Mary by Patty Griffin

Mary by Patty Griffin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOxpvKuEruk

When I was about fourteen, I was at some Methodist campground in Tennessee, I'd been running a vacation Bible school with my youth group. One night near the end of the week, in a big circle of kids around a campfire, I prayed aloud for God to be a mother to me.

You see, my mama was really sick at the time. She had a brain tumor and she was losing her memory. My dad was doing the very best that he could—trying to be a dad and take care of my mom at the same time. But I needed a mama, and, well, I didn't see why God couldn't do that.

Some minister came up to me later that night, and told me that it had taken him years to realize that God could be a mama. He encouraged me and praised me for knowing this so young. It just made sense to me.

I was enveloped in church life and god-language, and, well, if God was really all that we claimed then being a mother shouldn't be too hard.

Right?

I'm still amazed at how hard it is for us to allow God to be a woman. I am blessed that I got to see this at fourteen.

Because for me, God "is covered in treetops, [she's] covered in birds." She is the very holy ground we walk on—covered in roses and ruins. She stays behind and starts cleaning up the place, and always she stays.

Now, my mama kept getting sicker, and she died when I was seventeen, but I was surrounded by a community that loved me. In all my little girl sadness, I knew that I was loved. When I stopped being mad at God, and looked back at my sad little girl self, I saw that I had never been alone. Casseroles came to my house, and I was held on Sunday mornings by mamas who had watched my mama grow up.

Church can be an incredible thing—the very body of the very living God, and she will always stay. I believe this—give my very heart to it. It comforts me and sustains me. Our bruised and broken God knows what it is to mourn, to grieve, and we are not alone.

peace, and all that jazz,

~Mary Rachel

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ashes

You're covered in rain

You're covered in babies, you're covered in slashes

You're covered in wilderness, you're covered in stains

You cast aside the sheet, you cast aside the shroud

Of another man, who served the world proud

You greet another son, you lose another one

On some sunny day and always stay, Mary



Jesus says Mother I couldn't stay another day longer

Flys right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face

While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory

Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place



Mary she moves behind me

She leaves her fingerprints everywhere

Every time the snow drifts, every time the sand shifts

Even when the night lifts, she's always there



Jesus said Mother I couldn't stay another day longer

Flys right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face

While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory

Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place



Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ruin

You're covered in secrets

You're covered in treetops, you're covered in birds

Who can sing a million songs without any words

You cast aside the sheets, you cast aside the shroud

Of another man, who served the world proud

You greet another son, you lose another one

On some sunny day and always stay

Mary, Mary, Mary

I Get Out - Lauryn Hill MTV Unplugged

I Get Out by Lauryn Hill MTV Unplugged

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF_a1q2FdBs

Writing this devotional on this song was a struggle for me. Speaking honestly would upset some, which I’ve quickly learned is not the Mid-west way. However, holding back goes against the message in the song and who I feel God is calling me to be. So here goes…

As a young adult in the church I think that I have a little more freedom to be a radical because most see this as a phase that one “grows out of”. However, I don’t think we grow out of rebellion, but grow into complacency. As a seeker of justice I am constantly questioning why I stay in the United Methodist Church. Why waste my time fighting the system? Why not go to a church that welcomes all in word and deed? Can I as one person really make a change?

Milky makes me stay. Milky was a camper at Waterstreet, an inner city youth camp I worked at while in college. Milky was one of the most thoughtful, gentle children I’ve ever met and as a result was picked on by his fellow campers hoping to beat masculinity into him. Whether or not Milky was questioning his sexual identity (or rather being forced to question by a society that forces us to fit a norm) he was mocked daily when I was not there to protect him.

Milky’s picture hangs in my office calling me to fight for a church that affirms his gifts. No matter how tired I get fighting the psychological locks our church attaches to “open doors”, Milky’s smile keeps me going.

I pray that one day Milky and I will both be able to stand together where he isn’t loved through abuse, victimized and expected to stay hurtin, kept a slave through material crumbs of inclusion thrown his way, or held hostage by others hurt feelings. One day we’ll get out of this social bondage and stand together as the kin-dom of God knowing that we’re loved because we are both of sacred worth, victorious and full of joy, validating our tears along the road to freedom.

~Rachel


I get out/ I get out of all your boxes/ Il get out, you can't hold me in these chains
I get out/ Father free me from this bondage/ Knowing my condition is the reason I must change

Your stinking resolution is no type of solution/ Preventing me from freedom / Maintaining your pollution/ I won't support your lie no more/ I won't even try no more
Oh If I have to die oh lord that's how I choose to live/ I won't be compromised no more
I can't be victimized no more/ I just don't sympathize no more/ Cause now I understand you just want to use me/ You say love, then abuse me/ You never thought you'd lose me
But how quickly we forget/ That nothing is for certain/ You thought I'd stay here hurtin
Your guilt trips just not working/ Repressing me to death/ Cause now I'm choosing life yo/ I'll take the sacrifice yo/ If everything must go then go/ That's how I chose to live

No more comprises/ I see past your disguises/ Blinding me through mind control/ Stealing my eternal soul/ Appealing through material / Oh just to keep me as your slave
But I get out, oh I get out of all of your boxes I get out/ Oh you can't hold me in these chains, I'll get out/ Of this social pergutory/ Knowing my condition is the reason I must change/ See what you see is what you get/ And oh, you ain't seen nothing yet/ Oh, I don't care if you're upset/ I could care less if you're upset / see it don't change the truth/ And your hurt feelings no excuse/ To keep me in this box/ Psychological locks/ Repressing true expression/ Cementing this repression/ Promoting mass deception/ So that no one can be healed/ I don't respect your system/ I won't protect your system/ When you talk I don't listen/ Oh let my Fathers will be done/ And just get out,/ Oh just get out of all this bondage/ Just get out, oh you can't hold me in these chains/ Just get out/ These traditions killing freedom/ Knowing my condition is the reason I must change/ I just accepted what you said/ Keeping me amongst the dead/ The only way to know/ Is to walk then learn then grow/ But faith is not your speed/ You'd have everyone believe/ That you're the sole authority/ Just follow the majority/ Afraid to face reality/ This system is a joke/ You'd be smart to save your soul/ And escape this mind control/ You spend your life in sacrifice/ To a system for the dead/ Where's the passion in this living/ Are you sure it's God you're serving/ Obligated to a system/ Getting less than you're deserving/ Who made up these rules I say/ Who made up these schools I say/ Animal conditioning just to keep you as a slave/ Oh just get out of this social purgatory/ Just get out/ These traditions are a lie- just get out/ Superstition killing freedom,/ knowing my condition is the reason I must die/ Just get out, just get out, just get out, lets get out, lets get out, / Knowing my condition is the reason I must die.

Bad Reputation by Joan Jett, covered on the Shrek soundtrack by Halfcocked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAQXg0IdfI

I currently live in the parsonage of a suburban church in an area full of high-powered, well-paid New York City commuters. On the rare occasion that I am on one of the commuter trains to New York during the morning peak rush-hour time, this song becomes my soundtrack. There appears to be a certain code among the commuters: they dress a certain way, carry their paper coffee cups and Dasani bottles in a particular manner, and use their expensive leather bags and briefcases as weapons to advance their position in line to get on the train. When they see friends or acquaintances, they nod quickly and silently to one another. The approved activities for this ride are checking your Blackberry or reading the Wall Street Journal. I feel awkward wearing my cute rummage-sale outfit, carrying my old stained backpack with the Nalgene bottle dangling from it and my commuter cup that I filled with Fair-Trade coffee at home. I can sense the rolling of the eyes of my seat-mate when I insist that he move his briefcase and jacket so that I may sit next to him, and again when I pull out my smelly Hot Pocket that I didn't have time to eat before I left the house.
We read in Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect" (NRSV). The church of my fundamentalist upbringing interpreted this verse for me in terms of peer pressure. It meant that you shouldn't go to school dances or hang out at the mall or listen to secular music. As a rebellious-spirited teen, I questioned this in Sunday School and got in trouble for doing so. I knew that "Christian" meant "little Christ." If we are to be like Jesus, shouldn't we be with the people, showing Christ-like qualities of love and acceptance? This church building keeps us inside its walls nearly every day of the week! What goes on out in the world, anyway? My Sunday School teacher looked sternly at me and said, "Good Christians don't know what goes on in the world, because we are here in church staying out of trouble!"
Somewhere between the commuter train and the fundamentalist Sunday School class, there has to be a place where I fit in. Or maybe I am wrong to desire to fit in. If we are to follow Jesus' example, maybe it is my responsibility to stand out like a sore thumb, hence this non-conformist charge in Romans. I do not want to blend in with the commuters on the train, but it is wrong of me to judge them. In fact, even as I munch on my over-processed Hot Pocket and sip my home-made coffee, I am one of them. We have the same need: to fulfill our responsibilities in the city. If I conform to the buying of the non-Fair-Trade coffee that I cannot really afford or the contribution to the eco-unfriendly bottled water industry, I would be acting inconsistently with my own values. Those are not the factors that give me a bad reputation, but rather the evidence that I take pride in my non-conformist actions. The defiant singing of "I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation" might be more accurately (yet less poetically) stated, "I'm really damn proud of my bad reputation!"
In many venues I do, indeed, have a bad reputation. As a Caucasian individual in a racist society, I try and err at being anti-racist. As a woman in a male-dominated society, I try and err at promoting equality of women. As a Queer in a hetero-normative society, I try and err at demanding justice for persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities. As an able-bodied person in a society that devalues persons with disabilities, I try and err at demanding justice for persons of all levels of ability. As an environmentalist in a wasteful society, I try and err at being a responsible steward of God's Earth. As a Christian minister in a society that claims Christianity but allows outspoken and embarrassing Christians to name all of us, I try and err at being the vessel of Christ's grace that I am called to be.
We, as younger people in this United Methodist Church, are marginalized and empowered in many complex ways. If I am to be in the world, I am subject to all kinds of failure and success in keeping my life consistent with my values. The important part, for me, is to be deeply in the world, in community with the commuters on the train, the Sunday School teachers in the Church, those with whom I agree, and those with whom I do not. My goal is not to achieve a bad reputation, but rather, to persevere in the faithfulness of the work with which I do or do not earn it.

I don't give a damn about my reputation/ You're living in the past, it's a new generation/ Hey, a girl can do what she wants to do/ And that's what I'm gonna do

And I don't give a damn about my bad reputation/ Oh no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no/ Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me

And I don't give a damn about my reputation/ I never said I wanted to improve my station
And I'm only feeling good when I'm having fun/ And I don't have to please no one

And I don't give a damn about my bad reputation/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no/ Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me

And I don't give a damn about my reputation/ I've never been afraid of any deviation/ And I don't really care if I'm strange/ I ain't gonna change

And I'm never gonna care about my bad reputation/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no/ Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me/ Break it down

And I don't give a damn about my reputation/ The world's in trouble, there's no communication/ And everyone can say what they want to say/ It never gets better anyway

So why should I care about a bad reputation, anyway/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no/ Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me

Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no/ Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me/ Oh no/ No, no, no, no, no, no, no/ Not me/ Me, me, me, me, me, me

There Will Be A Light by Ben Harper

There Will Be A Light by Ben Harper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4C3iF8trjA

I struggle to relate with the many people who think that God’s voice sounds like James Earl Jones’ impossibly deep booming one. I often prefer to imagine that God’s voice is more of the gentle tinkle-tinkle of a bell, the trickle of a stream, or the quiet comfort of Mother Teresa’s compassionate words to a leper. But when I hear Ben Harper sing this song, “There Will Be A Light” I remember that is it often the voices we least want to hear which bring us Good News. For me, this song is even more of a poignant struggle because of the person who introduced it to me. This Song was part of a mix CD given to me by a friend whom I later learned I could not trust. However, even if the source of the song was untrustworthy, the music and words still spoke powerful truth. Later, long after the pain was gone, and I had forgiven my friend, I found the song now had a special layer of meaning. In the most unexpected places, even in our pains and reconciliations, we might find the rays of hopeful Light.
There will be / There will be / There will be a Light / There will be a Light; maybe at General Conference decisions will be made that will break hearts and deeply wound people, but nevertheless, the Light of Jesus Christ has not left us. Even when it feels like the hopeless depth of night, God’s promise is like the repetition of this refrain with one message, the Light of God will be. Even after we gather here to elect council officials, pass resolutions and deny petitions, after we all return home, the Light of God’s love will not depart from us. Even as we make serious mistakes, and base our decisions on our brokenness rather than our Holiness, Jesus Christ’s hope is among us, and God promises that the Good Light will remain forever.
Let the warmth of my love / Dry away all your tears / Fear not for I am with you / I will fear not - fear not - with you here. We are all gathered here in love, which is our Light. Our love is human and therefore incomplete. But God’s love is perfect. Today, tomorrow, any day, we can be part of God’s Light which shines in every human heart. You have in your heart the Light of God’s love which is desperately needed by someone who is here with you, who needs you. When you need some Light, remember we are here with you, your fellow volunteers, observers, delegates, bishops we are here with you, and we are all held together in the Light of God’s love and reconciliation.
Be open to the Light, sometimes the one ray of Light we most desperately need will come from whomever we least expect to be our Light. Be open to it. Even booming deep voices, even radical liberals, even crazy conservatives, even untrustworthy friends, or opposing delegates can be for you today the Light of the Son of God.
God bless you with Good Light!
~Audrey
I wish we could live forever/ Then melt into the sun/ Melt into the sun/ Time is gonna change you/ Gets you on the run

There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light/ There will be a light/ There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light/ There will be a light

I've been running/ Ever since/ Ever since I was a child/ Some call it free/ And some call it wild

There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light/ There will be a light/ There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light/ There will be a light

Let the warmth of my love/ Dry away all your tears/ Fear not for I am with you/ I will fear not - fear not - with you here

There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light/ There will be a light/ There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light

There will be a light/ There will be/ There will be/ There will be a light/ There will be a light