Why should we be ambitious? We're the children of God.
--Jason Upton
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Us and Them
This post is possibly going to be difficult for me to write because the ideas that I'm having haven't completely taken shape yet, but I think that I need to get them out, so maybe you can help me with them.
I was talking to a friend on the phone recently, and she asked me what I had eaten for dinner, and I told her "stir-fry" which is an Asian type of dish with meat and vegetables cooked in a frying pan and served with rice. She responded with a comment about it being an "ethnic" meal. Oddly enough, this comment took me a little off-guard because my family had eaten this meal dozens of times, and it ceased to be for us the food of a culture vastly different from our Southern U.S. culture and had become very much a part of our own menu. It is more common to eat stir fry in our house than it is to eat fried chicken.
I'm working at school on what is called an Intercultural Worship Task Force to try to represent the many cultures present in our community within our worship. While we have had some success in this feat, having incorporated music from India, Nigeria, and our Native American cultures, among others, I don't believe that we have yet adopted these different ways of worshipping Trinity as a community, though I do believe we have made strides in that direction. When groups from cultures not normally represented in chapel (anything non-white, non-North American) lead us, it still seems like "special music" or an event, rather than a normal part of our worship to God.
I think the problem is in the pronouns. We're still singing "their" songs when we need to be singing "our" songs. I hope to see the day when there is no "them", and there is only "us", not because the minority has accepted and conformed and been swallowed by the majority, but because I adopted my Indian friend Andrew's culture when I adopted him into my family, and he adopted my culture when he adopted me into his family. I hope that we will weaved together, not blended, as one, and their songs will become our songs as our songs have become their songs. The Gospel is this: we were Them's, and Christ became one of Them, so that we(They) could become one of Us.
As Christ and the Father were one, may we also be one.
I was talking to a friend on the phone recently, and she asked me what I had eaten for dinner, and I told her "stir-fry" which is an Asian type of dish with meat and vegetables cooked in a frying pan and served with rice. She responded with a comment about it being an "ethnic" meal. Oddly enough, this comment took me a little off-guard because my family had eaten this meal dozens of times, and it ceased to be for us the food of a culture vastly different from our Southern U.S. culture and had become very much a part of our own menu. It is more common to eat stir fry in our house than it is to eat fried chicken.
I'm working at school on what is called an Intercultural Worship Task Force to try to represent the many cultures present in our community within our worship. While we have had some success in this feat, having incorporated music from India, Nigeria, and our Native American cultures, among others, I don't believe that we have yet adopted these different ways of worshipping Trinity as a community, though I do believe we have made strides in that direction. When groups from cultures not normally represented in chapel (anything non-white, non-North American) lead us, it still seems like "special music" or an event, rather than a normal part of our worship to God.
I think the problem is in the pronouns. We're still singing "their" songs when we need to be singing "our" songs. I hope to see the day when there is no "them", and there is only "us", not because the minority has accepted and conformed and been swallowed by the majority, but because I adopted my Indian friend Andrew's culture when I adopted him into my family, and he adopted my culture when he adopted me into his family. I hope that we will weaved together, not blended, as one, and their songs will become our songs as our songs have become their songs. The Gospel is this: we were Them's, and Christ became one of Them, so that we(They) could become one of Us.
As Christ and the Father were one, may we also be one.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Supermodels
In his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller says that we sometimes have to see someone else love something before we ourselves are able to love that thing. Tonight I found myself among a group of teenagers in Florence, Alabama as we entered into the new year in worship. Had I not been overcome by a sense of wonder at the sight, I would have probably been a little embarrassed to be a worship intern at a seminary who was standing at the back of the building looking on as the teenagers danced and sang and bowed and raised hands. I watched as they taught me through their worship how to love Jesus. But for some reason, i wasn't embarrassed at all. Perhaps because when I am desperate to learn how to love, it doesn't really matter who teaches me or who leads me in worship.
After a few minutes of standing, I decided to sit, because a slow song came on and that's what you do during a slow song. That is unless, of course, you are at a high school dance (or any dance), and then, slow songs are the only times you (if you are me) actually walk to the dance floor and dance. As I sat on one of the many futons scattered across the room, I couldn't stop staring at the 10 ft. wooden cross that faced me. There was nothing particularly special about this cross, but it spoke of a mystery that I seemed to have forgotten. It probably should have been strange to watch followers of Jesus dance around the very symbol of his death, but it was in this symbol of death that those who danced around it (as well as those of us who just sat and stared) found life. In our Lord's greatest sorrow, we find our greatest joy. So I just stared and smiled, because it was in that cross that I was able to see Someone else love something in a way that inspired and empowered me to also love that thing.
After a few minutes of standing, I decided to sit, because a slow song came on and that's what you do during a slow song. That is unless, of course, you are at a high school dance (or any dance), and then, slow songs are the only times you (if you are me) actually walk to the dance floor and dance. As I sat on one of the many futons scattered across the room, I couldn't stop staring at the 10 ft. wooden cross that faced me. There was nothing particularly special about this cross, but it spoke of a mystery that I seemed to have forgotten. It probably should have been strange to watch followers of Jesus dance around the very symbol of his death, but it was in this symbol of death that those who danced around it (as well as those of us who just sat and stared) found life. In our Lord's greatest sorrow, we find our greatest joy. So I just stared and smiled, because it was in that cross that I was able to see Someone else love something in a way that inspired and empowered me to also love that thing.
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