One New Humanity

On July 27th, a beautiful summer evening, I gave a sermon at my home church - Chisago Lake Lutheran Church in Center City, MN. I've posted the script so that you can all take a look at my insights on discernment, calling, and unity through Christ which I have been thinking so much about in the past few months while preparing for my year in Senegal. Thank you to those of you who were able to make it to support me, and thank you for those of you taking time to read it now!

Before you read my sermon, you may find it useful to read Ephesians 2:11-22, as I based a portion of my sermon on this text.

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Greetings everyone. Blessings to you on this day, and thank you for taking the time to support me. I am sure many of you are aware by now that I will be leaving in three short weeks for the country of Senegal, located on the Atlantic coast in Western Africa. I have been called to Senegal through a program called Young Adults in Global Mission (which I will refer to, from here on out, as YAGM). Since I believe I am either the first, or one of very few CLLC members who have participated in the program, I would like to briefly introduce you all to it. YAGM is run by the ELCA. This year, there are 95 of us YAGM volunteers being sent out from the United States into the greater world. Six other YAGM missionaries will accompany me to Senegal, where our country coordinator already resides in Dakar, their capital. For one week, all 95 of us will be undergoing a general orientation in Chicago. Once that is completed, we will fly out to the countries we have been called to on August 22nd. Then, we seven Senegal YAGMs will have 3 weeks of intensive language training, specific country orientation, and a chance to adapt a bit to the culture shock. During that time, I will be learning either Wolof, or Serer, which are two commonly spoken languages in Senegal. After those three weeks, we leave Dakar and head out to the specific communities which have called us to work alongside them for the year.

Now, a lot of people have been asking me: why? Why do something that takes you away from your loved ones for so long? Why delay starting your career when you could start paying off student loans sooner? What if something happens to one of your family members while you are away? Why go to a country which has a higher prevalence of diseases like malaria, yellow fever, and others which we don’t have here? Why go to a country where you don’t know the language, and where no one is like you? Why go where you are unlikely to have (what we consider) basic necessities, like running water and a quality health care system? Why serve abroad, instead of in the U.S.?

I would like to acknowledge that I know these questions are coming from a place of love. I appreciate that people are trying to look out for me, and question my decision because they want what’s best for me. I think people are maybe concerned that I am trying to isolate myself, or run away from the stresses I would encounter by staying here, and searching for a job. And I’ll admit, I am running. But I am not running from something, I am running to this opportunity to help people, learn more about myself, learn more about this world, and learn more about how God is calling me to be active in it.

I’ve begun that journey by discerning that God is calling me to be a servant for an international community in this next year. Young Adults in Global Mission sets out to create leaders in the church who are intentional, well-versed in accompaniment, and compassionate. Knowing this, I am convinced that this program will challenge me in healthy and life-giving ways. The tricky thing is, discernment isn’t done best when it is an individual endeavor. We don’t get a lightning bolt from God so that we can discover his will, and it can be easy to be misled when we are trying to discern the will of God on our own. For this reason, it is important to discern what action God is calling us to as a community.

What has been tricky about trying to discern this call in the context of community, is that a fair amount of people have said “no” when I ask them if they think this is something I should do. Of course, there are also many who have said yes, and that I would be a great fit for a program like this. You know, I have to wonder, who else would – or can – say yes? How many people are in a place in their lives where they can leave where they are living for an entire year to serve a foreign community? I am of the opinion that this is important work which builds important relationships, so I want to go do this work, especially because I know not everyone is capable of leaving their jobs, families, and homes for a year to do so. I’m trusting that God’s in my gut, because in making this decision I know that I have made some people disappointed already. Genuinely, after so much prayer, conversation, and thought, I do feel called by God to go and participate in YAGM. Especially because part of this discernment is that the communities of Senegal have called us there, and want us to accompany them. This is why I feel as though I have fully discerned this call through community. Because I know that almost 5,000 miles away, a Senegalese community wants me to walk alongside them, learn from them, and grow with them. There is already a family there willing to house me, cook for me, and care for me in what will be a very vulnerable year. This is largely why I feel confident in how I have discerned God’s call for me in this upcoming year.

I would like to take a minute now to address one of those questions I mentioned earlier. For those of you who are upset that I am going to spend a year working to help ~others~, foreigners in a different country, rather than dedicating myself to an American community, please stop. Throughout my entire upbringing, I have tried to give back to this community as much as it has given me. Now, I understand that a task of this nature is impossible, due to the sheer abundance of how much I have been blessed by Chisago Lake Lutheran Church, and this community as a whole. However, I have dedicated hundreds of hours enriching this community, because I was taught how important it is to serve, and I truly love my hometown from the bottom of my heart. That being said, I think I’ve earned the liberty of traveling to people who I do not know to serve them for one year. Besides, I will return to the United States, and I will once again jump into leadership positions, and do my best to add to the vibrancy of whatever American community I end up in by serving those people.

Of course, even the argument that one year is a relatively short portion of my lifetime to spend serving abroad feels rather irrelevant when I consider the gospels. Because I/we shouldn’t want to just serve people who live in my/our country, who are like me/us, and who I/we know. One message I take away from the gospels most is that Christ unites us. The text we read in Ephesians reminds us that Christ’s sacrifice was not limited by earthly divisions. Paul writes, “in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” This speaks to the unparalleled love and grace which Jesus gave to us which, truly, knows no bounds. The Senegalese, who are far from us just as we are far from them, are brought near to us as brothers and sisters through Christ. I get to fly over the Atlantic in a month, and when I am in Senegal, I will be interacting daily with people who God loves just as he loves us. I will be building relationships with a host family, leaders, church members, and all sorts of Senegalese people who Jesus also died for. Because, he died so that “he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it,” according to Ephesians. I would like to ask you to challenge how you think about people of different nationalities. Are they okay as long as they stay within their borders? Are they children of God, but only if they act like us? Do you have the same standards of judgement for Americans which you have for others? Because I know that with all the complexity and concerns in our ever-connected world, it is easy to forget that, as Paul says to the Ephesians, “[Jesus] came and proclaimed peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.”

Remember that the cross unites us, no matter our nationality. I would also like to give to you the same call to action which Paul gave the Ephesians: “I therefore… beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” That is my mission for this upcoming year. As I learn to live in a community full of people with different faiths, appearances, backgrounds, and customs than mine, I want to remember and remind about the peace we can find through the unity of Christ. It will not be easy. I can already guarantee that there will be blood, sweat, and tears along my journey. But I know that though I am far, you are all still near to my heart. I can find comfort in the promise that the Senegalese people are united with us as one new humanity. And so, I go. To figure out what it is about humanity that unites us. What it is about God’s love that manages to transcend every wall or border we put up. And I hope that we can all keep our ears and eyes open to God’s wisdom and grace.

Thank you all for supporting me. So many of you have, whether through words of encouragement, prayers, or donations. I could not make this journey without you, nor would I want to. I will even dare say that this journey may be something we can all learn from and take - in some sense - together. Thanks be to God. Amen.