Who is Jesus to you?

8/27

Back to Rendall

It’s my last Sunday at Rendall and it’s been good. I appreciate their generosity of spirit and hospitality. I am thankful to Rev. Dr. Flora Bridges for sharing her congregation with me. I’m happy to look out and see my friend Rabbi Steve Blane and his wife Carol in the congregation this morning…

Steve, Bob and Carol

So….here was my reflection….

Last night was one of those nights when I know I’m not in the Upper West Side anymore.  I’m coming home from an event in midtown, I pass by the Harlem Tavern. They’ve got big black curtains hung up all around so that  no one can grab a peek at the Mayfield-McGregor fight  they’re showing for $40 a person.  So as I start down my street, 115th, I see that there’s a big crowd gathered and a big screen on the side of Wadleigh High School  and coolers and food tables  and everyone’s watching for free…and no one’s asking how….later the police will show up…any time hundreds of black people are together on any street they figure something must be going on..after heightened tensions, the captain shows  up, agreements reached, cheers go up and after a slight reboot delay, the fight tis back up and the street party goes on. 

Bear with me. This is not about a fight…it’s about what I was talking about our first Sunday..capacities assessments, not needs assessments. This neighborhood is blessed with people who with ingenuity and creativity in the face of all adversity can figure out how to solve a problem. Someone figured out how to capture the broadcast and share it with hundreds who could never have afforded to see it. Creativity and generosity. That is a valuable community member. Someone I’d want in my church!

Yeah, it’s been a week. Again. Houston has beennhit by a hurricane. And flooding. The President decided to double down on his “both sides” comments regarding Charlottesville and white supremacists. And actually signed an order banning trans people from the military even when they’ve already risked their lives, called again for building his wall, pardoned a hard as nails sheriff from the Arizona-Mexico border and threatened to kick out immigrant children  born in the US, the ones president Obama called “the Dreamers…”   I think what bothers me the most is what feels like picking on the weakest and most vulnerable among us. Like my parents raised me not to do that. Anyways, just saying…..

So my question for you this week is Who is Jesus to you?  And the second is, Have you seen him around lately?

The first is the question Jesus asks his disciples…Who do people say the Son of Man is?

And they answer, John the Baptist (remember he was recently killed by Herod…may be literal or like Jesus is taking his place..) or Elijah, the one who comes before the Messiah…..Jeremiah or the one of the prophets…eg, the Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet….not a bad  calling, but…

Who do YOU say that I am?

And it’s Simon Peter who says, “You are the Messiah, the Son the Living God…”

And Jesus tells him no human reveled that, but God…so this emotional and impulsive fisher, one who will later abandon Jesus at his moment of greatest need, is the first to see and understand the truth, and so gets a new name, no longer Simon bar Jonah, but Peter, or the Rock…(not Sylvester Stallone or Dwayne Johnson) and this all too flawed human vessel will be the ROCK on which the church will be built..and for that we should be thankful…and also that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it…. I know we think of that as HELL, but for Jesus it was more the abode of the dead…what he was saying, friends, was that you no longer need to fear death……

Like Archbishop Tutu said….

Goodness is stronger than evil

Love is stronger than hate

Light is stronger than darkness

Life is stronger than death

Victory is ours through Him who loves us.

Then as always, we get some difficult things….

 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

What does that mean?  I have to be honest with you…we are not completely sure…BUT…let’s have a try…..

What you hold close here stays with you…if you are open and loving and connected to other people, that stays with you…if you cut yourselves off from others (Like the rich man in Matthew 25) you will have already created your own ‘Hades”….

But here’s a thought…the most powerful way we can loose and bind is through our power to forgive others…when we forgive, both of us are freed…but think on this…Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber say that the church’s most important task is the forgiveness of sins…that most of us (not all) have a harder time forgiving ourselves than others…most of us have  a hard time believing in our own forgiveness…I thought about that and realized it was true….we need to help people believe that their sins truly can be forgiven…set free….loosed on earth, and loosed in heaven…

Now here’s the really strange part…he sternly orders them not to say anything to anyone…why?   He didn’t want his identity to get in the way of his message? The time wasn’t right? Or was it that he knew the best way to get them to talk was to tell them not to?

So who do you say that he is?

Where have you seen him in the last week?

Next week, you will celebrate communion….Zwingli said that when we celebrate communion, it is not the bread and fruit of the vine that become transformed into the body of Christ, it is us…we are transformed…we are called to be the living body of the risen Christ in the world….how amazing it would be if people who knew us could see him in and through us….who do YOU say he is?

Let those with ears to hear hear….

As the service ends, we say our thanks and goodbyes. There are invites to come back. I would like that. Now of brunch at the French-African patisserie, Des Ambassades….

Pastor Bob and Clerk of Session Marietta Chisholm

Is there more to learn?

8/20

With Jonathan Bell at Rendall

I arrive at Rendall for my third Sunday and take the time to rehearse my song “Rest Awhile” with music director Jonathan Bell. AN discover that Jonathan has been a student of my friend Milica. We sing  the song right right before my sermon to resounding “amens.” 

Some even singing along. So here’s my reflection:

God bless Dick Gregory….who died yesterday at 84… I was remindenof one of his early stand-up routines where he sat act launch counter. The waiters said, “ I’m sorry, ee don’t serve negroes.” To which Gregory responded,  “That’s ok, I don’t eat them anyways. Just bring me fried chicken.”  Confession: he was my first Presidential vote in 1968. Another giant. 

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about what happened last week. And the response to it. And I’ve got to say that it’s not about “both sides.” There is a difference. The pain of the one excluded is not the same as the one who has pain because they now have to include. DO you understand what I am saying? The pain  of the people who couldn’t bear having a black president was not the same as what President Obama must have felt when people kept challenging his birth certificate and all kinds  of other crazy things. 

And before I go deeper, we’ve had to experience another terrorist attack in Barcelona. And are you aware that in Sierra Leone, there are over 400 dead and 600 missing from deadly mudslides in Freetown. Adding to the sadness is how little we ever hear about what happens in Africa. 

And I mention these things because God’s word always comes to us in a context, in the midst of what’s going on in the world, and we need to be aware of what’s going on around us as God’s living word lives among us. 

So to go back for a moment, I said last week that we’re not going anywhere until we wrestle with the legacy of slavery in our country and be able to speak the truth. That healing and reconciliation begins with the TRUTH. And that means having to speak the truth as Presbyterians. About being Presbyterian. That means ultimately telling our stories as New York City Presbyterians.  And I hope soon we will do that. 

But it also means that for our denomination. I had a conversation in which an African-American author questioned me about  our denomination. How in 1861 we divided over slavery. That the southern part of our church had provided a  theological defense of slavery  and that when we reunited in 1983, we never talked about that history. And this week I learned that it was common in Virginia for churches to own slaves and that they paid the pastors by renting them out for a year. They were called endowments..As their slaves had more children, their endowment grew.

We have to talk about these things. Confess these things. 

We’re going to have to be open to growing, learning changing…which of course, brings me to Jesus…

There’s a lot in our gospel lesson today and I just want to stop for a moment and say that its first part about what comes out of your mouth  being more important  than what goes in is classic Jesus….

But let’s go to  another of My favorite stories…the Canaanite woman with a deeply troubled daughter.  At first, he doesn’t her answer at all. And the disciples want to send her away because she keeps shouting after them.  (If it was anything like the guy on the crowded 2 train night, i don’t blame them..)  But she won’t go away…

( As Mc Connell said of Elizabeth Warren, Nevertheless she persisted…)

They go back and forth 3 times…

At first, Jesus says he’s come only for the lost sheep of Israel…(It’s good to have a clear sense of your mission and it limitations…)

It gets worse, he tells her the children’s food should not be given to dogs…(It’s good to set boundaries..) ( and here he’s using a common insult for Canaanites…)…and she responds…but even dogs get the crumbs…(like leftover loaves and fishes?)…and Jesus finally feels her and her daughter is healed…

OK…hold on…what’s going on here?

Is it uncomfortable for you to hear about Jesus acting in upsetting ways?

For centuries, commentators have tried to explain this…like, he was just testing her…like when you try and convert to Judaism, you get turned way 3 times…maybe it was like that…

Or maybe it was just like it says…Jesus has been working VERRY hard…he still hasn’t got that break he’s been wanting ….. like last week he tries to take a break and immediately his disciples get in a jam…out in the boat…in  the middle o the lake…and he’s to to do a rescue mission and pull Peter out of the water..

So maybe he’s tired right? And this woman has been loud and annoying…

Look, here’s the thing….what do we believe about Jesus? that he was BOTH fully divine AND fully HUMAN…not half human, not a little bit human, not human on the outside, but  human, FULLY human….

And if that’s so, then he will be subject to tiredness and irritation and human emotions, passions and feelings…and he doesn’t have every awareness of his whole life in his mind…or he wouldn’t be fully human,…OK?

And THAT means, ( according to Jill Duffield)  

but fully human, and being fully human encompasses grief, frustration, desperation, fatigue, love, compassion and indifference. And I find this messy display of Jesus' complex discernment a relief. If Jesus has these feelings they are not only allowed, but sanctified and holy.

And that God can use them to teach us new things, take us to new places….

Like one of Jesus’ leanings, growth points, was that he wasn’t just come for the lost sheep of the house of Israel…but for everyone…and thank God for that….that persistent annoying Canaanite woman helps get the door open for US.

And Jesus was able to be moved with compassion by someone form the very margins of the margins…

check this out… If a Canaanite woman, a double outsider with no power other than tenacity and persistence, can expand the vision for Jesus' mission, then our prayers and groans, shouts and screams aren't in vain. (Duffield)

Hear this… Therefore, don't be afraid to kiss and weep, screech and beg, show some righteous anger because Jesus will listen and JESUS WILL BE MOVED…..

1. Don’t be afraid to feel what you feel….feelings are NOT right or wrong, it’s what you choose to do with them that is…
2. Never doubt that Jesus hears and will be moved
3. And the toughest one…who has Jesus put in your life to challenge you, annoy you, help you discover your true call? Who is YOUR Canaanite woman…?

Let those with ears to hear, hear….

You give them something to eat

8/6/17

Rendall Church

Today is the first of  my four August Sundays that I will spend as the guest preacher at Rendall Memorial Presbyterian Church  in Harlem, about a mile or so north of where I live.

Today's preacher

Although I have heard that they are growing again and beginning to attract young people, today’s congregation is mostly older people. Everyone in attendance is African-American save for the music director, his wife, and of course me.

There are a number of unique touches, like all the women elders of the church wearing white. Including, of course, hats. And gloves. I am moved watching the ice of the tall, dignified elderly elder who brings the offering and makes his prayer eyes looking heavenward as the plate is extended to me. And the women coming forward with a wash basin for a hand washing ceremony before handling the communion elements…something I’ve never seen before. 

The Rendall Sanctuary

After the  reading of scripture, Matthew 14: 13-21, this was my reflection:

Good morning. We are Into that last third of summer. When it gets quiet around here. Lots of folks gone. August. If you’re like me and really haven’t gotten away, you feel like you want to. And today we find Jesus wanting to get away. It’s all in one of those so familiar Bible stories, the feeding of the 5000. I’m certain I could ask anyone of you to tell the  story and we’d get a pretty good rendition.

The table ready for communion

SO let’s take a closer look.  I said that Jesus wanted to get away….do you remember why? He has just received the news that his cousin John the Baptist has been killed. This following on the heels of being rejected after preaching in his home town of Nazareth.  Let that sink in a minute.  Try and imagine what he must be feeling….to see the faces of the people he’d grown up with turned against him…unable to do any works there because they couldn't believe  in him..and then to get word that his cousin has been put to death by Herod the King.  Is he wondering what might lie ahead for himself?  Is he dejected? Depressed? Questioning?  This is not a summer vacation break he’s looking for here….Let’s feel that with Jesus for a moment…

SO he wants to get away….to a deserted place…but what happens?  People follow him….Lots of people…and what happens?  He could go, man, can’t they leave me alone for just a little while? He could feel annoyed, exhausted, like he’s got nothing left.  But as he looks at them, he sees their need and he is filled with compassion. In the King James Version, it says he was moved in his bowells, ie moved in the deepest part of his guts…and he cured their sick. Maybe when he looked at them, he saw in the what he was feeling. maybe seeing their pain, their seeking, drew him out of his own sense of desolation….and his power returns…looking beyond himself his power returns…

As it gets late, his disciples come to him with a very reasonable, practical idea. Send them away so that hey can buy food for themselves…a very good idea…

BUT…not for Jesus …They need not go away he says….. you give them something to eat…

Just note that…when the practical solution people say, send them away, Jesus says bring them near….to the chorus of voices all around us saying about so many people send them away….Jesus says NO…bring them closer…

But that second part is equally  important …you give them something to eat…

To which  we get the expected reply…we don’t have enough resources….just five loaves…and two fish….and hear this carefully….Jesus says Bring them to me….

and he blesses them and they pass them around and there are 12 baskets of leftovers (one for each disciple to take home, I guess…)

How often are we tempted to send people away because we just don’t have enough? Jesus says you give the something to eat…he doesn’t want to hear about how  little we have…he doesn’t want to hear about scarcity….he says Y’all have enough to do something…

as individuals

as a church

as a city 

as a country

we have enough…….

A few thoughts…when i was learning to do community ministry, i was taught how to do needs assessments….remember those?  Until someone realized that as long as that’s where we focus our energy we will always be depressed and defeated…because we will never have enough…and we will always be looking  for the answer to come from outside…so instead we started to think about beginning  with capacities assessments…what do we already have? what can we do with what we’ve already got?

But here’s the thing…he says …bring them to me…we’ve got to offer what we have up to him for HIS use for it to work…that’s when miracle making happens …when we offer up what we already have to him for his use…

People have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened here…

Some say, Jesus used his powers to multiply those loaves  and fishes, created more food  out of thin air

Others say he knew the disciples had more food stashed away or that in starting to pass food around , people would open up and share what they had brought…..it’s all interesting but in the end doesn't matter…

The real miracle here is not production, the real miracle  is one of distribution….perhaps the real miracle is in the  sharing

We hear a lot thee days about the deserving poor…like  there’s undeserving poor? Like If you can’t afford health care, it’s your own fault…about deserving immigrants vs non deserving….send them away….the chorus says…NO says Jesus let them stay…and YOU give them something to eat…

I recently heard a Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber, ask what would happen if we knew our church only had 5 years to live? That we no longer had to worry about survival?  Would we give it all away? Risk wildly in love and extravagant generosity? Live without fear? His point is that if we lived that way NOW, we wouldn’t have to worry abut survival because people would be so attracted to who we are…

Let’s review what we’ve got here…

1. See in others what we feel in ourselves…look with compassion
2. Don’t send then away, bring them near
3. Take what God has already given us and offer it up to Jesus for HIS work…and then
4. Watch the miracle happen

I have heard that you all have had a bit of a miracle yourselves…that you have taken what God has has given you and offered it up…that’s what I’ve heard…and that God is blessing  this church community…if that’s right, don’t stop NOW!

And let us as well be bold enough to call our city and nation to moral accountability…and show our neighbors what righteous living in Jesus name is all about..

Jesus said…you give them something to eat…

and let those with ears to hear, hear….

After the sermon, we end our service with the sharing of communion, in the old passing of plates and mini cups style. Holding each element until all have been served and taking it together. We sing our final hymns. Maker final prayers. Say our farewells. And go out into the Harlem streets. 

Goose 2017 Postscript: Of health care. And beer

7/30

wild Goose signpost

Goose 2017:  postscript

After living through a week of  watching a Senate debate about health care that defies belief, I thought back to Wild Goose 2017 once again. Dr. William Barber had very detailed analysis of what the  effects of various proposals would be. Dr. Barber and his movement are doing the best work I’ve seen in terms of specific polices in the public process. But as I recall it was Otis Moss III who used the phrase murder by policy. He said, they say, well, there won’t be people dying in the streets. But in fact there will be. It’s murder by policy, plain and simple. That’s what gets lost in the coverage of the debate. There’s this drive to  undo a program, simply because it was the work of President Obama. The real life impact on millions of us is simply not part of the equation.  I honestly don’t believe the President even understands what the current system is and what dismantling it would mean and most Republicans simply don’t care. The emerging congressional political consensus seems to be that health is a privilege to be earned not a human right to be provided by society. If one cannot afford health care, well then one simply doesn’t deserve it. This from people who whipped up panic by talking about nonexistent death panels. Congress itself is now a death panel, deciding who will live and die…..

                                                                ****

And now for a few words about beer. I’ve been reflecting on the role of beer in Wild Goose culture. On one level, nothing mysterious here. A few beers among friends is a good thing. And any seminarian can name the pub where theological  discourse was passionately pursued until the wee hours.  In New York City, I had a young friend who dreamt  of an urban monastery that produced a really  fine craft brew. As Benjamin Franklin didn’t actually say, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Or on this 500th anniversary of Luther, we should recall what Luther had to say on the issue:

“Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!”I often imagine his voice joining the nightly Beer and Hymns.

But I suspect there is  more. From the theological happy hours to the craft beer tent to the official Wild Goose beer glass, it is clearly a part of the culture.

Official Goose beer glass

Some of it is a bit tongue in cheek.  But it goes deeper. Many of the Goose family are children of American evangelical culture, a culture that for the most part is teetotaling. Who can forget the role the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in bringing prohibition? In those days, prohibition was seen as part of a social gospel witness on behalf of the (especially) urban poor. 

Thus for even progressive prophetic and post evangelicals, a simple beer has transgressive content, becomes a way of declaring an emotional, intellectual and spiritual independence. For those who were part of communities that were countercultural, it becomes a way of becoming part of American culture one way while exploring new ways of becoming counter. Sharing a beer with friends  becomes,  in a way, liturgical. And for someone like our seventh generation Nazarene friend, becomes a very serious act. For her, she felt she needed to leave the denomination to participate in this simple act without hypocrisy. 

So as we drink one final toast to Wild Goose 2017, let ’s consider what a difference a beer makes….

Wild Goose 4: What is my part?

7/16

Sunday worship with the Trinity UCC Church

Wild Goose 4

In a conversation with Frank Schaeffer about how he moved away from the theology of his childhood, Frank responded that the first time he changed a diaper, he knew there was no such thing as intelligent design…

In a last conversation with Brian McLaren, Brian says we need to seize the time. We are organized for the wrong reason. We need to redefine evangelism as an invitation to people to be part of the solution. 

He described a ministry called The People’s Supper (thepeoplessupper.org) that pledged to do 100 dinners in the first 100 days of the Trump administration for conversation. Brian says we don’t need safe space, we need brave space. And we can make a difference…we can raise our children to be brave, courageous and strong. 

……

The choir from Trinity United is back one more time to lead our parade and lead us in worship.  The much anticipated preacher is Sister Simone from nuns on a bus.

Sister Simone

When thinking about Paul’s analogy of the body, Sister Simone sees herself as stomach acid on the body of Christ. She speaks the importance of radical acceptance. And the need not for push back, which only reinforces resistance, but to fight for. 

She asks us where are you?  and what breaks your heart? Certainly in her experience gender and gender based definitions have been heart breaking, even in a changing catholic church. 

She calls us to four virtues:

1. Joy. When are our hearts are broken open, joy is possible. And  joy is most of all a communal virtue.
2. Holy curiosity.  We are called to understand, not judge. 
3. Sacred gossip. Sharing our stories….these two ( 2 and 3) weave our communities together. 
4. Doing your part. All we’re called to do is our part, not all parts. And we can help each other discern what our parts are.

And it is in community where we will find  the energy to keep going.

The service ends with a shared Eucharist. And its time of the Goose to pack up its tents and move on. 

Bob, Kristen  Leigh and Russ

……

Russ’ Goosecast tent was down after his last ‘cast, before last night’s concert. Sad to see it go…..

I go back to my campsite and break down my little space, packed up and ready to go.

From my campsite

I walk through the festival site to go get my car, watching the world that came together for a few days deconstructing itself. Of course the Desanka folks stay until the end, sharing food. I’ll pack up the car. Head south to Asheville. Catch a ballgame. Play some music. Visit some old  seminary friends. Wild Goose 20017 is over. 

……..

These are my personal reflections, vignettes of my experience. Others would have different stories. Even about the same events. We each have our own. I leave filled with excitement and ideas. Amazed (and overwhelmed) at how much others have already done. Anxious about my own capacities. How can I make my website happen? Revive my blog? How do I figure out the book business? What is the reality and possibility of my music? What is my community? My usually buzzing mind is working double time.

I missed the temporary tattoo artist. I want to do my Zuni sun sign again and am not quite ready for permanent ink. I miss the woman who made the purple batik shirt I enjoy so much. And I missed the songwriting contest. I continue to feel there’s something missing in the whole approach to music. We need to move beyond the progressive end of the Dove playlist. There needs to be a way to not just have performance and artist led sing along jam sessions but time and place to share creativity, projects in process with peers. Rev. Vince has other exciting ideas like filling the grounds with busking stations. I want to be a creatively contributing participant, not just a consumer. Maybe with Kristen Leigh, we could get a whole tent together. 

The Goose still needs  to extend beyond their circle of friends and those who are visibly famous. (That is, by the way, understandable, but…) There needs to be an openness to other voices. People who have been working in other gardens who have come to the same questions. (Where are my Presbyterian brothers and sisters? Of course I saw 2 or 3, but…)

I come back with an ever-expanding to do list.  I think that’s how it’s supposed to be….

Wild Goose 3:Is it the darkness of the tomb or darkness of the womb?

7/15

The Goosecast Sign

Wild Goose 3

Awakened in the morning by the righteous sound of the Trinity UCC Choir warming up the audience for Otis Moss III.  In a passionate sermon, Moss stated clearly why All Lives Matter is a negation of Black Lives Matter. That only when Black Lives Matter can All Lives Matter. He shared a parable about how some need to smooth the path to the river so that others may enter and cross. And shared  the seldom told story of Vernon Johns, who preceded Martin Luther King, Jr at Dexter Avenue  Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. How he had to talk his way into Oberlin Seminary and then graduated with honors. He challenged us to honor those who have gone before us…and to open the way for those who come next. 

Diana Butler Bass asked that  we consider the theological  implications of gratitude using the story of Zaccheus. She described the First Century culture in which gratitude functioned within a pyramid of privilege. In his role as a tax collector, Zaccheus had become an agent of the empire participating in the oppression of his own people. His place in the tree symbolic of his place in society. Jesus challenges Zaccheus, and thereby us, to come down from  our pyramid of privilege and join in a community of solidarity.

…….

In the Lecture Hall tent, Brian Sirchio led a conversation about the 6 Marks of Progressive Christian Worship Music (https://www.amazon.com/Marks-Progressive-Christian-Worship-Music/dp/1477249575) and his new company The Convergence Music Project. It’s an effort to move beyond praise music to music with more complex theology while seeking to draw traditional evangelicals and prophetic evangelicals into a convergence of music. For Siricho these marks include:

1. A sensitivity to peace, justice and the fullness of human experience.  The need for the Biblical genre of lament. (Rev. Vince says every worship service needs at least one break up song).
2. Inclusive language….our language matters. We live in a  time when our language reflects what we believe, true inclusion demands inclusive language. I raised the fact that we have a real lack of attention to language around disability, And that this requires us to enter into some painful areas. EG, Amazing Grace is a dearly beloved song. (You have to hear Rev. Vince sing it Blind Boys of Alabama: House of the Rising Sun style..) But it uses the language of physical infirmity as a metaphor for spiritual infirmity. (When an African-American music director said, but it’s just metaphor, the response was , Yeah, like wash me and I shall be whiter than snow..) Who has the power to control the use and meaning of metaphor is always a matter of privilege.  There is also the issue my associate Katherine spoke of when she said But I can always sing things I could never say
3. Progressive theology 
1. A focus on the good and the process of transformation
2. No personal substitutionary atonement language
3. No “only one way” language
4. No supercessionism or triumphalism

4.  Emphasis on both individual and community

Gospel calls us to community

Personal must lead to communal

5.  Emotional authenticity

Must provide psycho social meaning

Head and heart together

Make sure lyrics are deep enough to hold repetition (like Taize, e.g.)

Musically accessible

No bloody Jesus

No boyfriend Jesus

6.  Need for fresh language, lively metaphors, moving beyond didactic

Welcoming is being invited. Belonging is they miss you when you’re gone…be careful to avoid how “our” can become tribal.

It was also noted that choir singing is becoming non-normative, no longer part of our common experience. (Right here is where we need the participation of Orion Stephanie Johstone whose radical choir songs  are shaping communities of resistance..(http://stephanieryanjohnstone.com/)

…….

Meanwhile, back at the Goosecast tent, Russ

Russ Jennnings

 is ready to host his own podcast Love In a Dangerous Time with his new cohost, Kristen Leigh.

Kristren Leigh Southworth

(http://loveinadangeroustime.net/) Their first broadcast together is with Goose co-founder Jeff Clark. 

Jeff Clark

Kristen Leigh and Russ join in conversation with Jeff as he shares his journey from the burning desire for something more to the first gathering of a few dozen to today’s gathering of 3000 plus. The experience of exploring uncharted territory. He reminds us of Sikh activist Valerie Kaur’s comment that what we are experiencing right now as a nation may not be the darkness of the tomb, but rather the darkness of the womb. Kristen Leigh ends the podcast with a song: 

We’re gonna keep on walkin’forward, never turnin’ back…

Let it be said, we appreciate Jeff’s work as MC of the

Goose MainStage…and his shameless old white guy dance…

Up next, two of my favorites, Charles Breten and Chris Henson of the podcast A Jew and a gentile walk into a bar….mitzvah.

A Jew and a gentile.....

Their show is a unique blend of theology, sardonic humor, detailed cigar critique and exploration of the human condition. ( Feels a bit like a  theological Car Talk…) Part of the power of their podcast comes from a personal relationship begun with a mutual appreciation of humor in a steam bath and a profound shared experience of depression. Part of their mission is to bring the conversation about depression out of the shadows and into the light to take away stigma and allow others to know they are not alone. Through the clouds of fine cigar smoke, the love…and intelligence…shine through.

Then Goosecast Happy hour continues with Pub Theology’s Bryan Berghoef and friend and special surprise guest emergent church guru Bryan McLaren.

Pub Theology

Its an interesting conversation. One guest speaks of the importance of Rotary Club in his life. The idea of Service above self. And I remember how seriously my father took the Four way test…applied to everything we think or do:

1. Is it the truth?

2. Is it fair to all concerned?

3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

      Bryan McLaren recalls that Phyllis Tickle has said that every 500 years we need to reset the table every 500 years. And that earlier today, Otis Moss had said that we need o let what is dying die and what is dying is whiteness.

We are in a process of ongoing co-creation with the creator. That we need rituals to release the hurt done to us. And that Baptism is an entry into a mission of shared humanity.

( I later said to Bryan that this was the answer to the question as to why Jesus was baptized. An ultimate expression of his solidarity with humanity, his oneness with humanity in every aspect of life. )

Someone asks "If you had it to do over again would you?" The answer was not easy.

Russ, Bob and Kristen Leigh

…..

The evening saw the introduction of side stages where there were performances during stage resets. Molly(formerly of Me & Molly) Stevens (http://www.meandmollymusic.com/ )played a set of classic Nashville Country. Former Christian music (I still find that an odd term…what about Bach? Mozart?) Jennifer Knapp talks about her journey and the process of coming out and  shares her music.(https://www.facebook.com/JenniferKnappMusic/) Methodist pastor Sherry Cothran has her own solo set(https://sherrycothran.wordpress.com/) and the night ends with the big sound of John Mark McMillan, including a Springsteen cover with his originals. (http://www.johnmarkmcmillan.com/)

The music slowly fades. Beer & hymns comes and goes. Our conversation continues. From music to the Nicaean Creed and feminist virgins. Another day at the Goose comes to an end….