Initial Reflections.....

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!  I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. - Psalm 146:1

The opening verse to Psalm 146 is a psalm I have gotten to know quite well over this past year because it was the psalm I memorized this past year for my Psalter class. 

Here at Salem we have two worship services that I have found to be very different.  Not different in the sense that one is "traditional" and the other is "contemporary" as many churches across the country have but because of those that are gathering for worship are different. 

On Sunday morning our worship struck me as a pretty run of the mill experience I have had most of my life as a cradle Lutheran. 

 On Tuesdays a meal is provided for people in the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods.  As the meal is being prepared people begin to gather outside as they wait to be fed.  Some attend a Bible Study at 4pm before worship which is at 5 pm which is before the meal that is served at 5:30 pm. 

I would describe the worship to be very abbreviated and informal.....announcements, reading, sermon, prayers, eucharist and sending to the meal many are anxiously waiting for. 

Some people that gather for worship are engaged, some are distracted and others are talking to others as if worship is happening in the background.  Now, I wouldn't considered the noise and distracted behavior demonstrated by some of those gathered as being rude or disrpespectful.  In many ways Tuesday worship and meal is one of the few times some get to see their friends, so in a sense they understand the community aspect of worship. 

On my first Tuesday at Salem I immediatley noticed the noise volume and this attempt for organized worship to break through all of the distraction.  I thought to myself "God is breaking through here, I hope people here see this and understand this."   

Then it hit me!  I knew then what God must feel when God is trying to get through to me on a regular basis.  In my daily life I am constantly distracted and fill my life with noise that can often drowns out God's voice.  As often as I would like to think that I "...sing praises to my God all my life long" as the Psalmist in Psalm 146 does I realize that I have a long way to go.


If there is a Gun Shot in a neighborhood few people care about does it make a sound???

Just the other evening I heard a gunshot in the neighborhood.  Now, I am "comfortable" serving in an urban setting but I am a product of the suburbs and for me part of my faith journey and understanding of where I am called to be in my vocation is that the gospel calls me to be uncomfortable at times.  So, my "comfort" in this context has been a process in wrestling with my discomfort and that tensions is always there and I was quickly reminded of that feelin when this gunshot went off the other evening. 

The next day I confirmed with a neighborhood parishoner that it was indeed a gunshot but heard no news of whether anyone was hurt or anything like that.

The gunshot brought initiated a conversation about the neighborhood with this particular parishoner and he imparted to me some street smart advice.  He said, "Adam, in our neighborhood be a witness to the Lord but thats the only kind of witness you are going to want to be."