And now a quick break for idealism--

So, I was originally going to make a post diving into what I've been doing with the synagogue here over the last few weeks, but then I got dragged into watching the videos from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) Youth Gathering, which is happening right now in New Orleans. I'm gonna get back to all my Jewish learnin', but for now I just want to talk about this conference.

I am SO EXCITED to see what's happening at the Youth Gathering, and what's going on with the next generation of the Church. They've had speakers like the always-wonderful Nadia Bolz-Weber, and this guy, Shane Claiborne, who I've never heard of before, who sounds like an old-timey tent revival preacher but who looks like a dirty hippie, and who walks the walk.

"I went up to one of those bishops afterwards and I said 'bishop, I gotta tell ya, this is so powerful and I had no idea that there were so many Christians in Iraq.' That bishop was gentle with me, but this is what he said, 'son, this is where Christianity started.' He said, 'you didn't invent Christianity in America, you just domesticated it.'"

And that's exactly how I feel about so much of the Christianity I've experienced in my life; it's domesticated. But there have always been people around to remind us, in the words of C. S. Lewis, that Aslan is not a tame lion. Martin Luther reminded us that God can't be domesticated into an economic system where forgiveness can be bought, and Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that God can't be domesticated and reformed in the image of our own prejudices for the sake of upholding hate, and what I see in the eyes of these Christian kids today is hope that God will be set free again among us and within us.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Lutheran church. I love the hymns, I love the order of service, I love many of the ways we do things. I love that we have a history, and if I've learned nothing else from my study of all things Jewish, it's that a common history helps to bind community together when we disagree about things like which hymn book to use.

But I also believe that, as my friend Emmy says, we need to start doing church differently, and reforming the image of what it means to be a Christian in this world. And I can see the beginnings of this in people like Nadia and Shane, and in the enthusiasm of the kids at the Youth Gathering. One of the things Shane reminded me of in this video was a song we used to sing at camp that I'd totally forgotten about, but want to bring back in a big way:

"And they will know we are Christians by our love."