'Become America' by The Call

The Call was an American rock band that came to some level of popularity at about the same time as an Irish group called U2. As I've written elsewhere, the bands had a few things in common. While mining different strains of rock music, they both evidenced: a passion for life, a passion for justice, and faith in Christ.

The death at age 60, of Michael Been, the Call's lead singer and main composer, in 2010, brought an end to the band and silenced an important voice.

This song, born partly of faith and partly of patriotism, is a non-ideological, but forceful, call to America to live up to its promise.

It seems appropriate for this Fourth of July weekend.

(Frankly, I paid no attention to the visuals in this fan-created video. The song itself is what's important to me. So, I'm not sure what's in it.)



A blogger, Rick Klau, who like me just now, looked in vain some eleven years ago for the lyrics to Become America, online. So, he presented them on his blog. I post them below, with thanks. Klau's blog was the only place I could find the lyrics.

When will America, become America
When will America, become America
When will the home we love
Mean freedom for everyone
When will America, become America

When will the killing stop
When the last child has dropped
How long must mothers’ tears
Rain down on streets of fear
When will the home we love
Mean justice for everyone
When will America become America

(Chorus)

When will the struggling poor
Walk with their heads held high once more
Children playing on haunted streets
Politicians weave their spell
Promise spoken from the mouth of hell
When will America become America

(Chorus)

With their very lives they gave
Soldiers, the young and brave
Shame for the world to see
A mystery to you and me
Angels will keep their watch
Heaven will count the cost
When will America become America

(Chorus)

Saturday Song #3: 'Let the Day Begin' by The Call

While their sound was very different, the passion and sensibilities of The Call, formed in 1980, were similar to a band formed across the pond just four years earlier, U2. Like his Irish counterpart, Bono, Call lead singer and main composer Michael Been was a Christian who viewed the Church with a critical eye and had a commitment to justice.

As was true of U2, The Call excited me in the 80s because they weren't a Christian band; they were a band whose music was Christian. They never achieved the commercial success that U2 has enjoyed, probably justly. And they broke up, leaving one to wonder what they might have done together. But they made fantastic music.

Been died in 2010.

I love this song!


Here's to the babies in a brand new world
Here's to the beauty of the stars
Here's to the travelers on the open road
Here's to the dreamers in the bars

Here's to the teachers in the crowded rooms
Here's to the workers in the fields
Here's to the preachers of the sacred words
Here's to the drivers at the wheel

Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Now let the day begin
Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Now let the day begin, let the day begin

Here's to the winners of the human race
Here's to the losers in the game
Here's to the soldiers of the bitter war
Here's to the wall that bears their names

Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Now let the day begin
Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Let the day begin, let the day begin, let the day start

Here's to the doctors and their healing work
Here's to the loved ones in their care
Here's to the strangers on the streets tonight
Here's to the lonely everywhere

Here's to the wisdom from the mouths of babes

Here's to the lions in the cage
Here's to the struggles of the silent war
Here's to the closing of the age

Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Now let the day begin
Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Let the day begin
Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Let the day begin
Here's to you my little loves with blessings from above
Now let the day begin, let the day begin, let the day start

Songwriters MICHAEL KENNETH BEEN
Published by Lyrics © CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP

Misogyny, Murder, and Accountability

Our small town has been shocked and saddened by the kidnapping and murder of a young woman, the mother of three small children. Charges of kidnapping have been lodged against her estranged husband, William Inman, Jr., and his parents, William, Sr. and Sandra. Since Sandra was the one who told authorities where the young woman's body could be found, it's widely expected that murder charges will be brought against at least the two men. Sandra, it's expected, will face a lesser charge as part of a plea bargain.

The body of Summer Inman, who was kidnapped on March 22 outside of a local bank where she worked as a janitor, was found little more than a week later in the septic tank of the church building where her husband's parents were married in 2004. She had been strangled.

Evil is real.

The evil that led to Summer Inman's murder was of a particular kind and it grew for a particular reason.

A story from WBNS TV in Columbus presented these facts about the family with which Summer had lived before moving out and filing for divorce:

Neighbors said Sandra and Summer Inman were rarely seen outside of the home, and when they were, they were both dressed entirely in black.

A close friend said it became clear to her "that the men had taken over the women" in the family.

Those who knew them said William A. Inman considered himself a religious leader and conducted church services in an outbuilding at their home.

Neighbors said he would often go door-to-door, soliciting donations for what he called "Mercy Ranch," a plan to turn his home into a place for the wayward and homeless.

It appears that the older William Inman had set himself up as a religious dictator overseeing his own misogynist kingdom.

Two particular forms of evil seem to have caused the years of hellish living and horrible end to which Summer Inman was subjected.

First, there is the evil represented by the presumption of anyone announcing on they have a call from God. This is what William (Bill) Inman did.

Nobody is authorized to hang up a holy shingle on their own initiative. An individual can swear up and down that she or he has a call from God to pastoral ministry, or any other ministry, but swearing won't make it so.

Recently, the members of our congregation, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, have begun a venture of reading the Bible in the course of a year. We have daily readings and once a week, folks get together to discuss the readings. During the week after the discovery of Summer Inman's body, we read portions of the Old Testament book of Exodus in which God calls Moses to act as intermediary between God and the people and then, the people call Moses to act to this same role. The will of God about Moses' role was confirmed by believing people. The will of God as to whether a person is to be a leader among His people will always be reflected among His people.

Lutherans have always believed in this "dual nature" of the call. A potential pastor's sense of call must be affirmed by the Church. Otherwise, it's just a feeling on the part of a would-be pastor and feelings are never a sufficient basis for Christian decision-making.

There's a lot of authority associated with being a pastor. It's not like the authority of a political or military leader or a business executive. It's the authority associated with God's Word and God's Sacraments and no one should dare to enter this ministry unless the call from God is confirmed by the Church. That never happened with Bill Inman. He simply took what wasn't his to take.

That in itself is a flashing light signaling possible trouble. If someone is that presumptuous with God, it's hardly a stretch to think that he will be at least that presumptuous in claiming authority over people that is not theirs.

The second evil in this case is the utterly un-Biblical and un-Christian male domination practiced by the two Inman men.

From the beginning, Scripture makes clear the utter equality of women and men. When Genesis recounts the creation of humanity, it says:

So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Both the man and the woman were created in God's image, each in equal relationship with their Creator.

Later, in the New Testament, Paul, often wrongly accused himself of being a sexist, says plainly that, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28).

When Paul first came to faith in Christ, a woman was among those who "catechized" him in the faith. Where the culture allowed it, women served as leaders in churches founded by Paul.

Even passages in the New Testament sometimes trotted out by those who try use Christianity to justify sexism backfire in their faces. For example, Ephesians 5:21-33, which some claim commands husbands to be lords over their wives, actually, on a close reading, can be seen to command husbands and wives to live in mutual submission. Husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, which, is a clear call for the husband to give himself utterly and sacrificially to their wives. After all, Christ went to a cross for His Church.

People who fail to maintain their connection to Christ's Church, who are accountable to nobody, can rationalize anything: misogyny and kidnapping and, if the hints and allegations prove true, even murder. 

It's evil and you can be sure that, barring some uncharacteristic repentance (and, at the prompting of God's Holy Spirit, such miracles can happen), there will be a horrible reckoning because the God revealed first to ancient Israel and ultimately, in Jesus Christ, is a consuming fire.* To trifle with Him, to claim His authority without His permission, is a fearful thing.

*See here.

Hello, Goodbye: What If I'm Wrong?

In the previous two posts in this series, I talked about the indications we had that our impending move from Friendship Lutheran Church in Amelia, Ohio to Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, was God's will for our lives.

But what if I'm wrong?

I'm reminded of a story I've told many times. It seems that a farmer excitedly ran into the office of his pastor one day. "Pastor! Pastor!" he said, "I know what God wants me to do with my life!" He explained that he'd been out in his field when he noticed a strange cloud formation. The clouds seemed to form the letters, "GPC." The farmer said he'd wondered about the meaning of this sign, when it dawned on him. "It can only mean one thing, Pastor: GO PREACH CHRIST!" The pastor knew this farmer. He was a great guy committed to Christ. But none of his gifts seemed appropriate to pastoring. "Are you sure," the pastor asked, "the letters don't stand for, GO PLANT CORN?"

Christians undoubtedly misinterpret God's specific intentions for their lives all the time. But that doesn't mean that they have to retrace their steps or rue their choices.

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my favorite books of recent years is The Will of God as a Way of Life by pastor, historian, and author Gerald L. Sittser. As a young man in college, Sittser was certain that God had called him to be a doctor. He was sure this was God’s plan for his life. But while in college, he got turned on by theology and ministry. A new certainty supplanted the old one. Now, he was sure God was calling him to be a pastor.

This is what Sittser did and to the extent that such things can be measured, he was a successful pastor.

After several years though, he felt that God was calling him to yet another profession. He was sure that he needed to go to graduate school, earning advanced degrees in History so that he could teach at the college level. This he did. Again, he was successful.

As he looked back over his life at that juncture, Sittser was sure that God had called him to everything he had done, including his marriage to Linda and having their beautiful children. Friends told them they had the perfect life. They were convinced that in it all, they could see the sovereign hand of God.

But then, tragedy struck. One day when his mother was visiting Gerald and his family, a drunk driver struck the vehicle in which they all were riding. His wife, his mother, and one of his children were killed. Was this the will of a sovereign God for a family that had always sought to do God’s will?

Some Christians, particularly those whose lives have never been touched by tragedy or those who have never helped a friend through a tragedy, might answer with a breezy facility, “Of course.”

But such thoughtless responses hardly do credit to God, to those whose lives have been snuffed out, or to the ones left behind.

After these multiple tragedies, Sittser still believed in the goodness of God. The willingness of God to share in our sufferings on a cross and the tears cried by Jesus over His dead friend Lazarus are two clear exhibits of evidence of that.

Sittser still believed in the power of God. Jesus’ resurrection and His continuing ability to change people’s lives for the better are evidence of that.

But he also believed that he needed to look exactly at what the will of God means.

All of his life, Sittser had assumed that the will of God was about the future. If things he thought were God’s will turned out okay, he assumed this to be God’s affirmation of his having made the right guess about God’s will for his life. I suspect that most Christians adhere to a similar view. It’s certainly the view I held until a few years ago.

But as Sittser looked at the Bible’s understanding of the will of God, particularly as evidenced in the writings of Paul in the New Testament, he made a startling discovery. The phrase was never used of the future, only of the present.

In other words, the will of God is not some mystery shrouding our futures which we must, through agonizing prayer and discernment, seek out.

Instead, the will of God is about how we live in the present moment. And how we are to live in the present moment is crystal clear. As Sittser writes:

...the New Testament offers no hint that Paul agonized about the will of God as it pertained to the future. He gave himself to the present because he was eager to use what little time he had to do what he already knew God wanted him to do.

If we sense any agony in the heroes of Scripture, it is not in discovering the will of God but in doing it....

The only time we have to know and do God’s will is the present moment.

So, what exactly is the will of God for our lives in the present moments in which each of us live our lives? Even a perfunctory reading of the Bible will give us the answer or answers to that question. It would include these imperatives from Jesus:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die...” [John 11:25-26]

...”’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’...’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” [Matthew 22:37-40]

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you...” [John 15:12]

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28:19-20]

“Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” [Mark 16:15]

“...strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness...” [Matthew 6:33]

All these passages make clear what God’s will is and for any given moment of our lives. We're to love God and love our neighbor. We're to make God's Kingdom our highest priority. We're to serve our neighbor is Christs Name. Most importantly, we're to turn from sin and trust that even when we fail to do all those other things, Christ has died and risen for sinners so that we need never be afraid of today or tomorrow. God will be with us and we will be with God forever.

If we haven't dialed into God's specific will for our lives, that's okay. The Bible says that God remembers that we are dust, that is, mortal and imperfect. Paraphrasing it, we could say that God remembers that we can be hard of hearing when it comes to discerning what God wants for us.

It's under these circumstances that Martin Luther said believers should "sin boldly." That means that after we've read God's Word, prayed, and talked it over with respected Christian friends, we may still not be clear on what God's will may be. But if our intent is to love God and love neighbor, we can't go wrong.

Even when we go where God sends us, it's no guarantee that we'll be "successful." God, as he saying attributed to Mother Teresa puts it, doens't call us to be successful, just faithful. But wherever we go, if we constantly submit to God, we can do the will of God, loving God, loving neighbor.

I may not know what I'm doing in going to Saint Matthew. But if I'll surrender each moment to Him, God will know exactly what to do with my time at this wonderful congregation.

[Note: My blogging friend, Mark D. Roberts, has been writing a series of blog articles about his departure from a church after serving as pastor for sixteen years. Mark, I notice, has been addressing the question of the will of God in recent posts. I deliberately avoided reading these pieces by Mark so that I can see how his reflections compare to my own. I suggest that you do what I'm going to do now, read Mark's posts on this topic.]

Hello, Goodbye: How Do You Know?, Part 2

In yesterday's installment of this series, I began to deal with the question of how I knew it was God's will for me to move from the congregation I've pastored for the past seventeen years onto Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio. I made the point that at one level, I don't know if it agrees with the will of God. That's where faith, trust in God, comes in.

I went on to say that one important indicator that this move may be God's will for our household right now is that, as is often true of God's calls on our lives, it takes me from a place where I've been comfortable.

But I think that there have been plenty of other indicators that this is what God wants.

• There's the belief that began forming in my wife and me several years ago, after we'd prayed, discussed, and reflected, that it might be best for Friendship to have a new leader to take the congregation to the next level.
• There's the way in which the green lights for going to Logan flashed after Friendship's financial condition improved, I would say miraculously, this summer. That meant that I could leave Friendship without a sense of guilt or regret.
• There's the sense of both comfort and challenge that Ann and I had when we met with the people from the Call Committee at Saint Matthew. Comfort with their faith, sincerity, and good humor. Challenge in that we would be going to a congregational setting that we hadn't had the primary hand in constructing. That appealed to us.
• There's also the sense that I had grown in ways that might be useful at Saint Matthew.
  

More convincing to me than the impressions, thoughts, reflections, and feelings that Ann and I experienced as we contemplated saying, "Goodbye" to Friendship and saying, "Hello" to Saint Matthew, though, was the reaction of Saint Matthew's Call Committee.

Among the many solid teachings of the Lutheran movement, I think, is their insistence on the dual nature of any call. It's not enough for a man or a woman to declare that they've received a call to ministry. Jimmy Ray Bob may believe that he has a call to start a congregation. But unless others in the Church universal, led by the Holy Spirit, have reached the same conclusion, Jimmy Ray has no business becoming a pastor. And that's true whether Jimmy Ray has a doctorate in Theology or sells cumquats at the local produce stand.

The church, be it an individual congregation, a church-related organization, a synod, or a seminary, must sense that the candidate for call is the right person for it. Jesus Christ has made us part of a Body called the Church, each of us having our part to play and each accountable to one another.

The early church recognized this from the beginning. The New Testament book of Acts recounts the early history of the Church. In chapter 6, there's an account of the first church fight. The apostles, the rulers of the Church appointed by Jesus, could, I guess, have simply appointed people to make sure the distributions among the church's widows were done equitably. Instead, they got the rest of the Church involved in the process, an indication of the importance Christians have always attached to mutual accountability and the belief that the call has a dual nature. (Read Acts 6 here.)

From the moment I interviewed at Saint Matthew, honestly to my surprise, the Call Committee and eventually, the overwhelming majority of the congregation, clearly wanted me to be there. I don't believe that had anything to do with my virtues or qualifications. Instead, I believe that the Holy Spirit was sending the same signals to the congregation that He was sending to Ann and me. It comforts and encourages me to consider that this impression about God's will wasn't just Ann's and my impression.

But you know what? We could be wrong. And that's okay. I'll have more to say about that in the next installment.