Wild Goose 2: What if we only had 5 years?

7/14

Rev. Barber wakes us up

Wild Goose:2

From inside my tent I hear the wake up music from the main stage. It’s the unmistakable bluesy growl and rolling keyboard line of The Rev. Vince Anderson.

Rev. Vince Anderson

(More about Vince later.)

I get up, go to the Desanka tent to grab an oatmeal and coffee  and then to the main stage.

There to wake us up in more ways than one is the Rev. William Barber from North Carolina. Founder of the Moral Mondays movement and now Repairers of the Breach (http://www.breachrepairers.org/) and planning a new Poor People’s Campaign. Barber as always is in his red and black clerics, complete with a red stole (usually signifying the presence of the Holy Spirit) as if to proclaim every public prophetic witness is a liturgical event.

It seems to be Barber’s moment now as commentators compare him to Martin  Luther King, Jr. much to the concern of some of his friends. It’s a heavy—and dangerous — mantle to carry. We don’t need another King, they say. A Barber is enough. 

Today he wants to tell us what time it is. But before he gets there, he’s got a litany of what time it is not….

To name a few:

• It’s not the time of Trump. We were facing the evils of white privilege and racism; police violence, mass incarceration and gentrification long before Trump.
• It’s not the time of Russia. Our elections were hacked by acts of voter suppression and race based gerrymandering to deny black votes long before Russia hacked in.
• It’s not the time  of white working class deplorables. The majority of Trump voters were upper income , those who benefit from his policies. The white working class are victims of economic exploitation as well with whiteness used a means of dividing natural allies and diverting class struggle.

SO what time is it?  The voice echoes and booms…it’s movement time! It’s moment time!  It’s movement time!

……

Barber also reported a visit by African American pastors to try and find common ground with Franklin Graham, who makes his father Billy look like a flaming liberal. Of course he served us fried chicken and watermelon, he said. 

….… 

Jim Wallis of Sojourners is next up. He’s currently been portrayed by the New York Times as the godfather of the progressive Christian movement and it’s “inside man.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/us/politics/politics-religion-liberal-william-barber.html) More than anything Wallis has served as bridge between the evangelical world and the world of mainline liberal protestantism. The Times article didn’t seem to get that many of the “liberals” they were lifting up are actually progressive prophetic evangelicals. Wallis is very clear that the single most important issue for us to be working in right now is white privilege. 

….

What followed was an all star panel of Nadia Bolz-Weber, Michael Waters and Doug Pagitt. 

Round table conversation

Last night Nadia had described a t-shirt that proclaimed   " Radical protestants: nailing shit to church doors since 1517.” She had described repentance as the “freedom from thinking the same over and over and over again.” That our sense of sin keeps us in shame. To which she says, remorse, yes, shame no. Our jagged edges connect us to each other and to God. 

Today Nadia reminds us that its the work of pastors to preach the gospel, administer the sacraments and proclaim the forgiveness of sins. She refers to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and asks us to think about what it would be like if our churches only had 5 years to live.

We could give it all away. 

We could be free people 

Christ came to set us free. 

Free people are forgiven people.

Forgiveness of sins is REAL.

Free to speak truth to stupid.

What if we only had 5years?

……

I go to catch Rev. Vince Anderson’s set in the Cafe. 

Russ Jennings and Rev. Vince

I first encounters him when I was on the Great Open Mic Tour of 2015 and we landed at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. (https://www.facebook.com/Rev-Vince-Anderson-and-his-Love-Choir-74494194069/) Are you here for church? they asked. I looked in. Saw this bear of a man in a Hawaiian shirt and white Panama hat. Turns out it was Rev. Vince and his Barstool Tabernacle. Which I learned was the successor to Jay Bakker’s Revolution church.  (Vince’s Barstool has now been folded into the Bushwick Abbey (https://bushwickabbey.wordpress.com/) where he directs music) You hear traces of Tom Waits in his music well as a bit of Randy Newman and Dr. John but his style of dirty gospel is all his own.  He shares with us music from his new psalms project. After his set, Kristen Leigh and I spend some time talking with him. Maybe we could put together a whole tent next year?

Robert Brashear and Rev. Vince

………..

Podcast guru Tripp Fuller leads a conversation at the Seminary Happy Hour asking us to ask ourselves three questions about our seminary education:

1. 1. What was our ‘Oh shit!” (or 'Oh Schnikies”) moments when we realized everything we knew was about too come undone. 
2. 2. What was the “MMMMM yes, but not quite enough” moment..and
3. What was the “I may not know for sure but I'm putting my stake in the ground here” moment?

………..

The Goosecast tent hosts an everchanging eclectic collection of podcasts. Like Matt Inman’s “Ineffciency” (http://www.inefficiencypodcast.com/)  celebrating the value and importance of inefficiency in experiences and relationships and use of time.

"Inefficiencies"

Or Carla Ewart of Holy Writ(https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/holy-writ-podcast/id1205352786?mt=2) interviewing Tina Schermer Sellers author of Sex and the Conservative Church.

Tina Schermer Sellers and Carla Ewart

In their conversation, the two women explored the damage done by the (so-called) Purity Movement and Ms. Sellers’ work bringing a Biblically based sex positive perspective to evangelicals.

The day ended with the Brew Theology crew:Ryan Miller, Janel Apps Ramsey, Shane Oram and Andy Millman. (https://brewtheology.podbean.com/ ) They shared their stories and how Brew theology works, meaningful conversations…and beer. The casual relationship with beer, so much a part of this scene, i snot without deeper implications. Janel, for example, speaks of being seventh generation Nazarene and deciding to leave the denomination rather than live hypocritically. Each person’s journey has its own unique marks. 

The Brew Theology crew

……

An important discovery  is the Desanka Diner tent.  Taking its name from an African word meaning Joy, Contentment and Pleasure, the Desanka community provides an invaluable service by providing simple free food every day for Goose volunteers and everyone else. A simple act of hospitality that makes thew Goose possible for many and opens tables for unexpected conversations. So a hearty thanks to Desanka (http://www.desankaspirit.net/blog)…..

My favorite concert of the festival is Friday night with David Wimbish and the Collection.

David Wimbish and the Collection

They have a special place in my heart since the band spent a night at West Parka couple of years  back following a concert at the Rockwood Music Hall celebrating their Ars Moriendi album. Th next day, they had vehicle issues so they spent the day hanging out and playing music in different configurations throughout our church. I was impressed that so many musoicians would come together to help bring David's music to life. Their music is carries the indie vibe of Mumford, Sufjan Stevens, Fleet Foxes etc. with its own unique orchestral flourishes. The music is also driving and infectious and explores issues of mortality, spirituality and young adult angst. When I first saw them there were at least a dozen musicians with multiple horns and other instruments.  Tonight’s Collection includes in addition to the standard rock lineup a  harmonium and one horn player. With a larger stage and fewer musicians, the players jump around the stage with a punk sensibility. Although as Kristen Leigh says, in North Carolina, genre boundaries are more fluid. Songs from  the new album “Listen to the River”are featured and the music satisfies, intelligent, creative and catchy. (https://thecollection.bandcamp.com/) 

After show conversation

The Collection

David and his new partner join us at our table and we talk about music and intentional communities. “How great thou art” resounds form the Beer and Hymns tent….

What is family?

Today is the first unday after Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday in the ongoing celebration of Pentecost. and we begin our series on Life in the Spirit. It’s also the Sunday we welcome Jeremy back from his European tour. So of course we begin our service by singing Every time I feel the Spirit.  Our first hymn of the day is  I’m Gonna Live So God can Use Me. And after reading mark 3: 20-35,

readers’ theatre style, I sing Dylan’s You’re gonna have to  serve somebody backed up by Jeremy and Andre and that feels good.

We begin our reflection with a question:

What is family?  That word can mean so many things….our family of origin., our family of choice, our church family…

That’s one of the questions Jesus is wrestling with today…he’s been doing what he does…he’s been out there preaching, witnessing…more of that in a minute…but it’s his family’s reaction that interests me…

 ²¹ When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.”

 Or as Gene Peterson wrote in the Message:

 His friends heard what was going on and went to rescue him, by force if necessary. They suspected he was getting carried away with himself.

I expect it was out of love…it usually is…have you ever had that experience?

When I was 18, and had to register for the draft, I told my family I wanted to register as a conscientious objector…after an upsetting phone call, I wrote a 12 page letter….and received the support I needed…

What’s going on here?  Jesus is seeing what’s going on as an apocalyptic battle between good and evil … and we have to choose sides…

Evil, that’s a big word…a word to be careful with..

The scribes see it the same way, only they see Jesus as possessed of the devil, Beelzebul. Saying that by this power Jesus casts out demons.

And Jesus mocks that saying that if he were of the devil, how could he be casting demons out? A house divided against itself cannot stand…to which we would say word…

That is true of families…some of us have lived through civil wars that divided families…sometimes a child’s coming out has divided families…during the Nicaraguan civil war, the three opposing news papers were all run by children from the same family…I sat through family dinners that would start out calm, reach a boiling point, people would  leave, come back…it’s like that in Israel today…and there can be a point of no return on some of these issues…

Our country seems divided now more than I remember for years…the old congress pattern fight all day and drink and eat as  friends at night seems to have vanished, or been banished…likewise the church…in Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery, there were only 7 liberals when I was first there…they looked at me as if I  were crazy…but loved me anyways…

We are divided racially, and by economics…some of us live in very separate worlds, rarely meeting…not even in the ballpark anymore…where  Yankee Stadium has a concrete moat to separate the rich, super rich from everybody else.

What Jesus is calling out here is the empire, the strong man…and he calls it evil… this strange saying about blaspheming against the holy spirit…may not be what we think..literally, it’s to speak irreverently about God… but what Jesus is talking about here is calling evil good and good evil…his greatest anger was against the religious establishment for collaborating  with, blessing the empire…for him, Romans were just being Romans but the religious leaders, the temple, the church, needed to be different…if you fear the power, there is no entry,  no way to break the power.

This is what leads to his mother and brothers attempting an intervention. And he looks around and says those who stand with him are his real family.

Hard stuff.

Jesus is bringing a radical critique of his society and culture. He is calling it evil. He is saying, like Dylan,  You gotta serve somebody…make a choice.

That’s where it gets tough. In wars, we always have to demonize the other side. It is rarely that simple. After 9-11, my friend Father Duffel instituted the weekly singing of the Song of Peace by Sibelius:

This is my song, O God of all the nations, A song of peace for lands afar and mine. This is my home, the country where my heart is, Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine. But other hearts in other lands are beating, With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.   My country's skies are bluer than the ocean, And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine. But other lands have sunlight too, and clover, And skies are everywhere as blue as mine. O hear my song, thou God of all the nations, A song of peace for their land and for mine.

He wanted us to know that others in their own lands felt about their land as we do ours…in the end, there are few truly evil people… systems,yes, powers yes, but (most) people, NO.

It was 9-11 when I saw the acres of still smoldering  devastation while West-Park  served all night as volunteers, this where the roots of my commitment to beauty and justice, ethics and aesthetics grew …the very act of creation itself a from of resistance,  in partnership with God…

We need discernment to speak clearly…but also a commitment to stand with each other, even in disagreemnet… we need to be to be an undivided family….

Having talked about it, Andre sings This is my song as we pass the plates.  Then it is time for communion and our final hymn is  Here I am Lord, a hymn of calling and service.

Following worship, the Session meets with Russ who has decided to join the church. He talks about his journey through seminary to the Revolutionary Communists to Riverside and now West-Park, He has a podcast, Love in a dangerous Time that chronicles the radical changes in church life today. (http://loveinadangeroustime.net/) One of the best places to keep up with this ongoing conversation. (I have been on the podcast on three separate occasions. ) Russ sees West-Park at the cusp of what has been and what could be. It’s that what could be that is the challenge and the maddening  hope. It’s great to have Russ on board.

Beginning at the beginning

4/20

Marty is still on the street, usually in front of Dunkin’ Donuts, his hand out for tips. He doesn’t say much these days. I was surprised to see Sean over on Broadway in his wheel chair, the acoustic one, as I describe his non-electric one. What’s he doing out here? Ah, Bob, you know the problem I sometimes have, it’s like that all the time there. I can’t stand it.  They promised me they was gonna clean it up, but I don’t know… you still got my electric chair? I got a guy’s gonna come by…But he never does. And Little Chris comes by to talk about issues of harassment at his place.

The volunteer work crew from Sacramento is deep into their work redoing our chapel. It’s time for Bible Study. With the crew in the chapel and the Riverside Orchestra in the sanctuary, we take our study to Mc Alpin Hall. Tonight we begin our journey through the Bible with Wes Howard Brooks’ Come Out My People: God's Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond as our guide. (http://www.amazon.com/22Come-Out-My-People-22/dp/1570758921).

We begin by laying our Brooks’ basic premise, that there are two religions  in the Bible. Not Judaism and Christianity, because neither of those two are comprehensive categories. EG, there are secular Jews and Zionists and Hasidim and Pentecostals and liberation theologians and Amish, well, you get the picture. For Brooks, the two religions are the religion of creation on the one hand and the religion of empire on the other. These two are always in tension with one another, throughout both the old and new testaments.

In reading the Bible, one always has to ask of any particular passage, who wrote it, when and why. Context is everything. (Well, not everything, but close.) People are often surprised to realize that Genesis was not the first book of the Bible written. Even when they know it’s not a first hand account. And that Genesis is written aways down the road. From the evidence Brooks provides, we can date Genesis around 500 BCE, in the midst of the Babylonian captivity. In short, it seeks to answer the question How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? (Psalm 137, and yes, the Melodians ).

We’re reminded that it was mainly the intelligentsia and technocrats who had been taken off to Babylon, the workers and peasants left behind. And Babylon with its hanging gardens and ziggurats and wealth was a pretty appealing place to be compared to the more staid Jerusalem. While granting the traditional scholarly view that there are multiple oral traditions underlying the story (http://www.theopedia.com/JEDP_theory) , Brooks argues that authors of Genesis wanted a story to undergird their identity differentiated from the Babylonians. Our friend Russ points out as well that they needed a marketing narrative to persuade the community to return to their homeland. So our Genesis story is a counternarrative to the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish.

 The basic story is that Apsu the god of freshwater and Tiamat, the god of salt water come together to create other little gods. Annoyed by their noisy activity, the parents decide to kill the children but Tiamat warns her son Ea who kills Apsu. Tiamat then marries Kingu  and decides to seek revenge. One of the children, Marduk, says he will defeat Tiamat  if they will make him king and give him a castle and a city, an empire. He splits Tiamat, bottom to top (like a clam shell )and out of her pours the earth and skies and all creation. Since the gods don’t want to do the work to run their empire themselves, Marduk kills Kingu and uses his blood to create humankind to do the work of servants. Thus we have a narrative to undergird empire and as theologian Walter Wink described it, an ur text of redemptive violence.

Against this narrative, we have Genesis 1 where one God creates all creation. It’s a creation that exists in harmony and essential unity with all life in symbiotic relationship with each other. It is, as God says, good. Into this creation, God brings humankind, male and female, as stewards of creation, dominion understood in the sense of caretaking and responsibility, not power over or domination. Whereas the power of Marduk is confined within the walls of his empire which must be protected with threatening wilderness, wild beasts and perhaps wilder people outside, in Genesis 1, there are no walls and all creation is good and under God’s authority. So whose God is more powerful? Genesis 1 becomes the supporting narrative for a non-hierarchical interdependent creation. This is where our journey  begins.

To hear an interview of Wes Howard- Brook by Pastor Brashear and Russ Jennings, go to Russ’ podcast Love in a Dangerous Time…http://loveinadangeroustime.net/two-religions-creation-empire-a-talk-with-wes-howard-brook-ldt028/.