{"id":65,"date":"2014-09-08T04:39:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T04:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/?p=65"},"modified":"2018-09-16T21:14:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T21:14:16","slug":"here-and-again-on-rally-day-and-brokenness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/2014\/09\/08\/here-and-again-on-rally-day-and-brokenness\/","title":{"rendered":"Here & Again? Rally Day & Brokenness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Grunewald’s Isenheim Altar Piece<\/p><\/div>\n

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, \u201cLook, here is the Lamb of God!\u201d The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. (John 1:35-37<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I was at a low spot in my ministry \u2013 lacking self-confidence, burned out, and on the verge of hopelessness. These verses from John\u2019s gospel were read as the text during a\u00a0lectio\u00a0divina<\/em>\u00a0exercise at the retreat I was attending. I, of course, was hoping for some inspiration that would put the wind back in my sails as a new programming year was starting. The only word I could hear in this text was \u201cagain\u201d. Again?!<\/p>\n

But this word made my ears tingle. I didn\u2019t want to do all of this . . . again.
\nRally day . . . again?
\nRecruiting volunteers . . . again?
\nConvincing the congregation to invest in their youth . . . again?
\nConvincing youth and families to invest in the congregation . . . again?
\nI didn\u2019t want to do any of it ever again!<\/p>\n

I can almost hear an exhausted and frustrated John saying it cynically, \u201cLook, it\u2019s the Lamb of\u00a0God,\u00a0as if any of you really give a rip anyway!\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Jesus John points to is the broken Jesus. The painting above is the Isenheim altarpiece<\/a> painted by Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald in the early 1500\u2019s for the St. Anthony Monastery in Isenheim, Germany, which served many people dying from the plague. Jesus\u2019 broken body is covered with open sores and wounds, much like the bodies of those who fell victim to the plagues. John the Baptist is on Jesus\u2019 right, pointing to this mangled Christ. This image changes the way we hear John\u2019s words above, \u201cLook, here<\/em><\/strong> is the Lamb of God!\u201d<\/p>\n

Here<\/em><\/strong> is the Lamb of God, in the midst of your burnout and hopelessness. Here<\/em> is the Lamb of God, right in the middle of your failed Rally Day plans. Here<\/em> is the Lamb of God, alongside your broken programs and your broken people and your broken self. Right here<\/em>. Here<\/em> is the Lamb of God. Again!<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s do this thing again. Let\u2019s recruit and train those volunteers again. Let\u2019s write newsletter articles, texts and tweets about the importance of Christian community again. Let\u2019s argue with our pastors and our church councils over funding once again. Our young people are worth it!<\/p>\n

Ministry is beautiful and horrifying, frustrating and soothing, life-giving and death-dealing. But we enter into this broken work once again because here<\/em><\/strong> is the Lamb of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, \u201cLook, here is the Lamb of God!\u201d The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. (John 1:35-37) I was at a low spot in my ministry \u2013 lacking self-confidence, burned out, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engage.augsburg.edu\/jpmyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}