Sabbatical Musings

Synchronicity: the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. The choir in Munich, at St. Joseph's Church Last evening, in Munich, I had the most delightful experience of synchronicity. In the grand cathedral of St. Joseph’s church, I attended a choral concert featuring a whole gaggle of people whom I love and adore.  First off, there is the director and composer, Mitchel Covington, who organized a group of nearly 100 singers for this concert. Mitchel premiered one of his choral pieces, Alleluia adorare, a sublime and spiritual invitation to awe. We were colleagues and friends for nearly 15 years of ministry in Berkeley.  Two of the four soloists for the Requiem by Mozart are people I know. I first heard the soprano soloist, MacKenzie, when she began singing as a child at church. The bass soloist, Chad, has been a beloved part of my life for years. He and his husband Jody supported me through my divorce and so...

Dachau Concentration Camp “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor   death march sculpture, Dachau I suspected that this afternoon would be a heavy moment. As I made my way towards Munich, a visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp was on my agenda. Driving through the verdant countryside, imagining the horrors around the bend was difficult.  Dachau, the longest working concentration camp of the Nazi regime, represents the most egregious violations of human dignity ever perpetuated. Tens of thousands were murdered here simply for being Jewish, a Jehovah’s witness, a gypsy, gay, or a political opponent of Nazi injustice. Hundreds of thousands more were made to labor for the war under horrific conditions.  Holocaust Memorial, Berlin Walking around the grounds, my heart felt weighed down. It was as...

What is your only comfort in life and in death?  That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.    Question 1 from the Heidelberg Catechism I was eager to see the city of Heidelberg because my favorite confession of the Presbyterian Church was written there in 1563. The catechism is a series of 52 questions and answers (one for each week of the year) that teaches the foundations of the Reformed faith. Mirathratic bull sacrifice, Heidelberg  The city is ripe with history. Evidence of prehistoric humans was found near Heidelberg in the municipality of Mauer. The Celts founded a more permanent settlement around 500 BCE with a fortified double-ring wall. During the 1st to 3rd centuries, the Romans arrived. With them came the Mithras mystery cult. A super-secret religion that only admitted men, the central ritual was a bull sacrificed as a way of cleansing the world of sin. Given the parallels to Christ’s salvat...

stream in Erfurt Stand at the crossroads and look,     and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it,     and find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16 The Luther Stone  where Luther was nearly struck by lightning Visiting these towns in Germany is a walk through history. Every stop on this Reformation Pilgrimage is filled with stories of conflict and faith.  Erfurt is one such city. An impressive example of a medieval city, Erfurt boasts half-timbered houses, delightful gardens, and rivers scattered among its charming neighborhoods.  Erfurt is the spiritual home of Martin Luther. Academically, he pursued a doctorate in philosophy and anticipated a law career. But instead, a violent storm changed the course of his life. He was knocked down by a lightning strike, and in terror, he called out to St. Anne and promised to become a monk. He was ordained at St. Mary's Cathedral and lived in the Protestant Monastery of St. Augustine for...

me and Milad in Coburg Germany I'm sure that today will go down as one of my most treasured memories of this trip. I got to reconnect with my dear friend Milad, who I met nearly 8 years ago in Lebanon when I volunteered to work with Syrian refugees. He had left his home in Damascus and was in a 2-year “holding” pattern in Zahle, hoping some country would take him in as a refugee. As a newly graduated physician, he had more prospects than many, but the waiting was still long and painful. He and his roommate, Fadi, welcomed me and my friend Maximos as their apartment guests for the time we were there. Milad at his clinic in Zahle Refugees were not allowed to work for pay in Lebanon nor did they have access to medical care. So, Milad took an old railroad container and turned it into a one-room medical clinic. After some folks in the States donated equipment and medicine, he was up and running. His clinic became an essential outreach to the displaced community.  I vividly remember the ...

Johanna Park Leipzig One of the goals of sabbatical is rest and renewal. Often, I don't realize how exhausted I am until I'm a few days into a vacation. The sabbatical is no different. Rest comes easily here. For one thing, I have no one to talk to. There is no crisis to address. No pastoral care to offer. I'm alone with my thoughts as I reflect on what I am experiencing. With few expectations placed on me, I can set my own pace and explore what I wish. Sometimes that may lead to unusual decisions. I surprised myself two nights ago when I pulled an all-nighter. I could blame it on jet lag or the new beds I'm sleeping on every night, but honestly, it was because I got caught up reading a trashy novel. Before I knew it, the sun came up with only a chapter to go. Unfortunately, set check-out times mean I couldn't curl up and sleep the day away. So I finished the book and headed to Erfurt, a 1 ½ hour drive away.  Rapeseed fields  The roadways here are something else. Th...

Leipzig Protesters in 1989 I should have done my homework. Before driving into Leipzig, home of JS Bach, I thought it would be a quaint, historic town. Boy, was I wrong. Where Berlin was sophisticated and Wittenberg picturesque, my first glance of Leipzig was disappointment at seeing a mishmash of ugly and uglier. Leipzig is gritty and dirty. Its historic buildings look grimy and worn. I don't think the East German government was interested in historic preservation. But the grit may have resulted from the rampant pollution under that same regime. I've been trying to imagine what it was like to be East German after the German humiliation of the First World War, the rise of Nazism, and then Soviet domination. Its residents must have felt so suppressed when their siblings in West Germany were thriving after WWII.  From 1949-1989, the communist government severely limited human rights, highly controlled the economy, and established a pervasive surveillance state. The state controll...

Driving to historic Wittenberg this morning, I found myself reflecting on my morning's devotion from Psalm 3, which starts, O Lord, how many are my foes!    Many are rising against me; many are saying to me,    "There is no help for you in God. Martin Luther Could there be better verses to describe the upheaval caused by Martin Luther when he nailed 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg Castle? The Church of his day, the very institution entrusted with proclaiming salvation, had turned grace into currency. What began with one man's frustration over the corruption of the Mother Church became the rebellion we call the Protestant Reformation.  Initially, Luther was responding to his own crisis of faith. As a catholic monk and scholar, he could not reconcile the stories of God's unqualified mercy with the church's practices and teaching on indulgences. In his struggle, I imagine him praying the next section of Psalm 3. But you, O LORD, are a shield around me,   ...

 I knew the day would be one of contrasts. The plane full of Scots bound for Berlin was loud and raucous. I wasn't in the mood to chit chat, so I spent much of the flight looking out the window at the beautiful cloud layer, ruminating on Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the one     who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take     or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,     and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,     which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—   whatever they do prospers. Staying just a few blocks from Checkpoint Charlie, I knew my experience of Berlin would have political overtones. I was eager to see remnants of the Cold War divide – an era that scared me as a child. Was anyone else petrified when hiding under our grade-school desks during nuclear war drills? But the vestiges o...

This morning, before the first leg of my journey, it felt like I was leaving for a quick vacation. After all, I’m traveling with a carry-on and backpack for this 8-week overseas trip. Even though the house is ready for others to move in and my work email deactivated, I still struggled to believe I would be gone for 3 ½ months. Today felt no different from yesterday.  But hoping on the plane, I sensed God was interrupting my “normal.” Perhaps it was today’s text from a friend connecting me with her friends in Switzerland. Or after posting my sabbatical schedule on Facebook, I discovered that multiple friends will be singing at a concert I’m attending in Munich. Maybe it was the reaction of my Boston-bound seatmate when she found out where I was headed. Or the quick conversation I had in Arabic with one of the Delta folks in Boston. Already, I sensed that this would not be a typical trip away.  In all the hubbub of preparing for this sabbatical, I wanted – no needed – some quiet...