{"id":355,"date":"2021-07-12T20:11:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2021\/07\/12\/pandemic-perspectives-pastor-jim\/"},"modified":"2021-07-12T20:11:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:11:14","slug":"pandemic-perspectives-pastor-jim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/pandemic-perspectives-pastor-jim\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic Perspectives: Pastor Jim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sept. 21, 2020, The Torch, Valparaiso University\u2019s campus newspaper, asked members of the Valpo community to write an essay on their personal experience with the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>. University Pastor James A. Wetzstein was one of them. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it\u2019s like to be a collegiate pastor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The campus shut-down in the middle of the spring semester sent us scrambling. Like everyone else on campus striving to rise to the challenge of the moment, the Chapel staff worked to move Valpo\u2019s worship life online and SALT took the steps necessary to continue the World Relief Campaign regardless of the circumstances. I worked with talented and committed students leaders and learned how to preach into my phone from my living room in order to stream Celebrate on Facebook Live and Deaconess Kristin and I hosted over 300 on an Easter Morning WebEx call that, for a time, collapsed under the weight of too many eager microphones. Morning Prayer and Candlelight found their own rhythm online and gathered a community, including appreciative alumni, that would have been impossible otherwise. It was both exciting and exhausting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in the final semester of classes for my Ph.D. program in liturgy at Notre Dame where, like Valpo, all of the classes moved online, saving me four hours of commuting time every week. It wasn\u2019t all bad. My sacramental theology class turned its attention to the phenomenon of digitally mediated worship and I had the opportunity to sort through the question of whether or not one could actually celebrate Holy Communion on the internet \u2013\u2013 my current view is that it\u2019s a matter of how one views the technology of mediation including words, speech, amplification, and digital transmission and presence. I was fascinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then came the summer and we were all furloughed. We weren\u2019t allowed to work and it was the worst.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Being a pastor means interacting with people. Under normal circumstances, there is no time when we are completely off the clock. We\u2019re always available, always engaged. Then\u2026 we couldn\u2019t be. It felt like the most awful time out, though it was hardly a sacrifice compared to others who have lost jobs and loved ones. Like probably every Lutheran pastor, I read Martin Luther\u2019s letter of 1527, \u201cWhether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague\u201d in which he acknowledged the very real risks of a pandemic even as he affirmed the pastoral vocation to serve those who are suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now we\u2019re back on campus and it\u2019s so good to see everyone even if only your eyes above the masks. (I am enjoying a heightened appreciation for both the beauty and expressiveness of human eyes.) I\u2019ve adapted to Zoom and find those interactions compelling as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest challenge is driven by the necessary limitations on worship life at the Chapel. Because of the old school ventilation system at the Chapel (read: opening windows) we have limited attendance to 100 people at any service at the Chapel and singing by anyone other than four designated singers isn\u2019t allowed. Music is so central to Lutheran spirituality, initially, I couldn\u2019t conceive of a service without everyone singing. But then, we started doing it in the Chapel\u2019s big room with over half the chairs removed and people spread all over. It is, for the time being, serene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that I\u2019ll revel in the day when the Chapel is packed with hundreds if not thousands again and voices are raised in praise, but for now, for this season of anxiety and mourning, the quiet feels right. If you haven\u2019t been by during this time, you should. Even so, I pray it\u2019s never repeated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In terms of the one on one conversations in which a pastor is privileged to engage, little has changed. I love the conversations (some now online) that turn on the questions of meaning and purpose that come my way and I continue to maintain that one\u2019s college years are exactly the right time to develop a theology that has the capacity to account for both freedom and suffering. I will never tire of the joy of declaring God\u2019s forgiveness over someone who has become burdened by their own sense of failure and shame. It is always an honor to be in the room when divine grace is realized for all that it brings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will, at some point, come out of this. My prayer is that we\u2019re neither permanently scarred by the losses we\u2019ve suffered nor forgetful of the blessings that we\u2019ve encountered in this time.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 21, 2020, The Torch, Valparaiso University\u2019s campus newspaper, asked members of the Valpo community to write an essay on their personal experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. University Pastor James […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":88,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/06\/20151211-FJA-Christmas-Advent-Vespers-018-300x200.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":[],"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 5 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 12, 2021","modified":"Updated on July 12, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 12, 2021 8:11 pm","modified":"Updated on July 12, 2021 8:11 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}