Guest Post: Kim Hesse '12

Kim shared this message at our final Chapel service of the year last month. It was a good way to end a great year of Senior Chapels! Kim is originally from Sheboygan, WI and is a Music Therapy Major/Worship Studies Minor. She's heading off to Cleveland later this Summer to do her Music Therapy Internship but first will be graduating at the end of the month. I had the pleasure of having Kim in my "Intro to the Parish" class last year. She's a thoughtful and kind young woman and we will miss her.

 So when Pastor Brian and Pastor Ramona asked me to give a senior chapel I was reluctant for a few reasons. 1, I don’t particularly love speaking in front of people and 2,  at the time they asked me, I wasn’t sure I even believed in God, and I was thinking to myself, great, how am I supposed to share a message in the chapel with people about my faith, when I don’t even know where I stand myself. As I started writing my message however, I realized that the hardest part was not going to be finding something to talk about, but finding ONE  thing, to talk about.

            

But I tried to narrow it down, and I want to start by talking about the idea of faith. Over winter break  I went to family video to rent Wreck it Ralph, but it was all out, so I ended up leaving with a move called Salmon Fishing in the Yemen instead.

Briefly, the premise of  involves a Yemeni salmon-fishing Sheikh (shake), which is an arab leader, with an weird dream.  He wants to go salmon fishing in the Yemen which is, of course, pretty much desert. Dr. Jones is a fish scientist who is pulled into the sheikh’s scheme despite his insistence that it is impossible. There was one conversation in the movie that really struck me and so I want to share that.

The Sheikh starts by saying: It would be a miracle of God if it were to happen

And Dr. Jone replies: I’m more of a facts and figures man.

 Sheikh: You aren’t a religious man, Dr. Jones?

Dr. Jones: No I’m not.

Sheikh: But you’re a fisherman Dr. Jones.

Dr. Jones: I’m sorry I don’t follow.

Sheikh: How many hours do you fish before you catch something?

Dr. Jones: Hundreds sometimes.

 And the Sheikh says: Is that a good use of your time as a facts and figures man.  But you persist, with such poor odds of success.  Why?  Because you’re a man of faith, Dr. Jones.  In the end, you are rewarded for your faith and constancy. 

Dr. Jones says: With due respect, fishing and religion are hardly the same thing your excellency.

And the Sheikh says: With equal respect, I have to disagree.

 I like that quote because I at many times have been caught up in the facts and figures. Against the standards of our society, the foundation of the Christian faith is strange to say the least. I was at a music therapy conference in Evanston, IL this past fall and I attended a session about spirituality in end of life care.  The leader of the session told a story about someone who they worked with in another country who had never heard of easter. They asked her what it was about, and after telling them the story of Christ’s death and resurrection the patient laughed and said, seriously?? People actually believe that?

 In the past four years I have been in that place many times, that place where I felt crazy for believing some of the things I claimed to believe, and I have experienced my strongest faith as well as my greatest doubt. Pastor Brian asked me when preparing for my chapel if I believed that faith and doubt were separate from one another and I replied that I believe it is faith that carries me through doubt.

Regardless of my perceptions of God, however, I seem to have always believed in the principle of love and that life-love=zero. I think that it is safe to say that to live by this motto requires faith because by the standards of our society, where the self is glorified, and money is reigning supreme, we have to admit it is not practical.  

 When I think about it too hard, I am often depressed by the sort of system that our world has fallen into, but the life of Jesus inspires me to believe that maybe there is another way, that we have simply lost sight of. Jesus, one of my good friends said, was a man with a plan, and one of the things I have come to admire about his life over the past few year years is the way he lived so that he did not submit himself to any  sort of system. He was who he was, and he was constantly suprising people and going against the norm. Even in his death, based on his track record of miracles he could have saved himself from the cross, but he didn’t. It was like his final blow to the system. He taught the opposite of societal norm, he said you cannot serve both God and money, and that we must die to ourselves in order to live. And he lead by example, Mark 10:45 says “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”.

 I think it is easy for me to get wrapped up in theology, but when I think about Jesus in this way, as the historical figure, who lived among us, and I read about who the bible says he was, and the things he did and said,  everything kind of starts to fall into place in my mind, and that inspires me. I still have questions, but I’ve also learned during my time at Wartburg that God is not afraid of my questions and in fact encourages us to test what we consider to be truth in 1 thesselonians 5:20-22 “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.” And in 1 John 4: 1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world”.

The scripture that Sarah read said, what does the kingdom of God look like? And Jesus said, it looks like a mustard seed. And my grandma gave me this necklace when I was a kid and it has a mustard seed in it. Mustard seeds are tiny but if you plant them they can grow to be like 8 or 10 feet tall.  And so from this verse I understand that God doesn’t expect our faith to be huge and crystal clear all the time, but that he has promised us that if we plant the tiniest of seeds, if we have faith “this big”, he will gladly take it and nurture it and grow it until it becomes a place of shelter and rest, for ourselves, that we can then extend to those around us.

I’ve given my mustard seed of faith to God over and over again, and God hasn’t failed me yet. And I could tell you stories, but it isn’t something that I can prove to you by facts or figures, it’s something that can only be experienced through faith.

           

And so as we leave Wartburg and go out into the world I hope we will consider what it is that we put our faith in, and wherever we go I hope we will go with love, for God, for our neighbor and for ourselves, as God who IS love, has enabled us. I hope that we will strive to serve rather than to be served. And I hope that you will find inspiration in the reminder that even when our faith is the size of a mustard seed, even when we think we’ve abandoned God, his grace does not run out and he will never stop seeking after us.  

Guest Post: Kevin Schneider '13

Kevin Schneider is a Senior Education major with a great story. A talented musician and a great guy, Kevin will be baptized on April 14th during our Sunday Morning Worship service. He's been preparing for his Baptism this year as part  our discipleship process, "The Way of Jesus". 

Recently Kevin accepted a job at Dowling Catholic High School where he will be teaching Biology. He and his fiancee Lexi will be married in July. 

Kevin is the personification of our mission at Wartburg. A first generation college student with no faith background, Kevin leaves us having made the most of his time on campus. This is his Senior Chapel message.

Luke 15: 1-7

Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him.  But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, "rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

~~~~Message: 

This is a common reading in the New Testament, and I've heard it in combination with the parable of the lost brother.  This reading is provoking, and really proposes an absolute.  It states that "It is better to bring one lost sheep home than to tend for the other 99 and forget the lost sheep".  Furthermore, the Lord and heaven rejoice more harmoniously over one redeemed sinner than over 99 righteous.  I was discussing this text with a friend the other day, and she mentioned that she didn't like the scripture.  She stated that this scripture wasn't fair.  I was inclined to her point of view, and totally understood her stance.  But I have chosen a different understanding of this scripture.  Experience is everything, and a wealth of my life experiences were spent as the lost sheep.  I come from what was a broken home, riddled with abuse of all forms.  Relationships broken, and no upbringing in a faith community.  In fact, I have been working toward my first baptism during the last year, and will have that honor on the 13th of April.  

Am I bitter about this past? No way.  I know that the Lord my God has a plan for me, just like for each one of you.  I spent many years lost, battered, beaten and broken.  Little did I know that it was the best of bonding time, because when we are at our lows, that we are at the cross.  Where better to bond with our Lord than at the cross?  During international choir tour, at a church in Saraspatek, Hungary, when our God finally revealed to me the wonderful work he had been doing in my life, I knew I was saved.  The amount of power and love I felt poured down on me at that instant was overwhelming.  I saw all of the ways God had carried and nurtured me, in a flash; an instant play by play put right before me. 

Since that moment, I have known that the Lord is my rock, and my faith has not floundered since.  

I reflect on the lost sheep parable, and I think about a post I put on Facebook a couple of weeks ago.  The support, from members of my hometown and those from Wartburg, was simply overwhelming.  Truly the Heavens are rejoicing at this lost sheep who has been found; and that rejoice is spilling into the earthly realms and onto my Facebook page (or I am a little too deeply thoughtful, spiritual, and maybe slightly egocentric in thinking that all of heaven is rejoicing for the likes of me).  

What I see when I look at myself is a product of love.  Love driven into my bones from my family, hometown community, the Wartburg college community, the faith community I have become a part of here at Wartburg, and ultimately, God.  I did not deserve any of this.  In fact, I have done, and am probably still doing things to justify stripping away my privileges and praise.  That is grace.  God is gracious.  He doesn't care if we have earned his love, or earned his forgiveness.  It is simply given to us, whether we want it or not.  I am so lucky and loved to have received this grace and can't thank God and my supporting community enough.

So where do I go from here?  Where does the community and God go from here?  Really, this is a defining moment in my collegiate experience.  Here, I am allowed to testify how I have been changed by the love of God, and what I intend to do as a result of that change.  Jesus is a teacher.  I originally chose education as a career path and undergraduate study because it was what I needed to do to meet financial deficiencies a few years back.  I had intended switching majors and doing something entirely different.  Still, the Lord has steered me back.  There is an old saying, "Hindsight is 20/20 and more often than not foresight is simply blind guessing".  In hindsight, my choice, unknowingly divinely influenced, has put me in a position to "pay it forward".  That is exactly what I intend to do and that is exactly what my students, friends, family, faith community, and future spouse deserve.  Not because they have earned it, but because I love them.  It is my duty as a disciple of Jesus to pay that gracious love forward.  Thank you God, Wartburg, and all of my friends, family, and loved ones for your grace.  You have instilled a sunrise in my heart, the light of the Breaking Dawn gleams in my heart.  Amen.