Pastor Jackie

    Creating Change.  I used to believe that things just changed.  That given time and necessity, things would change.  Of course, I never thought about who or what got to decide “necessity”.  One of the things that I have discovered this week at this conference, is that intentional change is what the problem is.  Change that just happens, is an easy step.  Rarely though, is this sort of change what moves society or people to a new understanding and a new way of being.
    If, however, people make a choice to change, if they get new information which informs their decisions, then  change can be permanent and effective.  My thoughts are about this today because the name of this conference that I am attending is “Creating Change”.  It is about changing the climate, changing the culture of this country.  It’s about changing hearts and minds, to change the culture.  It’s about creating change in our culture so that all people are treated with respect and dignity.  Lots of ideas, lots of networking, lots of strategy, lots of love.  
    As we all move to embrace change in our society, let us find ways that enable us to embrace the changes that will bring respect and dignity to all people.

    I’m sitting in the Grand Hyatt in Denver, Colorado talking with a room full of mostly white people about privalege and power.  Who has it, who doesn’t, what is static and what is fluid.  What could be changed and what can’t be changed.  I think about my good friends who moved to Louisiana.  Who repeatedly gave up their power and position of being straight, white, married, and very educated, to live and work amongst those who often had no power.  What an example.
    I also think about the churches filled with people of power who don’t get any idea about giving up their place of position or power, who would not be willing to even think about what I am talking about.  It must be intentional.  It is not a happenchance idea.  The world will stay exactly the way it is, if we don’t make some intentional changes.  That means we must make intentional efforts to bring and empower people who have no privalege with us as we move.  It means that we can not passivly sit by and wait for people to be empowered.  
    Shall we be agents of change, or shall be remain part of the problem with empowering people of typically no privalege to move themselves to positions of power?  Isn’t that what Jesus was all about?  Could it be that people who are the marginalized are really those who are without privalege as well?  What if there were a way to change that?  Would you be willing to step outside of your privalege even if only for a moment in time?

    I was listening to a commercial on the television as I was ironing tonight that said this station was going to have an exclusive interview with President Obama and ask him how he was going to fix our country.  As I thought about that, I realized what a trap they were setting for our new President.  The same sort of trap that we set for God nearly every day.  We want God to fix the problems that exist in our world.  
    Sometimes, I can only imagine what God thinks about our bargaining and tricks that we use to convince God that what we want is really the thing to do.  I get this picture in my mind of a Santa Clause type person sitting on a bank of clouds peeking over the top of one of them, watching and laughing at our every thought.  I often wonder, what if we just went about trying to make the changes that we want, expecting that things will eventually change?  What if we were the change we wanted to see?  Ghandi suggested it first, could it really work?  I wonder…..

    I was reading a book of poetry last night.  It was called God’s Trombones.  It is an amazing book.  Of course, it is very dated, and some of the theology doesn’t match mine, but it brings me back to the pain and unjustness of the times that this book was written.  You see, the poems are “Negro Spirituals”, according to the author.  A very rich treasure of hurt, pain, sorrow, joy, growth, acceptance, love, and questions.
    One of the poems begins with the lines.  “Your arms are too short to box with God.”  What a picture.  What if we could comprehend that idea each and every day.  What if instead of questioning and trying to wiggle our way out of what God wants us to do, we just went on and did it?  What if we found ways to share the love of God with everyone instead of trying to judge every person for some infraction of a law that we want enforced?  What if we spent as much time finding ways to empower a person in poverty as we spend supporting companies that put people in poverty?  What if…..?

    I’m very sorry for the absence from my blog.  I really enjoy this, yet several things created space that I didn’t have the energy to barge through.  The internet was down at the church for a week, and I was gone for several days to Phillips for Ministers week.  So….sorry, and here we go.
    One of the things that I got to do while I was in Tulsa was here Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. preach.  What an event.  Dr. Forbes was the Sr. Pastor at the Riverside Church in New York City for 18 years.  His sermon was entitled one thing, and yet he felt led to preach on a different thing. (Sound familiar)   What he spoke about was that this was going to be the year of the Lord’s favor.  People in the United States and around the world have more hope than they have ever had.  They feel like the people who have been assembled to lead this country have more integrity than ever before, and are more determined to bring everyone along.  What a great witness to the Christian  choice of life. 
    I was renewed, and encouraged by this great man of God, and I look forward to the new possibilities that are unfolding each day for our country as well as our congregation.

    I’ve been thinking alot about responsibility today.  How people learn to be responsible, how they decide to be responsible, and what we expect responsible people to act like.  I’m not sure that I know the answers to any of those questions.  But I do know this.  I learned about responsiblity by being around responsible people, and being held accountable for my actions.  
    It seems to me that we don’t do that much anymore.  We tend not to hold people accountable for their actions.  We make excuses for people, and we accept excuses from people that we all know are lies.  Part of being responsible, is doing what you commit to do, when you commit to do it, and in the way that you agreed to.  It doesn’t mean you get to change your mind because the thing you said you would do happens to be at the same time the L word is on television.  
    Somedays, I wish there were a magic pill that would create responsible thoughts in people, which would in turn create responsible actions.   But then where would the growth opportunities come from?

    I went to a funeral today.  A friends mother died.  I thought I was just going as a friend.  I left a survivor, a person still trying to deal with my mothers death.  My mom died 10 years ago.  I dealt with all the loss and grief, and hurt feelings, and lonliness.  Newsflash:  it comes back.  
    Parents are the funniest people.  We grow up wanting them to leave us alone so we can grow up and be the grown up that we want to be.  We listen to them as young adults, just enough to get them to shut up.  Sometimes, when it turns out their advice was right, we might have the courage to tell them, but not often because we don’t want them to get a big head.
    As they age, we secretly hope that we don’t have to change their diapers.  As I listened to the stories my friend was telling, the longing for my mom to call resurfaced.  She used to call every night sometime after midnight.  She had had time to take a nap, watch some television, and was ready to talk about both our days.  She knew I would be up, and have time to talk at that time.  She was right.  We had some of our most wonderful talks in the middle of the night.
    As I was driving home thinking about the day, I wonder if this is the way God feels about us.  God longs for us to call home again, share the stories of our day, and listen for the story of Gods day.  I wonder if the world would be different if this were true.
    

    I just spent the past week in the Northwest with family that I don’t get to see very often.  I was faced with the issue of privilege almost every hour.  One family in a position of no privilege and another in a position of lots of privilege.  Both sets of parents working their tails off to provide for their families.  Both sets of parents want their children to have things they never had, to be well educated, and to find happiness.  The whole experience reminded me of what people must have thought during the time that The Christ was born.  A child born to a set of parents that basically had nothing.  And…had obviously done something wrong for her to be pregnant before they were married.  
    Privilege, the idea that just because of who you are, what color you are, what sex you are, who your parents are, you are in a position above other people.  In the United States, white men are the privileged class.  For the most part, they hold the power, they control decisions.  Here is part of the problem.  A lot of white men, don’t believe they are in any position  of privilege, and some aren’t.  How do you change that?  Here is the real kicker.  The people in power have to be willing to change the way they live.  For example.  If you and I are willing to continue buying lettuce and produce that we know come from farms where people are paid less than livable wages, we are not willing to give up our position of privilege.  However, if we give up some of our position and spend more to buy produce from farms that we know pay their workers a livable wage, then we are trying to shift the power of privilege.  It is hard to always make those sorts of choices, especially in an economy like ours, but the power of privilege is ours to do with what we will.