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Michaelmas 1998 |
| "Michael and his angels fighting against the fragon." (rev. 12:7) |
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In the history of Crossings one of the most durable constants has been the little text from The Gospel acccording to Saint Matthew, 9:1-8, usually referred to as "Jesus' Healing of the Paralytic." Actually, it's Jesus' forgiving of the paralytic and, only after that, the healing of his paralysis. Or if you prefer: Jesus' healing of the paralytic, both his sin and his sickness.
At any rate, this tiny, tightly packed text has been a steady friend for almost half a century and, in a way, the mother of all Crossings texts. It was one of the first gospel lessons my colleagues and I "programmed" for the new theology curriculum at Valparaiso University in the late fifties -- a first public glimmer of Crossings. And just a few weeks ago one of those dear colleagues, Ed Schroeder -- another Crossings constant -- and I taught a course called "Crucial Criticisms of Christianity and How to Grow from Them." Guess what one of our major resources was. Matthew nine, one to eight. During the last four or five decades the same text has risen to the occasion many times -- would you believe fifty? -- and in places all around the world. (Would you believe Bangalore, India? Berchtesgaden, Germany? The southwest African bush in Namibia? The old Soviet Union?) And now this issue of our newsletter will include a remembrance of Bishop Herman Neunaber, but not without an anecdote, one of his favorites, about Mt. 9:1-8.
In more recent years I've found a friend in Arndt Braaten, a recent student of mine but with far higher claims to fame than that. In his relatively short lifetime he's done everything from grow up as a missionary's kid in Madagascar to work as a fisherman off the New England coast, to serve as one of the pastors at big Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Illinois, and do graduate study at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Lately he's been studying medicine. By Christmas a year from now he should be receiving his degree as a medical doctor and, simultaneously, a Master's in Public Health, both from The College of Medicine, University of Illinois (Chicago.) Then he begins his residency. Where? Do you have a place to suggest? Here are some clues. Last spring Arndt was married to Daisy, also a physician. She, a Roman Catholic, and he, a Lutheran, are committed to "medical mission" work combining pastoral ministry with medical practice with public health/community organization, preferably in this country. They're open to suggestions.
One of the constants in Braaten's and my work together has been Matthew nine, one to eight. You'll see why in the interview which follows. For now, let me anticipate by saying that Arndt identifies this combination ministry of his, pastoral cum medical practice, by calling it "Crossings." He is not alone in this. We seem to have been blessed these days -- blessed and outrun -- by a whole bevy of friends with similar interests: Carolyn Crowe, returning to nursing with a discipline in theology; Gary Lessmann, family physician with a Christian outreach in El Salvador; Richard Lyon, dentist and anaesthesiologist as well as pastor with a new mission in Haiti (featured in this newsletter last year); Richard Luecke, theologian par excellence and community healer (read his A New Dawn in Guatemala: Toward a Worldwide Health Vision); two of my students at Washington University, Sheref Unal and Nathan Marsh, both headed for medical school and the study of Christian theology. To name just a few. All of these, with or without the "Crossings"