#40DaysofListening

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Day 19: Generations

"Shoot from the Hip" by PEABOD

This is another one where listening to the song first is helpful (watch the video here).   This song is from Isaac Peabody, who performs under the name PEABOD.  Isaac was a singer songwriter who was trying to make it in the coffeehouse circuit.  All the while, he was writing and recording hip-hop songs in his spare time for fun.  Eventually, after encouragement from friends, he released the hip-hop album, which connected and took off in ways that his folk music never did.   This song directly addresses the difficulties of being a millennial – being vilified for being immature and impulsive, yet being the first generation in decades that is expected to have a more difficult time than the generation that came before them.  They are coming into a world with more debt than any generation before (thanks to the exponential increase in college tuition – which has risen by nearly 200% in the last twenty years) with a job market unpromising.  They are blamed for not participating the industries of the previous generations and are chastised for always being on their phones.  They are seen by many in the church as being a big reason for the decline in the church over the last twenty years.

Millennials are roughly people born between 1980 and 2000, and so all of them at this point are adults between 39 and 20.  They are the first generation to grow up entirely native to computers and the internet (rather than having to learn them later in life).  Technology is a first language for them.  Millennials are also statistically the most benevolent generation ever, giving more of their income and time to charity per capita than any other generation ever.  They don’t have much money, so the total figure is lower than previous generations, but the percentage of personal wealth and time that millennials donate to charitable causes far out paces any previous generation.

  They just aren’t giving it to the church.  Largely because the church doesn’t know what to do with them.   The church model that most mainline churches have been operating with is one that is designed for the 1950s and has never been updated.  We provide Christian Education for children from birth until they graduate from high school (and effectively graduate from church).  We send them off to college and hope that they will connect with a college ministry during their time in school, but know that they will get married right out of college and have kids by 22, and then come back to the church to put their kids in our tremendous birth to high school children’s programming.  One problem with this model, though (there are many) is that people don’t really get married at 22 anymore.  They barely get married by 30.  And even when they do get married, they often aren’t having kids until their mid to late 30s.  So our model that was based on ceding four years to young people to go to college and get married before they come back to the church with kids of their own now has to contend with a ten to twenty year gap before millennials would likely come back to a church because of the children’s programming.  We have yet to really create space for single people in their 20s and 30s in the church.    On top of that, we see a lot of millennials who are passionate about social justice and ending systematic oppression juxtaposed against a church in America that is increasingly less interested in social justice or ending oppression.  More and more they are finding a church who’s main purpose appears to be survival – existing to make sure that they will still exist in the future.  By and large, this generation has no interest in an institution that is in self-preservation mode.   And so they are seeking fulfillment in places that make a discearnable difference (humanitarian organizations) and in putting their pursuits of deeper meaning into places that aren’t afraid of questions.  This is a generation that is also deeply curious about faith, but not a faith that looks like the desperate yet status quo faith that is so prevalent in much of the mainline churches in the current landscape.   They are passionate people who want to make a difference.  And they often see the church as a place where making a difference isn’t one of the options.   Millennials in this way can help us hold up a mirror to ourselves as the church.  The issues that millennials have with the church are issues that we should wrestle with.  Why do most churches not have a robust, engaging adult ministry that is solely centered on caring for young children or being a retiree?  What are we not offering to adults who have questions?  What is the message that the church has for young people who have done everything “right,” yet are working at a barista and have $250,000 in student loans?   The church has a massive gap, and that gap has been there for a long time.   Let us be a people who have room for questions, and room for new voices.   Let us not get so comfortable in the way we’ve always done things to fear doing anything differently.   Let us be a church that is living an active, unafraid by preservation because we are too busy being the church to be concerned about how much longer our church can afford to do the ministry that we do.   Let us be willing to do things in a new way.   Let us be willing to know that God is still speaking, and sometimes, God likes to speak to the younger generations first.  

Here is a link to “Shoot from the Hip” by PEABOD

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 17: Revitalization [40 Days of Listening]

"Just What I Needed" by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox

One day long ago, I stumbled upon a most unusual thing on YouTube called “Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.”  It was a series of videos of covers of modern pop music, which in and of itself is not odd.  These one’s however were covers of modern pop song, but done in the style of previous eras of pop music.  You could find Katy Perry’s “Roar” done in the style of the 60’s Motown, Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” sung as a Rockabilly song, Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop” sung as a 50’s doo wop song, Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” as a Gatsby 1920s romp, Kesha’s “Die Young” as a wild west hoe down, The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army” as a New Orleans dirge, and scores of others.  It still remains a wonderful deep dive into some of the most creative parts of what the internet has to offer.  I still recommend it as a nice rabbit hole to fall into if you happen to find yourself with some time on your hands (say, because of a quarantine against a rising global pandemic, if that were to ever happen…).

  What I immediately loved about the videos was hearing these familiar songs in such different ways.  In many cases, it took a song that I wasn’t that big of a fan of, and it made me realize that the song itself was much better than I had thought.  The irony was that it took a modern song being sung in a style from a bygone era to make me hear it in a new way.  In order to become new, it had to be revisited through the lens of the past.   There is much made out of the notion of church revitalization.  Ever since the dissolution of Christendom (the imperialist Christianity of the 15th-19th centuries that evolved into the status-quo, nominal Christianity of the 20th century) became evident, the church has been in a spiral to figure out what the trick is to hold on to the institution of the church.  The answer for several decades seemed to be model ourselves after business, viewing members as customers to be given a product.  This led to the favorite answer of the last few decades: PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS!  The church very quickly became a place not where we went to serve others, but where we went to be served.  We were given a something to meet our needs, but that something was less and less about Jesus than it was about the church brand itself.  We were selling the church rather than sharing Jesus.   To put it plainly, this didn’t work.  The church has been given a boost as an institution, but this hasn’t made the Body of Christ stronger.  Christians in America are less known for their Christ-like qualities (love, inclusion, selflessness, generosity, justice seekers) than they are for their politics and their comfortable relationship with the status quo.   [An important note – there’s nothing wrong with programs.  They can be great, but they are to be the means, not the end.]   Revitalization isn’t a gimmick or something to do out of desperation.  Revitalization is to find renewed life.  It is to hear a familiar song in a brand new way (that is actually a brand old way).  The reformers in the Reformation saw this.  They weren’t trying to start something new.  They were trying to reclaim the purpose of the church which we had forgotten a long time ago.  They saw the means of doing this was by going back to the sources – actually reading and learning the Bible, which was a novel idea in an era in which Bibles were written exclusively in Latin, a language only understood by priests and scholars.  The notion of lay person being able to read the bible on their own seemed dangerous, and ultimately a threat to the power and authority of the church.  Yet the church was renewed and revitalized by the Reformation, taking a new song, but seeing it through an old lens.   As we seek revitalization as a church, we shouldn’t be seeking trendy or gimmicky things, chasing after the crowds.  First, anything we try to copy, someone else is already doing it better – many churches put a lot of effort into being coffee shops, restaurants, concert halls, community centers, and libraries.  We can do much that well, but not as well as actual coffee shops, restaurants, concert halls, community centers, and libraries.  What we can offer that is unique is purpose, but we can’t offer that if we don’t understand what our purpose even is. We can offer community, but there is a big difference between a bunch of people who happen to meet at the same place each week and true community that knows each other, trusts each other, and cares for each other.   In order to find the beauty in the song, sometimes we have to take it back out of this context to hear what it’s really about.   Let us not think that the church is something that it isn’t.  The church is not a business.  The church is not something that needs to be protected.  The church is something that needs to be alive. The church is something that needs to be lived out. The church is something that should be a blessing to all people, to roll up our sleeves and get into the dirty work of caring for people in a way that defines us.   Sometimes we need to look back so that we can go forward.    Then can hear the songs we should be singing.   And then we need to sing them.   Even on days when we don’t feel like singing.  

Click here to listen “Just What I Needed” by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 16: Perspective [40 Days of Listening]

"I Like Giants" by Kimya Dawson 

When I was 8 years old, my family took a trip out west.  We started in Iowa and hit virtually every tourist landmark you would want a postcard from in about two weeks.  So much of the trip overall was memorable, but the stop that struck me the most was when we went to the Grand Canyon.  There is something about it that is just too big.  If you’ve been there, I imagine that you know what I mean.  To see it in pictures, it is impressive, but to see it in real life it is too big.  I doesn’t fit into a rational understanding of what you are anticipating to see.  But it is just too big for you to fathom.  The bigness of the Grand Canyon is frightening.  Not in the sense that it is going to come and get you in the middle of the night, but that it is so big that you are in shock, and tentative along its edges.  This fear is not terror (unless you are legitimately afraid of heights) but rather it is awe.  An awareness that the world is a much bigger place that we try to make it out to be.   One of the common themes of the Bible is that we are to fear God.  But it is not the fear of someone who will punish you, but rather the fear that is like that fear for the Grand Canyon – it is awe.  A sense of our smallness in the face of God’s enormity.   This song by Kimya Dawson deals with a sense of this perspective.  We are so very small, just “a speck of dust inside a giant’s eye.”    Moreover, our fears and flaws are even smaller.    At the end of the book of Job, after Job has suffered a loss of family, fortune, and health, he cries out to God to help him make sense of why all of this is happening to him.  God responds by telling Job that the world is bigger than he knows, too big for him to understand, but that God is bigger than all of it – God created all of it.  So even when we are in the midst of suffering and struggles that we cannot comprehend, know that there is nothing so big that God cannot redeem it, nothing so big that God is not bigger.   As we stand on the precipice of the unknown the illness and other global struggles that overwhelm us, let us not look down at all that could harm us in fear;  let us look around at all that God has created in awe.  Let us see the beauty of those that would be helpers.  The beauty of science and medicine that would help us to treat and heal from illness.  The beauty and stillness of forced time off – time to reflect and to be present with family in ways we had not planned before this week.   Know that God is bigger than all that would harm us. Know that God is enabling us to see that there is good in the world around us. Know that there is beauty in each day, and that we are to find that beauty and share it with those around us.   Live in awe of a God so big that it makes no sense.

Click here to listen “I Like Giants” by Kimya Dawson

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 14: Coping [40 Days of Listening]

"Sober" by Childish Gambino

This is one of the songs that it helps to watch the video first.    The song talks about the end of a relationship, and how the narrator is escaping the pain through some sort of self-medication, numbing himself to reality.   The video is visually intriguing.  We see Donald Glover (the singer of the song, who’s stage name is “Childish Gambino”) in a near empty restaurant.  He sees a woman at the booth across from him and he tries all sorts of things to get her to show an interest in him, from dancing to literal magic tricks.    This is juxtaposed with moments at the beginning and the end of the video where we see Glover broken and intoxicated, looking at the end of his rope.  He’s lost everything, and he cannot deal with it.  The way he is coping is to become to numb the suffering.   One of the illusions that we convince ourselves into believing is the idea that nothing will ever go wrong to us.  At least that’s the cultural narrative – if you work hard and do what it right, then things will work out for you.  Even pessimists often will project that narrative onto others rather than themselves – “everything always works out for them.”   This, as we all know, is not true.  Things go wrong all the time.  Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.  We live in a reality that is filled with uncertainty, a world where suffering is a stranger to no one.  And sooner or later, we all will lose something or someone.   The problem is that we spend so much of our time telling ourselves that things will be fine, that we aren’t prepared for when they are not.  And so rather that experience pain or address pain, we numb it.   Some of us numb it with good old-fashioned denial. Some numb it with substances or things. Some numb it with new relationships. Some numb it with busy work. Etcetera.   The problem is that burying problems do not make them disappear.  We need to address them, at least to ourselves and to God.   Scripture is filled with bad ways in which people deal with stress and failure.  Most of those toxic coping methods lead to more hardships.  Denying the reality of the situation or numbing yourself to it never really helps in the long run.   One of the simplest stories of coping in the bible is a brief story of Jesus that is tucked in between two larger ones, so we easily miss it.   When Jesus hears of the death of his cousin John the Baptist (at the hands of Herod and his wife Herodius), he tried to cope by going off by himself to pray.  But people follow him, asking for help and for teaching.  He has compassion for the crowds and stops to talk to them, eventually talking through lunch time, leading to the feeding of the 5,000 (miracle with the loaves and fish).  Afterward, the disciples go off across the lake on their own at night, and Jesus walks out on the water to them, leading Peter to walk out on the water to him.   The little story in between those two big ones (feeding the 5,000 and walking on the water) is the one we miss, though.  And it is the reason why Jesus was not initially with them in the boat.  He went off by himself to mourn and pray about the death of John.  Just as he was trying to do before the people came out to hear him talk.   Jesus doesn’t let his grief keep him from caring for others, but he also doesn’t let his care for others cover up his grief.  He demonstrates in this particular moment that coping sometimes means being present with people, but it also means allowing yourself space to cope.  He addresses the hardship and frustrations he feels through going to God in private, but still makes himself available to the community when he is able.   Now this isn’t the only healthy way to cope, obviously, but it is a powerful one because it shows a practice of presence and of healthy withdrawal so that Jesus can be in prayer with God.   We all are coping with something. Are you doing it in a way that is healthy? Are you becoming numb to the pain, or even to the world around you? Or, like Jesus, are you giving room for God to help you cope, and seeking community that can embrace you and hold you up when you are in need?   Know that you are not alone, and that pain will heal if we let it.

  Click here to listen to “Sober” by Childish Gambino

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 11: Education [40 Days of Listening]

“Closer to Fine” by Indigo Girls

This song is has become part of the zeitgeist of the last 30 years in a way that only certain songs do.  There is a brilliant article on the website Stereogum about this (if you have a moment, take some time to read it).   I picked this song for today because it gets at something that is fundamental for the church, and in particular the Presbyterian church.  Education has always been an important part of growing in the faith, and Presbyterians have a reputation and a history for being one of the more learned denominations.  We highly value teaching, with classes that dig deeper into the bible in scholarly ways, we emphasize Christian education, and even have some of the most highly educated clergy of any denominations – many with PhD’s or doctorates.   This song is about that pursuit of knowledge.  The song is written by Emily Saliers, who along with Amy Ray makes up the Indigo Girls.  She wrote the song just after graduating from college.  It chronicles the pursuit of truth and knowledge, and no matter where she looks she seems to find more questions rather than answers.  It rather culminates in the revelation of the chorus “the less I seek my source for something definitive, closer I am to fine” – the less I try to fine a clear answer, the more I satisfying the search becomes.   In our Lenten class last week, we came up against the difficulty of trying to definitively articulate things spiritual.  We realized that heresies aren’t so much about saying evil things, they are about trying to pin down and understanding of God that is too limiting.  Even our most central theological ideas (the trinity, resurrection, heaven, to name a few) are really shrouded in mystery.  We can have a working understanding of each of these ideas, but as we approach the edges of them, things can feel perilous.  The more we search the more we find questions.   The Indigo Girls both grew up religious, Saliers being the daughter of a Methodist Theologian, and Ray even going to college as a religion major.  They still have pretty strong faith, but have bumped up religion as an institution, often by those who condemn their sexuality (Ray & Saliers are both gay) saying that there is no place in the church for them.  It hasn’t caused them to give up on God, but it has made church a difficult place to be.  They still both find joy in God, though, with Ray calling she and Saliers “queers for Jesus.” Saliers wrote a book with her father about music as a spiritual practice.  Ray often writes spiritual songs for herself that don’t get recorded:

“It’s just reserved for singing and not commercial anything. You know what I mean? I can put them on records, but it doesn’t feel the same to me somehow. Not to say that all the music’s not spiritual, but there is definitely for me a place that I go into if I write a little gospel song.”

We can often get so focused on the pursuit of the truth that we can miss the beauty of the journey, and we can get so frustrate by the unending stream of questions that we can miss the joy in the revelation that unveiled the new set of questions.  Education, especially spiritual education isn’t about getting a degree or becoming a respected scholar.  It’s about understanding.  It’s the difference between wisdom and knowledge.  Knowledge is collected and stored.  Wisdom is embodied and lived.   As we seek to know the world more, to know our neighbors more, to know ourselves more, and to know God more let us do so seeking wisdom and understanding, not absolutism and rigid binaries.   God is bigger than our brains can fathom. But that shouldn’t frustrate us or cause us to stop seeking. It should inspire us with awe.   When kids or astronomers look at the countless stars in the sky, they aren’t daunted by the impossibility of actually knowing about each of those stars.  They are instead willed with wonder and excitement, and despite all the reasons not to – they start counting.   Let us be people who never stop counting the stars. Who never stop being surprised by God, And who never start thinking that we are the ones who have figured God out completely. The less we seek the source for something definitive, closer we are to fine.

 Here is a link to “Closer to Fine” by Indigo Girls

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 9: Ecology. [40 Days of Listening]

“Nothing But Flowers” by Talking Heads

I didn’t grow up giving up things for Lent.  I grew up in the church, but as many protestants, we never felt expected to give thing up during Lent.  I was always intrigued by friends of mine who were Catholic who were giving things up, but I also realized (as nearly any kid would), it’s nice not having to give things up.  It wasn’t I was in seminary that I revisited the notion of giving something up for Lent.  First, it wasn’t until then that I first realized that this isn’t a specifically Catholic practice, but one that has origins in the general Christian church going back to the early church.  I realized that I giving things up were less about denial of things, but more about intentionality of things.

So I started some practices to make special note of Lent.  Even better than giving things up, I’ve found that taking on new practices can be a very positive experience during the 40 days of Lent.  I read through the Bible, kept prayer journals, prayed in new ways, took on volunteering opportunities, amongst other things.

A few days before Ash Wednesday, I heard about a youth group that was pledging to give up single use plastics for Lent.  This means doing to the best to avoid any plastics that are typically used once and then thrown out – things like grocery bags, water bottles, plastic utensils, etc. I hadn’t personally considered what I was going to take on this Lent yet, and this seemed a very timely and prescient thing for me to have come across.  

So without much thought, I pledged to try to give up single use plastic for the next six weeks.

After a nine days, I have discovered two things: 1. giving up single use plastics on a personal lever is relatively easy, and can have  pretty big impact on things.  Traveling with a refillable water bottle and a travel coffee mug are not too difficult, foregoing straws and plastic silverware demonstrates how often unnecessary both of those are. Each of us can make small changes that have big implications.

2. giving up single use plastics on a family level or a larger scale level is at this point virtually impossible. Even giving up the plastic bags at the grocery store, virtually everything is wrapped in plastic – often plastic wrapped in plastic wrapped in plastic.  You cannot escape it.  In order for that change these things in a meaningful way, it would take a community to say, “We do not like this.  This is not the right way to do this.” Before there could be any meaningful change on this side of things.

The saddest part about this practice is that somehow in the past few decades, caring about the environment has become something that is often seen as a partisan issue, and even worse as an issue that is not part of the mission of the church.

Both of those beliefs are catastrophically wrong.  There is no issue more universal than the care of the planet that we all live on.  While regulations to protect the planet may be a threat to unfettered corporate opportunism, it is not a threat to conservative politics, but rather should be a tentpole of conservative politics.  

Likewise, the mission of the church is not simply the salvation of souls (which Christ has already accomplished – the church doesn’t save anyone, we merely bear witness to the Christ has done and is doing), we are also tasked from the beginning with stewardship of the earth.  From the onset of human relationship with God in the Garden of Eden, we have been tasked with the care of and preservation of the earth.  Everything we do is connected, and this is God’s intention in all things.  Not only are we to love our neighbor and find community together, we are also to live in community with the world God has created.  What we do matters, and it reflects our relationship to God – whether that relationship is something to be accepted and appreciated as a give or for us to attempt to subdue and control it as a thing that is only hear to benefit us individually.

Today’s song is by the Talking Heads and envisions a time when the the scars on the earth have healed and allowed the world to be restored in a way that covers over the Pizza Huts and 7-Elevens with trees and berry bushes, and in the end the singer realizes this was better all along.

I don’t think God intends things to get to the point that the song is talking about, but I do know that the bible regularly talks about the culmination of all things resulting in the collision of heaven and earth to make a fully restored heaven and earth (rather a heaven on earth).  If the earth has a role in the life that is to come, why would it not have a role in the life that is right now?  If we are to help this world be a foretaste and a glimpse of that which is to come, then we should work not only for peace, not only for unity, but also for a healthy planet that more closely reflects the reality that is to come.

We show our care for God by showing our care for God’s creation.  

One way or another.

Here is a link to “Nothing But Flowers” by Talking Heads.

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 7: Wonder [40 Days of Listening]

"I've Never Seen A Unicorn" by Imagination Movers

Having young kids means that eventually, some of the music that you listen to is going to be “kids’ music.”  When Adrien was pregnant with our oldest, I tried to offset this eventual wave of “Wheels on the Bus” level tunes by constructing a mammoth playlist of regular songs that were still accessible to kids, but established a well balanced taste in music.  There was Sam Cooke and the Talking Heads, Johnny Cash and A Tribe Called Quest, the B-52s and Bing Crosby, Tchaikovsky and David Bowie .  I was prepared to resist “kids music” as long as we could.   Then we stumbled upon a show on the Disney Channel that was about four guys who played songs and helped solve problems.  There weren’t any big gimmicks to the show.  They just helped people and sang songs.  The kids loved it right away, and pretty soon Adrien and I realized that we loved it, too.  A big part was the music.  It wasn’t the same sing songy nursery rhyme songs that were so prevalent on most kids’ shows, but rather music that were actual songs played on real instruments.  We soon realized that these guys were playing all of their instruments and actually singing the songs.  They were an actual band of friends who wanted to make a show for kids that had real people in it (rather than a cartoon show, which is pretty much everything else).   The slogan for their helping business in the show was “I think that this situation sure could use imagination!”   Episode after episode showed how using your creativity and imagination could help you solve problems.  You will make mistakes and have some failures, but don’t give up and you’ll eventually find a solution.  On the show, imagination wasn’t just for playing, it was a vital tool in the act of discovery.   One of my favorite things about being a parent is watching kids discover things for the first time, or watching them problem solve things on their own.  The act of discovery is such an essential part of being human, yet we often work to mask that experience as adults.    We don’t make room for awe and excitement over new things because we don’t want to seem inexperienced or reveal there are things that we do not know or places we haven’t been.  But when we do that, we are hiding our light under a bushel.   God gave us an innate sense of wonder, yet we often try to mask it with false confidence and worldliness.    The story in which the disciples try to shoo away the little children, but the Jesus reproaches the disciples and beckons the kids to come see him is more important that we often realize.  Jesus later tells the disciples that “unless you come to me like one of these little ones, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  We often misconstrue that to means that we must approach Jesus with some level of ignorance or some childlike sense of innocence.  This is not what Jesus meant.  Rather, the kids approach Jesus without guile or deceit.  There is no pretense.  They are curious, they are guided by wonder.   When we come to Jesus, we need to let go our masks and our self-importance.  We need to remember again what it feels like to be in awe, to be drawn in my curiosity, to have the imagination and creativity to picture a reality beyond what we know and can control.   Wonder is a spiritual pursuit.  It is reclaiming the sense of joy that discovery could bring.  It is seeing the divine in a grasshopper under a leaf, seeing the joys of our creativity flourishing in building a snowman or drawing a picture.  And it’s the engine that moves us to say, “look at what I found!” drawing others in.   Not knowing isn’t a threat to kids; it’s a challenge to be pursued.  Let us approach Jesus in this way.  Let us be led by our wonder to seek the mystery of the divine, and to rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again, rejoice.

Here is a link to “I’ve Never Seen A Unicorn” by Imagination Movers

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 6: Politics. [40 Days of Listening]

“Christ for President” by Wilco & Billy Bragg

There are two things that we are always told not to talk about at dinner parties: religion & politics. One might say that the fact that we don’t talk about them is why both American religion and American politics have become so distorted and dysfunctional.   One of the common calls to the church is that the church shouldn’t be political.  There is a difference, however between the church being political the church becoming a political machine – telling you who to vote for and endorsing candidates from the pulpit or using church funds to support political action committees or parties.  The latter is in fact illegal.    As a church, we cannot give you a sheet that tells you who to vote for (although each November, there is a local political group that drops off sheets of candidates they say Christians should vote for assuming we will hand them out, but we promptly put them the recycle bin).   But as a church, we are commanded to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the immigrant, care for the poor, be a friend to the prisoner, to love our enemies, and bring justice to the oppressed.  These are all political issues.  To neglect these issues would be to neglect the commands of Christ.   The church should not be embroiled in politics. But the church, by its very nature, must be political.   Jesus was a political figure, challenging the religious and civil authorities.  He was a threat to power. He demanded that we see the needs of those around us: the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, the hungry, the naked, and the oppressed.  He said if we ignored them, then we were not his followers.   Jesus never talked about prayer in schools (he actually said that we should pray in private).   Jesus never told us to stand for a flag (but he did say we shouldn’t pledge an oath to anything other than God, and the Ten Commandments warned against venerating idols and graven images).   Jesus never blessed any nation above another (but he lamented that Jerusalem did not bear fruit that would bless the world, rather than simply itself).   Jesus did not come to condemn the world. Jesus came to save the world.   If we are followers of Jesus, we must not condemn the world either. We must not condemn our neighbor for their poverty. We must not condemn our neighbor for their desire to escape tyranny. We must not condemn our neighbor for person that they love. We must not condemn our neighbor for the country they are from. We must not condemn our neighbor because the want to harm us. We must not condemn our neighbor for any reason. (and everyone is our neighbor).   If we are followers of Jesus, we will be known solely by our love. Not simply our love for other Christians or even our love for Christ. We must be known by our love for the entire world. For that is Christ’s love.  It is indiscriminate and freely given to all.   If we can live into that love for others, we will start to change the world. We will not be people of fear, because if we trust that God will save us, there is nothing to fear. We are free to love and care for others because our faith is not in a country or a president, but in Christ. The government is not the Body of Christ.    We are. Our votes are should not serve to replace our responsibility to care for those disenfranchised groups Jesus commands us to care for, but our votes should not work against them either.  When we vote as Christians, we vote not to defend Christianity, but to save the world.  And then we put that into action through our words and deeds.   Let us not fear to let Christ’s love take us into political places, so long as we are following Christ and not Politics.

Here is a link to “Christ for President” by Wilco.

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 5: Empowerment [40 Days of Listening]

“One Day” by Matisyahu (featuring Clint Alama)

This song was actually on the list when I last did this practice of blogging on songs three years ago.  This is a great song, but I’m not going to talk about the song this time (you can check that out here when I talked about it in 2017).

This time, I want to talk about this video.  

Take a moment to watch it before you read more.

This video shows a local busker named Clint Alama in a coffee shop in Maui playing the Matisyahu song “One Day” on ukulele to make money for tips.  As Clint is playing, a random guy starts singing along with him.  You can see Clint being friendly with the man singing, but still a bit uncertain.  It isn’t until Clint finishes the song that and tells the random guy, “You’ve got a beautiful voice” that the random guy who was singing the Matisyahu song with him reveals that he is in fact…Matisyahu.

To Clint’s credit, Matisyahu had used to look like this:

And had only recently started looking like this:

Matis was in town to perform a concert and stopped into a coffee shop with his bass player when suddenly they heard his song being played by the busker in the corner.  Matis at first thought that the busker was playing his song as a way of saying that he recognized him.  He recounts it like this:

"I'm standing right next to him and then I realize he doesn't know it's me, and my bass player was like, 'You should sing with him,' but I don't typically do that kind of thing.  If he doesn't know it's me, he'll think I'm some random dude trying to steal his thunder and I didn't want to mess up his game."

But he did sing along, eventually harmonizing and augmenting the busker’s vocals (rather than taking the full lead) and it turned into a sweet moment.  At the end, you can hear Matisyahu asking Clint “Are you going to the show tonight?  Do you want me to put you on the guest list?”

Several months later, this video had gone viral, and Matisyahu flew Clint to Hollywood to join him on stage to sing One Day before a sold out crowd.

This whole story speaks to one of the most important things that the church is supposed to do: to empower others.

One of the hardest things to do is to share a stage, to make room for perspectives that are not yours, to learn new songs.  But scripture is not filled with people who are given power to glorify themselves, to establish legacies, and to gain accolades.  Well, there are a few, but the ones that do aren’t rewarded for it, like King Saul.  Even King David is told that his violent nature and desire for conquest will keep him from being the one who will build God’s temple in Jerusalem:

But the Lord told me: You've shed much blood and waged great wars. You won't build a temple for my name because you've spilled so much blood on the ground before me.  A son has just been born to you. He'll be a man of peace, and I'll give him peace with all his surrounding enemies. - 1Chronicles 22:8

Rather scripture holds up stories of leaders who equip others, who allow new voices to come into leadership, who applaud the unique gifts of others, even when they exceed their own.

One of the best examples of this is Paul’s encouragement and empowerment of Timothy as a new leader in the church.

All glory belongs to God.  

That is an easy sentiment to say, but it is not so easily lived out.  

Pastors in our culture are rock stars (if you’d like to take a dive into a black hole of pastoral rock star excess, look at the Instagram account PreachersNSneakers).  

They are multimillionaire authors, they are jet owners, they are buying NBA arenas to turn into churches, they are hanging out with pop stars.  

Rarely are they making space for new voices that might replace theirs.

But the church is and always has been at its best when it is not guided by a few voices, but by many.  God empowers each of us with gifts that are essential for the church, not just pastors or those who have been deemed “respectable.”  

God empowers slaves to rule over empires.  

Just look at Joseph.

God empowers women to win battles that men could not.  

Just look at Deborah.

God empowers little children to speak truth.  

Just look at Samuel.

God empowers young girls to bear the salvation of the world.  

Just look at Mary.

God empowers lower class, uneducated fishermen to be the foundation of the church.  

Just ask Peter.

God empowers the murderous villain to become the greatest evangelist.  

Just ask Paul.

When we are seeking after God, the glory that we seek must not be for ourselves, but rather glory that we can pass on to others.  When we are people of God, we are not afraid of new voices, of new songs, of new revelations.

God is and always has been doing a new thing.

And without exception, that new thing is always heralded through new voices.

May we be people who empower and equip new generations.   May we elevate the voices of those whose voices have been silenced.   May we hear how much better the song is when we sing in harmony, and when we give up the lead.

Here is a link to the live performance of Matisyahu and Clint Alama singing “One Day” on stage together in Hollywood.

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

(Sabbath) “A Love Supreme”

“A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane

Today is Sunday, which we observe as the Sabbath.  Sundays are sort of like bonus days in the Lenten fast, so you don’t count them in the 40.  

For our Lenten time, I’ll be using Sundays to offer up instrumental songs without much commentary.

Today’s song is “A Love Supreme” from John Coltrane, a high point in his career and his spiritual magnum opus.  He included this poem in the liner notes of the album:

I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee O Lord. It all has to do with it. Thank you God. Peace. There is none other. God is. It is so beautiful. Thank you God. God is all. Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses. Thank you God. In You all things are possible. We know. God made us so. Keep your eye on God. God is. He always was. He always will be. No matter what...it is God. He is gracious and merciful. It is most important that I know Thee. Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts, fears and emotions – time – all related ... all made from one ... all made in one. Blessed be His name. Thought waves – heat waves-all vibrations – all paths lead to God. Thank you God.

His way ... it is so lovely ... it is gracious. It is merciful – thank you God. One thought can produce millions of vibrations and they all go back to God ... everything does. Thank you God. Have no fear ... believe ... thank you God. The universe has many wonders. God is all. His way ... it is so wonderful. Thoughts – deeds – vibrations, etc. They all go back to God and He cleanses all. He is gracious and merciful...thank you God. Glory to God ... God is so alive. God is. God loves. May I be acceptable in Thy sight. We are all one in His grace. The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement of Thee O Lord. Thank you God. God will wash away all our tears ... He always has ... He always will. Seek Him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday. Let us sing all songs to God To whom all praise is due ... praise God. No road is an easy one, but they all go back to God. With all we share God. It is all with God. It is all with Thee. Obey the Lord. Blessed is He. We are from one thing ... the will of God ... thank you God. I have seen God – I have seen ungodly – none can be greater – none can compare to God. Thank you God. He will remake us ... He always has and He always will. It is true – blessed be His name – thank you God. God breathes through us so completely ... so gently we hardly feel it ... yet, it is our everything. Thank you God. ELATION-ELEGANCE-EXALTATION All from God. Thank you God. Amen.

JOHN COLTRANE - December, 1964

Here is a link to “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 3: Mystery [40 Days of Listening]

“Mon Esprit” by Sweet Crude

Listen to this song first.

This song is hauntingly beautiful, and unless you can speak Louisiana French, you have no idea what this song is about.  And yet, I would guess that the song evokes some meaning in you.  One of the more beautiful things about music is the ability that it has to convey emotion the we could not fully express through mere words.  It’s because of this attribute that we can be moved by an Italian aria, an Edith Piaf song, or K-Pop song without knowing Italian, French, or Korean.  It’s as though there is a language of music that we all know innately, and we were unaware of our fluency until the moment we heard the song.

This song is by the band Sweet Crude, a septet out of New Orleans.  They are not native French speakers (or more specifically, Louisiana French, which is the dialect of French that has persisted in the Louisiana region.  The group has instead committed to learning the language and perform most of their songs in Louisiana French.  This is both a tie to the heritage of the region, but also a connection to the beauty of the language and for it to persist into the future.  It also has the quality of creating a level of mystery over each of their songs.

You can find the lyrics to this song in English, but I’m not going to post them here.  (If you’re desperate, click here).

Knowing the lyrics don’t actually reveal much that isn’t already revealed in the emotion of the song.  This is a song about freedom, about spirit, and about newness.

This season in the church (as are all seasons in the church) are not unlike this song.  The meaning often seems clear, but the defining of it and putting it into words often eludes us.  

The mystery of the cross is something that we know and yet it’s still a mystery that scholars and theologians write books about with new insight and exploration.  

The Trinity, the virgin birth, the forgiveness of sins, the new heaven and new earth.  

The mercy of God.  

All of these are well known doctrines of the church, but they are still, like this song, things that we might struggle to fully articulate past a certain point.

And yet, there is an assurance – not that we are experts on any one doctrine, but that there is truth in them.

We may struggle to understand why God would forgive us, but we can take comfort in the knowing it to be true even as we know only in part.

The Gospel is a beautiful song that speaks a truth that we can know in our hearts, yet still ponder in our minds.

There is beauty in the mystery that still allows for understanding.

May you see the gift that comes in the wisdom of the heart that can thrive together with the curiosity of the mind.

Let us not be afraid of the mystery, but let us embrace the reality of it.

And may you know in your heart the joy and liberation that is proclaimed in this song, and in every song like it.

Here is a link to a live performance of “Mon Esprit” by Sweet Crude

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 2: Waiting [Listening for God]

“Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem

This song is 9 minutes long.  

The first time I heard this song was a few years ago at the wedding reception of my awesome friends Tim and Althea.  They didn’t have a DJ (which is more common place at weddings now, with the ubiquity of playlists you can make ahead of time), and the reception was working off of a playlist that Tim and Althea had put together over a few months.  It was a good playlist with plenty of fun songs to dance to and to keep the celebration going – exactly what you want from a wedding reception.

Then this song came on.

My friend Jimmy (who does rather regularly DJ weddings for friends) leaned over to me and said, “Ooo, this is going to be a rough one for a wedding reception.” The song is fairly quiet and reserved for the first three minutes, and not very danceable.  It’s the kind of music that you put on in the background to be unobtrusive – which is not what you want from a song that people are supposed to dance to.   Again, I didn’t know this song.  I knew several other songs by LCD Soundsystem (which is a group that makes dance music), so I was ready for this song to kick in and become danceable pretty quick.   But it didn’t.   Not yet.   It kept staying reserved and quiet.   And surprisingly, people stayed on the dance floor, and moved to the music. Waiting. Tim and Althea were out there dancing, and so people stayed out there with them. Waiting. And then, after three minutes (which is the normal length of most songs) the song finally kicked in. And the room seemed to explode with joy.

One of the recurring themes of the Bible is waiting. Waiting in the Ark.  Waiting in the wilderness.  Waiting for the temple to be built.  Waiting for the exile to end. Waiting to the Messiah to come and save us. The book of Malachai, the last book of the Old Testament ends by talking about how the day of the Lord is coming, how God is going to come and set everything right, eluding to the messiah that will come to rescue them all. Then… …nothing. For 400 years.

Even when Jesus was baptized and John the Baptist announced that this was the one we had been waiting for, the one who was going to rescue everyone, it didn’t happen right away.  Jesus took three years to do ministry, and didn’t seem to be rescuing people the way everyone expected.  Even John sent word to Jesus through his disciples to ask if maybe he had been wrong, if perhaps Jesus wasn’t the messiah.

But Jesus did rescue us.  Just not in the way that anyone expected. And God is still at work in the world, inviting us to live into that salvation and share it with others.

But it’s not over yet.  There’s still waiting.

The song worked at the wedding reception because Tim and Althea knew it what was coming.  They knew it was worth staying on the dance floor to be there when the song kicked.  And people stayed because they trusted them, and wanted to be there, too.

A big part of God’s plan for us is waiting.  Waiting helps us understand, helps us grow, and helps us prepare.  It allows us time to realize that things are bigger than we realize, that it isn’t just about us.  Jesus didn’t just come here to rescue us.  He also came to set us free – free to love one another and to celebrate what God is doing.

It’s no accident that many of the prevailing images that Jesus gives us for what heaven is like are parties and celebrations like the one at the end of the parable of the Prodigal.

Waiting don’t mean being idle.  It means we have time.  And time is a gift. A gift to let us open our eyes and ears to what God is trying to show us in the mean time. And sometimes, when you are waiting for the song to kick in, you can still dance. Because when the song kicks in, you want to be ready for it.

Here is a link to “Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 1: Devotion  [40 Days of Listening]

“Every Thought a Thought of You” by mewithoutYou

Today marks the start of the season of Lent.  The word “lent” comes from the Old English word “lencten” which simply means “spring season.”  For the church, this is a season of growth, preparation, and contemplation as we await the coming of Resurrection Sunday/Easter.  It is one of the two primary seasons of preparation in the church calendar, the other being Advent, which leads us toward Christmas.  We mark these seasons by changing the liturgical paraments to the color purple (which is the color of royalty, marking the coming king).

But for most of us, it’s simply a season when we give up chocolate for a month and a half, and McDonalds brings back the Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

As I mentioned yesterday, we minimize Lent when we make it solely about giving something up.  Jesus’ 40 days in the desert weren’t a means of giving up but rather a means of drawing nearer to God.

With all that in mind, I felt that the song “Every Thought A Thought of You” by the post-punk band mewithoutYou was a good place for us to start.  Now, in fairness, right off the bat, I’m deviating from my goal of using only “secular”* songs, as mewithoutYou is a Christian band that has long been signed on a Christian label (Tooth & Nail Records).  As you can hear, though, they are a bit unique.

The band was formed by brothers Aaron & Michael Weiss, who were raised by a Jewish father and an Episcopalian mother, both of whom converted to Sufi Islam before the boys were born.  Because of this upbringing, the content of mewithoutYou has always had a deep openness to the way God is expressed and encountered in other religions.  While in interviews, they are quite clear about their Christian faith, they don’t want to deny the way God is understood in other faiths.  In response to a question about what they want listeners to take away from their music, Aaron said this:

One point. There’s just one reality that we’re created for. We’re created to learn to love each other and grow in our love for our Maker. [We’re created] to learn to worship and to praise and be grateful and be humble and be broken and not trust in ourselves but to learn to work together and learn to trust in God. Just loving God. It’s love — that’s the only thing that I want people to take away from it. But it’s hard to communicate that with a CD. It’s hard for that to translate.

This song, from their fourth album is a great example of that sentiment.  It is a song sung to God, almost as a request and a commitment that we would live with every thought being for God.  Juxtaposed against that are the false promises that we encounter from others, from the world around us that tries to give us meaning and value, but really only promises vapor and vanity.

Every thought a thought of You No more thought, "I ought to do..." When nary a thing we see Or touch we trust is true Every thought a thought of You

Every look in search of You No need for books When we're with You You wear a thin disguise O, light within my brother's eyes Every look in search of You

Every song in praise of You Our darkest nights are days to You The trees raise branches high Like arms in church to grateful sky Every song in praise of You

No one here to believe but You Everyone else is bound To leave but You They swear, their love is real They mean, "I like the way you make me feel." (no one here to believe but You) There is no one here to believe but You

The song then reaches its zenith in an outro which is sung in Arabic,

Kul-anaya fir minh ka Abadan ahatman enna ajab Hayya'alal falal qad qamadis alah Haqq: la illaha il allah

Which translates as:

Every thought is a thought of You Never concerned about what we should be Let us live our lives the way God intended There’s no god but God

To many at the time of this album’s release, this use of Arabic seemed to borrow too much from Islam, and lean into Universalism too much.  This doesn’t take into account that Christianity started in the Middle East, and that early Christians – including Jesus -spoke Aramaic (which is an early form of Arabic) almost exclusively.

It also misses the point of the song.  This is a song that is purely one of devoting oneself to God.  It is a recognition of all the false narratives and promises that we have around us that would pull us away from that devotion to God.  The outro to the song seems to reach a point when even the English language fails to express the longing for connection with the divine.

In that manner, music is a vehicle that allows us to express an emotional resonance that cannot be fully expressed or understood through mere words.  There is a reason why the Bible is filled with music, why there is an entire book that is devoted not merely to recording poetry, but to recording songs.  God is bigger than our language and even our ability to express ourselves fully, to the point that we must sing out in whatever voice we have.

Let us sing, as Psalm 40 says, let us sing a new song unto the Lord.

Let this season be a season of devotion.  Not out of obligation or of a desire to earn some reward, but as an opportunity to know God more, to love God more, and to know and love those whom God loves in ways we could never have imagined.

Let our every thought be of God, let God be present in all that we gaze upon and in every note and word that reaches our ears.

God is here.

Let us not miss that.

* - I make a point of putting “secular” in quotes because, to paraphrase a wonderful website Think Christian, if we truly believe God to be the creator of all things and to be alive in the world, then there can be no secular.  All things point to God.  Some more directly than others, but all things point to God.  It’s as if you were to paint a picture of a forest, and then be asked to point out where in the picture there is no paint.  One might claim that the picture is not showing us paint but rather a forest, but a deeper understanding would show us that we can only see the forest in the picture because of the paint.  Such it is with God and creation.

Here is a link to the song “Every Thought A Thought of You” by mewithoutYou

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

40 Days of Listening

Day 0: Into the Wilderness

Scripture tells us that after being baptized, Jesus went out into the desert to undergo 40 days of fasting and prayer to prepare for the ministry that he was about to undertake.  These 40 days are a meaningful parallel to the 40 years that the Israelites spent in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt before they were able to enter into the Promised Land, as well as the 40 days and nights of rain during the great flood in Noah’s story.

Jesus is preparing, and as a means of preparing, he sets himself apart and takes on spiritual practice.  Fasting has long been a practice of many religious faiths.  It is not simply not eating.  You can eat when you fast – just not during the day, and often any meals that you have would be very simple ones after the sun has gone down, usually just bread and water.  This would have been the practice that Jesus undertook in his time in the desert, eating only modest meals of bread and water in the evening before going to sleep.  The sabbath was also a break from the fast, so Jesus would have eaten on Shabbat days as well.  This is how we get 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  If you have ever counted them, you will see that they are actually 46 days, but the Sabbath days do not count.  God grants us rest from even fasts on Sabbath.  

The notion that Jesus ate daily meals during this time of fasting is likely not a surprise if you have ever fasted as a spiritual practice before (as even subsisting on a simple meal of bread and water each evening for 40 days is a daunting feat), but to many of us this is a shocking surprise.  This is because we often view Lent as a season of denying ourselves pleasures rather than a season of intentionality.  Jesus wasn’t fasting as a means of denial of pleasure.  Fasting is not about taking things away so much as it is about gaining focus and clarity on things.  Jesus took away not only normal mealtimes, but also moved away from his normal routine, heading out into the desert.  This season of clarity and prayer helped him focus on what lay ahead.  It’s also telling that this is where we get the one encounter in scripture between Jesus and the devil – that during this time of intentionality and focus, the devil would try to tempt Jesus with distractions and alternatives that were “good enough.”  Everything that the devil tempts Jesus with is theoretically “good”: bread, Christ’s dominion over the earth, God’s mercy on display.  Yet Jesus resists them because they aren’t to be done to God’s glory but for human glory.  All of these temptations were ones to show that Jesus doesn’t need God.  But Jesus is modeling for us that we DO need God, and faithfully relying on God is takes on a much different form than forcing God’s hand.

Jesus models this discerning ability because Jesus had been taking time to be present with God, and was able to know the difference between actions that would bring glory to God and the things meant to bring glory only to humans.

[Aside: all this is made more complicated by the fact that Jesus is both fully God and fully human, yet in this story, Jesus is working as a proxy for humans, modeling human devotion for God – it’s complicated, but that’s another discussion for later]

The church has established Lent as a season of contemplation and intentionality.  It is not a season meant to exemplify denying our pleasures, but a season meant to be mindful and intentional in our relationship with God.  It is season where we are to pursue God, stepping out of our routines and putting aside things that can get in our way so that we can seek out God in the world where we are.  It is not a season of denying things, but rather a season of taking things on – not a season of waiting, but a season of seeking.

For the next six weeks, I’m going to be blogging each day on different ways in which God is present in our daily lives.  A few years ago, I took on this practice, listening for God in “secular” music, focusing on a different song each day.  I set out in earnest to do the same again during this Lenten season, focusing on 46 songs and how those songs can help us see God alive in the world – in our art, our music, our daily lives.  I invite you to join along, reading and listening with me during this season.  

Let us be always seeking God, always with eyes and ears open to God speaking to us in new ways.  

Let us enter into the wilderness seeking clarity, with eyes that would see and ears that would hear a God who is not done speaking to us.  

And let us do so together.

See you back here tomorrow.

[faithisaverb]

Day 25: Church [40 Days of Listening]

"Lean On Me" by Bill Withers

Bill Withers died this week.  He wrote some truly amazing songs, and I recommend them all, but there was one song that he wrote that was transcendent – Lean On Me.  

It is a modern day hymn that speaks to the reality that we suffer, but that we all need each other:

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain We all have sorrow But if we are wise We know that there's always tomorrow   Lean on me, when you're not strong And I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on For it won't be long 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on   Please swallow your pride If I have things you need to borrow For no one can fill those of your needs That you won't let show   You just call on me brother, when you need a hand We all need somebody to lean on I just might have a problem that you'll understand We all need somebody to lean on   If there is a load you have to bear That you can't carry I'm right up the road I'll share your load If you just call me (call me) If you need a friend (call me)

  This is what the church is supposed to be.  It is mutuality, it is relationship, it is caring for one another.   It is loving your neighbor as yourself.   It is doing the hardest thing – asking for help.   When we live as the church, we have to lean on each other.  We have to share each other’s burdens.  We have to trust each other with our problems.  We have to be willing to help one another, but we also need to be willing to let others help us.   The church isn’t a building where people meet to praise God.   It is a community that is made up of people who have pain and sorrow, people who need help to carry on. When we all lean on one another, we are stronger.  When we all lean on each other, we become the Body of Christ, ready to help others know that there’s always tomorrow.

Here is a link to “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.

[faithisaverb]

Day 24: Freedom

"Freedom" by Beyoncé

This song and this notion is perhaps an ironic subject when we are in the midst of being told to shelter at home.  Many of the freedoms that we enjoy on a regular basis have been off limits for the last several weeks, and there’s no clear sense of how quickly they are going to coming back.   Now, before we start to feel too sorry for ourselves, let us remember that we enjoy more freedoms that any society in history.  We live in the richest nation in history, with the greatest sense of securities and entitlements than any civilization has ever had.  Even in our sheltering, we still enjoy relatively unfettered access to our media, our news, our communication, our food, and our entertainment.  So all of the freedom that we have lost in these past few weeks should be taken with a grain of salt.   Yet, this is a season of freedom.  Lent, which is often viewed as the most binding season of the Christian year, as we abstain from things and keep things somber and reserved.  Yet, rightly understood, all of those are actions of freedom.  Lent means nothing if it is mandatory.  We are not forced into contemplation and reverence, we take it on ourselves.  We choose it.  We choose to give things up not as punishment, but as a reminder of the gifts that God gives us.   In this season when we are asked to shelter in place, we are still allowed to go for walks in socially distancing ways, and those walks, which for many of felt like homework before now can feel like a gift and a joy in the midst of our day.  Simplifying our lives allows us the freedom to see the things that bring us joy, to separate the gifts of God from the chores and tasks that we bring upon ourselves.  To be able to differentiate between the things in our live that are the most important from the things that we feel obligated to cling to that really have no value.   Lent is a season of freedom because it points us toward the cross, and the cross is supremely about freedom. Freedom from the fear of death. From the fear of not being good enough. From the fear of running out of time. From the fear of not being loved.   The cross is not judgment.  The cross is salvation.   The cross is not a threat.  The cross is a joy.   And it is for everyone.   It frees us to see the world differently. It frees us from the worry of trying to save ourselves, and opens up our hearts to trying to help and care for others.   Freedom isn’t a release from responsibility. Freedom is a way to see the joy and the value and the clarity in the responsibilities that we have.   Freedom doesn’t send us out to the beach in the middle of a quarantine because we are afraid of losing out on pleasure. Freedom instead lets us choose to self-distance and to shelter at home because it might save lives.   God has set us free to care about more than just ourselves.   To let us know that we are going to be alright when we care about others.   Let us know that we are in the midst of a season where we get to choose to care for each other.   And let us do so with a sense of joy, a sense of purpose, and a sense of freedom.  

Here is a link to “Freedom” by Beyoncé

Here is a link to the entire playlist for the Listening for God series.