We are babies.
We come to this program from many different faith traditions – or no faith tradition at all – with a body of knowledge gained over 20, 30, 40 or 50 years. We can answer many questions about our own tradition – where do you stand, where are you flexible, where are your doubts – but about each other’s traditions?
We are babies.
We know sutras or ayahs or verses or data from our youth, we have degrees from across the globe, we have written many papers, offered many opinions, preached many sermons, sat at the feet of women and men much wiser than us in order to come to this place to learn more. From women and men much wiser than us. From books and articles by noted scholars. From each other.
We are babies.
An infant on a plane can be incredibly annoying; an infant on a lap – listening, seeing, touching, experiencing, tasting, speaking – is a world of potential. Babies are humble and demanding and loud and protected and needy and helpless. We are hopeful, that there is more to us than the drool on our chin and the food on our bib and the mess in our nappy.
I am a baby.
I come from the Lutheran family, followers of the teachings of Jesus – the first Reformer – via Martin Luther, one in a long line of Reformers. I went to Lutheran schools for the first 13 years, and four years beyond that. I am the son of Lutheran educators, brother to a nurse at Lutheran Hospital and an executive at a Lutheran investment company, married to a professor at a Lutheran University.
I am a baby.
I have known Luther and his theology from the time I was, well, a baby. I view everything through the lens of Law and Gospel; I celebrated this year the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation; I will sing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” (either version) if you ask, and possibly even if you don’t; I am a firm believer in infant baptism and original sin and the value of service and care; I love God’s Word (Jesus) as revealed in the Holy Bible; I realise, as a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant male from the United States of America, that I am from the most powerful, entitled, privileged and despised group of people on earth.
I am a baby.
Though I know many Lutheran things, I am here to learn more. I have an interest in discovering Martin Luther’s relationship with Islam, and if there is a clue in that relationship to discover why my American Lutheran brothers and sisters are so bitterly divided over interfaith matters.
I will not speak for my fellow cohort members – except to call them babies – because they can speak for themselves, and will, in this space over the following weeks. We have begun this process together, and there are many things I could say about them, but for now, I will just say:
I love my crib-mates.
