Rev. Fred Edie anoints students with oil during evening worship. |
At a Glance
Theme:
Claiming our Baptismal Vocation
Faculty Speaker:
Rev. Dr. Fred Edie, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Christian Education and Director of the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation
Lectionary Texts:
Exodus 33:1-22; Psalm 99; Philippians 1:1-14; Matthew 14:11-22
Evening Worship:
Elizabeth Schindler preached on the passage from Matthew 14 in which Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee. In the passage, Jesus called to Peter, “Come.” Peter walks on water until he starts to be prideful and believe in himself rather than completely trusting in Christ. We are already in the boat going ahead to the other side, like the disciples in the story. Jesus has called us this far. Now he is calling us to step out of the boat. Like Peter, we must rely on Jesus rather than ourselves. Only Jesus has power to create calm baptismal waters out of stormy, demonic seas. We must remember that, wherever Jesus is calling us, he has been there and will be there with us.
Evening Activity:
Pie-O-Rama! Tonight we celebrated our newly formed but tightly bound community with a plethora of pies. DYAers shared key lime, chocolate silk, mixed berry, and chocolate-chip pecan pies. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves before our last night of sleeping in the dorms.
Reflections on the Lecture
Remember when you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up?
From the crib we hear cultural mantras about our futures. We can make our own decisions about what to do for the rest of our lives. But we are not the future; Christ is the future. His coming reign is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer. Our lives are given purpose by this assured hope. For the last two weeks we have been immersed in the language of baptism, drowning our old perceptions of the world and bringing them into a new acuity. Once we are baptized Christians, the world is no longer the same for us. It never will be our home as we once knew it.
And so the questions remain: What do we do with our lives, now that everything has changed? What is our calling?
Our calling is to ministry — one of reconciliation, justice and healing — that Christ has left us to claim. Yet it is an arduous task to discern our call. Few see bright lights or vivid dreams to affirm their decisions. God’s call might seem out of step with worldly measures of success, forcing us to choose lifestyles that appear absurd to the surrounding society. Perhaps we lack the moral courage to respond faithfully.
These obstacles define our lack of imagination and our inability to recognize God in the midst of our lives. As we come closer to the identity of the One of who calls us, then we will know who we are called to be.
Quotable Quotes from the Plenary Lecture
“The place God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner
Overheard in the halls of the divinity school...
What’s ahead...
Tomorrow we will say our goodbyes and scatter to all corners of the country. After breakfast and morning prayer we will check out of our rooms and head home while we ponder all that we have learned and done at the Duke Youth Academy.
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