The Time I Went To A Feminist Rally

I saw a bit of the ceremony at the White House this morning for the brand new group of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  One could, I suspect, draw lines between many of them as their lives and work have intersected over the years - the two that I drew together were Gloria Steinem and Loretta Lynn.  Steinem is known for her strong voice as a feminist.  Lynn is known as a country music singer.  In my mind they are joined in this journey and it all goes back to the feminist rally I attended one evening in Louisville at Freedom Hall.
I am not a political rally kind of person.  I have beliefs and convictions and opinions, but I lack the energy for political rallys.  I do not question their value, I do question my ability to be useful in that setting.  So when I say I went to a feminist rally, what I went to was a Reba McEntire/Kelly Clarkson concert.  The rally was an unexpected bonus.  The concert was very good, both Reba and Kelly are excellent live performers with great catalogues of music to go to for material.  My attention though was really drawn to Reba.  And to the way the crowd responded to her songs.  Which ultimately crystallized in their response to one song.  The on their feet, singing along at the top of their lungs response to "Is There Life Out There".  It's the story of a woman who is invested in her family and yet has so consistently set her own life aside that she has lost contact with the world beyond her home and her work there.  The chorus conveys the core of the song...

                                                                Is there life out there

So much she hasn't done

Is there life beyond

Her family and her home

She's done what she should

Should she do what she dares

She doesn't want to leave

She's just wonderin'

Is there life out there

You can probably find country songs before Loretta Lynn that began to give voice to what the women who heard the songs were experiencing, but I think Loretta Lynn is a pioneer in singing songs that connected with the real experiences of real women living real lives and wishing and wondering if there wasn't possibly something more.  Loretta led to others working that territory.  Reba being one of them.  And still today fully within the country music genre, solo artists like Kacey Musgraves and groups like the Pistol Annies work similar ground.

It is good to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of leaders like Gloria Steinem.  And it is equally good to celebrate the accomplishments of those who reached populations that might not be understood as the most ready ground for feminist thought by singing those values and concerns into their real life based songs and paving the way for others to do the same. 

The Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret

My mentor, Rev. Dr. Robert R. McGruther taught me many things, not the least of which was a love of the line "save us from weak resignation" from the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory".  There has been a flurry of words recently around the question "Why Church?".  The numbers over the years tell the tale.  People are leaving the church.  Why are they leaving?  What can the church do to transform the way it goes about its work to stem this tide of folks leaving.
Probably lots of stuff.  Communicate good news more regularly and effectively.  Be more open, inviting and welcoming.  Feel less clubby.  Love everyone.  Serve.  Lots of stuff.  One thing I'm thinking we should not try is "weak resignation".  In reading some of the "Why Church?" pieces I find myself thinking that if what I was reading was what church was I wouldn't want any part of it either.
Let's start here.  Imagine that a store has a complaint box.  The store is not perfect, far from it, but it's hanging in, doing some things better than others.  Now let assume we want to work on the less than perfect part of the store in order to work at upgrading from hanging in - a good goal.  I am thinking that the way to do that would not be to expect a clear picture of what needs to be done by going through the complaint box.  Should we take a look at the complaint box, yes.  But should we build our strategy for where we should be going forward by allowing the complaint box to paint the picture of who we are in the present.  No.  Because it's not even close to an accurate picture.
Building the future by placing complete trust in the complaint box leads to "weak resignation".  It leads to the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret.  The church needs to reflect and it needs to do better and it needs to take into account the places where we've gotten it wrong in the past.  But who wants to hook up with the beacon of light, or rather the quickly fading battery powered flashlight of the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret?  What do we have to offer?  "Hey, we are so sorry in so many ways."  Do we need to say those words.  At times, absolutely.  Should they be our go to invitation or welcome message?  I think we can do better.  If you have the complete Winnie the Pooh gang at your disposal are you going to always run Eeyore out first.  He may be perfect some of the time, but on occasion Tigger may not be a bad choice.
Why church?  Because it is a place where God is not a complimentary bit of scenery.  Because it is the living, breathing, acting, redeeming, transforming, life giving body of Christ.  Because people care about each other.  Because it's an excellent place to live through hurt and pain.  Because it's better when you are here.
Why church?  In this one instance, let's try over-promising and then  live towards it.  Because if we are right about this Kingdom of God thing, we cannot over-promise.  We can mess up, get it wrong, fail spectacularly at times, true.  But we cannot over-promise.  Save us from weak resignation and from dragging around the standard of the Apologetic Church of Despair and Regret.

Oprah Said...

Morning Joe recently aired an interview with Oprah Winfrey.  At one point she was talking about the kind of people she needed to have around her in her attempt to build her cable network OWN.  She spoke about the importance of discerning the difference between people who are gifted at talking about vision and people who are capable of executing vision.  Leadership, I believe she was intimating, has to do with doing less of the talking about and more of the doing of.
As with most things that I hear, I tossed these comments into the context of the church.  In her musings I believe Oprah spoke truth to church and specifically to clergy.  We speculate on why people are leaving the church.  We speculate on how to get people to come to church.  We speculate on why ministry is so difficult.  We speculate.
Oprah's contribution to our speculation might be to recommend that we speculate less and minister more.  It's not that we shouldn't have our minds engaged as we consider where we are or where we are going.  It's more that we have to understand that we are indeed going.  It feels at times like we (clergy/church leaders) are driving around in a car.  We are often not happy with the car and will share critiques about the construction of the car, the efficiency of the car, where the car should go, but with a lack of attention to the reality that it is indeed a real car and it really is going somewhere right now.  To borrow from Oprah, we might benefit from talking about driving the car less and attend more closely to the actual driving of the car.

(Not So) Endless Summer

Let's see.  June - went to Annual Conference in Northern Kentucky for about three days and hung out with my Methodist brothers and sisters.  They are kind and more than tolerate, they welcome the married into the family Calvinist.  Then it was a quick Saturday run down to Nashville to retrieve Eliza from basketball camp at Belmont and swing through the Opry Land Commercial Industrial site.  And eat at the Rainforest Cafe.

Onward to July.  Eliza to Aldersgate and Cameron in Lexington working his summer internship at the Herald-Leader so Julie and I intended to slip away Monday through Friday to the Smokies and Lake Junaluska.  Then several families in the Hebron congregation lost loved ones which took an emotional toll on the church, but they rose to the occasion and embraced the hope in the midst of the loss and extended the ministry of hospitality to the families and friends in their grace filled style.  Then a wonderful Vacation Bible School with a great Middle School group leading to the launch of a new Youth Group at Hebron - very exciting stuff that!  Then Eliza and I off to the Presbyterian Youth Triennium at Purdue.  Eliza's first and I believe she enjoyed it and my seventh or so and I know I enjoyed it.  Then home for a few days before closing out July and beginning August on vacation at Jekyll Island with Julie's mom and dad and our family.  Jekyll Island is great and the trip was a treasure.  And now Eliza gets ready to start her Sophomore year of high school at Bullitt East on Wednesday.  Cameron has a a little while longer before heading back to Western Kentucky University for his Sophomore year.

June and July - what I have come to think of as the summer months (with August being a transition to fall more than summer because of school schedules) feel at times like the old Mr. Toads Wild Road at Disney when I was a kid.  Kind of a short ride in Fantasy Land that took you here and there and never really felt scary or dangerous, but jerked you around a lot in ways you didn't really anticipate.  Summer lacks continuity.  It jerks you here and there and leaves you both coming and going and feeling like you have all the time in the world and no time at all - all at the same time.  It stretches out in front of you with small surprises waiting along the way - endless like the Beach Boys said - and then, poof, school starts Wednesday.

Crossroads has been doing a study called 24/6 by Dr. Matthew Sleeth around the subject of Sabbath.  The two months of summer 2013 have been illustrative of what folks are up against when we consider Sabbath.  It seems like a great idea.  It sounds wonderful.  Virtually everyone agrees we would be better off being better Sabbath keepers.  But agreement that it would be a good idea and realizing that good idea can be a challenge to bring into relationship with each other.  

As I reflect on the summer I see God all over it.  I look forward to unpacking and considering  some of the events of summer in sermons, in Bible Study, in conversations, at prayer groups, in quiet moments, waiting for the light to change at the intersection....in ways planned and spontaneous.  Looking back at the whirlwind before heading off towards what lies ahead, the ride is occaisonally wild.  And challenging.  And wonderful.    

2013 Presbyterian Youth Triennium

I graduated high school in 1982 and that summer went to the Presbyterian Youth Celebration, an event of the Synod of the Covenant that was held at Muskingum College.  It was a grand and glorious time and is often the case with grand and glorious times as soon as it was over you begin to wonder where you can ever find an experience that will approximate that ever again.  I thought I knew.  My roommate at the Youth Celebration was Bill Robinson and he had been to a higher mountain top and returned to tell the tale.  He had been to the Presbyterian Youth Triennium at Indiana University in 1980.  It was the Synod event on a national scale and the next one would roll around the following summer, the summer of 1983, at Purdue.  So off I went to the 1983 Presbyterian Youth Triennium with the delegation from Miami Presbytery.

It was all that and a box of whatever good thing you would like in a box.

I missed 1986 - I was college age and really at an age where I was too old to be there as a youth, but not old enough to be there as an adult.  But in 1989 I was back as an adult advisor and have missed only a couple more in the process, attending as small group leader and most recently as a Dorm Dean.    One of the joys of the event is having youth from the churches I serve attend - knowing what they are going to experience and knowing that it will be memorable in one way or another for them in a very unique way in their experience in the Presbyterian church.  Like Brigadoon, it disappears into the mist after it has run its course only to mysteriously reappear three years later back at Purdue, the campus still flat and big and hot and the event still a spiritual livewire.   Last time in 2010 my son Cameron was in the window of Triennium youth age and was able to attend.  The 2013 version begins on Tuesday and my daughter Eliza will be in attendance with the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky group.  And I will be there making sure that people are in their dorms by the appointed hours and that the folks in our dorm are accounted for and safe.  

I am one of those people who believes that Triennium is probably the best thing going in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  And that's not to say that there aren't a variety of good things going on - it is to say tha Triennium is a mind bogglingly awesome thing.  The energizers.  The worship.  The 5000 (give or take, more or less) young people.  The expectation of knowing that something awesome will happen, but not having any idea what it will be until there it is, happening.

My all time favorite Triennium moment:  One year we had, over the course of the week, heard a song from the Triennium choir called "Freedom Is Coming".  It's one of those songs that once set in motion could very well go on forever and no one would complain.  It is joyous and rollicking and exhilarating.  The time had come for the final worship.  The Music Hall went completely dark.  And then there was the sound of the choir singing "Freedom Is Coming".  You couldn't see them, you could only hear them.  And then slowly they appeared, the stage has a section that can be lowered and  so here came the choir in full voice out of the darkness, out of the recesses of the stage singing this song that would go on forever and it was pretty sweet.

Looking forward to what happens this time.

Ash Wednesday: Here We Go Again For The First Time

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the Holy Land four times.  On occasion friends who know I've made multiple trips will ask if the trips are different from each other.  The problem they are imagining is that the itinerary for each trip is the same and that after two or three times it would begin  to get old.
I have two answers to this question.  First, it is different each time.  While there are certain places that have been stops on the tour each time, there have been places that are new and different each time - there is always something new that I couldn't have anticipated.  Second, if each time was exactly the same, with the same trips and you told me I could go do that trip tomorrow, I'd be ready to go.  Even the same place has something different to tell and to teach.  Stan Ott, Presbyterian visionary, calls it the "chemistry of the company" - the idea that each time you are with a group of people it is a unique moment of time to be valued - that group may never be configured just like that again.  Each time I've made the trip I've shared the journey with different folks and each group has brought out different insights and added different experiences.  Revisiting the familiar does not mean there is nothing new to be gained in the visit.
Which brings me to Ash Wednesday.  As the church calendar cycles around we come again to Ash Wednesday, the front door to the season of Lent.  It is easy to feel like we've walked through this door before and that this is just another trot through the familiar paces which will bring us back again to Holy Week and Easter.  But we know better.
We know that each time through the door of Ash Wednesday is unique and that each Lenten season of reflection is new and different.  Your traveling companions are unique to 2013.  Your life experiences have you in a place you have never been to before.  What it means for each one of us to ask God to grant us a clean heart and a new and right spirit is not the same as it was last year or in 2004 or in 1989.
The Lenten journey is a gift.  It is a gift which for many is familiar and one which we have opened in the past, perhaps many, many times.  Make no mistake though - this one is brand new.  One of my favorite quotes on history comes from Kurt Vonnegut.  "History is merely a list of surprises.  It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again."  As we make this journey through Lent I am hopeful that we will be open to the surprise of God's love, care and forgiveness in ways that are particular to our lives at this very moment in time.

(The pictures below are of the Judean wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho. It is an example of one such surprise.  We stopped on the side of the old Roman road between the two cities and piled off the bus and on to a path that led first to this view - our guide, Jimmy, described it as "the valley of the shadow of death" - and then to a view of an amazing place we had not seen before from so close. A monastery, literally carved into the side of the hills.  Epic stuff.  A grand surprise.)

Eating Pizza or Why Travel To The Land of The Bible Should Be Seminary Core Learning

We traveled around the northern part of the country again today, visiting the Yardenit baptismal spot where the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee, taking a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee, and exploring the wondrous archaeological site at Beit Shean.  We stopped for lunch at a Kibbutz where the brave among us ate St. Peter's fish (a tilapia looking very much like itself just staring at you from the plate) and where I had cheese pizza.  I am not brave.  Know your limits.
Towards the end of the day, our veteran guide, Jimmy, took us to a possible location for Jesus' feeding of the 4,000.  That is correct, 4,000 - not 5,000.  Two stories and two locations.  And the location may make all the difference in understanding the story - or more specifically the necessity of two stories.  This evening we had a speaker from Educational Opportunities talk about Jesus and the Galilee.  I was already and am now even more convinced of the invaluable nature of physically seeing, feeling, experiencing the land to more deeply appreciate the stories.  Becoming familiar with the geography; learning the history as it relates to the geography and scripture; discovering what it means that Jesus left Nazareth and came to Capernaum to begin his ministry.  Taking this stuff seriously is taking the incarnation seriously.  Ignoring or dismissing it is to risk ignoring or dismissing the humanity of Christ.  Jesus did not come at a random moment to a place we know nothing about.  Jesus came to a particular place and lived in this place and lived and worked and played and carried out his ministry here.
It is an amazing place.
I'm glad I got to eat pizza here.

Great Falafel

On the bus at 7:30 a.m. And off to visit a spot I've not been to before - the Valley of the Pigeons near the biblical village of Migdal on the Sea of Galilee.  Saw the pass between two mountains (Mittay and Ardel) through which the ancient road that would have gone to Cana runs.
Went to Kibbutz Nof Ginnosaur to see the "Jesus" boat, an archaeological find from the 1980's that dates to the time of Christ.  Visited some sites of great biblical stories including the multiplication of loaves and fishes and the synagogue at Capernaum.  Also visited the Mt. Of Beatitudes and saw a cave that could be the sort of place Jesus would go to when he went off by himself. 
We went to the Druze village of Magdal Shams along the Israel Syria border and saw the "Valley of Shouting".  This is a place where families with folks on the Israeli side and Syrian sides of the border would shout to each other to communicate as this has been and remains a closed border.  We had lunch at a small Druze restaurant there and two words: great falafel.  Wow.
Saw the headwaters of the Jordan at the foot of Mt. Hermon and was reminded once more with feeling of the importance of water in the biblical narrative from beginning to end and the ongoing vital role of water for us today, both in the spiritual and physical sense.
A good solid first day of sites!  Not sure if pictures are showing up - if so, here's one of Julie and I at the Sea of Galilee.  If not, I'll fix it later.

later.

Back At The Royal Plaza Tiberias

Every time it's been January.  2000.  2001.  2011.  And now 2013.
We left Louisville yesterday at 6:00 - three hours behind schedule on a replacement plane.  Arrived in Philadelphia a little after 7:00 and moved with purpose to the international gate where we went through the security drill and boarded a big old jet airliner.
Which carried us far, far away.  Ten hours away anyway.  To Tel Aviv, where we arrived at 2:20 p.m. local time.  Then on to our bus - the Blue Bus - how perfect is that, right?  Go Cats!  Our bus rolled out of Tel Aviv and brought us here, to the Royal Plaza Hotel in Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  To one of my most favorite spots.  The terrace outside, off the lobby of the Royal Plaza.  Off in the darkness lies the Sea of Galilee.  Tomorrow we begin the pilgrimage anew.  We will see some places we have seen before and yet I guarantee you that in those places we will see something new, something unexpected, somethingthat will make the trip worthwhile before it even has a chance to get its sea legs.
I am blessed to be traveling with Julie again this time as well as two members of Hebron and our student intern along with her husband.  It is exciting to encourage folks to come to the Holy Land and then to watch as the experience unfolds for them.  What will be meaningful for them?  What will make scripture spring to life in a new way?  What will I see anew because they are here?
It's nearly impossible to speak about this place without slipping into cliche.  It is renewing, healing, energizing and transforming.
And that's just after one night on the terrace looking into the darkness at a lake I can't see.  With great anticipation for what the morning will bring...