Stand With Conviction! (you know?)

I love this!

Kerouac: Some Lost Bliss…

I’m re-reading On the Road, and rediscovered this line.  It’s haunting, and I had to share:

“The one thing that we yearn for in our living days, that makes us sigh and grown and undergo sweet nauseas of all kinds, is the remembrance of some lost bliss that was probably experienced in the womb and can only be reproduced (though we hate to admit it) in death.  But who wants to die?

I think when we seek the Divine, in whatever context we choose (or are thrown by geography, culture or lottery) we are often compelled by that same remembrance of some lost bliss…

Eucharist Invitation: Holy God, Holy One, Holy Three…

My pastor at the local UCC church lead us in this invitation to the Eucharist yesterday morning, and I thought it was just too beautiful to neglect posting.  Here it is abridged, as it was responsive, and I’ll leave out the language you’re familiar with, directly related to the communion itself:

Holy God, Holy One, Holy Three!

Before all that is, You were God.  Outside all we know, You are God.  After all is finished, You will be God.  Archangels sound the trumpets, angels sing their song, the saints join us in Your presence, and this is our song…

Holy God, Holy One, Holy Three!  You beyond the galaxies, You under the oceans, You inside the leaves, You pouring down rain, You opening the Flowers, You feeding the insects, You giving us Your image, You carrying us through the waters, You holding us in the night.

Your smile on Sarah and Abraham, Your words through Deborah and Isaiah, You lived as Jesus among us, healing, teaching, dying, rising, inviting all to your feast…

Holy God, we remember your Son, His life was humble, His vision of Your kingdom, His death among the wretched, His resurrection for us all: Your wisdom, our guide, Your justice, our strength, Your grace, our path to new life.  And so we cry mercy!

Holy God, we need Your Spirit:

Enliven this bread, awaken this body, pour us out for each other.  Transform our minds, ignite Your church, nourish the life of the earth.  Make us, while many, united.  Make us, though broken, whole.  Make us, despite death, alive.

Amen.

The original piece was written by Gail Ramshaw.

Synchroblog: This is for All the Lonely People…

Last month Dan Peek, former member of the classic rock band America, died in his sleep.

I was raised by Calvary Chapel Jesus People, who rejected secular music of any kind, so they eagerly grasped early iterations of Christian recording whenever possible: Keith Green, Rich Mullins, and Dan Peek — this was before the industry became the monolithic money machine it is today.  Peek crossed over from America to record several Christian albums with a similar (now, nostalgic) sound, and I was raised on this song, among others:

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky 

This is for all the single people
Thinking that love has left them dry
Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try 

Well, I'm on my way
Yes, I'm back to stay
Well, I'm on my way back home (Hit it) 

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup
And never take you down or never give you up
You never know until you try

Except that in the version I was raised with – Dan Peek’s 1986 Christian version of “Lonely People” – replaced every line of “You never know until you try” and “Ride that highway in the sky” with “Give your heart to Jesus Christ.”  A little personal redaction.  No matter that it seems a little like some kind of karaoke – it is his own song, after all.

I realize nostalgia is a powerful thing for me, and I was too young in the early 80′s to understand the political dynamics of the Religious Right in its day.  I guess Francis Schaeffer was preparing for violent overthrow of the U.S. government in response to abortion… I was blissfully unaware.

But in my memory, when I listen to Dan Peek and Keith Green and a little early Amy Grant, I hear music sung for its own sake, not because it was a legitimate gateway into the larger music industry.  I can’t hear Jerry Falwell.  I can hear Pat Robertson, but in my childhood memory, he wasn’t lambasting queers or demonizing Muslims – he was praying for me (personally) on the other side of the TV screen’s glass.

Yes, my memory is idealized, picturesque, nostalgic, cheesy, redacted, even white-washed… a bit like Dan Peek’s foray into proto-Christian music.  But the last few weeks, at night, I’ve been torturing my wife as we go to bed, logging into sites like GrooveShark and Pandora, iTunes and YouTube, pulling old songs that tug on my heartstrings’ memories before the damage and baggage of culture wars and homophobia and class wars and misogyny and damnation.  It’s a fantasy… a privileged one, that comes from a privileged childhood, I suppose.  But if you remember America, you may feel some of the same lovely pangs in your gut when you hear, “This is for all the lonely people, thinking that life has passed them by…”

Other Synchroblog Posts

Video: The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger

What does this video have to do with ANYTHING? Absolutely nothing. But you will LOVE this. Or you should…

Taking a Break from Serious Stuff…

I know we’re well-past the royal wedding heyday.  I did not stay up all night, thank you very much (though I know someone who did… goodness gracious!) but I’m a huge Walt Disney fan, and thought these pics below were marvelous!  Enjoy and try not to think about Sojourners for a day or two.

Peace,
Peter

Reading Rainbow…

I’m still on vacation (till Monday) and in addition to enjoying the sun in Central Oregon, I’ve been trying to catch up on some reading for pleasure.

A few of the books I’m working through:

• Third World America – Arianna Huffington
• A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
• The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula Le Guin
• A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin

I’ve never read any of Le Guin, but I grew up on fantasy novels, and have often wanted to put her at the top of my list.  Really enjoying her so far.

Have any of you read Bill Bryson?  In college I read Made In America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States. I’ve never been so entertained by a subject I imagined I would care so little about!  Bryson is witty, quick, and incredibly well-researched, so that you learn a great deal while being entertained.  A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great success.  It’s hardly short, but when one considers neatly covers astronomy, geology, paleontology, astrophysics, thermodynamics, oceanography, chemistry, and lots of other sciences I can’t think of off hand — and their development from the middle ages to the present — it’s quite astounding.  The sections on astronomy and astrophysics remind me of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, if Hawking had the wit of – say – David Sedaris.  I’m not a science guy, but Bryson makes just about any subject matter fascinating and loads of fun.

Huffington’s Third World America, on the other hand, is no fun to read at all.  It’s grim stuff.  It’s the kind of book where you keep saying to yourself, “someone needs to do something about this! People need to read this!” as you read it, even though it’s things you’ve felt in your gut for a long time.  But the back of the book lists acclaim from  all sorts of folks from a wide political spectrum (economist Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan – good read, by the way, and Republican Joe Scarborough) including Elizabeth Warren, who currently runs the new consumer protection agency… so that gives me some hope (if you haven’t seen Warren on The Daily Show, you’ve got to: HERE).

Anyway, some great quotations from Huffington’s book:

“The rate for those in the bottom 10 percent of income (in 2009) was a staggering 31 percent… Does anyone believe that the sense of urgency coming out of Washington wouldn’t be wildly different if the unemployment rate for the top 10 percent of income earners was 31?  If one-third of news producers, pundits, bankers, and lobbyists were unemployed, would the measures proposed by the White House and Congress still be as anemic?  Of course not – the sense of national emergency would be so great you’d hear air-raid sirens howling.  Instead, we get policy Band-Aids…” (p.13)

“Between 2000 and 2008, the poverty rate in the suburbs of the largest metro areas in the US grew by 25 percent – making the suburbs home to the country’s biggest and most rapidly expanding segment of the poor.” (p.18)

Sobering excerpts, but there’s a lot more, including exhortations for how we can begin to pull ourselves out.  Thankfully, Huffington has developed quite a platform.

Okay, so that’s what I’ve been reading.  You should pick a few of these up… but you don’t have to take MY WORD FOR IT!

Pigeon John: So Gangster

I love Pigeon John, and this song?  Hip hop shoutouts to Depeche Mode AND Nintendo 64 – it’s golden!

Talking Babies: Tell Us Your Secrets!

This is just lovely…

Although sometimes I think our religious speak probably sounds much like this (but, perhaps, less delightful) to our bewildered neighbors who don’t speak our language.

Banned Questions Video

Here’s a nice little video promo piece Christian Piatt put together to promote Banned Questions About the Bible, the first book in the “Banned Questions” series.  I contributed to Banned Questions About Jesus, the second book, releasing in June (or July) so it’s exciting to see the first book launching!