Community as a condition of the heart

I was talking tonight with my church choir about community. We started with a reading from the writings of Henri Nouwen, in which he spoke of community as sometimes a good thing (eating together, supporting one another, sharing a laugh) and sometimes not (having to subscribe exactly to a particular point of view, or naively glossing over genuine conflict to preserve the status quo). I'm paraphrasing here, but what struck me was his starting point that community is a "condition of the heart."

I spoke of the conflict so deeply embedded in our national/global/insert-your-group-here culture...of how easy it is to find examples in which each side of a dispute is rock-solid sure that their point of view is the right one...and (here's the disturbing part) that the other side is not just wrong, but bad, and even out to get them.

There's just so much shouting everywhere.

As a person who lives to create harmony, I've found this increasingly distressing over the last decade or so. I'm deeply concerned that we're losing the capacity for rational disagreement: that so great is the need to be right that it just doesn't matter whom we demonize, whom we hurt, whom we shut out in the process.

I spoke of my relief at coming to church choir every week: we're there to train not just our voices, but our hearts as well. Singing in a choir requires humility, the ability to truly get yourself out of the way and listen, and generosity of spirit. You can't hear the group if you're trumpeting your own part so loudly that you drown it out. You won't like every piece of music that you're called to sing. Sometimes the crazy director will ask you to take a risk, or do do something that seems downright weird or silly...and singers faithfully, courageously, generously try.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not naive to the fact that sometimes, there is evil that needs to be addressed. There are p-l-e-n-t-y of times when it's necessary to speak truth to power. But I think we have to be very careful about our own motives; it's so easy to become righteous rather than loving. It happens when you're not looking.

Not listening.

Jesus asks us Christians to "love our neighbors as ourselves." Every major faith system has a tenet very much like this. I love being a church nerd because it's a place where we try to pay attention to one another...to dare to open ourselves up to a greater possibility than anything we can construct on our own.

It's risky. It's messy. And it's exactly the training our hearts need to cultivate the condition of community.

The world needs all of us to take this training seriously. And to do it joyfully!

The case for working with your hands

This is interesting. It's got lots of important themes:

• human agency
  
• the importance of failure
  
• location in a community
  
• what makes a "good job"
  

Give him a listen!

Friday five: fork in the road

Singing Owl of the RevGals writes:

I am at a life-changing juncture. I do not know which way I will go, but I have been thinking about the times, people and events that changed my life (for good or ill) in significant ways. For today's Friday Five, share with us five "fork-in-the-road" events, or persons, or choices. And how did life change after these forks in the road?

I'm reminded of the Yogi Berra quote

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Funny...and yet descriptive, too. 'Cause that's how I roll:

Age 9: I remember trying to decide which I liked more: visual art or music? I was trying to decide where to focus my energy. (No, I wasn't overprogrammed, just a thinker.) I really enjoyed both, and liked the fact that I always had something to show for my effort after art class. But I loved to sing, and had just started guitar lessons on my 3/4 size red-and-black acoustic guitar. I liked the way that I felt more alive somehow when I sang...and so my Inner Romantic conquered my Inner Pragmatist for the first of, oh, I don't even KNOW how many decisions. I made the right call, though--I'm a decent musician, but have no discernible talent in the visual arts. :-)

Age 19: Music Therapy major or Music Education major? After much agonizing I ended up trying both and then graduating with an extremely marketable B.A. in Music. (snicker) I had a starter job in music publishing, in which I've worked on and off for my whole career, and so I decided to GRADUATE and get on with my life!

Age 29: Continue in corporate training or go to seminary? I was off to a good start as a trainer, and more-or-less liked it. Was making good money, had a lot of contacts...and was ultimately dissatisfied that it was the way I should be spending my time and effort. And it seemed that a deeper voice was speaking in me. Seminary it was. Now: MDiv or MSM (sacred music)? It was music...but I haven't stopped considering MDiv as well. Maybe my denomination will make that a bit easier for me next summer.

Age 39: Continue in church music or go back to training? I'd had a shattering experience at my First Big Church Job and was seriously questioning my calling...not to mention having a pile of debt from going back to school. Exhausted and disheartened, I wasn't sure I was willing to put myself back together and try to continue church work. And then there was The Interview. I met with the hiring committee of my present church and something deep inside me sang...and that was the right answer, the healing answer, the real answer.

Age 9-29: I think I'm gay. Do I ignore it and hope it goes away, or do I find out more about what it might mean for me? From 9-18, I ignored it. From 18-19, I fell in love and got my heart broken. From 19-29 I fought it. At 29, I fell in love with Beloved and the world opened up.

And I knew what to do.

Blog Action Day: your deep joy and the world's deep hunger

It's Blog Action Day today! Bloggers around the world are writing about poverty, and trying to combine our small, individual, vocational actions into a movement to alleviate the suffering of others. Frederick Buechner defines vocation as "the place where your deep joy and the world's deep hunger meet."

I'd like to tell you about some friends of mine. Three years ago, we decided that our vocation-- music--could be used to address hunger issues. We formed a chamber choir called InVocation, a name that invokes Buechner and invites God's presence and others' participation in our work to feed the hungry.

We choose a new charity partner each year--one that addresses hunger issues--and perform eight concerts each year to support their work. There are many open hearts involved in making this happen: our rehearsal space is donated; our concert venues are hosted by churches in the metro area who also provide a reception for concertgoers; our recording time/space, our printing, our photos, our website--all are donated. The members themselves buy their music and concert dress, commit several hours each week to rehearsal and concerts, and run the organization (charity interface, webmaster, management, publicity, creative direction, etc.). More information is available on our website about the specifics of the organization and our first two charity partners.

Our first year was spent singing for Loaves and Fishes, which feeds meals to the hungry at eight sites in our metro area. In our second year, we supported Feed My Starving Children, which packages and sends meals to over fifty countries around the world. Our partner for the coming year is Second Harvest--Heartland.

We love to sing together. It's a joy to get to use our creativity this way, and to be conduits for a whole big bunch of goodwill from our supporting organizations and audiences. That feeds US. It also feeds a whole bunch of others: we fed 1700 meals through Loaves & Fishes in 2006-7, and sixty children will eat all this year because of last year's concerts for FMSC. Who knows what will come of this year's partnership?

I tell you this not out of a desire to boast about my friends (though I am proud of this group), but because this is a joy to us...because there may be an idea like this lurking in the back of your mind, Gentle Reader, and you need a little bit of encouragement.

Why not light that candle in your hand? It's surprising how much darkness can be dispelled by some shared goodwill, and that's a blessing for everyone concerned.