Almost three years ago, I wrote a post titled Last “first day of school”? It was an honest post – I figured that my last semester of seminary would, in fact, be my last semester of seminary. But after a series of events related to my ordination and the Presbytery of Kendall, all of my plans got a little messed up. Now that I’m under the care of the Presbytery of San Francisco, and have had two additional courses to complete, I think I can now honestly say that TODAY, is my last “first day of school.” I’ll be taking a course called “Matthew: Methods & Meanings” at the San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Now – it’s been over 4 years since I’ve done anything with Greek. Anything. I took Summer Greek at Columbia Theological Seminary and actually really enjoyed it. I found it much easier than Hebrew (which I enjoyed as well) and really got a kick out of translating. Now, parsing…that’s another story. I couldn’t parse to save my life – but I could translate. So – I’m not really looking forward to getting back into Greek – but it can’t hurt.
I thought I would be kind of bitter about having to complete additional educational requirements for the Presbytery of San Francisco – but I’m really not. Going through everything I went through simply solidified my reasons and intentions for continuing to pursue ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I feel that God has called me to this denomination and to a life of ministry – and consider this just one more step to being able to fully live into that call.
So today I join all of the other SFTS and GTU students in the Bay area for another first day of school. But this time, I really think it is going to be my last…
