Songs to Use for Something, Sometime--Chance the Rapper--Everybody's Something (Parental Discretion)

So I know I know, every once in awhile I come around and post something, I say I am going to be doing it more often and as we all know that never happens.  So, I might write sometime or I might not.

So I have had this playlist going on my iTunes for some time now called "songs to use for something sometime."  When a strong strikes my fancy for some reason I drop it in this playlist and there it sits. "Everybody's Something" by Chance the Rapper has been sitting in this folder since I first heard it.

If you aren't familial with Chance, he is a Chicago based rapper, who instead of signing with a major label keeps working on his own projects and releases them for free.  The latest project he was a part of is called Surf which is by a group called Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experience.  If you haven't heard this album yet you better stop reading and head over to iTunes, datpift or wherever and give it a listen.  It has some fantastic stuff on which has already maybe it into my playlist.

Chance came onto the scene big time in 2013 with this mixtape called Acid Rap, it is still out there for free if you haven't heard it.  It is a rather busy, hectic album that showcases his various styles, flows and his hometown.  This track called "Everybody's Something" is off of that mixtape.  As I posted in the title of this article, this track is NSFW and requires some parental discretion.  The video below is the official video but does not have the last verse from BJ the Chicago Kid.  The second video includes the whole track.

The hook on this track, as it is supposed to, gets right to the heart of the message Chance is looking to send.  It doesn't mix any punches or beat around the bush, it just comes at you with this reminder that no matter who you are, where you are or where you are going, you mean something to someone. 

                                  "Everybody's somebody's everything.  I know you right.  

                                                    Nobody's nothing, that's right"

The hook might not take us into too much detail about reason or need for these words of reassurance but through the bridge and verses we get a better picture.  On his two verses Chance, weaves lines about gun violence, drug use, his city of Chicago, racism and I am sure other references that I've missed, but these don't seem to be verses just about others experiences but his own.  It is on the hook of the track that Chance lays out that he knows that he is loved because there have been people in his life that have helped him through the dark times, so in turn the connection that seems to be made is that if he can be loved then so can everyone.  If he means something to someone else then we all must mean something to someone. 

"I know somebody, somebody loves my ass 

cause they help me beat my demons ass"

My mind has been a wash over the past few weeks, with news of riots in my hometown of Baltimore, shootings here in my current home of Portland, a death in my congregation this week, the jury decision in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case, the earthquakes in Nepal, seeing the Avengers over the weekend and everything else that dominates our news media.  Maybe in my mind I simplify things too much, or maybe I don't get the depth of the issues or maybe I am unwilling to vilify another, but I do not understand how life became so expendable, so unredeemable, or so quantifiable.  It is not just that we have become numb to violence and death in our society, but that we can so distance ourself from that life that we can see it as nothing or unredeemable, or some sort of justice is being done by the way we are treating a fellow person.

My mind keeps coming back around to these words from Chance, and the retribution that is in them, reconciliation, the grace, redemption.  When I see death on the news, I think of whose child died, or our next military campaign, whose husband won't be home or as a jury convicts whose mother is being torn away from her family.  There is a great depth that can be found in this track that would take days to unpack.

However, for me, right at this moment, the message that I hear, that resounds in my ear is one that is a lot simpler than that.  It is a message of the value of life, the importance of human relation, and the promise from God that we will never be alone, that there is nothing that can separate us from Christ love.  For me, deep in this song, we hear the message that Christ calls us to love ourselves, love one another, to pray for those that persecute us and to remember that we are all God's children and have value in God's eyes.  It causes me to slow down when I see someone on the street, causes me to reflect on who they are and who loves them, it causes me to think twice before I comment on Facebook or twitter, it makes me remember that the person I see on the news or being vilified is someones son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, but more importantly a child of God.

So before we cast the first stone, lash out in hate, or don't consider the life that is being taken we need to remember who we are and who cares about us and in turn who cares and loves the other.  If you feel that you are alone, or that you aren't anything to anyone, I am here to remind you, that you are something to someone, that you do matter to someone, if you know it or not.  If you don't know who that person is, it can be me, know that you matter to me, but more importantly know that you are God's.

If you do need someone to talk to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is always open 1-800-273-8255

Found in the Marketplace

Found in the Marketplace

Sept. 21st 2014

Matthew 20:1-16

15th Sunday After Pentecost

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (SE) Portland

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from our Risen Savior,

Most of us are somewhat familial with this parable I would imagine.  It is a commonly heard parable especially when we need to teach a child a lesson about humility (“The last shall be first and the first shall be last”)  But my question for today is, who do you most identify with?  Are you one of the labors from the beginning of the day, one that showed up half way through the day, one of the late comers?  

I often times find myself placing myself in the parable itself as one of the characters.  I have found it to be a very helpful exercise when trying to figure out the lessons that I am needing to hear, or the message of the parable for me.  So I ask you today, which character in the parable do you most identify with?  

There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but each character brings a different angle of our faith lives to light.  Many of us might be the workers that have been toiling away in the fields all day, some of us might keep our mouth shut about the wage earned for the day while others might raise a concern about the fairness of the wages.  Some of us might see ourselves as the worker that showed up halfway through the day and still got paid.  Finally, some of us might see themselves as those who showed up at the end of the day, worked for only a short amount of time and got paid like we had been there all day.

What I would imagine, is that we mostly identify with one of the two groups of people, either those who showed up at the beginning of the day or those at the end.  I am sure all of us are thinking it, and feel bad about it but the entire concern is that those who showed up late got paid the same.  This is a struggle is it not?  This wage system does not make any sense if you ask me.  Just like the other brother in the parable of the prodigal son…why does he get a party?

Maybe this is a part of our free market economics but it does not seem right that those that show up at the end of the day get the same amount of pay as those of us who were here from the beginning.  Doesn't sound right does it?  

For those of us that identify with the labors that have been working all day this sounds like an unfair deal.  “We have been the ones working all day and we get the same amount as those who have only been here for an hour.”  This sounds like the same thing I have heard in a few of the churches I have attended and been a member of over the years…”I grew up in this church and now all of a sudden these people show up and join as members” “I have been here all my life and have never been elected to church council yet they have been here for a year and they have been elected to church council.” or “I have never had a drinking problem unlike some members”  There has always been those comparisons, judgements and jealously amongst believers especially directed at new members.  But what is the issue at hand?  

It just doesn’t seem fair does it and doesn’t seem right that those late comers get the same treatment as the rest of us.  Well, I am sorry to have to burst your bubble that is the business that God is in.  God is the in the business of mercy, forgiveness and rehabilitation.  There is nothing that is outside the realm of forgiveness and God’s mercy is everlasting.  It is not a business about being fair or giving proportions greater to those that have been an active church member for longer.  But rather God is in the business of salvation and bringing the lost back to the flock.  

Those that are upset at this parable and think that it is unfair fall into a similar category as our brother Jonah today as well.  Jonah wanted so badly to see the city of Nineveh fall that he got angry with God for saving the people.  Jonah wanted to sit up on a hill and watch the city get destroyed, but once again that is not the business that God is in.  Once again mercy over rules and the grace of God is what shines through.  

So those of us that might more closely line up with those that showed up late for work we have been given that gift of grace.  This is the everlasting mercy of God.  It shines through in times when we do not feel that we are on the right track or have arrived up late.  It speaks a message of hope and forgiveness for all of us and possibility for us all.  There is a joy that exists for all of us that we are all forgiven and receive that same blessing.

No matter what side we fall on we have received grace and forgiveness beyond what we deserve.  If you ask me we are all those laborers that showed up at the need of the day.  I feel that each time we struggle with our faith, fall short and loose our way we find ourselves back in the marketplace and God continues to come to up, picking us up, paying us and telling us to get to work.  Each time we are feeling that tug, the nudging from the Holy Spirit that is the call from God for us to get to work and get out of the marketplace.  Our sin returns us to that marketplace but our Merciful Savior gathers us in and sends us back out to the field to work.

The writer of Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth- century said said this, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.  Your are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;  yours are the hands with which God is to bless people now.”

So let us be the hands, feet and eyes and get out into the field and show that mercy and forgiveness that we have experienced.  

Forgiveness and the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

Forgiveness and the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

Sept. 14 2014

14th Sunday After Pentecost

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) SE Portland

Grace Mercy and Peace from our Risen Savior Jesus the Christ.  So today is one of those days that they tell you about in seminary.  Today is the day when the sermon that I have prepared off the Gospel reading that I found assigned for this week is not the same reading as what is listed in our bulletins today.  So instead of me preaching off the cuff from the scripture in our bulletin today let me read to you the text I have prepared and deliver the sermon I wrote.  

Matthew 18:21-35

21 Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. 23 "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' 27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, "Pay what you owe.' 29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' 30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, "You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' 34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."

So where does this forgiveness come from?  In the gospel reading this morning we hear that when we are wronged we are to forgive not just 7 times but 77 times.  But what I do not know is  where does this forgiveness come from.  I don’t know about you but I know that I have a hard time forgiving someone for wronging me once, I have a hard time forgiving my friends or family let alone someone I do not even know.  So where does this forgiveness come from and in these times of forgiveness where does our christian faith lead us.  

Ok, ok ok I know the Sunday school answer, “we are able to forgive because we have been forgiven ourselves of our sin.”  Sure it is plain to say but it is not easy to do.  Yes, we are able to forgive because we have been forgiven ourselves but that doesn’t make it easy.  

You see Peter thought that he was making a wise and acute observation in this moment.  He knew that a rabbi would teach forgiveness for an offense when it occurred, maybe, depending on the rabbi, they might teach forgiven twice or three times for a repeated offense but never 7.  So Peter thought he was taking it to the next level.  There is this thought amongst scholars that Peter by suggesting 7 times was attempting to understand the calling of Jesus to take his life of faith to the next level.  It was a great attempt however, Jesus takes it even further.  

What Jesus is having us understand is that we are called to forgive and forgive again to the level and extent that we loose track…we are to forgive past the point of memory and then forgive some more.  Because if we are keeping track and tabs are we even forgiving at all?  It is not easy but it is our calling of faith to forgive and forgive again.

On Sunday morning September 15th 1963 a bomb exploded at 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham Al.  The explosion killed 4 young girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley.  This tragedy occurred two and a half weeks after the historical March on Washington where Dr. King delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech.  On the morning of the bombing the sermon that was to be given that day was titled “The Love that Forgives.”  I would expect the same texts as today.  There was a joint funeral for three of the four girls and Dr. King was called to deliver the sermon…and he had this to say.

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.

These children-unoffending, innocent, and beautiful-were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans.  They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.

And so my friends, they did not die in vain. God still has a way of wringing good out of evil.  And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force that will bring new light to this dark city.  The holy Scripture says, "A little child shall lead them." The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland from the low road of man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood.  These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience.

And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair.  We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers.  Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.

May I now say a word to you, the members of the bereaved families? It is almost impossible to say anything that can console you at this difficult hour and remove the deep clouds of disappointment which are floating in your mental skies. But I hope you can find a little consolation from the universality of this experience. Death comes to every individual. There is an amazing democracy about death. It is not aristocracy for some of the people, but a democracy for all of the people. Kings die and beggars die; rich men and poor men die; old people die and young people die. Death comes to the innocent and it comes to the guilty. Death is the irreducible common denominator of all men.

I hope you can find some consolation from Christianity's affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more lofty significance. Death is not a blind alley that leads the human race into a state of nothingness, but an open door which leads man into life eternal. Let this daring faith, this great invincible surmise, be your sustaining power during these trying days.

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood.  Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters.  And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.

And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children.  They didn't live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives.  Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality.  And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died.  They did not die in the dives and dens of Birmingham, nor did they die discussing and listening to filthy jokes.  They died between the sacred walls of the church of God, and they were discussing the eternal meaning of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations.  Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare:  Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day.  And may the flight of angels  take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you.

Now Dr. King does not use the words forgiveness when speaking of the people that committed this act.  But there is a very interesting turn that Dr. King makes in this sermon that reminds us of our calling.  

And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair.  We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers.  Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.

We are called to keep our hearts open to forgiveness and the hope that all might see their misguided ways and work for the fullness and wholeness of life.  In the darkest and most dire times Dr. King is calling his community to not seek revenge, to not lash out but instead to keep that hope alive.  In no uncertain, terms he is telling us to forgive and focus on hope.  In one of the darkest moments in not just the civil rights movement but in the history of mankind Dr. King is pointing and reminding his community that there is a higher calling and a different path, because retaliation just leads to more violence.  

I am sitting and writing this sermon on Thursday September 11th 2014, which leads me to this question.  How do we as we remember the events of 13 years ago and reflect that forgiveness?  What are the words of hope and restoration that we are hearing from our community but also our faith in light of September 11th?  Are we falling into the same revenge and retaliation or are we finding a new way to move forward into a new reality and with a revived hope of forgiveness and salvation?  I can barely answer that question for myself so I surely cannot answer that for you or for our community.  However, if we are hearing words from Dr. King of hope for his white brothers and sisters then I am here to preach hope and forgives for our extremists and terrorist brothers and sisters.  Part of our calling as Christians is for us to hope for even the most misguided to discover and understand the dignity and worth of people from all walks of life.  

Now do not get me wrong, I am not speaking and preaching a message of blind hope or forgives.  That is not how I believe that we are called to live, it would be unsafe and unwise to blindly forgive and to let our guard down.  But that does not mean we cannot forgive and work to find a way for a new reality together.  We need to be aware of our surroundings and the ways of the world, but we need to approach all situations with forgiveness on our tongues and the possibility of a new reality in our minds.  This will require creativity but that is where the Holy Spirit comes in.  We are called to forgive and seek a new reality where the prior offense will not repeat itself with God’s guidance.  

We are able to have this hope, this forgiveness on our tongues and this revisioned reality on our minds because of Jesus.  We are able to forgive because we have been forgiven of so much…we have been forgiven of everything.  You see the 77 times we are called to forgive is extravagant, the debt owed to the king in the parable is multiple lifetimes worth of work, the sin that we are guilty of is something that we can never over come and can never repay.  But we have been forgiven of that and that is our sense of strength and our sense of hope for a revisioned reality and future.  We can forgive because we have been forgiven of so much it’s true, we can keep that hope alive and find a new way to take part in God’s saving work because of that forgiveness.  We experienced that forgiveness in our baptism, and we are reminded of that each time we remember our baptism.  We experience it each time we gather around the altar rail and receive communion, in those moments we are experiencing that forgiveness and that grace that calls us to forgive.  It is in that forgiveness that we are an active part of letting justice roll on like a river and righteousness like a never ending stream!

amen.