A Nationalistic Prayer Guide

Tonight, Emily and Ashley, presented me with a present.  They were visiting a church in Kirksville, and the produced for me a booklet called If My People…: A 40 Day Prayer Guide for Our Nation.  The cover features the title and an American Flag.  No Bible.  No Cross.  No Jesus.  These folks didn’t even try.

Each day features a Scripture and a prayer, and peppered throughout the book are excerpts from prayers or speeches by former Presidents who were all :: ahem :: Christian.  Some – like Reagan – I have no doubt were genuine (though I have some personal disagreements with his praxis), and some – like Lincoln – were pretty awesome believers that I greatly admire.

And then, they included Thomas Jefferson.  Now, at best, Jefferson was a Deist.  he even edited the Bible, taking out all references to the Supernatural and ‘correcting errors’ he decided the Gospel writers had made.  You can still purchase copies of the so-called Jefferson Bible (here for just $10.00 hardback!).

And this is my problem with the Religious Right.  They’ve mythologized our origins, baptizing everyone who lived then as some sort of giant superhero believers, when most of them (and certainly the most influential of them, like Jefferson and Franklin) were not what any Evangelical would recognize today as a Christian.

The Right has appropriated history, remythologized it and bent it to serve their own religio-political agenda.  And that’s sad.  Because I’m pretty sure Jesus said, “You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.”

It’s time for us as a nation to start being honest about our history and quit idealizing it as some sort of Golden Age.  It’s not.  And that’s okay.  Let’s learn our lessons and grow.

Jesus H. Obama

As I was surfing around on Facebook, I came across the group “Repeal the 22nd Amendment” (which is the whole ‘president can only serve two terms’ thingy), complete with this picture:

A UNICORN?!  Really?  And is he walking on water?!

Now, this picture appears to be premised on the idea that all black people look the same, given that He doesn’t look a whole heck of a lot like Obama.  And the more I looked into the group, the less I was sure it wasn’t satirical (though clearly many of the commenters didn’t get that).

But in any case, I’m sure that not even Bush got this much hype, and he had wide-spread Evangelical backing.   I’m frankly shocked at how Messianic a lot of Americans have made Obama; many people have pointed out that he’s almost certain not to live up to the entirely unrealistic hype.  I mean expectations.  Excuse me. 

In any case, I think he’s doing a pretty good job of just ignoring the whole thing.  We’ll see if that can last, and if he can do some good.

Maybe if he does, then we can elect him Messiah after his 2 terms so we don’t have to bother repealing that silly amendment.  Who’s with me?

Manda’s Real Life Talk

So Stormie asked Manda to speak at the first Real Life (our ministry’s Thursday night worship gathering) of the semester.  If you know Manda, you know that this made her horribly nervous (and if you don’t know her, know that this made her horribly nervous).

The first series is on healthy relationships, and she introduced it.  She talked about the importance of relationships, and the fact that not only are relationships inevitable in our lives, but that they’re a good thing.

She used the Trinity as her model, and argued that because God is communal in nature, we too were created to be – that when we live in relationship with other people, we’re at our best.

She offered us some good challenges, and I think in response, I’m going to renew my commitment to meet two new persons each week at Real Life.  Maybe I’ll start doing the same thing at Parkade on Sunday mornings as well.

We’ll see what happens.  In the words of the wise Tobias Funke, “Let the great experiment begin!”

My New Dry Cleaner

Today, on my way to work, I decided to drop off several items of clothing I had been needing to get drycleaned.  I had been going to a place a mile or so from my old place, but since I moved into the ‘hood (as I affectionately refer to it), I have made a commitment to patronize local businesses – even if they’re more expensive – so that I can develop some good relationships within my community.

With that in mind, I stopped at Mamma Bessie’s Cleaners, which is not quite 1/2 mile up the street from my new place.  I went in and even before I could get all the way in the door, the woman who worked there called out to me,

“Can I help you?”  I noted that I had brought an armful of clothes.

“You been here before?”  I noted that I had not.  With this, she smiled and stuck out her hand.

“Well pleased to meet you.  I’m Margery.  Welcome!  I’ll take all the business I can get at the start of a new year!”

As I entered and shook her hand, I noted that on a chair by the door was a small TV, tuned to the Inauguration.  We made small talk for a while, and she told me about her family, and that she’s been in the dry-cleaning business since she was 16 (she’s now 53 by her own admission).

We talked about the inauguration and what an exciting day it is.  She boasted, “My grandma always said, ‘You watch!  One of these days, we’re going to have us a black man as the president!’  We all thought she was crazy, but just the other day, we all remembered how she said that and thought ‘Grandma’s probably spinnin’ in her grave with joy right now!’”

She told me about how her kids and grandkid (some of whom are the same age as my students) didn’t think Obama’s election was that interesting, and that led us into a discussion of the changing of the times.  I mentioned that it was sort of cool that our culture has progressed far enough that black teens don’t think it’s unusual for a black man to be elected president.

Of course on one level that’s sad – we should all remember where we’ve come from, and the terrible atrocities that we’ve perpetrated in our country in the name of race.  But, it’s nice to see evidence that some of those hurdles have been overcome.  And I think President Obama’s election is a sign that some great things are happening.  I’m glad I’m alive to see it.  And I’m hopeful for the future.

She’s a great lady, my new dry cleaner.  I’m anxious to develop a good relationship with her.

Jay Leno

This morning at WAY too early (5:45 am), Scot, Manda and I got up so we could make it to Burbank (the city) by 7:00 am so we could stand in line for tickets to the Tonight Show.  We were numbers 2-4 in line, so we got the tickets and set off to tour Hollywood and downtown LA.  We ate at another Mel’s for brunch and then drove around.  We hit the Chinese Theater and a mall in Hollywood where I picked up a fedora (this proved to come in handy later).

We drove back to Burbank and got in line at 1:15 pm; we were already about 30 persons back at this point.  They opened the doors at 3:00 pm and we got seats on the floor.  About 30 minutes before we filmed, Jay himself came out in jeans and a shirt.  He gave us a spiel about how the show would go down – it’s a ‘live taping’, which means that the whole thing lasts exactly an hour, all the mistakes stay in and as soon as it’s over (taped from 4-5 pm Cali time), it’s beamed to New York, where it’s aired at 11:30 pm EST.  Then he took questions and let people come up on stage to take pictures with him (from a polaroid in the studio, since all cell phones and cameras were disallowed).  We were almost out of time when he asked for one more person.  I shot my hand up and – among the others around us – he called out, “You, sir, in the hat.”

Manda and I jumped up and made our way to the stage.  On the way up, he asked where we were from, and I told him, “Missouri” (I had promised Manda she wouldn’t have to speak from the stage).  He then asked what we did and I told him that we were both campus ministers.

“Ministers?!” he exclaimed, “I was going to make fun of your goofy hat, but now I guess I can’t.”  He then motioned for the photographer and told Manda to get in the middle because “You’re a cutie.”  We snapped the picture, both shook his hand and he told us, “God bless you” as we made our way back to our seats.

Scot got up and did some stand-up shortly after that, during the ‘Audience Got Talent’ portion of the preshow.

Then it was time for the show to start, and it was a lot of fun to watch.  One of my students told me he thought he could hear me ‘Woot Woot’ a couple of times during the show.

So, to review, Jay Leno made fun of my hat, hit on my fiancee and blessed me.  All within about a minute.  And here’s the proof:

He’s right, you know.  She is really cute.

What a fun day!  If you check it out on Hulu, you can just barely make us out right at the beginning.  Watch for the goofy brown fedora.

An Orange Tree, Pepperdine and LP

Today, Manda, Scot and I met up with Sarah for lunch at a Cuban restaurant in Orange County.  And while we were there, we saw an actual orange tree with actual oranges on it.  Which is a first for me.

After that, Scot drove us up to Malibu, where we visited the beautiful campus of Pepperdine University.

A view from the top (of a parking deck).

 
Scot was not prepared for how excited I was to take a picture with him.

We drove back down to Santa Monica, where Scot dropped us off and headed back to Chino Hills.  Manda and I walked around the 3rd Blvd Promenade, which is basically an outdoor mall, before heading down to the Santa Monica Pier.

The Pier at sunset.

It looks even better now, don’t you think?

The dolphin rides were free!  How do they stay in business?

We were picked up just after sunset by a friendly and familiar face – the world-famous Lauren Parrent.  We hung out with her and her boyfriend Parker (whom we met for the first time) and ate her mom’s famous Taco Soup (which was delicious).  For the record, we ate outside under the stars and were in short sleeves.  In January.  Then they drove us back to Chino Hills.  It was glorious.

We were WAY overdressed for the weather.

Night Life

After Scot picked us up from LAX, he took Manda and me with him to Loyola Marymount University in LA, where he was speaking at a Mosaic-related collegiate gathering called Night Life.  LMU has been rated one of the 10 most beautiful campuses in the US, and it’s not hard to see why:

Just a small taste, folks.

Scot did a great job.  They interviewed him about his recent venture into the world of stand-up comedy at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood (the same stage from which Michael Richards got ejected for his racist tirade).  He talked about how long he’s wanted to do stand-up, and what it took for him to work up the courage finally to do it.

They opened the floor up for questions, and several students asked him to delve deeper into various aspects of his interview.  I was particularly intrigued by one point he made: that to achieve your dreams often means confronting the reality of failure.  I asked him, “If that’s a given, how does one fail well?”  We didn’t get to talk much about it, and we haven’t been able to return to it yet.  But it’s a conversation I want to take up again in the near future.

Any ideas until then?  What does it mean to fail?  And how do we fail well?

Pacific Costal Highway One (a.k.a. ‘The One’)

Today, Manda and I rented a Toyota Corolla and drove down California Highway 1.  The One – as it’s known on the coast – winds down the Pacific coast, creating some of the most beautiful views and dangerous curves either of us had ever driven.

With the temperature in the mid-seventies and our windows down, our morning started out like this:

Just after beginning our trip.  Manda had to remind me constantly not to look at the view so I wouldn’t drive us off a cliff.

About one-third of the way into our journey, we took a 17-mile detour through Pebble Beach.  Here’s what that looked like:

 
Standing on Pebble Beach

Beautiful, don’t you think?  The beach and waves aren’t bad either.

Despite appearances, I am not breaking the waves with the force of my will.

Apparently, Important People occasionally play golf here too.  That’s one heck of a water hazard.

My favorite part was the overlooks that let us watch the ocean crash around some of the huge rocks jutting out of the water.  There’s something incredibly peaceful and majestic about it all.  Just take a look at this:

and…

Once we left there, we continued down the One.  Our favorite moment in the trip was when we got to one of the Vista Points – spots they’ve created where you can pull off the road and enjoy the scenery.  At this particular point, We’d just driven across a bridge as the road wound around the mountains along the shoreline.  The cliffs jut out at this point, which allowed us to look back along our route and out over the Pacific.  Observe:

We didn’t speak for quite a while.  We just sat next to one another on a boulder and gazed out over all of this.  What are you supposed to say?  This is a taste of what we mean when we describe God as ineffable.  God is just too big for our words.  They bind and shackle.  Just like this picture fails to encapsulate the beauty, the grandeur of that moment we shared, so too do our words fail to encapsulate God (side note: I’m not sure I’d ever felt comfortable using the word ‘grandeur’ to describe anything before this point).

We continued on, and due to the lack of any sort of food options, were forced to stop in Gorda, CA for lunch.  Gorda has two buildings in the whole town – the General Store/City Hall and the Overpriced Restaurant (not its actual name).

Gorda, CA in all its glory.  Next door (to the right) is where we paid $50 (including tip) for a club sandwich, fish & chips and an iced tea.  Insanely expensive…

… but the view across the street couldn’t be beat.

At this point, Manda and I realized that we were WAY behind schedule, so we arranged to drop our car off at LAX instead of in Santa Monica.  We agreed not to stop for any more sites or vista points, and were able to resist until we saw these puppies:

 
This is a half-mile stretch of beach full of elephant seals.  They were barking and flipping sand on each other (with their flippers, of course).  If you look closely in the middle, you can see a mother nursing her pup.  They’re gloriously ugly, awkward creatures with a curious beauty to them.

Shortly after that, we made it to San Luis Obispo and joined up with the 101, which took us away from the coast and into city until we finally reached LA.  We did some wedding planning, talked about stuff and finally got to LAX where we were greeted by one of the most beautiful sights ever:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the one and only Scot Burbank.

We’d made it to LA.  And what a magnificent trip it was.

San Franciscan Liturgies

Since Manda and I are in San Francisco today (and unable to worship with our Parkade family), we decided to attend two worship gatherings today.  The first was at 8:30 local time at the beautiful Grace Cathedral (Episcopal):

The service at Grace was very nice high-church worship.  The officiant was the Very Reverend Dean of Grace, a white-bearded British man who has a pleasant speaking voice.    Manda and I had trouble finding parking, so we were about 10 minutes late, entering into the small ‘Chapel of Grace’ – located to the side of the larger cathedral hall -  just as the Old Testament reading was ending (but in time to catch the New Testament reading from Acts 19).  As we settled in and listened to Acts and Mark (1:4-11, the Baptism of Jesus), we perused the bulletin.  We found their mission statement on the back of the order of liturgy:

We believe in one God, known to us in Jesus Christ, also known by different names in different traditions. We seek to challenge and transform the world, beginning with ourselves, and to celebrate the image of God in every person. We are a house of prayer, worship and service for everyone, welcoming all who seek an inclusive community of love.

The Very Reverend began his sermon by casting baptism as adoption of a new identity.  He was well-spoken and funny, pretty charismatic.  He moved to discuss some current issues – brushed on MLK day and the upcoming inauguration (the bulletin also mentioned some upcoming events focusing on ‘marriage equality’ and the recently-passed ‘proposition 8′, which banned gay marriage).  He concluded with a story whose point was that baptism includes everyone – “if you baptize one of us [humans], you have to baptize all of us [humanity].”

We received Holy Communion (Manda drank while I did the rip-n-dip in imitation of the person in front of me) and the closed with prayer and a song.  The service concluded and we walked out into the main auditorium (which we were both seeing for the first time).  One of the side-walls faces east, so the morning sun was streaming in through the stained-glass, setting the panes on fire.

We walked out to the park across the street to snap some pictures and then headed to Peet’s Coffee until it was time for Glide.

We got to park right around the corner from the main entrance and were welcomed into an entirely different environment.  Glide is a United Methodist church that seems to have begun as a black church.  But we gathered with every other ethnicity imaginable – mostly white and black, but also substantial numbers of Latinos and various Asian peoples, as well as many others.  The whole place was packed, and the atmosphere was that of a party.  Ushers were moving up and down the isles calling out things like, “Hey!  Is that your purse?  Move it!  We’re gonna need that space!”  Announcements were projected on the wall above the empty choir loft – in front of which a band was set up – and they made clear the church’s stance on many things: open support of gay and lesbian sexual identity and Barak Obama, just to name two recent divisive issues (at least within the American church).

The service began when the entire ministerial staff came out on stage – all late-middle-aged black me except for one of the music ministers (a white woman) and the lead pastor’s wife (who was Asian and also a minister in the church).  After them followed the choir, who kept coming out from the back and filling the choir loft.  In the end, there were probably something like 150 of them from all backgrounds, races and classes.  As the band began to play, the congregation stood to its feet and began to cheer loudly and the choir began to sway and clap.

The first hour or so of the service was comprised of music – for only two songs of which were the words projected on the screen.  In general, this main part of the service established and maintained the values of the community.  Between songs, the pastors would do various things – ask a member of the choir to pray, celebrate staff birthdays and anniversaries or make announcements – like the MLK day rally coming up soon (paired with an Inauguration Party).  Manda pointed out that to an outsider, these sorts of things could seem petty and time-wasteful, but that they really did help to underscore how important people are at Glide.  During each song, a different member of the choir came out and served as the lead vocalist (for those of you not familiar with Black worship, one person sings and the choir/congregation echo or respond.  It’s sort of a mix between preaching and singing).  After each song, the vocalist would receive hugs from the ministry staff and many choir members, again underscoring the egalitarian nature of the community and the value of each person in a way I found to be unique (to my experience) and, frankly, fun.  Finally, during most of the songs, the words were not projected on the screen.  Rather, the lead vocalist would sing, the choir would respond, and the congregation was free to sing with the choir or not at all.  The songs were all pretty basic, typical gospel songs – ‘without Jesus I’m lost’, ‘Jesus is my savior’, etc. etc.  What was interesting to me, however was that during each song, images were projected of issues around San Francisco on which the church was taking a stand.  Everything from Proposition 8 (gay marriage) to Obama to the riots in Oakland over the BART shooting of Oscar Grant to homelessness to images of their members were up there and they left no doubt as to their message: “This is what we’re doing.  Get involved.”

The sermon finally came about 1:10 into the service and only lasted about 15 minutes.  The associate pastor opened up by quoting, “I am Yahweh, your God.”  Then he went on, “I am Adonai, Elohim.  I am Allah.  I am Krishna.”  None of this had anything particularly to do with his sermon – which was also about baptism – and so I found it an interesting statement (in keeping with Grace Cathedral’s mission statement).  He then talked of baptism as a way to start over, to ’shed your skin’.  And his message was well-received – lots of shouting and ‘Amen’s.  Then towards the end, he announced, “I got one more thing for y’all, but you aren’t gonna like it.”

“Bring it, preacher!” was the response from the crowd.

He went on to tell us that every person deserves the chance for a new start because God has forgiven everyone.  And then he insisted that God had forgiven Johannes Mehserle – the man who had shot Oscar Grant in Oakland.  “It don’t matter if the courts don’t forgive him or if Oakland don’t forgive him or if you don’t forgive him, because God has already forgiven him,” the preacher shouted.  “Don’t rob him of his chance to start over.  Don’t rob him of his humanity.”

I thought that was really cool.  And a bold, powerful statement on the truly, radically egalitarian nature of humanity in God’s eyes.

And that was church today for us.

The Rock

Today, Manda and I visited Alcatraz, a.k.a. (especially to fans of Sean Connery’s body of work) “The Rock”.

For your information, I was able to refrain from exclaiming in my best Scottish accent, “Welcome to the Rock!” for the entire trip.  Thank you very much.

The audio tour featured the voices of former guards and prisoners from Alcatraz (which shut down in 1963), so it lent a lot of authenticity and realism to the tour.  When a story was told about something that happened there, the guys all said something to the effect of, “Oh, yeah, I remember that day.  I was…”

A view of San Francisco from the island.  It looks almost close enough to swim to.  Manda was thoughtful enough to wear a black-and-white striped shirt.  Fortunately, so far as I know, no former inmates were there that day.

What struck me about the Rock was several of the quotes they had peppered around the place to the effect of, “Alcatraz has perfected isolation.”  Despite the fact that they were there with other prisoners, the real torture of Alcatraz seems to have been the fact that the inmates felt so alone.  They commented that the worst night of the year was New Year’s Eve, because they could hear the parties taking place in the city.

Now, so far as I know, our prison system in the U.S. is unashamedly retributive (as opposed to restorative); that is, inmates owe a debt to society and so they ‘serve their time’ until that debt is paid (said debt having been determined by a person who is empowered to judge what amount of punishment is ‘fair’).  Little concern is paid to what happens to the convict after they’ve ‘done their time’.  In this sense, the prison systems are entirely capitalistic in nature – viewing justice in economic terms.

But look at what prison does to a human.  It isolates them.  It cuts them off from their community.  And in a Mosaic talk I recently listened to, the speaker said, “Whatever disconnects us kills us.”  A lack of community reduces us to animals.  It robs us of our humanity.  And this is what I saw at Alcatraz.  The worst punishment was the degradation of beautiful images of God (however tarnished and tainted by their own personal choices) even further than they’d already degraded themselves.

After Alcatraz shut down, most prisoners were transferred to the SuperMax prison in Florence, CO.  One of the former wardens called it “a clean version of hell.”

Can’t we do better than this?