The Power of the Pentatonic Scale

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

This is cool. I heart Bobby McFerrin. :)

Hat tip to Mr. Bowman for this link.

Nevermind

I'm feeling a little like Emily Litella tonight, not because of the health care rants, which I've been inflicting upon the good people of the world wide web both here and over on facebook.

No, this retraction has to do with my endorsement of my friend Meg, who is apparently no longer running for the St. Paul School Board. So, uh, St. Paul friends, please disregard that previous post.

And Another Thing. . .

While waiting in the heat and humidity today, I was trying to read the book I brought along, but I couldn't help but overhear the conversations going on around me. This woman behind me was going on and on about the evils of socialism, and about her 80-some year old mother and how good she has it now. Why, her mother remembers the old days when old people just had to go to the poor house or their family had to take care of them, if they could. But now, her mother has such a nice life, she has enough food to eat, and can treat herself to the beauty parlor once a week (food and perks, I'm sure, paid for with social security), and lives in a nice apartment in a local senior high rise (I know this to be government subsidized housing), and she has Medicare - life is just peachy, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I finally couldn't take it anymore. I turned to this woman and politely said "With all due respect, ma'am, Medicare is a form of socialized medicine. Your aging mother's great life is in large part made possible by the government, the government is supporting her."

And she just kind of looked at me kind of dumbfounded for a second, nodded and said "Uh-huh" as if she agreed with me, then turned back to her companions and continued her diatribe against the evils of socialism.

I just honestly don't understand how people can be that ignorant. How can you, in the same breath, both rail against socialism AND laud an essentially socialist system from which you are personally deriving great benefit? A system which is sparing you, as the child, the bulk of the cost (in both time and money) of caring for your aging parent, and freeing you to take off to a second home in Florida for half the year (yeah, that was part of the conversation too)?

And for that matter, why are so many people so afraid of bureaucrats making decisions about what kind of care we receive when health insurance industry bureaucrats are ALREADY making the decisions about what kind of health care we receive, and have been instructed to make the company's bottom line, not your health, their guiding principle?

An Exercise in Self-Control

Q: What do you call a Democrat in a small town or rural congregation?

A: The pastor.


That joke is actually a gross generalization that has not proven itself to be remotely true in my current context. But wow, it sure felt true today. . .

Sen. Specter came to Bucknell for a town hall meeting today. I waited in line, outside, in the heat and humidity (one of the grossest days we've had this summer) for a chance to get in. I was actually the last one to get a seat - almost didn't get in at all thanks to the two upright patriots behind me who cut the line once we got in the door of the host building. The people in charge weren't going to let me in to the auditorium, but I was persistent in trying to talk them into letting me stand along the wall in the back, when suddenly there was one seat still available.

Part of me wonders if I should have been so persistent, because right now I am truly embarrassed and disgusted by the behavior of my fellow Americans. I understand that we are not going to see eye-to-eye on every issue, but there is no need to be disrespectful in the midst of disagreement. There was much more ignorance and arrogance on display this afternoon than there was reasoned, civil discourse. About 2/3 of the people in the auditorium exhibited tremendous disrespect both to the Senator and to the few people (maybe 5 out of 30) who asked questions or spoke in favor of any political theory shared with the President.

They literally booed, hissed, called names, yelled interruptions, and purposely created cacophanous noise so that you couldn't hear what the Senator or the person had to say. And then they cheered for the preservation of our freedoms (conveniently forgetting that freedom of speech extends to everyone, including those with whom you disgree - to his credit, Sen. Specter called them on that at one point).

One of the later speakers, who works for Geisinger Health Center (local hospital, nationally renowned for its care), shared a story of a recent patient, a Valley resident, who had a heart attack right after losing their health insurance, and spent their entire stay at the hospital - a time meant for rest and recovery - worried sick they were going to lose their house and their small business in order to cover the bills from this 3 day stay. This health care employee ended the story with a plea for universal coverage - not single payer national system, necessarily, but universal coverage for all Americans, and the jerks in the crowd actually booed that. Booed the idea that every American should be able to get medical attention without bankrupting their family.

It was all I could do to stop myself from running up front and hijacking a microphone and first, shaming them for their disrespect, and second, asking them: What if that heart attack patient was your neighbor? Not even in the universal Good Samaritan/Christian everybody's my neighbor kind of sense - what if they were literally your neighbor?

What if they were your grandfather?

What about when it's YOU?

I Thought We Weren't In Kansas Anymore

One of the perks of living in Pennsylvania is that tornadoes, while possible, are supposed to be rare.

But you'd never know that from the weather we've been having this summer. There was a funnel cloud touching down in New Columbia and Watsontown just a few weeks ago, and yesterday afternoon we had another doozy with both "mild rotation" in the stratosphere and wicked bow echo straightline winds on the ground.

At one point, I seriously thought my windows were going to blow out. And I was torn between the desire to run quick and close the drapes (in the hope that they would absorb or at least slow down any flying shards of glass), and the fear of said windows shattering on me precisely as I walked into the living room to close said drapes.

In the end, courage (or stupidity) won the day, and I snuck up on the windows from the side (hoping potential damage would hit expendable extremities, not puncture vital organs).

I think my fears were well-founded, because when the worst of the storm passed and I opened the drapes, I was greeted by this:

We Will Love You

Our kids want to sing this next week at our youth service. I can't find any lyrics on the youth gathering website, and I have historically not had any luck getting Dave Scherer to answer emails about his lyrics.

So, that leaves me trying to pick out words over the distortion on this youtube video. I've listened to it several times, and this is the best transcription I can get. If anybody else wants to try to listen and fill in the missing words, or was there in person, or has heard him sing this somewhere other than a stadium full of 37,000 people (so you already know what the words are), or is a good personal friend of AGAPE*, please email me before next Sunday!

Jesus came a man in the midst of all our fear
and showed us that God's right here
Our sins are released
by God's grace
singing God's love all over the place

We will, we will love you
We will, we will love you

Justice rollin' down like a stream now
[misses? something] the oppressed go free
Justice [faced?]
by God's grace
singing God's love all over the place

We will, we will love you
We will, we will love you

Grace with jazz, God's love has music
Gotta beat, gotta listen to stay on key
Got drums and bass
songs of grace
singing God's love all over the place

We will, we will love you
We will, we will love you

To the people in the front
to the people in the back
to the people in the [class?]
to the people [????????]
[????????????????]
[????????????????]
to the people in the city
people in a small town
to the people on the right
to the people on the left
to the people, people that sorely get oppressed
to the people on the street
to the people in the pew
Jesus loved first so we will love you

Jesus Christ God's [????????????????]
[?????????????????]
Gotta hear God's word
Go and serve
Spread God's love all over this world

We will, we will love you
We will, we will love you

A Time for Burning

I just watched this most excellent documentary from the mid-1960s, which follows attempts by some churches in Omaha to promote inter-racial dialogue and understanding between fellow Christians during the heart of the Civil Rights movement. This is cinema verite at its finest, the people in the film spoke very candidly and cut right to the heart of the issue in many of their conversations.

The deeply saddening thing about watching this film is to realize how relevant the film, and the issues raised in the conversations it documents, still is today, over 40 years later (just last week a black ministerium colleague new to the area went to the farmer's market and was immediately accosted by a white person who asked them "You don't think you really belong here, do you?"). So much more dialogue and awakenings that are so needful but have yet to occur, so much more understanding yet to be gained by everyone. . .

The fascinating thing about watching this film is to realize that if you only substitute the words "gay and lesbian" for "colored" or "negro," the conversations between the white church members and pastors are the exact same conversations we're having today on the issue of sexuality. Seriously, I have heard, almost word-for-word, precisely the same hopes and fears given voice in the ELCA over the past few years.

I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

But if you get the chance, watch this documentary. Better yet, watch it with a group of people and then talk about it afterward. You won't regret it.

An Open Letter to All Stupid People in the Universe

Someone called my cell phone in the middle of Saturday night and left a long, obscene message on my voice mail. Based on the giggling I could hear in the background, they and their friends clearly found themselves hilarious. I am not laughing, and am in fact in the process of tracking down the number that called so that I can report them to the authorities. In the meantime, I feel the need to put this out there for any and all stupid people in the world:

First of all, there are no circumstances in which an obscene phone call is funny. It is always a violation of the person you are calling. Imagine how you would feel if somebody made such a call to your mother or sister (I intentionally don't say girlfriend or wife here, because I can't imagine a woman self-loathing enough to date or marry someone with the emotional maturity of Bart Simpson). If you wouldn't find it funny or appropriate when done to someone you love, then it's not funny or appropriate when you do it to someone else.

Second, there are really no circumstances in which a crank call is funny. Only little boys find them hilarious. Little boys who have no empathic capacity for the person they are bothering at the other end of the line.

I myself have a job where, unless I am out of the state, I am essentially on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When I get a phone call in the middle of the night, it means someone is either already dead, actively dying, or in the midst of some other deeply serious crisis. That's the mentality I wake up with when the phone rings in the wee hours, and I know I have the span of three rings to pull myself together enough to deal with whatever kind of crisis is calling. Plenty of other people - like doctors, funeral directors, policemen, firemen, to name a few - also have "on-call" occupations, and would respond in a similar way. You don't just fall back asleep after being woken up like that, so it's extremely annoying to get a non-emergency call in the middle of the night. You are lucky my phone was off when you called, because if you had woken me up with this nonsense, on a Saturday night no less, you would have had hell to pay.

The sinner in me is hoping you get some karmic retribution - soon.

But the pastor in me recognizes that you clearly have some issues, and prays you find the help you need before you inflict yourself upon anybody else.

This is Not Your Grandmother's Wedding March

I love - LOVE - their abundant and evident joy in this procession.

I love their creativity in the planning and execution of meaningful worship.

I love that they are not only bringing but celebrating their God-given gifts, gifts in which they take obvious delight, to this momentous occasion in their life together.

I love the metaphor of life and marriage as a dance.

I love that this song captures the anticipatory joy of both this particular moment, and the enduring life that lies before them (refreshing amidst a wedding culture that focuses so much energy on making this one day "perfect" and forgets or ignores the challenging and rewarding work of building a marriage over a lifetime).

I love that, in shaking up the "norm," they probably (hopefully) opened this congregation's eyes to see and hear and experience and reflect upon marriage and the marriage ceremony in a new way.

I love that this couple is using their unexpected celebrity to raise awareness and money for some of the least of these.

BUT (you knew a big but had to be coming, didn't you?). . .

Ever since watching this, I've kept asking myself, "If I was this couple's pastor, would I have allowed them to do this?"

And for all the things I appreciate in how thoughtfully and joyfully they carried this out, for all the good I can imagine it doing in this congregation and the world, the answer I keep coming back to is, "No."

And it's not because I think popular culture/music is godless - to the contrary, I find God all over the place in pop culture.

And it's not because I think dancing is of the devil - to the contrary, I think dancing is one of many beautiful, creative ways to express our joy and worship of the Lord.

And it's not because I'd be afraid of taking flak from members of the congregation who may find it irreverent - to the contrary, though I've learned the hard way that I do need to be wise as to who I invest such social capital in, if I knew this couple well and had a good working relationship with them, so that I trusted they were doing this as worship not merely for the spectacle of it, I would gladly absorb any blows that came our way, and vigorously defend the theology of their worship planning.

No, the reason I would say "no" is because, as a pastor, I have to think not only about the implications of the immediate moment, but also about the future implications of our actions and the precedents they would set. I have to be a good steward, not only of my relationship with this couple, but also with all future couples with whom I may be planning a wedding.

Suppose I say yes to a couple I know well, who either approaches me with an appropriate song or we work together to find an appropriate song. Now I've set a precedent. I may see my precedent as allowing for creative, well-planned worship. Others may interpret it as "She'll let anything go."

Now let's suppose the next couple who approaches me about a wedding wants a song of a similar musical style, but with completely inappropriate lyrics. Now I'm stuck having to argue the finer points of theology and appropriateness of worship music, and it could be very difficult to get them to actually listen to what I'm saying instead of closing off and sulking about me being unfair, or arbitrary, or showing preferential treatment to other couples. From there, things just have the potential to get ugly, and my relationship with them could be damaged quickly.

Lest you think I'm being paranoid, a good pastor friend had a situation - it wasn't even that they'd allowed for an exception to their church's wedding music policy previously, but they had a bride who was just insistent on having some completely inappropriate music in the service. When my friend said no, this bride started triangulating other members of the congregation, and even people who weren't members of the congregation but were mutual friends of this family and others in the congregation, causing all kinds of turmoil in the community and making my friend's life pretty miserable for a while.

So, with all the anxious energy and stress that already surrounds most weddings these days, I just find it easier to have and enforce a church policy that only allows for fairly well-defined "churchy" music at a wedding.

Maybe that make me a wimp. Maybe that makes me a curmudgeon.

Maybe that makes me way less open to the spontaneous joy of the Holy Spirit than I'd like to be.

But I just want something really solid in my corner when I go to the mat with a Bridezilla.