Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
God goes with submariners
400 feet below the Pacific Ocean, like the Garden of Gethsemane
J.L. Precup: "Monday is sermon day, and the rest of the week is for thinking about what I’ve written."
Place: University Lutheran Church
Pastor: J.L. Precup
Age: 71
Born: Aurora, IL
Formation: Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO
Years Ordained: 45
San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?
Pastor J.L. Precup: For Lutherans, word and sacrament are important in worship. While I might have an opinion on any number of things, it’s important to explicate the word. Certainly any delving into scripture has present-day applications. The particular Lutheran emphasis is on the person as saint and sinner…. I spend the better part of a solid day on my sermon, and then, as I like to say, I let it sit in the computer and marinate. I came up with a discipline very early after becoming a pastor. Monday is sermon day, and the rest of the week is for thinking about what I’ve written, and refining it right up to Sunday morning.
SDR: What is the mission of your church?
PP: The community of University Lutheran Church connects people to God, and to each other, on their spiritual journeys by the gospel of Christ nurturing love. The old terminology for the kind of congregation I serve was “town and gown.” In other words, some town people worship alongside the academic community…. We feel welcomed here at UCSD and, likewise, we are open to the university. A young couple moved into the area; they’re not students but beginning their professional lives. They’re Lutheran, but they live in a place that’s not near a Lutheran church. They’d ask people at various Lutheran churches they visited where they thought this couple belonged. Each time, people pointed them to our community. While our worship looks traditional, the spirit of the place is very open.
SDR: Where’s the strangest place you found God?
PP: I am retired from active duty. I was a Navy chaplain for 28 years. I was fortunate enough to begin at Point Loma, at the submarine base in the early 1980s on a submarine tender. One of my later tours, which began in the year 2000, was at Submarine Squadron 11 here. I got to ride on submarines. After services during one Holy Week, on Maundy Thursday, the captain of the sub and I sat in the subdued lighting of the room. Looking around, he told me that this is how he envisioned the Garden of Gethsemane — kind of dark and quiet. I nodded, but then thought, Wait. We’re 400 feet below the Pacific Ocean! But says the psalmist, “Where can I go and you are not there?”
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
PP: We’ve come from God and we return to God. I’m waiting for the resurrection of the body in that judgment to come — God’s judgment. My hope is built on Christ and not on my personal decision about whether I merit heaven or hell. So where am I when I die? I cannot look into the full mind of God to say what he has planned for all people; I only know what he has planned for me. Therefore, for me to deny Christ is to risk a negative judgment of me, but I can’t say that of everyone. When God steps out of the way, when God isn’t present — that’s hell. So much of scripture and the stories of God dealing with people is a matter of calling them back from that rejection.
Here's something you might be interested in.
God goes with submariners
400 feet below the Pacific Ocean, like the Garden of Gethsemane
God goes with submariners
400 feet below the Pacific Ocean, like the Garden of Gethsemane
J.L. Precup: "Monday is sermon day, and the rest of the week is for thinking about what I’ve written."
Place: University Lutheran Church
Pastor: J.L. Precup
Age: 71
Born: Aurora, IL
Formation: Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO
Years Ordained: 45
San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?
Pastor J.L. Precup: For Lutherans, word and sacrament are important in worship. While I might have an opinion on any number of things, it’s important to explicate the word. Certainly any delving into scripture has present-day applications. The particular Lutheran emphasis is on the person as saint and sinner…. I spend the better part of a solid day on my sermon, and then, as I like to say, I let it sit in the computer and marinate. I came up with a discipline very early after becoming a pastor. Monday is sermon day, and the rest of the week is for thinking about what I’ve written, and refining it right up to Sunday morning.
SDR: What is the mission of your church?
PP: The community of University Lutheran Church connects people to God, and to each other, on their spiritual journeys by the gospel of Christ nurturing love. The old terminology for the kind of congregation I serve was “town and gown.” In other words, some town people worship alongside the academic community…. We feel welcomed here at UCSD and, likewise, we are open to the university. A young couple moved into the area; they’re not students but beginning their professional lives. They’re Lutheran, but they live in a place that’s not near a Lutheran church. They’d ask people at various Lutheran churches they visited where they thought this couple belonged. Each time, people pointed them to our community. While our worship looks traditional, the spirit of the place is very open.
SDR: Where’s the strangest place you found God?
PP: I am retired from active duty. I was a Navy chaplain for 28 years. I was fortunate enough to begin at Point Loma, at the submarine base in the early 1980s on a submarine tender. One of my later tours, which began in the year 2000, was at Submarine Squadron 11 here. I got to ride on submarines. After services during one Holy Week, on Maundy Thursday, the captain of the sub and I sat in the subdued lighting of the room. Looking around, he told me that this is how he envisioned the Garden of Gethsemane — kind of dark and quiet. I nodded, but then thought, Wait. We’re 400 feet below the Pacific Ocean! But says the psalmist, “Where can I go and you are not there?”
SDR: Where do you go when you die?
PP: We’ve come from God and we return to God. I’m waiting for the resurrection of the body in that judgment to come — God’s judgment. My hope is built on Christ and not on my personal decision about whether I merit heaven or hell. So where am I when I die? I cannot look into the full mind of God to say what he has planned for all people; I only know what he has planned for me. Therefore, for me to deny Christ is to risk a negative judgment of me, but I can’t say that of everyone. When God steps out of the way, when God isn’t present — that’s hell. So much of scripture and the stories of God dealing with people is a matter of calling them back from that rejection.
Comments