White Christmas, reflections of a recovering racist.

I’m dreaming of a "White Christmas” reflections of a recovering racist.

 I love this time of year, the music, and the decorations. I love the message of hope, joy, peace, and love. I love giving gifts. I love the lights, the cookies, the carols. I love the time we take to share with each other as friends and family. I love the manger scenes, the candles, and the anticipation of Christmas. I love that the story of Christmas is a story of Good news for all people. I love that the creator of the universe became Emmanuel, God is with us.

But I must say that this season, my heart is heavy. It’s heavy with the pain of Ferguson, New York, and Cleveland. It’s heavy, with the racism that my privileged eyes thought we had grown past. It’s heavy because I want to believe we are better than this.

I have never known anything except kindness and respect from police and law enforcement and my life is better because of their sacrificial work but my heart is heavy with a justice system that is broken. The systems tilted. Conservative white Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore said this about Ferguson:

“In the public arena, we ought to recognize that it is empirically true that African-American men are more likely, by virtually every measure, to be arrested, sentenced, executed, or murdered than their white peers. We cannot shrug that off with apathy. Working toward justice in this arena will mean consciences that are sensitive to the problem. But how can we get there when white people do not face the same experiences as do black people?” http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/12/04/america-weve-got-problem

 

I am a white Pastor, in a mostly white state, in a mostly white church. I am seldom aware of the privilege that is my norm. Years ago, a friend took me, A longsuffering Washington Redskin fan(Yeah I know it’s a racist team name) to a game with the Cleveland Browns. He warned me not to ware my team gear but what is a fan to do? So as we walked into the stadium. For one of the first times in my life everyone judged me by what was on the outside. They yelled ugly things at me. They spoke about my lack of intelligence and my parentage. They judged my life without knowing or even seeing me but only seeing the outside. Here is my reality, after the game, (yep we lost) I could take off my gear and blend back into the privileged majority.

Some times in the midst of life we find we can’t breathe, my heart is heavy for my African American friends who wonder if their children will be safe when they leave home. I have clergy colleagues this weekend who are teaching in their teen Sunday schools classes this lesson: Palms up. Interlock fingers on the top of your head. Kneel down. Cross your ankles. Don't reach for your wallet.”

We must look at our racism in the mirror. This issue is bigger than Eric Gardner, Michael Brown, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, and Travon Martin. This issue is bigger than the cries of “hands up, don’t shoot” and “I can’t breathe.” This issue is bigger than the news cycle that will move on to the next hot topic.

The Advent season reminds me of a God who can step into the impossible and create possibilities. The Gospel stories of Mary and Elizabeth remind us of this. Could it be that these stories exist to blur the lines between what is possible and what is impossible? The doctrine of the virgin birth is not about bypassing sex but subverting violence. The one born of Mary will be know not for force but for peace. 

To speak of racism at Christmas does not flow well, it messes with our “white Christmas.” But to not look at our own racism in the mirror and deal with the reality is the most racist thing we can do.

As we celebrate our “white Christmas” we must learn that together we are better. We must learn to listen to each others stories. We must work for justice. We must seek a non-violent response to the evil of racism. We must build bridges together.

The story of Christmas is a story of good news to all. May we together  celebrate the God of impossible possibilities.

 http://new.livestream.com/boisefumc/10am

Listening in the noise

"This has become my first posture of theological inquiry: listening. For we all of us approach God and His Word with our baggage, that’s to be expected. But when our baggage rings louder than His Song, our faith diminishes into self-centeredness—weighted with unfiltered bias." Tim Willard

This week I attending the first reading of the "Non Discrimination" ordinance of the City of Boise, Idaho. I came as a father, a son, a husband, a pastor, a resident of the city of Boise. I came because I hunger for a world different than the one I live in. I came because to be silent for me slaps my understanding of God's love. I came because I hunger to live in a place of acceptance and  love.

For years I approached this issue with my baggage ringing loud. "God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve" I boldly told my youth group years ago. The text shouts Sin.... it's sin. Yet it shouts sin at many things I gladly no longer call sin.

God brought into my life friends, made in the image of God. God brought into my life friends that are differently oriented in their sexuality. My baggage no longer rang as loud.

Listening. It is a hard thing to do. As I sit down this morning to reflect, I hear my TV with news in the back ground. I hear a pod cast playing on my computer. Listening.

I came to the meeting and listened. I Listened....I heard God's Song. I am thankful for the bold witness of the members of the Boise City Council that are working toward this legislation. I am thankful for those that spoke of their hunger for a different world, a different Bosie where all live with non-discrimination.

I am learning to listen to those who hear this issue differently. We may agaree to disagree but let's listen to each other and for God's Song.

May we all listen.

This crazy thing: living a called life.

It all began with a phone call last summer. I was at a friends pool when my phone rang, as my kids swam enjoying the innocence of youth. On the other end of the call was a familiar voice saying, "My Pastor is retiring next year and i wanted you to know." Now that was a bit awkward to hear from a former member in a afar a way land but OK, sorry to hear that I said. "No, No, I am calling to tell you that I gave them your card and you are going to be the next pastor of my church." I laughed. "It does not work that way", I said.

I have been honored to be the pastor of Stillwater United Methodist Church for 18 years. I have been through the joy and pain of relocation, reorganization, rebirth, served as pastor and DS for 7 years, built 3 times in 5 years, launched 2 additional campuses the last one at the beginning of a recession. I have watched the church grow in number and depth. We have lived life together. I have had to opportunity to move multiple times, Often to larger churches but I never felt called to it.

Stillwater UMC and Dayton have become home. But even as I began to share why I was not interested in a move, why it made no sense in my life, or in my families lives right now(one kid graduating this year, one next year, wife finishing Grad school, etc etc...) there it was....call.

I remember years ago sitting in a meeting with Bishop Judy Craig when she said to us green clergy..."you have been called to be called.." and I leaned over to my DS and said, "She's nuts."

Call. Here I am Lord, send me. And so the dance began.

When I came to Ohio from the Baltimore Washington Conference, I thought I was coming to United Seminary to gain tools to take back to my home conference. Then came call. A DS called about a little church called Riverdale that wanted to start over again(Stillwater). "I'm not a member of this conference I said..." But as we heard the Riverdale story, Call came.

Even then Call asked me to surrender. I have loved my 24 years in Ohio but I'm a West Virginian. I love the east. I love the mountains. Call asked me to use my gifts in this unique place. Call gave me opportunities here that I can only say were God breathed. As we danced with call back then Cathy and I said to each other, "If we say yes this time to call, perhaps next time we could go anywhere." We were thinking like Africa. I was also sure one day God would open the door for me to go back east.

So Now Call takes me from Ohio to Idaho. My son Clayton (14) said attempting to understand why his Dad is disrupting his life, "Dad have you always dreamed of living in Idaho?" I said, "No Clayton, It's a God thing, I am, We are being Called."

Call ask me to step out in faith. Call ask me to surrender. Call asks me to become who God created me to be. Call is about my life, my family, my faith. Call makes me...me.

I think of the Call of Abram "Leave your country, your people and your fathers house and go to the land I will show you..." Call is taking the first step of an unknown journey. Call is trusting God as we leave the known.

So in less than 75 days the Anders family will begin the drive from Dayton, Ohio to Boise, Idaho.

I believe that we all live a called life. So the dance continues with this crazy thing of living a called life.

Thank you God for the way you call us.

The Dawning of the White (and Blue) Collar Homeless

It seems as though a few people with government jobs will determine the possible fate of nearly two million workers connected to the U.S. Auto industry. As many face an uncertain future, the recent events raised the prospects of the total collapse of the industry, as we know it. This is only one of several crises threatening to increase the total homeless population in America to staggering proportions and we are not ready. Proof of this country being ill prepared to help the displaced still to this day exist in New Orleans where a city decimated by the winds and water of Katrina sits waiting for America to show up and help. The storm left hundreds of thousands stranded, hopeless, and even homeless. Now we face a situation that could put millions of families in the streets without social service in the event of a disastrous end. 

Drastic matters require drastic measures. Now is the time for America to atone for ignoring millions who sleep on our city’s streets and begin to ask questions that could lead to housing solutions for unemployed, under-employed, mentally ill, traumatized, and chronically homeless human beings. Its also time to ask an incredible demographic of people who exist on nothing and under unbelievable conditions for some tips on staying alive under tough (and I really mean non-existent) economic circumstances. How often have we stopped at traffic lights and gently slid our hands onto the door locks for fear of auto invasion by the destitute beggar? How often have we driven by a homeless person in the heat of the day or in the cold of the night and turn our heads as if not seeing them will ease our conscience or abdicate our responsibility. Surely we can make the insensitive and say, “They should just get a job” but what happens if there is no job to get. Unfortunately America is now getting ready to discover just how absurd that notion is in the wake of rampant joblessness. The reality is jobs have always been in short supply for people who have not been privy to the “Outliers” as Malcolm Gladwell puts it in his latest book in which he declares success is never something that happens alone and that “People don’t rise from nothing.”

Gladwell goes on to say,

“We do owe something to parentage and patronage. The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when they grew up… Biologist often talk about the ecology of an organism: the tallest oak in the forest is the tallest not just because it grew from the hardiest acorn; it is the tallest also because no other tree blocked its sunlight, the soil around it was deep and rich, no rabbit chewed through its bark as a sapling, and no lumberjack cut it down before it matured.”      

The homeless are all products of many variables in the forest of life and we don’t know which forest they survived, we don’t know who the parent acorns were, we don’t know how difficult it was to avoid being chewed by the rabbits or how challenging it was to avoid the multitude of lumberjacks (circumstances) who’s goal was to cut them down before they matured. We do know they have survived and in the coming days can become our teachers, instructing us on surviving. Here are a few things I have learned from homeless women, children, and men over the last 17 years in Downtown Houston:

- Look out for the people around you; they are your best security and support.

- Pack light anything extra is dead weight.

- Make eye contact with those who can help you and don’t hesitate to ask for       their help.

- Let people think what they will and don’t let it change how you feel.

- Find a few places to hang out that respect your personhood.

- Practice contentment every minute of every day until your circumstances       change.

- Keep your shoes on.

 

My favorite axiom is “keep your shoes on” because there is always someone wanting to walk in your shoes, so they think, even if they are the wrong size and already worn out. As people become more economically challenged in the coming days, now may also be a good time to roll down your window the next time you roll up to a traffic light where a homeless person is begging and remember that except for the acorn, the rabbit, and the lumberjack it could have been you.

 

What do you think about the fate of the American worker?

World Aids Day

6000 reasons..... and each has a name.
6000 reasons .... and each has a face.
6000 reasons ...and each has a story.

Today, World Aids Day, Like everyday, 6000 Children will lose a parent to AIDS.

Today, Like Every day, We have 6000 reasons to care.

Today, like every day we have 6000 reasons to offer hope.

What prevents you from responding? Ignorance? Denial to the extent of the problem? Despair about the magnitude of the crisis?

This is your week to be informed and respond and the hands and feet of Jesus.

The Miami Valley and Stillwater Church are hosting Step into Africa... each day this week. Come and See....

Peace. Duane

Secrets of the Songwriter

Last nights CMA Awards, broadcast live on ABC, is Country Music’s night to shine. It’s by no accident that many of the award winners thanked the songwriters. For the singers know, without the songwriter there is no song to sing.

Over the last couple of months I have been privileged to take a songwriters class at the Blair School of Music in Nashville. Each week a songwriter shares his or her story and helps the class look at the craft of songwriting. Most of the members of the class are songwriters themselves and in many of the sessions they share their music for critique by the speaker and the class.
This last week Laynge Martin, who has written songs like Elvis Presley’s “Way down” and Trisha Yearwood’s, “I Wanna Go Too Far,” was our speaker.

What impressed me about Laynge was his passion for his craft and his desire to be heard. Some of his advice could be applied to us all.

About music itself he noted that in movies, music is always used to bring the message home. At the most dramatic point in the story people sing. For Layne, “songs are really accelerated meaning.” This reminds us that unlike any other form of communication, music goes straight to the heart. Lyrics, melody, and rhythm combine to take the listener to a different place of understanding and insight. The best song becomes your song because it opens a window into what is really important in life.

Another comment by Layne has importance for us in everyday communication, that “everything we say has a melody and a rhythm.” The cadence of our speech is really music without the notes. The tone of our voice, the words we emphasize, and our inflection constantly tells others the state of our emotions, what is important to us, and where our passion lies.

Daniel J. Levitin, author of The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature says the following: “Music, I argue, is not simply a distraction or a pastime, but a core element of our identity as a species, an activity that paved the ways for more complex behaviors such as language, large-scale cooperative undertakings, and the passing down of important information from one generation to the next.” In his book he says there are basically six types of songs that have formed who we are as humans: songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love.

I might add to this the following thought: before there was speech, culture, and civilization there was music. Too radical for you. If you are a parent, my guess is the first form of communication you formed with your infant child was a song. Maybe it was a coo or a soft hum. Whatever it was it made a connection that soothed and comforted. In a sense you became the songwriter as you formed a bond with your child.

Songs then are not simply noise to fill up time as we drive to work or crunch numbers on our computer. They are the stuff of life. They help us articulate who we are. They help us discover what is most important to us. The songwriter’s gift is the ability to listen to the sorrows and joys of daily existence to distill meaning into a phrase. “I did it my way.” “Love the one your with.” “Staying alive.” “Ain’t no mountain high enough.” “Amazing Grace.”

Layne made another comment during our time together that really stuck, “what you do everyday becomes your life.” Days turn to weeks which turn into months which becomes years. What you do each day has great implications for what you will become in the future. What you do each moment matters.

So the next time you listen to a song remember the muse that lurks in the shadow, for if you listen closely the secret of the songwriter will be revealed.

Millennials Find Their Voice in Obama's Win

A look at generations in this year's elections tells an interesting story. In Making God Real for a New Generation which was published in 2002, I talked about the emergence of a new Youth Boom that would hit in 2006 as the Millennial Generation, those born from 1982 to 1999, entered into their young adult and youth years. Today we are seeing the fruit of that Youth Boom in the election of President Obama. Now that Millennials are age 7 to 26 they are in their Youth Boom years.

When previous generations hit this age mark, transformation in the rest of the society took place. In the 1930s, new technology introduced color movies, comic books, and Big Band Music. Towards the end of the decade, the GI Generation fought in World War II. In the 1950s, the birth of the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of Rock'n'Roll Music were the hallmarks of the Pioneer Generation. The Baby Boomers ruled the 1970s with the culmination of the anti-War movement and growth of the Women's Movement. In the late 1980s, the Postmodern Generation saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall and ushered in many aspects that are seen in the Emergent Movement and the growth of the digital age.

Now that the Millennials are coming into their own, key factors are coming into play in the wider society as seen in the election of Obama:

1. 10% of the voters were age 18-24 and 66% of them voted for Obama. In comparison, only 45% of those over 65 voted for the new president.

2. Obama tapped into the youth vote by using their primary means of communication: the Internet and Cell Phones. Notice that major announcements, like the selection of Vice-President Biden, were sent out as Text Messages before given to traditional media. By doing so the Obama campaign sought to create a personal connection with the young voters who supported him. This also allowed him to ask for donations to the campaign using the Internet as well.

3. Obama's slogan: "Yes we Can," tapped into the mindset of a generation who sees themselves as ones who want to make a difference in this world. Rather than fear, his message of hope connected with young people who desire a positive direction for the country and the world.

4. Obama also connected to another major aspect of the Millennial Generation, the ability and desire to reach across racial, ethnic, and national lines. A great number of the Millennial Generation are the children of immigrants from countries around the world. A look at the crowds that were seen at Obama's rallies shows us the new face of America, one that is multi-ethnic and young.

As Millennials make their voice heard the church has much to learn from the Obama campaign.

1. Millennials want to make a personal connection and do so through digital media.

2. Millennials are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural generation. Churches that will grow and flourish in the future will be ones that reflect their diversity. This is the greatest challenge churches now face as the vast majority of congregations worship in mono-ethnic gatherings.

3. Millennials are attracted to a message of hope and desire to be part of something bigger than themselves to make a difference.

The Millennials are just starting to let their voice be heard. The church, like it has in eras past, has a choice to make. It can listen deeply and look for ways in which God is speaking through the Millennials to challenge us to grow in faith and maturity. It can put up walls and ignore them or forbid practices that seem so unGodly (like dancing, wearing make-up, or watching movies). Or it can ignore them completely, going our separate ways until the Church itself has lost its voice.

My hope is that the church and the culture at large will listen and learn, and look for ways to connect to this new generation as it influences us all.