Theological Heritage and the Concept of Journey

Graduation is closing in on me and time is being very short now in these last two months. As I prepare for the year ahead, I feel it important to do some reflection on where I have been the past four years of my life: Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska.

I recently examined the etymology of the word "sojourn." What I expected was to find was something to the effect of, "to go" or "to be sent." What I found instead was, at first, much stranger to me. The etymological listing read: "from O.Fr. sojorner 'stay or dwell for a time,' from V.L. *subdiurnare 'to spend the day,' from L. sub- 'under, until' + diurnus 'of a day,' from diurnum 'day.'" The really interesting thing about this word, to me, is that it is not written or spoken from the perspective of the one traveling, but rather, the one who hosts a traveler. Taking the etymology of this word at face value, the host appears oblivious to the alien traveler, able to say only, "he spent a day." Both after and before, there is only the unknown.

And, so it is, that I have "spent my day," as it were, at Hastings College. All this time, these short four years, I've been studying theology and philosophy at a small, largely unknown little liberal arts college stuck smack dab in the middle of a vast, Midwestern nowhere. So, what could I have possibly gained from that kind of environment. As it turns out, a whole lot. I've always said that Nebraska is a place of hidden treasures. I think that Hastings College and, more specifically, the Vocation and Values program there, is definitely one of those precious treasures. So, is from there that I sojourn forward.

Though you wouldn't think to look right in the center of an area that was once called the "Great American Desert" for a wondrous education, you will definitely find one there. One of the many serendipitous interests that I've picked up during my college career is the study of memetics. Memetics, or Meme Theory, posits that biological genes are not the only selfish replicators in our lives as humans. Culture, it says, is also a selfish replicator, a gestalt formation made from millions of the tiniest cultural replicators, called 'memes.' Like genes, they are passed on from one generation to the next, and like genes, they mutate to form continually new and wonderful iterations of life. The Vocation and Values Program at Hastings College is truly my memetic fountainhead.

If you are a high school student interested in Philosophy, Religion, or Christian Ministry, I would highly encourage you to check it out and see for yourself. If you are a newcomer to the program, then I give you my hopes and prayers. Spend your day well and don't worry about trying to protect anything, whether it be your safety, your money, your ideas, or especially your feelings.

The disciples of Jesus being their own journeys with God after a very simple invitation: "Follow me." And that's pretty much the point. The opening of the Gospel of John beings by stating (literally, if you translate the Greek): "God came and pitched a tent among us..." (John 1:14). That is, God became vulnerable. And that is also the calling of the disciples, as if Jesus' invitation were 'Come with me into poverty.' To be a disciple of Christ is to, literally, learn that discipline of vulnerability. I am of the opinion now, that God's call is one into a poverty so deep that it cannot even be named.

Being vulnerable genetically, countless mutations have formed my being as a member of the human species. I'd like to think that the same is true of Christians. Being vulnerable (memetically), countless mutations have fored my discipleship into something new. That is, I am an unabashedly mutant thing as I stand before God. And mutation in this sense is not something to be ashamed of. Rather, it is the realization of a calling into the unknown. So, yes, I have spent my day and, indeed, I go to spend another one, to move even deeper into hospitality.

-Check Out the Hastings College V&V Program Online:
http://www.hastings.edu/igsbase/igstemplate.cfm?SRC=SP&SRCN=vv_home1&GnavID=108