope that the hidden God will demonstrate holy presence in our midst once again.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about our desire at Central “to find God in all things” as Ignatius instructed, continue visiting our website.

The Reigning One

2011-11-16T13:49:00.000-06:00

In the liturgical calendar the last Sunday before Advent is designated as “Christ the King,” thus winding up the church year. Advent begins the cycle all over again, waiting for the child that is acknowledged as the Reigning One at the close of Ordinary Time.

A preponderance of shepherding images links the lectionary readings for this week. Ezekiel 34 portrays God as searching shepherd, rescuing and protecting wounded, scattered sheep. Interestingly, God is much more interested in the weak and straying; the fat and strong do not require tending care. Indeed, they became such at the expense of others. This prophetic word offers a rebuke to those nations who oppress Israel, who have ravaged the flock of God. The text also suggests that God wants those entrusted with shepherding responsibility to be especially attentive to those in greater need.

This past Sunday I was privileged to attend the ordination of Jonathan Clark, a third generation graduate of Central. Preachers populate the family, and therefore the program was filled with those who are regularly called “pastor,” those who have shepherding care of others. Often when ministers cluster on a program, the longsuffering congregation may be subjected to “words without end.” Yet, this service was mercifully spare. All gathered knew that the ordination charge is rather straightforward: feed and tend the sheep as a good minister of Christ Jesus. Thankfully, Reverend Clark is already a wise and gentle shepherd, guiding a church in the urban core of Kansas City, Kansas, toward faithful service.

The Gospel lesson, Matthew 25, offers a culminating vision when the sheep and goats are divided according to their acts of justice and mercy. [Actually, I have always wondered by the goats fared so poorly in Scripture. They are versatile, useful creatures, evidently a little smarter than sheep, but symbolic of those who go their own way.] In the depiction of the Great Judgment, Christ as the Reigning One will judge the nations according to their attentiveness to those hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, in prison, and far from home.

Christ reigns through such utter identification with these that he can say. “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” Some of us keep more company with the goats—those who ignore Christ in his distressing disguise as one of the least. May we learn to de-throne ourselves so that we might recognize him close at hand. May we also recognize him as worthy of our highest worship, for he shall reign forever and ever. Amen.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central’s concern to form gifted pastors, continue visiting our website.

Putting on Faith, Love, and Hope

2011-11-15T07:38:00.000-06:00

First Thessalonians is considered the Apostle Paul’s earliest extant writing. Scholars debate as to whether he viewed the return of Jesus to be imminent in his life time, thus this text pulses with an urgency that seems to ebb in later writings. Believers have been given enough light, “belonging to the day,” (5:8) so that the unscheduled coming, the day of the Lord, should not be cause for alarm. Rather, this is the action he advises: “. . .put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (v. 8). Further, he exhorts: “. . .encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing” (v. 11).

While it is hard to reconstruct exactly what is going on in the church of Thessalonica, it appears that suffering is a daily staple of Christians in the first century C.E. The oppressive influence of the Roman Empire threatened Christian witness with its forthright challenge to the imperial religions. To claim Jesus as Lord rather than Augustus was audacious—and dangerous. It has proven so personally for Paul; he was basically run out of town. The church there got off to a shaky start, and his pastoral concern for them is palpable in the letters sent back to those Gentile Christians.

When there is great uncertainty, accompanied by fear, there are faithful steps a believer can undertake. He or she can “put on” the gifts provided by God. At Christmas, my very frugal grandmother always bought the three of us pajamas—VERY large pajamas that could last a couple of seasons. Even though we knew that they would not yet fit, she urged us to try them on, anyway. Often we had to turn up the cuffs of the tops and bottoms at first, but usually we more than filled them out before the next pajamas were purchased. It was an expression of faith to believe that physical growth would come.

As I write this morning, my closest friend is awaiting surgery, and the potential for ovarian cancer looms. A nurse practitioner in gynecological oncology, she knows well the challenge of this disease. As I intercede for her, I am arming myself and her with the spiritual protection of faith—to believe that God is always with us as life happens; love—to trust that those who love her will surround her with healing strength; and, hope—to receive the assurance that through our Lord Jesus Christ, all will be well. We learn to put on what God has provided so that we might live as children of light.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central and the cultivation of deep faith, continue visiting our website.

Being Clear about Worship

2011-11-08T10:54:00.000-06:00

The people of covenant had made it to the promised land. . . finally! For more than a generation, Israel had journeyed across stark landscape, sometimes looking forward to the land of promise, often lamenting what had been left behind in Egypt. Following the unseen God whom Moses found more trustworthy than they did, the temptation to “serve other gods” lurked eve near, most demonstrably in the saga of the golden calf. Now the new leader, Joshua, found it necessary to call the people to renew their covenant with the liberating God so that they might be clear about whom they worship and what the expectations of the Holy God were. So he gathered all the tribes at Shechem, a key city of Canaan, and charged them: “. . . choose this day whom you will serve. . .” (Joshua 24: 15b). The people said to Joshua: “The Lord our God we will serve. . .” (v. 24).

This pivotal story in the long biblical arc of God’s relationship with humanity reminds us that it is disastrous to divide our worship between the living God and “other gods”--anything else we allow to contest our highest loyalty. Concern for idolatry is not simply a relic of the past; it always looms as a threat for faithful people striving to offer themselves to God amidst the welter of competing claims.

Worship lies at the heart of covenant. The Hebrew Bible lays out a clear protocol for worship in terms of priestly function, levels of sacrifice, and spiritual practices meant to purify the people before God. The New Testament builds upon this foundation and develops understandings of baptism and eucharist, as well as the responsibility of all the people to present themselves as “living sacrifices” to God. Worship on the first day of the week, to celebrate resurrection, included prayers, singing, table fellowship, and alms for the poor. Worship prepared the people of God for work and witness in the larger community.

Central desires to prepare effective worship leaders, which is why we will be launching the Institute of Sacred Arts this coming fall. People long to worship with their whole selves, not simply with their ears as they attend to the spoken word, but with music and dance and visual arts. A longing for beauty is a longing for God, and we were created for both. Worship in our day is moving away from the Puritan dictates, with its structured focus on fides ex auditu (faith comes by hearing), and is becoming more holistic. Thoughtful, beautiful worship holds promise for honoring God and lessening the divided hearts of those who gather.

Yesterday, members of Central’s faculty met with representative faculty from the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory to fashion a collaborative educational initiative in sacred arts. We anticipate a wonderful new dimension of ministry preparation, and we seek to be over more clear about worship.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting our website to follow the developments of the Institute of Sacred Arts.

All Hallows Eve and the Cloud of Witnesses

2011-10-31T09:53:00.000-05:00

Baptists have always been rather suspicious of saints—perhaps that is why we have not focused more on nurturing that quality of holiness. Early Baptists fled from the excesses of the cult of veneration, and hence we are left with an insufficient theology of the saints. Saints, literally “holy ones” feature widely in Scripture, and we are called as the people of God to that vocation.

Sirach 44:1-10 offers a hymn of praise in honor of ancestors. Many are worthy of commendation: wise rulers, composers, writers, peacemakers, and prophetic leaders; but “of others there is no memory; they have perished as if they had never existed. . . as if they had never been born. . . “ (v. 9). This text from the Apocrypha—still used in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions—offers two urgings. First, it is important to remember those who have gone before. They continue to shape the present as their memory endures, and we can profit from their example Second, we are to strive to live so as to “leave behind a name” (v. 8), i.e., to be remembered. Life is ephemeral enough, and without holy living, one is not likely to be remembered. Without a developed theology of resurrection, the Hebrew Bible stresses the importance of being remembered by one’s family.

Preachers have long puzzled about the “cloud of witnesses” noted in Hebrews 12:1-2. You remember the context: all of chapter 11 lists those figures whose faith makes them exemplary encouragement to the living. Chapter 12 begins with the exhortation to perseverance, seeing as “we are surrounded with this cloud of witnesses.” Interpreters usually refer to an image of a great stadium in which a race is occurring; the witnesses are in the spectator seats, cheering for those in the race. Not only do we remember those who have gone before with Jesus, they remember us!

In a sense, then, there is a reciprocal relationship between these two parts of Christ’s body. We are encouraged by the witness of the saints; we remember their lives and cling to the hope of resurrection together. Their witness is tested by our faithfulness, and their perfection depends upon ours. We discover their nearness in the community of God through prayer, eucharist, and “mystic sweet communion.” The unity of Christ’s body cannot be severed, even by death.

On this All Hallows Eve, we remember the saints; we strive to be worthy of being remembered; and we seek encouragement from those who remember us. And we pray with St. Cyprian:

We must not weep for our brothers and sisters whom the call of the Lord has withdrawn from this world, since we know that they are not lost,

But have gone on ahead of us; they have left us like travelers, navigators, in order to lead the way. . . If we believe in Christ, if we have faith in

His word and in his promises. . . let us go with trustful joy toward him with whom we shall live and reign eternally.

Molly T. Marshall

Central seeks to form women and men to be spiritually healthy and humanly sensitive—significant practices that shape saints. To learn more, continue visiting our website.

Sharing Our Own Selves

2011-10-25T08:37:00.000-05:00

One of the best parts of my work is visiting congregations that shaped Central students for their vocation in ministry. I am always curious to learn what nurture or example a congregation provides to cultivate the calling of one of its own. On Sunday I traveled through the shimmering fall scenes to Hamilton, MO, to preach; I am sure that I was more blessed than they as I participated in their services. Active lay leadership was in abundance as I witnessed their roles in worship planning, mission projects, community service, and genuine care for one another. One of the saints even shared her abundance of turnips with others in attendance. Sadly, I got in line for my bag full too late!

I knew this was the home church of one of our graduates, Brian Ford, who now serves as pastor of the Little Bonne Femme Church, Columbia, MO. My host for the morning was his father, a faithful deacon, wise and respected for his leadership. That was my first clue.

Then I met an older woman, Mrs. Anderson, who told me that at one point in the church’s life Brian was the only child his age. She determined that she would commit herself to being his teacher and that they would explore the Bible and faith together. She is a remarkable woman. I quickly learned that she is the conscience of the church, in many respects. She is encouraging the “Backpack Buddies” program because she is concerned about the hunger problem among school children on weekends. She is also the force behind the “Operations Christmas Child” initiative that fills decorative shoe boxes with gifts. She was my second clue. I imagined her devotion to Brian was an encouraging source of his Christian and vocational formation. She spoke proudly of him as one of her own.

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8 of the promise of authentic sharing for the purposes of the gospel. Gentle tending of others is transformative, and generous sharing of self allows a space where another might “fearlessly enter,” in the words of Henri Nouwen. As the Apostle recounts his relationship with the Thessalonians, one gets the sense that he could not offer the gospel of God without also offering his own self. I believe that is true for us, as well. Embodying the truth of what we profess is the best witness.

Hamilton Baptist Church also bears the faithful imprint of its pastor, Dr. Doug Crabb. A seasoned pastor, he has come alongside this congregation with gentle guidance and wisdom born of years of sharing his life with congregations he has led. I was grateful to step into the flow of this church’s response to the summons of the gospel; it was a blessing to share myself with these good people.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central’s emphasis on congregational health, continue visiting our website.

Touching Myanmar

2011-10-20T11:33:00.000-05:00

Central’s time of hosting students and faculty from Myanmar Institute of Theology is coming to a close. We have celebrated the growing partnership between our institutions in these two weeks of collaborative Doctor of Ministry seminars. Central students are learning to see the world through new eyes, and students from Myanmar (Burma) are engaging the challenges of Christian witness in America with new insight. In both countries the church is experiencing rapid change. Doctor of Ministry students are on the front lines as transformative leaders, and the work of the churches will be re-vitalized.

A conversation over lunch with one of the MIT students touched me deeply yesterday. I inquired about visiting his area of the country when I travel there next. He said: “Mum, you cannot visit my area. It is not safe (because of armed conflict) and it is in the jungle. Yet, he continued, you are touching my area—indeed, all of Myanmar—through MIT.” This is Central’s vocation: to nurture leaders who will work for the common good in their contexts of ministry. The D.Min. students from MIT are not only ecclesial leaders; they are also principals and instructors in Bible colleges, serving to shape another generation of Christian ministers.

A recent article in Harvard Business Review, “How Great Companies Thinking Differently,” says that if the desire is to build enduring institutions, companies (I substitute seminaries) must invest in the future while being aware of the needs of people and society. A theological school cannot be abstracted from the churning agenda of global commerce and concerns of social justice. Rather, it must be thoroughly immersed (a good Baptist metaphor!) in these pressing realities if its mission would be relevant. Central is growing in its awareness of the needs of sisters and brothers in Myanmar.

Discerning a common purpose with MIT continues to call Central into new ways of regarding Baptist identity, global Christianity, and public witness. The words of Paul in First Thessalonians 2:8 convey our mutual feelings: “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.” We give thanks for funding from the Luce Foundation which allows our theological schools to work together in forming leaders for the church that bears witness to the resurrecting power of the gospel.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue to visit our website to learn of other global expressions of Central’s mission.

Weeping for Moses

2011-10-17T10:33:00.000-05:00

This week’s lesson from the Hebrew Bible recounts the death and burial of Moses. The grief was palpable: “The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended” (Deuteronomy 34: 8). Yet, the longing for such a leader remains an unabated part of the history of the covenant people. Years later, the deuteronomistic editors observed in retrospect: “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (v. 10). Not without his flaws, Moses had lived out his calling with growing humility and wisdom.

We recognize that transformative leaders are rare, and we call to memory those horizonal persons who have been able to see beyond the present to a more holistic future. Scripture acknowledges that these leaders may be prophetic figures among the people of God, or they may be leaders in the wider commonwealth of the world. In the highly charged political climate of the US, many evoke former presidents as visionary, willing to make the hard decisions, and more passionate for the larger good than present expediency.

As Central has hosted professors and students from Myanmar Institute of Theology over the past week, we have had opportunity to learn more about the emerging political situation in their country. Newly elected President Thein Sein, a former general, seems to be easing Myanmar’s stringent restrictions. As one of the visiting professors put it: “For the first time in my life (over half a century) I am cautiously optimistic." It seems that the most significant practice of this leader is that he actually listens to the people. Because of this, they are being empowered to begin thinking of themselves as “citizens” and not simply “subjects.”

A friend of Central who is deeply acquainted with movements in Myanmar (Burma) is steadfast in his prayer for their leadership. He believes that things could change rapidly as the Spirit of God finds ways to bring new realities into being. His faith and example remind me to pray more expectantly for these leaders who hold the fate of so many in their hands.

God continues to raise up leaders for present challenges—even in those places we might fear God has little access! Weeping for Moses has its place; more important, is to cultivate those qualities of knowing God “face to face” so that we might intercede for those who lead in our day as well as be prepared to lead ourselves.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central’s generative partnership with Myanmar Institute of Theology, continue visiting our website.

Co-workers in the Gospel

2011-10-10T13:46:00.000-05:00

Central is humming this morning with D.Min. students from Myanmar and Shawnee, beginning their first seminars, navigating new relationships, and finding common ground as fellow laborers in the work of the Gospel. In addition the Associated Baptist Press board has gathered here for its meeting. Our faculty and staff are grateful for opportunities to host generative partners—Myanmar Institute of Theology and ABP—who share our vocation of bearing witness to the transformative power of God.

A seminary demonstrates its vocation by the way it serves both ecclesial bodies and the larger society, where God is also at work. As the Central narrative continues to unfold, we affirm that a seminary today must be:

· Fully engaged in congregational life (the seminary cannot exist without the church)

· Actively participating in global Christianity (our collaboration with Myanmar Institute of Theology is transforming both institutions)

· Innovative in curriculum development for a changing world (we must focus on congregational health, entrepreneurial practices, and deeply grounded Christian spirituality: Central’s create program is a prototype for this)

· Supportive of women in ministry (a test of congregational health is the capacity of churches to embrace women in ministry; relegating the giftedness of women to the sidelines impoverishes the church)

· Partnering with key congregations in formation for ministry (students cannot learn all the competencies for effective ministry in the classroom; they must also learn contextually from vibrant churches)

Each of these pursuits requires an ever expanding circle of co-workers who care about faithful expressions of God’s mission in the world. When Paul writes his most beloved congregation (his “joy and crown” Ph. 4:1), the church at Philippi, he names those who have labored alongside him in proclaiming the stunning story of redemption in Christ Jesus. Three key leaders are identified: Euodia, Syntyche, and Clement. These faithful sisters and brother multiply apostolic ministry as they live out their calling. They are models of collaboration—with all its tension and promise. Learning to be of the same mind in Christ Jesus is the heart of Gospel ministry. It remains our challenge if we would be co-workers with Christ and with one another.

How wonderful in our day to grow with others in recognizing our interdependence as we embrace the whole world. Through faithful journalism, digital story-telling, classroom instruction, and table fellowship, we make Christ’s presence known in the world. Indeed, we tell the Gospel story in new ways.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the global reach of Central, continue visiting our website.

Forgetting and Straining Forward

2011-10-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

Paul’s testimony to the Philippians does not lack clarity: “. . . but this one things I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14). Since 1928 this text has graced the seminary seal for Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not only has it focused the calling of each student, but it continues to guide how Central understand its dynamic mission.

What might the Apostle think needs forgetting? Surely not his transformative encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus; surely not his deep scriptural study that shaped his new theology; and, surely not his companions who had labored with him for the sake of the Gospel. Most likely he sees the need to forget the privileges of status he once prized—his tribal and Pharisaic pedigree. He also needs to forget his own role in persecuting followers of the Way lest he be paralyzed by guilt and incapable of receiving forgiveness.

As Central prepares to welcome students and faculty from Myanmar (Burma) this week, Paul’s witness is helpful as we reflect on the colonial history of mission, the Judson legacy in Burma, and the future of Baptist identity in their land. American Baptists have a long history in Burma, and Central has a unique relationship with Myanmar Institute of Theology, having given oversight to degree programs from 1955-1960. Our shared history of concern for quality theological education is much older--the first student came to Central from Burma in 1907! Now the plan is for students from both schools to find ways to learn together contextually relevant ministry.

The pursuit of shared mission in our day requires that we forget old practices, e.g., the exporting of North American culture along with the gospel, the presumption that existing cultures must be stripped away for Christianity to take root, and the arrogance of educational privilege. “What lies behind” also includes fascination with the “exotic” otherness of tribal peoples and treating them in a paternalistic way. Repenting of these practices and “forgetting” them allows new levels of collaborative mission.

Together, we strain forward to participate in God’s mission in a world that is rapidly becoming post-colonial, a world where Christendom has been disestablished. Together, we take up the challenge of bearing the light of Christ in nations choked with competing religious and nationalistic claims. Together, we strain forward to craft new expressions of Baptist witness that allow Christ to transform culture—in Myanmar and in America.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting our website to learn how Central is growing into its vision of global Christianity.

Partnering with Luce

2011-09-26T16:41:00.000-05:00

For nearly three years now, Central has been collaborating with the Luce Foundation to support our educational initiatives with Myanmar Institute of Theology. When I am speaking with constituents of the seminary about the aspects of global Christianity that this funding has made possible, I am careful to spell L-U-C-E lest anyone think there is any loose money at Central. There isn’t!

The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., to honor his parents who were missionary educators in China. A significant benefactor in theological education, the foundation has funded Central’s global immersion experiences in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), faculty-student participation in intercultural studies in Myanmar, ministry preparation for refugees from Burma coming to the US, and a collaborative Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Health. Faculty from Myanmar Institute of Theology have taught at Central, and several of our faculty have lectured and conducted courses there.

Faculty and students from Central have traveled to Myanmar Institute of Theology over the past several years; in October, for the first time, students from MIT will come to Shawnee. We will welcome the first cohort of D.Min students and three faculty members for two weeks of intensive seminar study in Shawnee. The stated priority of the Luce Foundation for “support of new models of theological education to prepare leaders for service in a religiously plural world” is the focus of our developing work with MIT. Baptists in Burma have lived in a predominantly Buddhist culture for nearly two centuries. They have sustained Christian identity respectfully and have employed culturally sensitive language and practices. We have much to learn from MIT about forming leaders for our own socio-cultural context that is rapidly becoming more pluralistic.

In his recent work A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Central’s Dean, Dr. Robert E. Johnson, noted that almost 3.5 percent of the global Baptist family is located in Southeast Asia, primarily in Myanmar. Baptists in Myanmar continued to grow through the twentieth century in spite of major disruptions to their work; today there are over 1.2 million Baptists in that beleaguered land. A considerable number of these will make their way to the US—and to Baptist churches. The mission began by the Judsons now comes to American shores and is revitalizing many churches.

Our grant from Luce makes possible a post-colonial, mutually beneficial collaboration between MIT and Central. We are grateful for this generative partnership.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, continue visiting our website.

Striving Side by Side

2011-09-19T14:20:00.000-05:00

A seminary is only as strong as its governing board, and Central’s board has determined that it will seek to grow stronger. This past Thursday and Friday, busy board members took time away from their regular schedules to gather for a board retreat so that they might gather strength for Central’s mission. Facilitating the retreat was Dr. David Tiede, a governance mentor with InTrust, and a wise and seasoned seminary president. The objectives of the retreat were as follows:

· Gain a clearer understanding of the mission of the school at this point; the seminary has been innovating in ways that make it hard for the board to have a comprehensive grasp of all the educational and entrepreneurial initiatives.

· Think about the larger narrative identity of the school. The board is the continuity for the school—not the President or the leadership team. This will require a longitudinal awareness of the promise and challenge of the future. What story is the board creating at this point?

· Have a conversation about leadership within the board itself. Is it preparing generative leaders to steward the institution? Has it thought about succession planning for executive leadership?

· Facilitate the board’s constructive engagement in its essential task of providing funding for the school’s mission through personal stewardship and significant connectivity.

· Learn ways to have a more generative board meeting. One of our board members asked at our last meeting: “are you asking enough of us?” We want to utilize the giftedness of the board more effectively.

· Deepen relationships among board members for the sake of collegial work on behalf of the institution. Building in time for informal conversation will strengthen the work of the board.

In addition to guiding the board retreat, the governance mentor also facilitated a faculty consultation to discuss the role of the faculty in enacting the mission through teaching, publishing, and professing. And a board ensures the opportunity to continue these holy practices.

The Epistle lesson yesterday included these words: “ . . . live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that . . .you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). One of the results of striving side by side is the multiplication of effort. A theological seminary operates on a shared governance model, which means there are proper roles for faculty, administrators, and board members to play. Only when all three entities are operating at full power can the mission flourish.

How grateful I am for Central’s faculty! These scholar-practitioners continue to form women and men for excellent leadership for churches and the larger community. How grateful I am for Central’s board! Central’s board is comprised of attorneys, scientists, professors, pastors, regional executives, scholars, a physician, business executives—laity and ordained—all expressing their Christian vocation as stewards of Central’s mission. “Standing firm in one spirit,” faculty, trustees, and administrators can fulfill our calling in theological education.

Molly T. Marshall

Forgiving Enemies

2011-09-12T09:23:00.000-05:00

The Gospel lesson for yesterday, a day of remembrance and reflection on 9/11, was Matthew 18:21-35, a text about the possible limits of forgiveness. Peter asks Jesus: “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus will not let him draw a strict legal conclusion, rather states 77 times—which means unending forgiveness. Interestingly, there are no conditions of repentance stated. The rest of the passage narrates how a forgiven person ought to live in forgiving ways, rather than as the slave who practices a form of retribution that he had been spared.

Our guest lecturer, Dr. Miroslav Volf, stressed the Gospel reality that God forgives prior to our repentance, and thus one forgives because one has already been forgiven. When struggling with forgiveness, we must learn to view ourselves and our enemy at the foot of the cross. Sounding much like his doktorvater Moltmann, Volf proclaims the general pardon to the whole world that occurs in the death of the Son. Giving an example from his own life, an epoch in which he was detained and interrogated in his land (the former Yugoslavia) as a suspected “enemy of the state,” he came to believe that as a Christian he must view “Captain G” as one forgiven, also. In the ensuing years, he has sought to find his interrogator in order to make the slow steps toward reconciliation. Learning to forgive allows the death grip of unhealed memory to ebb.

Over the past couple of days, I have heard much rhetoric about “never forgetting” what happened to America so that we might ensure it will never happen again. This presumes that we have the power to secure our lives against all threats. This is simply not the case. As fragile and fallen human creatures, we remain vulnerable from within and without. Perhaps the greater threat is to our souls comes from within as we demonize those we perceive as enemy and distort our shared history.

In his text, The End of Memory, Volf urges wounded people to remember rightly, that is with sensitivity to victims and openness to the healing of memories. Forgiveness and the “non-remembrance of offenses is scandalous, especially when extended to vile evildoers…” (208), yet it is possible through receiving the forgiveness offered by God. As God’s “reconciling self-giving for the ungodly stands at the center of our faith” (209), then we are able to opt for grace and ultimately release the memory of suffered wrongs. Forgiving enemies may be the most difficult spiritual practice of all, but it is possible in light of the cross.

Molly T. Marshall

Central offers a learning context for thoughtful biblical and theological engagement with the hardest issues of our day. To learn more, continue visiting our website.

Joining with Neighbor

2011-09-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

Exodus 12 lays out the protocol for the observance of Passover, that all defining event for the people of the covenant. Indeed, Passover continues to shape the identity of Jews and Christians as we seek to realize God’s liberating work in the world. “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance” (Exodus 12:14). Christians hear echoes of this in the early Christian liturgy which identifies Christ as the Passover lamb, the true sacrifice (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Within the precise instructions for the preparation of the lamb, we find these words: “If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one…” (v. 4). This frank acknowledgement of the unequal distribution of resources that neighbors are to correct beckons our reflection in a time of growing disparities. Daily we read and hear of the world food crisis. Emaciated parents and children make their slow way across the Horn of Africa in search of feeding stations. Drought, conflict, and rising food prices have put the lives of millions of people at risk. According to the State Department, more people than the combined populations of New York City and Houston need urgent assistance.

The Bible constantly reminds us that all living creatures—people and animals—look to God “to give them their food in due season.” The stories of manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:9-36) and the feeding of 5000 (plus women and children) during the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 14:13-21) recount God’s generous provision. What then should we say about the current food crisis in Africa? Is the providing God disinterested in the well-being of these, also counted among God’s children?

Another strain of biblical teaching stresses that hunger is not just God’s problem; it is ours. If a brother or sister is hungry, we are to be God’s means of provision. There is enough food in the world—it is just not available where most needed. A recent statistic notes that Americans throw away 27% of our food, a startling fact given the gnawing reality many face.

John Wesley practiced fasting for the sake of health and discipline. Prayer and fasting was a regular aspect of discipleship in the days of the apostolic church, and he wanted to emulate that practice. It also prompted him toward compassion for the hungry. I want to suggest that many of us return to this practice so that we might join with our neighbors by freeing up funds, thereby providing food as an embodiment of God’s care for all.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about our seminary where we seek to practice our faith in transformative ways, continue visiting our website.

Remembering and Releasing

2011-08-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

On September 10^th Central will host a leading international theologian, Dr. Miroslav Volf, Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, he will be addressing the question: “Ten Years Later--What Should Our conversation Be?” Students, pastors, professors, and lay persons will gather to hear this consummate scholar engage important issues of our time such as:

· Why is enhanced interfaith understanding critical at this historical juncture?

· What practices can assist deeper interfaith alliances?

· What common issues should be priorities for interfaith partnerships?

· What guidelines for theological reflection are crucial?

· How does the national and international rhetoric about religious differences assist or harm the common good?

· As Christians, how do we express our faith in a religiously plural world?

A Croatian by birth, Volf has wrestled with the suffering of his people in the Balkans and sought to examine violence, human identity, and the hard spiritual practice of forgiveness in his award-winning book Exclusion and Embrace. He rightly notes that “otherness” and the profound alienation that practices of exclusion evoke is at the heart of much of the internecine warfare that spatters our world with the blood of vengeance. Thus his call to reconciliation is grounded in the grace that flows from the Crucified One, himself a victim of violence, yet without retaliation.

As we enter a period of national commemoration, it is worth pondering how we remember and what we are willing to release. The US responded to the terrorist attack with horrific firepower and has sustained a bellicose posture of revenge against the perpetrators—and beyond.

My friend, Arville Earl, a CBF representative in Macedonia, offers this insightful perspective concerning commemorations from his cultural context, a context Volf knows well.

The cultural tradition where we live and work is one of hanging on to memories of past events for years and generations. This tenacity tends to influence life and attitudes in present time and interweaves itself into the fabric of daily existence. Therefore, it is a significant challenge to ministry in these circumstances where people struggle with the tension of finding release and moving on and preserving the icons of “they did this to us back then and we shall never forget.”

Volf invites Christians to a “certain kind of forgetting” after the hard work, as Elie Wiesel would instruct, to know, to remember, and not to keep silent. Remembering and releasing remain intertwined as persons follow the pathway of nonviolence, trod by the One who goes before us.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the ways in which Central seeks to practice peace and justice, continue visiting our website.

Embracing Diversity and Urbanization

2011-08-22T09:34:00.001-05:00

The fall semester officially begins today, and one of the last preparatory events is the annual faculty retreat. While we usually meet close to Shawnee, this year we journeyed to Milwaukee, WI, where Central in Wisconsin has been in operation for over six years. Funded by the generosity of the American Baptist Housing Ministry of Wisconsin, our retreat took up critical issues for theological education. Are we preparing leaders for an increasingly diverse and urban landscape?

The context of a retreat helps shape the learning, of course. Meeting in two very different ABC churches and one of the communities sustained by the housing ministry, we learned of the theological commitments that shape these expressions of the reign of God as it gathers strength. On the first day we dealt with definitions of diversity as we looked at the shifting demographics in North America. The often quoted statistic is that by 2050 there will not be an ethnic majority and the kind of racial differentiations that occupy us today will be of lesser concern. In our deliberation we recognized that Central has been characterized by ethnic diversity almost from the very beginning and that minority students have shaped the educational practices of Central in a significant way. Through a presentation by Dr. David May we learned that Central is doing very well in growing a diverse student population. In the academic year 2009-2010, 50% of Central’s students were non-Caucasian; better put, the enrollment reflected 36% African-American, 5% international students on visa; 2% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 5% who did not identify ethnically according to these categories.

Two members of Central’s faculty helped broaden our thoughts of ministry in an urbanized world. Rev. Dr. Carmen Porco has led the ABC housing ministry in Wisconsin for over 35 years and has gained great insight about the forces of a new urbanism. The central question for him as he examines systemic injustice in terms of education, health care, and housing is: “What are the institutions that keep people in this condition?” He urged that theological education prepare people to “put the church in the street.” It is more important to “behave Christ” than simply wear the label of Christian as we embrace the common humanity of people and express disciplined compassion.

Dr. Wallace Hartsfield II challenged the current practices of preparing leaders for urban ministry settings. He offered several provocative suggestions, which include a more integrative curriculum, new language for parish, a new awareness of the holy in the dense realities of developing cities, and ministry as facilitation of new environments rather than the presumption that the “parson” will fix it all.

It was a great joy to witness the significant ministry of theological education jointly sponsored by Central and ABC of Wisconsin. Dr. Timothy Ashley, veteran theological educator, and Dr. Arlo Reichter, Executive Minister of the region, have poured their lives into this collaboration, and it is flourishing. Persons are able to receive a fully accredited degree through Central in Wisconsin, and the impact on the churches is growing as leaders are further formed for ministry. Embracing diversity and urbanization chart the future for Central—and the church.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a “demonstration plot for the Reign of God,” continue visiting our website.

Calling Congregations

2011-08-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a grand celebration at First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, TN, culminating six years of labor intensive effort. CBTS of Tennessee, now a full degree-granting site, is housed at this fine church. This means a learner can earn a Master of Divinity accredited by both the Association of Theological Students and the Higher Learning Commission. The site also offers the Diploma in Theological Studies for non-baccalaureate students.
Generative partnerships have made this form of ministry preparation possible. CBF of Tennessee, FBC Murfreesboro, the national CBF organization, and Central have collaborated to fund, staff, publicize, and develop a new form of educational delivery in a teaching church. It has taken all of us for this to work!
When an ATS representative came to assess the viability of the site, she was impressed with what the church had provided in terms of instructional and hospitality space, but even more with the quality of the students. "Where do you get these students?" she asked. They come from calling congregations, those churches who, in the language of the Fund for Theological Education, "notice, name, and nurture" those whom God is calling to ministry.
In my judgment, one measure of the health of a congregation is its capacity to identify those with giftedness and inclinations for ministry. This is a key practice for churches, to serve as God's instruments in calling needed leadership.
Another source for garnering these students is Dr. Ircel Harrison, the Barnabas of Middle Tennessee, and beyond. Truly a "son of encouragement," he has helped potential seminary students interpret their calling--especially women--where the conventions of their congregation might not be as affirming. Each of the six graduates from Central in Murfreesboro bear the graceful imprint of his mentoring.
This coming week Central's faculty will have its annual retreat in Wisconsin, the home of our other site. Expect to hear about it next week!
Molly T. Marshall
To learn more about a seminary eager to strengthen churches, continue visiting our website.

Re: In God We Trust (Sort of...)

2011-08-09T09:21:00.001-05:00

Is it not rather ironic that US currency and coins are inscribed with "In God We Trust" when we live in ways that profoundly contradict that affirmation? A biblical phrase (see Psalms 20, 56, and 62), it was first used on US coinage in 1864 and currency in 1957, shortly after the words "under God" became a part of the Pledge of Allegiance (according to that infallible source, Wikipedia). There has been no little controversy through the years about how this impacts the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and separation of church and state.

Recent events in Washington and Wall Street demonstrate that human attempts to secure our wellbeing through structures as unstable as the world economy and political frameworks are tenuous. Eyes riveted on the stock-market roller coaster reveal what most really trust. In truth, we trust financial resources much more than the living God. Those with retirement accounts check them more regularly; those with educational loans lament rising costs; those with degrees under their belts scrounge for work, usually settling for a level of under-employment that they had not imagined. We measure our worth by our earning capacity and feel diminished by falling fortunes. Money matters, but as penultimate reality.

Whereas the political slogan "It's the Economy, Stupid" focused an earlier campaign and reminded the nation that fiscal dereliction is dangerous, it was a horribly reductionistic view of humanity. While humans are surely dependent upon systems that sustain livelihood, we do not live "by bread alone" nor are we shackled to insatiable consumption. Part of the freedom we receive in Christ is liberation from concupiscence, that old theological word that means unruly desire. Listening to a morning talk show on NPR about greed, the guest commentator suggested that the law of diminishing return really applies to those with avaricious temperaments. The more one gets, the more one desires. The "perishable bread" of the world's good do not ultimately satisfy.

A holy longing is at the center of human beings, often unnoticed and more often unnamed. We were created for community with God and others; this is the deepest hunger that beckons us. Why do persons spend ever increasing amounts of time on smart-phones or computers establishing levels of connectivity if not for the quest for community? I would submit that placing our trust in God can begin to assuage the pressure of acquisition; recognizing our true longing can begin to address the fiscal sobriety required of faithful people in our day. Simply put, trusting in God is the only security we have in life and in death.

Molly T. Marshall

In God We Trust (Sort of...)

2011-08-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

Is it not rather ironic that US currency and coins are inscribed with “In God We Trust” when we live in ways that profoundly contradict that affirmation? A biblical phrase (see Psalms 20, 56, and 62), it was first used on US coinage in 1864 and currency in 1957, shortly after the words “under God” became a part of the Pledge of Allegiance (according to that infallible source, Wikipedia). There has been no little controversy through the years about how this impacts the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and separation of church and state.

Whereas the political slogan “It’s the Economy, Stupid” focused an earlier campaign and reminded the nation that fiscal dereliction is dangerous, it was a horribly reductionistic view of humanity. While humans are surely dependent upon systems that sustain livelihood, we do not live “by bread alone” nor are we shackled to insatiable consumption. Part of the freedom we receive in Christ is liberation from concupiscence, that old theological word that means unruly desire. Listening to a morning talk show on NPR about greed, the guest commentator suggested that the law of diminishing return really applies to those with avaricious temperaments. The more one gets, the more one desires. The “perishable bread” of the world’s good do not ultimately satisfy.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a seminary that interrogates the conventions of society in a fallen world, continue visiting our website.

Enlivening Creation

2011-08-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

Over the past several days I have had opportunity to experience the grandeur of creation from extremely different settings, New Hampshire, Georgia, Nebraska, and South Dakota. My travels first took me to New Hampshire, always lovely, especially during summer (when Kansas tends to heat up a bit!) My host arranged for a helicopter ride as a way to see the beautiful mountains, God’s great handiwork forged over millennia. Heavily forested and full of sparkling lakes, New Hampshire is surely a “theatre of glory,” as Calvin’s 1545 catechism describes the natural world. Deeply engaged in conservation and ecological concerns, this part of New England holds heritage and innovation closely together. Beautiful churches dot the landscape, many of which are ably led by lay ministers—a key consideration for theological schools. Whirring along at about 1000 feet, we witnessed creation throbbing with holy grandeur. The words of the Psalmist came to mind: “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps. 139: 7).

No amount of travel brochures could prepare me for the shimmering display of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Ponderosa and Lodgepole pines, aspen and birch, cover the mountains, and wildlife in abundance populate the hills and grasslands. Bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, mule deer, wild turkeys, bears, mountain lions, prairie dogs, and wild (mostly tame and playful) donkeys are within the national forest, some within view. One needs to be slowed by a “buffalo jam” in Custer State Park for the full experience. Again the words of the Psalmist came to mind: “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures….When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground” (Ps. 104: 24, 30).

Older theological tomes pictured creation more as backdrop for humanity rather than seeing the close and interdependent relationship God intended. Further, a utilitarian view of natural resources tended to diminish the worth of the other creatures and their places of habitation. One cannot visit this region without soon learning of the Lakota history, a tragic history spattered with the blood of Wounded Knee where the largest massacre occurred. Promised the Black Hills “forever,” this treaty with the Lakota only lasted four years as gold drew ever more white settlers to the area. Attempting to decimate a thriving culture, the US Calvary imposed the restraint of reservation life on these buffalo-hunting nomads. Thankfully many Lakota survived, although not in their preferred way of life. Greed and violence stain the legacy of intercultural relationships here and, sadly, around the world as sinful humanity refuses to acknowledge that all creation belongs to God.

God’s Spirit continues to enliven creation, including the human members of it. I am grateful for the renewing power of encountering God’s presence in the wonder of the Book of Nature, as the medieval theologians called creation, to be studied alongside the Book of Scripture. God can be trusted to speak through both.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, continue visiting our website.

P.S. Hopefully, I will give Georgia and Nebraska their due in some future blog.

Living in the Spirit

2011-07-18T08:19:00.000-05:00

There is a great interest in spirituality today. Go to any major bookstore and you will find many books that purport to instruct about spirituality—sometimes they are located among the other self-help books like books on dieting, time-management, etc. And that is what authentic spirituality is not—self-help. Living in the Spirit has to do with responding to the ways that God comes to us. Christian Spirituality is about interacting with the presence of God, who is Spirit.

The Apostle Paul frequently contrasts two kinds of living: in the flesh or in the Spirit (Romans 8: 12-25). In this extended passage, he describes how the Spirit of God becomes the primary motivation and enabling in the life of the Christian. Belonging to Christ and having the Spirit are for Paul one and the same.[i] The Spirit gives one the kind of life that matters; in the Spirit one is assured of God’s acceptance and sustaining, active power. In the Spirit, one is delivered from the futility of sin and death; of course, Christians will still sin—and will one day die. But the Spirit is transforming us, fitting us to live with God eternally—and to become authentic expressions of forgiveness and grace in this life. We are able to pray to God lovingly, without fear, because we know that we belong to God. We are able to live according to the spirit, no longer enslaved to habits that would wound us--or others.

How can we identify persons living in the Spirit?

· They seem to exhibit a certain freedom, a capacity not to take themselves too seriously. Grace and humor are closely related; they acknowledge the truth of the human condition—prone to wander, in need of frequent redirection through the presence of the Spirit.

· Such persons are able to risk newness—for they know that the Spirit is always bringing new things to birth. One of the things Scripture teaches us about the Spirit is that things rarely stay put; God as Spirit is always calling persons beyond where they find themselves.

· Those who live in the Spirit are persons of prayer. They confess their sins to God and others without fear of being diminished as a person. They know their frailty and need of grace. The Spirit prays through them, supplying groans for those things that are “too deep for words.”

· Persons who live in the Spirit know deep in their bones that they belong to God. This awareness can make all the difference in the valleys of life. The presence of the Spirit is the strong assurance that God will not leave them comfortless and wherever they go, they are accompanied by the One who never forsakes them.

· Persons who live in the Spirit are characterized by joy. We know that David’s most egregious sins (Psalm 51) do not cause him grief forever; his joy, his delight in the goodness of life with God returns. J.S. Bach wrote: “When I have lost my joy, I have lost my connection with God.” The Spirit is our connection with God, who can restore the joy of our salvation.

Humans are a remarkable, living mix of dust and spirit—the stuff of this earth enlivened by the presence of God. It is a life of companionship and promise. It is life that lasts.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting our website to learn more about Central’s receptivity to the movement of the Spirit.

[i] James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, Word Biblical Commentary, 38A (Dallas, TX: Words Books, 1988), 444.

Lighting the Path

2011-07-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

I first memorized this verse in Vacation Bible School (shortly after the earth cooled): “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path: (Psalm 119: 105). Thankfully we were not required to learn the whole Psalm with its 176 verses! In those days, memorizing Scripture was a regular part of Sunday School, VBS, and other formative opportunities in my Baptist church. How grateful I am for that foundational practice, for “hiding the word in my heart” has sustained me in the pursuit of mature discipleship.

Psalm 119 is cleverly constructed, with 22 sections, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus, this psalm contains teaching from Aleph to Taw (i.e., from A to Z) about how the reader should revere the instruction of God. Verse 105 underscores the affirmation that God’s revelation is the only reliable guide for life. We will stumble in darkness without the light offered through the story of God’s dealings with humanity narrated in the Bible.

We all hear a great deal of consternation over the decline of basic biblical knowledge in our day. George Barna, thoughtful researcher, has warned: “The Christian body in American is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy.” [I will skip all the examples of misnomers—some humorous, some simply a sad reminder that churches are failing in their basic catechetical charge of biblical study.] In an insightful essay “The Greatest Story Never Read: Recovering biblical literacy in the church,” Gary Burge observes that the church is failing to transmit its religious culture to the next generation. By privileging “personal experience” over the intellectual heritage of Christian faith, which includes serious engagement with the Bible, churches are contributing to a shallow notion of Christian spirituality.

Celebrating the 400^th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible has provoked lively conversations about the ways in which the idioms of this classic have shaped the English language. When it is time to recite a verse, the familiar words of the KJV invariably come to my lips. While I support gender-inclusive translations, I do mourn the loss (at times) of this touchstone of our cultural heritage. How would I have ever learned the words “wist ye not” if not for its rendering of Luke 2: 49? This anniversary is also prompting reflection on the truncated forms of Christian education in many of our churches.

Serious Bible study is at the heart of theological education. The intent of this focus is for the sake of the church. As congregational leaders learn the ways of the self-giving triune God through Scripture, they invite others to understand their lives in God’s redemptive purpose, also.

Molly T. Marshall

The first goal of Central’s mission is for students to become “biblically knowledgeable.” Continue visiting our website to learn more about our mission.

Focused Intercession

2011-07-05T13:21:00.000-05:00

The unnamed servant of Abraham is sent on a mission fraught with challenge and potential disaster (Genesis 24: 34-67). He must find a wife for the son of his master among the proper kinsfolk; securing a wife for Isaac among the Canaanites simply will not do. (Perhaps Abraham remembers his own missteps with Hagar as he and Sarah conspired to fulfill God’s promise apart from divine counsel.) The trusted servant hatches a plan. He will wait by the well, and the young woman who offers a drink to him and offers to draw water for all his camels, too, will be the right one. Obviously she will be both kind and strong—good qualities in a prospective bride. Can you imagine how much thirsty, long-traveled camels might drink?

Rebekah fulfills the job description and demonstrates remarkable courage, in addition. Joining the camel caravan (friendlier camels than when they first met), she willingly departs her home to meet the son of covenant. As she departs her family, she receives their blessing and the assurance that they fathom her larger role in God’s covenantal history with a people called to be a great nation.

What I love about this ancient narrative is the servant’s sense of divine guidance in what he is doing. He prays fervently: “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going!” I do not think that the servant is simply asking God to bless his matchmaking machinations, but focuses his intercession so that all might fulfill divine purposes. He senses that he plays more than a bit part in the unfolding drama of the Abrahamic legacy.

How specifically are we willing to pray? When we pray in vague obsfucating language, it may reveal a lack of trust in God’s capacity to answer the very concrete request being made. Of course we are aware that we cannot dictate to God how to respond to our intercessions; yet love requires that we be most specific. Glenn Hinson, beloved teacher of so many, has written: “I do not think one can pray in generalities if prayer represents our deepest concerns . . .When we pray, therefore, we may pray specifically and yet be in keeping with God’s nature if we pray open-endedly (A Serious Call to a Contemplative Lifestyle, 54).

When we pray with specificity, out of love, we both express our trust in God and our love for others. Our intercessions become a part of God’s own loving spiritual energy that can accomplish more than we can “ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Prayer is the purest form of theology—what we believe most deeply about God is revealed in how (or whether) we pray.

Molly T. Marshall

I Invite you to join our sisters and brothers at Myanmar Institute of Theology as they enter a 24-hour prayer vigil for God’s blessings on their ministry. I also invite you to continue visiting our website.

Baptist Gatherings

2011-06-29T13:31:00.000-05:00

I have just returned from gatherings of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and American Baptists Churches in Tampa and San Juan, respectively, beautiful cities to visit (when not attending Baptist meetings!) Being a mostly compliant daughter of the church, I attended all worship services, business sessions, many auxiliary conferences, and helped tell the Central story at every opportunity. (People know that a seminary president worth her salt will not let a conversation go long without mentioning the good things that are occurring at the school. ) I am grateful for Central’s strong partnership with each of these Baptist entities, and we are intentional in finding creative ways to share in mission and ministry together as the hands and feet of Christ (ABC), being the presence of Christ (CBF).

It requires a great deal of financial investment to conduct and attend these gatherings, and I sometimes wonder about this allocation of resources. Yet, I am persuaded that we are strengthened by connecting with one another as branches of the larger Baptist family. Stirring music, witness of missionaries, compelling proclamation, and sharing the bread and cup enliven worship and call us to deepened communion. It is also a time of inspiration as we learn of visionary ministry projects, new educational pursuits, and the ways in which Christianity is truly global. It is also a joy to connect with dear friends, sisters and brothers in Christ.

Can you imagine my joy when I observed a forty-something woman, moderator of CBF, pass the baton to another forty-something woman as the new moderator? (Had I died and gone to heaven, or was the promise of Pentecost about daughters prophesying standing before me?) Perhaps gender barriers are, at long last, really being torn down. There was a palpable sense during the twenty year celebration that while revisiting the past is necessary, the future requires our full attention if we would attract the creativity and energy of younger participants.

The ABC Biennial in Puerto Rico underscored the vibrancy of churches beyond the borders of the continental US. The mix of languages—with English speakers learning to deal with the challenges of translation—reminded us of the cultural richness of the Body of Christ. I was also reminded of North American privilege as I met Baptists serving in challenging Caribbean contexts—Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Their faithfulness amidst catastrophe, disease, and groaning poverty gives stellar witness to their depth of calling and the strength of the Gospel in which they labor.

It is good to be a Baptist—especially when in humility we understand the great grace of God inviting us to be laborers together, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, to the glory of God. May we become harbingers of the Reign of God.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting our website to learn about the good work God is doing at Central—and beyond.

The Sending, Coming, and Abiding God

2011-06-20T11:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, traditionally celebrated the week after Pentecost. The Spirit has come in fullness, and the church recognizes the three-fold cadence of the divine life. (I do not imagine that many Baptist churches acknowledged this aspect of the Christian year; we have barely learned to extend Eastertide to Ascension.) All schoolmarm finger-wagging aside, I want to encourage this liturgical practice as a way to form congregational life more deeply. We need to grow in our understanding that our lives are signed as imago trinitatis, showing forth the generativity, diversity, and hospitality of the Triune God.

Dwelling eternally in the richness of relationship, God has a history with this world and discloses divine identity as the Creator, Christ, and Comforter. To put this in proper theological terms: God’s internal life as Trinity is theologia, and God’s history with creation is oikonomia. As Catherine LaCugna observed in her thoughtful text, God for Us, this distinctive confession of Christians has been sidelined as an esoteric doctrine rather than a doctrine with pastoral function in the life of the church. She argues that as long as theologians focused on theologia—to the neglect of oiknomia—the doctrine of the Trinity was defeated, i.e., it had no practical value for Christians.

I believe that the Trinity is the most practical of all the doctrines, essential to Christian identity. The doctrine basically narrates God’s activity in creation, redemption, and consummation, summarizing the unified activity of God in the drama of salvation. God is One, to be sure, yet communicates the divine life as Abba, Son, and Spirit. Christians worship God as creative power, saving love, and ecstatic transformation. God sends, God comes, and God abides; the Trinity describes how God is with us, always, and how our lives are drawn into the divine movement.

Emblazoned on the door of the Baugh-Marshall Chapel at Central is a 13^th century symbol for the Holy Trinity. It depicts both the unity and diversity of the One God, Deus, who is revealed as Pater, Filius, and Spiritus. The Latin words est and non est interpret the affirmations of the Athanasian Creed, the first creed which confessed each as fully God yet discrete modes of divine presence. Each is God, yet each is a distinctive expression of the One God. The emblem portrays the dynamic movement (perichoresis) of the Triune God, who creates space for us. Perichoresis is a Greek word that describes the mutual indwelling of the Triune God.

One of the great insights of the Reformation was that the church is ever being reformed. Our part of the ecclesial family needs to become robustly trinitarian so that we might participate in the life of God more fully. May “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Amen.

Molly T. Marshall

The community of Central is perichoretic, as well; that is why we are open, inviting place of hospitality. There is room for you! Continue visiting our website to learn about our

mission.

Unauthorized Prophecy

2011-06-13T10:59:00.000-05:00

One of the more curious texts associated with the celebration of Pentecost is the story of Eldad and Medad, charged with unauthorized prophecy. Moses and the seventy elders gathered at the tent of meeting, and the Lord “took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy…and they prophesied,” (Numbers 11:25) but only briefly. Meanwhile, back at the camp, the spirit came to rest on Eldad and Medad, and they prophesied there. Even Joshua—usually portrayed as level-headed—entreats Moses to stop them. They had not followed the protocol with the rest of the elders, and Joshua worries that Moses’ authority will be undermined. Moses’ mature response is telling: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” Moses is simply grateful for the empowering presence of God’s spirit, and does not attempt to domesticate the Spirit.

As I wrote in Joining the Dance, “Regulating, suppressing, and ordering have too often been the church’s response to the lively and unpredictable movement of the Spirit.” The challenge of Joshua is echoed in our day. Some ecclesial traditions question whether women can prophesy as bearers of Spirit; some question whether lay persons are empowered to discern the ways of God as prophets. Others wonder if those outside the church can offer a prophetic word from God. While I would argue that the Spirit has an integral relationship to the church as the Body of Christ, the Spirit is not controlled by the hierarchy of the church as certain forms of apostolic succession would contend. Believing that God can speak through “unauthorized” channels calls ecclesial leaders to humility.

The greatest need of persons of faith today is to trust that God’s Spirit continues to guide and empower for ministry. Further, the Spirit works in freedom, calling the church and society to new forms of service in the world. Discerning the movement of the Spirit remains a demanding spiritual practice, yet there are some helpful questions to guide the process.

1. Is the pathway we sense the Spirit to be prompting a way to live the Gospel more fully?

2. Will this require more faith, more hope, more love?

3. Are we persuaded that we cannot do this in our own strength? (The Spirit usually nudges us toward what will require radical dependence upon divine assistance.)

4. Will this pathway challenge old perceptions of how God is at work in the world? Is God up to something new?

5. Will my community of faith grow in maturity by following this guidance of the Spirit?

6. Will authentic expressions of grace and mercy flow from following this pathway?

7. Will this action be an authentic participation in the Reign of God?

The Spirit continues to move, transgressing boundaries of human invention. May we discern God’s holy nudge and act accordingly.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the ways in which Central is discerning the movement of God’s Spirit, continue to visit our website.

Waiting for Power

2011-06-06T18:43:00.000-05:00

Jesus has ascended and the disciples are left to wonder what is coming next. Jesus had deflected their questions about restoring the kingdom to Israel; that is God's business, not theirs, he contended. There was something much more urgent for them to do: they were to wait in Jerusalem for the promised outpouring of God's Spirit who would empower witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The expanse of this mission is stunning, particularly since the heavenly messengers addressed them as "Men of Galilee" (Acts 1:11), acknowledging their provincial upbringing.

Can you imagine their conversations as they return to the upper room after trying to comprehend the ascension? Was it really necessary for Jesus to be absent for the Spirit to come? What will the baptism of the Spirit be like? Unlike John's baptism with water, to be baptized in Spirit will be catalytic to the evangelization of the Roman Empire, a reality they could not fathom at this point. How long must they wait? Gathered for prayer, the women and men anticipated that Pentecost would surely take on new meaning in light of the Risen Christ's instruction.

We often think of waiting as a passive, inert activity. The beloved text from Isaiah assures that those who "wait upon the Lord" shall renew their strength (40: 31). Actually the word "wait" (qawah) in Hebrew means to "braid a rope" or "stretch a cord tight." This suggests that the one waiting attaches a life-line to God and works toward what the waiting will bring. [Truthfully, I do not remember much Hebrew, thus I was in touch with my personal "Hebrew Help Desk," Dr. Timothy Ashley of CBTS/Wisconsin for this insight.] The words "wait" and "hope" are closely related here, and surely these early believers sought to put themselves in a "posture of receptivity," to use the words of Richard Foster. Waiting for power, they did all they could to prepare for this new manifestation of God's indwelling.

Scholars have suggested that one of Luke's concerns in writing Luke-Acts was to assure the church that the power they needed to be faithful in witness had been given to them. Whereas the Pauline literature often addressed proper stewardship of the Spirit's gifts, Luke wanted his epoch to know that God had entrusted the empowering Spirit to the whole people of God for the work of ministry. We need to reclaim this assurance in a time when the culturally established place of the church is waning and the challenge of faithful witness grows daily. We will receive power necessary for the mission to which we are called; it is the promise of the Risen Christ.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the ways in which Central seeks to follow the holy nudge of the Spirit, continue visiting our website.

Stumbling over Jesus

2011-05-24T10:17:00.000-05:00

The New Testament readings that the church engages during Eastertide seek to articulate the life and ministry of Jesus, i.e., to make sense of the new reality that the Crucified One is God’s promise of a future, with hope. The lectionary texts range over the early apostolic preaching as narrated in Acts, the appearances of the Risen Christ in the Gospels, and the expansive interpretations of the Catholic Epistles—those written for the whole church rather than specific congregations like most of the Pauline letters.

I Peter 2: 2-10 offers an extended reflection on the “cornerstone chosen and precious in God’s sight,” yet a stone of stumbling. I have been thinking about what it means to stumble over Jesus, especially in light of the scientific challenge to persons of faith, a challenge articulated of late by none other than the luminary of the world of physics, Stephen Hawking. Reaching beyond the world of science into matters of faith, he argued that belief in heaven is a “fairy story” for persons “afraid of the dark.” While it is certainly commendable that Hawking has lived a remarkably productive life in the face of death, it is hardly worthy of him to reduce humanity to a computer-like existence whose components inevitably fail. Perhaps it is his own sense of diminishment that allows such reliance on the brain as the determinant of one’s future. In these latest comments, Hawking has moved beyond his assertions in The Grand Design (2010) which argued that there is no need of a creator to explain the universe.

For Christians, the “unified theory” is that in love God has created this universe for the purpose of sharing life with creatures, with the goal that humans may learn to image the trinitarian being of God as persons created for community. Jesus puts a face on God as the Incarnate Word, the “only normal person who ever lived,” in the words of my teacher John A.T. Robinson, and reveals how we are to live together. It is this “scandal of particularity” that has caused stumbling since the first century. It is an understandable question: Why would God “reconcile the world” through this one historical figure? And we can only confess that is because of God’s great mercy, which transcends what our minds can fathom. Belief in Jesus offers a foundation that sustains in life and in death.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, continue visiting our website.

Graduating...by Works

2011-05-17T15:36:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a glorious day as we celebrated Central’s 109^th commencement at Friendship Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO. Twenty students received degrees, and nine more received Certificates for Ministry in the Foundations program. The class of 2011 included graduates from CBTS/Wisconsin, CBTS/Tennessee, the Urban Core Initiative, and the Shawnee campus of Central. A commencement service, more than any other event in the life of a theological seminary “makes visible the good work of the school…” in the words of Dan Aleshire, Executive Director of ATS.

As we near graduation each Spring, I remind seniors that “salvation is by grace, but graduation is by works.” Actually, some grace is involved for most of the graduates! I do not want to minimize, however, the level of personal investment and sacrifice necessary to complete the rigorous academic programs offered by Central. Often an exam or paper is emailed to professors well into the night, perhaps the only time available to do the work for their classes.

These students attend seminary while already serving in ministry; they are regularly testing in their congregations what is learned in the classroom. Pastoral mentors and church members are partners with the seminary in shaping faithful ministers. The seminary cannot form students in the practice of ministry without contexts that allow them to practice. Celebrating these graduates is also a celebration of the churches who gave them opportunity to preach and teach, plan and serve. Commencement also celebrates that God continues to supply leaders for the church.

It was especially meaningful to hold commencement at Friendship Baptist Church, a robust African-American congregation ably led by Rev. James A. Terrance, Jr., a distinguished alumnus of Central. Four of our graduates serve on the ministry team there, and one current create student is a minister in training. It is this kind of partnership between seminary and congregation that can be so generative. When we travelled to Myanmar two years ago, we held the commissioning service at Friendship, in part because two of their ministers were going on the pilgrimage, but also because the church is invested in the life of the seminary. One of the core values of the church is radical hospitality, and Central received a lavish expression of this Christian virtue through the kindness of the staff and members.

Hard work brought 29 students to the joy of completion. I trust that they could hear, amidst the many words of congratulations spoken by family and friends, the voice of the Spirit saying: “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the interface of grace and works in salvation and graduation, continue visiting our website www.cbts.edu

Deeply from the Heart

2011-05-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

The lectionary texts for the Third Sunday of Easter remind Christians of our true source of hope, i.e., calling upon “the name of the Lord,” as well as how to live in a turbulent world. How essential these life-lines are when life comes at us in new keys and ever faster cadences. Tuning our voices for praise and humble, loving speech empowers faithful witness in Eastertide.

Yesterday an Iraqi family was present at church, and I learned they had only recently resettled to the Kansas City area. Sitting near the family, I witnessed the work of the people of God as we welcomed them, oriented them to the order of worship and hymnal, and made sure they understood the varied movements in the service. Next Sunday our church will host a friendship meal—and this family has promised to cook (an interesting host/guest reversal!) I was reminded of the lovely David Ashley White anthem, which includes the words: “No longer stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.” I do not yet know the full story of how they made their way to Prairie Baptist Church, but I am delighted by their presence and trust they will feel at home.

First Peter 1:17-23 instructs a way of living appropriate to those born anew; we are to love one another “deeply from the heart.” Because of God’s great love demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are able to express genuine mutual love. Helping immigrant families is labor intensive, to be sure; however, it was one of the most profound ways Christians can express hospitality. Further, it is a way of embodying the reality that the people of God are not demarcated by national or ethnic identities, but are constituted as a “holy nation,” God’s own people (1 Peter 2:9).

People are able to believe in the great mercy of God when those who have received mercy extend it to others. Indeed, according to the logic of First Peter, receiving mercy from God is what makes those “who were not a people” into emissaries of grace. Those who work for peace through conflict resolution, e.g., ABC representative Dan Buttry, know that face to face conversation helps quell fear of the “other,” and helps discover common interests. As the Spirit makes possible a “ground of meeting” (John V. Taylor’s term), persons open their hearts to one another and begin to love, deeply.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a “demonstration plot for the Reign of God,” a place to learn to love deeply from the heart, continue visiting our website.

Avenging Terror

2011-05-04T08:29:00.000-05:00

While the headlines are blaring “It’s a Good Day in America,” I feel a disturbing unrest in the aftermath of the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Retributive justice—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth—never works out cleanly, for it only escalates cycles of violence. My fear is that the US action in taking out the symbolic head of this notorious terrorist organization will serve to prompt further spirals of vengeance.

In class last evening, an African-American student offered a probing question: “Why is it when a man in the urban core avenges his brother’s death, he gets life in prison—and when a Navy Seal kills an enemy, he is proclaimed a hero?” As the semester of Theology draws to an end, and we try to sum up our understanding of the Christian doctrine of eschatology, thoughtful students wrestle with the fallenness of the world and God’s purpose to restore all things. It is not a simple calculus, and the reality of evil in the world is ever lurking spectral presence.

The Psalm for the Second Sunday of Easter warns: “Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips” (Psalm 16: 4). Has our nation chosen the god of military hegemony that issues “offerings of blood” as our national signature in the world? The presumption that we can be invulnerable leads to a staggering imbalance in our national budget as we spend an ever increasing amount on weapons of mass destruction. National desires to preserve freedom and protect our citizens are noble causes; however, excessive war-mongering abroad only further shreds moral authority in the world.

Seeking to follow the One who asked God to “forgive them, for they know not what they do,” puts us at odds with the swaggering agenda of America as super-power. These words may sound simplistic from one who did not lose a family member to terrorist action, as my friend Bill Tammeus did, or ever serve in the military, as my late husband did; yet, forgiveness is the radical spiritual practice that can interrupt the “fall to violence,” in the words of Marjorie Suchocki. To be sure, forgiveness requires great courage and “voyages of anguish” (H. R. Mackintosh’s description) to offer the words of Jesus on behalf of those who have wronged us. Only those who know their deep need of forgiveness can summon the supply of the Spirit to offer it to others, and thus quell the urge to avenge.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a seminary where conversations about radical discipleship occur, continue visiting our website.

Recognizing Christ

2011-04-25T14:01:00.000-05:00

Resounding “alleluias” and the scent of lilies filled sanctuaries yesterday in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. At my church, we ran out of “orders of worship” at both services—a nice problem! ( O we of little faith…) Easter brings the living and the dead closer together as we acknowledge the possibility of continued communion because of Christ’s triumph over death. No longer can death end the promise of life; life can now be transposed into an eternal key through relativizing the threat death holds for humans.

The story of the journey to Emmaus, a traditional lectionary text for Easter Evening, is a treasured reflection on one of the resurrection appearances of Jesus. The narrative is full of suspense, intrigue, and mysterious presence and absence. The climax of the encounter is at the evening meal: “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…” (Luke 24:30-31). Luke places before the reader a very deliberate pattern, the same pattern described in Luke 22:19ff at the Passover meal Jesus celebrated prior to his betrayal. Had Cleopas and his traveling companion received this hospitality of Jesus before, and hence the familiar action alerted them to his identity? Students of Luke’s Gospel know that table fellowship is a sign of the inbreaking of the reign of God in the ministry of Jesus. His actions at table regularly put him at odds with those more concerned about purity than redemption.

The breaking of bread continues to illumine Christ’s presence in our midst. The Baptist tradition in the larger Body of Christ does not recognize the presence of Christ through particular reference to the bread or the cup; rather, we recognize the Risen Christ in his gathered community. Our prayer should continually be that Christ take us, bless us, break us, and give us as bread for the world in mercy broken. We long to be useful instruments of grace in the world; we long to be sources of nourishment for the spiritually hungry. We believe that Christ can multiply the impact of our lives as he blesses us for such service. Through our ministry as christophers, Christ-bearing believers, others may come to recognize him for themselves. Alleluia.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central’s formative, creative, and progressive vocation in theological education, continue visiting our website.

The Sacrament of Brokenness

2011-04-18T14:04:00.000-05:00

As we enter the passion of Holy Week, the Psalmist reminds us of our true estate: “I have become like a broken vessel” (31: 12b). Acknowledging the real condition of our lives creates an opening for God to do healing work in us, but we find it difficult to deal forthrightly with all that mars the image of God. In a sense, the whole dusty pathway of Lent is learning to tell the truth of our brokenness. Little by little, we dismantle the fortress of self-sufficiency that obscures the woundedness life and sin inflicts, and we confess that our “times” are in God’s hand (v.15).

Biblical spirituality, especially as interpreted by the Eastern Church, is starkly realistic about the brokenness of humanity. Humility is the only proper response to being “confronted with a reality beyond the compass of our limited minds, being put in our place, having our pride and competence challenged, discovering our creatureliness, and the fact that we cannot know God without being disabled, as Jacob was…,” in the words of Frances Young in Brokenness and Blessing. To draw closer to God is to learn of all the ways in which we limp.

Jesus came for those who know their need of a Physician, not those who presume to be whole already. The Eastern Church speaks about salvation as a gradual healing, a life-long work of restoration through death to life. The word “salvation” is derived from the Latin salvus, from which we get the word “salve.” Jeremiah’s lament “is there no balm in Gilead?” (8:22) provides the text for the traditional Negro spiritual, “There is a Balm in Gilead.” The only recourse for a desolate, sin-sick people is the balm God can provide—through forgiveness of a rebellious people, through the reviving power of the Holy Spirit, and through the love of Jesus who died for all.

Brokenness is no barrier to the redemptive work of God; rather, it is the preferred medium used by the One who is making all things new. Through the brokenness of Christ’s body, through his stripes, we are healed. Let us bring the whole of our lives to God as a sacrament of brokenness so that God’s work can be manifest in us.

Molly T. Marshall

A Great Rejoicing

2011-04-12T14:23:00.000-05:00

Rejoicing in Lent seems a little uncharacteristic; however, this past Thursday and Friday, the seminary community and friends could not help but rejoice! Actually, there is an ancient precedent for rejoicing in this reflective liturgical season. The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare) is a break in an otherwise penitential season. Like Gaudete —the third Sunday of Advent --the theme is rejoicing, and God’s people are summoned forth to live anew. The opening words of the ancient liturgy are from Isaiah 66:10: “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem.”

Central experienced a great rejoicing as we dedicated the Baugh-Marshall Chapel and hosted an open house for churches and community friends. On Thursday evening, we consecrated the instruments, altar furniture, and sacred space for the glory of God. We also heard one of the finest organists around, Paul E. Oakley, “play every inch of the instrument,” in the words of Linda Roos, Central trustee and President of the Pillsbury Foundation, which provided organ and piano. As Babs Baugh observed: “We built the shell of the building, but the instruments and furniture gave it soul and warmth.” Our students added their voices in vibrant testimony about what had transpired in their lives because of the seminary and the vision they had for Central’s ongoing stewardship of the chapel and library.

Interestingly, the mid-point of Lent is also known as “Mothering Sunday.” It was customary to visit one’s mother on this day, or perhaps to visit the cathedral or mother church on this day; in Baptist terms, this was a “homecoming” Sunday. I am struck by the mothering these two family foundations, both headed by women, have provided for Central. They have helped incubate a dream and brought to term wonderful new environs for ministry preparation. In many respects, the last fifteen years of Central’s life have been sustained by generative women who invested in our mission: Edna Shepherd, Floreine Budde, Geneva Pepperd, Christine Lewis, Nina McWilliams, Florence Stout, Lucille Hall, Dorothy Herrin, and Ruby and Maxine Erickson (and of course I am inadvertently leaving someone out). This is not to forget the faithful men who have offered resources for Central’s vocation in theological education; nevertheless, these women have been extraordinarily fecund in their generosity.

How grateful we are for the many persons who have provided a future, with hope, for Central. Our mission is to prepare women and men to “transform churches and communities by educating and forming them as Christian leaders who are biblically knowledgeable, theologically articulate, spiritually healthy, humanly sensitive and professionally competent.” By God’s grace, Central has pursued this calling for 110 years. That, alone, is reason for great rejoicing.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central’s leadership in theological education, continue visiting our website.

"Oil, Spit, and Mud"

2011-04-04T09:09:00.000-05:00

The Fourth Sunday of Lent marks the midpoint of this liturgical observance. Yesterday’s texts summoned us to consider how oil, spit, and mud are ingredients of restoration and healing—of a nation with the anointing of David (1 Samuel 16:1-13), and of a man born blind who sees better than all the naysayers (John 9:1-41). God works with such finite elements—and persons—to accomplish divine purposes in the world.

We love the story of the anointing of David: he is the youngest, probably the shortest, and he has to do the chores no one else wants—tending the flocks. He is alive with potentiality, yet to be fulfilled. And God chooses him, not because he is particularly qualified—yet. Every kid loves this story; “little brother” is not chosen last, but first! Samuel anoints him (with oil and Spirit) because God sees in this adolescent promise for the future. God makes an unconditional commitment to the Davidic king because, in the words of Terrence Fretheim, God “learned something from the experience (and experiment) with Saul…and determines that only a new tack will have a chance of succeeding.” This speaks of a remarkable vulnerability in God, One who is responsive to humanity’s weakness and sin as we make our slow way across the earth.

The healing of a man born blind is Johannine irony at its best. Neighbors, Pharisees, and parents all try to determine what has actually transpired after he was smeared with spit and dirt and told to wash in the pool of Siloam. He sees, truly. In the fourth Gospel, seeing has to do with recognizing the very presence of God in their midst as Word made flesh. As Christians, we “see” according to the measure of our responsiveness to Jesus the Christ.

These lectionary texts remind us that God’s creative and redemptive work is always collaborative, and followers of Jesus ought to receive the oil of the Spirit and “keep making mud,” as Larry Greenfield wrote in his Friday blog for EthicsDaily. God does not impose the future, but crafts it with receptive persons. Ultimately, it is God’s faithful commitment to us that provides healing and hope. At the midpoint of Lent, let us remember the one whom we follow and not shrink back from the places he will take us. As frail children of dust, we are being made new through being chosen and healed—with oil, spit, and mud.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn about God’s beautiful work with unfinished persons at Central, continue visiting our website.

Thirsting for God

2011-03-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

The conversation between Jesus and the “woman at the well” is one of the most familiar scenes in John’s Gospel (4:5-42). It is richly textured, conveying racial prejudice, gender discrimination, cultural hegemony, and the contextual adaptability of the Gospel. Jews and Samaritans have quite a history; Jews consider them “half-breeds” and retained long memories of Samaritan collaboration with enemies at the expense of Jews. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day would not be caught dead speaking to a woman in public; and one who has had five husbands and a current “live-in” is hardly worth a rabbi’s focused attention. Even passing through the village of Sychar was considered a disgusting route that the upright sought to avoid. Yet, it is precisely here, amidst all these narrative tensions, that Jesus offers some of his most profound theological reflection on his messianic vocation.

Topics abound in their exchange: Jewish-Samaritan relations; Jesus’ identity; the location and character of authentic worship; the nature of God as Spirit; the hope for the Messiah; and, her plight as a woman with little recourse but to engage in serial marriages. The most fascinating topic is “living water,” which promises to quench one’s deepest thirst—forever. As he often does, Jesus moves the conversation from a literal to a spiritual level, gathering up all the historic significance surrounding Jacob’s well and transcending it. In this instance, Jesus introduces the indwelling Spirit through the metaphor of life-giving water “which will become … a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (v. 14). (This is similar to the promise of the Spirit in John 7: 38: “out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”) It is a promise of life eternal made possible by the abiding presence of God.

Humans are born thirsting for God. The deep, stabbing longing that calls us to pursue relationships, beauty, creativity, and worship arises out of the reality that we were created for God and , in words attributed to William Blake, “less than All cannot satisfy.” The gift of the Spirit, that gushing presence that draws us into the life of God, quenches this thirst. As we walk the dusty Lenten pilgrimage, identifying our true thirst allows us to receive the abundance of Christ’s healing presence, through the agency of the Spirit.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a seminary where we “seek God together,” continue visiting our website.

Whither the Spirit?

2011-03-21T10:54:00.000-05:00

It is really March in Kansas, and the whipping wind heralds a season of warmer weather and up tempo basketball. [Go Jayhawks!] Following a long winter, the signs of spring are especially welcome during the season of Lent 2011. The greening of the earth prompts us to reflect on what is struggling to be born in our lives, a key practice in this liturgical season.

Several American Baptist seminary presidents and deans (ABASA) gathered at the Proctor School of Theology of Virginian Union University this past Friday and Saturday. Founded in the Lumpkin Jail in Richmond for “freedmen,” this venerable university demonstrates a remarkable mission and bears enduring witness to the early work of the Home Mission Society. How prophetic to start a school in the only “free space” for African Americans shortly following the War Between the States! This collaborative vision displays Baptist generativity at its best.

As we gathered, the wind called attention to itself as it whistled outside the conference room where we were discussing new movements of the Spirit within the larger Baptist family. We reviewed many things: regional needs for training in transformational leadership; ways to minister with refugees from Myanmar who are reconfiguring the landscape of American Baptist life; how to disentangle the biblical narrative from certain North American assumptions; pathways to encourage adaptive change in churches; and, chiefly, how our schools can shape leaders to call forth discipleship and incarnational practice. Roy Medley, General Secretary of ABC, quoted a wise insight from David Coffey, former leader of the Baptist Union. He observed that renewal efforts among the people of God must have a “theological vanguard.” Business practices can be helpful, but deep conversation about core theological issues and practice is essential for revitalizing Baptist identity and mission. Our reflection was frequently punctuated by the sound of the wind, “blowing where it chooses.”

The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-17) illumines the call to discern what the Spirit is doing in our midst. Nicodemus struggled to understand language of being “born from above” and reverted to ludicrous physical impossibilities, i.e., “can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” At times we are like him, not tracking the wild freedom of the Spirit and trying to circumscribe where the Spirit can be at work. The Spirit has not abandoned churches and leaders in our day, but we may have to be willing to leave some things behind to follow the Spirit’s listing. In a recent issue of Colloquy, the magazine of the Association of Theological Schools, Dan Aleshire writes about theological schools: “Any school that changes from what it is used to being to what it has never been before will need to do some leave-taking…”. This surely applies to our churches and wider denominational life, and the Spirit precedes and accompanies us.

Molly T. Marshall

Continue visiting our website to see the generativity of the Spirit at work at Central.

The Twelve

2011-03-09T08:54:00.005-06:00

Chosen from 37 applicants, ten men and two women began the historic collaborative MIT-CBTS Doctor of Ministry Program yesterday. (Had there not been women in the class, Heather and I were considering going on strike!) Hailing from all over Myanmar and representing varied ethnicities, they began the course “New Ways of Being Church.” Most of these learners are instructors themselves in Bible colleges and theological schools, and they are eager to pursue doctoral studies to further their vocational pursuit. Class that starts at 8 and stretches to 3:40 is wearying even for the most ardent students—and professors, too. We are grateful for tea breaks!

Learning names in a classroom inches away from a construction project is challenging, but sounds of progress on the five-story building that MIT so desperately needs is encouraging to us all. (I told them I was used to construction noise!) It was heartwarming to hear their expressions of gratitude for being selected for this program. It is a privilege to be a part of this venture.

Equipped with significant biblical literacy—even in a second language—they express a deep sense of urgency about producing translations, commentaries, and contextual theologies. They bring key questions and insights from years of ministry and leadership in their respective conventions. One of the most promising aspects of the course will be the case studies each presents from his or her discrete ministry contexts. These will illumine power structures in the church that marginalize women, youth, children, people with disabilities, and the poor. MIT has considerable investment in peace and gender studies, so these learners (mostly MIT graduates) will bring a keen sensitivity to these issues of justice.

It is not hard to imagine that the future of the churches in Myanmar will be shaped in some measure by these gifted scholar-practitioners. They understand the mission of the churches in holistic ways and believe that redemption has liberative and social implications. A part of the morning’s lecture was on the relationship of the Reign of God to the church, and it is clear to see that the Reign is “gathering strength” in surprising places in Myanmar.

Molly T. Marshall, Ph. D.

The Blessing of Babel

2011-03-09T08:36:00.003-06:00

Worship at the Maitrichit Chinese Baptist Church, founded in 1837, is a wonderful experience. Three languages articulated prayer, Scripture reading, song, and sermon. Swatow Chinese, Thai and, mercifully, English conveyed the Christian narrative of grace and redemption. Warm was the welcome, and we were grateful to join these faithful Christians for the Lord’s Day. Some in our party had not experienced the “blessing of Babel” before.

The story of the confusion of languages in Genesis 11 was not originally a story of judgment upon humanity for its Promethean desire to “make a name for itself.” It simply explained the origin of languages. Later it became a cautionary tale about humans overreaching limitations set by God; attempting to craft an entry into the “gate of heaven” by a towering ziggurat was expressly forbidden, and the building project came to a grinding halt by divine decision. Later in Scripture, the diversity of languages is seen as a blessing, media through which the Gospel could be variously heard—and understood.

Languages gather up the particularity of human stories in all their diversity. Linguistic development is a fascinating study—both in the individual and in larger ethnic families. Finding a “functional equivalent” to translate from one historical and cultural narrative to another is fraught with missteps and approximations. Non-verbal communication is still a pathway of relationship, however, and understanding transcends one’s ability to find the right words, as important as that can be.

What did I understand apart from that which was translated? The worship leader conveyed joy through her facial expressions; the request for pictures demonstrated interest; the warm embraces and respectful handshakes uttered care and recognition; the courtesy of escorting our party to prime pews in the sanctuary exhibited hospitality; and solicitous interest in our pilgrimage on to Myanmar voiced (haltingly) concern. Smiling, of course, allows an opening to begin the journey of communication and, when in doubt, put your hands together and bow!

Landing in Yangon a few short hours later allowed further opportunity to experience the blessing of Babel as well as the joy of common language as we were met by friends from MIT who have painstakingly learned English. The week ahead will offer many opportunities for varied forms of communication as we learn our limitations in English instruction and practice new ways of listening to the witness of faith.

Molly T. Marshall, Ph. D.

The Blessing of Babel

2011-03-09T08:36:00.000-06:00

Molly T. Marshall, Ph. D.

Students and Soldier and Sushi..Oh My!

2011-03-05T14:22:00.002-06:00

It has been a busy day in Bangkok as we set out to learn more about the "land of smiles" as Thailand is sometimes known. Morning came quickly after a few winds, and we left the hotel to visit the Grand Palace and learn some of the history and religious practices of this teeming city. The grandeur of the collection of buildings we visited is visually stunning; more gold than one can take in. Our guide said that it is better to visit in the morning because the glinting of the afternoon sun is almost too much to bear. Even though the crowds were thick, a sense of wonder and awe grasp the visitors--Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike. As my colleague Dr. Heather Entrekin put it, "A holy place is a holy place." Truly a different ways of faith; however, the pursuit of worship arises from the same reality in all humanity.

Shortly after arriving at the shrine, we witnessed a small regiment of Thai soldiers in a ceremonial march; later I got to have my picture taken with a very patient young man who endured our curiosity with proper military stiff upper lip. Central's students have come to learn, and with eagerness and openness they listened to a proud Buddhist guide, Mr. Tui, explain what they were seeing and the significance it holds in Thai cultural and religious experience. Later in a group discussion, one wondered aloud it Christians expressed as much delight in our tradition as he did in his. This is the kind of thoughtful question that contributes to growth, and Dr. Amy Hartsfield is artfully evoking such reflection.
One cannot journey to a place as lovely as Thailand without trying new food. (Even a pilgrimage has some guilty pleasures!) We have some sushi converts among us, first in Tokyo and now in Bangkok; they are enthusiastically becoming aficionados of the Asian treat. Tonight we will have the privilege of sharing dinner with Dr. Thawesak Mahachavaroj, a member of the President's Circle of Central. We are grateful for his friendship and care for seminarians when we visit Bangkok. His generous investment and that of the Luce Foundation make this kind of opportunity feasible, and we are blessed.

After dinner P.S.
You would have been proud to hear each of our students tell our host of their plans for ministry service. They were at their best!

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Molly T. Marshall
President
Central Baptist Theological Seminary
6601 Monticello Road
Shawnee, Kansas 66226

Strengthening a Missional Partnership

2011-03-04T02:22:00.000-06:00

I spent the day (night?) flying over the top of the world on the way to Myanmar. I have made it only to Tokyo so far, where I have a few minutes to post this brief reflection. Already you have been reading what Central's create students have been conveying about their hopes and prayers for this pilgrimage. Reading about the land, early missionary pursuits in Burma, the contours of Buddhism, and then engaging their own perspectives on intercultural experiences, they are traveling with the desire to be transformed.

This annual pilgrimage to Myanmar is beginning to feel familiar for some of us. We are welcomed by friends--both at the seminary and in churches--who share our passion to be thoughtful mission partners in a rapidly changing world. Entering into varied educational programs together strengthens mutual understanding of what Baptist witness can be in our day, nearly two hundred years after the Judsons arrived on the "golden shores" of Burma. (Hopefully, some of us will be returning for the 200th anniversary in 2013; I invite you to come with us.)

It is a blessing to explore the meaning of missional Christian identity in a land where it is such a minority, yet new churches are being gathered and built all the while. The resilience of gospel witness is remarkable given the political and social pressure to conform to the majority. Perhaps Baptists are at their best when a dissenting presence. Never closely aligned with political powers like the magisterial reformers of the 16th and 17th centuries, our forebears knew that their "citizenship" was determined by the Reign of God, not the kings or magistrates of their time. And they suffered for it--as do many of the faithful in Myanmar. We go to learn, to encourage, and to strengthen a missional partnership that is transforming for Myanmar Institute of Theology and for Central.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central's missional pursuits, visit www.cbts.edu

Democratizing Mission

2011-02-28T11:01:00.000-06:00

The world has been closely attuned to the convulsions for freedom in the Middle East over the past few weeks. It is clear that despotic, autocratic rulers that squelch the legitimate longings for meaningful employment, unbridled communication, self-determining governance, and competitive education cannot hold sway over the masses in their countries interminably. God created human beings in freedom, for freedom. And this freedom cannot be delayed forever, as Martin Luther King, Jr. advised. As Christians we affirm, “for freedom Christ has set us free”; the question we must probe is: how does this theological confession interface with the universal longing for freedom? We are called to reflect on the democratization of mission.

When we consider how to do mission in our day, we must be acutely aware of the kind of world we engage (factors I mentioned in my last posting.) Formerly, mission conjured the idea of Christians “sending” to those places where God was unknown, where “civilization” looked different from the mission society doing the sending. In our day, the word mission conveys a much broader interpretation. There are mission statements for schools, corporations, social services—in addition to faith communities. Christians do not own the word “mission,” so we must speak about the mission of humanity. The missio humanitatis begins with how God has made us, and it seeks to gather up the universal yearning to “put the world to rights,” in the language of N.T. Wright. One way to describe this mission is as a “common task” that draws all humanity into its pursuit. M. Thomas Thangaraj summarizes this mission of humanity as responsibility, solidarity, and mutuality. These words suggest a level of vulnerability for all who work together for liberative purposes; persons who collaborate are changed by finding common ground. We grow together as we share our understandings of the human condition and the ways of grace we are learning.

Mission is the very core of God’s work in the world, and God chooses the incarnational principle as the most effective means. As the Word became flesh in Jesus, so the word must continue to be embodied throughout the world as we participate in mission as joint action for justice, peace, education, healing, and hopeful presence. Persons who participate in God’s redemptive mission always find themselves drawn into the larger story of the eager longing of all creation (Romans 8: 19). Mission in our day will be more encompassing than how we have understood salvation in the past; it will have ecological dimensions, also. Mission will be driven by a deep compassion for the most vulnerable, and it will seek to alleviate inexorable suffering as much as possible. Humans have an obligation to one another and to the world, given by God, to share. The story of Jesus will never be far from the lips of his missional people, but listening to the groaning of all creation (which includes humanity) in its cry for freedom is the first step.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a school that is seeking to listen to this groaning, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Mission in a New Key

2011-02-24T09:31:00.000-06:00

Next week faculty and students from Central will return once again to Myanmar on a missional pilgrimage. This wonderful opportunity to visit with Christian sisters and brothers in a historic and beleaguered land calls us to reflection on how to think about the practice of mission in our day. The world has changed dramatically since the Judsons arrived in Burma in 1813, and we must consider new factors in our desire to live the Gospel mandate.

M. Thomas Thangaraj, who grew up in South India, offers insight on how a theology of Christian mission must adapt to new realities in his book The Common Task. He sketches five developments in the hundred years since the World Missionary Conference that met in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, a dramatic overture in the Protestant missionary movement. The robust enthusiasm of this gathering about the promise of global evangelization is challenged by the following:

1) Loss of optimism about human progress and possibility of transformation resulted from World Wars I and II. In his words, “confidence in the efforts of humans to evangelize the whole world was chastened by a realistic understanding of the human predicament.”

2)The dismantling of the colonial framework means that many pathways for traditional “expansion” forms of mission are closed. For instance, our friends at Myanmar Institute of Theology are quick to say: “we are not a mission field; we are global mission partners.” Their statement reflects a new self-understanding as the military regime ceased allowing missionary presence in 1966.

3)The resurgence and renaissance of religions other than Christianity call into question any form of triumphalism about the “superiority” of Christian faith. These religions are not flourishing only in the lands of their origin, however; the religious landscape is shifting in major US cities. The Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist faiths have vibrant communities here in Kansas City.

4) We live with a new consciousness of the reality of religious pluralism. As the global marketplace draws all the world more closely together, we learn of the imbedded traditions of others. The Luce Foundation invites us to practice “respect for the lived religions of others,” which means that we not only acknowledge this pluralism, but find ways to live creatively together.

5) The last development is the rise of postmodern thought. This perspective denies that there is one overarching narrative that interprets reality for the whole world. Christian theology has traditionally interpreted the salvific hopes of the world through the biblical narrative. Postmodern thinking challenges this position.

We simply cannot ignore this analysis when we consider how the song of mission can be transposed for our time. I will continue this reflection in my next blog, for mission remains at the heart of Christian identity.

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about Central—the seminary of Kansas—visit www.cbts.edu

Give Us Understanding

2011-02-21T09:55:00.000-06:00

Two friends of mine—gracious friends of Central—are teaching a class at their church to help couples foster intimacy in their marriages. They have laughed that they had better work on their relationship in order to lead this class with integrity! In a recent conversation the husband spoke of a new insight: what each of most desires is understanding. When we share the burdens of our hearts with our loved ones, it is not for them to fix the situation; it is an opportunity for them to express understanding. Understanding places us on the side of the one expressing concern, and we are drawn into his or her perspective on the vicissitudes of life. When we try to “fix” another’s situation, we display a subtle superiority that disempowers rather than supports.

Psalm 119, that really long acrostic poem about God’s revelation to and expectations of Israel, often returns to the theme of seeking wisdom and gaining understanding. These are gifts that God will provide for those who earnestly seek them. In the seventh week after the Epiphany, we listen to this text: “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). It appears that the Psalmist is praying to be able to see things more clearly as God sees them. Perhaps another interpretation is the desire for God to understand the Psalmist’s (or the nation’s) situation, with all its frailty and vulnerability.

Understanding requires an intentional willingness to make space for the desire or condition of the other—and be changed by it. The old theological doctrine of impassibility, held tightly by classical theism, states that God does not have passions and that God cannot be acted on from external powers. This doctrine is no longer the voice of orthodoxy. Thankfully, in more recent years, theologians have maintained if God cannot suffer with us, God cannot love us. It seems to me that understanding is about suffering with another and thereby growing in love. God offers the deepest understanding through pitching a tent on our side, becoming one of us (John 1: 14). We are called, also, to this kind of understanding.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit www.cbts.edu

Becoming Lovers

2011-02-14T13:31:00.000-06:00

As cards and candy and jewelry and flowers fly off the shelves today in the flurry of a commercialized St. Valentine’s Day celebration, let’s think together about what becoming lovers entails. Although I would like to give a clear liturgical grounding for today’s celebration, the historical roots are murky at best. In the fifth century, the church declared February 14^th a feast day honoring “St. Valentine,” supposedly a third century martyr who promoted romantic love. (Actually there were two, maybe three, St. Valentines from the same epoch of church history so one day was to cover them all.) The popularization of the day more likely came from the writings of Chaucer in medieval England—and later Shakespeare—both of whom speak about the celebration of love in the name of St. Valentine.

Known for complicated sentences and a vocabulary that is arcane, theologians can be lovers, too. Actually, the vocation of a theologian (and every Christian is a theologian) is to love God and invite others to that passionate pursuit. A theologian listens to Scripture, for there the cadences of God’s love reverberate; Scripture also instructs how to become a lover. The lectionary reading from Deuteronomy for the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany enjoins the hearer to “love the Lord your God…for that means life to you…” (30: 20). Humans are wired to love. The most basic impulse as children is toward what Hans Küng describes as a “fundamental trust.” (It took him about 400 pages to say that in Does God Exist?, so I have saved you a whole lot of time!) We were created to love God—and each other.

Loving others is always grounded in the love God has for us; we love because God “first loved us.” God loves lavishly, and as persons created in the image of the relational God, we are to learn to love unstintingly, also. Loving as God loves is never a zero sum game—as if there is not enough to go around. Love is the most dynamic energy in the world; it grows in marvelous ways as we participate in the abundance of God’s love, thereby becoming lovers—like God.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a seminary where theologians are learning to love God more deeply, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Undergoing God

2011-02-07T09:31:00.000-06:00

One of the opportunities I have to serve the larger community is through participating in interfaith events here in the KC area. This past Thursday my treasured friend, Abbot Gregory of Conception Abbey, and I presented our understanding of how the Psalter invites and instructs our prayers. Gathered at the Jewish Community Center were rabbis, scholars of Christian Scripture, justice workers, and pastors. Central had a significant presence at this event—not because the President was on the program, but because our seminary wants to learn better how to be faithful in the midst of religious pluralism. This is one of the places where the Spirit is prompting Christians to pay attention, in my judgment.

Abbot Gregory spoke out of his life experience as a Benedictine monk of 40 years; at the monastery the community assembles five times each day for prayer, always with the Psalter in hand. Over two weeks’ time, they chant all 150 Psalms. I spoke about how the Psalter “plows the soil of the heart,” making it receptive and fertile for the word of God. As I prepared, I remembered what Daniel Berrigan, hardly a conventional interpreter, writes in Uncommon Prayer of his own encounter with the Psalms. In wrestling with the reality of human violence and sin portrayed there, he said he had “undergone God, and lived to sing it out.” How wise and revealing is this insight!

Too few of us put ourselves in a place where “undergoing God” might occur. We try to domesticate, control, and put at our disposal the God before whom all hearts are open. We falsely believe that our ways are hidden to God, and we live as if we were not always coram Deo—Luther’s description of how all of life is lived inescapably before God. Regular engagement with the wisdom and reproach of the psalms is a means of the reorientation that Berrigan describes, and it is a life-long process of responding to God’s desire for “truth in the inward being” (Psalm 51: 6). Personal integrity ensues when there is fuller coherence between the “cover story” and the “hidden story” of our lives.

The lectionary psalm for this week intones “Happy are those who fear the Lord… they rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous ”(Ps. 112: 1, 4). Fearing the Lord orients humans to live as instruments of grace in a world that batters the heart. In God, “their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid” (v. 8). The Psalter is not only a teacher of prayer, but it is also a cantor for worship. It offers a grammar for our faith so that we might speak of what it means to undergo God. And, we pray, we will be able to “sing it out” as a worthy oblation to the One upon whom our lives depend, in life and in death.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, please visit our website www.cbts.edu

Doing Justice...for Chickens

2011-01-31T15:56:00.001-06:00

“You look like a person interested in faith,” remarked my seat mate on a long flight last evening. While I do not have “I love seminary” tattooed on me anywhere (at least not yet), I usually work theological education into most conversations for it is what I care about most deeply. It was not my obvious piety that caught his eye, however, but what I was reading—a recent theological work. He wanted to talk about an issue of justice that he is passionate about and thought I might offer a sympathetic ear. He proceeded to talk about the inhumane treatment of chickens in the poultry industry. He spoke lovingly of these creatures, praising their sweet temperaments and concerned for what they are forced to endure. He concluded his spiel by saying “whew, that was hard. I am really a shy guy.” He risked this conversation because he genuinely cares about the well-being of chickens.

Being a witness to others was an essential part of being a disciple in my Christian formation. One was always to be vigilant because an opportunity to share the gospel might be at hand, and surely I did not to fail to “give reason for the hope” within. It took courage to speak to the “lost” in this way, but the work of evangelism was non-negotiable in my brand of Baptists. At times the act of testimony was more about self-righteousness than genuine care for the recipient of the witness, but we persevered. Always memorable conversations, these face to face encounters changed both the proclaimer and hearer of the Gospel in some way. Regrettably, this form of witnessing has fallen by the wayside in many traditions. When offered with humility rather than smug certainty, faithful witness transpires and the possibility of new life ensues.

Yet words alone are never enough, as Micah wrote. Doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God require transformative initiatives that are not preoccupied with ensuring one’s own righteousness before God. “Thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil” (Micah 6: 7) are not what God desires; rather God seeks our engagement in God’s own liberative work in the world. As we find ways of doing justice, our words ring true, and we are able to invite others to join in the long story of faith.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central—the seminary I especially love—visit our website www.cbts.edu

United in Mind and Purpose

2011-01-24T10:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday morning in Sunday School (yes, it is important for a seminary president to be rooted in a class where “everyone knows your name”), we took up the thorny topic of conflict. Using Distinguished Professor Olson’s new book, Love Letter to a Conflicted Church, we began to examine why we are so fearful and virulent in our disagreements—especially with other Christians. Our faith touches the deepest things within us; thus it is understandable that conflicts in this area provoke anxiety and self-protectiveness. We also have the tendency to personalize conflict in ways that prove unhealthy. Even for the more mature among us, it is hard to allow that another perspective holds equal validity to our own.

The Epistle reading for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany shines a light on a perpetually conflicted community, the church at Corinth. (I have always wondered why Baptists like to name churches after this cantankerous expression of the Body of Christ!) “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me…that there are quarrels among you…” (1 Corinthians 1:10-11). Paul well knows that a conflicted church could render the Gospel even more unbelievable in a context that already viewed it as scandalous and foolish, hence he exhorts the Corinthians to unity that can only be found in Christ.

In a time when vitriolic rhetoric sears the airwaves, God is calling persons of good will to practice ways of engaging conflict that hold promise (a key thesis of Olson’s book.) Often Christians of both conservative and progressive wings forget that ideas cannot be abstracted from the relationships where they are incarnate, and that truth is never the sole possession of one perspective. That is why in the Corinthian correspondence disputes over “insiders or outsiders,” primacy of gifts, theological correctness on the resurrection, role of the Holy Spirit, order in worship, etc., must find resolution in abounding love—the greatest of God’s gifts.

I will be listening to the national discourse this week as the President offers the State of the Union address. Even more, I will pay attention to my own pejorative speech that undercuts unity of mind and purpose.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a seminary which strives “to receive all as Christ” in the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Providential Reciprocity

2011-01-18T19:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday all across America we celebrated the life of a prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many sang and prayed and marched and listened to soaring rhetoric, exhorting us not to let his dream die. This annual ritual prompts us to remember what he gave his far too young life for, and it invites us to renew our work for justice in our world. I imagine that those who were his contemporaries wonder "how long O Lord..." must we bear with unfinished business. I wonder if those who have not borne such costs want to shoulder the present generations' responsibility. Transformation requires all of us, truly. Have we picked up the mantle that is ours?

Recently I read a Thomas Merton book that somehow I missed along the way. Seeds of Destruction, written in 1964, narrates his profound appreciation of Dr. King and his belief that white society has betrayed Christ by its injustices to races it considered "inferior." Provocatively Merton suggests that the "Negro" (his language in that epoch) is offering an occasion "to enter with him into a providential reciprocity willed for us by God." He argued perceptively for the humility required of white Americans to follow the lead of one who would rather suffer injustice than inflict it.

Like John the Baptist of old, King came "as a witness to testify to the light" (John 1: 7). John understood that his call was to follow the "Lamb of God," and he pointed beyond himself. In the second week after the Epiphany, the Gospel reading (John 1:29-42) compels us to reflect on what following the Lamb entails. For the early disciples it meant departing from home, re-orienting their lives as fishers, and learning to abide in the company of the one perpetually on the move. Dr. King and his inner circle well knew this reality. Their lives were no longer their own, and they kept going only because of their conviction that God's arc of history was toward justice.

Gently, Jesus invites these Galileans to "come and see." Soon we observe, as we follow the story of James and John, Andrew and Simon Peter, that the call of God is personal, but not private. Jesus has called them to new life, and Jesus has called them to live their faith sacrificially. "Providential reciprocity" is a way of life that is fundamentally different when in the company and service of Christ. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960's is built on the foundation of Jesus own messianic way of self-giving.

We give thanks to God for calling our Christian brother, Martin, to a life of following a non-violent lamb. We give thanks for his form of discipleship, for he lived with the echoes of Jesus' call ever reverberating in his speech and actions. He did not betray Christ, but embodied him anew. Through God's providence we can move toward a more just and reciprocal community, indeed, a beloved one.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a seminary that is seeking to honor the diversity God relishes, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Joining the Beloved

2011-01-10T09:34:00.000-06:00

Early in the new liturgical year we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. Receiving baptism from the protesting John, Jesus stated that it was to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3: 15). Those familiar with the book of Matthew know that often the gospel writer explains how an event in Jesus’ life is to fulfill the prophetic word, and thus is an expression of righteousness—which is the will and purpose of God. Together John and Jesus perform God’s purpose in this historic baptism.

Trinitarian theologians are quick to note that the threefold divine presence is narrated in this passage. In many ways, it is an echo of Genesis 1 as the Word of God brings all creation into being through the brooding of the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep. Rending heaven to make space for creation at the beginning is joined now by a voice declaring the Son as the beloved. Earlier the Spirit was poured out into all creation, giving it life; now the Spirit rests on the one loved by God and pleasing to the Holy One. The baptism of Jesus is inaugurated in the Jordan, but it is not the whole of it. His baptism is his whole life of self-giving, immersed in the sufferings and extremities of being one of us. And we are joined to him through our baptism, incorporated into his life by the Spirit.

This past Friday at the Abbey, students in the Benedictine Spirituality class celebrated Eucharist together. We had observed the daily mass held at the Abbey, but had not partaken because of the divisions between Roman Catholics and Protestants. While welcome in all other aspects of the worship of their community, sharing in Eucharist would indicate a unity not yet achieved, as canon law puts it. Because Baptists and other Protestants do not affirm the full sacramental system of the RC Church—which includes papal infallibility—we respect the “fence around the table” as earlier theologians described it. When Friday arrives, we are hungry to share in this nourishing sign of our faith, recognizing that we, too. share in the Body of Christ and are beloved. As a part of the service, I took a small flask of oil (actually it was a kind of baby oil) to anoint the hands of our class members. “Remember your baptism,” I said as I made the sign of the cross on each hand.

It is when we remember our baptism that we become acutely aware that we are beloved by God. This is the deepest longing of our life, to know that we are uniquely treasured by God. Joined to Christ, we are able also to fulfill all righteousness. Thanks be to God!

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary in the Baptist tradition, visit our website www.cbts.edu

A Time for...Prayer

2011-01-04T11:16:00.000-06:00

"For everything there is a season" writes the sage, and "a time for every matter under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1). It is a time for prayer for fifteen of us this week as we sojourn at Conception Abbey for an immersion course in Benedictine Spirituality. Every other January I bring students and life-long learners to the Abbey so that we might learn to listen better for the voice of God as we pray. This year is especially meaningful as we have seven students from the Milwaukee Centre of Central; also a student from our Murfreesboro site is here, in addition to students from the Shawnee campus. We are strengthening our bonds as brothers and sisters in Christ and as fellow seminarians as we share meals, class sessions and, above all, the liturgy of the hours (Opus Dei ), which comprises the regular times of communal prayer.

We have come eager to embrace a different rhythm, and already students have adjusted to 6:00 AM Vigils and an earlier bedtime, with little "murmuring"--a destructive habit adamantly forbidden in the Rule of St. Benedict. (No one has been caught so far napping in the church--only in class when the professor drones on a little long...). Of this liturgical season the monks like to say: "we are just getting a good start on Christmas up here." The church is beautifully decorated with lighted trees, a treasured nativity scene, poinsettias, banners of red and gold, vigil lights that announce Epiphany--all building up the celebration of the baptism of Jesus this coming Sunday. The texts recount the visitation of the Magi and its revelation that the Christ is a gift for the whole world, and the hymns celebrate the true Light coming into the world.

The beginning of a new year is an apt time to renew the bedrock practice of our faith as Christians, which is prayer. Perhaps the best definition of prayer is offered by Roberta Bondi: "prayer is shared life with God." The wisdom of Benedictine spirituality is that the work of God, to which "nothing should be preferred," is making prayer the very center of life. Further wisdom from this tradition notes that prayer in community sustains individual practice.

While we are at the Abbey, we are praying for Central, for the communities from which we have come, and for one another. By acknowledging the presence of Christ in all persons, we are led to pray more lovingly for each. We trust that our experiences this week will remind us that it is always a season for prayer.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the reach of Central in Milwaukee, Murfreesboro, Myanmar, the urban core of Kansas City, and in Shawnee, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Salvation through Scandal

2010-12-28T10:42:00.001-06:00

The quiet period between Christmas and the new year offers time for reflection on all that we have experienced in these holy days. Hopefully we have connected with family and friends and have found ways to remember those less well connected. Above all, I trust that we have taken time to remember God's mercy in providing for us a Savior. Yet, as much as we would like to avoid this truth, the redemption of God is not without scandal. All the glowing light of the season cannot take away the darkness of suffering.
The readings for the first Sunday after Christmas remind us of costly sacrifice--on the part of God and on the part of humanity. Isaiah 63:7-9 voices the communal lament of a weary people: will God remember us now and save us through abiding with us as holy presence? The cry of the desolate is met by divine silence. No comforting resolution is forthcoming, for the people of covenant have not returned to faithful living. The Gospel reading speaks of divine providence in rescuing the Jesus child, but at the expense of other little toddling Behelehem children (Matthew 2:13-23). This text is one of the main reasons Frank Tupper writes of a "scandalous providence." The Epistle reading from Hebrews recounts how the pioneer of human salvation became "perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). Hence, Jesus is not ashamed to be linked with us who share the same flesh and blood, protesting as we do when we feel forsaken. (The early church readily applied the whole of Psalm 22 to Jesus, as a footnote in The New Interpreters' Study Bible (p. 2156) informs.
What are we to make of these anguished texts, so full of salvific promise and so laden with pathos? At the least, these texts suggest that God uses the groaning processes of this world in the long arc of redemption. Evil human machinations are part of the complicated means God uses to achieve divine purposes. Yes, a promised Savior has been born; yet his life will be surrounded by scandal. First, there was that conception out of wedlock; a crude birthing room; birth announcement by shepherds (the angels had returned into heaven); strange visitors from the East; and, finally, a threat to his life that made immigrants of his parents. Ultimately he will die a most humiliating death and, from his sacrifice, redemption will flow.
As Christians we cannot avoid the shadow side of our narrative of salvation. The mercy of our God shows up in the most scandalous of circumstances--if we have eyes to see. Because our Savior "was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested" (Hebrews 2:18). In this we find great hope as well as a mirror for the reality of the tragic we all endure.
Molly T. Marshall
For more information about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit our website www.cbts.edu

The Child as Sign

2010-12-20T10:53:00.001-06:00

Children signal the true state of reality. Healthy, happy children reveal civil arrangements that provide services to those who have no choice in the matter; starving, abandoned children give evidence that the ecology of economics, politics, and environment is deserting those most vulnerable to the decisions of others. The faces of children populate the ads of shrewd marketing campaigns—whether to encourage capitalism or sound the alarm of failing systems.

It is as a child that God reveals the world’s true longing. We long for the basic necessities of life, true; however, we long for so much more. [Sadly, much of the world’s population does not have the luxury of longing for more…] The child is a sign of what matters most to humanity: a sense of inclusion, peaceful relations with others, justice for all, and burgeoning hope for the world to be put to rights. When Isaiah speaks of the young woman who will bear the child, Immanuel, he tells forth God’s intention to redeem—as well as to judge—those called to live into God’s future (Isaiah 7: 10-16). The source of redemption is unlikely—a child who will know “how to refuse the evil and choose the good” (v. 15b).

When I was a graduate student in Cambridge, I had the privilege of regularly attending evensong at King’s College during Advent. The lilting voices of the renowned boys choir invited the congregation to remember that Christ

“…was little, weak and helpless,

Tears and smiles like us He knew;

And He feels for all our sadness,

And he shares in all our gladness.

Not only did God identify as our “childhood’s pattern,” as the hymn Once in Royal David’s City put it, but the sign of the child breaks down the walls of division. Beyond the choir stalls at the far end of the chapel hangs the lovely Rubens’ painting, “The Adoration of the Magi.” There, kneeling before the infant, are the “kings.” Rather than being portrayed as three Persians, they represent the three known parts of the world, African, Asia, and Europe. The symbolism is striking; it is the child that brings the world’s people together.

As we welcome the child anew, may we also acknowledge him as God’s sign for the world, a sign of hope for all.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about our seminary which seeks to honor Christ, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Returning with Song

2010-12-13T09:45:00.000-06:00

It would not be Advent without singing. Even those of us terribly out of vocal practice (with no more diaphragm support than a leaky balloon) are prompted to lift our voices to share in the celebration of the world’s great hope. Those with ebbing memory find words long forgotten rising to their lips, reminding them of joy past and present—and the promise of a future, with hope. Preeminently during this season do the people of God sing their faith. Perhaps more than any decorative flourish it is the music of the season—the great oratorios and the time-burnished carols—that draw us toward expectant joy.

Isaiah 35 portrays the return of exiles with these accompanying signs: “the eyes of the blind shall be opened; the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame shall leap like a hart; and the speechless shall sing for joy” (vv. 5-6). Through the wilderness they shall pass on the Holy Way (v. 8), and God’s people shall “come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads…” (v. 10). This prophetic assurance was transformative in the eighth century; it remains so for faithful people who look to the consummation of God’s Reign. The promise is that singing is possible because they are accompanied by God.

Thomas Long has written an insightful work on the role of singing as a part of Christian funeral practices (Accompany Them with Singing), but I think his work has broad application for how we profess our faith. Music touches the deep places of our lives, and some theology can only be sung. Rabbi Abraham Heschel writes that listening to music can be “a shattering experience, throwing the soul into an encounter with an aspect of reality to which the mind can never related itself adequately…” Even more than listening, offering frail voice in joyous participation is an act of vulnerable courage. When we sing our faith, we do “pray twice” as Augustine put it.

What memorable hymnic phrases gather up your longings at this time of year? It could be the poignant “What shall I give him, poor as I am?” to the majestic “O Come, O Dayspring, come and cheer our spirit spirits by your advent here,” to the haunting medieval Divinum Mysterium:

Depths and heights break forth in singing, angels, saints make melody,

All dominions, every power sing, make new psalms of ecstasy,

Let no heart refrain from praising God, celebrate in harmony, forever and forever.

How thankful I am for the opportunity to praise through song. Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about Central, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Repenting in Advent

2010-12-03T10:10:00.000-06:00

The colors of the liturgical seasons have special significance, and many Baptists have awakened to the rhythms of the Christian year. Churches and ministers wear dark blue or purple during the Advent season to represent both the expectation of royalty and the practice of penitence that accompanies the coming of Christ. [This past Sunday I was the outlier as I showed up in blue while the other ministers wore purple—oh well! Actually, that was the least of my worries as the guest preacher—but that will have to await another blog entry, or more likely a personal conversation...]

Lent is not the only season that requires self-examination and spiritual reorientation; Advent reveals above all the need the world has for a Savior from God, one like us, yet able to provide a connection with God that we cannot muster on our own. The Gospel reading for the second Sunday of Advent recounts the ministry of John the Baptist and his clarion call: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3: 2). Faithful to his prophetic role, John serves as the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” His message was straightforward: “Turn around and come back to the way of life charted by the covenant.”

Most of us do not like to turn around! I have been known to think I had a better sense of direction than the GPS, sure that I could find my way as “recalculating” echoes in the car. Some of us who are stubbornly recalcitrant will keep going the wrong way because it seems like progress, rather than retrace our steps to get back on the straight path. Advent offers the opportunity to assess our direction and be guided once again by the Morningstar.

Repentance might take this form for me this year:

· Giving time rather than more “stuff” to those I love

· Offering more resources to mission organizations

· Recognizing that humility creates more space in my life for God; “empty hands” allow one to receive

· Remembering that joy is often accompanied by pain, as the Holy family well knew; I must not expect one without the other

Christ is coming. Our repentance helps prepare us to receive him once again.

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about Central’s perichoretic vision of diversity, hospitality, and generativity, visit www.cbts.edu

Waking to Light

2010-11-29T15:42:00.000-06:00

Here we are again, dear sisters and brothers, at the beginning of the Christian year—with hopes and fears and sighs too deep for words. Much has happened in this past year: the shock of living in a world that perceives possible peril lurking around every corner; the reality of a swooning economy; the deaths of loved ones; transitions in leadership; and new questions about how to think about when religion becomes evil—be it Islam, Judaism, or Christianity. The celebration of Advent begins with the acknowledgement of human alienation from God and the drastic consequences of human sinfulness. Repentance must not be reserved only for Lent! The light of Christ shines both from the cradle and the cross, illumining the pathway for the people who walk in darkness.

Paul urges: “The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing!” (Romans 13: 12, The Message.) We are not to sleepwalk our way through the times of our lives. There is no greater lament than the person who realizes that there is no more opportunity to be reconciled with those wounded by careless words or actions; we are to recognize that limited time spurs us to act with urgency. Karl Barth reminds us that limited time is a gift—we can claim the space and time that is uniquely our own. We are to do the work that is ours to do, for God has left us each with our own tasks to discharge in hope.

These texts for the first Sunday of Advent speak of the hope that is grounded in God’s fidelity. Hope is that wonderfully resilient force that keeps us headed forward; remembrance gives perspective and, hopefully correction; hope keeps us moving into God’s future. It is part of what makes us like God, and we are to be awake to what God is doing. God is clothing believers with the “armor of light,” the very presence of Christ. In him we become luminaries that beckon others to waken to the “true light coming into the world.”

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Guiding Our Feet into the Way of Peace

2010-11-22T11:40:00.004-06:00

Russian icon of Zechariah,
holding a scroll containing the
opening words of the Benedictus
(18th century, Kizhi Monastery, Russia).

The final Sunday of the Christian year is designated as Christ the King Sunday. The lectionary texts summarize the ministry of the Messianic way of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 23 envisions a caring leader, a righteous branch, who will surpass David as the true shepherd-king. The Epistle reading (Colossians 1: 11-20) describes the preeminent position Christ holds in the church and all creation. The Gospel lesson, Luke 1:68-79, frames the whole work of redemption as God looks favorably on the people.

The Benedictus (also known as the Canticle of Zachary) is one of three canticles in the opening chapters of Luke. Best known is the Magnificat, the soaring exultation of Mary as she celebrates the coming one; lesser known is Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis, a benediction on his the fulfillment of his life’s yearning—he has encountered the “consolation” of Israel, baby Jesus in the temple. The Benedictus speaks of two figures: the mighty savior and the one who goes before to prepare his ways. The canticle, above all, testifies to God’s faithfulness to the holy covenant of old which overflows with mercy and forgiveness.

In the Benedictine tradition, singing this canticle is a part of Lauds, the celebrative morning prayer. Some scholars say that this practice goes all the way back to Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Benedictine order. A decade ago I spent a sabbatical at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN, and this canticle provided guidance for how to live life according to God’s purposes. Chanting this lyrical summary of the gospel ways of God each morning had a profound and formative impact on me, especially the final couplet.

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Christ is God’s tender mercy poured out in the world, breaking into all the places that need light and liberation. The goal of this is that we might follow the Prince of Peace and live with hope “into the way of peace.”

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Like the Days of a Tree

2010-11-15T13:15:00.000-06:00

Isaiah 65:17-25 is a part of the final section of this prophetic book, written with joyful hope about the promise beyond exile. The writer, sometimes called “Third Isaiah,” describes what life shall be like when the scattered return to Jerusalem and are no longer bound by “the former things.” Life will be good! No weeping or sadness; long lives; new dwellings; productive vineyards; behaving children—no more bearing “children for calamity”; effective praying, i.e., “before they call I will answer…”; and, “the wolf and the lamb shall feed together.” Finally, to make sure the reader gets the point: “the lion shall eat straw like the ox…” (v. 25). [What self-respecting lion wants to relish a bovine diet?] It is this concluding assurance of the reconciliation in the creaturely world that allows the reader to understand that the vision of the prophet stretches beyond the historical restoration of Jerusalem to the eternal reign of God in the new creation.

The prophet also outlines an enduring quality of life for the people of God: “for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be” (v. 22). A couple of days ago there was an interesting article about an ancient tree that had been a part of the life of a Pennsylvania town for 213 years. The caretaker of the tree was similarly long-lived; he lived to be 102 and had spent a great deal of that extended life tending the tree. [Maybe they encouraged each other in longevity.] When the huge elm finally had to be taken down—after surviving 14 different attacks of Dutch Elm disease—it still had value. Pieces of the tree became guitars, mantle clocks, furniture, and other works of art. Truly it was a “giving tree.”

Comparing the life of the people of God to the flourishing of a tree, the writer traverses the boundary between life and death as the text shifts from a “this world” prophetic vision of the future to an apocalyptic “next world” vision. While the theology of resurrection is far from fully developed at this point in Israel’s history, there is confidence that God plans a future that includes all whom God loves. Next Sunday is the culmination of the Christian year as we celebrate “Christ the King.” This is the appropriate conclusion to the journey from Bethlehem to the eternal reign where God makes space for us through the work of Christ.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the work of Central in forming “oaks of righteousness,” please visit www.cbts.edu

Children of the Resurrection

2010-11-08T15:42:00.000-06:00

As Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary winds down, we listen to an interesting conversation (recorded in Luke 20:27-38) between Jesus and Sadducees about resurrection. One chuckles as we overhear the rather preposterous scenario posed by these who said there was no resurrection. WHAT IF…seven brothers all married the same woman (the latter six as levirate marriage obligation required, so that each husband would live on through descendants); whose wife would she be in the resurrection? It is a rather convoluted argument, especially since the Sadducees thought it a bogus doctrine in the first place.

Jesus dismisses the grounds for argument by “explaining that life in the resurrection will not simply be a continuation of life as we now know it,” in the words of Alan Culpepper. The need for women to be protected through marriage, or the need for descendants to hold the departed in memory, no longer exist in the life beyond. Rather, Jesus assures his interlocutors that they can be confident that God is God “not of the dead, but of the living” (v. 38). In faith and hope they can live as “children of the resurrection” already, believing that death is not the last word.

I have just returned from a gathering of seminary leaders in Pittsburgh. Presidents, board chairs, CFO’s, financial coaches, and ATS staff gave our best thinking to guiding financially fragile seminaries through the economic down-turn. One seminary, deeply stressed in these days, spoke about calling its board to extended prayer and fasting. I respect this perspective because of its utter reliance upon the resources of God; I also trust that the leaders of this fine school have a feasible business plan in addition. God is truly the God of the living, and faltering schools entrust their renewal to the providence of God. Resurrection requires a death to old patterns, and new life is always birthed in new forms. That is our experience as we have discerned creative pathways for theological education. Over these recent years God has made it clear to Central’s board and leadership team that it is the divine will that we flourish! We seek to be faithful to God’s unique calling for us in this time, in this place, and in all the other places that the ministry of Central reaches. We are called to be children of the resurrection.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the renewal Central is experiencing, visit www.cbts.edu

Remembering Saints

2010-11-03T11:26:00.002-05:00

All Saints and All Souls are liturgical holidays that call us to remember those who have gone before and to give thanks. Along with confessing our belief in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, Christians confess that we believe in the communion of saints, a “Christian symbol that speaks of profound relationship,” in the words of Elizabeth Johnson (Friends of God and Prophets). This relationship is not enjoyed only by those “whose rest is won.” The communion of saints speaks of an ongoing concourse between those living in Christ this side of death and those treasured in memory and hope. One of the primary ways we enter into this remembrance is through participating at the Lord’s Table, which is an anticipatory celebration of the great messianic banquet where saints gather from east and west, north and south.

I hold a lovely memory from Douglas’ last day of life. During the morning hours he began to articulate that he sensed death was near. “I am not recoverable” was his own clinical assessment—ever the forthright physician. Swallowing had become difficult, and I administered his medication by crushing it and sliding it down his throat in ice cream. Early afternoon, he brightened a bit and, looking beyond me to an eternal horizon, said with a clear voice: “I think I’ll have a piece of meat.” Was he placing his order for a heavenly meal to which he was being beckoned? When he died that evening, with a little smile on his face, I could imagine that he had indeed arrived at the Lord’s Table.

The Epistle lesson for All Saints encourages us to know the hope of our calling, the riches of Christ’s “glorious inheritance among the saints…” (Ephesians 1:18). It is through communion with the Blessed Triune God and with one another that we are formed for eternal life. As we remember those who have gone before, we are encouraged to faithfulness in the present. May we sing with all those who make their slow pilgrimage on earth William W. How’s inspired words:

O blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine.

Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about the communio sanctorum at Central, visit www.cbts.edu

Rescued from the Lion's Mouth

2010-10-28T09:52:00.000-05:00

This week’s epistle reading, 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18 offers these poignant words: “At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth “ (vv.16-17). Somehow this text never made it to the list of verses to memorize in Sunday School or Vacation Bible School at First Baptist Church, Muskogee, OK. I have never preached on it, but have tried to understand it as the last communication of the Apostle Paul, summing up his vocation. Perhaps it was his final word from prison as he was awaiting his death. While there is a searing sense of abandonment and loneliness, he continues to profess his trust in the one who had made him “his own,” the living Christ.

Did Paul actually face lions in a Roman arena like other early Christian martyrs? We have no record of that; rather, he most likely is comparing his trials to what the heroic Daniel of Old Testament fame experienced. Tacitus, an early Christian writer, chronicles the horrific practices of pitting unarmed Christians against ravenous beasts in the Roman coliseum. Paul suffered many other life-threatening events, but not that.

Paul’s final testimony is a “jumble of complaint and request,” in the words of James D. G. Dunn. He has no other recourse than to rely on the steadfastness of God—many he had counted on could not persevere through the struggle to bring the Gospel to Europe. This passage is a distillate of all he has taught: God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. By confessing his need in forthright words, he puts himself in a “posture of receptivity,” in the words of the spiritual writer Richard Foster.

In this passage, the Apostle models for us what authentic witness requires. Casting himself upon the Lord, he trusted God to be with him whatever might happen. May we also grow toward this maturity in Christ.

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about our seminary where students are formed “according to the measure of Christ Jesus,” visit www.cbts.edu

Pouring Out the Spirit

2010-10-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

Joel’s ringing pronouncement of God’s gift of the Spirit (Joel 2:23-32) is a beloved text universally—except by a few old patriarchal soreheads who want to maintain a strict hierarchy of female subordination. Karl Barth was one of those, i.e., while he believed that male and female imaged God together (a helpful insight), the man was always superordinate and the woman was subordinate. The brilliance of this theologian is compromised by his assertion, in my judgment. Indeed, the expansive gift of the Spirit not only addresses gender inclusion, it also speaks to issues of age and class. Old and young, slave and free, male and female will receive the lavish outpouring of God’s presence as Holy Spirit.

This prophetic word reorients the pattern, the emerging pneumatology, of the Hebrew Bible. Heretofore, the Spirit occasionally rested upon key individuals who served unique purposes in the story of God’s redemption—Moses, Miriam, Joshua, and Deborah, to mention only a few. Linked to the coming of the Day of the Lord, Joel’s prophecy opens a new vista on God’s trinitarian history with the world. The idea of the Spirit being poured out in an egalitarian fashion and remaining is a new insight, readily appropriated in Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost.

It has taken the church too long to catch up to this encompassing vision. The church historically has been less than welcoming of women who voiced a calling to ministry, regarding their vocational direction with suspicion. As you might imagine, I have a special (perhaps vested) interest in this ecclesial practice. Thankfully, the reticence to call women to non-traditional roles is changing in many sociocultural contexts as congregations experience the giftedness of female pastoral leaders. How grateful I am to see burgeoning evidence of the outpouring of the Spirit in those God is calling to seminary. Women and men are coursing through our doors in Milwaukee, Murfreesboro, Shawnee, and the urban core of Kansas City; as bearers of the Spirit, they will pour their lives out in service as God draws near through them.

Molly T. Marshall To learn more about the Spirit’s work through Central, please visit www.cbts.edu

Praying Always

2010-10-19T09:59:00.004-05:00

With a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Jesus tells one of his best stories in Luke 18:1-8. It is about a persistent widow and an unrighteous judge who had "neither reverence for God, nor respect for humanity." The widow, with inheritance laws stacked against her, had no other recourse than to make herself a public nuisance by repeatedly demanding justice from this unscrupulous character. We do not know who her adversary was; perhaps a male relative trying to take what little remaining resources she had or a landlord who did not want her to remain in her lodging. Her perseverance paid off. The judge finally relents out of self interest (not reformation of character); "because this woman annoys me, I will give her justice, lest by her continual coming she wear me out" (v. 5, Montgomery translation). The text does not tell if she brought an umbrella or big purse with her with which to threaten the judge, but she surely made an impression. She won by sheer dint of persistence!

The parable is about prayer, Jesus explains, and this is where it gets difficult. He compares the unjust judge to God who will "see justice done" for the elect who cry to the Lord day and night. Then, we wonder, how much prayer is enough? Can one only get God's attention by repeatedly offering up the same petition? Is God testing the sincerity of the one praying? Jesus instructs his followers to pray always and not lose heart, surely a robust challenge.

From my own experience I know that my prayers change over time. When I began praying about a certain matter, I thought I knew the solution I wanted God to grant. Continuous prayer about the situation has led me to explore other possible "answers"; but more important, continuous prayer has deepened my relationship with God. And maybe that is the point. Praying always links us to God, and we grow in trust.

Yet, there may be another, better way to regard the parable. Maybe the unjust judge is not the right analogy for God; rather, the importunate widow may be the better characterization. God cries out to us to enact justice. Too often we "neither reverence God nor respect humanity." We are so curved in upon ourselves (Luther's definition of sin) that we ignore injustice all around us. God seeks to pray through us for the common good. True prayer begins with God, and we are wise to listen to the prayer the Spirit is already welling up within us. It is a cry for the reign of God to be realized through our actions. This prayer joins us to God and to others who wait for us to live justly.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a seminary that seeks to practice justice, visit our website http://www.cbts.edu/

Seeking the Welfare of All

2010-10-11T14:33:00.000-05:00

Jeremiah instructs those being sent into exile: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…for in its welfare you will find your welfare (29:7). Surely this is a statement of prophetic imagination; even while displaced, the people of God can work for the common good. Somehow the word “welfare” has come to be a distasteful, highly politicized term that describes a rung of society more interested in subsistence than work. The term actually has a much more venerable and noble history. For Christians, the Jewish root of welfare grounds our understanding. It is a form of justice (tzedakah). The poor are entitled to charity or welfare as a matter of right rather than benevolence.

Cliff Vaughn and Robert Parham of EthicsDaily.com recently invited me to provide an endorsement of the important new documentary, “Sacred Texts, Social Duty,” they produced. Here’s what I wrote: With keen insight into the social context of persons of faith in America, representative leaders from the Abrahamic traditions speak of the moral responsibility of taxes. The significant message of the documentary is that individual and congregational charity cannot resolve the urgent needs of those in poverty. Only public morality through constructive, progressive tax policies can address the common good and move toward justice. Viewing the responsibility of taxes through the lenses of sacred texts re-frames the issue and provides a timely public service. The unequivocal teaching of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur’an is that almsgiving demonstrates compassion and faith in God. These scriptures also advocate for participation in the larger social contract of taxation.

Seeking the welfare of the city in our day takes the form of generosity of heart when paying taxes, not the vigorous complaint too often voiced by those running for office. We all benefit by a tax system that protects the most vulnerable and requires those with greater resources to live justly. Hopefully persons of faith will offer leadership in this realm of social responsibility.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about a seminary that cares about justice, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Befriending in a Facebook World

2010-10-05T11:59:00.000-05:00

One of the lectionary texts for the 20^th Sunday after Pentecost is Lamentations 1: 1-6. These devastating words startle the reader: “…all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies” (v. 2b). Jeremiah’s lament is over Jerusalem, the beloved city of the people of covenant (reduced to the southern kingdom of Judah), now crushed by invading Babylonians. The traditional linkage of the fall of Jerusalem and the beginning of the exile with this book has been challenged of late. Contemporary interpreters are suggesting that the metaphorical nature of the five poems of the book of Lamentations can be applicable wherever there is a season of intense suffering and pain. What strikes me about the passage is the utter disruption of the thick relationships of the community—friendships, families, religious structures, and governing powers.

We live in such a time, also. From the popular cable program In Treatment we hear: “Families are gone, and friends are going the same way.” How do we retain meaningful relationships in a world that mediates (commodifies?) friendship through technology? Over the weekend I went to see “Social Network” with a young adult, seeking to learn more of the origins and epidemic fascination with Facebook. I have been ambivalent about social networking for a good while, a generational thing, perhaps. I dabbled in it for about a year (mostly passive engagement), and then recently decided to take my site down. While it is endlessly entertaining to see “six degrees of separation” in the web of connections, it is massively unrealistic to think there can be significant ongoing exchanges with more than a few. Besides, the ceaseless posting of personal activities feels like self-marketing (perhaps narcissistic)—a distinct contradiction of humility, the chief virtue of Christian spirituality.

In a Chronicle Review article (December 6, 2009) entitled “Faux Friendship,” William Deresiewicz asks “having been relegated to our screens, are our friendships now anything more than a form of distraction?” While the egalitarian accent of friendship in postmodern times is to be celebrated, the expectation that pastors or professors are always accessible and responsive, can be burdensome. Transgressing professional boundaries of authority and respect, the befriending impetus of Facebook may ultimately prove reductionist. Further, the lack of face to face engagement—even when people are face to face they are often checking their handheld devices—compromises the incarnational nature of the faith we possess. Technology becomes a buffer and displaces the hard work of ongoing relationship. Friendship holds a place of honor in biblical perspective; it is Jesus’ preferred language for those who follow him (John 15: 12ff). In my judgment, it seems imperative for us to re-fund the idea of friendship with theological depth, for it is central to God’s great redemptive project, reconciling the world. In that we are invited to participate, and social media might be of assistance; however, at the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I offer a cautionary note.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about our formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Living in the Shelter of the Most High

2010-09-27T15:46:00.000-05:00

Psalm 91 offers great assurance to those who will entrust themselves to the care of God. Designated as one of the “Night Psalms” in the Benedictine liturgy, this psalm is regularly used in the office of compline, the prayer of completion at the end of the day. Many threats lurk for humans—pestilence, the violence of war, and terror of the unknown in the dark. In the face of these, God promises deliverance:

When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble,

I will rescue them and honor them.

With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation (vv. 15-16).

In the face of this seemingly unequivocal pledge, a protest rises from the lips of those who have witnessed too much unrelieved suffering, too much injustice, and too many lives foreshortened by tragic circumstances. What can this psalm mean for the hungry child in Darfur, the homeless in Haiti, and the mentally ill sitting in jail in Kansas City?

Psalm 91 is no “magical guarantee against danger, threat, or difficulty,” in the words of J. Clinton McCann, Jr., in The New Interpreter’s Bible. Some have tried to use this psalm foolishly, pretending that the wounds of the world do not affect those who know God’s name. Rather, McCann suggests that a trustful relationship with God is deliverance. When we place ourselves and all of our life circumstances in God’s hands, we can live “in the shelter of the Most High.” That dwelling is not isolated from the extremities of life, but God secures meaningful life through God’s own faithful presence. In that place, one learns to call upon God, believing God will respond—and to call upon God for the sake of others as well, especially those who do not know how to pray for themselves.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Praying for Our Leaders

2010-09-21T08:55:00.000-05:00

1 Timothy 2: 1-2 instructs us to pray for our leaders. “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” At times I have wished that Baptists followed the example of the Anglican/Episcopal churches who make praying for ecclesial and civic leaders a regular part of worship. “We beseech thee also to rule the hearts of those who bear the authority of government in this and every land [especially________], that they may be led to wise decisions and right actions for the welfare and peace of the world.” As a part of the prayers of the people, it reminds the church that it does not live apart from culture, but smack dab in the middle of it. Yet its spiritual responsibility supersedes its political activism. I am not urging passive acceptance of all political machinations, but awareness of the church’s unique responsibility.

James Davison Hunter has written an intriguing new book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. His erudite and controversial argument is that political initiatives on the part of the church—whether from the right or the left—are doomed to failure, for the power to change culture is not located in the orb of Christianity. Rather, he argues, Christians must imbed themselves as “faithful presence” in every area of life—and the higher in cultural status the better. I am wrestling with his schematic, for it is provocative and cuts against the grain of how many of us think about Christian humility and ways social change can occur.

What is not debatable, in my judgment, is the mandate we have to intercede for our leaders. I think it is fair to say that most of us spend a great deal more time complaining about these officials than praying for them. Many feel that prayer is somehow not real action; but I would differ. Prayer is that centering process that gives us perspective to learn to see the world as God sees it. This is urgent, deeply Christian work that can leaven the loaf of social construction in powerful ways.

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about our formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit www.cbts.edu

Wrestling with Texts

2010-09-14T15:01:00.000-05:00

I must confess that I have put off writing this blog because some of the lectionary texts for this week are so searing in their rebuke of human rebellion, and I want to take them seriously. Jeremiah 4 warns of physical cataclysms because of the evil of God’s people; Psalm 14 warns those foolish enough to say “There is no God;” and the alternative reading from Exodus 32 narrates God’s fury at the Israelites for their idolatry in crafting the golden calf. These texts of warning about God’s fierce anger are domesticated in most of the preaching heard in all but the most sectarian conventicles. How should progressive Christians engage this rendering of the character of God?

Conventional hermeneutics often finds a way to soften this impassioned vision of God by saying these portrayals are “anthropomorphisms,” i.e., the writers have projected human emotions on God. Yet this interpretive ploy is not sustained when we read texts that convey the great mercy and compassion of God for the weak and wayward. The other lectionary texts for this week recount Paul’s joy in God’s overflow of grace in his life, “even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (1 Timothy 1:13). The second reading from the New Testament is of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to pursue the lost one—a parable of God’s great love for sinners. This is the vision of God we want to cling to, but is this a faithful reading of Scripture to subordinate the other rendering to the one we prefer?

You may recall that Marcion wanted to cut off the Hebrew Bible from the New Testament because he saw diametrically opposed perspectives on God in them. Thankfully, early Christianity did not fall for his neat law-and-grace scheme, caricatured as the “God of wrath” and the “God of love.” Perceptive interpreters saw there was a larger pattern in the Bible, and one did not merely play off one depiction against another. Students of church history recall the struggle of Martin Luther to find a “gracious God.” The God of scholastic theology was a terror to him; how could he find mercy? His great insight is that one is justified by faith, and that the wrath of God is submerged in mercy through the cradle and the cross. He understood overarching trajectory of redemption in Scripture.

The passionate God of the Bible feels deeply toward those created in the divine image. While we must not ignore texts of warning against human rebellion, we can trust that mercy is God’s way with humanity. Thanks be to God!

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about Central as a perichoretic theological seminary, visit www.cbts.edu

Burning Texts

2010-09-08T12:15:00.001-05:00

I depart from the lectionary this week to address a concern that threatens to alienate Islam from Christianity in irreparable ways. Just as many Christians have not been able to distinguish varied strands in Islam, many Muslims will not be able to separate the larger Christian witness from a sectarian church, The Dove World Outreach Center, in Gainesville, FL, that commemorates September 11, 2001, by burning copies of the Quran. General Petraeus has warned that this kind of aggressive and destructive action will be costly—perhaps in lives, surely in understanding and good will. The irony of a church named after a symbol of peace burning texts held sacred by another world religion is not lost on world-wide observers.

Muslims and Christians have a long history of antipathy, and violence has marked both sides of the divide. Whether it be ancient crusades, current caricatures, or persistent geographical conflicts, neither Christianity nor Islam has clean hands in its relation to the religious “other.” Attempts at mutual understanding are resisted by larger sectors within both traditions for fear that finding common ground may compromise the distinctive theological vision each holds. Historically Christian seminaries such as Claremont and Hartford, who seek to educate clergy of the “Abrahamic traditions,” are criticized for eclipsing evangelical zeal in these overtures. Respect for the lived religions of others is praeparatio evangelica—a preparation for further dialogue about the Gospel, truth claims that direct Christian pathways. While Eusebius of Caesarea (263-339 C.E.) wrote to prove the excellence of Christianity over rival faiths, his engagement remains a model for thoughtful articulation of a Christian world view amidst competing claims. We must not be afraid to shine the light of careful scrutiny on our religious tradition as well as those who differ in radical ways. Comparing the “best” of Christianity with the “worst” of Islam never leads to clarity—or charity, for that matter. The gap between principle and practice is found in both beliefs.

Coercive conversion never accomplishes proper religious ends. From the time of Constantine to 2010, Christians betray the Prince of Peace by such methods. The “sword,” whether literal or verbal, is not the way of Jesus. Let us resist the violence and evil done in his name.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about our formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit our website www.cbts.edu

Showing Hospitality to Strangers

2010-08-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

Hebrews 13:2 exhorts the faithful: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Over the past few days, Central has welcomed 26 refugee pastors from Myanmar (Burma)for two continuing education courses in Ministry Ethics and Baptist Polity. Dr. Maung Maung Yin, Vice-Principal of Myanmar Institute of Theology, whose sabbatical has been sponsored by Central, was one of the instructors. He taught in Burmese, the language understood by the majority of the 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar. Those who attended were primarily of Karen and Chin ethnicity, two major tribal groups in Myanmar (Burma). These pastors have suffered as internally displaced persons within Myanmar, moving from camp to camp along the border with Thailand; finally, they received permission to immigrate to the US. Some have been here for over a decade, others have been in the US for less than two years. Many of these pastors had completed theological studies in Bible colleges and schools, and a couple of them had completed seminary degrees. All but one had been ordained in their homeland and now were serving congregations stretched from Minnesota to Texas, Maryland to Arizona.

Approximately 17,000 refugees a year are coming from the beleaguered nation of Myanmar (Burma). The great majority of these who are coming are Baptists, the spiritual legacy of the Judsons who began their work in Burma in 1813. The refugees have suffered greatly as their villages have been burned, their homes and personal belongings destroyed (including records of their academic work). They have been forced to serve as porters for the military, walking long distances burdened by the gear of soldiers. Post-traumatic stress syndrome is common in their congregations as they seek to recover from inhumane treatment.

Working with American Baptist Home Mission Societies, Central is seeking to be of assistance to these leaders as they minister in new contexts with new challenges. As we shared meals (we finally cooked enough rice!) and worship, we discovered that these good brothers are “no longer strangers and aliens, but … members of the household of God” as are we. Indeed, we were blessed by these “angels,” messengers of God who taught us about deep faith and perseverance in the harshest of circumstances. Their joy in Christ is palpable, and they believe in a hopeful future in their new land.

Molly T. Marshall

To learn more about Central’s engagement in global Christianity, please visit our website www.cbts.edu

Listening for a Voice

2010-08-23T13:42:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of school at Central, and all seminary systems are at the ready. Faculty and staff have shifted gears from the summer’s work of preparation to high gear for the compressed rhythm of the semester. While seminary students may not require exactly the same school supplies as their elementary school counterparts, they begin the fall with similar enthusiasm and unknowing as they enter a new horizon of learning. New books (wonderful theological tomes!), new teachers, and new learning environments invite professional formation for a vocation in ministry.

The lectionary reading from the Hebrew Bible is apt for this reflection on what prompts students to embrace the rigor of theological studies. They come in response to the beckoning of a Voice. The prophet Jeremiah (1: 4-10) offers his testimony to the impact of hearing the voice of God. His commission was clear: “…you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.” It was only his certainty that God had called him that sustained him through the arduous years of service in one of the most critical times in the history of Israel. His prophetic ministry warns of the destruction of the temple and the threat of exile as divine judgment; more than any other prophetic literature, his writing helps the reader comprehend why such tragic events could occur.

It was Jeremiah’s experience—and it is our experience, also—that listening for the Voice is a lifelong expression of faithfulness. Thankfully, God will speak more than once to those who listen. If the prophet heard only the Word of the Lord that promised destruction, he could not have persevered. Thankfully, he also heard: “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David…” (33:15). It was because of his trusting response to the Voice that he was able to hear more.

N.T. Wright’s wonderful book, Simply Christian, describes the “echoes of a voice” that pervade God’s creation. What is lacking in so many of us is the willingness to listen, or perhaps we have not cultivated the capacity to discern the Voice among competing voices. Part of the formation process in seminary is precisely this: to learn to listen to the varied ways the Voice will speak. So we longingly pray, “Speak Lord, for your servants are listening.”

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit www.cbts.edu

Passing through the Sea

2010-08-16T13:21:00.001-05:00

The lectionary reading for the thirteen Sunday after Pentecost, Hebrews 11:29-12:2, begins with these words: “By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land…” The story of exodus from the grip of Egypt is the paradigmatic story of liberation in the Hebrew Bible. Other narratives make sense in light of this great saga of redemption and creation. In the beginning, God lifts creation out of watery chaos; Noah’s family and other creatures of God are preserved through the flood; God heals Naaman the Syrian of leprosy because he is willing to pass through the waters of the Jordan; Jesus submits to the baptism of John the Baptist and the baptism of suffering love, requiring death; and, finally, our baptism, which plunges us into his death and resurrection—for this life and the next. The common theme of these stories is the life that comes on the other side of trusting God as one passes through life-threatening circumstances. As the hymnic adaptation of Isaiah 43:1-5 intones:

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;

for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,

and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”

Each of these biblical examples (and this stanza of “How Firm a Foundation”) suggests that God intentionally beckons humans to pass through certain exigencies in pursuit of a maturing faith. But what about those chaotic disasters that cannot fit the arc of these narratives of redemption as inscribed in Scripture? Not too long after eruption of the devastating tsunami of the Indian Ocean, David Hart wrote The Doors of the Sea, asking the ancient question: “where was God?” in this tragic event. Boldly refuting those Christian attempts that try to rationalize evil, Hart rejects any neat teleology that finds purpose in every event of human suffering. In a fallen world where the “powers” make finitude defectible (to borrow from Walter Wink’s thinking), the struggle for divine victory is ongoing.

The concluding verses of Hebrews 11 detail the extremities through which the people of God passed, “of whom the world was not worthy” (v. 38). Although remaining faithful, they greeted the promise from afar and did not receive the full realization of God’s redemption. Such a frank testimony to life’s inequities, i.e., the faithful are not always “blessed,” requires us to “look to Jesus” whose endurance perfected his faith. So it will be with all who follow him.

Molly T. Marshall

For more information about Central as a formative, creative, and progressive seminary, visit www.cbts.edu