Fragments
So I haven't written on here in some time. It is not for lack of interesting events. Easter was less than a month ago. A few weeks back, I got to watch our youth group lead our church in worship. We moved into our new house. EA and I went to Seattle this past weekend. We saw U2 in concert while we were there. All of these are events that would typically spark many blog posts. I always think that it's kind of pretentious when artists talk about their muse, so I won't venture down that avenue. I've just been creatively tired of late.
I'm hoping to claw out of this writing malaise this summer; partly because I need it to keep me sane. So I am going to write a few bits and pieces of the thoughts that have been bouncing around my mind these last few weeks. Not enough to be full on posts, but little fragments and incomplete thoughts. Let's get the elephant out of the room first.
Jerry Falwell, Jr. said that Donald Trump is turning out to be a "dream president" for evangelical Christians. Now I know that I am more or less outside that tribe now. I work at a mainline protestant church and several of my political and theological views would put me on the outskirts of American evangelicalism. But I grew up in the evangelical church and know many wonderful, loving people that are still under that umbrella (a fair number of whom are not exactly dancing in the streets over the president), so I feel like I still have the right to ask this:
In what messed up universe is this your dream scenario, Falwell?
Like, I know you got the Supreme Court to tip back your way and he's paid lip service to the American Christian Persecution Complex, but are your dreams truly this pedestrian? The only way "dream" would make sense here is if it were one of those dreams that came after chasing bad gas station sushi with a can of cheese-whiz right before bed.
"Dude, I had this crazy dream last night. That millionaire guy from reality TV ran for president and all through the campaign he ticked off every minority group and then a tape came out where he bragged about sexually assaulting women, but he won! And then there were thousands of people protesting in the streets and people were scared they were going to get kicked out of the country. Then the new administration lied about all sorts of stupid stuff. Plus there was all sorts of fishy things going on where it seemed like Russia had messed with the election. Then I went to church and everyone was like, 'AHHHH! THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER!' It was messed up, man." That's the only dream that works, Falwell, or you're going to need to stop speaking for all the folks (many of them fine) in evangelical Christianity.
Yes, I know I didn't include Comey or all the other news that came out in the past week and a half. Falwell's statement was made before that. I wanted to be fair, but man.
On our flight from Phoenix to Seattle, I sat next to a nice man from San Antonio. We talked a little bit about the Spurs and he said it truly is a top-notch organization. He apparently did some work on the houses of Popovich, Duncan, and some of the others when they moved to the area. He said they were good people and really invest into the community of the city. It just further affirmed why I have admired that team for so long. I hate that Kawhi Leonard was re-injured against Golden State.
Every year, the students at Woodmont have the opportunity to lead the worship services in the spring. Earlier this month was my first go-around with Youth Sunday and I could have not been more proud of them. They did virtually everything. Some of our graduating seniors preached. Other students served as ushers, prayed, gave the children's moment, played piano, sang, served communion, designed art for the bulletins, the whole nine yards.
I wish every church gave their students an opportunity like this. Many people talk about youth groups as the church of the future. The truth of the matter is if youth are not the church of the present then many won't stick around to be the church of the future. Congregations need to see the ways that young people can serve and be the church now. And students need to have opportunities to see that they can use their gifts, talents, and abilities today rather than having to wait "their turn" when they grow up.
Back to the initial point: they were incredible. The young women and men at Woodmont are gifted in a myriad of ways. Now the trick is to figure out ways we can get them to share beyond that one Sunday a year. Everyone will be better for it.
So we went to Seattle this past weekend. When U2 announced that they were touring The Joshua Tree this spring and summer, I knew it was time to cross seeing the Irish band off my bucket list. When the tour was announced, Chicago was the closest stop to us so EA and I decided to pick a city we had never visited. That's how we ended up in the Pacific Northwest (plus it was one of three dates in which Mumford & Sons were opening, so that sealed it for EA).
It was a great trip. Beforehand, I had fretted over getting a new rain jacket because of the city's penchant for constant rain. Yet it didn't end up raining on us that much and we actually saw the sun a few times. The temperature was cool, in the 50s, but that was a nice change of pace from Nashville's summer preview. We did the whole touristy thing. We went to the Space Needle, the Chuhuly Garden and Glass, the Museum of Pop Culture, Pike Place Public Market, the Seattle Aquarium, a harbor cruise, etc. We only had two full days in town and we were going to the concert the second night, so we packed it all in.
Quick thoughts on all of those touristy things:
- Space Needle = Really cool. With something that iconic you kind of expect to be let down, but I was not.
- Monorail = MONORAIL! My apologies, I just love me a good monorail.
- Chuhuly Garden and Glass = An art museum with these elaborate blown glass works. Just some ridiculous talent and creativity on display. We also saw a blown glass demonstration, which was like Christmas for EA.
- Museum of Pop Culture = Formerly the EMP, they recently switched to this format and it will be pretty good once they get into the swing of things. Home of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, we also saw cool exhibits on music and science fiction movies. Sadly, we were a week to early for the forthcoming Jim Henson exhibit. I did peak through a curtain and see Kermit.
- Pike Place Public Market = We saw it. Had some good seafood there. It was crowded and chaotic. Checked it off the list.
- Seattle Aquarium = Otters, seals, and a giant octopus made it a fun visit.
- Harbor Tour = It was a beautiful day and we got to see great sights of the city as we learned about its history and interesting bits of trivia.
Saturday night, we went out with Jacob and Kelly, some of EA's friends who live in Seattle. We had a great time hanging out. We went to a pub with great food that is inside an independent bookstore. I cannot stress this enough: I need a place like this in Nashville. Not right across the street because I would never leave there, but five or ten minutes down the road will suffice.
We saw U2 at CenturyLink Field, home of the NFL's Seahawks and the MLS's Sounders. It was a sold out show. We were way up high in the upper deck, but they were still pretty good seats. The sound quality at the top was a little lacking and there were a few times in the show where they didn't utilize the big screen so it looked like were watching ants, but it was still a great show. Mumford blew the doors off with their opening set and it was fun to see an opening act that many of the people in the stands knew and loved.
U2 Setlist
1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. New Year's Day
3. A Sort of Homecoming
4. Bad
5. Pride (In the Name of Love)
6. Where the Streets Have No Name
7. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
8. With or Without You
9. Bullet the Blue Sky
10. Running to Stand Still
11. Red Hill Mining Town
12. In God's Country
13. Trip Through Your Wires
14. One Tree Hill
15. Exit
16. Mothers of the Disappeared (with Eddie Vedder and Mumford & Sons)
Encore (Why do we all still take part in this charade? We know they're coming back out. They know they're coming back out.)
17. Beautiful Day
18. Elevation
19. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
20. One
21. Miss Sarajevo
22. The Little Things that Give You Away (new song)
23. I Will Follow
In the stadium concourse after the concert, I overheard a trio of (quite inebriated) middle aged women grousing about the concert. In between f-bombs that seemed to be the only adjective they knew, their main complaint was that the band makes a lot of money. They didn't really see the irony in how they were contributing to that wealth. But one of the women said, "At least he (Bono) didn't talk about God. I think he knows everyone is tired of that." Talk? No, he didn't. Sing? That's a different matter.
The Joshua Tree was the first "non-Christian" album I ever bought. I got it because Jon Foreman of Switchfoot recommended it in article I read, but I still remember feeling somewhat guilty in the line at Best Buy. What I didn't know at the time was that God was all over The Joshua Tree. It was probably more Christian than some of the Christian albums (which is an odd thing for how can an album be Christian) with which I had grown up.
That was why I knew I needed to see the show when they announced they were touring The Joshua Tree. The album is a pivotal point in my maturation; in how I saw the world and how I saw faith. I wanted to hear the soaring "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the gospel-infused "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in person. I wanted it to be punctuated with the darkness of "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Exit," because those shadows remind us of how the world is too. The concert wasn't perfect. Like I said, the sound wasn't pristine and I really could have done with some of my fellow concertgoers, but I am glad that I went. I needed to mark that time in my life. It was a sonic Ebenezer, if you will.
Dream U2 Setlist
1. Where the Streets Have No Name
2. All Because of You
3. I Will Follow
4. Moment of Surrender
5. Pride (In the Name of Love)
6. Until the End of the World
7. With or Without You
8. When Love Comes to Town
9. Running to Stand Still
10. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
11. Window in the Skies
12. Vertigo
13. Sunday Bloody Sunday
14. Acrobat
15. Grace
16. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Encore (Okay, I get the sense of why we do it, but it still feels like a charade)
17. Beautiful Day
18. Elevation
19. Breathe
20. One
21. The Wanderer (with Johnny Cash...this is a dream after all)
22. Walk On
23. 40
On Sunday morning, we went to Quest Church in Ballard, WA. Pastored by Eugene Cho, Quest seeks to be a church that embodies diversity, multi-ethnicity, compassion, justice, and creativity. The band took the stage and that diversity was readily apparent. I don't know what it says about church or the churches where I've attended, that multi-ethnicity is so striking to me. But regardless it was beautiful.
As we sang, one of the worship leaders announced that we would sing a verse of "I Surrender All" in Swahili. A little out of the ordinary, but I have seen that happen before. Yet then as the next song started, we began to sing "Great Are You Lord" in Korean. And I could tell that this was not out of the ordinary. This didn't throw anyone off. They didn't make any special announcement. On the screen was the Korean, a pronunciation aid, and a translation and so off we went.
I cannot adequately describe what it was like to stand in that room with Caucasians, African-Americans, Asian-Americans singing praises to God in Korean at the top of their lungs. But a dam broke inside me. My eyes welled up with tears because it felt like how church ought to be. Not that churches that can't be like that are deficient, but it felt like a glimpse, like a veil was being pulled back on the Church Universal when people from all nations come together and praise God. Of the many amazing experiences I had in Seattle, that will probably be the one I will carry with me the most.
