Jonathan Erber

    On April 30^th, 2012 the Honors class adjourned an hour early to allow students to attend the "Taking the hoods off Concordia" event hosted by the communications department. In memory of the Trayvon Martin shooting very one showed up in hoodies and wore their hoods up for the duration of the event. The event started with a brief introduction, and speech by students in the communications class. After the intro the group was led on a walk around Concordia passing signs that gave stats about teen violence in the US. After the tour the group returned to the front of the chapel where everyone ceremoniously removed their hoods and the communications class gave a brief concluding speech.

    This semesters theme of scholarship and service does not discriminate in the race or social standing of those served. One way of serving is stopping injustice and inequality through spreading awareness of this injustice or inequality. The "Taking the hoods off Concordia" event helped spread awareness about teen violence and racial inequality.

    I found the "Taking the hoods off Concordia" event very interesting as I had not attended anything quite like it before.  I had a lot of stereotypes about how things are here in the United States. For example I'd read all these Little House on the Prairie books where they talk about how winters were so bad they'd have to about tunnel to school, and would get lost walking from the barn to the house. I was really expecting upwards of 7 feet of snow all winter long. I really don't like the cold, but I was still rather surprised to only get a measly four feet my first year here.  In the same way while I believe at God made all people equal and I'm completely against racial discrimination, racism in America is talked about so much in the media I was under the impression that things like the Trayvon Martin shooting happen every day. I was (pleasantly) surprised to see all the ruckus made about this one event and applaud the communication department for putting this event together.

     One of this week's Callings readings was by Thomas Merton entitled "No man is an Island". In this reading Merton discusses the connection between calling and predestination. He describes a sort of paradoxical relationship between God's ultimate goal for people, and the people's actual life decisions. Merton's recurring theme was one of love. If one does everything out of love for God and ones neighbor than it will be difficult to go wrong. 

    As this semester's focus in on vocation and callings, it seems somewhat fitting to be doing a good bit of reading about callings. Gaining a wide perspective on a topic can help one better understand the bigger picture even if the specifics are not quite clear. Merton's paradoxical approach in which God has a definite plan, and there are really no wrong vocational decisions is quite different than other readings which have stated that the only way to be really happy is to follow that plan God has laid out.

      All of these readings that almost just opinion and sometimes seem to be contradicting each other, are frustrating to me. Sometimes I'm not sure if the authors are writing from some kind of actual biblical evidence or revelation or are just trying to justify their own experience. Because of this I don't feel like I can really gamble on taking a whole lot from what they are saying as there is no way to know if what they are saying is actually valid or not. 

     Last Thursday April 29^th, Concordia's theater department put on the play Pippin. This was a story of King Charlemagne's son (Pippin) and his journey to find his calling. It was a fairly stereotypical story in which the main character in a quest to find his true calling runs around doing all the wrong things, in this story, getting involved in war and politics. In the end the protagonist Pippin comes to the realization that he already had what he had been really looking for (love and family) and then lived happily ever after. 

     The story of Pippen was one of someone in search of their calling. This semester's theme in the Concordia Honors program also focuses on callings and vocation. Part of Pippins journey to find his calling involved trying out new things that he thought would be really fulfilling for him.  While these things ended up not being what he was looking for, it was still an important part of his eventually reaching his goal. The service projects that the honors students are involved in this semester are similar to this getting your feet wet approach. Some students might end up really finding what they feel to be their calling. Others while happy for the service done, would rather never have to do that kind of work again.

     I was really surprised and somewhat disappointed in Pippin as choice for the Theater departments production. As a Christian University, I would have been embarrassed to have brought my Grandparents to see it due to the amount of language and innuendo presented in the play. I did not feel that it portrayed a good way to lead a thoughtful and informed life. On of music and theater level however I thought all the singing and acting was very well done. 

     The Poehler Lecture on April 24 2010, started out the same as most Concordia events. There was a series of about five introductions before the main speakers were introduced. Dr.'s Dale and Tom Trapp started out their presentation by giving a bit of family background, telling how they grew up in a Lutheran family in Detroit, and sort of summarized the journey that took them to Concordia. From here they presented what they felt was the most important take home message of their respective disciplines. The each took turns presenting switching back and forth several times throughout the lecture.  Often times the way one of them concluded their segment fit into the start of the next. Once they concluded their lectures, President Ries got up and thanked them for sharing and their many years of service, and handed them commemorative plaques. From here there was a brief chance for questions before the occasion moved to the BEC for the following reception.

    The theme of the annually held Poehler lecture focuses on the intersection between faith and learning. Having both Dr. Trapps present was a great opportunity for two of Concordia's most experienced professors in both faith and learning to square off and really cut to the heart of this intersection. The Concordia University's Honors Program also shares this theme of integrating faith and learning which makes the Poehler Lecture an annual highlight for the members of the program. 

     I felt like the lecture went really well. I was hoping for more cohesiveness between the two Dr. Trapps, but it sort of seemed like two different lectures that were intertwined. It was a little more like a farewell address after 30 years of service rather than an academic lecture that really got into the depths of faith and learning. One of the points that I felt were especially good was Dr. Tom Trapps reply to the question of "going green" where he said that is very important to make sure we as humans do not find ourselves in a situation in which the world would be better off without us, as it was with the formation of Adam and Eve that God decided that his creation was finally complete. To me this is a novel and seemingly valid argument for creation care and stewardship. 

     Last Friday evening at 7:30 pm Concordia University's Jubilate Choir led an Easter Vesper service. The program focused around the idea of glorifying God which seemed vaguely familiar from some recent honors sessions.  The service started with the choir in the Cross of Christ Fellowship Center where they started singing and then processed into the main chapel area. The remainder of the service consisted of various musical pieces interspersed with Bible readings all relating to the theme of glorifying God.

     The idea of glorifying God has been a hot topic among the honors students as of late. Since Dr. Schuler is a member of the choir I'm slightly suspicious that there may be a connection between the theme of the vespers, and some recent discussions in class though they also did relate to some of our vocational discussion where some of the Callings readings also listed glorifying God as a main ingredient of Vocation.  The question asked by the honors class, was how can one actually do that?

     The vespers service was not exactly what I was expecting. I was thinking more of a TLH style vespers rather than the Easter concert that the service actually was. The timing was really great, right before classes start to get crazy for finals, allowing students to refocus on the real reason for their studies encouraging them to do their best for the glory of God.

     William Law was an interesting person. Due to his political loyalty to the family whom he felt was the true Royal House of England, he was unable to hold any official roles. This may have led to his belief that one did not have to hold an official position to serve God. People during his time period had previously thought that in order to really serve and glorify to ones greatest potential one had to become a member of the clergy, or join some kind of monastic community. Law felt however that one could just as easily reach this potential through the "daily sacrifice of reasonable life, wise actions, purity of heart, and heavenly affections".

    The unofficial theme of this semester's honors class has been that of "Vocation".  As Christians attending a Christian University, the question definitely arises whether or not one can live as a good Christian without following a more traditional church work vocation. In this reading from Callings, William Law argues that one can serve and glorify Christ in nearly any thing that that one might do.

     Coming from a church work oriented family, and not being to terribly interested in any traditional direct church work related professions this reading was quite interesting to me. I was almost tempted to send a copy home to my parents (ok, that was just a joke). Like Dr. Schuler mentioned in class, I also felt like the whole service and glorifying God part was rather lacking in any hard specifics. I would have been quite a bit happier to find a written out protocol to follow that will turn any occupation into some kind of magical God glorifying experience. Who knows, maybe that's what chapter five is all about?

     Another blogging opportunity for the Concordia Honors program is attending a Concordia sporting event. Since I am on the cross country team and ran distance track last year, attending a track meet seemed like a logical choice. The meet was being held at Hamline just down the road from Concordia and it was a beautiful Friday afternoon. There was still snow on the ground at the same meet last year. The running events started at around 10:30. This meet operated on a rolling schedule in that events occurred right after each other rather than waiting for the time listed on the schedule.  The first event was the 5k, which is one of the more enjoyable races to watch and run. Unlike sprints or even middle distance events such as the mile, there is a lot of team work and strategy involved in a 5k. There were nearly 40 people in the field of runners for this race which made it especially exciting. After the 5k, I found a seat at the CU team camp and hung out with my former distance team mates while cheering on other runners in the multitude of running and field events that make up a track meet. At about 2:15pm Cross Country Captain Travis Wagers ran the 800, in 2:00 flat. After I felt like I had seen the people and events I wanted to see, hopped on my bike and rode home. 

     One of the focuses of the CSP honors program is the integration of various disciplines in regards to learning. While not an academic discipline, athletics provides a way to build both the body and the mind as well as teamwork and endurance.  For this reason it is not surprising that at least six current honors program members are student athletes. By attending an athletic event, honors students not only support their team and school, but may also be inspired to push themselves that extra mile.

     Being a non-mathematical person, track and field is one of the few sports (besides football [soccer]) that I actually understand how it works. All you have to do to win is run faster, throw further, jump higher or longer than anyone else in the competition. Even cross country has a convoluted system of points and scoring that I've never quite been able to figure out.  Last week's meet at Hamline was CU's second outdoor meet of the year. This means that most of the runners were still adjusting to the outdoor track and assessing themselves to see what kind of outdoor season they were about to have. I felt encouraged by Concordia's showing last Friday as they came in last in the conference this last indoor season. It will be exciting to see how much they have improved at our home meet on the 21^st.

Another Honors blogging opportunity this week was the Sigma Pi seminar show casing various internships science majors had participated in over the summer. I actually was supposed to be presenting at this convocation, but fortunately some people forgot that I had done something over the summer. There is usually at least one sigma pi seminar a week, mostly populated by extra credit seekers; they usually have a wide range of topics from faculty research to STEM education. Dr. Kieke started this one out by passing around the signup sheet, and introducing the presenters. One person, Hassan, presented twice on two projects he was involved in at the U of Mn, Ted, and Kara, presented their work at 3M, and the remaining person whom I did not know presented on her pharmacy internship.

     This semester's honors class follows the theme of scholarship and service. One of the requirements for this class is a substantial internship style service learning experience. Attending this seminar provided a chance to compare the honors internship to the work done by other students. All of the presentations focused more on a pre-professional/resume padding experience, rather than a service oriented experience emphasized by the honors equivalent. Rather than finding the place in which their "great joy meets the world's great need" (Frederick Buechner) their internship goals merely focused on discovering if the various experience met their "great joy".

    I found it very interesting to find out what other people were doing outside of Concordia in science related activities. Most of my interactions with other science majors has been mostly academic, and as there is a bit of a competitive feel to getting into various areas of higher education, there is not a whole lot of sharing going on. I felt like my experiences match up fairly well with what the presenters were doing. I did how ever think more highly of doing research or pharmacy kinds of work over the more commercial work at 3M, such as testing new kinds of gas masks like Ted does.  

     The Pilgrims Progress is an allegorical narrative written by John Bunyan. (I understand that one of his descendants was a famous lumber jack up in Bemidji?)  This story is about a man named Christian and his journey to the celestial kingdom. Along the way he meets all sorts of delightfully named characters such as "Pliable" "Obstinate" and "By-Ends". While it is not quite clear why Christian didn't feel suspicious upon learning some of their names, these others only resulted in delaying Christian on his journey. There were others such as "Evangelist" and "Hopeful" who encouraged and helped Christian along. The reading was just an excerpt from the entire story creating a bit of a cliff hanger at the end.

     Christian's physical journey was meant to be allegorical to one's life on earth leading up to ones final destination (in Christian's case, the Celestial Kingdom).  Reading of Christians journey shows a more literal way to see things that might be holding one back or restricting ones relationship with Jesus Christ. Focusing on vocations this semester, this reading warns not to get bogged down by those whose sole purpose is to bog you down. 

     I found this story to be somewhat encouraging over all. It is assumed that Christian is successful in his quest for the celestial kingdom, and the knowledge that even though things were very difficult at times he just had to keep moving forward to make it to his destination. The appearance of Evangelist and Hopeful when Christian needed them most also reiterated the fact that God is always with us and will never abandon us in the muck.