"If I wanted to go that route I could just walk around the mall and think about Jesus"

During my Sociology of American Evangelicalism class I was reminded of the accuracy and sheer awesomeness of this King of the Hill clip.

Church Hopping

"at ease, at home in air and light"

The frog with lichened back and golden thigh
Sits still, almost invisible
On leafed and lichened stem,
Invisibility
Its sign of being at home
There in its given place, and well.

The warbler with its quivering striped throat
Would live almost beyond my sight,
Almost beyond belief,
But for its double note-
Among the high leaves a leaf,
At east, at home in the air and light.

And I, through woods and fields, through fallen days
Am passing to where I belong:
At home, at ease, and well,
In Sabbaths of this place
Almost invisible,
Toward which I go from song to song.

-Wendell Berry

I often kid that my goal as a pastor is to just get lost in the city among the people, walking about as I meet whoever comes my way. Of course I wouldn't be simply wandering around. Some intentionality would be good, right? Perhaps something along the lines of the works piety and mercy.

When I read this poem I am invited to get lost in peace and rest. I am invited to be at home, my true home. Sabbath. I thought about Paul's words Romans, "from faith to faith" when I read "from song to song." For Berry I think we are invited to see that Sabbath, although the place where we ultimately belong is a reality of some kind, almost invisible, here and now.

This is inviting for one who often feels overwhelmed by the immensity of such a task and pastor, let alone Christian.

"with the possibility of being"

THIS IS THE CREATURE

This is the creature there has never been.
They never knew it, and yet, none the less,
they loved the way it moved, its suppleness,
its neck, its very gaze, mild and serene.

Not there, because they loved it, it behaved
as though it were. They always left some space.
And in that clear unpeopled space they saved
it lightly reared its head, with scarce a trace

of not being there. They fed it, not with corn,
but only with the possibility
of being. And that was able to confer

such strength, its brow put forth a horn. One horn.
Whitely it stole up to a maid - to be
within the silver mirror and in her.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Wainwright on liturgy

"Into the liturgy the people bring their entire existence so that it may be gathered up in praise. From the liturgy the people depart with a renewed vision of the value-patterns of God's kingdom, by the more effective practice of which they intend to glorify God in their whole life." -Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology, 8

"and wounded patience sucks them dry"

Only retrieve them from the cities' guilt,
where everything for them is anger and confusion,
and wounded patience sucks them dry.

Has the earth, then, no room for them?
Whom does the wind seek? For whom
is the wet glistening of streams?

Is there by the banks
of the pond's deep dreaming
nowhere they can see their faces reflected?

They need only, as a tree does,
a little space in which to grow.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Radiohead

I went to my first Radiohead concert yesterday. They played at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. It was Fantastic! Dark! Mesmerizing! I really really enjoyed watching Everything In Its Right Place unfold electronically before my eyes/ears, plus this was the first Radiohead song I every heard (nostalgic). Bodysnatchers and Idioteque were fun to move to. I totally felt like I was in a dream when I heard How To Disappear Completely. You can’t imagine how loud the crowd roared “you do it to yourself” when they played Just. And National Anthem (my favorite song to blare in the car) followed by Street Spirit (one of my favorites on The Bends) ended the show perfectly. Here’s the set list. And some video.

15 Step
Bodysnatchers
There There
All I Need
Pyramid Song
Nude
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The Gloaming
Climbing The Walls
Faust Arp
Videotape
Morning Bell
Idioteque
Reckoner
Everything In Its Right Place
Just
How To Disappear Completely

-Encore 1-
You and Whose Army
Bangers and Mash
Exit Music
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Karma Police

-Encore 2-
House Of Cards
National Anthem
Street Spirit (Fade Out)