Truth

I began a long reflection on the "situation" at Wheaton, It got muddled quickly. So... a haiku. And prayer for all involved and all who witness. Sadness and anger and, yes, cynicism. So...a haiku. And more prayer.

"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace."

Jeremiah 6:14

Pray for peace within.

Let not cynicism prevail.

Pray for peace with-out.

Hijab

It is Advent, the season in which we await the birth of Jesus. My MA alma mater has placed a professor on administrative leave. She decided to where a hijab in support of Muslim brothers and sisters. Really, Wheaton, really?

I can’t help but think

The hijab worn

In Wheaton hallways

Inspired fear,

Brought immediate response

Just as much as those airplanes

In New York,

At the Pentagon,

In that Pennsylvania field.

A simple headscarf

Worn for Advent

Brought a more immediate response

Than the impending

Birth of Jesus

A tiny baby,

Already King of the Universe.

He came to hold

All of our hands,

So we,

All of us,

Would know

No fear.

I find my seat

Life continues interesting. Good to see a classmate from Wheaton (Hi, Betty!), then there was the woman who sat on my other side. I introduced myself, she introduced herself and told me I looked familiar. We were, all three of us, sitting in a sea, perhaps on the shore of a sea of fresh-scrubbed faces. The topic was complex trauma treatment. Yes.

I find my seat
In the back of the room,
A room of fresh-scrubbed
Young faces.
I do not know most everyone here
Yet they are still familiar
From not so long ago.
A woman arrives late,
Slides into the chair next to me.
She
Of course
Is someone who had invited me
To apply for a job,
Un-invited me,
Then invited me again,
Then forgot it all entirely.
Now she barely remembers
Who I am.
Me
In this sea of fresh-scrubbed faces.
She
In this sea of fresh-scrubbed faces.
Together.

I went to Wheaton

I went to Wheaton College for my masters degree in Clinical Psychology.  I could have gone somewhere else.   I didn*t.  I got a good education there.  I had fine teachers, a fine cohort.  I went there in part because I did not understand it, yet I knew there was something there I needed to learn, precisely because I did not understand it.  Now here I am... an Episcopal priest who attended a Quaker college and an evangelical graduate school.  Out the other side I appreciate silence and Paul.  Out the other side, further up and further in, I am still Gospel girl.

I went to Wheaton

In part

Because I did not understand it.

It took almost two years

To get a glimmer,

A peripheral vision

Of an understanding.

I eked out that A

In theological anthropology

Mostly because of the final paper,

Not because

I agreed in the centrality

Of Paul.

I went to Wheaton to find

The good there.

I found it in the glimmer,

The peripheral vision

Of an understanding.

I found a place for Paul,

A hallowed place for Paul.

I went to Wheaton

To begin

To understand.

On this other side I am still

Gospel girl.

On this other side

I dance with Jesus

Further up and

Further in.